I found something that reminded me of “Family Rules”. Initially, my mind went straight to: “Not in this house young lady!” or “Not under this roof while I’m paying the bills”. However, that’s not where my mind stayed thank goodness.

What is it?

A cool wall decal that boldly states the rules, or actually I much prefer, “ethos” of the house.

We often get so caught up in what happening in our own lives that we don’t consider others, especially those closest to us, as much as we should. I actually had a conversation with a friend who’s having relationship problems lately and he said: “We would never talk to our friends that way… so WHY do we do it to each other? We are supposed to be LOVERS??”

In part of my advice I referenced the song: “You always hurt the one you love.” Maybe, we just feel so close to them that they are like an extension of ourselves,  therefore they don’t receive the “social graces” we extend to others.

Anyway, I’ve noticed wall decals becoming an increasingly popular design trend lately. This really struck me as a lovely way to display something extremely meaningful to your family.

Again, that is up to interpretation of the word family. I could see this working in share houses, workplaces or even restaurants for instance.

This concept would work anywhere the Human Truth of this wave rings true: “When I’m here, it feels like home.”™

When I came across this amazing hostel concept I immediately thought it would be in the Living Vicariously™ wave where the Human Truth is “Wow, that was almost real”.  However, it might not be a real cliff but the dangers are still very real!  When I started thinking about WHO would actually go to a hotel like this I changed my mind.  Climbing up crevasses, hanging off the side of a cliff in a tiny “tent thing” and be able to sleep is nothing to be sneezed at… not many people can say that this is their “thing”.  That why I considered the Power Plays™ wave, where the Human Truth™ is:  “Not many people know what I know and do what I do.”

But to that point, looking deeper into the motivations of that kind of person… why would they want to do it in the middle of a city? and furthermore: pay for it?  Don’t they want to get away from it all and commune with nature?  That led me to settling on the We Are Family™ wave, where the essence is: CONNECTING THROUGH SIMILARITES.  If you had this thrill seeking bug – this would be a great place to meet other like-minded, passionate, SKILLFUL people such as yourself! (And perhaps even show off.)

The Human Truth™ of We Are Family™ is “When I’m here, it feels like home.”  Perhaps the future of some boutique hotels/hostels will be about a new kind of exclusivity. Available only to those with a specific talent or skill that many others don’t share?  I can imagine a Cross Fit Resort for example!!

Knoll is known for their ergonomic yet stylish office chairs.  They recently launched myGeneration, “an online hub where people can share their individual work styles and experiences using Knoll’s ergonomic Generation chair.”

User’s create a simple profile and when you roll the mouse over the pic collage on the site, you see a speech bubble. It’s a short tagline they have created that encapsulates what they love about their Knoll chair.  They can also upload up to five action shots of how they use their chair.

We Are Family™ usually isn’t about family in the literal sense.  It’s about people with similar passions and/or experiences coming together to experience a sense of belonging and kinship.  Knoll has created a fun way for loyal customers to become champions of their brand.

Check out the vid…

The first tagline in the video is “Were you there?” And that is exactly what experiential marketing is all about. Setting tongues wagging is one of the main goals. Getting people proud to say: “I was there” is increasingly hard in this increasingly cynical, savvy and anti-corporate culture.  So I think what Smirnoff has done is smart…they are appealing to one thing that I’ve noticed transcends “scenes”: Cultural Pride.  The We Are Family™ Wave is about commonality and belonging, and what this campaign does so well (besides slick video production) is make people want to engage and share.  They want to show up and represent what makes their particular “night-life culture” unique to their part of the world.  Cheers to that!

Now, I won’t really try to tiptoe the generational lines, but they always say generations in a sense repeat themselves, and just as the Silent Generation and Golden Age brought the Baby Boomers, they also brought a select group stuck between for a few short years, called the Lost Generation. Too young for war but old enough to understand it, they were witness to their world without truly being able to take part.

Then came Generation X, and after that what we refer to as Gen Y, or the “Echo Boomers”. What’s interesting is there is once again a group of Gen Y that’s often overlooked, sometimes called the Second Lost Generation, and they were born 1981-1984. This, is my section of Gen Y.

Which is exactly what this new show is aiming at, a group of kids graduating high school in 2000, and a documentary style look at where they are now and how the early years of the millennium shifted everything. The second The Verve started playing on the preview, I knew I had to at least give it a chance.

But personal interest aside, I find it to be very interested for a channel to be making a show targeted directly at the “lost generation Y”, the kids that remember growing up without technology and the internet. Where exactly this is heading, I’m not sure, but for the first time in my life after being 16, naive and into all things MTV I feel like there’s a chance that a TV show can actually become relatable to people my age.

From a generation perspective, there are plenty of things on. The only issue is, Generation Y is split in three distinct groups, but they’re all clustered together in the same market. The difference between someone born in 1983 and 1987 is incredible. The changes in technology, design and entertainment alone separate them, and once again for kids born in the 1990′s.

Which makes me wonder, when are we going to hang up the generational tags, seeing as how we’re moving at a pace faster than the generation marker can keep up with.

Starling builds on the emergent trend of “co-viewing,” which generates active social media chatter when fans of a show gather online (See Ustream). It connects fans with other fans of the show, and friends to what their friends are watching. Users engage each other around the shows they already enjoy, and discover new shows through the social graph.

