The Reference Council » Features

A Discourse On SOPA

Steven — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:09:34 +0000

Ever since word got out about the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act being put forth to the American Congress, the internet has been inflamed with what seems to be the end battle of all battles to protect the freedom we have all come accustomed with. I have been thinking about SOPA, it’s reason, effects and so on for the last couple of weeks, months really and in all honesty I still cannot come to one clear result. There are so many sides to this story that I think a definite, never changing stance is nothing short of bullshit. Of one point I am certain though: there is not a single good reason for this law to pass and as it is now, I am with all my heart and strength against this.

To start, two aspects of this story got my attention. One, the implications within the proposed bills text. To summarize, the bill aims to protect American Intellectual Property by allowing the US Attorney General, without proof or/and a trial on that matter and on the sheer suggestion of, to force a service provider like Comcast to prevent access to a website within five days, if it is suspected of containing copyright infringing material.

At the core, the idea is novel- whilst I disagree that online Piracy is killing the distribution channels and profits of the entertainment industry, protecting intellectual property is at its core a positive act. However, it is the vague wording that scares me, since, there needs to be NO PROOF for the AG to shut down your site. Just the suspicion. No trial is necessary. Your site merely needs to be suspected.

Now, in an ideal world, this could almost work, IF and only IF we have honest, neutral decision makers in charge. Let’s be blunt about it- it doesn’t matter what country you are from- there are no honest & neutral people in government positions around the world. Every single one of those puppets is bought, paid for, in charge because of ego and money and they are by no means to be trusted, with anything. Even though that is a different discussion worth having, the track record of every politician in the western world is so poor that this bill needs to be stopped purely because of this. Those in charge are unfit to be in charge. Period.

(capsule) Berlin x The Acid Sweat Lodge

Steven — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:42:49 +0000

It really is a testament to the awesomeness ( and bravery ) of the BPMW team that they let me put together a little art thing during the Berlin leg of this seasons (capsule ).

I worked with the dudes from The Acid Sweat Lodge in Vancouver. Aside from the fact that they, like this house, are a lodge, they can probably claim the title for the most secretive dude lodge around, a title we at the Black Lodge always worked hard at maintaining, but fuck it, those guys win the beers and the girls. The Acid Sweat Lodge, should you not be aware of it, is a collective whose creative output is based on the exact, on-point, historical, graphical and musical reference points that play a continuous loop in my head and soul. Which is a round-about way of saying that they are fucking awesome and their daily blog is one that I check before every thing else. Please don’t make the mistake of reducing them to a bunch of well-archived tumblr nerds, far from it, but I will leave you to figure that much out.

So what was the point of this collection of images you ask? Hear this: Obviously, much of “menswear” is based on American Heritage- from a time when the American Empire was still manufacturing, rock n’toll had lost it’s soul but gained more fun, AIDS wasn’t around to ruin everyones party, and well, you were in fact that little more happier. What I never understood about the “trend” of “menswear” though is how it blatantly forgot to tap into this hugely rich history, its cultural movement, the politics, the GOD DAMN MUSIC PEOPLE, and so on. Rather, it focused on nothing but the clothes, which in my book, are always an end product to a cultural movement, never the starting point.

Furthermore, “modern menswear” mostly got it wrong, visually at least, as I understood it. Why did every look book feature a super skinny, want-to-be- Nietzche-esque- looking ecstasy victim that got lost in Norway to recreate those happy times? Wouldn’t it have been more authentic to ask Billy Gibbons to model for you? Again, I’ve raised this point often enough and been ignored often enough. I asked the Acid Sweat Lodge to provide me several images out of their amazing archive to illustrate my point though, and they were happy to oblige. Additionally, they re-worked the imagery to look like old pulp-posters from the 70s. In case you were wondering.

Following, is a selection of the imagery I had printed up and hung on several walls during (capsule) Berlin- I hope you had a chance to see them and drink some beers under them, I know I did.

Thanks, and I mean, genuine heartfelt thanks go out to BPMW and The Acid Sweat Lodge for being awesome.

Ply Unestablished Furniture For (capsule) Berlin

Steven — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:27:12 +0000

The (capsule) show in Berlin is about to open its doors- in about an hours time to be exact and I am writing this from the DJ booth to be precise- and before I get into the actual goodness we have to show here I wanted to show you the work of our friends Ply, from Hamburg. Ply is a specialist furniture store back in Hamburg that focuses on industrial design from the 1920s to 1960s. Whilst that seems to be all the hype these days when it comes to furniture it is rare to come across someone that really can separate the trash from the gems, and furthermore, merchandise in such a way that it takes on a new life on its own. David, one of the partners at Ply joined us here at (capsule) to decorate the venue. He did an amazing job tying together the characteristics of the venue and combining it with the aesthetics of our exhibitors. If you can make it down today or tomorrow to (capsule) Berlin, you are in for a treat. In any case I suggest you have a look through their site, which is killer and if you like what you see, give them a shout.

