Ice Cube Celebrates The Eames (and L.A. In General)

[JSngry]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRWatw_ZEQI&feature=player_embedded#!

[Adam]

The organization I run is doing one of the exhibitions in Pacific Standard Time - a screening series:

http://www.alternativeprojections.com/screening-series/

[Big Beat Steve]

Uh oh ... do I now have to feel like a rapper when I relax in my lounge chair (+ ottoman) after a day's chores?

Can't say I really associate Mid-Century Modern or California Cool with anything even remotely resembling ghetto beats and senselessly worn baseball caps.

Oh well, if he feels like branching out into new areas of (hip?) awareness ... to each his own ...

But pointless to those who've been aware of the Eames' before he even was on the scene, even if it was only mere average mortals who were aware ...

Edited January 17, 2012 by Big Beat Steve

[JSngry]

Uh oh ... do I now have to feel like a rapper when I relax in my lounge chair (+ ottoman) after a day's chores?

Only if you're able.

[Rooster_Ties]

[Noj]

[JSngry]

Somewhere in there, there's this:

[Leeway]

Ice Cube still tries to evince that "thug life" aura in his tour of the Eames, but he's not fooling anyone. Like Queen Latifah, Snoop Dogg, Ice T, and other rappers "straight out of Compton,' they've gone mainstream. Hell, they've gone 1% with the millions they've earned. A bit sad to see angry young men and women, who once made powerful statements on racism and oppression through their art, get co-opted into the mainstream, even if everyone gets taken care of. The American Way I suppose. Go on, Ice Cube, rap that Eames.

[JSngry]

I'm not sure that "angry young man" and/or "hip hop nation" and/or all the other "rap stereotypes" perpetrated by marketeers, marketeed, friends, and foes of the whole thing precludes an ability of those involved to grasp, study, and appreciate things beyond the realm of "thug life" and/or "rage at social injustice".

Or even the study of drafting.

Ice Cube still tries to evince that "thug life" aura in his tour of the Eames, but he's not fooling anyone.

I did not take it at all to be "thug life", attempted or otherwise. That's pretty much mainstream conversational style these days, for a lot of people in a lot of places.

[Leeway]

Sorry, I don't buy it. Ice Cube's trying to present the persona of someone who still has one foot in the 'hood. The swagger, the dark glasses, the leather jacket, the convertible (right out of one of those old rap videos). Even if he is toting up the virtues of designer homes and $3,500 chairs. None of which one is likely to encounter in Compton. More likely at one of Romney's homes. Or Ice Cube's own home. He's made enough certainly. I'm just recalling the fact that at one time, Ice Cube and friends seemed to care about real issues more than about designer chairs and other emblems of 1% life. I guess money can do that to you; just don't pretend it's otherwise.

[Adam]

None of you need to "buy" it. It's about raising PR for Pacific Standard Time, with younger folks saluting artists in different ways.

I have issues with the campaign (such as the lack of women so far, except for Ray Eames), but the "authenticity" of Ice Cube's street persona isn't one of them. He even says that he studied drafting in the ad, which doesn't buy street cred.

It's about raising awareness among people who don't already know the Eames.

Since you all are watching it and discussing, it's worked.

[JSngry]

Sorry, I don't buy it. Ice Cube's trying to present the persona of someone who still has one foot in the 'hood. The swagger, the dark glasses, the leather jacket, the convertible (right out of one of those old rap videos). Even if he is toting up the virtues of designer homes and $3,500 chairs. None of which one is likely to encounter in Compton. More likely at one of Romney's homes. Or Ice Cube's own home. He's made enough certainly. I'm just recalling the fact that at one time, Ice Cube and friends seemed to care about real issues more than about designer chairs and other emblems of 1% life. I guess money can do that to you; just don't pretend it's otherwise.

If it all seems mainstream, it's because it is mainstream now.

Hippies changed the world, but they got rich. Hip-hoppers/Rappers changed the world, and they got rich too.

