Amazing Chinese Performance Art

I couldn't help but be amazed by the performance art of Hong Kong's Li Wei.

It is produced quite simply by steel wires that are later photoshopped out. Simple yet effective.

View the full set here.

Love A Day Off

Back to the subject of the snow, I finally uploaded some piccy's from my flat on that wonderful snowy morning.

It just goes to show how torrential it was, that foot hole I made at 6.30am was pretty much full again by the afternoon.

I spent most of the day in bed watching Sopranos. What a Monday!

Advert Rant Vol. 1

I have a sneaking suspicion that with the heady mixture of my line of work and my general scorn and cynicism that this rant will not be my last on the riveting world of advertising.

Everywhere we go we're bombarded. Taking the tube or reading a paper is akin to storming the Normandy beaches of consumerism, dodging the promotional machine gun of P.R. and branding.

And that is pretty much how I want it to be at the moment, it means I'm doing my job properly. However, just because advertising is my current occupation, does not necessarily mean I enjoy adverts.

Sure, we all enjoyed that corker of a T Mobile campaign with the dancing at Liverpool St, and I must admit to regularly guffawing at the completely ridiculous Natural Sweet Co 'Bring on the Trumpets' ad. But it seems for every couple of entertaining campaigns, there is a myriad of complete and utter crap.

I often find myself ranting about ads at work, purely because they are inescapable. Whether it be those two frightfully ugly children in the Cadbury's 'Eyebrows' ad or that infernal Barry Scott bellowing at the top of his lungs the merits of Cilit Bang and how it can make your pennies squeaky clean.

This week, my number one rant victim is Norwich Union. I must admit I rather enjoyed the Aviva campaign with the likes of Bruce Willis and Alice Cooper, but this 'Happy' character really gets my goat.

As I remember it, the 'Quote Me Happy' tagline from a couple of years back was based around customers phoning Norwich Union, saying "Quote me happy" to the disembodied voice on the telephone, then rolling about the place consumed with glee. Now, however, Happy has taken on the form of this faceless business tyrant holidaying in Scotland, rushing to London in record time, spurred on by a credit crisis and the fact that he may not get his bonus, and promising to make our car insurance cheaper.

Then, even worse, sat in a pub munching on cake with two expressionless douchebags discussing sharing rival companies' quotes, even if they are cheaper. Yes, we get it, everyone hates financial companies, so you have to rebuild trust in the populous, but at least get people who have facial expressions in your adverts.

So, my underlying question, who is this Happy character, and when did he magically transform from a simple slogan to an actual human?

Weekend Times

So, the weekend was enjoyable.

To be honest, the majority was spent either in the gym, baking cakes or on the comfy couch playing PS3.

Apart from Saturday, when Louise came round for movie related shenanigans. And I purchased this stunning piece of good taste:



What a beast!

And I decided Tropic Thunder has to be in my top 10 films of last year, for Kirk Lazarus alone. It goes something like this:

1. The Dark Knight
2. No Country For Old Men
3. There Will Be Blood
4. Rambo
5. The Mist
6. Step Brothers
7. In Bruges
8. Tropic Thunder
9. JCVD
10. City Of Men

Ok, ok, before you fly off the handle, I haven't seen Wall-E, Hunger or Changeling yet, and I'm still catching up on a lot of the foreign stuff from last year, like Jar City, Gomorrah and Waltz With Bashir, so don't hate, appreciate.

Pure hearts for these boys:

Snow Days

Well wasn't that fun!

That would have to rank as one of my all time greatest Monday mornings. Awoken at 6.30am as usual by the infernal whirring of my N95's alarm, I stagger to the study to check the status of the tube, only to receive the call I'd been hoping for:

Boss: 'Morning Toby'
Toby: 'Urgh'
Boss: 'What's happening with your transport today?'
Toby: 'Well, all buses are cancelled, and my nearest tube isn't running. I could possibly make it in, but it'll take me 2 hours plus'
Boss: 'Don't bother, I'm not going in either. See you tomorrow...Maybe'

WINNER!

Off went the trousers, off went the shirt, then I leapt enthusiastically back into bed while skillfully juggling a cup of Earl Grey, and fired up the Sopranos.



I have been getting to know Tony and the gang a fair bit recently. I realised I had completely bypassed the show, and I could not put my finger on why that had happened. Now I'm fully on the case, going through it all in one go. I'm halfway through Season 3 at the moment, and I can't help wishing I was one of Tony's captains. It appears to be a far better living than managing advertising.

Back to the subject of the snow. It all seemed to be rather a kerfuffle on the transport front. Was it entirely necessary to cancel ALL the buses? In response to the point made that buses even kept running during the Blitz, the head of London's buses responded that 'the Blitz wasn't covering all of London'. GOOD ONE. I would have thought large bombs and incendiary devices were slightly more dangerous than snow. Even if the Bosche were having a day off you still would be reluctant to chance it.

I really don't think, as a nation we dealt with it all THAT badly. Transport wise, it was a farce, however I don't think people should be blamed for taking a day off. If you can't travel, you can't travel! I'm becoming tired of the news repeatedly calling the UK 'soft' and scared of the cold. I'm not scared of the cold, I'm just not going to go to work if its an impossibility!

Anyway, it was back to the grindstone yesterday, and this was my view from the office.