• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Process
    • Competitive Namescape
      • Namescape: Search Engines
      • Blank Namescape Chart
    • Company Names
    • Product Names
    • Service Names
    • Brand Positioning
    • Name Development
      • Descriptive Names
      • Invented Names
      • Experiential Names
      • Evocative Names
    • Trademark Prescreening
    • Linguistic Connotation Screening
    • Name Evaluation
    • Naming Project Work Plans
  • Portfolio
    • Clients
  • Manifesto
  • Press
  • Blog
    • Archives
  • About
    • Our Team
    • Our Name
      • Finnegans Wake
    • References / Testimonials
  • Resources
  • Contact

Zinzin

Archives for November 2013

November 28, 2013 By Jay

Everyday mysteries: Saul Leiter, a master of lyrical color street photography

Saul Leiter - Snow, 1960

Saul Leiter, perhaps the most famous non-famous New York street photographer, has just passed away at age 89. A pioneer who worked mostly in color in an age when street photography was still a predominantly black and white medium, Leiter captured the ineffable details than can only be seen and appreciated if you slow down and pay attention. Notes the obituary in today’s New York Times:

Mr. Leiter was considered a member of the New York School of photographers — the circle that included Weegee and Arbus and Avedon — and yet he was not quite of it. He was largely self-taught, and his work resembles no one else’s: tender, contemplative, quasi-abstract and intensely concerned with color and geometry, it seems as much as anything to be about the essential condition of perceiving the world.

“Seeing is a neglected enterprise,” Mr. Leiter often said.

Where other New York photographers of the period were apt to document the city’s elements discretely — streets, people, buildings — Mr. Leiter captured the almost indefinable spaces where all three intersect, many of them within a two-block radius of the East Village apartment in which he had lived since the early 1950s.

… Unplanned and unstaged, Mr. Leiter’s photographs are slices fleetingly glimpsed by a walker in the city. People are often in soft focus, shown only in part or absent altogether, though their presence is keenly implied. Sensitive to the city’s found geometry, he shot by design around the edges of things: vistas are often seen through rain, snow or misted windows.

“A window covered with raindrops interests me more than a photograph of a famous person,” Mr. Leiter says in the recently-released feature-length documentary, In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life With Saul Leiter, by the British filmmaker Tomas Leach. Here is the trailer for the film:

The New York Times continues: [Read more…] about Everyday mysteries: Saul Leiter, a master of lyrical color street photography

Filed Under: Film, Photography Tagged With: New York, Saul Leiter, street photography, Teju Cole, Tomas Leach, video

November 22, 2013 By Jay

Kids in the Philippines play basketball among the ruins of Typhoon Haiyan

Kids play basketball in Philippines amid Typhoon Haiyan ruins

This is a great photo that captures the spirit of human resilience and the need for play even in the most desperate of circumstances. In Typhoon Haiyan: Amid the ruins, a basketball game breaks out, the AP journalist who stumbled upon this scene in Tacloban, ground zero for the devastation that Typhoon Haiyan wrought in the Philippines, writes:

They found the hoop in the ruins of their obliterated neighborhood. They propped up the backboard with broken wood beams and rusty nails scavenged from vast mounds of storm-blasted homes.

A crowd gathered around. And on one of the few stretches of road here that wasn’t overflowing with debris, they played basketball.

The kids, and all who gathered around to watch, were craving even a momentary distraction from their troubles. Please help the people of the Philippines by donating to our affiliated water relief organization, Waves For Water, which has been on the ground there since a few days after Haiyan, with filters that are bringing clean water to hundreds of thousands of people who need it now.

Here is a shot of Waves For Water founder Jon Rose (my nephew) demonstrating the use of the clean water filter in the Philippines:

Jon Rose - Waves For Water - Philippines - Haiyan

See the Waves For Water web page, Super Typhoon Haiyan // Disaster Relief, for many more pictures from the center of the disaster area, and help support the great work W4W does there and all over the world, including a lot of Hurricane Sandy relief right here in the United States.

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: basketball, children, Philippines, Typhoon Haiyan, water, Waves For Water

November 19, 2013 By Jay

Virgin America Safety Video #VXsafetydance

Once again, Virgin demonstrates how to do branding. In this case, Virgin America transforms the boring airplane safety routine into a hip and funny song and dance number that actually makes you want to pay attention to the message being conveyed. There’s just enough sex, drugs, rock and roll and pure Freudian allusion to generate the creative friction to make this pop message truly pop.

