A little bit of hunger satisfaction last weekend

Its hard to say it but last weekend was an unbelievable one in terms of weather and getting out and about. Firstly a little meet up with some friends on Friday night in shoreditch to check out the American shop Rock Lobsta pop up store storing some lobster rolls... oh damn they were good.

Then onwards to a 2nd night in a row in a new favourite haunt Happiness Forgets which is almost a little New York style dive bar. Considering I was in there the night before with the guy who owned who had lived in New York as well as my friends .... lets just go with that. He made an unbelievable Negroni as well, which is now 2011 drink of the summer.

I was in a little pain on Saturday so kept low but sunday after a very hard day in the sun and a few beers at the Scolts Head it was down to Dalston to the somewhat infamous Mangal's on a side street of Stoke Newington Rd in Dalston... where I had a meatathon which was much needed. I have been informed that there are now a number of these restaurants who have stolen the name but this is the original so obviously the best. Great Meze plate with all my favourites to start with. Then onto a selection of meats which was to die for... If you get a chance check it out. But dont go at the major times as it tends to be hipster heaven

Saturday 21st of May

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I have been bad... no real bad. Its not that I havent been living up to my objective of getting out there and doing more. I have just been terrible at writing about it. I promise I will get my act together and do more. Great saturday in London town so here goes

It all started off in the morning the only way I know how to at a great new cafe in Clerkenwell. which is the sister to St Ali near where my auntie and uncle live in Melbourne. I found the Melbourne one by accident a few years back when I was doing the family thing and Im so glad I did. The funny thing is the London one is across the street from my old work place in what used to be a late night bar we all used to end up in. Timing it is always my problem. The one thing I will always notice with cafes, bars restaurants is how they use their space. Im very aesthetically inspired but also the flow of movement through a room in how they organise everything. Its weird but a good flow of movement makes me feel more relaxed even in a small tight space and they have done a great job of it. It almost feels a little New York loftish. Food was simple and really good. Feel like they needed a few more egg based food options on the menu. I didnt take my time on the coffee but it was good and a quick squiz at the menu showed lunch and the wine menu being quite extensive. It makes hanging out in my old work hood maybe just ok...

A ride down towards Brick Lane lead us to a random little gallery and photo exhibition on what else but Pub Life in the UK. It was small and intricate look at such a huge part of this countries culture. I took some photos of the random facts about pubs you might not know. Like due to the lack of literacy a lot of pubs were named after animals so they could just use a picture. Still need that today after a couple of pints

Then onto the main draw Alessandro Botto's exhibition Flux in the back of the Truman Brewery which is awesome. We had a chat with him for a while and he is an interesting character originally from Peru but left around 15 years ago and lived from New York to London to Dorset. He told us his work was influenced by the Itatlian Futurists and Julie Mehretu. Great space and a nice line of work. You should do and check it out

Then it was a beautiful ride in the sun down to Battersea Park for a little lawn bowls and bubbles (I know its an Australian thing)

I promise I will go back and write about all the things I have been up to...

ooooh yeah Chromeo Baby... getting a little mass

cracking the TV programs in the US....

Making your own digital creatures

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I often come up with a million ideas but very seldom do I follow them through. So for 2o11 I am motivating myself to do more. (also reading this to help Make Ideas Happen... its good). One thing I have been extremely interested in lately is behavioural economics. Which has led me to find a number of interesting pieces of technology that utilise this behaviour for a positive outcome for an individual. Like this cool alarm clock that every time you press snooze it puts money into your savings account. So when I was perusing the School Of Life website I saw this fantastic course called Digital Creatures... and thought why not.

We learnt about the arduino which is a open source electronics prototyping platform that you can use to create all sorts of things. I had seen many youtube videos and cool things that people had created using them. But actually seeing one in real life and having a play was interesting, fun and frustrating all at once. I seemed to be ok at the soldering which is good. We created our little digital creatures. Which had a LED nose, Two eyes that were sensors, a mouth that was a speaker and knobs for ears to turn things up and down.

I believe it was probably my laziness and the hope that my housemates would never ask... but the refitting of an electric plug didnt go down all that well. After three attempts I finally got it... plugged the light in to see it working fine... then dropped the light on the ground and almost started a fire....oops

Well onto writing code for the Digital Creature. We were taught to write code for the light to come on, the colours, changing loops and changing colours, inclusion of sounds and other cool stuff . Although Dan the guy teaching us was great and very engaging. I soon remembered why I slept through my last few years at school. Im not a very good listener... I need to LISTEN / DO / ASK... being a guy I struggled to multitask and grapple with it all at once. But in hindsight and playing with it a little bit after I left. I felt I understood what he was saying and now its more about playing around for myself. Which I often find is the best way for me to learn. WATCH THIS SPACE

It was a great day out ... although very draining on the mind and I wasnt even hung over like some, so I cant imagine the pain they felt. I had a great time learning something new. I met some really interesting people and generally thought energy and enthusiasm from everyone was great.

