What’s up, beer drinking, ideas producing nation? And by nation I mean Jake and Elias. Leaving 2009 behind us, much to my relief, here is the first Link Dump of 2010. Enjoy it while it lasts.

British copywriter Howard Fletcher has an awesome website. With words.

Really not much else.

Feel like change? Get sacked. Check out what can happen when you get laid off and make the best of it. There’s life beyond this industry. Actually, only there. Lemonade.

WTF of the day: First I found ten Euros on the streets. Then THESE fellas send me a big

package of spicery, sauces and awesome - to an address where I don’t live anymore for

over ten years.
So either these guys are really fucking late with their orders or somebody is

trying to be funny. Either way, as I certainly didn’t order anything from those fine people,

I just say Thank You for the chili-ketchup. Finally I come home and find a book in my mailbox, wrapped as a gift - with no sender. Unexpected. It’s like the universe finally is okay with the decisions I made lately. It’s about freaking time, universe.

We’ve come a long way.

Speaking about food Feran Adria practically has no home, always thinks, never rests, just cooks. Interview with a maniac. From 2006, but still inspiring. Via H.O.M.E. mag. 

Insane animation tests. Tracked with PFHoe Pro. Man, you got to be kidding me.

Design case: The Holy Bible in a Moleskin version might just be what the Vatikan needs.

Via ADC.

What kills businesses: lazyness, mostly. Copying signs your death warrant afterwards.

We knew it. Great article over at Hadelsblatt.com.

Handsome AND smart: Stefan Niggemeier interview at dctp.com. Also online: Sascha Lobo talks about himself. For proper 40 minutes. If you really hate your life, you’re welcome.

Exactly two years ago I was sitting in a bar in Hamburg with a fellow copywriter thinking about how it was time to start a green agency. Of course we never realized it. Because we are idiots. Somebody else did. Fair enough.

You think winter in Berlin sucks? Try good ol’ Russia.

All the most incredible pictures of 2009 - and some more. The Big Picture at Boston.com.

Copywriter Bob Bly makes a point by posting what he won’t and will do for free for you.
It may sound tacky but I know how he feels. I was recently asked to come up with a claim for a multi-million Euro Start Up, you know, as a favor, but only if I had nothing else to do at night.
Think about it, these people have so much money they could hire a team of scientists to grow a genetically enhanced leprechaun in a lab who then builds a massive claim out of solid gold yet they ask you to do it for free.

Because it’s 2010 and things need to change - again - this is the guitar I’m going to buy. Isn’t she a pretty thing?

To see what a man with his guitar can do in times of need check out this little film of a guy called Josh Wilson who lightened up the spirits of a lot of people while stuck at the Newark airport a few days ago. Nice one, Josh.

I discovered a really, realy, really cool German actress around Christmas, while sitting on the couch with my mom watching TV. I will not admit what kind of movie it was. Let’s just say my mom enjoyed it a lot. And Paula Kalenberg made it worth my while.

Finally: Thanks to Björn (Studio314), his girlfriend and all the good people of the Wiener Straße for an awesome New Years Eve. Good times. And thanks to Jochen for the Zimtschnecken.

PS: It’s not that you fall. It’s how you land.

Girl Skateboards (RED) from We Love You So on Vimeo.

See a lovely bit about skateboarding in Hamburg and Berlin. And Gütersloh. Because - YES - one of the heroes of my youth, Claus Grabke, is featured as well with footage from now and then. It’s just plain awesome and it brings back good memories. Why the hell did I become an advertiser again?
Thanks a lot, VBS.TV.

Don’t worry, if you are a young creative who’s willing to work hard without pay, this is your time. Check out Oli Voss asking some of advertisings greatest what the fuck is going on, what’s happening next and why the crisis is good for creativity HERE.

Via Werbeblogger (thanks, mate).

