how i owe you a bunch of links

this post is powered by the blind crossdresser i saw at the BART station, which made me wonder if he even realized that he was dressing like a woman:

i'm sure you've seen this before, but some guy posted an ad for his car on the bodybuilding.com forum, and the pictures included "sexy" photos of his girlfriend, who is everything but. just read all the pages of comments and responses. some great stuff in there.

the practice phone call on last week's "the office" was probably the funniest three minutes they've created. this season, they've completely raised the game.

our "lebron's DNA" feature debuted on nikebasketball.com. it's first of what's seemingly an endless stream of content we're creating. also check out our shoe feature, "the story of the six".

also, my friend steve dildarian had his animated series "the life and times of tim" premiere on HBO a couple of weeks ago. check it out if you're into the type of show that'll make you laugh your ass off. if you don't believe me, reminisce about the budweiser lizards and ferret commercials. and then take into account that he wrote them. so yeah, you bet your ass this is funny.

and last, but not least:

i voted "no" on proposition 8 in california, which means i am for gay marriage. honestly, if two people love each other, shouldn't they have all the same rights as every other couple? shouldn't they be entitled to the same happinesses that we all experience without hiding it? i think they rightly deserve it.

however, sadly, my state voted "yes" to outlaw gay marriage.

my first instincts is that though i deeply disagree with the result, it is the will of the people, and that is that. but it really strikes me as wrong. and that got me thinking about the history of social issues, from women's suffrage to civil rights, and how if they were left to the will of the people, we'd still be where we were a hundred years ago.

so i'm changing my mind on how to approach righting this wrong, thinking that a social issue you believe in is worth fighting for, no matter what the majority of the populace decides is correct. let the courts decide this, i say.

what am i getting at? here's keith olbermann's take. normally, i find him more entertaining than informative and far too extreme to take at face value. but there's nothing in his speech that i disagree with. he's dead on about this, and so am i.

how if you don't get chills from this, you're probably french

in case you haven't seen it yet, here's the new nike basketball spot featuring marvin gaye and his revolutionary version of "the star-spangled banner" from the 1983 nba all-star game.

and before some of you write in and get on my case about my hypocracy on this, let me set the record straight: marvin gaye took the national anthem and turned it into something completely new, and he sang the hell out of it - not to show off, but to tell a different story using the same words. he didn't vocalize it and exaggerate certain words so that the song served a selfish purpose, like you know who did a couple of years ago to show off.

marvin gaye turned an old standard into something new.

i dig that. and this spot.

goosebumps.

how this is the best nike ad i've seen in awhile

and if any commercial is worth two minutes of your time, then this is it.

hell, it even makes me like that guy ritchie style of directing again.

how it's nice to get props every once in awhile

especially when it's by your peers and public relations department. just check out today's issue of "creativity" online to see what i mean.

/bragging

how "also notable" is better than not noticeable at all

i'm proud that my agency was named interactive agency of the year by shoot magazine.

and i'm really proud that the lebron work is "also notable".

kudos to everyone.

how i can finally be in the same sentence as michael jordan, bo jackson, charles barkley, lebron james and kobe bryant

as in, we've all appeared in a nike ad.

seriously.

go here, check out the banner ad at the top, and watch either oakland during the day or atlanta at night time. the odds are great you'll see me, lighting it up from the outside.

seriously.

(yes, i wrote myself into a nike ad. is that so wrong?)

how i'm down with lebron

here's the latest website i've done for nike entitled "lebron: the complete story".

and here's the credits:

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: neil robinson
ART DIRECTION: caio lazzuri
DESIGN: mathieu zarbatany
PRODUCER: rachel hardwick
ACCOUNT: lauren black, simon jefferson
MOTION: antti kupla, tim robles
EDITOR: jedidiah stuber

and me.

how this was the only redeemable thing from a weekend worth of football

if you watched as much football as i did this weekend, you caught the amazing nikefootball spot starring shawne merriman and steven jackson about a million times. and each time, your jaw dropped.

i'd direct you to the youtube link to watch it, but trust me, the much much better version is here. the thing of it is that, after the intro, you're gonna have to click on "see more action" on bottom left to view it. yeah, it's a little work, but deal with it. you'll thank me later.

it's truly amazing. thank you, brilliant director michael mann and the intense soundtrack to "last of the mohicans".

how i just did it for the first time

here's my nike debut, courtesy from the brilliant directing by lance acord.

enjoy lebron's four videos. and pump your speakers up.

how i forgot that this has been up for awhile, so here you go

here's the first thing i've done for akqa that's dropped on the asian-pacific region, and we are all witnesses indeed.

it only took a day to concept and conceive. not so bad, eh?

you know, as long as you judge it on the time it took.

how i actually had these two conversations in one day

scene: JFK airport, metal detector, special secruity measures area

STEVE, a young charming man in his early thirties but who could easily pass for mid-twenties, is part of a randomly chosen secruity measure where he and his belongings are thoroughly searched.

a SECURITY OFFICER gives him the rundown with the secruity wand. he instructs steve to sit. all is well, until...

