Copywriter meets web 2.0

My good friend Andrew Ong in lion island come together with some gifted musicians and worship people about twice every year. They come together to jam and let the Spirit lead their worship time. They recently did a gathering and even tried out some of my songs: allaroundyourthrone, rain down (mercy is falling), come sing, and kingandfather. I like their rendition of the Souls Survivor hereiamtoworship.

Drew’s idea for these worship times is to allow worship ministers express themselves in a spontaneous way; with minimal or no arrangement; they’ve a practice session to learn new songs and then they just go for it. The recordings were made with an iPod. You will hear Drew on lead vocals, backing vocals, a cool keyboardist, bassist, passionate lead, hot drumming, and simple sax.
Jer Min’s Mongolian Whistling is an amazing thing to hear!!! Simon and I were absolutely BLOWN AWAY when he demonstrated it to us a year ago in S’pore. When you hear it live, you won’t be faulted to believe it’s some pennywhistle or flute. You can hear him in ‘All Around Your Throne’. Jer Min is this super talented wind instrument player (he’s got like a big bag of flutes, pipes, etc) studying these instruments in Aus.

Listen to it or download the sessions here: http://olichew.multiply.com/music

Dinner at my parent’s place in Klang 22 Feb 07

Ditto.

Was looking around for audio recording hardware that works with Mac when Jason Tong (whom I’m indebted to) linked me up with some dude wanting to part with a totally righteous ‘mini recording studio’ Zoom MRS-8 (click on pic for link).

Spent several hours reading or scrolling down a pdf manual learning how to get this baby rocking. Then, after jabbing this button, turning that dial, working step by step - dis beast is complex - I managed to transfer sample guitar recordings into my iBook and into Garageband (!) My dreams of recording live instruments and vocals in reasonable quality and mixing it in GB is realised by this plum little gadget.  Will slowly do my demo with this mini monster and let you hear the results in my Worship Project page. JENG JENG JANG!

Yesterday was the ode to Cupid, heart-shaped balloons, and over-priced notions of love: Valentine’s Day. Though a cynic, I decided to indulge in a few hours of delicious fare with my colleagues in Friendster restaurant. After waiting for an entire Ice Age to melt, the five of us finally got a table reserved for a Mr Ibrahim.

I can see it now…Mr Ibrahim going ‘Look at the jam, dear, is it really worth the trip out tonight?’ Mrs Ibrahim replying ‘Do you want to live to a ripe old age?’ Mr Ibrahim, thinking fast, ‘Yes, dear, but we’ve been in this jam for two hours. What if we stop by a McDonalds?’ SLAP and BOSH to Mr’s face and Mrs is getting out of the car and walking home; just twenty four metres away.

The hapless romantic that I am, I saw past the two minutes that became an hour waiting for all our food to arrive, the din, the bad jokes by a magician, the unavailability of certain dishes on the menu (half), the candle wax figures modeled by a bored friend, the presentation of dishes we didn’t order, the lack of air conditioning, and thought to myself: It’s Valentine’s Day. I like this place. (Or it could’ve been the couple of beers.)

Actually, Cupid did shoot an arrow into my aching, sweaty back that night. I felt the friendship of a few people who cared to hang out with me even though some of them had to return to the agency to finish up work. Love is overrated. Friendship is underrated.

I finally got myself Soundwave. A Decepticon. A spy. A childhood dream.  This die-cast metal villian transforms into a radio. His winged minion, Laserbeak (on his right), transforms into a cassette. Of all the Transformers out there, I find it coincidental that I, a copywriter, like this fella: whose alter-ego is a medium of news, entertainment, and advertising.

Hello, Rae

Am doing good here…Busy…But fun busy…You still haven’t told me where you’re working.
Good ad strats are sometimes written or influenced by creatives.
Edwin Leong whom I worked with for a while was an excellent strategist.
Learn from creatives who are good at strat - you’ll know who they are after a while - and from suits (even) and planners.
There are good ad books like, erm, Creative Leaps, Disruption, and even old but great  Advertising (Prentice Hall) textbooks.

Remember what I told you about reading voraciously?
Nothing helps build a keen strategic mind like books. Nothing.
Read ad books. Not just annuals. Read Time or Newsweek. Read marketing books. Read graphic design books.
Search for latest trends online. (For IT, www.slashdot.org)
Below is a list of ad/marketing/copy/design books I have read or am reading (not exhaustive).
They are recommended for writers who want to be more than writers:

Hey Whipple Squeeze This
Creative Leaps
Creative Company
Is There Any Hope For Advertising (Gossage, a classic; get any of his books, if you can)
The Copy Book
The Art Directors Book
Cutting Edge Advertising (duh)
The Copy Workshop (a MUST)
The Elements of Style (watch thy grammar)
Confessions Of An Advertising Man (Mr O)
Blink
Tipping Point
An old book about the history of Saatchi - can’t recall title
Disruption
A Smile In The Mind (excellent graphic design)
The Art Of Looking Sideways (ditto)
2 Kilo Of Kesselskrammer
Juicing The Orange (brilliant strategies and campaigns)
Brand Apart
From The Folks Who Brought You Pearl Harbour (funny classic, borrowed from a pal. Try amazon)
(That’s all I can remember)