The Hallelujah Chorus

Is basically what I've heard lately.

Time for a long-overdue update. So, grab a cup of coffee, put your feet up, and prepare yourself for a novel.

I started my job at Baker Street Partners on Thursday. I received a call from Corey, my creative director, on Wednesday night double checking to make sure I was ready and to let me know that he and the other CD's (creative directors) will be meeting with the Honda clients Thursday morning and that I should just come on in and settle in and start my paperwork.

At around noon, the boys walk in. Oh...you first should familiarize yourself with who they are.
The new website went up a few days ago, but they already told me they need to update it to include the new staff (and one staff member gone on maternity leave and her replacement).

Ok. So, peruse through it for a bit. Yep. Check out our clients. I love that I work in an agency with about 30 people, but I'm working on some HUGE clients. Check out the bios. See the guys and their credentials. They're a ton of fun.:

http://www.bakerstpartners.com/

Anyway, I get set up with my MacBook laptop and the IT guy said he's going to come in over the weekend and set up my G5 desktop as well. So I have a laptop to use at home and a nice mac at the office. Oh, and my office: I'm requesting office gifts. HA! No, I kid...but I'm looking at empty walls and I need to put goodies on my huge desk. Corey (my creative director) walks in and said, "it looks like you don't live here, we need to fix that."

Later Thursday afternoon, all the creatives, the partners and myself sit in the CEO's office to discuss their meeting with the Honda clients and the directions we should look to do for the new TV spots. Returning to Corey's office, we discuss my first project: to catalog our visual assets for Honda by going through our stock photos and stock video and note which model, color, background and shot-type so we can quickly reference it when we're working on spots or print pieces. He admitted it's tedious and time consuming, but reassured me that it's a one-time thing and I'd rarely do something like this, but I'd be happy I did when I go down to the production site and need to quickly reference a replacement vehicle if what we are using isn't right for the spot.

Other than that, he tells me the next week he and I will begin our concepting for the new Honda spots based on the client and brainstorming sessions that happened. I can't wait!

I will tell you all of this came together for me last night when Chip and I were sitting on the couch eating our gourmet Endive Boat midnight snack (I'll explain later) and during the commercial break on Bravo (I made him watch Bridget Jones' Diary with me)...what comes on?

You guessed it. One of BSP's commercials for NorCal Honda. It was REALLY cool to see it on TV, and just...reinforced how perfect this job is.

I'll bet you're curious about what kind of spots we've done, eh? Well, an ad blog was posted about one of BSP's commercials recently. The blogger writes about how the Honda ads take a "stab" at the Prius "YES" ads, by doing a "NO" ad....the blog said:

"The original ad features a montage of happy Prius owners flashing signs that say "Yes" to all the Priuses wonderful attributes. The Honda "No" ad pokes fun at the Priuses unique shape while promoting the Civic as a stylish alternative."

Here is the Prius ad (for reference):



And here is the spot BSP did in response to the Toyota Prius for the Civic Hybrid. Gotta love direct competition:


Well....all that aside, I will have my new business cards early next week that say "Brenda Berson Art Director"...I think I'm a little too excited about that. It doesn't say "Designer" anymore or "Production Artist".... awesome. Really.

Well enough about my great new job. There's so much to write about that it would take a day to get it all out.

Aside from all of that, Chip is on Spring Break, after having aced his midterms. A big congrats goes out to the Lobster for a job well done. Last night we went to the Great American Music Hall to see Explosions in the Sky. The music hall is incredible. The interior is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Here's a brief history:

San Francisco's oldest and grandest nightclub, the Great American Music Hall carries guests back to an earlier, more elegant era, with its ornate balconies, soaring marble columns and elaborate ceiling frescoes.

It was designed by a French architect in 1907, and Chris Buckley, a political mover and shaker who wanted to erect a grand structure after the devastating 1906 earthquake. The result was Blanco's, characterized as one of the most popular entertainment spots during San Francisco's notorious Barbary Coast Era. The restaurant/bordello offered fine food, gambling and fast women right up until the dark days of the Great Depression in 1933.

Three years later, in 1936, the extravagant and elaborate fan dances of local favorite, Sally Rand, brought new life to the dark building. She called it the Music Box, and swanky city dwellers would dance the night away there for the next decade.

With the end of World War II, the Music Box turned out its lights. Blanco's reopened in 1948 as a jazz club. In the 1950s, the premises were taken over by members of the Moose Lodge. The building went into an ignominious decline that hit bottom when the building was condemned by city building inspectors. A last-minute reprieve saved it from demolition, and the tarnished interior was spruced up a bit when a short-lived French restaurant named Charles (after the proprietor, Robert Charles) took over the building. But it was not until 1972, when the Great American Music Hall opened, that happy music lovers filled the hall once more.

The past three decades at the Great American Music Hall have been full of music, with artists ranging from Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan and Count Basie to Van Morrison, the Grateful Dead and Bobby McFerrin.

(What they don't have on their website is how it used to operate as a bordello and as a "Gentleman's Club"!) and better yet, it's right next door to the neighborhood's finest theater, The Mitchell Brothers Theater (see post from Jan/Feb for further information about why this is prevalent).

Here are photos:

Well, that's about it here. In less than two weeks we have three new friends moving out here to SF and join us in our fun times. Liz, Kris and Amanda will be our new SF neighbors and we're really excited about it.

Ok, we're off for the day. More news soon!!

xoxo
L.P.