You always gotta have a good mix of spooky tunes for the Halloween season; and sometimes it’s hard to find songs that aren’t super cheese or don’t have the theme song from the movie Halloween playing incessantly with a techno beat behind it. So the b.Monk brings you a mix of some of our favorites. Enjoy.

1) Gnarls Barkley: The Boogie Monster
2) Halloween Music: Monster Mash
3) Screamin’ Jay Hawkins: I Hear Voices
4) The Cramps: I Was A Teenage Werewolf
5) Tom Waits: Temptation
6) Michael Jackson: Thriller
7) Talking Heads: Psycho Killer
The Black Keys: Howlin’ For You
9) Donovan: Season Of The Witch
10) Snoop Dogg: Murder Was The Case
11) Howlin’ Wolf: Evil
12) Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs: Lil’ Red Riding Hood
13) Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Heads Will Roll
14) Warren Zevon: Werewolves of London
15) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Red Right Hand
16) the Unicorns: Tuff Ghost
17) David Bowie: Scary Monsters
18) The Misfits: London Dungeon
19) Screamin’ Jay Hawkins: I Put A Spell On You
20) Tom Waits: Mr. Siegal
21) Cat Power: Werewolf

Nyle’s “Let the beat build” was nominated for a best music video on vimeo.

Wiz Khalifa relased this video about 3 days ago.

What’s crazy is that all these usually work, and truly create a sense of authenticity regardless if it was thought and created by a massive conglomerate. But it is obvious that a large part of the population is now drawn to simple and trustworthy branding, technically not a bad trend to take place as it will only continue into mass production of sustainable and earth friendly packaging(we hope).

Maybe the most intriguing thought is the re-thinking of labels and packaging, with ingredients displayed on the front panel to truly create a sense of transparency and trust. Or the idea that the same product will be made with many different executions and slightly different labels to create a sense that what you buy is truly unique and not massed produced.

Either way, it’s incredible the effect that packaging can have on people…and we hope the trend leads to companies producing a better and healthier product.

B. Monk

http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2010/9/1/when-you-say-authentic-what-do-you-really-mean.html

How does a jewel thief know whether a string of pearls is worth stealing?

Answer:     “There may be more ways than one, but the great Arthur Barry, a big time thief in the twenties who averaged half a million dollars in theft per year, had a unique and quick technique. In the Plaza Hotel robbery of 1925, Barry made off with $750,000 in jewels belonging to Mrs. James P. Donahue, daughter of F. W. Woolworth. Not only was the theft executed in broad daylight, but Barry stealthily removed the jewels from a dressing table while Mrs. Donahue sat in the bathtub a few feet away. Among the objects stolen was a rope of pearls valued at $450,000. But the drawer containing the pearls had not one rope but five – four were imitation that the police captain later called “good enough to fool an oyster.” Was Barry’s choice pure luck? Not at all – he rubbed the pearls gently across his teeth. Fake are smooth and slippery, he later said, but real pearls give a slightly rough, grating sensation.”

….Good to know.

-B. Monk

Arthur Barry - One smooth fellow

A city like San Francisco is great because the people love being hip but the majority are not willing to stand in a long fucking line to get into a bar. And we agree that pre-fabicated “cool” is quite the opposite but it seems like that has scared entrepreneurs and developers away from the idea of creating interesting hotels.  But here at B. Monk, we think that’s bullshit! There is so much opportunity to create both a hip hotel yet offer the down -to-earth cool that San Franciscans and informed tourists seek. Take Northbeach for example…you must be kidding that there’s no sick hotels! The place is a goldmine for vintage exteriors filled with dark whiskey rooms and subdued entrances. Imagine a 25-room hotel, with wooden floors serving sight-glass coffee all day, tartine bakery morning buns for breakfast, and a dining room similiar to a beer garden. Check it out at night, when you enter the side entrance and go downstairs to sip some Buffalo Trace while listening to local musicians and poetry readings are jamming out.  Starting to see it? Cuz we are…we just hope some developers do too…

B. Monk

Last Friday (6/18) we stopped by La Lola in nob hill for dinner. Food was salty but the Sangria was not bad, your typical tapas joint but tucked in a residential neighborhood. We called it an early night so we could wake up and surf. Saturday morning we headed to Rockaway beach in Pacifica right in front of The Seabreeze Hotel. Weather wasn’t bad and some ride-able sets came through. We were back in the city by 12:30 and headed to the North Beach Festival, which included a stop a Don Pistos for some cold pacificos. That evening we rode our bikes (not fixies) down to the mission and ate at The Corner. Medium prices, small plates to share with a few choices for main entrees. After dinner we grabbed coffees and listened to a klezmer style band at Revolution Cafe, scene rocks there. We also dig the parklet that was furnished by the City Gov and Rebar Group. Finished the night at Homestead for some laphroaig and balvenie. Sunday morning, gathered supplies for breakfast at our corner market, Le Beau then rode down to valencia and 24th where the street was blocked off from cars for Street Sundays. We rode around in awesome weather and people watched for a while, not without stopping in a badass antique store called Viracocha that seconds as a venue for underground music and perfmormances. Overall legit weekend…Yupster #2 soon to follow.

