Transformers Jazz Dance - February 26, 2008

NYC Art - February 25, 2009

I was in NYC for a little over a week recently, and I took some time to meander to one of my favorite parts of town, the Chelsea Gallery District. Here are some of my favorite tid bits (sorry for all the pictures, but I really wanted to share them with you):

Coworking (Now a Reality?) - February 20, 2009

To save myself a bit of awkward explanation, I'm going to briefly defer to the almighty Wikipedia.

Coworking is an emerging trend for a new pattern for working. Typically work-at-home professionals or independent contractors or people who travel frequently end up working in relative isolation. Coworking is the social gathering of a group of people, who are still working independently, but who share values and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space.

I first heard about coworking at the San Francisco PSFK Conference back in July of 2008, when speaker Amit Gupta (founder of Photojojo) was talking about his recent venture called Jelly. Jelly invites strangers to meet up at a person's house for a day. They provide chairs and sofas, wireless internet, and interesting people to talk to, collaborate with, and bounce ideas off of. Sounds interesting, right? Given today's terrible economic climate and the fact that people are losing jobs left and right, having a communal space to work together is a brilliant remedy. It immediately reminded me of Likemind.

I recently explored this whole idea of co-working by checking out Citizen Space in San Francisco. Unlike Jelly, which happens once or twice a month, Citizen Space is open everyday for people to come in and work. They have a simple list of rules to abide by:

GROUND RULEZ for Citizen Space

1. we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. if a key holder asks you to leave, you need to skedaddle
2. no bittorrent, no pr0n
3. clean up your garbage and recycle (blue bins are recycling, dude)
4. you break it, you buy it
5. coworking is an extreme sport, don’t sue us if you break a blood vessel in your forehead dealing with windows, apple’s DRM, or anything else
6. don’t be a dick

I had a great time checking out the space. It was full of energy (but no heat), and had plenty of tools at hand (printers, wireless, chairs, scanners, etc). Here are some pics:



I highly recommend that anyone who is currently unemployed or is off doing their own thing to consider coworking once a month. It's a great way to meet other intelligent and creative people, and maybe a few soon to be internet pop sensations.

Chicken Techno & Nancy Pelosi - February 20, 2009

Nancy Pelosi Techno Chicken from wreckandsalvage on Vimeo.

Meow or Woof ! - February 19, 2009

I find that most online advertisements are terribly boring or not compelling, however, I've noticed that many more brands are utilizing rich media in very interesting and fun ways (like when I wrote about the Toyota Crest Builder).

I came across a fun little ad from Bounce, and I wanted to share it with you. It was targeted to pet lovers.

- finding the banner -

- clicking the banner takes me to a place where I can make a custom video of my pet singing -
- upload my dogs picture, and select nose and voice-
- send it to a friend -
I think this was fairly fun, enough so that I sent this to my Mom. I wish that I didn't have to leave the website I was on to make this, which I think is a big negative in my mind.

Freytag's Pyramid

Ever since 4th grade I loved the idea of telling a story, and the fact that there are actual ways to construct a story to make it compelling to listen to or read. Freytag's Pyramid was one of the story telling tools that they taught us way back in the day. Besides my odd love for the word denoument (perhaps it's just the way it sounds), I found that many stories (especially terrible Hollywood hits) follow this formula.

I'm diving back into the world of storytelling to understand how this art form is mastered. We're not all Dave Eggers, but we can certainly try and learn to be. I'm off to 826 Valencia in the next couple weeks to interview some of the teachers to see how they tell stories. I'll report back the findings at some point, but I thought everyone should take a second to reexamine how they tell stories. What makes a good story? Does it make you laugh, cry, think, etc? How does the information being revealed in the story affect your feelings? Why do you develop attachments to the characters? When is the perfect time to create a climax in a story?

Does Drinking & Smoking Kill You - February 13, 2009

This 100 year old guy from Britain might be my new hero. Well, not really, but it is certainly something to see a 100 year-old drinking, smoking, and washing cars

Ghost Dancing - February 11, 2009

Really? This is what I do in my spare time. I need a hobby!

Definition of a Hipster - February 9, 2009

This pretty much sums it up, not that I have anything against Hipsters, I just find that this does a good job of describing how other cultures feel towards hipsters. And if you want to read an incredibly well written summary of their culture, I highly recommend this article from AdBusters. "Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization"

Why Kids Don't Do Drugs - February 5, 2009

Super Bowl @30K - February 3, 2009

No, I’m not talking about thirty thousand dollars, I’m talking about thirty thousand feet. Long story short, I was stuck on a flight home this past Sunday at the same time the Super Bowl was being aired on TV. OMG, could anything be worse for a fair weathered football fan? Thank god I was flying JetBlue, because not only did they play the game on their TVs, but they also gave out free drinks! Here’s the email I got from JetBlue a few days before the big game day:

“Dear JetBlue Customer,

We noticed that you'll be jetting with us on Sunday, February 1 during the championship football game. Whether you're a football fan or prefer to tune-in to another program or read a book, we'd like to celebrate the day with our customers by offering you one free cocktail compliments of JetBlue and Stirrings Mixers.

Choose from one of the Game Day Drink Specials below or any Stirrings selection from the Times on Air seatback card. In addition to your first free cocktail, we're also giving away a Stirrings Mixers all day with the purchase of any liquor thereafter.*

Enjoy your complimentary cocktail along with our 36 channels of DIRECTV®, unlimited brand-name snacks, and lots of legroom which are always free on JetBlue.

Thanks for jetting with us and we look forward to welcoming you onboard!

JetBlue Airways”

How sweet is that!? I ended up getting one of these
It was called a Tumbleweed:

1 part Stirrings® Lemon Drop Mixer
1 part Jack Daniel's® Whiskey
2 parts Arizona® Iced Tea

Sadly, I had a sip, then decided to pass on the rest of the drink, given I spent most of Sunday recovering from a rough Friday and Saturday night. Regardless, thanks JetBlue, what a great customer relationship strategy.
BTW, I got to check out JetBlue’s newest terminal at JFK….sweet! It reminds me of Vegas meets European modernism, with a stronger skew to the European design side. Here’s a pic of part of the terminal: