Quarterly Co: #DSC03

‘Did you have fun doing this exercise?’

Sunday afternoon creativity, via #DSC03

Yes. I really did. Different tools and bits and bobs make things fun to play with. I think the cardboard was the most fun. Reminded me of building robots when I was a kid and, oddly, I felt the most was possible with the material.

Least favourite material would be the toothpicks and the gum: a) the gum tasted TERRIBLE and b) SO STICKY! ARRGH. Couldn’t get it to finish and/or stick on time.

I think the cardboard best expresses the original chair that I drew: I was able to add cushions and shape and, as I said, I felt most comfortable with it.

Incomplete #DSC03

— per instructions I’ve just checked out the other contributions to #DSC03 and they’re AWESOME.  I especially like Claire’s and Danielle’s (I have no idea how claire got her chair to stand like that – maybe I should’ve started chewing earlier).

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The above post was written in 5mins. Per the instruction ‘Reflect on it‘ that I received in the latest package from Quarterly Co (itself a birthday present from the rather awesome Robbie Dale). The challenge? Five chairs: design and build one chair; and then prototype it four/five times, per the instructions, only using the equipment provided – all under 30mins.

Ace.

I wonder if Robbie has done his yet…

 

 

 

Letters of Note: GMTV Fan Mail

Many moons ago (just over ten years in fact), I got my first job in London working at Good Morning Television, aka – GMTV.

It was fairly awesome and, as part of my job was collecting the waiver forms from all the guests that appeared on the sofa, I got to meet some many lovely people. But those stories are for another day.

Recently, while sorting through some old boxes, I found this immensely amusing piece of ‘fan mail’ that I must’ve pocketed and filed at some point along the way. God knows why I kept it and God knows why I only found it this past weekend.

Anyway, here it is – for your amusement.

Letters of note

[click to embiggen]

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GMTV Ltd
The London Television Centre
Upper Way
London
SE1 9TT

13th November 2001

Dear Sirs

For the first time this morning I watched GMTV’s spoof comedy show with superb actress Lorrain Kelly. What a great show, you have captured perfectly the worst of television and put it all together in one entirely believable package. The dreadful sets, moronic competitions, garish coloured furniture, wobbly camera tracking, awful guests, and the ubiquitous ‘make-over‘ absolutety superb.

The sketch this morning with some dreadful woman in a supposedly expensive coat was as good as anything French & Saunders or Victoria Wood has done. The hesitation before walking out on the unstable ‘cat-walk’ had me roaring with laughter.

I am surprised we do not see more of Ms Kelly on television; she must be one of our best comedy actress’. I trust negotiations are ongoing to move this show to an evening prime time slot and I look out for it eagerly.

At a time when there has been so much bad news in the world this type of clever comedy was just what I needed, my congratulations to all involved.

Yours faithfully

JS Scott

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For what it’s worth, Lorraine Kelly is a genuinely lovely person and, the few times that I appeared on the sofa with her*, she was always super nice to me. This letter is slightly mean, but fairly tongue in cheek.

So thank you, JS Scott – whomever you may be – on a day in November in 2001, you made me and my fellow colleagues laugh. A lot.

Cheers.

Perhaps it’ll even make it onto Letters of Note

 

*Yep. Really. And I’m never giving you the footage (my Mum has it recorded somewhere, I’m sure).

 

Five things on Friday #22

Things of note for the week ending June 1st, 2012

Summer is here

1. Good times
Writing this blog throughout the week as I do (picking up links throughout the week and saving them to WordPress on the fly), means there is often a close kind of overlap with some of the awesomeness out there. As I type this particular segment, it’s 9:30 on Sunday May 27th and the sunshine is GLORIOUS.

Yesterday was the first picnic of the year and, as well as hanging out with friends and generally having a laugh, there was Frisbee (see above), Lasagne and then later, EUROVISION. Which, thanks to Twitter, was actually quite bearable.
Note to self: add this to your ongoing 2screen case study collection

As the girl quite perfectly put it: super fun time

2. Love this from Steven Sanders

First, I found this from one of my new favourite tumblrs, and second, I have a soft spot for awesome-pencils-on-white-backgrounds because they totally work with my blog theme (thanks again Vero).

Oh, and I just really love the picture too.

3. Awesome Brothers
I have an awesome brother. Fact. Having this guy as a brother would be awesome too. For his sibling’s birthday not only did he go out and find a pair of Iron Man bracelets (if you haven’t seen Avengers Assemble yet, you won’t know how awesome these are) but he also drew this pic of him using them. AMAZING.

I guess that’s what happens when your brother works at Pixar.

4. Empty Underground
I like to take photos of the London Underground when there’s noone else around. I’ve blogged about it before, others have too. There’s a hashtag and a Flickr group but it’s just a hobby more than anything else, and it’s fun. Anyway, this one is from last week. It’s one of mine and it’s probably top five favourite all time Empty Underground shots.

You get a coffee on me if you can guess where and how I took it.

5. Amazing comic book people are amazing
I admit it. I cried.

If you can’t bear to sit through the 30second ad at the start (sorry – can’t do anything about that),why not go read the story instead. Either way, it’s a lovely piece of good news to sign off with.

Bonuses are all long-form pieces again this week; How to Spot the Future, via Scroggles, is very similar to Where Good Ideas Come From in its nature, but still worth a read all the same; Beating the anxiety of online reading; and A Guide to Influence(rs) Chapter One has made me want to write my own guide on how to engage with communities.

 

Thursday Projects

focus

c/o Michael Hell

Taking an hour for lunch isn’t easy at the best of times. I try, we all do. Hell, (1000heads creative director) Robbie Dale and I have been trying to schedule a weekly lunchtime catch up for nearly two years now – it’s shocking how this meeting is hardly ever kept. However, the promise of it being there week in, week out at least makes us try to keep it…

Something new is required, a weekly focal point of something where I deliberately take myself away from the office (where possible) and attempt to build something new. Be it a new piece of writing or a new photography effort; the fourth day of the working week – the lunch break at least – is where I’m going to do it.

I started a fortnight ago and have already built something cool for the guys I work with; “1000heads is Out of the Office“.

This week? I don’t know… I might revisit This is my N8, maybe.

So here’s a challenge for 2012: book yourself an hour a week to build something new. Something fun.

Oh, and do it on a Thursday.

Get to it.

 

 

 

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