May 31, 2004
adrants on blogvertising
Steve Hall over at Adrants has a few words to say about the use of weblogs as an advertising medium:
One of the primary benefits of a weblog to an ad agency is its ability to simply publish current agency thought. What is your agency's take on TiVo's creep into the living room? How do you plan to react to that for your clients? What is your perspective on broadband online video advertising? Viral advertising? Media costs? Will satellite radio kill broadcast radio? What are your thoughts on Subservient Chicken type advertising efforts? Is outdoor a viable medium? What is your agency doing to plan for the shift in media control from media companies to the consumer? Insight on all of these issues and more can demonstrate to clients and prospects how your agency brain ticks. And it can do it without giving up that "proprietary process."There's some other good things weblogs are good for in this area, that he doesn't mention. I don't mention them either, unless somebody is paying me first. Heh.
And yes, Steve's still looking for a job. But he's talking to people quite seriously as well. Offers are on the table etc. So it's all good.
google pageranks
In case you haven't seen this: Google Pageranks.
This allows you to measure your website's standings vs other websites in terms of "Googlejuice" i.e. how highly Google ranks your sites.
Marks are out of 10. As far as I can tell:
10: Google.
9: Megasites like Yahoo.com and MSN.com.
7-8: Large corporate sites (e.g. Coke.com) and A-Lister blogs like Joi Ito, Jeff Jarvis, Gawker, Doc Searls, Dave Winer etc.
5-6: B-Lister blogs like gapingvoid, janegalt.net, bazima.com, amylangfield.com etc.
2-4: Still lots of room for improvement etc.
1: Your website is basically unread.
The rule of thumb with Google is: the more you update your site, the more Google raises your ranking. So blogs are at a particular advantage for getting high marks from Google.
I scored a 6. Considering my blog is not about a politics or technology, that's not bad at all, methinks. Heh.
welcome to the itoverse
Good article in USA Today about Joi Ito.
A college dropout, he is the founder and chief executive of Neoteny Co., a venture capital firm that has raised $40 million. Ito has helped set up or run such companies as Infoseek Japan, the nation's second-largest portal after Yahoo! Japan, and Rakuten Inc., Japan's biggest Internet shopping site. When not jetting around the world to lecture in France about mobile technology or sit on blogging panels at U.S. tech conferences, Ito advises the Japanese government and appears on Japanese talk shows.Here's an article in Businessweek on Socialtext, a "wiki" or "group blog" software program that both Joi and Loic Le Meur have invested in.
Now, Pisarro has wikis transforming the way people work at the company he founded, software maker Aperture Technologies Inc. Two dozen of the Stamford (Conn.) company's 100 employees use them to brainstorm, track projects, write and edit documentation, and coordinate marketing. That has eliminated countless meetings, conference calls, and back-and-forth e-mails. Says Pisarro: "Wikis allow this collaboration much better than anything else, so we get things done faster."The Socialtext homepage is here.There's some more stuff here, and the Socialtext weblog is here.
May 30, 2004
in edinburgh
I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland for the weekend. Writing this from an internet cafe on Leith Walk.
I lived in Edinburgh for many years, back in my youth. So I'm walking around the old haunts, just to see if any of them are still haunted etc.
Not a bad way to spend 48 hours.
PS: For those of you unlucky enough to be born without any Scots blood swilling around your veins, they're pronounced "Edinburra" and "Leeth".
UPDATE: Left Edinburgh this afternoon. Back home now. Sorry if I missed you. I should be back up soonish etc.
May 29, 2004
change the world
Thinking about getting out of town this weekend. Back later.
DAVID KIRKPATRICK: In a Digital World, Secrets Are Harder to Keep
"It's just plain harder to get away with being bad anymore, whether it's a relatively minor crime like covering up some financial chicanery or something truly ghastly like the abuse of U.S. captives."
..."I wrote a column in the January 2001 issue of eCompany Now (now Business 2.0). In the age of the Internet, I wrote, "The major question facing businesses may turn out to be this: How do you manage when you can't have secrets?" I went on to say, "Any attempts to escape the new transparency will ultimately prove futile," so "build a business that will not be injured by the disclosure of data." My conclusion: "The house of business will be made of glass.""
Interesting point. Reminds me of a phrase I heard recently from Phil Windley: "If you're going to be naked, you'd better be buff!"
Transparent is the New Black etc.
May 28, 2004
joi in london
Joi Ito is in London on the 6th of June.
