If you're an audio production company, you want to show off your audio. And what better way to do that than with a website that's completely audio—with no visuals at all?
Brazilian agency Loducca built just such a site, croaciaaudio.com, for Croacia Audio. It's a Chrome Experiment, so it only works in that browser. You get around the site by responding to prompts from a voice, and letting the site access your computer's microphone.
Conceptually, it's great. In practice, the navigation can get annoying—it feels like one of those automated phone menus. And no, saying "Representative" doesn't get you anywhere.
If you asked a group of women over 25 to name some toys they played with as kids, Barbie would certainly come up. Less so now if you asked a group of girls under 10. The iconic toy has long been a volatile topic in the toy industry, especially in the context of girls and body image. But now, Mattel is trying to control more of that conversation with The Barbie Project, an initiative that wonders: What happens if we just let kids play with Barbies?
Mattel clearly wants to make the point that parents are seriously overthinking Barbie. At the very top of the Barbie Project's "About" page, text reads: "No other doll has sparked as much conversation as Barbie. But maybe kids don't see Barbie the way adults do?"
The brand got two documentarians and a play specialist to go into people's homes and actually film kids playing with their Barbies. "No scripts. No rehearsals. Just real kids, real parents, telling their stories," says Mattel.
The two-minute launch video is fun to watch. There's less hair/makeup/boyfriends than you'd expect, and more superheroes/gymnasts/veterinarians. I particularly enjoyed the little girl who beatboxed while Barbie broke down some hot moves.
Of course, documentaries are never truly unbiased, and I'm wondering if they'll include clips of girls undressing Barbie and bewilderedly examining her anatomy. However, the Barbie Project experiment is being carried out on multiple platforms—Tumblr, YouTube and eight different mom blogs—so it'll be interesting to follow the frank discussion surrounding the toy whose hair I once lovingly butchered with a pair of Fiskars.
The Blind Book, a project by Brazilian agency DM9Sul, seeks to give sighted people in Brazil some insight into how it feels—as blind people do every day—to be denied access to literary works because they are not published in a format they can read.
Working with the Dorina Nowill Foundation and Danish healthcare company Novo Nordisk, DM9Sul got 10 leading Brazilian authors to produce a collection of new, original stories—on the theme, "Everything we cannot see"—that was then published exclusively in Braille.
This was meant to highlight the fact that only 5 percent of books in Brazil have Braille editions, even though half a million sight-impaired people live in that country. "Besides raising awareness, the project seeks to engage society in helping change this reality," says Márcio Callage, CEO of DM9Sul.
Sighted people will be able to experience the stories, but only by listening to them. There's a Portuguese audiobook version, and this website will offer films of the stories being read aloud by blind people.
This marks the second time in recent weeks that books have been used in novel ways to drive social-issues initiatives. The Drinkable Book, from DDB and Water Is Life, educates at-risk populations about hygiene and sanitation while its pages serve as filters to purify contaminated water.
Hopefully, such fusions of media and message, which transcend traditional PSAs and add extra dimension to their causes, will open some eyes and improve people's lives.
CREDITS Client: Fundação Dorina Nowill Para Cegos (Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind) Agency: DM9Sul Chief Executive Officer: Márcio Callage Vice President, Creation: Marco Bezerra Associate Creation Directors: Everton Behenck, Rodrigo Pereira Head of Art: João Pedro Vargas Creation: André Blanco, Rogério Chaves, Gustavo Bilésimo Customer Service Director: Cláudia Schneider Customer Service: Cecilia Martines Media Director: Silvio Calissi Media: Renata Schenkel, Milena Bitencourt Content Production: Anna Martha Silveira, Thais Sardá Public Relations: Mariella Taniguchi, Bruna Lauermann Audiovisual Production: Elisa Celia, Marcelo Stifelman Digital Production: Daniel Vettorazi, Vinícius Mutterle Website: Matheus Kramer Graphic Producers: Débora Roth, Mariene Braga, Taisa Rosa Illustration: João Azeitona, Mariana Valente 3-D: Ricardo Rocha Final Art: Anelise Gomes, Karoline Nunes Revision: Cecilia Santoli Graphic Material: Cartonaria e Stilgraf RTVC: Thiago Vanigli, Bernardo Silva Film Director: Marcelo Stifelman Film Production: Tape Motion Audio Production: Coletivo 433 Voiceover: Loop Reclame Client Approval: Daniela Coutelle, Bruno Dória, Priscila Saraiva
If you find yourself with a few extra minutes each morning, you can now watch a man pretending to be a cranky, salty Jewish grandmother offer you online weather forecasts that are significantly more insane than those on the morning news.