The Case Against “Liking” A Brand

Steven — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:34:14 +0000

Facebook is a part of our lives, whatever you may think of it. It is also not going away, like Myspace did, it’s here to stay and by the looks of it will play a huge role in how our society works and thinks. If it doesn’t do so already. I have to admit, I am not on Facebook. I used to be but I deleted my account a year or so ago for several reasons. The most obvious one was that I was wasting time on it. I was only on Facebook because I was procrastinating. The deeper reasons of privacy etc came after I had quit the account and yet was bombarded with facebook everywhere I went.

Facebook has entered every facet of society these days, I mean, we have Christian Conservative politicians in Germany that get busted for sex chats with 15 year girls on facebook. No joke about it. What gets me most about facebook though is their ingenious ( from their business point of view ) “Like” application. Incredible piece of thinking really, especially, since it is the easiest thing to physically do on facebook, and it provides the company with invaluable information about you to sell on to advertisers, which is the whole point of facebook. I am not interested in bashing facebook’s business model though, as it is obviously working exceptionally well, and even if it wasn’t, I would still think the idea to be a good one.

Let’s instead talk about the philosophical aspects of you, the “like” button, the brands you “like” and the brands themselves seemingly staking their entire media campaigns on it.

To like, according to the Merriam Webster dictionary means “to feel attraction toward or take pleasure in” something. Personally, I don’t understand how anyone can like a corporation or a brand. For example, I like some Gibson guitars, not all, but some. Do I like the fact that Gibson supports the proposed SOPA act? No. Or, I occasionally like a Coka Cola Light, with ice and lemons to be precise, but do I like the Coke’s atrocious record of human rights and environmental in India, for example? Absolutely not. Yet, Coke has 36’589’640 “Likes” on facebook. So over 36 million people, like Coke on Facebook but I bet a large majority of those “fans” would be appalled at their environmental record around the world. Or, the fact that Coke only pays a going rate of around 6% tax in the US,

“For one thing, Coca-Cola enjoys very low federal taxes, and pays a lower rate than most Americans. According to Citizens for Tax Justice, the company’s current federal tax expense is $470 million, which is only 6.5 percent of the $7.2 billion in pre-tax profits that Coca-Cola reported last year. That’s a pretty rosy rate, and certainly does call for a retooling of the tax code—though not in the way Mukhtar Kent wants. (The company told CTJ they actually paid at a 38 percent rate, but would not release any documentation).

Part of the reason that Coca-Cola pays such a low rate is that it parks profits in overseas tax havens like the Cayman Islands. The company has saved $500 billion in some years by hiding profits there.”

Do those 36 million people “like” this? That way below average tax rate means your job mate. Don’t think otherwise. I hope you are getting the point I am getting at here. Corporations exist for one purpose only, to make money. Ethics have nothing to do with making money, and if it means child labour than that is what it will do. H&M has over 8’904’063 “likes”, yet no one ever wonders how they make their clothes so cheap, and no, it has nothing to do with buying in bulk.

I could go on and on about the insanity of “liking” a brand- yet it is a totally acceptable even to take place on facebook. Is you “liking” a major brand on facebook not a slap in the face of every person that suffers from the decisions based on greed of those corporations willing to exploit those that can’t defend themselves? Or to put it more bluntly, every time you like a major corporation you slap a wage slave worker in the face. But they hate you for your freedom, right?

Another question is, what do the brands get out of people “liking” them on facebook? Facebook, like many other major events or groups, operate on the basic principle of fear. Fear of not being a part of something that everyone is a part of. Facebook emotionally blackmails every person and every brand that decides not to be on facebook. I mean, what do you have to loose if you are on facebook? Firstly, your privacy. Secondly, you are selling yourself, or your brand to a company that will steal from you. Steal, because, you aren’t selling anything by participating on facebook, because selling would imply that you are getting money in return. Which you are not. Facebook is getting money from you or your brand being on facebook. Yet, facebook ( and the rest of the social media jungle out there ) is on the top of every marketing and strategy meeting I have been to in the last 5 years, and those were a shit load of meetings. But why? What do you as a brand get out of being “liked” on facebook? Does your brand make more money because you have a 100 people liking you? I don’t think so. Unless you have like a million “likes” on facebook, it actually could be quite embarrassing if your coveted brand only has 1000 likes. Or do the 8 million plus likes H&M have, ease their CEO’s consciousness when they get reminded that unpaid children slave for their cotton?

Personally, I find it mostly revolting to find out and “socialize” with brands and celebrities that I am remotely interested in. In 99% of the cases, I have stopped being into a brand, and most certainly stopped buying their products if they have decided to embark on a serious social media strategy, and you can’t really use the word strategy, since I have yet to come across any brands social media efforts that implied a reason and goal- you know, the definition of a strategy.

Of course, the case for social media exposure, the facebook “like” button and so on is seemingly different when it comes to start ups. I am not wholly convinced, though, as in my experience, every start up- including my own, will bullshit their way through popularity numbers in their first couple of years. Either they then survive the first critical 3 years and some sort of money will be made, not because of a “like” button, or they disappear. Ironically, this here website has a “like” button I just remembered. As I said in the beginning of this article, I am not on facebook, but some trusted friends who help me with this site are, so you can bitch at them for my hypocrisy. Not really, but I thought I should mention it.

