on the shore of the ultimate sea

Dodgeball’s reincarnated as Foursquare! Hit up the right nightspots and become the king of the town (at least as far as Internet cool points are concerned).

I’m reminded of Bright Lights, Big City:

… How did you get here? It was your friend, Tad Allagash, who powered you in here. You started out on the Upper East Side with champagne and unlimited prospects, strictly observing the Allagash rule of perpetual motion: one drink per stop. Tad’s mission in life is to have more fun than anyone else in New York City, and this involves a lot of moving around, since there is always the likelihood that where you aren’t is more fun than where you are.

Hopefully this’ll be available to test out while Austin-hopping at SXSW this year.¹

I’m also hoping there’s an “achievement” called Alcoholic Loser for those who spend 4+ hours a day in only one bar, or “Cheapskate” for those who only get blotto at work-related gratis cocktail functions or “Fearless” for someone who drinks exclusively at bars in areas with really, really low average income and/or high crime rates. Perhaps integration with the iPhone breathalyzer to crown the real King Drunk?

1. I’ll be down from Saturday-Wednesday and may update here if anything wild happens. [↩]

the Glue Society

Every once in a while you pop your head up from the daily slog and rise above the goblins of self-indulgence and negativity and fractiousness and see with crystal clarity, ‘Hey, this is pretty cool.’

Yesterday was one of those days.

I went to an early press preview of the Pulse art show with the express purpose of seeing a unique statue and writing a story about it.

Sure, the story’s just a humble few lines, but there was no need for me to do anything other than convey the facts: pigeon, man, statue, art fair, funny. An honest job, decently done. But it gives me pleasure to think of the time I spent putting this story together, and hopefully that’s conveyed. Briefly, this is something I struggled with: is it more accurate to say this is a statue of a man defecating on the head of a pigeon or of a pigeon with a man defecating on its head? Think about it.

I can say quite confidently that were fate to have brought me to the show this morning with a budget of $40k and a suitable foyer or other entranceway needing of adornment I could see no greater way to immediately communicate my worldview than this piece of contemporary art. Perhaps, one fine day, it could be mine.

Prairie home companions

Juno and I took a little field trip down Atlantic avenue to see photographer Caroll Taveras and her $5 portrait studio last Saturday, and I’m happy to report she did a great job.¹
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1. Here she is at work on another portrait; the studio is actually an old Domino’s Pizza the owner agreed to let Caroll use. [↩]

photos by Billy Whitfield

It’s always interesting when punks get old. That’s why my emphatic finger-point this week is towards a story in Vice by former Born Against frontman Sam McPheeters. McPheeters ventures into one of the Midwest’s  strangest regions, the wealthy suburbs of Michigan’s capital, Lansing, to profile Doc Dart, former frontman for hardcore group Crucifucks. Dart, who calls himself “26,” appears to be suffering from several forms of mental illness, and has become a suburban pariah in the Mason-Okemos area.

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blatantly borrowed from ny mag

I’m entirely happy my favorite NYC newscaster and true-blue journalist, Pat Kiernan, has launched his own site, Pat’s Papers, where he’s been basically vlogging the biggest stories in the day’s newspapers.

Wait, reading newspapers on the Internet now?

Nick Parish at Interesting New York from David Nottoli on Vimeo.

Here’s video from the Interesting New York conference of yours truly pushing that nasty-tasting drink kombucha. It’s a little tough get the whole story (and all those lame jokes) without slides, but download them from my main Kombucha page and play along at home. Of course, David Nottoli, the erstwhile organizer of that fine afternoon, has many more of the presentations lodged in his Vimeo.

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 to read my bit, but don’t forget to pick up the magazine–there’s a ton of good stuff inside.

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.

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.