Kids with jobs

“The most sophisticated people I know - inside they are all children”

- Jim Henson


Late twenties and early thirties... and We are just kids. With jobs. And that makes us awesome.

I'd like to be the kid that got to market this as their job.

TomTom records Bert and Ernie's navigation voices from AmsterdamAdBlog on Vimeo.

Quote of the day

" What are we running our aeroplanes on? Champagne?"

- Anonymous colleague

(in response to learning about our company's third consecutive profit warning because of "rising fuel costs" while all our competitors are in a very good financial state.)

Let's just say, learning about the demise of your company via The Wall Street Journal was kind of a hilarious experience. Only because it felt stupidly surreal.

A sign

I got something in my inbox today, which I am going to classify as a sign.

If I told you what it was, it would sound really weird and geeky.

I shouldn't pretend that I am neither of those things but some things are just too strange for other people to get.

In any case.... the time is nigh!!!

Where's your aim?

image from my latest favourite website Nerd Boyfriend

"The great danger for most of us is not that we aim to high
and miss it,
but that we aim too low
and reach it."

- Michaelangelo

First video interview

Interview and video direction by me.

Physalia motion design studio: interview from SubmarineChannel on Vimeo.

Blending

Ladies and Gentlemen,

May I present the definition of "blending".

Yoga + Breakdancing = Super bendy B-boy.

I am inclined to believe on an increasingly growing basis that nothing has to be mutually exclusive in this world.

Love it.

Break ton Neck from Alex Yde on Vimeo.

The Lost Thing

Part of the reason I have been so lax in updating this little platform has been because I have been trying to juggle a few balls in the air.

Freelance writing for a lot of blogs about pop culture and motion graphics and art, the full time job and then blowing off some general steam.

Also, the all-consuming task of working out my next move in the face of a rental contract that's about to end, and the fact that I am turning 30 soon, which means opportunities for working holiday visa opportunities will end very shortly in many many countries.

Do I stay here, do I move on, do I reinvent myself into a total creative and ditch the project management/strategy side to me, what-o-what do I do?!

In terms of moving on, I have often thought about whether I would fare better in London or even risk it all again and move to Berlin.

I decided to try and make an online portfolio of work I have been up to, to try and get myself another job, hoping it may help me present myself better online and be a one-click representation of myself as a writer.

This was instigated recently after Tommy Hilfiger emailed me - the company, not the man himself - after I applied for a creative copywriter job at their European Headquarters. They asked to see my portfolio and I had to send them about 10 links to 10 different articles I had written. I thought an online portal of one singular link might help me convey myself a little bit more professionally.

What was supposed to be a creative portfolio of my writing and copywriting to break into the creative side of an ad agency turned into me into thinking how I didn't really want to fit into one box and wanting to add some considerable projects I had invested a lot of time and energy into as a an advertising strategist. And then what about my cultural journalism stuff?

I don't mind fitting into a few boxes, but I know that companies think you look flakey as an all-rounder. Arent we all supposed to be specialists and not generalists?

Question: "Which side of the fence do you sit on? Creative or strategy? Editorial or conceptual? Video or print?"

Answer: " All of them."

To be quite honest, in this economic climate, I don't think companies can really afford to hire anyone who is good at one singuar thing or specialise in a niche but hey, who am I to comment?

This morning I woke up and someone I had requested an interview with had made a last minute decision to agree to meet me online.

In requesting an interview, I should say, I wanted to do a piece on him for my freelance job, not requesting him to meet me to give me a job.

It was 8.30am when I woke up. He wanted to skype at 8 am (my time).

Not thinking that he would agree to the interview, I hadn't prepared myself the night before.

I mean, I had notes, and a vague recollection of what he did, but I needed some time to brush myself up on his work and research him a little more.

In actuality, I think he's brilliant (and so does the rest of the world) and was certain he was a very down-to-earth and lovely guy.

How would I know? Well, he's Australian for a start, and the way he writes on his website, he seems to be...well... nice.

I logged onto skype and sent him a few messages, but he didn't appear.

"Damn. I should have woken up earlier and checked my email and logged on in time. I am such a noob. A failure at this whole thing. How could you let someone like him wait for someone like you? "

I spoke to my cousin in the meantime, had a bit of a pep talk with her and then he appeared online apologising for not being on time.

I interviewed him and he was lovely. Inspirational.

Who was he?

Shaun Tan, the illustrator and writer of a multitide of picture books (for adults) and graphic novels. Also a painter, set designer and director with a degree in fine arts and english literature.

One of his graphic novels was recently completed into a movie which took ten years to make and runs for 15 minutes.

Shaun told me the main animator was from Adelaide.

