Training Day [02]
Amsterdam + Spaarnwoude ATB singletrack + IJmuiden beach and a windy ride back = 80 km. Co-rider Otto decided to continue his personal blog today.
The black perfume
Tonight we’ve been invited to the opening of the exhibition ‘Opium: The black perfume‘ in the Kunsthal, Rotterdam. Everything to do with opium throughout history is on display - even a luxurious 19th century opium-smoke-kit replica. I really liked the noir-style, french narrated technicolour film installation, which is also the screen-debut of our lovely friend Jade.
Stumbleupon is the Bumb
Stumbleupon works on the simple principle of subscribing by selecting a few favorite subjects and adding your emailadres. You can then hit the Stumble! button and it will spit out some cool sites relating to your selected interests. You can optimise what you and others get to see by simply hitting Thumbs-up or Thumbs-down icons. You could say Stumblupon is basically the ‘I feel lucky’ button in Google remixed to something useful.
Oh, and if you don’t have the time to digg trough the millions of videos on Youtube to find something good, there is Stumblevideo as well.
Today… is NWA day
Check that fork
Cannondale came up with a funky idea to lose some more weight in order to try and make a lighter mtb. I saw this bike being driven downhill in a not-so-sharp magazine picture and it turned out to be the Taurine SL Team Replica:
At first I thought the magazines’ designer had been on a funny tip with Photoshop - since one half of the fork seems to be missing. But it is actually supposed to be like that. I’m not at all interested in getting this bike, perfectly happy with my current bike. Just thought it was interesting. Sort of.
Viral Marketing is Old School
I bought and read this book years ago and have given it as a present to so many people that I don’t remember - and they all loved it. Well maybe except one cynical type character. Quite a few of them also gave it to their friends who gave it to their friends - etc. My girlfriend is reading it now and the other day, when we were having lunch, a friend came by who she recommended it to and they ended up talking about it for quite a while.
I guess this is a good metaphor for this thing we call Viral Marketing - a ‘Thing’ that is so good, that people start talking about it, and refer to it, for the longest possible time - and that can be everything. I really don’t think Viral Marketing is purely a web-thing. It could be, but its basically about Good Ideas That Go Around. And not about whacking your latest crap commercial on Youtube.
So I guess ‘Viral Marketing’ has sort of become a very hip and fancy Web 2.0 way of saying ‘Word of Mouth’. Which is nothing new, sorry folks.
By the way, the book is called Shantaram.
Snapshot from our roofterrace
Commentspammer apology
This is Good.
This magazine came in the mail as a freebie the other day, its a joint venture between Fotografie museum Foam in Amsterdam and dutch designagency Vandejong.
I was pleasantly surprised by how good and well-put-together this is. From the press release: ‘Foam magazine has become an exhibition space in itself. Each edition features a specific theme, which unites six diverse portfolios of 16 pages each. Foam magazine will be released four times a year at the start of each season’.
Right, I’m off to put my subscription in the post - www.foammagazine.nl.
Training Day [01]
Today I started training for an Ardennes mtb-trip we’ve got planned for next weekend (which is also a sneaky attempt to escape Queensday). I did a very enjoyable 25km ride around Amsterdam (Centre, Zeeburg), and although it was quite windy (it is always windy in Holland) my excellent new mtb makes the ride enjoyable all the same.