Category: Lifestyle

18 March, 2013

Yo, YO!

What role can a few cheap televisions and a motorcycle have in establishing of one of the most successful restaurant chains in the world? A pretty big one, actually – when setting up YO! Sushi with almost no financial backing or investment, Simon Woodroffe was able to negotiate extended payment terms with a supplier based on the fact that he had the support of Honda, Sony and All Nippon Airways. Years later he remarked that, actually, these brands had only provided him with some very limited sponsorship. To the tune of the items mentioned above, in fact.

Despite these humble beginnings, the chain is now sixteen years old and I can’t imagine that any of you haven’t been to one…which makes my task – reviewing the original YO! Sushi restaurant – a difficult one. So what’s the angle, I hear you ask? I was attempting to convert a sushi hater. In many respects, my girlfriend and I are a perfect match – we both love Americana, we both act as if we’re about sixty years old and we’re both total foodies. Except for sushi. Despite my efforts to get her enthused about sushi, she remains completely ambivalent about it. So, my mission was to show her that there’s more to YO! than just some cold fish.

The original Soho YO! is a little different to the average department store incarnation of the chain. While these tend to be open and airy, the original is darker and feels more tucked away – you definitely get more of a sense of Orientalism and ‘otherness’. I can’t think of a better example than this than the fact that you have to wave a fan to attract the attention of servers, rather than just pressing a big red button as in most YO!s.

I rolled out some of my longtime favourites, like Salt and Pepper Squid (‘Ok, I like this one.’) and a Katsu Selection (‘That bit tasted like a Chicken McNugget, but the rest is amazing.’). We also tried a couple of newer dishes like a Beef & Garlic Teriyaki dish that was out this world and Ramen, which is to Miso soup what Sheldon Cooper is to Ryan Gosling. The former did cause some trouble with chopsticks (‘You better not post that picture.’)…

but ultimately resulted in smiles all round.

We came away very content and very full – clearly, people who complain about being hungry ten minutes after eating sushi aren’t doin it rite. Either that, or they’re not dining on the dollar of the almighty YO!bot. Thanks very much to the team for inviting me down – I’m pretty sure we’ve managed to convert the little woman which means we’re now, if anything, TOO compatible. If you haven’t been down to the Soho YO!, I thoroughly recommend it – it is the original, after all, and original is always best.

22 February, 2013

Strike up the Brand

If the price of a Ralph Lauren shirt falls at Littlewoods but it doesn’t have a Polo player on it, does anybody make a sound?’ – Me. Just now.

Beats by Dr Dre de-branded Selfridges — De-branded Beats by Dr Dre headphones, courtesy of Selfridges

For as long as I can remember, I’ve worn branded clothing. A quick glimpse around my house makes it pretty clear why – from my Dad’s shirt wardrobe (yes, he has a wardrobe just for shirts…) containing 41 Ralph Lauren shirts and counting, to my Mum’s…well, I struggle to think of anything my mother owns that ISN’T covered in some Cath Kidston print or other, it’s pretty clear how I ended up like this. But why…?

A lot of trend whores claim they buy labels because the products are better made. Well, that may be the case sometimes, but I’m pretty sure that a few years ago ALL of us spent a night out listening to a friend complaining about the sleeves of his heather grey All Saints jumper fraying even though he’d only worn it once. Once upon a time I worked in a department store, and they had a whole rail devoted to those faulty jumpers. Equally, there are people who have gone to great lengths to figure out which high end products have high street equivalents that are made in the same factory. The rumour that if you go to ‘the right market’ in China you’ll find knockoffs that are actually better made than genuine products has been kicking around for years.

You might claim that people cling to brands and products because they define their identity. But, if that really is the case, why are such a high percentage of teenagers still fascinated by Abercrombie & Fitch even though you can’t walk down Regent Street for more than 30 seconds without seeing an overweight Persian man wearing one of their polo shirts? And how can Dr Martens simultaneously be the calling card of both crusty punks and pallid bloggers? Even if the latter DO claim to love The Clash…who, let’s be honest, weren’t all that great, and are regarded in many circles as a pre-Cowell manufactured boy band.

