An Absolut[e] Value Equation

The fascination started in high school – on a browse for “surreal desktop wallpapers”. One day, I stumbled upon a decent jpg, and then before I knew it, I began collecting and saving Absolut ads on my computer.

So, here  begins an: (kudos if you can read the fine print [no pun intended]) 

Over the years, I’ve been trying to figure out why I’ve loved them so much- whether they were genuinely generated by Absolut or by other artists putting their own spin on the ads.

I think it stems from the belief that I’m as adept as a 2-month old baby when it comes to drawing. In kindergarten, my arts and crafts teacher told me she was disappointed with my lack of skill during an origami session, since I’d ask her for help every class. Therefore, since I was “bad” at art, I hated it as a kid and dismissed it as boring. It wasn’t until I took an art history class (why? I still don’t know to this day..probably because I was suffering from extreme senioritis)  that I began reconsidering. It’s why I admire artists and graphic designers who are good at their craft: it’s a combination of both intuition and craft one needs to execute and perfect.

One thing remains, however: when the brand name comes up, my mind automatically gears to the ads. It’s like the ads  have transcended the logo- by becoming the logo itself.

These are the ones I keep coming back to:

Nevertheless, I think Absolut’s one of the few consistently impressionable brands out there, next to Coke’s “Happiness“,  that have established themselves via print (nowadays, it’s mostly commercials you remember products for).  It’s probably interesting to note this phenomenon only in the food/drink industry, unlike the fashion world (where print still reigns) or maybe tech like Apple.

Maybe it’s also because the ads that suck me in tend to envision an alternate reality or parallel universe. Like these:

 

Call it idealistic. The first one is a little radical; the second, slightly achievable (“Iron Man” much?). But with science picking up the pace  and filling in empty pages these days, who or what’s to say that nothing is impossible?

The whole thing’s a lifetime movie (and I don’t mean the gushy chick flicks on the “Lifetime” channel)- enough of a script that Spike Jonze came up with his own  in collaboration with Absolut (which definitely isn’t “Lifetime” material):

So there you have it: a verbal proof of the absolute value equation for creative ad thinking. No matter how “real” or “complex” the number is, the destination will be far from zero. Its value is always positive- and Absolut[ely] Brilliant.

Upgrade U

Like Facebook’s timeline,

it’s time to rewind:

realign, reassign, recombine

the DNA from scene of my crimes.

[And yes, I'm doing this in rhyme.]

Let’s start from Cloud 9:

From Earth's birth, I remember last year when-

Dishing here with Red Sox fans at college in 2010;

Now living in fear of not paying the rent.

 I used to stick this in my “quotes” store:

But I realized more here-

to truly hear=

only you can adhere

to the words you pioneer. So:

My ex-wallpaper on my desktop.

The fresh wallpaper to be next swapped.

“This is Not the Net You Knew“:

The new Twitter frittered the nightly news.

We paid Steve Jobs his knightly dues.

Google ‘s newest doodle ooh’s-

while Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich stews.

It’s sugar, and spice, and everything nice-

Thus, a New Year's resolution: cure sweet tooth.

 But it comes down to stop sugarcoating the truth-

a countdown to a year with all & nothing to  lose.

Midnight City

Black Friday shopping. Think angry masses of post-Thanksgiving (ironically, not as grateful for sparing anyone in the way of that discount)  New Yorkers (and some Amish among them too- spotted) whose like-minded ideology echo this “Seinfeld” sentiment:

George: All right, but we’re not buyin’ it at Bloomingdale’s. I will buy it, you pay me back later. I’ll sniff out a deal. I have a sixth sense.

Jerry: Cheapness is not a sense. 

(Aha! Maybe bargains are the universal cure to battling that tryptophan?)

Midnight city shopping sounded like an adventure, so I decided to join the party of misers & shopaholics. Since I do most of my year’s shopping on Black Friday, I equipped myself with a battle plan- a backpack, bottle of water, and mental breakdown of each destination en route within each time frame.

There I stood. “Waiting for a roar. Looking at the mutating skyline.” 

Honestly, I was a little disappointed I didn’t get to first-handedly collect any amusing stories like these here:

Nevertheless, I’m relieved that the day was rated PG; although after a few minutes of initially feeling the adrenaline rush from the crowds, it got overwhelming. Of all the Black Fridays I’ve stuck around for, the turnout this year seemed a lot larger. Good for the economy, I guess. And for that, I’m thankful.

