surface

So it has arrived. This is a landmark in the way we engineer our computing environments and this will set the bench mark for things to come. And it comes from Microsoft. Yes they beat Apple to it. It is SURFACE. It's a multi-touch enabled coffee table that allows you to drop your digital camera onto the surface and it automatically downloads your images for viewing on the table. You can then resize, zoom and crop your images. Even upload them to another device. It is amazing. The drawbacks to this are that it is quite impractical relying on mirrors, cameras and projectors to work. Unlike the multi-touch device, iPhone, which will be accessible to the masses and will probably do really well. Madonna has been given a surface. B**ch. Helsinki has a tourist info wall. I want one. It would look great in my flat. But you can be sure you'll have to use a coaster for your drink.

i believe in harvey dent too

Check out this cool viral site for the upcoming Batman: Dark Knight movie which is still in production. Ok so it looks like an error page. Wrong! See if you can highlight the text. Ha ha! But that's not it either. Check this out. Copy and paste the whole lot into a text editor and then use the find and replace function (usually under the edit function) to replace all the "Ha"s with just a blank space. To make the secret code even more obvious. Find all the "spaces" and replace them with simply nothing and the coded message should be really easy to read.

Catch up lady has lots of news around other campaigns that have been witnessed in and around the LA area for the new Batman movie. How excited am I. I absolutely love this kind of marketing as it gives an edge over traditional advertising and it appeals to it's target audience. Can anyone say Annie's secret decoder ring? (watch Woody Allen's Radio Days if you have no idea what I'm going on about).

rhythm of lines

So this is the latest Audi A5 car ad from BBH. This is a really nice idea but sadly the execution is a little lacking I feel. What I like about this ad is the movement of the lines to the music. It feels like ribbon floating through space. The lines that make up various sides of the car form freely, if a little obviously, to the flow of the music. I am not sure of the use of colours here though. A rough, early cut I saw of this ad had the ribbons purely in red, a deep red, which seemed to work a bit better. Also the end resolve of the ribbons into text just doesn't work for me. It looks lazy and childlike. And if you see the full version of the ad (at least the full UK version) over at the Audi site you will see that the ad ends on the car. Yes an actual photograph of the car, thus nullifying all the previous work of the ad. A car company like Audi should be confident enough in their brand by now that they need not show the car at all (see BMW) in their ads. The decision to have the car at the end is poor in my mind. This ad should serve to generate curiosity and interest in their product.

Watch this space for the imminent release of the gt microsite for the A5. From what I have seen and heard it is going to be awesome.

veneno

Veneno are the LA based team that created the incredible visuals for the last Madonna tour 'Confessions'. The song that really stood out for me visually was Forbidden Love, featured below, where blood cells float about on screen as Madonna sings. Two men stand to do an interpretive dance one bearing the symbol of Islam and the other the star of David. Their hands and wrists writhe together as they try to hold each other yet barely for a second manage it as the other slides away continually. Momentarilly they hug before resuming their twisted slippery hand tussle. Centre stage is Madonna with a huge Christian cross adourned in mirrors and the blood cell visuals starting to take shapes as symbols of religion behind. The message in forbidden love is that we are all one, made up of the same material, yet we fight for some perceived deity. Crossing each other we fight our brothers and sisters whom we should be loving. Mads really hit the nail on the head for me with this one. And although I don't necessarily agree with all her beliefs this one holds true with me. And I love the visuals. Check out more from Veneno on their homepage.

Take a second to vote on your favourite city break (right)

try drugs

This educational site about the dangers of drug use is very clever. Titled 'try drugs' the site is split into three areas exploring marijuana, cocaine and heroin effects. But the way the site works is to present you with a seemingly static page featuring an animation, some copy and a piece of music but turn things on their head by hijacking the controls. So for the marijuana section your cursor is sluggish and the copy blurred (until you rollover it) and at the end a pop-up warning window appears from the Norwegian crime unit saying that illegal activity has occurred with your IP address and country. For the cocaine section the cursor is hyper and over responsive and keeps taking lines of coke making the screen flash brightly with an email pop-up window saying that illegal activity has been spotted on this machine and the email getting sent to the authorities (although not for real obviously). And finally the heroin section is surreal with the copy exploding inwards and being generally illegible and lots of pop-up internet pages dealing with death and bankrupcy appearing. It is a clever way to highlight the effects of drugs on the user as for those who have never tried the drug you can get a feeling of what it is like to be on them.