And Now For My Real Job…See You In 2012

Steven — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:00:50 +0000

The above photo is by and from the best blog on the internet, the Acid Sweat Lodge.

It feels a little too early to be signing off on 2011 already, but realistically, I’ll be here for another couple of days- well, really tomorrow and then I am going to call it a year. Like most people I know that doesn’t mean work will stop but I am going to be taking a break from here until the new year- surely, you have put up with enough of my shit to last you a life time.

2011 is over and it’s been one hell of a year. Really, it’s been one hell of a decade but I wanted to keep things short on here. Got to appease the short attention spam SEO gods while I am at it. A lot of people make wish-lists and plans for the future at the end of the year and whilst I don’t, there are several points I wanted to raise before logging off…

Up until a few minutes ago this space was occupied by a pretty long rant about something or other. I decided to delete it. I figured I have said enough already, and whilst I know a few people appreciate the things I say, I also realize most of you probably stopped reading this after this first sentence disappointed you didn’t see a picture of some starved “man” in shiny new clothes. I woke up this morning after a long night with a client, feeling that the now deleted statement reminded me of two guys I saw last night pissing against the wind.

To wrap that up, I implore you to watch this clip. It’s a speech written and acted out by one of the greatest artists ever, certainly in my book. It’s a speech that I listen at least once a week. I find it very empowering & thought provoking.

For some stupid ass reason I cannot figure out I can’t embed this video on here. so here is the link. Click it.

So that’s that- I want to finish this year off on here positively- myself personally, my family and my company have had a hard, but all in all good year. There is plenty of good work in the books for the next couple of years, we are all healthy and we still love each other. I saw most of my friends this past year, I found and listened to a lot of great music, I read a ton of great books, saw art that inspired me and drank a lot of booze without loosing too many grey cells. There isn’t much more that I need to say “Cheers and Fuck Yeah!”.

A lot of people contributed to the above in this last year but specifically I wanted to say thanks, beers and rock n’roll to the following for their friendship:

Ian Paley and his Family, Nick Schonberger, Keith & Aline, Rob Harmsen, Brian Awitan, Jeremy Dean, Tony Patella, Anthony D, David and Anise in Marseille, James & Rachel, James & Jenny, Fats, Dave White, Bothan, Alyasha, Crazy Dave, Peter Bicci, Shady, Brian Aufdenberg, Stephan & Janina, Oskar & Kristina, Leila & Luke, my Canadian brothers Caine, Jon, Kenta and Elliot, Minya & Bahr, Deirde, Edina, Chris and Taisha, Matt Breen, The Brunetti’s, David Wilson, Tony Larson, Rob Abeyta Jr., Arnaud Faeh, Jacobo, Fede and Camilla over at SJ, Cody Hudson, Chuck Anderson, Matt & Lindsay, Benny Gold, Danny Boy, Don Pendleton, Russ B, Phil Lalement, Le Messie & Amanda, Abe & Roy, Hanni, Sung, Arturo, Samuel, Nur, Matt Barnette, Richard Hobbs, Ronnie B, Shawn, jeffstaple, Ted B, Bobby K, Bob K, Emma, Frank & the rest of the ‘Tones, Sonya, Earn Chen, Hasheeme and Shion, Brian & Annie, Eugene, José, Matt G., Thom Piston, Woody, Maurice, Mr. Heppler, Takeharu, Bill McMullen, Berlin Ben, Chris Law, Gary W., Maxime, Rasmus & Pete, Steve B., David Jeffries, Andrew Sanigar, Feeney, Rob Winter, Glenn K., Acyde, Sturm and my local crew who will get a thank you in person later, and last but certainly not least, the ever impressive and most awesome Mrs. Black.

Without those guys & gals none of this would exist- so thanks, enjoy some days off with your friends & family see you all next year. Enjoy the mixtapes.

“It took seconds to learn the secret handshake, but it’ll take a lifetime to break the grip”.

On Nike, Free Press & Manufacturing Reality

Steven — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:00:02 +0000

I came across this post on reddit this morning that opened up the floodgates of critical thinking on here. So bear with me on this. The link led to a video, entitled: “Behind The Swoosh- What Nike Don’t Want You To See”. Now, like anyone else with half an inquisitive mind I clicked on it to find the usual Nike sweatshop and non unionized workforce bashing that’s been popular since the late 80s. Rightly so I might add.

But I’ll get into that in a minute. One side note about this film what I thought was interesting was the main “character’s” initial story, about how he was coaching a soccer team at a Catholic University, and one that was about to sign a 3 million USD contract with Nike. According to this character he didn’t want to be forced to endorse a company whose practices did not comply with his religious and ethical beliefs. Fair enough. Only, that his dean then threatened to fire him for it.

Here is the link to the film.

- Again, this is a point that I will touch on a bit later.

