Edinburgh Coffee Morn Stop Frame from brandfeed on Vimeo.

Mike Coulter of Digital Agency put together this great stop motion from pictures he took remotely during our regular Friday coffee mornings. Mike always captures the moments well & creatively.

Above is the my cameo. Glad I made an effort for once!

• Cybercandy Ltd
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Tonight I went to see This Is It, the tour titled documentary of Michael Jackson’s last months. He had announced his 50 stop ‘This Is It’ curtain call to his career, but sadly to many, including myself, and after much preparation, he passed on and the show was canceled.

There is no consolation to seeing him live, in person, however fans were lucky that filming took place during the rehearsals and preparation for the big finale, which would have begun July 2009 in London. What was captured to be parts of concert promos, videos and extras ended up being a 112 minute intimate concert made up of rehearsals, intertwined intermittently with comments from dancers, musicians and the crew of the tour (Extremely talented each and every one. Pay special attention to the female guitar player, Orianthi – AMAZING and so young!)

The quality and variety of his music and moves still gives me goosebumps and the film was put across in a way to help people (those who need reminding) what an amazing artist and pop icon he truely was. Even at 50 and working towards his goodbye, he was meticulous in detail and wanted the best for his fans.

Walking home I was thinking about how MJ has been a part of my life since birth. From seeing his 3D Thriller show at Disney World, his iconic American Pepsi commercials, adolescent romances and infamous videos in-between.

This also got me thinking about music in my life, how I always felt so passionate about it and over the past several years, it’s slowly died away, which is something I plan to rectify. Lastly, discussing first records, my dad raised me on music: Oldies, blues, The Stones, The Doors… so I grew up listening to his records and my first ‘own’ lp was an 7″ 2 sided with Kokomo by the Beach Boys on one side and Tutti Frutti by Little Richard on the other. I also learned tonight I still know the words to both.

In honour of MJ and music in general. Go pull out your old records, throw them on and let them take you back.

One good thing about music, when it hits- you feel no pain (Bob Marley).

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This past month I’ve been horizontal. On the 15th of September whilst holidaying in the Kassandra peninsula of Greece, I went on a mountain biking trek with a group and left in an ambulance – actually a jeep, then a truck, then an ambulance.

This was a half day 35k ride, which I didn’t realise would be so intense. The assents were painful, but good and the descents were scary but exhilarating. However, the 3rd descent didn’t prove so manageable for myself. Going about 35mph my tyres popped, I lost control, flipped & broke two vertebra in my back. The bike landing about 10 feet from me (don’t worry, it survived!)

So I had an accident. I survived thanks to a helmet and luck. I will no longer argue the uses of a helmet. Especially when off-roading.

Did I have a “near death experience” or any type of OMG, I must change this part of my life starting NOW. – no. I was/am waiting for it, but it hasn’t come yet. I was already in a progressive place in regards to my goals, career etc before the wreck, so maybe I just did it in wrong order. My mother – who amazingly flew over from Texas at the drop of a hat to help out – and the doctors think I just don’t realise how bad it really was yet. That thought makes me uncomfortable.

What have I learned from this experience?
• I’ve learnt that I behaved completely differently than I would have imagined. I don’t give myself enough credit. I was making jokes, not crying, breathing and calm.

• I’ve learned how to do sudoko, which I’ve always been put off by, but it was a great way to distract myself form the pain & boredom.

• That dignity isn’t possible when your in a hospital – and that’s okay.

• I have many people who care about me.

• Patience, patience, patience!

• When you think it can’t get worse, it can, but it’s not always as bad as you think it is and it will get better.

• It didn’t necessarily happen to me because of bad karma.

Two weeks is a long time to sit – or lie, horizontally & stare at the ceiling – in a hospital to think about life. Far too much time. But it’s over, I’m healing well. 3 more weeks and I should be back to semi normal and start physical therapy. The above list probably isn’t everything and doesn’t even touch on the great people who went above & beyond even though they didn’t know me. I’m saving the brand praise & lashing for another post.

Thank you all for your support and kind words over the past month. I couldn’t have stayed so positive without all the amazing support I received.

If you want to see a play by play you can see a time-line on my BlipFoto or if you don’t mind some more detailed images, you cans see the trip photos on my Flickr set.

p.s. thanks to my friend Eugenie for the great Broke Back reference (“Brings a whole new meaning to Broke Back Mountain!!!”). It made me laugh. Which hurt, but was worth it!

I have said before and I’ll say it again (even though I meant to say it about 6 weeks ago) that Digital Kitchen has done a phenomenal job on the True Blood intro. Before I wrote about the work on the Dexter titles and their work in general, however I have to say, as good as the Dexter intro is, once I watched it once, that’s all I needed. However, with the True Blood intro – it’s mesmerising. Dark, thought provoking and brilliant – with great music to boot.

Very Tarantino/Natural Born Killers.

If you haven’t seen it, check it out below.

Watch here - b/c for some reason Vimeo's won't imbed :(

True Blood Main Titles from DIGITALKITCHEN on Vimeo.

I’m a big fan of Sailor Jerry – from the tattoos to the rum! Whilst I’m debating on permanently marking myself with a 3rd tattoo (my first two are hard to beat, but I hate even numbers & really want numero tres), I’ve been searching through the archives of Flickr for Sailor Jerry inspiration. If I choose to not get a SJ tat, here are some other options of keeping him in my life:

Sailor Jerry Cookies by Whipped Bakeshop

or – and if you know where to find these, let me know -

Sailor Jerry Chuck T's from Dyxie (link) & ravencherron

The Sailor Jerry site is worth a look as well. I was impressed by the way they integrate their YouTube & Flickr pages. Loses some of the control, but still a neat way to incorporate their different digital platforms.

Seen any other sites like this, let me know!