Worth Noting Pages 16-20

·         On Forgiveness from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran martyr (1937): 

·         The heresy of cheap grace

·         “The preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance.  That kind of grace we bestow upon ourselves ... it makes us feel better but leaves us unchanged.”

·         Slang for the cars driven by “junior Dons”:  Dadillacs

·         On Optimism:

I’d rather be an optimist and a fool, than a realist and be right.

·         On Wedlock:

Marriage is like baseball.  It’s a long season.

·         Magazine Sales Strategy (p.s. pre web-based learning and online universities)

·         Campaign focused on lifetime learning

·         Magazines positioned as a $30-a-year course in economics, technology, health etc.

·         Bundle online time, fax service, CD-ROM

·         Take a more active role as news and information suppliers -- i.e., as educators 

·         On the outlook for transition from Analog TV to Digital HDTV:

·         After 10 years, color TV was placed in only 20% of HH’s

·         Book Idea:  Western Trails

·         A look at known and not-so-known migrations and emigrations around the globe

·         Expansions are current

·         Focus on hiking, horseback and horse drawn treks

·         Modern-day adventures and travel experiences akin to Santa Fe and Oregon Trails

·         Polaner All-Fruit TV Spot (“Please pass the jelly”) as an example of commercial longevity

·         Simple premise with outstanding idea, casting and direction

·         Funny line from The Crossing by Cormack McCarthy:

They probably have some ‘ol boy ‘can track a lizard ‘cross a rockslide.

 ·         Funny line from the movie, The Freshman:

Clark says to suspected mobster Carmine Sabatini (Brando’s character), “You promise?”  Brando casually replies, “Every word I say is  … by definition … a promise.”

·         David Bowie describing Nine Inch Nails’ music & Trent Resner:

Under the sonic tensions he exerts on his music, he’s actually quite a good song writer.

·         Bo Diddley describing his “percussive sound”:

 I’m a rhythm fanatic.  I do riffs on the guitar a drummer would do -- it’s what makes my music different.

·         Surf sound guitar originated by Dick Dale & The Deltones was inspired by Gene Krupa drum beats:

·         wave roar -- strum electric

·         wave over the top -- high strum scale plus Middle East melody

·         CNN (Sat. 9/30/95, 4:20p) on broadcast ratings

            Sample size is the key issue in current research technology – micro-broadcasting.

·         Commercial Architecture & Design Approach:

·         Resurrect storefront designs originating in Middle Ages -- a contemporary village

·         Disney-like designs for retail space and storefronts

·         Telegraph business & brands in the way of blacksmith, tanning and butcher shops of olde

  

·         On American English from USN&WR commentary 9/25/95 p.48:

·         3 of 4 English dictionary words are foreign-born

·         started by Angles, Saxons and Jutes -- and the 1066 invasion of Norman French

·         Oxford Dictionary lists more than 600,000 words -- by contrast, German has fewer than 1/3 this number and French 1/6

·         What makes English mammoth and unique is its great sea of synonyms -- same meanings, different connotations

·         English speakers can calibrate the tone and meter of their prose with great precision:

·         They may “end” (Anglo-Saxon), “finish” (French) or “conclude” (Latin)

·         A girl can be “fair” (A-S), “beautiful” (French) or “attractive” (Latin)                                   

·         Anglo words are blunt, Latin words are learned, French words are musical                 

·         Not only are English’s grammar and syntax relatively simple, the language’s sound system is flexible and “user friendly”-- foreign words tend to be pronounced the same as the original                                                                                                                           

·         “We have the most cheerfully democratic and hospitable language that ever existed.  Other people recognize their language in ours.”

 ·     ·         From American Justice TV show (10/11/95) -- interesting stuff about RFK’s killer Sirhan Sirhan

·         The word “assassin” is from Arabic “Hashashim”, meaning “smokers of hashish” -- what killers smoked before committing political murder

·         Sirhan Sirhan claims he has no recollection of the killing -- he didn’t smoke hash, though he did have four drinks.    

·         NYC Nightspots (10/10/95  NY Post)

·         Hogs ‘n Heifers: meatpacking district

·         Bar 89:  274-0989, 89 Mercer between Spring & Broome

·         Bowery Bar: 475-2220, 358 Bowery Street

·         Coffee Shop: 243-7969, 29 Union Square W.

·         Diva: 941-9024, 341 W. B’way

·         Kin Khao:  966-3939, 171 Spring Street

·         Mekong:  Soho (check info. for listing)

·         Lucky Strike: 941-0479, 59 Grand St.

·         Match: 343-0020, 160 Mercer bet. Houston & Prince

·         Naked Lunch: 343-0828, 17 Thompson

·         Odeon: 233-0507, 145 W. B’way

·         Time Cafe: 533-7000, 380 Lafayette Street

·         Alec Baldwin, Inside The Actor’s Studio:  Bravo 10/11/95

·         Acting is about proving something -- to yourself or to others.  One motivation from his life -- a line from his father:  “Are you mommy’s lamb or daddy’s tiger?”

