My best things of 2012

Let’s do this!
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Best Comic BookHawkeye

Screen shot 2012-12-31 at 12.07.18

(followed by Saga and maybe New 52 Batwoman too)

Best BlogSuper Punch
(with Marginal Revolution and Screenrant also getting worthy nods)

Best Music – we’ll ask Last.fm ———–>Screen shot 2012-12-22 at 12.54.00
(which is plugged into my Spotify and probably knows my music tastes from the year behind better than anything else)

Best FriendJennifer Miller

Best PlaceVenice

Best Fancy DressWolfmother

Best FilmSkyfall
(followed by Looper and Avengers)

Best PlayHedda Gabler
(it was SO good)

Best MusicalSweeney Todd

Best PremiereDark Knight Rises

Best Book(s)Done that already (what’s yours?)

Best Day – August 17th
(I found out I won my first pitch for the big O just I was boarding a flight to Cape Verde for a (well-deserved) holiday with the girl; it was perfect timing. December 30th comes in a close second, see next item)

Best Celeb Spot -  JOHN LANDIS!

Best EventTEDxObserver
(small mention on Five Things, but I still have ALL my notes to write up)

Best CoffeeFoxcroft & Ginger
(with an honourable mention for Taylor St. Canary Wharf)

Best Presentation (that I got to give) – Word of Mouth Marketing at SOF, Slovenia

Best blog posts (according to stats)

  1. Marvel: Disassembled
  2. Review: The Amazing Spider-Man
  3. On Facebook? I can see your private messages
  4. DRIVE (posted last year, but still top-billed)
  5. Review: Skyfall

Best blog posts (according to opinion)

  1. Current attempts at television-based social media integration are failing, hard.
  2. the pressure of immediacy
  3. Never-ending enjoyment (for a limited time only)
  4. 2013 Social Media Predictions
  5. In defence of Superman Returns

Best overall stats – Jetpack did that for me

Best New Personal ProjectsFive things on Friday and The Voicemail

Best Blogger EngagementTsingtao, Motorola and Visit Switzerland

Best FoodSpuntino – I love it there
(Hakkasan comes a close second)

Best AppPaper by Fifty-Three (example output)

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Bit of a random list all in all, but hey – it’s my list and I can do what I like. This past year has been an astonishing year for stats and stuff, YOY growth has been mental

Screen shot 2012-12-31 at 13.10.06

I’m putting this down to two things. First, a solid commitment to blogging; this year I published 164 new posts. That works out at an average of just over three posts per week. Having blogging projects to work towards helped with this a lot. If you’re looking to grow your readership, I’d recommend this.

Second, StumbleUpon. This year, I started sharing my links to the social/interest/serendipity-led search engine and my YTD referrers put SU in at the number two position (with Search coming first and Twitter coming third).

Finally I put a lot of my 2012 reflection stuff into my last Five things on Friday post so, instead of going over similar ground, I just want to say a big thank you – all of you – who have stopped by to read, comment on, or share anything you’ve found on this here blog of mine.

I really, really appreciate it.

Happy New Year to you and I’ll see you in 2013!

😀 😀 😀

 

 

Oh. My. Actual. God. I just met John Landis.

And it was more awesome than you could possibly imagine…

Oh. My. Actual. God. I just met John Landis.

So I arrive at Sadler’s Wells theatre, about to see Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty, and I spot a grey-bearded man who reminds me of one of my heroes. As I pay for my cab, I catch a hint of an American accent and I think – ‘Actually, that’s got to be him! It is him!

I tell the girl, she doesn’t get it. I’m freaking out (quietly) inside. I don’t get starstruck, but John Landis? Come on!

Once we’re seated I nip out to get a programme and he’s still outside, chatting away. I check my phone, google his face; yup – that’s DEFINITELY HIM.

Everso politely I interrupt and explain I’m a huge fan and that, while i don’t want to disturb his day, I’d love to get a photo because – and I quote – ‘…Blues Brothers is pretty much on repeat in my house’.

‘We were just talking about that!’ he replies, and then goes on to tell me about how they organised the chases, the crashes, the number of cars they used, how they shot certain scenes, what techniques they had to employ, what permission they did (and didn’t get). He was just so warm and giving… I was speechless.

