Read + Write + Report
Home | Start a blog | About Orble | FAQ | Blogs | Writers | Paid | My Orble | Login

Tales From The Other Side - Alternative Culture to enlighten a mediocre mood

 
Alternative Culture and ideas, ready to be injected into your Reality.

Pop Culture - Tales From The Other Side

Kiddie Energy Drinks

October 25th 2007 03:24
Remember Bad Boy, that brand with that feisty Eight year old with big muscles on T-shirts – think a white version of little boy 50 Cent. Well they’ve branched out from clothing. Now they make energy drinks.

badboy energy drink



Have a look at the can design. The image of the ‘Badass Face’, the simple lines and colour design, the anti authoritarianism, the name of the product. This is not an energy drink aimed at the adult energy drink market.

Even more profoundly disturbing is the ‘Monster Mash’ product. Turn the can on it’s side and you’ll see a list of reasons to drink Monster Mash. Number 2?


You’re too young to by alcohol. See the picky?

monster energy drink
What age group do you suspect this appeals to?


Basically the message is this – this is what you can drink to get messed up – not drunk, but you can still achieve a caffeine high; it’s cool.


Marketing is a strange beast. It’s what makes us pay $5.00 for something that has an exact equivalent at $3.00. It’s why blokes can drink mild without looking like a sissy, and why chicks will buy certain types of ice-cream that don’t make them look like a Bogan. And it’s how, right now, people in suits and ties are seducing your children into indulging in addictive drugs, right under your nose.
59
Vote
Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Drugs, Politics, Pop Culture, Health, Miscalany
   


Listen to Noah?

October 19th 2007 09:44
“Um, guys?” says Noah.

“What?”

“We have a problem. Rain is going to come down. Huge flood. Wipe everything out. We have to build an Ark.”

“Bullshit.”

“Nah, fair dinkum.”

“Who says?”

“God says.”

“Bullshit.”

“Look, he passed on the message. That’s it. We have to work together, build an Ark. Get two of every creature on it. And we have to start changing our lifestyle to be less sinful.”

“To hell with you, you puritan bastard. I know this is rubbish. You must have some kind of loopy secret agenda to be spreading these foul lies.”


Noah and the angry disagreement man part ways. However it is not long until they meet again.

“Hey Noah”

“Gahh, what?”

“I can prove you’re wrong.”

“Dude. You can’t. There’s a flood coming. God’s sending it to destroy all the sin.”

“I can disprove it.”

“…riiiight.”

“These individuals who I quote these following statistics off, state that though rigorous theological testing, these is unlikely to be a flood…”

“The test has been done, mate.”

“Oh no, not this one. My carefully chosen set of expert scientists have through considerable research examined the problem. They discovered that this Global Flooding is simply factually untrue. They further decided that even if it is true, then it’s not the result of an act of God based on increasing sin levels but a simple natural phenomenon that is unaffected by human actions.”

“I don’t suppose this study was funded by casinos and brothels?”

“The study was funded in part by some groups like those you mentioned, but that in no way damages the integrity of the study, and to suggest it does is offensive to the professionals who put their efforts into the study.”

Then the rain starts.


**********


“Um Guys,” says Dr Scientist.

“What?”

“We have a problem. Ice Caps are melting. Human influence is accelerating Global Warming. We have to curb our consumption.”

“Bullshit.”

“Look, that’s the scientific consensus. That’s it. We have to start looking at viable scientific ways in which to solve these problems. And we have to start pursuing alternatives to our excessive Greenhouse Gas Emissions.”

“To hell with you, you alarmist greenie bastard. I know this is rubbish. You must have some kind of loopy secret agenda to be spreading these foul lies.”

Dr Scientist and the Self Righteous Conservative part ways. However, it is not long until they meet up again.

“Hey Dr Scientist”

“Gahh what?”

“I Can Prove you’re wrong”

“Dude. You can’t. Global warming is a scientifically proven consensus.”

“I can disprove it.”

“Riiiiiiight”

“New research from a specially selected panel of independent unbiased experts suggest there is no correlation between levels of C02 and the rate of the Earths warming.”

