Happy Birthday to my Mum! XX

So, what's the above picture of me at a 'brand camp' with young marketing students got to do with my mother and her birthday today (Jan 31st, NZ time)?

Well, I guess it's all about reflecting on all the things she's 'taught' me.

And how, on this day, I think about how lucky I am because of everything she does and has done for me to bring me to a point in my life where I'm in an office in New York City teaching young students about how creativity and creative thinking can connect people.

My Mum's special in so many, many ways.

And as inadequate as this blog post is to pay her a little tribute (she'll also likely be somewhat embarrassed) I did want her to know that she means so much to me.

'Cos that's how I look at birthdays these days. A chance to pause and reflect on the impact a person has made on your life. (This is even more true when you've faced life-threatening illness.)

Birthdays are certainly not about 'what present can I grab from a department store' or 'shall I mail a quick pun-filled card?'.

Conversely, you think about all the gifts the birthday boy/girl has given you throughout your life and how important it is to take those gifts and commit to do everything you can to put them to good use every day to help inspire, motivate, excite, drive, challenge and nurture others.

Which is just what I'm trying to do.

Every day.

A bigger, real-life game of pass-the-parcel.

Happy Birthday, Mum!

Love

Your wee boy

Philip

The perfect pick-me-upper

Was in my local deli at lunchtime today and spied this new drink in the cooler.

It's called Synergy: some tasty Kombucha tea brewage.

It's going to be an acquired taste. But I'm up for it. It's bliss for the insides.

Am guzzling on a bottle right now. While listening to The Notorious B.I.G.

The perfect mix.

Pee

Why the empty carriage?

Today was Martin Luther King Day here in the US and A.

For most, a public holiday.

But I had to head into the office to play catch-up post vacation.

Even though most were taking the day off, the 6.10pm train from Grand Central to Larchmont was still packed.

Apart from one carriage. "Bloody great!", I thought.

I jumped on board and quickly realized why it was so empty - a busted bog. Yep, it was a toilet carriage. And the said porcelain was fully packed and off the rails.

Bless the cutbacks that the MTA has made.

Pee

A military style tattoo

Last week while on vacation in Orlando I popped into Hart & Huntington - a streetwear-come-tattoo-parlor owned by Carey Hart (the freestyle moto-x champion who's married to Pink).

Bagged some top new threads and even contemplated getting some new ink work done on my left arm.

Decided to save that for Lower East Ink here in Manhattan next month.

Pee

Nowhere men

Everyone knows I'm a massive John Lennon fan.

In my mind he was one of the most remarkably creative, witty, sharp, curious, insightful and focused artists the world's known.

As a little tribute to his New York years, I struck a similar pose on my new Jack Morton business cards.

Pee

Sweep the leg and slide the fret

When I was learning guitar I devoured the 'Crossroads' movie and accompanying soundtrack.

One of the world's mightiest axemen, Steve Vai, had a starring role (as did his Charvel San Dimas guitar). It was great to air guitar along to Steve's pyrotechnic fingerwork, hoping that one day you'd be able to get at least one-thousandth as good.

As for Karate Kid, Ralph Macchio, who took the lead role, well he was even more motivational. He had never played guitar before he shot this flick, so clearly, with intensive training, anything was possible for a newbie strummer.

Check out this battle for proof of the goodness that this oft-overlooked cinema classic served up.

Pee

Femmes fatale

Everyone knows this album. It's arguably the Violent Femmes at their mightiest.

I've come to love this 'record' more over time, but in 1985 when the guys at school used to have it on high rotation in the prefect study I wasn't really such a fan.

Pretending to love 'Blister In The Sun' more than life itself, I was secretly a much bigger fan of Phil Collins, Duran Duran, Madonna, Spandau Ballet, Sting, Cyndi Lauper, Falco, Howard Jones and Simple Minds.

But it wasn't cool to say you liked that 'pop' stuff.

So I lapped up the Femmes, The The, Talk Talk and the Hoodoo Gurus (and all the indie stuff that the cool guys rocked).

Glad the 'peer pressure' tuned me in, though, 'cos these artists have given me so much joy in the years since.

That said, is there a better track than Simple Minds' 'Alive & Kicking'?

"Who is gonna come and turn the tide? What's it gonna take to make a dream survive?"

Pee

Michelle Johnson as your first dirty crush

That's her at left in the picture above, cooking in her underwear, while a young Demi Moore demurely covers up in an over-sized dress shirt alongside.

This still is taken from a 1984 rom-com (soft porn) flick called 'Blame It On Rio'.

It's largely famous for the fact that Michelle Johnson appeared ever-so-briefly in a full frontal shot (she was only 17 at the time).

I used to daydream about Michelle, what with her quirky, life-loving perkiness and her equally perky . . .

That's all. Thought I'd share.

Pee

Three confessions (a little late, though)

I was talking to a friend about bizarre things we did as children.

Things that were a little out of character and kinda unexplainable.

In a session much like Bender, Brian, Allison, Claire and Andrew held during The Breakfast Club, we shared oddities.

My top three:

1. My grandparents (Ma and Pa) gave me a cool remote control racing car when they returned from Norfolk Island and I took it to school, pulled it to pieces and sold off the parts
2. To avoid a class we didn't like, Tim Jones, Campbell Singer and I hid inside bright yellow school patrol jackets in the cloak room and had our teacher freak out in a 'missing children' panic
3. A classmate, Stephen Hands, had a Deputy Dawg TV annual I wanted so I stole it from him and scribbled his name out of the inside front cover and wrote my own one in its place (I have it in my pop culture collection to this day)

I have no explanation for why I did any of this.

None whatsoever.

Pee

It had my number on it

In the late 80s I worked in a hotel restaurant and given the number of hours I pulled down I managed to splash cash on the latest threads. And believe it or not, Wellington was one of the first places in the world to open a then-very-hot Benetton store.

Given my taste for breaking fashion, I picked up a Benetton blue and white rugby jersey for an outrageous sum (at right in the above picture and as made popular by John Taylor from Duran Duran).

It remains one of the most-loved items I've ever worn. Sadly, I lost it at a party in Raumati in the early Nineties.

I wonder if it's still in the back of somebody's closet?

Pee