We like..Smirnoff Original Nights

Smirnoff's Original Nights is a series of alternative events in London, involving (among other things) a bit of dressing up, plenty of dancing + a lot of drinking. Which is why it's got my attention!

Smirnoff invited London's Promoters to apply for a £10k bursary to host one of four nights in London as part of their Smirnoff Night Vision initiative. They then asked London nightlife experts; Shaun Roberts (Promotions Manager of Fabric), Simone Baird (Social Club Editor at Time Out magazine) and Crispin Dior (Promoter behind Field Day, Adventures in the Beetroot Field) to hand-pick who they considered to be the most exciting and forward-thinking promoters from those who applied.

The chosen four were then given the cash to create an event from scratch on behalf of Smirnoff. And they really do all sound incredibly innovative, unique + exciting.

Normal people like us can win tickets to whichever event takes our fancy by posting a comment on the discussion board for that chosen event. And it looks like it's going down really well with nearly 50k fans on the FB page + big numbers begging for tickets on the discussion boards. Pretty please, Gods of Fun, can I win tickets to the Hothouse Revue event, I've been practising my Lindy-hop like a good girl + everything:

People Are Germs

Bash Studios – Saturday 18th April

Juliette Hughes and Claire Bartolomeo - better known as People are Germs - are hosting a special, one-off party that dreams are made of.

A rollerdisco like no other, party-goers will be able to skate to their hearts’ content whilst enjoying cutting edge live acts Primary1 and Magistrates and DJs The Glimmers, Hot Chip, Foals and Nadia Kasabia.

Taking place in an East London warehouse space, the night will boast flashing disco lights, party-loving people with colours and scenery to make your eyes fizz.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=150223705719&ref=mf

DJ Flicks

The Curzon, Soho – Friday 24th April

The brains behind disco hub DJ History.com present DJ Flicks; a movie and a party rolled into one. Known as much for their web blogging and record digging exploits as their legendary Lowlife parties, Frank Broughton and Bill Brewster will be transforming The Curzon, Soho into disco decadence.

Showing new, rare and unseen films recounting the disco genre in all its guises, the night will morph into a unique club night, connecting one of history’s pioneering DJs to the exciting scenes they inspired. DJ Kenny Carpenter, a one-time resident jock from the much-lauded Studio 54, and modern day instigators Disco Bloodbath will be taking to the decks. With electro don Arthur Baker as host for the evening, films being screened will include ‘The Godfather of Disco’, ‘Pioneers’ and ‘Disco Godfather’.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=62496567524&ref=mf

Hothouse Revue

No. 5 Cavendish Square – Wednesday 29th April

UK festival producers and promoters Ben DeVere and Michael O' Shea are forming The Hothouse Revue, a 1920s night quite possibly bringing more elegance and decadence than the capital has witnessed for 80 years.

Inspired by the heyday of Berlin's Kit Kat club and Harlem's Savoy Ballroom, expect a brazen blur of burlesque, cabaret, swing-jive and lindy-hop, private lamp-lit tables, fine-food, intimate service, race rhythm, gypsy jazz, and all-round sass as Ben and Mike take over the grand No. 5 Cavendish Square venue. With no detail overlooked, it's the faded glamour of the pre-war roar spruced to a high sheen; so don't forget to dress up before you get down.

http://www.facebook.com/smirnofforiginalnights?ref=ts#/event.php?eid=59732993729&ref=mf

3D Disco… In The Round

Date and venue TBC shortly

The final promoters in the series are from NOVAK Collective, Adam Finley, Elliot Thompson, Andrew Nixon and Keith Daniels, the dynamic team behind the popular AV party 3D DISCO™. Not ones to rest on their laurels, they will be taking the 3D Disco concept they pioneered to a whole new level with 3D DISCO™ In The Round transposing the eye-popping, high-definition club visuals into a completely immersive environment.

The show will be hosted in an IGLOO tent which, as the name suggests, provides Novak with the 360° projection space they will require.

For your chance to win tickets, check out the Smirnoff Original Nights discussion posts http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/smirnofforiginalnights?v=app_2373072738&viewas=741085245

Where it's safe to go out this weekend..

Scratch'n'Sniff Cinema

To escape the yuckiness of valentines this weekend here are a few fun places to go to where you can safely avoid fluff, flowers, set menus + soppy couples.

