ETERNAL MOONWALK

Found this site, Eternal Moonwalk, while doing some 'research' online.

We were working on layouts for a couple new sites this week and sometimes it helps to just scour the internet for a half hour and see what's out there on the World Wide Web. (Since there's no Fantasy Basketball in the Summer, I tend to have a bit more time to kill online than usual)

Anyway, the site showcases a very cool idea. We meet with potential clients sometimes who ask us about producing viral videos and viral microsites, like this one, to market their stuff. The problem is that most of those clients tend to sell really boring products or services, have very conservative marketing plans and they don't really understand how the internet works anyway.

The cool thing about this site is that it's not littered with banner ads or cheesy logos or trying to coax a donation out of you to build drinking wells or anything. It's just a simple idea, executed well and presented cleanly.

The viral element of this microsite is actually two-fold. Not only will people pass it on simply because it's entertaining, but some will upload their own videos and those people will definitely tell all of their online nerd buddies about it because now they're a part of the site. (Not us though, even Matt and I don't have that much free time)

Enjoy your weekend.

BREAKING NEWS

Matt's going to start blogging.



So, for the past couple months I've written all of these blog entries (thank you very much). When Matt manages to 'find the time' he visits our blog periodically and then calls me with overly critical advice on what I've been doing wrong (even though he admits having never read another blog before).



But now, due to some miraculous advances in technology, I was able to register Matt as a co-author of this blog. So, even though I'll still probably be doing most of the writing, once in awhile Matt will weigh in and talk about high tides or Will Ferrell or some other adorable juvenile interest of his.

Bottom line, if you pull up the blog one day and find an entry with a lot of pathetic spelling errors, rather than assume that I've suffered a traumatic head injury, now you'll know that it is simply Matt trying to contribute to 0484CREATIVE (for once).

Just so there's no confusion, because I know most of the readers on here are our friends and have never seen a blog before, the name of whoever writes each post shows up at the bottom of each entry. Also, next to author name and time of the post, you can click on 'COMMENTS' if you want to write something yourself. It's free, don't be afraid. I'm just trying to teach you how the internet works.

COMIC CON

Me and 150,000 other people stopped by the San Diego Comic Con this weekend.



Our boy Ryan 'Goldenarm' Davis was hired to hand out postcards promoting the cast appearance and signing of our Ghost Whisperer poster.



The whole Ghost Whisperer thing seemed to go well. As you can see, once the crowd found out that they were handing out posters designed by 0484CREATIVE, it was pretty much mass hysteria.





Comic Con is definitely a unique experience. It almost defies description, but it's basically a giant room packed with a mix of Harry Potter, Star Wars and World of Warcraft fans who leave the comfort of their bedrooms once a year and show up in San Diego dressed as their favorite medieval-samurai-cartoon-wizard-super-hero.

I can't even write captions for the rest of these. Just check 'em out and imagine your own sarcastic commentary.

RECENT WORK: GHOST WHISPERER POSTER

Last week we made this poster for a little CBS show called Ghost Whisperer.

Neither Matt or I have ever really seen the show, but apparently it features the girl from Party of Five and she has the ability to speak to the spirits of the dead. My mom claims it's pretty decent.

Anyway, these posters were distributed at Comic Con this year to promote the Ghost Whisperer video game that Legacy Games is releasing next Spring.

WEEKEND PLANS

I'm heading to see Matt in San Diego for the weekend.

I have to stop by the circus that is Comic Con on Sunday for work related purposes, more on that later. Besides the usual client stuff, Matt's been working around the clock to finish making his Optimus Prime outfit for the costume contest.

By the way, update to last post, Bobby Hundreds stopped by Agenda and took a few photos. Check 'em out in case you're dying to know what it was like.

P.S. Here's a link to the new Jay-Z track with Kanye and Rihanna off the upcoming Blueprint 3. Enjoy your weekend.

HUNTINGTON

Stopped by the Agenda Trade Show this afternoon.

It's a bunch of streetwear, surf and skate brands all showing previews of their lines for upcoming seasons to buyers and industry insiders (I don't qualify as either one but I tend to sneak into things like this)

Overall, it was bit underwhelming. The large brands have fancy booths and all of their reps act really conceited. The small brands are mostly more down-to-earth but some come across as desperate. I'd like to say I left the show and saw a great up-and-coming brand or two or something really surprising but that really wasn't the case. There aren't too many brands out there, in any field, going against the grain, taking risks and being original.



