Weekly Update on GS Projects

10 Apr

This has been another fantastic week.

There are several projects running right now.  I’ve been really careful to design them in a way that I can keep current on all of them while still, you know, getting out a few times a week.  Thank god for the books on personal organization I read last year.

As one dear friend recently opined,

“Keep this fucking thing up. Don’t be like blogging one minute and then dating some [example of the type of person I've mistakenly dated before] the next. This shit is too good to lag. You have a duty to America, bitch.”

So here’s the latest architecture of current projects:

  • The Secret Blog is still on fire.  In less than a week, the ad campaign, now on hold, saw over 500,000 (half a million!)  impressions and more than 700 Facebook followers.   New material is ready for next week.  For several reasons, not the least of which is my sobriety, this project will see about one post per week.
  • There have been 13 tweets for @DestroySuperMe.  I’ve already got the next two weeks’ worth written.  They should be coming about one a day.    This project is going to run its course soon, then go dormant.
  • Letters I Wish I’d Received has several drafts waiting to be finalized.  The first should be up later tonight.
  • The Faulkner Project came roaring back this past week with some new directions and the first storyboard.  This project is very different than the rest.  It will take months of serious, sustained concentration.  This thing has taken some good turns lately, with two unique creative challenges solved, but is still in its infancy.  I’ll have updates regularly.
  • Life Can Change in a Day, originally slated for launch last week, has been put on the backburner.  It will be an easy project to run at some point, but I have to pick and choose these days.  The Letters project came out of nowhere 3 days ago and seems funnier and more interesting to write.

That’s it for now.  Thanks for tuning in and for all of your support in emails.

New GS Project: Letters I Wish I’d Have Received

10 Apr

Sometimes I have this fantasy of receiving a letter from someone.

Not just a note or a card (those are lovely) but a real letter.  There are so many wonderful things about receiving a letter, the most wonderful being that a thoughtful person has decided to dedicate an entire evening, if not more, to ruminating about you, the world, and how you and the world are intertwined.  As Kenneth Koch once said, “There’s a pleasure in being the source of someone’s sublime thoughts.”

The problem is that, even when I’m the source of sublime thoughts, people rarely write me letters.  Or even write me back after I’ve written them a long ruminating letter on the nature of their existence and the world. Carrin, Xan, Allison, Tracy, Maura, Jessica, you were the only ones who moved me with letters!

Why do others not write?  Do they get so wrapped up in the vanity of receiving a letter that it never dawns on them to write one back?   Perhaps they don’t like the letter, but don’t they have the courage to write back and disagree?  Or are they afraid their letter won’t amount to much?  Do they worry their letter might reveal the parts of themselves they’ve hidden?  Do they prefer to leave their inner geography unmapped?

So I’m launching a new project in which I write letters I wish I’d have received.  In the past week, I’ve worked on outlines or drafts of:

  • Letter from the Carlos, the Guy Who Makes My Bagels in the Morning
  • Letter from His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama
  • Letter from an Ex-Girlfriend
  • Letter from an Anonymous Co-Worker at My Current Job
  • Letter from Banksy
  • Letter from John Hus, 13th Century Heretic Burned at the Stake
  • Letter from Manny Ramirez
  • Letter from My Future Wife

Enjoy.

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Good Launch

3 Apr

On Friday, I launched an ad campaign for a project of mine to introduce it to the public.  In less than 48 hours, the campaign has generated over 175,000 impressions, over 240 followers on Facebook (none of which are my friends yet), and some great comments.  There’s an active discussion around the new brand that’s spirited, passionate, and with exactly the crowd I hoped for.

Thanks to everyone who made the first 48 hours so successful.  It feels good to build something again.

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One Creative Week

28 Mar

I’m pleased to say that this week I was able to finish several exciting projects — and get a few others close to launch.  Here’s a quick recap of the week:

  • @DestroySuperMe is now launched and will have daily tweets.
  • The blog project I’ve been talking about for the past month or two is finally launched and public.
  • The Marginspace (you lookin’ at it) has been redesigned and converted from an incoherent mishmash into a hub for updates on all of the personal art projects underway — and the thoughts & feelings that inspire them.  From thoughts on love to advertising to humor to culture, there is quite a bit chambered right now.

I’d also like to thank all the people who made the week great:  Koo & Anna for a night of jawdropping hilarity, Aristotle for tons of bourbon and conversation over Korean, Grza for his normal panache, Karen & Noah for the pizza and hospitality, the Polens for clearing the palate and reinstating the old tribe, and Miss Christina for a very feisty night at Beauty and Essex.

New Project: DestroySuperMe

27 Mar


The version of yourself you broadcast to the world on Facebook is likely different than the version of yourself you experience alone in your head.

You probably don’t post Facebook status updates about crying, being rejected in love, feeling meaningless, the regretful things you said or did to people you love, or the moments you genuinely wonder if you’ve become someone you’re ashamed of.

In fact, odds are good that your Facebook identity is cooler, trendier, happier, more social & outgoing.  In short, it’s a digitized super-version of yourself.   Alex Bogusky and the crew at CPB have called this the “Digital Super-Me”.

My question:  what would a Twitter account look like with only honest emotions, no filter, and no irony?

We’re about to find out.   My newest project is @DestroySuperMe, a Twitter feed from a fictional character who tweets heartfelt things with no irony and no regard toward his Digital Super-Me.

The One Method

27 Mar

Back in 2005, I began a personal project that I told no one about.

At the time, I was frustrated.  As a young New Yorker, I was constantly surrounded in everyday life by attractive women I didn’t know how to start a conversation with — on the subway train, walking the other way down the street, sitting in a coffee shop, wearing her headphones at the Don’t Walk sign.  I knew some of these women were people I’d like connect with and others weren’t — but I had no way of finding out.  My goal:  get beneath the veneer and have a meaningful-and-sexually-charged interaction as quickly as possible.

It’s no longer a secret to anyone who knows me:  I spent a year starting conversations with thousands of strangers in New York, on the street, on the subway, and at cocktail parties.  I learned from professional networking experts, business consultants, acting coaches, social butterflies, and pickup artists – anyonewho claimed to be good at making first encounters matter. After seven months of more rejection than most humans face in a lifetime, everything began to click. The principles of first encounters became clear.

It would be indiscreet to speak of the results stories here, but they exceeded what I thought was even possible in life.  What I can say is that I’m now comfortable approaching anyone I see and starting a conversation that I’m confident will be meaningful and fun (and flirtacious, if applicable).  I’ve found a way beneath the veneer, and it’s a thrilling way to live.

Prompted by friends, I began teaching professional seminars and interactive workshops on this in early 2007.   Of all the things I’m proud of in my life, being able to help guys change their lives — being both authentic and attractive — to become better able to make women very happy is absolutely at the top.

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Not a Settled Game

17 May

I read this from Yeats last night and loved it:

HER TRIUMPH

I did the dragon’s will until you came
Because I had fancied love a casual
Improvisation, or a settled game
That followed if I let the kerchief fall:
Those deeds were best that gave the minute wings
And heavenly music if they gave it wit;
And then you stood among the dragon rings.
I mocked, being crazy, but you mastered it
And broke the chain and set my ankles free,
Saint George or else a pagan Perseus;
And now we stare astonished at the sea,
And a miraculous strange bird shrieks at us.

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