I've been playing with the preview of vox which is a rather marvelous blogging/myspace-y product from six apart (makers of typepad etc). I think I got an invite because I've been using typepad forever. Anyway I've got two invites to give away if anyone wants them, but please don't take them unless you're actually going to do something with them - start a blog or something.
Anyway, if you want one, write a comment below (including your email) and I'll send you one. First two of course.
I love the generosity of the bloglands. Here are two great examples of great thinking available to you for free:
1. Mr Colman has done a brilliant interview with John Grant. I'm really liking Paul's uncompromising approach to interviewing. He's not editing much, he's letting you hear the whole interview and I find that incredibly useful. And John is very smart, scarily articulate and comes complete with great examples. He also has that certainty and coherence about his own ideas that I suspect comes from writing a book. (Maybe I have that certainty about cafes). Two interesting people in conversation. There's nothing better.
(Not sure it's Paul's best illustration though. Sorry. Don't hit me.)
2. Iain points to this fantastic flickr set full of great webby, onliney, whatsgoingonintheworldy facts. What a top thing to do. As Iain says, thanks Lynette.
(The picture is from that set. I've never really worked out how to do that linking from pictures thing.)
Martin at TMW emailled me about a blog they helped organise for Bird Eye peas. I'll admit I clicked on the link with trepidation, corporate blogs are not always the best, but this is lovely. I think a lot of the charm is it's not trying to be more than it should, it's a blog about the pea harvest and pea tasting and it's just that, it's not pasted over with agency copywriting or big brand gags, it's just a look behind the scenes, using regular blogger tools, movable type, flickr, youtube, odeo. It'll never reach an audience of billions but it's not supposed to. Really nice work.
And for agency people - doesn't this remind you of the best bits of the job? Factory visits, tasting panels, people who do real work for a living.
I'm rather keen to start another side bar linkset - planners who do stuff - and here's another example. Martin Cole has a rather splendid remix of a track by Headland; Monsters In A Shirt. You can get it from 7digital or with iTunes or Napster from here, for a very reasonable 79p.
If you're a planner who does something, and I think that means something I can link to that's not just a blog, ie you make or do something, you know what I mean. Email me and I'll stick you in the link.
I used to have this blog - 10,000 bands - the idea was to list the best single track ever by 10,000 different bands so that one could fill up an ipod with no repeats. Obviously a highly unrealistic goal. I stopped updating it in December 2004 but I remembered on the drive up to Manchester how much I enjoyed some of the debates in the comments. So it's back from the dumper. All comments and suggestions gratefully received.
WriteRoom is for MacOS. A very simple, no distractions word processor that's more like a typewriter. DarkRoom is the Windows version.
via 43 folders.
A fantastic article by Stephen Fry in today's Observer. Well, actually, it's a speech he gave at the launch of History Matters. You should read it. Because if planning isn't about learning from the past to try and think about the present and the future then what is it about?
I studied history at university, I didn't enjoy it, partly because I was lazy and stupid, partly because it was really badly taught but I've always thought its breadth makes it the perfect discipline for a planner. Anyway, whatever you think of history you should read Mr Fry's piece, because it's beautifully written, smartly argued and true.
Thousands of years ago I was a 'Head Of Interactive' trying to convince Leo Burnett that the internet was going to be quite popular. It didn't work. And Steve Bowbrick and Ivan Pope were starting Webmedia, inventing everything and being two of the British faces of Bubble 1.0. (Though obviously we didn't know it was 1.0 then, or a bubble.) I didn't know them, but I used to pretend I did.
Then they went their separate ways and I had the occasional coffee with Steve and swapped the occasional comment with Ivan. Both very nice blokes. And then I saw on bowblog that they're back in business together, with a really interesting thing called snipperoo. It made me feel all warm and nostalgic, like when Madness reformed for that first Finsbury Park gig. Ivan's got a great post about the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 here and I liked this glum picture of Steve. The best of British Bubble luck to them both.
...for those that care about my other life there are new entries at eggbaconchipsandbeans and agoodplaceforacupofteaandathink.