Tying Up Loose Ends...
Without meaning to stray too far into the territory of Writing A Blog About Writing A Blog, there's a couple of things which have been sort of bubbling away in some of ChartBlog's back pages which deserve to be returned to with a fresh eye.
Not least because they make you, the ChartBlog reader, look dead clever and witty and smart...
Beware The Ides Of Merch...was a feature about bands selling cheap tat at their gigs, which invited people to name their favourite item of merchandise. Now, a couple of very interesting things came out of this. Firstly that even when you buy the cheapest, tattiest rip-off T-shirt in the world, this can actually make you look like a superfan if it ages in the right way (one wash should do it).
And secondly Tasha thinks making your own T-shirts, banners etc is the way to go. And she's right. So what I want is photographic evidence of your own home-made merch, please! Sent it to me at chartblog@bbc.co.uk, or put your photo-links in the comments box below.
We can make our own ChartBlog Merch stall at the Virtual Boot Fair. Either that or set up a big museum exhibit all about the creative use of all that young-person energy and 'downtime'.
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Meanwhile, over on the Album Cover Caption Competition page, debate has been raging fiercely over the best witty little one-liners to put underneath our selection of unhinged CD cover-art. And you have to admit, some of them have been VERY witty indeed.
Like these...
Linkin Park - 'Minutes To Midnight'
Caption:
*stares out at an empty arena*
Chester:"Well it wasn't me who said shove nu-metal up your ass!" - Kerri
Travis - 'The Boy With No Name'
Captions:
Day one of Spiderman watch and the boys aren't having any luck. - Kat
ALSO:
You know it's not even them up there, right? - Kat
The Twang - 'Love It When I Feel Like This'
Captions:
"I think our take on Little Red Riding Hood went pretty well!" - Jamesy
ALSO:
Jason wondered whether testing that new face cream was a good idea.... - Rachel
Rihanna - 'Good Girl Gone Bad'
Caption:
"Aggh! No wall!" *Falls over* - Lisa K
Sophie Ellis Bextor - 'Trip The Light Fantastic'
Caption:
"What do you mean its crayons not eyeshadow?!?!?!" - Tash
The Killers - 'Sam's Town'
Caption:
"Who knew it was so damn cold in Nevada?" - Becky
If you think you can do better, get on over there and prove it!
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And finally, there was the Armband Van Halen blog. Now, there's been some controversy about the kind of prizes you can hand out for a competition which is just basically people getting the names of famous pop acts wrong on purpose. That's not to say there haven't been some GENIUS entries. Like these...
Gravel Loving - Kat
(CLUE: She did that song about not liking your girlfriend)
Mechanical Romans (CLUE: They don't love you, like they loved you yesterday) - Al
Just Cack (OK, no clue needed here) - Juztin
and the winner (so far), which is a three-way tie between her own three best entries. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, Rachel...
Wobbly Millions
(CLUE: Gary Barlow's nemesis)
Slow But Droll
(CLUE: They've got an electric fire)
Soapy Hell Expects Her
(CLUE: She uses crayons for makeup)
Now, if you think you can beat those, here's a REAL incentive. See that badge at the top of the page? See it says "I love Armband Van Halen"? That very badge could be YOURS if you can beat Rachel's best. Failing that, I'll just give it to Rachel.
There, the gauntlet is down...
Comments
wow, thank you very much for using my linkin park caption fraser :D
and peoples if you try to beat rachel on armband van halen youre not going to so really theres no point in trying!
Haddock King (Hadouken)
The Fritter Less (The Fratellis)
Errr...that's it.
[Extra points for a chip-shop theme here! NICE! - Fraser]
you know youre on about homemade merch, well hows about a giant collage? as in a wall covering one?
[Right now I'll take whatever I can get. But feel free to re-submit that should I ever do an art gallery. Who's the collage of, Kerri? *innocent face* - Fraser]
well, all of my bedroom walls are covered in loads of pics and posters and random stuff bascially, mostly to do with music. one of the walls is virtually covered top to bottom, side to side in mcr, like a shrine thingy almost. so yeah, my bedroom walls are one big collage! plus i have made a few smaller ones when ive gotten bored. i acutally partly used it in my art coursework last year and i got an a overall :D
[PICS! WE NEED PICS! - Fraser]
what kind of pics?! as in photo pics or drawn by us pics or what?