·         About directing -- no interest.  Too technical today, too much time devoted to each film

·         12-18 months through pre-pro, screenplay, casting, rehearsing, shooting, rough-cutting, scoring, testing, previewing, distribution, PR etc. -- by nature, directors have fewer movies in them.

·         Method:  What’s the hook?  The simple thing on which to build a character [like advertising]. 

·         Also, what’s the “disposition” of the character -- timid, rambunctious, confident etc.

·         On stage performance: The most compelling aspect is that the audience and actor share the experience simultaneously.

·         The Futurist, Sept./Oct. 1995:  Top Ten Technologies for the next decade.

10.  Edutainment

  9. Hybrid Fuel Technologies

  8. Medical Treatments

  7. Anti-aging Products & Services

  6. Smart Manufacturing

  5. Miniaturization

  4. Digital HDTV

  3. High Density Energy Sources

  2. Supermaterials

  1. Genetic Mapping

·         Telemedicine , also from The Futurist: 

Just as cable television began as a way to serve rural areas outside of broadcasters’ range, telemedicine is beginning as a way to reach out to medically underserved areas.

·         Funny quote from Joey Adams, 10/12/95 NY Post:

If you’re indicted, you’re invited.

·         On O.J. Simpson, 10/17/95 NY Post

·         Jack Newfield -- “O.J. was framed for something he did.”

·         “Twisted celebrity in a culture where fame and infamy have become indistinguishable”

·         On racial solidarity of verdict, WABC Radio Jay Diamond:   “Blacks think O.J.’s innocent, Americans think he’s guilty.”  

·         Why such a statement?  Juror Brenda Moran offended millions when she told the media that all the evidence of wife abuse by Simpson was a “waste of time” -- despite the fact that Nicole’s 911 call proved O.J.’s capacity to inflict violence on his wife.  Could explain why this jury could deliberate for fewer than four hours.

·         On the newspaper business from Inherit the Wind,

            The job of a newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.

·         On Trust from Trinities by Nick Tosches.  True for mob meeting or board meeting.

            There’s no place in business for trust.

·         Campaign idea for competitive advantage and power of technology or other innovation

·         Great historical revolts, uprisings, revolutions and resistance movements as a metaphor for small /home businesses and underdog companies fighting back and defending against the Big Business Establishment.

·         Unique from other commercials using combat metaphors (e.g., tank battle vs horseback done by Apple(?).)

·         This is shot using contemporary subjects and stories in vintage styles evocative of historic periods:

·                     WWII Italian Resistance

·                     Saxons v Normans

·                     Colonials v British

·                     Soviets v USSR

·                     concludes w/ multi-disciplined, duel-gender, multi-ethnic group of contemporary small business-types planning strategy

·                     Slogan: “Arms for the next race”

·         Funny Football Quote:

            He hit him so hard he knocked the taste out of his mouth.

·         On Competition from Sam Walton:

            Take care of the customer and the customer will take care of the competition.

·         On being a Change Agent  from Fast Company supplement in 10/30/95 USN&WR:

David Marsing, Intel Manager, calls himself a transformational virus -- knowing that “if I’m too aggressive, the corporate immune system will kick in and consume me.”  

·         On Handling What Life Throws At You, from N.Y. Post’s Patrick Walker:

            Life isn’t a matter of holding good cards, but of playing bad cards well.

·         Advertorial or News Section Idea for USN&WR, connected to Six Degrees of Separation premise:

·         Write news stories in linked format -- i.e., lead story connects to related name/company/personality in next story which, in turn, is connected to another and so on and so on

·         Demonstrates relationships and deeper meaning of news

·         On Change & Society, a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

There are always two parties, the party of the past and the party of the future; The     Establishment and The Movement.

·         On Strategic Planning from Scenarios, a special Wired  edition 11/95:

·         Scenario Planning - Derives from the impossibility of knowing exactly how the future will play out -- a good strategy to adopt is one that plays out across several possible futures

·         Begins by identifying the focal issue or decision

·         Reduce bundles of uncertainty that have some commonality to a single spectrum -- an axis of uncertainty

·         Combine “orthogonal axes” to create a matrix defining four very different plausible quadrants of uncertainty

·         The real future will combine elements of all four uncertainties

·         The goal is to “pin down the corners” of the plausible futures -- then need to identify implications that work across all scenarios

·         Helps us understand the uncertainties that lie before us, and what they might mean.  Helps us rehearse” the responses to possible futures.  Helps us to spot them as they begin to unfold.

Long Fuse, Big Bang Problems:

Decisions that play out with a big bang (often life or death to an organization) -- but can take years to learn whether the decision was wise or not.

·         On the Resistance to Technology, also from Wired Scenarios 11/95:

            It’s a poor workman who blames his tools.