Based on this, together with a friend he went out to Indonesia to live and work like a Nike factory employee- which throughout 15 minutes of this film becomes quite clear is beyond pale. Now, we all know this and most of us have quietly shrugged it off. No need to ignore reality. Fact is, large parts of our lives and economy are based on child labour ( cotton pickers in Uzbekistan for 90% of all Denim Manufactures ), low wage, non unionized labor and so on. It’s the ugly reality none of us on the receiving end of the “free market” here in the west want to acknowledge. Let me make it quite clear and easy to understand for you: Almost everything you own has blood on it. We should not only look at our favourite cool guy brands, but let’s look at the vertical manufactures, like Wal Mart, H&M and Zara.

That’s just the truth and this is where my questions started with this film. Why Nike? Well, for one it is the largest sport brand in the world. That makes it an easy target. However, it needs to be said- it’s not just Nike. I don’t have any figures here, but my guess is, that easily more than 90% of every clothing, footwear, electrical goods… I mean, fuck, everything we have is made by means that really, don’t agree with our so called high held principles of equality and freedom. We’ll bring freedom and equality to you either in shape of bombs or sweatshop factories. Either way, you don’t grow up in the western world, your chances of truly being fucked by the world are incredibly high.

The point of this piece is something completely different though. I want to return to this microcosmos of irrelevant clothing, camera’s and cunts and thought about the above film in the context of writing for a living in this industry. Again, the notion of free press is something we all yell about but reality, as above, is shockingly different. We do not have a free press. We never really had one and I am starting to wonder if we ever really wanted one- I think the unedited reality would be too much to handle for most people.

There is no need for a free press in fashion, lifestyle or whatever you want to call it. There never was one and there never will be. I realize that some people know this yet, again, like everyone making product we all “adore” through blood-labour, we ignore this. It’s never really spoken about. We all act high and mighty, on the notion of being independent and all mighty blogger / influencers ( I am trying not to puke while I write this ) but it’s simply not the truth.

I used to write for a living. It was great while it lasted but after some time I actually couldn’t stomach writing fluff pieces for advertising anymore. It just didn’t work- obviously, I still had to make money to feed to hungry mouths at home, so I clenched my butt cheeks, went into the proverbial shower and started working in this industry- I figured, well, hell, might as well except that all my falsely preconceived notions of “independence” etc were bullshit and lies, and sell out. Work for the man, take home a pay check and you know the rest. That didn’t work out so well, so here I am- one foot on the man’s ass and the other on here- which I can say is almost 100% independent. I’ll be honest, if someone pays me to write something I will. It just never has happened. So there you go.

Point being though, I know plenty of people who do still write for a living, or, whose blogs etc have become so popular that I know they need to keep taps on what they write. Why? Well, because they would loose their jobs. No joke. Let’s put it like this. I can say that I don’t like the content of the film- I don’t agree with Nike’s labour practices. I can only say this because I am fully aware of the consequences. I’ll never work for Nike, they don’t want me to work for them and I’ll never be on the cool guy blogger bullshit free shoes list ( I used to be ), nor will be on any global “press” trips, to shoot pics for a blog.

Which is quite ok for me. I am not demeaning anyone that is into that or lives that life, totally cool by me, but it’s not for me. Before I can go any further though, please feel free to substitute “Nike” with any other major brand out there: adidas, Vans etc. In reality, in our microcosmos we only have Nike, adidas, Vans/VF and throw in Levi’s, Lee & Wrangler ( also VF ), it really doesn’t matter. Aside from Levi’s, I am on no one’s “list”- I think I have managed to piss off every marketing person at said companies- who exchange jobs every couple of years anyway- in the past that it doesn’t really matter.

If you don’t believe me, ask any of your favourite bloggers to write a critical piece about the above and they will not. Criticism is usually dressed up in very long obscure sentences, focused on irrelevant design aspects and even then it’s not really criticism. Again, I can’t and will not fault my friends / colleagues for this. It’s their gig, and that’s how it is done. Seriously, this entire industry is build on the foundation of a bloody fiction, ass kissing and general high school politics of popularity. I know, most people reading this will know this because they probably work in the industry, but whatever, this is catharsis at its best.

So here is my gist- how long can we sustain this crap? As the whole world is falling apart- thanks to a corrupt system of monopolistic capitalism, really the question needs to be asked. If you break it down to this microcosmos, it essentially comes to down to the same, the “system” of manufacturing trends in a lifestyle is essentially corrupt. The real world is showing us what happens after 60 + years of corrupt manufacturing of unsustainable life styles. When is it going to hit here?

The End Of The Global Village?

Steven — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 08:48:14 +0000

In comparison to the 2009 and 2010, I spent a fair deal travelling this year again. There were a lot of reason why I didn’t travel in 2009. Firstly, my son was born and aside from the romantic modern dad notion of staying at home, in all honesty, becoming a father and the responsibilities that came along with it, floored me for at least 18 months. I’d be amazed if this wasn’t the case for most people. Secondly, the crisis started in 2009 and with it a total lack of clients & travel budgets. Simply put, there wasn’t enough money around to go travel.

