Alrighty, it's time for a Sunday night entry full of random thoughts. Not sure where to begin, so I will just start.
I went back and watched Wieden's commercial for Honda's cleaner diesel. It's quite inspiring. Sure it's just a commercial, but the idea that hate is not such a bad thing is no joke. Sometimes you can learn the most from the things you like the least. As Dave Winer said recently: "You should always do what you least want to do as long as it's safe. How you learn." (Quote via Jeff Pulver.) That's smart.
I'm not sure whether this is connected at all, but for months before the iPhone came out I told people I'd never get one and that I didn't think it was going to be any good. I've since gone back on all of that. And you know what? I kind of like that I was so incredibly wrong.
Here's that Honda ad:
I spent all day yesterday at Live Earth. It was quite an interesting event. Not sure what my feelings are overall, but here are the Twitters from the afternoon: " There is a plane flying around live earth with a banner that says don't believe Al Gore", " Melissa ethridge is preaching and the teleprompter reads "talks to crowd"", "Ethridge said freedom has no brand name. Someone should look into that: Think of all the free media freedom gets.", " New Jersey really likes bon jovi" and "I forgot how good smashing pumpkins are." So . . . that was my day in a nutshell. Am quite curious to hear everyone else's thoughts on the whole Live Earth idea.
I went to see Pixar's Ratatouille and it was a blast to watch (as well as fairly realistic, apparently). Anyway, one of the thoughts I had as I saw Steve Jobs' name flash on screen during credits is the similarities between Pixar and Apple. Both companies make the most beautiful product in their industry and that's often credited as their biggest asset. However, I think what really sets them apart from their competition is their ability to tell stories that cause visceral reactions. In the case of Pixar and specifically Ratatouille, it's an underdog/equality story and in the case of Apple it's a creativity story. I remember when I got my first Mac that I was amazed at how much more creative it made me feel. It made me want to use it. I was talking to my friend Chet today and he said the same thing about the iPhone.
Speaking of phones, have you noticed that the number of wrong number calls have decreased significantly? Or maybe it's just me . . . I assume it's becaue no one's dialing numbers anymore, rather they're just choosing them from their cell phone's memory. Not sure what the point of this is, but it seems worthy of filing away for later.
We are having a likemind birthday party (it's a year this month). If you're around NYC and want to come, drop me a line and I'll send you the info.
Know there's not a terrible amount of insight or interestingness to this entry, but I felt like writing something and it's Sunday night . . . Have a great Monday!