theLaconic

Some more work

Last week another one of my websites launched in Australia, but because the internet doesn't recognise country borders you too can have a look.

I am quite proud of this piece of work, it was completed in a very tight timeline and I got to work with an extremely dedicated and talented set of people.

The guy you see above is Paul from work not only did he work on the project but we also made him into the tour guide (voiceover is also him).

Click here to view - this is a broadband site and is pretty painful on home modems so there's a warning for you.

USBX Blog

The USBX blog has been created - have a look if you are interested, ignore it and don't bother if you're not.

Click here to view - there is also a link on the right hand navigation that will stay there.

Snow, snow and err some more snow

According to the locals this has been quite a mild winter so far with only really one big winter storm so far.

We had a few inches earlier this week but it melted within a day but now it's snowing hard again and has been since 4pm this afternoon (currently 9.23pm). It is only supposed to snow through the night and stop in the early hours of tomorrow, I might try and get up early and take some photos before it gets all dirty but then again I might just stay in my warm bed...

Brawny Man

Before anyone starts, I'm not introducing my new sexual preference but rather a very amusing website that sends up the perfect man concept.

Click here to launch the site then click on the 'Innocent Escapes' in the bottom right panel.

Agency of the year

Today the company I work for was named the agency of the year by the main industry rag: Adweek.

My work for the US Open was cited as a one of three creative highlights, I suppose that's a good place to be. It definitely is a marked change from two years ago when I wasn't sure whether I was going to stay around.

The Gates mkII

So the gates in central park are cool, but so are the parodies that have appeared on the web.

Click here to visit the Sommerville gates.

The Gates

Yesterday morning I took James and Barney to visit Central Park. And I'm sure most people know that Cristo is 'wrapping' the park.

These are the best photos from my camera and to be fair they aren't that good compared to the ones that are one flickr.

click on the photos if you want to see them larger.

Barney's guest spot

My friends Barney and James from our London office are staying with me this weekend, we have been partying hard, in fact maybe too hard in places.

Barney is a master story teller and I honoured to have post an entry on thelaconic.com.

Barney's ramble

One of the obvious things about visiting abroad is noticing how different everything is... I hoped I'd notice a difference in Al and I can report to all of you in the UK he has changed: outwardly at least, a size or two up, but that's just more to hug, although now you need to chalk a mark on him where your first hug finishes and then move round to complete it...
...ah that's not fair.

Al's very well. And he certainly seems to have made himself at home at Ogilvy Towers NY, a good indication being that everyone seems to know him, and when you drop by his office Al is generally holding court, dispensing wisdom, issuing profanities or just talking filth... or even all at the same time.

Alastair has also been the perfect host, showing us the best bars, some fantastic places to eat and...well that's about it: we have eaten our weight in pig since arriving, and drinking like Priory escapees. Although, Al proved to be some kind of a light weight on Thursday night, bailing out after only a couple of pints of Martinis, leaving James and I to struggle through to 5 am. Now bear in mind, we'd had about 3 hours sleep done a full day in the office: we needed to unwind, trouble was the time difference really kicked in around 3am and our body clocks told us to get awake... found an Irish bar, (what a surprise), and made some new friends over a few pints of NY Guinness.

Surreal moment #473: Sitting in Katz, eating salt beef sandwiches and matzos, with a daughter of a preacher who was a funeral director (I’ll come back to that in a moment), translating the meanings of the stream of filth that flowed from James' mouth - and believe me it was filth: even Al blushed. Meanwhile Boo Radley, her boyfriend, not only looked on but joined in the filth fest!

Back to the girl funeral director bit: 'I wanted to be one since I was 10 years old' - who, but Wednesday Addams, wants to be a funeral director at that age!?!

Now, I've got family that are boxers, so I understand that you might find your way into a family business like that, but surely you only go into that independently when you're a failed vet or something? But the answer apparently is 'well my dad was a preacher so I knew that always wanted to help people' - What??? Become a bereavement councilor, but don't take a job where you spend all day sucking someone's innards out, before decanting them into a bio-hazard bags for the bin men to take away, not to mention stuffing leaky orifices and tying knots in john thomases.

I recently met someone who works in charity, she always wanted to - that made total sense, I found myself feeling nothing but admiration for her having managed to make a career in something she'd always wanted to... why did I feel vaguely apprehensive and bemused when someone tells me they always wanted to be a funeral director? I guess we don't want to really think of that sort of thing, it's the same way in social situations you naturally levitate away from dentists and the people who pack offal into sausages.

Oh dear, too much coffee and the opportunity to talk bollox, I better end here, but time for one last NY memory for this visit: sitting eating pasta in an Italian restaurant on 6th Ave [it was actually 9th Avenue, but I excuse you because you were obviously still drunk from the night before - al], while the theme from the godfather played in the background - honest...

All of you in the UK: rest easy Alastair is well, and wonderful, and a fabulous friend.

First taste of gold (or any metal)

Today we found out that we won our first gold 'gong' of the year for the IBM US Open banner (click here to see it if you really want to).

