Papa Berenstain died on Saturday

Stan Berenstain, who helped teach generations of children to read with the Berenstain Bears series of books he created with his wife, died Nov. 26 of complications from cancer at his home in Bucks County, Pa. He was 82.

Beginning in 1962 with the first title in their series about a lovable family of bears, "The Big Honey Hunt," the Berenstains found a formula that drew millions of young readers and propelled their books into one of the most successful franchises in children's literature. In the past 43 years, the husband-and-wife team wrote and illustrated approximately 250 books about the bears.

More than 260 million copies have been sold, and the Berenstain Bears have branched out into two television series, videos, stage musicals, toys, cereal and other products. Mr. Berenstain and his family managed the entire enterprise by themselves until 1997, when they hired an employee to run the computer.

Pitched primarily toward children ages 4 to 8, the books introduced vocabulary and gentle moral lessons. The bear family originally consisted of a father, mother and one son, but over the years the den expanded with a girl cub. (Sister Bear, always wearing pink overalls, liked to play with her "Bearbie" doll.) The family lived in a cozy, five-story treehouse.

Read more here.

the writing is on the wall

Type on paper is great, but sometimes you want to feel it, hold it, fling it at your foes. viaLetter of London sells 4-inch tall plastic models of Monotype Bodoni, Rockwell Condensed, and Letraset’s Frankfurter. The letters are £1.80 a piece (I'm not sure what that is in American dollars) and are suitable for gifts, home decor, or welcome signage. Not a bad price for a novelty item, and the tasteful site leaves little doubt as to the quality of the pieces.

The proprietors seem like typography buffs, not mere opportunists. Sure, plastic sign letters have been around forever, but type is hot among non-designers these days and I gotta hand it to them for taking advantage of the trend.

What's also cool about this, is you can spell whatever you want; you're not limited to "live", "happiness", or some other cheesy generic word that stores are selling these days.

HT: Typographica

In-Laws: Round One

If the holidays are good for anything, they are great for getting to know your in-laws. With Thanksgiving in the bag, and Christmas right around the corner it's important to have a game plan. Men's Health has a great article about how to seduce your in-laws for the holidays. Here are just a few:

1. Be an anthropologist.

Think of her team as a tribe and of yourself as a student of a foreign culture. You aren't put off by the oddness of their practices; on the contrary, you're intrigued. Every family, including the crew you come from, is inspired or enslaved by a unique set of customs, myths, memories (some false, some true), jokes, superstitions, nicknames, hatreds, and affections. To figure out how bizarre your in-laws are is good sport -- if you like shooting fish in a barrel. If you prefer to test yourself, try figuring out the source of their power, how they were steward to the woman who lured you into their web.

2. Decide to be devoted.

Why use your wit to distance yourself from their dysfunction, when, on your wedding day, it became your dysfunction? Embrace it. No, you don't have to agree that Italian-Americans are, for some reason, the best people on the planet or that all conservatives should be kidnapped and reprogrammed to admire Ted Kennedy. Teammates can agree to disagree. And make no mistake: You're teammates now.

3. Laugh at their jokes.

No male belief is more inhibiting to relationships than our cowboy notion that real men always say what they mean and mean what they say, and aren't we just the most straight-up, deal-with-it gender you've ever seen. Yikes! Building relationships requires insincerity. Particularly in the early in-law days, you have to do some sycophantic spadework, say things you don't mean as a way of signaling respect, genuflecting to the more mature culture. Don't worry, you won't break into a million pieces if you laugh at a dumb family joke. Moreover, if you start acting as though you enjoy their humor and cherish their tales, you may actually start enjoying their humor and cherishing their tales. Often, acts of affiliation lead to feelings of affiliation.

4. Remember your gender.

Don't fall for the myth that marriage is gender free. A good son-in-law doesn't let his in-laws believe that their daughter ever does any of the following: shovel snow, pick up the kids at the airport, mow the lawn, or make the 10 p.m. run for emergency pizza. Of course, she's perfectly capable of all of the above. Doesn't matter. Allow your in-laws the fantasy that your physical strength is actually an asset to their daughter, that your presence in her life offers her protection from some of the world's dangers, including mower blades, traffic at O'Hare, and being in parking lots after dark. You're her husband. Handle that stuff. Or at least pretend to.

Read the whole article here.

Getting Back to the Basics

With all the high-tech stuff coming from the ad world like global interactive sites to mobile communicating billboards in Times Square, it's nice to see some good old print. I applaud Saatchi/NY for getting back to the basics.

It's almost as if it's an old etch-a-sketch with one line throughout the entire piece. The line in the middle reads, "www.nyctotahitinonspot.com" Pretty cool, huh?