Skeptical? Ask yourselves how many other safety routines have their own hashtag — #VXsafetydance — generating a whole bunch of social media buzz. Not since Laurie Anderson sang in 1982, “Good evening / This is your Captain / We are about to attempt a crash landing / Please extinguish all cigarettes / Place your tray tables in their upright, locked position,” has airplane safety crashed the culture like this.

Standby.
This is the time.
And this is the record of the time.

Filed Under: Branding Tagged With: airlines, Laurie Anderson, video, Virgin America

November 14, 2013 By The Directive

The Face of Love performed by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Eddie Vedder

A supremely beautiful  Qawwali song by the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, with Eddie Vedder, here performed live by Vedder and Nusrat’s nephew Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Recorded at live at charity concert, Not in Our Name: Dead Man Walking – The Concert, in 1998, one year after the death of legendary master, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

The Face of Love
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan(with Eddie Vedder)

Jeena kaisa pyar bina [What is life without love?]
Is duniya mein aaye ho to [Now that you have come into this world]
Ek duje se pyar karo [Love each other, one another]
Jeena kaisa pyar bina [What is life without love?]
Is duniya mein aaye ho to [Now that you have come into this world]
Ek duje se pyar karo [Love each other, one another]

Look in the eyes
The face of love
Look in her eyes
Oh, there is peace
No nothing dies
Within pure light
Only one hour
Of this pure love
To last a life
Of thirty years
Only one hour
So come and go

Here is the original studio album version of The Face of Love, by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, with Eddie Vedder:

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Eddie Vedder, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan

November 12, 2013 By Martin

‘Raising McCain’: Not Your Mother’s Talk Show

pivot_raising_mc_cain

NPR’s Michel Martin interviewed Pivot’s “docu-talk” host Meghan McCain recently. Here is a brief excerpt and you can read or listen to the complete interview as well as watch a clip of the program at Tell Me More.

Meghan McCain comes by her maverick credentials honestly. As the daughter of Arizona Sen. John McCain, she is no stranger to the political limelight. But that doesn’t mean she always agrees with her dad or Republican political orthodoxy.

It’s that unique perspective that is at the center of her new television show, Raising McCain. The newly launched Pivot network describes the program as a hybrid “docu-talk” show. Each episode features a different co-host and is filmed in a documentary style. But don’t expect crying on couches or gift baskets under the seat. She’s tackling topics like feminism; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights; and young people in the military with an eye on her millennial target audience.

On her inspiration for Raising McCain

I’m such a child of the ’90s. I grew up watching MTV News and watching their “Choose or Lose” correspondents interview my dad. And I always thought they were such interesting, cool people. Tabitha Soren has had such a profound impact on my life. … I just wanted to do a talk show for young people that was discussing serious issues, but not doing it in a way that talks down to people that don’t have it all figured out.

On being an advocate for LGBT rights

You know I’ve never considered myself a journalist, ever. I’ve always considered myself a commentator. I mean I was born into a bias. … If someone wants to watch a more even opinion about coming out in America or gay rights, I’m not the girl for you. I have such a strong opinion. … What I’m always secretly trying to get is that young Republican kid in the middle of the country who is maybe struggling with how he feels about social issues and just knowing that there are other people out there that struggle with that.

On the government shutdown

The government shutdown right now — because we have this innate capability to compromise and work together — it makes me so sad. I don’t know when we’re going to this tipping point where hopefully things will come back around. But I was just talking to my father on the phone right before I came in here to do this interview and he’s saying that this is the worst time in Congress he’s ever seen in his entire career. I mean, what does that say?

On who is to blame for the current political climate

I blame cable news. I blame politicians as well. But at a certain point, I don’t understand some portion of the American public that supports radical personalities. I’ve never understood it. I always want to compromise, and I always want to find the other side of the opinion and see if I may be wrong. I’m open to my opinion being changed. I’m open to the idea that I could be wrong. And it’s just scary, crazy times that we’re living in. And Congress is a bunch of petulant children that can’t work together.


More: Read our Pivot Case Study.

Filed Under: Branding, Naming, Zinzin Tagged With: Meghan McCain, NPR, Pivot, television

November 8, 2013 By Jay

Remembering DJ Cheb I Sabbah, 1947-2013

DJ Cheb I SabbahWe lost a great spirit and world music master DJ Cheb I Sabbah, who died on November 6 in San Francisco after a two-year battle with stomach cancer. His given name was Haim Serge El Baz, but the name he is remembered by, Cheb I Sabbah, means “young man of the morning,” and he was exactly that: young at heart and in spirit, who took the music of the ancient world and made it fresh with heavy dance beats for a modern global audience. I used to listen to Cheb’s show on the radio in San Francisco for many years, own several of his brilliant albums, and was fortunate to have seen him perform live in Berkeley about twenty years ago. He was an amazing man and musician, and he will be missed.