One of my all time top directors, explaining to me the details and background to one of my all time favourite films.

Writing this up on my phone quickly, before the curtain raises, I’m dumbstruck and welling up with tears of happiness.

What an amazing moment and what an amazing guy.

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EDIT: I’m home now and still in total and utter glee. Awesome things I learnt from John Landis this afternoon include:

  • The Nazi Car Drop – the only way Cook County would allow them to (actually) drop a car from 1400ft into the middle of the city was if Landis’ production team could provide proof (!!!) that it would hit the target they said it would. That meant driving out to a corn field, dropping three cars from a helicopter, filming the whole thing and then showing the tapes to the officials that look after the city and the air-space, as well as the police! ‘…they ah’d and umm’d about it a little bit, but hey we proved we could do it – so we did it!’ – JL
  • Against commonly-held opinion (and Wikipedia!) Blues Brothers did not hold the record for most cars destroyed in one film. That was an urban myth! Mr Landis told me the film that actually held that accolade was the original 1974 version of Gone in 60 Seconds‘…if car crashes are your thing, you’ll love it.’ – JL
  • The 60 or 70 cars they did have for the shoot were constantly kept in good shape by a 24hr auto-shop they built on the set. – ‘…Oh, we had another 20 cop cars but we weren’t allowed to crash those.’ – JL

And then he started talking about Batman… I actually died.

All of that in a five minute conversation. I could’ve stood and talked with him for hours.

I love you John Landis, you just made my year.

Five things on Friday #52

Things of note for the week ending December 28th, 2012

NYCTube

1. #EmptyUnderground, New York
The above photo is taken from the mythical City Hall subway station that resides underneath New York City which, thanks to the demand of longer and larger trains, has been closed and deserted since 1945.

According to the source, New Yorkers now have the opportunity to see said subterranean architecture for themselves –

You don’t have to take my word that the secret City Hall Station exists, as the 6 Train will now allow the passengers who have been enlightened with the knowledge of its whereabouts to stay on the train during its turnaround and see the Station. You won’t be able to get off, but you’ll be taken for a slow tour of the platform and see what a beauty it was in its heyday!

More.

2. WE DID IT. WE REALLY DID IT.
If you’re reading this then that means you’re reading the last ‘Five things on Friday’ of 2012; week 52 is in the bag and my year-long blogging project is complete.

I am spent.

Whatley Shark

Back on December 30th, 2011 – aka, ‘Five things on Friday #0’ – I made a promise:

Every Friday (hopefully on my way home from work) I’m going to jot down the five things I’ve done or seen that week. Or perhaps even five things that have happened to me or that I’ve seen or whatever. Either way, it’s going in the Moleskine and then, naturally, it’s ending up on here.

Over time that promise has moved around. Earlier posts focusing on what I’d been up to, who’d I seen or what projects I’d been working on, with later entries mainly being about the coolest things I’d found on the web that week. It’s interesting – to me at least – how (and why) that changed in the way it did.

Moving to big agency life means that there’s more structure around what projects you are (and more specifically are not) allowed to talk about. With a few slight changes in place already (I still work for Social@Ogilvy, I no longer work for OPR), I’m hoping that will change in the New Year.

What else? Well, life has been tough this year. Perhaps the toughest year to date. Both for me and for the woman in my life. We’ve not been able to do all the things we’ve wanted and we’ve had some pretty hard personal and professional battles to fight too. But again, things are changing and, as 2013 rolls around the corner, already we seem to be armed better than ever before to face the year ahead.

Work and home life aside (huh, it’s strange isn’t it? How through the simple act of collating different things you do and don’t like over the course of 365 days allows you to view the past year of your life with a new and more thoughtful lens? I never thought that this project would provide such post-year analysis – and I certainly never thought it’d wind up in this way either), here we are: exactly 52 weeks later and Five things on Friday 2012 is complete. I honestly still don’t know if I want to keep going. It was a year-long project and that year is over.So I guess, we’ll have to until next Friday and see how I feel.

What have we learnt?

  • Much? Doubtful.
  • Stupid things? Probably.
  • What it feels like to actually finish a project? Definitely.

Right then, enough wanky introspection Whatley, you’ve still got three more things to bash through – GO!

