New Google App

Apparently lets people use a surface computing technology to Perez Hilton my, and my colleauge Sarah's faces. Thanks to Miguel Caballero, as well as Google Creative Sandbox 2008. We were able to snap photos and then email directly to an interactive board that let users play with photos, video and other content on a wall using an infra-red technology. Pretty wild; very Minority Report.

There's no recession at Google

Just gourmet food on a giant rotating pedestal. There was Slanted Door Vietnamese style beef with watermelon, a foodie breakfast with quail eggs, and an Indian plate with a spicy kabob. And desserts. And an open bar.

Snags at Beer O'Clock

We celebrated the final presentation of our big business pitch with a barbecue on my boss's office patio this afternoon. After a few Bud Lights and a couple of hot dogs ("snags" as my Aussie boss might say), I finally found myself winding down from weeks, actually months, of stress, excitement, argument, doubt, elation, late nights, coffee and office catering. The best times in advertising really are when you work on a team, competing against other agencies and even with people inside your agency, seeing what great creatives can come up with, and then that final blast of adrenaline you feel in the car pulling into the (hopefully) new client's parking lot.

Ron Jeremy at the Beldings.

Beldings Award winners get some loving from [aging] porn star Ron Jeremy. He hung around (hung, get it?) for the after-party that Yahoo! sponsored (which one of the partners of David & Goliath referred to as "Yoo-hoo"). He's as foul looking as the last time I saw him in the flesh (in the flesh, get it?) at the Houston's at Century City.

We Won the First Belding of the Night!

Wow and we deserved it! The first Belding award went to the Activision team (Marcus & Miguel pictured here) for the videos for World Leader Reviews. The Belding theme this year was to award not only the silver bowl, but also to provide "bonus" awards. In this case, Marcus and Miguel are serenaded by YouTube star Tay Zonday who sings "Chocolate Rain" (of "I move away from the mic to breathe in" fame). The next winner received a foot long hot dog from a cougar, and so on and so on. At the end of the night, World Leaders for the Activision game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare won the Belding Sweepstakes prize for DDB Los Angeles.

Please Let Us Get Some Bowlage.

Oh glorious Beldings Awards! Tomorrow night is the 42nd annual Beldings at some random theater in mid-Wilshire. We have a fun surprise up our sleeves (hopefully including taking home some bowls). That's all I'll say about that. Hopefully I can bum a ride there so I can drink too much and take a cab home. This year's presenting sponsor is Yahoo! whatever that means.

Ad Crap on My Daily Commute

Here's some tear-off poster outdoor advertising I saw while parked at a stop light at Palms and Centinela. The Powerade ad tears off so if you are into whatever is in the ad, you can tear it off and slap it up in your room. I'm guessing the target is either young guys who still live at home, or homeless guys who live in storage units and need some decorating (you're more likely to find the latter at this particular ad location). Interesting outdoor idea, though.

Then We Came to the End.

If you are reading Joshua Ferris's book, you'll get why this pencil sharpener label is funny. People in ad agencies are possessive about electric pencil sharpeners and other mechanical tools of the trade. For my part, I hide a heavy duty stapler in my office; it can stapler over sixty pages. It rules.

Bartles & Jaymes

It's just great advertising. This old cardboard standee is shoved in the stairwell down to the toilet of a Chicago pub. I have no idea where in Chicago I was when I snapped this.

Chicago! Yeah, Lake View.

I'm at a work training session in Chicago and the office got me a sick rate at the Four Seasons. I don't know what kind of corporate hoo-haw is going on here, but I can tell you that I'm paying less per night to stay in the Four Seasons than I was to stay a night at the Comfort Inn in New Bern, North Carolina. Go figure.

Tonight we had dinner at Gibson's, where I narrowly avoided going into diabetic shock after eating a pound of blue cheese dressing (on a salad), followed by a twice-baked franken-potato and a side of grilled cow. Then we had a gallon of ice cream. for dessert. On the walk home my heart was racing in an attempt to both burn off some of the 5,000 calories I must have consumed whilst pumping the cholesterol laden blood through my choked arteries. The temperature had fallen into the low 40s, but I couldn't tell since my body had become a heat-laden engine in its attempt to shed the caloric intake. Don't get me wrong; I loved every second of it. Croaking from a heart attack in front of my corporate colleagues would be a pathetic way to go, and I'm guessing it wouldn't even make a sidebar in AdWeek.

That's the John Hancock Center taking up the view in the right side of the window. Not sure what that building directly across the street is.

Y2K, Me and The American Dialect Society

The Y2K

This came up in a recent Google Alerts I have set to see when something with my name is published (okay, I know it sounds vain, but it's really so I can figure out where people might be back-linking or posting about my blog). A recent Alert included this post about the name of a drink in the cocktail calendar I published at the end of the last millenium (sounds impressive, huh?). The American Dialect Society, as part of their ongoing work, is perhaps looking to seek out how terms like "Y2K" entered the American vernacular.

Coincidentally - given the years I spent doing my small part to help undermine the American economy by advertising subprime mortgages - the word subprime is the Society's 2007 word of the year.

Back on the Blog

So, what's my excuse? I didn't have a camera-phone until yesterday, when I upgraded my four year old Blackberry with a new Blackberry Curve. I had gotten rid of my mobile phone with camera a while ago, in favor of my work Blackberry with phone and email. I didn't realize how dependent I'd become on mobile photo blogging to create posts. I guess it was just easier to write captions, or capture funny moments, than it was to just write a few paragraphs. That must be the ad agency life seeping into my my blogging. Need a visual. Need some copy.

During my "sabbatical" from this blog, I did move offices to a spot with a giant picture window looking out over Main Street in Venice. I work in the Frank Gehry "Binocular" building, in the wing that is meant to look like the bow of a ship (the white framed cutouts in this picture - you can see how it curves off to a point to the right of my office. It's a great space to work in, and I appreciate the company giving me the office.

More good times to come. Caro and I are going to a black-tie event for City of Hope this week as a guest of Gibson guitars. Should be some good blogger photo snapshots.

Little Debbie is Very Very Naughty. But Good.

Where's My Jetpack has a funny post about one of my favorite food brands, Little Debbie, along with the above hilarious photo of Debbie having a drag off a cancer stick. I was recently having a discussion with a work colleague, who's from Florida by way of North Carolina, about our mutual love for Little Debbie snacks, including, but not limited to: Star Crunch, Nutty Bars, Fancy Cakes and Oatmeal Creme Pies.

There was, however, a recent recall of Little Debbie Nutty Bars. But it goes to show you how something seemingly negative like a food industry news alert can generate nostalgic blog posts celebrating sugary snacks!

And just in case you were wondering, the Little Debbie site lists their top selling items:

1. Swiss Cake Rolls
2. Nutty Bars® Wafer Bars
3. Oatmeal Creme Pies
4. Fudge Brownies
5. Honey Buns
6. Zebra Cakes
7. Devil Squares®
8. Fudge Rounds
9. Star Crunch® Cosmic Snacks
10. Chocolate Cupcakes