New Attitude

Hello kids, sorry for the latency between posts. It's just that the new year greeted me with a shocker. I got my ass fired. It's ok tho. I was kind of asking for it. As you may have gathered from my previous post, I have been miserable for quite some time at my last position (employer to remain nameless). I had every intention of leaving on my own mid year 07. The funny thing is this; x-mas party 06 we were just about to loose our 2nd creative director in about 6 months. The job by that point was up for grabs and I had a strong angle. I did not take it however. I nominated a colleague who, it should be noted, was about to leave the agency himself. I couldn't help but chuckle when he looked at me and in his typical oblique stammer said, "I think your done here!"

Let me start at the beginning. After having some success helping to create SemutApi (www.semutapi.com) way back in '02 with fellow Agency.com-ers. Our stalwart leader was forced to relocate the studio to Jakarta. It just so happens that Indonesia is a Muslim country. Post 9-11 Muslim countries are not very popular. Was our fearless friend Muslim? nope. He was just caught up in the same fervor that swept up thousands of other innocents after the tragedy. So there I was, left with a decision to make. Why to god couldn't it had been Tokyo he was going to! A twinge of home sickness led me to finally come to New York. Unfortunately, I had no portfolio. I had lent my disks to the agency so we could pitch work.

Fast forward. December 04. I managed to cobble together a meager body of work. It was pretty pathetic really. I was lucky to land this AD position at said Nameless Agency. Actually the set up couldn't have been more perfect. The internal structure of Nameless Agency was a complete mess. Surprisingly enough it had a small but notable list of clients. I took advantage of the opportunity and bent as many projects that i could to my will. The end goal? Rebuild my frickin lost portfolio. No internal structure meant that i could step in and take the lead with little bureaucratic oversight. I had to eat shit for a while. Technically I should have been playing at CD level. But with little to show for my experience I got bumped to AD. Not toooo bad. Especially in an environment where I was told "Didn't believe in Titles." Um... Ok.... sure, whatever. I navigated the choppy waters as best I could for 2 years. Finally I had enough work to move on from that dysfunctional little hell hole.

Nameless Agency Holiday party 06. Hat metaphorically in hand, I made an arrangement with soon to be Nameless Superior. Up until that point he was harmless enough. Subtly ambitious. Spoke in stammered fits and starts that gave the impression possibly, by dumb luck, something brilliant just might erupt from somewhere inside his shaggy head. We were/are total opposites. I didn't care. By that point i was just going to take my time and look for greener pastures. We both knew the CD seat was going to be vacant. With a drunken burp I said have at it.

Sure enough I stepped aside and let him get promoted. Not without an empty promotion for myself. I was anointed Associate Creative Director and was given a healthy pay raise (still way below industry scale BTW but hey.... It was something). I was all set to jump ship in a few months while I sorted everything out when I was given a project that would probably be the culmination of everything I had working toward up until that point. It was an integrated campaign. Full video. Dynamic and immersive flash. It would be the cherry on top. That lead to 4 of the hardest months I've ever had to put down on a project. I was fried and the summer passed in a blur. Fall hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to get moving. I quickly started gathering materials that would help me tell a CD's story.

Then came the Nameless Agencies first round of layoffs. Turns out their glorious lack of structure and foresight paired with a supreme lack of new business development left us vulnerable to a loss of three clients totaling millions in revenue. Surprisingly I was spared the ax. Suprisingly? you may ask. Because Nameless Superior turned into a little Hitler with whom I rarely saw eye to eye. I guess I managed to fly under the radar just well enough.

It was at that point I knew that I could not dally and longer. My brain screamed "EXIT STAGE RIGHT." I grabbed a crappy little presentation we developed for a new business capabilities pitch. It had all my work in it. I quickly put it on my server and started sending out resumes. A small part of me felt guilty that I was repurposing an agency pitch. A bigger part of me said fuck it! they used you as much as you used them.

