Arsenal - Nothing Left to Lose

What else is there now that Fabregas is gone?

Such a cruel twist of irony - just a day after the Champions League pairing of Arsenal vs Roma (Danny's team) is announced we both lose our captains to injury.

Reports have Roma's talisman, Francesco Totti, out for two months.

Fabregas could be done for the season.

The only bright spot to emerge from all of this is that we put in one of the most fearless performances I've seen in a long time against lucky Liverpool.

I loved the ball from Nasri and Van Persie's battle to fire home a goal from a crazy angle.

Even without Cesc, and after Adebayor got tossed (who says Liverpool isn't lucky?) - I found myself believing not only that we wouldn't lose but I even considered for a moment that we might even win.

We didn't, obviously, but Liverpool were exposed as the weaker side, only managing a draw with an extra man on the pitch.

The team and the fans finally stood together and we played our hearts out.

This wasn't the desperate Arsenal we've seen so many times this season in the last minutes of the match, this was a dangerous Arsenal.

Let's keep it up against a Villa side who's got some injuries of their own.

We're not going to win the league.

But we can play for respect.

Artgig Annual Concert Series - Lake Trout

Artgig took the show on the road last night, celebrating the third year of our annual holiday concert series with our familiar favorites - Lake Trout.

Lake Trout is a great little genre-bending band that effortlessly moves from electronic to jazz fusion, to Radiohead-rock to flute, in an improve-heavy jam session that somehow mixes all of these influences and spits them out in a set that is at once fully satisfying and still leaves you wanting more.

Often hailed as the best band nobody knows, we saw Lake Trout at a nearly empty Highline Ballroom last year for our holiday celebration, and I've been hooked ever since.

Since then, the band has been spending a lot of time on the UNKLE project and when it was announced that they were making a rare appearance at The Mercury Lounge in the village, well, our holiday plans were sealed.

We arrived at The Mercury Lounge on a cold and blustery NY night to find the place nearly empty.

My good pal Nick joined us as a special guest, standing in as Lis's stunt double for the evening.

The opening line-up featured:

Charles Atlas

Wax Fang

Jones Street Boys

I didn't pay much attention to the opening acts - opting instead to spend some quality time at the bar.

Hats off to the bartender at ML - he even bought us a round!

During Charles Atlas, a girl stumbled out of the listening room as I was snapping this picture of the gang:


She was visibly shaken, and warned us not to take pictures, to erase our memories and forget this place because the music was just too depressing.

Skipped Wax Fang.

By the time The Jones Street Boys (I almost typed the Jonas Brothers) hit the stage, the place was pretty packed but we still had some elbow room.

They seemed to have a good following, I don't mind saying I don't care how much fusion you throw in the pot with Country - it's not for me.

They finished their set a capella - yee-haw!

We grabbed another round of Blue Moons and staked out our spots closer to the stage

The listening room at Mercury Lounge reminds me of the basement in my parents old house where I grew up - it's a truly intimate space and a real pleasure to see a band like Lake Trout do their thing up close & personal.

As the band made their way to the stage and did a quick sound check, a small pocket of nearby fans, announced their allegiance with scattered shouts of "Baltimore in the house."

And then Lake Trout did what they do - they just let it rip.



Nick came up to me after a few tunes and said with the greatest admiration, "they just came out and started jamming."

When the flute came out, he responded just as I had a year ago, "That dude, the keyboardist, is actually playing a flute - it's crazy."

And then it was over.

It was too short - I wanted more.

But Lake Trout had left the building.

Until next year...

Go pick-up the new live Lake Trout album for FREE at The Biggest Label Ever, an experimental site that offers free music, paid for by advertising.

All you have to do is register to get the tunes.

Happy Holidays!

I've got a plan...

How are we supposed to take this team seriously?

The above photo is real (no Photoshop up my sleeve) - I snapped it right off the Arsenal website.

It's a scene from a video the Arsenal boys made for the Teenage Cancer Trust, and truth be told, it's well done - warm-hearted and downright cute.

Hats off for the effort and a welcome feel-good moment in an otherwise gloomy season.

Still, cute may be appropriate for charity but it doesn't win games in the Premiership.

Cute is what got us here - a reliance on baby-faced teens and dazzling footwork that doesn't seem to be fooling anybody these days.

We're limping to a showdown with league leaders, Liverpool, and we'll meet the new number four, Aston Villa, the day after Christmas.

Crazy, frustrating weekend where each of the big four (apparently, we're still included despite being number five), tied.

Gotta love the fight in the Hull City Tigers - right behind us at number six.

I think we can raise our game and beat Liverpool.

Just need to keep an eye on that shifty Dirk Kuyt at all times.

I'd love to payback the luckiest team on the planet for the miseries they heaped upon us in Champion's League and the Premiership last season.

We're up against it once again - this is where we shine.

We'll rob Liverpool of their little rabbit's foot or Leprechaun or whatever the hell it is they've got in their back pocket and ride our luck right into the January transfer window when we'll purge the team of the spoiled, pink-booted, lackluster performers and bring in some new cool, serious heads who will lead us in storming the tables to the top in a fight to the death.

Sounds like a plan.

It's at least as good as the one we've got right now.

A Very Tarry Christmas...

We just finished adding a couple more jazzy features to the christarry.com shopping experience.