Actor David Krumholtz and the producers behind the new website, Weather From, present Gigi, a character who will tell you, for example, that New York's forecast is mild and cloudy, a type of weather that the Nazis used to call "Please don't have sex with your mother."
In other words, Gigi says whatever she wants to say, without much concern for political correctness or basic decorum.
There are 35 different videos corresponding to various forecasts, and a search tool that lets you get an accurate reading on any location, as provided by the National Weather Service, with commentary from Gigi.
The videos are jam packed with sexual innuendo, outright filth and some racially tinged attempts at humor. Gigi complains in one clip that her son's black girlfriend's name, Variola, sounds like part of a vagina. In reality, Variola is the Latin name for smallpox. (While Gigi never spells the name out explicitly, it's hard to mistake the phonetics.)
She's equal opportunity offensive, or maybe just dumb, or maybe just addled—in another clip (68 degrees and raining) confusing whether the Chinese, Japanese or Koreans bombed Pearl Harbor on June 6, 1944 (which was D-Day, not the date of the attack on Hawaii).
In other words, it's more about making fun of Gigi's stereotype than about getting the weather—and it is not for the faint of heart.
Krumholtz, who's had roles in CBS's Numbers and the Harold and Kumar trilogy, introduces Gigi in a clip of his own (posted below), saying he based the character in part on his own grandmother, and other grandmothers from around the world.
Or you can get the intro from Gigi, who in the promo above shows off the makeup job that renders Krumholtz unrecognizable, and cracks a few jokes at Mark Zuckerberg's expense.
Those who have been waiting with bated breath for the results of Pornhub's SFW advertising contest were assuaged today with the unveiling of 15 finalists. And there's quite the smattering of innuendo and suggestion in this batch, featuring a few videos, some clever image and word plays, and some that almost literally spell it out.
Artist and barista Gabriel Nkweti Lafitte, who works at the Starbucks across from the British Museum in London, has been taking some pretty awesome liberties with the chain's "name on a cup" policy for dispensing coffee to customers.
Lafitte incorporates lucky customers' names into hand-drawn line art on their cups, and some of the designs—which are as inventive and detailed as anything I've seen out of a proper design shop—take him up to 40 hours to complete.
I don't know what his original system was for deciding who got special art cups, but right now he only takes requests (and he's swamped). Starbucks, which tells Metro U.K. "it's fantastic how he takes our iconic cup design and makes it his own," should just commission Lafitte to do a line of ceramic mugs before another company figures out that he's way too talented to be slinging iced coffees all day.
Here's a first for Coca-Cola—a TV commercial comprised entirely of short video clips made by fans (aside from some very brief animations).
The spot, produced by Wieden + Kennedy and set to premiere during Wednesday's season finale of American Idol, came out of a contest announced a few months ago. The brand invited teens to submit short video clips sharing what it feels like when they take a sip of Coke. The best clips, they were told, would be featured in a national Coca-Cola TV ad.
Coke got some 400 submissions, and chose 40 for the final cut. The clips in the ad come from all over the world—from Brazil to Salt Lake City to Jacksonville, Fla.
The spot, titled "This Is AHH," will air this week on teen-focused networks including The CW, MTV and Adult Swim. It's part of a teen campaign called "The AHH Effect," now in its second year.
On the heels of a refresh that brought Ronnie McDonald some sweet new threads, McDonald's has just introduced a new crazy-eyed mascot—er, "ambassador"—named "Happy." (Presumably because "Nightmare Fuel" was already trademarked.)
Created to coincide with the addition of Go-Gurt treats as part of a healthier Happy Meal, this guy looks instead like he's trying to lure a stoned teen to spend his allowance on delicious fast-food treats at the Golden Arches.
“At McDonald’s, we’re always looking to bring fun and happiness to families and listening to our customers’ asks to have more variety and wholesome options for kids to enjoy in their Happy Meals,” said Julie Wenger, senior director of U.S. marketing, in a statement from the House of Ronald.
This is the perfect super-size rhetoric to set up your child's future decision to drunkenly eat both Big Macs during a 2 for $2 deal. I'm lovin' it.
Oreo would like you to start solving your conflicts by scrubbing its cookies against your tongue as fast as you possibly can.
