connect and motivate

when the new client showed up in town, he used to always send the link to the Paul Pott's video to his marketing team. his hope was to connect with, and motivate his new team to "think outside the bun." tmobile doing the very same thing, except for the "TOTB" part.

via in my atmosphere

ea's got balls

while other brands would've ignored "the glitch," these guys embraced it and created an entertaining spot that is honest to themselves and to the consumer.

via in my atmosphere

Live Statue

Live Statue
Originally uploaded by LookingThruTheLens

Chi Chang Cheng, also known as Jarry has been doing live statue
performance art in Taiwan for over 10 years. He's here at the terra
cotta warriors show at the Bowers thru October.

Nguyen Duong
Sent from my "1st generation but just as fast as the new 3G iPhone"

Ego vs Skills

after reading this post today on the gender inequality in the kitchen restaurants on punk planning and then going for a few rounds on battle mode in brand tags it had me thinking about who wins out in battle between male vs female chefs, when it comes to celebrity chefdome? i just asked my wife to quickly name some celebrity chefs, right off the bat, she busted out w/bobby flay, mario batali, todd english, morimoto, emeril....and so on. all male chefs. not even a mention of julia childs or rachel ray, both of whom have been in the news lately. so, back to the battle of the chefs...let's take a chef like gordon ramsey vs giada de laurentiis, who wins in celebrity and awareness? i would say gordo edges giada out by a wedge of gouda. he's got a shitload of restaurants, and his shows like kitchen nightmares and hell's kitchen seem to be doing pretty well. however, giada probably has to try a lot harder to attract viewers, and it can't be just on her pedigree alone. lucky for her she's got great looks and killer blade skills. yes, this sucks to point out, but it's why food network has her on every afternoon and into the weekend.

then watch any of episode of iron chef america, when a female chef goes up against an iron chef. do any of the women pick cat cora? no, they pick one of the male chefs. two recent episodes that that i watched. one was bobby flay vs gabrielle hamilton and the other michael symon vs april bloomfield. these women pick the guys, cuz they wanna show 'em that they can compete with 'em on the same playing ground, unlike in other professions. anyone recall michelle wie trying to make the cut on the pga tour? anyways, back to food...in both ica challenges, these women prevailed over their "more dominant" male counterparts. both of these accomplished female chefs probably not as popular or "celebrity" as giada or the male iron chefs challenges, but they are very skilled and deserving of their success, nevertheless. maybe they don't have the ego found in their male counterparts? the ego that's need to catapult themselves to the "celebrity chefdome" status? maybe they just let their cooking do all the talking. hopefully, we get to see and taste more greatness from women chefs based on their skills and not on how much big talk they can make? btw, if you're ever in nyc, check out prune and the spotted pig these are headed up by ms. hamilton and bloomfield, respectively. cheers! i'm off to have some food and drink. it's the weekend, baby! btw, this is a video of stud male celebrity chef, tv guy, and author anthony bourdain talking about food and chefs. it's a long video, worth a watch if you're into the AB. towards the end, at about 53:00, he takes a dig a cat cora. "who is cat cora? was she grown in a petri dish?." more male chef ego talking?

cuprock

reminds me of the lite brite that i played with as a kid. i wonder where he gets all his cups from? maybe the folks from the red plastic party cup company should jump in on this? more here at cuprocking.com


via three billion

the kids over at lucas have been busy, no?

despite what i've been reading, i'm still planning to go out to see the new clone wars flick.


via okee dorkee

quiksilver dynamite surfing - the whole shebang!

i had the original dynamite surfing vid sent to me last year from my cuz in sydney. it's still one of my all-time faves. after seeing the skate vid below, dynamite surfing came up again for me. this one blows out all the other cool stuff that supported the idea. so fuck'n cool campaign. i wish the quik usa guys did this kinda cool shit stateside.

not another skate video?

skate - shot on red - 120 fps from opus magnum prod. on Vimeo.

so refreshing to see skate vids thru a different lens. was getting really, really tired of the constant fisheye treatment on every single vid. and damn, i wish i could boost an ollie like these cats.


via punk planning

go backwards

My day in brands

Sony
Originally uploaded by LookingThruTheLens

a photo journal of my day consuming brands

this is part 2 of the original post for my brand timeline

people. machines. socialization.

