Estatley has 37 reasons for living in Portland, Oregon. Or, for some, 37 reasons not to.
This is what Portland looked like last weekend:
Personal Branding
Jeff Bridges, Widelux & Me
Widelux Camera & Me
This is a Widelux camera. It is a rather unique 35mm swing lens film camera and as I have discovered over the years, it is loved by Jeff Bridges and, yes you guessed it, me.
As Wikipedia says: “The Widelux is a fully mechanical swing-lens panoramic camera first developed in Japan in 1948, with both 35mm (the F6, F7 and F8 models) and medium-format (1500) models available. The WIDELUX cameras manage this trick because of a 26mm lens pivoting on an axis.”
The New York Times article, “The Dude Abides On The Other Side Of The Lens”, just highlighted some of Jeff’s film set work and his thoughts about this strange tool. He is also one of the few Widelux information resources on the web. Here he is on the camera and how he deals with its delights…
The Widelux is a fickle mistress; its viewfinder isn’t accurate, and there’s no manual focus, so it has an arbitrariness to it, a capricious quality. I like that. It’s something I aspire to in all my work — a lack of preciousness that makes things more human and honest, a willingness to receive what’s there in the moment and to let go of the result. Getting out of the way seems to be one of the main tasks for me as an artist.
Here are a couple of shots from a series I did on very tight Japan retail – click them. You can see more of my Widelux photographs from Cambodia and beyond on my photography website.
Ups and Downs Of Advertising vs. Social Media From Google Trends
“Interesting” look at search interest over time for two of our favorite terms… Advertising is red and social media is blue. I think that the colors should be switched. “Advertising” is feeling a bit blue.
->Hello:
Agency CEO’s or wannabe CEO’s, take me up on my Corleone Offer if you want to grow your agency.
Are Ad Agency Creatives More Creative When Drunk?
The fabulous Advertising Week Social Club blog asked, “Do You Think Alcohol Makes You More Creative? We’re Putting It To The Test.” As Dave Birss writes…
There’s lots of anecdotal evidence that indicates a couple of drinks can help you creatively. For example, the first piece of copy I ever wrote was produced with the assistance of several pints of Guinness. It ran without any client amends and ended up winning a best copy award. (Conversely, a journey along the Absinth shelf almost got me fired for starting a fight with an Account Director!)
Then in the late 90s a spirit of temperance swept across adland in the UK. And at the same time creative standards seemed to drop. A lot of people suspect there’s some connection there.
As someone who went to art school, started in the New York advertising business in the fueled 1980’s, worked with dozens of creatives around the world and now lives in Oregon, home of craft beers and legalized drugs, I’d have to say that creatives…. Well, I won’t. But watch this video and stay tuned for the results.
How I Wrote And Published My First Book In Three Months: Length
I am not a writer. Well, I was (I have been writing business related documents and white papers for years) and wasn’t (as in an eBook or “real” book writer) until I committed to writing a book (actually at least two non-fiction books per year.)
Back to not being a writer. One of the issues I had to deal with was how long of a book to write. I needed a target to to have some sense of when I had what I would consider a book-length manuscript. I am not super prolific and believe strongly that most people do not need the 250-page non-fiction book. In fact, according to Kindle statistics, yes Amazon knows abut your reading habits, most people don’t finish their business books (see “Your E-Book is reading You” from the Wall Street Journal.) Frankly, I think that most non-fiction can be a bit word-padded (I just made that term up) to get to a marketable page count to satisfy traditional publishers. Once upon a time, I even thought that I would create a series of short books under a form of imprint related to attention deficit disorder. Imagine, “ADD Books.” Books for the millions of the unfocussed.
Back to length. There are no rules. However, research indicates that most fiction books seem to fall into the following range: Books are about 60,000 to 125,000 words or 200 to 500 pages at 250-350 words per page. Most fiction starts at about 80,000 words.
However, non-fiction books run the gamut and can be much smaller. My favorite non-fiction, especially for business books, tends to be punchier and designed to be quicker reads (think of Seth Godin.)
“Boomercide”, my non-fiction book, is topping out at about 20,000 words or 80 to 90 pages at 6”X9”. This works for me as the book is intended to be very direct. No fluff. I am trying to get to the point.
So, how long should a book be? Depends… as usual.