The Original Airwair with Bouncing Souls

Doc Martins are probably one of the most nostalgic brands that I personally identify with.

I was glad to see that they are undergoing a new website design.

Check it out here.

I just picked up a new pair of Vintage 1460 8 eyes, I opened the box and saw a postcard inside and it seems that DM has adopted the word "Freedm" as its new moniker.

I think we all know how I feel about Freedom.

Freedom + Partners

You can still see the old site here.

Its nice to see a brand stay true to its roots. DMs are one of the few things you can take with you through this crazy world, they are timeless.

So enjoy some FREEDM and get back into a pair of the worlds coolest shoes.

Rerun Richochet

This has been the year we have seen the big networks all swallow their prides and finally accept the web as a viable means of delivering content to its loyal viewers.

Content on demand, when we can fit it into our busy schedules and content that isn't some user generated crap.

Networks like NBC pretty much giving us whatever it is we want to watch on both its network as well as Fox via the online network called Hulu.com. Not just shows that are running now but also past shows that may have not hit the rerun circuit but that can draw advertising dollars and provide nostalgic injections of some old favorites.

Today I had noticed something really interesting, the old WB network, which in my day was simply Channel 11 and Channel 9 in NYC, which is now called CW Network which runs on two channels, I think, has resurrected its former incarnation of The WB online.

The WB began its life in 1995, broadcasting a paltry 2 hours of cheesy teen entertainment one night a week. The WB's first shows were mostly sitcoms targeted at an ethnically diverse audience. Even though four of the five shows shown in the netlet's first nine months (The Wayans Bros., The Parent 'Hood, Sister, Sister (picked up after being cancelled by ABC), and Unhappily Ever After) were renewed beyond the first year, none of them made a significant impact on anything.

The WB began programming on Sunday nights in the 1995-1996 season, but none of the new shows managed to garner much viewing interest. Still, the network continued to expand in the 1996-1997 season, adding programming on Monday nights.

That season gave the WB modest hits in the family drama 7th Heaven and comedies The Steve Harvey Show and The Jamie Foxx Show. We all know where Jaime Foxx is now.

The WB also added the Kids' WB programming blohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifck in 1995, which mixed Warner Brothers' biggest hit shows (Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and later Batman: The Animated Series, all of which originated either on Fox Kids or in syndication) with new productions and original shows.

In 2006, CBS and Warner Bros. Entertainment announced plans to can both UPN and The WB and launch a new network, The CW in their place. Over the next nine months, it was to be seen which shows from UPN and The WB would cross over to the new CW, as well as which stations across the country would become future affiliates of the new network.

A slice of time has now been captured online. Our beloved web is now a time machine for those who want to revel in an hour of Friends and then some Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

In an unprecedented and in my opinion a genius strategic play, The WB, an entire network, has been reincarnated online.

Click here for a preview.

The web is the new wild west, a frontier, a place where media can be reinvigorated and where anyone can now start an online network of both original content as well as content that once held the hearts of millions of viewers.

It is the new Rerun Model.

Networks will be salivating over the ability to recreate a slice of time that was wildly popular.

Imagine the old NBC line up featuring the Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice coming back to life online.

The late Brandon Tartikoff would have been proud.

Now shows can be rebroadcast in a multitude of various formats. We can now enjoy the television that has shaped pop culture anytime we want. The strength this garners the web is unfathomable.

The web is now a new fertile landscape where the old is new again and where slices of time can live always.

A true monument to mankind. Buffy will never die!

Travelling Matte

I am on the set today, shooting for a new site we are working on at Freedom + Partners.
Shooting on green screen is always fun.

Sexy People

I'm not quite sure what it is about this site but its incredibly inspiring.

Perhaps the beauty of the common man or the true'ness that emanates from every picture.

You just cant capture this unless its real and that is what makes it so damn interesting.

Every picture floods my head with ideas of how to better communicate ideas in different ways, all based on the facial expressions, clothing choices, lighting, couplings and every other odd little nuance that each picture offers.

