ThoughtSpurs

"…I learned more and I learned faster by listening to the voices of the quilters on eBay. I got trained in the features to look for, what quilters consider boast worthy, and what other bidders thought was worth plunking their money down for. This was unsytematic and uncertified knowledge, but because it came wrapped in a human voice, it was richer and in some ways more reliable: the lively plurality of voices can and should outweigh the stentorian voice of experts." David Weinberger - Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web . Compared to Andrew Keen's book The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy David Weinberger's is far better considered and reasonable. If you have even a passing interest in how the Internet is shaping your life (whether you know it or not) I recommend it to you. Unlike the pesimistic view of the The Cult , Small Pieces has more positive scope: "…although we don...

Designers hold the keys to the future. At Massey University (where I teach) there is a brilliant transport design department. They are strong in marine design. That makes sense. There is a great deal of demand for New Zealand maritime products. We are probably the best in the world in many facets of this category. What I struggle with is seeing kids learning how to render 'super cars' i.e. v12, v8 2 litre plus cars. Guys. Get your head around sustainability. I want to see much more emphasis on materials, motives (power and intention) . Saw this on the web - The Aptera Hybrid/Electric I like that it is a low cost solution When you think of solutions for these issues I want you to think about the lowest cost for manufacture and consumption. I want you also to think about the lowest cost to the place we all live. Micro economics is the job of designers. The job of creators is to enhance the quality of life - not to destroy it, Please.

Hey, it's the weekend. Relax. Take your fish for a walk. A new product for the aptly titled Geekologie blog. I used to keep fish in a cookie jar on my desk. Nothing in the jar except two goldfish and kermit green stones in the bottom. It suited my slightly affected 'creative' schtick. I switched them from their cosy, if stark (in a Corbusier kind of way) jar to a more baroque, retro candy dispensor. The silicon sealed plug I made to keep it watertight (normally the candy dispensed from the bottom)proved less than reliable. Fed em up for the long weekend. Teknikos promlematikos. Leak. Not good. Worse for the fish. So I'm sensitive to the mistreatment of goldfish. It's a guilt thing. Is there a statute of limitations at the SPCA?

I like this. Kind of nutty. But a fun way to mark time. (Sorry I had to switch the music off - it was bonkers after a while).

I've randomly encountered David Byrne before - he was hanging an exhibition of his photographs at a gallery in London in the mid 90s. The show hadn't opened. I was lugging a portfolio around doing the rounds of ad agencies in London and had some down time. Byrne was relaxed and friendly and was happy for me to look around. His blog makes for interesting reading. He articulates his views on culture - from his first hand experience of it. I enjoy reading his comments on strangely mundane experiences - like riding his bicycle to 42nd Street in New York to catch a screening of Transformers the movie. It reminds me of his movie True Stories - a curiously good natured flash of post-modernism that introduced the term sesquicentennial into the vernacular consciousness. I especially enjoyed his observations after visiting the Philip Johnson Glass House in Connecticut. Worth a look. I've added it to my RSS reader and the permanent list on your right. Link via Bad Banana

Interesting article on the Fast Company magazine website - an interview with Phillipe Starck by Linda Tischler. Do you have a formula for creativity? Every morning, take royal jelly and omega-3 oil, eat oysters, and have a good sexual life. Don't care about anything, and never listen to anybody. Be free. Works for me.

I saw a headline on a blog post over on BrandDNA : What do you do? And while his tale of a successful client meeting with three 'suits' didn't spell it out - I am pretty sure the headline refers to a story about Steve Jobs, head of Apple computer (back in the days when it was Apple Computer and he was its head - the forst time). I thought the story was told in the wonderful book Chiat Day - the first 20 years. But I have scanned its pages and can't find it. Maybe it's apocryphal. I'll tell it to you from memory… Young Steve Jobs is being given a tour of his new ad agency's offices in California. He is introduced to the staff and shows an interest in their roles and what they will be doing for his account. He meets a number of the creative staff and says to each: "So,…what do you do?". Copywriters explain their work; collaborating with art directors to come up with ideas for campaigns and executions for ads, then crafting the copy. Likewise with ar...

