To satisfy Tatts (as well as google), here’s a story that includes childhood, communism and permanent damage:

We used to have this thing called ‘Pioneertreffen’. It was basically a huge gathering of the best pupils and principals from every school in the country. It was an honor to be invited and usually worked as a good incentive to achieve better grades as it was common knowledge that the daily food rations at the ‘Treffen’ included orange and vanilla flavored milk in small cartons from West Germany. And I got to go to one of these festivals. The ’8. Pioniertreffen in Karl-Marx Stadt’ in 1988. Not for my outstanding educational achievements but because I was in a choir. We were invited to come along and even got a chance to perform at one of the main conferences, in front of all the head-of-departments and school principals.
So off we went, our choir uniform ironed and vocal cords warmed up. I remember having a great time with all the other over-achievers and otherwise talented young folk, until I was told that I was the lucky one chosen to sing a solo at our scheduled performance. So suddenly there I was, at the front of the stage, looking down into the sea of teachers and political leaders, while the stage lights were burning my scalp off and making me sweat in my lovely uniform (white starched shirt, bandana accurately folded around the neck, reversible skirt – one side creamy yellow, the other pink) praying to the gods of communism that I don’t screw up….
That was incidentally also the moment I swore never to sing in public again… I did get a couple of extra bananas in my food parcel though, so that made up for all the pain.

Pioniere Seid Bereit…….. Immer Bereit!

Over the past week or so I’ve had the pleasure of working on a project for High Hopes For Pets in Chicago. As part of that project I had to look at dog pictures and consider baking dog cup cakes… Yes, hard day at the office indeed! While researching this subject some more, I came across some rather unusual dog outfits and I know you’re all just bursting with anticipation, so here they are:

‘Forever Marilyn’ is a striking 26-foot statue of Marilyn Monroe by artist Seward Johnson. Marilyn is holding her skirts down on windy Michigan Avenue just a block from our office in downtown Chicago. The statue is proving to be controversial. It is a little creepy and a little cool and Marilyn still pulls a crowd. Nigel

‘In Bruges’ is a great little movie starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. It is the story of two hit men hiding out in Belgium after a challenging hit-man job. The movie is quite quirky. It slowly reveals how the two men experience local customs in the very charming medieval canal town of Bruge.

Often mistaken for Colin Farrell, I too was ‘In Bruges’ and fell in love with its charms. Fan Foley

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to catch the Eurostar train from London’s gleaming new St Pancras station via the Eurotunnel under the English Channel to Brussels. The train trip was less than 1 hour 50 minutes at speeds up to 300 kilometres per hour. What a way to travel and you don’t feel a thing! Also, you only need to check in 30 minutes before departure time. Although this is really train geeky, I have to admit that it was very fast and very, very cool. Rolling Stock Foley

There are quite a bit of negative views on the iPad and in particular the people that use them. Word on the street is they are wankers.

Non-iPadder’s get annoyed by people sitting in cafe’s, or at bus stops, or heaven forbid in a library, using there index finger’s to swoosh through endless pages of websites, magazines, books, games, and apps, wispers between the annoyed usually go… “look at that wanker”, “yeah what a dick” etc etc.

But I say bollocks to you! 15 years ago we all thought people talking on a cell phone, or people who could text more that 20 words a minute were wankers, but look at us now, we all do it and couldn’t function without it.

And to any who say the world has degnerated into mindless index finger swooshes, here is a counter argument. Without the index finger and thumb man would never have evolved beyond ape’s, so the iPad is helping with next stage of evolution, turning us into incredibly strong index finger mutants, so when the robots finally try to take over we will be able smash them with out much effort.

Ok so I rant.

But the point is… GET WITH THE TIMES. Honestly if you sit there and vent hateraid for iPads, or even PC tablets, you will get left behind and one day you will wake up so behind in the times that you might as well curl up into the foetal position and never leave the house.

With the way the world’s economy is going money will become irrelevant and we start buying meat by trading cell phone call time minutes and apps, so I suggest stocking up now.