Cheers,

B. Monk

Walk down any street near Union Square or actually almost anywhere in San Francisco for that matter and you will undoubtedly be approached or pass by a homeless person asking for money. What the hell does this have to do with advertising you may ask yourself? Well, just think of the feeling you get while passing by. Are you scared? Disgusted? Annoyed? Indifferent? Maybe you’re intrigued? or Sympathetic?

Then think of the last time you actually gave a vagabond some money. What was it that made you donate? Did you feel guilty? Did you just have some extra change in your pocket you didn’t care about? Or did you actually want to help this person? People go through these exact feeling and emotions when reacting to advertisements. And by paying attention to the street, one can see the most effective approaches. Consider your common examples:

The classic newspaper approach: where a homeless person is selling a daily newspaper for $1. Some of these papers are actually programs to help the homeless but it is taken advantage of.  Now it is trendy for the homeless to trade a daily for a donation, because at one point it was effective selling, making the passerby feel more comfortable that there was an exchange as opposed to straight donation. But now it no longer is as effective because copy cats sell outdated and used daily’s.

How about the “Let’s be honest, I just need a beer” campaign. At one point this made headlines and those homeless ahead of the trend were racking up change from laughing passer-byers. Now you’d just roll your eyes if you saw it and is no longer in vogue, especially with the economic climate making those less eager to split with their change especially for a homeless person who is just going to buy a 40oz.

There is also the classic mugging or intimidation approach, which is very risky and even if you did get my money, I’d never walk down that street again, making that approach a very unsustainable business model.

Lastly, there are the homeless who provide some entertainment or fun. Music is a key selling point, where you can see a guy playing a banjo or harmonica, or a women playing the violin with broken strings with her dog in the background. This tends to be successful, as it is not aggressive and in some ways benefits the passer-byers. Or maybe the guy who has a million different jokes to tell, or the guy who still wishes you a wonderful day regardless if you gave change or not. Next time you pass that dude, if you have some change you might drop it in his cup.

It is really the original approaches that are the most successful. All these examples mentioned above were started by some pioneering homeless folks. They, at some point were very effective, yet now have lost steam.   The same goes for advertising. At one point you could just push your product out there and receive a reaction. At one point the witty jingle was cool, then everybody did it and its value disappeared. Email promotions and online banners could intrigue people, now a 0.5% click through rate is considered good! That means if I sent a 1,000 emails, if 5 people opened my email I should be stoked! Online video is big now, all kinds of different social media promotions are being used. But now the biggest trend is just giving people what they need or want and trying to connect that emotion to the brand. LG’s washer and dryer store in Manhattan is using their showroom as a free laundromat for those in the neighborhood. Nokia is providing quiet phone spaces throughout noisy city areas free of charge and Nike lets you go on free tests runs with their shoes! Or Shea Homes, who offers free homebuying consultation. The tie in here is that a purchase is not directly connected to the advertiser but instead more of a friendly service. By creating good will and a truly good-natured customer support system, the hope is that when that consumer is in need of a specific purchase they’ll think of your brand.

The homeless are very attentive to what is receiving the best ROI. On my corner in Union Square, there is a performer in all silver who stands like a statue, completely still for hours on end. Tourists love it and donate a lot of money to this guy. A few weeks later we now see a homeless person on a peach crate standing still ( not really) trying to copy that same entertainment (not so successful).

What will you do that stands out? If you need some help take a walk down the street…

This article is not meant to be callous to the homeless. The Bearded Monk advocates helping these folks out through charity and other organizations, and truly the best ROI for the homeless is through foundations such as glide.org.

Check out this compelling ad for the Lazarus Effect,  a 30 minute documentary directed by Lance Bangs and executive produced by Spike Jonze. The film follows four people who were deathly ill and brought back to life thanks to access to treatment.  The trailer can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/joinred#p/u/4/QqacszjHocM

Chris Malloy who gained fame as a professional surfer is now drawing a lot of buzz about his movie directing as well. His latest documentary in particular ’180° South: Conquerors of the Useless’ which retraces the 1968 journey through Patagonia of living legend Yvon Chouinard. Not only does the movie look visually amazing and raw, the soundtrack is just as good to match. Isaac Brock, lead singer of Modest Mouse, has picked up his side group Ugly Casanova again to do 9 of the 12 tracks for the documentary’s soundtrack. Jack Johnson and Mason Jennings also have songs on the album to boot. On top of that they have been touring around the United States premiering the movie in such cities as San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Diego with a couple premieres featuring Brock and Ugly Casanova performing live on stage. This documentary has cool written all over it and we are beyond excited to buy the soundtrack and watch the movie. Yvon Chouinard may be the most inspirational trail blazer and environmentalist of our time, anything he is involved in seems to be for a good cause and we fully support it.