The Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea

"Swimming cities of Switchback Sea is a flotilla of seven intricately hand crafted vessels that will navigate the stretch of the Hudson River between Troy and the New York harbor this August 15th - September 7th. Imagined as a hybrid between boats and bits of land mass broken off and headed out to sea, the Switchback vessels will make stops in towns along the river bringing performances and music. Over the course of three weeks they will make their way toward their home port - an invented landscape tucked into a niche along the East River in Long Island City, Queens.

The Swimming Cities is designed and organized by printmaker and installation artist Swoon. Collaborators include playwright Lisa D’Amour, the band Dark Dark Dark and circus composer Sxip Shirey. Propulsion systems brought by John Rinaldi and Kinetic Steam Works. Boat design and carpentry created in close collaboration with Jeff Stark, Iris Lasson, and with guidance from The Floating Neutrinos. This is Swoon’s second major installation with Deitch Projects."

So ILL

Let your Hair down with Falcon Motorcycles

"Falcon Motorcycles is a custom motorcycle company that specializes in taking the raw derelict frames and engines of post war British motorcycles, and transforming them into one-of-a-kind, handmade machines.^[2] It was founded in 2007, by at the time underground motorcycle builder Ian Barry and his British born fiancee Amaryllis Knight. Each motorcycle produced by Falcon is unique, and personalized from frame to engine, the majority of parts being custom created for the rider, whilst rare vintage parts are modified and tailored to the specific buyer. or bike^[3]

Falcon Motorcycle's exclusive custom work is "breathing new life into the business of custom motorcycle construction" according to UK's Esquire Magazine, who chose Falcon's motorbikes to represent custom motorcycles in the magazine's 2008 "Style 100" issue.^[4]

Falcon developed an avid following, and a devoted group of clientele, that include amongst many celebrities such as Queens of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, professional skateboarder Jason Lee and actor Giovanni Ribisi.^[5]. The un-repeated motorcycles are known for being fast, stripped-down customs, that stay true to the design styles of their period, while being filled with innovative ideas and design.^[6]"

Ghostland Observatory at Street Scene

I was lucky enough to witness Texas Electro/Punk/ Dance duo Ghostland Observatory, killing it at San Diego's Street Scene. If you can dance and have any sense of adventure, these guys will rock your face off completely...talk about sound and lights.

NEW Microsoft Ads

Computer Conglomerate Microsoft gave their 300 million dollar advertising account to Crispin Porter + Bogusky, a creative agency run out of its offices in Boulder, Venice Beach and Miami. 300 million dollars for such gratuitous celebrity endorsement, are you being fooled?

RAEN OPTICS

Brothers Justin and Jeremy Heit's dreams of starting a line of designer sunglasses has come true and we all should consider ourselves lucky! These frames are aimed to fit those who express themselves not only while surfing, skating and snowboarding but also on canvas, on record and many other platforms as well. Take a peek at what you'll be wishing was protecting your eyes from the suns harmful UV rays at RAENOPTICS.COM.

Cold War Kids: Loyalty to Loyalty

The Cold War Kids are my favorite band and they are releasing a new album this September 23rd, the title is Loyalty to Loyalty and you should check it out then buy it, because you will not be disappointed.

What Women Want?

In or around the year 2000 someone thought it might be a good idea to make a movie where an Advertising Agency executive played by Mel Gibson, loses a promotion to become Creative Director, to a rival agency's employee, played by Helen Hunt. In this opening plot conflict we learn good ol' Mel is a womanizer a bum father and rather promiscuous person all together, somewhere along the way in some poorly conjured up way (after personally using a wide array of feminine products) he achieves the ability to hear women's inner most thoughts. This may sound like something men could use to their advantage or something that women would like their men to be more in tune with...well it isn't going to happen. That's why Ad Agency's have planners and if they don't they should. If you want to watch a bad movie with a whole bunch of ridiculous predictable plot twists...go ahead.

Finally Puerto Rico pics!

These are the last of my Puerto Rico pictures from this past January. I've been busy with Russel Davies Business Challenges...and so much more.

Remember those GI-JOE PSA'a

Someone had a lot of time on their hands to do almost every single PSA...what we wouldn't do without You Tube.

Copa Crescent

If you ever have a chance to be in Portland for a couple days and you have any taste in music, do yourself a freaking favor and check out Copa Crescent. This quartet of funky fresh fools will let their jazz hip-hop fusion make you groove all night long. Check their homepage at www.copacrescent.com for show dates and other info.

Career Jamming

Equipped with some last minute advice from a mentor of mine, I decided to Jam on up to Portland for the Portland Advertising Federation's "Career Jam" this past weekend. With my resume and a cover letter in hand, I had the chance to participate in some rousing Panel discussions held by members of Portland's finest Ad/ Branding agencies and also dominate a couple rounds of "speed interviews." I learned a lot, interviewed a lot, ate to little, made some valuable connections and listened to the best speech from this freelance copywriter who will remain nameless (not only due to my memory but also because the paper that I jotted his name down on is at the bottom of my bag and I have yet to unpack!). I'm beginning to think this Portland place has a plan for me.