Yet, if you look at 2001-2008, you would think all “we” ever did was travel. Looking back at it now, I think that’s all we really did. If you are reading this and are saying “Fuck Yes!” I won’t have to explain who I am referring to but if you don’t know, let me explain. Our “scene”, let’s call it the fashion, media and whatever opinion leaders of the world, bound together by tradeshows, store openings, product launches and parties travelled a lot! If I were to go through my accounting books of those years ( which I have ) I could tell you that I essentially travelled at least 10-15 times a year. At first, being based in London and then in Berlin afterwards, most of that travelling was in Europe and Scandinavia- but as soon as 2004/2005 rolled out, it became global. Japan? Sure, why not. The US 8 times a year? Seems reasonable.

All the while, all of “us” were upping each other with more insane trips- combined with an exploding interconnectivity and the emergence of blogs/broadband internet access, I certainly believed in order to stay in this business and get even more business I had to travel more and more. Be at every party, get invited to this and that- at one point Nina and I, whilst in Barcelona during Bread & Butter, spoke to Jeff Staple who mentioned he was throwing a party in New York the following week and that we should come- of course we did. What for? Not sure.

Here’s the crux with all of this- I can’t think of many people that actually created anything that justified this global treck- sure, some of us had brands that they wanted to establish globally. Which, and after speaking to several people last week in depth about this, was essentially bullshit. Bullshit because everyone sort of forgot where we are from and building a strong home base to take it from. That goes for brands & agencies like us alike. I am not even sure how we all continued with this lifestyle for such a long time, it’s no like travelling was any cheaper back then, but the end result was something akin to this entire scene resembling the inner workings of Tony Montana’s brain- The World Was Our Oyster- just jacked up on a pound of fine Columbian Cocaine with the addition of an unhealthy ego.

The crisis of 2008-present, put an end to all that though. Unless you were on a serious corporate budget, which there are only about 10 people left globally that I can think off and know, all of the above essentially stopped. It was worse than rehab- all of a sudden all communication stopped, all the travelling and partying stopped and a large part of this industry had to face reality- myself included. What had we built at home to survive a prolonged period of no work, or even worse badly paying work? In most cases, not much. The facade of the Global Village with endless financial resources of good times credit was lifted and we have what we have now.

What I find interesting is that this period of cold turkey is now way into its 3rd year. If we were to remain in the terminology of junkies, we’d all be mostly sober by now- half of us ready to re-join reality, albeit battle scarred and the other half back on the juice. However, this isn’t true. Something much larger happened lately. Whilst I am writing about my own microcosmos here, the same happened in most industries in the western world. The whole shit house came crashing down. Simply put, people coming out of globalization’s cold turkey weren’t ready to re-join the hamster race. Part of this is being manifested in the Occupy Events around the world- but I think a much bigger part is still not manifested.

Occasionally I feel like I tap into a global consciousness ( I’m sure it is “just” the coffee ) but the impression I have is people aren’t buying the global dinosaur sized pile of stinking shit dressed up in happiness anymore. Coming back to reality quick enough- we still have to put food on the table. What I am noticing is that a large majority of people I know is turning inward for life and work. Not spiritually, but economically. I am not going to quote anyone here that I spoke with recently, but almost without fail, business owners, be it brand / agency owners or solo fighters are looking at their own front yard to build a healthy base- and are quietly turning their back on globalism and the global Goa beach. The same goes for my company and me personally- post global village cold turkey I have found genuine satisfaction in “home” and building a business here, quietly, honestly and locally. There is no value in my assessment- don’t get me wrong, I am not willing or intending to convince any one of a better idea, I leave that to the rich priests out there, I am merely observing.

The New Trifecta Of Heavy Metal

Steven — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:38:29 +0000

I know I am sort of beating a dead horse here, but I’ll say it again and again. We’re currently going through one of the best periods in heavy metal since the mid 80s.

Earlier this year a bunch of releases came out that pretty much laid down the fact that 2011 was going to be the year for heavy metal, most notably the new Crowbar album really laid down the law as to how heavy metal had progressed. Initially, this commentary was going to be solely about the new Mastodon album “The Hunter” which comes out this week. Ironically, I had gotten the new Anthrax album “Worship Music” and then also the new Machine Head album “Unto the Locust” all within the last two weeks.

All of them are incredibly good and hence my decision to write a three-way review of them. I am not comparing them, music is not a competition if you are serious about it. As per usual, all reviews and opinions are wholly subjective and no interest from the useless record industry is behind this. This is from a fan. Nothing more.

An Open Letter To PR Companies

Steven — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 09:08:10 +0000

It is kind of sad that it has gotten to the point where I feel like I need to address this issue- and the fact that I am addressing the issue makes it even worse- but I’ll get to that in a minute- and if this is a sign of the times then I am not even sure what the signs are pointing to.

Before I start, let’s get one thing clear: I am not mad at anyone and this is not meant as an insult to anyone that owns and/or works for a PR company. Consider this a helpful warning shot from my 110mm cannon. This is precisely the reason why I have chosen not to mention anyone by name.