HT: Rm116

Elevators Don't Read Minds

The following comes from the sixth chapter in a book that I'm reading called, "The Wizard of Ads":

You stop at the stop sign, but your mind doesn't stop with you. The car across the street pulls away and disappears into the distance. You sit and wait for the sign to turn green. (Don't pretend you haven't done it. We all have!)

I walk alone into an elevator and the door closes behind me. I wait and wait, but nothing happens. After a couple of seconds, I realize, "Elevators don't read mind. I have to push a button."

You and I have so much to remember that we often forget what we're doing. We are the unfortunate victims of overchoice: too much to do, too little time. The problem in nationwide.

I tell you this to remind you of something that most advertisers forget: the customer is seldom paying attention. She simply has too many other things to think about. When exposed to an ad, she knows it there, the same way I know the elevator button is there. The problem is that she's not thinking about it.

Every beginner's solution is to put an "attention getter" into the ad. Bright colots, loud noises, exclamation marks, and crazy stunts are the sad little attention getters most often used. The effect on your beautiful customer is much the same as sneaking up behind her and shouting,

WATCH OUT!

Is this anyway to start a romance?

I vote for seduction.

I'm not talking about using sex appeal in your ads. I'm talking about enticing the customer with a thought more interesting that the thoughts she's thinking. The skillful use of words is the most impressive of human powers.

The mind of the customer is a glorious thing. Every waking moment it is scanning, scanning, scanning the horizon for things of interest. The common, the mundane, the intriguing, the fascinating are immediately spied and examined.

If your goal is to cause the customer to willingly give you her attention, isn't the solution obvious? You must offer her a thought more interesting than the thought that currently occupies her mind.

This does not require shouting. It requires art.

Finale B

There's Only Us/There's Only This/Forget Regret Or Life Is Yours To Miss/No Other Road No Other Way/No Day But Today

I Can't Control My Destiny/I Trust My Soul/My Only Goal/Is Just To Be//Without You/The Hand Gropes/The Ear Hears/The Pulse Beats/Life Goes On/But I'm Gone/Cause I Die Without You

Will I Lose My Dignity/Will Someone Care/Will I Wake Tomorrow/From This Nightmare

There's Only Now/There's Only Here/Give In To Love/Or Live In Fear/No Other Path/No Other Way/No Day But Today

No Day But Today

RENT is due on November 23, 2005

The Weather Channel. Sponsored by Kraft.

With prime-time TV ad clutter reaching an all-time high this year, advertisers and networks are holding talks to explore ways to improve TV's crowded ad environment, which buyers say is partly to blame for declining viewership.

Several ad agencies last week said they are in discussions with TV networks about exclusive sponsorship deals that will cut back the number of ads in a particular sponsored program.

Publicis Groupe's MediaVest and some of its clients, such as Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Masterfoods and Capital One, are working with The Weather Channel and three or four broader-based networks in a test starting in November that will assess how different program formats, commercial inventory loads, pod lengths and other metrics affect viewer engagement and commercial recall.

"The main issue is enhancing the viewer experience," said Donna Speciale, MediaVest's president of U.S. broadcast. "No one has really sought to find out what's at the root of the viewer defections and whether they're not watching because they are not happy with the experience," she said, adding that the test will be completed by January.

The increasing interest in sponsorship deals comes as new statistics from Nielsen Monitor-Plus report record levels of prime-time clutter (commercials, promos and other non-program content) this year. According to the Nielsen numbers, from January through September of this year, prime-time cable clutter averaged 15 minutes and 10 seconds per hour, up 2 percent from 14 minutes and 51 seconds per hour for the same period in 2004. The broadcast networks in general stayed steady with the average amount of prime-time clutter in 2005, inching closer to the 16-minute-per-hour mark. Nielsen pins it at 15 minutes and 47 seconds through the first nine months of the year, up slightly from the 15 minutes and 43 seconds average for the same period a year ago.

It's a sore point for advertisers, because many believe clutter chases viewers away and translates to poorer recall by those remaining. Yet clutter continues to increase, especially on cable, where for the first time this year it surpassed 15 minutes per hour.

Focus on Design Trends: Fleurons & Ornaments

Need fleuron and ornament fonts for holiday invitations, posters, or flyers? MyFonts has a variety of fonts for your end-of-year or new year’s event. Fleurons, also known as flowers or printers’ flowers, serve as decorative embellishments for your designs.

ASTYPE Ornaments Christmas B is a new ornaments font released just in time for the holidays. To get the most out of this ornament font you should use an application capable of handling different leadings (line heights), like Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. The font includes OpenType features that allow you to rotate elements, use snowflakes as a wallpaper background, and activate color layers.

Seeds of Imagination

GE has this really cool site where you are given a seed and you can grow a flower depending on how you talk to it. Yes, you have to type in words to make it grow bigger and more beautiful. Words like "harmony" or "water" or "sunny" make it grow. Don't ask it questions, though. It seems to only like adjectives. One little seed. So much potential. You have a fertile mind. Think of words and ideas and watch it grow into a flower that's uniquely you.