Jeff Soto is an artist

This is a man named Jeff Soto, he does lots of art that will blow you away. This is Jeff standing next to an installation piece he created for a gallery showing somewhere in southern California. Need More? Check out www.potatostamp.com or www.jeffsoto.com .
He works in so many ways and on so many surfaces, and he is one of my favorite artists.

Something Intriguing

This philosophical tid-bit always made me wonder...wrap your head around this one!

Imagine prisoners who have been chained since their chidhood deep inside a cave: not only are their arms and legs unmovable because of chains; their heads are chained in one direction as well so that their gaze is fixed on a wall.

Behind the prisoners is an enormous fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway, along which puppets of various animals, plants, and other things are moved along. The puppets cast shadows on the wall, and the prisoners watch these shadows. When one of the puppet-carriers speaks, an echo against the wall causes the prisoners to believe that the words come from the shadows.

The prisoners engage in what appears to us to be a game: naming the shapes as they come by. This, however, is the only reality that they know, even though they are seeing merely shadows of objects. They are thus conditioned to judge the quality of one another by their skill in quickly naming the shapes and dislike those who play poorly.

Suppose a prisoner is released and compelled to stand up and turn around. At that moment his eyes will be blinded by the sunlight coming into the cave from its entrance, and the shapes passing by will appear less real than their shadows.

The last object he would be able to see is the sun, which, in time, he would learn to see as the object that provides the seasons and the courses of the year, presides over all things in the visible region, and is in some way the cause of all these things that he has seen.

Once enlightened, so to speak, the freed prisoner would not want to return to the cave to free "his fellow bondsmen," but would be compelled to do so. Another problem lies in the other prisoners not wanting to be freed: descending back into the cave would require that the freed prisoner's eyes adjust again, and for a time, he would be one of the ones identifying shapes on the wall. His eyes would be swamped by the darkness, and would take time to become acclimated. Therefore, he would not be able to identify the shapes on the wall as well as the other prisoners, making it seem as if his being taken to the surface completely ruined his eyesight. (The Republic bk. VII, 516b-c; trans. Paul Shorey)

Personal Work

I do not consider myself entirely a creative, but dabbling in what I hope to help to assist in making relevant to a consumer, is something I enjoy. Here's an example of some ideas and mock-ups I executed for a Athletic body composition scanning device that I re-branded with the name "BodyMap." Whether the company uses the name or not is another question...at the time they liked it! (Big learning experience about group work) Some of these potential ads were targeted at personal trainers and the health and fitness markets, others were targeted at investors.

Nikdaum.com Rules

This website was created by a now former employee of Wieden and Kennedy, named Nik. His work is fun, weird, confusing, disturbing and innovative...do yourself a freaking favor and check it out!

CWS - Commercial

This a commercial in some foreign country for CWS-Complete Washroom Solutions. Multiple Innuendos and can you count the stereotypes? Still fascinating work give it a quick look...

GMail Art

Another example of excellent planning out of Saatchi and Saatchi's Moscow office. These guys/gals were using this viral peice to make Russians aware of the Google's new Gmail application. I made the switch...did you?

Fail Harder

This idea made me want to work at an agency with a philosophy that appreciates failure as much as they appreciate success...ultimate failure ultimately leads to success.

Life Changing Experience

My Interactive Media Seminar class made a field trip up to Weiden and Kennedy in Portland a few months ago(It's been a while since an update) and also to another agency, Avenue A Razorfish. Needless to say the trip was full of inspiration and also great insight into how an agency operates on a day-to-day basis. My life was changed and I'm so happy my professor did not leave me behind, when I was late to the bus, becuase I might not now be so excited about making my career in Advertising Account Planning happen! Thanks Prof!












Why was this photo taken of me that morning? I'm not sure maybe I look pensive and smart, I think it's just foolish. (I still don't know when this picture was taken, but at least I know I was in W+K)

Can you say Puerto Rico...

Recently my friend Peter and I made a great decision to leave the miserable cold weather of Eugene, Or and head southeast to little island called Puerto Rico. With nothing but plane tickets and the name of a man from the small surf town of Rincón, on the Northwest corner of the island, to guide us, we set off from PDX on what we consider a epic surf trip and learning experience. Needless to say the surf was great, our guide Eliér and his family (who pretty much own Rincón)were greater and the escape was just the cure for our Eugene, Or blues. Watch out for the eastcoasters, this is their premiere winter destination and it was weird to hear a thick New York accent yelling at you after taking off on a wave they were going to "take a wicked biff" on anyway...more photos to come...


















Elier will hook you up.