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Of Gordon Brown’s temper and a ‘citric idiot’: Robert Popper’s crank call punks British media
03.02.2010
06:05 pm
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A prank phone call made by British author and comedian Robert Popper apparently fooled a few of the British dailies, including The Telegraph, The Sun and (sort of) The Financial Times. Popper, who makes crank calls and puts them on his website, called talk radio station LBC and pretended to be a woman who had seen Gordon Brown throw a tangerine into a laminating machine during a temper tantrum. The hoax was reported as true in The Telegraph and The Sun. The Financial Times also published a blog post on their website, stating that the call was probably a hoax and have since issued a follow-up confirming this.

Here’s an abridged version of what happened, written by Popper himself on the BBC Comedy blog:

Last Monday I decided to do one of my silly and—admittedly—childish phone calls under the guise of my Timewaster Letters character, Robin Cooper.

So I switched on LBC (a London talk radio station) where the topic was Gordon Brown’s alleged bad temper. I called up and got through almost instantly. “What do you want to talk about?” asked the LBC operator. Without time to think I replied, “Gordon Brown visited my place of work and lost his temper right in front of me.” Very soon I was on air, explaining how Gordon Brown had toured my workshop - a “lamination factory”—and thrown a tangerine into one of the machines, breaking it, before calling a member of staff a “citric idiot.”  It was all I could think of at the time. A load of nonsense. But I was quite proud of the phrase, “citric idiot.”

Anyway, skip forward to Friday night. It’s midnight. I’m lying in bed when I get a message on twitter that the tangerine story had been mentioned on BBC Two’s The Bubble. I clicked on iPlayer and fourteen minutes in, I see the brilliant David Mitchell telling his guests that Gordon Brown had allegedly thrown a tangerine into a lamination machine. 

What?! I immediately stuck my phone call up on my site (I’d animated it with my crap drawings), mentioning how it had been picked up on The Bubble. Very soon someone tweeted saying that they’d read about the tangerine incident in the Financial Times. And there was a link! Within seconds, someone else added that it had been in The Telegraph, with the headline: “Gordon Brown accused of throwing a tangerine.” The article went on to say, “One of the factory workers told The Sun Mr. Brown became angry and threw a tangerine he was holding into a laminating machine.”

But my favorite part was when a Hong Kong news agency, which had previously, and bizarrely, animated various incidents of the Brown bullying story, animated my story as well. There it was in black and orange: a sort of man throwing a tangerine into a machine. I laughed so hard, I almost puked my lungs onto my legs. To think that 6000 miles away, a news director in a Hong Kong office had actually instructed one of his animators to show the British Prime Minister throwing a tangerine into a lamination machine. Did the animator have to google ‘lamination machines’ for reference? Actually, the tangerine and the machine looked pretty good, but the factory resembled a sort of over-sized torture chamber.

Popper goes on to write that only the Financial Times was suspicious of the prank, but added “[...] to The Sun and The Telegraph, I just want to let you know that I have another amazing story of the time David Cameron visited the very same factory, and threw a carton of milk into the very same machine, before calling the very same factory worker a “lactic imbecile.”
 

 
Via Xeni Jardin/Boing Boing; cross posting this from Brand X

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.02.2010
06:05 pm
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Truly Crappy and Cheesy Apartments
03.01.2010
05:32 pm
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Actual apartment buildings here in Los Angeles. I like the mid-century dingbat stylings of the Crapi myself.
 
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via this flickr stream

 

Posted by Brad Laner
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03.01.2010
05:32 pm
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Steal This Chair
03.01.2010
05:14 pm
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As these things go, the recent “viral” campaign for Blu Dot, a New York-based furniture store, is among the most clever advertising stunts we’ve ever heard of. Dreamed up by advertising agency Mono, the idea was to place 25 “Real Good Chairs” in places all over Manhattan. If someone just leaves something somewhere, hey, “curb-mining” is fair game, right? Sort of, but this time there were strings attached ... well not exactly strings, more like a GPS!