The first is what's come to be know as the “Radiohead Feature” here at the Artgig lab. Users can now choose what they want to pay for their downloads– ala Radiohead's approach with last year's In Rainbows release. Power to the people!

Of course the holidays are rapidly approaching, so we've also added a Gift option. Buy some music, check a box and add the email of your favorite jazz aficionado and they'll receive a link to download whatever you bought them.

Sweet.

Surf's Up!

Lis sent this this morning and I had to put it up.

Australian surfer Joel Parkinson wipes out in powerful five to seven-metre surf (that's 10-12 foot waves to the rest of us) during the World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach on Oahu's North Shore, Hawaii, on December 4, 2008.

One In a Row

So the bright and brilliant Arsenal youth squad finally falls to Barnsley at the cold and unwelcoming pitch at Turf Moor.

"Turf Moor."

Everytime I see it in print, I think of "Darth Maul" from Star Wars.

It sounds like a far away place - home to things dark and sinister.

A place that haunts Nicolas Bendtner and his pink boots at the very least.

Pink boots.

C'mon, Nick.

If you're going to wear pink boots you gotta beat the keeper when presented with a one-on-one opportunity - and you were gifted three!

So our precious kids crash and burn in the Quarterfinals of the Carling Cup.

Again.

Not to take anything away from our win at Chelsea over the weekend because it was truly special to witness the fight back at the Bridge.

But we have to win more than one in a row to have a chance.

Squanto...

We wrapped the latest installment in the Weekly Reader story series, "The Story of Squanto," just in time for Thanksgiving.

We were originally planning this third module for 2009 but they were so pleased with Appleseed and Columbus they decided to jump back in.

Like the previous installments, Squanto includes an animated video, original audio and music, read-along text, and both an online and printable quiz.

Check out the entire series here.

Australia Update

Australia may be somewhat insulated from the downward economic spiral the rest of us are swimming in, but it is also a land where you can wake up to find a monster like this living in your garage.

Thanks, Lis...

Dan Cray Website Launch...

We're happy to announce the launch of our latest musician website, dancray.com.

Dan's site has similar functionality to that of other musicians we've worked with over the past few years, and as is usually the case, Dan's custom requests have enabled us to continue building on what has become a bona fide web platform that caters specifically to musicians.

So what's new with this one? The online store now supports PayPal in addition to most other popular payment gateways, and in an interesting twist on the typical cd/mp3 buying options, visitors can also buy Dan's albums on USB thumb drives. We also integrated a wordpress blog and skinned it to match the rest of the site, including the Flash navigation. And last but not least, Steve cooked up some custom mailing list sorting so Dan can easily target his audience by geographical region– obviously handy when tour time rolls around.

Dan will be playing the Chicago area throughout November, so check out the site for dates - and don't blink or you might miss the piano-playing crawdad in the loader:

dancray.com

Shocked and Gutted

I had two thoughts on my way to work this morning:

1. It's a beautiful, crisp fall morning - the autumn colors are really glowing in this perfect golden morning light.
2. Arsenal stinks

That's not really fair, Arsenal doesn't stink but they are most definitely suffering from a serious case of "we can't string a couple of wins together for the life of us" syndrome.

I've been following Arsenal for about six years strong now, and I don't believe I've ever lacked belief this early in the season.

To put it plainly, this team doesn't have what it takes to win the Premiership.

The league is simply too tough and unforgiving.

I've been purposely quiet on the matter of Arsenal, silently watching as they've blown teams off the field in Champion's League play and struggled in the Premiership.

Me and Jim were watching the London derby yesterday on the internet and a stuttering webcast is no good way to watch a match, but the shocking result was loud and clear.

After leading 4-2 with less than five minutes to play, the hated Spurs struck back twice in two minutes to tie the game and that's how it ended.

Unbelievable.

We both made the mistake of commenting on how rock steady Alumnia has been in goal - and then he had his worst game of the season.

We laughed at Van Persie's chicken dance when he finally scored - vaulting Arsenal to a 4-2 lead and surely, without a doubt, putting the match out of reach.

Surely.

Not with this Arsenal team.

More than ever before, there is a sense of frailty about this squad.

Call it a lack of spine, call it youth, call it naive, call it what you want but it stinks and it just isn't good enough.

Arsenal is broken and the fix requires more than Wenger's formula of tweaking and tinkering.

I haven't been one to jump on the "break the bank" bandwagon, but we've got to get back to a belief in winning and we need steel in defense - now, for next season.

That's right - I want to see us building now for next year because our chances of going all the way with this team and mentality are slim to none.

Signed,

Shocked and Gutted

Slumdog in Pleasantville...

Caught a special screening of Danny Boyle's new film, "Slumdog Millionaire," right down the block at the Jacob Burns Film Center on Friday night.

Special treat - Danny Boyle and the 18 year-old star of the film, Dev Patel, were there to answer questions after the screening.

I've admired Boyle from his early days when he cranked out two of my favorites: Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, but I feel like I lost touch after the disappointing combo of A Life Less Ordinary and The Beach (not sure how he screwed that up).

The advance buzz on Slumdog has been pretty hot and I'm happy to say, this is a great thrill of a film.

The movie takes place in India, and Boyle treats the senses to a frantic wash of color, pumping sound and flat-out electricity, telling the story of Jamal, a kid from the slums who ends up on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

But the best part is the way he tells the story.