SECURITY GUARD: "oh snap!"
STEVE: "what?"
SECURITY GUARD: "where'd you get dose?"
STEVE: (nervously) "i'm sorry, but...what are you talking about?
SECURITY GUARD: (pointing at steve's possessions in a bin) "dose! where'd you get dose?"

steve looks and sees his mess: a belt, his laptop, his hoodie and his kicks.

STEVE: "you mean the nikes?"
SECURITY GUARD: "oh snap! i ain't seen dose before! dey ain't out yet, are dey?"
STEVE: "nah, i got them before they hit the streets."
SECURITY GUARD: "word? how you do dat?"
STEVE: "i'm a freelance writer for nike and i get access to..."
SECURITY GUARD: "word up? i ain't never seen dose nikes before. i'm a nike shoe head. i love dem sneaks. i had me some of dose andre agassi kicks back in da day. yo, can i put your e-mail address in my sidekick?
STEVE: "dude, i can't do that."
SECURITY GUARD: "why not?"
STEVE: "because they're just for employees only."
SECURITY GUARD: "oh snap."

...

seven hours later.

scene: taxicab in san francisco, en route from oakland international airport.

STEVE, a dashing writer with muscles and charisma galore, sits in the back seat of his cab. he just let his project manager, JAMIE, off at her place after a three-day work jaunt to new york city. their CABBIE had driven quietly throughout the journey, but as soon as jamie was dropped off...

CABBIE: "you come back from new york, yes?"
STEVE: "yep."
CABBIE: "never been there."
STEVE: "you should. it's amazing."
CABBIE: "sometimes, i wish i could just escape."

uncomfortable silence.

CABBIE: "i am going through tough personal times. my wife, we've been married for twenty years. i work hard, every day, drive for 16-18 hours. i come home tired. sometimes, i do not give my wife the attention she deserves. that i grant is my mistake."
STEVE: "make a right left here."
CABBIE: "two months ago, i come home and see my wife in bed with another man. i yell at her. she tell me that i pay no attention to her all i do is work and this is what comes of it. i want to kill the man and my wife."

very uncomfortable silence.

CABBIE: "yesterday, we bring two lawyers to settle things. i work hard and i pay off mortgage to house. $4000 a month. that is why i work 16-18 hours a day. my wife, she wants to split the house. this i agree too."
STEVE: "make a left on california please."
CABBIE: "but then i see her with that man and i get angry inside, so i say to my lawyer, 'no deal!' all or nothing. that bitch deserves nothing. nothing, i tell you. nothing! but then we have the kids, i have twins, just six months old, and also a seven year-old, and now i have an apartment near them, but everywhere i look around me, i see that filthy bitch."
STEVE: "sixth avenue is coming up. you should make a..."
CABBIE: "now i want to take my kids out of the country."

extremely uncomfortable silence.

CABBIE: "so, i would like to go to new york, but soon, i will take my kids away from my wife and take them to mexico, where we will be happy."
STEVE: "right here is fine. ummm..how much do i owe you?"

how it's been awhile, and i apologize

look, work's been kicking my ass. and when you throw in a hellacious travel schedule on top of that, i just haven't had the time to write and, actually, the content to make it entertaining.

now i'm able to fulfill the former. the latter i'm just gonna have to borrow.

so here's some stuff i came upon this week that i found entertaining or interesting:

there's sad, there's depression and then there's kermit the frog covering "hurt" by johnny cash via nine inch nails, which is both of those things taken to the highest hilarity.

the barbaro cheeto went for $70.

i had access to the much-rumored nike employee store in portland and came out $281 poorer. but much happier. especially with some yet-to-be-released air force one sport culture kicks on my dogs.



i took a listen to one of the best live cds i've turned my ears onto. check out "donny hathaway live". it was recorded at the troubadour in hollywood and also at the bitter end in new york. i've never been to the troubadour, but i've seen shows at the bitter end, and when i listened to the cd, i had that place in my mind: small, intimate, the audience one with the performer and with great acoustics. intimate. that's a great word for it. it's an intimate show with a brilliant singer and an audience willing to participate. really great stuff.

while i'm on music, did you ever take a good listen to the lyrics of "american girl" by tom petty? chuck klosterman wrote about it on his blog for espn, and when i took a look at them...wow. that's one of those songs that i never really knew the words so i sang the sounds. but now...whoa.

and in case you had any doubt, let sanjaya reign.