This little video may seem like a gimmick for a fickle love affair people are having for Angry Birds. Sure, I played the game for a while, liked it alright, uninstalled it from my phone, done. I moved on while it seems thousands if not millions of others have not. But in watching this video I realized something about passion. Behind this (and many other AB videos) there is a passion for a brand, and this passion has lead to thousands and thousands of hours to create, recreate, construct, shoot, and edit Angry Bird videos. And all this for a little gimmicky finger game. So how do we learn from this? I’m not suggesting the Church comes up with an Angry Birds counterfeit called, Joyful Words, where one can catapult little Bibles. But in observing how people rally behind brands, how do we communicate our causes into get similar of participation?

Here are some more Angry Bird lovin’:

Remember the first time you listened to Arcade Fire’s Funeral?  How the instrumentation jumped out of the speakers and pricked your skin sending goosebumps up your spine?  And in that moment we knew music as we listened to it was about to change.  Well, I got a new skin-pricker for you, Margolnick.  An as-of-yet unsigned individual from Charlotte, NC, Michael Drake released his debute album December 21st, last year.  

Musicality
I hate to draw too much comparison, but imagine Arcade Fire’s Win Butler releasing a solo album.  What I love about Margolnick is that he has such a …gosh, I don’t know how to put it, simpleness.  But that’s not it either, there’s nothing plain about it.  Amazingly versatile, he hasn’t polluted the tracks with too much noise, too much orchestration, but rather lace each song inline with the intended emotion.  So rather than just trying to produce full sound-driven songs pumping emotion into the moment, Margolnick has seemingly approached each song emotionally first.  Take “*Intermission”, the song is scored almost exclusively with voices and some percussion. It’s as if they where to say, our instruments also took the intermission.

Lyrically
I’ll let the lyrics speak for themselves, here’s just some samples:

The Order (link)
// up from the bottom, down through the block
// you feel your hands swing, you feel your knees your knock
// the anticipation of what you can’t ignore
// you throw your hands up, you throw your head back
// you feel you heart beat it’s a love attack // oh girl you make me feel the way I’ve never felt before.

The Roost
// The chief demands you kiss his ring, when all awhile he is no king
// shot your shot you throw another one
// the final days of the summer’s sun, have just begun
// you told me you will look inside, you’re too afraid of what you’ll find
// the truth is true no matter where you hide
// you better learn it quick or get left behind
// I’m in love with king’s daughter, I’m in love with the king’s daughter
// she’s in love with a diamond ring, she’ll sell her heart for anything

The Yard
// we forged our path through waste lands
// we won our tug-of-war
// we sought and pioneered those places, where other man dare not go
// we fought and killed the vicious demons, we tracked them to the fiery cove
// In spite that we are concurring heroes, I could not mend this heart too broke (?)

I love it, and I’m willing to bet you’ll love it too!  And for a $5 donation, how can you say no? It’ll change you’re life!

Album
margolnick.bandcamp.com/

Contact
facebook.com/margolnick
facebook.com/michaelwdrake
twitter: @drakemargolnick

Okay, so I’ve seen a few people posting about the things that get them through each of their days/lives. I found the information about what applications, software, tools that people are playing, tweaking, and applying to their life to really open up some new resources for me in my own struggle for simplicity (ironic, I know, but the better tools you have the easier you can do the job right?). Something you should know before diving in, my taste in tools are to assist me in accomplishing my the functions of the hats I wear, including the following: video director, passionate editor, social media junkie, movie lover, and so much more …maybe. So here we go, my toolbox includes:

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I’m so excited! …and I just can’t hide it (?) Cheesy I know!  But, I …just can’t, hide it (…sheesh). The truth is there is a big BIG BIG project I’m undertaking in the new year of 2011!  I don’t want to spoil it or talk it up… mostly because I read somewhere that the more you talk about doing something the less likely you are to actually do it!  So I’m just leaving you with this teaser trailer, but I’ll let you know that it’s nothing you’ve probably seen a church do, but if you believe in collaboration, art, action, entrepreneurial-ship (wrd?) and heart, then you’ll want to stay tuned!  We start in the beginning of February!

Just saw this short about greed, it struck me how relevant it is to the artist and his creative process.

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It’s only ironic that my son was born to Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” …TMI, I know. But I say that because I can point out that waking up, maybe just be one of my most difficult daily tasks. You can ask my wife, my college roommates and classmates who used to have to drag my ass out of bed to class, sometimes while I was still dressing. I’m about like Bill Murray in What About Bob.

If I had a superpower it’d be sleeping! Sleep-man, yeah, I like the sound of that! While my wife would KILL (yes, kill) me and steal my super-power if she could, I have to warn her (and any one else reading this) that it’s a blessing & a curse as well.  My twenties were spent consistently sprinting/speeding to work, I just don’t have the cognition to understand what is going on when I hit snooze for the fifth time in a row, or make executive decisions about whether Elijah should be rocked back to sleep or do it on his own (a huge decision at 4:35 in the AM). I’m just out.

So I was really challenged by Lifehacker‘s article today about being more productive by waking up early. Even challenged when it pointed out that it was creatives who were polled about their productivity! I know a lot of creatives about 2% are morning people leaving the rest either night owls or sloths. And yet, in the creative culture, there’s almost an understanding or even expectation. “Hey man, I’m a Creative. I don’t do 9:00 AM meetings.” (I think this is especially prevalent in Austin, where late-night live-music reigns. One time I heard my boss address this, when he was thrown this same attitude. “Yeah, you do.” He stated matter-of-factly, “You’ll do 7:30 if I’m paying you.” Now, I know the hairs on the back of my neck could have slices the tension …or however you say it, but I think it was a valid point. God-given artistic talent isn’t license for a lifestyle, much less permit a “right” to tardiness. Now if it’s that important to you, maybe you do need another job, but make sure you know what you’re giving up. Most likely God will bring you right back around to deal with it again. After my boss made that comment, I made it a point to never excuse myself as a night-owl-who-doesn’t-do-mornings creative. I want to be productive, I want to be efficient, and mostly I want to be accountable to the gifts I’ve been given. Anyone else struggle with the All-Mighty AM? What tricks did you use? How did you deal with it? I’d love to hear.

Just saw this awesome presentation by Grant Blakeman on social media and minimalism. He brings up a good point about negative space pointing out that we have so much room, but we fill it with a lot of redundancy. Maybe we’re doubled up on activities, for me, that was running and rock climbing, both served the same purpose, to get out of my daily routine, let my mind wander, listen to music while my body did something physical. When I ran out of negative space, something had to go. Sadly, that was rock climbing. But now I have more time to put into other activities, and other choices to do other things with my time, to seek out the negative spaces I haven’t filled.

He leaves off with a question, as I will here:

“In your daily life, what is your negative space?”