X-mas 07. I was in the office for the two dull days between x-mas and New Years. I was full of excitement. After a month of interviews i finally had a respectable agency take an interest in me. I had a 3 hour interview set for just a week after Jan. 01. I was dreaming of the moment when I could give the little Despot my resignation. He came in late on a friday with a grimace. I bade him a small acknowledgment. Not uncommonly he ignored me. He was such a pleasure to be around! About two hours later he called me into the conference room for a meeting. He moved to the plasma display and pulled up the pirate site. Admittedly I was a little shocked. But not so much. It's a small community we work in. We sat there for a second. I smirked and pulled off a little shrug.

"Yeah?"

Flummoxed, he spastically waved at the screen, "you didn't even bother changing the copy."

"I'll take it off this weekend."

"I think your done here."

I let out a snicker. "d'you want me to pack up now?"

"That would be best!"

He was always a little mellow dramatic. So I packed up and left. Can't say I'm none the worse for wear. I've had the whole month off, living off the soft cushion of savings I managed to accumulate, sitting here in the beautiful city of San Francisco.

Oh that interview I had? Got the job. I start on the 28th.

INTERVIEW DATING

It's been no secret. I've been very vocal about how much I can't stand the gig that I'm in right now. There was a time when things looked promising. We had a great team. I felt challenged by them. Even though being in the design industry is kind of congenial, you know, we all hang out together, share all the new tricks we've discovered in flash or photoshop or whatever. It's still really competitive. Anyway. I've been sending out resumes like a fiend over the last few weeks. Yes I know it's the end of the year and everything is slow but I don't think I can take it here much more. At first I was just sending to anyone. I had 4 interviews set up last week. It didn't take me long to get the lay of the land. I skipped out on the last one at the last minute. I just knew after thinking about it that this place wasn't for me. I sent a polite email saying that I found something else and would be taking my career in a new direction. Ever since then this recruiter has been stalking me. It's extremely bizzar. Some companies I can't even get them to call me back even after they've expressed interest in me. But this one, oh man. It's starting to take on the tone of "why am I not good enough for you". Four days after I declined I got a message on my voice mail almost pleading for me to consider coming in. I have no idea how to respond. It's just so awkward. It's like dating. Too much interest too soon... Bad news.... Too little? Too late. It's a delicate balance.

HERE HE COMES!!!!!

Ok i'm still really really jet lagged from my trip to Hong Kong last week. I will have all that crazy video and picture stuff up here soon. I took five 85min HD tapes of us out there and have to go through it all and import it into final cut yadda yadda..... BUT this really woke my ass up!

I've only been a fan of one Wachowski brothers film. That, of course would be the first Matrix. The other two sequels were too much poop to wade into right now and V for Vendetta, while not directed by the brothers, was poop as well. I am cautiously optimistic about the latest Speed Racer adaptation. A new batch of images just came out that kind of blew me away. Click to enlarge the image above or go HERE to see some more pics and learn more about the film. It will all come down to story. They definitely have the wacky pop anime style down. I just hope they don't have another ponderous poopy script like their last three outings. Could this be a fresh start for the brothers? I hopes so!!!!!

Solty Rei is the shit

I ABSOLUTELY AM IN LOVE WITH THIS SERIES. Many of you know that I am nearly 100% against anything that Disney does and hate that America treats animation as if it's for kids only. I'm sick to death of talking animals and fuzzy moralistic nonsense. I've been a fan of Anime ever since I was a kid. I remember watching Astro boy, Marine Boy, Speed Racer, Battle of the Planets (aka Gotchamon) and Star Blazers (the wave motion gun is THE best weapon of all time). I would rather watch these shows than Bugs Bunny or Tom and Jerry. Why? BECAUSE THEY HAD PEOPLE doing really cool PEOPLE things. I've never been the biggest Manga fan tho. I really do prefer American comics. Even though American comics have so many of their own issues. I don't know where to start. It's obsession with super heroes is just way too limiting. But I feel the artwork in American comics are... well... just better. And more diverse. ANYWAY, I digress.... ANIME has always been a source of inspiration simply because the Japanese deal with characters and themes in comics/Anime that are just wicked cool. Solty Rei reminds me a lot of Trigun mixed with Leon The Professional. This mix of extreme innocence and maturity represented by the two main characters is very effective. Your first impression may be to write it off. Admittedly the animation is not Ghost in the Shell or Animatrix standards. It's not even Samurai Shamploo, and once you get past that, you have to deal with Solty herself. I can see how most people will scratch their heads and ask, "What the hell IS this?" but if you stick with it for a few episodes.... It's absolutely infectious. Because Solty's innocence is so disarming you immediately write it off as a kids show, and that's exactly what they want you to do. Because this show is as Cyber Punk as they come.