People get rich, and sometimes even maintain their integrity and personality after doing so. Look at Dizzy Dean!

If you'd rather that all angry righteous rappers stay poor (or if they start out middle class, get poor) so they can "legitimately" always be angry and righteous, uh...I don't think that's a good thing to want, myself.

[Leeway]

Ice Cube's persona, its authenticity or lack of same, is at stake since he put himself into this context. The promo in fact exploits the issue of Ice Cube's persona.

On the one hand, you get to condemn discussion of this, but then you congratulate yourself on the efficacy of the promo spot because it provokes discussion. A lot of insincere there.

[Leeway]

Sorry, I don't buy it. Ice Cube's trying to present the persona of someone who still has one foot in the 'hood. The swagger, the dark glasses, the leather jacket, the convertible (right out of one of those old rap videos). Even if he is toting up the virtues of designer homes and $3,500 chairs. None of which one is likely to encounter in Compton. More likely at one of Romney's homes. Or Ice Cube's own home. He's made enough certainly. I'm just recalling the fact that at one time, Ice Cube and friends seemed to care about real issues more than about designer chairs and other emblems of 1% life. I guess money can do that to you; just don't pretend it's otherwise.

If it all seems mainstream, it's because it is mainstream now.

Hippies changed the world, but they got rich. Hip-hoppers/Rappers changed the world, and they got rich too.

People get rich, and sometimes even maintain their integrity and personality after doing so. Look at Dizzy Dean!

If you'd rather that all angry righteous rappers stay poor (or if they start out middle class, get poor) so they can "legitimately" always be angry and righteous, uh...I don't think that's a good thing to want, myself.

It's not mainstream. If it was there wouldn't be either an Occupy or Tea Party movement. They don't need to stay poor. As you say, they can get rich and "sometimes even maintain their integrity." I'm saying that I don't see that here Thats exactly my argument. Glorifying objects of the 1% class---that's maintaining integrity? Touting Eames and his overhyped, overpriced status symbols; is that keeping faith with the people of Compton (literal and metaphorical)? I truly don't think so.

[JSngry]

It's not mainstream. If it was there wouldn't be either an Occupy or Tea Party movement. They don't need to stay poor. As you say, they can get rich and "sometimes even maintain their integrity." I'm saying that I don't see that here Thats exactly my argument. Glorifying objects of the 1% class---that's maintaining integrity? Touting Eames and his overhyped, overpriced status symbols; is that keeping faith with the people of Compton (literal and metaphorical)? I truly don't think so.

Dude, I just see a guy who digs architecture (and L.A. in general, the Watts Towers were in there ans some shit I ain't never heard of, like that motel-looking thing, was it really a motel?) talking about it with enthusiasm.

More than that, I don't think it's anything to get all 99%-ish about, unless it's strictly 1%-ish to dig (or even have) architecture and such. And I really don't think it is.

Shit, just let people be people, and let the lines cross where they cross, especially since most of them got no business being there in the first place.

[Noj]

FWIW, it's long been exposed that the only actual gangster in NWA was the late Eazy-E. Dr. Dre was a disco musician from the early 80s and Ice Cube just had the talent for rhyming, and wrote the lyrics for Dre and Eazy. So Cube and Dre are/were invented personas anyway.

Even back then, Cube's lyrics would be fairly poignant in one song (believe it or not), then be totally racist or misogynist or ignorant the next. That's fairly common in all of rap, especially the ones who try to convey a political message.

[.:.impossible]

Speaking of Eames: I see middle class white kids in high school here in eastern north carolina wearing satin raiders jackets. Last week I met a kid dressed in perfect detail as Mars Blackmon. This was any other day. I'm pretty sure their parents have no idea who Herman Miller is. Wait, the aeron chair, now available in true black?

[Adam]

Ice Cube's persona, its authenticity or lack of same, is at stake since he put himself into this context. The promo in fact exploits the issue of Ice Cube's persona.