Each correct answer on the show relates directly to a moment in Jamal's fantastic life, leading to his moment in the spotlight.

The time jumping is so perfectly blended, the result is remarkably fluid.

No spoilers here, just go see it.

Columbus...

Here's another module in the Weekly Reader series for Reader's Digest.

Check out "The Story of Christopher Columbus" here.

Working on Squanto now to deliver in time for Thanksgiving dinner...

Look Out!

I was looking for an image this morning to illustrate the permeating global fear that the sky is falling when Jim sent this.

Perfect.

Let's just list the reasons to stay indoors today:

1. The world is screwed (except, of course those lucky enough to live in Australia)
2. Arsenal is completely Schizophrenic

AAPL - 91.84
(pretty bad, considering we just got $700 billion for bail)

Train Wreck

As soon as I start feeling good, talking about our "flying start," we go careening off the rails against Hull City at home, losing 2-1.

It was Fulham all over again - but worse.

For the first time in over 100 years, the Hull City Tigers (they even sound like a little league team) got a promotion from the second division to play with the big boys in the upper ranks of English football.

And boy, did they take their shot.

And they beat us at home.

Gotta give those Tigers credit.

Wenger said the match made him "physically sick."

Me too.

Australian Rules...

While Arsenal are storming the EPL, somewhere on the other side of the world, Lis is watching ARF - that's right - Australian Rules Football.

For those of us who only know of AFL because Russell Crowe is a huge fan and co-owner (go South Sydney Rabbitoh's!), ARF is basically rugby - the inspiration for american football that combines soccer and kill the carrier (did anyone else play this as a kid?).

Lis sent me this excerpt from a website explaining the whole crazy, sport

1.9 Why are umpires 'booed' off the ground ?

In a large proportion of matches, whenever the umpires leave the field at half-time or the end of the match, the majority of the crowd will 'boo' them as they leave. Although more prevalent at games where the home team is losing (lost) and received controversial umpiring decisions against them, that doesn't explain this common action. Some propose that it comes from Australian's anti-authoritarian feelings as an ex-convict settlement that leads supporters to generally dislike umpires, but now, it comes as almost a tradition that the umpires are hated.

Gotta love the wild west aspect of it all.

Typical Australian outlaws.

Long live Chopper.

There's Carlos Vela...

After a rough takeoff, looks like we're cruising with a flying start in the league.

Again.

6-0 to Arsenal, with a sound thumping of Sheffield United in Carling Cup action this week.

Hat trick by Vela in his first league start.

Brace by Bendtner.

Goal for 16-year-old Englishman, Jack Wilshire.

I was checking the score on my iPhone in a DC airport and it was impressive to see the goal tally keep rising with each page refresh.

(iPhone battery - not so impressive)

My initial concerns about a thin squad seem bloated and ridiculous at present.

Exciting stuff and we still haven't seen the best from some of our big guns.

Just need to pace ourselves - we were leading the league last season until the final two months.

Spring is a long way away...

Carling goals here.

AAPL 131.44
(not bad, considering our economy is in a nosedive)

Looking For Miza?

Introducing miza.com

We’re very pleased to finally pull back the curtain on this little Flash website we’ve been working on, along with the good folks at ESI Design.

Miza.com is the companion website for the children’s book, “Looking For Miza,” published by Turtle Pond in conjunction with Scholastic Corporation.

“Looking For Miza” is the true story of a baby Congolese mountain gorilla who is rescued by her family and returned home after her mother’s death.

The book and website are designed to raise awareness and promote education about the plight of the mountain gorillas in Africa.

The project is part of the Clinton Global Initiative and will be featured as part of the first-ever Kids Gorilla Summit in a live webcast on September 26th.

It’s easy to get behind this one and as an added bonus we got to work with some very creative and talented people who let us strut our stuff.

The site features activities and games that include:

• Interactive video maker that lets kids make audio/video mash-ups of their favorite wildlife clips
• Gorilla nose print matching game
• Videos, animated shorts, resources, sing-along activities and much, much more...
• And one of my personal favorites, Jungle Jammer – a game that where kids can arrange different musical African animals in a selected environment and watch them get down to the resulting funky beat.

But the crowning achievement for us in this entire production is Gorilla Mountain – a multi-level platform jumping game where users control a ranger as they navigate through the mountains searching for Mountain Gorillas – think Donkey Kong meets Pitfall.

The website launched today but we’ll be tuning it and adding features as we go.

What's My Name?

Busy working on a proposal but I can't not say anything about the 4-0 thrashing of Blackburn over the weekend.

I only caught part of the first half on internet pirate video - RVP had already scored (set-up by wonder boy, Walcott) which is always nice but Blackburn was pressing for most of the half - it seemed like it could swing either way...

Then, as the half was winding down, a beautiful team effort from Arsenal - first probing down the right side and finsding nothing - pushing it back out into their own half and down the left, leading to a Denilson cross and an Adebayor header for a goal.

Seriously, I think everyone but Alumnia touched the ball on that build up - classic stuff and an absolute back breaker for Blackburn.

I checked the score later to see Adebayor scored two more - not too shabby.

Oh, and did I mention lucky Liverpool beat Man U?

Things are suddenly looking up...

Awesome Walcott...

All hail Theo Walcott, the new King of England!

