MortarBlog

No Cats Were Harmed In The Making Of This Post.

Well, we're back. Rarin' to go. Really. Hey, at least we're more motivated than John Scalzi, who has reinvented the art of procrastination by taping bacon to his cat. Hasn't he ever heard of Bacon Salt?

Getting Naked With Katie Couric.

"Vikki, I'm very disappointed. I thought this was between us."

You guys know Vikki has seen Katie Couric naked, right? Well, she has. But, what made us think of this was actually this article in Penthouse The New York Times about reaching an audience that doesn't sit obediently before a single screen, waiting to be spoon-fed the news, but gets a lot of different news, at different times, in front of a lot of different screens. Our favorite bit:

"What Katie Couric is not giving us, as a mainstream evening-news anchor, is an invitation to participate. So what if we changed the format of her show? Every day she gives us a sneak preview of whom she will interview over the next week. And you can go online and post your own questions. Maybe two or three user questions end up on the evening news, and you’re like a big star if she uses your question. She says your name: “This is Robert Rasmussen’s question.” You’re totally psyched. You feel awesome."

Yep - that "invitation to participate" is pretty important stuff. Some brands offer it. Others don't. How does the difference affect you? What does it make you think about the brand that doesn't? To us, it makes the brand that wants to hear from you seem brave, experimental, willing to fail. And the non-participatory brand? Technically clueless at best, just-plain-clueless at worst.

You'll be hearing a lot about the participatory experience from us in the coming year. Naturally, we'd love to hear what you think.

For Those About To Slack.

AC/DC brings us the world's first SFW music video - presented entirely in Microsoft Excel. Enjoy, but then you have to promise to stop watching those damn puppies and get back to work.

Frederik Samuel, we salute you.

Humm-Baby!

MORTARBLOG: "We love a good pun around these parts, and this headline..."

READERS: "Shut up. You just wanted an excuse to talk about the Giants. What does this have to do with marketing, anyway?"

MORTARBLOG: "Well, um, see, um, it's a headline, and we write headlines, and um..."

READERS: "And, um, spare us. You're totally in the tank for the Giants. Just admit it."

MORTARBLOG: "No, really! It's a conversation about mass media and..."

READERS: (glowering incredulously) "Don't make us come up there."

MORTARBLOG. "Sorry."

READERS: "Grab some pine, meat."

P.S. Yay, Timmah!

P.P.S. Tommy Lasorda is the devil.

If The Mortarblog Had Opening Credits.

LISA: "Dad, we did something very bad!"

HOMER: [eating pork rinds, frowns] "Did you wreck the car?"

BART: "No."

HOMER: [frowns] "Did you raise the dead?"

LISA: "Yes."

HOMER: [more frowns] "But the car's okay?"

KIDS: "Uh-huh."

HOMER: [relieved] "All right then."

Is there anything better than Treehouse of Horror? How about this sneak preview from "How To Get Ahead In Dead-vertising," from The Simpsons upcoming 19th annual? Happy early Halloween.

"Waiter, there's a fly in my...HEY!"

Monkey. Frickin'. Waiters!

"We called out for more beer just then and it brought us some beer! It's amazing how it seems to understand human words," said 71-year-old retiree Miho Takikawa, who said she came to the tavern specifically to meet the monkeys."

No, Miho-san. It's amazing that someone has trained monkeys to bring beer!
It's amazing no one thought of this before.
It's amazing that we don't already have one!

Arigato, Boing-Boing!

"Yo, We Got Ya Rally Monkey RIGHT HERE!"

In which some knucklehead passes out at Shea Stadium and clever Met fans turn his misfortune into an opportunity. (Hey, it beats watching their relief pitching.)

Is it worse that this video is lighting up the YouTubes, or that we picked up the story from the New York Daily News?

Trust us - the longer you watch, the funnier this gets. Kind of like the Mets.

Bomb Hills, Not Countries.

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

Skip to about 2 minutes in to see beautiful HD video of a coupla lunatics bombing Berkeley's Claremont Avenue on their longboards. They pass. A freaking. Car. We are not only impressed by the riders' cojones, but by their skill with the camera and the quality of the video itself.
We are also glad this didn't turn into a St. Mary's ad.

Via Daily Kos and our bud, Bud.

Fresno 911

"Does this look like the guy?"

Hot off the wires from the Associated Press,

Fresno County authorities have arrested a man they say broke into the home of two farmworkers, rubbed one with spices and whacked the other with a sausage before fleeing.

Fresno County sheriff's Lt. Ian Burrimond says 22-year-old Antonio Vasquez of Fresno was found hiding in a nearby field wearing only a T-shirt, boxer shorts and socks.

Burrimond said Vasquez was arrested after deputies found a wallet containing his ID at the ransacked house just east of Fresno.

The victims told deputies they awoke Saturday morning to the stranger applying spices to one of them and striking the other with an 8-inch sausage.

Burrimond said money allegedly stolen in the burglary was recovered. The sausage was tossed away by the fleeing suspect and eaten by a dog.

Vasquez was charged with assault. And pepper.

We would also like the Fresno County Courts to know that we are so totally available for jury duty when that case comes up.

Shiny-shoed copywriter flaunts handsomeness, saves day.

My mom sent me an email today (Only one? Is she sick?) and to my surprise, it was neither a forwarded mass email about an upcoming garage sale, nor a forwarded mass email asking me to sign a petition. It was in fact a link to a short film which - although still forwarded - was actually vaguely relevant to advertising. And kind of cute. So I'm sharing it with you.
On the importance of good copy:

HISTORIA DE UN LETRERO (THE STORY OF A SIGN)

Thanks, Thea's mom.