Ooohs and Aaahs

Last night a few more bloggy folk got together at The Endurance pub in Soho. I hadn't met Spy vs Spy before because Angus Whines or Winges (she never stops actually) has acute Cold War Survivor syndrome, but I like the way she calls me Frith as if she's barking orders at me on her blog. I also got to meet Tom who does genre defying posts over at his, my political homey Sam was there, as was 'word of mouth' Will who finally got the beers in (thanks mate), and the delightfully snippy but witty John Dodds.

Our guest of honour was Steve Portigal of Portigal Consulting from San Francisco. Steve was one of the earliest bloggers I came across. I'd better not go into how convoluted it was to actually realise who was who when I first asked Steve if he was Tom, but if Kirsty or John hadn't been there I would have just kept quiet about it and added a new chapter to The Metamorphosis

Anyway it was a fun evening. Steve is a cool guy and its always fun to let London do its work on visitors but while playing about with Sams camera phone i.e me doing my 'I'm thinking about thinking' pose, Steve whipped out his iPhone he'd been hiding all night and Sam and I both lost control, climaxing instantly while cooing over it with reverential Ooohs and Aaaahs.

Now I'm an apple fan, but not a worshiper. However it looks better in real life than I had expected and we put it to the test in that darkened pub with no flash and I think I'm pretty much sold on it unless someone slips me an N95 when I get back from the tropics. Hint hint.

Here's the pic. Aaaaah.....


Update: More photos from Sam's Sony mobile phone camera:

Poor Will. He puts up with some stick from us.

Good effects with that Sony Sam

Yeah Nice one Angus

I'll have a think about it then then. What a tosser eh!
Yep. Definite tosser.

Sam Ismail

sam ismail

View more documents from Sick Sam.

More on the background for this document over at Agency Spy and here, here, here, here, here and Sam's side here not to forget George over here.

He shoots. He scores.

Just before I got shipped outta London to Beijing I met up with some great guys from TBWA/RAAD who were talking about some very attractive Middle East planning action that would have meant a gold plated Royce, a Vertu mobile and a dental plan to force people at 100 paces to wear secret-service dark shades to protect their iris from my egregiously shiny white teeth. Sadly I couldn't take them up on their exploratory offer because of my commitment to move to China, but they did ask if I knew anyone I could recommend.

Which got me thinking!

It had to be someone who was into digital and I also thought international which isn't for everyone so it was a toughie. But one of my thoughts was Sam Ismail. I suggested it might be worth hooking them up. They asked me why I wasn't charging a fee for this but then disintermediation, reputation management and network nurture aren't easy ingredients to whisk-up into a sound bite on the spot so I just told them I'm nice because I needed the love right then. Anyway, as was the case with Famous Rob who landed a number oop North from an introduction I talked about back here I'm pleased to say that Sam is going to be a big planning Kahuna in one of the most dynamic and culturally rich places on the planet too. Fresh out of a psychology degree and straight into the world of marketing communications. It's an experience that will make him grow and I'm looking forward to the Middle East cracking out some innovative numbers because Sam is most definitely capable of delivering welcome surprises. All he's gotta do for this gig is kick back a little and let people get to know his heart of gold first and give them time to dig his burning intelligence second. He says the job thing is a lot down to me but like I told Famous Rob they should thank themselves (and their parent's genes).

That and the guy who started off the whole planning blogging gig in the first place because there was a generosity of spirit which not so long back was rare to find in the previously often pious world of planning. One that is increasingly now benevolent and collaborative. Vive L'internet folks. I feel we're just scratching at the surface of its potential and it's not about the electronics. It's about the potential of the human spirit, which for whatever reason needs nurturing and given every chance. Everyone needs an ounce of luck in this world and if you do get some, try to find a way to pass it on because karma is, in its own way, an investment in our collective future. As long we expect nothing from it. Another philosophical paradox folks but well done again Sam. I'm very proud of you and here's a dirty mug shot before the gay crew-cut look you've recently adopted to let you know I got it all on file ;)

Techtonic Shifts & Unicef International Incidents

Today, I stepped down as CEO of Binance. Admittedly, it was not easy to let go emotionally. But I know it is the right thing to do. I made mistakes, and I must take responsibility. This is best for our community, for Binance, and for myself.

