Alexandre Wall

Mad Men Season Premiere Confession

I was invited to attend a Mad Men season premiere party — fully themed, mind you — this evening, but I felt a little disingenuine accepting the invitation because I’ve never seen a single moment of it. (I ended up not going. I suffered a brutal sunburn and I am homebound as penance.)

That’s right. Even though I co-founded Avant, a thriving ad agency, adore all things vintage and retro, and happen to already love the sound of Jon Hamm’s voice, I’ve never seen Mad Men at all, not even a commercial. Why? Well, I don’t watch a whole lot of TV to begin with, and I tend to eschew getting “in” to shows because as soon as I do, they get cancelled.

Case in point:

  • Firefly
  • The Sarah Connor Chronicles
  • The Cape
  • Dirt
  • The Riches
  • Normal, Ohio
  • pretty much anything else that Alex likes.

In this way, it’s more of an act of sacrificial kindness when I don’t watch a show, especially the good ones. I believe that many shows I don’t watch are actually fantastic, and in order for the world to keep on enjoying them, I’ve got to go without. And I accept that as my burden and contribution to society.

But, just this once, I’m going to risk it. I think that Don Draper can hold his own against the network gremlins who have been kicking my favorite shows off the air for the past 10 years.

Don Draper of Mad Men works on Madison Avenue

Don Draper of Mad Men works on Madison Avenue (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So, I’ve decided to start watching the show and to blog/narrate through it. This will be an off-to-the-side, occasional sort of thing that will hopefully get me in the habit of blogging more often, introduce me to a new show that I may dearly love or hate like fire, and give me something to on Sunday nights that is slightly more productive than my current routine of booze & cartoons.

You may be wondering: will I be watching tonight’s Mad Men season premiere? Probably not, actually. I don’t want to start reading a book at the beginning of the 5th chapter, nor do I want to start watching a show at the opening of the 5th season. In fact, I’m going to try to avoid reading or even speaking about Mad Men, to the extent that it’s possible to do so for someone who works in the industry and spends way too much time on social network platforms.

I’m going to get a couple of hours worth of “real work” done before I undertake my first dalliance with the show, but bookmark the site or subscribe to my RSS feed and keep up with my commentary.

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March 25 / 2012
Author Alexandre Wall
Category Life
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Ogilvy Notes creates visual summaries of SXSW 2012 Conferences

Ogilvy Notes about Star Wars panel

Ogilvy Notes about Star Wars panel (Photo credit: Bibi)

Ogilvy & Mather partnered with the Behance Network to create Ogilvy Notes in 2011 to visually summarize some of the major panels at SXSW 2011. This year, Ogilvy decided to make a habit out of it and launched a website – http://ogilvynotes.com – to catalog these on-the-spot infographics.

The artists listen to a panel or presentation and fill a white board of illustrations that visualize the main themes and points of the talk. I noticed that Amber Case outpaced her artist for the first 15 minutes or so of her talk, spinning new ideas more quickly than they could be sketched on the board.

You’ll also find the boards from SXSW 2011 and the 99-percent Conference (which takes on a peculiar green and pink theme.)

Although spending 5-10 minutes studying one of these maps is not enough to replace actually attending a talk, it is enough to jog your memory and chart you back through some details and motifs that may have become fuzzy over time.

 

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March 19 / 2012
Author Alexandre Wall
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SXSW and other rad stuff

I’m starting to realize why I don’t keep a blog. My life moves a little too quickly to keep up with one.

So, I’ll do bullet points, because bullet points are rad:

  • AWP was, in a word, amazing! I met Phillip Levine, Carol Ann Duffy, Rebecca Skloot, and Margaret Atwood (who, incidentally, noticed that my fly was down. Fantastic.)
  • After that, I headed up to New York for a quick weekend of fun with some old friends, and ended up discovering a whole slew of secret bars.
  • Finally, I went to SXSW, met a start-up from London who took me with them on their party bus, got thrown out of the Mashable party, met Guy Kawasaki, Amber Case, and the hacker geohot, and generally had a fantastic time.

