nate update

Hey friends, if you know me personally, you probably know my summer has been a total zoo. (If I cash in all the “Rain Checks” I have issued, I’m going to be out of the house until Christmas!) I recently became a father, remodeled a home, moved my family  into it, and turned my old home into a rental – all while working full time with no vacation time and the amount of sleep you’d expect with a 5 month old in ‘da house. All that said, Project Dinner Table is a can’t miss event in Las Vegas. I wrote about it earlier this summer here. Be sure to visit the official PDT site – check it for schedules, pictures, menus, videos and – no brainer – to buy your tickets!

Below, I’d like to share some photos from the last Las Vegas dinner event held in front of the El Cortez in one of my favorite places – Downtown Las Vegas, where it’s as funky as it is fun. Coincidentally, the next Project Dinner Table Event will be held only a few short blocks away, at the Historic 5th Street School – a truly cool space that really gets what it means to contribute to building culture in Las Vegas. From AIGA to The Vegas Valley Book Fair – each time a creative group needs a venue, Richard Hooker and the good people at the 5th Street School have their hands up willing to help.  I hope to see you there on September 11th. I’ll be the guy with the camera

I’m extending a special invitation to the Las Vegas Creative Community about this event because I think its very important that Vegas steps it up a notch. In order to step up our game, we need to see what’s going on in creative communities globally. The days of picking up a publication and expecting design inspiration are soooo 1990s.

This is the official event information. I hope you’ll attend.

Order tickets via Eventbrite:
http://chineseexchangelv-efbevent.eventbrite.com/

Ni hao!

…An exhibition and idea exchange
with 30 design ambassadors

Spend an amazing transglobal
evening socializing, exchanging ideas and crossing cultures. Thirty Chinese
graphic design professionals exhibit their latest work in advertising,
packaging, book design, posters, photography and contemporary Chinese
calligraphy.It’s a true cultural
exchange where we’ll share the flavor of Fabulous Las Vegas with our visitors,
while getting a glimpse into the design sensibilities of their vast and
fast-developing market.

Las Vegas is distinguished to be one of only four U.S.
cities on the 11-day tour that also includes Washington, D.C., San Francisco
and San Diego.

Hosted by the Center for CrossCultural Design, which fosters greater communication between designers across cultures, and a better understanding of the interwoven experience of design and culture.

EVENT PRESENTERS

City of Las Vegas

Center for
CrossCultural Design

Colors of Lupus Nevada

Las Vegas Chinese Association

Las Vegas-Clark
County Library Foundation

EVENT PARTNERS

AIGA Las Vegas

International Association of Business Communicators

Las Vegas Cultural Corridor Coalition

The Neon Museum Las Vegas

Studio J Photography

EVENT SUPPORTERS

American Advertising Federation

Association of Students in Communication, UNLV

Student Association of Graphic Arts, UNLV

Produced by eurie creative

Watch for new Event Partner and Event Support listings as additional sponsors come on board

For information about being
an event partner, contact Victor at victor@euriecreative.com,
or call him at 702-383-9805.

Here in Las Vegas, design means commerce. Here’s a testimonial that says this is not always the case.

For the 2nd year in a row, I’m designing shirts for a memorial bike rally honoring a family who recently lost 2 brothers (husbands, fathers, friends) in Nebraska and Wyoming, near my hometown. Long-time friends of my family as a kid, and good guys to have a cold one or catch a concert with. And, for the 2nd year in a row, I’m feeling lucky as hell that I can contribute to the event. Today I received photos of the last event and it really hit home, especially now that I’m a father.

I’m reminded of a song by Rancid called Indestructible. The jist of it is that as an artist, you can live forever – indestructible – through your art. I get it. You can, without a doubt. Another way to be indestructible is to be a good friend, a father, a brother, a mother, a sister and leave your mark on things through helping other people and causes. That’s what these types of projects are about. Try getting this kind of emotion, longevity and gratification from a routine paycheck. Fat chance.

If you work in social media like I do, you probably see a lot of tweets, blogs, emails, mobile messages and status updates. We probably read more updates in a week than most people see in a year. Here’s six things I am seeing more and more often, and its kind of disturbing:

1. Wannabe media outlets - If you get your “BREAKING NEWS:” tweets from a fish bait shop or a seamstress, please be skeptical.

2. Google update – fed auto blog posts and auto tweets. Seriously?! You are the equivalent to roadside litter. (Forgive me for this: “Twitter Litter.”) Do you want to read a blog post from someone who never took one second to type even one letter?

3. twitter spammers - If you see a tweet from a profile with an account with a default avatar, 5078 followers that’s following 0, it’s most likely a bullshit account. In fact, I think twitter should restrict users with no avatar. Like, no RT function and a cap on followers until you enter a Captcha word. Or – better yet, make us users enter a captcha word at random sometimes. Like a DUI checkpoint, kinda.

4. facebook event update madness. I have said for a long time that facebook should overhaul their events functions. Again, more captcha, please. I’d love to see more targeting and less “Update All Fans” – but that would be a conflict for facebook, as they rely on event ads for revenue. Investing in more customization in free features probably goes against their bottom line.