Valeria Maltoni is the author of one of my favourite blogs - The Conversation Agent - she left a comment here that I thought was an interesting take in language said... I too believe that language can be a powerful ally in helping us articulate what we feel and move/inspire to action; at the same time I am conscious of how it can be manipulated and massaged to drive to a specific outcome. The difference, as you point out here, is humanity -- candor, awareness, willingness to enter the messiness of potential misunderstandings so we can mix it up with each other. My own mother used to say that there are people who get it, no matter how you say it... and others who will never get it, no matter how hard you try. Valerie is right. One of the fundamental concepts that I try to drill into my students at Massey University School of Design is: just because you say something clearly it doesn't mean it will be received as you intended. Static takes many forms and corrupts even the purest of...

A little while ago I saw this ad for the curiously branded Bye motorcycle helmets on the badbanana blog . Interestng concept. Provocative and different. Not so good though. The fixation with dismembered hands is a curious trend. It strarted with 'Thing' in the Adams family (I think) and reach the zenith of weird creepiness with the New Zealand Yellow Pages campaign - which I find very nearly unwatchable. I was reminded of the Bye ads by a post on a blog (which I am sorry but I have forgotten which one - sorry, I prefer to name my sources)about the viral promotion for a movie in Spanish called Pulse ( check out the site - there are some creepy but fun things to do. This image from the poster made me think again about the helmet ads. There msut be some kind of Jungian archetype or dream analysis that inolves hands reaching out (just before you fall into space...) Just interesting that these executional trends emerge. Today I received a copy of the 07 D&AD annual to review. ...

I was having a conversation the other day about how I don't like clowns. I'm attributing this morbid dislike to the Stephen King book IT - but I think it runs deeper than that. In a curiously random way I was watching a commercial for Halo 3 on Simon Law's blog and it reminded me of the D&AD award winning promo for The Bloody Circus - a week of documentaries in Channel 4 (UK) about the war in Iraq. I haven't seen Halo on screen - I gather it is a thing of wonder. Never been much of gamer. But it interests me that games make more money than movies. I suppose, if you take Brad and Angelina off the payroll it makes economic sense. Wasn't Peter Jackson supposed to be making a movie from the game? It probably was going to star Brangelina - which left nothing in the budget for talent. C'est la geurre.

Well I can think of worse places to work. I have been enjoying the spring sun in the backyard while I plan global domination - of what I'm not sure yet - but who's to say? What did we do before the Internet and wireless connection. Oh, that's right - sit at my desk in an office tower looking worried. Let me take a moment to recommend a book to you. Just a little one. Its author Marty Neumeier calls it a 'whiteboard overview'. Zag - The number 1 stratgey of high-performance brands is brilliant. It may well be received wisdom but the presentation style is simple and delightful. Whether you are a seasoned hand/old pro or a beginner I recommend this book heartily. It follows on from The Brand Gap by the same author - bit, for some reason I perfer this one. Order a copy from Amazon or Fishpond if you live in New Zealand. On the subject of Amazon.com - my copy took a long time to arrive in the post. My queries to Amazon were handled efficiently and informatively. Just w...

Ron Mueck makes astonishing works of art. His hyper-real sculptures of humans are fantastic. Not because they are fantasies but because they are such keen observations of everyday people. He shifts perceptions by shifting the scale of the works. An enormous sculpture of a woman lying in bed, with a look on her face that makes one wonder what is going through her mind - the impression is one of affinity and identification - never mind that she is 15 feet long (or more)and largely made of fibreglass. It also interests me that Mueck made his start in art servicing the needs of advertisers with animatronics and realistic models. The crossover between art and commerce is more common than you might expect. Sometimes it flows in one direction - art to commerce and sometimes the other way. Either way I think it enriches and informs both. See more of this artists incredible work.