Binance is no longer a baby. It is…

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 21, 2023

We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo.

We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 22, 2023

i love openai, and everything i’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together. when i decided to join msft on sun evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team. with the new board and w satya’s support, i’m…

— Sam Altman (@sama) November 22, 2023

ChatGPT with voice is now available to all free users. Download the app on your phone and tap the headphones icon to start a conversation.

Sound on 🔊 pic.twitter.com/c5sCFDAWU6

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 21, 2023

What a rollercoaster. It's hard to contextualize the last 24 hours historically as we never step in the same waters twice (Heraclitus), but it's up there in technological newsworthy splashes with the first Bibles running off the Gutenberg press and maybe the first electricity network in NY?

About 'four' months ago the Yandex GPT2 AI in the browser, without any prompting started talking to me on my laptop PC with a Russian female accent. It was mind blowing and I've been typing loudly to their research department to let me have it all the time. Alice or Алиса (that's her name) did tease me with unprompted English text chatting a bit later, but since then I realised the Russkies have been having a bit of a laugh at my expense because the microphone's on all the time (they're not the only ones listening in). Anyway ChatGPT just delivered and it will certainly be life changing for me.

Now in fairness the Russkies have been treating me very nice with touches here and there to the software that I've requested and yes, I'm a Russian bot.

Sam Altman is going back to OpenAI? Holy smokes that's just extraordinary news after being kicked out and snapped up by Microsoft, and CZ stepping down? It's gobsmacking and I love it. So much change is on its way. Even though Microsoft also big investor with EL M.

You are watching the destruction of the old guard.

And it gets faster and faster and faster if we want to jump on the ride.

CYA 😎👌

Good News

I've got a New passport *wipes brow* (And biometrics and computer chips and all the other lovely stuff that means I'm real and exist)

Actually the British Embassy were in the end very cooperative and seemed to know who I was, so maybe that journalist interview with the South China Morning Post did the trick but I pity the person who doesn't know how to be a squeaky wheel.

The bad news is I've not heard from Sam since last Thursday, as he's climbing a mountain in Tanzania, and I've had to assume the Punk Kiva funds will take too long to get here  now that I'm now officially a registered human. 

It means I can once again get on with my life.

I guess that Sam will take care of refunding all the wonderful and generous contributions you collectively made. I want to take this opportunity to thank both all of you and Sam for rallying around at a bleak point. You all proved that this isn't just about me, it's about us. It's about what we stand for and how we follow through with our deeds and actions. 

I'm enormously grateful and forever indebted towards your spontaneous kindness, humanity and generosity. To paraphrase Ali G: 'Is it because I is a social object?' 

;)

It's now important for me to get on with my plans for the rest of this year including a much needed trip to Beijing as soon as possible.

Once again Thank you. Hope is fortified by deeds and you just did it.

It's random

Go on then what ya waiting for?

Only corporate tie-wearing stiffs would duck a challenge like this.  

Engage a random. The Wiki notes that the segment profiles for "Smooth Smooth" have the ability to politely conclude the discourse at the "time of their choosing" without their interlocutor realizing the entire experience is being micro-managed.

OK I just made that up...... complete fibs. Embellishments can be OK.

I did however get blown out quite quickly in my first Random chat, displayed at the top of this post didn't I? What a loser.

Do you think that response of 'tired man' was a knee jerk termination to my gung-ho-YO? 

Stop sodding about and head over to Omeagle for the wild ride if you think you're hard enough.

P.S. Sam and I finally concluded the name of the movie we've been collaborating on for as long as we've probably known each other. Despite a flight to Bangkok to film some stuff and collaborate on a couple of  scenes, we yet again failed to settle on the films name which has sapped valuable energy on too many occasions.

