The great thing about Michael Jackson is that his songs transcended genres, generations and all other boundaries. From ABC to Thriller to Bad to Black and White, Michael produced wholly different types of music--and it was all awesome. Here's a remix we found to "Bad" by David Guetta. The video is great cause its a medley of Michael's moves. Enjoy.
Since news broke of Michael's passing I have been teary eyed and at a loss for words. I never got to see him in concert but watched him on TV whenever I got a chance. I did have the pleasure of videotaping his Madison Square Garden Concert, and watching it over and over again. I put my favorite video of his below, Smooth Criminal.
He loved his fans more than anything else in the world. That kind of mutual love--between an icon and his fans--is so rare. But now we are left to mourn alone.
He was planning a huge concert series in London. Turns out he was just practicing for his debut with God.
History repeats itself. Just usually its hundreds of years later, not 15 months later.
When Governor Spitzer resigned from office last March because of his lust for Prostitutes, Crooked Monkey produced the "I'm not a governor, i just like hoes t-shirt." It was a huge hit, but the moment was short-lived.
Well yesterday we were excited to hear that Governor Mark Sanford joined the ranks of Governors who love hoes. I'm not sure who went to greater lengths to secure a Crooked Monkey shoutout--Spitzer for spending tens of thousands of dollars, or Sanford for going A-wall for 5 days--but regardless they both earned it.
Ironically enough, yesterday monring, I decided to wear the Governor shirt, long before news broke of Governor Sanford's infidelities. After hearing the news, I was beside myself. A modern day prophet? That's for the history books to decide.
Heeb Magazine, the edgy New York based Jewish Magazine, interviewed me the other day--over Gchat. That's a first for me, and it was pretty interesting. I think I like phone or in person interviews more, but I'm happy with the end product.
With 5 comments, its the most commented post this week. That's good news--means we're interesting.
Go read the interview and learn a little more about our history, our roots and our t-shirts.
Holiday shipping is always a bit stressful. Like Santa, we need to deliver on time, every time. But unlike Santa, we don't have thousands of elves working for us--just caring and loving interns.
For Father's Day we're running a huge promotion--25% off any of our t-shirts when you use the promo code "Father." We've noticed some pretty questionable "Father's Day gifts"--namely random girls shirts and the I'm not a gardener i just like hoes shirts. I know those shirts aren't going to your dad, but we won't tell anyone. We're happy when you're happy.
Speaking of being happy when you're happy, I wanted to share some customer testimonials. Real people, just like you, who bought shirts and appreciated our prompt, pro active customer service.
Dave from California writes: "Hey guys, I'm wondering if there's any way I can buy just a few of your company stickers with the crooked monkey logo. You guys always threw in some freebies with my t-shirt orders, but this time I'm just looking for some more stickers if possible.
Dave in California"
We sent him a bunch of stickers and ping pong balls for free. We appreciated his suggestion of paying, but we're going to ship that stuff out for free.
Spencer from France writes: "So many choices! So, the story is that I'm in France and it's going to be my parents who are bringing it here (yes I'm trying to take crooked monkey global)....
If you think it'd arrive in time, I'll go with the Tips shirt, but if you're hesitant, I'm entirely happy with the polaroid shirt.
I leave the decision in your expert hands!"
We appreciated him calling us experts and are glad that he will be taking the shirts to France.
Craig from Connecticut writes: "Proactive customer support….I’m impressed."
Enough said.
So if you've got something nice to say, just email us. Thanks!
Hilary had to come into work late today because her house was toilet papered and Egged. To make things worse, it was pouring while she cleaned up the mess. As you can imagine, she wasn't very happy this morning. But we want to turn that frown upside down.
We're going to start a fund to purchase eggs and toilet paper so she can retaliate against the perpetrators. 10% of the sale of t-shirts for the next 2 hours will go to a special Intern fund! And our Father's Day coupon is still up (Promo code: "Father") so go help a good cause--Crooked Monkey Rules.
Let your dad re-live his glory days and get him a t-shirt from Crooked Monkey. We're running a site-wide 25% discount on all our funny t-shirts (including the graphic shirts). Just type in the promo code: "Father" at checkout and you'll get the 25% discount. Don't forget that if you buy two shirts you also get Free Shipping.
Some recommendations: Livin the Dream Shirt - This is an easy choice. Chillin on the couch, with a bud and a remote. No worries in the world. Tree TV Graphic Shirt - A Cool looking graphic shirt, your dad is sure to love it. That's How I Roll Shirt - I'm not sure if Dad's say "That's How I roll" but if your dad is cool enough to know this phrase, he needs this shirt. Retro Snapshot Graphic T-shirt - Chances are the polaroid has a special place in your dad's heart.