One of my absolute favourites, the Bethnal Green Working Man's Club has a whole weekend of anti-valentines mischief. On Friday you'll find the Love Massacre-ade which they say will take you on 'a magical mystery tour of the heart and into the deep dark corners of your thoughts, where you will find magicians, smitten kittens, phantom pianists and black widows on this twisted take on Valentine's' - in short, burlesque, magicians, music + meta-physical powers. I wish I could go myself.
Fri @ 9pm-2am, tickets = £8

Then on the Saturday Oh My God I Miss You! is hosting 'Dumb Valentines' at the BGWMC. I went to a night run by these guys for my birthday + it was like the craziest of dreams - bizarre but the best thing ever. Complete with a love + hate messageboard, the chance to star in your own romance comic cover, see 'how low you can go' in the love limbo..all while dressed as your favourite couple?! Entertainment comes in the form of burlesque, a performance of the love dance (?) + DJs playing love ballads, love sick songs, kitsch classics, Exotica, Crooners, Rock'n'Roll & novelty songs.
Sat @ 9pm-2am, tickets = £8

On the same night, Cut a Shine will be at the Finsbury Town Hall in Islington hosting a Valentines Barn Dating Ball. While I think this one may be a little more sickly than the others, it does sound like a whole lot of fun, so it's made it in. There'll be an 11 piece jive jump band + they say the best barn dance band ever to jump around to..and accidentally on top of potential love interests?! As well as Folkaoke - like, karaoke to folk music yea? I've always wanted to go to one of these nights but haven't quite managed to drag a friend along..yet.
Sat @ 8pm, tickets £14

Guilty Pleasures is hitting the lanes again for their 'I'm not in love' anti-valentines party (they oversold tickets last time + I couldn't get in, grr), this time at the new All Star Lanes on Brick Lane. The idea is to celebrate singledom + while they'll have all sorts of cheeky dating games, it's not all about that + there's lots of non-romantic fun to be had with bowling (of course) + the usual GP DJs playing pure pop + soft rock complete with 'erection section'.
Sat @ 8pm-2am, tickets £10

Scratch 'n' sniff cinema is the first of it's kind - taking place this Saturday as part of the Jotta Craft Fair, a fortnight of interactive activity. As you'd expect you're there to watch a film - Peter Greenway's 'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover' (1989) + guests receive scratch 'n' sniff cards to be used at key points in the film. Aromas include rotting meat + dusty books! The evening includes a romantic presentation about the film and a Valentine-themed menu. So not entirely love-free, but ya know.
Sat @ 5.30pm + 9pm, tickets = £10

The Notting Hill Arts Club has a special anti-valentines afternoon goin' on. And it's freeeee! They have some very special guests coming along to perform their reworkings of classic love songs, in true Drowned in Sound style.
Sat @ 4-8pm, FREE

And I'm not sure if I should be talking about this, what with it being a secret and all. So if anyone asks I didn't tell you, right? But this Sunday, Secret Cinema takes place + they have two screenings - a matinee + an evening showing. Obviously I don't know where it is (yet) or what film they'll be showing, but it sounds like it's something to do with rock stars, hmm? I've been to the last 3 secret cinema events + they're amazing. The location is revealed a few days beforehand + the venues, which tend to have a relevance to the film are always pretty interesting + sometimes mean you get to see places not open to the public. You can dress up if you choose, there's always lots of additional entertainment going on too + there's normally a bar + sweeties, yum.
Sun @ 3.30pm + 7.30pm, tickets £13.50-£17.50

..that'll do for now, my fingers are sleepy.

Happy anti-valentines x

Round-up 30//07//08

GAMING
Update on Spore – over 1m creatures are being created each week // Got totally addicted to this, Astroflyer

WORLD WIDE WEB
Oooh, a potential contender to Google created by Google alumni, called Cuil has emerged! // More on customisation – the ultimate in car customisation from Volvo // Google’s launched a Second Life // U.S Chewing Gum brand Stride Gum sponsored this guy Matt to travel around the world and film himself dancing (badly) in each country.

CONTENT
One for…VAMPIRES – a really clever campaign launching in the states that takes product placement to a whole new level. More here // An update on Hideous Productions' Riff Raff Bebo campaign - they're currently at an astonishing 47k Bebo fans + are now looking for a brand sponsor // I was shocked to read that "some commissioners run a mile when they see a brand, even on a small channel where the money is tight." – an interesting article on how broadcasters view brands in the light of the recent demand for content and the popularity of ad-funded broadcasting.

