Signed by KISS

I don’t watch a lot of TV. But the other night I was struck by insomnia, and turned to my mum’s Sky box for solace. Things were looking bleak until I found out that late at night on the music request channels they have a bit where someone signs along with the music in the bottom right of the screen.

I could go on for a while here, but basically I got entranced by trying to match up the lyrics with the sign language, and also by the body motions and looks of the signers.

So for example, here we have a lovely middle aged lady singing/signing along to We be burnin’ by Jamaican reggae MC Sean Paul.


I quickly discovered they don’t sign every word, and just use a couple of signs to get the meaning of the line or couplet across. I am guessing everyone already knew this about international sign language apart from me.

It’s a massively interesting communication challenge – translate something very complex from one sensory input to another entirely different one – a seemingly impossible task that they do really well. Makes you realise what bits of what people say/do are and aren’t important.

On a lighter note, they seem to try to utterly mismatch the look and tone of the signers with the songs as much as possible.

Here then are some bits of video for you to check out. Click the pictures to get to the videos (right click save as, or open them, whatever, it’s up to you). They’re are off my phone and should play in Quicktime.


Hey Ya!
The motion for Hey Ya, near the end, is cool. I wonder what it means.


Killers – Somebody Told Me
Note the air guitar and air drumming



Some sweet R&B front room track



Christina Aguilera – Dirrty
I can really get what the guy is saying on this.

I tried turning the sound off and dancing along with the Right Said Fred-esque guy on Hey Ya, but I really couldn’t follow, and when I turned the volume back on I was way off beat. Oh well.

cool salesforce kit advertising

Right now in London, if you want eyeballs, you could do worse than being a bearded Middle Eastern guy and sitting on the tube with a briefcase with a big ATTENTION sticker on it.


Spotted as I got on the tube at Liverpool St Station

It's a tacky message talking about homeopathy - not worth reading, don't try strain your eyes over this poor jpg. Hovever, there is one nice line where it says something very tube/London targeted:

PLEASE LOOK AROUND YOU
STRESS FATIGUE, ARTHRITIS CAN ALL BE TREATED
NATURALLY WITH HOMEOPATHY

Sure enough I looked around and everyone looked tired, flu-y and in need of a carrot and parsley smoothie. I remember this very vividly - much more standout than the giant flyering octopus stood in Liverpool Street Station Monday morning (thought I liked him a lot too).

my new blog relating to planning

I think it's the first frost and chill that has totally invigorated me, but I have created a new blog that will be all about planner scribbles.

I am hoping to make it a collaborative effort. Check this out if you work with planners, are one, or often draw diagrams to illustrate abstract concepts. (Otherwise you will find it all a little daft.) These will all be real diagrams drawn on the spur of the moment as an aid to explaining something. Get in touch if you'd like to contribute!

comedy

I have just come back from a really enjoyable charity comedy night (Bowel Cancer, Comedy Store, Piccadilly). Anyhow the guy I liked the most was one of those slightly-stoned-mad-hair-effect guys who say surreal off-timed one/two liners in a slightly mental drawling voice.

My two faves went something like:

1. The other day I saw a small dead baby ghost lying in the street - or maybe it was just a handkerchief

2. noone really laughed at this next one and I think it lost something in delivery, but it was something about the amazing power of letters - an H can make a helicopter land (he was in a surreal need-rescuing bit of story), but it needs to be the right size - I waited for ages by that hot tap.



I love them cos they show just how looking at simple things in different ways can produce meanings or situations that are worlds apart and fantastically creative. Each of the above could help create a great ad execution - what could a plain hanky or the tap be if you let your childish imagination run wild?



The other funniest bit was a guy who took a Mothercare-type talking alphabet kids toy and by pressing the letter sounds in a skillful way, made it say things like ch-ris isss ah coh-ks-ah-kah and fuhk yoo yoo mah-tha-fukh-ah. After I has stopped laughing (this took a long time) I thought briefly about the mindset of consumers taking the most single-minded devices and using them for their diverse and creative needs. Quite boingboing-esque.

white chocolate strawberries

Tried out Marks and Spencers for my lunch the other day. Two things of note:

1. The plastic cutlery is seriously nice and solid - feels like they are real childrens cutlery bought from Ikea! Incredible.