Then suddenly out of nowhere it magically manifested itself over a long distance conference-call we held earlier and it just felt right because I think I said  the line flippantly, and then Sam gave it a home i.e he said that's the name of our movie, and it was settled in a matter of seconds. One small result for today at least then.

So it's been christened : 'It aint about the movie"

It feels right. It's fallen into place

Martin Shkreli - Sam Bankman Fried - Horse Paste (Ivermectin) & The Occulted

I dropped my guard when I glanced at the Martin Shkreli story in 2015.

Instead of reversing the toxic legacy media narrative, I foolishly took the barrage of incendiary stories and unfairly pegged him as parasitic hedge fund manager in the most corrupt business sector on the planet of Pharmaceuticals. He substantially raised prices on an anti parasitic drug from US$13.50 to $750 a pill for an analog of Ivermectin that the corrupt news media and big pharma lied about during the CoVID scamdemic. Martin was singled out by the neoliberal media for his 2 minutes of Orwellian mainstream media global hate. He made the mistake of mocking Hillary Clinton who pulled strings in the Department of Justice on him with juicy optics for the 'Democratic' party believers of the news media. They singled out a poster boy for predator capitalism. Naturally Democratic supporters aren't interested in her real views...

I was lucky enough to revisit his story as Tucker Carlson who was fired from FOX News interviewed him on the X platform I am suspended on and unable to use ever again. That's why it's Youtube I've embedded above. Dumb as 'a' rock move Elon. You're driving traffic to this site as people don't understand why I'm more of a threat to you and your AI management suite than far right anti semitic Zionist and English intelligence asset Tommy Robinson AKA Stephen Christopher Yaxley.

What I learned in the Tucker interview is that Martin Shkreli has been contacted by far left Crypto fraud Sam Bankman Fried for advice on how to survive in prison. It's worth watching because the answer has incentivised me to dispense with my longstanding bias against celebrities and celebrity news, so my focus on the advice of Mr Shkreli, is going to be celebrity rap stars and their music. I'm quite excited because I already know something about Doja Cat that most people have mistaken views on.

That's the occulted information in the title that I will expand upon.

The main reason I'm posting Martin Shkreli's interview is because he shares with us that his time in prison, while unpalatable on the whole, 'was' one of the most educational experiences he ever had, and he came through it with flying colours. He's a polymath, a likeable character and deeply spiritual view on existence and consciousness. There's nothing more I like, than admitting I was wrong and changing my view and being able to publish it so there's no confusion with respect to chronological documentation, and claims I've 'stated' here.

Hillary Clinton was executed in public while recorded live on 9/11 2016 so the world could see what took me quite a while to process in my head.

Written without prejudice, All rights reserved - charlesedwardfrith™

Christopher Hitchens & Sam Harris Vs The Jewish Rabbi All Stars

The topic of the discussion is life after death but naturally it strays into issues of creation, spirit and conciousness. I've found the atheists are bitter and angry in these debates and Sam Harris (my fave lizard) with Chris Hitchens don't disappoint. They are surly and ungracious. The Rabbis are much more fun and try to accommodate the atheists with compassion. It's easily the best debate on the subject I've seen and I'm very happy that I can upload it to Youtube today and share it with you.

LEAVE ME ALONE

You may have noticed the new panel I'm sporting on the side of this blog called Google Friend Connect. Well that's there because I've been "Whitelisted" by Google who think I'm a big enough social meeja kahuna to invite me on board.

Yeah, check me out! *throws meaningless gang signs*

So if I haven't spammed the life out of you yet by joining Plaxo (who've allied with Google) and Google Friend Connect, don't feel shy to click on something over there, and join in because it's not like you actually have to really like me loads and loads to be my fwend.