Ragged Priest biker jacket pvc — Ragged Priest? Topshop? Your guess is as good as mine! (It’s RP.)

Plenty of writing has been done on branding (like Naomi Klein’s No Logo), but unless you’re an academic you probably don’t have time to read it. Also worth observing that Klein walks a really dangerous line of kinda being a fox but also sometimes looking a bit like my mother. My own stance on the whole thing is that brands permeate modern culture to such a degree that it’s impossible to avoid them or even define them for more than five minutes – Nike is trying to look like Timberland, Reebok is trying to look like Nike, Vans are trying to look like Rockport, and it’s hard to know what anything ‘stands for’ anymore. Topshop, one of the biggest retailers on the planet, has a section devoted to a brand that used to spend its days splattering charity shop denim with bleach but whose stuff is now starting to look more and more like…Topshop’s.

When Selfridges got in touch to tell me about their ‘Quiet Shop’, I was definitely interested. A thousand design students have removed the words from a can of Coca Cola and smugly been like ‘ahh, I bet you still know what this can is! That’s the power of branding!!!’, but (aside from a brief flirtation with the idea of ‘stealth wealth‘ <– Warning: Daily Mail link! If you’re not down with that, just listen to Gucci Gucci by Kreayshawn as the message is pretty much the same) I can’t think of any fashion brands that have ever gone as far as to remove their branding. In fact, in most cases the opposite is true – the Abercrombie moose and Ralph Lauren’s polo horse seem to have been getting bigger and bigger in the past few years, and I’m expecting them to have an apocalyptic battle a la Megashark vs Giant Octopus before long.

But it’s exactly what a number of brands, including Levi’s, Clinique and Heinz are doing for Selfridges’ No Noise campaign. Selfridges aims to encourage customers “to proactively seek out moments of peace and tranquility in a world that bombards us with information and stimulation.” I certainly like the idea of removing the focus from garish packaging and focusing on a product’s quality and function – I admit that I’ve previously found Beats a bit garish and showy, but this toned down cream edition is very sleek. It also sounds a lot better than my previous setup…which, admittedly, alternated between standard iPod earphones and a set of Sennheisers that only played through one ear. But still.

I expect that the campaign will actually be pretty divisive – I wonder what extent the cachet that brands have stems from their logo and, indeed, their very name. Will people be willing to part with their money for something that doesn’t have that? Just as with another brand involved, I think this is one you’ll either love or hate…

13 February, 2013

Run, Forrest, Run

There are two things in life that I never ‘got’. The first, one I still don’t really get, is pubs. Maybe it’s just a Newcastle thing, but the concept of going out and not getting drunk enough to think it’s acceptable to proclaim the person you met in the toilet your best mate and give homeless people regrettably large sums of money before waking up on your friend’s sofa with sick in your hair is…weird. To this day, whenever someone suggests ‘just going for one or two’ I make a face like I’ve opened a packet of salmon that’s gone off. The second thing I never used to get is running.

Until a couple of years ago, I was like one of those supporting characters in rom-coms who ends up lagging behind a quiet, but actually super fit, mate (probably played by Hugh Grant or, since it’s no longer 1998, maybe Ryan Reynolds) who proceeds to chat up some other curiously in-shape misfit while I fall into an artificial lake in the background because my legs have gone numb. Then, last year, I ran a 10k ‘survival race’ with 10 obstacles in just over an hour. I realised, actually, I was not bad at running; I just used to be really lazy. During this survival race, people literally stood and clapped as I ran past. Clapped! Turns out that applause for putting one foot in front of the other was exactly what my ego needed to realise that running isn’t so bad after all.

But it wasn’t until today that I realised how much impact a decent pair of running shoes can have. I recently managed to pick up the shoes pictured above (the Nike Lunarglide+ 4 if you want to give it its fancy name) for the quietly knocked down price of £66. Since then, they’ve gone back up to £90. This is either due to the fact that I’ve told everyone I know about these shoes (I literally rang my estranged uncle to tell him about them) and Nike whacked the price back up, or they’ve sold out of the epilepsy inducing colourway that I purchased. I usually find myself with a bit of ankle and foot pain after a long run (which I probably should have taken as a warning sign, but I assumed it was just my useless body falling apart prematurely), but after a 5k run in these babies? Nothing. Nada. I could honestly go outside and run another 5k. If you too get sore feet after a long run I can’t recommend these shoes, or something similarly ‘specialised’, enough.

