Cellofourte will be on their way to victory next weekend. Check it out!

Hosted By: Emergenza Music Festival
When: Saturday Jun 02, 2007 at 7:00 PM
Where: Mr. Small’s Theatre
400 Lincoln Ave
Millvale, PA 15209

Inspired by the engagement of one of Dark Oak’s favorite individuals, I’m on a new creative venture to eliminate the whole “ugh, another wedding to attend this summer” feeling that plagues singlefolk everywhere. This friend, a fellow integrated marketing communications theorist, inspired the launching of an all out marketing campaign for his wedding, themed 5.31.08, to keep the date top of mind among all invitees. I want the look and feel of this wedding to be apparent, well before the walk down the aisle, making it look so great that it will be a major anticipated event of the year. If you really think about it, marketing your wedding is a great concept. It’s the one day that you can do whatever you want, and you want everyone to know about it… ahead of time… and you want them to remember it. Taking strategic steps to assure this is brilliant, through corresponding ’save the date’ cards to invitations, email correspondence, web pages, and the wedding day attire and decor - all with a common voice. Who knows, it just might gain some positive return on investment and score some better gifts, too. It’s IMC all the way.

I was just let in on a little secret. A music lover’s paradise. It’s called “Go Music.” It’s an iTunes wannabe coming straight at us from Russia. They sell full albums for under five bucks. Songs for thirty cents. The person who told me all about this claims that the quality is great and they have just about any song your heart may desire. If you’re willing to take a gamble and give it a try, it could be a nice way to save some money on legit downloads. Now, don’t take my word on this; I have yet to use it myself. Here’s the link: http://www.gomusic.ru

My grandparents gave me these as a birthday gift. I’m convinced that they’re genuine smurf skin. How else could they be so vibrant blue?

Visual, technical, editorial: the trinity of web marketing. I’ve been thinking a lot about the latter of the three, so I’m going to write about writing. I stumbled upon this insight from Susannah Ross: “I argue that making Web sites is just as much an editorial job as it is a visual job: at least I would like never to be presented with a pilot site where all the important decisions about content, layout, organization, and navigation have already been taken, and then to be asked to write the copy—in effect, to fill in boxes.”

Right on, sister. While Andy’s working away at design, I’m constantly thinking, “What do we have to say? How are we going to say it? Where are we going to put it?” I’ve come up with a few tactics when writing for the Web. I’m feeling generous, so I’ll share. I start by telling a story. I go for descriptives, verbs, and a conversational style. I aim to break up the information by doing exactly what I just mentioned. This is my newest thing: I try to anticipate users’ questions - in a sense, I don’t pose the question at all, yet I answer it before someone has to even ask. A bit of function comes in to play, too, of course. I always, always, always write with search engines in mind… which brings me to — use a blog! The value of relevant, updated information is huge. Contact Dark Oak Studios for more of this stimulating informational wisdom.

P.S. Speaking of great writing — Fresh Ink (those quirky cards from Hallmark) has it down! It’s like they had us in mind when they wrote this one. It came in the form of the perfect birthday card for Andy, which I gave him over the weekend, reading something to the effect of “you’re always on the right side of the fine line between cool and dorky,” boasting a kid in a faux-Superman suit. Priceless.

Amazes me that is…

I just got a gift card from my brother-in-law and his wife. (Great folks, even without the gift card.)

It’s an Apple gift card. And you know what? It’ is designed SO well. It’s just some cardboard and a little plastic gift card and MAN is it hot. I don’t know who these people employ as industrial designers but they’re awesome. I’ve got Apple envy. Seriously I do. I work on a PC and I’ve done fine with one for years… But man oh man do I want to switch over to an Apple. I’m a sucker for good design and these people have it down.

I think what drives it all home for me is the simplicity and clarity of design. They identify the items purpose and then they design to make it simple and functional…PERIOD. It’s so…zen like. They take away all the frill and leave only what’s needed to create a straight forward, aesthetically pleasing functional piece of work. Brilliant.

Kinda like a river makes a pebble.

Here’s an interesting article, given the onset of Vista in the world of the ever-changing Mac. (And… Mac is having a field day with it all. Check it out)

Run this through Google Earth and know this: We are not alone.

45 7′25.77″N, 123 6′49.40″W

iPod, meet phone. Love at first site, no doubt. This latest introduction of sexy just happened. Andy’s involvement with MacTribe Magazine of Boston gave us this piece of Mac insider hottness today. The magazine’s owner, who is currently out in San Francisco attending MacWorld 2007, was IMing Andy as Steve Jobs announced the launch of the long awaited hybrid iPhone. It appears to be nothing short of awesome, as it also serves as a mean for accessing the Internet on the go, and pretty much a basic accessory for life, so it seems. Super hot — too bad for being stuck in contract for another year. Talk about marketing power. These dudes have got it down. Check out apple.com to be amazed.