Getting down at my sister's wedding

I didn’t open this new post window to talk food or film; I did so to (more publicly) recognize and congratulate my parents on this amazing milestone in their (our) lives. They’re an example in so many ways – one of which is their love for and commitment to each other. Thank you both, for everything.

This seemed like a much more important story today than “What your brand can learn from Kanye Tweets as New Yorker cartoons.” But, if you’re into that, friend me on Facebook.

One of the last things I worked on back at Wieden was ESPN’s marketing for the very quickly approaching World Cup. One of the most interesting things we did with them (and a South African artist collective) is put together 33 murals that told the stories of each participating team (and another for the tourney). You can check them all out here on Facebook or on Flickr. But, of course, this is the most important one:

Finally, here’s the “anthem” TV spot (Bono and all) for the entire event:

P.S. I’d like to promise more activity over here, but with game-watching and my new job, I can’t be sure. Thanks for keeping me around.

I, like many planners, having been keeping track of and keeping my clients up-to-date on the content online that’s spreading across many people for a while now. It started years ago as a way to shift the conversation away from “We want the next Tea Partay” to “what’s right for us and our audience and what would they want to pass along” by providing examples with various levels of taste, humor, shock, etc. Plus, because the majority of “viral successes” come from individuals, it was helpful to start looking more closely at what companies were doing.

Read full article here

Fast forward to present. Thankfully we don’t get too many briefs with “viral” as a deliverable anymore. But for those who do, there’s been some great thinking about the problems with the term/request done by Faris, Bud, Paul and Ivan. However, I still do collect examples of (mostly) brands’ attempts to produce (mostly) video content to be passed around…and rack up that coveted 1 million YouTube views.

Since I had all these links in my delicious or email, I figured I’d put them all in one place and share them with you – just in case it’s useful in any way. Without further ado, the 2009 “viral” year in review:

Q1 kicked off with Mini has some fun with the “Is it fake?” theme of many viral videos. Geico feeds off the equity of the Numa Numa Guy to create a hit video (though other videos leveraging memes that they put on their YouTube channel “itsthegecko” had significantly less views). Nike had Taylor Momsen (from Gossip Girl) do some parkour to avoid the paparazzi. Ray Ban “Never Hide Films” (behind the catching sunglasses video which has over 4 million views) came back in early January with another video, which did not get quite the same response. Cadbury, on the other hand, came back strong (after the drum-playing gorilla) with “Eyebrow Dance” and got a lot of views.

Then, there were the commercials, which were heavily spread online like McDonald’s Fillet o’ Fish commercial, which has a techno song remix as well. Though, Pharrell trying to get the Mickey D’s in Paris airport gained more traction. Then, there were ones that just didn’t stir up the controversy they had hoped to, such as Domino’s CEO going hard at Subway.

After his death at the end of June, it was no surprise that Michael Jackson was all over the Internet. Millions of views for everything from this old Pepsi commercial to this Twitter mashup to the tribute by Philippines detention center inmates, who are more famous for their original Thriller performance.

Back to brands, Samsung put out this LED sheep thing which got tons of views. Then followed up with more crazy stuff at a trade show. I know it’s a TV campaign, but the geeks went gaga for this Intel work. And sticking with tech, peeps have been all about Xbox’s Project Natal and its first official look. T-Mobile is back (in the UK) with a follow-up to their train station dance, getting a crowd together to sing “Hey Jude”.

There’s what Nike did for Free And what FC Barcelona’s coach put together with Catalonian TV before playing Manchester United in the Champions’ League Final, which was inspired by this.

Remember the EA Sports response to Tiger Woods superfan and YouTube user? They tried to build off it (but less successfully) with this before the Open. And I think Gilette’s still sour that Philips had such a hit with their body groomer (“Shave Everywhere”) work a few year’s back and came out with this “manscaping” tip video. But that’s probably better than the Comfort Wipe infomercial out there and Burger King “Square Butts” (Sponge Bob + Sir Mix-a-lot) commercial, both of which have been racking up views online.

Of course you’ve seen “I’m on a Boat” by Lonely Island, but even better is this a Capella version. Plus, on the subject of singing (or lip-syncing in this case), here’s a kid who produces and broadcasts his talent from the Apple Store.

There’s the Kanye interrupting Obama mash-up and likely the most viral video as of the year (parodied on NBC’s The Office): “JK Wedding Dance“.

