Monday, February 25, 2013

this thing

my friend sent this to me the other day from the internet. 
included was his comment "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"
i am happy that this makes people happy. i am happy that it is a real life meme, like someone printed it out and taped it to a wall. who takes the time to do that? i think that is cool. i wonder if it will appear on a t-shirt in a couple months at a kiosk in my local shopping mall, next to the "u mad bro?" and "YOLO" designs. that would be amazing. i am using this as an exercise in letting go. letting go of the ownership of something that i made and then sent into the world. i don't need to have every tumblr or pinterest post link back to my website. i don't need to be recognized for this ridiculous achievement of making something up that some other people thought was funny for five minutes. i mean, there is a part of me that does need those things, but that is the part i am trying to silence. because it doesn't really matter. it is harmless. and in fact it is better than harmless, it is good weird energy being put into the universe. this is actually incredible to think about. please please let this turn up on an episode of "three and a half men" and spoken by ashton kucher during a very special episode where he adopts a stray puppy. 

i guess the only thing i am confused about is: why didn't you use the duck?
(see original below)

(original image totally copyrighted by nathaniel russell now we are bros so he's staying industry international LLC)
are you into this? why not get the zine and support a wonderful real shop and publisher on a real street in san francisco, california?

UPDATE:
also these




3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for writing this - and for rationalising it the way you did.
I get really bummed about this kinda thing. And I think the main reason is that for every piece that works, there's all that time spent making things that don't really work, and that's sacrificed beach-time, or playing-with-the-dog-time, or family-and-mates-time. So I feel like when someone rips you off, they skip over sacrificing all that time, and they're getting an idea for cheap that you paid dearly for.
But then I guess you're right, we're sending all this stuff out there and shit, at least someone likes it.

nathaniel russell said...

thanks, rachel. don't get me wrong, if somebody was trying to sell something or applying it to a marketing strategy of some sort... i would be pissed. but basically this person is keeping the spirit alive in some way. still, it's weird! but in a good way, i think.

TN said...

they should have kept the duck in there though no doubt