[Photos of your collage, doofus! Remember, I want evidence! - Fraser]
yes my caption for sophie e-b yay!
:)
so you want me to take photos of my bedroom walls?
hello, anyone out there?! *echoes* if its photos of my walls you want just say and ill give you them!
[What I'm after is pics of any home-made shrines or T-shirts or badges or whatever people may have made in tribute to their fave musical people. Your walls would qualify, right? - Fraser]
Can I enter again, please? Otherwise I get a build-up, with nowhere for them to go!
Crisp-Stealer Angle Error
Lincoln Park (the English tribute band, obv)
Dust-Jacket
Thanks very much for putting my Twang comment up. :)
All I can think of for the Armband Van Halen thing these came to mind.
Justin Timeforcake
Diecast Heroes
Skittle Can Wait
The Guys Ar Thiefs
As for the home made merchanise stuff I'd like to help out but I'm still a bit puzzled by what to actually take pictures of things of to with music, would something like my electric guitar (which I need to learn how to play soon when I get the time and sixth form ends for the summer holidays) in some nice background work?
Any help is appreciated Fraser, thanks.
[The idea is that I'd like to see the homemade stuff you've all created in tribute to your favourite musical people. The stuff I had in mind was homemade T-shirts and stuff, but If your electric guitar has a picture you've drawn on it, then I'd love to see it. - Fraser]
Mechanical Romans and Slow But Droll kick it.
Your walls sound v cool, Kerri :)
Ahem...
Banning Streaked Creatures - actually, the band has obviously thought of this one already: it's given them their album title...'Send Away The Tigers.'
(Sorry, I don't know how to stop them now!!!)
hello! im back :D but i have really bad flu :( anyway, i think theyd qualify, my wall is plastered in random pics and posters, gig tickets etc, and some of the confetti from the mcr gig :P
Rachel, you're on fire!!
Sucks about the flu, Kerri.. hope you feel better soon! When is it you leave again? Def think your walls should count.. after all, just because they can't sell bedroom walls at gigs due to their inconvenient size doesn't mean that they wouldn't if they could :P
Good point Kat - I'm sure they'd try and peddle bedroom walls if they could think of a way...maybe you could order a wall at the gig - ready designed, no creativity required - and have it delivered and installed in your home later. I can just see the parents' faces if it happened! :-)
We'll see yer walls though, please Kerri (and get well soon)...
hmm, i wrote a comment but it isnt yet here, ohwell ill say it AGAIN, or roughly it anyway.... thanks kat and rachel, im feeling much better today but im dissappointed as i was meant to see elliot minor at birmingham carling academy tonight but i had to cancel :( ... i leave 1 week today, well, in exactly a week ill be in a plane somewhere over europe probs, i wonder if fraser has remembered my request about teenagers :S i hope he has :) ... and also i have sent in some pics of my walls but my room is small and my bunk bed takes up the whole thing so i couldnt take them from very good angles :S
Haha Kerri's walls sound great......I've stuck posters and cut-outs from magazines all over my wardrobe, my bedroom door and the big bit of wall next to my desk so I can drool over Pete Wentz, Gerard Way etc while I'm doing algebra for school or a history essay. But I haven't got any homework for the holidays, so yay! But I can't send in a picture of my wardrobe cos of this damn laptop and my camera. I do have an annoying habit of creating little pics on paint with song lyrics and pictures I find on google though....it annoys everyone cos I sit there doing them in IT and my teacher would be a bit annoyed if he found out. Ha. I done quite a nice Elliot Minor one just the other day that I was proud of....anyway...bye! Lolz.....
xxxxxx
P.S: These blogs rock. They make me laugh ;)
gerard, yes, drool all you want, but wentzy.. what an idiot! not you, him. i really dont like that man.
oh and fraser, it annoyed me that i didnt know about the black parade album artwork so i found out.. greard didnt do the illustrations or design but he was one of 3 people that did the art direction for the album :D
I know. I do usually hate him, but this picture of him is really hot. I do think he's an ego-tistic, limelight-hogging poser.....I just like the pic! I made another one of those pics yesterday cos i was so bored....I can't remember what band it was, I think it was Paramore.....anyway, gotta go for the minute cos Teenagers is playing on the Hits :0