How am I driving?
Some work in progress…
Stupid is as stupid does
Walk in any subway station in NYC and you’ll see Diesel’s current campaign BE STUPID. And maybe it’s exactly what their creative agency of choice Anomaly banked on, but it had me rooting for stupid too. Maybe it was the multiplatform campaign, which no doubt cost a pretty penny (not to mention an all expense paid trip across Mongolia by train or if you prefer shark swimming in South Africa) but the campaign struck a chord with me. Mainly, because I’ve recently taken a contract corporate gig, I now know what it means to die a little each day. Yes, I had some doubts from the beginning, but I also had high hopes, believing I could play a pivotal role in a redesign, rethinking how an e-commerce site functioned anew, but what I’ve discovered is something else entirely, something which spoke to the first lines of Diesel’s campaign copy “Like balloons we are all filled with hopes and dreams but over time a single sentence creeps into our live…Don’t be stupid. It’s the crusher of possibility.” And maybe e-commerce isn’t necessarily the place for experimentation and online innovation but it should be.
Tacombi Time
It’s hard to say when it all began or where to pick up the thread of how I came to work with a taco truck from Playa del Carmen and Mexican chef, Aaron Sanchez. I suppose I’d have to go back to those awkward adolescent years.
At 15, I’d gotten my first job, waitressing in a small town seafood restaurant, the beginning of what would become a mainstay profession throughout my education. The job enabled me to save enough money to go on a five month exchange to Madrid, Spain where I happened to pick up a bit of Spanish (though mostly forgotten it came in handy when applying at a Mexican restaurant). In college it paid the bills, and was often a second job through my first career missteps.
After a short stint as a hair transplant technician, I found myself returning to art school at Parsons, and thus went back to the old familiar routine of waitressing and school. At the time, Drew Nieporent was just about to open his latest restaurant with an up and coming new face, Aaron Sanchez.
I’d spend the next 2 years at Centrico while earning my second degree at Parsons. It was in that time that I’d make some really lasting friendships and what would ultimately lead me to a small town in Mexico, sampling the bite size deliciousness of Tacombi.
With a lease finally signed, I’m looking forward to getting to work!
Gettin my hands dirty…
A Producer’s Life: Journey of ‘The Yellow Bittern’
To the average movie-goer the term producer sort of gets lost somewhere between “mover and shaker” and a “show me the money” persona. Few outside the industry have a real grasp for how integral the role is in the making of any film or project for that matter. The finesse, the patience and above all the creative pragmatism carefully mixed with a driven determinism.
Take Anna Rodgers, one of the producers for The Yellow Bittern, a documentary film about the life and times of Liam Clancy. Liam was the youngest member of the group The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, Ireland’s first pop stars. An appearance by the group on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1961 and their fame was officially cemented, within a year they would sell out Carnegie Hall.
Rodgers spent the last five years working with Clancy on numerous productions from The Legend of Liam Clancy to Liam Clancy and Friends, Live at The Bitter End and the final documentary feature The Yellow Bittern.
From the logistics of shoot coordination, research and footage acquisition to making sure Liam got through New York City’s Gay Pride Parade to his concert across town relatively on time and in one piece – the producer made it happen.
I’m reminded of an article written by Ted Royer, Executive Creative Director for Droga5 NY, entitled “I want to marry a producer.”
Left Brain, Right Brain – An Experiment in “Innovation” & the Resume
I’d thought a lot about how to present myself. After all, I’m a designer and my profession is rooted in the fact that good design and thoughtful execution matters. I wanted to reach out to the kinds of people that I wanted to work for and learn from. I also wanted to make an impression. While for the last year I’ve been lucky to have some loyal clients and some really terrific film projects, you cannot escape the fact that we are in a recession, the likes of which have not been seen since the 1920′s. And for every open position who knows how many overly qualified candidates were applying. The Wall Street Journal had even featured a piece about dumbing down the resume.
Please Enjoy…
Surprisingly, I’d known about Ji Lee’s work long before I ever knew about anything about him. In fact, you probably do too. If not walking the streets of Manhattan then perhaps perusing blogs online. His work has that quality that catches attention without screaming at you. I literally went through every page of his website, I don’t think I’ve ever done that. To be quite honest, that fact alone is inspirational. His work is playful but sophisticated, smart but accessible-he excites curiosity, not to mention the man seems to have the right balance between life and work…anyway, in his own words, “please enjoy.”
Protected: Re:Writing the Resume
My City’s Keeper
Nostalgia, it can be a wonderful journey through the past, where faint memories find a form more colorful, sensuous, more gripping than the actual event. It’s why the lament, “the good old days” so often finds itself on the lips of those who traverse down memory lane. Its mesmerizing influence has the potential to plant seeds of inspiration grown stronger in foreign soil. But like all things in nature, it has an equal and opposite contingent, which can be a suffocating grip, immobilizing the romancer and crippling the very environment that spawned its vitality.
Nowhere more do you see this phenomena embodied than in a city like New York, where for the past two centuries, with the constant influx of new people, it has become a powerful influencer worldwide in everything from the currency you spend to the clothing you wear.
Look at me, you know what you see, you see a bad mutha…
I’d come across Jef Aerosol on the Wooster Collective blog, at first scan I had actually thought it was Bansky..in any case, it prompted me to dive a little deeper. Turns out he had his New York City debut at the Adhoc gallery in Brooklyn just this past week, the show which opened on January 29th will go through till February 21.
While I would have to say his work lacks the serendipitous/deliberate combination and context that is so marked in Bansky’s work, he’s equally skilled in the art of the stencil. The Brooklyn Street Art site actually shows the steps of each stencil for his latest portrait, a tribute to the Empire State, featuring Jay-Z and a testament to the man’s painstaking skills.
As an aside, what’s the deal with Carlito Brigante aka Charles le Brigand for the Godfather of Soul?