Lazerbitch has released a new app for the official Apple App Store. Check it out!

Also, here’s their latest single, “Twilight,” for your listening pleasure.

It has been five years since an album has been released by EGADZ! aka Erik Nava, and now he’s retiring the EGADZ! moniker with the album “Egadz is Dead,” which is dropping September 15th! Lots of favorites on the release, including “Have Some Guts Kid,” “Tin Foil,” “No More Double Time,” “Something Old Something New,” and of course the two leaked tracks available for download below, “Going Home,” and “Glock Out.”

EGADZ! already has a global following from the popularity of his records “Monotony” and “Shining Hours.” Like so many musicians of his ilk, Nava’s tracks are hard to pin down to a single genre, but have a truly organic feel. If you’re looking for awesome editing, raw beats and melodic synth melodies, definitely check Nava’s work out. For the regulars here, hopefully it’s obvious by now that we love abstract / alternative hip hop tracks with solid electronic influence combined with various other influences. So, if you’re also into that, “Egadz is Dead” should sit well with you. Definitely peep Nava’s skills on the MPC below, which speaks to his pure musical ability in and of itself. Maybe that’s why it has over 167,381 views to date.

EGADZ! started off the year with a three week tour with Restiform Bodies of Anticon and is rumored to be collaborating with Sole on a full length project, one of the founders of Anticon Records (much respect to Anticon, by the way). Most recently he got back from a three week headlining southwest US tour, during which he blasted up the place at Daddy Kev’s “Low End Theory.” If that weren’t impressive enough, EGADZ! also has had major licensing deals with DC Shoes/Subaru/ESPN/Fuel TV.

Future plans for EGADZ! involve moving on to his new project, “NAVA,” which he’s currently looking to sign with a label.

More on EGADZ!:

Since 2002, DJ Egadz released 2 projects with digital distribution and continued to play shows with many of the hip hop acts that are still popular today, such as Aesop Rock, Sole, Typical Cats, WHY?, Kool Keith and Glue. He’s gone on tour with Alias & Tarsier, Josh Martinez, and AntiMC of Mush Records and on another North/South/West tour with Telephone Jim Jesus of Anticon. In the summer of 2007 EGADZ! toured most of the United States opening for Sleep of Oldominion, now Strange Famous, Glue and other local acts.

In early 2008, EGADZ! created another label, Kid Without Radio, which hosts a handful of other talented producers. Egadz dropped the DJ part of his name, added an exclamation point and released “Shining Hours”, a collection of all of the Egadz tracks from 2004-2005.

Over the course of the last four years EGADZ! has made much more of a name for himself with digital media campaigns, videos, licensing and extensive touring. This year EGADZ! has plans to release the first full length album since 2005, called Egadz is Dead, an album built from a much larger, more explosive sound than any preceding it.

“Going Home:”

Download.

“Glock Out:”

Download.

Past press quotes:

“Egadz brand of electronica is elusive and so akin to Aphex Twin. The California native doesn’t eclipse dude, but he does put forth an equally atypical and awesome sound.”
-URB

“When you can evoke emotion without words you’re doing something right”
-Synthesis

“Egadz stands in the shadow of shadow, but does a fair job of shining the light on something exciting, if not entirely new”
-Xclaim

“This San Diego native’s first contribution is up there with Quannum, Heiro, Defari, Dilated, Ras Kass, and the rest of the West Coast elite.”
-UKHH

“Dude is AMAZING”
-Strictly Beats

“Breaks down how live drumming should be done.”
-Crate Kings

So there’s a new promotion between MTV and HP that lets users “Declare Themselves” to the world on the HP Declare Website. This simple application allow users to not only make a personal declaration, but also lets visitors support other declarations on the site.

To use the site one can simply upload their own image and declaration then make it public for the world to see. This application allows for users to view a random declaration, or just browse all declarations that have been made publicly!

The hope is that this promotion will help those set obtainable goals that will help further personal growth.