Blog meetup? If so I'll be there.
(PS: the image above is the biz card I designed for him)
May 27, 2004
kate lee
A nice article in The New Yorker about Kate Lee, a young literary agent with ICM who's carved out a nice wee niche for herself as the "agent to the blogging stars".
Basically, she finds the best blogs/bloggers out there, and tries to get them book deals. And she succeeds.
Go, Kate, Go!
May 25, 2004
my two cents: the world has changed.
So I'm thinking, why are there so many bloggers? According to Technorati, we're seeing 10,000 new ones being born every day. Even to the most jaded blogged-out veteran, it seems like a lot.
It's not just the need for unpublished writers to find an audience, teenage girls to moan about high school, or unemployed consultants to show potential hirers how smart they are. Something else drives it.
My two cents: the world has changed.
Something is different. Some kind of new economic reality has dawned on us that wasn't there 5-10 years ago. It's something to do with technology and information, cultural DNA, something to do with 9-11, the internet, dotbomb etc etc.
But that isn't the whole story, either. There's something else that's making us think. It doesn't have a name yet. It's fuzzy and far away, but it's scaring and the dickens out of us. Though parts of it may thrill and inspire, overall it makes our ribs creak, like submarines in old war movies.
A wee voice tells us that the only place where you can go and talk about this, the only place that might, just might offer further insight, is in the blogosphere.
And so here we are.
the cluetrain manifesto
A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.
Part of my job as Creative Director is informing my clients that the goalposts have now shifted.
I call these newly-shifted goalposts "The New Realities". There are other names that work just as well.
May 23, 2004
forget advertising, think conversations
(UPDATE: For more info go here: "The Hughtrain Manifesto.")
Forget tradtional advertising. Dig deeper. Think conversations.
Think about it, and think about it hard. Instead of thinking about what type of firehose you want to aim at the masses, think instead about what kind of conversation you want to have, and with whom.
Seriously. Who are they? The outside world? What about internally? How many of them are there? A hundred? Ten thousand? Ten million? A hundred million? Where do they live? What's their schtick? Why should they be interested in what you're doing?
(UPDATE REMINDER: For more info go here: "The Hughtrain Manifesto.")
it's like google for bloggers in real time
Technorati is just about my fave thing on the internet. What is it? Well, the best definition I can think of is, "It's like Google for bloggers in real time."
Basically it tells you what people are saying about yours' or anybody else's blog RIGHT NOW, as opposed to 'since whenever'.
What are other blogs saying about gapingvoid at the moment? Go to my "fave sites" on the homepage sidebar, click the wee blue voice-bubble icon next to "Technorati Profile" and find out. Or type in the URL of another blog and find out what kind of buzz it's getting. You get the idea.
I don't even look at my stats anymore. Technorati gives me a much better picture of whether what I'm doing is working or not.
Three questions keep dogging me:
1. How is it going to make money? 2. How will it survive, once Google, Microsoft or whoever decides to rip them off? They will, you know they will. 3. The first two questions being so obvious, I'm assuming there's something in their biz plan they're not telling us. Some trick they've got up their sleeve that they don't want their competition to find out about (for very good reasons). What could it be?
Anyone got any insight?
UPDATE: Andy Smith answers some of my questions here.
the vision thing
His Question: "Why aren't we Vision Testing? Why do we continue to seek out specialists who couldn't care less about the 'why' of the business? Wouldn't you like to know, when someone comes in for a job, that they're interested in the job because of the 'why' the company is doing 'what' it's doing?"
My Answer: "Equity."
People who score high on Vision Tests... people who know 'why' as much as they know 'what'... they tend to want (and often command) a slice of the pie. The pie only has so many slices.
To protect his equity, the founder instead hires a bunch of equity-free wage slaves. They might not be as electric or inspiring as the 'Why & What' folk, but at least they'll keep their greasy fingers away from the pie.
It's a trade-off.
ALSO: Darwinian Blogging at its finest: "Yes, there are certain webloggers that I read everything in their feeds cause they are so interesting. No, I won't tell you which ones they are".
blogcards and bill gates
In terms of generating word-of-mouth, what do you think works better? Me pimping Blogcards shamelessly on this site, or other people (i.e. current Blogcard users) handing them out in bars etc? I'd say the latter.
(Ahem! Please buy some Blogcards here. Thanks.)
MEANWHILE: Bill Gates has gone public endorsing blogs. Jeff Jarvis comments...