Faris Yakob talks about, well, a lot of stuff, from T. S. Elliot and William S. Burroughs, cut-up technique in literature and, of course, sampling-music like Jungle, to John Locke, Luke Skywalker, unicorns, more Jungle music, The Art of Remixing, its cultural approach of “inviting participation”, video editing, augmented reality and basically every other example on the planet to explain “A History of Recombinant Culture”, which is, why I am not going to. Just watch the lecture from Interesting NY.
And by talking about it here I’m pretty much proving his point.
I’m taking something from somebody else, placing the content in a new environment, adding something new to it, creating a different frame for it, and change, by doing so, its meaning. Which is, by itself, nothing new, but that’s why the lecture is called “A History…”, from then till now, and that’s where that comes from.
In a way our “Remixing Society” was inevitable because there is a certain need to rearrange inside of us. Like Yakob says: It takes something to make something else. And by creating something we always create a bit of ourselfs along with it.
And as he quotes William Gibbson: The remix is the very nature of the digital, remixing is the very nature of human beings as well. Because that’s what our brain does the whole time, remixing and recombining reality. If only to understand the plot our surrounding is telling us.
While it might have found it’s first expressions in art, like Yakob says, it now has spread and is used by the masses - and became a culture.
The question “What’s next?” is just one of the issues I hopefully will debate tonight at the Odessa Bar in Berlin at Beersphere, an event “where people who are interested in this sort of thing hang out and meet nice people and drink heavily [optional].”, as Faris Yakob puts it himself. “It grew out of our love of coffee mornings and likeminds and beer. We did it a few times in London and NYC and it was grand.” Around here it’s hosted by David - who turns out to have a really interesting blog, if only he was blogging - and looks like the kind of event I always wanted to do with Beersandideas in the real world, so I’m curious how it’s going to turn out. Probably brilliant.
Unfortunately the only person I could have invited who is interested in that kind of thing - and lives in Berlin - is spending the evening at the Roisin Murphy concert.
So if you as well are attending the Roisin Murphy concert and you see a beautiful little planner jumping around to her favorite music, invite her for a beer. It’s on me.

Faris Yakob at Interesting New York from David Nottoli on Vimeo.

Just a quick shot here: Little film that the guy across my desk made a while ago. It was supposed to be a viral filmy aiming to recruit young talent. A while ago means that time Scholz&Friends were rated number 1 in Germany.
I think it’s a great idea and they had a lot of beers while filming it, so I figured it’s perfect for this site. It also quiet answers a few questions about how juries work. This is pretty much exactly how I always imagined those ADC blokes to act behind closed curtains.
Enjoy.

Yes, it’s movie time today on beersandideas - in fact, it’s rather TV time or, for that matter, internet time: with some Ricky Gervais (puh, now that was a wacky intro, let’s move on, quickly).
For all of you precious readers who don’t know that Ricky Gervais is a sparkeling, stoutly, shining God, well, he is - and you can leave this site now.
For everyone else here in the know, this is only a further document of his absolute genius - and it’s from last year. And I might have forgotten to post it 5 months ago. So what? He (and fellow writer/director Stephan Merchant) were just finishing the script for “The Extras”, the Christmas special (which was absolutely ground breaking, probably the best thing I have ever seen on TV, yes, it is also brown nosing-time) when they produced this little gem - leaving you very much asured, that no German writer/director/actor will ever say anything like it on TV the internet. Obeisance be with him. And for everyone else: go to RickyGervais.com and read and watch everything that’s there. Then buy all his DVDs. You f**** c***!

An insightful interview with Steve Jobs. Some thoughts on failures, consumer desires and industrial design. It’s not as snotty or self-indulgent as one might expect from the self proclaimed god of all good, nice and shiny.

Check it out on this nieat homepage, which hosts 5 interviews to date and will do more in the future. The site even has a interview suggestion page. Check it out!

All Hamburg-located people may ignore this. And everybody without a German tounge, too. It’s the online section of Hamburg 1, the local TV station of Germany’s advertising capital in the high north.

Click here, to see the advertising related content.