Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra at Paradiso (Amsterdam), and knew I had to
share their big sound. The Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra has been in my music collection for the
last fifteen years (they were originally formed in 1988). They are from
Tokyo, play Ska / Rock / Big Band music and they are devilishly good at
it. I can’t recommend them enough. They have a big sound, a fantastic,
positive, fresh attitude and a big presence on stage. They win the
audience and have everyone pogo-dancing by the end of the third song… Their music can be fast or slow, whimsical and funny or leaning towards
seriously good atmospheric Jazz. At all times though, their songs are
engaging and never fall into a lull of expected melody. It always keeps
you guessing. The Wikipedia entry:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Tokyo_Ska_Paradise_Orchestra
Their website: http://tokyoska.net/index.html Some more Tokyo Ska: If they are ever in your town, go see them!
Wrap your ears around some of this: Danish gypsy beats, perfect for a Friday morning - right after the cows have been milked and the first
bottle of moonshine has been emptied. Their music is simply awesome. The instrumentation is rich and exciting,
the songs will have you tapping along and they simply bring the house
down when given enough room to make noise. I saw them two years ago at
Fusion festival (Germany) and it was one of the highlights of the
four-day event. It was one of the sweatiest, craziest and energetic
acts, with fresh organic, ‘analogic’ tunes for the ears of hardened
electronic and techno-goers. Website: http://www.analogik.dk//klunserbeats/
I mean, listen to that sound! Full, rich, ripe and ready to feast upon!
Pretty much anything you find on Soundcloud (http://soundcloud.com) or
YouTube is well worth a listen. Some songs are slow and swinging; some
are fast and thumping. Click around, enjoy them - they’re well worth the
exploration.
to have been making the rounds for a while, with a hard, high-energy
transatlantic cultural mix of music all covered in sweat, alcohol and
raw energy. Via Boing-Boing:
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/16/gogol-bordello-immig.html “Boing Boing Video proudly debuts a new music video for the “Gypsy-punk”
band Gogol Bordello: “Immigraniada (We Comin’ Rougher),” the new single
from Trans-Continental Hustle, the band’s latest album, produced by Rick
Rubin. The video was directed by Isaiah Seret and shot in Los Angeles,
chronicling the day-to-day life of an immigrant as experienced by the
eight members of this multi-cultural rock band. They’re from Ukraine,
Russia, Israel, China, Ethiopia, Ecuador and Trinidad, so the topic of
immigration is one with which they’re familiar.” I would love to hear a House or Dubstep remix of songs like ‘American
Wedding’ or ‘Mishto!’ (above). They would go down great at a party along
with some other Balkan hits to get everybody crazy on the dancing floor.
The rest of their music might appeal only to those with a punk/ska
acquired taste, however. Most of it doesn’t sound Gypsy, and the musical
arrangements remain quite basic. It seems that Gogol Bordello is more
about message and attitude than musical accomplishment. Still, for their aesthetic, attitude and message they are worth checking
out.
My four year old daughter picked this random photo as her favourite - from all other ‘snow in Amsterdam’ pics. The others were boring, she said. So young and she already has a strong sense of ‘interestingness’ in her criteria to make choices.
She came back with some homework yesterday, and the teacher had crossed it as ‘not paying attention. They were given eight cut-outs, each with an image, and they had to put them in their corresponding column: “Over” or “Under”. There was a picture of a Cat under a Table, a Kid under a Rug, etc.
Regardless if she was in fact paying attention or not (she has a *very* short attention span, so it’s quite possible) it occurred to me that I could have made the same choices she (wrongly) made. Who is to say if it’s a picture of a Cat under a Table.. or a Table over a Cat?
Looking at myself, I wonder if she follows my footsteps. Somewhere in my subconscious I probably am aware of what I am *expected* to do, but my instinct always points in a different direction. Always deconstructing the question, finding an alternative answer, looking for the unexpected. It was a long, difficult journey through my education, but fortunately I was able to figure out a way to accommodate my inconformity and turn it into a profession.
I wonder how she - and us parents - will deal with it?
CONSTANT SIEGE, Clayton Cubitt’s tumblr blog covers intimate photography
and images from NY city life, as well as interesting clips picked around
the web that have a message and a meaning. His photography has meaning
and message; his lifestyle is intriguing to say the least - he seems to
live with two of his models, and it’s not clear what their arrangements
are, except as real-life subjects on a very public blog. Image after image, he makes you look at things the way he does. He
points at the details, the yuxtaposition and contrast around him, and
the social commentary that’s visible if you only open your eyes and see
it. Inspiring and provocative, I enjoy going through the pages (although
he gets a bit hung up on the BP Oil spill at some point) - but
otherwise, worth the read and appreciation.