And for Cyber Monday (Black Friday’s e-version..or another deal’s eversion). According to this, Shop.org: you rock.

And for you, Siri.

And for Google +.

Last but not least- for a long weekend pondering the fate of technology. And like the ghosts of Christmas past/present/future, what the human race/you/and I choose to do with it.

“It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.”

That, and…why is the rum gone?

It seems the entire world, across the span of the seven seas, has commemorated Cap’n Steve Jobs’ passing. After watching his commencement address at Stanford on Youtube a few years ago, I found myself sitting through the entire video- from start to finish-without budging. That in itself, I think it’s safe to say that his presence already claimed its legitimate place as master of technology’s helm.

I realized a sad truth: I was more fascinated by the difference between the iPhone 4s and the first model and how iPads worked,  than the person behind the scenes. So I watched a couple of more conversations:

Then, maybe Jobs preferred it that way. Usually, a face represents your brand- but strangely, Apple has still been equally successful, a dual corporation and playground.

I think the biggest revelation I’ve had so far is that I’ve probably known this my entire life, yet never pinpointed why. Certainly explains and justifies the “weird” things I used to do from the age of four- writing stories with stickers, associating objects with numbers (ex. an umbrella would be ’73′, but not ’1′. Don’t ask.), making my classmates climb across monkey bars for crackers, and more that I hesitate in revealing…Jobs simply re-iterated it:

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” 

And while I may not have had any imaginary friends as a child, inspiration has always been there for me. It keeps me at Best Buy for hours- geeking over the difference between a LED and LCD  tv and playing “Need for Speed” on the Amazon Kindle. Whether it’s writing, moving, or subconsciously dreaming up song lyrics (now if only I can remember them..), it’s that wanderlust.

So thanks, Inspiration. I owe it to you to be living in my head- but on a budget. Especially when I have to redesign a new apartment that I hopefully will be permanently moving into by the end of this year!

A brainstorm for now:

bathroom floor

bathroom wall

blue pendant lighting for the kitchen

“My mind’s racing from chasing pirates.“

V for Vendy Awards!

During winter breaks, I used to host friends from Bates staying over at my apartment-  worrying that they weren’t getting the best New York experience. Between each tour, I’d ask if they were hungry. One day, one of my friends replied exasperatedly, “We just ate 2 hours ago. My God, let me digest.”

I had just uncovered my secret obsession with food.

With neighborhood favorites including Italian rice balls and Russian chocolates and the fact that my father worked in restaurants- I think it certainly stems from my childhood. Now add wanderlust to the mix, and the concoction of the thrill of food trucks puts my tongue in heat.

So, I decided to volunteer at the Vendy Awards this year. They’re coordinated by the Street Vendor Project, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Urban Justice Center. which aims to develop community outreach. They were supposed to start at 12:30, but since I luckily got the part to help out (there were only 300 volunteers selected!), we were given free access, food truck goodies, snacks, and alcohol before they opened the lines to the public and V.I.P members:

Couscous & grilled lamb sausage with casablanca sauce [left]; Korean beef bbq taco [right]

Since my shift started at 9 am, I didn’t get a chance to take a shot of each truck (plus, talk about 8 volunteers checking in 2,000 people at 2 tables for tickets!), so here are my favorites of whom I fortunately and finally got to sample:

Mexicue

Big Gay Ice Cream Truck

Korilla BBQ

Luke's Lobster

On the trip home:

And if this post isn’t a self-promoting story about nonsense, or maybe a conspiracy theory about veraciously voracious appetites,

I don’t know what is:

Copyrights go to The New Yorker.

Hi, Peter. What’s happening? We need to talk about your TPS reports.

One of those short, succulent, & simple movies.

So was my visit to the MoMA.

First stop was here:

'Standard Deviations: Types and Families in Contemporary Design'

Integration of technology into the human race has been a curious journey from the beginning of accumulation in the human pool for talent. I’ve never been a self-proclaimed computer fanatic well-versed in ‘leet speak‘, but the more we marry the digital species, a kind of interracial fascination has sprouted over the years.

There’s still my obsession with words- but until now, I’ve never studied cyber language closely. Ever wondered how those Microsoft fonts were designed (my favorite still has to be Jokerman; certainly had  too much time on my hands experimenting as a child..)? For machines by humans, of course. Which is exactly why I find the following ironic:

"Never send a human to do a machine's job." Matrix moment, anyone?

