Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Blogging Milestones

Milestones are good things giving you a chance to both look backwards and think about the future.

I'm excited about my one year blogging anniversary milestone.

Like a bad Oscar speech there are people I would like to thank: firstly Russell, without first reading his blog and then coming to the Breakfast Club coffee mornings back in November 2006 I would never have had the inspriation/courage to begin blogging myself. It was also the network of smart people from all over the world that Russell linked me into via his blog that took me so pleasantly by surprise.

Couple of other blog Thank You shout outs - Faris, you were the best thing about working at Naked and the first person to leave a comment on this blog; Beeker, you were my first proper blog friend (and it took us months and months to meet up in person!); Kaitlyn, the Catch Up Lady, an American blogging friend that I will probably never meet in person, but I was so pleased for you when you got your big new job at Ogilvy PR in Washington DC and when you started the Ogilvy Blogger Code of Conduct I was really proud that we were blog friends; Neil at Only Dead Fish; David at Sixty Second View, Richard at Adliterate  -  the list goes on...

Blogging has helped me sharpen my thinking, connect with a diverse set of people and views and provided me with a continual flow of creative ideas from all around the world. It has been a fantastic year in so many ways, here's to 2008.

NYC minus Manhattan

This magazine cover always made me laugh. Even though it was done in the 70s the central thought still resonates.

To New Yorkers there is not much of real value across the waters of the Hudson or the East River. Once you leave the island of Manhattan the world becomes a bit blurry, a bit irrelevant. It's a type of social snobbery really.

When I lived in New York I actually spent most of the time living in Brooklyn rather than Manhattan. In retrospect I think that one of the many things that I loved about Brooklyn was the real sense of community, family and longevity.

Anyway, over the years that I was there I built up a list of brilliant things to do with friends who came to stay that did not involve setting foot on Manhattan.

The tiny fishing and sailing community of City Island, although it's actually just off The Bronx it feels more like New England or Maine; the real Little Italy, Arthur Avenue where menus are disregarded - you simply ask the chef what he recommends eating that night and at the end of the (delicious) meal your waiter decides what you pay; the elegant brownstones of Fort Greene...

Anyway, I had a Travel piece published in The Spectator this week on just this topic. Hope that you enjoy it.

The Other Boleyn Girl

Many years ago I studied history at university and I am proud to say that I am still a bit of a history-geek at heart.

Friday nights have greatly improved in our household since The Tudors arrived on the BBC - a good take away curry, some red wine and sexy "almost-history" to watch.

So I'm excited by the new trailer for The Other Boleyn Girl with Eric Bana, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson.

Apparently during the filming of this movie, Scarlett became such a fan of English pub-grub that they had to re-shoot some of the scenes because she had eaten too many pies and her corset didn't fit.

I knew that I liked Scarlett for a good reason.

Climate Change at the SouthBank

I promised Asi from Poke that I would go down to the SouthBank to see the WWF climate change project that they are working on. I love the idea of people physically putting their names onto a (creative) petition. The origami boat and plane are being delivered to Parliament on Monday I believe.

One of the many things that I like about this idea is that the petition becomes a talking point in and of itself. It moves what would otherwise have stayed in the virtual world out into the physical world.

Nietzsche flogs watches now

Thanks to Ben Schott who just texted this to me.

Since when did Nietzsche become a watch connoisseur?

It's hard to see in the image I've attached but the quote used on the ad is a Nietzsche one. 

As Wikiepedia says  isn't he best known for writing "critiques of religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, using a distinctive style and displaying a fondness for aphorism. Nietzsche's influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism."

The New York-ification of London

I've been doing a bit of writing for The Spectator which I am really enjoying.

There is a new article of mine which is in today's edition about "The New York-ification of London" - it's all about overanxious, overachievers, fancy dress dogs and Alpha Dads.

I've uploaded a PDF, but if you live in the UK buy the magazine so that I can prove to Matt D'ancona that I can help generate revenue (or you can read it on the site...)

The Evening Standard have phoned as they wanted to do a follow up feature, but none of the Alpha Dads wanted to talk to a journalist...have a read of the article, it'll all make sense

Download Nylon_Spectator.pdf

I am thick and not worthy of the title "Planner"

I just don't get it.

I feel a real thicko (as my younger brother used to say) Apparently it is about family and together-ness, but I still don't understand.

 

Ben Schott - Chatty Packaging

This weekend was a proud moment for me.

Ben Schott, an old North London friend, came over for lunch bearing gifts of very good wine and his latest book, Schott's Almanac 2008. And there on page 10, in the Words of the Year section is an entry which he says was inspired by a blog post of mine: Chatty Packaging - I Blame Innocent.

CHATTY PACKAGING: Faux-friendly marketing blurb that aspires to a casual, cheeky, and personal tone.

I am in a Ben Schott "book of the year" entry. It doesn't get much better than that.

Hector, the 21st century Slush Puppy dog?

When I was little the Slush Puppy dog used to come and visit our primary school to teach us about road safety. At least I am fairly certain that he did, but I hunted high and low on Google this morning and could not find any sites/images, so maybe this was a figment of my imagination. Anyway, the fact is that for kids road safety is a bit dull but for a 7 year old the Slush Puppy dog was the epitome of cool and we all listened to his wisdom with baited breath.

We've been doing some work for Texaco recently in the area of kids road safety. Last year we created an animated character called Hector and produced a series of kids storybooks about his life and his friends that were given away in Texaco fore-courts. It was so popular that we decided to build on it this year.

We wanted to  add a new layer of engagement and interactivity, so we partnered together with Aardman Animation, the Wallace and Gromit folks, and created a cartoon series. You can take a look at the "Hector's Imagination" YouTube channel with all the episodes or you can pick them up the free DVDs at Texaco.  I think that they are very funny and a good new example of a brand taking the idea of Branded Utility  seriously.

The website Hectors  Home is full of games for kids to play with the ultimate aim of keeping them safe on the roads. The kids (grown up kids as well as real kids) who have tried this in beta loved it. If you have a moment  (or a kid!) have a play around on the site and let me know your thoughts.

Here is one of the episodes, enjoy.