Well, Bill Gates embrace of blogs reminds me of his embrace of the Internet, which changed his products, his company, and his industry.
This means that, of course, Microsoft will embrace blogs and RSS in its tools, from Word to IE. It also makes Google look smart for buying Blogger (without a strategy then).
Providing publishing tools and space will be an essential service in the near future -- for businesses, for family shopping lists, for unlimited sorts of publishing -- and the war to win that space is just beginning.
Forget giving me virtually unlimited free email space. Give me virtually unlimited blogspace (and bandwidth).
The smart way to look at Gates' blessing is to think about blogging as a platform for any kind of publishing, communication, and distribution. Bill will.
Yep, if having Bill Gates come on board the blogging train helps me sell more Blogcards, I'm OK with it. So he'll be worth $90 billion instead of $60 billion. It hardly matters at this point.
(The Economic Times' Bill Gates/blog story is here)
Update: "But isn't Bill Gates coming kinda late to the party?" Thanks, John.
May 22, 2004
trust
Your job is probably worth 50% what it was in real terms 10 years ago. And who knows? It may very well not exist in 5-10 years.
We all saw the traditional biz model in my industry, advertising, start going down the tubes 10 years or so ago. Our first reaction was "work harder".
It didn't work. People got shafted in their thousands. It's a cold world out there.
We thought being talented would save our asses. We thought working late and weekends would save our asses. Nope.
Whatever. Regardless of how the world changes, the one thing "The New Realities" cannot take away from you is trust.
Your "trust"- the people you trust and vice versa- is what will feed you and pay for your kids' college. Nothing else.
Stop worrying about technology. Start worrying about who trusts you.
blog survey
This survey shows that blog readers are older and more affluent than most optimistic guestimates: 61% of blog readers responding to the survey are over 30, and 75% make more than $45,000 a year.
OK, so the blogosphere is still a niche market to advertise in. But a damn good one, nonetheless.
What I REALLY want to know is: how many people actually read blogs on a regular basis? What's the actual market? Right now according to Technorati there are about 2.4 million blogs out there. How many non-bloggers read the average blog? 10? 100?...
May 20, 2004
bad ideas
If you work in an advertising agency, you have a 90% chance that within five years your job will fall into one of two categories.
1. Non-existant.
2. Overworked, underpaid, schleppy slave-labor etc.
I know it. You know it. Seth Godin knows it.
I've got a plan. Do you?
May 19, 2004
darwinian blogging
Everybody’s been e-mailing me, asking me to expand on what I said earlier about blogs being central to the future of advertising. OK, here are two thoughts for openers:
1. The best advertising, the old maxim goes, is word-of-mouth. And luckily for marketers everywhere, people like recommending stuff to people. It’s a way of connecting.
From a Darwinian level, whether we're talking about something trivial (e.g. granola) or something major (e.g. world peace), it's in our nature to want to appear smart, informed, and that our take on the world is a good one.
People would rather say, "Mr Jones Granola taste better because it’s the only one that gets its Brazil nuts straight from Brazil", rather than "Gosh, I think Mr Jones’ Granola tastes good because... ummmm… er… uhhhh…"
So the next time a young man is in a bar, trying to impress a young lady on the merits of various granolae, he will be thinking warm thoughts about how Mr Jones kindly put that little piece of Brazil nut trivia on the company website earlier that morning… and he will be more willing to mention Mr Jones the next time a young pretty thing comes along. More willing to spread the virus.
Blogs convey Darwinian-friendly info from producer to customer better than other media. Just my opinion.
2. I gave some advice to a company recently: "How you talk to each other is more important than how you talk to everyone else."
If you can’t sell yourselves on what you do, why do you expect to be able to do so with a mass of total stangers?
You need to start a conversation with yourself about why your product is good and why it matters LONG BEFORE trying to do likewise with the general public.
Blogs are a good way of managing this kind of conversation with a large group of people, more so than hanging out by the water cooler, or sending out memo's from above. Again, it’s just my opinion.
Any other thoughts?
nick denton
Writers like Greg Lindsay, and editors such as Josh Quittner of Business 2.0, wrote about the 1990s internet boom. They saw acquaintances get rich, and they missed the opportunity. Many of them ended up, after stints at bubble publications such as Inside, out of work.A publisher friend of mine once quipped, "People get into journalism to give themselves closer access to the lives they wish they had, but will never get."