He also told me over our one hour interview that he just needed to be flexible and adaptable in his career and just learn on the fly for all the projects that life threw his way. He said he felt like he was getting a little PhD in learning to do what he does as he plays so many different roles.

This year, Shaun and an Australian production team won the 2011 Academy award for Best Animated Short film and accepted the Oscar from Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis.

Watch the video here.

At the end of his acceptance speech, his counterpart Andrew Ruhemann says "This award is for Lost Things everywhere."

Apparently, there's nothing wrong with dabbling. In fact, being good at a few things might ultimately be more than ok.

Until the last twig

"Child in Arms" by Kathe Kollwitz

"I do not want to die until I have faithfully made the most of my talent and cultivated the seed that was placed in me until the last small twig has grown."

- Kathe Kollwitz

Set the world on fire

image by Alexander Kent

"If you are what you should be, then you'll set the world on fire."

- St Catherine of Siena

The mist

My building.

Amsterdam has been covered in a misty fog for the last few weeks, and I am absolutely loving it.

It reminds me of a couple of things.

I looked outside my front windows today and I had a nolstalgic moment of home.

The fog in the Adelaide Hills was always pretty disorientating and quite dangerous when you're speeding up the freeway at 100 kilometres per hour, but I always loved it.

The colours of autumn in the trees at the park across the road, in conjunction with the mist made me think about the Adelaide Hills, and how nice it was there, and how nice it is here right now. Not too cold at six degrees, just nice.


Also brings me back to when I first arrived and ended up housesitting Pia's houseboat along an inner city canal at the beginning of winter. The streets along that canal are all cobblestoned with old street lamps illuminating the way home. I was walking back from my first Christmas dinner with the company, and wondering if I would end up staying in Amsterdam to see another winter.

I had joked with my boss at the time that since there was no guarantee of me being around next year as I was on a contract, we should go all out on the dinner and go nuts with the wine. I walked home (the houseboat) from the museum restaurant, through the mist and fog and I remember feeling like I was walking through an old movie, expecting Sherlock Holmes and some bloodhounds to come tearing around the corner. (Understanding that this isn't London, I'm just trying to convey how old world it felt.)

The first week I was there, it was like living in Sleepy Hollow.

Then fast forward to the weekend just been, I spent it with friends doing fun things, sometimes creative, sometimes absurd, sometimes pointless.

Last night, I stayed at a friend's house after a paticularly huge Saturday night out with a few other people, and my friend AHS and I were cycling over a bridge over the Amstel river trying to navigate our way home.

We had all been watching movies inside the entire day, bravely fighting hangovers with toasted cheese sandwiches, kapsalon (literally, "The Hairdresser" - which is a dutch fast food kebab invention of kebab meat, covered in melted cheese, aoili, salad, and tomato sauce and fries) and coffee.

As I cycled next to AHS, we could barely see through the dense cloud that surrounded us, not even being able to see the lights along the river, or the illuminated outline of the Skinny bridge (Magere Brug), Amsterdam's most famous bridge. Being inside all day with Australians and watching American movies, it was very easy to forget where I was.

"Don't you feel like you're in a movie?"

"Yeah. All the time. I hope it never ends." he said.

All the ranting and wailing in my previous post was just a basic frustration about my job and the whole situation with being owned by the company.

But it's that same job that allows me to have the great times that I do, stay with the great friends that I have and experience "normal" things like cycling home through thick fog.

I went to bed last night, and looked outside my bedroom window and saw the transluscent mist floating around and I kind of gasped unintentionally.

I went to bed grateful.

Loud n clear?!?

Hey Universe

Do you need a hearing aid?

Perhaps you're not au fait with the english language and I need to do more interpretive dance?

Or can you not read my handwriting?

Should I write in red 172 point font?

Because I am pretty sure I am doing everything I am supposed to be doing on my end and this was a two way deal.

Voidness

Sorry that there has been a blank void in the space where I should be filling you in on my latest ramblings.

I wasn't aware that so many people were that interested, but some people have been quite vocal about the silence.

I have a heap of photos, media and things to write about so in terms of content, got plenty of that.

One of me BFF's from Australia who now lives in London is arriving tonight at 10pm, so I doubt that this weekend will be the one where I disclose my shenanigans online, but hopefully soon.

Museum N8

Museum N8. aka Museum night, is when all the museums in Amsterdam (and in some other dutch cities) are open until 2am, and they host events, parties, DJs, bands and you get to hang out and see everything and party.

This year's agenda wasn't as compelling (compared to last year) but I always wanted to go, so I went anyway. And it wasn't as good as I thought it would be, but nonetheless, an experience.

Over heard whilst leaving a lame museum....

Guy: Well, I mean, let's not forget the reason we're all here...
Girl: (perkily) The alcohol?
Guy: (confused) Err. No... the art...