30 days and subtracting. Day 4.

One pic, or series of one thing for 30 days. This is day 4.

A walk of 10 or 15 minutes (from home) and I am inside the grounds of The Irish Museum of Modern Art. Today, so are some rather large tents. And some fences have been erected.

Dear oh dear, why oh why. I sniffed the air and smelled a festival. It also helped the fact that I saw a poster of an event that was about to happen soon enough... And so, I remembered.

Forbidden Fruit Festival – 4^th and 5^th of June. Dublin.

I walked towards my local SuperQuinn (I get my food stuff from there) and took a few pics on the way: 1. For the sake of my 30 day photo blog 2. For the sake of the fest. 3. For the sake of the museum.

It’s not what DonisArt would stage but I could only smile at the thought of August and our outdoor 2011 Dark Bombastic Evening Festival.

Anyway. Go get some music into you. Or some art. Consider the fest. The museum. A walk.

See you tomorrow. 

30 days and subtracting. Day 3.

One picture, or series of, for 30 days. This is day 3.


It’s Monday. Tons to do, Brandalism is getting close to launching a project, the developers are reaching their deadlines. Busy couple of months ahead. 


So how do you get motivated, jump out of your ridiculously pink jammies and do stuff? How do you motivate yourself when you are your own boss?


1. Keep close to your clients so they pester you and thus motivate you willy nilly?
2. Kick yourself in the ass because you do love what you’re doing?
3. Kick yourself in the ass and think of the rewards?
4. Just get up and do stuff, you’re lucky enough you don’t have a boring job with an ass for a boss?
5. Get a stick, tie a muffin, cake, a picture of your dream... something and get up and follow it? And on your way you end up doing some work stuff?
6. Go out and buy a book on how to motivate yourself?
7. Call a friend and ask?
8. Post a retarded blog?
9. Think of how good your ego will feel after you get results?
10. Keep thinking?


.... or.... (and sorry, this is an internal joke): go to your client, tilt your head and go ‘’owl?’’

30 and subtracting. Day 2.

One picture, or series of, for 30 days. This is day 2. 

There are these things that represent you. The music you listen to, the clothes you wear, the films you enjoy watching, the books you treasure, the people you love... and so on. And then... there are these things that represent you in a way that no book, no film, no track could: this is the core you. This are the things you believe in without question. You never needed a film or a book to guide your thoughts towards it. You just knew.

There are the things that define your makeup. The composition of you.

I have this relationship with nature. With open spaces. I have this need of sometimes not seeing anyone or anything but the green, grey, brown, blue or white lines of nature. Just me. And the wind.

You know what I’m talking about...

But yes. I need open spaces. That is why I live 2 minutes away from a park that spreads across 707 hectares. And this is why, about 10 small steps away from the front door, the River Liffey flows peacefully towards the Irish Sea. 

Traffic jam.

I had to go back into time for this one. :) Sarah's Bridge - Dublin, Ireland.

30 days and subtracting

I have this thing about growing, and learning and just.. being better. Every day. So, I am now playing with self control. Discipline. I need it in my professional life... as I work for myself.. and being your own boss means kicking yourself in the ass on a daily basis.. and I need it personally, to conquer whatever needs to be conquered.


I have this thing about... 30 days. Changing behaviour in 30 days. Doing something for 30 days, giving up something for 30 days, taking up something for 30 days.


For my next 30 days, I will take a picture or a series of pictures of... one thing. And post it onto my blog, together with a few words.


So this is my day 1. And these are my pictures. 

And this is The Magazine Fort – In Phoenix Park – Dublin.


From Wikipedia:


The Magazine Fort in the south east of the Park marks the location where Phoenix Lodge was built by Sir Edward Fisher in 1611. In 1734 the house was knocked down when the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset directed that a powder magazine be provided for Dublin. An additional wing was added to the fort in 1801 for troops. It was the scene of the Christmas Raid in 1939.