From Media Creativity:

Each chair was GPS-equipped, allowing Mono to track the chair’s location and pay a visit to the chairs’ new owners. Can you imagine taking a chair off the sidewalk and having someone ring your doorbell to inquire about the chair? An eight-minute-long documentary was created that chronicled the chairs’ initial drop off, patient cameramen waiting on nearby buildings for someone to take the chairs and visits to the homes of those who took a chairs.

According to Michael Hart, creative director and co-founder of Mono, each chair was valued at $129 and equipped with a cell phone with GPS software. This software is valued at $200, so do the math; the GPS software is worth more than the chair itself.

Mono’s biggest challenge was obtaining long-lasting battery life for the cell phone, something longer than 8 hours. Mono worked with technology consultant Tellart, who created an electrical switch to trigger the battery when the chair was picked up. Translated: the GPS was activated once the chair was on the move,

The folks who took the chairs home were tracked by the camera crews and later asked about their semi-illicit hauls. Some were surprised and startled that they’d been followed; others wondered if they’d snagged (read: stolen) someone else’s chair. Most, however, got the joke, allowed the crews into their homes and sat for an interview.

Cross posting this from Brand X

Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.01.2010
05:14 pm
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The Continuing Aftermath Of The Final Placement Debacle
03.01.2010
01:35 pm
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What is it exactly about Final Placement that is causing such widespread consternation, furious beard stroking, fuming anger and panty tossing excitement ? It’s almost as if these four innocent Texans have altered the very fabric of reality, calling into question our previously held sacrosanct metrics of aesthetic goodness and perhaps even causing us to reconsider the role of The Lord in our lives. Nah, it’s just that FP made a horrifically bad recording and truly thought it was good enough to make a groovy video of to share with the world. Ooops ! Oh innocence, can you never return ?
 

 

 

As Final Placement’s “people” continue to play wack-a-mole with these clips we’ll try to refresh ‘em as they get re-posted. Lame, FP !

Posted by Brad Laner
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03.01.2010
01:35 pm
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Not Cool
03.01.2010
02:00 am
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(via The Daily What )

Posted by Tara McGinley
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03.01.2010
02:00 am
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Animation: When David Lynch Met George Lucas
02.28.2010
11:17 pm
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Here’s a short animation using the real audio of David Lynch recalling his first meeting with George Lucas. It didn’t go so well.
 
(via Mister Honk)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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02.28.2010
11:17 pm
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The Day My Kid Went Punk
02.26.2010
07:28 pm
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I’m dying to see this!  Does anyone have a copy they can upload? I could only find a crappy version of it here on Vimeo.

Posted by Tara McGinley
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02.26.2010
07:28 pm
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Final Placement: Teen Christian Rock Shit Sandwich
02.26.2010
09:00 am
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Final Placement is a Christian Rock band from Midland Tx. It consists of four guys from Midland Christian School. They are currently playing shows. They dream of scoring a record label one day. The philosophy of FP is, “The world is gone but not lost it can still be saved, all it takes is the people to listen. Maybe if they will hear the message and change.”

(Ack !, Thanks again Cory !)

Update: The lead guitarist is graciously taking questions in the comments section

Posted by Brad Laner
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02.26.2010
09:00 am
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Notable Fartist Le Petomane On Shellac
02.25.2010
03:52 pm
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via Not Sweating The Small Stuff :

Born in Marseilles, Le Petomane discovered his amazing facility swimming in the sea as a child. He could - at will - take in large quantities of water and - equally at will - expel it.
Of course water turned to air and after his debut in Paris in 1887 and some touring of the provinces, he went very big time at Le Moulin Rouge in 1892 - becoming an instant sensation.
Each emission of the performance would be properly introduced:
This is a little girl.
This is a bride on her wedding night. (small noise)
This is a bride the morning after. (much larger rasping noise)
This is a cannon. (very large noise)
And so on, with the audience apoplectic with laughter. No high art going on here!

 
But wait, there’s a recording ! Who knew ? (thanks Ace!)

 
And of course there’s also this timeless modern day interpretation. You’re welcome.

 

Posted by Brad Laner
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02.25.2010
03:52 pm
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The Opposite of a Falcon Punch
02.24.2010
04:22 pm
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Posted by Jason Louv
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02.24.2010
04:22 pm
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