Layer tennis that is. I have been discussing wiki collaboration with Ben Kepes . We tried to write a book review collaboratively but found that it was difficult to co-contribute to a work like that when our thoughts were similar but the expression of our ideas were so different. One would stifle the other - or that was how it seemed at the time. So, in principle a good idea - in practice less so. Wikis are better when the subject matter is more objective. But there are other kinds of collaboration using the web. Here is how Layer Tennis works ( from Coudal Partners - a well known design firm whose approach to the web is interesting, to say the least) How The Game Works We'll be playing matches using lots of different applications, from Adobe® Photoshop® to Adobe® Flash®, but the basic idea is the same no matter what tools are in use. Two artists (or two small teams of artists) will swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifte...

My father had strokes years before he died. My mother has been a tireless worker for the New Zealand Stroke Foundation for many, many years. When Anita Roddick died of a stroke, reported as a brain hemorrhage I felt it was a form of Unspeak - denying the simple human truth. Yes she was young - but strokes are not the sole province of the elderly (my father was younger than Roddick when he had his first). It was, ironically, Stroke Awareness Week, but the opportunity to educate was lost by giving the cause of death a makeover - seemingly to flatter her memory (the promotional pictures are of a younger Dame Anita). I was grumpy. But reading The Conversation Agent blog tonight I came across this list of attributes that Anita Roddick felt characterised entrepreneurs and felt relaxed. Very warm, very human. I'll refer to it often. 1. The vision of something new and belief in it that's so strong that it becomes a reality. 2. A touch of craziness. 3. The ability to stand out of the ...

During a quick surf of my favourite blogs I noticed that Saatchi boss Kevin Roberts has posted an entry about the power of language. Using Words to Capture a Revolution . I found the piece to be a little disturbing because KR seemed to be promoting the power of Unspeak as a positive force. "One of the most compelling examples I know of is the way New Zealand’s Ministry of Transport changed from reporting car ‘accidents‘ to reporting car ‘crashes‘. A single word transformed crushed metal and broken bodies from an unexpected event that was no one’s fault, to a devastating result. It reminded me of Steven Poole's book Unpeak which I keep close to hand (it's an important little book - buy it before it's baned or burned). While I know Mr Roberts' intentions are good in principle - in practice they reveal a desire to reframe ideas in accordance with an agenda. I am suspicious of that. If Saatchi & Saatchi weren't a global communications business with connections ...

You know that Fashion Week has lost direction when goody bags have grocery items stuffed into them. I heard one show had instant coffee samples and olive oil sachets. Not only is there no cachet in a sachet but it also just seems wrong and irrelevant. When your expectations have been elevated by the glamorous hype of fashion to have one's bubble pricked by the banality of the supermarket seems counter-intuitive to me. You could argue that, because it is unexpected, it has cut through. Tenuous post-rationalisation I would reply - the kid of argument that supports running irritating ads on a high rotation on the premise that the fact that nobody likes them makes them more powerful. Ummm…noooooo. People don't buy things from people they don't like. Trelise Cooper seems to have zagged while others zigged. According to Simply You she excelled with her invitation and goody bag for kids. "Trelise Cooper may have stolen the show well before Fashion Week has even begun. This ...

I am not sure whether this is a momentous occasion or not. This is post number 701. It may be a good time to take stock and think about the purpose of blogging - or rather, my purpose for blogging: 1. I enjoy writing extemporaneously about general topics of interest that inform my work and area of activity. Sometimes the conversations I have in the blog are those that I would not have in other contexts. In part this is because, unlike real-world conversations, I can set the agenda without diversion - unless I want to. The 'conversation' in blogs is discrete from the kind you might otherwise encounter because the comments of others are post post. In any case, I call the blog ThoughtSpurs because, hopefully the material will provoke your thoughts and ideas on topics that promote your own creativity and enquiry (which are inter-related). I may be talking into a void most of the time - but if just one person thinks different as a result, then my mission has been a success. 2. I lik...