To his fans, Cole Dennis is a heavyweight contender with a devastating right hook. To a city being held hostage to chaos and terror, Dennis has a grit and charisma that make him the shining hope for justice–until he is arrested for a brutal murder. Framed for a crime he did not commit, he finds himself captive in a foreboding high-tech superprison whose masters secretly conspire to turn inmates into tomorrow’s most terrifying bioweapons–with Cole Dennis as the intended prize specimen. But Dennis is nobody’s lab rat. Reborn as a towering engine of destruction, Dennis will prepare for the fight of his life. He will rename himself Ghostface Killah. And his cry of righteous rage will echo beyond the cold steel walls of Cell Block Z.

So we love art and we love music, but it was only within the past couple years we noticed that musicians, specifically hip hop MCs, are beginning to star in their own graphic novels. Good hip hop MCs have already created vivid images of themselves with their lyrics, music, videos, photos and so on. Now, these MCs that we’ve known and loved for years are exploding onto pages, or even LCD displays in digital form. Method Man was the first of the Wu-Tang Clan to release a graphic novel for Hachette Book Group, followed by members GZA and now the great Ghostface Killah.

When given the opportunity for an interview with Chris Walker, the illustrator behind Ghostface’s new graphic novel Cell Block Z, we couldn’t resist. Walker’s work has appeared in the pages of such substantial comics as Batman, Spider-Man, and Superman when he worked for Marvel, and he is currently producing and developing animated projects for Humouring the Fates animation studios, and creating communication solutions for companies through 5Rings Design.

Interview:

How did you get into comic books and graphic novels when you were younger?

Chris Walker: Well, I was always into comics. Some of my first drawings as a kid, where you can tell what they are, are of Batman and Robin. I’ve always liked cartoons and comics so it was just one of those things.

Hipsterwave: Just made sense, huh?

Chris Walker: Yeah. I would save my money and buy comics at the drug store, and when I got older, I would go to the comic shop we had downtown.

Hipsterwave: They had a bigger/better selection, I’m guessing?

Chris Walker: :D Just a little. That’s when you get serious. At first it’s like Spider-Man is cool. Then you want to know what happened in the story and somehow you find out, “At the comic book store, they have all the back issues with all the story lines you’ve ever wanted to know!!” LOL! I’ve seen it happen old and young: like someone who has been away from comics for years discovers the comic book store and they are hooked at least for 2-3 years from that point.

Hipsterwave: Right.

Chris Walker: It’s like finding a new show and getting the box sets of the first three seasons.

Hipsterwave: Interesting. So the next question, How did you get your start in illustrating, although that’s not all that you do currently?

Chris Walker: Professionally, I started in high school, doing T-Shirt designs and I worked in college at a T-Shirt shop. After college I picked up freelance gigs by submitting my portfolio to various companies. It’s really about making the best portfolio you can and sending it out.

Hipsterwave: And then eventually one of those companies picked you up and you were working for them?

Chris Walker: Kind of. As a free lance illustrator, it’s more about keeping new projects coming in to your desk, so it’s not like finding a job with a company, unless you work in-house for like a card company or gaming company. It also depends on the type of illustrator you are. If you are an editorial illustrator, you are probably working hard to keep editors calling about new work.

Hipsterwave: Okay, the next question. How do you think your background influenced your work on Cell Block Z?

Chris Walker: I really wanted to have it reflect in the work. I’ve worked in a lot of industries: music, advertising, comics, animation. I went to school for painting and am a huge fan of anime and Manga, so there are bits and pieces of all that stuff. I’m also into street art and graffiti, so I let all those things come out in the work.

Hipsterwave: Lots of cool ideas tied together.

Chris Walker: Definitely. I brought in Rob Haynes: a friend of mine who works in comics. Rob is really great at story telling. He did the layouts for the book, which allowed me to think about the creative and art direction: thinking about the marks I wanted to make, the textures I wanted to use, the feeling I wanted the pages to have when you flipped through the book. Plus, I knew Rob’s layouts would make sure there was always a good story underneath the style.

Hipsterwave: So you were trying to bring it to life for the reader, in a way?

Chris Walker: Totally. I wanted to really bring to life Ghostface’s rawness. He’s a really talented MC and his work is very intense and immediate.

Hipsterwave: Agreed.

Chris Walker: I wanted the pages to reflect that.

Hipsterwave: What was some of the creative process for you in illustrating Cell Block Z?