Nike, EA and RayBan returned with Skateboarding and Ice Cube, FIFA 2010 and a SxSW video respectively.

Discovery Channel launches a bunch of mini-clips for Shark Week. Disneyland brings us a magical (come on, don’t be a hater) proposal. Evian helps you feel young…with roller-skating babies. And MSI gives us “Guy catches laptop with his butt.”

United Airlines gets firsthand experience in the power of the customer and a PR nightmare when they broke a dude’s guitar. The Muppets sing Bohemian Rhapsody. There’s a Christmas Light Hero and a Gap commercial tribute.

Over the holidays, we had the option to stay warm by the fire or with your Weezer Snuggie. But, as NYC Health advises, stay away from the soda (WARNING: KINDA GROSS). And if we ventured out, we could have brought some money for the Salvation Army and ImprovEverywhere. While brands were not pumping out as much online video content as in past quarters, there was this nice set of videos for Google Chrome.

And there you have it. Say goodbye to 2009 (again)..and (now) to “viral.”

As you can see, Charles and I have an uphill battle going into the game. But he’s a lucky dude and there are 9 ways to win. For those wanting to play along, here are the deets:

$20/box / 1st quarter – $150 / Half-time – $300 / 3rd quarter – $150 / Final – $1100
Additionally, the “four touchers” of the final score box will get $50 each and reverse score wins $100.

So start your own tomorrow at work or with your party on Sunday. Or just root for me.

One issue many clients seem to have with actions is their limited reach. “That’s awesome for those twenty individuals but what about the other twenty million.” Word of mouth is tough to track, especially offline. That’s why it’s helpful to capture these actions in picture of video form. To tell the story. To share it with a broader audience. To enable them to share in it and share it with others.

Experiences plus Content. When done right, it’s like Jay-Z and R. Kelly (the best of both worlds). When done wrong it can look staged (reactions rehearsed). It can look selfish instead of generous.

Here’s one I saw this morning that, in my opinion, works.

Red Bull is a company I’ve felt does this particular thing (amplifying experiences) really well. It creates real world events that, whether tens or thousands attend, tell a story to millions about their brand.

T-Mobile in the UK offers a couple examples of bring people together to do something and developing content off it. And, of course, there are the masters at ImprovEverywhere, who do this often – sometimes for (a bit of) good but mostly just for fun.

Brands understandably want to get credit for their actions/the experiences they provide. But let’s not let that become the driving force for doing.

We’ve created a heavy metal band called The Group of Death.

Inspired by the most hardcore group of the World Cup draw every four years and with the goal of entertaining football fans across the world. See the band’s one-sheet below for more info.

As most of you know, we’re constantly producing things with ESPN at W+KNY — for its sports properties (e.g., NBA on ESPN Shaqtus), shows (SportsCenter Duck) and media (ESPN.com Answers). Shit, I was going to say “I rarely share…” but instead I added links.

Anyway, the reason I wanted to post about the GoD is because it’s one of those ideas that usually get left behind for the main campaign, for the big stuff. Whether it’s too far removed from the ultimate objective (selling something), the immediate objective (need to focus everything on one main idea) or the more easily measured objective (ratings). Whether it seems too rushed to execute or too risky. Whether there’s just not enough money because producing 3 TV spots is the priority. Or whatever. An idea like this often never sees the light of day.

Props to ESPN for allowing us to bring The Group of Death to life. They had to be comfortable with the fact that this idea is not about promoting its coverage of the draw and is not meant for the sports fan masses. It’s about being present on the is the most important day for fans until the tournament starts on June 11, 2010 and doing something interesting/exciting/authentic for avid football fans.

Specifically, this idea is meant to capitalize on the fact that when the draw comes out, fans want to know two things: (1) where their team (or teams) are placed and (2) what teams are in the most difficult group – The Group of Death. It’s one of many ways we’ll be trying to build a relationship with sports fans leading up to the World Cup. And we got off to a good start yesterday when “The Gaffer” (no relation) unboxed us on EPL Talk.

Hope you enjoy it. Make sure to check out the songs on the music tab within the Facebook page (IMO it’s the best part). Come through Nevada Smiths around 5PM on Friday for the live concert. Leave a comment if you want me to save you/bring you/send you a t-shirt – I’ve got a few extras to give away.

