The Washington Ballet by Design Army & Cade Martin

Absolutely amazing work. Nothing more to say. Enjoy.

More great McDonald's work out of Leo.

McDonald's Eat Fresh. Very fresh.

Ich bin ein Berliner!

Some random shots from Berlin - stay tuned for a write-up.

Tugging on the heartstrings...well done.

Out of Leo Burnett.

Veteran's Day

Remember that freedom is never free. And also remember those that are discriminated against by their sexuality and by the "dont ask dont tell" policy in the military.

This commercial plays OVER and OVER here.

out of Grey Amsterdam

A Beautiful Mind Indeed.

This guy is incredible. Autistic. Started drawing at an early age. They took him for one single trip in a helicopter over Rome and gave him 3 days to draw what he saw. He does so with remarkable precision. Watch.

You know what I dream of when I look up at the clouds...?

DREAMING OF FOXY BOXING!
Geüpload door . -

"It's time...to bring this place to life."

Fantastic work out of BBDo London for Guinness.

I know this much about racing in the rain. I know it is about balance. It is about anticipation and patience. I know all of the driving skills that are necessary for one to be successful in the rain. But racing in the rain is also about the mind! It is about owning one's own body. About believing that one's car is merely an extension of the car, and the rain is an extension of the track, and the sky is an extension of the rain. It is about believing that you are not you; you are everything. And everyting is you.

-The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein

When the sun goes down in Amsterdam...

Our Tuesday night spot at our neighborhood Brown Bar.



Leidesplein by night. Pancake Corner soooo good.


On the Lijnbaansgracht


Pub by candlelight.


Mexico in Holland.

That's Why I Am

10:20am (@agency)

It's raining cats and dogs. [Correction: its hailing.] The weather has progressively been getting grayer, rainier, and colder. Have to start systematically planning your bike excursions from A to B as rain and cold make biking worse. That said, Amsterdam is still as beautiful as it was the day before. We had an amazing fall day last Saturday (see pics below). Walked around the city a bit last night in between grabbing a bite and our usual Brown Bar pitstop for a beer - the city is no more than five stories high and mostly residential. You get to glimpse into people's homes and I have to say every single one looks so quaint and cozy, like a dollhouse. All these people kinda 'stuffed' into these ages-old buildings. Its unlike any place I've ever seen.



Fall in Vondelpark.




Haven't posted in awhile - I figured I'd eventually hit this blog slump. However, without having to spend hours updating my latest adventures here in Amsterdam, perhaps some pictures would tell a better story.

All in all, things are going well here. Feeling pretty settled into life here, although I know there is so much more that I haven't seen. It's borderline complacency almost, as I am settled into the agency/home/weekend routine, but atleast that is something that I am aware of and will try to break. Might be heading to Brussels, Belgium, this weekend so that would definitely shake some things up. It's been harder to run as well, as daylight savings time pushed the darkness up and hour and I have never been one to run in the morning. (Have been going here and there at lunch.)

Halloween. Halloween was great although i was little disappointed in the Dutch. I expected big things from Amsterdam and the best I got was a giant squid (which was pretty good. I speared him and he played along). We had a party with MAS people at our apartment and it was awesome - complete with decorations from the States (thanks Sof, P's sister!).


Sculpture in Vondel.


Dutch market this past saturday - everything from cheese to fresh produce to second hand items to socks to flowers to fish.

Love this :)

GLOBAL TOP DOG

We've entered the global arena for TOP DOG. Check out all the Top Dogs from the Miami Ad Schools around the world (we are SOUTH BEACH) and vote by COMMENTING on the blog.

GLOBAL TOP DOG

Our Neighbors on the Herengracht

Passed by this the other day with Paola.
Dutch fashion designers, Viktor&Rolf:
V&R: Herengracht 446
Pindakaas: Herengracht 320

Spanish Lunch in Holland.

Our classmates from Spain - Luna, Pancho, and Borja - had us all over for "spanish lunch" this past Saturday. It was a long, delicious affair - with a lot of sangria - and a long siesta afterwards. I wish I knew the spanish names for the dishes we ate, but I'll bastardize them and list them here. Sun dried tomato chicken, garbonzo bean salad with garlic aiouli, potatoes and onion casserole, a true spanish tortilla, a homemade tomato/pepper sauce, sangria, and a sweet chees/honey/walnut dish for dessert.

Thanks to them for the home-cooked meal.

On Art.

Came across an article this morning that kinda' falls in line with some work we've been doing in one of our classes. It's an opinion piece from this guy, Paul Wallis of Digital Journal. He talks about contemporary art and, seeing as we've recently been exploring some aspects of art, namely kitsch, thought it was interesting.

He reminds us that contemporary art is a business:

Contemporary art, whether anyone likes it or not, is an industry. It has all the howling spiritual sincerity of a fast food chain. Even the fountains of verbal futility in the art world are essentially marketing exercises.

In one of our classes, we are kind of exploring the idea of 'art' and what defines it exactly. This past week we had to explore kitsch art and determine how we personally feel about it and then determine whether it has any value/need in society today.

If we define "art" as the products of humans creativity, and creativity as the use of our imagination, and imagination as something that is perceived and unbounded, then how can art be categorized in the first place? It seems a bit backwards for artists and people to cast art as being in "poor taste." Everything in life is subjective - it is in the eye of the beholder. Obviously, art especially carries this essence. The age-old debate of modern art: some see modern art as beautiful, others do not. So how do we classify any one piece of art as 'kitsch', in 'poor taste'? Its syntactical, no? And then how much does the market for art determine its 'taste' level? There have been pieces of toast depicting the virgin mary that have sold for thousands of dollars...

Wallis goes on to say that contemporary art is dictated subliminally by the market for it:

The raison d’etre of art has moved a long way from the passionate, to the purposeful. Sadly, it’s also moved to the very predictable. Contemporary art is running on rails. Whatever the artistic values, the social values are now buried in cultural innuendo with price tags.

This is a question which shouldn’t be rhetorical: What does art do?
Before the Second World War, there were real schools of art. Even the Expressionists, lazy sods that they were, and Max Ernst, my hardworking idol, could legitimately claim to be individualists. The Beat Generation artists, who will be unfairly remembered as the ancestors of modern contemporary art, were perhaps the last real school, so nebulous and diverse they were never really defined except as Modern Art.
Whether or not art does ]things like that to culture now is debatable. Art is literally a splash of color to interior designers, and a milch cow to galleries. Publicity is the defining factor. Its relevance to anything is strictly nominal.
The definition of Contemporary Art now covers anything and everything.

Find the full op article here.

Just some random food for thought for today.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas...

Tyke Bike.

Apparently, they'll get stolen, too.