According to Ad Age the U.S. brewing giants Anhauser Busch (owners of the Budweiser brand) and Miller have dropper their ad spending by $131 million (US) but at the same time they moved more brewskis by 2%. I don't find that result especially surprising. Though I confess I hadn't seen the term 'Measured Media' used before. In this context the brewers say they are actually spending more but on local events and bar promotions. But the numbers don't seem to stack up. It does reinforce (in a high profile category) that ad agencies need to think carefully about how they will earn their fees in the future. Ad Age article

I had a love hate relationship with my Fiat 500 'Bambina'. Got knows what possessed me to possess it in the first place. It was frighteningly underpowered for Auckland's motorway system. It was reliably unreliable. But it was cute and repairs were easy. For fun one weekend I dropped the motor out of the rear compartment using nothing more than a few spanners and large piece of 4x2. I could remove the entire engine by hand - it weighed less (when detatched from the gearbox) than the motor of my Norton Dominator motorcycle which had the same engine displacement (5oocc). I have fond memories of driving the Bambina along the sand at Uratiti beach just north of Waipu with the canvas top rolled back. I could stand up in my budgie smugglers and drive the thing with my reedy body poking up through the sunroof cavity like the commander of a Carro d'assalto Fiat 3000 invading Ethiopia in 1935. I terrified my girlfriend and seagulls alike in search of a nice quite spot where we c...

Well, having reminded myself of the existence of Charlie Brooker and read his review of Ememies of Reason by Richard Dawkins I felt the need to excerpt some of here for you. You can watch the show (in two parts on Google Video - I suggest you do before it is taken down) In the 18th century, a revolution in thought, known as the Enlightenment, dragged us away from the superstition and brutality of the Middle Ages toward a modern age of science, reason and democracy. It changed everything. If it wasn't for the Enlightenment, you wouldn't be reading this right now. You'd be standing in a smock throwing turnips at a witch. Yes, the Enlightenment was one of the most significant developments since the wheel. Which is why we're trying to bollocks it all up. Welcome to a dangerous new era - the Unlightenment - in which centuries of rational thought are overturned by idiots. Superstitious idiots. They're everywhere - reading horoscopes, buying homeopathic remedies, consult...

This morning I read Michele Hewitson 's piece in the Herald online about her encounter with Clive James. It was the second item of hers I had read in two days. Yesterday I read the article in Canvas about the joys/terrors of opening a restaurant. the latter I felt was remarkably good - in the immersive journalistic style one might expect to read in Rolling Stone back in the days of Hunter S. Thompson or Tom Wolfe. I enjoyed it - too many articles these days are pieced together from telephone interviews and web research (resurf?) with more than a dash of polemic, Jeremy Clarksonismic irony. The Clive James article was a little irritating. Probably because Clive James can be a little irritating. There is something odd about the man that I can't fathom. There's no doubt that he is very well read and is a humorous and engaging writer. I grew up reading his television reviews - which paved the way for the likes of Charlie Brooker and I enjoyed at least the first of his autobi...

Bob Garfield of Advertising Age says that the job of advertising agencies has to be to connect with consumers. Stop thinking that you're in the business of making ads (isn't that marketing 101? - What business am I in?). He also highlights the need for agencies to rethink how they are compensated. All good stuff - but I'm only saying that because I've been saying it for ages: Here's my column from Idealog back in May/June 2006 Creative thinking isn't just for clients. By David MacGregor There was a time when advertising agencies played a far more significant role in the business lives of their clients than they do today. In order to renew those relationships, agencies are going to have to shift their thinking to compete or be consigned, as Mike Hutcheson has famously said, to being ‘colouring-in factories’. Creativity is lauded as the most important quality when using or choosing an ad agency. The problem is that creativity (as it is understood by most creative...

Trip to Mars This post is a trial. I'm using a blog editor that has been recommended Guy Kawasaki. It's called MarsEdit. So far I can't see the point. The built in Blogger tools seem to work just fine for me. RSS Rocks. I can recommend the Sage RSS reader - plugin for Firefox. I haven't really used RSS feeds much but I think I'm a convert. Of course no one preaches like the converted. Gun Running Watched Andy Niccol's Lord of War . Like most Niccol's movies it it based on a strong concept and beautifully executed. Gattaca, SimOne and The Truman Show are amongst my favourite flicks. Before heading for London he worked at Rialto Advertising in Auckland. I took over his office. By all accounts he is a very driven man. has a very clear vision of what he wants and gets it. Gotta admire that in a fellow.