Check out the speaker list and get your tickets over at the site linked above. I’d be pumped to see the Dopplr dude and “Ruby Pseudo” for sure. But what I think will be interesting more than any one individual is the percentage of people with the title, “Founder,” who will be talking. Get your learn on from those with experience launching ideas. That’s valuable in this climate, especially. And Piers has done it up right with conferences in the past as well as the recent morning salons here in NYC.

There are so things I’d like to say this experience, but I’m trying to wrap things up) get out of here for the holidays. Thus, I want to make just one clear point: Sometimes when it makes perfect sense, you really lose. And sometimes when it makes no sense, you really win. And sometimes when it fits exactly or doesn’t fit at all, you actually tie.

Crystal clear?

No. Okay, well, here’s some advice for Louis V and other advertisers out there. Just because you make a cinematic ad (style and message), it doesn’t mean it’s right for the cinema (media). Furthermore, just because you think your target is “sophisticated and upscale,” it doesn’t make people at “more artsy theaters” the appropriate audience for your advertising. In fact, I’m really having trouble thinking of any theater or movie it would “work” for. Going to see a movie is social; it brings people (from diverse backgrounds) together for shared entertainment. (Not to sound like the speech given at every Oscars ceremony) Even someone who is compelled by the “journey” story (or even enjoys its music selection), is not going to do so in a crowd of strangers. Especially at this economically-difficult time, I can’t think of anyone who would self-identify as a fan of that brand.

I have been meaning to write this since seeing Slumdog Millionaire on Saturday night at the Angelika (highly recommended by the way) when after 4 indie previews were followed by the ad embedded above. It was met with an “Are you serious?” moment of silence, followed by a barrage of laughter and conversations (at least in rows near me) about the ridiculousness of LV’s communications. I can’t imagine the reaction would be any different elsewhere, so it’s crazy to think they’ve been running these since at least this May.

In fact, I would argue they actually disrupted my journey into a movie-going mindset (suspending disbelief, being open to being moved, etc.) with this unbelievably silly and self-important move.

Please tell me I’m not alone.

As Noah said (and the copy above suggests), it’s pretty simple. Be able to get in (for free), afford drinks, and find an open cab at the end of the night in New York City. It’s the New Year’s Eve-Eve Party without promoters’ names on the top of post-sized cards in Helvetica font…much to the dismay of Eric. I’ll be there, and so will these two clowns.

A little over 4 and a half months ago, I started training to run the NYC Marathon for MS. A little over three months ago, I sent my first email asking for donations with two (connected) goals:

Raise $3,450 and Run the race in under 3 hours and 45 minutes.

I’m beyond happy to report that we beat both these goals. You helped me reach a total of $5,242.20 and a time of 3 hours 25 minutes and 15 seconds. That’s almost $2K more and 20 minutes less than I had hoped for! (Just wanted to give you all a chance to pat yourselves on the back, and give me a chance to show off my “3 on the AP Test” math skills :))

Thank you so much to:
Vince and Ila Gaffney, Megan Gaffney, Larry and Linda Fields, Craig Addeo, Carolena Deutsch-Garcia, Hara and Michael Cohen, Steve and Patti Cohen, Howie and Cathy Stein, Phyllis and Jarrett Pikser, Patricia Marchese, Kerri Holt, Jeff Stein, Lauren Cochran, Eric Rattner, Adrian Ho, Brean Cunningham, Jeffrey Greenblatt, Laith Kalamchi, Michael Rubinfeld, Jess April, Stephanie Redlener, Andrew Tchabovsky, Hara and Michael Cohen, Matt O’Laughlin, Robert Nelson, Lisa Michel, Kirsten Shiroma, Eric Friedman, Kim Nguyen, Jeff Friedman, Jason Brupbacher, Steven Krammer, Sherri and Jeff Feinman, Ron and Diane Kaufman, Matthew Jung, Mark DiMassimo, Paul Garvey, Zach Lev, Eric Mishlove, Tom Theys, Erica, Dave and Noah Ellenbogen, Barry Blyn, Jen Giroux, Eve Silverman, Jason Oke, Pete Brown, Justin Eshak, Michael Katz, Matthew Johnson, Steven Fields, Leah Zamkow, Donna and Ed Mishlove, Tori Greene, Marie Shadi, Lee Goldstein, Chad Blakenship, Kamila Prokop, Genna McKeel, David Buxton, Slyvan Garfunkel, Arthur Marino, Aki Spicer, Noah Brier, Evan Schepps, Sarah Saline, Sean Cox, Toby Daniels, Jonathan Stein, John Dooley, Jonathan Marshall, Ian Young, Christina Verdeschi, Annemarie Cullen, Einat Korman, Aaron Perlstein, Gary Van Dzura, Alex Sagol, Rich Weinstein, Sarah Park, Jonathan Eshak, Brian Flax, Jessica Rowlands, Annie O’Rourke, James Hochleutner, Mara Kelly, Alain Sylvain, Adrian Heney, Michael Page, Virginia Scoza, Irene Binder, and Brian Morris.

