Percolator

My Secret Shame

2008-09-03T20:37:17Z

Ah, graphic designer funnies. There's something for everyone on the web. But as it happens I actually designed one of those "floating head" posters for a friend for a film he was pitching, and it was both hard and easy at the same time. Easy because, well, there’s no brainstorming or conceptual work involved as you know exactly what it has to look like (you've seen it a million times); but quite hard insofar as getting the heads to “float” without looking weird wasn’t as simple as I expected. Still, if you know how to get a decent sepia effect and can use a masking channel in Photoshop,
you’re about 80% there.

And no, although I did fine (two big head, with a smaller one), you can't see it.

Family Way

2008-08-30T20:11:24Z

Yesterday morning around 8:00 am or so I was sitting on my front porch with a coffee, and across the road from me on his porch sat Vincenzo, an old Italian man who in the last few years has gone from a gnomish, chatty (albeit in Italian) character, to a quiet shuffling one who seems confused and compulsive.

As I sat and wondered what he was like as a young man (I'm guessing a charming life-of-the-party type), one of his two grown sons pulled up his Acura onto the sidewalk and jumped out, cellphone to ear. He went up the stairs quickly, straight past his father without even looking at him, into the house. He emerged a minute later with one of his young daughters (grandma does a fair bit of babysitting), cellphone still to ear, but also a little espresso and pastry given to him by his mother. He went to the car to open the back door for his daughter, gave the empty espresso cup back to his mother and then started back to the car again to leave. At that moment, another little girl of about 6 came out of the house calling, "Daddy! Hi daddy!". He just turned and waved to her hurriedly, and the fallen expression on her face was really heartbreaking. No hug or hello from daddy this morning.

With his daughter in the back seat, he jumped in the front, waved again and then hit the gas. I could see the little girl in the back lose her balance, as clearly daddy hadn't even buckled her in her seat!

For some reason I found this the saddest scene. A patriarch ignored by his family (his wife doesn't have much patience for him either), a successful son who seems to have no connection to his parents except as providers of childcare, and so absorbed with his work, no time to connect with his children either.

All I could think was a) it's not what I imagine of when I picture of the classic Italian family and b) that I could see the seeds of history repeating itself. I wonder if those little girls will grow up with the same lack of connection? Or is it different with girls?

Frankly, I'm probably extrapolating a lot more than I should out of this. But when you're a parent of young children it's so hard to imagine that your children won't need, or indeed, even want you around. Luckily, when Leighton came out of the front door in his PJs, still sleepy-eye, he jumped straight onto my lap for a cuddle. Never felt so good.

Labour Day

2008-08-28T20:54:42Z

Bummer. I have to work this weekend, managing blog content for a client event, on Sunday. And of course the event is in Vancouver, and ends at 11pm PST, so it's going to be a long day made longer by the fact that it's right in the middle of the last long weekend of the summer. Bah!

But such, it appears, is my new gig working with this highly demanding (and almost obsessively micro-managing) client. For the first time in my career, I'm trying to figure out how long I need to hang in with it before I can walk away without feeling like I gave up. In the past I've always done project work, where even the worst clients came with a deadline, after which they were gone. Not so with a retainer account. This will go on as long as I can stand it, or as long as they can stand me I guess.

It's been six months on the account now. Current goal is to get to Christmas. Must stay strong!

Don't Do It

2008-08-12T20:21:58Z

Or, don't do it for any other reason than because you want to and you know you can. Although I'll say I didn't think I could take much more before we finally go this approved. Ah well, after 10 kilometres of notes, and foot-dragging by the IOC, the Human Race 10k promo video is up!

Feedback Loop

2008-08-05T14:43:28Z

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: when I see great, out-of-the-box work I am not only inspired by the work itself, but by the selling process that must have gone into it. It's an art, even if you have one of those rare, creatively-minded risk-taking clients. This (clearly highly improvised) spot got me wondering what the notes would have been like if it had been submitted as a concept with a less adventurous client.

