Archive for August, 2010

On “Fire”

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Want to see something cool? Arcade Fire released an “interactive film”/music video for their song “We Used to Wait.”

Type in the address of the home where you grew up and watch the video unfold. It’s probably best to let you experience it yourself instead of explaining what happens.

It was built as an experiment for the Google Chrome browser so you’ll need to download that for the best experience if you don’t have it. It sounds like it’s working on some other browsers though.

Check it out for a really innovative spin on a music video!

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Posted in New Media, Technology | 1 Comment »

Images of Long Beach

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

If you’re in Long Beach this weekend, make sure that you’re carrying your camera so you can take a picture of this great city that G/J calls home. You might win a cash prize in a photo contest happening this weekend.

Long Beach resident Justin Rudd and the nonprofit Community Action Team (CAT) are sponsoring Say Cheese Long Beach, an event that invites photographers of all experience levels to take pictures of any subject, person or event within the city limits of Long Beach. The photos must be shot between noon on Saturday, 8/28 and noon on Sunday, 8/29. You can find all of the rules and submission details here.

Queen Mary, Belmont Shore, Downtown Long Beach, Gunn/Jerkens’ lobby…no matter where you go this weekend, make sure you snap a pic to help create the Long Beach family album.

Lifeguard Stand

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Posted in Our Neck of the Woods, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

What Do You Need?

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

According to the latest stats from Pew Research Center, only 42% of Americans consider a television as a necessity. Just four years ago, the number was at 64%. Are you a part of the group that doesn’t consider it a must-have in your home?

I have my favorite shows that I watch and I love to have the TV on as background noise when I’m getting ready in the morning or even when I’m on the computer. But if it came down to it, advances in technology make it easier for me to say that I wouldn’t need a television.

Hulu or the networks’ sites make it easy to watch episodes of shows on-demand. You can pop a DVD into your laptop and watch it there. Why watch broadcast news when you can catch up on only the stories that interest you on a website? There are very few instances anymore where I think a television is necessary (the real benefit is for screen size, especially for watching movies).

Also on the decline is respondents’ need for landline telephones – down to 62% saying it was a necessity, a decrease of 6% from last year. I’m actually surprised it’s that high; I haven’t had a landline since I left home for college and almost everyone I know is cell phone-only. For better or worse, I think the culture now is heavily based on communicating with friends on social media sites or texting, instead of phone conversations. I know I’d rather get a to-the-point text from someone than a call! Also, services like Skype making it easier to connect to loved ones far away (with visuals!).

Most of these trends are more evident when you look at younger generations: only 29% of people 18-29 said a television set was a necessity and only 46% of the same group consider a landline phone a necessity. As technology and consumer behavior continue to evolve, what do you think the next revolution will be? We’ve accepted the fact that laptops would overtake traditional desktop PCs but it’s looking like tablets are going to quickly overtake netbooks, a hot segment just a year or so ago. Technology has changed the publishing industry; last month it was reported that Amazon.com is selling more e-books than hardcover books at a rate of 1.8 Kindle books for every hardcover book sold. I’m thinking that single-use electronics, like an mp3 player or small digital camera, might be next in line if mobile technology continues to advance to make our phones more capable of things like holding and playing music or taking quality pictures. I’m still calling my iPod a “necessity” for now.

Posted in Consider This, Technology | 4 Comments »

Running from the Past

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

In an article published in yesterday’s edition of the Daily Telegraph, Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicted that in the future, the youth of today will find it necessary to change their names to avoid the embarrassing online exploits of their former selves. (That article can be read here)

Now, far be it from me to disagree with the Chief Executive Officer of Google, but as a youth of today, I feel compelled to at least state my opinion on the matter. The question of how the children of the social media generation will deal with the skeletons in their online closets has been coming up since the very beginnings of social media. Often mentioned in this discussion are the pictures that many youths post of themselves at parties with alcoholic beverages. One article that I read (though I can’t recall where) argued that these types of irresponsible online posts will one day become so common that their existence will become irrelevant, and while I don’t entirely agree, the point is an interesting one. A more striking argument is that the youth of today are becoming increasingly savvy to the potential hazards connected to the things they post.

Today’s youth are actually censoring and, in turn, branding themselves at younger ages than ever before. Studies have shown that children are actively maintaining their profiles in such a way so as to paint themselves in a positive light. I’ve even seen parties where cameras weren’t allowed at all for this very reason, and I believe this kind of behavior is becoming the rule as opposed to the exception. The answer to how people deal with the embarrassing things they post online is becoming more and more that they don’t post them in the first place.

While it’s true that some may find themselves troubled by their online past, I doubt very seriously that we will see a surge in changed identities anytime soon. If social media changes anything, it won’t be people’s names; it’ll be the maturity with which young people present themselves online. While the world of social media may seem like a strange unexplored territory, these types of issues are nothing new. I’m sure that people asked many of these same questions when the personal camera was first invented, and I think we’ve turned out just fine.

