Cootie Catchers, Hair Metal, and GPS
Lianna Fled the Cranberry Bog in a Cootie Catcher. Sometimes new, non-strictly-linear approaches to storytelling feel like they are a whole lot of innovation for its own sake, and not a whole lot of user/reader value. Not so with this Kickstarter, which makes such amazing sense once you see it and read a bit about it.
“An eerie tale told through twenty-six paper fortune tellers.”
I love this idea, and the illustration style so beautifully fits the story and the mechanism.
“Each cootie catcher features eight possible endings—but the endings are also beginnings, complications, transformations, jumping-off points for other parts of the tale. Read them alone or with a partner, using any method you like: counting off bolded words and numbers, choosing panels that strike your fancy, or simply laying them flat. From jailbreaks to kissing practice, murders to museum heists, each trip through Lianna Fled the Cranberry Bog reveals new sides of this wild, multifaceted tale of wonder and terror.”
If you like this collaboration between author/creator GennaRose Nethercott and illustrator Bobby DiTrani, best get on it. It’s fully funded and it appears that you have only another day to back it and pick up either a pdf version or a physical edition of this really neat project. Once I get these bananas shipped I’m going to sign up for the latter for what it’s worth.
In case you need a boost at work, the Japanese trade unionists have you covered with well-named friend Unionion:
“We’d see the lead singer working as a courier in Bala. He was always very nice.” Apparently this improbable but real vintage Pats Chili Dogs commercial starring the hair metal band Cinderella made the rounds about five years ago. The first I saw of it was when TBT reader Jim D. shared it with me a few days ago. There are three salient parts here. First, the video itself, which is just a joy.
But as if that wasn’t enough, there’s a pretty good q & a from 2014 with the duo who produced and directed it. My favorite stretch of the interview is where you get a real sense of texture for the work and lives of these folks:
TK: Did you get more work as a result of the video?
BK: As a demo, it probably landed AdNet some nightclubs business. I know I shot Cahoots at the Airport and Pandora’s in Wilmington. Both were long night shoots. Cinderella was short and sweet once the band was ready…
TK: Did you ever see or speak to anyone from the band again?
BK: We’d see the lead singer working as a courier in Bala. He was always very nice.
RH: We would see him…dropping off and picking up film and prints for the local Kodak photo booths at the local mall. We would always chat a little. This was just before they made the big time on MTV. I always admired how down to earth they were, certainly keeping it real.
Read the interview.
And to finish off the trifecta, there’s a satisfying direct address video by Cinderella’s Tom Keifer himself, who explains the ad’s backstory. It was a clever advertising play by Pat’s, and the way Cinderella managed to “get on MTV” in those early days before they had impressed the VJ’s.
Seen, wondered, and answered.
GPS Is Wrong, Turn Around. This real, undoctored photo gets to what seems like a new and unique feeling of our time. There’s a dumb relentlessness of smart algorithms that can be an incredible source of frustration in the physical world sometimes.
Think about how hard it is to communicate with these devices and apps that dictate the behavior of large numbers of people all the time. There’s almost no feedback loop to the device/application itself, and certainly nothing that’s given any degree of priority. And this is the rule for big, popular, flagship apps, not the exception.
There are many more bananas, but these are the three-ish I picked for you this week. You can hit “reply” and it will go only to me. You can support #TBT by sharing this email or a link to it with someone you think might enjoy it. You can easily lay the blame on me if they don’t. You can also support the harvest by buying me a coffee like this or any which way.
Thank you.