Full disclosure: I own a pair of Converse. They’re my favorite sneakers. They cost forty bucks, have no shoelaces, and provide roughly the same amount of comfort and protection as wrapping my feet in tissue paper would have done. Cheap, pointless, and comfortable: now that’s fucking metal.

So. I was catching up on my Deciblog this morning when I saw this piece that Jeanne Fury wrote on Heavy Metal Holiday, a new short film/long commercial that Converse has produced in an apparent bid to… uh… well, presumably, to win over the metal crowd, although I’m not entirely sure why, or how they think this completely fucking bizarre thing will accomplish that goal. As Ms. Fury so eloquently puts it:

“You can be damn sure Converse spent good money on Heavy Metal Holiday, traveling to London and Venice, renting that fancy hotel room with the giant chandelier, and paying for food and stuff. But why? Yeah, it’s amusing… But couldn’t they have filmed that shit in Baltimore or Cleveland? Is this supposed to be artsy? Or, worse, is it supposed to be funny?”

Click to read more…

MS Maniac Kye has alerted us to the fact that Gorgoroth’s official website has posted an update regarding the long-brewing Gorgoroth naming rights battle, in which Gaahl and King ov Hell attempted to trademark the Gorgoroth name shortly before quitting the band. And…. the verdict has come down in favor of Infernus:

Oslo City District Court has today delivered a verdict on the main question in the Gorgoroth trademark case, which took place at the end of January 2009. The court has decided that King ov Hell’s trademark registration # 243365 of the band name Gorgoroth is NOT valid and shall therefore be deleted. The court states that King ov Hell and Gaahl excluded themselves from the band Gorgoroth when they tried to fire Infernus in October 2007. The court further states that Infernus cannot be excluded from Gorgoroth, unless he himself decides to quit. Infernus is very pleased, but not surprised, by this verdict. The remaining issues concerning financial matters and such are yet to be decided upon.

I’m not a big enough Gorgoroth fan to care much one way or the other, but presumably some of you will be extremely excited/outraged about this development. Battle it out in the comments section.

-VN