If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

This week it’s my daughter, Indiana.

Born at 9:36 this morning, 6lbs 10oz.

Mum and baby doing fine.

Blog on hiatus.

X

(How 2009 am I?)

‘There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall’, wrote Cyril Connolly.

Luckily no one in advertising produces good art (not in the advertising part of their lives, anyway). But does the arrival of a child make a difference to your outlook on working to produce ads?

Well, of course it does, but in many different ways. Choose one or more of the following:

You feel less inclined to flog your guts out because you want to see your kids.
You feel more inclined to slog your guts out because you want give your kids nice things and they cost money.
You feel horrified when you see the barefaced manipulation displayed in kids’ advertising.
You stop fancying your wife and have an affair.
You fancy your wife more because you are now bonded by your child.
You spend six months on maternity leave with your kid, realise there’s more to life than ads and never come back to work.
You spend six months on maternity leave with your kid, realise you are bored out of your mind and run back to work.
You take jobs based on money because you need more of it.
You refuse to work on nasty accounts that peddle shite to innocent kiddies.
You observe 9-5:30, or at least you try to. This may well be resented by more presenteeist colleagues.

Anyhoo, what I think I’m trying to say is that it can go in all sorts of different directions and depends on many things, such as: who is the primary breadwinner; just how much are you earning; do you have available childcare; are you a wanker; were either of your parents wankers (I think I may be going too far back in the process here).

Speaking as someone with a little boy (see picture above), I’d say it did all sorts of things to me. I was keen to miss his bathtime as rarely as possible, but fortunately I was a Creative Director during much of that period, so I could choose to leave work on time, then catch up later in the evening if necessary. Nothing seemed to collapse because of this, although I was the only person in the whole agency with a young child. Overall, I do think I started to prioritise that part of my life, but that meant both working harder and being at home more (Work/Life balance, I think they call it). It’s harder to be in control of those matters when you’re not the boss, especially when you’re freelancing, but in the end, you know when you have to make the important decisions; the only thing that makes a difference is your definition of the word ‘important’.

Kid Bonus.

And a car crashed into my street’s junction box, screwing the wi-fi.

So this is all you get today:

If you can’t find the book you’re looking for, perhaps you’re looking in the…

Sorry…

By the way, thanks for the response to the penguin/nipple question. Very helpful.

(Psssst…between you and me, you can watch the first minute then skip to 7:25. Even then it’s not great. I got really bored and wanted to turn it off at about 3:45. How about you? Via the marvelous people at the Denver Egotist.)

I’ve learned a bunch of things from my three-year-old son, but the most helpful has been the power of the never-ending question.

It goes like this:

‘Daddy, why do I have to put my socks on?’
‘Because we’ve got to go out soon.’
Why?’
‘Because we’re going to the cinema.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you wanted to go and see Up.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you liked the house with the balloons when we saw the poster.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know. You liked the bright colours.’
‘Why?’
‘Ummmm…because bright colours make you feel happy.’
‘Why?’
‘I have no idea. Interesting question though.’

I like the fact that questions never really end. When you’re an adult you are conditioned to accept things as convention presents them, without probing further.

But that’s a crappy way to go about things.

The perpetual question ‘Why?’ is a great way of getting to the root of the matter and working out whether it should be done a certain way or reappraised and improved.

It also helps to work out questions such as illustration vs photography, or director A vs director B.

Or ‘Why have I written a blog post just like one of Dave Trott’s, only with less insight?’

Hand from Above from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.

And here’s a poem about Roman Polanski.

And I think all the other Oscar contenders can just pack up their stuff and go home. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner:

And from the excellent Escape Pod blog:

I haven’t watched this yet, but the combination of it being recommended by someone whose taste I trust implicitly (thanks, A), and the fact that it’s Rory ‘I never do anything even remotely shit’ Sutherland, leaves me no option but to chuck it up here anyway.

UPDATE: I’ve watched it now. It didn’t let me down.

I’ve just found a really nice house I’d like to buy:

Unfortunately, it costs $2,395,000, or £1,511,041, which is currently a little expensive for me.

However, it does have five bedrooms (you can check out the floorplan on this link), so by my reckoning, that’s only £302,000 ish for each of five people sharing.

Pros: designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; the most beautiful house in the world; in California.

Cons: a bit close to Fresno (crystal meth capital of the US); long commute to London.

If you’re interested, drop me an email and we’ll see what we can sort out.

If you’re at a loose end on Wednesday, why not get yourself down to the Newburgh Street area (it’s that cobbled street parallel to Carnaby St with the White Horse on it)?

If you do, you can take part in this:

Newburgh street advertising agency Dye Holloway Murray are embracing the Autumn weather by organising the first Newburgh Quarter Conker Championship. The event is open to anyone who would like to play this quintessentially British game. To get involved grab a conker and pop down to Newburgh Street at 1pm on Wednesday 14th of October. There will be rosettes for the winners, cider for the losers and certificates for every competitor.

Anyone else who wants a mention on ITIABTWC (Missing cat? Want to sell a pair of trainers but can’t work Ebay?) feel free to email me.