There are so many possible stories to come out of the weekend in Pittsburgh at CMU with Deeplocal and Toyota for the Ideas For Good project. There are the ones in press kits, the ones marketing/pr folks go through the motions of giving you info for, and then the best ones - the one’s you discover BEING THERE. Forgive the rant, but this one’s been long over due and i just wanted to clear the air.

PRESS TRIPS. Yes, they pay for airfare, hotel, food, essentially babysitting you from door to door. Have they BOUGHT a post? Certainly not. Not even close. In fact it could be more dangerous bringing people RIGHT into the mix of an event, what if it all goes wrong? What if they find out more than you are ready to share? Do some people see it like a “free trip”? Sure. But honestly, that’s not how i see them here on NOTCOT, because lets face it… If i wanted a “free trip” i could fly somewhere and feed myself and NOT work. An amazing press trip is more like being invited and escorted to the party you were scheming about crashing. It’s about getting an opportunity to get right in to the thick of it and EXPERIENCE something that few will ever get to. And then the real responsibility comes in sharing what YOU find noteworthy about the experience ~ your words, your pictures, your angle. Afterall, if they could just BUY a story, isn’t a lot cheaper just to throw some cash around and a prewritten story and pics?

So, this is just a little ramble for all the people i’ve run across in real life lately ~ outside of these experiences ~ who asked the simple (and totally reasonable question) of WHY do these brands and groups fly you all over the world to write about them? And i’d like to think the answer is because they LOVE you guys (the NOTCOT readers) and trust me enough to come along on their ride to find the fun and unexpected to share and inspire us!

Also, on NOTCOT philosophies on press trips and products that come through ~ the overarching question is never was it “free” (hate to break it to you, but nothing is free) ~ the first question is always “IS IT AWESOME?” and second is “Would I write about it regardless of whether i purchased it/went on my own?” And the third test - was it as amazing as i’d hoped in person? If it passes these three tests, you’ll probably be hearing about it here. The ones who don’t… we can quietly ignore. And if you have more questions on the subject, feel free to leave a note below!

Ok ~ now on to the firetruck. My inner 5 year old is back in full force ~ though the fireman Gary didn’t quite let me climb around on the ladder while extended, it was still a blast getting to wander around and take pics from the TELE-SQURT (awesome name in great typography!)… go see the pics on the next page, they make me happy. Also, how awesome is watching Slim Pictures at work? They were like the secret stars of the show… can’t wait to see all they’ve been hard at work capturing in all of my pics this weekend! SO, for now ~ Firetruck! Next page…

TO PAGE 2 of "On Press Trips + Fire Trucks"! ----->

Tags: deeplocal - fire - toyota - truck

NOTCOT Field Trip? Posted The Grilled Cheese Truck earlier this week on NOTCOT.org, and when we noticed it was going to be on this side of town for lunch, simply had to pop out to see what all the commotion was about. (Also, i have a soft spot for grilled cheese... and their logo reminds me of The Magic School Bus... i half expected to see Ms. Frizzle pop out to take us on a cheesy adventure)... With website, twitter, and facebook page (like many of these social media savvy specialty lunch trucks) the updates were constant as their precise location kept changing down to the minute, and we finally found them at the Los Angeles Fine Arts & Wine Storage Company parking lot, only half an hour into it and quite the line had already formed, inescapable scent of delicious greasy cheesiness omnipresent. Even CBS news was there tasting and shooting away... With a mix of your classic grilled cheeses, to your gourmet grilled cheese (add in mac+cheese, bacon, avocado, bbq pork and more) ~ and even dessert options (marshmallows, nutella, bananas) ~ as well as tomato soup shots and more ~ it was hard to choose! As with all of these specialty twitter happy lunch trucks, the lines are long, ordering seems to be the bottleneck, and it seems best to meet up with a bunch of friends to hang out with in line... also, go early! Because depending on zoning/landlord regulations, they can usually only stay put for a limited amount of time, so not everyone will get fed! So take a peek at more pics of both the truck and the food ~ this is the first time i've peeked INSIDE the truck! And since it took quite a while to get the food, and i promised to get Linhchi back to her house by 1:40, we shot the food pics in the car (sometimes at red lights)...

p.s.
was reading up last night on this Lunch Truck Phenomenon that seems to be sweeping the nation lately ~ some fun resources to note: Find LA Food Trucks and California Taco Trucks (run by dan's old boyscout friend, Cyrus Farivar!)

p.p.s.
While fun and amusing ~ i think overall, if i'm going to spend an hour+ at lunch with friends, i'd rather do the sit down thing ~ but good times, and a fun chance to catch up with some old friends!

p.p.p.s.
From an im conversation right now, we've decided that when the process of getting the food and hanging out with friends is a lot of the fun... where is our champagne and oysters truck?

TO PAGE 2 of "The Grilled Cheese Truck LA"! ----->

Tags: food - los angeles - truck

As if you don't already think i'm strange enough ~ that NY trip for design week, which branched off into a roadtrip up to play in the woods in vermont... has been extended a few more days, and from vermont, we kind of decided to spontaneously drive down to Earlysville, Virginia... which is where i'm now posting from! If there's one thing i've learned/realized during this little random adventure, it's that for me, inspiring design details pop up nearly everywhere everyday in my life, and whether that's at ICFF or while driving for 10+ hours straight down New England... design is omnipresent, and what really keeps me going.

On that note, my silly exciting find of the day yesterday was after about 8-9 hours of straight driving, stuck in INSANE traffic in NY that was moving at about 20 mph for over 2 hours, and i found myself staring at large semis and their various mud flaps and signage and the typography on them... and then i saw it. Mudflaps with FLYING MOOSE! Forget unicorns and pegasuses... flying moose! I forced dan to try and take a pic of it with his iphone (which i will have to bother him later to get it off)... the one we saw was like the one in the bottom left, it seemed friendlier than what appears to be the newer version on their site now.

So continuing on the Jackalope theme of north american mythological creatures... we sat in traffic discussing the idea of flying moose, and then reading up on the background of the Manac Trucking/Trailer Manufacturer which had this awesome creature as their logo. Turns out that this magnificent creature comes from a native american legend! Very cute tale, read it on the next page, and also see a picture i found of the statue of the Manac flying moose logo!

TO PAGE 2 of "Manac Flying Moose Mud Flap"! ----->

Tags: animals - logo - nature - travel - truck