Chris Walker: I submitted ideas about the look and feel of the book, as well as the character designs to the creative team so Ghost could approve them. After that, I got the script from the writers, Shauna Garr and Marlon Chapman. Rob did breakdowns and layouts of the script. From there, working in Photoshop, I would go in and interrupt the layouts, think about the style I wanted, and start applying really heavy lines and inks to give it a hard drawn feel. I really thought about old 70′s comics and about Japanese calligraphy. Other times, I thought about raw ink lines and graffiti. After I had the line art like I wanted I went back in and applied tones to the pages to get the light and darkness. On top of that I built the modeling and lighting on the figures.

Hipsterwave: All still in Photoshop?

Chris Walker: Yeah. It’s a very robust program. You can really make it look like things are hand drawn when they are not. I applied a lot of the stuff I learned in school about mixed media approaches to drawing. So, then I went back in and added textures to the figures and would apply a painting style to the backgrounds, maybe put another texture on top, and then you throw in some lighting effects.

Hipsterwave: So there were endless possibilities?

Chris Walker: Haha. Sounds complicated, but most artists do this kind of stuff. If it’s a fully rendered piece, it might be done by hand, paint brush or air brush, but the process is very similar. You just keep building it up until you have what you want and you can stop anywhere in the process, if you get the look you want. So, sometimes you stop at the line stage, and maybe put just a little bit of tones in.

Hipsterwave: Is that difficult to know — when to stop?

Chris Walker: It can be. It’s all for effect. So for a comic artist, it’s all about the story. How does the style and look affect the story? Is it over-emphasizing a character too much? Is it slowing down your eye? Speeding it up? All those things enhance the story for the reader.

Hipsterwave: Interesting.

Chris Walker: Comics are very cool. They seem very straight-forward, but there’s science behind them, just as much as there is an art.

Hipsterwave: What was your involvement with Ghostface, Marlon Chapman and Shauna Garr and how did it influence your art?

Chris Walker: They were the writing team, so they worked together to develop the story.

It was up to me to bring it to life and try to give it a feeling that was as unique as Ghostface himself. So it was really in the early stages: turning in designs, turning in style guides to show the approach I wanted to use. They were very cool about everything. They gave me a lot of room to bring my artistic expression to the table and interpret their words and ideas. I really wanted to give the book a street art edge: make it feel like what is out there in the culture right now, while thinking about everything from graphic tees, to websites, to the influence of Manga. I think a lot about youth culture.

Hipsterwave: Yeah, I like the influences you’re talking about as well.

Chris Walker: Right. I also wanted it to fit into that conversation, while still feeling classic at the same time. So it was a lot of fun. Not often you get the opportunity to do something like at that at this level with someone as big as Ghostface.

Hipsterwave: Yeah, he’s everywhere.

Chris Walker: He is Ghostface. :P

Hipsterwave: What’s your favorite graphic novel?

Chris Walker: Wow. Hard question, can we say first one to pop into my head?

Hipsterwave: Sure.

Chris Walker: Dark Knight. Awesome book. I have other favorites but it always pops in even though it wasn’t a graphic novel. LOL!

Hipsterwave: What about Dark Knight did you like so much?

Chris Walker: It was DC Prestige format that came out in issues. LOL! Well, Frank Miller really took it there. He was just balls to walls. The art, the story, everything: it was an amazing ride.

Hipsterwave: What interests you in the graphic novel world?

Chris Walker: The ability to tell stories the way the artists want to tell them. It’s the equivalent of an Auteur film, but many times graphic novels are like this really insanely long work of art. You really get a peek into the artist’s mind. Graphic novels and comics in general, that’s one of the few places where the story is often exactly what the creator wanted to tell. Creature Tech, by Doug TenNapel. I really like that book too. Amazing and lots of fun.

Hipsterwave: What drew you to the Cell Block Z project? What’s your take on it?

Chris Walker: Well, you don’t say no to a Wu-Tang project. LOL!

Hipsterwave: LOL.

Chris Walker: Especially when you grew up listening to their music and being a big hip hop fan. So for me it was something I always wanted to do. Make an interesting comic and narrative project with an MC I really liked.

Hipsterwave: Yeah.