3. Jerry Seinfeld Intends to Die Standing Up

Jerry

The New York Times ran a profile on Jerry Seinfeld just before Christmas and, even if you’re not a fan, it really is one of the best things on the web this week.

Go read it.

4. Christmas in The Trenches
On Christmas Day, 1914, Private Frederick W. Heath wrote the following –

“The night closed in early – the ghostly shadows that haunt the trenches came to keep us company as we stood to arms. Under a pale moon, one could just see the grave-like rise of ground which marked the German trenches two hundred yards away. Fires in the English lines had died down, and only the squelch of the sodden boots in the slushy mud, the whispered orders of the officers and the NCOs, and the moan of the wind broke the silence of the night. The soldiers’ Christmas Eve had come at last, and it was hardly the time or place to feel grateful for it.

Memory in her shrine kept us in a trance of saddened silence. Back somewhere in England, the fires were burning in cosy rooms; in fancy I heard laughter and the thousand melodies of reunion on Christmas Eve. With overcoat thick with wet mud, hands cracked and sore with the frost, I leaned against the side of the trench, and, looking through my loophole, fixed weary eyes on the German trenches. Thoughts surged madly in my mind; but they had no sequence, no cohesion. Mostly they were of home as I had known it through the years that had brought me to this. I asked myself why I was in the trenches in misery at all, when I might have been in England warm and prosperous. That involuntary question was quickly answered. For is there not a multitude of houses in England, and has not someone to keep them intact? I thought of a shattered cottage in — , and felt glad that I was in the trenches. That cottage was once somebody’s home.

Still looking and dreaming, my eyes caught a flare in the darkness. A light in the enemy’s trenches was so rare at that hour that I passed a message down the line. I had hardly spoken when light after light sprang up along the German front. Then quite near our dug-outs, so near as to make me start and clutch my rifle, I heard a voice. there was no mistaking that voice with its guttural ring. With ears strained, I listened, and then, all down our line of trenches there came to our ears a greeting unique in war: “English soldier, English soldier, a merry Christmas, a merry Christmas!”

Following that salute boomed the invitation from those harsh voices: “Come out, English soldier; come out here to us.” For some little time we were cautious, and did not even answer. Officers, fearing treachery, ordered the men to be silent. But up and down our line one heard the men answering that Christmas greeting from the enemy. How could we resist wishing each other a Merry Christmas, even though we might be at each other’s throats immediately afterwards? So we kept up a running conversation with the Germans, all the while our hands ready on our rifles. Blood and peace, enmity and fraternity – war’s most amazing paradox. The night wore on to dawn – a night made easier by songs from the German trenches, the pipings of piccolos and from our broad lines laughter and Christmas carols. Not a shot was fired, except for down on our right, where the French artillery were at work.

Came the dawn, pencilling the sky with grey and pink. Under the early light we saw our foes moving recklessly about on top of their trenches. Here, indeed, was courage; no seeking the security of the shelter but a brazen invitation to us to shoot and kill with deadly certainty. But did we shoot? Not likely! We stood up ourselves and called benisons on the Germans. Then came the invitation to fall out of the trenches and meet half way.

Still cautious we hung back. Not so the others. They ran forward in little groups, with hands held up above their heads, asking us to do the same. Not for long could such an appeal be resisted – beside, was not the courage up to now all on one side? Jumping up onto the parapet, a few of us advanced to meet the on-coming Germans. Out went the hands and tightened in the grip of friendship. Christmas had made the bitterest foes friends.

Here was no desire to kill, but just the wish of a few simple soldiers (and no one is quite so simple as a soldier) that on Christmas Day, at any rate, the force of fire should cease. We gave each other cigarettes and exchanged all manner of things. We wrote our names and addresses on the field service postcards, and exchanged them for German ones. We cut the buttons off our coats and took in exchange the Imperial Arms of Germany. But the gift of gifts was Christmas pudding. The sight of it made the Germans’ eyes grow wide with hungry wonder, and at the first bite of it they were our friends for ever. Given a sufficient quantity of Christmas puddings, every German in the trenches before ours would have surrendered.

And so we stayed together for a while and talked, even though all the time there was a strained feeling of suspicion which rather spoilt this Christmas armistice. We could not help remembering that we were enemies, even though we had shaken hands. We dare not advance too near their trenches lest we saw too much, nor could the Germans come beyond the barbed wire which lay before ours. After we had chatted, we turned back to our respective trenches for breakfast.