Right or Left brain

click here and find out which are YOU?

Great iPhone skit

Sadly, It didn't air on SNL.

Death of a diner

A little over a week ago the humble little ad agency that I work for decided to lay off about 15 people (of a staff of @ 70). It wasn't so surprising, we had lost a few key accounts but I couldn't help but feel a little freaked out due to my experience over the "dot com" days. The days when they lined us up by the hundreds gave us a fond farewell and returned to our desks to learn that we were locked out of our machines; often with our belongings already kindly packed in boxes. So, needless to say, I kicked it into high gear and started covering my ass by handing out the resumes. By the end of the week I started to relax, knowing that I was proactive in taking fate into my own hands, and decided to visit my good good friend The Rob in my favorite favorite place Philadelphia.

This is The Rob:



The Rob just learned that is is going to be a daddy and I wanted to come down from the Lawn of Brook and drink some nice nice wine. I have much love for the illadelph and the minute I got off the train I felt like my old self. All the places I use to hang out at came flooding back into me bean and The Rob is always very patient with me while he takes me around to all my favorite old haunts. The minute I got into his car we went out and grabbed a beer at a new neighborhood bar and immediately I'm reminded of why I love this cozy little city. The small streets and brick houses are brimming with neat little eateries just waiting to be discovered. After that, another treat as we went to THE BEST little italian joint in northern liberties called il cantuccio. During our scrumptious meal and with my eyeballs starting to float from the bevy of yummy yummy vino The Rob declares that we must depart or we'd miss The Australian Pink Floyd Show, the only world touring Pink Floyd tribute act. They even played for David Gilmor whom I can only suppose gave them a little pink pig stamp of approval. I was skeptical. wouldn't you be? but they were GREAT! Sounded just like em. I was shocked.








They had it all. Great sound Great light show. In true philly style The Rob and I showed up late to the Tower but got prime seats anyway. As we walked out I was struck by how long it had been since I'd been to the Tower to see a show. Was it Primus with Fishbone when I had the chicken pocks and my friends didn't want to touch me? NO it was Jane's Addiction during the Ritual tour! We were all tripping our balls off and Perry got really pissed that the crowd wasn't getting up off the seats and decided to walk off the stage before the show was over. Of course there was a riot. I remember stumbling out into the street just in time to watch 50 or so people tipping over this huge tour bus while the scene quickly filled with dozens of patrol cars. Lights flashing, Ah the good ol days. The Rob and I headed over to another old place that's trying to make a bit of a revival but we quickly left in lieu of checking out the newly refurbished Silk City. Now, Silk City diner is a STAPLE of philly night life. At least it was in my day. At 2 am there would be about two places you'd go to get some grub before heading out to the Black Banana or Revival (Two long gone after hours clubs). One was the south street diner the other was Silk. When I left the illadelph it was just starting to undergo some huge changes. JC Dobbs turned into the Pontiac Grill. They opened a Johny Rockets on SOUTH STREET (ugh). They were going to close the Troc and micro breweries were popping up EVERYWHERE. ONE thing I thought would NEVER ever change was Silk. But it did. and that makes me feel:



They turned it into another hipster hideaway. no more gravey fries. I ordered a BLT. They now make it with wild boar bacon and fried green tomatoes. It was way too greasy and the neon red lights they have in there now don't make it go down any easier. Next to the diner was something I guess you could call a club. just a tiny dance floor with a little bar. And it was really nice to. They kept the two areas separate from each other. But now it's all one. They blast the muic in the diner now and you can't even hear your friends talk. You use to be able to use the place as a great little club house. A little rest bit where you could rendezvous with all the other philly party people as you chow down quickly on some good old diner food before moving on. You can get Wild boar bacon bits with shee shee crap anywhere. give me back my gravy fries. An era has passed.