Jon Curnow's Digital Home
Earlier: Wow
Now: Wow. Wow.
I am speechless and excited right now. I still think it would be fantastic for London but it’s also brilliant for the rest of the UK. The bid team did a brilliant job. Seb Coe‘s made himself a hero for a second time. Roll on 2012.
Elsewhere: Anna celebrates too
Elsewhere: Awarded to the city of …
Elsewhere: Tube goes all Olympic
My god. We’re hosting the 2012 Olympics.
Hold Your Breath …
In all the excitement I had missed the fact there was a preliminary vote and we weren’t certain of making it this far:
There are a few gasps in the press room as Madrid exits the vote, as some Spaniards at the back had earlier given some noisy support during its bid presentation. We now have the London-Paris finale that the whispers in the past few hours had indicated [source].
Aggghh … the tension.
I have two countdowns on the go right now.
Today is the day for one of those countdowns to reach 00:00:00.
Rachel Stevens and Melanie C will be performing live in Trafalgar Square later today (see here) as we wait to find out the result of the race to host the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. Watch the London2012 videos and keep your fingers crossed for us. I’ll be updating later.
I didn’t watch Live8 at the weekend. Unlike Live Aid, I didn’t get caught up in the moment.
I didn’t watch Live8 at the weekend. Unlike Live Aid, I didn’t get caught up in the moment. I am too cynical now and while I believe it was set up for all the right reasons it was hijacked. If every one of those performers had given up all the revenue from increased record sales in the next 6 months then I would have been less cynical. If the ‘Multi-millionaire rock stars performing in Philadelphia’ gave back their free gifts worth $12,000 (£6,800) [Source] I would have been a even less cynical.
Alexis Petridis, in The Guardian, says, “even the most cynical observer would be forced to admit that, even judged on music alone, Live 8 has been a remarkable day” but, unfortunately, I heard very little. Still, I have higher hopes for the today’s G8 Summit. Really, I do.
The Prime Minister has arrived in Singapore to join the London team ahead of the crucial vote to elect the Host City for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games
Olympic Countdown: The Prime Minister has arrived in Singapore to join the London team ahead of the crucial vote to elect the Host City for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games [Source] and England Football captain David Beckham has arrived in Singapore to join the London team hoping to secure the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games [Source]. The BBC has a summary of the final push to the big announcement.
It’s getting close to the moment I have to pitch a tent near Silverstone.
Silverstone countdown: get familiar with the tracks so you can work out where you would like to be on certain days. I think the people I am going with will know better than me but it’s still fun to watch the speeds. In the meantime, keep an eye on the weather at the Silverstone circuit although I have seen varying reports in different places. Sun? Showers? A year ago tomorrow we were watching them race around the streets of London. Somehow, that would have been much more convenient, don’t you think?
Newspaper editors coming together in support of the bid for London 2012.
So, while counting down to Silverstone, there’s another countdown that I am watching now – the London Olympic bid. I’ve mentioned before that it would be brilliant for London to win the Olympics. I’d think I might volunteer if we win and I’ll say that now so that it doesn’t look like I am jumping on any bandwagon! Watch the videos and hold your breath! In the meantime it’s time for some bid news as I watch the countdown: The editors of ten national newspapers have united to sign a good luck message to London 2012 [source]. Has that ever happened before?
Counting down to the British Grand Prix.
It’s only three days until I arrive at the British Grand Prix site and so I’m having a fantastic build up. Firstly, I can report that the tent has been purchased and I can – just about – get it up. This is, of course, a great start. Secondly – and don’t tell the bookmakers – but I can tell you Jensen Button isn’t going to win on Sunday. How do I know? He said so. “I have no chance of winning. It won’t happen, we are not capable of doing that”. [Source] The excitement builds …
The Swedes, god-bless their efficiency, have come up with a train that is, effectively, powered by that rotting fruit.
