Mandy Leontakianakis: Media Culture

Modest Mouse: The World At Large

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:32:00 +0000

I liked this band immediately when I first heard them in 2007.

But our relationship (in my mind) has grown slowly and steadily until now: a critical mass of pleasure at the hands of the mouse has tipped me over from listener to lover.

I'm in. Hook line and sinker.

I appreciate the time it took for me and this repertoire to meet each other, really.

Because now, I've got nothing but love for these indies.

Speedy Before The Line Service Offering

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:30:00 +0000

Democratized Media: How To Engage In The Conversation

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:38:00 +0000

This TED talk by Clay Shirky unpacks what it means to have a media that is inherently social.

What comes to mind, for me, is the democratization of the media: cumulative, collaborative storytelling, a return to the oral tradition in real time through Twitter and Facebook et al.

But now, we get to share our images through the single biggest revolution in popular expression.

We get to be audience and producers all at once, allowing amateur or citizen journalism: information control becomes a thing of the past, threatening governments for whom censorship is critical.

Today, amateur producers outnumber professionals, building their own reputations and intellectual equities.

They are connected to one another and to their interconnected audiences, who, for the first time, can talk back.

Top-down communications are a thing of the past.

Communicators collaborate in the generation of an agreed opinion through 'trending'.

Public figures can opt to respond to negative trends or ignore them.

PR in the public domain becomes much more participative.

Brands that interact in this space with maturity and intelligence will listen and respond, optimizing the opportunity to enhance their attributes and diminish their failings.

This is a conversation to be abandoned at great risk for any business entity.

Marketing Cars: How to Avoid Perfomance Shots and Scenery Shoots

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:29:00 +0000

Volkswagen in the Netherlands are running a super-cool interactive TV Campaign which mixes gaming and the test drive with original results.

No more Top Gear style shots of the Polo in high performance round a track.

Even less perfectly styled country roads.

Check this experiential approach out.

'And Then You Left': A Love Song

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:58:00 +0000

Stand-up comedy represents a very important part of the content, personalities and media that help me feel less alien.
Good stand-up permits my imagination
It allows my eccentricity.
It assures me that I am one of many who interrogate, laugh at, reject and end up self-consciously modified by social norms that are so un-normal.
I am so grateful for this particularly courageous social tale-teller (and musical talent, what a treat!)
Thanks to a new colleague for the recommendation.
This is a beautiful, to me, Love Song:

The Eternal Moonwalk

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 08:58:00 +0000

The best Michael Jackson tribute around:

http://www.eternalmoonwalk.com

Springsteen Wasn't Born Yesterday

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:21:00 +0000

I have Springsteen's single 'Working On A Dream' off the album by the same name on a loop in my head.

The album itself is very beautiful: grounded, nostalgic and honest in an almost Dylanesque way, apart from its clarity and tunefulness. (Forgive me, Dylan die-hards.)

What's interesting, is that Springsteen 'leant' two singles off this album to two very different causes.

1. He donated the song 'The Wrestler', perhaps the darkest and most lyrically devastating offering to Mickey Rourke's come-back phenomenon. I always remember the line "If you've ever seen a one-trick-pony then you've seen me."

2. He campaigned with the then Senator Obama with the song 'Working On A Dream' as a true peoples' anthem, in contrast to the largely misunderstood 'Born In The U.S.A', which Regan tried to appropriate during his 1984 re-election bid.

The irony of that non-collaboration was that the content of 'Born In The U.S.A' contradicted its broad, rallying melody with an angry indictment on the Vietnam war, its victims both dead and returning and the living conditions of the working-class American at that time.

Laughing With Regina Spektor: All New Single

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:57:00 +0000

My favourite girl and I stumbled on this lovely newness all by accident.
Its off her new album 'Far', and she's already given it a whirl on Letterman.

P.R: Abbreviation for the Verb: to Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:08:00 +0000

Twitter for PR (Keynote & Youtube version)

View more documents from Corinne Weisgerber.

For Another Fallen Peoples' King

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:52:00 +0000

Curious About The Making of Benjamin Button?

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:26:00 +0000

The Hottest Thing In Social Media: A Community Director

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:23:00 +0000

When I’m talking to companies about the creation of social media strategies and tactics, a key element is making sure they follow through on their commitment. After all, it makes no sense to spend time and money on a social media plan, and then not implement it properly.