This new spot from AKQA London (and Mind's Eye director Luke Bellis) shows pairs of what appear to be siblings and friends squaring off over various disputes—like riding shotgun in a car whose backseat is stuffed to the brim, picking what to watch on TV, or taking the blame for knocking the head off a statue with a soccer ball. But instead of, you know, flipping a coin or playing Rock Paper Scissors, they whip out Double Stuf Oreos, put on the stupidest faux-intense-concentration faces they can muster, and compete to be first to transfer all the cream from their cookies onto their tongues.
"We've all got something to settle," reads the copy. "Lick for it," adds the tagline, using a verb that doesn't quite accurately describe the action portrayed in the preceding spot.
It's a somewhat strange commercial, with slightly too much close-up footage of people's mouths, and it can't help but evoke Tootsie Roll Pops, which long ago cornered the repetitive-licking theme in advertising. But maybe it's just not meant for olds like us to understand. The target demographic is clearly tween-ish, a point driven home by the bad dubstep soundtrack.
It is hard to believe any sane person would have the patience not to just eat the cookie.
How does a popular job posting site show off the breadth of its help-wanted offerings in the limited space of one commercial? For Indeed, the answer was to use its own listings to hire experienced professionals for the ad's cast and crew.
"How the world works" is the theme delivered across TV, digital, print and other media in a rollout that began last week in the U.K., targeting both applicants and companies looking to hire. Bright, bouncy and upbeat, the initiative, crafted by Mullen, emphasizes teamwork and striving toward common goals.
A 50-second spot sets the tone, presenting an ad inside an ad with meta twists that turn the medium into the message.
We see folks from various professions "working" among huge letters that spell out the word I-n-d-e-e-d. The camera pulls back to reveal that the action is taking place on a soundstage where an ad is being filmed. "How do commercials work?" a voiceover begins. "Well, you need a team of talented professionals, working together, focused on the task, doing all kinds of jobs." The crew on the set—choreographer, boom operator, caterer, makeup artist and others—are identified by on-screen icons which, in the spot's clickable version, let users search Indeed's site for those jobs.
What's more, these folks aren't actors, but actual professionals (real choreographers, caterers, etc.) hired through Indeed for the spot. (The making-of clip below, which goes into detail on this process, is a must-see.) Even the talent being used to represent nurses, engineers, IT specialists and financial planners are actual trained members of those professions.
Admittedly, not all parts were truly cast through Indeed, since Mullen and other production partners like the directing collective StyleWar were already in place. Here's how a Mullen spokesperson described the process:
"For the video part of the campaign, we used the Indeed platform to scout and hire creative and production talent. Indeed posted 26 job openings on its website for roles in the spot. Within 48 hours, 1,500 applications were received. Indeed conducted more than 200 interviews in just 14 days. Once a selection was made, industry professionals from six different countries—U.K., U.S., Canada, Czech Republic, Australia and Germany—traveled to Prague for filming and production."
Beyond TV and digital video, coffee-cup wraps detail the jobs needed to bring java to market, while subway and newspaper ads explain the positions required by those industries.
Communicating aspirational themes and complex information is no easy task, but, overall, this campaign does a fine job of taking Indeed's message to a higher level.
CREDITS Client: Indeed, Austin, Texas Senior Vice President, Marketing: Paul D'Arcy Vice President, Corporate Marketing: Mary Ellen Duggan
Agency: Mullen, Boston and San Francisco Chief Creative Officer: Mark Wenneker Executive Creative Director: Paul Foulkes Group Creative Director, Copy: Tim Cawley Copywriter: E.B. Davis Copywriter: Jamie Rome Art Directors: Brooke Doner, Ryan Montgomery Designer: Mike Molinaro 3-D Artist, Concept Designer: Andy Jones Producer: Mary Donington
VIDEO CREDITS Production Company: Smuggler Director: StyleWar Editing Company: General Editorial Color Correction, Visual Effects, Titles: The Mill Audio Postproduction: Soundtrack Music: Madplanet
At one time or another, I think we've all wished that air travel was less like being crammed into a cattle car and more like being crammed into a one-bedroom apartment.
Well, Etihad Airways has made the latter a reality with The Residence, a three-room premium cabin (with shower!) on its Airbus A380 that costs something like $43,000 per trip to reserve. A personal butler and chef are factored into that price, by the way, which is why it's roughly the down payment on a nice house. But that's the price one must pay for that high-roller Elvis lifestyle. Minus the shag carpeting and drugs, I mean.