In hindsight I probably should've taken some non-iPhone pictures of the show itself, or at least of the US Open of Surfing going on across the street. (I'm sorry that I'm such an amateur blogger sometimes. Hopefully I'll get it together soon.)

MONDAY

A long time ago, my dad used to publish a newspaper in Long Beach called UNCLE JAM.



This article from the Long Beach Post states "In 1971, local cartoonist Phil Yeh started Uncle Jam, Long Beach’s largest and longest running counterculture newspaper. " Someone found that article randomly a few months ago and emailed it to me asking if I was indeed the son of Long Beach's 'counterculture' publishing hero. I forwarded the link to my brothers and we all got a kick out of it.

Anyway, it's been like 20 years or so since the last issue, but apparently my dad decided it was time to bring the paper back (seeing as how popular and profitable printed newspapers are these days). So I had to head out to the printer this morning and help pick up a few boxes of the newest issue.



Then this afternoon I met with Patrick and Nicole from Transcendental Media. They make films; including their latest, The Philospher Kings, which is a documentary that focuses on life lessons and wisdom from janitors at elite colleges. Very compelling concept. I have yet to see the full film but I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Anyway, it was a cool meeting. Matt and I have been thinking about making a feature length documentary so we needed to get some insight into exactly what we'd be getting ourselves into.

RECENT WORK: DAN BRYANT SITE

Hungrydan.com is a portfolio site for commercial producer Dan Bryant.

We built this site for Dan awhile ago and he recently asked us to update it and add some new videos. If you have 2 minutes to kill, go to the site and watch the Bud Light 'Magazine Buyer' spot (once you get to the site, click on the thumbnail on the far right) It's hilarious. It never aired on network television (watch it and you'll understand why) but I believe Bud Light made it for use online or something like that. Dan has produced a bunch of cool things including some Super Bowl ads that I'm sure you've seen before.

VEGAS

Matt and I wanted to meet up and discuss a few projects for work.

I'm in Newport and he's in San Diego so we figured Las Vegas was probably the closest place for us to meet in the middle. We headed out there for a couple days (and brought a few friends).


We stayed at Vegas' best kept secret

We stopped by The Rio on Saturday to check out the World Series of Poker. When you think about it, this is really the only 'sport' where any nobody off the street can pay $10,000 and play against professionals and have the whole thing televised on ESPN. Plus, it's poker, so with very little talent and a lot of luck you have the chance to become a millionaire. Talk about 'living the dream'...


Seat 2 is Peter Eastgate, seat 6 is Joe Hachem


Seat 9, Phil Ivey

All of these guys are covered, head to toe, in logos for their sponsors. Matt and I decided we'll have to play in the World Series one year, show up dressed completely in 0484CREATIVE gear and write the entry fees off as a promotional expense. Plus, when you consider the fact that there is like $8 million up for grabs for first place, it's really more of an 'investment' than anything else.

It was about 108º all weekend so we finally headed back to California. If only there was some place closer for Matt and I to meet up...

EAST COAST WRAP UP

Last few pictures from my trip back east.

NYC

Stopped by all the regular spots, UNION, Reed Space, Alife etc..


In Soho, on Spring Street, there's a tiny little pick-up window for a place called Baked by Melissa where they sell miniature stuffed cupcakes for a buck each.


They're pretty damn amazing. And I don't even really like most cupcakes. We stopped by this place about 3 times in less than 2 days. There's a Sprinkles down the street from my new place in Newport and believe me, if Baked by Melissa makes their way out west they will put Sprinkles out of business.


Stopped by the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum. They had sort of a weird exhibit on the ground floor; all about felt. Couldn't take pictures inside, so, just let your imagination run wild.


Rucker park


Saw the Francis Bacon exhibit at the Met. His early works were pretty cool. His later stuff, with the distorted figures and paint globs, I didn't really like as much. Outside the museum, Ruchir bought a Wolverine poster from a street vendor. I guess all these museum and studio visits haven't quite yet matured his sense of art appreciation.


Our last night in the city we stopped by this place Lombardi's. The plaque outside states that they're the oldest pizzeria in the country, established in 1904. And, as you can see, the awning outside claims that Zagat rated them 'Best on the Planet'. Bottom line, the atmosphere is ok, the breadsticks are horrible, the pizza is good and slightly different. Main problem was that it was super expensive. Plus, I don't think anyone can live up to 'Best on the Planet' level hype. If you're in the city, save your money, head down the street and buy a few dozen miniature cupcakes instead. You'll be much happier, trust me.


D.C.