TELECOMS
Met office offers weather service to mobile phones // Orange and Sony Ericsson-sponsored MobileAct Unsigned will be relaunched as "OrangeunsignedAct supported by Sony Ericsson" later this year. The show will launch on November 2 on Channel 4 and will be supported by an integrated marketing campaign // Google is launching an experiential activity to drive awareness of the Google services available on mobile phones, including Google Search + Google Maps. Google ‘lounging areas’ will be found in London’s commons and parks alongside interactive garden games + branded tricycles. And Google representatives will show consumers how to access the various Google services available using their own handsets.

GREEN + ETHICAL
EJF has linked with top designers including Katherine Hamnett + to create some v.cool t-shirts to raise awareness of environmental issues // And linking with designers seems to be the latest thing for getting the green message across..now Cath Kidston has designed a re-usable, recycled bag for Tesco – together they hope to raise £250k for Marie Curie Cancer + discourage the use of plastic bags // Pretty! Solar Powered Fairy Lights // Reverend + The Makers Guitarist, Tom Jarvis performed their last song on the John Peel tent at Glastonbury using a guitar made from recycled materials. More here.

JUST COOL
Brilliant – a food fight spoon // Kids Rock – your favourite bands singing kids songs..kinda // Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. This is a wordle for my blog, so it clearly shows what I talk about the most.

OLYMPICS
Pretty cool – a video created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett (the guys behind the Gorillaz) + based on the classical Chinese Novel ‘Journey to the West’. It’s to promote BBC Sport’s coverage of the Olympics + will be shown on TV, online, on the radio + on mobile // And while we’re on the subject of the Olympics, here’s Nike’s (U.S) effort. I read about it on Contagious, where they also mention Bill Bailey’s comment on The Killers ‘I got Soul’ track, used in the ad (at Latitude festival) - “I’ve got soul but I am not a soldier? You can’t say that - it’s like saying I’ve got ham but I am not a hamster... “ – that made me laugh, a lot.

YOOF
This months 23 things (..rules for brands wishing to attract youth) from Ruby Pseudo // And a nice research presentation here on how young people are using their mobile phones.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Sad to be missing the Innocent Village Fair this weekend // See the best views over London from the Stella Artois Star Over London - a Zeppelin airship which flies for 45 minutes // And this is a proper East End Old Time Music Hall featuring seven incredible quick-change artistes playing over 50 characters with magic, trapeze and everything. It's had mixed reviews, so...

Round-up 08//07//08

ONE FOR SUZ
Have you seen The Flight of the Conchords? Well if me + my blog is like Bret + Jermaine, then you're Mel:

TELECOMS
Nokia has launched the next stage of its Music Almighty campaign - a roller disco tour of the UK visiting London, Manchester + Brum. You can sign up for a pair of tickets here to skate for an hour + be musically entertained by DJ sets from Norman Jay, Zero 7, Guilty Pleasures + more. The tour supports Nokia’s ‘Comes with music’ service which has been set up to take on iTunes + has been doing very well having signed up all the major labels bar 1 (EMI). And they’ve cleverly turned what would otherwise be a purely experiential activity into a traffic + sales-driver for their music store by offering everyone to sign up a free download.

Blackberry will be pleased. As demonstrated in its latest campaign, Blackberry is trying to position itself as more of a consumer device. And now it turns out it’s benefiting from iPhone hype as consumers look for a more affordable option. The Samsung Soul does pretty well too..

Sony Ericsson has linked with the Women’s Tennis Association + to support it is launching an ad campaign across 75 countries worth £75m. They’ve also linked with Maria Sharapova to launch a range of mobile phone accessories for women in the 3rd quarter of this year called the Design Collection. Consisting of phone cases, party bags and travel wallets made with Sharapova’s ‘style, fashion + glamour’.

Worth reading but very long. This report talks about the predicted growth in global entertainment + media driven by digital + mobile. Now, we've been talking about this for 8 months or so, but suddenly the whole world is talking about mobile advertising as the next big thing. Nokia has even created Ad Labs in London + Boston to educate + certify ad agency staff on the dark art of mobile advertising + the huge potential for their clients’ brands.

Disney has linked up with Sharp to launch a

Cinderella themed handset aimed at tweens.