While I’m more than happy to carry the social media “ball” after putting together a strategic and tactical plan, it’s crucial to hand off the ball at some point to someone within the company who can then run with it. After all, who better to do social media than someone who is drinking the corporate Kool-Aid, right?

This is where the director of community comes into play. These people are social media savvy, excellent communicators and writers, capable of dealing with a variety of responsibilities, able to multi-task, and have an appreciation for a company’s marketing, communications and sales strategies.

In other words, they need a well-rounded skill set, AND be given enough autonomy by senior management to do things on the fly given how quickly the social media landscape can change.

One of of the challenges is many companies don’t have enough of an appreciation of what’s involved in doing social media well. Rather than hiring someone with experience and a strong sets of skills, many companies think they can hire someone junior at a low cost, especially at a time when hiring a full-time employee is done with reluctance.

That can be a major mistake because a good director of community can be worth their weight in gold.

Of course, the directory of community is a relatively new position so finding someone with experience can be a challenge. As a result, there can be an element of risk, and companies have to accept that directors of community may have to learn on the job. Still, a good director of community needs to have a core set of skills if they’re going to be successful.

The bottom line is companies have to realize that hiring a directory of community is an important strategic decision. It means they need to hire the right person even if it means paying for quality.

For more thoughts on hiring a director of community, check out Hightalk.

More: Check out this Web Worker Daily presentation on what community managers do.

By Mark Evans | February 16, 2009

Bruce Springsteen's Wrestling Ballade

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:10:00 +0000

I waited out the movie to hear this song in surround sound.
Its a Springsteen beauty...

Critics unmoved by Rourke's wrestle back into the limelight

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:16:00 +0000

The Wrestler: Mickey Rourke's Comeback Fight

By Richard Corliss Monday, Dec. 15, 2008

The Wrestler, from left: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, 2008." title="The Wrestler, from left: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, 2008."

Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler

Twentieth Century Fox / Everett

The Wrestler doesn't open till Wednesday, and already Mickey Rourke has won Best Actor from the Boston and Washington, D.C., critics groups and earned a Golden Globe nomination in that category. His performance as a broke, broken-down fighter stoked Wrestler-mania at the Toronto Film Festival and, before that, in Venice, where the film had its world premiere (winning the top prize). That was back in early September, when the Los Angeles Times headlined the question: "Will The Wrestler get hold of an Oscar for Mickey Rourke?"

My guess: maybe, because Hollywood loves a comeback story, and because Rourke gives the kind of performance that members of the Motion Picture Academy think burrows into the very essence of acting. He made himself nearly unrecognizable — put on maybe 40 lb., studded his face and body with the scars of war — to play a has-been fighter hoping for a last shot at the big time. It's the kind of punishment that won kudos for Lon Chaney and Paul Muni in the old days and helped Robert De Niro to an Oscar in Raging Bull playing Jake LaMotta. (He got himself into fighting shape, then he gained a ton of weight! Acting!) One more because: Rourke does strong, sensitive work here, which will cheer his old-time admirers and win him new fans. All praise to him, and to Darren Aronofsky for casting the actor and directing him to turn a standard fiction into quirky, coherent behavior. (See TIME's top 10 movies of 2008.)

But the movie itself is pretty bad.

My own anticipation sank with the opening credits: "Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood." That list spelled out the plot: damaged veteran, middle-age girlfriend, young daughter. The Wrestler never rose above fight-movie bromides, never dispelled my gloom. The character stereotyping makes Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa, by comparison, seem as swathed in moral ambiguity as Luchino Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers. The movie's serioso sentimentality is doubly strange since the script is by Robert Siegel, an ex-staffer of The Onion and co-writer of The Onion Movie. His old job was puncturing clichés; here he recycles them.

Story goes like this. Back in the '80s, Randy "The Ram" Robinson (real name: Robin Ramzinsky) was a hero-stud pro wrestler; he fought "the Ayatollah" at the top of the Garden card. But after 20 years on the downalator — his body ballooned with exercise, bloated with steroids and damaged with the death of a thousand cuts — Randy works tank towns for a few hundred bucks. He's been locked out of his Jersey trailer home for laggard payments. And to secure the fans' roving attention, his ring rivals are getting into extreme fighting; one fellow, who looks like an angry Ozark farmer, asks Randy if, during their bout, he can use a staple gun on his chest and back. That episode triggers a heart attack, and Randy is told never to wrestle again.

