Jon Cronin’s Stream Of Consciousness

Great article in the WSJ.

Mr. Henry can't quite put his finger on what it is about New York that he finds so seductive. Part of it is the sports scene—he is a rare example of someone who can explain third downs, double plays, pick and rolls, and the offsides rule, all in French. He expects to become a fixture at Madison Square Garden, where he has friends on the court and courtside. Spike Lee, practically the mayor of the Garden's sideline, was a devout Arsenal fan during the Henry era. And the Knicks' new French signing, Ronny Turiaf, numbers among Mr. Henry's closest friends—he even attended his introductory news conference at Red Bull Arena, in Harrison, N.J., towering above the crowd of reporters to snap pictures of his buddy.

Great story about petanque on NPR
 

The people playing are old, young and from everywhere. Biltsted points out players. "I'm from Denmark, we have a British guy, we have French people, of course. We have probably 17 to 19 different nationalities." The president of this local petanque club, which is called La Boule New Yorkaise, is Ernesto Santos.

In today's Metro Newspaper there was an article about eating out in Brooklyn. I wanted to share it with you all, because I think that the two recommendations of The Vanderbilt and James Restaurant in Prospect Heights are great and if you want a more detailed account of Prospect Heights restaurants go here.

What places would you recommend for visitors to the Brooklyn Museum or Prospect Park?

I would send someone to The Vanderbilt (570 Vanderbilt Ave.) or James Restaurant (605 Carlton Ave.) in Prospect Heights. They’re great places to go after a day at the museum to have a glass of wine or a cocktail and some really well-prepared food. Both are close enough to the museums and the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens that if you really wanted to make a day of it, you could end your day the

Also, Check out the book on Amazon!

From the good folks over at Rooftop Films

This weekend at Rooftop we have two great short film programs at the historic Old American Can Factory. Built as a canning factory in 1886 on the Gowanus Canal, it was redeveloped in 2003 as an industrial haven for a curated community of more than 200 people working in the creative industries, including us!

On Friday, we’ll be screening “Industriance,” a striking program of short films where self-constructing buildings battle for fidelity, makers of mold-o-form plastic deer muddle their love, and Werner Herzog plays a discarded plastic bag desperately seeking the meaning of existence. On Saturday, we’re presenting a collection of films from the Umami Festival, whose goal is to use art to increase awareness of the power food has to influence and shape both diners and cooks.

Friday, July 2nd - INDUSTRIANCE
Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, philosophers have railed against dehumanization, as machines replaced people in the workplace and technology came to dominate our daily lives. Giant factories churned out poisonous products while chewing up and spitting out replaceable workers. Urban landscapes became increasingly alienating as automobiles and skyscrapers secluded and dwarfed individuals. But who would've thought that we'd move so quickly to a post-industrial world dominated by virtual products and cyber-realities? A world with no use for the physical objects of the recent past, and no place for the makers and consumers of formerly quaint and useful materials. We now live in age where we must sentimentalize our trash in order to save ourselves from annihilation by way of abstraction. Amidst the changing landscape in industry, architecture and manufacturing, this dynamic program of short films is about people (and objects) searching for meaning, connection and love.
http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/21-industriance

WHERE:
On the roof of The Old American Can Factory
232 3rd St at 3rd Ave. (Gowanus/Park Slope)
Brooklyn, NY 11215 F/G to Carroll St. or M/R to Union

WHEN:
8:00 Doors Open
8:30 Live Music by Bow Ribbons
9:00 Films Begin
11:30 Reception in Courtyard

Saturday, July 3rd
Umami is the fifth taste sensed by the human tongue (in addition to sweet, salty, bitter and sour). It’s a Japanese word meaning "savory" or "meaty" and applies to a sensation common in meats, cheese and other protein-rich foods or to "earthy" foods such as mushrooms and soy sauce. Umami's screening of international artist's short food films is pure umami: earthy sensations transcending the expected. Hotdogs become ritual objects, tortillas offer language lessons and gefilte fish is deconstructed. This showing is nothing like Food Network -- its sensibility expands into a fifth sense.