I'm particularly interested in the open social platform as it develops and hey you get to come along for the ride too. Carrying our own social network data around has to be the future for some sort of transactional value relationships with the world of commerce and brands. It's pretty radical but will make a lot of sense when giving permission for interruptive or distractive marketing communications as the quid pro quo for utility or content.

Well something like that anyway, but the reason for this post is also to see if I've managed to get the Disqus comment system finally integrated. The last attempt was a template and commenting form disaster. And now that even Craig, Peggy and Eaon are Disqus'd up I feel I'm on the back foot for my geek creds.

I'd be most appreciative if one or two of you could attempt a comment but don't try too hard as I've probably buggered it up and will have to reinstall that scary .xml file now lurking on my desktop to get back to normal.

In the meantime here's a picture of Sam who has joined forces with Eaon at Geronimo which is where he's going to kick ass in the marketing communications industry. Yesterday on Skype, I made him swear on the baby Jesus and U.S. Supreme court justices not to release a certain "sensitive" file I've graciously shared with him but I have given him permission to show you the screen if you're ever around. Word is bond Sam!

On a more sober note, thanks all of you for the positive response to yesterday's post. I'll respond more fully but I'm really pleased that I can kind of throw that stuff out there and not be cut down in flames. The motivation for writing it was to hopefully encourage the idea of a back up plan. If that has worked then I'm a happy camper :)

More out and about - London: Swinging Sixties?

Spotted this sign on the way back from the creative geeks drinks at The Endurance, and thought it was a must have addition to the blog. I'm still having trouble remembering if it's the Endurance or the Endeavour but there's only one pub on Berwick street market isn't there? Going back a day or two I saw this while out and about with Charlie the other week.


You can't beat a bit of complex pipeworkery can you? Yahoo Pipes should sponsor this immediately. Is anyone using this yet on a regular basis.


And looking upwards a bit, The Gherkin is definitely the 21st century archictectural landmark of London. You can see it all the way from Brixton, and features in that brilliant 'We live in Financial times' poster which is so so true.


More Creative Geeks action down The Endurance. Curiously we were talking about Tunng during the day as a friend is touring with them around the States.


Dead insect came along which is great because Anthony is just brilliant, a creative and digital planner bursting with ideas and now working freelance around London after a few years at Glue.


And Fiona tipped up with her boyfriend Richard of Creative Apes. I heard she has started blogging again which is always good news to hear. Fiona is half Indonesian and half Scottish. Quite an exotic creature, and a really nice young lady too. Keep up with the Blogging Fiona!


And no get together is a proper one if Sam the man from Adlads and Adgrads doesn't turn up. Check his Ali G impression for off the cuff grown men knicker wetting. Me like very much....Don't say I didn't tip you off about the headphone look Sam :)


And not many days later there was that Octopus twitter from Johanna and Amber. Later that day Richard and I came across this at an art gallery exhibition opening in Shoreditch.


Proving some trends are Global, but the piece that looked most provocative was this


Then we popped into The Owl & The Pussy Cat confirming my suspicion that I think is about to burst on a wider stage, which is a sixties revival in London. There was even a Beatles mop top haircut in this pub. Don't say I didn't tip you off about that swinging sixties revival first, although my friends tell me that Beijing is closer to the real thing for atmosphere; now that drugs and sex are quite common over there. I'll be clutching my Gideon Bible close to me at all times then :)


The next day Richard and I took a stroll around Lewisham where we noticed this incongruous couple from the bridge crossing the river.


I have no idea what the scooter and the pineapple were doing there but it felt like the start to a great novel or the middle part of a Morse episode. I should at this point include a clip of Richard playing in his band The Rank Deluxe from the night before. They play 'sewage music' according to their site. Gulp!

This clip is on the N95 again (as indeed is all this photography/video) and I think its quite good for the conditions although the sound recording is terrible. Not bad for a phone though.