Anyone who's seen a fight film will be able to predict the rest of The Wrestler. Randy gets one more chance: a 20-year rematch in Wilmington of his Ayatollah fight. Will he pass it up to save his life? (Not if there's gonna be an Act Three.) He also has a stab at mending the hearts of the women in his life. Will Randy manage to connect with his estranged daughter (Wood), who hasn't forgiven him for abandoning her? (That's Act Two, where the only innovation is that the girl's mother is never mentioned.) And will a local stripper, well played by Tomei, respond to his plaintive love and drive down to see what may be Randy's last fight? (Can't have a fight movie without a "Yo, Adrian!" moment.)

Aronofsky has been one of the few American directors whose movies upset the complacency of indie cinema. Pi, Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain were demanding and rewarding in various ways: the first wacko, the second gritty, the third sumptuously romantic, and all marvelously dense with imagery. So the big surprise in The Wrestler is that it's visually inert. Aronofsky's main camera habit is to follow Randy, just his imposing back, as he trudges through corridors toward another fight. (Martin Scorsese virtually patented that shot in Raging Bull and Goodfellas.) The trope does pay off later in the film, when the camera trails the briefly retired Randy down the stairs to his new job, behind a deli counter. But Aronofsky's main contribution was to lion-tame a jolting performance out of a forgotten hero.

What To Make Of Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:00:00 +0000

You're on Twitter, Now What?

by Valeria Maltoni

Twitter can be a pretty daunting place. Now that it has become somewhat known and a celebrity in its own right, other celebrities want to associate themselves with it. Many companies and brands are now on Twitter as well. Having a Twitter account may be all the rage, however there is something to be said for the power of focus.

Consider this - Twitter is

searchable content
a series of micro impressions
a presence tool
a social network
an information hub
an idea exchange
always "on"
quick, short, and not always on the mark
sound bites where you provide the context
and more... (feel free to add)

Keeping up with it all is not impossible, yet it may be foolish, especially if you are planning a strategy around your participation. Your focus then depends on what you want to accomplish. We've discussed business uses and we asked if it was time for corporations to have a presence on Twitter. We also talked about the role of Twitter in brand management.

While when I asked why you joined Twitter, many people talked about joining the conversation, sharing resources, and meeting others as the top reasons for doing so, I do wonder if there is a measurement associated with that goal. And if it matters.

One of the reasons for my participation is connecting people, so I work on finding ways to make introductions during conversations to help others build a network and find content/ideas.

Companies and organizations generally join for slightly different reasons. Some of which are:

competitors are there
agency said it was a good idea
everyone is talking about it
opened an account to reserve company name
and more...

However, once people sign up as representatives of an organization, especially if that company does not have a clear idea of what they are trying to accomplish, people tend not to participate actively. One of the reasons might be that Twitter does not scale well in commercial terms before your stream becomes a string of commerce.

A company wants to market and is trying not to spam, yet representatives may not have the time to dedicate effort and attention to learning through observation and experimentation. All learning happens through participation. This is especially important for social media - emphasis on social. See for example how media people are using Twitter.

The burning question is about who you should follow. I'd suggest people (and/or organizations):

who produce and share useful content
who fit within your stated interest
you already know in real life or through their blogs
who are interested and curious
and more... (feel free to add)

The other thought is that as you use the tool and discover other ways to engage with people there, your strategy may change. What started as an experiment to observe and learn could become an important part of your integrated marketing communications.

There has been quite an evolution with blogging, why wouldn't there be one with Twitter? One of the important layers online in addition to content and community is commerce. Twitter as a CRM tool would be quite messy, however. It needs to be integrated by respecting its intended role and usefulness.

How do you decide who you continue to follow? I follow people who engage in conversations with me and provide an opportunity to interact.

Because conversations between many parties are really hard to track on Twitter proper, it takes more effort to organize such opportunities. I've worked on many formats so far, and have yet to crack the code. FriendFeed is better for that, but it has not reached critical mass for me.

However you decide what your strategy is, do dive in - there's no better way to figure it out, than to do it for yourself. And do pay extra care to being clear and explicit on Twitter, because the truth is 140 characters.

[image courtesy of Thomas Hawk]

The Loyalty Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:49:00 +0000

Customer Loyalty Comes from Conversation

By Valeria Maltoni

What if instead of focusing on loyalty programs, companies focused on customer rewards? The best reward of all being a loyal company that looks out for its customers, understands their needs, and works in alignment with partners to deliver on them.

How many loyalty cards do you have in your wallet? Do they work for you or are you working to get anything out of them? Often at the (company and personal) cost of the very thing they were created to promote - loyalty.