The Piece:

Client Feedback:

Thanks for your cut of the Kanye West video! We’re so excited that Mr Kanye agreed to do this for us! Here is our feedback:

We’re concerned that he doesn’t appear to know what he’s talking about. Did he have a script? Do you have any other lines where he sounds more confident?

Why is he so far to the right in some of the shots? That’s kind of weird, like a mistake. Can you centre him on all shots please?

Please remove the line about bragging about running; it’s negative and we don’t want to discourage anyone from taking part because Kanye doesn’t think it’s cool.

The “it’s like a language” line doesn’t make sense. Running is not like a language at all! For example, you don’t need shoes for a language. Or (this from our retail marketing group), a Nike + system.

We’re concerned that the last line of his rap doesn’t actually rhyme. Isn’t rap supposed to rhyme?

Cut the line that the event is going to be the “dopest”. Doping is an issue in running, and it feels risky to use that word. Did he say it any other way? Like it’s going to be cool, or really fun?

A Blackberry doesn’t really sound like that. Does he have any takes where he makes a more accurate ring?

We’ll have to run the run the song “Every little step you take” part past Business Affairs as it could be a copyright violation of the Police song.

In the v/o with the slate what does he want us to “drop”? It’s confusing.

Please add REGISTER NOW to the URL. Registration is low so we want to be clear on the CTA.

And now that we're thinking about supers, let's add one in the beginning saying it's Kanye West. It's a big deal for us to get a celebrity of his status and we really want to call it out. Please remember to use our corporate font, Futura Bold.

Thanks! We look forward to seeing these revisions. We’ll be here for another 15 minutes, so just send the new cut over as soon as possible!

------

Vegas, uh, baby!

2008-07-29T20:29:03Z

I was just down in Las Vegas, taking part in Camp Organic (which is another post). When I got back many people asked if I had fun. Well, I'm not exactly sure what "fun" is in Vegas. I know that sounds odd. I had a lot of enjoyable moments, but most of them I could have had anywhere because they weren't related to Vegas itself. I tend to think of fun as with an element of the spontaneous, even if the context has been planned in advance. Sometimes it costs money, sometimes not. In Vegas, nothing happens without a payment. You pay for the opportunity, then you continue to pay for whatever pleasure you're partaking in. When you stop paying, the fluorescents come on, the smiles come off, and they hustle you out of there. Fast.

So I mentioned this to a few friends, and one said that the nature of Vegas is that absolutely every interaction, whether human or goods and services-based, is really a money-driven exchange of some kind. Which makes sense. Nothing is free there, not even the loss-leaders.

Another more sociologically-minded colleague suggested that Vegas is represents the sub-conscious of America and its unbridled obsession with money, sex and power. Vegas is the one place where you get permission to remove all social niceties about it and revel in the Darwinian exchange of power for sex, money for pleasure. Fridays at the pool at The Palms is a great example: absolutely off the hook hedonism, with cut guys and enhanced girls, plus rich fat guys all around the edges drinking it in. All excess, no apologies.

So if you can stop thinking about the planet, and not expect any kind of actual human experience, then Vegas is in fact kind of fun. I'll remember that for next time.

Four wheel ballet

2008-07-18T21:08:28Z

Now I'm an ex-skate rat, but even so, this has to be mezmerizing for anyone. Shot on a RED Camera at 120 fps.

SPARQ-ing

2008-07-18T14:30:23Z

Whew. Well, it was a beast, but my first project, the SPARQ site is finally up. Basically our task was to create a hockey program for SPARQ in Canada (where it didn't exist) plus all the content. The video and photography shoots were great learning experiences; it's always inspiring to work with really talented folks, and frankly, a nice change after a few years of no budgets to hire outside talent.

On that subject, here is a new Nike ad to position themselves around the Olympics. Superb, and definitely Nike-style marketing at its best. I also like how they've built an interface around it so you can learn about the athletes.

That said, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in those pitch sessions or reviews: up here in Canada, our client is very literal and pretty conservative when push comes to shove. In other words, very Canadian. I'm having a hard time getting "non-celebs/athletes" into an ad we're doing, let alone hand puppets and medieval drawings. Something to aim for, creatively!