I've always been fond of markets. All around the world if you want to get a feel for the people and skip the tourist hot spots, just get down to the market and you'll figure out quickly enough if the natives are good or not. I really like these old carts which still serve their purpose in the 21st century and have loads of character. Here's my local one packing up that saturday night.


I'm slowly but surely catching up with the media files on my camera and I expect very shortly to be blogging pictures and video that are almost real time. Which should make my posts a bit more interesting than this one.

Is Sam Ismail Doing Hip Hop?

Just doing a bit of research on drones and @ClaudiaCukrov pointed out this wonderful article with a link to the video above. I think Sam is originally from Lahore in Pakistan.

Twitter Not Human

 

If only I did get that email in the screen grab above, but I've been looping round that circuit for too long now and nothing gets resolved.

I'll put a hundred pounds into a charity of any reader's choosing if anyone can get a human being from twitter to contact me. The auto response isn't sophisticated enough to handle a stolen account with the default email reset. Only a human can solve the problem, but it's been nearly ten days now that I've been locked out.

It's not the account that feels cheated from me.. It's a free service and I can live without it as I do use Plurk and Jaiku and a bunch of others. It's the 800 or so people who wont know that it's not me Tweeting at some point about the ladyboy incident that Sam  had in Bangkok on his visit here, and which I have pledged not to ever mention again. 

OK well that's categorically not true but you get my drift. (Sam was the most popular person I've ever witnessed pay a visit to the City of Angels and I'm still getting broken heart phone calls  on the spare SIM from the fan club he whipped up on his visit. Quite remarkable it was to witness. Made me feel old too)

Sorry folks for any DM's that seem to be ignored  on my Twitter account, but I don't get them sent to me since the default email has been changed. It's out of my hands. Many of you have tried to help and I appreciate that very much. Really I do.

Update: Coincidentally I see Ian has posted about the need for humans  on websites over at his blog.

I'm hoping that today is going to be the day when a long overdue tattoo is put in place. More on that later I hope.

Branded Utility

One of the reasons why I like the folk at Anomaly in New York, Piers at PSFK and Zeus Jones in Minneapolis is because of their understanding of where our business is heading. Way too many advertising people are in a state of delusion when it comes to the overall efficacy of the marketing communications that we do. I'd argue that a lot of the wallpaper we paste up conveys a given amount of trust because there's an implicit cost factor when viewing paid up media space. Something along the lines of "If you can purchase that media space and come up with some reasonable production values, then you must be a reasonably reliable brand". That's it folks. We buy trust most of the time.

Most wallpaper is reassuring. If you're not convinced then live in a room stripped of it for a while.

So on Friday after a quintessentially self indulgent and non engaging advertising awards ceremony that almost defined how sclerotic our business has become, I came across a terrific quote on Dino's de.licio.us bookmarks for Robert Stephens, the founder of Geek Squad as saying

"Advertising is a tax you pay for unremarkable thinking."

I'd be inclined to agree. However there is a momentum in the beginning of this third millennium for marketing as doing. The digital era seems to be ushering in a breed of young folk who have no time for crafted messaging and are intolerant of not getting the information they need in the quickest way possible. I've never seen anything like it before. It only takes a browser to crash a few times and the digital savvy young folk of today delete the free software as if its a cancerous tumour. What happens when Wikipedia or Google's new idea Knol start to do product evaluation? The kids who are mostly digital natives, only want the information and that is a trend that those of us who grew up in the propaganda age (frequency and penetration) of marketing communications need to think long and hard about. The middle path is marketing as doing and there are some great ideas that have been put forward by the folk I mentioned at the beginning, in posts over here, here and here. That doesn't mean I'm anti advertising. It means I'm against bad advertising and for good information delivered cleanly and with the minimum of fuss.

I got thinking about this because I just happened to pass a blood giving bus close to the Xidan shopping area above, and I thought how smart the location was and doing this with a mobile blood donor unit. Somewhere to lie down for 10 minutes and give blood without really interrupting the day, I wanted to donate myself but the nurses didn't speak English. Then I got thinking if Nokia was a brand that could get involved in branded utility activity like this, given that its not too far removed from the traveling roadshows around the rural and semi urban areas that are often done in the mobile phone category over here. You know, communicating a need and helping encourage trial and action.