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Posted in Branding, Social Media, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

What a Doll

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

What happens when you compare the video quality of an $1,800 Canon camera to video shot by a $50 Barbie Video Girl?

Canon 7D vs. Barbie Video Girl from Brandon Bloch on Vimeo.

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Posted in General Blogginess, Technology | 3 Comments »

What Do You Know?

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

MTV is currently airing a show titled “If You Really Knew Me” (yes, I watch MTV reality shows). The show chronicles what happens on Challenge Day, a day when a team of speakers comes to a high school campus in an effort to break down the walls between cliques and inspire the student body to come together to create change at their schools, uniting the student body. There are tons of tears as they go through the program to discover that, at the end of the day, Jocks go through many of the same things as the Emos and the Homecoming Queen isn’t too different from the Band Geek.

There is this one part of the program where everyone stands on one side of a line and one of the Challenge Day leaders announces a statement; if the statement applies to you, you cross the line. For example, you might be asked to cross the line if you have ever:

  • been ridiculed for your weight
  • lived in a household where alcoholism was a problem
  • been kicked out of your house

After you cross, you look around and see that you’re probably not alone for what obstacle(s) you have in your life. Or you might see that your friend might be going through hard times and you had no idea. Every show always includes a revelation or two about “I never knew so-and-so dealt with that!” The whole idea of the exercise is to open up the students’ eyes to see their classmates crossing the lines and understand that everyone might be hiding something.

(more…)

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Posted in Consider This, General Blogginess, Social Media | 3 Comments »

Happy Friday the 13th!

Friday, August 13th, 2010

In honor of Friday the 13th, here are some superstitions from around the Gunn/Jerkens office:

  • During the morning production meeting, don’t say anything along the lines of “There’s not that much work to do” because that will inevitably lead to a day full of tons of work.
  • Don’t step on the tiled border in the hallway. (Just don’t.)

  • Be prepared for some sort of difficulty in your day if you travel with Amanda for work. Locked keys, delayed flights, dead car battery. Unfortunately for Amanda, most of the time she is on the receiving end of the trouble.
  • No matter how advanced a client’s set-up is, we always bring our own projector and screen to plug the laptop in for presentations.

I think all of us here have more habits or idiosyncrasies than superstitions when it comes to work.  Those might come out at another time so be prepared.

Have a lucky 13th!

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Posted in Around the Office | 3 Comments »

Tangled Web

Monday, August 9th, 2010

So around 11pm last night, I fell into a trap that I encounter at least once a month. I logged on to the internet with simple intentions (in this case, I was looking for a David Gray video) and then, three hours later, I look at the clock and wonder where the time went.

There are probably much more productive things to do with my time, such as sleeping, than watching third-rate cover versions of songs performed in a dorm room but sometimes I can’t help but click on some of YouTube’s “Suggestions” only to travel down that never-ending path of tangentially related videos. You know what it’s like: you find music videos from the artist then you find live performances which have too much crowd noise so you find a better recording after which you find an acoustic cover…it never seems to end!

The thing is, when I do go on one of these multiple-hour web binges, I never go scouring the web from topic to topic. Instead, I usually spend hours looking at essentially the same thing. I wonder if a website’s suggestions/related items feeds into my OCD tendencies? In the past, I’ve also been guilty of losing track of time while:

  • Browsing Flickr: I’ll see a contact’s recent upload and check it out and then I’ll see what groups the user put the picture in and then it’s all over. I start looking at group submissions and find all of these random groups and discover new photographers.
  • Facebook Hunting: Sometimes I’ll get inspired and try to remember as many people from my past, like high school, and then I can spend hours trying to find them on Facebook. Don’t tell me “Facebook stalking” isn’t one of your pastimes!
  • Cleaning iTunes: I do this so rarely that when I do commit to doing it, it’s a huge ordeal. I need to make sure every song has cover art, every title is capitalized appropriately and I even check that the volume levels are equal. I can’t explain the level of satisfaction I get once I’m done!

This post is part confession but hopefully also the start of a support group for people who find themselves doing the same thing. I can’t be alone in this — What sort of sites do you get trapped in when you’re online?

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Posted in Consider This, General Blogginess | 2 Comments »

Wine, Country

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

One of our clients, Baldacci Family Vineyards, will be hosting the Nashville in Napa event on August 14, 2010. This special night will bring some of Nashville’s hit-making country music songwriters to Napa Valley where some of the area’s best wineries will be pouring their wines. Proceeds from the event will benefit non-profit organizations selected by NOTES for Education, whose mission is to “fund programs that bring music, art and literacy to school-age children.”

Music, Wine and a Good Cause – is there a better combination?

Here is the video for Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb” which was co-written by Jessi Alexander, one of the songwriters who’ll be at the event. (I wonder if she has any crazy Miley stories!)



Help us spread the word about the Nashville in Napa event and this great cause! If you or anyone you know would like to buy tickets to the event or learn more about it, you can check out Nashville in Napa.

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Posted in General Blogginess | 4 Comments »