After living through a boom, a bust, and now a tentative rebound, they're obsessed, and disoriented: nostalgic, cynical and now, with the revival of independent web media, daring to dream again. This journalistic fascination with blogs: it's not analysis; it's wish-fulfilment.
Heh. Exactly.
May 18, 2004
harder to hide stuff
Fred Wilson says it awfully well:
The digital revolution is making it harder to hide stuff. And that has profound implications for society that we are just starting to realize.
Back in Vietnam, it was the nightly news broadcasts and the weekly news magazines that brought home the horrors of war.
Today, the digtal camera has "outed" the atrocities of Abu Ghraib.
You can't stop digital content.
Amen. So stop worrying about content. Start worrying about intellectual capital.
AFTERTHOUGHT: To answer the question in the comments, "But what do you do if you're both bored AND lonely?"
-That means you're probably not ready to decide yet.
May 17, 2004
May 14, 2004
the best advertising strategy is one that gives a damn
Gary Turner blogged my day job bizcard. Thanks, Gary!
When I was in London I popped up to Kettering to pay him a visit. Some of the things my company is doing is similar to what his company is thinking about, so we had lots to talk about.
Instead of printing my name on the card, I doodle on the blank bit with a matching drawing. So every bizcard I hand out is "an original". I dunno, I think it works in its own way.
Gary made an interesting point:
I think, and I haven't thought about this much at all, that blogs will inhabit a defined space in meaning in much the same way as you inherently know what to expect when you see some writing entitled 'Press release' or a brochure or an investors statement. There's a chance that when you see a blog in any context, business or not, people will come to recognise it as another standalone genus of communication but one which delivers communication that is honest, full of voice and not over-formal or unstilted.
I think Gary's right. Blogging will evolve into a powerful medium simply because blogs like how he describes are actually read, ones that aren't are completely ignored.
Good advertising and communication is only possible when it's talking about something that actually matters to the person paying for it. Which is why the best communicators are often entrepreneurs.
Good advertising doesn't cure all problems, but it's a really good indicator of whether the people involved actually care about what they do. And companies where the average worker doesn't give a damn are going to find it harder and harder (and harder! and harder!!!) to compete with companies that do.
The best advertising strategy is one that gives a damn.
If you want to know more drop me an e-mail: hugh at gapingvoid etc
May 13, 2004
london blog party
Just got back from London. There was a big bloggers' party there last night, which I attended. Lots of people there. Very cool. Among the guilty were:
The whole thing was organized by James.
May 10, 2004
blogito ergo sum
See? I draw straight on biz cards occasionally ;-)
When I drew this earlier this evening, I thought to myself, "Somebody has just GOT to have written that line before me..."
I was right. They have, the bastards.
Heh.
May 9, 2004
the future of marketing
(UPDATE: For more info go here: "The Hughtrain Manifesto.")
Just under 2 years ago, I discovered blogs for the first time. I was hooked right away. Gapingvoid was a much more traditional website back then (click here to see what I mean), but a wee voice kept telling me that 'blogs are the future', so I just pulled down the old site and rebuilt it in blog format. And I haven't looked back since.
During this time I wasn't really in the advertising game. 9/11 and Dotbomb were still giving off steam, it was a terrible time to go looking for a job, my cartoons career was taking off, and for the first time ever I was enjoying being out of the Madison Avenue loop.
But as I watched the blogosphere evolve, suddenly I started thinking "the future of marketing is in here somewhere". Though of course, exactly how remained elusive.
So I've been spending the last year doing the blog thing, looking for the answer.
Eureka. I found the answer. I now know what the future of advertising and marketing is. It came to me recently, in a incandescent moment of clarity. Blogs are part of it, but they're not the whole answer.
I can't say what the answer is, at least, not publicly. I'm saving that for my day job (Yeah, I know, nothing kills a blog faster than full-time employment etc).
Anybody who wants to start a conversation with me on this subject please drop me a line.
e-mail: hugh at gapingvoid etc.
Suddenly I feel like I'm living in the most exciting of times...
May 8, 2004
free prize inside
Another gem from Seth Godin, on Jennifer Rice's site:
There is no product, no service, no b2b or consumer offering that is chosen solely because it is the "best" at the defined need. In other words, people don't hire McKinsey because it's a better consulting product than Bain. They don't buy Timken ball bearings because their ball bearings are "better" than the other ball bearings and they don't fly British Air because it gets them London 15 minutes faster than Virgin.