On the one hand, you get to condemn discussion of this, but then you congratulate yourself on the efficacy of the promo spot because it provokes discussion. A lot of insincere there.

No, i'm sincere. not congratulating myself.

But I accept that I might not be consistent.

[medjuck]

It's not mainstream. If it was there wouldn't be either an Occupy or Tea Party movement. They don't need to stay poor. As you say, they can get rich and "sometimes even maintain their integrity." I'm saying that I don't see that here Thats exactly my argument. Glorifying objects of the 1% class---that's maintaining integrity? Touting Eames and his overhyped, overpriced status symbols; is that keeping faith with the people of Compton (literal and metaphorical)? I truly don't think so.

Actually the Eames House was made of off the shelf materials and could be reproduced pretty cheaply. The Eames easy chair (or whatever it's called) is expensive and a lovely luxury if you can afford it, but most of their molded plywood chairs are so cheap they're in every high school. (I always hated them.)

I have issues with the campaign (such as the lack of women so far, except for Ray Eames),

Judy Chicago has been mentioned a lot. (I always presumed she did most of her work in Chicago. Didn't know she's ever been in LA.)

Edited January 18, 2012 by medjuck

[Adam]

It's not mainstream. If it was there wouldn't be either an Occupy or Tea Party movement. They don't need to stay poor. As you say, they can get rich and "sometimes even maintain their integrity." I'm saying that I don't see that here Thats exactly my argument. Glorifying objects of the 1% class---that's maintaining integrity? Touting Eames and his overhyped, overpriced status symbols; is that keeping faith with the people of Compton (literal and metaphorical)? I truly don't think so.

Actually the Eames House was made of off the shelf materials and could be reproduced pretty cheaply. The Eames easy chair (or whatever it's called) is expensive and a lovely luxury if you can afford it, but most of their molded plywood chairs are so cheap they're in every high school. (I always hated them.)

I have issues with the campaign (such as the lack of women so far, except for Ray Eames),

Judy Chicago has been mentioned a lot. (I always presumed she did most of her work in Chicago. Didn't know she's ever been in LA.)

She's in a lot of shows. I meant as a main character in one of the ads. Those have been Anthony Kiedis with Ed Ruscha, Jason Schwartzman with John Baldassari; and Ice Cube with the Eames. One woman in that group, and no Latinos, for a city that is 50% Latino.

Those have been choices of Chiat Day.

[Big Beat Steve]

Isn't the point rather this?

Do the Eames and their products need endorsement by rap figures?

Those who are really into that kind of Mid-Century Modern architecture and other everyday art (and style) objects of that era will be able to appreciate it anyway (and there are LOTS of ways to get into it).

But people picking up on those objects or styles just because their rap "heros" endorse them all of a sudden? What kind of appreciation is this that cannot stand on its own and/or on the attraction of the products as such? Marketing ploys - O.K., I can see that. But is there any need to be impressed by it?

BTW, it's not necessarily about 1% vs 99% at all (you sure can ride an "argument" to death there ...) unless you are dead set to buy new all the time. Far from it. My own Lounge Chair, for example, has been in the family since 1967 (and the money it cost then wasn't spent easily either but was saved up because my uncle just wanted THAT piece of furniture). And while having most of its leather and cushions refurbished the other day cost me a bundle I still consider it far better lasting value for money than what any run of the mill no-name piece of furniture would cost in any furniture store just to depreciate more each day and be thrown away 8 or 10 years later (if not earlier). So who's buying thriftily in the long run?

And again, quality doesn't need cheap promo arguments to attract people who are REALLY interested.

[Leeway]

The Google ad at the bottom of my Board page is for Herman Miller chairs. See what you got me into!

[JSngry]

See what you got me into!

A comfortable chair at a price you can afford, I hope!

[Leeway]

See what you got me into!

A comfortable chair at a price you can afford, I hope!

Yes on the former, no on the latter We can't all be Ice Cube, or even Ice T you know.

[JSngry]

So long as nobody's Vanilla Ice, it's all good.