Citizen Kane Got Soul

Even when Orson gets a little behind he seems to always catch up. It's a rhythm and blues mirrrrrrrrrrrrrracle. (it's pathetic how many times this has made me laugh out loud)

Digital Candy

So there's new treats available to install on your touchable iPods and iPhones. I paid $1.99 for a solitaire game that remains undefeated. 52 gang members teaming up against me every time. I bought another one for $.99 that is a digital zen garden. You drag your fingers around in digital sand. I read the reviews and fellow dorks said how relaxing it was to draw in the sand. Someone wrote, "It's like playing in the dirt." The review I didn't think much of until just now was a guy who said, "Is it me, or is this really dumb? Wouldn't it be better to go outside and actually play in the dirt/sand?"

We're trying hard to never leave our cushioned chairs. I expect iPods to start going to the bathroom for us soon. I recently saw WALL-E. It's really great. But really convicting. They paint the picture of future humans being fat, regressed blobs who spend their entire lives in comfy chairs staring at digital gadgetry. I don't want to become that. I want to be more like the guy who realizes digital zen gardens are dumb. But jerks like Steve Jobs are making it hard by continually churning out digital candy for us all to sit around and munch on. And that was the ironic thing about WALL-E. It was kind of biting the iPod-wielding hand that feeds it. Steve is saying, "buy this sexy, pocket machine-it's the future." And his Pixar peeps are saying, "your future is chair-bound fatness, pork-rinder. how another game of solitaire?"

(cue debbie downer music)

Sweet Ohio ad #2

I hope this makes you proud, Jane. I hope it makes all Fremonters proud.

Sweet Ohio ad #1

Here's the first installment of our Sweet Ohio Ad Campaign. I hope this will inspire you to share what you love about Ohio in our little experiment. Check the post down below if you don't know what I speak of...

seven/eleven

My brother's wedding this past Friday (7/11) was probably the most fun I've had since my wedding weekend. I am left overwhelmed by how much I love my friends and family. Makes me think that the small towns and villages around the earthplanet that are filled with families and friends who never move away and make a life together have something figured out. After the reception we grilled tubed-meats, shared cheese puffs and carbonated beverages, illegally swam in the heavily chlorinated pool and just talked until the wee small hours of the morning. The whole weekend was magic.

We showed the following video at the reception as surprise for Lindsey. Her reaction was exactly what we hoped for. We shot the video at the bachelor party. Pay attention to the tallest of the background dancers. He will appear to be deaf. He is not. He's just really drunk. And one of the worst dancers this world has ever seen. After it played the biggest question we got (surprisingly to me) was "how did you get matching suits?" They are $5 goodwill specials. Brent bought them all a month ago and since then Lindsey has been asking him how in the world he spent $40 at goodwill. As the video played Brent finally answered her.

Sweet Ohio

Ok, I have another experiment. We mock up some advertisements for this fine state a la the Pure Michigan ads. You in? Alright, here's the idea. You send me your favorite thing/place/aspect/etc. about Ohio along with three descriptors.

Example:
Bean Fields
-flat
-expansive
-numerous

Then...I'll whip together a SWEET OHIO ad. Then... stay with me now... once we have a good body of work we get a famous Ohioan (Paul Newman- Cleveland) to narrate. Eat it Tim Allen. Then we all get rich by selling them to Governor Strickland. And then... here comes the pay off.... we move to Michigan.

(I'll be at my brother's wedding until Saturday. That gives you plenty of time to send me your list. Also, I'd recommend watching a few Pure ads before generating your list (aka- love letter). It'll help get the romantic propaganda juices flowing.)

Who are the ad wizards?

Michigan. I really hate that word. Hate typing it. Hate saying it. Hate their dumb helmets. Hate their devil rat mascot. As an Ohioan it's my duty. I grew up singing we don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan. Why you ask? What's the basis? Simple. We're from O-HI-0.

Well, then I started hearing these Pure Michigan ads on the radio. They're unbelievable. They have caused me to repent and give more than a damn about the state. Michigan sounds magical. Dare I say wonderful. These spots are perfectly written. Honestly, I'd pay dollars for an alarm clock with this narrator's voice reading me something in the morning. Something about sunshine and fresh water.

Do not watch this if you want to maintain your Michigan hatred.

Sometimes it's the little things...

Running car w/ cape....cool. Add a little Motorhead....way cool

What would yours' be?

Kind of an interesting question. I'm obviously biased. But here's an experiment...email me your metaphor (something that describes or could represent you in an iconic way) and I'll whip up a quick graphic for you and post it below.) So say Harrison Ford emails me, I'd whip up a literal whip. Get it? And.....go.




Craig and Sara just emailed theirs: EXPLORERS. Leah and I went to their wedding two weeks ago and instead of a wedding cake they had an ice cream truck and everyone got to take tickets outside to the refrigerated dreammaker and pick an ice cream. Brilliant! They explored the boundaries of nuptial desserts.







mat milthaler chose FUTURISTIC. I can attest to his futureness. He's always a few steps ahead. Always strategizing. Before the Raygunner was born Mat had two playlists on his iPod ready for when he popped out. One if it was a girl one if it was a boy. And probably a third if it was a tiny meatloaf.




Banjo Boyd chose REBEL PILGRIM. I believe there was a whole separate boat for the rebel pilgrims. Banjo would've been on that one telling stories in fresh new ways and leading counter cultural revolutions. And in the wee small hours he'd be trying to convince everyone that Taylor Hicks is good.








Little Brenty chose STEADY. This is a good word for this soon to be groom. I'm sure he developed this trait during his high school football days. He was an all state quarterback who threw lots of touchdowns. And lots of interceptions. Through it all he was as cool as Ralph Macchio. I'm sure his steadiness has been his greatest ally through all this wedding planning madness.










Tyler chose MONSTER. I actually don't remember 100% how this nickname started. I think it was originally Monster Face. He's been called many things. All related to his unbridled strength and courage. Or his craggy face. He's a mix between Nick Lachey and Daniel Craig (new James Bond).







Jessica asked that I choose a word for her. I choose AUTHENTICITY. Jessica is who she is all the time regardless of the setting and company. She's one cool chick. Always. (I should note: I tried to find an image of a window thinking that could illustrate authenticity. Then I found a window with the word on it. It seemed too serendipitous to pass up.)

Ring of Magnets

Have you read about the CERN Large Hadron Collider (code name: LHC)? It's $531 million ring of supercooled magnets 17 miles in circumference straddling the French and Swiss border 330 feet underground. The ring is attached to huge barrel-shaped detectors (essentially gigantic digital cameras weighing thousands of tons each that can take millions of snapshots a second. Each year the detectors will generate 15 petabytes of data, the equivalent of a stack of CDs 12 miles tall. What happens in this ring of magnets you ask? Beams of protons whip around the 17 mile track 11,000 times a second in opposite directions. And SMASH into each other. What happens then? Depends which scientists you ask. The ones in the video below believe we'll discover the secrets of the universe, invisible matter, new dimensions. Other legitimate scientists think it'll spawn a black hole that will swallow the earth. They'll admit it's a long shot, one in 50 million chance, but argue it's the same odds as winning the lottery. Which...happens. I believe we'll discover Tang 2.0.

I am intrigued to see what happens. But even more so, it makes me wonder how we have the ability to build a machine that not-crazy scientists believe has the power to suck us all into an invisible hole YET, we can't build a car that runs on anything besides gas. Or a device that can replace my pancreas. Or a better way to apply sunscreen. We're a month from creating tiny black holes and entering new dimensions but years from seemingly simple breakthroughs that could actually change a lot of peoples' lives. What a crazy world we live in.