5. Everyone’s an expert. The majority of SM experts are really sharp and I appreciate the hell out of them, but some aren’t practicing what they preach. Reduntant tweets for the same blog post? Isn’t this the same as sending me repeat email blasts? What about those who preach authenticity, yet schedule and cross-post (see #6) their tweets, sometimes 20 at a time?

6. Duplicate posts across networks. Some of my friends do this and it drives me kinda crazy. Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter = all different animals with different uses. Mix it up a little, if you must cross-post. Honestly, when are people going to accept that LinkedIn is a virtual resumé. Would you attach a sheet of typed out tweets to your resumé? I didn’t think so.

What’s the most annoying new trend you’re seeing in Social Media, as the industry evolves?

I had the pleasure of shooting photos of the 3rd Las Vegas Event for Project Dinner Table. It’s a great event put together by really cool people – benefiting great causes, too. You can learn all about it – and buy tickets to the next one on their website here: http://www.projectdinnertable.com/

The PDT site does a really nice job of getting you the important information, so I’ll keep this post geared to my photographer friends & family. This assignment was a challenge! I shot it with two Digital SLRs, a Canon 5D Mk II with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, and my backup camera, a Canon 20D with an 11-18mm lens for the wide stuff. Hey, it was a LONG table! I swapped out and used a 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens toward the end of the evening, too. The calculation with the smaller sensor makes it an even longer zoom than 200mm.

The most challenging part of this assignment was to get shots quickly – especially the chefs preparing the food – then, jump out to the dinner to see guests enjoying the meal – and be careful not to miss any of the fun activites like the 7th inning stretch poety reading, the presentations, or the singing of the national anthem. There were even some action shots of guests tossing the ball around the diamond!

It’s been a while since I shot events – I used to hate it because I was changing batteries all night with shoe mount flash units, that I didn’t ever really jive with. Now, with the advent of higher ISO settings, I can capture much more color in much lower light.  Not to mention have a LOT more fun!

Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I did taking them. Cheers!

Live, Raw and Hilarious – Feel The Steel! This show was a photographer’s dream. I interviewd frontman Michael Starr for the Station Casinos Blog recently. What a kick in the pants. Great show, too. Let’s wish them luck landing a show on Comedy Central. I’d watch it. Well, I’d Tivo it. Links to the 2-part interview are below the flickr slideshow below.

Interview: Return of Steel Panther – Part One

Interview: Return of Steel Panther – Part Two

If you consider yourself a rock music fan – you should treat yourself to a Sinners show. They do tribute tunes and originals. I saw them cover Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction a while back – and I was hooked.  I have seen them at Ovation at Green Valley Ranch, as well as Club Madrid at Sunset Station. Both are awesome places to catch a great free concert. I’m not just saying that because I work for Station Casinos, either. In fact, you can catch the Sinners with Nawgahyde (don’t miss those whacky rockers, either) opening for Great White at the end of July at Sunset Station.

Here’s a review I wrote of the GNR show at GVR last November.

Moving some stuff around on the host. Hang tight and this site should be back in action in a day or two.

Thanks for stopping by. Hit me up on twitter (@natevegas) if it’s urgent.

Nate

Here’s some events I’m looking forward to attending in Las Vegas (and/or working with). I hope to see you at some of the shows. Come introduce yourself if you see me there.

Saturday,  June 12 (today) REGGAE IN THE DESERT. This is an annual thing for my wife and I. Great food, very chill afternoon and evening on the lawn with some of the best touring reggae bands you can find.

Friday, June 18th: Sin City Sinners first show as resident Friday night band inside Club Madrid at Sunset Station. (Full disclosure: I work for Stations Web Marketing, but this isn’t a sales pitch – I can’t, it’s a free show!)  The Sinners bring a rock-legend-guest to almost every show, and always have a great set in store. I’ll be shooting the show for fun (and for work). Did I mention there’s no cover?

Saturday, June 19th: Steel Panther returns to Green Valley Ranch’s Ovation. I’ll be shooting this show as well. And don’t miss the interview on the Stations blog coming up this week. It’s pretty funny.  They’re in the new Bud Light commercial about the haircut as an excuse to throw a party.

That’s it for this week. Watch for the photos the following week.  I’ll try to keep these updates coming if you like it. Again, hope to see you at the shows!

What year is it again?

Like Peter Griffin once said so eloquently on Family Guy: “You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?”

Phone books.

Does anyone else think it’s monumentally hypocritical that this giant yellow PLASTIC bag with recycling logos all over it contains a heavy block of paper that will never see the light of day is back on your doorstep?

Dear Yellowbook:

Wanna save some money? Make your product-of-yesteryear OPT-IN, instead of OPT-OUT. I have opted out of every one of these darn things for the last few years, and I keep getting them from Sprint, Embarq, CenturyLink, Yellowbook, etc. Seemingly every month or two! Do you really think that guy you’re paying more minimum than minimum wage gives a crap if I opted out of this travesty? Doubt it. He just wants his beer money and to get on with the weekend, I’d guess. He probably doesn’t care about the karma of slaughtering acres and acres of woodland for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Apparently, neither do you.

Thanks,

The people of 2010

P.S. Whatever smoke you’re blowing up your advertisers butts about impressions… Yeah, probably also not so good in the karma dept.

Click here to OPT yourself OUT of Yellowbook, like I just did.