“Dude, the tests have been done.”

“Ohhh yes, but this is from a new group of professionals who know more than the world’s highest regarded scientists. There is no truth to this ‘global warming’ and even if there is, it is certainly not man made.”

“I don’t suppose this was funded by right wing agendas and oil industries?”

“Well there may be some association with those interests but that in no way impedes the credibility of the research and to suggest so is an affront to those working hard on this research.”

Then, the weather changes.
69
Vote
Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Politics, Pop Culture, Miscalany
   


Your Popsicle’s Melting

October 18th 2007 12:45
Café Press is a nifty little webpage. Using its tools you can set up pages to sell merchandise with your own designs on it.

I has one shirt with an image of a Popsicle on the front pocket. On the back pocket it had the phrase ‘your Popsicle's melting’.

Your Popsicle's melting
The offending image


Popsicle
When I went to my page to retrieve the written image, I found this image too was flagged as inappropriate. Perhaps my artistic talent was good enough for this to be considered a strong likeness of the Popsicle brand specifically?


Now, I didn’t really think too much of this design. It was cute, but nothing special. And certainly, I thought, not controversial.

How wrong was I? A few months into my Café Press experience I received a letter saying that one of my designs had been canceled.

I was wondering which design could have been construed as offensive. I entertained a few of possibilities. However, this one in particular was never considered. So, why was it offensive enough to be taken off Café Press?

Popsicle is a trademark owned by Unilever. Therefore I was potentially making money off their product trademark.

The history of the Popsicle is a proud one. It was basically made by some dude for his kids. He only ever put a patent on it after a few years at their insistence. He later sold the trademark.

And now? Now that same word, Popsicle, is being used to crush down a fifteen year old’s design, lest he make money of a word that has fallen into common usage.

Thank god for capitalism hey?

The great irony - I was in the wrong - I was copying someone else - Beck - the Popsicle line was in a song of his. So it's OK for Beck, apparently.

If Beck wanted off I'd be cool.

Actually if Beck wanted me to give him all my possessions I probably would. He's so great.

PS - My remaining items can be found HERE.
83
Vote
Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Pop Culture, Miscalany, Internet
   


Politically Correct People Under My Bed! Why P.C is the new Communist Threat.

October 15th 2007 13:30
Run away! Run away! The politically correct people are everywhere! It seems everyone is scared of political correctness.

What is Political Correctness? Wikipedia defines it as “a term used to describe language or behavior which is intended, or said to be intended, to provide a minimum of offence, particularly to racial, cultural, or other identity groups. A text that conforms to the ideals of political correctness is said to be politically correct.”

This is pretty much the perfect definition as far as I understand Political correctness, so it’s the one we’ll use.

I want to really attack the idea of Political correctness on three levels. Firstly, looking at it in sensible contexts. Secondly, looking at it in over the top contexts. Thirdly, looking at it in the over the top ‘psuedoememy context.’

So in the first level we have common sense political correctness. This is the stuff like you’re not allowed to refuse entry to a pub because the patron has no legs, and you can’t go selling chocolate cereal called ‘Nigger Pops’.

The second level is where it gets silly. This is where we have things like the brief lived incidence of Sea World calling Fairy Penguins ‘Little Penguins’ to avoid offending the homosexual community. Like teachers being supposed to sing ‘Baa Baa, Rainbow Sheep’. Good intentions that are just taken too far, and turn silly. To be honest, these two types of political correctness don’t concern me. What concerns me is the third, and by far most insidious type – the Psuedoenemy.

A psuedoenemy argument uses a metaphor to depict a particularly dirty debate technique. The pseudoenemy is useful when somebody is accused of wrongdoing. The person being blamed makes another person/thing/concept into the enemy, and uses it to shift blame off themselves..

At this point in time, Muslim bashing and Muslim basher bashing are both pretty in vogue, so I’ll base my example off this.

Say, we take an Anti-Muslim individual who enjoys voicing opinions loudly that ‘they should all bugger off back to their own country’. When people voice opposition to this, they may be able to hide the fact that their view has legitimate opposition by creating a fake enemy – such as Political Correctness. They may claim that they are not discriminating against others but rather are a victim themselves – a poor innocent member of the public, disempowered to speak their mind at the cruel injustices delivered unto them from… Political Correctness.