What drives irrational humans to make choices are the Free Prizes. We assemble a list of all the options that are "good enough" and then we choose the one we choose for reasons that have little or nothing to do with our needs. Instead, we choose based on our wants.
He's the man. Check out his weblog, and don't forget to buy his new book, 'Free Prize Inside'.
Hmmm... I think Jennifer may have been at University of Texas the same time as me (late '80s).
Her company's website is here. The B2B pitch is "How to win in the Post-Bubble Economy".
keith haring
Keith Haring was born in 1958. Arriving as a young, gay art student in New York in the late 70s, by the early 80s he was this hot downtown artist, hanging out with rock stars and all that. By the time he tragically died of AIDS in 1990 he was globally famous and a real icon.
I like his work, even if the older I get the less I think it will be remembered. He's always been a bit of an inspiration to me. Not so much for his actual work, his rock-star 80s-downtown lifestyle, or the fame and cash thing, but more as an example as somebody who just had a glorious time just doing his own thing. I think most artists would like to emulate that successfully.
When he started his now-famous drawing/artist schtick, it could not have been less fashionable and less likely to get the art world's attention. Screw it, he just went ahead and did it anyway. I admire that tremendously.
People got a buzz from his energy and his passion, and even if the work wasn't going to add much to the canon, they were attracted to it like moths to the light.
I used to think about joining the art world, a-la Haring. I dunno, every time I scoped it out I found it impossible to meet folk I liked or trusted enough to commit to it further. The average art-world conversation would get my eyes glazing over in under 3 minutes. I took that as a warning sign, and moved on.
It's not what business you're in that's important, but the relationships with the people in it. And a lot of artists starve precisely because they forget and/or ignore this, at the peril.
ben hammersley
Good article from Ben Hammersley in The Guardian about how creative types are starting to make money via blogging.
Of course, the real question isn't "how can I make money blogging", but "how can I use blogging to commercially enhance what I'm already doing?"
Sure, "blogging for cash" sounds appealing. As did "surfing for cash" five years ago.
Ben is one of the smartest and clued-up bloggers out there. His website is definitely worth reading on a regular basis.
shameless blogcard plug
Hey Kids, it's time to buy blogcards again. Heh.
I get a certain irrational joy from selling them, far exceeding the sale of other cartoon products I've schlepped in the past (greeting cards etc). Don't ask me why.
I think it's because they're interactive, and as a blogging geek that works for me. It's not just "here's some cool cartoons for you to read", it's more "here's some cool cartoons for you to go out and do something creative with" etc.
So they're very much of and for the waters I currently find myself swimming in. Hopefully other bloggers will concur.
Anyway, if you want to support the site, this is the best way of doing it. Other methods pale in comparison etc. etc.
Thanks!
May 7, 2004
personal faves
Background:
[This is the cartoon that inspired the name "gapingvoid". I drew it way back when, in college. Click on image to enlarge.]
The Drawings:
When I first lived in Manhattan I got into the habit of doodling on the back of business cards, just to give me something to do while sitting at the bar. The format stuck.
All I had when I first got to Manhattan were 2 suitcases, a couple of cardboard boxes full of stuff, a reservation at the YMCA, and a 10-day freelance copywriting gig at a Midtown advertising agency.
My life for the next couple of weeks was going to work, walking around the city, and staggering back to the YMCA once the bars closed. Lots of alcohol and coffee shops. Lot of weird people. Being hit five times a day by this strange desire to laugh, sing and cry simultaneously. At times like these, there's a lot to be said for an art form that fits easily inside your coat pocket.
The freelance gig turned into a permanent job. I stayed. The first month in New York for a newcomer has this certain amazing magic about it that is indescribable. Incandescent lucidity. However long you stay in New York, you pretty much spend the rest of your time there trying to recapture that feeling. Chasing Manhattan Dragon. I suppose the whole point of the cards initially was to somehow get that buzz onto paper.
Although I no longer live in New York, it still lives in me. Far too much, some would say...
The originals are drawn on either business cards or bristol board cut to the same size i.e. 3.5" x 2". I use mostly a Rotring 0.25mm rapidograph pen. Occasionally I'll use other things- pencil, watercolor, ballpoint etc, but not often.
Personal Faves:
An artist is quite a fucked-up thing to be, and to be honest I'm not sure if I would recommend it to anybody. Still, in my collection there are a couple of examples that, in some sick and twisted way, make the whole thing seem worthwhile. For the first five minutes, at least:
The Shark Bar
When I first moved to New York, I stayed at the YMCA on West 62nd.