Conversation leads to brand experience, which in turn may lead to loyalty. Card or no card, a reward for many customers today is often a prompt customer service rep who seeks to listen and understand what is needed and has the ability and company back-up to make it happen.

Some issues with loyalty programs are:

the use of monetary rewards to encourage repeated purchases - are a convenience, not an indicator of long term behavior. Customers will buy brands interchangeably when presented as offer, and revert to their preferences when not. There are other ways to target pricing, an example of which I wrote about in who gets what and why?

Work on understanding what your customers value, instead. IKEA for example, is in a very tough retail business, yet the company manages to be anything but flat when it comes to customer loyalty. The whole store and product experience reward. That's what I call brand equity.

the wait time to realize a gain from being loyal - and then on top of that there are usually penalties and costs associated with using the points. We do live in an instant gratification marketplace. Also, the more distance you create between the product or service reward and the customer, the less likely the program will work.

Work instead on decreasing barriers between what you sell and what customers want to buy by building quality, value and convenience right into the product. QVC does a good job with that. Former president and CEO of QVC Doug Briggs said: "We don't bombard customers with special offers or coupons to build loyalty, because it's easy for them to switch to the other guy's coupon. We focus on customer communication and satisfaction. For us, it's about building trust and developing long-term relationships. If QVC has earned a customer's trust, we believe they will buy—over and over again."

the message that some people are more special than others - will be counter productive especially with the increased peer to peer conversations. What a company gets out of the program is the data on customers use, spend, etc. Yet they do not seem to connect that data to the way they treat those customers. And today there are ways to make everyone, not just a few, feel special on the basis of that data.

Work on executing flawlessly on the basis of what your customers love (and value) about your brand. I wrote about how Anthropologie thrives through product, presentation, and people. Another example is Southwest airlines - they're coming to Minneapolis, BTW. I will fly Southwest for the first time when I go to SxSWi, I will let you know how that goes.

The way to a customer's heart is much more than a loyalty program. Making customer evangelists is about creating experiences worth talking about. Today at Fast Company expert blog we talk about how to upgrade your customers' loyalty.

I used to do a lot of shopping at Benetton stores, so much so that I often received a thank you card from the store manager. They had my address. Yet, when they pulled out of Philadelphia, nobody bothered to tell me. A missed opportunity indeed. That conversation would have further cemented my loyalty - especially since I do travel a lot.

On the success story side, all I have at the moment is Apple. What companies hve earned your loyalty? Does it go beyond a card? I suspect it does. What do you look for in a rewards program?

[loyalty card by Kake Pugh]

Bloggers fight for Hollywood supremacy

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:18:00 +0000

By Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles
Published: February 20 2009 19:18 | Last updated: February 20 2009 19:18

With one day to go before the Oscars, some tense races are nearing the home stretch. Will the best-picture winner be the favourite Slumdog Millionaire or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? Is 2009 going to be Kate Winslet’s year or will she lose out to Meryl Streep?

Far away from the red carpet in deep cyberspace, a different kind of battle is playing out as bloggers, news organisations and polemicists fight for supremacy in their coverage of the Hollywood goldfish bowl.

Mashable Presents Social Media's Smartest Big Brands

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:13:00 +0000

"As we battle a global recession, corporations are looking for new ways to sell their products and engage their consumers. Many have turned to the Internet, with Social Media in particular, to market their goods. Let’s take a look at 10 companies that have done a phenomenal job of taking advantage of social media platforms..."http://mashable.com/2009/02/06/social-media-smartest-brands/

Chris Brown Realises His Career Is Toast

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:26:00 +0000

By Holly Won't

Realizing that his nonapology apology made him look like even more of a prick, Chris Brown has retained the services of a crisis-management public relations firm. Although it’s a little unclear which one.

Some reports say it’s Alan Nierob of Rogers & Cowan, who handled Mel Gibson’s PR debacle when he was revealed to be a raging anti-Semite.

But Radar says it’s Sitrick & Company, whose client list includes such notable has-beens as Rush Limbaugh (for the Oxycontin scandal) and Paris Hilton (for her DUI).

Tough call there. Given the choice between the two, I’d personally pick Sitrick & Company because few people think “hit and run” when they contemplate Halle Berry, so they’ve proven to be at least somewhat competent at making problems go away.

But still, what’s the one thing that all these clients have in common? Guilt. (And money, I guess.)

