Tuesday 31 March 2009

Spain

Wenge and I went to Madrid for a long weekend to celebrate her birthday. It's one of the places that's been on our list for a while and in the end it was a choice between there and Seville with the lure of the capital proving too strong.

I won't bore you with the details, but highlights were a couple of excellent meals in the Teatro and Latina areas, some glorious weather for Thursday and Friday at least, and the chance to see Picasso's amazing Guernica, created in response to the Nazi bombing of the town in support of Franco. It's made me want to read up on the Spanish civil war.

A walk in the Retiro park was also a treat.

In truth, both Wendy and I were a little disappointed in Madrid. We had a good time, and enjoyed it, but not as much as either Barcelona or Bilbao (sorry Ana). Maybe it's just the scale that means everything is spread out; maybe it's because it's a big, working city; maybe it's just too far from the coast...

Anyway, it's back to work now with a vengeance. We're in UAT for the relaunch of the ministry of sound site next week, and although things have been going pretty well so far, a major panic is only ever just over the hill. For a number of reasons it's critical that I get the site successfully launched next week.

A new acquisition marketing person has joined the ecommerce team, which has unfortunately meant I've had to move to a new desk space away from the team. Shame but I decided to hot-desk up in the dev area today, coinciding with another casting session just below me once again, the glass filleth...

Monday 30 March 2009

Faintly ridiculous

I'm often intrigued - well, amused might be a better description - by both people and organisations who are up themselves. I was at a launch party tonight for a new digital media recruitment company at Milk and Honey, a private members' club in Poland Street. An unusual name, although there's nothing wrong with that. 

What is wrong is that the toilets don't have the normal, some might think quaint, signposts that help visitors to find the right facility for their gender. No, this place has to have its uber-trendy lavs labelled either milk or honey. No, I don't get it either. All I know is that I was readying my excuses in milk, or honey, whichever I used.

Wednesday 25 March 2009

Opinions

I've just come out of a meeting with a design agency, going through the design brief for the new Hed Kandi site. Imagine the agency team's reaction when Rudy said:

Opinions are like arseholes. We're paying for your arseholes and we're going to use them.

It moved the meeting along, I can tell you...

Friday 20 March 2009

Words

Went up to Borough Market at lunchtime on Friday with a crew (or was it a gang?) from MoS.

So we're enjoying some amazing steak sandwiches, with mustard that has been known to produce a nosebleed, and someone talks about meeting later - at the normal place. "The Normington?", asked another who hadn't quite heard. And there you have it: how words come about and language evolves. From this point on, The Normington will be a euphemism for 'the normal meeting place', wherever that might be. I urge you to use it in your own daily lives, and to report back on your success.  In fact, if we all make a real effort we can cement its place in the English language.

It's not the first time I've been involved in the birth of a new word, although the previous time the circumstances were very different. I was dreaming that I was in Brent Cross shopping centre, and (to cut a long story short) became embroiled in an argument with Billy Connolly who was shouting down at me from a first floor balcony.

As the argument continued, BC left his balcony and opened a door on the ground floor. He looked me in the eye and said, "why don't you just daepissit?" if you don't believe that's a word, I have a copy of an Elvis Love Songs album released by Pickwick when I was in charge of marketing there. On the back of the sleeve, is clearly, if too subtly for anyone checking it to notice, written the word daepissit. Does that constitute common usage? I'm not sure. It meant I had to pay out my bet with the Art Director though.

I think my explanation of how someone can be comfortable with their own mustarduality will have to wait for another time...

Thursday 19 March 2009

What to do with a thousand half full glasses

So Josef Fritzl was sentenced to life imprisonment. I'd quite happily use all the half full glasses in my life to fill up a bath and let him drown in it. Some evil goes beyond human comprehension.

Wednesday 18 March 2009

The IT crowd

Had a drink with John C and Kevin H last night, in an implausably old fashioned pub near Waterloo station. John, of course, is going from strength to strength at Comet, and it was great to hear that Kevin has got a job at a Financial Services company.

It was good to see both of them, although I don't think I'm speaking out of turn if I say that our discussion about PCI compliance was a low point in the evening. There was good stuff as well.

Earlier I saw Steve, who popped into Ministry to talk about some stuff he's working on. It was supposed to be a half hour chat over a cup of coffee - instead we had An Audience With Rudy Tambala.

I had a Roddy Frame day yesterday; all day shuffle on my iPod. Fantastic. The man's a genius.

I'm sad to be missing out on drinks tonight with some of the zavvi crew - I've got a meeting with a headhunter after work then playing football later. Next time.

Anyway, last night on the way to the tube I noticed a woman stop, bend down and pick up a £10 note that was lying on the floor. And then another.

£20 for nothing? Proof that the glass can fill up at any time...

Back to earth

I'm feeling a bit strange at the moment. I'm not complaining; I had a great weekend skiing in Italy with some mates from football, of which more later. But since I've come back I've been feeling strangely low. You always feel a bit that way coming back to work after a break, but this time my confidence seems to be shot, and while not exactly having panic attacks I'm worrying about stuff for no real reason.

As I said, there's no reason for it. Things are going pretty well, all things considered. Work here at Ministry of Sound is good, and I'm about to sign a contract to keep me here until August. So I don't have to worry about no money coming in while I look for a permanent job. I'm still being contacted by recruiters and I've had a few roles put to me over the last couple of weeks. So that hasn't dried up, although I know that I need to do more if I'm to be serious about it. The trouble is that I'm so focused on what I'm doing at Ministry that I'm really not giving enough thought to it. I think that's what's bothering me.

