Sunday, June 29, 2008

Batman: The Killing Joke

Finally bought this Batman graphic novel at the Kino 20% sale over the weekend. Excellent and truly seminal stuff. It ends with a joke, and a truly beautiful one, at that, casting the relationship between the Batman and the Joker in clear light. I love this comic!

Batman: The Killing Joke graphic novel - the origin of the Joker a seminal piece of work - 20% off! from Kinokuniya, Ngee Ann City, Singapore




Saturday, June 28, 2008

Let's talk about catchy tunes

UniqueFrequency posted on his blog about the HP Touchsmart PC ad and how the tune was really catchy and viral. I checked out the ad and felt kind of disappointed. Here's the HP ad first:



Now have a look (and listen) at this one:



Honestly speaking (and I know this is probably going to be subjective), which ad has the catchier tune, and which video is more compelling?

Alright, everyone's gonna say, "He's an Apple fanboy and is gonna love whatever crap Apple feeds him anyway." Well, actually I'm not that big a fanboy. Go with what works best for you, I say. And go with whoever delivers the better experience. In the case of the two touch ads, I kinda prefer the Apple one.

Incidentally, the Apple Touch ad was first created as a fan video by Nick Haley without the permission or guidance of Apple. It floated around virally on Youtube for a while, and Apple were so impressed that they asked Nick to help make the actual ad for Apple. Or that's how the story goes, at least. Check out the Nick Haley version below. You'll be amazed how much the final "professional" commercial resembles the original "amateur" one. Respect to Apple for being able to recognise a catchy tune and video! I don't think HP have really figured that out yet.



And if you're curious, the track in the Apple Touch ad is called "Music is my hot hot sex" by a Brazilian band called Cansei de Ser Sexy. You can watch their original music video here, which, incidentally, was the most popular video on Youtube at one point, with close to 90 million views. How's that for viral? (The original video was taken off Youtube sometime back, after it hit #1, so it's not on the most popular list anymore.)