All through the day no shot was fired, and all we did was talk to each other and make confessions which, perhaps, were truer at that curious moment than in the normal times of war. How far this unofficial truce extended along the lines I do not know, but I do know that what I have written here applies to the — on our side and the 158th German Brigade, composed of Westphalians.

As I finish this short and scrappy description of a strangely human event, we are pouring rapid fire into the German trenches, and they are returning the compliment just as fiercely. Screeching through the air above us are the shattering shells of rival batteries of artillery. So we are back once more to the ordeal of fire.”

via ‘The Christmas Truce’

5. The Augmented Reality TARDIS: it really is bigger on the inside
This is, without doubt, one of the best uses of Augmented Reality I have EVER seen.

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Bonuses this week; first, the kindle version of Life Of Pi is now only 20p. Stop what you’re doing right now and go and buy it immediately. Then go and see the film. Second, this is an old post first published back in August but still – once you’ve read what successful people do with the first hour of their day – you’ll be tempted to change yours accordingly. And finally, ‘Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek‘ really is quite beautiful.

Whatley out.

Ps. Why not leave me a comment this week, let me know what you think…

Five things on Friday #51

Things of note for the week ending December 21st, 2012

1. One helluva tree house
The above image is, believe it or not, one of the primary residences of the Korowai tribe. Living over a hundred feet in the air is second nature to this isolate people as the area they call home is somewhat dangerous nearer the ground (thanks to killer insects, flooding etc). Some people would move out. The Korowai, it would seem, move up.

via

2. The Web We Lost
This, from Anil Dash, is one of the best things I’ve read this month –

When you see interesting data mash-ups today, they are often still using Flickr photos because Instagram’s meager metadata sucks, and the app is only reluctantly on the web at all. We get excuses about why we can’t search for old tweets or our own relevant Facebook content, though we got more comprehensive results from a Technorati search that was cobbled together on the feeble software platforms of its era. We get bullshit turf battles like Tumblr not being able to find your Twitter friends or Facebook not letting Instagram photos show up on Twitter because of giant companies pursuing their agendas instead of collaborating in a way that would serve users. And we get a generation of entrepreneurs encouraged to make more narrow-minded, web-hostile products like these because it continues to make a small number of wealthy people even more wealthy, instead of letting lots of people build innovative new opportunities for themselves on top of the web itself.

We’ll fix these things; I don’t worry about that. The technology industry, like all industries, follows cycles, and the pendulum is swinging back to the broad, empowering philosophies that underpinned the early social web. But we’re going to face a big challenge with re-educating a billion people about what the web means, akin to the years we spent as everyone moved off of AOL a decade ago, teaching them that there was so much more to the experience of the Internet than what they know.

Read the whole thing, won’t you?

3. The XX doing LAST CHRISTMAS

There is no need to say anything else.

4. Under Cover: Erotica and Sexism
I first met Zoe Margolis way back in 2008, I think it may’ve been at Tuttle – all those many moons ago. Delightful, warm, and fiercely intelligent, we had a fantastic stroll around Soho discussing all sorts. I follow Zoe on Twitter and recently I saw her tweet a link to her Lost Lecture on ‘Erotica and Sexism‘. I’ve only just got ’round to watching it – this morning in fact – and it’s a damn good watch. Enlightening and engaging, you’ll never look at an erotic book cover in the same way ever again.

And quite right too.

5. In Praise of [PR] Student Bloggers
Stephen Waddington, author of Brand Anarchy (book) and Two-Way Street (blog), is not only [still] taking offers of guest blog posts for his [highly-read] website, but also rounding up the best ones he’s had to date.

Looking for a break? Go talk to Steve.

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Bonuses this week are super random; first, this East/West College Bowl piece made me laugh more than it probably should; second, this Google Hangout with the chaps from Unleash the Phones was quite fun to be a part of; and third, Happy Birthday for yesterday Jane Fonda.

VonStroke / Zeitgeist / National

aka – Three Track Thursday #3 

Screen shot 2012-12-16 at 10.46.32

Three(ish) music recommendations for you!