My first drawing as a New York resident was on my second evening, sitting on a barstool at the Shark Bar- a hip, young place in SoHo.
Having only been in town just over 24 hours, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by New York, to say the least. Plus I had drunk quite a lot that evening. I think both show up in the drawing.
I've been back to the Shark Bar a couple of times since then, but it never had the same insane magic of that first evening. Great name for a bar, though. Especially in Manhattan.
Vanished
Spring '98. I was at a bar, it was late, I was kinda tipsy.
Suddenly I realized that my life hadn't changed much in the last decade since leaving college. Work, bars, cartoons, random conversations of a big-city nature, second-hand bookshops and art films, the occasional bout of random or regular sex to tide things over etc etc.
It wasn't as interesting as it used to be. But I hadn't moved on, really. And I had no idea where to go next.
Welcome to New York.
The best cartoons are the ones that give you these amazing moments of clarity as you draw them. That's the best thing about cartooning, really. Everything else seems rather secondary in comparison.
Fanelli's
December 29th, 1997. Fanelli's, on Prince and Mercer in SoHo, is one of the great bars in Manhattan. I had been in New York only a couple of days when I found myself there, drinking heavily.
I no longer drink much, however at the time I had this idea that seriously heavy drinking was essential in order to enjoy New York properly. I don't think I was wrong, either.
Around midnight at the bar I bump into an old acquaintance of mine from Chicago, Mark Mann. He had moved to New York about 3 months previously to do something with his film career. He is one of the funniest and most interesting people I know, but at the time I didn't know that. We were quite suspicious of each other for the longest time before we admitted that we actually were friends.
I hadn't told anybody I was moving to New York except on a need-to-know basis, so he was quite surprised to see me there. A ghost from his former Chicago life- just popped out of nowhere.
Told him my story. Told him about being laid off in Chicago. Told him about this new job I got in New York. Told him I only knew I got the job officially 5 days before Christmas- only about a week previously. Asked him how he was liking New York.
"It's great," he said. "Everybody's insane with loneliness, but that's OK. After a while you realize that's part of the edge."
I was hit with a paradox. I wanted to be in New York, I wanted to be "part of the edge", but I didn't want to be "insane with loneliness". Was one necessary in order to have the other? Was it a price worth paying? To this day, I still have no answer.
A couple of months later (July, '98) I drew this, sitting on a barstool. Thinking back to that conversation with Mark, suddenly I had a realization: The simple truth about big cities is that people don't go there to give. They go there to take, or at least, to get. If you feel like giving, good for you, somewhere an angel is smiling yada yada yada, just don't expect other people to follow your example. And if you're feeling lonely, at least now you now know why. This drawing is partly about that.
Commitment
Within 1 week of meeting this person you realize that not only have you found your soulmate, but you've found your soulmate who likes to have sex 4 times a day in the bed, on the dining table, on the kitchen floor, in the changing rooms at Bloomingdale's etc.
Within 2 weeks you're already talking about moving in together.
Within 3 weeks you're talking about having babies together.
Within 4 weeks you realize this person is a complete psychopath.
Within 5 weeks this person also thinks you're a complete psychopath.
Within 6 weeks you're sitting at a restaurant with an old friend who is giving you the "How come you only call me when you're single" speech.
I Knew My Pain
Sometimes life throws you a devastating curve ball. And you're never ready for it. Ever.
Eric
I remember being young and stupid. How utterly sweet and simple life seemed back then, but I also knew in the back of my mind that these days weren't going to last forever. Ouch. Hopefully, in a decade or two I'll be looking back to this time now with equal affection. I think that's all you can do, really.
Complete
Early 30s is a great time to be alive- you're still young, but you have experience. A powerful combo.
The downside is all that weird rockstar shit you believe about yourself is well past its sell-by date, and if you haven't outgrown it by then, it starts to fuck up your life.
New York is tough enough if you're a man. God knows how the women manage to do it.
Please
The piece is not particularly clever nor especially beautiful to look at. But something gently disturbing resides just beneath the surface. Hmmmm� sort of like apartment brokers.
C.F.A.
Yes. Exactly.
Mighty
All clients want one, I am told.
Cheap Plastic Toys
Some of it was my fault, some of it wasn't. Regardless, I've made a list and they will pay dearly.