Don't forget to vote for your favourite city break (right column)...

stop go tokyo

So am now back in London after an excellent time in NYC. But I'm still in that big city state of mind so I thought I'd share this dramatic piece of time-lapse video exploring the Tokyo cityscape. Set to a piece of music each scene matches perfectly to the pace of the sounds. A great reflection of an incredible city, this video really illustrates the hustle and bustle of the urban expanse.

I am tired and jet-lagged I think it's back to bed for me (yawn)....

nyc

You've gotta love New York. Here's our evening from last night.

1. Grabbed a slice of pizza from one of those great New York pizzerias just round the corner from the hotel

2. Met Jonathan and his friends at the Hudson Hotel. OMG the place is amazing. Intricately designed to incredible detail. From the stark exterior which we walked past. To the beautiful 'chartreuse' staircase. They have a beautiful library with thousands of books on the high walls overlooking pool tables with huge semi-sphere lights hanging over. The chandelier by reception had tens of holograms of light bulbs. The bathrooms were immaculate in white with gothic mirrors adourning the walls. We sat outside on their terrace being dwarfed by huge skyscrapers either side of us.

3. Then off to some random margarita place for nachos etc.

4. Then to a bar called Vlada where the uber cool New York urbanites hang out. We were entertained by the lovely Edie who sang and told us tales. Then bought us an Edietini at the bar afterwards.

5. Followed by an unnecessary nightcap at BARacuda.

Only in New York!!!

Vote for your favourite city break (right) and I'll see you back in London tomorrow ;)

the big apple

You gotta love the portions that New Yorkers serve for breakfast and lunch. We found this awesome diner on 33rd and 9th which is totally authentic. In the UK this would be a themed restaurant but this was the real deal. Complete with counter with cake, moody waitresses and chintzy Americana on the walls. Brilliant. I wandered by myself yesterday as Michael had work to finish up and so got to finally see the Apple store cube on 5th avenue and the Abercrombie and Fitch store. The glass cube that is the Apple store is just incredible. It is a feat of engineering and is perfectly designed. Glass and steel cube sides welcome you to the store below as you wind down a glass staircase or take the glass tube elevator. A&F was lots of fun too set on four floors and very lush inside. It is really dark there and the music is pumping. The boys and girls who work there are unfeasably stunning and the clothes are...well they are abercrombie of course.

At night Jonathan took us to Bombay Talkie. We have been before but I don't know the food just seemed even better this time. It is Indian classics done in a contemporary way. The style of the restaurant is far from your usual Indian spot. Their martinis are divine and the food is so incredibly tasty. Definitely worth a look if you are in the city.

Check out my latest photoset here

In a New York state of mind

It's amazing the things that you see at night. This bit of graffiti art was drawn on the metal shields that get pulled down in front of a shop window. It was right by our hotel but you could only see it at night. I really liked it. The kid is licking his PSP like it is a lollypop. And the eyes are spaced out like he is high. Kewl.

Had a blast yesterday. Shopping all afternoon after the stationary show, then we were off to musical monday's at Splash. I know, it sounds like a nightmare but was actually loads of fun. This song by Jennifer Holiday from the original Dreamgirls played us out :)

New York city

So I'm up at the crack of dawn here being still on UK time. Checked into our hotel yesterday afternoon after a lovely time at Jonathan and Nick's apartment in Brooklyn. We are at the Chelsea Star hotel in their Wizard of Oz themed room! How gay. The rooms are tiny but then again this is New York. Spent the morning and first part of the afternoon at the National Stationery show which is the reason we are here. Michael needs to meet some people and potentially buy and sell Cath Tate cards there. It's great because I am put to work trawling the stands posing as a buyer and have found some really lovely designs that could be used. And some of the artists I have met there are brilliant. The place is huge though so it's a bit daunting. The afternoon was spent browsing a few shops and seeing what we may or may not buy. God the exchange is so good at the moment for us Brits. It's like one big two for one sale :)

Anyway here's my photoset from the first day.