whizdumb

Rear window parking dispute

Last night we were in our living room when we heard some commotion outside.  We looked out our apartment's rear window to see quite the dramatic parking space squabble in progress.

It seems two cars happened upon the same space at roughly the same time.  Each felt a perfect claim to the spot, and each dug in their heels.

One was a silver minivan with an Asian couple.  The other a cherry red Land Rover with two African American girlfriends.  The best part was that each car's passenger walked out to stand as a human road block in front of the other car. 

A perfect stalemate. With nothing but pride and concrete hanging in the balance. Asian vs. Black,  Minivan vs. SUV. Not that their races or car types had anything to do with the fight.  But I could almost see the Daily News article unfolding before my eyes.

There was  lot of yelling and some awesome dissing body language, but it never did come to blows or anything truly newsworthy. So my dream of retiring from a photo journalistic windfall still lives on. 

One side gave up before the cops came.  Can you guess which one?

See the whole set of pics and witness the victor here.

Design and the Elastic Mind

If you haven't heard of or seen this exhibit, I'd call it a must if you find yourself in New York sometime between now and May 12 when it closes.  Loads of inspiration and mind fodder for anyone interested in the role of design in an information and technological society.

Among the many wonders on display are instant furniture, nano inventions, and a new piece by Jonathan Harris.

If you can't make it in person, the MoMA's exhibit website is a meaty proxy for it.

Music sampling in a subway tunnel

Recently in a NY subway I saw these two posters for a new live John Legend album distributed exclusively by Target.  They were side by side, to be taken together as a single bit of communication. 

But they could be seen as two approaches to advertising the same thing.  The first poster was simply a glossy announcement of the album and it's exclusive retailer.  The second invited you to sample the music right there, from a red box with a speaker jack ready for your headphones. 

Here are some samples from the album.

These two posters could serve as a kind of before-and-after exhibit for outdoor media.  Before: The basic poster bringing you in with a shot of the musician, just the facts.  And after: A more interactive sampling of the real product.  But they need to be taken together as a whole to have greatest effect. 

I don't think this is particularly remarkable communication. But it does hit on the brilliant basics of using media these days. 

And I feel it could have gone further, say, by inviting you to a free song when you visit target.com.  Or even providing a docking station for iPods to download the song then and there (not sure how technically feasible that would be).  Or a ShopText type code to buy the album instantly.  There are more and more ways outdoor media is fostering a richer interaction or sampling with products and ideas.

Three cheers to those pushing the envelope.  And to those licking it.

BBH's response to talent crisis: an idea

With all the chatter about the talent crisis in agencies these days it's nice to see at least one agency taking a novel approach to finding good people.  BBH has taken a page from Monster's lauded 1999 commercial, which was lampooned in another all-too-long advertising film (and then downhill even further to this waste of time).  Although not completely original the BBH take is executed with more craft and wit than the rest.  And though I struggled sometimes to understand what he was saying, to my American ears the accents only add to the fun.

Via Only Dead Fish

Ssllooww ddaanncciinngg

Here's a brutally simple idea.  Take something that is usually fast and frenetic. Then slow it way down to reveal its every detail.

Artist David Michalek has a traveling installation that does just that.  He takes hyper slow motion HD videos of the world's best dancers then projects them larger than life. Here's a sample, though the real videos are much slower.  They take an original 5 seconds of live action and extend it to 10 minutes.

Apple profiled the artist and gets into the technical end of the production.  More to learn is at the official Slow Dancing Films website.

Best Bio contest

I think there should be one.  I find most bios to be either totally dull or overthought nonesense.  Have you come across any weird and wonderful ones lately?  Let me know.  For the moment, this one from Demetri Martin is the reigning champ.

The planner as writer

After I read this quote I remembered the times I've struggled to get it right on a brief.  Ultimately I would come out the other side, with the satisfaction of having achieved a measure of clarity of an idea on paper.  Not sure how long that feeling lasted (!) but my point is that I think it is difficult to be a good planner if you are a poor writer.

That said, here is the quote:

“Writing is finally about one thing: going into a room alone and doing it. Putting words on paper that have never been there in quite that way before. And although you are physically by yourself, the haunting Demon never leaves you, that Demon being the knowledge of your own terrible limitations, your hopeless inadequacy, the impossibility of ever getting it right. No matter how diamond-bright your ideas are dancing in your brain, on paper they are earthbound.”

  - William Goldman, author, screenwriter, on the uncertainties of show business

Yellow Arrow points to new connections

A new art/media/tech project has emerged which combines a handful of some very diverse elements.  Part street art, part real-world websurfing, part tagging.  Yellow Arrow brings online features to the real world. 

Basically how it works is when you see an arrow out in the world (you can order the stickers on their website) you text the code with your mobile, or go online, and you will get a response that provides a description of what the arrow is pointing at.  It's difficult to describe but a very cool merging of mobile, street, and human communication.  The video is a bit over the top but it explains all. 

This harkens back to Space Invaders, which dabbled in the participatory nature of street art.  But it opens it up and allows others to comment on the same arrow.  I guess in that way it's a little like geochaching. 

At any rate, I'm curious to try it out.  Have you?

Vader head balloon uses the Force of hot air

Freakin' awesome. How much would you love to see this 86-foot high Vader noggin creeping through the fog in your neighborhood? The loveable dorks over at the 501st Legion FanWars Garrison in Belgium (I swear I'm not making that up) came up with the idea and Lucasfilm gave their royal approval. From the StarWars.com article:

When the Belgian 501st Legion FanWars Garrison first suggested that one of its members, Benoît Lambert, create a Death Star-shaped PVC helium balloon, he was not only thrilled but already envisioning a chance to show off his artistic talents as well as his love for Star Wars--and his skills as a hot-air balloonist.

What a beautiful spectacle. I think the folks over at CP+B should do one for the King. Some heads deserve a balloon. Others, not so much. Can you imagine a Rachel Ray head at your state fair? Scary. But when it's the right one, bam. Something creepy and magical about an oversized levitating decapitated icon.

Only slightly less spectacular but pretty cool nonetheless is the R2D2 Mailbox initiative, via Morgan.

Slo-Mo Home Depot because...?

I'm all for disrupting the normal course of everyday life. Flashmobs fasinate me. Or at least they did when people were doing them. I remember reading about how hundreds of young people staged a Matrix Reloaded Mob event in Tokyo. They were all dressed as Mr. White. They were there because they were fans. It meant something to them.

I guess that's why I don't yet understand the point of Improv Everywhere and its public stunts. Harmless shock value? Sure. Aged drama students lusting after high school days gone by? Maybe. Attention-starved lonely hearts? Totally!

Interestingly there is enough interest in the scenes they create that they have sold a pilot to NBC. I guess it's kind of like Punk'd but instead of one celebrity, they're punking the general public. Yaaawn.