This may be the first time I've seen an Arsenal player so joyfully embraced by two Man U players - Rooney and Ferdinand, no less, but if Theo and Rooney keep playing together like this, it surely won't be the last.

All of England loves Theo after his hat trick defeated Croatia 4-1, in a match that England needed so desperately after looking so pitiful for so many years.

I haven't been following England much over the last couple of years and I'm not a big fan of the international disruption to Arsenal's flow (especially with Nasri picking up a knee knock along the way) but I'm all smiles for Theo.

Bravo!

Now bring some of that magic back to Arsenal!

Google Chrome Beta Review...

I asked the new guy, Jim Bail, to check it out and here's what he thinks:

General Impressions

I personally like to keep my browser as minimal as possible, so I immediately liked the no frills look of Chrome. All you get are tabs, an address bar, basic page navigation buttons and access to a fairly limited set of options/preferences via a couple of unobtrusive buttons on the upper right. If you cringe when you try to check your email on the relatives computer and have to contend with 75 different toolbars and widgets, you'll probably like Chrome. There are even some nice subtle details like the ability to make a tab it's own window by simply dragging it off the tabs bar, or reversing the process to make a separate window a tab. The tabs also have a nice smooth motion and snap-to effect when you move them around that gives a responsive feel. Overall, Chrome looks polished without resorting to a Vista-esque shiny button extravaganza, and all of the important controls are in natural, easy to use places. The one exception is bookmarks. If you don't have the bookmarks toolbar enabled, there doesn't appear to be any way to access them via the regular menus.

In terms of rendering pages, I didn't come across anything unusual. Like Safari, Chrome is based on Webkit, so there shouldn't be any big surprises in terms of standards compliance and things of that sort. Speed wise, I'd say it holds up well with the rest of the major browsers. I'm not one to notice if one browser takes an extra half second to load a page compared to another, so in that regard I thought it was fine.

Interesting/Useful Features

- Google search integrated with address bar. Whereas Firefox 3 attempts to autofill based on your browsing history and bookmarks, Chrome offers the additional option of a google search. So for example, if you type "ny" you get the options to search google for ny times and nyu. I believe these hints are based on common searches by the public as opposed to your individual search history (since I've never searched for NYU on my testing machine)

- The search/address bar will also look at your history and search terms as you're typing. So again, if you type "ny" you get the option to see the most recent 3 pages from your browsing history that contain the term "ny"

- You can define multiple pages to open on startup, so for example you can have webmail, news and whatever else you want in their own tabs when you fire up the browser.

- Homepage defaults to a series of links/screenshots of your most visited sites based on your history.

- Built in task manager lets you see how pages and plugins are using your system resources. If you get a site that's causing problems, this will help identify the culprit without having to close everything down.

Things I'd Like To See

- User created/added extensions like Firefox. They can be incredibly useful.
- Developer tools: There are some basic code inspection/debugging tools built in, but it would be nice to have something more robust along the lines of Firebug or the Web Developer extensions available for Firefox.
- Ability to customize address bar: I'm sure this will be added, but right now you can't do things like add a Home button.
- Full tree view of bookmarks so you can expand more than one folder at a time


The Final Verdict

I'd say Chrome gets a thumbs up. It's definitely not for the feature fanatics out there in it's present state, but I'm sure the basic option/preference sets that people are used to in other browsers will eventually get filled in. If they add a more extensive set of developer tools, I might be tempted to switch from Firefox, but for now there are a handful of must have extensions that I'm not willing to forgo just for the sake of a nicer looking UI and more sophisticated address bar functionality. In a nutshell, it's a good start and I appreciate the fact that Google focused on the core functionality of their browser and didn't get hung up trying to include all kinds of bells and whistles. By and large, I like the way they've thought through common browser tasks and come up with some novel and efficient approaches to getting the basics done. Definitely worth keeping an eye on, to see how it continues to develop.

If you're looking for more Chrome, check out the comic here

AAPL - 151.61

Outback...

We Skyped with Lis today and I'm happy to report all is well in Australia.

It was the end of the day for us but the crack of dawn for her.

It's also on the chilly side as their winter winds down.

I know, everything is all screwy.

Which made for a perfect start to our first Artgig Australia Skype - at first, Lis had only video and we had only audio.

Pretty funny.

Just a matter of setting some preferences and we got the show on the road.

Lis sent some pics from the top of a mountain in Canberra - her teenage son went on an impromptu four hour stroll without telling anyone.

Anyway, I think we can count on this blog getting some nice sprinkles from Australia to keep the flavor fresh and lively.

She also sent this link - a really smart short that's worth checking out:

Surprise

Advantage United...

Well the transfer window slammed shut at midnight yesterday and it looks like a long road ahead without reinforcements.

I'm beginnng to think Wenger has his head in the clouds - perhaps our sparkling display against Newcastle came at the wrong time.

Maybe we'd have a new shirt printed right now if we'd lost.

How can he believe we'll be any different from last season while still lacking depth at key positions?

Does he really expect Fabregas to carry this team on his back - again?

We all know if he goes down, the season is over.

Looks like we'll be biting our nails and crossing our fingers until January, at least.

The only good news to come of transfer day is that Man City hijacked the Robinho to Chelsea deal for something like $60 million - three times what he was making at Real Madrid.

What will Chelsea do with all those Robinho shirts they printed?

