The Curator's News Feed: April 20, 2012
This week the Curator team is using Twitter to reserve our new kicks, getting addicted to the hot app Draw Something, hungering after Kraft mac n cheese and trying to score tickets to see Rick Bayless cook like on a Chicago stage. What's on your slate this weekend?
LiveLifeLocal. I don’t have a link of the week. I have many. And all of them have to do with Atlanta, because that’s where I’m heading late next week to film our latest LiveLifeLocal video with @RyanMcPartlin. The team and I have been looking into Atlanta media sites, Atlanta restaurant sites, Atlanta sightseeing sites and more…and we’ve, of course, posted our best finds to the site at www.lifelifelocal.com. We’ll be sure to share the fruits of our labor when we return. – Dan
Want to Reserve One of Nike’s Hot New Shoes? You’ll Have to Tweet for It, Mashable. More often than not, when Nike rolls out a new product, customers tend to create quite a stir. These midnight reveals frequently result in rowdy mobs outside of stores, headaches for store managers, and sometimes even the police are called to help with crowd control. In order to help contain the masses and create a more pleasant shopping experience (while also creating buzz around the release), Nike has come up with an interesting RSVP system using Twitter that requires consumers to DM their RSVP to the stores that are selling the shoes. I haven’t seen a company of this size use Twitter as an RSVP platform and I’m interested to see if people will use it, if it will be effective, and if other companies will start following suit. Check out this article to see an explanation of the process. – Megan
Draw Something’s Best Lines, The New Yorker. Don’t you love when a high-quality publication writes a serious article about your latest stupid obsession, rendering it instantly legitimate? All this time I thought my fixation with the Pictionary-esque app “Draw Something” was just further proof that I’m addicted to my iPhone. Not so! According to this piece, “Draw Something capitalizes on one of the surprises of the Internet era: that communication, if you fracture and constrain it enough, can become a game in itself.” Turns out my little app addiction is actually an innovative way to communicate and help people get to know each other better. Now that’s Drawsome! – Lisa
5 Ways Dick Clark Revolutionized the TV and Music Industry, The Hollywood Reporter. I’m focusing a bit on the media and entertainment side of things this week; but, it’s hard not to when we recently lost an icon that shaped the television and music industry into what it is today. Without Dick Clark and the emergence of American Bandstand, it would be interesting to think about how different our entertainment culture in 2012 would be. I think it’s safe to say that his impact when far beyond the industry itself, as he truly played in influential role in shaping pieces of U.S. culture. I have to also tip my hat off to him for his extreme perseverance throughout these past several years to continue to display great work. New Year’s Eve will never be quite the same. – Annie
Two Old Ladies Now Running Social Media for Kraft Mac & Cheese, Adweek. Clever marketing idea to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Kraft Mac & Cheese – get two “old ladies” who have been eating the product for 75 years to run your social media for a few days #oldbirdsnewtweets. They really took it to heart too and seemed to have fun with it! The videos of them are hilarious J. – Julia
Hulu expanding original lineup AdAge. Can Hulu be the Sundance of TV? Hulu's head of programming, Andy Forssell, seems to think so. Hoping to avoid the folly of their forefathers in the world of “webisodes,” the team at Hulu is expanding their lineup of original shows featuring big names like Adrian Grenier and Seth Meyers. Though we tend to think of Hulu as merely a distributor of network TV content, they are trying to break that mold by producing higher budget shows that challenge their primetime counterparts. – Matthew
Care for Romance and Acrobatics With Your Ceviche? The New York Times. Two years ago we produced our first Food & Wine Festival in Mexico with Rick Bayless headlining the event. I had the pleasure of working closely with him. I found Chef Bayless to be an extremely impressive guy. He was truly passionate about Mexico and its cuisine. He prepped diligently for his demos, which I found inspiring given how often he demos at major festivals and given his talent level, could have just phoned it in if he chose. He gave his press conference for Mexican journalist in Spanish from start to finish. Impressive. And one of the qualities I like in people is a desire to innovate, to put themselves out there and try new things, take risks. I read that Chef Bayless has partnered with a couple of producers to create a Broadway-quality dinner theatre performance at Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre. He cooks on stage as part of the production, in character. I have no idea if the show is any good. But I’d pay to see it given the innovator involved. – Scott