Geek's version of fun: playing with typefaces.

I suppose in a way, writing  is advertising itself. In the creative process especially, less is truly more. Writing poetry over the years, I found myself shunning and dropping articles (“a”/”‘the”) left and right. Copywriting and logo branding are perfect examples of ‘beauty is nothing without brains’. Why else would Diet Coke give its face a makeover, or JCPenney vomit their words of girls being too pretty to do homework?

Also, I learned a new word of the day:

A "pangram": A sentence that contains all letters of the alphabet. Sure beats playing Scrabble.

And reunited with an ancient childhood friend:

Wow. Anyone remember these?

On to the next stop:

'Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects'

You may have heard of Google’s new app “Newsmap“:

Google's Newsmap feature.

When it first came out, I was a little irritated- seeing as I had mentally concocted that idea a year before (guess it pays to patent!). The only difference is that I hadn’t thought of the color coding (in addition, instead of providing links to articles, I thought that my ideal version of a news article would list under 10 bullet points of relevant statistics, facts, & quotes).

I’m glad that communication has become so much more diversely interactive- like Chris Woebken’s billboard housing bats and translating bat lingo for humans:

Finally, maybe we'll get to see Batman.

Or Jack Schulze’s “Here and There”- a 3D spin off Foursquare (which reminds me of this futuristic scene from “Inception”)

Dialogue really has transformed- from written to oral to digital. Think this image really best sums it up:

So, what’s happening? We are talking. Maybe about TPS reports, but in terms of social media, the constant chatter that drives the majority of us to communicate with each other is overlapping. I think it comes down to how much you want to say, and what truly is important- minimally speaking, just listening.

How do YOU want to define yourself?

The question remains, especially in this jobless economy: Do you want to let the world know who you are, without the bravado of vanity metrics?

“Joanna: Yeah. You know what, yeah, I do. I do want to express myself, okay. And I don’t need 37 pieces of flair to do it.”

[And as for tomorrow, I think I'll be okay...]

99 problems but Irene ain’t 1

It’s been another month, but there have already been many, many firsts:

• working with autistic kids
• my first earthquake that hit
• Warren Buffet attacking
• Rupert Murdoch sacking
• Steve Jobs gaunter
• ..and now sauntering into a hurricane- resulting in the city turning off all of its public transportation systems (how I’ll survive without the subway and bus for 2 days is unthinkable, but it’ll be the first and last time I’ll get to sleep in before the rush in September!). I also don’t think I’ve ever seen a supermarket run out of shopping carts this quickly (note: not a sound idea to head to Costco on your own on a late Friday night to stock up..)
•  trips to the pasticceria, Dunkin Donuts, McDonald’s, & Burger King (places I haven’t been in a year with the sole purpose of curbing those late night cravings)
• concert with one of my favorite DJ’s

It may sound morbid, but I’m kind of excited for Irene’s arrival (because there’s nothing better than a memorably muggy night of free ice cream and flashlight-dancing with strangers on unlit streets in ’03). Makes you think how much we’ve taken for granted the luxuries we have today.

Speaking of caveman days, I’ve decided to reminisce by following up on a promise in my last entry. Here’s some of my writing from a primitive mind of a fourteen-year old:

——————————————————–

The Subconscious

——————————————————–

Look what is in your hands

do you see the dustlike fragments

yes they are your dreams

dreams pent up

in the prison of your mind

now freed

——————————————————–

well go ahead touch them

swim thru the whirlpools of hidden emotions

relive the memories

——————————————————–

sew them up with your invisible needle

into a tapestry

here is your thread of time

quickly gently

don’t let anything slip through

your fingers of wanton oblivion

——————————————————–

you have your cosmic creation?

now come with me

slowly quietly

I have the key to reality

shall we now go unlock the past?

——————————————————–

The Leech (Shakespearean sonnet)

——————————————————–

Pray tell me why you turn that gentle face;

you claim that it’s because you haven’t shaved.

My dear: no matter, ’cause you always are-

adorable to me in heart by far.

——————————————————–

And when you say I’m nothing worth,

I’ll still pursue you to the ends of Earth.

You’ll beat, you’ll slug, you’ll scream, you may demand,

but I will still refuse to release your hand.

