G-OGRAPHY: a southeast asian lady travels...

This woman's creativity knows no bounds. The way she creates and crafts her music is amazing. Have you seen how she perfoms a capella? She can also play the piano, cello, clarinet, guitar, drums and oh a couple of otherworldly instruments while engineering her own tracks. If you saw last Sunday's Grammy Awards night you would have seen her debut her "TwitDress". It was designed by former Philips research scientist Moritz Waldemeyer. He writes on his blog:

Say hello to our new creation: after video dresses and laser dresses here is one that connects Imogen to her fans directly via Twitter. When Imogen walked the red carpet to collect her Grammy, fans could send messages and photographs directly to her dress. The messages scrolled across the collar while the images were displayed on her Fendi handbag.

How does it work? The Fendi bag contains an iPod Touch that receives the messages (thanks to Memo Akten for programming this). It displays the pictures and passes the text on to a flexible LED display in the collar.


Imogen is a big fan of technology and social media. In fact, she used online auditorium Vokle.com to audition cello players for her on going Ellipse Tour.

I just saw this link http://twitter.com/Shitmydadsays posted on Facebook and started reading it. I was laughing my ass off in no time. I think there is wisdom in the freedom of being able to say things as it is...no bullshit. In fact, the father's Walter-Matthau-resque humor is funny cause it's true.

Justin is a genius. He already has 200k followers! I'm surprised mashable hasn't covered this viral twitter account yet...

Favorite tweets:

"You need to flush the toilet more than once...No, YOU, YOU specifically need to. You know what, use a different toilet. This is my toilet."

"The dog is not bored, it's a fucking dog. It's not like he's waiting for me to give him a fucking rubix cube. He's a god damned dog."

"Love this Mrs. Dash. The bitch can make spices... Jesus, Joni (my mom) it's a joke. I was making a joke! Mrs. Dash isn't even real dammit!"

You might want to check these out:

Grumpy old tweeter

Somewhere, a dad says shit, a son tweets and a nation laughs

I was fortunate enough to attend E3 since I work for an awesome company within the industry. For those of you living under a rock E3 Expo is a trade show for computer and video games and related products. E3 stands for Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Below are some of my personal highlights from the event. Today was the last day by the way so I'm glad it wasn't as crowded. There were less freebies though but the last thing I need is more clutter in my apartment.

Oh and there were a number of excellent parties along downtown LA last night =) In fact, I am still recovering from excessive intake of free alcohol. Folks better remember to eat before binge drinking and have a designated driver assigned!!!



Playstation

I liked how they built out their area to look like a mini-pod city.

Activision

They had big screens all over which was wicked. Most of the games I have on the Xbox are from Activision. Not really by choice I just know the geeks that work on these games so by default I get to mooch on their employee discount. I like Call of Duty and Guitar Hero the best!


When I got to their area I was in time to see them demo for DJ Hero. I was impressed by how clever the mechanics of the game were and how great the tracks sounded.

Disney



My peeps! I am proud to showcase our new cool game Split Second. Click here to watch a short interview about the game.

THQ

Definitely like the gaming pods.

Mini Ninjas

I have no idea what game they had but their set-up was soooo cute!

Sega

Some of the more decent booth babes.

Nintendo



Mario! Enough said.

X-box

I was very impressed and excited with what Microsoft is doing with the Xbox. I own one and I love the cool dashboard features on Live. Oh god and the avatar...I literally spend hours changing my outfit, my hair, my makeup. Totally addicting. So I sat down and actually saw the demos and all I can say is that Microsoft is gonna kick console ass. The Xbox team spent a lot of time developing some very innovative features that I only wish Microsoft can apply to their PC system. I can't wait for fall when they start releasing the awesome upgrades. Watch this video below to see how they plan to change how people play video games:



Oh and did I mention that Xbox gamers can start connecting to Facebook and Twitter? =)


Some snapshots straight from the LA Convention carpet! As you can see the interface is pweeetttyyy.

Twitter


Facebook


Oh and I almost ran off with these...except that they had this lady guarding them and she started giving me the evil eye because I was hovering over them for too long.


All in all it wasn't a bad first time to the event. I kinda still like Comic Con but that's because I didn't get to meet Chuck and Morgan from NBC's Chuck like my friend did!!!! Grrrrr so jealous! Oh the perks of living near Hollywood.

If you are an Angeleno you probably know that one of the best things about this city is the Mexican food. However, not known to many is an existing subculture of taco lovers that make a pilgrimage to the streets in order to taste some of the yummiest amalgam of meat, cheese, beans, vegetables and tortilla one can only get from a...taco truck. Yes folks, blogs have even been dedicated to our flourishing taco scene. Check out the brave Bandini's The Great Taco Hunt for the evidence.

But before this turns into a foodie post. I bring ye the social media tale of The Kogi Taco Truck. Here are several lessons I have learned from them that I would like to share:


1. Don't be afraid to be different

The Kogi Taco Truck is different because it uses korean bbq to create a taco. Kogi actually means meat in Korean. Just take a look at their signature taco: The Korean Short Ribs (prntscrn image below).





Ultimately, what makes Kogi unique is the fusion of these ethnic ingredients. In a time where society is more aware of the importance of diversity their product has never been more appealing.

Lesson#1 in Social Media Terms: Get creative. Fuse ideas don't cut and copy.

2. Go flaunt your goods

According to Co-founder Chef Roy Choi, they didn't sell a single taco when they first opened. So they began peddling until the people finally caved in and took their first bite. Unable to resist the yumminess, the people started taking pictures of their taco sending it to friends and uploading it on facebook. This in turn made a lot of other people curious which obviously translated into a lot more sales for the Kogi team.

Now they have a Flickr photostream that makes my stomach grumble every time I look at that glint of grease in the night.



Lesson#2 in Social Media Terms: Spread the word out through pictures. A single jpg can be as powerful as 140 characters.


3. Unleash your inner cuteness

One of my most favorite blog posts on their website has to be Alice Shin's Things To Do WhiLe Waiting For KoGi #1: Romance is in the Air. Best line ever: "Dude, the crowd here is totaLLy different from the SiLverLake crowd. It’s cooL how each location has a different fLavor. Is this your primary KoGi spot?"

If there is anything we have learned from sites such as cuteoverload.com and icanhascheezburger.com is that cute is more than accepted in the web-o-sphere. It is embraced.

Kogi's blog is as cute and as funny. They're not out to impress their reader with fancy shmancy verbiage. They want to talk to the people in their own voice.

Lesson#3 in Social Media Terms: When communicating be yourself. Write as you speak even if you sound like Betty Boop.


4. Learn how to hustle

Aka "innovate"...the Kogi Team saw the power of web 2.0 and ran with it. Now dubbed as "America's First Viral Eatery", these Taco Trucks invaded the streets of the Twitterverse. Aside from tweeting times and places where they would be, they also tweet to tell everyone if they are stuck in traffic. I think that is just darn awesome.



Lesson#4 in Social Media Terms: Why re-invent the wheel when you can just tweak it? Working smart means leveraging on tools.

5. Take it to the streets


Photo credit: astrobuddha

As you can see, people line up for The Kogi. This is the result of their mastery over social media marketing. I Survived The L.A. Kogi Truck Line: Masterful Marketing Meets Meaty Munchies is an excellent blog post about this. Going offline and taking it to the streets is still the best course of action. Online conversations are good but real life conversations are even better. It's all about communicating and building lasting relationships.

Lesson#5 in Social Media Terms: The real world is where the real magic happens. Go out...unplug yourself from the web.