If you can stand listening to Dannii Minogue for three whole minutes, she gives a video tour of the suite and details its various amenities below.
If you've been settling into a slower pace of life with Kona beers but want to move on to something stronger, Cruzan Rum might be right for you.
Building on last year's campaign, themed "The Don't Hurry," the brand illustrates that its version of relaxation isn't constricted to the kooky metaphorical island from which it hails. Nope, it's all about a state of mind—and whether you're speed dating or playing chess, you've got to kick back and savor life (and rum).
The five new spots by ad agency Walton Isaacson are similar to last year's, which highlighted the eccentric air that came with drinking the rum. This time, though, they've swapped spokesmen, promoting the soothing Barry White-esque voiced parrot.
CREDITS Client: Beam Suntory Vice President, General Manager, Mixables Category Business Team: Jared Fix Senior Director, Rum and Cordials: Brendan Lynch Senior Brand Manager, Rum: Nabil Wanna Global Manager, Consumer and Market Insights: Janu Lakshmanan Brand Assistant, Rum and Cordials: Corine Reed
Agency: Walton Isaacson Co-Owners: Cory Isaacson, Aaron Walton Executive Producer: Dana Offenbach Group Creative Director: Miguel Garcia Castillo Creative Director: Mark Westman Associate Creative Director: Jose Martinez Senior Designer: Laurent Varlet Senior Account Director: Nick Vitellaro Account Executive: Kelly Clark
Production Company: Tool of North America Executive Producer: Oliver Fuselier Director: J.J. Adler
Editing Company: Beast Executive Producer: Peter Hulliger Editor: Angelo Valencia
Music: Ramblin Man Executive Producer: Yupa Wathanasin Composer: Daniel Belardinelli
Hiring a fashion designer to make a T-shirt for a rat. Sponsoring a soccer team best known for its embarrassing losses. These seem like particularly odd ways to spend an ad budget.
But when the product is a new TV show that forces traveling celebrities to find entertaining ways of getting rid of cash quickly, it's actually pretty fitting as marketing.
To promote 24 Hours to Go Broke, a new series on the UKTV network, Wieden + Kennedy London did both of the above, as well as the following:
• Bribed a farmer to paint an ad on the side of his cows • Paid a restaurant owner to temporarily rename his fish and chips shop, and its menu, after the show • Paid a street musician to hand out money • Perhaps most amusingly, got passersby in London's art-heavy Shoreditch neighborhood to shave their beards into buckets, then used the trimmings to create lettering for a billboard
See those videos below. Because even though it's gross to make a sign out of a salad of stranger facial hair, it's certainly original.
AMC serves up a fun Emmy Awards campaign for Mad Men, casting its stars in print work that has the look and feel of classy period advertising from the Sterling Cooper era.
Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner and The Martin Agency helped craft the well-realized ads, which capture the flavor of the show with a credible '60s vibe, and mark the first "For Your Consideration" effort the series has ever done. "In the past, we’ve campaigned for Mad Men by letting the show sell itself," says AMC marketing chief Linda Schupack. "This year, we wanted to be a little more fun and playful."
We get Jon Hamm as Don Draper himself wearing cool shades and an enigmatic expression, along with the headline, "Behind every pair of our glasses is a man with winning character … and much more." Redheads get more nods (Emmy nods), according to the fiery ad with henna-haired Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway. And Kiernan Shipka, who portrays Don's daughter Sally, looks all set to frug on Hullabaloo or Shindig in her mod minidress. (The copy touts "Statuette's. For the young girl who has ALMOST everything.")
My favorite is the ad with John Slattery as a dapper Roger Sterling, attired by "The Madison Avenue Collection." This might be the most period-conscious execution of the lot, with dead-on detail and art direction. (Is that pristine airport ashtray Sterling silver? No butts about it!) His smoldering stare, directed at the fishnet-stockinged legs of a woman nearby, speaks volumes, while the copy is pure '60s: "You move through life with ease, and sometimes people take your quick mind, sharp wit and wry sense of humor for granted. But those who know, know—you always give your best."
Named outstanding drama series in each of its first four seasons (in addition to numerous other awards), the show hasn't won an Emmy over the past two seasons, and some critics say its poignant pathos has slid into sappy soap opera shenanigans. Well, even if Season 7 isn't vintage Mad Men, its Emmy campaign sure is.