Chris Walker: I think it’s a fun project.

Hipsterwave: It’s a really creative idea to begin with.

Chris Walker: It’s big. It’s fun. It’s over-the-top, but there are some great character moments. I think the story really pulls you in as you start reading and has a classic feel to it, like an old school fight movie or the old school Marvel comics: Iron Fist and Luke Cage kind of stuff.

Hipsterwave: Gives it its own unique flavor, eh?

Chris Walker: Totally.

Hipsterwave: What do you feel about the mainstreaming of comic books, like in Hollywood, on TV, etc. and how it relates to this project?

Chris Walker: I think it’s great. Comics are an American treasure. I think it’s cool that people outside of comics are starting to see the merits of the art form and are getting a chance to interact with some really great characters and stories. Iron Man the movie was fantastic and I think the next round of superheroes movies will only get better. I’m sure that helped to open the doors for projects like this and the great thing about comics is that while Marvel and DC are getting a lot of attention right now, it also helps the indie guys get attention as well. So, all the creators out there doing their indie projects are also getting a little extra light on their work since popular culture is becoming more and more into comics. While they may not get a movie deal or even want a movie deal, they will probably get new readers and new fans.

Hipsterwave: So that probably encourages more people in general to get more into their work with comics and to stick with it?

Chris Walker: Exactly.

Hipsterwave: Yeah, that’s rewarding to have.

Chris Walker: I think it’s a win-win for everyone. I heard they have comics on the iPhone now. How cool is that if you are an indie creator? Now people can buy your comic on their phones.

Hipsterwave: Yeah and also just being able to have a comic right there in your pocket. Although, I know some fans prefer having larger pages and such.

Chris Walker: I do, but it’s cool. You’re on the train, or have some time to kill, you whip out your iPod or iPhone and you read a comic. That’s cool. I’m an artist, so I love seeing the art, but it’s great for audiences.

Hipsterwave: Right. Plus the fact that you can download new comics from anywhere you get a cell signal, even comics released that same day!

Chris Walker: Yup. It will be interesting to see how the art form evolves to meet technology.

Hipsterwave: Agreed.

Do you have any plans to work on similar projects in the future or are you open to that?

Chris Walker: I’m definitely open. I really like guys like Kid Cudi, Mickey Factz, Theophilus London: they are very art driven.

Hipsterwave: Yeah, I know what you mean.

Chris Walker: Kanye and Pharell are as well. You could come up with some really wild stuff with them, probably super abstract.

Hipsterwave: Yeah, I’ve heard some say that their album covers can be heavily into art, among other aspects of their artist image.

Chris Walker: Yup. So for a visual artist like myself it’s really exciting to hear musicians and performers being into art at that level.

Hipsterwave: Right, something different compared to what we’re accustomed to getting with music.

Chris Walker: Totally. I think collaboration is the key to any artistic venture when you have several creative people at the table: something that is music and visuals all together. I’m also a big fan of Justice, Daft Punk, and Phoenix. They are killing it right now. I was a DNB head a long time ago, same with Trip Hop and Acid Jazz.

Hipsterwave: Right and if the music is telling a story, the art can bring life to a side of the story you wouldn’t have seen.

Chris Walker: Exactly. It’s like Jazz and Abstract art in the 50′s: they were fueling each other. I think where we are right now in music and pop culture, it’s almost at the same level.

Hipsterwave: Interesting.

Chris Walker: We just have to keep pushing as creators and fans demand it more.

Hipsterwave: Then the whole experience will be better.

Chris Walker: Yup. People love art. It gives our lives meaning. It gives us context for the randomness of life.

Hipsterwave: I agree. Well, I think that sounds like a pretty good place to stop, do you?

Chris Walker: Sure do. By the way, check out Blade of the Immortal. Amazing!!!!!

Hipsterwave: Will do.

Chris Walker: Cool. Well, back to work for me…

Check out more of Chris Walker’s work at chriswalkerart.com

Go here, or click on the image above, for more information on Cell Block Z.

Scruffy has put up a 15 minute megamix to give to fans in celebration of 10 year re-issue of Keep it Unreal.

And to keep up the celebratory spirit, Mr. Scruff is running a photo competition to win a gold disc on his site here.