Pillow Talk with Leighton, 5

2008-07-14T16:08:21Z

Bedtime at Crawford, stories are done, time for cuddles:

Daddy, I thought Mom was giving me a cuddle first.

She'll be up in a minute Leighton. Anyway, everybody knows that daddy gives the best cuddles!

Yes, I do love your cuddles... but... I actually think I might just like Mom a little better.

Oh. Really? Well.

Sorry, I know that's not really a nice thing to say.

No, that's okay. You're not trying to be mean. And Mom is pretty great. But it does make me a teeny bit sad.

Yes, I know, sorry. I do like you too, because you're funny, but still Mom a bit better.

Fair enough. So how come?

Um... well I guess it's like, you're both really nice, but you get really mad sometimes at bedtime if we're not doing good listening, and Mom gets mad too if we're not doing good listening, but she doesn't get sooo really mad.

I see. And I understand that. I can get pretty grumpy, and I'm a lot bigger too so I guess it's scarier for you.

Yes. But I still like you.

Well that's good. I like you too. Do you want a drink of water?

Yes please. (drinks)

Okay, 'night 'night Leighton. I love you.

I love you too Daddy!
...............

Owee.

I love my dog

2008-07-04T18:35:48Z

But this is just wrong. And not just because the quickest route for divorce for me would be another 10-12 years of a cloned Kola, our high energy, increasingly neurotic border collie cross at our house. Once is enough.

Chuck Speaks for us all

2008-07-03T17:29:19Z

"Your site design is the first thing people see...
Easy to look at with nice navigation,
Can't find what they're looking for, causes frustration"

Go bro! Way to represent!

http://www.theseorapper.com/

Hot and Cold

2008-07-02T13:33:31Z

So the tankless water heater is in, and the good news is that we have all the hot water we could ever want; it's a pretty nifty little unit I must say. I've been downstairs when the hot water has been turned on and it fires up immediately. You can set the temperature up or down on the outside, simple. So here's the overall review of our experience with Newten and the tankless heater in general.

Hot

Newten's customer service was great, very responsive and professional.

The unit seems really solid and simple, and comes with a ten year warranty.

Overall, given the cost of a new regular tank with installation, not too bad in terms of cost

Hopefully, great energy savings.

No more showers running cold

Installation guys were very nice.

Cold

Hot water takes a little longer to get to the faucet as it's not being warmed in the pipe the same way tank heaters do. Not that significant though.

BUT the installation itself was terrible. The installer, named Barry, said he didn't think he could fit it where the old heater was due to space and venting issues and suggested moving it above the utility sink in the laundry room. Even though I wasn't crazy about it, I took him at his word and agreed. Looking at the great big hole where the old heater was, it's clear that he actually just didn't want to put it in there, as it was a tougher install. So he said he needed to put it above the sink, which would have been okay except:

a) they put it too low, meaning the gas lines and stuff coming out of the bottom of the unit now block the cold water faucet of the sink. So I'll have to move the sink forward or something. It also means I can't really put a counter top over the washer and dryer, which was the original plan. So that sucks.

b) they attached it to the wall so shoddily, just screwed to a couple of planks that looked like they'd been cut with steak knives. Looked like crap on what is a finished room (see photos)

c) because it wasn't where the old heater was, he had to run the gas and water from there to the new location, none of which were secured.

I wrote to Newten to complain about this, and (to his credit) Barry came back the next day to see what he could do. Bottom line is: Not much. He was very nice, but made excuses about why it couldn't have been moved to the other location (which reminds me, and forgive me Jos, I don't mean you here, of programmers I've worked with who make elaborate excuses about why they can't do what you're asking, and the only way get them to do it either tell how it's done, or to find a site where it has been done... then they grudgingly do it). He did agree to fix the crappy wood planks and afix the cables, but frankly, I'm not happy and wish I'd dug my heels in about it when we initially discussed installation. Nice guys finish last with contractors, and that's all there is to it.