Now I know what you’re thinking. ‘This is all a bit first world problem-y, isn’t it?!’ Well actually, smartass, it’s not. It’s also a huge, and much more serious, third world problem. In fact, 300 million children worldwide don’t have an adequate pair of shoes. Meanwhile, 790,000 pairs of shoes end up in landfills every year. To draw attention to this issue, my friend and fellow fashy blogger Madison Hughes is doing a project called Febshoeary which involves her wearing just one stacked pair of heels for a whole month. To work, to the gym, to go shopping…to do everything. She’s getting a lot of funny looks and, despite what this picture would suggest…

…she’s actually doing pretty well. I encourage you all to donate, offer her support and/or chuck a Compeed blister patch at her if you see her in the street. Good luck, Madz, only 15 days to go.

Finally, to end this shoe mega post, I came across this great video by ESPN to celebrate Michael Jordan’s 50th birthday. It probably comes as no surprise that I’m a big fan of the Jordan brand, and this vid neatly summarises a lot of the reasons why. I present to you, ‘It’s Gotta Be The Shoes’ -

10 February, 2013

In case you haven’t been paying attention to my snarktastic tweets, I am not a fan of the ’50 random facts about me’ tag. This is for two reasons. First, MISNOMER – most of the facts mentioned are about as ‘random’ a choice as picking the best out of the seventy three outfit photos you took earlier that day to post on your blog. George Takei recently posted a great photo on Facebook, noting that most people only share what they consider to be the best of themselves on social media. I’m noticing a lot of people doing the same with this tag. Second, I can only think of one thing about myself that’s remotely interesting – at the age of 13, I took a MENSA test that revealed I have an IQ of 161…technically making me a child genius.

Still, I like the idea of doing something that lets readers know a little more about you. Although #WIMH posts have been around for a while, they rarely go into much depth. The last one I saw was pretty much like ‘This is the blusher in my bag. I use it to make my face red.’ So, I decided to tip the contents of my bag onto my dining table and briefly cover why each item is in there.

Vaseline, hand moisturiser & caffeine eye roll-on:
Although I spend a fair amount of time faffing around in the morning, my beauty regime when I’m on the go is so low maintenance I’m not even sure you can use the word regime to describe it. These are pretty much the only essentials I need.

Hat:
This is my lucky hat. I don’t remember how I got it and I don’t remember what happened to make me think it’s lucky. I like to think I’m better off not questioning either of those things.

Hand sanitiser & moist towelettes:
A few years ago, I was diagnosed as having OCD. While my particular breed of compulsions mostly affects stuff in my head (checking I’ve set alarms and that I’ve emptied my locker at the gym are two biggies) and how I view future events, I do like to make sure my hands are clean whenever I can.

On a few occasions at restaurants, fellow diners have asked where I got my moist towelette from. There is no moment quite as awkward as having to tell someone you brought it from home. On the plus side, ‘moist towelette’ is really fun to say.

Books:
While I enjoyed Don DeLillo’s Underworld, at over 800 pages it’s hardly a book to undertake lightly. I struggle with books that have a lot of characters (probably a sign of Asperger’s or something…), but neither that nor the disjointed plot could take away from the beautiful flowing prose.

On the other end of the spectrum? John Green’s The Fault in our Stars. Once the exclusive property of meek, indoors-y Tumblr kids (I ought to know, I was one), John Green has exploded into the mainstream with his latest effort. While there’s no doubt that it’s very nicely put together, not to mention pretty moving (it may have made me cry on a train, hence Tissues), I can’t help but feel that the teenagers in the book talk more like teenagers who wish they were in a John Green novel than actual teenagers. Still, a wonderful book.

Moleskines:
When I was a boy, the following paragraph came to me in a dream -

‘As we came over the hill, the neon rainbow of the city stung my eyes so much that they watered. The focus of the lurid scene was the white shaft of light emerging from the tip of The Luxor, scanning the skies for silver Spitfires and falling angels. Holy shit, I remember thinking, the searchlights of hell are looking for a back way into Heaven, and I’m about to sell my soul to the devil.’