I wonder what percentage of the news, in time and column inches' is devoted to the subject of climate change or global warming (a rose by any other name…)? There is so much comment about it that result will most likely be that a) we become immune to the message b) we might modify our behaviour in response c)we might reject the message. All are plausible scenarios. But let's think about the last of the list for a moment. Why would we reject the message? Surely, with such media weight, it must be hitting it's target? Who can possibly refute the spectre of global warming? If we don't do something we're going to destroy the planet - or rather make it uninhabitable by humans and the bugs will take over (which might not be such a bad thing - given the way we've behaved). But the waters in the flow of information are treacherous. Whether you 'believe' that the Earth's climate is changing because it is just a part of the natural ebb and flow of climate over...

If I was to stand upright on the foot brake of my mortorcycle to exert as much downward force from the pads to the rear drum as possible in order to avoid colliding with the back end of an 18 wheeler the only significant difference it would make would be the shape of the blood splatter. The CSI team would simply surmise I had stood up at the moment of impact. And they would be baffled by the apparent absence of any skid mark to demonstrate any kind of attempt at self preservation. The brake is pathetic. Recently I've developed an aversion to yanking on the front anchors. The result is usually less than glamorous and involves another big dent on my helmet and/or my pride/dignity. So I have decided the thing to do is to maintain speed. If I want to slow down - chop it down a couple of cogs and let different laws of physics play out. The bonus is it sounds better too and with higher revs more power is available to exit the problem zone. If I was to apply this kind of thinking to busi...

I was discussing the essentials of life with a friend yesterday. Not the food, shelter and sex essentials but the things we integrate into our personalities and which ultimately shape our behaviours and relationships. As I have been feeling a little adrift of late it was useful to remind my self of some of the things I once regarded as mantras. My essentials for a productive and happy life: simplicity tenacity self discipline If these three things are kept in balance my personal ecosystem will function happily. When I drift off-course they are easy beacons by which to return to an even keel. No one element on the list is more important than each of the others though I suppose self discipline is always the hardest for me to maintain. I believe the same list applies to advertisers. Complexity never works. It scuppers understanding. Giving up too soon is one of the most frequently committed errors in marketing. Sometimes things take time. In a busy, cluttered world of media being familia...

Matt Cooney, editor of Idealog asked me to review a couple of books the other day. Wikinomics - How mass collaboration changes everything and The Cult of the Amateur . The former I found interesting because it confirmed my worldview. The latter I hated - with a passion. It is possibly the most venal book I have ever read. The author Andrew Keen argues that the Internet - and particularly Web 2.0 - is 'killing our culture and assaulting our economy'. It is so bad that, at times I wondered if it was a joke. But the problem with criticism is that there will always be bias. As I said, my worldview is that open communication is more illuminating than the dark ages of the 20th Century when mass audiences sat mutely in front of the tele while advertisers did the talking. So, naturally, I am going to take issue with the idea that because I'm a blogger I am a mouth breathing fool who is either uninformed or simply repeating without consideration what I am told or read of another...

"A failure is a man who has blundered but is not able to cash in on the experience." "Life is just one damned thing after another." (Both from Elbert Hubbard - look him up on the wikipedia . If it's wrong - change it)

The worst kept secret in music history has been confirmed. Led Zep are going to reunite for a concert honouring the memory of ahmed ertegun . The catch is that there will only be 18,000 tickets for the one show only event. And you thought it was hard to get tickets for the Warriors… John Bonham's son will take his father's place behind the drum kit.

“The less government we have the less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of formal government is the influence of private character, the growth of the individual . . . Leave this hypocritical prating about the masses. Masses are rude, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence. I wish not to concede anything to them, but to divide and break them up, and draw individuals out of them . . . The only progress ever known was of the individual . . . In all my lectures, I have taught one doctrine, namely, the infinitude of the private man . . . I cannot find language of sufficient energy to convey my sense of the sacredness of private integrity.”