For those of you keeping score at home, so far that means Chris Brown has supposedly sought help from: 1.) his parents; 2.) his pastor; 3.) the hip-hop community; and 4.) a team of spin doctors. Observant commenters, tell me what is missing from this list…

Source: The Deceiver.Com

Bringing It All Back Home: Bruce Springsteen

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:37:00 +0000

With his third great album this decade, Bruce Springsteen tackles love, loyalty — and the ultimate deadline
BY DAVID FRICKE

Posted Feb 12, 2009 1:59 PM

Cover Story
Rolling Stone

The sound is classic amateur 1966 — chaotic, jangling guitars, impatient drumming and crude raging-hormone vocal harmonies — and Bruce Springsteen knows every note by heart. Hypnotized by joy in front of a small tabletop stereo cranked to top volume, he dances on the balls of his feet, vigorously strums an imaginary guitar with his right fist and howls along during the chorus — "Baby I-I-I-I!" — in a deeper wild-bear version of his old plaintive teenage tenor.

Springsteen, 59, is happily singing and playing air guitar with himself — to "Baby I," a single he made at 16, when he was a guitarist and singer in a New Jersey garage band, the Castiles.

Earlier that afternoon, Springsteen is sitting in the wood-paneled living room of Thrill Hill, a 19th-century farmhouse in central New Jersey that he has converted into a studio. He talks about some of the Sixties echoes — including the Walker Brothers, Jimmy Webb, the Beach Boys on "Heroes and Villains" and the Byrds' Fifth Dimension — ringing throughout his new album with the E Street Band, Working on a Dream. That gets him reminiscing about the Castiles, his first serious band. Suddenly, Springsteen bolts upright in his chair. "I have to dig it out before you go," he says excitedly. "I found the actual two-track tape of our record. I had it put on a CD. It's back at the house. I'll bring it over."

And he does, rushing home — Springsteen, his wife and E Street singer Patti Scialfa and their three teenage children live in an 18th-century house just down the road — and back. Springsteen doesn't even bother taking off his bulky winter coat. He strides into the glassed-in porch where he demos new songs and made his 2005 solo album, Devils & Dust, hits "play" and flies back to May 18th, 1966, when the Castiles recorded "Baby I" and the flip side, "That's What You Get," at Mr. Music Inc., a studio in nearby Bricktown.

"Well, what could have been a studio back then," Springsteen cracks after he plays both tracks. He and singer-guitarist George Theiss wrote the songs, according to legend, while driving to the session. The band cut them in an hour. "I talk to George once in a while," Springsteen says. "He got married very, very young. Had a lovely family. Made music. I used to see him at the Stone Pony all the time. He had a great voice."

But the Castiles' big moment passed that day in '66 — their single was never released — while Springsteen, nearly 43 years later, is at a new peak in his career. Working on a Dream is Springsteen's third great album with the E Street Band in a decade and arguably the best of the three in its classic-pop songwriting and intimate lyric force. They made most of it on days off from their 2007-08 shows — Danny Federici played keyboards on some tracks before his death at 58 last April 17th from melanoma — with Springsteen and producer Brendan O'Brien enriching the E Street Band's natural stampede in "My Lucky Day," "What Love Can Do" and the opening eight-minute horse opera, "Outlaw Pete," with an abundance of strings, guitars, choral vocals and saxophonist Clarence Clemons' leonine blowing. The result is Springsteen's most ornate album since 1975's Born to Run.

He has already started the new year with a Golden Globe for his theme song to The Wrestler and is assured an Academy Award nomination as well. After his January 18th performance in Washington, D.C., at "We Are One," the free Barack Obama inauguration concert, Springsteen will play a hotly anticipated halftime set with the E Street Band at the Super Bowl on February 1st — itself a kickoff for another E Street tour, in the spring in the U.S. and Europe. The last time Springsteen wrote, recorded and hit the road at this velocity was when he was a new Columbia artist. His first two albums, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, were both released in 1973.

"At that time, you signed old-fashioned contracts where you were supposed to make an album every six months," Springsteen says. "But after that, I said, 'Nah.' Without going into the whole story" — he grins — "obviously there was the perfectionism, the self-consciousness and the pursuit of very specific ideas, while you're forming who you are, what you want to write about."