1. My dear friend (and idea-sparring partner), Sarah, pointed me in the direction of this wonderful collection of music that is Hype Machine’s Zeitgeist. I’ve been listening to Hypem since, I dunno, maybe around 2006, but I always catch myself forgetting about it.

2. Joe tweeted this, earlier this week and my oh my, dese choons are so good yeah –

Reebok Classics Live from The Manchester Warehouse Project 30th Nov 2012 (Part 2 – Claude VonStroke) by Reebok Classics on Mixcloud

3. And thanks to Pretty Much Amazing, I’ve got a couple of new tracks from The National to share with you too. This is ‘Sullivan’.

And this is ‘Prime’

‘Til next time…

What’s the best book you’ve read this year?

I think I’ve got three –

First, in the non-fiction category, is Where Good Ideas Come From: The Seven Patterns of Innovation by Steven Johnson. There are two MASSIVE things about this book. The first is its title, obviously. The second, is the way that the author draws out just so many different examples of how innovation works that makes you completely reassess how you can mesh ideas together.

This book has inspired me.

It’s true. I think I’ve manged to blog about this book on four separate occasions this year (this makes five) as it has consistently made me think about not only how I collect and consume information (from new and myriad sources) but also the way in which I look at the world around me; ‘how does this work, why is that that way, what’s this actually for?’ – without doubt, the biggest brain-stretcher of the year for me.

Eg: this, on serendipity, kick-started my brain into all sorts of directions

Untitled

Creative? Want to know how the brain connects data to innovate? What about how your very surroundings can define how you do (or do not) think about ideas? Get this book.

Next, in the fiction category, is Gateway by Frederik Pohl.

Gateway

First, a bit of background: I’ve been working my way through the SF Masterworks collection now for several years and, if you’re a fan of sci-fi (and actually, even if you’re not) I can’t recommend diving into this set enough. Every book is amazing. From Philip K. Dick through to H.G.Wells, there are so many award-winning classics for you to get your teeth into, you could honestly pick any one of them at random* and have a fantastic book in your hands. So yeah, you should do that.

Recently I picked up a couple more when I was visiting my favourite bookshop and, as I’ve just mentioned, I tend to pick ones that I know I haven’t read before (my original idea to read them all in numerical order was silly really) and this time around Gateway jumped out at me.  It is brilliant. Read it.

Finally, in the newcomer category, is The Girl Who Would be King, by Kelly Thompson.

Screen shot 2012-12-16 at 13.56.36

I honestly can’t remember how I came by Kelly Thompson originally. Actually no, wait. That’s a lie. I’m fairly certain I found my way to her blog after following a few comic book Tumblrs back to their original source(s) and finding her quite brilliant ‘drunk cover solicits in three sentences or less‘ series of comic book cover reviews.

She gets drunk, and then reviews comic book covers in three sentences (or less). I know, right?. It sounds so simple, but it’s oh so hilarious – and equally bang on the money.

That aside, Miss Thompson is also a budding comicbook writer and her most recent effort, which first started out as a screenplay, actually ended up being a book. A proper one. Without any pictures or anything. Not only that, but when it was finished, Thompson managed to get it funded through Kickstarter too!

Oh and hey, guess what, the book turned out to be effing amazing.

If you’re a comic book fan – and even if you’re not – go and get this book. It’s less than £2 on Kindle right now (!!) and it’s just great.

In fact, I’m going to use a word to describe that I haven’t used before, ready? TGWWBK is, to my mind, the most Tarantinoesque book I’ve ever read. And I don’t mean Taratinoesque in the traditional sense, I mean that it – its characters, the world they live in – occupies a world so close to the one we live in that you wonder why all works of fiction aren’t written in such a way. It makes pop-culture references, it knows how cool it is; it makes jokes, it thinks of stupid things when it shouldn’t be – it’s just so real in that you can imagine these characters doing these things and making these silly remarks about themselves just like normal people do. That’s not exactly the most highbrow of reviews, I know. But you can see the point I’m making, right?

I digress. I’m waffling even.

There we have it.

Three amazing book recommendations, for you, for less than £15. Amazing.

I ask you again:

What’s the best book you’ve read this year?

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*but if you were to pick any one of them first, pick The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. I read it many years ago and it stays with you. So powerful. So so powerful.