You might want to grab a snack and get comfortable, because Cornetto's newest ad is an eight-minute short film that is totally worth the watch. As with its other long-form ads, the ice cream brand takes a back seat to a bigger story. In this case, it's a love story.
Between the storyline, the style and Lily Allen's narration and cameo, it feels a bit like a softer and sweeter Judd Apatow movie, and I kept waiting for a Zooey Deschanel appearance. Directed by Lloyd Lee Choi for the U.K. market, the spot is clever and cute and funny, and as an avid fan of the Internet, I particularly enjoyed the part when the story's heroine meets brief fame and gets turned into a meme.
I don't want to give the whole thing away—you'll want to watch it for yourself.
Oh right, it also sells ice cream. Some may argue the product being an afterthought makes for bad advertising, but I think there's something to be said for its entertainment value and the consumer connection. Cornetto has done this before with a romantic three-minute video that's been viewed over 30 million times, and also with a cheesy-but-cute-but-confusing spot last month.
It's also just one spot in Cornetto's "Cupidity" series in the U.K. Others include a film about finding love on a road trip; one where a girl declares, "Everything is ugly beautiful"; and a remake of last month's aforementioned confusing video, minus the techno music. It's heavy on the hipster (Instagram photos, flowers in the hair, I'm sure there's a Pabst Blue Ribbon in there somewhere), but totally cute and appealing to what is likely Cornetto's target—millennials and TwoKays (born after 2000), which is apparently what we're calling the generation after millennials.
For the next video in the "Cupidity" series, I'm hopeful for a story about an underdog competing in a rap battle in Brooklyn.
All those nerds who hot-glue gears onto stuff and call it steampunk have been outdone by a retiree in Bosnia.
Momir Bojic has put his free time to good use by detailing his Volkswagen Beetle in tiny wood shingles. (Would that make his Bug a Volkswagen Termite?) Anyway, the entire frame of the car and most of the interior are sheathed in 50,000 hand-cut wood pieces, a process that took Bojic more than two years to complete.
Given the attention to detail on a project of this (literal) scale, I'm surprised it didn't take him longer than that. The lattice work over the headlights alone is incredible, not to mention the hubcaps. The car's still roadworthy, too, but that's not as surprising as some might think. I mean, if the Baltimore Rock Opera Society's art car is highway-safe, then Bojic's got nothing to worry about.
Hawaii-based Kona Brewing Co. has released a new ad campaign from Duncan/Channon reminding stressed-out mainlanders to enjoy life.
One of two new spots, "Sad Hour," suggests that we set aside one hour a day for all the tedious crap we hate doing so the other 23 hours of the day can be happy. A second spot, "Single-Tasking," introduces the concept of only doing one thing at a time (drinking beer, for example).
Kona is borrowing heavily from old Bartles & Jaymes ads here, and adding a healthy dose of island life stereotyping, but the big guy's delivery is good enough to make it all work.
The ads will air in Orlando, San Diego and Los Angeles markets throughout the summer. "The 'Dear Mainland' campaign truly captures the unique Hawaiian spirit of Kona Brewing and, in a fun way, delivers our message that reconnecting with family, friends and community is what truly matters," says Aaron Marion brand manager at Kona Brewing.
This week, a pop-up restaurant in London made paying a snap, literally, by allowing customers to settle their bills with Instagram shots of their meals.
Of course it was part of an ad campaign, for freezer veggie brand Birds Eye, and folks ate for free at The Picture House if they included the #BirdsEyeInspirations hashtag with their uploads to help promote a new line of frozen entrees. A professional food photographer was on hand to provide Instagram tutorials and filter out unappetizing images.
The brand's trying to leverage the current mania for sharing food pix online. Apparently, 40 percent of Brits "arrange" food on their plates for this purpose. That said, the shots that came out of the event weren't exactly the cream of the Instagram crop, largely because the lighting seemed to be a bit pink. Super pink, actually. When the whole event is meant to be Instagrammed, why not go with good old soft white light?
The Picture House pops up next month in Leeds and Manchester, so those folks can also fulfill their dreams of dining inside a huge advertisement. I dunno, it jut seems strange to be eating Birds Eye cuisine at a proper restaurant, instead of scarfing it down half-defrosted at home, as nature intended.
Upset about his daughter's divorce, and convinced she was influenced by the stellar example our celebrities are setting in that regard, J. Robert Butler bought some billboards.