This week we go international with a band called "The Idan Raichel Project." Check out their myspace page at www.myspace.com/theidanraichelproject. They've got a great sound and they blend Israeli, Ethiopian and other worldly music sounds together.
This song in in Hebrew so I'll translate a bit of it for you--as its very beautiful. The song, titled Mimamakim, means "Out of the depths I called out to you."
Thats a picture of me and Idan Raichel--at an Israel bonds dinner--last week.
Crooked Monkey was the first business to ever use Facebook. We launched in the summer of 2005, just when Facebook was hitting the college scene in a big way. Back then, Facebook was much different. There was no tagging of pictures, no fan pages, and no global groups. You could only view profiles of other students who attended your school.
But somehow, even with all those restrictinos, we created 20 "Crooked Monkey Hotties" groups at campuses across the country. We had over 4,000 beautiful women, spread across the USA who were part of our group. I still meet people today who tell me that they are part of that elite group. What a legacy.
It wasn't easy to accumulate all those groups and hotties. We had to borrow our friends usernames and password, create the groups, and then find hot girls on campuses to join the groups. How did we do this? Since we didn't actually know anyone on that campus, we had to be quite wily. We searched hot names, like Heather, Melissa, Kirsten--don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. We also searched thru the good looking sororities--those are obvious. And then we sent out the invitations--and voila 20 Campus groups with at least 200 of the hottest girls on campus all clamoring to be Crooked Monkey Hotties.
4 years later, Facebook makes our lives a lot easier. We have a universal fan group and are not forced to commandeer our friend's logins. Our Fan group now is a lot better--everyone's invited, we run promotions and contests, and let you know about new t-shirts. So join it, and make our life easier.
So this week's song is actually not a DJ Shnooms recommendation. We just got this emailed in from my friend Annie. She said everytime she hears this song she thinks of us. The songs about the dance, "the Crooked Booty." So everybody do the Crooked Booty. I don't' really like this song, but it's got a good message.
At Crooked Monkey, customer service is paramount. The customer is always right, and we're always super excited when customers get phenomenal deals. We even like to share them with you so that you can replicate their deals--and get t-shirts for as cheap as possible.
As you are fully aware, People.com's Stylewatch, featured our funny t-shirts on their site and offered a 20% discount. That discount, on all our t-shirts, ends on Friday. All you have to do is use the promo code: "People"
So here's the amazing deal: A customer bought two discounted shirts, used the People promo code and got free shipping (which everyone gets when you buy two shirts). She bought our Gimme Some Sugar t-shirt (on sale at $16) and our More money more problems t-shirt (Priced at $19.99 in honor of the recession). She ended up spending $28 for two shirts, including shipping. That's $14/shirt. Good work! I think she got the best deal ever for two t-shirts.
Go look for your own deals on www.crookedmonkey.com. Don't forget to use the 20% promo code.
Crooked Monkey uses Google Analytics to see how people come to our website and see what specific pages on our site people like. We can also see how people get to our website--whether they found us by searching for funny t-shirts or from a blog that writes about us.
Oftentimes we get welcomed surprises--websites that are sending us traffic that we didn't even know wrote about us. This morning I checked analytics and found that people were coming from Seventeen.com. What a welcomed bonus.
They listed us under their "The cutest Tees" section, and we occupy the top 5 spots in it. Thanks guys.
Its always exciting when people see Crooked Monkey t-shirts in the real world. We ship shirts all day, every day, so we know that the shirts are out there--but seeing someone wearing them, or hearing about it, is still so rewarding.
Over the weekend, a friend of mine from Los Angeles wrote on my wall: "Someone in my office wore an "it's my duty to please your booty" shirt. I asked him to turn around and sure enough, I saw the monkey logo! :) happy Friday!"
I love it. Without seeing the monkey on the back, my friend knew it could only be a crooked monkey shirt (because our shirts are the coolest so when you see someone wearing a cool shirt you immediately think, Crooked Monkey) and then she did a little research and saw the monkey on the back, which corroborated her original hypothesis. What a successful science experiment.
Maybe this recession isn't so bad after all. We've got more time with our families, more time to pursue our hobbies and passions, and more time to give back to our communities. Sure, our bank accounts are smaller and we're about to lose our jobs--but that's all immaterial.
See, it's like the more money we come across, the more problems we see. Notorious, like a prophet, foreshadowed this recession. Check out our More money more problems t-shirt. It's only 19.99.