Have a look and please ask your friends, family etc. to get involved! Just upload a photo of someone/something “keeping it unreal” and Scruff will select the best one to win the gold disc!

Mr Scruff’s music can be found in the new Rolando 2 game for the iPhone. The first installment was considered by many to be the best iPhone game of 2008, so the second is bound to be a hit!

Spanning the high seas on the way to the tropical island of Fontanis, ‘Rolando 2′ takes players to a beachside retreat set to the tune of Mr. Scruff, who appears in the game as a Rolando! At Mr. Scruff’s music shack, gamers can groove to Scruff classics ‘Blackpool Roll’, ‘Spandex Man’, ‘Fix That Speaker’ and ‘Sweetsmoke’ and buy tracks directly from iTunes.

Rolando 2 at Ngmoco
Rolando 2 at IGN

‘Rolando 2′ is available for both the iPhone and iPod Touch from:
Apple App Store USA
Apple App Store UK
Ngmoco

When we got to the show we were bummed about the fact that Letron‘s set was just ending, but the last few minutes of it that we saw were pretty great. It’s too bad that we didn’t get to see more of Letron other than some brief dancing and to notice that she was wearing a Laker’s jersey (the LA Laker’s played in an NBA finals game on the night of the show). But hey, there’s always next time, right? Letron’s sound was vibrant and playful yet had some fairly raw beats. In case you’re wondering, raw beats are a good thing. Ah, the sweet contrasts in life always tend to have an appeal to human nature. Since we couldn’t get any photos of Letron from the show, here are a couple from her Myspace page. What do you know? She has performed with Machinedrum and Addiquit!

Letron:

Letron, Addiquit and Machinedrum:

We did, however, manage to see all of Jonathan Denmark‘s set, which did anything but disappoint. In fact, Jonathan Denmark put on an excellent show that far exceeded expectations. We weren’t really sure what to expect actually since we hadn’t seen Denmark live at all, but if you live in the LA area–or wherever Denmark happens to be touring–you should go out and show love for sure. His performance was animated, peppered with little sarcastic and funny comments in between songs, and just well-done overall. We were kept totally engaged the entire time.

Also of note, Benji Kay of the band LOVE is a STORY made an appearance and performed with Denmark for one song, which was awesome because Kay had a real-time autotune effect on his voice. Hey, yes, it’s very T-Pain, which Denmark and Kay stated outright. However, for as much as people like to make fun of T-Pain and make a big joke about autotuning, we secretly love it. Except when Cher used it in her track “Believe:” weren’t feeling that so much, although the song was catchy. Cher’s “Believe,” had a nice message and was catchy and all, but it was always definitely bad if you were unfortunate enough to get it stuck in your head.  You know what’s funny though? That song came out in 1998, and it predates the whole autotuner craze by virtue of the simple fact that it’s 11 years old! Okay, so you might be thinking, “Hey, but Daft Punk had autotuner on their early famous track ‘Around the World,’ (1996)” but that autotuning definitely sounds far more robotic and less subtle than what we hear today. By the way, some of the people behind Vimeo.com made a hilarious video about autotuning in the office a few months back.

Check out LOVE is a STORY in iTunes by clicking on the image below:

The venue was interesting as well, tucked in a courtyard behind stores like Urban Outfitters with an open sky that gave the area a spacious feel. Plus free Izze Sparkling Juice beverages. That was a nice little touch. All things sparkling are good.

We recorded some video of the show, but unfortunately forgot to bring a real camera: so, all that you get is some iPhone 3g video of the show. The video is surprisingly decent though, considering it was recorded on a phone with nothing to stabilize the image but hands and nothing but a speakerphone mic to pick up the sound. Maybe the iPhone 3g S will be better with video. It’s scheduled for release in less than a week on June 19, 2009 (be excited, you know you are).

Denmark sounded great at the show. The instrumentals and sound system were also spectacular at the venue. Any distortion you hear wasn’t caused by the system but the iPhone speakerphone mic and its inability to handle the truth.