Suddenly, Man City is the new Chelsea on the block with new owners who are looking to splash the cash.

Word on the street is they want Cristiano Ronaldo next.

Of course, just when I was thinking Man U was also going to miss out on their target, they made some noise - finally signing Dimitar Berbatov in preparation for a world without Ronaldo because it's clear he's moving on after this season.

Advantage United.

Awesome Arsenal...

First match at the Emirates this season and it was a beauty.

3-0 to the Arsenal.

Arsenal were an absolute pleasure to watch as they totally outclassed and undressed Newcastle - it could have easily been 6-0 if it weren't for the exceptional Shane Given in goal.

It was a total team effort and Arsenal were back to their fluid, artistic style of attack.

The return of Fabregas might just have something to do with it.

This is the Arsenal I love.

Everyone got in on the action, even the awful Eboue looked good (and dare I say clever with that little shuffle and backpass to Van Persie to set up a nice sliding goal).

Just as I was dreaming up a new name for Van Rusty, he came storming back as Newcastle's worst nightmare.

I loved the camera cut to Newcastle's owner, Mike Ashley, chugging a full pint in the stands, sucking it absolutely dry as the despair piled on.

A perfect example of perfect football on Denilson's first ever Premier League goal:

Denilson wins a header in our half and passes to RVP...

Who passes to Nasri...

Who passes to Denilson...

Who passes to Ade...

Who passes back to Denilson on the run...

Who shoots between the defenders legs and past Shane Givens, who is so flabbergasted at this point he flops right on his back.

Brilliant stuff.

And, while I generally prefer a clean game, who couldn't help but smile when Nasri tripped the smirking and snarling Joey Barton, only moments after he tried a jailhouse tackle on Nasri.

I like this Nasri kid more and more every day...

KirkwoodSpiro Website Launch...

Launched a new website for KirkwoodSpiro Marketing Communications last week.

The site is designed as an attention-grabber for first time customers in the B2B space - bottom line is maximum impact.

We ran with their concept of business activation - coming up with a switch and an image on every page that beckons the user to participate in the website experience.

At first glance the images are intentionally sort of sketchy looking but with a flick of the switch, they are activated, and realized in a wash of color.

The site is all in Flash of course, and there's an HTML shadow site behind it for the search engines.

Check it out and be sure to look at the People section - Mike Kirkwood especially likes the action figure boxes.

kirkwoodcom.com

Say Hello to the New Guy...

Meet Jim Bail.

He’s the new Web Designer on staff here at Artgig.

Jim comes to us from a New York internet marketing firm, where he was pretty much a one-man development team.

He’s only been with us a short time but he’s already part of the gang.

I asked Steve what he thought after Jim’s first day, and he replied with a note of praise “he actually got some work done.”

That about sums Jim up – he just dives right in.

And he just happens to be an Arsenal fan.

We sure know how to pick em.

Artgig Down Under...

By the end of the day today, our Creative Director, Lis Cherry, will be on her way home to Canberra, Australia.

Lis has been with us since the very beginning of Artgig over six years ago, and I worked alongside her for four years at Sunburst Technology before that.

That’s ten years, or roughly 2,500 days of working with Lis, and I can honestly say I can count the rough patches on one hand.

It’s quite a history we share.

It goes without saying she will be missed.

But she’s not leaving us entirely.

We’re looking at this as a new beginning and an opportunity for expansion...

We already have the wall clock set to Canberra time here in the office.

The opposite clock means we’ve got an instant night shift.

As soon as Lis hits the ground she’ll be seeking out new talent to add to our network.

And then she'll start looking for the beach house.

That’s right, I’m talking Artgig Australia.

Here's Johnny!

“The Story of Johnny Appleseed” is one in a series of three K-2 reading comprehension story modules we’re producing in partnership with Weekly Reader, a division of Reader’s Digest.

This project is a real throwback to the good old days at Sunburst Technology, where we originally started out making educational software for kids.

The animated story includes on screen text and audio for the student to follow along.

The story is followed by a brief quiz, where students fill a basket with apples as they answer correctly.

Our production schedule for each module is about a month total time, which includes:

1. Review and edits to supplied script and storyboard
2. VO talent casting and recording
3. Original music and sfx production
4. Character design
5. UI design
6. Animation production in flash
7. Separate line art delivery for reproducables
8. Quiz and player production/programming

Next up, The Story of Christopher Columbus…

Check out Appleseed here

Hleb who?

That Nasri looks like the real deal.

Thrashing a team, 4-0, as a follow-up to an embarrassing defeat puts a little spring back in our step doesn't it?

Don't get me wrong, Twente is not a team that should test us, and I'm not thinking we're ready to talk silverware just yet but it builds confidence, especially for guys who seem to need it more than others, like Walcott - and a confident Walcott is a threat to any defense facing us.

We're clearly a different team with Fabregas on the pitch.

Van Persie is wasting space in front of the goal at the moment - hope he breaks out soon.

And the question that seems to be on everyone's mind - "Where the hell is Carlos Vela?"

After the match, I switched over to lucky Liverpool, who squeaked through by the skin of their teeth - if there's a luckier team in Champion's League I'd like to know who it is.

Just saw the draw - at least we avoided Roma, again.

Good for my friendship with Danny at least...

The away games will earn some frequent flier miles as Arsenal travels to Turkey, Ukraine and Portugal.