——————————————————–

And when life’s fires within me burn out,

my lips delay to cling warmth from your mouth.

Your garlicky breath I eagerly steal

will keep me stocked in spice for future meals.

——————————————————–

And now that, babe, you’ve heard what I have said,

make room, sweetheart; let me sleep in your bed!

——————————————————–

With nowhere to go, the rest of this weekend will be painful. Maybe I’ll pick a fight with someone on Google + chat, try to decode logo trends, and take a short break mixing Coke flavors on Facebook- but spend the majority pondering striking the balance between ‘see, no touch’ and ‘touch, no see‘  and the likes of those things- such as: ‘What is the Matrix‘?

“The answer is out there, Neo, and it’s looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.”

Got Milk? (For creative juices that have stopped flowing, that is.)

July 27th was a Wednesday.

At the end of a workday, a bobcat walked to Barnes and Noble’s (which reminds me-I’ll miss my childhood spent at Borders), and met up with a few other Batesies at one of her favorite culinary spots in Chelsea. They took the 6 up to Central Park to see Imelda May in action:

In the time we bobcats roamed last night, we discussed our professional goals (real world talk…). In the never-ending quest to “search for ourselves” as we get older, I now have many young bobcats asking me for career advice. For the ones who haven’t decided yet, I first show them this video:

Then, I remind them that’s what the BCDC‘s for, but I’m afraid I can only offer a simple solution: you have to love what you do. Just as you want a brand or person to be ‘authentic’, only can you be the best at your job. Ever since the age of 9, I knew I always wanted to write ( I’ll probably post a story or two from my early pre-adolescent phase, if I rack up the guts to), analyze something (warning: I am the worst person to see a movie with), and simply, hang around people .

The only advice I give, however, is to really check for cover letter typos (especially when listening to a ’90s party anthem you haven’t heard in a long time). Because there’s nothing more embarrassing than:

“I can be reached at *insert phone # here*. “

and writing instead:

“I can be breached at *insert phone # here*.”

Oh, privacy issues these days….Speaking of which, like many others, I’ve developed a slight obsession with Google-  from Facebook to Google+, and Firefox to Google Chrome (that said: move over, Jersey Shore, because Commercial Kings is in).  Maybe it’s a sign, but the whole world is googling (well, probably except China).

July 27th was a Wednesday. 

At the end of a workday, a bobcat’s story concluded happily.

Wafels & Dinges: We finally meet!

To My Friends in New York, I Say Hello

To all those living the good life:

It reminds me of a quote from my favorite book: “Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place. ”

It’s perspective..which reminds me of this interesting video:

On a less profound note:

Make ‘em Go “Oh, oh, oh!”, as you Shoot Across the Sky-y-y

Clearly my first post-grad post ( I’m On the Right Track baby, I Was Born this Way ) got me a little too hyped. Instead of going places, I’ve managed to trip first (but baby steps first, right?). It’s only been a little more than a month since graduation, and I’m recovering from a terribly sprained foot  due to a morning run around the neighborhood.

The summer simmers from the heat of the city concrete sidewalks. I’m still familiarizing myself with the new area (above all, the blast of  Hindi pop from speeding car stereos. In my lifetime, it’s been mostly Eurodance, rap, and  country). Yet, there’s still that “Mainer” part of me that whispers ‘home’- evidently, I know this, because apparently my fast-paced strut has slowed to a stroll (there’s nothing more offensive than being mistaken for a tourist, especially for a New Yorker).  If anything, Maine has definitely sharpened my senses for taking the time to note the little details: license plates have yellowed, and I can’t spend the day in libraries anymore.

So how have I been passing the time- besides vegging out to this campaign, watching the Webby Awards (I admit, the only awards show I’ve sat through entirely), and salivating creative juices from this Cannes Lions event (basically, geeking out on the Internet)? Paradoxically, I’ve been out more- like exploring the new Highline and meeting strangers, teaching myself Korean, and learning real estate terms (...real world stuff). And I’ve also developed a plan that may sound a little out of tune: I’m going to take every train from beginning to end, and I’ve invited a few bobcats for the (probably 2-day long) ride.

Hope everyone enjoys the fireworks (I know I will, from my rooftop!), and the food as well. Anyway, please excuse the cliche of this post’s title, but doesn’t the long weekend make everyone  “feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again“?

You just gotta ignite, the light, and let it shine:
Just own the night like the 4th of July.