This is interactive TV folks. Finally, it’s here. People able to discuss what’s going on, with the show, around the show, on a common platform through shared media and technology. This also gives companies an opportunity to see real time reactions to their work and watch as discussions develop around their products and programming. This, to an extent, would also give audiences a greater foothold in controlling what they see and influencing decisions made around broadcast entertainment.

The goal is to document all of the more than 10,000 streets named Main in the United States. We invite you to capture the stories and images of the country today. Go out, look around, talk to people, and contribute to this re-mapping of the United States.

Watching the videos and hearing the stories it becomes obvious that Main Street is like a barometer for urban America.

Main Street is small town and urban center; it is the thriving business district and the prostitution stroll; it is the places where we live, the places where we work, and sometimes, it is the places we have abandoned.

Look for stories from Main streets across the country to be featured on upcoming features from NPR.

The burgers will be released in a series of limited runs, the Texan, featuring mustard-relish, barbecue sauce and fried onions is up first. Followed by the New Yorker, which houses Monterrey Jack in a BLT style burger. Then we break the somewhat standard American flavors with the Californian, which features no avocado but a sauce made from red Californian wine; and finally the Hawaiian (a flavor profile that I didn’t expect on an American regional menu, but with the immense Asian influence in Hawaiian food, it’s a logical choice). The Hawaiian, which features gravy and an egg, makes me wonder if they visited during a shortage of coconut, Spam and pineapple.

Having spent a few years living in the land of the rising sun, something like this comes as no real surprise to me. The idea of Japan embracing foreign flavors but adding their own spins to them is about as normal in Japan as KFC on Christmas day.

We’ve seen everything from the Blue Hawaii Pepsi to the Windows 7 Burger, Tom & Jerry cars and the Yamamba girls who try ever so hard to replicate So-Cal style. So why is this interesting? Well, I find it interesting from an inside view of Japan, on the level of their obsessive nature to replicate other cultures, without leaving their own out.

This notion of cultural exploration works the same way from our end. I mean, look at how we butcher traditional sushi ingredients. You should see eyes light up and teeth grit when you try to tell an Itamae that your sushi roll should be on fire and full of avocado. It just doesn’t happen over there. So we get to the point of it all, trying to connect with another culture through taste.

“We Brits spend a ridiculous amount of time each day giving thanks to strangers – we say thanks to people who hold doors for us, thanks to people who stop their cars to let us cross the road, thanks to waitresses when they give us our bill; even thanks again when we hand over the money to pay. But apparently you Americans – innovative people that you are – had found a way to streamline the process.”

It’s kinda true…when I first got to America I was shocked at how impolite the common vernacular seemed at first. “yeah… gimme a cheeseburger… and gimme a side of curly fries and make that a large coke” the guy in front of me would yell…my stomach churn at how rude it sounded!  At the same time I would say “I beg your pardon” if I misheard someone and “may I please have…” would preface every request.  After living in the USA for 8 years I returned to this country with an seemingly abrupt way of talking and I was the odd man out.

Look I’m not Yank bashing! I love America! It’s just interesting to reflect on cultural differences now that I’m not immersed in that culture anymore.  And Thanksgiving is such a great holiday!  So, when my Aussie friends questioned me as to what it’s all about, it was interesting to break it down.

I tried to explain: It’s about a traditional meal with family and giving thanks for all our blessings.  “Hmmmm” they would say quizzically.  That pretty much describes our “Sunday Roast” – whether Anglo-Aussie, Greek, Italian, Chinese, Lebanese etc that happens every weekend here.  So I said in America a lot of people move away from where they are from to pursue work, so it’s a time for everyone to come together and revisit where they are from.

Anyway, through explaining thanksgiving – it made me think of the many “orphan thanksgivings” I attended while living in LA.  It was with people that could not go home… whether by choice or circumstance. I’m thinking of gay friends, new immigrants, the adrift, the lonely, the one’s who have lost parents, the one’s who felt closer to their chosen family than their born family.

Well, I toast them tonight in the spirit of the “We Are Family” wave.  It personifies the essence of this wave… because it doesn’t matter where you are from or whom you spend Thanksgiving with as long as “When Your There, it Feels Like Home”.  So in that spirit I say: Happy Thanksgiving to one and all, where ever you are!

Ok, anyway my focus for this blog is 99%. It’s from the people behind Behance (A free platform for the world’s leading creative professionals) …their last conference was “productivity-themed” and I guess they taken their own advice because they have recently re-launched the 99% site as a resource chock block full of articles, interviews, tips and videos all geared towards making ideas happen.

The site draws on six years of research on the subject of productivity, in addition to original content, the publication also culls the web for tidbits related to the topic. The site also offers full versions of select talks, like Seth Godin and Scott Thomas, given at the 99% conference last year.

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”  — Thomas Edison
At 99%, Behance’s think tank, we focus on what happens after inspiration — researching the forces that truly push ideas to fruition. Our profiles of proven idea makers, action-oriented tips, best-practices sessions, and annual conference are all designed to help you transform ideas from vision to reality.”

This is basically a hub for anyone who works in a creative field that needs some help to push through those great ideas to fruition.  I’m sure they are hoping this new site becomes a “home” to the world’s top creatives.  I personally know that sitting behind my computer in the middle of a creative conundrum – can be a very lonely place… so a hub that can help push through those barriers would be attractive “home”.