Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Synchronized Christmas Lights - Carol of the Bells
Mr. Holdman puts up an impressive light show every year. I recorded this version a few years ago. I was really impressed with the extravagant lighting. All the lights are synchronized perfectly with Carol of the Bells which was played over a short-wave radio signal. It's become a family tradition to see what Mr. Holdman will do next.
Synchronized Christmas Lights
Sunday, November 15, 2009
A Day at the Museum - Naturhistorisches Museum
Not knowing what the museum had, I stepped inside. "Naturhistorisches Museum," I read the sign to myself. Apparently, the statue on the dome of this museum was a bit taller--a meter or so taller than the Kunsthistorisches Museum's statue across the plaza. Logical symbolism. God's creations are higher and nobler than Man's creations.
I found the Museum strangely designed. The top floor contained numerous exhibits of animals from each family. First insects, then amphibians, and reptiles, and mammals.
One monkey seemed especially vicious. His teeth were glaring and the glass eyes shone with ferocious brightness. I was perplexed with the monkey's face and pressed my face up to the glass to get a closer look. I did not realize, however, that a faint mist was streaming from his mouth. His chest was moving in and out like real lungs. That's weird.
Suddenly, his right arm seemed to fly into motion and he smashed his extra large fist against the exhibit glass. Crack! Right on my face. A stream of blood ran down the glass. I stepped back in shock and confusion. Did that monkey just move? I felt my forehead. Blood. The glass was smashed and the monkey wasn't finished. He began to hit the glass repeatedly and finally the exhibit box shattered to the floor. The entire case of monkeys was a mess, and now they were all alive, screaming and jumping. One hopped onto my shoulders and wrapped his long hairy arms around my eyes and mouth. I stumbled backwards, trying to pry the monkey off my head. Then suddenly I was free just as I tripped into the crocodile display. Oops...
I found the Museum strangely designed. The top floor contained numerous exhibits of animals from each family. First insects, then amphibians, and reptiles, and mammals.
One monkey seemed especially vicious. His teeth were glaring and the glass eyes shone with ferocious brightness. I was perplexed with the monkey's face and pressed my face up to the glass to get a closer look. I did not realize, however, that a faint mist was streaming from his mouth. His chest was moving in and out like real lungs. That's weird.
Suddenly, his right arm seemed to fly into motion and he smashed his extra large fist against the exhibit glass. Crack! Right on my face. A stream of blood ran down the glass. I stepped back in shock and confusion. Did that monkey just move? I felt my forehead. Blood. The glass was smashed and the monkey wasn't finished. He began to hit the glass repeatedly and finally the exhibit box shattered to the floor. The entire case of monkeys was a mess, and now they were all alive, screaming and jumping. One hopped onto my shoulders and wrapped his long hairy arms around my eyes and mouth. I stumbled backwards, trying to pry the monkey off my head. Then suddenly I was free just as I tripped into the crocodile display. Oops...
Richard Strauss: Arabella in Vienna - Franz Josef's Reaction
The orchestra played loud and sure. The conductor waved his arms back and forth like a flag in the wind. His long hair waved as well, drenched in perspiration--after all, he had been conducting for over an hour. The notes were strangely twisted and dynamic--typical of Strauss. It was amidst this flowing blanket of sound that the main character, "Arabella," sung with rich tone. It was near the end of the last act.
The audience was glued to the performance excluding the Emperor Franz Josef who was seated in box 3. He usually showed an uninterested look and his slouched body gave away his dislike of opera. Nevertheless, the majority of the wealthy class, seated in the boxes, were anxiously hoping for a delightful ending. Would Arabella's new lover disgrace her after learning of her supposed unfaithfulness? Would the obsessive Mateo use the revolver to end his life?
Strauss wrote the opera with a joyful and romantic ending where the lovers would find happiness and the third act would end on a pleasant major chord, rather than a minor one so typical of operas. Misfortune, however, found its place in the performance of this evening's premiere. It was a romantically climactic moment. Fortunately, things had been made right with Mateo, and now that his secondary role was concluded, the bloat was no longer needed on stage. Now was time for the role of Arabella to truly shine.
Count Mandryck had so coincidentally mentioned earlier in the opera that in his country it was customary for a village girl to offer a cup of water to her lover, acknowledging that she agreed to be his wife. The beautiful Arabella asked for a glass of water to be taken to her room. Then she said goodbye and walked upstairs for bed.
At this point the music softened and moved in breadth. It was melancholy but gradually crescendo-ed into subtle tenderness. Arabella gently stepped down the steps back into the spotlight. She was carrying the glass of water of which she was soon to give to Mandryck. What sparkling light reflected off of her makeup and gown.
Then, much more quickly then the moment had taken to produce, our beautiful Arabella lost her footing. Her graced turned into puppet-like stumbling, then tumbling down the steps. Ouch.
The sudden disruption surprised the conductor as he also lost his balance. Waving his arms now like reeds in the wind he too stumbled backwards off the conductors stand and into the floor level seating area. The orchestra burst into hysterical confusion; some violinists abruptly stopped playing while others continued off time and off tune. Finally the orchestra realized the catastrophe and halted playing.
Silence filled the auditorium. The poor vocalist, Arabella, rose to her feet. She was horrified. It was one of those suffocating silences where the audience sat in disbelief--everyone gasping for some bit of sound that would break the awkwardness.
From Box 3 came a chuckle and applause from a single set of hands. Franz Josef was delighted for he had been awakened from his boredom. Trying to hold back his laughter, he yelled, "Wunderbar!, Bravo!" To him, this was the first opera that was clearly inspirational and entertaining.