Another thing that turned out really well at the show is the photos that we managed to get our hands on from Photojournalist Jim Stevenson. So, you can actually get to see some clear, aesthetic stills of the event! Stevenson has work published in The Huffington Post and we’re glad that we got the opportunity to connect with him both before and at the show. We also appreciate Stevenson’s permission to use a few of the photos here on the site (all photos with the Hipsterwave logo stamp were taken by Stevenson).

So we’ve always thought the Monome is a pretty cool device for making music, among other random uses its makers have come up with. The Monome is like the nerd’s paradise for audio: simple, with a beautiful design, and so many different applications because of its simplicity and integration with MaxMSP, which opens up so many applications and possibilities if you know how to program or are friends with a programmer who will hook you up. Actually, you don’t even have to have any friends to get cool applications for max/msp that can be used with the Monome! Ah, but we digress.

So check out this video demonstration of the monome from its makers:

Pretty cool, huh?

At any rate, the point of this post is not to tout how awesome the Monome is (even though it really is awesome), but rather to clarify something about a song used in a Monome demonstration made by the Monome company! Check it out:

So we came across this video and it’s actually how we discovered the Monome. Late hours wasting time on YouTube will lead you to things like this. We’ve all been there before. Well, so this video–Monome device aside–struck us as really nice in aesthetic terms. The song is beautiful, the flashing lights are kind of cool, but mostly the song is great. So, we managed to get a hold of the producer of the song–Tehn–and he hooked us up. However, this was back when he had the song available on his web site, which is interesting in and of itself. However, it seems as though the song from the video above is no longer available on Tehn’s site. If it is, we just weren’t looking hard enough. However, to save you the trouble, you can just save this download link for yourself!

If you want to just stream the full song,  entitled “jan18cold,”   before downloading, then here it is,

Special thanks to Tehn and the Monome team for doing what they do.

Love the 3.25 floppy disk wallpaper. Every home should have one of those. Sort of?

And, here’s just a new variant of what we think you were really thinking.

Okay, so maybe the first red-head with glasses above isn’t actually Lauren De Long: star of a new Microsoft ad. No, she’s just some random hipster, and more of a hipster than De Long will ever be, but we digress.

So we’ve confirmed from the above that Lauren De Long isn’t a hipster at all, but hey, she got into a Microsoft ad to pretend she is. Why would an advertisement try to trick you? Get the hell out of here! That is impossible. Well, anyway, Newsweek claimed De Long is some kind of clever hipster but, she’s really not. The following is from Newsweek, with our reactions in bold.

[Lauren De Long]  is an unlikely assassin—a cute young woman with long red hair, geeky glasses and a funky scarf. But make no mistake: Lauren De Long, star of a new Microsoft ad, is a flat-out killer [Where's the justification for this statement? Don't know.] For three years Microsoft has been bullied by Apple’s snarky “I’m a Mac” ad campaign, in which Macs are represented by a smart young hipster, played by actor Justin Long, and Windows PCs are represented by the dorky, dopey John Hodgman [Justin Long is a hipster? Last we checked he's also just a rich wankster actor.] Microsoft has tried to fight back, but its ads have been so bad that they only made Microsoft seem even more lame [Ah yes, thank you Newsweek, for telling us what's cool and what's not.]

Now comes Lauren, a real-life hipster who looks like a stereotypical Apple customer. [First off, let's just say looks can be deceiving. Also, De Long looks nothing like the hipsters we see out, so apparently Newsweek has a completely different view of what being a hipster is than we do. The damage is done. But, proceed, please, Newsweek...] In the ad, which debuted March 26, a documentary-style film crew follows Lauren, who’s been given $1,000 to buy a laptop and is told she can keep the change if she spends less. Along the way, she visits an Apple store, only to discover, to her dismay, that the only laptop she can afford is a last-generation model with a puny 13-inch screen. (She wants a 17-inch screen; at Apple, a laptop like that costs $2,800.) De Long’s stinging line, delivered with a sigh as she’s driving away from the Apple store: “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person.” [No, you don't have to be cool to be a Mac person. You're right, you yourself are plenty uncool, but you also have plenty of money and for that reason can afford to be a Mac person like anyone else with a bank account supportive of purchases!] At the end of the spot she ends up buying an HP laptop for $700—and pocketing the $300 difference.