Check it out and plant your own seed today.

World Record Set at Sotheby's

A monumental steel sculpture by the American artist David Smith became the most expensive work of contemporary art ever sold at auction last night when Larry Gagosian, the Manhattan dealer, fought off five aggressive bidders and paid--get this--$23.8 million at Sotheby's!

Being a big spender required some effort: Mr. Gagosian's competitors hung on well into the double-digit-millions. All were hoping to own "CUBI XXVIII" (1965), the last of the artist's renowned Cubi series.

The reason for the high price was plain to lovers of contemporary art: this elegantly composed melding of boxes and columns may be the last example of the series to come on the market for some time. Most of the others are in museums or collections where they will stay for generations. So this last-chance opportunity was irresistible, which is why the sculpture's final price was nearly double its high estimate, $12 million. Read more here.

Awesome VW Touareg Commercial

This is a cool quirky commercial that I found online for my all-time dream car: the VW Touareg. *sigh*

It's simple, but very complex. It's one more step in the 3D Animation style that is fast becoming in vogue. With other shows such as ABC's Desperate Housewives, and HBO's Carnivale using the same technique in their openings, it's a style that becoming more and more popular. (You can actually watch parts of the opening credits of Carnivale if you'd like. Try to look past the usage of tarot cards here and pay attention to the technicality of it all. It took them six months to make it.) You can view the VW spot now, it'll only take a few seconds.


HT Room 116.

A New Take on Old Classics

A big tip of the hat to Ethos for this one.

This comes from a contest where people could take clips from existing movies and make a new trailer. The catch, they had to change the genre. The Shining was the winner. This is the most creative thing I've seen in a while. Truly amazing!

Wonderbra's 'Wow Effect'

(Everything in the blog is PG--I promise!) That said, I'd like to commend Wonderbra's new creative ad campaign.

After a 10-year ad moratorium in Europe, Wonderbra is back in the U.K. and France with a new strategy that doesn't show the product or the bra'd woman wearing it. (Hmm...interesting)

Instead, YOU'RE the bra'd woman wearing it. You, the viewer, are the focus of all the attention in the ad. Everyone's eyes are fixed out off the page at you as you look at the ad.

The brief, according to the agency, was to position the brand as "The brand that makes me sexier." At the same time, the client seeks to "make the brand fashionable once more" while "daring to break the rules." As CD Olivier Altmann explains, "A woman wearing a Wonderbra still gets everyone's attention, but the point is this woman could be every woman — she's there and you know she is, but you don't need to actually see her. In essence, the idea gives each viewer the opportunity to live out the experience that could be hers if only she wore a Wonderbra. Empowered and sexier than ever, she can have it all. Every woman who opens her favorite magazine will come face to face with a double-page ad with 15 to 20 people staring back at her; she'll definitely get the impression she's capturing everyone's attention when she enters the room, as if she were wearing the Wonderbra herself."--Ad Critic

Tayst: A Critique

My wife and I recently went on a date to Tayst just south of Hillsboro Village. Brought to you by veterans of the similarly upscale Midtown Cafe, this former furniture showroom near Vanderbilt has a cozy bar area in front and a spacious dining room in back. The dining room is elegant and understated with brick-red walls, candlelit sconces and fresh flowers. Dishes are presented elegantly on stark white plates. Servers are prompt, wine-savvy and eager to assist.

The menu features a mix of small, complex appetizers ("First Tayst"), simple salads ("Second Tayst") and entrees ("Main Tayst"). Most dishes feature an adventurous blending of tastes and textures. Notably, each menu item is carefully paired with one complementary wine selection, though servers can often suggest a host of alternatives.

As we entered the restaurant, we were immediately taken to our table followed by our server and assistant server. Our glasses were filled with water before we could even sit down. The service was excellent-Tich was very knowledgable about wines and all of the entrees. We were started off with a white bean spread and warm wheat biscuts while we looked over the menu and extensive wine list. We had a Wente Merlot. Amazing if you like merlots. Then come the salads and soon after, the entrees.

I had the Pork Chops & Apple Sauce. Pork loin medallions, a roasted apple stuffed with pork sausage with spiced cream cheese and apple bourbon butter. It was to die for. Colleen had the Pumpkin Seed Crusted Scallops with quince and radicchio slaw, wild rice and spicy maple glaze. This unfortunately was not to die for. The wild rice and radicchio slaw tasted more like sea weed than rice. After the meal, we had the triple chocolate tort with raspberry sauce.

Overall the experience was great. The creative-chic decor was cozy , warm, and romantic. However, the portions were very small. I was still a little hungry after the salad, the pork chops and half a tort (not a feeling you want when you've had a nice dinner). It's a shame too because the food was amazing it just wasn't enough so I made a new category because the portion didn't effect the quality or the presentation.