To this day, it’s probably one of the better things I’ve written, and I didn’t even come up with it myself. Feverish and squinting, I wrote these lines in a Moleskine notebook at 3AM. Since then, you’ll rarely find me without one.

Protein bar:
Because one day, ONE DAY, I’ll pack enough muscle on to stop looking like a stick insect.

Sunglasses:
In case of nuclear explosions.

Alibi:
I got sent a crate of this to blog about it. It does seem to lessen the impact of hangovers which, when you’re not 18 anymore and have chores to do at the weekend, can only be a good thing.

Jack Daniel’s:
You never know when Ke$ha is going to show up with a toothbrush. Also, because sometimes Jack is all that will do.

Filofax:
I sometimes get laughed at for how resistant I am to use online or iPhone calendars. Despite being pretty tech savvy in almost every other aspect of my life, this is the one thing I am unwilling to budge on.

* * *

So, I hope that gave you a bit of insight into what makes me tick. Though I’m not on some huge quest to create a ‘tag’ of my own, I think the above says more about me than the fact that I’m an only child or that I’ve been to 13 U.S states. But what do the contents of your bag say about you?

5 January, 2013

Project Lean, Part Three: CAN white men jump?

The thing is that white men maybe could have jumped but every white man that was born after that movie that was young enough and impressionable enough was like, “I give up on jumping…”

- Paul Ritchey

If you missed Part One and Part Two of this story, I can sum it up for you in two sentences – I challenged myself, with the help of Maximuscle, to bulk up and learn to dunk by Christmas. Then I got injured.

As you might expect, over two weeks out of the gym put a major dent in the whole thing…not to mention that I came home for Christmas and ate ALL of the food. Seriously, I think my mother might actually be the witch from Hansel and Gretel. But still, there remains a silver lining in this cloudy sky…

Until recently, no-one has ever told me that I look like I’ve been working out. Well, not without laughing or picking me up or throwing a peanut butter sandwich at my head afterwards. However, in the past couple of weeks, not one but TWO people have told me I’m looking bulkier. And I’m like 90% positive they weren’t just messing with me.

white men can't jump woody wesley — I guess I’m Woody Harrelson.

Can I dunk yet? Not even close. I can scrape the rim when I jump, which means I still have to add a few inches to my vertical before I can dunk. I’m better than I used to be, but not where I wanted to be by now. But that doesn’t mean the dream is over – my Hyperaggressors are still going strong and I still have plenty of protein shake fixin’s left over. Maybe I’ll be able to dunk by next Christmas…

In terms of gains, these are my new measurements:

Chest – 39″ (vs 38″ in October)
Biceps (untensed) – 10.5″ (vs 10″ in Oct)
Waist (at hips) – 35″ (vs 34″ in Oct)
Shoulders – 46″ (vs 43″ in Oct)
Thighs – 21″ (vs 20.5″ in Oct)

I have no idea how this would stack up against a professional weightlifter, or how badly a couple of weeks off affected my progress, but I’m still pretty happy with the results. Three inches on my shoulders and half an inch on my arms in two and a half months seems pretty good to me. Keen to improve even more in 2013, though I’m not looking forward to how busy my gym will be in January…

Think you could do better? Rude. But if you want to put your money where your mouth is (and potentially win £5,000…), you might like to check out this video about The Protein Project. I’ll be registering shortly. Game on.

30 December, 2012

Sweater Envy

I’m going to let you in on a secret – I’m a pretty bad blogger…not because I think my own blog is bad (though you may disagree…), but because I hardly ever read other people’s blogs. I’m making a renewed effort in the new year (no, I’m going as far as to use ‘the r word’) to change this, and seek out some up and coming blogs that I can mention. Although I find 90% of Lookbook posts to be pretty absurd, to the extent that I recently created a satirical side project called WTF LOOKBOOK, the site is a nice way to get a snapshot of someone’s style. My hypothesis? If you find someone’s style interesting, you’ll probably enjoy their blog. That’s how I found By Otto.