Nobody has silenced this individual. Nobody has forced their silence. Their criticisms thought have been in turn, criticized. The implication is that this criticism has forced their silence, and comes only from peoples desires to be seen as right and proper, rather than from integrity of view. This is not Politically Correct censorship. This is just disguising legitimate opposition against you.
44
Vote
Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Politics, Pop Culture
   


Is Racism Justified?

October 4th 2007 13:30
We treat different people in different ways. We have to. People are different. We don’t try to demand folk with wheelchairs climb the stairs, and we don’t ask Vietnamese actors to play Michael Jackson in the biopic of his life.

However, when we decide on how to treat people based on race, we run into the issue of racism. The best way to describe racism, I find, is to regard it as ‘racial discrimination’ – specific discrimination based on an individuals race or ethnicity. And there is a question of if racial discrimination is ever appropriate to which I would have to say “yes”. Now it’s very easy to get all indignant and be all like ‘that’s not cool man! We’re all the same on the inside! Don’t be hating!’

You’re a Customs Officer. You have to do baggage checks at a flight leaving Vietnam. A large amount of the Heroin smuggled into Australia is taken in from Vietnamese locals. Who are you going to pick?

You are a police officer in a remote Australian community. Somebody walks past you with a bottle of mentholated spirits. They tell you it’s just groceries for their parent. In one scenario they’re Greek, in the other, Aboriginal. Would your reaction be racially discriminate?

If you’re Investigating terrorism do you start with Koreans? White extremist graffiti, do you ask an Indian? We have to go with the clues we have, and sometimes the only clue we have is a face. A race. An ethnicity. A culture. A stereotype. A presumption.
Sony PSP Ad
Racism? Discrimination?

The complexity with racism is that the concept in itself seems to have become synonymous with the idea that we should treat everyone the same. This is obviously untrue, and when failing to pretend that we are all exactly the same is perceived as synonymous, we run into problems. The question is – to what extend does treating people differently for all their differences become an act of hatred, and to what extent does it become an act of common sense?

IMAGE
80
Vote
Comments (7)Comments (7) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


Vegetarians and Vegans

September 30th 2007 12:57
Animals and humans – who is superior? One argument put forward for Vegetarian and Vegan lifestyles is that Humans and animals are equal. And Equals do not eat each other for dinner (Fish and Bundy excluded).

However that argument sounds completely dodgy to me. If Humans and animals are equal, then why can man not eat sheep, while wolves can? In fact, if we’re equal to Lions, how come they get to eat us, and not the other way around


[ Click here to read more ]
41
Vote
Read MoreRead More Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Pop Culture, Health, Subcultures
   


Aladdin Hates Arabs

September 13th 2007 12:06
Remember Aladdin? That awesome mid nineties Disney Cartoon? If not (KAPOW! Shame on you!) here’s a reminder:


[ Click here to read more ]
75
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (5)Comments (5) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Pop Culture, Film
   


Just to let you know, I oppose Bin Laden.

September 10th 2007 09:40
hippie
Individuals such as this man... send shivers up some folks spike. For all we know he could be singing about human rights, ethics, peace or other subjects today associated with Terrorism.


I’m all Anti Laden. Don’t like the fellow. Now, really I didn’t think I needed to put it out there. It just goes without saying


[ Click here to read more ]
92
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (3)Comments (3) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Politics, Pop Culture
   


Colonial, and Post Colonial Novels.

August 10th 2007 15:06
I read the novel ‘Coral Island’ not to long ago. Guess who the good guys are? The white civilized British boys, Jack, Ralph and Peterkin. Guess who aren’t? Those silly black people.
This is pretty typical of English Colonial novels. The white folk are good, smart, intelligent, civilized and Christian. The Others are typically evil, or child like and naive.

[ Click here to read more ]
46
Vote
Read MoreRead More Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Politics, Pop Culture
   


Queer eye is Blackface.