Overall scoring:
Service: 9
Ambience: 9
Food Quality: 9
Food Portions: 7
Food Presentation: 10
Overall: 8.8

Cuisine: New American
Price: $$
Hours: Tue-Thurs 5pm-10pm Fri-Sat 5pm-11pm
Payment: AmEx, VISA, Mastercard, Cash
Parking: Free Valet, street, parking lot
Special Features: Romantic Dining
Reservations: yes

2100 21st Ave S
Nashville, TN 37212-4318
(615) 383-1953

How to: Make a Shirt from Cash

In the spirit of quirky creativity, here's something you can do to impress those around you. Follow the instructions to make your own wardrobe from Washington, Abe, and Jackson. For those with expensive taste (it's a curse, I know) you can use ole Benjamin Franklin.

Seven of the Hottest Teen Trends

This list comes from a community of self-appointed influencers ages 13-24 who keep older adults (editors, writers, etc.) informed of emerging trends in teen culture:

NIKE DELTA FORCE
These high- or low-top sneakers scream self-expression. Nike Delta Force is a classic basketball sneaker available in styles ranging from Independence Day to Indiana Pacers.

BLOCKBUSTER ONLINE
Blockbuster online is keeping up with the Joneses with an online order system. The best thing--other than being very affordable--is that it delivers! Now that's service.

POND'S CLEAN SWEEP
These towelettes cleanse and remove make-up, keeping Trendspotters feeling fresh throughout their on-the-go lifestyles.

ETHOS WATER
Now teens are expressing their social consciousness through bottled water. With every purchase of Ethos Water, the company contributes 5 cents toward providing clean water to children around the world.

SCONEX
Sconex.com is the unofficial destination for high school news. This website offers information on classes and announcements, photos from school events, and the ability to catch up with your friends or make new ones. (what happened to passing notes?)

MAC COSMETICS
MAC's high-quality cosmetics are catching the attention of teen girls. From eye shadows to brushes to fragrances, they're stocking up.

BAND TEES
Music truly is fashion when it comes to our Trendspotters wearing a favorite band literally on their sleeves. Now teens can combine the band they love with the style they love.

The New Mecca: Dubai

It's been called the Vegas of the Middle East, but Dubai goes way, way beyond that: by 2010, if all goes according to plan, it may well be the greatest city on earth. In fact, it may be already.

Some features to expect:
-$12,000 a night for a hotel suite
-gold-plated four-story columns
-remote-control door openers
-personal butlers
-consumerism in its hottest form
-four artificial mega-island archipelagoes
-the world's largest sky scraper (coming in 2007)
-the world's only seven-star hotel
-indoor ski runs (with real fake snow)

Just a few of the attractions:
THE WORLD- 300 man-made private islands 2.5 miles off the Dubai coast that, when looked at from on high, form a map of the world! All the islands, ranging from 150,000 to 450,000 square feet are available for private ownership--Rod Stewart, for instance, is reported to have purchase Great Britain for $30 million. It will open in 2008 and costs between $2 and $3 billion to build.

HYDROPOLIS-A super-luxe underwater hotel. Everyone of the 200 suites will have a clear, domed ceiling because the nice people at Hydropolis thought you'd might like to see the fish swim by. There are even fog machines that pump out sun-blocking underwater "clouds". It will open in 2007 and will run about $4,250 a night.

DUBAILAND-A 3-billion-square-foot project that will include the biggest mall in the world, the largest indoor ski resort in the world, a "rotating city" with villas that "fly", and the world's largest cruise ship, in the middle of the Middle East's largest amusement park. The first phase of development is slated to open in mid-2008 and will cost $10 billion to build. Here's the kicker: the Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal replicas in Dubailand's Falson City of Wonders will be seventy feet taller and 150 percent larger, respectively, than the originals!!

Geography: The second largest of the seven Emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, Dubai is located on the southern shore of the Arabian Gulf. Dubai city is a bustling metropolis, while outside the city itself the Emirate is sparsely inhabited and characterized by desert vegetation.

Population: Current population approx. 1.67 million, set to increase to 3.5 million by 2010. 80% comprises of Expatriates - Arab, Asians, European, and others.

Climate: Dubai has a sub-tropical, arid climate. Rainfall is infrequent and irregular. Falling mainly in winter, it amounts to some five days a year. Temperatures range from a low of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit to a high 118 degrees. The mean daily maximum is 75 degrees Fahrenheit in January rising to 105 degrees Fahrenheit in July.

Language: The official language is Arabic, Arabic and English are commonly used in business and commerce. Hindi and Urdu are also widely used.

Religions: 96% Muslim, Hindu, Christian, 4% other