2. I spent a pound on these white choc covered strawberries, purely cos I hadn't seen them before, or anything similar. They generated a stupid amount of excitement - are they actual real strawberries ? NO! (tentative nibbling) That's amazing! It was like I'd come back with unknown treats from the newly discovered Orient.



Little things that push the boundaries of lunchtime imaginations = massive impact on peoples' lives. That's how you justify £1 for 11 small sweets. Brilliant.

greeting cards

If you asked me what my favourite industry is, I would say the greeting card one. Low entry barriers, an explosion of variety and creativity and an almost unlimited scope for adding value as people will try to find exactly the right card for their loved ones.

If you looked at greeting cards 10 years ago they were all pretty dull and very few had sponge or felt stuck to them, or any kind of interesting illustration styles... 10 years on, here is a nice handmade card which my mum got her niece for about £4.50. Not my taste but charming nonetheless.



Anyway if you have to cite a mainstream industry that's a shining example of trends like small scale entrepreneurism, people being willing to pay for creativity and innovation, and consumers supporting the 'long tail', here it is.

(Btw, I never buy greeting cards aside from petrol station emergency ones, in which cases I quickly choose the least bad one. In the rare occasions where effort is needed, I make one.)

halloween costumes that didn't get made

We were going to make Halloween costumes this year, but ran out of energy, so did the fruit carving thing instead. Here are the costume ideas I was going to go as, but that just never happened. I am saving them for another party.

Optimus Prime, that transforms!


Lots of people make Optimus Prime costumes. Here is a hilarious review site of other people and their Optimus costumes. The clincher with my outfit, was that by hiding your head in the 'cab' bit, and adopting the yoga position "the cobra"


the cobra

you would transform and be able to scoot along the ground like a real truck with the little mini skateboards strapped to your knees (and maybe hands).

Lemonade Booth/Stall



From Peanuts cartoons, where Lucy would set up a soapbox "Psychiatric Help 5c" stall. Cute.
You could replace the sign with a series of stupid/desperate alternatives as the party progressed like "Kisses - 10p" (like in Cool Runnings), or "dancing advice".

80's Arcade Machine

Arcade machines are cool. But I got thinking, how you could relate yourself to the arcade machine game? Because otherwise you are just a guy inside an arcade machine, which doesn't really make sense. So the ninja/boxer idea was born. I think this concept needs a lot of work, but I am sure there is a killer execution there somewhere, as well as a host of slot/joystick/play gags.

Michael Jackson with a kid strapped to his crotch

MJ but with a stuffed child (like a Guy Fawkes guy) attached to the outfit, face into crotch. A bit dark, but I found it funny. Plus you can dance like MJ all night! Shamone!

A puppet

Me and my old flatmate have a dance routine where I kind of pretend to be posable/puppet-like and he moves me around. Anyway being a puppet on your own wouldn't be as good, but might still be ok. Ideally I would go with a tall mate who would be dressed like an evil ringmaster/puppet master.

Get your votes in for which costume you would most like to see made real and your wish will be granted next fancy dress party. Comments below!

blank page

About 2 years ago I found out that you could have a blank page as your homepage on Internet Explorer (or any web browser). I thought it was incredibly cool, I like the way it says about:blank and so on.

Internet Explorer displaying a blank page


But it has drawbacks - you can't tell if you're connected to the Internet for example.

So I did a search for a "blank page" to use as my homepage (weird I know), and found loads of good ones, in particular ones that say "this page intentionally left blank" which harks back to the days of publishing (I didn't know this). There is a nice site which explains the phenomenon here.

I was so inspired I made my own blank page to use which you can see here. I thought for a while - should I make it red? Should it have a logo or a back button? What do you guys think?