Don't Get Too Excited Just Yet... re: Vélib' / Bixi

Comment on the hour's piece on Bixi: http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=17263

When I was in Paris September 2007 -- I too fell in love with vélib'. I'd herd then that they were thinking about implementing this in Montreal, but I thought -- "how would it work?" ... You know...what with a 6 month winter and all.

The vélib' bike was like a heavy, stable dutch bicyle. I was particularly fond of this type of bike design because you could ride with a straight back. Chest out, shoulders back. I was able to wear fitted blazers on it without being scared of ripping my clothes (think a speed-bike rider crouched forward, or an person riding a mountain bike in the city, half slouching, half leaning forward.. awkward...

THIS was like riding an urban two-wheel tank with terrific torque. What a pleasure.

I was in vélib' heaven.

Aaaah oui MAIS! After relying on the vélib' for a week (averaging 2 euros a day!), I began to notice the draw backs. And this might be an issue in montreal as well.


At certain times during the day, people are all leaving their residential neighborhoods at the same time to go to work neighborhoods. At night, people are all leaving their work neighborhoods to go home. And then from home to the movies, or bars, or gym, or downtown.

Do you see where I'm going here?

In Paris when I needed a bike in the 16ème, no problem. But then when I arrived to the 5ème -- all the bike bays were full. No where to park it. So I had to search for an open bay for blocks and blocks, or I'd have to tie it up with the attached bike lock and get charged additional euros for every half hour it wasn't docked.

Coming back from the bars? All the bikes would be in use, gone! When you did find a bike? Your residential neighborhood's bike bays would all be full. Same problem!

Now perhaps Montreal has a better distribution of residents / bar areas (e.g. old montreal, plateau, mile-end)... We'll see what happens.

I hope it works out well...

A patriot for generation y

A comment on the hour's recent "Eyes on the prize" article on Michael Ignatieff -- http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=17105

Does it really matter whether Michael Ignatieff is a true patriot? Is it more important that we be convinced of his undying love for home and country? Or is it more important that Michael Ignatieff (MI) be the most competent leader we have who is willing to lead canada? (Aside, I was a liberal delegate for MI in 2006 representing Cmptn/ Stnstd... So there's no ambiguity about my own political orientation here -- and the only reason I'm not going to Vancouver to do it again is that we're not really there to chose a leader. And I just started an important new job that I don't want to take any time away from..) This debate is misplaced, a non issue (not the 1rst time either "The Hour", you're becoming a little too sensationalistic in my opn). But if you insist- MI is a patriot. If you wanna know the truth, I ask you to consider the following points. Michael's fan base (or 'supporters' to use an old politics pre-Obama term) is indeed composed mainly of young people. I'm 26 now and most of my fellow MI delegates at the convention in 2006 were around the same age. The old liberals were all supporting old liberals. Leadrship that Paul Martin suicidally put the Gomery Commission on foot to cleanse the party of. (Please forgive my grammar & syntax, I didn't do Cambridge, Oxford or Harvard, let alone teach there). MI had a clear majority at the last leadership convention, and that was only because of his grassroots and youth support. Canada's future leaders in business, in the arts, NGOs & not-for-profits, technology and scientific research, and of course in politics. We want renewal. Harper, Dion, Rae, bckd by Chretien & power co (although I love the guys) simply do not represent renewal or the new Cndn values. My generation values education and stars abroad. I'd rather you be a tech wiz in Cali, big in NY, a giant in Hllwd or a real-estate god in dubai than a nobody at home. This is the NEW patriotism. Make it big, bring it home and prove Canada proud.

Marketing Manifesto for the Post-Bubble Burst

(or The Tao of Ethical Business Communications)

OneSum Agency

For TOO LONG we have been...

Putting profits ahead of progress.

Putting progress ahead of well-being.

Pushing to consumption with reckless disregard for our environment.

What we need to push are politics and economics for sustainability...


Are you curious about whether we can turn around our nasty habits in the Post-Bubble burst of the twenty first century? So are we.

With this in mind, please read our thoughts on the subject and be kind enough to leave your comments on the blog, or by clicking the "CHALLENGE." link at the bottom!

Marketing Manifesto for the Post-Bubble Burst

Your company has a soul that permeates your brand USP* (even if that USP is … not having a USP).