I don’t know if it is the glorious sunny weather or something else altogether but, right now, commuting life in London seems so much more pleasant than it used to be. I have no idea why that is but my morning battle with overcrowded South West Trains doesn’t feel to bad right now. Perhaps these new trains really are making a difference. Of course, if it is getting better the rail bosses have still managed to stir up controversy again by suggesting further peak-travel charging for using the railways. There’s nothing likely to get people stirred up than a story like this. I mainly feel for the poor people from the rail companies having to justify these statements. Lost in all the furore about this was the news that the Swedes, god-bless their efficiency, have come up with a train that is, effectively, powered by that rotting fruit you throw away each week. What a great idea.
I wonder how much more I will recall of the turn of the century than I will of my years at the end of the last simply because of this site?
Last week (or was it this week, time flies you see) Tom wrote about: Supernova ’05: “Apps. for a Mobile, Connected World” in which he noted Mena – of Six Apart fame – talking about memories,
Mena really brought memories to the fore. She stated that she wished she had a record of everything that had happened in the first twenty-seven yearas of her life like she has since she first started weblogging (source)
Occasionally I realise that this site has a similar effect on me. I wonder how much more I will recall of the turn of the century than I will of my years at the end of the last simply because of this site? The On This Day link for 26 June sent me back to watching the Olympic Torch crossed south London on its way to Athens. I’d totally forgotten that. What’s more, I didn’t Flickr the pictures so I have seen them for a long time; I’m not too sure where I filed them. Fickr needs an On This Day app so you can see pictures to took on this day in history. It would really help the memory!
And while I am on the subject of Flickr, does anybody else find it annoying that the default sort and ordering is by upload date rather than taken? You often upload when you get back from a trip, like I did last Monday for Zaragoza. All the picture carried the right time stamps but they were uploaded in a sightly different order so I had to play with them to get them displayed correctly. Am I missing something?
My body’s capacity to survive on three or four hours of sleep a night never fails to astound me.
I am back from my weekend in Spain. My body’s capacity to survive on three or four hours of sleep a night never fails to astound me. My body’s capacity to flake out at that point and render me incapable of anything for another seven days also amazes me. So I should start sleeping now …
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is an action-comedy film about a married couple who are secretly assassins.
Friday night is warm across London so we met some friends, had tapas and headed to the flicks to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Unusually for me, I knew what it was about before I actually sank into my lovely comfortable Clapham Picture House seat and – therefore – I wasn’t surprised in either a good or bad way with this film.
The premise: Mr. & Mrs. Smith are killers for hire but they don’t know that about each other. You need to gloss over the huge holes in that, for they don’t matter. The ongoing lies each one has to tell to cover their other life as a hitman is ruining their marriage. So, they seek counselling and somewhere along the line – again, don’t worry about the detail – they end up trying to kill each other.
The lead-up to the assassination attempt(s) is essentially background filler and, thankfully, is over pretty quickly. When the penny drops – and Mr. & Mrs. Smith head to kill the other – is the point where the movie gets better. As you would imagine for such a blockbuster, the killing spree is well covered with special effects making the gun battles comic-book in style and certainly all the more enjoyable for it.
This film, however, is made by the unexpectedly witty dialogue that writer Simon Kinberg has peppered the film with. For plot details and suspense, then two deadly assassins trying to kill each other is – perhaps – better left to Robert Ludlum. A husband and wife couple doing the same and you’ll laugh along to the clever use of the dialogue which moves this film. When it really gets going, it’s great.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt keep it moving well. They are a convincing couple and have all the moves a film of this nature needs. Most importantly, they carry the dialogue convincingly as a married couple.
Don’t expect realism nor a movie that takes itself seriously. Expect a surprisingly entertaining cinema experience. The fact that some in the audience applauded at the end should suggest you give this film a chance.
We gathered customers in a room and asked them what they wanted from our products in the future. Strategy was discussed but not revealed here. Sorry. It was, however, an interesting insight into the dynamics of a group of industry competitors who really shared a common view on the way forward.
