PJ010

One-Pan Pasta

I came across this recipe on Lottie + Doof. It's one-pan pasta. One-pan in this case does not mean putting the sauce on top of the pasta, after the pasta is done. No, you actually cook the raw pasta with all the ingredients you want on top of it in the same pan.

Now... can such a thing really work??  

Evian babies

El Tubo

Take a look at this outdoor hotel in Tepoztlán, Mexico, using recycled concrete tubes. Called ‘TuboHotel’, the hotel rooms are stacked in pyramid-form with glazed fronts added as windows. 

The uncle you love to hate

Remember the Boondocks, the animated series starring the black Freeman family, consisting of Huey, Riley and Granddad? Well if you don’t, I strongly suggest you go watch it. It’s hilarious.

The series is based on the same name comic strip by Aaron McGruder and has been loved (or hated), because of its dark humour and unapologetic views on societal issues like race and politics.

The Boondocks had one other character going by the name of Uncle Ruckus. Uncle Ruckus was the slur-spitting, self-hating mechanic, who didn't make a secret of his aversion for African-Americans.

A few cats came up with the brilliant idea of doing a real life movie about him. The project is currently running on Kickstarter and the guys involved are looking for partial funding to realise the comedy.

Mothers in the hood!

It has been a while. I have been busy being paranoid about the number 13, planning for the New Year, and contemplating getting a dog. All this, in the midst of a move to a new crib (NY resolution #1).

Anyway, I am one of the last Mohicans without kids amongst my girlfriends. Only two weeks ago, another little baby creature was put into this world. Maybe that’s why I haven’t been able to get this dog idea out of my head. I mean, where would I find the time really?

Then I came across this video Fiat 500 did about The Motherhood and realised I am not ready to join their gang just yet..

December is the time you look back and reflect (or I try to do) and January is the month you put all that you wish for the new year out in the universe.

I am a bit late to the party this year, but need to send my stuff into the cosmos again. I would lose sleep over it at night otherwise.

I sent out my list for 2012 and the universe hit me back with a few!

1.       Go to Miami

2.       Improve my Spanish

3.       Move to a bigger house 

4.       Get a promotion

5.       Read more books (on a new e-reader bday present anyone?)

6.       Laugh harder until my stomach hurts

7.       Make Europe my backyard and chill in it more often

8.       Practice yoga and become like Dhalsim

9.       Be less anal and perfectionistic

10.   That’s why there is no #10 and it is all good!

I got the promotion and got the house, although it was technically 2013 when I signed the contract…details, details.... Received a Kindle for my Bday and travelled to Paris, Marseille, NYC, Egypt, Stockholm, Brussels, Antwerp, London and of course Miami!

Drive-in while driving?

A group of Iranian based investors are taking the increasingly mobile economy to new heights. They created an exhaust pipe that cooks you a burger while you’re driving. The device is called the “Exhaust Burger” and uses heat from the car’s exhaust to serve you with a juicy piece of meat.  The only thing you have to do is  install the device, throw in a burger and off you go. 

However, if carbon monoxide is preventing you from fantasizing of your first car-grown burger, you need not worry. There is top tunnel that draws the smoke away from your meat, allowing the heat to cook your burger without the risk of pollution. 

Great idea, but who would use it? Besides the haphazard of getting food poisoning, I wonder what you do when you are in the middle of traffic and your burger is ready.

Myspace is back!

Myspace is coming back. They recently released a video declaring their return to social media land and are currently in beta making the final tweaks before relaunch. The video looks pretty darn slick and the new platform best resembles a mash-up of Pinterest, Tumblr and Spotify.  

I was quite surprised. I thought that Myspace was forever banned to the internet wastelands. I personally never had a Myspace account and never had any interest of opening one. The platform used to look a hot mess with the large amounts of animated profile backgrounds.

I guess they learned from their mistakes. The platform will have a large focus on music and is targeted to a younger audience.  A younger audience that is eager to get away from the ubiquitous Facebook with strong parental control (Who doesn’t remember the day, their mum signed up to Facebook).

Get off your culo!

In order to combat the large percentage of Puerto Rican residents on public assistance, Banco Popular wanted to inspire people to get off their culos and teamed up with the famous salsa band, El Gran Combo, to change the lyrics of one of their famous songs, "No Hago Mas Na," an ode to laziness whose title translates to "I Do Nothing." The new version, which praises a hard day's work, was broadcast during a media roadblock and it quickly soared up the charts, becoming the most popular tune in Puerto Rico.

The “Get off your culo!” campaign won the PR prize at this year Cannes festival. I thought it was brilliant. It’s a good tune too, I immediately added it to my Caribbean playlist on Spotify.

The orange that turned into juice.

I was sitting behind the television yesterday like the rest of the Dutch population to watch the Dutch play the Germans in the EK2012 tournament. It's safe to say that it was an utter disaster for the Dutch who lost the game with 1-2. Take in that they also lost against Denmark last Saturday the odds are not quite in their favour and team Orange is most likely going home at the end of this week. Since everyone and their mother is a football expert when it comes to these tournaments, I will come out and say that the Dutch team looked like a bunch of half-sighted savages completely new to sports.

Cinemagr.am

I was visiting New York a few weeks ago when one of my friends introduced me to the Cinemagram app. The short description: it’s Instagram with animation. This short description doesn’t really do it justice though, so I suggest you go download it for yourself to see what it’s all about. It’s free.

Back in the Netherlands I introduced the app to my little brother and we decided to make a video together. It is a picture where you see a still image of him standing in front of my closet mirror while his reflection is doing the “Harlem shake”.

I post the app on my Cinemagram and in a period of about 5 hours I go from 0 followers to 203. Almost 200 people liked my Cine. I am a bit taken aback at first. I mean the video is funny, but to go from 0 to 200 followers seems a bit ridiculous. Especially considering it's the first time I am using the app. Then I discover my little brother is trending on the platform.

It got me thinking about virality. Companies hire public relations professionals to push their products. I don’t know to what extent Cinemagram has called upon public relations services to get their app out there. I only learned about the app through my friend. But after my little 15 seconds of popularity it reinforced my conviction on what Cinemagram and other companies in general need to do. They need to create strong enough “experiences” of their product that aim to make their products go viral.

User generated content works best for this, but if you are not generating strong enough user content in the beginning, you might want to give users a bit of help. Beats a dry press release.

The Hunger Games

This weekend I went to see The Hunger Games, a film remake of The Hunger Games book series by Suzann Collins.

The Last Man In Tower

I just finished reading The Last Man In Tower bij Aravind Adiga. I bought it on the airport on my way to Egypt. I actually wanted to buy The White Tiger, since its cover had been staring at me in many bookstores last year, when I travelled around Asia. I guess you always want what you can't have, because they did not have any more copies at the airport.

I thought is was a very interesting read, a bit dense sometimes with the inner struggles of its characters, but it has a very moving plot. The book touches upon the socio-economic situation in India and in particular the greed and desperation that is omnipresent when in the proximity of the fast yet elusive lakhs swirling around in India's redevelopment industry. It is an interesting story from a public relations perspective. The book paints a veracious picture of the way you can passively influence and (in this particular story) force god-fearing and law abiding citizens into unlawful action, unaware of their enslavement to a power larger than them. 

Crude lesson learned: know your subject. It is all about consumer insights.