Okay, so was I asleep the day Quality Control left the fucking building or something? I am just recovering from food poisoning for the 2nd time this month (that’s an entirely different post of complaints and explanations I’ll save for another day), but this is inexcusable, and certainly not helpful to my recovery. Before anyone asks, no, this is not the work of Colorcubic, thank God. So now you might be saying to yourself “then who cares?” Well, I do. Unfortunately I can’t tell you who kicked these… designs out (if I can call them designs at all), because I just don’t know. What I can tell you though is that these are for the ELECTRONIC MUSIC SENSATION OF THE CENTURY… YACHT! Yes, that’s right, YACHT. You know, the guy who wears a handkerchief over his face, carries a sword, and looks all hipster while ready to pounce. No? You don’t know him? Oooh baby! Rolling On The Floor, Laughing!!!!!!!! Laugh Out Loud, blah blah blah!!!!!!

Let me quickly move to explain our (being Colorcubic’s) position on this matter. We, (Christy and I) aren’t just passionate about the work we do, but the concept of design in all facets, by all people. Call it Aesthetic Bliss™ if you will, but whatever you call it, we’re defending it, and it’s a shame that the people who would call themselves the designers of this MARVELOUS work would allow something like this to hit any printer. I apologize if what I say next comes off as being somewhat “fascist?”, or tyranical, (yeah right, far from it), but one has got to take a stand somewhere.

For example, I like taking a fishing pole out to a lake on a yacht (no pun intended) and attempting to fish occasionally when the weather is good. I’m absolutely horrible at it. The worst ever, and because of that I’m not about to call myself a fisherman. Just because I have a fishing pole DON’T MAKE IT RIGH’!.

Real fisherman go out to sea on rickety ass cold boats for months on end, catch large amounts of beautiful, mouth watering fish (you know, the same fish that we all love for sushi), bring it back to port, and sell it off at great rates after they have risked their lives, and that winds up on someones table as food. Now, wouldn’t it be a real slap in the face if someone just came along and said, “hey… hey, I’m a fisherman. Yeah, yeah buddy. I’m a fisherman, I fish all the time. Wanna buy some fish?”, and they then proceed to open some gnarled burlap bag full of some of the worst specimen that couldn’t possibly be mistaken for fish, but before the atrocity could be prevented, some poor, uneducated fool buys into it, and then proceeds to convince all of his other cronies / lackeys / friends to buy this shit peddling rank sea bass. I don’t know about you, but I would feel obligated to step in and say, “take your 2 bit scam and beat it!” At that very moment, Michael Jackson would magically appear, and moonwalk all over that hustl’n ass. Hustle n flow baby, hustle n flow!

This scenario is exactly that, RANK SEA BASS trying to be passed off as my next roll of hamachi nagiri sushi. Sorry mutha fucka, but I ain’t buyin’ it, much less swallowin’ it. And Sorry to all you “die hard YACHT fans” out there, but this (in an ideal world… or my world of QA and perfectionism) wouldn’t peddle peanuts for poop, let alone exchange hands with an overzealous buyer. Unfortunately, nowadays, people have forgotten the measure of quality to shit (apparently). People are actually buying these five second run off to the screen printer, got no raisins in my brain-case, looks just like crappy, wannabe, rip you off and skimp yo momma Urban bullshit Outfitters t-shirts. Am I mistaken, and is shit suddenly the new gold? I’m sorry people, but this is wrong, stealing is wrong, and if you’re buying this, you’ve been robbed and left with what’s left at the bottom of some nasty barrel.

On a side note I must say, I’m especially moved by the “fucking positive” shirt. Great man, thanks, brilliant, a completely original slice of freshly baked pound cake. Seriously? Do FAUX witty catch phrases actually do anything for anyone anymore except make people angry? Maybe just me?

Here Yacht, how about printing this on a t-shirt instead, “With music to match, Yacht to trot. Just say no to faux!”

This is, of course, just my subjective opinion.

Enjoy

- m / Colorcubic™

Last year, I became fascinated with the Grameen Bank, an organization founded by Muhammad Yunus that provides microcredit to the poor to fund small businesses to pull their families out of poverty. Since Grameen’s inception, microloans have been provided to more than 7 million borrowers all over the world (97 percent of whom are women), all without collateral, based purely on mutual trust.

I was having a conversation about microcredit with an accountant friend a couple weeks ago and she said something about how they must have a low rate of repayment since they are giving out loans to the poor. Amazingly enough, they have a loan-repayment rate of over 95 percent (according to the Grameen web site)! The poor have a better track record of repayment than the wealthy because they have so much more to lose if they don’t repay. Of course, nothing is ever perfect, and Grameen occasionally encounters periods of repayment difficulties but continually proves to rebound from such delinquencies.

RESOURCES

Yunus’ 1997 autobiography Banker to the Poor is a great resource if you’d like to learn more about Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen Bank and microcredit. Yunus also recently wrote a new book called “Creating a World Without Poverty” which I’m looking forward to reading.

Another amazing microcredit organization is called Kiva. Kiva allows you to lend to entrepreneuers featured on the Kiva site, as little as $25 at a time. Once your Kiva loan is repaid, you can choose to withdraw your funds, or give it to a new entrepreneur.

United Colors of Benetton just launched their own microcredit organization called Africa Works. You can find a special collection of Africa Works t-shirts designed for the campaign in select Benetton stores.

- c / Colorcubic™