capitalism - Mike's Site

Everything's all Fugazi, but not the right Fugazi

Great news for all the skaters and punks out there, Vans shoes is entering into a collaboration with Fugazi! Sounds a little strange to be saying that about 4 guys for whom "they're not that into merch" would be selling it extremely short. That's because it's the wrong Fugazi.

Imagine, 10-15ish years after the legendary group stopped recording and performing, naming your fashion brand that, and imagining that other people don't know what you're trying to do.

Now imagine being Vans, and spending decades cashing in on some form of street/punk cred to sell shoes, and not knowing exactly what you're doing. It's actually one of the few cases like this where suing someone would probably make sense. But I don't think Ian Mackaye and Dischord are the litigious types.

I knew I hated this game

From the Public Domain Review's top articles of 2023, here's the story of The Landlord's Game, which you may know as the family-destroying force of simultaneous acrimony and boredom called Monopoly. Turns out, as you might guess from how brutal the game actually is, that it was not initially pro-monopoly. In fact, it was anti-land-ownership, the product of an economic philosophy called Georgism that posited one can't actually own land. There were even two sets of rules originally: one based on equity and wealth redistribution, the other on... you know. It was also invented by a woman, and though she patented it, somehow it was yoinked by a guy who sold a version (with only the second ruleset) to Parker Brothers.

Truth will out, I suppose, but it's pretty sad that Lizzie Magie never got her due. I guess "Go" was catchier than the Marxy "Labor Upon Mother Earth Produces Wages."

#capitalism

Everything's all Fugazi, but not the right Fugazi

I knew I hated this game