a week has gone by, and i'm still thinking about it. a very insightful observation on last friday's opening ceremonies.

kevin kelly says:

The most alien, shocking and awesome portion of the Opening were the mass routines. Part of this is cultural. The Koreans are good at these mass effects, and the Japanese too. It's somewhat an East Asian thing. Historically these mass dances are designed to resemble machines. The wave rippler in the Opening Ceremonies appeared to be a cool mechanical effect until the disguised boys inside them were revealed. The mass fou drummers beat so rapidly and in synchrony that when their lights started blinking it seemed as if we were watching a computer chip, or the innards of a drum machine. See the pic above. We are a machine! Machine are us! That is our first reaction but I think it goes further than that. The 2008 fou drummers represent the We -- the power of the collective. The West and particularly Americans have traditionally emphasized the Me -- the individual. China is a culture more comfortable with the We than the Me, and here they were showing both the power of the We and its modern face -- blinking LED drums. We once thought computers were about individuation, but these days we see they are about socialization as well. More importantly, the social aspects of web 2.0 have shifted the center of gravity from Me to We.



via ct2 thru good experience

lost:firewire

heard news today that lost surfboards will enter an exclusive partnership with firewire. for those of you who don't follow surfing, this would be something close to scion partnering with the tesla motors to develop a scion-inspired tesla roadster. take the young, progressive cache of lost and inject that attitude into an innovative new surfboard technology and we may have ourselves something really exciting to drive down the line, across a ripable blue face.


via shop eat surf

i'm feeling like i'm in "red" today

i often felt the pain of creative types having to explain and rationalize their color choices to clients. maybe this new color/word association tool at cymbolism will help designers?

cymbolism says:
Colors are believed to have very specific meanings, but these meanings vary over time, place and culture. For years designers have been using colors to communicate feeling and mood, to trigger memories to make us act a certain way.

Cymbolism is an attempts to quantify the association between colors and words, making it simple for designers to choose the best colors for the desired emotional effect. Cymbolism tracks these associations over time (and in future versions by user demographics) to help designers to better create designs for the desired effects.

via smashing apps

wish i had mad design skills

damn, this is cool.

via perez fox

pepsi ads that connect to me

ads that make my eyes smile by looking at things in a different way



ads that excites my curiosity by having me actively engage





via hemmy

us versus japan

they're happier...


they get right to the point...


they're romantic...



via hemmy

you twitter?

How Do You Use Twitter? from biz stone on Vimeo.

via adam crowe

get'n crafty at the office

digg'n these restickable vinyl wall graphics of your favorite games as a kid. i'm bummed that dig dug isn't available. oh well, for $75 the gorilla and the lil' italian plumber is yours at think geek.

via wonderland

habanero

our little yard out back has been cranking out some serious heat this summer. we grow all sorts of peppers, thai, tabasco, cayenne, and the muy fuego habanero. in years past, we'll blend the peppers into a paste, like a sambal and give them as holiday gifts. this packaging for frieda's habanero gives me a nice idea. good thing we only give a few of these a year. don't think my blade skills are what they used to be.

via the dieline

sad...but true

more graph humor and song chart memes

well at least for a few people i know.

through the lens of a beginner

i've been complaining a lot about the conditions this summer. the wind may blow the wrong way, or the conditions may get sloppy, or just having the wrong crowds in the line-up, and my attitude turns to shit and i'll stop having a good time. as a kid, i'd go out in any condition...onshore, side shore, blown out, rain and hail, freezing conditions, whatever it was, i was still out there. that was when i was always learning and most importantly...having a great time. recall reading about a japanese belief that if you approached any activity, with the same curiosity and enthusiasm that a novice would have, then you'll always have a rewarding experience. i think i need to get myself back looking through a beginner's eyes. there's definitely no shortage of 'em in the water this summer. ::blink: ::blink::

so whatcha learn today?

been really busy the past couple days immersing myself into dubai for a project, so i haven't had the time to post. i think this makes up for it. up until today, he was only taking tiny, 3 to 5 steps at a time. he made us smile, laugh and cry today when he busted out with the moonwalk. damn, i wish i can make this type of progress. btw, i wasn't his stylist today. that was all his auntie's doing. although, he does look like he's knocked back a few.