The founder and president of the Society for the Prevention of Celebrity Divorce decided to use his own money to collectively wag his finger at Hollywood. And actually, the headlines aren't bad.
"Dear Hollywood. When you consciously uncouple, millions unconsciously uncouple too" takes a direct swipe at the Paltrow/Martin split. "Dear Hollywood. Divorce is a shame, not a reality show" could be talking to any of the 22 couples who have divorced after appearing on reality shows. And "Dear Hollywood. Please remember marriage is a commitment not a sponsorship opportunity" is just good, self-righteous fun.
The boards are up around Los Angeles, and even on buses. But even Butler wonders if they'll do any good. "Will they have the desired effect and inspire celebrity couples to stay together?" He asks over at PreventCelebrityDivorce.org. "We pray they will, because the price of renting billboard space is high … but not nearly as devastatingly high as the price of losing a marriage."
Apparently Jonathan Safran Foer is just like us. He eats at Chipotle and he curses the heavens when he neglects to bring something to entertain him while he crams rice, beans and guacamole (he's a vegetarian) into his piehole.
But since he's a famous author, he was able to e-mail the chain's CEO, Steve Ells, and pitch him a neat idea: "I bet a shitload of people go into your restaurants every day, and I bet some of them have very similar experiences, and even if they didn't have that negative experience, they could have a positive experience if they had access to some kind of interesting text," Foer recalled to Vanity Fair as a summary of his e-mail.
This is all to say that, starting today, original long-form text by Foer—along with fellow scribes Judd Apatow, Sheri Fink, Malcolm Gladwell, Bill Hader, Michael Lewis, Toni Morrison, Steve Pinker, George Saunders and Sarah Silverman—will festoon Chipotle's cups and bags. Chipotle deemed the initiative "Cultivating Thought." Foer selected the writers, and any edits were made by him.
I spend too much time trying to spend less time. Before trips to the grocery store, I’ll waste minutes debating whether it is more efficient to make a list, or simply race up and down the aisles grabbing things. I spend what feels like decades in airport security lines trying to figure out how to get through most quickly: should I put the plastic bin containing my belt and shoes through the bomb detector before my carry-on bag, or after? And why sit patiently waiting for the light to turn green when I might email on my phone? I’ve become more worried about using time efficiently than using it well. But in saner moments I’m able to approach the fourth dimension not as a thing to be ruthlessly managed, but whose basic nature might be altered to enrich my experience of life. I even have tricks for slowing time—or at least my perception of it. At night I sometimes write down things that happened that day.
For example: This morning Walker (my 5-year-old son) asks me if I had a pet when I was a kid. “Yes,” I say, “I had a Siamese cat that I loved named Ding How, but he got run over by a car.” Walker: “It’s lucky that it got killed by a car.” Me: “Why?” Walker: “Because then you could get a new cat that isn’t named Ding How.”
Recording the quotidian details of my day seems to add hours a day to my life: I’m not sure why. Another trick is to focus on some ordinary thing—the faintly geological strata of the insides of a burrito, for instance—and try to describe what I see. Another: pick a task I’d normally do quickly and thoughtlessly—writing words for the side of a cup, say—and do it as slowly as possible. Forcing my life into slow-motion, I notice a lot that I miss at game speed. The one thing I don’t notice is the passage of time.
Two-Minute Seduction By Toni Morrison
I took my heart out and gave it to a writer made heartless by fame, someone who needed it to pump blood into veins desiccated by the suck and roar of crowds slobbering or poisoning or licking up the red froth they mistake for happiness because happiness looks just like a heart painted on a valentine cup or tattooed on an arm that has never held a victim or comforted a hurt friend. I took it out and the space it left in my chest was sutured tight like the skin of a drum.
As my own pulse failed, I fell along with a soft shower of rain typical in this place.
Lying there, collapsed under trees bordering the mansion of the famous one I saw a butterfly broken by the slam of a single raindrop on its wings fold and flutter as it hit a pool of water still fighting for the lift that is its nature. I closed my eyes expecting to dissolve into stars or lava or a brutal sequoia when the famous writer appeared and leaned down over me. Lifting my head he put his lips on mine and breathed into my mouth one word and then another, and another, words upon words then numbers, then notes. I swallowed it all while my mind filled with language, measure, music, knowledge.
These gifts from the famous writer were so seductive, so all encompassing they seemed to make a heart irrelevant.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