Otto’s blog is, in some respects, like a bizarro version of NSLL – the focus is very much on the visual and he tends to use 10 words where I would use 1,000. Living in rural Denmark may not make for the most exciting stories, but it sure makes for some beautiful photography.

It’s also hard to believe that Otto is only 18 – he’s far better dressed than most of the guys I hang around with, and they’re all in their late twenties. I’m not one to jump to conclusions, but it’s tempting to read the environment of Lookbook as indicative of the future of fashion blogging. At the time of writing, four of the top twenty looks were from guys. Of those four, three were aged 18 or under. I’ve already joked that the time will come when fashion blogging isn’t seen as girly or effeminate, and that it will become more common amongst both sexes. With more and more teenagers making an effort to look their best, and document those looks on sites like Instagram, Lookbook and Tumblr, it appears that time may not be so far away.

If you’re wondering where Otto’s galaxy sweater (which is very Black Milk for men) is from, the answer is Aloha From Deer. The bad news? AFD is based in Poland and it would cost over £50 to ship one here. Looks like I’ll be going galaxy sweater-less for a little longer…unless anyone wants to find me a suitable UK alternative?

21 December, 2012

Winter Essentials

I wrote this as a guest post for a friend and (shock horror) I didn’t melt afterwards, even though there’s no controversy or anything. So I thought I’d post it here…

Channelling my inner Dallas Green... — Channelling my inner Dallas Green…

Woolly hat
Sure, kids at hardcore gigs (the same guys who wear Eastpak backpacks and have plugs in their ears the size of Oreos) may wear them all year round but the woolly hat comes into its own in the Winter. Pro tip: I use a pair of fake glasses to keep it at the perfect height and stop it slipping down over my eyes. The downside is that it makes me look like…a douchebag wearing fake glasses.

Grey hoodie
Yes, probably down to the fact that I spent most of my teenage years aspiring to be like One Tree Hill’s Lucas Scott, but I still think a washed out, supersoft grey hoodie takes some beating.

Shirt jacket
Jackets bore me. There, I said it. I’m so not down with dropping £100+ on a huge jacket that will take up a load of space in my already crowded wardrobe…though I will make an exception when I find the parka. I picked up this Ralph Lauren workshirt, pictured above, for £36 at TK Maxx (despite the RRP of £600…). No, seriously. It’s warm, soft and it didn’t require a trip to Oxfam to clear closet space for it. Sorry, Oxfam.

Beard
Because facial hair is for life, not just for Movember.

Cable knit jumper
As well as being a completely classic look, I can also be sure that this won’t start my grandparents off again at Christmas dinner about how nobody dressed like that in their day. In retrospect, wearing a Black Dahlia Murder vest on Christmas Day was a poor decision. Anyway, I got mine at New Look. Ok, so it doesn’t have a little polo player on it, but it was only twenty quid. TWENTY QUID.

Doc Martens
Although they’re best known for big clompy boots, Dr Martens also make some beautiful (and hard wearing) shoes that can take anything from tramping city pavements to walking the dog in a rural snowstorm. Mine even came with a tin of wax to re-waterproof them. It’s only a matter of time before I have too much to drink and use said wax on my moustache.

Scarf
Ahh, my favourite scarf. Just thinking about it makes my neck warm. Not as warm as actually wearing it does, mind. I’m probably the pickiest person in the world when it comes to scarves; I don’t know whether it’s just me, but I find about 90% of scarves really scratchy. I got mine at Beyond Retro for the princely sum of five pounds. No wonder a friend posted this on my Facebook wall the other day, along with the comment ‘THIS IS YOU’ -

19 December, 2012

Ask Her Friends

I am, without a doubt, one of the worst people in the world when it comes to buying presents. Actually, scratch that. I’m one of the worst people in the world when it comes to milestones or landmarks of any kind. Seriously. In the past, I have:

Forgotten to wish my girlfriend happy birthday on her 21st because I was out drinking for three solid days.
Bailed on Valentine’s Day because I had a sore foot. The girl had spent all day baking me heart shaped cookies. (I have since apologised for being a terrible person.)
Regifted ALL of the things. If I’ve ever given you a present, it was probably given to me first. Sorry.