International Spy Museum


Crazy to think that a street artist and 'vandal' like Shepard Fairey now has a piece hanging in the National Portrait Gallery. I had to see it for myself. They also had a cool exhibit of modern portrait photographers including a guy named Alec Soth who had some pretty interesting work.


Portrait of Abe from which the image on the copper penny is derived. Kind of cool.

Also stopped by Georgetown University one night to play some tennis. Between sets I wandered into their gym looking for a drinking fountain and I ran into a few of the players from their basketball team having an informal summer shootaround. (Ruchir had a few photos of us inside the gym which I would've posted here, but they included a shot of me dunking on one of the Georgetown players in a pick up game and a Nike rep made us delete the images before we could leave).

Anyway, all in all, very good trip. Back to California where the humidity is much more bearable.

ART HISTORY 101

So, I was in NYC for a few days and I had the chance to stop by and see my boy Toshi who happens to work at the studio of one Jeff Koons.


Toshi is a Cal State Long Beach alum who got a job painting for Koons about a year ago. He squeezed Ruchir and me in for a tour of Koons headquarters. However, I've recently realized that most people have no idea who Jeff Koons is, which makes it especially hard for me to name-drop while discussing my trip. So, let me save you some time on Wikipedia and give you a quick overview:

In the late 70's, fresh out of art school, Koons worked as a commodities broker on Wall Street while establishing himself in the art world.


One of his early sculpture series consisted of various Hoover vacuums placed alongside fluorescent light bulb tubes. In the 80's, he set up a factory-like studio in SoHo and hired a bunch of assistants to produce art under his direction and supervision.


One of Koons' most widely known pieces from early in his career is a life-size gold-plated porcelain statue of Michael Jackson and his chimpanzee Bubbles. Koons produced 3 of these pieces, one which old at Sotheby's auction for $5.6 million and is currently in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.


In 1991 he married a European porn star named Ilona Staller and produced a series of paintings, sculptures and photos, entitled MADE IN HEAVEN, featuring the couple having sex in explicit detail. (Believe it or not, I'm trying to keep things on this blog relatively tasteful. If you want to see more of the MADE IN HEAVEN pieces, look it up on Google.)


Later in the 90's Koons started producing large scale reproductions of everyday objects, like balloon animals and inflatable children's toys. Recently his paintings have featured collage-like compositions of photorealistic figures, famous cartoon characters and abstract scrawls.


Koons' works have sold for absurd amounts. In 07 the Gagosian Gallery in New York bought a Koons sculpture called 'Diamond (Blue)' for $11.8 million from Christie's London.


The next day the same gallery bought a piece called 'Hanging Heart (Magenta)' from Sotheby's New York for $23.6 million, which, at the time, was the most expensive piece by a living artist ever auctioned. Wikipedia notes, however, that Koons has not been unscathed by the current economic recession. Recently a violet colored version of 'Hanging Heart' was sold for a mere $11 million.

Opinions of Koons, his works, and their prices, vary drastically depending on who you ask. He is undoubtedly one of the most well known, albeit most polarizing artists living today.

Anyway, for me, the tour of the studio was an amazing experience. I come from a really art-heavy background. My dad is an artist. Growing up, our house was always filled with art and art books. And even at Cal State, I studied Studio Art, as well as Film, so I took the whole curriculum of Art History, Life Drawing, Painting, Ceramics, the whole nine yards.

No matter my views on Koons' work, having the chance to peer inside the studio of someone of that magnitude in the art world, was really intriguing to me, especially compared to all of the other artist studios and offices I've had the chance to see. (FYI - Last year a charity auctioned off a visit to Koons studio and the bidding ended somewhere upwards of $3,000) We got to see a ton of works in progress and yet to be released stuff. (I'd have taken and posted photos if I could, but with a blog readership as enormous as ours, I thought I'd play it safe and not risk getting anyone fired or myself sued) I also got to talk to a couple of other people on staff and tried to get a good understanding of how everything within the studio is produced and what role Koons plays in the overall process.

One thing that was genuinely refreshing was how relaxed the vibe of the whole place was. Granted, we stopped by on a holiday when very few people were working. But the studio is made of several large connecting warehouses, all of which are filled with sculptures and paintings in various stages of completion, and you have to consider that each of those works sell for several million dollars on the free market. The fact that some kid like me could come inside and roam around is kind of cool.

Anyway, now you know who Koons is. Hopefully it'll come in handy next time you're trying to impress some girl at an art museum. Thanks to Toshi for letting us come through.

BIG APPLE

Few random snapshots from around the city.
Happy 4th.