So how did it go? Well, I woke up at 5AM to go the ferry. I got on the ferry to Staten Island. I started in Staten Island and crossed the Verrazano Bridge. I crossed the Verrazano Bridge to swallow the fly. I don’t know why…Okay, I’ll stop. But suffice to say, I had a great day physically, mentally, and emotionally. The conditions were fantastic that Sunday, though a bit chilly causing me—as you’ll see in pictures—to rock gloves for the full 26.2 miles. I got to see a handful of you lining the course, including my family, which provided that extra burst of energy and motivation to keep going. And for the majority of those miles I ran with a couple of new friends from the Run MS team, Fred and Andrew. These guys kept me inspired, entertained, and honest. I had a tendency in training runs to get a little too speedy for my own good, and as you can see here my pace was pretty consistent for the entire race at 7:49.

I don’t have any glamour shots by Deb or anyone else, but I did take some screen grabs of some photos taken by the hired pros on November 2nd. (Don’t underestimate my sneakiness, Brightroom.) I put them into a little video for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy:

UPDATE: I received quite a few emails asking how long it took me to put that together. The answer: Less than 20 minutes – the bulk of which was spent taking screen grabs of my race pictures. I used Animoto, a free service that allows you to make a customized slide show video (with your own uploaded images and music). It also enables you to import the video into YouTube straight from their site. Check it out.

How am I doing? Thanks for asking. In short, great. In long, I’ve experienced some minor aches and pains and grosser stuff I won’t put in this email but week-to-week have been solid. Last weekend I completed my longest run of 20 miles and have been “tapering” since (starting to run less and rest more to let one’s body recover/get stronger for the race). This past Saturday I did 14, have 8 next weekend and then comes the big 26.2.

From when I began training to now, I’ve run an estimated—with the help of Nike+, which I use to track most runs—500 miles. From when I began training to now, I’ve met some incredible people also running for MS and made some good friends…2 with whom I’ll likely be running the marathon. (That is, if we can coordinate and find each other amongst the other 39,000 runners.) From when I began training to now, I’ve been both motivated and extremely touched by the support you’ve given me and this great cause.

When I began training with the Run MS team, I started with a goal of raising $3,450. Now, thanks to you, I have just surpassed $4,000. And I’m making a push for a nice, round $5000. So if you’d still like to donate (or pass on to someone who may like to donate):

Click here

Thank you’s go out to:

Vince and Ila Gaffney, Megan Gaffney, Larry and Linda Fields, Craig Addeo, Carolena Deutsch-Garcia, Hara and Michael Cohen, Steve and Patti Cohen, Howie and Cathy Stein, Phyllis and Jarrett Pikser, Patricia Marchese, Kerri Holt, Jeff Stein, Lauren Cochran, Eric Rattner, Adrian Ho, Brean Cunningham, Jeffrey Greenblatt, Laith Kalamchi, Michael Rubinfeld, Jess April, Stephanie Redlener, Andrew Tchabovsky, Hara and Michael Cohen, Matt O’Laughlin, Robert Nelson, Lisa Michel, Kirsten Shiroma, Eric Friedman, Kim Nguyen, Jeff Friedman, Jason Brupbacher, Steven Krammer, Sherri and Jeff Feinman, Ron and Diane Kaufman, Matthew Jung, Mark DiMassimo, Paul Garvey, Zach Lev, Eric Mishlove, Tom Theys, Erica, Dave and Noah Ellenbogen, Barry Blyn, Jen Giroux, Eve Silverman, Jason Oke, Pete Brown, Justin Eshak, Michael Katz, Matthew Johnson, Steven Fields, Leah Zamkow, Donna and Ed Mishlove, Tori Greene, Marie Shadi, Lee Goldstein, Chad Blakenship, Kamila Prokop, Genna McKeel, David Buxton, Slyvan Garfunkel, Arthur Marino, Aki Spicer, Noah Brier, Evan Schepps, Sarah Saline, Sean Cox, Toby Daniels.