That’s why when someone told me about Ask Her Friends, I knew I had to try it. The concept? In a nutshell – you answer a few questions and the site suggests some presents that your girlfriend/mum/sister might like. You then send that list to her friends via Facebook/Twitter/email/carrier pigeon to get feedback. It all worked very well for the person I tested it on, but obviously I can’t share any info about that because it would ruin the surprise if she reads this post. SO, I decided to imagine I was a girl (wasn’t that hard…) and try it on myself. This is what AHF came up with -

I’ll analyse the results one by one -

Vintage 1950s prom dress – Girl Stu would totally wear this, and she’d look way hot in it.
Aston Martin driving experience – I would drive the shit out of those cars. After buying some Louis Vuitton driving gloves.
Salsa Dancing Workshop – My dancing would be so dirty the rest of the class would need a shower afterwards. So in.
Handwoven Ayla Throw – The only people who like throws more than me are 74 year old women and tiny, shivery chihuahuas.
Hunter Wellies – Already own these. Could use another pair.
Pugs Might Fly Wall Art – PUGS MIGHT FLY. You know I love me some puns.
Rian Tartan Cloth Backpack – I’m kinda tempted by this even without the hypothetical sex change.
Ugg EarMuff Headphones – I’d definitely be the type of girl that gets cold ears. These are massively adorable.

gift-present-friend-terrible-thank-you-thanks-ecards-someecards

The person I’m worst at buying presents for? Myself. When people ask me what I want for Christmas or my birthday, my answer is inevitably a mumble or a shrug. To find eight items that I actually like (i.e. the above), even a little bit, in one go is a MASSIVE achievement. Which leads me to believe that the site is definitely onto something.

It’s less than a week until Christmas Day. Terrifying, right? Well, for the first time ever, I’m not scared. If you haven’t got presents sorted for everyone yet, I recommend you check out AHF!

Disclaimer – The team from Ask Her Friends sent me that vintage prom dress. I’m not sure I have the legs for it. But srsly, I was compensated. Less than that woman from the Ocean Finance advert with the Lego fringe though.

13 December, 2012

Modern/Love

Have you ever fallen in love online? I did once. Or at least I thought I did. I spent the summer of 2007 spending an inordinate amount of time talking to a girl on Facebook who I had met, of all places, through a DC Comics forum. She loved Black Canary almost as much as I loved Green Arrow and, when it comes to comic book geek dating, that’s pretty much as perfect a match up as you’re ever going to find.

Despite the fact that we lived in the same city, it took us a couple of months to meet. I have no doubt that, even though we used how ‘busy’ we were as an excuse, it took both of us precisely that long to work up the courage to put a face and a voice to a lot of words that seemed to dictate that we were meant for each other. Finally, we met at a club night hosted by Simian Mobile Disco. We kissed and drank too much and fooled around and did other stuff that teenagers who spend too much of their young adult life indoors do.

It didn’t last, obviously. And I stopped reading Green Lantern for a while. (A year.)

Why have I just told you the above? Well, many of them emails I receive about sponsored posts are wildly irrelevant and make me feel like a sellout for even considering posting them. But occasionally, and only very occasionally, I receive an email about a project that resonates with me so much I’d probably write about it for free. Just…don’t tell them that.

Four Stories is a project by W Hotels and Intel in association with Roman Coppola (son of Francis Ford, brother of Sofia and perhaps, until recently, one of the lesser known Coppolas) that resulted in the production of four short films. Of those four, I was most taken with Modern/Love. Aside from the obvious chord it struck with me based on what’s written above, I also instantly fell in love with the soundtrack. If you’re already wondering what that soaring ‘kinda like MGMT but more indie’ anthem in the middle of the video is the answer is How to Disappear by Thomas Azier, and you can download it free here. You’re welcome.

More than that, though, I like all the thing that the film says between the lines about life online. It’s easy to forget that those men on Pinterest with immaculately groomed moustaches (that can, at least in the world of Modern/Love, sprout in a matter of hours) and wearing tweed in a Ryan Gosling-y kinda way aren’t always holding puppies, don’t always have good hair days and are starting to look their age in bad lighting. Likewise, those girls on Facebook (well, they had to go somewhere after Myspace died…) who seem to have all the cleavage in the world and claim to have liked that band you love since before everyone else did are probably just wearing a really good bra and breathing in while someone takes their photo. And they probably only actually heard of them after Crisis. (Alexisonfire joke, skip it.)