Let's come out blazing against Newcastle this weekend.

43 years...

0-1

Fulham just beat Arsenal for only the second time in 43 years.

Note to Arsenal - must get better.

Very little of the beautiful game on display today.

Arsenal is completely flat - lacking in leadership and creativity.

In other words, we're nothing without Fabregas.

Denilson and Eboue?

Sorry, no confidence in either of them.

Eboue is a total flopping joke and Denilson gives the ball away cheaply.

Van Persie?

Van Rusty is more like it.

I'm hoping this loss stings enough to give Wenger the extra push he needs to grab a strong central player before the transfer window closes.

A Man U throwaway just ain't enough to get it done.

We've all learned the hard way that the season is a marathon and there's no need to panic yet - I'd rather they take their time hitting their stride than burn out early.

But they also have to learn to win the "easy" games.

I'll file this one under forget it ever happened.

Apple - Good, Bad & Ugly...

The honeymoon is over.

I'm looking at my iPhone in the harsh light of day now and it's not perfect.

Just today I had a client contact me because she was having trouble with email on her iPhone.

She was suddenly unable to send email from her phone and the phone even accused her of having an invalid sender address.

She also got the reverse - accusing her of trying to send mail to an invalid recipient address.

I explained to her, this is not an email problem - it's an Apple data network problem.

I know, I experienced it right out of the box and it nearly drove me to smash my new iPhone into a million little sleek and sexy pieces.

I felt suddenly transported to a time when computers were not so easy and I realized how far we've come and how much we take for granted.

Thanks to Apple we expect things to just work.

And we expect them to look good while they're working.

I was at the playground yesterday and I whipped out my iPhone to snap a picture of my toddler son and nephew as they were playing.

A group of slightly older kids stopped in their tracks - "what's that?" they asked, as I aimed my phone at my boys.

A shaggy-haired kid stood out from the pack - "it's an iPhone" he said smartly.

"Is that a 3G?" he asked me.

"Yes." I replied.

"Cool" he said, obviously feeling bold to be so much further ahead of the curve than his friends.

"All I have is an LG" he confessed.

And I felt bad for him.

Partly, because kids should be playing, not drooling over iPhones.

And partly because he was stuck with a crappy LG phone just like me before I got my iPhone.

Hey, it works most of the time.

APPL - 174.29

Kick-off...

This is my nephew, Gabriel - the newest member of my own personal Gunners fan club, consisting of myself, my son and my three nephews.

Tomorrow is the big day.

I'll be there, watching a 7:30 AM pirate broadcast on my laptop because the match isn't televised.

Arsenal, one of twenty teams who are aiming for the Premier League title.

They'll each play each other twice, once home and once away - thirty-eight matches lasting until May of 2009.

Thirty-eight matches and we're already grappling with a thin squad and key injuries - my hope is we get the bumps and bruises out of the way early and pick up steam as we go.

In other words, the opposite of last year.

Hoping Fabregas is just taking it easy right now and Van Persie stays healthy...

and Rosicky and Eduardo are able to return to form after looong injury spells...

and we pick up that one experienced midfield signing we're presently missing...

and the rest of the team avoids injury...

and Ade bags more goals than he misses...

and Nasri is the next Zidane...

Pause to catch my breath...

We looked like crap from what I saw of the Twente match, but we won and really that's the point so I'll take it.

Just shaking off the rust and we can only get better - right?

I caught some of our end of the season match against Man U the other night on Fox and I was reminded that despite an awful stretch where we lost all hopes of winning silverware, we ended the season with a lot of fight left.

Inspiring.

Here's to a new season...

Here's to Arsenal.

Retraction - sort of...

I'm not too big to man-up when it comes to apologies, so here goes...

I'm sorry, Peter Gabriel.

When Peter Gabriel launched his new multimedia site, The Filter, I said he should stick to his day job.

First of all, it wasn't working when I checked in on the big launch day.

And second, I don't see the need for another multimedia site that tailors music, movies, and web offerings according to tastes.

Then Lis was telling me yesterday that Peter Gabriel had revolutionized a way to sell music online by giving it away for free.

That's right - totally free.

Well, free as long as you're willing to listen to a bit of attached advertising for a month before it dissolves and then you've got your music in the clear.

The site is in Beta now, and it's called We7.

Check it out - Pete may just be on to something:

We7.com

Dare to believe...

Ade stays.

It's been a noisy summer for the Gunners but things finally seem to be settling down.

I was ready to let Ade go, but I'm happy he's staying - I think his behavior has been questionable over the last month or so, but I think it has more to do with his agent and his departure would have been a blow to the team chemistry ahead of a tough campaign.

I caught parts of both Emirates Cup matches this past weekend, and I think maybe we're not in such bad shape after all.

Suddenly, we've got players like Carlos Vela and Jack Wilshere to look forward to in first team action. Vela looks like he teams well with Bendtner and Jack, at only 16 years old, shows nothing but promise.

Add a healthy Van Persie and a healed Eduardo to the mix and we look deep in attack.

Still issues in the midfield and the back where we lack experience and depth but I'm hoping that one more signing is a proven gem.

We'll need it because Chelsea and Liverpool look stronger and Tottenham could be a threat, especially if they get Arshavin.

And of course, there's always Man U...

Ronaldo has never really caused us much trouble so I'm not sure if it helps if he actually goes to Real Madrid.