So here is the deal: The Reference Council is a blog. It is my own shitty dive bar toilet wall that I use to write stuff down on that occupies my head- personally, writing is a cathartic exercise. As unbelievable as it may seem, I own a business that needs to make money to pay everyone here. That business has little, if anything to do with my writing. Granted, when I initially called this thing into effect, the idea was to make money off it, but I quickly realized that I couldn’t be bothered to play THAT game, you know, since we are all being honest here.

I don’t consider The Reference Council to be a big deal, it’s fun, I am kind of happy how it looks and if you look at the statistics a few people even read my mental diarrhea. But enough of that, this is about PR companies from the fields of fashion, in particular.

Now, I have never subscribed to a newsletter of any sort and I have never asked for any PR company to send me any information about any product. Quite simply, I don’t need it and them. Nonetheless, and for some unfathomable reason I get bombarded with unsolicited emails from PR companies. I counted, on average it is between 220-270 emails PER WEEK. Again, I never asked for any of this information.

Lets now, examine how this effects me and how all this makes me feel.

1. Every such email is part of an email blast to a list of bloggers and writers. I was always curious who gets these emails- until a few months ago a few companies who are obviously to tight to invest 30 USD a month to use a real mail program like Mail Chimp, sent out their email blasts but forget to set the list to Bcc. Imagine that. Amazingly, it was not just one company that did this, but three. Within a week. I was pretty surprised. Interestingly, I now knew exactly who these PR people were “writing”. It’s essentially, the same 300-500 people. Now here is the problem with this:

Just because in the last 5 years the number of fashion / lifestyle blogs has increased by a billion, it doesn’t mean that the number of consumers has increased relatively. And that’s the business you PR people are in: SUPPORTING sales of a product. Nothing else- and that is the noblest of causes in this industry- because real time economics mean: brand sells product, you get paid. They don’t, you go back to working at H&M and doing a part time tumblr. In addition, since the number of consumers hasn’t increased relative to the number of blogs, why do you bother sending the information to everyone?

This leads directly to point 2:

The fact that you blast every blog out there with the “coveted, you are oh so special” information belittles the information and does your client harm. What’s worse than seeing the same thing over and over again, with the same awful copy on a 100 blogs? Not much- this “strategy” of throwing shit at a wall and seeing where it sticks was tried and tested by several major sport companies in the 90s and guess what, it didn’t work.

In addition, said email blasts are hugely impersonal, and this is a personal/people business you are in. Regardless of what you send me, I know for a fact that it all will end up on every other blog is so off-putting, that irrespective of the product, it is automatically being cheapened. Furthermore, the emails are mostly badly written. By addressing everyone with “hi-” and pretending you know me, you are failing at your job- which is partly, maintaining a solid a strong personal relationship with your media partners. Again, you are doing your client, and yourself harm. Think about it.

A solution to this would be: Select the 5 most read blogs out there. Everyone else copies from them anyway- and, on a sidenote- having your copy on a 100 blogs doesn’t mean you are reaching more people, you are reaching the same amount of people if you only work with the top 5 publications. Here is the tricky part- how about you select the story and product you as a PR company want to sell and make an individual package for each of those 5 writers. That way, you have 5 individual, yet all relating stories, that everyone else can copy. I know, it seems like more work initially, but really, it is less work and much more effective.

Not only are you doing the reader of said blogs a service, but also the writer. Because, and here is the crux, by mass mailing people a badly written story about a replaceable and mostly unwanted product you are doing this: you are indirectly, or maybe even directly implying that I or any other writer needs help with content. That in turn, only leads to the notion that you, as a PR company, think we, the writers, are too stupid to come up with our own ideas. Nice. So, essentially, you are doing the direct opposite of what you are getting paid for.

Thirdly, I like details, and obviously most PR companies do not. For example, why am I getting email blasts about womens clothing and perfume? I don’t think it is a small detail that The Reference Council is a blog by a man, for men. Another example being, getting numerous invites to parties and events that are in London or New York, for example. Now, I realize this blog is in English, but it is also easy to find out that live HAMBURG, GERMANY. So unless you are genuinely willing to fly me over, don’t email me- and to make matters worse, don’t be pushy when I don’t answer a mass email, for a party 6000 kilometers away. If you want me to pay attention to what you are selling, do me the courtesy and at least pretend to know who you are talking to. It is not only common courtesy but also the first lesson you learn in sales-empathy with your customer. If you think that by in PR you are not in sales you need to get a new job ASAP.

Lastly, and this is more specific to my own experiences, don’t get angry with me when I politely refuse to write about what you sent me. It’s not a personal offense, it’s a decision based on content integrity. Think about this: a “sale”, i.e. you selling me a story, is a trade in the traditional sense. A trade implies that for everything you give, you take something in return. So, what do I, as a writer and my publication get for writing about your story? Mostly, fuck all. So it’s not a trade. Secondly, never question my taste, integrity and opinion as PR company. Again, it is your job to sell me something, and if I don’t, well you didn’t do your job right. It’s a simple as that. The fact that a PR person called me opinionated and arrogant last week pretty much sparked this article- just in case you were interested.