Of course not everything about the iPad is great, scratch that, not everything created for the iPad is great. Unfortunately there are idiots out there proliferating the world with useless apps, apps that make your iPad burp or fart or meow, and they have the nerve to charge for them. These people are the lowest common denomiator, and while I love the odd toliet humor joke, the world does not need millions of farting iPads.

To counter the above here is the main that makes the iPad great… it is entertaining. There is nothing boring about the iPad if you use it properly and don’t give it any more self-importance than is deserves. The internet, magazines, games, books, movies, music, is what the iPad was made for, and that is entertainment. It is purely there to give people a break and some enjoyment.

Sure I could go to the park and get some fresh air, but I can also go to the park and get some fresh air, hang upside down from the monkey bars, pull out the iPad and be twice as entertained. It doesn’t stop me from enjoying the park and my surroundings, but for some reason it makes me a wanker. Go figure.

Being in the creative industry it is also important to embrace the iPad. Everyon creative studio should have one (hint, hint), every creative studio should have a smart phone on hand (hint, hint), as this is the best way to learn the possibilities of what you can do with these devices and then go out and break the rules.

Now I’m not saying that everyone should go out and buy and iPad, all I am trying to say is…

My name is Tim Chapman and I’m a iPad owner and I’m not a wanker.

Thank you.

To prove this post was in no way sponsored by Apple here is an alternative view from British TV personality / Comedian Charlie Brooker.

I have to admit that this is incredibly funny, but also complete bollocks!

Click here to be taken to the video.

Tatts asked me to write a retrospective review on the gangster film “Once Upon a Time in America”, he often does that before committing a couple of hours of his life to a movie, knowing that I am a movie buff and have probably seen most of the films he is thinking of watching.

And yes in this case I had seen the movie, however, writing my thoughts about a movie with such a long and complicated history was something I really couldn’t do without revisiting the movie myself, something I have not had time to do, so I summed it up for him like this… it is not for everyone.

By that I mean it is not your typical gangster movie, in fact I’m not sure I would even call it a gangster movie. It is one of those undefineable movies slotted into a genre so Hollywood can market it to the masses in the hope of making some money. Because of that for many years Hollywood managed to completely screw over this movie, confusing viewers, and unfairly it got a criticial drubbing for its troubles.

I said long and complicated history before, here is some background. Directed by Sergio Leone, the film was first shown at Cannes in its full 4 hour duration, it was given two thumbs by most people. But the giants of Hollywood new a 4 hour movie wouldn’t fly so they cut it down to 2 hours, creating a “frankenstein” version which made completely no sense and in turn the movie got rubbished. It was only many years later that numerous versions were released on DVD, each restoring more of the original movie, until we got the full thing.

Now my original thoughts were, it is not for everyone and I stand by that. I’m not a huge fan, and to be honest if you can get past the first hour, you might as well stick it out. It is definitely not the finest hour of everyone involved. It is more a curiousity for fans of movies.

If you are interested in checking out gangster movies here is a quick guide of a few movies, with the following ratings:

That’s a Fugazi (A Fugazi is gangster speak for fake, or bad.)
Forget about it! (this gangster slang can mean good or bad, sometimes it just means forget about it.)
Going to the Mattresses (this a gangster for going to war, in this instance it will mean a must see.)

Heat – DeNiro, Pacino, Dir. Michael Mann
Not necessarily a gangster film, more cops vs bad guys, but the shoot out scene is “gangster”
Rating: Going to the Mattresses

Public Enemies – Johnny Depp, Dir. Michael Mann
As gangster films go this is a bit dull
Rating: That’s a Fugazi

Donnie Brasco – Johnny Depp, Al Pacino, Dir. Mike Newell
Again not for everyone, but I really like it. Based on true account from Undcover FBI agent Joe Pistone.
Rating: Forget about it!

The Dark Knight – Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Dir. Chris Nolan
Again not typical for the genre, but Heath Ledger’s Joker is more gangster than clown prince.
Rating: Going to the Mattresses

The Untouchables – Kevin Costner, DeNiro, Dir. Brian DePalma
When KC was still good, i.e. before WaterWorld and The Postman.
Rating: Forget about it!