The audience was glued to the performance excluding the Emperor Franz Josef who was seated in box 3. He usually showed an uninterested look and his slouched body gave away his dislike of opera. Nevertheless, the majority of the wealthy class, seated in the boxes, were anxiously hoping for a delightful ending. Would Arabella's new lover disgrace her after learning of her supposed unfaithfulness? Would the obsessive Mateo use the revolver to end his life?
Strauss wrote the opera with a joyful and romantic ending where the lovers would find happiness and the third act would end on a pleasant major chord, rather than a minor one so typical of operas. Misfortune, however, found its place in the performance of this evening's premiere. It was a romantically climactic moment. Fortunately, things had been made right with Mateo, and now that his secondary role was concluded, the bloat was no longer needed on stage. Now was time for the role of Arabella to truly shine.
Count Mandryck had so coincidentally mentioned earlier in the opera that in his country it was customary for a village girl to offer a cup of water to her lover, acknowledging that she agreed to be his wife. The beautiful Arabella asked for a glass of water to be taken to her room. Then she said goodbye and walked upstairs for bed.
At this point the music softened and moved in breadth. It was melancholy but gradually crescendo-ed into subtle tenderness. Arabella gently stepped down the steps back into the spotlight. She was carrying the glass of water of which she was soon to give to Mandryck. What sparkling light reflected off of her makeup and gown.
Then, much more quickly then the moment had taken to produce, our beautiful Arabella lost her footing. Her graced turned into puppet-like stumbling, then tumbling down the steps. Ouch.
The sudden disruption surprised the conductor as he also lost his balance. Waving his arms now like reeds in the wind he too stumbled backwards off the conductors stand and into the floor level seating area. The orchestra burst into hysterical confusion; some violinists abruptly stopped playing while others continued off time and off tune. Finally the orchestra realized the catastrophe and halted playing.
Silence filled the auditorium. The poor vocalist, Arabella, rose to her feet. She was horrified. It was one of those suffocating silences where the audience sat in disbelief--everyone gasping for some bit of sound that would break the awkwardness.
From Box 3 came a chuckle and applause from a single set of hands. Franz Josef was delighted for he had been awakened from his boredom. Trying to hold back his laughter, he yelled, "Wunderbar!, Bravo!" To him, this was the first opera that was clearly inspirational and entertaining.
Monday, November 2, 2009
LA Gear, The 80s fashion shoe is coming back
Nick Corotan and I created this ad campaign for LA Gear. The strategy was to position LA Gear as the shoe that has made a stupendous comeback, unlike many other 80s fads (Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, etc.)
"December 2008 marked a triumphant return to the apex of popular culture for iconic sneaker brand L.A. Gear. Bringing back signature styles from its hugely popular '89-'90 Unstoppable line, while updating some colors and materials, the company launched L.A. Gear Originals."
LA Gear was booming in the 80s but they severely lost market share in the 90s (probably because the style was no longer the fad). LA Gear filed for bankruptcy in the 90s. Now they are making a comeback. I've noticed many people on campus wearing LA Gear styled shoes.Even Nick said he liked the blue and green one in the first ad. He said he wishes he could buy a pair.
Copy:
This comeback is just two feet away
Some comebacks don't make it... some do
LA GEAR
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Christine's Cooking Creations - A new blog
Christine has started a blog. We're currently looking for a good domain (the ideal, "christinescooking.com", is taken). She's going to be cooking some very fun and interesting recipes. And, I must add, she is a good cook. She derides her talented cooking creativity from watching her mother, living in multiple countries, and having superb gourmet intuition.
I invite you to take a look at her blog. Currently, we're hosting Christine's Cooking blog at christine.davidscoville.com. Last night she made a wonderful Pad Thai dish. I was very impressed. Take a look at her site and enjoy her creations.Friday, October 9, 2009
"Retire Early" Advertising Campaign
Here's how the "Save Money" campaigns turned out after I talked to Professor McKinley. I decided to make it a little more causal: If you save you'll retire early; If you don't save, you'll have headaches and never retire.
Headline:
Jim retires at 45.
Bob and Shirley keep working.
Copy:
Jim Redding
Jim saved just $500/month and did without unnecessary memberships and credit cards. Now he’s looking at a $500,000 retirement at age 45. Jim doesn’t deal with the financial headaches that many Americans suffer from. He always goes by the saying, “don’t spend what you don’t have.”
Bob Thompson
Bob lives on the edge--the edge of financial ruin. With over $11,000 in credit card debt, he’ll consider himself lucky when he’ll pay it off in 20 years, having spent $4,700 on interest. In the meantime he’ll max out a few more credit cards and keep getting headaches.
Shirley Pilford
Shirley’s more concerned about spending rather than saving. She can’t give up her cable tv. After all, she’s got 1,000 channels, of which 10 she actually watches. She won’t go without her 5 subscriptions to magazines she never has time to read. And what about her membership at the gym she doesn’t have to time to go to?
Mug shots from istockphoto.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
$60,000 in Internet Marketing
My company is giving away $60,000 in internet marketing for any company that has really suffered during the recession. It will be a very exciting contest. We've called it the Ultimate Web Marketing Makeover because it's a makeover for a company's online presence, just like they do on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I had the opportunity to work on our landing page: http://www.seo.com/web-marketing-makeover. Jeff Call came up with the original graphics and I implemented his work into a landing page.
After working at SEO.com for over a year, I'm really impressed with the growth we've had. We've got a full office of some really great talent: social media experts, ppc experts, conversion experts, and, of course, SEO experts.
Albert Mitchell helped to put together this video about the contest:
If you're a winner of this contest, you'll be amazed at how much traffic you'll get with your awarded 6-month contract. You'll have some of the best online marketing gurus help your site slam the competition. Best of luck!
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