The Addys are quite big in ad land but they are staggered into regional contests and we won in the New York region which has to be quite big as most ad agencies are here on the East coast. All the award entries are then entered into the national awards that are quite are serious deal if you win.

I seemed to have spent the last six weeks helping prepare entries for the award shows so hopefully the hard work will start to pay off...

fingers crossed obviously.

The gates have opened

gates3
Originally uploaded by Nachosan.

Okay so I didn't take this photo, I was looking on my new favourite website - www.flickr.com. Its amazing how many photos have been added in the last 2 weeks - over 800 on the gates tag alone.

But I will be going to see them next weekend when Barney and James from the London office are over.

A new look

As you can see (unless you are using a RSS reader) I have updated the look of thelaconic.com.

After a frustrating week at work I felt the need to be creative and I decided to fiddle around with the look and feel of this blog.

I can't do much more because of a slight hangover I have seem to have picked up from somewhere - possibly the seven or so pints didn't help last night or even the two other hangovers I picked up during the week that might be lingering around.

Anyway back to the new design add your comments and I shall ignore them as usual. :)

A pair of plonkers

Simon (my copywriter) and I had to get our photos taken for some internal promotion materials.

Ohhhhh we look really serious, just think would you buy a creative concept from us?

Long weekend

This weekend stated early and has kept up an unrelenting pace which doesn't seem to want to slow down no matter how much I want it to.

It all started on Thursday evening with a party at a friends loft. I managed to leave at midnight only being marginally drunk and escaped any kind of hangover on Friday - lucky because Friday was a busy day at work.

Friday evening was spent in a Karaoke bar near my apartment. Before you get all high and mighty I would like to point out that I was there for Yvonne's birthday and therefore was not my choice because if you have heard me trying to sing you would know that I wouldn't want to put anyone through it.

I managed with the help of some martinis to bust out a few tunes and even entertain the room full of twenty strangers with my funny voice.

Saturday was supposed to be a quiet night - well that was what I had planned. I settled down to watch a DVD in the early evening and decided to open a bottle of red wine and relax a little. The film was long (over 2 hours) and I managed to drink the bottle without much hassle.

Neil then called me up and suggested dinner, now I am never one to turn down food and I suggested ribs, which was agreed to be a fine idea.

So now it's about 10ish and I have had some beers with the food. We walk back downtown in an effort to negate the huge volume of of food consumed.

11pm and a cheeky nightcap is suggested in the form of a Bourbon in Neil's new residence which i dually agree to. Neil's new flat mate Kate is watching TV and drinking some wine we join here and chat towards the conclusion of the evening.

Kate then receives an phone call from her friend who is in a bar around the corner and agrees to meet up. Neil and I are invited and say 'why not' (2 large Bourbons have now squashed an sense of caution and desire for an early night).

So we leave arrive the bar at approx. midnight and three beers, two vodka tonics and one more bar later I decide I had had enough fun (and booze) for the night. It is now 3am when I stagger in.

oh what a lovely hangover I am enjoying today. And I'm off to a Superbowl party in about an hour. Oh well maybe a couple of beers will help me 'recover'... I'll find out tomorrow.

So off they go

Next Saturday the boys and girls go off to the mountains on a huge USBX trip.

I would really like to be going with them but money, timing and work conspired against me this year. Never-mind we have a week loosely planned in Vancouver in March.

I have been sorting out some of my old photographs and I found this excellent photo of my friend Alex. Good times.

I think this is from our first holiday way back in '98 or '99 I have no idea. I might try and scan a lot more of them in and post a retro USBX photo gallery.

BigAl

BigAl
Originally uploaded by _BigAl.

just testing out this photo site

One long weekend

On Sunday I spent the day snowboarding in Vermont in a small resort called Mount.Snow.

A simple statement that belies the effort it took to get there and back from New York City. As I have already said Mt snow is in Vermont and is about 150 miles and four states away. And being in the mountains (more like very big hills than proper pointy mountains) there are very few direct routes.

Neil and I stayed with some of his friends in Connecticut on Saturday night and kipped in their lounge. We didn't get to bed until midnight and only after four and a half hours of sleep we had to go and catch the bus at 5.15am (we arrived at 9am).

Mt snow is quite a cool little resort (by European standards but large in comparison to most US ski areas). A very different experience compared to every where else I have been. With some of the trails winding thru regular woods (elms and ashes)- instead of the pines and evergreens of the alps I found it quite weird and in some ways it really reminded me of Sleep Hollow.

view from the top - approx. 3700ft - bottom was 1600ft

kind of like sleepy hollow.

Cherri - Neil's friend

a plonker. (Neil, when you write your own blog you can call me names too!)

There where big queues at the lifts.

Mountain man.

blue sky - sweet!

On the way back south we passed thru Springfield - I suppose we went thru it on the way up but I was asleep at that point. Springfield was nothing like it is on the Simpsons, it just looked like an american version of Milton Keynes.

When all was said and done it was great experience maybe 8 hours of traveling was just a little too much for one day.