#filmthis 1

New series. Likely to be as spontaneous and unpredictable as any series I've ever started. I begin with that as a warning so that I won't feel the need to apologize for my erratic publishing schedule in the future. This one will be called #filmthis.

We all imagine film story ideas or even just clips we'd like to see in a film. Maybe a favorite actor in a certain tone of film, filmed in a specific place you've found. Or a type of character that matches that interesting friend of yours in a situation that you imagine. So that's what #filmthis is. It's my random filmatic moments. It's the blips of imagination that I hunger to produce to a full story and feed on through a movie screen.

#filmthis
1. Film directed by Christopher Guest about a married couple, both psychiatrists.

2. Take the bizarre and dark structure from Greenwood cemetary and use it in a dark, brainy, twisted film. The structure would be the home of a dark character, acted out by Johnny Depp. The inspiration of the story-line would be a dark version of 'Le Petit Prince.'

only the scruffy and swift will survive

We live in a paradox. On the one hand we have the practice of branding. Of creating a perfectly sculpted piece of culture and business that we will protect. On the other, is the practice in society of acting upon our creative energy immediately. We quickly create cultural pieces that live to be spread, remixed and respread. These published rough drafts are left to be polished by remixers, or not at all.  Taking the time to perfectly polish something like Mike Relm's remix of the @OldSpice campaign would have meant rounds of approval from numerous sources and weeks of revisions. By the time the thing broke it would have felt like old news arriving to the scene.

Luckily, people get that every creative bit that hits YouTube won't be perfect. I'll never forget the advice that my art teacher gave me as a kid. She said "art is never finished." You could continue tweaking and obsessing over a piece of art for weeks or even years. But this is branding, it isn't art. Brands need to stop being overly precious and start getting swift and scruffy with their creative to be culturally relevant.

magic dust don't last forever

Ahh antibiotics. They're like magic. They make you go from feeling completely wiped out to shiny and new in 2.5 days. But, when you head out for your 6.6 mile training run, the magic starts to fade. By the last mile this morning I realized that no matter how fabulous Ticker Bell's dust may be, once you've worn out the glow you stop flying and gravity has it's way with you.

What I'm saying is. I'm tried of having allergies that make me sick. And maybe I should have only gone for the 5 mile run today.

weekend trip tool

I get one Friday off a month this summer and want to take quick, relaxing, cheap trips. Wish there was a site that showed you a map with circles surrounding your immediate area telling you what was within a 1, 2 or 3 hour plane, train, or bus ride of you. It would be matched up with Foursquare's API or FB or Loopt or something that would tell you which of your friends were within those circles.

So let's say that I was using it (like my terrible drawing?), I could see that Philly is only a 1.5 hour train ride away and that my friend Erica lives there. Then I would be able to drop Erica a line to see if she would mind me visiting for the weekend.

Alright. So who can build this?

chugging along slowly

An hour and 45 minutes after we were supposed to depart, we have now loaded the train. Conductor just announced that we will be waiting here until they fix the track, or something similar to that. No one on the train could really hear the announcement so it's that's our best guess. Great.

How is it that the oldest form of mass ground transportation still hasn't figured out how to get people from A to B on time and without headache? Makes me think of the old Einstein quote: "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." Maybe it's time for Amtrak to think outside of it's own antiqued level of consciousness and typical methods of problem solving. We may be able to find a new way to fix trains or track issues, a new way to construct the equipment entirely or perhaps even just a way to make the wait worth a traveler's while. 


#comeonamtrak

television set, there's hope for you yet

Was reading an article about Google TV. Google TV will allow us to surf the web and watch video via our televisions through a device that we will buy and attach to our sets.

So we went from group television watching - sitting around the tube with our friends/family sharing a bowl of popcorn to watching solo via laptops and Hulu. For many, television via web has become the preferred method of access to our favorite shows. It lets us watch when we want and with limited commercials.  However, it's made what used to be a shared experience into a lonely activity. Head-phones on, sitting in front of a 13 inch screen doesn't leave a lot of room for companions.

