30 Sept 2007

go, oaks

Thanks to Cosmin, yesterday i watched quite a historical confrontation for our rugby team: the Romanian Oaks vs. New Zealand's All Blacks. Without knowing basically anything about rugby, i found myself enjoying the match quite a lot. Because i felt it was a game played by people who are so passionate about this sport, that it would have been impossible for them not to express the beauty of it. All Blacks is a legendary rugby team, and everybody knew they'd win anyway. However, they said they'd engage all the effort they usually do when they play rugby. Romanians declared they felt proud to meet All Blacks, and wanted to show that they're rugby players as well, while also hoping to lose at a difference smaller than 70 points. All Blacks are said to be warriors, not just rugby players, and Romanians wanted to show that they're fighters as well. And despite the obvious difference in value, the game was a very passionate show. The French crowd present on the stadium equally seemed to love the sport itself - they appreciated every interesting move from All Blacks, but they became extremely supportive and encouraging whenever Romanians proved their fighting capabilities (and Romanians scoring was a complete delight). The final score was 85-8, which was not such a big surprise, since the force and coordination of All Blacks can hardly be counteracted. But i really loved watching it.


29 Sept 2007

one of the simple pleasures of life

i'm eventually slowly moving back home. back to my books, and my movies and the many small things i've been collecting during the years. simple things i'm completely in love with. like some old books that were letterpress printed, therefore beautifully crafted. i think letterpress is one of the most beautiful parts in the history of printing, and as it's slowly fading away, i'm sure i'm really going to miss its fine touch.


27 Sept 2007

apg romania news

Many cool news about APG Romania.
Together with Evensys, we're having a first important event: Masterplan is a marcom planning and strategy 2-days event, which will not only gather the masterminds of local research, strategy and brand management departments, but will also bring Jeffre Jackson, who already impressed at the Napoleons conference, as well as Alain Thys, from the Future Laboratory.


If you're a student, then you have a very good chance to attend the event for free - all you have to do is win this contest, which invites you to have fun while trying to figure out solutions for a small firm that produces pencils.


Besides, there's an open season to APG subscriptions now. So, if you care to receive all kinds of enticing benefits, just contact apg@planning.ro for details (that is, if you haven't already received a mail from us with all the details).

26 Sept 2007

suburbia

the brief talk at the Czech Center on Monday proved to be a far more exciting and interesting experience than i first anticipated.


First of all, the project itself. It all started when Monika and I were talking about advertising, as we sometimes do, until we reached advertising for the new residential projects. I complained about how annoyed i was to see those huge advertising outdoors brilliantly showing a sort of "promissed paradise", when in fact the reality of many of those residential neighbourhoods was far worse. And she brought into discussion "The end of the suburbia", a documentary she wanted to screen anyway during one of the Documentary Mondays. So she invited me to somewhat "open" the screening by making some points about the differences between advertising and reality in today's new suburbias. I talked to Raluca about it and she proved willing to join me on field with her camera, to look around and take some pictures of the new suburbias.


The more we got into the subject, i realised that the initial thought was kind of redundant. There was no point in simply showing that reality is not like in the commercials, cause that's a sort of a truism. Just like there was no point in simply attacking one residential project or another, because it was far better to simply show people how many of the new suburbias actually look like, as well as what potential problems they have. We talked about how buying a new house in one of the new suburbias didn't mean just buying a piece of land, it actually meant far more than that, and each person should evaluate the context of that piece of land before making the aquisition. Together with our guests, we discussed about the need for urbanistic regulations, as well as potential problems such as the developer, the surrounding environment, traffic conditions, people around, utilities, facilities or deceitful advertising. And we tried to get a bit into the core of this "Monopoly" (the game) standard of living, discussing how we could make people aware of what they should be looking at before becoming the inhabitant of one of the new suburbias. People in the audience also brought into discussion examples from the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden and New Zealand. And this is how everything actually became the starting point of an extensive study we'll carry out during the next year, one that looks at the new human typology and lifestyle present in the new suburbias, as well as at the development and evolution of these suburbias.
The video below is the trailer for The End of Suburbia, a very interesting case study brought to the Czech Center by John Ketchum.


19 Sept 2007

blind wedding

this will probably not make too much sense for non-Romanian speakers, but we developed these spots in order to promote Radio 21's latest thing - Blind Wedding, the first radio reality show in Romania. I'm curious to know what you think.




17 Sept 2007

suburbia chat

Desolation Jones is by far one of my favourite comics. And this particular strip is something we (Raluca, Didi, myself and who knows who else) will be talking about next week, at the Czech Centre, before "The End of Suburbia".
pic from here.

11 Sept 2007

personal wrap-up

I have been completely silent during the last two weeks. Not only online, but also pretty much in real life as well. I am sorry, guys, and i'll do my best to compensate! I took the weeks off, because of the exams that i was supposed to pass, in order to eventually enter the last year of college. I started the whole thing thinking that i just wanted to pass, and get it over with, while also having fun and doing some more stuff for work. It's just that i was not sure what exactly i was supposed to do for each exam, not sure what exactly i was supposed to read and so on. I only had the courses for a couple of exams, and the exam requirements for another couple. I must admit i was kinda afraid to get more details.


So i initially did what i always do when in doubt. I thought that i should get at least something interesting from the experience, therefore i started reading books that were generally somewhat connected to political science. I knew that if i knew at least something, then i could keep on connecting ideas and pass at least part of the exams. But the more i read, the more interested i became, and after a couple of days i was so absorbed that i decided i really wanted to prepare for these exams. Cause i realised a thing - there was no point in me just going there and attempt to pass after a quick look on the courses the night before the exam, or based on completely unrelated general things i knew. That would have meant cheating on myself. My ambition goes far beyond that - i strongly believe in reading and thinking and analysing and presenting own work. I worked like crazy, but i got a lot from the experience - i simply know so much more now, and i am so much more confident about some political issues, and i feel so much better. I completely switched off Internet, in order not to be distracted by mails or messenger or blogs or any such things, and i surrounded myself with books, articles, and courses. I woke up extremely early every morning. I've written dozens of pages for essays and papers. And i enjoyed every minute of it. This way, I also realised how much time i generally waste daily. And the cool thing is that it really paid off.