I am very addicted to and extremely inspired by the pictures on this site

Check it out here: Sexy People

Why is it...?

Has Crispin lost its mind?

Has Microsoft gone mad?

Is Jerry Seinfeld crazy?

What is going on here?

How much more desperate can Microsoft get?

What means will they employ this time to plug the gaping hole in the side of its sinking ship?

I have worked on quite a few Microsoft projects with McCann SF and TAG so I feel like I can speak on this subject.

McCann SF was one hell of an agency that really worked hard to prolong the inevitable death of Microsoft. There was nothing more McCann could have done to keep the Window from breaking, and it looks like Crispin just threw a hardball right through it.

Windows Vista is a flawed product, computer companies everywhere are moving away from windows and looking for other ways to compete with Apple.

OS X is continuing to win over new users by the day due to the virus strains called iPodinae & iPhonesvirinae that has infected the public.

Point Number 2:

Doesn't any one remember the Mac in every single episode of Seinfeld?

Watch any episode, I dare you, you will find a Mac in the corner of Jerry's apartment nearest to the window on his desk in every single episode.

Jerry was not only a Mac owner but Jerry was an early adopter, he always had the absolutely newest model including the 25th anniversary issue.

How the heck is Crispin going to spin this one?

This was the year we see Gates retiring, its no wonder, the man is not an idiot, with the world clamoring over their precious iPods and iPhones it was no surprise that we have now entered into the "Switch Age" where the once mighty Windows once ruled is now a depleted creatively challenged office thirsty for some sweet titanium casing and that playful dock at the bottom of the screen. No more anti virus software and less crashing.

Apple's market capitalization is at nearly $162 billion. This means Apple is surpassing Intel, valued at $155 billion and IBM at $157 billion. Thus, Apple is rapidly closing in on Google ($200 billion), perhaps Jerry will be the one to help Apple get closer to the "mighty" Microsoft, valued at $290 billion.

I say let Jerry end his career as the hypocrite he will look like while peddling the flawed Windows Vista.

I nominate Larry David as the lovable idiot who should go head to head with Jerry and endorse the Mac. After all its his success that has carried on while Jerry rots in Vegas.


Why do they call it a "building"? It looks like they're finished. Why isn't it a "built"?

Maybe Jerry should use that routine in his new Vista commercials.

One Two Punch!

The ad business is full of duos, teams of creative assassins who together come up with the one two punch that cannot be matched by any ad hoc group or single individual. A duo can tag in and out and can take on any challenge each drawing strength from one another.

During our days at Firstborn we both looked for and found such people and we killed em one by one.

None of these phonies...

Mario and Luigi
Han Solo and Luke Skywalker
Bert and Ernie
Batman and Robin
Jay and Silent Bob
Pinky and The Brain
Ren and Stimpy
Cheech and Chong
Frodo & Sam
Beavis and Butthead
Jules and Vincent
Wayne and Garth
The Lone Ranger and Tonto
Simon and Garfunkel
Wiley E. Coyote and Road Runner
Mac and Cheese
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
Green Hornet and Kato
Shaggy and Scooby
Bill & Ted
Napoleon dynamite and pedro
John Masterson & Steven Sundheim
Knight Rider (KITT & Michael)
Starsky and Hutch
Andy and Barney
Thelma and Louise
Calvin and Hobbes
Chris Farley & David Spade

...have anything on Craig Elimeliah & Tim Nolan

Back for more!

Watch out!

I want to welcome and old friend and a true partner Tim Nolan to the Freedom + Partners team. He has come on as Executive Content Director and is going to tear shit up!

Good to have you back!

A Barbarous Truth

Rick Webb over at The Barbarian Group is one of my favorite industry personalities. On the heels of the Michael Lebowitz comments that were circulating around the industry regarding his Cannes experience and the lack of credit for the HBO Voyeur project.

Rick's comments are here.

Rick chimed in and added his 2 cents to the story and I had this to say about his response...

