The full story of the infamous Tevez poster that launched a million conversations.
Market to situations not demographics.
And a social object to boot
Pure genius.
UPDATE: 21/08
Sadly, I've been asked by Man City representatives to remove the video from You Tube.
Ho hum.
I was looking at my google stats for this blog the other day and noticed that the most read article was none of the advertising/marketing/pop stuff but a recipe for beef braciole (the result of a desperate posting of some content or other during a barren spell).
Anyway, it got me thinking. Like novels, everyone has at least one recipe in them. A signature dish, lets call it. What I hope will happen with 'geek dinner'is that you, the reader of this and no doubt the author of your own blog, will send me the following:
1 - your recipe
2 - the story that goes with it
3 - a brief bio
4 - your linkage
5 - a pic of yourself in the kitchen
send all to geekdinnerblog at gmail dot com
Ive set up the blog over at geekdinner.blogspot.com.
Once we have a decent amount of content (I'm thinking 100-150 recipies) I'd like to do an actual book using lulu or something, sell them and be able to donate the proceeds to a hunger related charity, maybe? I'm open to suggestions from you.
Thanks in advance.
Ive tagged a few candidates
Following on from the horse sculpture story below I enjoyed my brief encounter with Denver Airport.
As well as the mad tent exterior, internally it's been designed with the user in mind. The gates are all in a straight line A,B and C zones connected by a train. It's vrtually impossible to get lost.
And a couple of soft innovations made the - lets face it, normally pretty stressful - experience of airports a bit more pleasant.
The public address system on the gate connecting train was crystal clear perfect sound
and every announcement is spoken by a local celebrity tv babe (can't remember her name but I was told) and introduced by little musical motifs. Boogie-woogie piano for the doors closing announce, twangy guitar for the next stop announce and so on.
Some bright spark has thought, what can we do to add an extra bit of polish to this experience to make it just that bit better? - it's that extra 1% that makes it talkaboutable. Customer service as the new branding or something.
In his article Rise Of The DIY Superstar James Cherkoff notes how a young relative described her favourite music to him:
They're all MySpace bands, no one listens to (the Top 40) anymore’.
I commented on his post that the underground has always found alternative distribution channels. The MySpace phenomenon is the logical progression from the DIY ethic that spawned fanzines (Xerox self publishing), the indie distribution networks (Rough Trade, The Cartel, CWNN etc) of the post-punk period and the Acid House explosion of the late 80’s.
He describes the bands that are harnessing digital channels to create their audience - without relying on record companies - as DIY Superstars.
A DIY story…
APB formed in 1979 in Ellon, Aberdeenshire. Their punk/funk hybrid sound combining Bootsy Collins, NY no-wavers ESG and UK post-punkers like the Gang of Four.
Their second single for Aberdeen based Oily Records -‘Shoot You Down’ (1981) found it’s way over the Atlantic to NYC's underground dance clubs - Danceteria, Berlin, the Mudd Club – via London Blitz dj Rusty Egan and heavy rotation on college radio.
The band became a phenomenon in the NY/NJ areas eventually signing with the home of hip-hop electro, Sleeping Bag Records, notching up a No. 1 on the Billboard dance chart with ‘What Kind of Girl’. Bizarrely they could hardly get arrested in the UK during this time despite being legends on the Lower East side and eventually split.
And , yes, that is JB in the pic.
Fast forward to 2006, ‘Something to believe in' – a sort of greatest hits, original copies of which had been changing hands on ebay for ridiculous sums – has been re-released on itunes as the band’s MySpace community swells to 15k plus.
They followed that up with some live dates in NY/NJ and a full set of new songs released as ‘Three’ earlier this year.
I also hear that there’s a remix project in the pipeline for some of the classic early singles.
In a year where the biggest stories in the mainstream media have been the reunions of the likes of Led Zep (hooray!) The Police (boo!) here’s a band that got back together in 2007, used the power of the web to re-unite their audience and added the link to the chain which connects the post-punk DIY ethic to the web2.0 update.
APB on MySpace
Young American Recordings
Props to Jamie C who has alerted us to this anti drink driving initiative from Saatchi & Saatchi in Frankfurt.
The Piss-Screen.
In these driving games - placed in the urinals of bars, clubs - players control the cars using their pee via pressure-sensitive inlay set within urinals. A social utility if I'm not mistaken.
It's unconfirmed whether Wii technology is involved.
Made me remember a bar back in Aberdeen in the early 90's. Behind plexi glass urinals were mini tv screens with footage of Glasgow Rangers footballers on constant rotation. Thus encouraging you to drink more just to have the (possibly - and slightly worryingly - homo-erotic) pleasure of pissing on Mark Hateleys face.
Sadly no pic available.
I've not been surprised that e-books have not really taken off big style (yet...).
There's something tangible about a physical book that the digital equivalent doesn't satisfy. A bit like 12" LP's.
Dare I say it, it may even be a social object.
With stylish self-publishing service, Blurb, you can print your portfolio, wedding album or novel, i suppose, in various formats.
hat-tip to threeminds.
