Clown birthday. This weekend, in honor of McDonald's 50th birthday, the Billboard Liberation Front installed their own advertisement—complete with an animatronic Ronald McDonald repeatedly shoving a Big Mac into the mouth of a fat kid—across from one of the franchises at the intersection of Stanyon and Haight Streets in San Francisco. Shortly after the work was installed (by BLF workers in a fake Viacom truck), a bunch of fright-wigged Ronalds and Hamburglars descended to bow down in homage to the billboard. Forward Retreat tells the story.


McKinko's: McDonald's is also giving a test-drive to hi-tech gizmos in an effort to lure younger patrons in. A new restaurant in suburban Chicago gives "customers the ability to do things at McDonald's they can't do at other places. Quite honestly with some of the media centers you don't even need a credit or debit card, you can pay with cash and download your favorite songs on to your own CD," says a manager. An ATM-style machine will allow teens to buy music, ringtones, print photos and surf the Web at the restaurant.