So check out the School of Life which has a huge amount of cool things going on that are interesting to say the least

and Dan and Bethany have started their own little education program called technologywillsaveus so get involved

It's all gone a little XOYO

I have taken my time uploading this one. But a few fridays back we wondered down into the heart of Shoreditch to a new little club. (Not that new...we've just taken a while to get our asses down there). The truth was we were waiting for a decent lineup and the wait was worth it. With a line up like A-Trak, Russ Chimes (an old fav) and some less loved ones like Monarch the night was stupednous.


Monarch.. athough a little melancholy which was slightly over dramatised with the band wearing feminine vails that you would only see at a funeral or maybe Marylin Manson's birthday party. But a nice start to the evening all round.



Then unfortunately timing was against us... as they decided to put A-Trak and Russ Chimes on very close to each other.. so A-Trak first and he was awesome really getting the crowd going early. But then moved into some of his old school rap / hip hop and he's unbelievable turntable freestyling which made him a god in the 90's when he become the 1997 DMC champ at 15. Not bad. But as much as we were there for the show... we wanted to rip the floor a little more. So upstairs to a little Russ we went...

I much prefer when Russ Chimes rips out the guitar and plays a little live synth in between. But it was all DJ this evening and he definitely pulled out a few old gems that got the dee floor moving.


All and all a great night. Venue was cool and the flow of space just worked. Music was a bit of a mix of finding some new and loving some old.... and the lights we can forget the lights

Had to have a little bit of sunshine

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

What do you do when you are freezing your ass off in London. You hope a plane to Mexico to get some sunshine with your best mate and oh what a ride.

With his 30th hitting and mine not far away it was a year of transition from young crummy travelers to world globetrotters... we wish. From Cancun to Playa De Carmen to Tulum. Such a beautiful part of the world. I think I will definitely have to go back and travel through there more.

Beautiful Snow right across the road

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

I have been bad with this site lately. Here are just a few photos I took of the snow across the street from my apartment. I get to walk through this park everyday..

Living the Dream....Are We ?

This film about the situation in Iceland through the eyes of the creative community starts to really ring true on a broader perspective in what is supposedly seen as the western world. Money, growth, power are they morals that people really want to live by.

We have been living 'the American dream' which is exactly what it is, not ours. Its that lifestyle that is played out in every American movie and TV show that sweeps the world. Work hard, love your country, get married, buy a house, have kids buy that awesome car and keep spending.

The interesting thing is our safety in and understanding of what morals is being thrown into dishevel or are they ?. Are your morals about how much you earn or your monetary value. Surely your morals are the things that you believe in. The things that guide the life that you choose to live. What if this American dream was that of your parents that they bestowed upon you. What if the more they pushed it, the more you realised it was wrong.

As my friend's start to hit their 30's and have been working hard like we were supposed to often ridiculous hours to buy the houses and the cars. Many of them, me included have started to ask one simple question. 'Is this it ??'

There was always something quite wrong about the situation that didnt feel right. Its not that i dont believe in a hard days work. But all those hard days to make that little bit more money for those companies who will treat you more like shit, doing something you really dont enjoy. Just seems wrong to me.

A bit of big thinking

I had a lovely day today, it wasnt directly because of work as I promised myself I would never talk about that on here. It was during a work like experience that I had a real revelation about my life. I didnt actually go into work today. I got to go to a cool event by the APG which is a group of all the thinky people from advertising (known as planners) talking about things that interest them. Guess what it was called... the battle of big thinking.

Sometimes it can be quite an egoboo and naval gazing event. The great thing was that it actually brought up some very interesting topics for everyone not just advertising people. Im not going to get into what the day was about, you can read my 'work' blog for that. But during a little bit of an energizer after lunch. They had this wonderful musician play (see above). During this I had my little revelation. I love living in London because it gives me the freedom to think big.

It made me realise that all the supposed big thinking Id done elsewhere was nothing. As I had no one to truly share it with or people that pushed me further to think harder and bigger. The 'positive friction' I have had with many different types of people has lead to even more interesting thoughts. It is probably also a somewhat sense of maturity but also a better knowledge that being mature doesnt mean you should lose the curiosity and naivety of being a kid as we saw today with a younger presenter who was brilliant.

I was given a pretty good education and got pretty good marks but only because I figured out how to play the system. Not because I truly saw the relevance or value of an education that in hindsight I feel somewhat bad about. But anyone my path I felt was that I would much prefer to experience life and learn as I go in the real world and not be forced into reading something about it. Its funny how things changed. But the value of education as a whole has started to really resonate with me as Ive realised it means much more than I was supposedly taught. I can experience things, I can read things, I can share things I can discuss things. I hated all the discussion when I first arrived in the UK. But I have started to gain an understanding of its value. So I have been able to start to mix it up. Read this, share this, experience this, share this. Then start to reach out to different people but also take the time to listen to different people. I can often be brash and harsh. But I need to remind myself to bring back that childhood curiosity and realise you can truly learn something from everyone not just the ones that are obvious.

All in all the more reading, talking and experiencing you do the more you understand what you are apart of and what you want to take from that... but also what you want to give back. Because at the end of the day we are all just looking for some fulfillment and Im realising this is a great way to get it. (for me anyway)

Full TRON Legacy Track Found

A few new tracks to share....