"This is one of the best responses that I have read from a legitimate source and someone who I would actually consider a real voice on this subject. You hit every point spot on and drove home the real issues that are at hand. As digital partners we are only a single entity in a much bigger picture. We are obviously biased towards our discipline and I am sure the media buyers would chime in a say "well no one would be at your damn site if we didnt throw out 2 million banners to drive traffic so we should get the credit" and so on...

I believe that as an industry that is going through the growing pains of a new medium and as the new kids on the block we need to become a more cohesive group of creative professionals. An idea is never the child of one single person, its an entity that is comprised of the pasts and presents of a collective of creative individuals who have all breathed some life into the idea. We cant single out any one contributor as the only creator unless it was a one man show that made it all happen.

It really boils down to a very fundamental rule we all learned in pre-school. Playing nicely and sharing. Egos are rampant in this business and those who can set aside their egos for the betterment of the idea are the real winners here. No slab of metal fashioned into a lion is worth the strife that our industry has be thrown into, the unity has been compromised and we have been set back because of some petty ego stroking.

Credit is always a nice thing to get, but at the end of the day the check you get is really the only credit any one company can give another, being paid fairly is above all the farthest anyone needs to go. Once we all get past this and start refocusing on the big picture then maybe we will all make it a point to be more sensitive to our respective roles and spread the love a bit more.

This is not a new subject and has been infecting the creative process since the dawn of time. Who did this? Who discovered that? Did the captain of Columbus's ships throw a shit fit when the King and Queen noted Columbus as the founder of the new world? Probably.

I think we all need to take a good hard look at ourselves and keep in mind that we are at a critical stage in the convergence of a new medium with age old traditional advertising and that right now there is no time to bicker over small issues when much larger ones prevail."

Earnstwhile

In 1991 one of my heroes came up with this idea to gather together the best musicians of the ALT rock scene and have this great big ol' outdoor concert. At the time us wee kids only heard of concerts like this from our baby boomer parents who hazily passed down stories and sometimes pictures from the historic Woodstock.

We were the perfect market to start this up again, the seed was planted and we all would readily make the same trek as our parents did to some outdoor alternative rock mecca to pray for three days on drugs and rock and roll.

Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Ice-T/Body Count, Living Colour, Butthole Surfers and The Rollins Band.

Back then that line up would have brought peace to the middle east.

Its pretty early on a Sunday morning, I am as always awake with ideas swirling, I'm online making my rounds, round, rounding the corners of the globe and I come across a banner ad for what I thought had ended in 1998.

Lalapalooza is back except this banner ad wasn't to come make some trip to some field to tune out for a few days... rather it was telling me that they didn't actually expect me to make it and that I should be tuning in ONLINE!!!

Do I feel old? NOOOOOOO.

Ok yes.

The web page I ended up on said this...

"Tune-In To Lollapalooza Live On the Web
Can’t make the trip to Chicago for Lollapalooza August 1st-3rd? Never fear, blue room is here. Experience Lollapalooza LIVE via webcast just by turning on your computer. Mark your calendars now! Tune in to watch Wilco, The Raconteurs, Love and Rockets, Bloc Party, G Love and Special Sauce, Flogging Molly, and many, many more!"

Like most smart businessmen in this capitalistically ravenous country, Farrell sold the Lollapalooza brand to Capital Sports & Entertainment. The concert was revived to become a two-day fest only to remain in one location, Chicago's Grant Park. The concert actually relies on the web to stream it to the world.

THE WEB!

Ok maybe I have geeked out completely but this is a profound cultural swing. The web is now a venue for concerts, not just any concerts but big ones, those summer ones that change your life, the ones that evolved from Woodstock to free us of our addiction to pop music and usually ended up with an addiction to something totally new, and bound us together in the darkness and angst of Alternative melodies as we were soon thrust out unto the world to start our lives.

I'm in my very early 30s and I am ranting like a geezer here.

The web has accelerated time. We have built a time machine except it progresses culture, information, music, arts, education and if you don't keep up, your gonna be left behind.