I returned from Austin just a couple of days ago, and while I’m in recovery, I’m already planning my next adventure. I’ll probably be heading up to Boston to check in with the literary press that I’ve been speaking with, or maybe to Houston to check on my new startup e-commerce company, or perhaps to London for an early birthday bash.

I try to live by the Facebook mantra, as much as I loathe Facebook — move fast and break things.

Here’s a photo from Austin with my hip Londoners.

March 15 / 2012
Author Alexandre Wall
Category Life
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AWP Conference 2012 in Chicago, IL

Chicago Skyline AWP Conference 2012

Chicago Skyline 2008 (Photo credit: TomC)

Yes, it’s that time of the year again. The Association of Writers and Writer’s Programs is holding its annual conference in the original Windy City, Chicago, Illinois – AKA the AWP Conference 2012. The conference, its corresponding book fair, and a number of off site events represent the largest annual gathering of writers and readers in the country.

In years past, I have been unable to attend for a number of reasons, so I’ll be one of hundreds of AWP newbies. Fortunately, I’ll be traveling with a colleague from UCF, Ashley Inguanta , who is as wild about travel, adventure, and the art of the word as I am.

I’ll likely spend the flight to Chicago rounding out my schedule, which is sure to include Margaret Atwood’s keynote and a tribute reception for Jeanne Leiby, a talented fiction writer and much-beloved editor of The Southern Review who lost her life in April of 2011.

Stay tuned on Twitter, where I’ll be tweeting regular updates on AWP Conference 2012 under the hashtag #AWP12.

As an aside, I am not only thrilled to reconvene with some of my colleagues from across the country, but also delighted that I’ll be able to see my dear friend Alex Weisman perform in the world premiere “The Houdini Box” — a play written by Brian Selznick, the author of “Hugo,” the Martin Scorsese film that just swept the Oscars. Alex and I met in debate and he was my prom date when my girlfriend’s parents disallowed her from going with me. My family and I are ecstatic for his success I can’t wait to see him. If you’re going to be at AWP, I highly recommend catching this show at the Mercury Theater.

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February 29 / 2012
Author Alexandre Wall
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The beginning of Break Through

Almost two years ago, I was asked by a student director at UCF to write the script for an experimental LGBT production. The project was scheduled as tentative and while it hung in the air, I moved on to other projects and all but forgot about it entirely.

Then in September 2010, while I was out working in Los Angeles, CA, I learned about the suicides of Seth Walsh, Asher Brown, Tyler Clementi, and other gay and lesbian teenagers.

As a knee jerk reaction, I spoke with a small team of students and work began on the script for what would become “Break Through.” It debuted at the UCF Conservatory Theater and continues to tour. The Orlando Sentinel described it as both “poignant and funny.”

The book will be published later this year. You can sign up here to receive information on how to get a free copy.

Here’s the trailer:

If you’d like more information about Break Through, you can follow the updates here.

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February 17 / 2012
Author Alexandre Wall
Category Literature
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Featured at Zocalo: “I Stopped Hating Florida Long Ago”

The fantastic cultural institution, Zocalo Public Square, invited me to write a piece for their “Beyond the Circus: Life Off the Presidential Campaign Trail” series, an opportunity that both honored and delighted me.

A longstanding dress code of flip-flops is silently enforced by the locals, and grizzled sailors sling back glasses of Old Crow at Sloppy Joe’s, Hemingway’s favorite Key West haunt.

Florida sunset!

Florida sunset! (Photo credit: Odalaigh)

Writers from several of the early-voting primary states have been asked to write a piece that describes their personal relationship with the state in which they live – Florida, in my case – that can provide Zocalo’s national readership with a more in-depth look at the states we’ve been hearing so much political news about in mainstream media.

It was a privilege to write for Zocalo, which traditionally hosts speakers and writers of both national and international celebrity. I hope you’ll read the article and take the time to peruse their “living magazine” website, and if you’re ever out in the Los Angeles area, try to catch one of their public events. I attended one in September of 2010 and it was informative, memorable, and just downright fun.

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February 17 / 2012
Author Alexandre Wall
Category Literature
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