Cherry 

Best of the past week

Hey ,It was my birthday this week! I took the opportunity to go see a comedy show at Chicago's famous Second City with friends, I had an excellent and fun night of comedy skits and some improv too! I really enjoyed it and will be back to check out other shows soon.As I'm getting into a regular every other week schedule for my podcast, I published a birthday episode, in which I talk about my birthday and my submission for the Game Chef design competition:My Birthday and 2017 Game ChefWith another year gone by, and Facebook reminding of photos and events from years past, it's understandable I felt a little bit of nostalgia. Perhaps it's why this link caught my attention - even though I've never actually been to a roller disco with live organ music. Lovely story.

Welcome to the Moonlight Rollerway, Where Nothing has Changed since 1956

 Sprinkles What's the GIF? 

Happy birthday to me!

Whipped Cream

Honda just released this beautiful ad celebrating cinema styles and Honda cars:Honda Dream Makers (by Wieden+Kennedy advertising agency)Also to note, Comic Con San Diego's extravaganza is going on and a bunch of new TV and film and trailers are coming out. Here's an update with some of the best Cosplay seen by the guys at Gizomodo and io9:

All the Best Cosplay we spotted at San Diego Comic Con 2017, Day 2

Caramel Fudge

What's sticky in the communications industry?

For a different approach to the communications industry (than straight up business news) and a little bit of whimsical fun, an illustrator reimagined the classics mascots of a bunch of fast food chains as anime characters.Illustrator Reimagined Fast Food Mascots as Anime Characters, Now Everybody Wants to Read their MangaIt's interesting given how much I work with brands who want to believe people love them enough to be going out of their way to create things, such as these illustrations. However, anime probably doesn't figure in their brand guidelines, nor does featuring Ronald and Wendy together in the same illustration.Will people coming across these illustrations feel compelled to go visit their favourite fast food joint?Maybe?But then again it begs another of the favourite questions I discuss at work regularly: if people did, how would the brands know? And how much of the reason for the visit would you attribute to these illustrations compared with whatever other reasons and circumstances brought them there.

Chocolate

What's going on in gaming?

Given I live here now I pay some attention to links and titles mentioning Chicago while browsing around and came across this piece from a few months ago, about the video games history as well as current studios and community in Chicago. I had heard of and knew Midway Games were from the area, though didn't realise there's a really healthy and active game design community. It's an interesting read and certainly giving me new leads to investigate for potential guests for my podcast.How Chicago's Overlooked Video Game Creators Scored an Extra Life

Vanilla

What else is interesting this week?

Have you wondered about the prevalence of expensive avocado on toast on menus of an increasingly wider variety of restaurants in many cities? I did. And if you're like me, you might also enjoy this piece in the New Yorker, contributor Nathan Heller started asking some questions and also came up with some answers.A Grand Unified Theory of Avocado ToastI'll add this one, in case you're interested in perhaps, potentially, maybe fake news - yet still about ice cream. Apparently these two toddlers safely drove 17 miles to fetch some ice cream. I have a few doubts, tough it's kind of cute so I'm adding it here as well. The kind of doubtful news we've had for a long time, way before the Internet too. Toddlers left in Car Drive 17 Miles Without Accident to get Ice CreamThat's about it, enjoy the rest of your weekend! Please forward the email to a friend if you enjoyed reading it!Best,Willem