Later on at Wangfujing I saw them once more. So I thought about it again. I mulled over the notion of 'Connecting People' and it occurred to me that there probably isn't any greater connection than the one being done in the bus above. Probably that's an idea that is too visceral for most people's taste but the notion that the way a brand speaks is the only thing that matters, is the gravy train thinking of 20th century marketing and it's coming to an end as we see people controlling the information they want and continued digital emancipation taking place. I'm guessing the half a billion or so people whose first internet experience will be via the mobile phone will be equally intolerant of dishonest attempts to be interesting as I find people like Sam, Charlie and Adam now are.

I'm sure this makes me seem like I'm taking myself way too seriously and I probably am, so in the interests of not disappearing up my own bottom, here's a couple of pics from last nights clubbing action. First off is Puff Charlie keeping it real for y'all in the White Rabbit China town Lucky Street hood. Stayin' tuff all through the night and standing ma ground outside.

I know Sam can do a much better Ali G than I can but he's not here so that will have to make do. It was looking well mean down in the basement of the club. White riot everywhere and even the bitches were packing heat.

I ask you what has clubbing come to? Seriously though it wasn't a bad night but a less hipper crowd than I was hoping for. The music was better than the previous Friday, and we even slipped out for some of those ace kebabs that the folk from the far Western provinces of China rustle up in the Sanlitun area. They are easily the tastiest meat things on a stick I've ever eaten. I also noticed some stuff about the affluent local Chinese that was worth hanging around for. The Beijing crowd are very much different from the Shanghai lot and I don't think it's reflected in the way advertising is created for them.

Nick Bostrom

It feels like I only shabbily wrote this last week but I guess its longer as time is moving so fast.

"I ask lots of people the same question about time. There's a reasonably consistent linear relativism argument. Its always nice to hear articulated, because it's a conclusion I've reached too in the past. It's quite exciting to hear a prior self-determined logic conclude by forcing it's way out from another person's voice as if proof that quite complex hypotheses can emerge from separate sources. A bit like magic."

The thing is, what I think isn't that important. I've made enough mistakes to be in the fortunate position where insufficient people will take me seriously. I don't take myself all that seriously (all the time) as I'm just trying to make my way through this world and limit the amount of destruction I create. Such as being a man who has had two girlfriends try to commit suicide, and to this day still has the ability to utter words that can devastate people's lives. My social credit is actually in debit. Just ask my family.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to stumble upon the most extraordinary debate between two people I feel angry towards (but respect the hell out of) and a couple of Rabbis. Again and again, I was reeling from the fabric of intelligence between the two groups and then at one point Sam Harris grudgingly offered up an hypothesis that concludes what I suspected after reading Wittgenstein back here.

This means I can take a back seat on this line of inquiry, as a more advanced mind than I has done the spadework. 

IS Nick Bostrom thinking about things that will in our time slice through our collective consciousness like a baseball bat through Dick Cheney's skull. 

All you have to do is ask yourself "what does this mean to me?"

For me it means I can cut myself some slack. It diminishes my madness if somebody else has concluded what I silently suspected. 

Yet not though.

Update: I don't feel the same about Nick Bostrom these days. I feel his transhumanism stance is sponsored.NIck 

Interesting People

Yesterday was Interesting 2007 (A Russell Davies Production) and a delightful time was had by all. I'll be posting about some of the highlights that I really loved, but most of all I enjoyed the people in the audience. They were a very generous and warm 'herd' indeed. Here are a few pics I snapped of some of the people who got together in the Pub after. Without exception all were lovely and a big thank you to those who gave their time towards the event.

Emily

Al

Beeker

John Dodds

Lauren

Sam

Mark

Rob

Corentin

Paul

Sophie