Update: Since sending the email early this morning, I’ve reached $4,551. Thanks to Adrian Heney, Alain Sylvain, Annie O’Rourke, James Hochleutner, and Mara Kelly.

We are allowed to interpret the theme as we see fit, which could have been a bit of a daunting task. However, I was excited that a thought immediately popped into mind about what I should write. Last night while watching CNN election coverage (which is pretty standard these evenings), I noticed a promotion to Vote for the CNN Hero of 2008. It gave a quick look at a few of the nominees, one of whom caught my full attention.

It was Anne Malhum, the founder of Back on My Feet–”a non-profit organization that promotes self-sufficiency of Philadelphia’s homeless population by engaging them in running as a means to build confidence, strength and self-esteem.” (I’m sure great care was taken in crafting that mission statement, so wanted to use her words.) Anne would pass a homeless shelter every morning on her daily run, and one day an idea stopped her in her tracks. What started as one small running club has become so much more (at 5 shelters in just 15 months) without losing its core principles of discipline (that running can show you what your capable of) and community (that life’s a lot easier when you don’t go at it alone). She doesn’t provide food or shelter, rather shoes, structure and support to the homeless. And she provides inspiration for all of us.

What a great coincidence that I saw this last night. Read more about her great story here.

I clocked in about 60 tweets over the course of the 2 days, which I think was both respectful of the speakers and my followers. However, I understand that conference-tweeters can be annoying if you’re not there or if you don’t care about the subject. So in the future you may want to make use of twittersnooze, which allows you to temporarily block individual twits you’re following. (thanks to @chroma for the find)

As I was saying though, I thought it was worth revisiting the >140 characters posts I sent out to the to find the best of the bunch and add a bit of context to a few. (Because if I didn’t copy/paste some shit, there’s no way this post would have been completed.)

First things first, I got to the conference. Then I found a great seat in between two groups of peeps I didn’t know. See:
But instead of sitting there with eyes buried in screen awaiting the first speaker, I sat there with eyes buried in screen to conduct a little experiment…

-@roflcon virtual introduction – two guys sitting next to me in red and black and in front in hat with kindle – whatup!

And as I reported, it “took less than three minutes to make non-virtual intro with dudes next to me after they saw it in tweetscan”. Tweetscan and Twemes are both really great tools for connecting with other twittering conference-goers, not just to meet them in-person (though this is something I always find gratifying and took advantage of over lunch to catch up with Katie and Kristen from Wexley and Conner from Fallon for lunch (as reported) – advertising peeps unite!) but to increase your insight intake (let’s go planner speak!) in panels you’re attending or missing based on your “track” selection.

Yet all this twitter action, blog posting, live commenting, etc. in Wi-Fi enabled conference halls and rooms has a had another—arguably less positive—effect – the lack of visual attention paid to the speakers. Surely, there’s no way Prof. Lambeau would stand for it. But for a conference that brought the Internet together, it was kind of a given. Still it led me to consider how I would have handled a job moderating a panel or giving a keynote (a boy can dream)…

-new presentations skills r going to have to b taught to connect w/ a connected (twitter, laptop, etc) audience

I have to point out that I was excited to see Anil Dash based on this and he did not disappoint. He was quite a good moderator on a heavy-weight panel that included from Drew of Fark, Alexis of Reddit, Matt of Metafilter, and DJ Pretzel of OCremix. And we all were quite impressed when the panel finally got rickrolled. Here I learned that Timbaland isn’t quite as cool as I thought he was and started to better understand the distinction between aggregators and curators as well as how communities often reflect their creators. For example, Fark sees itself as the chef at a great restaurant – sure he didn’t make all the ingredients but he’s cooking and serving it up in a unique and compelling way.

