The Cool Hunter will be launching Access Agency, a marketing agency which creates “highly original, transformational, yet eminently practical and results-oriented strategies for companies to stage the kinds of offline brand experiences that will increase the economic value of their offering.”
One of the initial concepts Access has thought up? McFancy. As the name implies, it’s pretty much a fancy McDonald’s restaurant.
Access is hard at work creating ideas and concepts for some high profile brands. For McDonald’s, we envision a cool, surprising and fun mix of concepts. First is McFancy, an upmarket temporary McDonald’s store that launches at Fashion Weeks around the globe — London, New York, Paris, Milan, Sydney, Hong Kong. McFancy is part art installation, gathering spot and, of course, a restaurant that offers a traditional McDonald’s menu but packaged in a way that makes a playful yet stylish nod to the lifestyle of the highly desirable, influential consumers that attend Fashion Weeks.
Very cool — I would definitely eat there. McDonald’s french fries are already very addictive (albeit very unhealthy), so the added bonus of a luxury branded take-away box is just icing on the cake. Or should I say ketchup on the fries?
With the 2010 Vancouver Olympics just days away, the entire city is caught up in (pro-/anti-) Olympic fever. Just in time for the Winter Olympics comes Marathonologue, a show which celebrates the athlete in action — specifically, Japanese womens marathon runner Naoko Takahashi who won gold in the 2000 Sydney Olympics after taking killer hornet extract.
Marathonologue, an interdisciplinary production inspired by this ultra-marathon runner energized by the killer hornet extract, combines highland bagpipe, Japanese taiko and Balinese gamelan music by composers Michael O’Neill, Boyd Seiichi Grealy and I Wayan Sudirana, in live synchronization with computer-animated projections by Kenneth Newby and Aleksandra Dulic. The production brings to life the interplay between the physical landscape and a runner’s internal ‘mindscape’ as it develops and transforms in the experience of running a global marathon.
Marathonlogue plays at the Norman Rothstein Theatre in Vancouver, from February 18th until the 20th. General admission is $20 and can be purchased from Tickets Tonight.
This is straight-up awesome. What do you get when you mix a Japanese Ukelele Duo (!) with a crocheted bear (Kumano 900) and bunny (Usagino U)? U900’s adorable stop-motion animated music videos.
Be sure to also check out U900’s Myspace page to see more of their videos. So. F’ing. Cute.
Vintage rhythm and blues by potent young artists. India.Arie’s Grammy-winning R & B, which recalls such soul masters as Roberta Flack and Stevie Wonder, makes “faith, goodness and positive thinking seductive,” according to The New York Times. Raphael Saadiq is a throwback, a retro-soul practitioner who has mined a rich vein of old-school R & B and Motown cool since his days with 80s hit-makers Tony! Toni! Toné!
Tickets are already on sale at Tickets.com, starting at $42.50. The concert will be held at the Orpheum Theatre, and starts 8pm on Saturday, March 20th. This is going to be such a sick, sick, sick show. I am so excited.
Videos of both India.Arie and Raphael Saadiq after the jump. Don’t sleep!!