July 23rd 2007 12:09
Burn a cork in water. Let it disintegrate. Mix into a paste. Wipe over your face, making sure you apply balm first to protect your skin. Then you do the lips with Fire Engine Red Lipstick.

This is how to prepare a blackface mask. The painted on Black Faces that Minstrels had to wear for them to be accepted as performers on TV. Black people couldn’t perform just as black people in America’s olden days (America’s not-so-olden-as-we-might-wish days). They had to cover up, perform as effective parodies of themselves in order to become fodder for entertainment, something white folk could sit back and be delightfully entertained by


[ Click here to read more ]
40
Vote
Read MoreRead More Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Pop Culture
   


The Dancing Man

July 20th 2007 12:30
hammertime
Sometimes you've just got to break it down...


I was working at the Mall site of my book shop a while ago. This means I sit in a little section outside of the shop, selling books to people in the middle of the plaza. My position is facing Supre, a clothing shop (for girls who are way too young or way too skinny). Supre is playing some bad pop music. As I stand there, pretty bored (nobody is buying books today) some dude walks past


[ Click here to read more ]
44
Vote
Read MoreRead More Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Pop Culture, Miscalany
   


Saw 2 vs Eyes Wide Shut.

July 5th 2007 01:08
Spoiler Warning for both films!

Saw Three is the third in a highly popular series of horror films. Eyes Wide Shut is Stanley Kubrick’s final film, finished after his death


[ Click here to read more ]
112
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (7)Comments (7) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Pop Culture, Film
   


Blackspot Shoes

June 25th 2007 11:09
I don’t care about fashion. Not really. Ask my mother and sister, they’ll tell you how poor my taste in clothes is. However, I want this pair of shoes.

Blackspot Shoes

[ Click here to read more ]
46
Vote
Read MoreRead More Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Pop Culture, Miscalany
   


Hare Krishna Spam

June 19th 2007 11:30
Gouranga
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga


I got an unusual Email the other day


[ Click here to read more ]
69
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (2)Comments (2) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
   


No, YOU’RE like Hitler

June 16th 2007 09:14
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one. This well accepted fact of the Internet is known as Godwin’s Law, also referred to as Reducto Ad Hitlerum.

Basically, it refers to the inevitable practice of somebody being compared to Hitler, or a group being compared to Nazis, within a debate or disagreement


[ Click here to read more ]
93
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (26)Comments (26) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Politics, Pop Culture, Miscalany
   


What is Creative Commonss

June 4th 2007 08:26


The great thing about this video is that because it was licensed under CC on the original creative commons webpage, it has been remixed with the audio


[ Click here to read more ]
48
Vote
Read MoreRead More Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Pop Culture, Film, Miscalany, Internet
   


And now you can’t control your thugs and anarchists? Oh, diddums…

June 1st 2007 11:18
Crime is in vogue, usually. Ask the music industry. 50 Cent if selling records about being a Pimp, Gangster, etc, blah blah… (but work with me hear – you do think he’s just a tosser right? Anyway, tangent…), and countless other artists are busy promoting themselves as killer, thieves, vandals and drug users. The Music Industry doesn’t really seem to care what effect these kind of glorifications may have on the views and actions of wider society.

However after years of pushing pimps, hoes, guns, drugs, anarchy, murder and disrespect at consumers, the music industry is suddenly pulling out the morality card


[ Click here to read more ]
50
Vote
Read MoreRead More Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Brenton - Category: Pop Culture, Internet, Music
   


Previous Page (1-17) | Next Page (35-51)



[ Tales From The Other Side Home ] [ Create A New Post ]

Brenton's Blogs

12788 Vote(s)
392 Comment(s)
139 Post(s)
4067 Vote(s)
17 Comment(s)
66 Post(s)
4868 Vote(s)
47 Comment(s)
58 Post(s)
Moderated by Brenton
Copyright © 2012 On Topic Media PTY LTD. All Rights Reserved. Design by Vimu.com.
On Topic Media ZPages: Sydney |  Melbourne |  Brisbane |  London |  Birmingham |  Leeds     [ Advertise ] [ Contact Us ] [ Privacy Policy ]