A highlight for me was definitely seeing the Brothers Chap, who are behind the infamous (using this term to mean “more than famous” like Steve Martin assumed El Guapo was in Three Amigos) Homestar Runner…and one of my favorite characters of all-time, Strong Bad. These guys have never “sold-out” and never will. I remember checking out their site back in my first agency job, thinking they would be great to create something for Crunch Fitness and seeing an FAQ to advertisers that said something to the effect that they are happy just doing what they are doing. But besides for hating ads, these guys hit another interesting theme of the conference:

Inspiration can come from where you least expect it. So next time you’re considering hitting up a museum or movie, consider a “depressing shopping center – an inspiringly depressing one” like where they work. Or consider soaking in your boredom and then creating something to eliminate it (like Chuck Norris Facts, which actually started with Vin Diesel facts on a lonely Friday night for the then high school senior). Making something you find really entertaining or useful was the key for many of these people’s success on the Internet. (Million Dollar Homepage, on the other hand, was all about making money from the start!) And once you’re inspired to make something, remember that “perfection is the enemy of credibility.”

Alice Marwick gave a fantastic talk about celebrity and how Internet celebrities fit into the framework. As David Weinberger said, “We know how fame works in a world of scarcity, but we’re still figuring out how it works in a world of abundance.” Thankfully I don’t have to describe the types of promoters out there, the public image vs. public appearance phenomenon (see Magibon) or pseudo-celebritis because Alice was kind enough to post her notes on her site. Awesome! Definitely worth a look, and back to that presenting to a digitally-inclined audience point, she may find a new career in it. Bonus points for Heidi and Spencer example as well.

I unfortunately missed Christian of Stuff White People Like, but his attribution to fame and fortune (luck) is captured here. Most importantly, you’ll learn he is a fan of Back to School, a favorite movie of this blog. I did get to see the LOL peeps in action, who were thanked on behalf of stoners everywhere. Their advice was to find memes with built in audiences and keep in mind that tiny iterations of popular stuff are more likely to be hits than breakthrough new ideas. And though the tail recursion for lolcode went way over my head, I found Adam Lindsay talking about how the passionate (computer science) community completely outpaced him in creating the code.

Marketers, here is your quote from “Cheez” the CEO of I Can Has Cheezburger:

Every second you spend on the haters is a second not spent serving your fans

I caught Justine of iJustine (whose audience is now mostly female believe it or not), Dino of Bert is Evil (who was contacted by the CIA), Ji Lee of The Bubble Project (who is looking for a way to do the bubble project over shitty commercials), Eric of ACLU (who was on fire) and Leslie of Gem Sweater (who sadly, I missed perform on Friday night). I laughed, though not necessarily while rolling on the floor, and I met some really interesting people.

I’ll leave you with a quote from ACLU Eric:

Ad people want to order a viral like it’s a cheeseburger.

And I’ll add “No pun intended.” Can’t wait for ROFLcon 2009.

And as “cool” as W+K may be in the ad world, there’s very little street/campus cred gained with this “hostname”:

In fact lots of the Harvard students have crossed out their username (which had been their parent-given names) and put their screen names in their hostname space (which had been blank because they go to school). Dope…I guess.

Mad amounts of blogging and twittering going on. (Yeah, I said “mad”. I haven’t felt this old since Georgetown’s Homecoming two years ago.) That feeling is compounded by the fact that I refuse to put this crap in my system:

It is a pretty funny thing to give to people as they register though (especially for those who’ve seen Idiocracy). It’s starting up in a half-hour over here on in MIT’s Sala de Puerto Rico…and that’s a place El Gaffney can get down with.

But—and you knew that was coming—sometimes I just can’t help myself. (Yes, the holiday sweater party was a prime example.) And—once again, no suspense created—today is one of those times. Because yesterday was Founder’s Day and 1. Some video footage is already on YouTube so I’m less scared about being fired; 2. This was the most unwork company function of which I’ve even been a part; and 3. It was so outrageous, yet so authentic to W+K NY.

As our offices across the globe celebrated the 26th birthday of Wieden + Kennedy, our New York office also turned 13. By the subject of this post, you know what that means. It was time to have our Bar Mitzvah (B’nai probably)…well, time to go out to Charisma Ballroom in Queens and have a Bar Mitzvah party. The theme…Ninjas. And that’s really all I have to say about that. (Still think some things should be left to the people inside these walls.) Except maybe that Coke and Pepsi was played, so the following picture makes some sense.