When I was younger I read 'On the road' by Jack Kerouac. I don't know if I understood it. Around that time I also read Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance and Steppenwolf. I was seventeen and it all meant just about everything to me. And diddlysquat at the same time. I had no idea what they were all about or on about. Kerouac had been the darling of the beat poets. But it beat me. Herman Hesse had a European sensibility that seemed strange and mysterious. I loved the idea of a traveller. In Hesse it is often the character who drifts from town to Town - an outsider - knapsack on his back. I could imagine a Bavarian greensward, I could project my self there. Kerouac promised much the same, No knapsack but maybe a Buick or a Chev, knackered but functional. Zen and the Art satisfied my craving for conversation - Chautauqua… I loved them all but my late adolescent brain didn't join the dots. All I knew was that they resonated with me. I could feel the boom in my chest ...

Before enlightenment: chop wood, fetch water. After enlightenment: chop wood, fetch water. Today I heard that Anita Roddick died of a 'brain haemorrhage' (a stroke?*). She was not only an astonishingly successful entrepreneur. She eschewed advertising to build the body shop brand. But, ironically, she used communication tools as persuasively - or more so - than many with titanic budgets. If someone were to ask me how to build a successful brand I would say - study the rise of Anita Roddick. She was genius at touting her cause and associating her brand with that cause. Per my previous post - she stood for something - though she didn't spend money on the media she spent time courting the media and inviting consumers to participate in a conversation that was so much more important than their choice of soap or balm. When you chose Body Shop products you could not only feel pampered and 'good' you could feel that you were also, if only vicariously, doing good by dealing...

Collaboration isn't easy. But it is essential. Especially if you want a good grade in my marketing communications class. I have set an assignment that is something of an experiment. The entire class are to work on a project. All are to make a contribution to branding, developing the product and promoting an online TV channel for the design school to promote ideas and innovation. The work has been divided, tasks assigned, jobs to be done - it requires individual effort and shared responsibility. At the end there will be one mark, one grade. Win or lose. Just like real life. To make it fair each of the students must keep a record of their ideas and contributions to the project in the form of a blog. Today was the first day back in class after a two week study break. The room was almost empty.I was disappointed. I wanted to hear how the project was going and make sure that things were on track. So I lectured those that were present about the importance of being present and participati...

Who was it that said " If you don't stand for anything you'll fall for everything. "? Whoever it was, they were right. I have worked with clients big and small who suffer from an intense desire to hedge their bets. Instead of being The One and Only in their category they become one of many. They tow the line - the conventions of their category. In short they waste their money. The classic symptoms are: A lack of courage. If you won't develop a voice of your own then you will be lost in the choir. Quick, name a member of the choir at la Scala. Didn't think you could. But would you be in any doubt when you hear the sound of Callas, Pavarotti or Bono (ok bono isn't an opera singer but he has a talent for popping up everywhere - so La Scala wouldn't be out of the question would it?). There is nothing wrong with being in harmony - but be in harmony with your customers not your competitors. Stick out like a sore thumb. Just stick out. Be famous for something...

Just finished reading Crimes against logic by Jamie Whyte. Picked it up on the off chance that it might be interesting. Whyte used to lecture in Philosophy at Cambridge University. He won a gong from a magazine called Analysis. I didn't know there was a philosophy magazine. What kind of ads do they carry? Books and conferences I suppose. It's bugging me now. What would a philosophy magazine look like? I suppose if it was an existential one it wouldn't matter. It would look thoughtful . Dense text, not much leading. What would the thinking person's typeface look like. Garamond? Something tweedy with leather pads on the elbows? Would it smoke a pipe. Free pipe with issue 1. Collect all four. But back to the book: In the chapter 'Empty Words' Jamie (if you'll excuse the familiarity - I'll tell you why I grant license to myself in a minute…depending on your reading speed) talks about 'Hooray Words': "Do you think it is just that those who earn...

"I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frostwork, but the solidest things we know." R W Emerson. I have had a number of conversations with friends of late where the friendship itself has been tested by disagreement or by a sense of sleight (real or imagined). One person has spectacularly vanished from the radar over a disagreement that I have to say was of no great importance to me but plainly was sufficient to end the regular conversations we had had for the other party. But in the main I find that the best friendships - which I characterise as conversations - are those that are durable in every sense of the word: able to be enjoyed over time because they are interesting and well made and able to take the hard knocks of strong wills and differing ideas. It is the exchange of ideas that I like the most. When I said that friendships had been tested. I am glad to say that, in the main, they have not prov...