One of the hardest things to do as a creative being is to kill your darlings. Sometimes other people will do that for you, sometimes they fall under their own weight. But more often than not, you are ultimately responsible for which ideas must die in order for others to survive.
So what does ‘kill your darlings’ mean to you?“In the creative sense of the term, the more you kill, the free-er your mind. The zen goal is to kill them all at one point.” - Martijn Pantlin
“It was author William Faulkner who said it first, and a whole lot of teachers of creative writing, film making, journalism and other kinds of storytelling have been repeating it ever since: Kill your darlings.
It means that you, in your [creative endeavours], should have the courage to get rid of the elements that you love so much yourself, but that don’t really add anything to the whole - or, even worse, actually weaken it. Typical “darlings” would be clever copy or images that don’t really relate to the project, details that don’t add anything new or that confuse the outcome, etcetera” via http://everything2.com/title/Kill+your+darlings
A creative endeavour with a defined goal needs to take the audience (or recipient) of the message from A to B without getting lost, or to fulfil some other higher purpose than to feed your creative needs. There are many ways to do so, but many ideas will die along the way. Be prepared for only one, or none, to survive. That’s why you need a thick skin and the courage to let your ideas die and move on.
Some ideas are not viable because they might be simply not appropriate. Other times it’s budget, practical constraints or even a client who will kill your ideas. As a conscious professional, it is also your own responsibility to show the client the one (or two) ideas you truly think are the best ones - which means you will have to kill a few yourself during the culling.
Take heart and remember: No matter how they die, you will always be able to come up with a better idea.
There is a moment in time when the universe freezes over. A darling has just been killed. Dead. Bleeding on the floor. It’s that moment, that infinite microsecond, that makes all the difference when you ask yourself: What now?
If you choose anger, frustration, resentment, despair or simply try to revive the dead corpse, you’re in for a long, bitter fight which will lead you nowhere.
Put your dead darling away for later, and start fresh. There’s always more where that came from. Analyze cause of death and make note of the pitfalls which killed it. Put it away for future reference someday and forget about it. Start fresh.
Kill your darlings - and move on.
One of the hardest things to do as a creative being is to kill your
darlings. Sometimes other people will do that for you, sometimes they
fall under their own weight. But more often than not, you are ultimately
responsible for which ideas must die in order for others to survive.
The International Pillow Fight Day is serious business.
From their website: “One of our goals is to make these unique happenings in public spacebecome a significant part of popular culture, partially replacing
passive, non-social, branded consumption experiences like watching
television, and consciously rejecting the blight on our cities caused by
the endless creep of advertising into public space.” The International Pillow Fight Day is about having fun in the public
space without brands or marketing involved, and without having to apply
for a permit. The public space belongs to us, the people who inhabit the
town, and the Pillow Fight reclaims that right. That’s what I was telling the BNN reporter while in a gorilla suit. Sure
it’s fun, but the event has a strong concept and ideology behind it. Which makes the following all the more shocking: Chocomel claims the Pillow Fight for a marketing campaign in Den Bosch. http://www.nufoto.nl/fotos/137280/massaal-kussengevecht-in-den-bosch.html
So - can someone explain to Chocomel that this event is ANTI-BRANDS and ANTI-MARKETING?
What is supposed to be a free, spontaneous event to prove you don’t need
anyone’s permission to have fun is being corrupted into a totally
different message: A marketing brand organizes permits and private
resources to sell product to attendees. Seriously, Chocomel. Keep your dirty advertising fingers out of the
Pillow Fight. I love the drink, but the marketing this time really
screwed up. If anyone has ideas on how to make Chocomel hurt for what they’ve done,
please let me know! Some Pillow Fight related links: Official website explaining what it’s all about:
http://www.pillowfightday.com/
http://www.pillowfightday.com/about Some pics
http://www.thehospages.com/pictures/misc/2010-04-03-pillowfight/index.php On the news
http://www.nufoto.nl/fotos/137257/international-pillow-fight-day-2010-op-dam-…
http://www.dutchdailynews.com/international-pillow-fight-day-amsterdam/ Videos
Video long version:
… and the pajama party (also part of the event)
Back from a client meeting I got thinking about a concept which follows
up on the Long Tail: The macro-niche.