Mistakenly
There are many advantages of getting older... more money and respect from the world at large being the main one. However, with all this newly found cash & kudos comes the idea that maybe the world isn't such a nice place, after all. That maybe all that unhappiness you see on the faces of your fellow commuters is there for a reason. And no matter how much you try or how hard you work, none of that will ever change.
Still, I suppose it's better to know that said brutality exists, rather than burning all those calories pretending it doesn't. I just wish I'd wised up a decade earlier than I did.
Lying
OK, this one isn't exactly subtle. But it doesn't take any prisoners, either. Unrestrained bile is actually pretty hard to pull off, artistically.
Wolf vs Sheep
No, I don't have an answer to which option is better. Both exact a heavy toll, eventually.
Too Many Cats
Good thing a certain friend of mine never reads my website.
Dorothy
I've always been a big Dorothy Parker fan. Urbane wit at its finest. Would I trade my life for hers in order to be that talented and famous? No way. Like all intoxicants, talent can be a poison. Reading her biography, it seems she learned that more than most.
It's 2 am and I'm in this crazy Midtown Irish bar. I have no idea why I'm there. I shouldn't be there. I should be somewhere else. Asleep, comfortable, happy, sharing my bed with a sensible girl from a good family, Brooks Brothers' pyjamas, insufferably middle class. But no.
Everybody in that bar is crazy. I tell myself I'm the only sane one but I think I'm kidding myself.
Being an artist/creative is like wearing funky clothing. Every year gets a little bit harder. After a while it just looks stupid. Eventually the stupidity reaches critical mass and the late-night tailspin begins. At a midtown Irish bar at 2am, while I'm drawing this picture, these things no longer seem to matter.
I like this card because it's the kind of thing poor old Dorothy would have written.
All The Time
After years of struggling in impecunious obscurity, a very old friend of mine recently had a bit of success in his business.
Suddenly, everybody in the industry knew who he was, and would mob him at trade shows and conventions. People who wouldn't have given him the time of day only a year before were shamelessly throwing themselves at him, scattering business cards like confetti.
My friend, the rock star. Who knew?
Shortly after one of these little feeding frenzies, we meet up for a drink, as we do.
He's telling me all about it. All the off-the-record stuff that happened. All these relentless people coming after him, like terriers on the bone.
"How weird," I say.
"Sure is," he says. "Now I know what it's like to have a vagina."
Pickaxe
One evening after a gruesome day at the office I went into a coffee shop on 6th Ave to write. Got a coffee, found a table, opened my laptop and looked around. I'm not kidding; there were nine other people in the caf� with open laptops, writing away, just like me. Nine. I counted. They were probably writing the same tedious crap I was.
"It's a novel about some guy who moves to New York to break into the high-brow literary scene and score with lots of chicks yada yada yada�"
One of the reasons I stick to cartooning is because my traditional prose writing is so godforsakenly awful.
Writing about New York is a bit like writing about sex- it's already been done to death. And done. And done. And done again. It's a form of literary necrophilia. Unless you have something completely unique and visionary to say about New York (I have yet to meet somebody in the flesh who does), any kind of Manhattan-fuelled artistic ambition runs the risk of turning you in to a "ligger".
"Ligger" is Scottish slang. A ligger is a hanger-on, a wannabe, a parasite-to-the-hip. Somebody who goes to art openings to drink free wine, but never buys a painting. Somebody who sees art as not something you make, but something you milk. Somebody who is always seen, but never remembered.
Living in New York is only possible if you treat it like a religion. Liggers are really good at this, for some reason. Hence their vast numbers; hence why a big part of your average day in New York is spent seperating the liggers from the real people.
Henry
So you're going out a lot. Pretty soon you're going out too much. Parties. Bars. More parties. More bars. So you decide to cut back a bit, y'know, start living like a normal person.
So you trade in those wild & crazy times for delivered Chinese food, Forbes Magazine and Seinfeld reruns. You're just going to try it for a couple of weeks, and see how it feels. After all, this is a "new you" we're talking about. A better you. A saner you. A wiser, more sensible and compelling you.
But you know in your heart of hearts that you didn't move from suburban Cleveland, Denver, Pittsburgh etc to a $3000-a-month Manhattan apartment just to watch Seinfeld.
In New York, you always think that if you try harder, work longer hours, make more money, spend more time at the gym, put more effort into networking, read more books, go to bed earlier, drink less booze, avoid negative people, be less shallow about the whole sex thing, be more supportive to your close friends, eat more vegetables and stop smoking so many damn cigarettes, you will eventually be able pull off that great Miracle Of Miracles i.e. you'll finally, finally, finally be able to live in Manhattan while simultaneously leading a healthy, productive, emotionally-balanced life.
