Absenteeism.

Sorry I've been truant. I am swamped with work and have one major piece of remarkable in the oven. If it rises correctly, I'll be sure to let all of you sample the baked goodness here at this blog first.

Funny stuff going on over at Will It Bill.

Since I've missed two NMWs, I'll throw you guys a bone. Dolores O'Riordan is best known as the lead singer for The Cranberries. She recently released a solo album that is very, very good. Here is the first single, Ordinary Day.

I highly recommend the entire album titled "Are You Listening".



Life is more intricate than it seems.

The Table collapses.

With Ben already gone, and Bill having flown the Coop (see what I did there?) the Brotherhood of the Table is officially broken. We didn't get a chance to tag Ben with an electronic tracking device before he left, but we did get Billy.

Follow his zany antics here.

That's all, for now.

It's perfect as it is.

This headline, and subsequent story, needs no exposition from me.

Armless driver eludes police chase

Absolutely awesome.

[Boing Boing]

An alternate world, part 1(?)

There is a great piece over at Ad Age about the work TBWA has done for Starburst and Skittles. Essentially, the author implies TBWA has crafted an alternate world for their products to inhabit. A world where the absurd is commonplace. The following commercial is a great example of this.



The Ad Age article points out how neither of the two guys approached by the Little Lad react in a way which acknowledges how obviously out of place the Dickensian character is. It is implied he is not out of place. Sure he's odd, but he's not so out of context the other two are overtly taken aback by his behavior.

Starburst is not the only product to receive this treatment from our friends at TBWA. You might remember this Skittles commercial:



Or this one:



They're brilliant in they all inhabit the same world. TBWA has set up an alternate reality for these products to exist in. The beauty is it's the same world. For all we know it might run tangental to ours. Perhaps a Skittles leak is formed when someone in our reality inevitably spills a pound of Skittles in a movie theater.

The point is TBWA has taken Adam Savage's quote "I reject your reality and substitute my own" to a literal level with this work for Starburst and Skittles. The question now is will they maintain this alternate reality and use it to engage their consumers?

That's how you fix it?

[Ad Age]

Poetry in motion.

An incredible cliche of a title, wouldn't you say? Regardless, I love this website. It documents a project which takes poetry written by Former Poet Laureate Billy Collins, and gives it an animated treatment.

I love the fusion of media. The written word, the spoken word, the animation. It's beautiful and fun and stimulating.

Today is one of those days.

This one goes out to Max.

The title of this post is paraphrasing something actually uttered by Pete Mitchell at the No More Kings concert last night. It was right before they played "Zombie Me", which is very fitting. The show was good though the crowd was sparse. The guys from No More Kings looked like they were having fun, and it showed in their performance.

I got the chance to talk with Pete a little before and after the show, and he is a rad dude (I'm sure the same can be said for the rest of the band as well). We talked pop culture, the current self-important musical landscape, dynamics of sequels to successful movies, and the pending zombie apocalypse.

All and all, a good show. I hope they come back to Lincoln soon.

All the zombies in the house say "Hey-ay!"

Celebration!

You know what's better than simply celebrating a coworkers birthday? Convincing everyone in the office she's 40 (she's not). The perfect touch was when her husband and two kids came into the office with a balloon which read "Happy 40th!". Perfect.

And we get to do it all over again next year.

NMW: No More Kings, Sweep The Leg

DeeCee turned me onto these guys about a month (maybe more) ago. They just released their debut album on March 27th, and Pete Mitchell (lead singer, animator, speaker of Japanese) described it as "A love letter to the eighties." There are songs about Knight Rider, the Smurfs, Peanuts (the comic strip), and of course, Karate Kid.

I guarantee you this is the best band with a song written entirely from the point of view of a 80's movie antagonist portrayed by William Zabka.

What's more, these guys are going to be rocking Knickerbockers tomorrow night with Traceback and As The City Sleeps. I'll be there, for sure. I'm thinking about rocking the gi, crane kick style!



Send him home in a body bag Johnny!