Hurry! Fewer than 15 hours remain in which to cast your vote for the fate of Barry Bonds' homerun record ball. I met the link on the DMN Religion blog, which is becoming my favorite news source for pop culture references that have no obvious connection with religion. Unless, in the style of public broadcasting, you lump any ethical question under the religion banner, or else recognize baseball as not only the national pastime but also the national religion.

I'd never heard of this Marc Ecko character before, and my appreciation of his atypical publicity stunts does not mean I'm going to start buying his stuff. I'm way too naff for Marc Ecko designs, anyway. (I'm even too naff to use the word naff.)

But I do find his way of making statements intriguing. Even if, on a moment's reflection, they deconstruct themselves: Hi, I'm a rich middle-aged white suburban father-of-three who is one of the leading purveyors of hip-hop fashion. To preserve my street cred in spite of this contradiction, I'm not going to actually dare to try to sneak onto Andrews Air Force base and tag Air Force One; I'm going to use my vast resources to RENT an airplane, PAINT it to look like Air Force One, and then film myself sneaking onto a fake Air Force base to tag a fake Air Force One.

Does anyone use the word "poser" anymore?

But if you're going to throw around millions of dollars on gags and stunts, it's all good clean fun. And you've got to love Ecko's response to Bond's response to the baseball thing: offering to make him a custom shirt saying "Marc Ecko paid $752,467 for my ball, and all I got was this 'stupid' T-shirt.'"