on the shore of the ultimate sea

Recent web meanderings, from me to you:

• Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri Lévy express outrage at being ridiculed and victimised by their nation - “France has vomited on us for too long”–two outspoken Frenchmen form a common bond.

she's got mommy's lifeless eyes

Thanks to a new web promo for Volkswagen minivans, we can see what little America Obama-Palin would look like. Talk about working across the aisle. Anyone care to do a McCain-Biden mixup?

Recent web meanderings, from me to you:

• "Politics at the Five-and-Dime: Where Pennies Matter, Change Is a Powerful Idea" By Anne Hull - From the Flamingo Trailer Curt, just down the road from my gentle suburban bedstead, comes a great look at how the election's shaping up in Michigan.
• Foreclosure Alley - SoCal Connected - This video pretty much sums up the sorry state of affairs in the broken mortgage market's fallout, at the epicenter, California's Inland Empire.

Recent web meanderings, from me to you:

• Flickr: Panda - Reason number 1,000,001 why flickr is so great.
• Pushing the Limit - For Rock-Climbing Guru, the Sky Is His Roof - Will our new America make any more Chongos?
• WADV RADIO » Session: Facebook Spark Series - “The Big Idea” - Here's audio of the panel I moderated during Advertising Week, on the big idea and social media, two entirely nebulous topics I'd say we drilled down a bit.

new york magazine advertising spread, originally uploaded by nparish.

Over the last month or so I helped compile a list of the most memorable New York-styled ads for New York Magazine, and, at long last, here it is. We polled a whole host of past and present NYC ad luminaries to determine a big list of spots that had grabbed the city’s attention, then narrowed them down with a poll to find out which rated highest.

New York’s 40th Anniversary issue is fat, well worth the $4.95. Head over to NY Mag’s site for a legible version of my thing, but don’t forget to pick up the magazine–there’s a ton of good stuff inside.

Recent web meanderings, from me to you:

• Diesel: SFW XXX | Creativity Online - If you haven’t seen this master stroke, please, watch immediately.
• Putting a Price on Digital Production - AdAge picked up a piece I did for Creativity’s September issue, exploring what it costs to get digital things made and how those budgets shake out. A huge topic; i chipped a chunk off the iceberg and melted it down to see what was inside.
• The Price Is Right (Isn’t It?) | Creativity Online

Next week is Advertising Week in New York, the week many in the industry gather for a celebration of selling things. It’s not all parades with mascots down Fifth Avenue (though I can’t find any info this year about the “Procession of the Great Icons”); there’s some jibber-jabber too, and an unhealthy amount of socializing.

I’m going to be moderating a panel Tuesday, talking with three very intelligent guys about the potentiality for big ideas on Facebook and other social media. If you’d like to come by, it’s free, all you have to do is RSVP. (Oops–I just looked, and it says it’s sold out on the Advertising Week site. Contact me if you’re interested in coming, or just show up early.)

Anyway, we’re going to be (hopefully!) talking about interesting stuff, including a pretty conceptual look at what some future hypothetical Facebook marketing efforts might look like. I’m joined by some great creatives/forward-looking digital guys, so expect some cool ideas to pop out.

The Facebook Spark Series: Spark The Big Idea

How do good ideas spread? What does it take to get people to share branded content or offers with their friends? Top creative thinkers discuss innovative work and the methods to developing big ideas worth sharing in today’s social media world.

Moderated by Nick Parish, Associate Editor, Creativity

Panelists:
Rei Inamoto, Co-Chief Creative Officer, AKQA
Richard Ting, VP & ECD, Mobile and Emerging Platforms Group, R/GA
Rick Webb, Co-Founder and COO, The Barbarian Group

Tuesday, September 23
9:00 AM to 09:45 AM
The Times Center
242 West 41st Street
New York, NY

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for coming to what turned out to be an interesting session. Audio is here, and video may or may not be coming soon. Ad Week saw fit to dispatch a reporter, who summarized the event quite well.

All this looks like small beer compared to the meltdown here on Wall Street this month, but I was back in Michigan over Labor Day and found myself thinking the state’s huge production incentives program isn’t being fully utilized.

Up North, things are particularly bleak. In the town where my parents stay, Boyne City, 95 people started Labor Day weekend with a pink slip, as LexaMar, one of the biggest corporations in the town of 3500 laid them off on Friday. It made small talk everywhere, downtown, strolling past the classic cars on display, at the police-sponsored drag race at the city airstrip, another midsized manufacturer slicing off jobs as the economy expels another ragged breath.

The one point of light in a state with its biggest industry, automobiles, breaking down, is film production. It’s exceptionally cheap to shoot anything in Michigan right now, and that has ushered in the closest thing to a business renaissance the region has seen in years, at least the latest Band-Aid to create an economic buffer around the doomed car business, like Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson’s Automation Alley plan that began about a decade ago.
Read more about Michigan's Film Incentives and digital production

Big thanks to all attendees, presenters and organizers for helping make yesterday’s Interesting New York conference happen. It was time well spent; I particularly enjoyed hearing about database basics from Noah Brier, fan fiction from Amber Finlay (and special guest Bud Melman of that old school advertising drama), Charles Rosen talking about the Democratic Party and the upcoming presidential election’s role as a point-of-no-return, Colin Nagy talking techno, Dallas Penn extolling the virtues of quarter water in a sarcastic fantastic exploration of the Bodega Food Pyramid and James Cooper delivering his presentation on ping pong’s beneficence while volleying.

If you’re looking for information regarding my Kombucha presentation, thanks, I’m flattered. It’s here.

Interesting New York

Next Saturday, the 13th, I’m going to be giving a quick talk on the history and preparation of kombucha, a fermented drink quickly becoming popular with the health-conscious Whole Foods crowd. While I don’t really count myself among them, I’ve been making the stuff for just over two years now and have the process pretty much down. If you’re a serious fan, you should really make it yourself–sixteen ounces costs $4 or $5 but produced at home it’s about the same per gallon.

Here’s all the info, if you’re interested in learning everything you ever wanted to know about kombucha. Tickets are only $35, and include 8 hours with a raft of exciting speakers. I’ll update this post with more details (like when, specifically I’ll be talking, and bar plans afterwards) when they arise. Eventually I’ll probably get an outline of the talk and any audiovisual stuff up here too. But first, to tinker with Keynote for a few hours and see if anything presentable comes out.

Date: Saturday, September 13, 2008
Time: 10:00AM to 6:00PM.
Venue: The Katie Murphy Amphitheater at FIT
Address: 7th Avenue at 27th Street (Building D), New York City, 10001-5992

UPDATE: I’m the last speaker, so I should be on about 5:30, but it’ll probably be after that as these things tend to go long. But come earlier than me anyway, cause there’s a load of good stuff all day. Afterparty’s at Black Door.