So forgive me for not doing much today other than recounting the day and night (which you’ve now gotten a glimpse into) with coworkers, looking at pictures, eating, and learning the words to Jay-Z’s verse in Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” (which I butchered at the after Bar Mitzvah bar). Okay, one more picture that must have been taken right after I shouted “the best fur – Chinchilla” into the mic and thought I was going to exit on a high note…only to realize I was just half-way through…

Oh yeah, and the other reason this is titled so broadly yet pointedly is that I just found out that an article I was asked to write (theme – post-Birthright experience) for Contact (a quarterly journal of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish life) was just published. Check it out by clicking on and downloading the PDF of Winter 2008. (Pages 13-14)

That’s all for now. Shalom. Ying-yang. Hov!

Amy from the tour blogged her insider experience on FOD here. The New York Times blogged its take here, which includes a smart perspective on how the promotion of the tour underwriter, ‘Semi Pro’ was more subtle than limited. NYTimes concludes:

…this audience demonstrated how well Mr. Ferrell knows his fans, and how a Web site can drive an entire comic enterprise. Except for a quick opening clip, the stage show included nothing about the movie; with all the online hype, it didn’t have to.

I have to agree…and if you’re new to this blog or it hasn’t been apparent from recent IOI posts, I’m hooked on FunnyOrDie. Yet the point of this post was less to recap the event (that was just the hook) than to test out my new flip video. I bought it earlier that Sunday and have since found it ridiculously easy to take videos and download them to my computer—it runs on two AA batteries and has a USB arm that flips out (hence the name) and connects directly to your computer. Now I wanted to see how easy it is to upload my first-ever thirty-seconds of video (my walk to the show) to YouTube in order to embed here…and here we go:

Not hard at all though the .AVI file took a few minutes to upload to YouTube and then lowers in quality vs. viewing in Quicktime on my laptop. Any tips/suggestions from owners on process or use? Oh yeah, that and I hate my voice…but I knew that already. Unfortunately as I’m spending more time videotaping/being videotaped, videoconferencing for work, on Yahoo Live!, Seesmic, and who knows what else in the future, so I guess I’ll get used to it.

Thankfully I know what I won’t have to do and that is answer any calls from the office asking where I am!

ADDENDUM: Here’s the Google homepage image on MLK Jr. Day 2008.

Well in that case, I’ll just start off with the yearly Gen GuY resolution:
And speaking of resolutions, maybe you’ll be inspired by one of the celebrity resolutions on Funny or Die (which is a site to which I’m becoming addicted – wow, that’s a lot of which). Look for a video from FoD (that’s what the cool kids call it) in tomorrow’s IOI.

Feliz Ano Nuevo.

So congratulations to Patrick McEnroe (captain), Roddick, Blake, the Bryan Brothers, whom (as a doubles player myself) I believe are the most fun players to watch in the world. Watching Bob Bryan, a lefty, serve 4 straight aces in a game at the Open this year was one of the most ridiculous sports feats I’ve witnessed in person. (There should be a name for that, but I don’t think there is. Anyone? What’s the opposite of the golden sombrero.) He was also the model for American Express’ serve analysis that they offered for free in Bryant Park.

I’ve always been a fan of doubles. I’ve enjoyed playing it mostly for the strategic aspect (as well as the fact that it allowed me to more easily hide my appalling backhand). And I’ve enjoyed watching the strategy that great teams employ (as well as the speed of net play and the energy that comes from having a partner with whom to celebrate – just look at the Bryans’ patented chest bump). I’ve also always been a fan of team sports, so making this individualistic sport a team one for this tournament has always been appealing…even if I can never find it on T.V. And finally, I like an international competition…even it’s no World Cup. Even as an accomplished singles player, Andy Roddick has talked about how this tournament holds the most importance to him for this reason. And that’s the main reason I’ve always supported him. He cares as much about growing the sport of tennis in the U.S. as anyone in the USTA., and he acknowledges he can’t do it alone.

Anyway, I’m pumped so I posted. As Mike Bryan put it, “No words can explain how we feel right now, except Woooooooo!” The energy around this event is really good for the sport, and if I ran the USTA, I’d work more closely with the ITF, invest more in getting it on air and making people aware of it, and link it closer to their youth tennis initiatives. Yes, I know there is a significant challenge in that it takes almost a full year to complete (first round in Feb and just finished now). However, as a planner this is a challenge I’d love to take on…with a team!