For Christian “Dicky” Davies, Burning Man, isn’t exactly his cup of tea. The annual, “hippy fest,” in Nevada has the reserved 27-year-old feeling like he is not really part of the group. And when he is…it’s a little fake.

“Dicky doesn’t like to dance to electronica. Dicky doesn’t like glo-sticks or pink cowboy hats. Dicky doesn’t trust touchie-feelie strangers who want to be his best friend,” says Meredith May in a San Francisco Chronicle article.

But Dicky doesn’t want to call it quits just yet. So he created a plan. His roommate built him “Dicky Box,” a see-through room decorated with white Ikea furniture, complete with a mail slot for accepting food, notes and presents from anybody who is willing to give them up.

“Inside Dickey Box, Dicky can do things he likes to do: write in his journal, observe and contemplate. He can be his reserved self while still enjoying the art spectacle that is Burning Man, without getting called the worst slur possible on the playa: “spectator,” says May.

He anticipates staying inside his box for the entire weeklong event.

“The idea of letting go and immersing myself in the community is uncomfortable for me,” he told the Chronicle. “I’m more standoffish. In a lot of ways the box is pretty great manifestation of how I feel about Burning Man. I guess the irony is that I’m in smack middle of everything.”

I think it’s just about time for Dicky to –get a life.

CHECK OUT THE ARTICLE HERE, IT’S SoOoOoO FUNNY!

Uh, is it me or is R. Kelly completely insane? Yes, the man is facing charges of child pornography, but his five-part song, “Trapped in the Closet,” is proof of an unraveling mind. The song is just plain crazy, with R. Kelly acting and singing out all the parts (both male and female) in this five-song soap opera.

Or perhaps it’s the mark of some post-modern genius?

- Jean Chen

Advertisers know that us Generation X-Y-Z folks are way too smart to fall for celebrity endorsements or catchy jingles. Let us play with a subservient chicken or a cheerful digital stripper, though, and we’re all yours!

For the un-infected, viral advertising refers to sneaky word-of-mouth marketing that unleashes a catchy website or video on the unsuspecting online public, and lets it spread through word of mouth. That bizzare-o website featuring a man in tacky chicken suit obeying your every typed command? Burger King ad. That pseudo-comedic video clip of a cat being decapitated by a car sunroof? (Ill-advisedly) a Ford ad.

Here’s the latest article on viral promotion, spurred by a Gap website that lets you dress up–and then dress down–exhibitionist little Sim-like characters.

San Francisco Chronicle: A Different Way of Selling Clothes

My favorite viral marketing site is undoubtedly the Subservient Chicken. Sure, I know it’s a vain attempt on Burger King’s part to make me choke down their emetic burgers. But damn it, I love asking Subervient Chicken to Go-Go Dance! Get down!

Sitting in DC on a Friday afternoon in August, kinda missing my village idiot, wondering if the carnage will stop…

(image snatched from Michael Moore’s site, I believe, on election day 2004: a composite of fallen soldiers to that date– R.I.P.)

I don’t know what’s worse:

1. Fox News wrongly identifying a couple’s home as belonging to Islamic radicals or

2. That someone graffitied their house and misspelled “terrorist.”

“A couple whose home was wrongly identified on national television as belonging to an Islamic radical has faced harassment, and police are providing special protection.

After the report ran on Fox News on Aug. 7, people have shouted profanities at Randy and Ronnell Vorick and spray-painted “terrorist” (spelling it “terrist”) on their property.”

Click here for the article

- Jean Chen