Ok we get it. We're supposed to save money now. Our national savings rate, before this recession, was a negative number--meaning that we spent more than we earned. Our consumerist society finally caught up to us and we are paying for it now.
But that doesn't mean we have to start living like the Amish. We can still pamper ourselves a little. And if shopping is your vice, then so be it. Some people spend their money on cars, others on mistresses. If you want to spend it on a nice bag or a cool t-shirt, don't feel ashamed. Buy it, and let everyone know that you're not afraid to spend a little money on yourself.
Our I love to shop t-shirt kills many birds with one stone--it's cheap (only 19.99, and I'm sure you can find some sort of discount code on the internet to make it even cheaper), it's funny, and it's true.
We like to group shirts in fours--mostly because our product page has four columns in each row--but also because four is a mystical number. Two plus Two is Four. Two times Two is Four. Its a very square and agreeable number. We made four girls recession t-shirts this time around.
Our Cheap is Chic Girls Recession T-shirt is the perfect shirt for girls who used to be cheap but had to hide it. Now you can say it loud, "I'm Cheap and i'm proud." It's kind of like buying a stock low and selling it high--Cheap used to be so taboo. Now its cool. Own the word, live the life, buy the shirt.
The stock market soared over 1,000 points last month. Unemployment numbers have stopped their downward spiral, and the overall sentiment is that this recession is almost over.
Time to start making fun of that lame ass recession. We came out with four recession t-shirts. This shirt, Broke is the new Black is one of my favorites. Playing on the "(Insert word here) is the New Black" phenomenon this shirt lets people know that it's hip to be broke. Long gone are the days of flaunting your money and proclaiming that you're frivolously spending cash.
Customers are always surprised when we say that we ship to every single country in the world. And I'm surprised by their being surprised.
Who are we to deprive our funny t-shirts to someone based on their geographical location. That's outright racism and we just won't stand for it.
It's not very difficult to ship t-shirts abroad--you just have to have a lot of faith in the postal service because when you ship abroad you are offered no guarantees and no tracking numbers.
On May 13th we shipped shirts to a customer in New Zealand. Two weeks ago the lady emailed us asking where her shirts were. We told her to hang tight because it had only been one week. Then she emailed us again last week. I gave her my personal address and told her it would arrive by the end of that week.
Then she emailed me yesterday asking for the shirts and I got nervous. 3 weeks? Come on now. I've been to Australia and it only takes 24 hours on a plane. So I told her to wait until Friday--and if her knight in shining armor (AKA the postal man with her favorite shirt) didn't arrive, we would mail out a replacement. For Free.
She emailed me the following today:
"Just when I was about to lose all faith in the postal system - my tshirt arrived!
I am SUPER Stoked! Will be wearing it to work tomorrow.
Thanks heaps
Cristina" You can tell its an authentic email because she wrote "Heaps" and shes allowed to wear her shirt to work. Good on ya.
Helping the economy. Gettin DC outta this recession
Having a car in the city is a huge liability. Parking tickets, speeding tickets, accidents, and scratches are just some of the reasons that you might want to think twice about owning a car in DC. In the first 12 months that I lived in DC, I got none of those. In the last 3 months I've hit for the cycle--multiple times. Oh how my fortunes have changed.
I'd like to explore DC's main source of income: parking tickets. Knowing their joy in handing out tickets, I have become very cautious when parking my car. I carefully read and reread all the posted signs--I walk 30 ft in each direction to make sure that I'm not missing any phantom signs.
The other day I parked my car, for less than 24 hours, in a legal spot and then got a ticket for a temporary sign that was put up after I had already parked. That cannot be legal. Last night I parked in a spot that had been legal for the last 12 months. But a couple of weeks ago someone added a homemade arrow to the "No parking sign" that originally only pointed to the right--now it also pointed to the left (if you click the picture above, you'll see what i'm talking about). It was a questionable spot, so I looked at the other two signs (pictured below) to see if they corroborated this new restriction.They did not--according to the other two signs my spot was still 100% legal. So I figured the added sticker to the other sign was vandalism--or a funny practical joke. It turns out it was neither. This morning I walked to my car and saw that familiar pink slip. Under the comments for the ticket it stated that the signs were "Clearly posted." Clearly posted? No one should have to write a dissertation--weighing one restriction against another--to figure out if a parking spot is legal or not.
I was going to write about how I'm helping ease DC out of this recession. But the more I write, the more I realize that this is no joking matter. It's literally highway robbery.
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