Umami: Food and Art Festival is a non-profit, biennale event created in 2008. The festival works in partnership with other organizations in New York City to foster collaborations between artists and food professionals. By approaching food through art, Umami frames it as stimulating and inspiring, a positive approach leading to innovative solutions to some of the national challenges we face today. Umami encourages art based in everyday life and materials, illustrating that art can be found anywhere and can be produced at any time with the simplest means. The festival's key objectives are to use food as a common thread to look at and integrate art into daily life and to broaden the horizon of food as an artistic medium.

http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/47-umami

WHERE:
On the roof of The Old American Can Factory
232 3rd St at 3rd Ave. (Gowanus/Park Slope) Brooklyn, NY 11215 F/G to Carroll St. or M/R to Union

 WHEN:
8:00 Doors Open
8:30 Live Music by Railbird
9:00 Films Begin
11:30 Reception in Courtyard

Is the 2010 World Cup "The No. 1 event in all of sports"? - For Coke, Hyundai, Nike and Visa it is, according to a recent Adage article.  To be an official sponsor requires huge upfront costs and enormous advertising budgets, it costs a lot of money to reach half of the world. What may surprise some is fact that much of the marketing budget is being invested in integrated, social, local and experiential marketing programs.  An event like this requires that people engage in authentic experiences and they better be fun, sharable, social, and if they can improve the live of others, you are bound to create a movement.

I am amazed at how many tactics are "old" in terms of social engagement and many of them are expected, but what stands out is the fact that they almost all have integrated marketing elements and use digital technologies to spread online to offline and offline to online to mobile, to ebillboards and beyond. The engagement elements are usually simple and clear and allow people to be either content creators, critiques, viewers or sharers and this opens up many possibilities to engage with each other and the brands. Here is a look at some of the programs.

Coke
Powerade Global Marketing Program
 In the brand's first-ever global integrated marketing campaign, Powerade will give athletes the inspiration and ability to "Keep Playing," through a comprehensive campaign highlighted by an innovative online experience and the presence of Powerade on the pitch during the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ South Africa

2010 FIFA World Cup™ Trophy Tour
 World football's greatest prize is set to start the second leg of its biggest ever global tour with a stop in India. Having visited 50 African nations, traveling more than 72,000km, the FIFA World Cup™ Trophy Tour - Coca-Cola continues its five-continent journey to another 33 countries around the world.

Global Music Anthem
'Wavin' Flag – Coca-Cola Celebration Mix,' the uplifting soundtrack recorded by K'NAAN for Coca-Cola and its sponsorship of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, has already broken into the top ten on music charts in eleven countries including peaking at number one in China, Mexico, Germany, Canada, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Building on the success of this music collaboration, Coca-Cola today debuted a digital radio station, "Coca-Cola Celebration Radio,"

2010 FIFA World Cup™ Longest-Ever Goal Celebration
 The Coca-Cola Company is celebrating the countdown to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ by encouraging people around the world to take part in the longest-ever online goal celebration. The 'Longest Celebration' competition will offer fans the opportunity to win a range of prizes, including tickets to 2010 FIFA World Cup matches.

Hyundai (have to say that an all Flash site is super annoying)
Fan Fest
Inspired by previous Fan Fests staged during the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups, Hyundai is expanding Fan Fest beyond the host country shores to major football capitals around the world thus further elevating the fun and Hyundai’s visibility. To be staged in the major cities of the qualifying countries, Hyundai Fan Fest will conveying thrills and excitement to fans worldwide. Cities include all nine South African Host Cities as well as Berlin, London, Mexico City, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Sydney.

‘Fan of the Match’
One of the FIFA World Cup programs that is exclusive to Hyundai, ‘Fan of the Match’ aims to stir up fun and excitement at the match venues by rewarding the most outstanding fans.  The fan with the most colorful, zaniest costume will be presented to the crowd on the giant screen on half-time at all Hyundai 38 matches.  All 38 ‘Fan of the Match’ winners will automatically be entered into the ‘Fan of the Tournament’ contest at FIFA.com. The winner of the ‘Fan of the Tournament’ will be awarded a valuable prize.

1 Million Soccer Balls to Africa
The balls will be delivered to African children under the names of people who purchase a Hyundai vehicle or members of an official micro-website set up for this year's soccer event.
The first ball was donated by Korea's figure skating gold medalist Kim Yu-na and was delivered to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at an event in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

Be There with Hyundai
Create your own slogan for the national team buses. Winning supportive slogans are also branded on the team buses. A total of 55,000 slogans were received and the 32 final slogan winners were invited to watch the FIFA World Cup™. This is one of Hyundai's most effective global program

Nike
All I have to say is watch this again. Yes I know its advertising, but normal ads don’t set viral records and inspire millions of blog posts and they also allow people to “Write your own future”

Visa
Go Fans!
From June 1 through July 11, fans can visit www.youtube.com/visagofans to upload and view videos and an opportunity to enter the Visa Watch your Way to Brazil Sweepstakes each time they find a goal call video with a golden tint treatment. In addition to the grand prize trip to the 2014 FIFA World Cup, fans will have the chance to win weekly prizes including $100 Visa gift cards.
Also,
When the gates open on match day in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, Visa's Go Fans experience will give fans the chance to have their face painted, be photographed in front of a Go Fans billboard of the competing countries and shout goooal for their teams as inspired by Andrés Cantor