Harajuku Lover? Or Exploiter?: Authenticity of GothicLolitaware-lite

“Love the culture? Write a song about it. Then, use it to sell a handbag. “
Susan Scafidi’s summary of Gwen Stefani’s post-No Doubt career at Counterfeit Chic is incisive precisely because the lack of originality shown. Gwen’s co-optation (or misappropriation) of Japanese style, specifically the street styles of the Harajuku district of Tokyo, may be [...]

Worst of Both Worlds!: Disney, Ticketmaster, Scalpers, Economists HATE Squeeing

(Images: the two top results for Hannah Montana images on Google)

Imagine you are a tween girl, obsessed with the Disney phenomenon Hannah Montana. You want to see the live performance, showing Miley Cyrus, as both herself and as her tv-alter ego — who has her as an alterego. But tickets sell out immediately!!!1!!!
The cynical among [...]

News Flash! Music Industry Officialy Doomed

From Mashable.com
eMarketer has published some new predictions regarding both worldwide and US music spending, and neither look particularly good for the industry. Overall, eMarketer expects worldwide spending to decrease from $31.8 billion in 2006 to $26.2 billion in 2011. Analyst Paul Verna says:
“The situation in the industry has gotten so bad that many top recording [...]

Major League Baseball to Fans: All of your base are belong to us

As part of a recent upgrade in its video system, Major League Baseball (MLB) forgot about the most important factor for their continued success: rabid fans!
A megafan (why is this term only acceptable for sports fans?) complained about how the online games he bought were lost under the new DRM system. This would be the [...]

Manga Nation

Orignally posted in my other blog “Enjoy and Exciting”.I have a subscription to Wired because of my Mediabistro paid membership, and I have to say, I love it. Sometimes it’s a bit too fanboy for me. (Hey editors, chicks read Wired, too!) But it’s really many of the things I love, popular science, soft technology, [...]