You can increase your sales and cut costs by communicating that USP without being intrusive, overt or direct.

****

The west is a wasteland of commercial clutter. People will shy away from brands who contribute to that pollution.

Customers will develop an affinity for those brands that they find endearing, engaging or entertaining. Interactivity sells.

Customers will not dislike those brands that they perceive to provide value.

Customers will develop a dislike for brands they perceive to provide no value, or that seek too much attention. Neediness does not sell.

Thus, bombarding your audience with low value ads may work for those seeking what you have to offer but will hurt your image for those who are not.

Your attitude and culture is communicated subtly at every single touch point.

Your customers will tell a friend if they like your attitude, but will tell 5 if they don’t.

****

One Sum is an interactive agency that creates and executes marketing solutions.

One Sum is not a digital agency. One Sum is where your prospects are. They just happen to be online.



You need to communicate. We make it fun and meaningful.

How do you create engagement?


Check...**

OR CHALLENGE.



*Unique Selling Proposition. Why should I buy from you? If your product category isn't a definite USP based on rationality (dell: cheap, apple: innovative, Volvo: safe) all the more reason to appeal to emotion. Note though, that one does not exclude the other: e.g. Apple, innovative AND Cool. Pepsi: Better tasting AND Young.
**(Temporary Website UP BY END OF DAY)

Waging a battle between mind and self

Today I shan't blog about doors --- although here in India I'm picking up tooons of great material for them...

Today i'm going to put online a small exerpt from the journal i've been keeping here during my travels in India.

.... My mind frequently wadners off during mediation -- nothing new. But my mind is very clever -- again... nothing new. At first, my mind would appeal to my ego to distract me from one-pointed-ness, or focus i my meditation. It would bring up quick temptations, or brain teases such as monetary caluculations, divisions and converstions of currencies, or calculating how i would need to arrange my sleep on the way back home with the 12 hour plain ride and the time change in order to maintain my hard earned sleeping habits. Knowing that i'm a sucker for a littlemental math or logic challenge, my ego was too big not to accept --- and out would go the so ham* mantra, and in would come so and so number of rupees, per 2 weeks, divided by 14 days, converted in to canadian dollars.... for example. Again, simple, but very clever.

This would regularly occur during my first week of sitting to meditate everyday @ the same time. After I caught on to the tiny tricks of my mind and rejected its feeble (and frankly insulting!!) attempt to distract me ("he mind, look over here, a shiny gold coin" Or a monkey or whatever), rejecting these challenges once they were presented to me was no longer a problem. When I recognized my mind trying to distract my concentration with its ploys, keeping the intruding thoughts out of my mind was not difficult..

The second week of meditating my mind got hip to this and got wise. Seeing that I was determined to control my thoughts and assume my responsibility of being master of my own domain (like Plato's Republic), it decided that if it was ever to remain free to pursue all the frivolous thoughts that tickled its fancy (such a kid in a candy store -- penny patch anyone), it would have to deliver some seriously creative or thought provoking ideas to break my will of concentration. Again, simple, but bery clever.... And again a little desperate.

Introspection is truly the most adventurous journey you will /can ever take because nothing in the world outside can ever match the world within. (Note: We're not talking escapism here - but imagination. This is how Einstein discovered the theory of relativity, remember. And quite to the contracry, in concentrating your mind, you are MORE prone to a life of ACTION everyday than if you let your mind wander free like an untrained puppy. Or a free range chicken as it were.).

So to recap, week 1 my mind employs small tricks to distract me from my concentration. Week 2: Tactics of Week 1 no longer work, my mind has to pull out the big guns-- creative ideas and extremely inspiring & thought proviking concepts / ideas. The first week is but a distraction, the second week was win-win! 3rd week.... we'll see after I receive my personal mantra*."

.... Stay tuned for more progression reports on the fascinating journey of the mind. And note that we haven't even reached the unconscious or sub/super-conscious... which may take decades.

* So hum is a generic mantra used when one hasn't their own. It means >I am that> in the himalayan tradition.

Garçon-- a 'soupçon' of modernism!

..Recently at the guggenheim in NY, I saw a charming exposition on the work of Louise Bourgeois (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Bourgeois), some of which reminded me of Franklin's own epic doors (or portes-épiques).