I wrote about Pavarotti the other day. This evening the news is that he has died. A sad loss. Pavarotti's voice may have been diminished in his later years but so what. His rendition of Nessum Dorma at the soccer World Cup saw him cross over from the rarified world of opera into the pop culture consciousness. The power and emotion in his voice introduced another generation to an art form that seemed stagnant. When he joined Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras to perform as The Three Tenors the game was ratcheted up another notch - from opera star to worldwide celebrity. He may be gone but he was so iconic he will remain a permanent part of the cultural landscape - probably as a mountain.

I saw this ad in TV tonight. Felt an uncontrollable urge to visit. You see…advertising works.

Women in art. Who's your pick? Any Cubist or Futurist girls out there…

You've probably seen this already. The film morphs images of female movie stars from the beginning of the technology to the present (to the Bach cello piece that is on the Master and Commander Soundtrack - Yoyo Ma does a nice version of it) I find it interesting because it is not until near the very end that a black woman emerges. Though I'm not militant about it I find the representation of women in media potentially destructive. I worry for my seven year old daughter when she is spoon fed images in movies, television and advertising that have nothing to do with her. The other day she told me she wants to be a vegetarian because she doesn't want to get fat. Zoe is the nearest thing to a string bean possible without becoming a snow pea. In part the fixation comes, I believe, from obsessive media messages about how 'we' are all becoming obese (taking a statistical average then reapplying it to the sample as something generaly applicable doesn't make any sense). B...

I was a fan of the TV show Six Feet Under. In the beginning it was something fresh. As the series progressed the storylines became more absurd. The opening titles were also groundbreaking and much emulated since. On a visit to California some time ago I spotted a hearse for sale in Venice - complete with gurney. It was unbelievably cheap, about $700. Not bad for a Cadillac…tempting though it was I didn't have the time to figure out how I would freight it back to New Zealand. As it was Halloween the chap selling the vehicle was dressed as the Grim Reaper - complete with sickle. Where's you camera when you need it? Perhaps this realistic scale model 1966 Cadillac S&S Landau Hearse which can be had for a paltry $99USD from a website called PushinDaisies . According to the site: This beautiful model hearse is a rear loader and comes complete with an extending rear service table to help load the casket. As always each model comes complete with a removable wood grain casket as w...

Was it Mark Twain or Samuel Pepys who said "I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead."? No matter. You get the point. I came across a new site ( via badbanana ) that you might find interesting. abriefmessage.com publishes 200 word treatise on design. It's a smart idea. It has smart design. Right now there's only one post - about the demise* of print. Worth visiting. Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated.(Why is everything attributed to Mark Twain as if by default?)

Remember when businesses scrambled to secure their space on the web then put nothing there except for a cheesy graphic? I have been reworking my own website. It was very out of date. S'funny I can keep a blog trickling along for fun but left my website like the proverbial builder's house. Rather than put up a sign I have been messing around with Photoshop and made a page that I have been gradually adding to since Friday. My version of a Dutch vanitas painting? My year of working on a Master's thesis is coming to an end. I'm wondering what to do to occupy myself. If you know any interesting gigs coming up - drop me a line .

I've been spammed all week by well meaning companies all over the country. I'm not being offered anything useful like a penis extension, cheap viagra or the opportunity to help out a Nigerian access their windfall. I've had to settle for this: You are receiving this email because at some time you have provided us with your email address for the receipt of email newsletters/ product information and/or promotional material. The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 comes into effect on 5 September. This means we need to check with you to confirm whether you want to continue to receive correspondence from us via email. The Act requires customers to “Opt In” to receive electronic messages. To ensure that you continue to receive newsletters/product information and/or promotional material, please click here. WHY OPT IN? Well the main reason is to be kept up to date with the latest products and specials and receive exclusive offers only available via email. If you do not wish t...