I suppose Rangers losing to Celtic in the CIS Cup Final didn't help my mood - a pretty shocking performance that didn't deserve any more.

To the skiing. Two and a half days in glorious sunshine, in Pila, Courmayeur and La Thuile, including a ski to La Rosiere in France on Saturday. A snow walk on Thursday night, walking over a mile on snow shoes to a restaurant half way up the mountain; exhausting but a breathtaking, star-filled sky that made it worth the effort. Lunch looking across a valley to Mont Blanc. The hospitality of local establishments that kept bringing out snacks and plates of cold meats to accompany our beers.

And of course the banter that comes with a weekend spent with good friends. Unfortunately I can't publish the joke of the weekend on the grounds of political correctness, but contact me privately if you want to hear it.

On Saturday I lost my glasses somewhere on the slopes, which was annoying. I've brought some some old ones back into use but I'll be glad to get replacements as my eyes are feeing the strain - thankfully Direct Line will pay for like-for-like replacement so that's good. As it happens, I'd been thinking that I needed some new glasses so maybe it's actually a good thing.

Hurrah! The glass is half full after all...

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Old friends

Last night I met with Helzo and Simon, my two partners in crime when we used to be in the corporate communications and event production business. We eventually set up Fingerprint Productions in 1997, operating from a series of offices 'borrowed' from a range of clients who all went out of business, ending up in a fantastic office with a rooftop terrace in Great Titchfield Street. That one was ours.

It was a quieter night than the last time we met, at The Sanderson Hotel with Justin and Kelvin from Illusion Factor. That one was a bit of an epic and probably best forgotten (the bits I can remember that is). My zavvi chums will remember me turning up at around 11.30 the next day with the mother of all hangovers. By the way; thanks, Steve, for pressing ahead with our weekly catch-up meeting at the end of the day... Incidentally, when I did manage to get out of bed on the Friday morning and turned on my phone, I received a message timed at 09.00 from Simon saying "Nearly home now".

Anyway as we enjoyed some very tasty if grumpily served Wagamama-style food at Satsuma, talk inevitably turned to shared memories, and of course the best ones (in retrospect) are where things were going wrong. There were a few of those times - not that our clients would know about most of them. Think of the swan analogy.

My favourite was the Virgin Our Price show where we had Darth Vader arriving onto the stage with sound effects and a cloud of dry ice to deliver the new Star Wars DVD boxset to Doug Morton.

During rehearsals, Simon came up to me and said "We could have a problem with Darth. I don't think he's going to be able to see well enough to do the handover. "How do you know, Simon", I asked, to which he calmly replied "I thought I should do a test, so I put a chair down, asked him to come over; and he tripped over it."

It might seem that Simon is bearing the brunt of those exchanges and maybe Helzo was just a consumate professional throughout. Professional, yes, but Helzo had more japes than an Enid Blyton character. It would take a separate blog to cover these.

I'm off to Aosta tomorrow for a long weekend skiiing, with Chiswick Casuals mates Andy, Graham, Pete, Mark and Alan - who lives there. Should be fun and I promise I won't go on about it when I get back. In any case, there will only be time to get home and switch on the TV for Rangers v Celtic in the CIS Cup Final on Sunday.

Finally, the eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that this is the 100th post since I started writing melvtopia all those months ago - a milestone indeed.

Friday 6 March 2009

I was sent an extraordinary video that's on YouTube at the moment. It shows a man using amazing holographic tools to build a world for the woman he loves.

It's highly imaginative and visually stunning - well worth a look. But the cynic in me couldn't help thinking that:
  1. The water fountain is probably spiked with Rohypnol

  2. The shop the woman is looking at is probably either La Perla or Ann Summers

  3. And the bars on the windows are probably there for a reason.

Frankly, I think the man is obsessed and by many people's definition would be considered a stalker...

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Kandi girls

Part of my role here is redesigning and relaunching a website for Hed Kandi. Among the creative ideas that have been expressed is the use of Hed Kandi's iconic Kandi girls as virtual guides to the new site.

Sadly, it seems that the Kandi girls have already found work elsewhere...

Monday 2 March 2009

zavvi bounces back

So zavvi.co.uk has appeared again, courtesy of those nice people at The Hut. I can't say I'm surprised. When we met with The Hut it was obvious that they're on a mission to increase their reach, and they probably picked up a decent sized database of known entertainment buyers for a song from the administrators.

As soon as Lee told me that The Hut had bought it, I knew exactly what it would look like, and there were no surprises - The Hut's bog-standard white label solution with a bit of green added.

A capital 'Z' in zavvi though - they obviously didn't think the style guide was worth paying extra for. Cathy will be apoplectic.

MCV reported today that the purchase will create 100 new jobs. Frankly I don't see it - I can only imagine that there's a grant flying around in the Liverpool area. The website is just a reskin so they need a few people to look after content and merchandising. They already have the warehouse and the products, and a customer services team; so it feels like maybe up to 10 new people would be needed. But if true it's good news - although it would have been nice if some of the zavvi people had been given the opportunity to join the new operation. Maybe once they start hiring that'll happen.

What the buyout has done is given me an excuse to post another gratuitous image under the disguise of 'journalism'. The Hut is selling a range of lingerie on the new site, and by a happy coincidence they're also having a bounceback sale... you fill in the rest.