Getting People To Believe in Banking Again

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:30:00 +0000

'Being one of the things I like the most about all of that works was the way in which emotions were expressed through images, it is often said that creativity in Argentina was dramatically fed because of the infamous Corralito situation in 2001, which almost completely froze bank accounts and forbade withdrawals from U.S. dollar-denominated accounts. The tone of TV spots, introspective until then, became more of cheerful, trying to help people to overcome the sadness they were living. As part of this anomalous situation you can even find three minutes length tv ads done by Madre for Banco Hipotecario, being the length of the ad part of the strategy as to try people believing in banking again.' - Adverblog

The Season's Niftiest Festive Advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:13:00 +0000

National Express East Coast train line: Escape, 1

Advertising Agency: Dentsu London, UK
Creative Director: Andy Lockley
Art Director: Andy Preston
Copywriter: Joe Williams
Photographer: FlickrDesigner: Winston ArcherPublished: December 2008

National Express East Coast train line: Escape, 2

Advertising Agency: Dentsu London, UK

Creative Director: Andy Lockley
Art Director: Andy Preston
Copywriter: Joe Williams
Photographer: Flickr
Designer: Winston Archer
Published: December 2008

AKQA London wished everyone a Merry Christmas with this Viral:

Production Company:
AKQA/Bikini, London
Creatives:
Bruce Jackson (DoP)
James Hilton (Executive Creative Director)
Colin Byrne, James Capp (Creative Director)
Ben Campbell (Editor)
Mays Al-Ali (Agency Producer)
Phil Barnes, Sean Atherton, Carl Grinter (Producer)
Kate Elson (Executive Producer)

The Blogless Blues

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 11:44:00 +0000

I’ve gone through a bit of a blogging crisis.
Not quite existential, but along those lines.
To blog or not to blog?
Especially over the holidays, when there are more demands of me as a member of the non-cyber world.
Its raised all sorts of questions for me like:

1.How important are my rankings to me?
They’ve taken a significant beating over my Silent Night.

2. When is it OK to observe, to process and not to record?
I’ve had all sorts of ideas over this holiday season that I haven’t committed to my blog, and its left me with feeling lazy and unexpressed.

3. What is my level of commitment to my blog?
I experienced a kind of relief, just living and doing and not uploading.

4. What does this relief say about the divide between the doing world and the commenting world, the real and the 2.0?
I’m not sure. Because at the end of it all, I’ve felt the blogless blues, a removal from what I love about being awake to the things in my life that I want to share, to capture and to log in.
I feel like many of them have passed me by.
And I’ve missed reading about what others have logged in this holiday season.
I love to be connected.
I think this is what being a member of the blogosphere gives me.

At the same time, I’ve enjoyed being able to let go and be in the moment with my family and friends. Not that I could entirely silence my inner post-creator.

I have a friend who insists that the creative process requires ‘percolation’ time, and can’t always be done in a hurry, every day and every hour.
If so, I look forward to a productive 2009, filled with the freshly brewed creative products borne of this slow down.

George Bush: "So What If The Guy Threw A Shoe At Me?"

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:29:00 +0000

George the Second, moments after his narrow escape from TWO Iraqi shoe missiles:

"I consider it an important step towards an Iraq that can sustain itself, govern itself and defend itself!"

Something about this media moment is beyond hilarious for me.

Earnest, breathless journalism like: "I can report that George Bush has not been injured. Both shoes sailed right over his head," is almost more than I can take.

Jesus Twitters. Who Knew?

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy Leontakianakis) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:52:00 +0000

I'm often quite pleased by my new Twitter followers.

I get a nice feeling when I get notified that a person I quite admire has opted to follow me on Twitter.

Or, I get a feeling of growing unease if someone murky follows me, and after a few clicks, I usually block their shady selves.

Imagine my surprise, just now, at the automatically generated mail:

Hi, mandy leontakianakis.
Jesus of Nazareth (way_truth_life) is now following your updates on Twitter.
Check out Jesus of Nazareth's profile here:
http://twitter.com/way_truth_life

You may follow Jesus of Nazareth as well by clicking on the "follow" button.

Best,
Twitter

I investigated.

A visit to my new follower's page revealed, that Jesus of Nazareth was not joking.

His primary message to me was that he was

"A lot more like Buddha thank you thought (sic). I

wish more people today understood my message. We are all One."

I'm really glad Jesus twittered me to clear up that he IS in fact, just like the Buddha.

Now, if I choose to follow Jesus, on Twitter,

I'll get his teachings in a neat limited character format along with my news, tech, politics and friend updates.

I hope Buddha comes out with a rival page.