Yesterday, we tried something new (well, new to us, anyway). The kind of thing that could have gone horribly wrong had we not got it quite right. We gathered a small group of our customers and, more-or-less, locked them in a room with some of our product and development people to discuss what’s next in online advertising (we did feed them, it wasn’t cruel!). Truthfully, there was no key (although I sat blocking the door for some of the day, but that was to do with the shape of the room) and customers could leave if they wanted to, although if they tried I, in turn, tried to lure them back with coffee (the Dutch said I made it too bitter by plunging too quickly, but that’s another story). It was an interesting experiment and one, I hope, we’ll repeat again.
The first lesson is that managing a group of competing interests like this is akin to conducting an orchestra in that there are many sections who all need to play their part to get the best out of the day. There will be the large string, brass and woodwind sections who have clear ideas what they want from your product and each want to make sure they are heard. Then, of course, there’s the percussion section who seem to fill in the gaps with novel little additions or ideas that hold the other parts together. Fortunately, we had a great conductor in the shape of one of our key product managers from our US office. I guess the rest of us turned the pages on the musical score for the others. Here, my metaphor breaks down and I’ll move on.
I’m not breaking any confidences by suggesting that the key themes are universal to the digital ad-serving business: the industry is maturing and major organisations have moved from wondering what their web presence is all about to how they can make the most money from it and how it integrates into the rest of their business portfolio. I took away a consensus that suggests that the top three things important to the industry are:
and, as all great customers should do, they would like these issues resolved in the next release cycle. Of course, we were given a much deeper insight into what our business needs to do to meet these – and the other less obvious – requirements and industry challenges (do you think I’m going to tell you now?). It was fascinating to see how players in our orchestra interacted, many having never met before. It’s great to see competitors sharing information and, if any of them read this, I’d like to say thanks for your input. I’m sure we’ll do it again. We kept the group small(ish) – more chamber orchestra than philharmonic – so that we could get the best out of the day but if you’d like to be considered for the next one then you’d better be a customer in about 12 months from now!
Now, I’m starting the weekend by heading off to see a solo musician. Tori Amos is playing Hammersmith Apollo in a few hours. I believe she can play the piano rather well. I guess she’ll conduct herself.
Danny Baker is taking what the station described as “an extended summer holiday” after three years on his BBC London breakfast show, during which he will work on a film script for channel Five.
So, I get back from my vacation and try to settle into my regular routine. Firstly, it’s disrupted by a strike by BBC jornalists although I was amused that somebody quipped you could hardly tell and thus proving they’re over-staffed anyway.
I digress. What I came back to was the news that Danny Baker won a Sony Radio Award and prompty went on to quit his breakfast show:
The ebullient presenter is taking what the station described as “an extended summer holiday” after three years on the show, during which he will work on a film script for channel Five.
He told listeners: “We will reform and come back in another shape one day. People thought we were crying wolf … we were just crying. We’ve been saying it for a while now. We’ve been doing it for three years. We’re packing up the tree house at the end of the month.” [The Independent]
Now that’s going to mess up my morning routine something rotten – there’s nobody else on air anything like Danny Baker. It’s not just the fact that he is the only speach-driven presenter that’s not news-based it’s because he is bloody entertaining. Ahhh. I think a paragraph from another article in The Indpendent says it all,
Such confidence that radio requires unique skills will always make Sony award-winning breakfast presenters highly sought after. But they have to be carefully looked after when they arrive. Getting up in the middle of the night to sound fresh at the microphone can become gruelling for even the most dynamic broadcasters. BBC London’s breakfast ace, Danny Baker, proved it with his response to Sony Awards triumph. Named DJ of the year, beating O’Connell, Baker announced his departure from the airwaves within the day. He is going to write a film script for Five. Radio executives searching the market for proven breakfast talent are hoping it flops [The Independent]