The Godfather 1 and 2 – Pacino, DeNiro, Brando, Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
Rating: Going to the Mattresses…. enough said.

That’s all for now, tomorrow, we will get back on to the subject of digital devices as started last week by David with my thoughts on the iPad.

Tim

Following up from my post on all the amazing things that our mobile devices do for us these days, here is a mobile that does, pretty much,… nothing.

It’s called the Æ+Y.

You can’t download apps. You can’t surf the web or check emails – I’m assuming you can still make calls and send SMS, but I haven’t actually read that it can – but it does have a calcultor. The battery only lasts 5 hours. And it costs around $60,000… that’s because it is made of 24k gold. Expensive, heavy gold. I don’t know what it weighs, but I’m sure you could get a lot more gold for your $60,000 and I’d say that it will drag your trousers down a bit, so I suggest that if you are considering this phone, you should also hire someone to carry it around for you.

And so while most of us are using our mobiles more and more and marketing needs to prepare itself for the very near future where most people don’t bother to turn their PC on, if Russian billionaires are your target market, don’t worry about it, they don’t have internet access on their mobiles.

David McLeod

It’s no secret that people are becoming more and more reliant on their mobile devices. Our mobiles have almost become extensions of our brains. They pretty much do everything that we used to use the left side of our brains for – remember phone numbers, birthdays, appointments, shopping lists, solve basic maths equations etc. And We have them with us at all times, the whole internet in our pockets – a world of information, ready for the googling.

It is predicted that by 2015 people will be accessing the internet on mobiles devices more often than on a PC and smart phone sales will surpass PC sales worldwide by the end of the year and already most Android and iPhone users spend over 30 minutes a day using mobile apps. The old desktop computer is location specific and has to be turned on, it has to load, it requires a desk, it takes up space, there’s wires to deal with. A lap top solves some of these problems, but it doesn’t fit in your pocket.

The mobile is right there, ready to search the internet at your beckoned call. You could be having a drink with friends at a bar, you clink glasses and say ‘cheers’, then someone ponders, “Why do we clink our glasses?” and the answer is seconds away.

I am a person who, unless I’m at the computer already, will reach for their mobile to access the internet before I would think to turn on a PC – like I said, it’s right there, in my pocket, ready to go – and the most sure fire way for a website to find it’s way into my bookmarks is for it to have a good, fast-loading mobile interface.

It is a fairly easy retro-fit mobile template to your existing site, which can even include mobile-specific content – all while maintaining just one site. But many developers are now adopting a ‘mobile first’ approach to web design, where the mobile site is the primary focus. There are several reasons to create your site with mobile devices in mind, first of all, as mentioned already, mobile is taking off. But the other advantages are that within the constaints of a 320 x 480 pixel screen you need to focus on what is important and to keep it simple, which leads to an improved (and less cluttered) desktop experience also. The current PC first approach can also hold mobile development back, mobile devices with touch screens have so many extra features that the PC environment can not take advantage of – things like GPS, multi-touch gestures, the tilt of the device from the accelerometer.

As mobile web use grows a good mobile interface will become a natural expectation of internet users and fewer and fewer people will view your desktop website.

David McLeod

In 1824, in a town called Rugby, somewhere in England, a young man cheated at soccer and today he has a trophy named after him.

That trophy is the main topic of conversation here in New Zealand right now, as the world’s best rugby teams are all here to compete for it.

The Rugby World Cup is contested every 4 years. New Zealand’s national side, the All Blacks won the first tournament in 1987, however, despite being consistantly ranked as the world’s best team over the decades since, they have not been able to hold the Webb Ellis Cup aloft again. With the tournament being played on home soil, 2011 is their best chance to grab this coveted cup. It’s an exciting and nervous time for New Zealand rugby fans, once again the All Blacks are ranked #1 going into the tournament, but that’s the way this tournament always starts.

Here’s the highlights from the opening ceremony and first day…

Leading up to the opening we were treated to a little “ancient tradition” meets “new media” as flash-mob haka happened across the country and, of course, were posted to YouTube…

David McLeod