Thinkin of Grandma

Today I'm thinking about my Grandma. She had hip replacement surgery yesterday and after having an invasive surgery, I know how much it helps to have people thinking about you. I'm hoping and praying for a smooth and incident free recovery. I can't wait to see you sportin' around on the new hip. I love ya, G-ma.

Some recent work

I guess I realized I don't put enough of my own work on here. This blog started as a cancer diary and turned into nothing but my espousings on life and design and advertising. So, why not put some of my own work on here occasionally? Anyway, this tv spot is for the Tap Project Denver. It's worldwide, but we got chosen as the Denver mkt agency to do the spots this year. It's pro bono and for a great cause. Every 15 seconds a child dies due to water bourne illness. During world water week (was in march) if you pay $1 for your, usually free, tap water, that dollar gives a kid clean water for 40 days. Yep, 40 days. So, this spot ran locally trying to really show people that we are super lucky to have a choice whether we drink dirty water or not. Millions are not so lucky. The resolution quality here sux on youtube, but it's got lots of funny QVC spoof graphics with funny pricing and shipping and handling and all that sorta stuff. Enjoy it here.

Best commercial ever.

Ok, I prob pay waaaaayyy more attention to advertising than the average guy, seeing as how it's what I do for my job and all. But, seriously, this is truly one of the funniest ads ever. And the best part: I don't think they meant for it to be funny at all. God, I love southerners. Man, I miss your naivety. I love the end "...and hispanics, too".

Thanks to Ash Kerr for heads up on this one. Good find, sis.

Under the Bridge, literally

first, i wish i could embed video in this damn blog. so lame to link. anyway, if you are like me and loved the chili peppers back in the day, watch this literal interpretation of the Under the bridge video- it's really hilarious. My fav part is the 'check out my pecs in slo-mo' part. Classic.
Watch it here.

Meatcard. No, really.

Love this quote from the website: "Business cards made from meat and lasers". I don't think I can do any better than that. Is this real?

new forms of typography.

Gotta give it to type nerds. Always finding new things that form letterforms. The newest are these Google maps letters. Read bout it here.

Hawaii 5-0

Well, Hawaii was a blast. The mansion Will and Chris rented was absolutely fantastic, equipped with multiple pools, private tennis courts and a private beach. And even better were the people. I really loved catching up with some of my favorite people in the world who I never see. Some even live up the street and I see them so little that a week in paradise partying down was much needed. The wedding week proved to be a doozy, with most everyone showing up at our palace and hanging every night, and Will and Chris had all kinds of fun things planned. We had our own private luau at the house with a hula ceremony, we all went and saw HUGE surf at pipeline and we ate and drank the finest of foods and drinks. The ceremony was on a rather large catamaran overlooking honalulu. Amazing. Then we had food on a 32nd floor balcony looking down on Waikiki. Another gold star. Then, we had a dance party at a club below. Good times.

My favorite part of the trip, though, was the surfing. I managed to catch a bunch of waves and man-o-man there is nothing that matches the rush of catching a wave. It's such a buzz. Luckily, our friends Jenna and Travis had extra boards and knew some good rook spots and it was on. Already jonesing for next surfing session, whenever that may be.

Me, Mere and Kanye

My curiosities were piqued as we rolled into the parking lot at Waimea canyon yesterday. There were 4 escalades parked side by side and the dudes sitting on the open backs of them were dressed in a very non-Hawaiian way. Read: neons and Nike hightops from the 80's and odd jackets and such. I then was more interested as we walked to the top lookout and there was a camera set up. Within two minutes the whole crew of stylin' people from the trucks below roll up with Kanye West in tow. Luckily, all other tourists there were a little older and no one had any idea who he was but us. He ended up walking over and looking over the rail RIGHT next to us, so Mere asked for a shot. As you can see, he obliged, but never once cracked a smile or even acted like he was impressed with the scenery or that he was even happy to be in Hawaii. Think he was consumed with how cool he was, and that he had on more denim jacket flair than anyone else in Kuai.

Na Pali coastline

Yep, you guessed it, we're hiking to some falls. Me being a signage nerd, I thought this sign was rad, placed WAY up in the rainforest on our hike in. Here's a shot of early on in the trail, when you're basically hiking along where mountains meet the beautiful sea:
Believe it or not, I saw some whales way out there spouting and swimming and such, and it was real cool. After we slogged through 2+ hours of muddy (REAL muddy) and beautiful hiking we came upon this:
The falls were amazing and quite large. The rain and mud made the whole event a damp one, but the end result was fabulous. The hike was strenuous enough that our legs were sore the next day, but not long enough that it was a real test. Surprisingly, we saw people in bare feet and very improper foot wear attempting to make the hike. I'm assuming many did not make it to the falls, and the beach halfway was rocky and unswimmable (sign saying 82 had died there), so they may have been a bit dissapointed. We even came upon a guy who slipped and tweaked his knee and had some sort of seizure, which was a little disconcerting. Thankfully, tho, we were prepared w/ good shoes and rain gear, as all Coloradans should be! Was an adventurous day.

And it's on!

First off, lemme just say "woooo hoooo!". We are officially on vacation. The flight over to Hawaii was pretty flawless, minus the fact that we landed in Honalulu at 1am our time. Needless to say we were flogged. The cool part, tho, was that we flew with the rotation of the globe and the sun set at a liesurely pace. Sort of a slow motion sunset, adorned with an amazing band of color hanging on the horizon for what seemed like forever. Thankfully I had a window seat to witness the magic.

After bunking with Travis last night in Honalulu, we flew to Kuai'i early this morning and made the rounds by car today. Man, truly spectacular. Was sorta rainy all day off and on, but really stoked to go rock the Napoli coast trail tomorrow. Apparently it's 'as close as you can get to heaven'. These words from a local today. We're prepared for more rain, and have stocked up on foodstuffs to take for the 5 hour hike. Stay tuned for pics. Hoping for snorkling w/ the turtles afterwards at Kee beach. Have spotted tons of surf boards and surfers and am chompin' at the bit to get me some wave.