Mark McClellan

Obamaganda

This is something I have been meaning to post for a while now but have been reluctant to do so given the ugliness that Election 2008 has brought out of the American people. At this point, I am sure that come November 4th, Senator Barack Obama will become President-elect Obama and while I am not really happy about this, I can honestly say that I hope his presidency does not live up to the pessimistic predictions I have for it in my head.

That said, I wanted to put up some side-by-side comparisons of Obama’s campaign artwork and some classic communist propaganda posters. Obama can laugh off the notion that his policies amount to socialism and I do not care to argue that here. I am posting this to critique something that I do know a little about which is art, style, and particularly design. In my mind, there is no question that Obama is using a style similar to the communists of yesteryear, a style I have dubbed “Obamaganda.” The real question that absolutely fascinates me is why Obama, being a left-of-center politician running for the highest political position in a nation that has had such a major anti-socialist/communist past would be comfortable using this Obamaganda style.

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Italian Spiderman

I just watched a rerun of The Office where Michael Scott confessed that when he discovered YouTube he did not work for five days straight. I can relate. Not that I have ever slacked for that long but YouTube has some content that is so awesomely bad that it makes me want to cancel my cable subscription and hook the computer up to my TV.

Before anyone castigates me as a racist for laughing at ethnic stereotypes, I believe my German mother had an Italian Grandmother or Great-Grandmother so I am pretty much some fraction Italian, therefore I have the right to laugh at my own race. Please enjoy Italian Spiderman.

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Rancid / Campbell Video

I found this beautiful little YouTube video from someone on Facebook and loved the trip down memory lane. See, I grew up in San Jose, California and when people ask me what part, I’ll usually tell them something like “near Campbell” or “practically Campbell” and if they are at all familiar with the area, they know exactly where I mean. To set things straight, I’m no wannabe Campbellite, I am a San Jo thug til I die if you know what I’m saying. But it seems I couldn’t venture too far South or West from my house before ending up in Campbell. Heck, if you were to ask me where Taco Bravo, the Prune Yard, or where Andy Rockwood lived, I would have said San Jose. And I would have been wrong on all accounts.

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My First Vimeo

Some reading this might know that I have aspirations to be a filmmaker at least on some level so while this is my first publicly shared video vimeo, please don’t judge too harshly.  The intended audience is grandparents, aunts & uncles, etc.  Yes, there is a definite cheese factor here, but you have to admit.  He’s one cute baby and that is what brings the cheese out in me.  Or maybe it’s his natural mohawk.

WordPress iPhone App

Posting from my iPod Touch with my freshly downloaded WordPress iPhone app! It is hard to be verbose typing on this thing which just might be a good thing. I will still give it my best shot though. Funny how my typing gets faster and faster on this thing. Screw Blackberry, screw Treo, and screw Windows Mobile. Apple’s touch interface is teh r0xx0r!

Megaphone At UX Week

I am back in the office now awaiting the time when I am asked to recap my experience at UX Week.  Now I am gathering my thoughts and so far, they go something like this:

Mark’s Boss: So, did you see anything interesting at UX Week?
I saw Jury Hahn Dan Albritton from Megaphone do a sweet presentation.

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UX Week

I am sitting at SFO waiting to catch my plane back home after having spent the week out here in San Francisco attending UX Week.  Attending this conference has actually proven to be the perfect catalyst to jump start my blogging efforts after having laid dormant for so long.  Hopefully once the UX week material dries up I can keep the momentum going to post stuff.

Plane’s here. Time to make like a cow and get in line.

Another Attempt To Blog

When I scored the super-sweet domain of markmcclellan.com, I knew that someday it would replace my old outlet (www.amazingcube.com) as my much more refined, professional web presence. Rest assured, I will do my best to earn the respect of all other Mark McClellans out there (and there are quite a few, go search Facebook if you don’t believe me) including the uber Mark McClellan.