An old favourite chromeo are back with a new video and collaboration with La Roux. Lots of nice synth.

Expressway Mix Pt.2 by Russ Chimes

Here's another old favourite with a new mix track. Russ Chimes bring us the French stuff... a little run Mahogany Blog.

If you ever wanted to know how the advertising system works... this is it

Great article on the future of our industry from fastcompany.

But if your out there dad or any of my friends who dont know what I or any other advertising people do. Here you go

The ad business became an assembly line as predictable as Henry Ford's. The client (whose goal was to get the word out about a product) paid an agency's account executive (whose job was to lure the client and then keep him happy), who briefed the brand planner (whose research uncovered the big consumer insight), who briefed the media planner (who decided which channel -- radio, print, outdoor, direct mail, or TV -- to advertise in). Then the copywriter/art director team would pass on its work (a big idea typically represented by storyboards for a 30-second TV commercial) to the producer (who worked with a director and editors to film and edit the commercial). Thanks to the media buyer (whose job was to wine-and-dine media companies to lower the price of TV spots, print pages, or radio slots), the ad would get funneled, like relatively fresh sausage, into some combination of those five mass media, which were anything but equal. TV ruled the world. After all, it not only reached a mass audience but was also the most expensive medium -- and the more the client spent, the more money the ad agency made.

A little taste of whats to come on TRON...

We all know I cant wait for TRON to come out.... but thanks to Mahogany Blog who passed on this awesome video. It looks like its only going to get better.

A different type of Italian

I have been a bit crap about talking about my food expeditions namely because I havent really been going out enough. The whole point of this blog was to push me to do things more. So I better go out more.
Anyway... moving right a long to a great Italian place I went to a few weeks back for a friends birthday. I often avoid Italian when I go out, as I often feel that it is not a 'dining experience' type meal. How wrong I was. Polpo in Soho tags itself as 'a baraco in Soho'. A baraco is actually a venetian style restaurant with the small plates like tapas. But oh my god was the food great.

So many different types of mixes. I wish I remember more. I am going to go and check out the little sister polpetto... I promise to remember more.

Everyone loves the hipstas...

So we all love a good hipsta. Great video above on the east london tribe. But I had the chance to go and hang out in Williamsburg in NYC. I am forever amused by the concept of 'same same but different'. It felt very similar to Hackney the hipsta hangout in London in so many ways. Style, bars everything. Met a cool guy who took us up to his cool loft which I took a few photos of. Just a great space of artists similar to when I went to the Hackney Wicked Festival and walked through people's lofts there.

Check it out if you can. It was awesome. I will have to head back there again and have a few nights out.

A little bit of design...

I havent been writing for a while which is stupid as I have been up to quite a bit. Checked out a couple of things at the London Design Festival last month. I spent saturday hanging around redchurch street in Shoreditch. I love this street as the more and more I go back to it the more gentrified it seems.
I took some photos above at an 'antidesign' even which was pretty cool. Walking into some studios to see peoples work and some interesting stuff. One of the exhibitions was people answering questions posted on the wall. ' what cant you live without' everyone put material goods... I said 'friends' ... cause they probably have all the material goods so I can borrow them. Chick working there loved it. Nice people
I do feel bad as I always get excited about design festival and only go to a couple of things. The V&A still has an illustration exhibition on. So maybe I will go and check that out.

Its confusing to be a man

Quite a cool little video on a subject that continually changes. From metrosexual to ubersexual to whatever sexual we are up to next. I think we all feel similar pains.

Fantastic Poem....

.... I often question everything. I make the comment a lot... why is this so easy. I need more of a challenge. Sometimes those challenges pay off. Sometimes those challenges are so disheartening that you almost want to give up on everything. But what pushes you on.... the fear of sameness.

The light... a great poem by Rainer Maria Rilke in 1904... who has a elequence with words that I never will but speaks how I feel.

Only someone who is ready for everything, who doesn’t exclude any experience, even the most incomprehensible, will himself sound the depths of his own being. For if we imagine this being of the individual as a larger or smaller room, it is obvious that most people come to know only one corner of their room, one spot near the window, one narrow strip on which they keep walking back and forth. In this way they have a certain security.

And yet how much more human is the dangerous insecurity that drives those prisoners in Poe’s stories to feel out the shapes of their horrible dungeons and not be strangers to the unspeakable terror of their cells. We, however, are not prisoners. No traps or snares have been set around us, and there is nothing that should frighten or upset us. We have been put into life as into the element we most accord with, and we have, moreover, through thousands of years of adaptation, come to resemble this life so greatly that when we hold still, through a fortunate mimicry we can hardly be differentiated from everything around us. We have no reason to harbor any mistrust against our world, for it is not against us. If it has terrors, they are our terrors; if it has abysses, these abysses belong to us; if there are dangers, we must try to love them. And if only we arrange our life in accordance with the principle which tells us that we must always trust in the difficult, then what now appears to us as the most alien will become our most intimate and trusted experience.

How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence something helpless that needs our love.

~

Actually this might be a little easier to use

I think this is more to my liking ... I just want a huge touchscreen like that in my room

actually this might be a little easier to use