The ad makes an obvious point: Macs cost more than Windows PCs. But there’s a far more damaging subtext: that people who buy Macs aren’t necessarily cool, clued-in hipsters. [Of course not, and we're sure that Lauren De Long most assuredly has more than one Apple product in her swanky home, so she proves that you don't have to be cool to own a Mac.] In fact, they might just be poseurs who paid too much for a computer–slash–fashion accessory. The deeper subtext is that these days, wasting money doesn’t make you hip and smart—it makes you stupid. In the age of the collapsing economy, frugality is the new cool. [Hey, is saving such a bad idea? Anybody in a position to save should always do that. What's wrong with financial security? We can't argue with Newsweek here, although where they got the idea that Apple Computers make you hip we don't know.]

Apple won’t comment on the new Microsoft campaign. But on tech blogs, its fans are sneering that De Long’s bargain-priced laptop is a piece of junk. [This much, we cannot deny. HP machines are designed all funky: both on the outside and the inside. Try to replace hardware in them, especially the desktops, and you'll see what we mean.] They’re even questioning the ad’s premise: De Long, it turns out, is a part-time actress, which has led to charges the ad was, in fact, scripted. [Gasp! Damn. They've been tricking us all this time. How could this happen?] De Long has declined interview requests, which only fuels suspicion. However in an e-mail statement to NEWSWEEK, she insists, “I was completely unaware that I was filming a commercial.” Microsoft also insists the ad was not staged, and they have a half dozen more of these real-life-customer ads waiting in the wings. In any case, the ugly attacks from Mac fanboys are exactly what Microsoft was hoping to provoke, says David Webster, general manager for brand marketing at Microsoft. He says the idea was to turn Apple’s “I’m a Mac” campaign to Microsoft’s advantage. “We associate real people with being PCs, [but then Apple] ends up looking pretty mean-spirited, the way they go after customers,” he says. “It’s clear that’s who they are insulting.” At the same time he can’t resist taking a crack at the preciousness of some Mac users. “Not everyone wants a machine that’s been washed with unicorn tears,” he says. [Yeah, yeah. Macs are magical or whatever. Sure. The Mac ads were annoying at first but then became funny to see what they came up with next (probably by spending boatloads of money in the process) because in the end all of it is just laughable.]

The ads may be one sign that after a few bumpy years, Microsoft seems to be turning the corner. That’s partly due to the bad economy, which is driving people to low-cost computers. In February, U.S. retail sales of Windows PCs grew 22 percent, measured in units, while sales of Macs dropped 16 percent, according to researcher NPD. Apple unit sales have been dropping since October, while unit sales of Windows PC have been growing over the same period, NPD says. Much of the growth comes from “netbooks”—those tiny, low-cost notebooks that are all the rage now. Most run Windows. Apple, so far, has refused to make one, though it’s rumored to have one in the works. Instead, in January the company rolled out that 17-inch laptop with a $2,800 price tag. Talk about tone-deaf. [Hahah, yes. There's no such thing as a luxury computer. Is that really what Mac users are going for? Extra unnecessary added features?]

For Microsoft, the other good news is the early reaction to its new operating system, called Windows 7. I’ve been using a pre-release version for a couple of months, and it’s terrific. It boots up much faster than Vista, which was one of the big complaints. There are far fewer of those annoying warning messages. The user interface has a slick new feature, a “taskbar” at the bottom that shows what apps you have open. The new system is due out later this year. [Yes, we concur fully that Windows 7 is baller and you are going to love it if you're a windows user. Watch out for Windows 7, scheduled to drop in July 2009.]

While Microsoft’s engineers can be proud of that work, what amazes me most is that Microsoft’s marketers—with much help from edgy ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky, which Microsoft signed a year ago—have finally managed to make a decent ad, something that I can’t remember this company ever doing. Remember the print ads with office workers wearing dinosaur heads? What did those even mean? Microsoft’s culture has always been about engineering, led by über-dweeb Bill Gates. And marketing just isn’t very important when you have a monopoly.