I was told I might find some Brancusi pieces there, but instead found breasts and balls. And her mother, the giant spider. And la femme maison.


So although Franklin and Louise Bourgeois both have an affinity for old doors as frames for their "tableau's" -- they also seem to share an obsession with spooky shapes and body parts. For very different reasons - 'certes' - but they share them none-the-less (see pictures below)


And spiders too...







Now Franklin's work while more provocative does not imply as much; Louise Bourgeois' work has a reason behind everything. That doesn't make her art more valuable (the fact that it's exposed in Canada's national gallery, tate modern and guggenheim does, however). I don't believe the intention the artist had should have any effect on the price of a piece of art. It's not the point.
So Bourgeois's spider is named after her mother - because her mother and the spider were very, very patient (her father used to cheat on her mother, and the woman would endure it). Amzallag's spider on the other hand is just spooky.

If you believe that it's a commentary on modern times and their effect on men, children -- you're wrong. It's just for fun.

And who would want art that is so loaded with social meaning anyway?

Would it not be more fun to pay a little less for a piece of art - knowing that you're not buying into one cause or an other?

I don't know about you -- but most art collectors I know have enough stress during the day. They don't need to be reminded of the plight of women at the turn of the 20th century when they come home from a hard day's work (women or men. Women especially).

1 door, $10 000.00

But if you're in NY - I highly recommend this show at the Guggenheim. 12$ for students, 15$ for adults.

Show & Tell

Well hello there ! Ok class, for today's session of show and tell -- an African skull smasher !!


Looking like a work of art taken from the new Musée du Quai Branly* (Paris 7ème--?, Rive Gauche --- see picture below), this slick looking instrument of death in the right panel is assembled from an ebony African statuette and a gazelle or antelope's horn.

If you're in any way an animal rights activist, or vegan -- please rest assured that no furry quadrupeds were hurt before, during or after the creation of these doors, or as a result thereof. (The bipeds on the other hand were savagely beaten with just such blunt objects).

So anyway, to give this skull smasher an extra air of authenticity, Franklin added some little bones on strings, a blade made from a larger bone, and some feather / fluff. This is so we can get away with calling this art and not weaponry, really.

You see our strategy is esthetically pleasing skull-clubs today, sleek weapons of mass-destruction tomorrow. (Obviously, that's where the money is. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.)


Also, the little warrior boy is there for comic relief. It's not a social commentary on boy-soldiers in Africa. Don't read too much into this -- the fact that he's naked only means that Franklin couldn't find him a mini-tuxedo in all the garage sales he ravaged.

The horn btw (that's "by the way" btw), is for stabbing the brain once the skull has been *ahem* tenderized.


As for the little doll hands betting their little shirts on the bingo board, well this is just clever design.

So the door panel is actual linear from top left to bottom left, to right: When kids gamble (top left), they are forced to take up arms to get out of debt (small spartan boy with shield ans spear, bottom left). As a result, they are forced to resort to hard core violence just to survive (necessity is the mother of all invention, skull cruncher).


And it's our own socially conscious way of saying: "Kids you better stay in school, don't resort to violence and don't gamble. And drugs are bad."

*

Use bronzer with great caution!

So it's occurred to me that I posted the same picture twice last time. It's only my pleasure then to add a couple more to make up for that oversight...


"J'aime les bonbons", french for "I adoor candies", large overcoat buttons, and the back of a violin (it's certainly a Stravinsky). The edge of the frame is padded along the inside with ivory piano keys which were collected from an abandoned piano off of Commercial Street, Provincetown (Cape Cod, Mass).


The metal molds are actually to make 'madelaines' - a sweet little brioche cake. The musical score folded like a geisha's fan is a piece from Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka (... I just put that in there but it's probably not true.)


More from that 'Petrushka' ballet... An ancient and enchanted flacon of 'bronzer'. All those who have applied this mysterious bronzer at around the third Sunday of July are said to have become recluses, mangy and prone to random and unpredictable fits of epileptic seizures. Also, there is an old thermometer, a parchment, and buttons, among other things.

Hey does any one know how I can let people leave their email addresses?

The people must be notified of upcoming portes epiques exhibitions!!