convey an advertising message to a large, mainstream crowd. It brings
larger return of investments, has more potential customers and more
possibilities of sales. There might be cases however that from a
strategic point of view it may be interesting to do the opposite - and
direct the message to a niche instead. Thanks to globalization and the internet micro niches connect and become
macro-niches. So for brands, an originally uninteresting target group
because of limited numbers, suddenly offers a huge potential. The buying power and the influence of some of these niches cannot be
ignored. Star Trek fans, geeks, cosplayers, otakus and rave-goers are
some examples. Talking directly to them can havean important impact
shaping the perception of a brand and its reputation, and ultimately,
sales. A niche might be a small percentage of the crowd your client might want
to target, but thanks to internet and growing communities at a global
scale they could represent be a very large number of potential customers
- several million people strong. It’s the rise of the Macro-niche. Internet brings people with quirky interests together where they
recognize each other and grow in numbers. They start meet-ups and
conferences, gather strength and organize themselves all over the world.
Some niches are leaders in opinion, others are early adopters, and
others might be a surprising, untapped new market. Attendees to cosplay,
Star Trek and similar conventions are often individuals with a
considerable purchasing power and could become dedicated consumers if
the relevant link to the brand is found. A macro-niche can also shape the direction of the brand if the niche is
a leader of opinion, an early-adopter crowd to test a new product or
brand. If successful, they can herald the product or brand to a
wideraudience. Some niches can be quite vocal; fashion bloggers, gadget
adopters or green activists. Sometimes the reality of a macro-niche is much less exotic than Burning
Man goers or Mythbuster followers, and be comprised of post office
employees or a multinational’s middle-management workforce all over
theworld. From a creative perspective, this still presents some
interesting opportunities. Let’s say that a brand needs to talk to its programmers (within the
company), or to comission-based agents, or to its interns all around the
world, then we’re talking about a macro-niche. That’s the theory about the macro-niche strategy. As a creative, the
most exciting thing about this is the prospect to work on creative
solutions for quirky, particular, challenging audiences. Such a focused
message can offer unique opportunities. What sounds more interesting? An advertising campaign for anyone
mainstream between ages of 18 and 35… or an advertising campaign
directed specifically to amateur fashion bloggers, for example? In practice, for existing global brands this approach might not work,
since marketing is mostly decentralized and different marketing
strategies are applied locally. It could be an interesting marketing/
advertising strategy though for start-ups with an online focus. And to
those brands this concept could open their eyes to the fact that they
can become really big – even when they focus on a niche. A
macro-niche. But only when geographical borders are not a problem. Which
is the case for Amazon e.g.. But not for retail chains, service-oriented
concepts where physical contact is needed, etc.
Since this is a concept-in-progress, there are still a few questions
that remain unanswered. For example: Examples from a brand point-of-view (in stead of a community/niche
point-of-view) that show how could a macro-niche strategy would help
grow global business for different types of companies A description of the entire process for marketers: how to select
macro-niches that really matter to your brand, how to determine their
scale, how and where to reach them, how to play into their interest,
etc. Can a company employ a multi-macro-niche strategy? And run different ad
campaigns targeted at these niches, without running the risk of
fragmentation or a diluted brand image?
The model of interaction with the iPad is to be a “consumer,” what William Gibson memorably described as “something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It’s covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth… no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote.
I’m loving this quote by William Gibson on the consumer, in the context of a Boing Boing post. Just today i was happy-clicking to find out more about the changing role of the consumer, and how at our office we think that the time of force-feeding is coming (thankfully) to an end.
Maybe not as quickly as we hope. Inertia is a terrible monster.
But the picture William Gibson paints is a wonderful one to instill a sense or urgency and change the dystopic future he is describing. Let’s make sure as an industry that we don’t just stop force-feeding our listeners, but rather take the lead and guide the advertising industry to an interactive, exciting, world-improving role.
At the core, advertising isn’t evil. When there is a crowd of producers that need to distinguish themselves from each other, there is a need for each one of them to reach their buyers in a unique way. Out of three hundred apple producers, who will you buy from? Advertising helps shape your opinion.
But the manner in which advertising is conducted can be evil. When it lies to the consumer, mistreats them and relegates them to the role of a mute week-old boiled potato, two things can happen.
Your consumers give up to the continuous bombardment of rotten advertising and finally turn into baby hippos. Or they grow so resentful that they stage a revolution.
The alternative? Make it fun. Make it true. Make it engaging, intelligent, interactive. Invite the user to take part in your journey. Treat him like family. Get him out of the house and into the sun, the flowers, and his peers.
Do for advertising what the Wii is doing for videogames.
Let’s prove Gibson wrong.