In conclusion, dear PR partners- I am not mad at any of you. We are all in this together, to make a living, nothing else, but I think it is time that you all collectively look at your business practices and make some decisions. I think my points are valid, and I think they could help you build a stronger, more effective and profitable business. Of course you can ignore me but I do believe the above will make everyone happier. You don’t even have to work with me at all, I don’t consider this blog to be important enough for that.

Peace & Happiness to you all.

Post-Ed: Mr. Style Savage raised a point on twitter yesterday, that, whilst it being so obvious I forgot to write it down here. Of course, as much “blame” . which is all together the wrong word here but hold tight- lies with the writers to that accept and use the information process I was describing above. Apologies for forgetting to mention that.

Rock Out- 2011 So Far

Steven — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:40:22 +0000

I have been saying this for a good 18 months, heavy metal, or rock music in general hasn’t been in such a good state in a long time- really since the early 90s. While 2010 was a real banger of a year for incredible music, 2011 is shaping up to be the year that kicks everyone’s ass. Whilst I am not trying to jump on the band wagon of compiling lists for the sake of it, I had the urge to highlight the best ten albums that you wouldn’t read about in your usual channels.

Before I get into it though- a few explanatory notes about this list. 1. it is wholly subjective- no sales, pr pitches or what not were taken into account. 2. I didn’t do this list by myself. I had the great help of:

Chuck Anderson. Brian Awitan. Jeremy Dean. Stephan Möller. Jose R Mejia and Ted Byrnes. All good dudes that listen to good music.

3. I cobbled everyone’s list together as one.

So rock music- or heavy metal-which ever way you want to call it: I didn’t really tell these dudes that I was looking for a list of only that, but seemingly I am not alone in my choice of audible pleasure. As much as every metal head out there thinks they are alone in their choice of music, especially in the world of fashion/lifestyle/advertising etc it really isn’t the case. And despite the overbearing media push to make everyone out there believe all this scene listens to is Kanye West, this list should resonate with a few of you.

Lastly, and this is an important point, this type of music and especially their musicians live of you coming to their gigs and buying their merch. So if you like what you are hearing on here, go find out when they are on tour and go and see them. then go buy their stuff at the gig and buy a t-shirt while you are it.

In no particular order- here we are.

(capsule) Berlin Recap

Steven — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 08:24:29 +0000

Last week saw the premier edition of the (capsule) tradeshow in Berlin. Some of you may know that our parent company worked for (capsule) to produce the event so bear in mind that my report is by all means totally biased. At least I’m honest when it comes to that. After 4 or 5 months of hard work, mostly on behalf of Nina and Daniel, it was fantastic to see all the pieces come together and result in a great show. We had a great line up of brands, including 18Waits, Be Positive, Clae, Eat Dust, Folk, Garbstore, Freshjive, Lightning Bolt, Maiden Noir, Maharishi, Mark McNairy, Norse Projects, Tellason, WoodWood, Pigalle and Shades of Grey, just to name a few.

What made (capsule) Berlin so special was the great communal vibe- there was a real sense of adventure and community, mixed with positive vibes and business that I hadn’t experienced at a trade show in sometime. Everyone came together and it is important to note, that aside from our hard work, it was out exhibitors and visitors that made it so much fun. So here is a big thank you to all of you-

To wrap up the show, we partnered with Nike Stadium and Firmament, and we held a great community BBQ at the Based in Berlin location. A perfect end to a great week. All the party photos are from the Firmament Blog, which you can see here. I don’t know who took the photos, so I can’t credit anyone. Let me know if you know, so I can rectify.

Our buddy Marcel from Hamburg came along to document our first show, so all the pictures from the show are from him. Check out his incredible work here.

Thanks again to everyone that came along for the ride, for your support and willingness to join us. We’re stoked on our next show in January already. Catch you there.

Steven & everyone here at Black Lodges.

Revolution Rock

Steven — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:49:43 +0000

I was watching the news this morning in the gym and after 90s minutes of continuous coverage of war I really had enough. A lot of people have been talking about popular revolutions akin to what we are seeing across northern Africa and the Middle East and the possibility of them taking place here in the western world. Granted, we sure as hell have enough reason to revolt. Politics are as far removed from reality as they can be at this point- they have taken on Roman characteristics, or really those of a Greek Tragedy. Our economies are being strangled by a few extreme capitalists and the our work is worth shit. One might argue, and I do, that our system of representation and taxation no longer works. My personal opinion is that we essentially live in a corporate dictatorship with the remnants of a democracy left for show.

Rather than opening this point up too widely though I wanted to talk about all the wars we are fighting- actually, scrap that, I can’t call them wars, so let’s call them what they are: imperially & economically motivated robberies by corporations. These robberies are amazingly unjust, morally and ethically wrong and brutal- the cost of human lives & suffering in the past 10 years all for securing potential areas of wealth for the select few are mind boggling. It is beyond me why I feel relatively alone in my outrage against this. Where is the million man march today?