Poor Flamini - no Champion's League and just got spanked by Chelsea 5-0 in a friendly Milan will hope to forget.

Ahead of the Curve...

Well, I finally got my iPhone, thanks to my lovely wife who surprised me last week.

And I saw "The Dark Night" yesterday at an Imax theater.

I think I'm all caught-up with the rest of the world for a brief moment.

"The Dark Knight" is an awesome film and Imax is the way to go.

It's not without its flaws and it stops short of transcending the genre but it's easily a best of breed winner.

Forget Jack, Heath is the Joker.

But let's not get carried away - as good as Heath is, he's not Jack in "The Shining."

The iPhone has made me forget why I was bitching about Apple - it's really a work of art.

Of course my wife's first generation iPhone is having problems since the software update but that's another story.

Apple scrubbing the bowl today...

APPL - 152.88

Apple - why?

Got a letter of apology today from Apple for the rocky start to the MobileMe launch.

They should apologize for the logo.

I don't like it.

Not one bit.

Just look at it.

So un-Apple.

So un-cool.

I'm honestly a little embarrassed.

AAPL - 172.81

Hleb - Bye Bye Baby...

I never cared much for him despite the fact that he was brilliant at times last season - at times.

He's too lightweight, reluctant to pull the trigger in front of the goal & I was never comfortable speaking his name.

Now he gets to hook up with the great Henry - just like old times.
I hope so - they never played well together at Arsenal.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Center for Communication Compliance Website...

...Or CCC as we've come to know them, launched the first training and certification portal for healthcare communicators last week.

Ilyssa Levins, CCC's founder and president, looks like she's onto something here - she's aiming to set a standard for regulatory training for an industry that is increasingly under the gun.

Based on our CMEpilot platform, this phase of development includes the public-facing website portal, testing and certification for public relations professionals, and custom back-end analytics that will enable industry benchmark reporting down the road.

Phase two will see the launch of training and tests for advertising and medical education pros.

Read all about it here.

communicationcompliance.com

iPhone - From the Trenches

By now, you've probably heard the news - the iPhone 3G international launch today is a huge success and a giant mess.

I started my day early for a business meeting in NY so I decided to take a walk down 5th Ave to the ATT&T store to see if I could pick one up real quick.

I took one look at the line snaking around the block and decided I could wait.

I checked in with Danny to see if he was having any better luck up the road...
I only talked to him for a minute but it sounded like he was also high and dry - the store he was waiting at had run out of stock.

Fast forward eight hours and I just got a full report from Danny - a blow-by-blow account of one man's unwavering determination in the face of tremendous odds:

On Jul 11, 2008, at 4:04 PM, Dan D'Agostino wrote:

Glenda and I arrived at the AT&T store at 7:00 AM. We were told by store staff that based on our position on line that we would at least walk away with the 8gig versions. There was about 60- people in front of us. At 8:00 the doors opened and we moved closer to the doors. By 9:00 we were almost there and then the line just stopped moving. Glendalee left for work after an AT&T guy said he would allow me to get 2 without her being there. By 10:00 AM I hadn’t moved more than five feet. At 10:30 they came out and said they sold out. There were still 30 people in front of me?????? So that means they only had 30 phones? Why tell me and another 60 people behind me that they would be ok? So I decided to take the subway to the Apple store on 59th and 5th and when I got there the line was around the corner—about 1000 people easily...Funny thing. An entrepreneur had a bunch of strippers (seriously) walking up and down the line buying first generation iPhones from people. Not so bad. I hung out 20 minutes spent $100 on lap dances (kidding) and noticed the line wasn’t moving. Something was up. I decided to go to work and on my way I passed another AT&T store. The staff person at the door said they only had a few phones left and not to bother but there was about 100 people on line. Why not tell them?

I got to work at about 11:15 and at 12:00 I asked a coworker if they wanted to go grab lunch—by the AT&T store. We stopped at the store and a worker there said no more iPhones today but he would have them tomorrow morning at 8:30 and gave me his card to call him in the AM. I called Nanda to say hi and I told her that news. After lunch we walked by the store again and there was a f’ing line again????? I walked up to the dude and said what the !@#$. He told me they just got a shipment in and made me cut to the front of the line. I picked up 2—one for me and one for G love..... Apparently, they never sold out of the phone. They said that because the system crashed and they didn’t know what to do or how long it would take. They finally got word that Apple gave the ok to sell the phones without activating them in-store. I need to activate it by hooking it up to iTunes, which, we don’t have the latest version of here. So I have to wait till I get home. Wow. I can’t believe I wrote all that.

And there you have it.

I'm still waiting...

APPL - 172.58

Digging in the crates...

We had a chance to revisit bruceweber.com recently to make some updates.

Created over four years ago, it's a really good example of a website that truly stands the test of time.

We added a new "commercials" section to the "filmography" videos so you can check out Bruce Weber's work for Calvin Klein and J.C. Penny.

Stay tuned for more additions...

Chris Tarry Digital Downloads

Just added another cool feature to the Chris Tarry site -

We created a system to generate unique codes for his digital downloads that he can then print on artwork, postcards, whatever to sell at his gigs.

This way, he doesn't have to lug a bunch of CD's around as he travels the globe.

It also takes advantage of that "in the moment" impulse purchase.

