New Yorkers are accustomed to big ads. After all, Times Square is one huge newspaper ad. So, when brands want to make a splash here they have to be creative. In the last few years, several brands have taken to shrink wrapping Manhattan transportation to make their point. Today, Uniqlo, the Japan-based hipster retailer, took over the Grand Central to Times Square Shuttle. Very smart. It was great.
Enjoy this Featured Foto Friday treat!
Time zooms by and the next thing you know, I've missed another Featured Foto Friday. Ah, well.
Anyway, this has been a particularly beautiful fall here in Connecticut and I thought I'd give all of you a glimpse of what makes Autumn my favorite season.
Enjoy!
Everything's pretty corporate at the new Yankee Stadium. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But, when I was at a game last week, thanks to the generous hospitality of my friend Dean Landsman, I saw something that did my heart good: Freddy. Freddy is an odd sort. He dresses in Yankee pinstripes and a hat and has attended most home games since 1988. Freddy also makes a sign, a quotation under his nom de game, "Freddy-Sez," that he wears to each game. Oh, and did I mention that he carries a saucepan that he continually beats with a wooden spoon throughout the game?
Yeah. Freddy's an original. Ah, and given that today's Friday, let's take a look at a Featured Foto of Freddy.
Now, rumor had it that sometimes Freddy had tickets to the games he attended and sometimes he didn't. Seems he has friends at the gates.
But, earlier this season I'd read that the guys who man the new Yankee Stadium turnstiles had been instructed not to let Freddy into the games for free any longer.
Hey, building this ballpark cost the Yanks a lot of money, ya' know?
Imagine what the reaction was. No Freddy? "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" was that about??
But, in this case, wiser heads prevailed. This was all a "miscommunication" a team spokesman said; Freddy's always welcome.
Now, what if this was your brand? What if you were trying to create a high-class atmosphere with luxury customers and big pricetags? Would you find a way to accommodate an oddball like Freddy? Do your customers have to meet your standards to qualify as diehard brand supporters?
Or, are you smart enough to appreciate the importance of idiosyncratic people who just love what you do and willing to encourage that support by putting your money where your mouth is? Or is that, putting your money where your heart is?
That's the question.
PS - Freddy's also a Fordham Rams fan. I've seen him at their basketball games, rooting against my Dayton Flyers and bangin' that damned saucepan like there's no tomorrow. But I'm not going to hold that against him. How 'bout one more World Series for Freddy, guys.
This Friday's Featured Foto is commemorative of that awful day, eight years ago, when our country was changed forever. I was over the Atlantic at the time on a corporate jet, heading for Paris (re-routed to Amsterdam by corporate security) and not able to return to the US until the 15th. When I did return, New York's outpouring of grief was enormous. This is a glimpse of Union Square Park a day or so later. How can we overcome the madness that leads us to slaughter one another in these ways?
Please take a moment to remember those who lost their lives and their loved ones on this horrible anniversary.
Thought I forgot the Featured Foto this Friday? Oh no! Here ya go!
Featured Foto Friday again!
Imagine this. You own a small pharmacy in Brooklyn. Everywhere you turn, you see encroaching monsters: CVS, Duane Reade, Walgreen's. What do you do?
How about painting a mural on a brick wall? How about one that shows you as a genuine, trustworthy human being?
Expressing your uniqueness is your #1 job, no matter what you think your job is.
I've found that when people live creatively they live creatively.
Profound, huh?
I mean, take David Byrne. Talking Heads was, well, Talking Heads. Since the Heads stopped being, well, the Heads, Byrne has just kept chuggin' along, producing a multi-media reflection on PowerPoint, blogging, releasing new music, etc., etc.
And now, he's a bike rack maker. That's a picture of one of them, below. Read about it here.
Creativity: it's irrepressible. Start cultivating yours right now!
Hat tip, Tim Manners' always hip, Reveries.
Oh, and for old school TrueTalk Blog readers, consider this a Featured Foto Friday entry!
I'm not sure how I feel about ambivalence.
But, seriously, folks!
The title of this post is from the lyrics of a Jimmy Durante song from this movie which went: "Well, did you ever get the feelin' that you wanted to go yet still have the feelin' that you wanted to stay?" <Repeat>
That's ambivalence.
And, that's the way I feel about the Loren Feldman parodies of Shel Israel. If you haven't been following this dustup among followers of social media, you might want to go over and listen to a podcast that Johnnie Moore and I just recorded.
One minute, I find Loren and his puppet hilarious; the next, I cringe.
Raises questions: When does satire become sadism? How have we evolved such that this kind of humor so appealing?
Bonus: the Durante clip isn't available, but here's a quickie that gives you a feeling for that terrific film which I now must watch again.
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