Watch this space - thanks to the Nintendo Wii making gaming more accessible, men + women of all ages now consider themselves to be 'casual gamers'. Nokia’s UK Marketing Director, Will Harris reckons gaming will be bigger than music as an industry this year + have made it a top priority. After the modest success of the Nokia NGage, its gaming software now sits alongside it's music + mapping software. Sony Ericsson have launched a Wii-style motion-gaming enabled handset, the F305.

INTERNET + SOCIAL MEDIA
Jim came across this one – Skittle Yourself is a simple but clever microsite that allows kids to create their own characters, Skittles packets + more + then export them into their Bebo profiles + other social networks. A nice example of creating online groundswell - Spore is an EA Games endeavour, which is not to be officially released until September, when it will be released on platforms including the iPhone. But such is the pedigree of its creator the buzz starts now. Created by the guy behind The Sims and Sim City in this new game you get to play God starting at the beginning of evolution and extending all the way to dominating outer space. To build a community online + get people talking + interacting, EA has created a site where you can create + download your own Spore creature + keep up-to-date on Spore news. Some of us were talking yesterday about the likelihood of an application that tells you where in the world your friends are popping up soon. And then literally 30 mins later EI sent through a link to Loopt - a social compass that does just that.

YOOF...+ A BIT OF TELECOMS
Everyone’s been talking about social media, buzz marketing, branded content blah blah blah as the favoured methods of creating a deeper interaction + 2-way conversations between brands + consumers. No longer do consumers just react to what a brand is telling them..they now have control + influence like never before. And while some brands have (to some extent) enabled their customers to even influence the design of products for a while now, I have a feeling this will become even more common - especially among the youth audience to whom expressing individuality is absolutely essential. Nike has been doing the customisation thing for a while, but has now stepped it up a notch by tapping into the mobile world. With Nike PhotoID, consumers can MMS a picture from the real world to inspire their footwear design. Nike will take the 2 main colours from the image to create a personalised pair of trainers. The user is then sent a link to view the trainers on the Nike PhotoID mobile site where they can use the image as wallpaper, send it to a friend + buy the trainers. They’ve timed it pretty well because as people are getting more + more dependant on the internet, social networks, email etc, they’re less averse to paying the connection charges to access the internet on their mobiles (the main barrier before). However, my thinking is that while the youth audience should demonstrate the biggest opportunity for this kind of campaign, they also have the least disposable income..to pay the connection charges + for the trainers themselves?!

..however, Blyk might just solve this problem. Blyk is an advertiser-funded free mobile phone service for 16-24 year olds. In exchange for agreeing to receive up to 6 commercial messages a day (MMS + SMS), users are given 43 minutes of talk + 217 texts free each month. Potentially freeing up cash for mobile internet (?), hmm. Blyk rents space on Orange’s network + has been around for 7 months now – they’ve reached 100k users ahead of schedule and hope to reach 250k users by Christmas.

And just to support the above…here’s another interesting presentation from Mobile Youth discussing what’s next in media for youth. And here are some great stats + graphs + things on the whole customisation thing.

ONE FOR TOM
Puma has created i-cycle – a site that explores + celebrates the culture of cycling through a series of films following cyclists in New York. While I do think the films go some way to capture what’s great about cycling, they’re just slightly too long + not quite engaging enough. However, I do think Puma is onto something + could do more with this…what with the whole green thing + because cycling IS fun, liberating, adventurous + should be shared. In fact I think they’d do well to get me + Tom involved.

GREEN + ETHICAL
Really liking Tonic – they make lovely ethical + organic clothes + bags..altho they are lacking in the female department at the moment. I do think it would be a crime if a certain Art Director of ours lived much longer without this. Camping, learning + entertainment – amazing. The Howies ‘Do’ lectures are taking place in September + they’re looking for applicants with causes they’re passionate about to learn how to actively make a difference. I’m pretty sure you have to write a handwritten letter to apply - find out more here. This is great - Time Out's A-Z of Green.

JUST PLAIN WEIRD
I think Alex + co. should wear these interesting Xbox trousers to their next client meeting…(g)eeeek! Weird – Open Please is a website selling ‘distinctive gifts for the dentist profession’ (WHAT?) – tho I have to say I do quite like the Dentist watch. This reminds me of the Family Guy episode where Peter wishes for his own personal soundtrack – this t-shirt plays different soundtracks selected by you based on your mood, including ‘sexy time’ and ‘sad accident’ themes. I’d love it for maybe 10 minutes.