Coke has always produced your standard high-budget, feel-good TV spots. They're basically full of young good-looking people having fun, Santas, or cutsy 3D animated polar bears. However, that isn't why their latest spot stands out. Yes it's a departure from the rest. Yes, Coke has always used quality animation and big budgets but this blows anything the've ever produced away. This peice stands out because it's a beautiful little 60 seconds of film, which Coke is lucky enough to have produced.

Go read

Johnnie Moore's post on "creativity."

It deserves a good conversation.

Not So Random Quote

"A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it."

— Jean de La Fontaine

Ode to the Sliders

Soulwax.com is an interesting site that really makes use of the slider to truly customize the user experience. Playing on the idea of ‘sliding’ or scratching, to make the traverse through the site, definitely stays true to the subject matter. Added retro-fun imagery, like the wall of tapes and reincarnated mac, coupled with the ability to fold/expand each section is all too satisfying. Although scrolling in both directions is something of a treasure hunt, if you have the time, its worthwhile!

Limitations of Choice

Break out your party hats, I am back. ;-)

It's been a long while since I have blogged about something other than poetry, so forgive my rusty intro back into the scene.

We (me and Rick) went furniture shopping over the weekend to a spot in the city known as "Furniture Alley." Basically, it is a street packed w/ about every chain store outlet and independently owned furniture store you can imagine. Our mission: to find a couch. Needless to say, after about 4 hours looking around, we came home feeling less enthusiastic than we started out. I was exhausted - we walked, yes, but I was more exhausted by the circuit-overwhelming number of couches we saw. In the end, they all sort of blended together in a mish-mash of pistachio fabric.

So you may be wondering what this experience has to do with anything? Well, it got me to thinking about the limitations of having too much to choose from - not an original subject (there are lots of really good books on the topic), but one that hits home for me.

I am someone for whom shopping is a chore, not an enjoyable activity. Adding hundreds of choices to the mix simply makes me freeze, go inward and retreat home empty-handed. I crave simplicity. And I know I am not alone in feeling this way.

When I come across a mega-store, a mall, or a business that tries to sell itself as "everything to everyone," I am likely to go elsewhere. This is especially true for service-oriented businesses that try to sell "expertise" in too many service areas. It simply smacks of thoughtless, reactionary decision making and a desperate grab for everyone's attention. There are many directions this topic can go in - The Long Tail, for one. For for the sake of *simplicity,* let me leave off here and pick up the topic again after some feedback.

My question are: What is your approach to the overwhelming number of choices we have, and have you experienced the pressure to be everything to everyone? Are you energized or drained by the vast number choices? What are the benefits of more? What are the negatives?

Random Reel 'o' the day

This week marks the seventh annual ReelWorld Film Festival, April 11-15. While there are always a plethora of interesting entries, my favourite is that of a friend of a friend, Mazi Khalighi’s Foreign Soil.

Eggs and the City 2007

For all those egg enthusiasts, this years annual urban Easter Egg Hunt is taking place on Bloor between Yonge and Bathurst, on Sunday April 8 beginning 11:00 am. Put on by Newmindspace, an organization based in New York and Toronto dedicating themselves to reclaiming public space and creating free ways to enjoy your community including “massive bubble battles, public art installations and much more.”