It was bound to happen: Jay-Z’s comments about Occupy Wall Street in the recent T Magazine profile of the rapper/entrepreneur (written by novelist Zadie Smith), found their way to the Occupy movement itself. And as they were no doubt going to do, they’ve stirred up a bit of a media tempest. Read More
When Aaron Hillis and his wife bought Cobble Hill’s Video Free Brooklyn—a well-loved but somewhat dingy relic from the age of VHS—they had rather lofty plans for the store. They would transform the outmoded space into hub of film culture that would redefine the role of the video store in the time of Netflix. It would be both a boutique offering personalized service and an event space (thanks to collapsible shelves) with screenings and discussions. But like many fledgling entrepreneurs, their plans far outpaced their pocketbooks—Mr. Hillis figured he would need about $50,000 to revamp the space.
They might have tried for a bank loan, or made do until they saved enough for the renovation, but neither option was very appealing, so the Hillises did what everyone with a creative vision and a lack of cash seems to do these days: they launched a crowdfunding campaign.
“I don’t think it’s any different or less valid than when PBS or NPR ask people to donate for a free tote bag, or the Kickstarter campaign in Detroit to build a life-size statue of RoboCop,” said Mr. Hillis, who has thus far raised about $7,000 (with two weeks to go on a $50,000 campaign) on Indiegogo. “As long as you’re transparent about where the money is going, you’re putting together something that people want to be a part of.” Read More
On the night of the Met Ball, the Marc Jacobs boutique in SoHo was vandalized by a French street artist named Kidult, just like Supreme, Louis Vuitton, and Hermes had done to them. The next morning, Marc Jacobs made light of it by turning it into a canny social media (and thus: marketing) joke. After that, Marc Jacobs and Company decided to turn it into a $689 T-Shirt, and moreover, turn an indictment of capitalism into an indictment of street art.
Needless to say, Kidult is pissed. Read More
The press release for “The Times Square Show” promised “THE BIGGEST MACHINE ON EARTH,” “ART POLITICS PERFORMANCE + FILM,” “Exotic Events!” and “More Than You Bargained For.” It was June 1980, and the art collective CoLab—about 50 artists, among them Kiki Smith, Jenny Holzer, Charles and John Ahearn—had taken over a derelict four-story building at Read More
This is from a New York Times article on Geoffrey West, a theoretical physicist who has applied his theorizing to further our understanding of how cities work. Although the entire article is compelling, in the final section Mr. West offers a theory about the life span of the corporation:
But it turns out that Read More
In a rant of ever-increasing craziness, Charlie Munger, the 86-year-old Berkshire Hathaway billionaire who squirms at the thought of charitable giving, says everyday Joes should be grateful for the 2008 government bank bailouts.
Bloomberg reports that Munger, speaking at the University of Michigan last week, said that people who’re suffering in the current Read More
The $800 billion federal stimulus package is only slowly starting to kick in, and we see the President pushing to accelerate job creation over the summer. The good news is that a recent study of green jobs by the Pew Charitable Trusts indicates that the Administration’s focus on sustainability is sound economics- and the government Read More
Tomorrow’s Observer will have an extensive interview with luxury home mogul Robert Toll, whose eponymous firm is building in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Here’s Mr. Toll on the housing crisis: The reason capitalism works is that one of the basic instincts of human nature is greed; everybody wants to get bigger, better, more, you know? Read More