I think the opportunity in Google TV is that it can introduce group watching to Hulu-watching. It will allow us to marry the shared experience of watching television with the benefits of online-show watching. Welcome back to the age of social television.

peoplematter

Brilliant idea by artist Nic Rad. With his recent art exhibit PeopleMatter, Nic painted over 100 portraits of people who have pushed ideas and influenced others in journalism, media, blogging and music. 99 of them were given away for free to people who contacted the artist with a solid reason of why they wanted that portait.

Nic made the fans the curators of the exhibit, asking them to decide which people belonged on the free wall and who should be banished to the pay wall. If you felt that you belonged on that wall, you could petition Nic with your reason why you are an influencer.

The wall ended up with a wild mix from Malcolm Gladwell and Barbara Walters to a porn star and Perez Hilton.

I got the painting of Meagan O'Connell.

Here's why I wanted that painting:

Ended up on the video coverage that Gawker did of the show, kinda funny. Nice voice over from Nic about the show:

Nic*Rad - PeopleMatter - Rare Gallery 4/29/2010 from Richard Blakeley on Vimeo.

rva or no?

Urtak 2600

It is a 6 hour bus ride... but would be really nice to get down there... See the professors, old friends and some of my old haunts. Erg. What to do?

dream on dreamers

Weird mix of reality and dreams for me. Was filling out the entry form to win HGTV's dream house. Every year they build an amazing house in a picturesque location, fill it with top furniture and then give it away for free. If that isn't good enough, they also give the winner a new car and $100,000 cash. I noticed a poll next to the entry form asking "what will you do with the $100,000?" I was surprised to see that the answer with the highest votes what "pay off debt." '

That website was all about dreams - dreaming of starting a new life where you live in a perfect house in a lovely neighborhood. Clearly though the more we see we could have the more we realize we lack. Seems like so many dreamers out there find their realities too heavy to dream with abandon.

how to become a good brand

Really like this report from PSFK on good brands.

Good Brands Report 2010

View more documents from PSFK.

family fun: recession's resulting laughter

One of the positive results of the recession (as difficult as it is to find positives from that situation) was the return to family-time. Families were shifting their entertain budgets to staycations and board games, keeping them closer to home and bringing them closer together. The return of family-time means a need for more family-entertainment and hence we have emerging family entertainment.

Welcome back to the good ol' days of TV family comedy. We've gone from television portraying a desperate and deranged suburbs to television that entertains us by celebrating the beautiful imperfection of family life. 'Modern Family,' 'Glee' and 'Secret Life of the American Teenager' are there to show us how our wholesome American values live in the modern world.

Makes you wonder... Do families that laugh together, live together more happily? Could stronger family values and ties lead to fewer divorces? During the recession many couples put off getting divorced because of the high associated costs. What's become of those couples? Are they enjoying a laugh on the couch with the kids? Could the time have mended those wounds? As we gracefully exit the recessive stage of the union, will more couples remain united?

poll says...

@heyamberrae just shared this new polling site with me - urtak.com. You create your own polling question, then people can add relating questions (or otherwise I suppose). The eventual results are layers of interesting human insights. Some interesting potential in this one...

Urtak 2185

broadband - causing the downfall of the elitist art world

In a Wired Magazine article, Banksy discusses power in the art world: "There’s a whole new audience out there, and it’s never been easier to sell it, particularly at the lower levels. You don’t have to go to college, drag ’round a portfolio, mail off transparencies to snooty galleries or sleep with someone powerful. All you need now is a few ideas and a broadband connection. This is the first time the essentially bourgeois world of art has belonged to the people. We need to make it count."

location-based drink-thinking

The mobile-tech trend of location-based is moving beyond social media. How could a beverage brand adapt the idea to location-based drinks? One idea, a drink could create it’s own Foursquare check-in that drinkers would check into when drinking. Or maybe a hashtag that a Foursquare user writes into their message when drinking that drink in a particular place. For a reward, they could earn a badge from Foursquare for associating with that drink. The reward for the brand is an association with a particular moment or type of venue. That, along with the fact that when you check into Foursquare it sends all of your users a text, so lots of exposure for the brand coming from trusted sources. 


Wrote this for liquidinspiration.blogspot.com, reposting. 

racing for a cure!!

I'm training to run the NYC Marathon November 7, 2010 with the  Leukemia Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. In order to run I have to raise $3,800 for cancer research and programs for cancer patients. Support the cause and this diabetic kid running the marathon by donating through my page!