This video of a live Cheb I Sabbah performance from 2008 gives you a taste of his spirit, and more about Cheb I Sabbah and his music can be found at the links below:


Learn more about the life and music of DJ Cheb I Sabbah:

  • Cheb I Sabbah’s website
  • Wikipedia: Cheb I Sabbah
  • NPR’s Fresh Air: Paying Tribute To San Francisco DJ Cheb I Sabbah (from 2012)
  • PRI: Remembering Cheb I Sabbah, a DJ who brought heavy beats to traditional styles
  • Cheb I Sabbah’s albums available on Amazon

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Cheb I Sabbah

November 6, 2013 By Martin

Kids Today: Pivot, A New Channel For Millennials

pivot-please-like-me-1

Here is an excerpt from Emily Nussbaum’s review of the Pivot launch. You can read the entire article at The New Yorker.

Who are the Millennials? Narcissists, that’s who. Entitled types who actually expect to be paid for the work they do. A generation foolish enough to have graduated into a recession—”liking” rather than loving, stealing Wi-Fi, twerking molly (or whatever it is you do with molly). Takers of selfies!

This unfortunate demographic, which has become an easy target for anti-technology pundits, a peg for prurient essays on hookup culture, and a marvellous resource for op-ed columnists in a rush, is now in possession of its very own cable channel: Pivot, which débuted, very quietly, last month. Launched by the producer Evan Shapiro, whose résumé includes executive roles at Sundance and IFC, two of the more innovative small cable networks, the network has a sly slogan: “It’s Your Turn.” And so far, at least, you’d never recognize that mythical Millennial in Pivot’s schedule, which has an appealingly humble aura—it’s diverse, it’s global, it’s progressive, with a touch of early MTV (right down to its première broadcast, a montage of bands covering “Video Killed the Radio Star”). As long as you avert your eyes from the talk show hosted by Meghan McCain, Pivot suggests legitimate creative possibilities. The highlight is the sweetly melancholic half-hour comedy “Please Like Me,” a small charmer that is a bit like “Louie” or “Girls”—that is, if Louis CK were Australian or Lena Dunham gay.

Pivot is barely a network yet—it’s more of a soft launch—but, at its best, it feels like a thoughtful attempt to reach young viewers without relying on pre-chewed assumptions about who they are. Traditionally, cable networks don’t find their identities until they create a hit: “The Sopranos” for HBO, “Buffy” for the WB, “Mad Men” for AMC. Yet there’s something to be said for watching an institution before it becomes a stable brand, when there’s still oddness and experimentation, and room for interesting mistakes. MTV was like that at first: although the v.j.s barely knew how to handle their microphones, if you were the right age you couldn’t stop watching. Pivot isn’t anywhere near that exciting yet, but it’s been around only a month. Give the kid a chance.


More: Read our Pivot Case Study.

Filed Under: Naming Tagged With: Emily Nussbaum, Pivot, television, The New Yorker

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Advertising
  • Art
  • Branding
  • Design
  • Film
  • History
  • Ideas
  • Language
  • Literature
  • Music
  • Naming
  • Narrative
  • Nomenclature
  • Photography
  • Poetry
  • Quotes
  • Science
  • Zinzin

Recent Posts

  • New IFG grapes launched — named by Zinzin
  • Naming Advice For New Businesses
  • Words have no size: the corny magic of Ed Ruscha
  • Industry Jargon: Elephant Walk
  • Playing For Change: Ripple around the world

Recent Comments

  • Bob Eilbott on Song of the Kindertransport
  • Lance Foster on Who was St. George William Joseph Stock?
  • Bob on How HAL from “2001: A Space Odyssey” got his name…and no, it’s not IBM minus one
  • Rudy on Cristo Redentor by Donald Byrd, 1963
  • Ivan Allen on Zen in action: no tree, no mirror, no dust

Footer

Contact

415-857-5775

contact@zinzin.com

Zinzin
1025 Carleton Street
Suite #9
Berkeley, CA 94710

Navigation

  • Home
  • Process
  • Portfolio
  • Manifesto
  • Press
  • Blog
  • About
  • Resources
  • Contact

Connect

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS (blog)

We are Zinzin

Zinzin is a naming and branding agency that creates powerful product and company names to propel and differentiate brands beyond their competition. We want to set your brand free.

Copyright © 2021 Zinzin Group Inc · Log in