The magazine fort has been satirically immortalised in a jingle by Jonathan Swift (1667 to 1745, author of Gulliver's Travels) who proclaims:


"Now's here's a proof of Irish sense,
Here Irish wit is seen,
When nothing's left that's worth defence,
We build a Magazine."

See you tomorrow.

Wall of silence

Go viral about it, activists. 

Art Shmart

It’s simple, it’s free, it’s easy and it doesn’t take 100 years. All you need is a computer of sorts to take you online and you create your little account on the semi dead MySpace if you are a musician (still usable – if you don’t have a website you can just use it as part of your online presence and have people listen to your music, you use it not necessarily as an entity part of a community that is pretty dead anyway but you redirect people to it from other online platforms); you can make use of Facebooks pages for bands but also of individual Facebook profiles, you can use Twitter or you can create a profile on DeviantArt if you are an artist and you want to showcase your stuff.

I passed these guys on Grafton Street on Easter Monday. There was a large crowd gathered around them and I could not get close enough to see who they are (they had some CDs for sale). I would have liked them to have a sign with the bands name. I could have looked for them online. A sign. A simple sign. And I would have went online, listened to their music and maybe bought their CD.

This gentleman here.. I wonder if he has any online presence. Create a Facebook page, go onto DeviantArt, get a community around you and just make your stuff more available. That is what it’s all about. Big company or small, make your stuff more available and you will see results.

Go to people and offer what you have not when you need them to buy it but when they need to buy from you. What does that mean? By just standing on the streets and waiting for someone to come to you while you need them to (between certain hours, between you fulltime job, family obligations or weather restrictions) you will not get very far. Creating your online presence by using all these free tools will allow others to come to you when they want to or need to. I might not want to buy a painting every day I walk up and down on Grafton street (I might be going to the office, I might be meeting friends) but I might want to buy a gift that is different and has more value – art. So build that Facebook page and remind people that a painting from a local artist is a better purchase than some trinket from China. Not that I have anything against stuff made in China. Everything is made there anyway. But you know what I mean.

Simple steps, a cardboard sign with your bands name, a webpage, a blog can help you get your message across. And that is what you want. Once you have something valuable to offer, people will notice. 

What would I do?

So... I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

New bar open. Right across the O’Connell bridge, on the South side. I peaked inside and it did not look bad. Their offers displayed in the window didn’t look bad either. 

So what would I do?

1. I’d stick a big F for Facebook on their large funeralish looking banner add that 2. doesn’t even include the name of the bar. Branding, branding and branding again, people! Why include the name? Because you want people to know who you are. Isn’t it the first thing you do when you introduce yourself to somebody ‘’Hi, my name is Mimi, nice to meet you’’. Put your name out there, let people look for you online even, if they don’t come in immediately. 


3. Get social media to spread the word. Facebook and Twitter in this particular case. Build your database of friends, tell them that you exist and show them why they should bother coming entering your premises. Just because you are ‘’new’’ and ‘’now open’’ doesn’t mean that hordes of people will be Qing outside. I am stating the obvious in a semi sarcastic way but only to underline the point I am making: your first steps are important and things that seem like small details can be of great importance.

I took these pictures over a month ago. Seems that their online presence is growing since. Their name is Lafayettecafebar. Check them out, they seem to be interesting enough. I have a feeling I will like them.

4. And one more thing: it is very important to tie your offline presence with your online presence (not just the other way around). Seems that these guys are growing their online presence but they had no signs of existing on the net in their actual premises. Studies have shown that when Facebook users for example ‘’Like’’ a business or another, in many cases, they do so because they have been asked to. So ask them to Like you when they sit down at a table... or pick up a menu, or a flyer, or even... go to the loo... You ask them directly... or you ‘’ask’’ by simply showing that you exist online. You ask in whichever way it works for you and your marketing strategy. People like companies that understand how the world behaves.. and how they, the customers themselves behave. Because everybody, more or less, is using social media. Be friendly, user friendly, be smart, don’t be pushy and just be. Online.