Customers simply click the "Redeem Voucher" button on the site and enter the code on the next page to get their music.

We actually talked about this a while back with David Binney, so credit to Dave - we're planning to take care of him in the next Binney site upgrade coming soon...

christarry.com

Jen Chapin Store is Open

Remember I said we weren't messing with the look of the site?

Well, we messed with it, kinda - Jen wanted to update the photo and we've also added some new press features but most importantly, the store is open for business.

Check it out and buy some stuff...

jenchapin.com

44 Years...

I'm happy for Spain.

Winning the Euro Cup after a 44 year trophy draught is an achievement worthy of celebration.

And believe me, all of Spain is celebrating right now.

I remember being in Sevilla with my wife before we were married, had to be at least 10 years ago, and we were staying in some hotel in the heart of town and it was night and suddenly there was this great commotion in the streets down below - cheering and horns honking and shouting because some Spanish soccer team had just won something. Obviously, I wasn't following soccer much at the time, but I remember being impressed by the fans.

And, I really like Spain.

I'm glad Cesc Fabregas experiences this now with his country - he deserves to taste victory for all of his hard work this year.

Sorry for Portugal.

This could have been their year - again.

Need to get over that psychological hump as Spain did, and banish the last soccer demons from the Iberian peninsula.

See you at the World Cup in South Africa in two years...

Thievery Corporation

Saw Thievery Corporation last night at Central Park - what a great show.

Actually, it's been a good welcome to the summer all around - took a long weekend at the beach in Montauk and spent the afternoon in Central Park yesterday feeling some good music and vibes on what turned out to be a perfect summer night.

Seu Jorge made only a brief appearance but he made an impact.
Honestly, the entire Thievery set was on fire, they rolled out all kinds of musicians and singers - even a belly dancer to compliment their exotic mix of sounds that range from the Middle East to the Caribbean.

Gotta give credit to the crew at Turntables on the Hudson also, who made the most of a short set.
Good to see they're still alive and clearly kicking - used to go to their parties down at the piers at the now defunct Lightship Frying Pan.

Can't forget the Frying Pan - no sir.

C'MON PORTUGAL!!!!

Not looking good right now, down 3-1.
Let's summon the spirit of Stallone and win this!

Who is Seu Jorge?

Going to a Central Park Summerstage concert in a couple of weeks for a nice line-up featuring some fine euro-latin talent - Thievery Corporation is the headliner, along with Bebel Gilberto, Federico Aubele and Seu Jorge.

I know the others, but who is this Seu Jorge? I ask.

Now that I'm looking, I'm finding he's one dynamic and fascinating individual.

Raised in the slums of Brazil, he played "Knockout Ned" in the fantastic "City of God."

City of God too violent for you? Perhaps an offbeat comedy is more your taste - he was also in Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic" where he became pals with Bill Murray and Willem Dafoe.

Oh, and he also did a bunch of Bowie covers for the soundtrack - in Portuguese.

Including the "Aquatic Sessions," he's released four solo albums and he tours the world.

You'll also find him in "The Escapist," a British prison break movie, coming soon.

And if that's not enough, Vogue Brazil once dubbed him "the coolest man on the planet."

Interested in more?

Independent

Zeigler Productions

I'm really looking forward to the show...

Euro 2008 Kick Off...

Nice start for Spain, leaving the Russians in the dust, 4-1.
Great to see Fabregas come off the bench and score at the end.
Up until that point it was the David Villa show, scoring all of their goals for the hat-trick.

Great bit of commentary from the soccernet gamecast:

What a day for David Villa. He's been superb today - Kolodin and Shirokov have pooped their pants every time he's got the ball.

Fabregas said recently if there's one player he'd like to see at Arsenal it's David Villa.

Amen!

Doubt he'll be affordable after this display though.

Holland/Netherlands also look dangerous after beating Italy, 3-0 (sorry Danny).

Portugal got off to a respectable start against Turkey, 2-0.

Apples and Oranges

More about Apple:

A good Time piece this morning talking about the iPhone gamble and why Apple has a good shot at becoming a mobile market leader (hint - they make your digital life simple and they do it with style).

We all know Apple makes great-looking intuitive products but the other side of business is customer service and support and Apple also does this better than anyone else.

We recently purchased a new iMac for the home to replace my desktop G5 that died and it was a breeze to set-up & get running in our network of various machines and devices.
And it looks good.
And if something goes wrong we know it will get fixed with minimal hassle (as long as it's in warranty).
That's it.
That's the winning business model.

My brother-in-law who is a photographer when he's not doing construction in the sweltering heat, recently asked me to help him get out of his .mac membership. I got pegged as the computer/mac guy early on so I get the call for anything computer related. He got the membership to put up a simple website to show his work but he doesn't need it anymore. After his credit card was charged for the renewal, he asked me to step in. I checked the refund policy and realized we were outside of the cancellation window by a couple of weeks, but after a quick email to support, we got a very pleasant response, indicating they would honor the request and issue the refund.

Gotta love it.

An Apple is an Apple, everything else is well...not an Apple.

After sleeping on it, investors forgive Apple for the wait...

AAPL - 186.48

And waiting...

It's everything they said it would be but we can't have it until July 11.

I guess I'll just have to live with this banged up old LG phone for another month.

The masses signal their impatience by driving the stock down...

AAPL - 181.68