Ha.
(PS: I no longer live in New York, obviously)
May 6, 2004
catalyze joy
"Catalyze Joy" is my unofficial business plan. I play with this theory that if you make your product for the right reasons, then suddenly it becomes more than just "what it says on the label" i.e. it transforms itself into a receptical of good karma.
And the market for good karma is infinite.
fear is the new drug-of-choice
There’s been a lot of “how to make money blogging” conversations doing the rounds recently, and for a damn good reason:
A lot of people born between 1965-80 have lost their jobs in the last few years. And a lot of people who haven’t are still seeing their careers becoming less and less lucrative/viable over the long term.
Just as a lot of middle managers were “culled” 10-20 years ago from Corporate America, suddenly the knives are drawn for my age group as well.
The economic honeymoon is over with Generation X. We first thought it was just a lull, a glitch, an unfortunate but temporary post-9/11-dotbomb fender-bender on the highway of life. Nope. It's a permanent and deliberate state of affairs.
We don’t know what’s coming next, all we know is too many of us had too much fun in the nineties, spent too much time in grad school, held down too many “cool but underpaid” jobs, written too many unpublished novels, saved too little money, established too little credit and now have no earthly clue what the hell to do about it.
Then a wee voice tells us that blogging is part of the new world order (even if nobody knows exactly how) and suddenly we’re scrambling like crazed animals to get with the program.
Fear is the new drug-of-choice among the hipster crowd etc.
May 4, 2004
six apart u.k.
Loic is looking for a UK biz development manager for Six Apart.
All our team here in Europe are bloggers. So I thought may be I should also post this to my own weblog and try to find a Business Development Person in the UK who may also be a blogger !
If you know anyone or would be interested, please send me an email, we are looking for a business development person based in London who would
-launch a customized Typepad and Movable Type offer for the UK market
-promote Typepad and Movable Type in the UK
-contact and build partnerships with major Internet providers, telecom companies, popular portals who would be interested in launching Typepad as a co-branded offering, hosted by us or hosted by the partner (as Six Apart already launched in Japan, NTT and Nifty).
You can send him an e-mail via the main link above.
Loic is European head of Six Apart, the company which makes market-leader blogging software Typepad and Moveable Type.
UPDATE: 5th April. Just got back from Paris. Met up with Loic. Talked about all sorts of things. Wonderful.
Man. I love Paris! As a friend of mine once said, "even the ugly chicks are beautiful". Everyone and everything just seems so stylish.
I especially liked Notre Dame. Simply an amazing building.
Othere highlights: Walking along the Seine. Having foi gras pasta in this amazing little cafe.
Can't wait to go back.
May 2, 2004
saatchi's love marks
ROBERTS: What's going to stand out now is those brands that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) into something we're calling love marks, which is, instead of being built on information, you now have to be built on a relationship, because a relationship is much more important than information. You choose your partner on the basis of how you feel, not on an analytical benefit. Harley Davidson, I think, is an unbelievable love mark. Or at Zippo lighter, it's a fantastic love mark. Coca-Cola is a love mark, and McDonald's is a love mark. I mean, you don't go to McDonald's for the food, you go to McDonald's because the experience of socializing and so on is fantastic. SCHUCH: Other great love marks? Think sensual, like the iMac computer, or the Volkswagen Beetle, and think of Kevin Roberts as less of a CEO and more of the guardian of the Saatchi and Saatchi love marks.
Interesting article on an interesting guy. He's got a new book out called "Love Marks: The Future Beyond Brands".
I pretty much agree with his 'Love' schtick, but there's a disconnect:
It's nice to pitch "Love" as the center of your corporate religion, but the reality is Saatchi's is a publically traded company.
i.e. a publically traded company, governed by Wall Street, is trying to preach to the world on the subject of 'Love'.
Too funny.
If the stock price goes down the "Love" thing goes out the window 5 minutes later. Watch this space.
ALSO: Conceptually it's wonderful, but I really, really do not like the term "Love Marks". Sounds like 'Hickies'.
Note to myself: Come up with better term to describe same concept, to work into my agency pitch. Ker-chiiing!!
10 new countries have joined the E.U.
Now that 10 new countries have joined the EU, I see opportunity: there are a lot of East European businesses desperate for a better communication interface with the West.
My whole schtick is global etc.