It’s clear Microsoft realizes it has found a winner with this low-cost message. They’re running online ads where you spin two wheels—one for Apple, one for Windows PCs—and find out what the same amount of money gets you in each camp. In March, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told a conference audience that people who buy Macs are “paying an extra $500″ just to get an Apple logo. “I think that’s a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be,” Ballmer said. You’d almost think he’s happy about the recession. At the very least he’s probably hoping it hangs around a while longer. [It's funny how long it took ad campaigns that realized the unnecessary price tag difference between Macs and PCs. This is why PCs have the stronghold they do in the computer market overall now, and have for years past. Get familiar.]

If you want to see more angst from just another Microsoft hater, then this video is for you.

Now that that’s over. Two words: Hipster fail.

Shirt:

Poster:

And now for some Wikipedia information on da Vinci, just to refresh:

Leonardo was and is renowned primarily as a painter. Two of his works, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, are the most famous, most reproduced and most parodied portrait and religious painting of all time, their fame approached only by Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam. Leonardo’s drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon, being reproduced on everything from the Euro to text books to t-shirts. Perhaps fifteen of his paintings survive, the small number due to his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination. Nevertheless, these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, comprise a contribution to later generations of artists only rivaled by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo.

Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, the double hull and outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were even feasible during his lifetime, but some of his smaller inventions, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded. As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics.

You know, though, we really can’t say that Steve Jobs and Apple are on the same level as da Vinci was. Forget that noise.

Also, iSteamphone created the “Exploded Phone!”

This simple modification is available for free under the Cydia installer that comes with your iPhone when you hack it. As far as we know, it’s technically not illegal to hack your iPhone, although it will void your phone’s warranty. Although, more information on that is surely on the QuickPWN.com and Wikipedia. Here are a couple screenshots of the theme in action:

Can’t get enough of those Dunks!

Maybe you’ve heard of David Elsewhere, maybe you haven’t. You know that corny “Evolution of Dance” video that had the most views on YouTube for the longest time but has now been beaten out for an Avril Lavigne song called “Girlfriend?” I just clicked on the Lavigne video for about five seconds and I only heard the track sampled in a Girl Talk track. That’s it for that one.

Well, we won’t link that lame “Evolution of Dance” video here because–quite frankly–it has gotten enough views. Not only that, you know how sometimes when something or someone can be so wildly overrated it almost makes it worse? Those situations where you can’t see what all the hype is about yet there’s so much hype and it just keeps flowing and flowing, like a raging torrent: God, make it stop! Well, anyway, enough digressing. David Elsewhere was born in 1979 and grew up in Santa Ana, CA. He is the world’s greatest break dancer. We really have no need to prove this to you. All you have to do is watch these clips and if you’re not convinced, it doesn’t matter, because we still think he’s the world’s greatest. Observe:

(Elsewhere in the orange shirt):

Got damn, was that even real? And in case you’re wondering, no: he’s not double-jointed.

In this one we love the fact that he chose to break it down to an Autechre track “Eutow,” because we love Autechre too (post on AE forthcoming):

Lastly, David Elsewhere has so much acclaim for his dancing Apple Computer actually hired him to be in one of their iPod commercials (although the Daft Punk track in the commercial is kind of beat):

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Katherine Heigl (Izzie from Grey’s Anatomy) has one:

Couple hipsters with iPhones. Random red booty on the left.

Alyssa Milano:

Durr. Demi Moore has one for sure:

This nerd must have been one of the first to burn a lot more cash than the rest of us on the iPhone to get one of these big-ass boxes for it.

We don’t know her, but she has an iPhone and a ring on her index finger that she assumed would be cool. That’s why she points with that finger, silly:

Lindsay Lohan, why wouldn’t she have one?:

Megan Fox joined forces with Shia LaBeouf to ruin Transformers 2007, but this does not negate the fact that Fox has an iPhone too:

Note the expression of the guy in the blue striped shirt. Hahah. P.S., we’re not feeling the arm tattoo. Sorry :(

People are still taking pictures of Madonna? Okay:

Paris Hilton has one. Feel the anger and hatred coming from her eyes:

Yep. Pharrell had to one-up everybody and gold-plate his:

Vanessa Hudgens has one and so does her teddy bear:

Musician or not, what do they all have in common? They’re all drinking Steve Jobs’ Kool-Aid. Hooray! Serve it up, biotch.