So I was avoiding everyone this afternoon with a "meeting" because Country Music Television came over to my house to do an wrapper/interview with me about a viral video. It was two hours + of me muttering and stuttering bad drunk animal jokes into camera. I wish the editor the best of luck because if you know me...you know I ramble and mutter which was annoying the heck out of the speaker-phone producers.

Yee haw.

I can't say enough about MIMA and if you're not a member, you should join.

That being said...tonight's "WHERE'S THE PARTY? WHAT'S HOT IN ONLINE MEDIA" was the most horrifying panel I've ever seen live. It was a six hour long discussion on banner ads.

Joe Germsheild of Fallon had several moments where he nearly saved the conversation but was far too gracious, towards his suited-zombie-table-mate from MRM, to win the day. "Zombie" may be the pot calling the kettle black as it was the audience members who were groaning and swaying in agony.

You think the Zombie thing is an analogy, I wish it was. Zombies are a thing of Voodoo; a close cousin to the formulas that bad media planners use to justify their positions. It's a dogmatic witchcraft pseudo-science world filled with charts and numbers that are read in different ways from year to year based on trends. Take metrics from any site and run analysis on it every eight months and you're going to get completely different results with the same numbers.

This is either part of human learning process or magic. Good media people are scientific in the search for some sort of truths that they can apply to their client's needs. Bad ones are island living chicken-bone and teeth over open-flame zealots who think that purchasable media and strategy and campaigns are all the same thing.

The former use the number to better educate everyone while the latter covet the numbers as justification for the existence of everything as without quantifiable ROI their world (and jobs?) would cease to exist. There is a selfish self-preservation that ends up eating the brains out of a project...what undead creature does that sound like?

In traditional advertising the media dept was often the last in line and this served a fine purpose for good creative. However, in interactive, play-it-safe media has often risen to rule the roost, which means that creative is often literally thinking inside a box. 728 pixels wide by 90 pixels tall.

This weekend is Art-A-Whirl in NE Minneapolis and you should stop by the PUNY space to see (and maybe buy) some prints, posters, paintings, books, comics, drawings and dollies created by a host of talented folks:

Amy Jo http://www.missamyjo.com/
Big Time Attic http://www.bigtimeattic.com/
Books By J-Me http://www.booksbyj-me.com/
King Mini http://www.kingmini.com
Lonny Unitus http://www.lonnyunitus.com/
Tim Sievert http://www.timsievert.com
Tooth http://www.ramenroyale.com/

And possibly more...stay tuned this week for other Art-A-Whirl happenings.

Here are a couple of photos for a recent project. There is nothing more epic than filming against a giant green screen..everything seems funny and possible.

I got a little blog-hind (snicker) but here are some photos to trip to Manhattan for NYCC.


Times Square.


I didn't get many photos in the con. Here's Zander and his old college buddy Feedback. He was sitting next to Hayden Panettiere, the cheerleader from Heroes. The con was good, I got to see a lot of people that I usually only get to see at San Diego. Including plenty of people from Minneapolis who I only ever run into on the coasts.


Me and Tom K, who let me stay with him and showed me around in exchange for me vomiting in his bathroom the night I arrived. (THANKS and sorry) I got to see the draftFCB offices while I was there and meet everyone on the ONDCP Yahoo Snapbacks job we did with them. It looks like a fun and vibrant agency that had a lot of TV stuff I wanted to play around with.

Oh, here is one of the only other photos I took at the Con. These guys were walking around with GEEK COMEDY TOUR signs so I thought...I like Comedy...in NY especially...but I was the only one. This guy was a good sport "Did you ever noootiiice..." no guy, no one noticed.


There were a couple good event, I went down to the Giant Robot store for the "Beasts" signing.




And then over to Rocketship for the Picture Box book release party.


Dinner with Zander, Jackson Publick, and unretouched Liz Artinian, and Rick Danger-Lacy. This reminds me to find the Ventures Bros Season 2 set that I bought and lost. I hope you all watch that show.


I had an extra day so I got to visit the World Leader's office. They were all using Cintiques...below is Zander playing around with one at the con....so neat.

So the two or three of you who seem as interested in these as I am will rejoice. Today two more fine examples of very simple functional design. I can only guess but I think the Machinery Sales Co. must make or made some sort of sheet metal gear-do-hickey. 1958 must have been a great year for the company this plate is brass, embossed, and painted.
with a light blue enamel.



Though not as spectacular the Smith-Courtney Co. plate should not be ignored.