The message of Modern/Love is perhaps that while the modern world facilitates the telling of all sorts of stories, it can also lead to putting things on hold (sometimes indefinitely) and creating scenarios so idealised that the real world can never match up to them. I think fate, happenstance and random encounters will always be what really makes the world turn. People always say that ‘you should never meet your heroes.’ Well, I say you should always meet your Twitter friends. The sooner the better. That way you can find out if they have a really annoying voice before you start crushing on them.

_ _ _

If you want to find out more about Modern/Love, head here.

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, yes, this is a sponsored post. Big whup, wanna fight about it?

11 December, 2012

A Night With Jack Daniel’s…

Last week I turned 25. I didn’t take it well – I spent much of the week muttering about how I’m less than halfway to death, but more than a third. But then the Universe threw me a bone. In a case of perfect timing, I was invited to a VIP (don’t ask me when I became a VIP, I don’t even know when I became an IP) party hosted by Jack Daniel’s. ON MY BIRTHDAY. I don’t know about the rest of you, but Jack Daniel’s was my go-to drink of choice when I was 15 (or 18 if my mum is reading this). As I got older, the grandiose notion came into my head that I should branch out and become a whiskey connoisseur. Another of my grandiose notions was learning to spell the word connoisseur.

So, I started working my way through the whiskey selections at local bars and supermarkets – Canadian Club, Jim Beam, Seagram’s, Jameson’s, Maker’s Mark, Knob Creek (prompting massive lolz when I was still a teenager…) to name a few. But I was never able to settle on ‘the whiskey’. That is, until a few years ago. I’d nonchalantly asked for a whiskey and Coke while, no doubt, trying to charm some girl. What the bartender handed me can only be described as ambrosia…or maybe that was the girl’s name. I asked him what whiskey I was drinking. His answer? Jack Daniel’s. I felt like one of those movie characters who chases after some snotty girl for years, only to realise that his next door neighbour (probably played by Anne Hathaway) was the love of his life all along.

Anyway, back to the party. After the Christmas tree made of Jack Daniel’s barrels, pictured above, was erected for the first time outside of Lynchburg, Tennessee it was time to drink. And drink we did. But as well as drinking, I also spoke to Randy ‘Goose’ Baxter, Phil ‘Weejie’ Whitaker and Mark Lonardo about the cult of Jack Daniel’s.

You might think that the use of the word ‘cult’ above is an exaggeration. Trust me, it’s not. Fans, many of them decked head to toe in Jack Daniel’s merchandise and some even proudly bearing JD tattoos, had come from all over to meet the Lynchburg three. Most of them also asked for photos with the guys and to have their bottles autographed by them. I asked Goose if any of this came as a surprise to them. ‘I have to say…not really,’ he replied coolly. ‘Lynchburg is a town of 361 people that receives 280,000 visitors every year. We’ve come to realise that a lot of people think we’re a pretty big deal.’ Weejie, who spends much of his time tasting batches of Jack Daniel’s, modestly added the following – ‘We realise we’ve got something pretty good here. Now we have just have to make sure we don’t mess it up…’ Unfortunately, he wasn’t all that interested in doing a job swap with me.

I also asked about how JD deal with transitioning between being a brand favoured by people like Frank Sinatra and hard rock legends to Ke$ha, Rita Ora and One Direction. The answer was that they…well, don’t. Although they’re aware that a huge range of different artists, writers and drinkers are JD fans, they never let it affect their overall image or their ethos. It’s perhaps worth pointing out that JD have used the same agency since they started advertising, and rarely change their messaging. Over the years, countless brands have claimed that they are more than just a product and that they’re ‘a lifestyle’. I get the impression that Jack Daniel’s are too humble to ever make such a claim, yet they’re probably most deserving of it.

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Disclaimer – The team from Ask Her Friends sent me that vintage prom dress. I’m not sure I have the legs for it. But srsly, I was compensated. Less than that woman from the Ocean Finance advert with the Lego fringe though.

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Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, yes, this is a sponsored post. Big whup, wanna fight about it?

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