You see, I think we’ve all been conned. One of the main reasons we saw a large popular revolt against the war in Vietnam ( as the picture indicates ) was the draft. People were forced to go to war. It wasn’t the fact that the peace movement won the hearts and minds of people with their notion of peace but the fact that our government was forcing people to die for their ideals & purses. Lesson learned, that obviously didn’t work- as we all saw at Woodstock.

It took a little while, but by the time Reagan came into office the puppet masters had it figured out- figured out how to conjure millions of volunteers to die & murder to further enrich them: Keep them stupid and eradicate the possibility of work for the working and middle classes. You really think that NAFTA or the EEC were some happy hippie peaceful no border ideal?

The main reason, especially for NAFTA, was to allow corporations to move their producing, unionized labour force to cheaper areas to maximize profits- and it’s not like the benefactors of NAFTA or the EEC pay taxes. Combine this with continuos, planned and enforced budget cuts for public schooling across the western world, you end up with a large chunk of your population that really only has two options: work 4 jobs to support oneself let alone a family and drown in debt, or join the military. Et voila, you don’t need a stinkin’ draft. Mix that up with a media that is 100% controlled by the same corporations to scare the shit out of your population and man, you can take over the world and no one will even complain.

So, I think we’ve all been had, and that’s a reason for take the power back. Start thinking & stop dying for another Gulf Stream.

Cars, Beers & St.Pauli

Steven — Tue, 24 May 2011 11:41:58 +0000

Two weeks ago the annual American Muscle Car, RocknRolling-Beer Drinking-Tiki Girl Dance On Stage-Bullshit-talking took place on the “Heiligengeistfeld” in St.Pauli – in front of the FC St.Pauli grounds- around the corner of the infamous Reeperbahn and conveniently a 10 minute stroll from my house. I intended to be semi professional of this years coverage but that thought quickly negated itself after several cold ones upon arrival, friendly faces and a lot of shit talking. At least I remembered my initial plan and snapped a few photos. All of them on my Iphone- I seriously didn’t get all of the action, but whatever. Sun was out and the beers were cold, and the added bonus for you is that you get to look at some nice pictures without my ramblings below them.

Style Is Metaphysical: Brant Bjork

Steven — Thu, 12 May 2011 09:00:21 +0000

I always struggle when it comes to style, especially in regards to fashion. Obviously, I have created the illusion through this site that I know about fashion and even care about it. So let’s clarify this- in an abstract, I do. What I mean by that is that I occasionally like writing about it. In reality, my interest in fashion only goes as far as making money with it- it’s no secret that I own a fashion distribution company. The other reality is that I really couldn’t give a rats ass about trends in fashion. Sure, you probably have gotten the impression from this site that I do- again, it’s really an abstract plane of existence for me – but truly, I am most happy in a pair regular ol’ levis, a white tee and some authentics, and that’s been the case for the past 16 years. I realize that this statement in itself is now a trend - so I am expecting some sarcy comments about that.

One of the reasons I wanted to do this little story here – in line with the countless style guides on the net these days is to explain STYLE from a different point of view. There are a few cats out there in the world that I find immensely stylish- even though that is the wrong word for it really. Personally, style is a state of mind- it comes from the soul and cannot be bought- marketeers chase this authenticity to sell you more crap you don’t need.

One cat that has been with me for as long as I can remember is Brant Bjork. In cliff notes- Brant is your modern day Jimmy Hendrix, and in my book one of the most original, influential and ingenious musician of my generation. He was integral to the almighty Kyuss, Desert Sessions, De-Con, Fu Manchu and lately his incredible solo work. If you are interested in his incredible vita here is a link to his biography.

His style is genuine, mellow, a modern desert punk, skater, rebel and oozes with an seemingly infinite source of cool that resonates with my own soul. All this is translated through his music first and foremost. I cannot imagine that he thinks about what he wears, it comes as natural as writing riff infused jams that not many people can deliver.

I put a few pictures, that I have blatantly stolen from the internets – I have no idea who took these pictures, and if you see your picture up here, let me know and I will gladly credit you for it – to illustrate what I mean. Brant Bjork is one stylish motherfucker, he makes incredible music and is, truly, the Rock n’Roll Commander.

Enjoy.

On The Death Of Osama Bin Laden

Steven — Mon, 09 May 2011 08:03:07 +0000

Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor emeritus in the MIT Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.

I have been meaning to come back to this event over the past week, but as per usual, anyone even remotely interested in any political event these days, is automatically bombarded with information, most of which is special interest controlled and paid for. I have found it hard, especially with the little time that I have to research events if interest, to find a commentary, let alone facts of what actually happened.

Now, I consider Noam Chomsky to be one of the smartest people living on planet Earth. The fact that he continuously is kept quiet as much as possible by the international mainstream media should say it all, but let’s leave it as this. His opinions, thoughts and books are the clearest most logical presentation of political, social and economic analysis today.

Guernica, published his reaction and commentary to the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, and yet again, he proves his worth to our society.

“We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic.”

Read the rest of the article here.