Norman Mailer told me to stop being a fucking pussy. I went to see him speak at the book festival and asked him a question at the end. What did he most regret doing, what did he most regret not doing, and which was the bigger regret of the two? …
Unless stories of its demise are greatly exaggerated, the social bookmarking service Delicious is not long for this world. This is really sad news. It’s also a wake-up call. It’s sad because Delicious is one of my favourite web applications. A searchable database of my favourite links, tagged by me …
I’ve had cause to send several large, camel-sized files recently to clients whose firewalls act like the eye of a needle. The alternative options in these circumstances include Basecamp (for clients with whom we have Basecamp communications already set up) or third party services such as YouSendIt. These work just …
For proud read lazy when it comes to sponsorship. As in “proud sponsors of”. You can tell they’re lazy. It takes no effort to describe your relationship with a sponsored entity as “proud sponsors of”. And if you put no effort into describing your relationship it’s a safe bet that …
No names no pack drill in this post. I looked on yesterday as opportunity knocked. Opportunity knocked to create some high credibility, high visibility, on-brand noise for one of our clients. Trouble was that the opportunity in question was of the social media variety. Also known as the serendipitous, unforeseen, …
As usual I’ve been slow on the uptake with celebrity news. Danny Baker has cancer. And I find myself caring quite a lot. I met him a long time ago, and only briefly. But he made a lasting impression on me. He had been the compère at a Bass Brewers …
This is a harrowing piece of film which reveals the brutal break-them-down-and-build-them-back-up approach being used by some social media agencies and consultants to get traditional advertising clients to lose the message based, paid for interruption mindset and embrace conversation. For “save American lives” read “join the conversation.” For “let go …
I’m reviewing this book before I’ve finished it. I’ve read just four out of thirty four “stories about people who know how they will die” but I can’t contain myself. Machine of Death is a book of revelations. In all sorts of ways. Firstly I don’t read short stories or …
Imagine my surprise (and delight) at finding myself in the car talking to my kids about the seminal 1977 Meatloaf album Bat Out Of Hell. Prompted by them I hasten to add. They having been prompted by the live TV butchering of the eponymous song by this year’s enduring X-Factor …
So you think you’ve got a community, huh? Does your community engage with each other around a shared interest in you? Does your community believe that you’re interested in them as human beings rather than a sales channel? Foiled Cupcakes has that kind of community. Foiled Cupcakes is a delivery-only …