So overall, I wouldn't say I'd wholeheartedly recommend Newten, although I wouldn't say avoid them either. If you have a simple install, then go for it. But I'd also look into Enwise for a competitive quote (they look cheaper, although it's hard to know what their "conditions" are) and installation reco.

You're HOW old?

2008-06-23T18:35:38Z

The Porktrashers' drummer Mark turned 50 this weekend, and we had a party at Clinton's Bar with The Porktrashers playing (his request). It was a great time, and wonderful to see the outpouring of love from so many different people for a truly great guy.

On the other hand it's so odd the way these milestones events make you give your head a shake at how life changes. I was at his 30th birthday, shortly after I moved to Toronto. We both had different women in our lives, lived in apartments, I was an actor and he was a young lawyer. Now we're both married, have houses, multiple children, and full fledged "careers".

Thank God that the one thing that has remained consistent is The Porktrashers and our low-rent rock, or I'd really think we'd sold out. Or wait, does not recording on cassette tapes any more count?

On a similar theme, Carol met some friends at The College Street Bar during the A Taste of Little Italy Festival, and when one of her friends was in the bathroom stall she overheard a young girl on her cellphone saying "Omigod, don't come here, it's totally lame. Like, it's full of 40 year old MOMS!" What could be worse? Carol's response was, "Hey, I'm not 40 - I'm PUSHING 40."

Tankless Job

2008-06-18T16:34:53Z

Being of Scottish heritage and fundamentally cheap — uh, I mean, due to a deep commitment to sustainability and the environment — nothing irritates me more than hearing our water heater fire up downstairs at 11:30 at night. How stupid is it that we're heating 50 gallons of water all night while we sleep and won't need it for another 8 hours? Also, as the water heater ages, apparently, the sediment floats to the bottom and makes the heating coils less efficient. Which explains why we get one shower out of it before the water starts to cool noticeably.

I'd looked into tankless systems (ie the water gets heated as it passes through the pipes on the way to whatever faucet has been opened) in the past, but was put off by a) the pretty high prices of a system strong enough to run a shower and, say, a little boy running a faucet downstairs and b) the complications of installation.

All that seems to have changed in the course of the last 6 months. (Nothing like skyrocketing energy prices to get things moving along.) I called a company called Newten (at the time they seemed to be the only ones in downtown TO, although since then I see that EnWise is advertising too) and they had a pretty good deal it seems. Basically, they will install a new tankless heater, remove your old tank, plus do a ecoEnergy home energy assessment that allows you to apply for government grants. So we had the assessment done (fascinating in itself), and because we're installing the tankless heater, will get a $500 grant off the cost of it all. The service has been great so far, and installation is scheduled next week. I'll do an updated post about that experience.

In terms of cost, currently I see tankless heaters at Home Depot seem to run from $1200 to $1500 (uninstalled); the total cost of the installation for us, including removing the old tank (which is tucked into a corner and will be like removing the treasure in Raiders of the Lost Ark), is about $2900. Not super cheap I guess, but hopefully a good long term investment. In the environment I mean, of course.

REM - This one goes out...

2008-06-11T21:25:43Z

For my birthday Carol got me tickets to REM and said, "You don't have to go with me if you don't want to" — which as any man with half a brain knows, falls into the same category as "Do I look fat in this?" There is only one answer, and if you don't know it, you're likely single. Or sleeping on the couch.

Anyway, I digress.

The point is, for many, many years, I was a big REM fan. For the last few years though, I'd found them kind of meandering, and their newer stuff just never stayed on the iPod for long -- if it made it there at all. Then Accelerate came out, and I thought, "Ooh, that's good stuff! REM with a sense of imperative!"

It would have ended there, just me listening to them and enjoying it. But the concert reignited all the reasons I love this band. Oh my, they were good. Aside from a surprisingly eclectic set list, they had the big drums (even without Bill Berry), great guitar, Stipe in fantastic, in fact astonishing, voice — and charming to boot. Check out this classic, made even more fun by the presence of guitarist Johnny Marr.

I've been digging out my old REM CDs to rip back into my iPod ever since.