Author: richlevyfcb

What did you do during your holiday break?

richlevyfcb Family, Ramblings 4 Comments

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In case you’re interested I did the following (but not in this order):

  • Went skiing
  • Had drinks with friends (a few times)
  • Hosted New Years Eve
  • Played a lot of guitar
  • Hosted friends for the weekend
  • Helped teach someone to snowboard (keep in mind, I don’t snowboard)
  • Opened gifts
  • Ate a lot
  • Cooked a lot
  • Went out to dinner a few times
  • Slept
  • Played Madden 13 on both a Wii (which I know how to control) and an Xbox (which I don’t)
  • Opened Champagne
  • Harassed a 10 year old (It’s a long story)
  • Ate chocolate covered pretzels and cashews
  • Took pictures
  • Danced to 70’s disco classics
  • Entered a ‘dead pool’
  • Sent out holiday cards a week too late
  • Looked at work e-mail exactly 2 times

Things I didn’t do

  • Watch TV – I did not watch a single TV show over the break
  • Hurt myself skiing (which I do from time to time)
  • Do any impulse shopping
  • Look at FACEBOOK
  • Read a book (which is unusual for me)
  • Say “Boy, I wish I was at work today”
  • Have a guitar lesson
  • Go to the bagel store (which I do all the time)
  • Go to the hardware store
  • Fill up may car with gas

So that’s about it. I spent the past week doing a lot of nothing. Which is exactly what I needed. I’m looking forward to the new year.  Here’s to doing a lot of good stuff in 2013.

By the way – My new office has a view of the Empire State Building. I’ll post the view out my window from time to time.

R

01.02.13

Why I love doing what I do

richlevyfcb Advertising, Design 1 Comment

Recently, someone asked me if I miss ‘consumer’ advertising. He wondered if I missed the challenge of working on big brands with big budgets. I said, “no — I don’t miss it at all.” He seemed surprised. I guess he didn’t realize how much I love doing what I do.  He asked me why I loved it so much.

This is what I said (although not necessarily in this order):

I love when someone presents an idea and they can’t stop smiling. I love when you’re on the way to a client presentation and you know you’ve nailed the assignment. I love when someone reads a card that says ‘and the winner is Draftfcb Healthcare.’ I love when I’m surprised. I love when something that makes no sense suddenly makes perfect sense. I love when I care so much about an idea that I dream about it. I love when I’m interviewing someone and I can see they’d be a great fit for our team. I love that I miss my team when I’m away on vacation. I love watching people grow into new positions of responsibility. I love seeing the new faces. I love winning pitches. I love presenting in front of strangers.  I love when I get e-mail from Dana and it just says “Wheeeeeee!”  I love when someone tells me how much he or she loves a creative brief. I love when someone laughs so hard they do a spit take. I love when someone gets a new nickname. I love when it’s fun. I love when someone gets promoted. I love when in the middle of a meeting, someone makes an obscure movie reference and everyone knows exactly what he or she is talking about. I love when someone has an ‘ah-ha’ moment. I love it when my time sheets are up-to-date. I love it when it all comes together. I love it when it’s all a shit show. I love it when you think you’ll never come up with a solution. I love it when everything that comes out of your mouth sounds smart. I love it when things look darkest, you can find plenty of people to help you work it out.

And that’s when I realized it had nothing to do with ‘consumer’ advertising. It was that every day I have the good fortune to work with an incredibly talented group of people.  Thank you for everything you do. Have a happy holiday.

— Rich

Old Glory

richlevyfcb Family, Ramblings 1 Comment

July 4th brings back a flood of memories for me.

I was brought up in a very patriotic family. My father served in WWII and was a flag waving democrat. He cried when JFK died, woke us up when Bobby was shot and never understood all the fuss over Viet Nam.

And he loved the 4th of July.  This was America’s holiday. The flag went outside early and stayed out late. We had a very large, very old cloth American flag. It was proudly and properly rolled in our hallway closet. And on Memorial Day, Flag Day and especially Independence Day – my father would take great pride in unrolling it and placing it outside for all to see.

Growing up, we lived on a fairly main road. And when ever our town had a parade – it would pass right past our front door. For years, I proudly marched by my father’s side in our Memorial Day parade. I carried a flag in an Independence Day parade. And every year we would have a huge cookout in our back yard and the parade went past the front. And that giant old flag proudly waved in the summer breeze for all to see. This house is proud to be an American.

I’m sad to say, I don’t know what happened to that flag.

When my parents moved out of the house, the flag disappeared. Maybe it was too old and too tattered to be saved. Perhaps my father bought a new one. Perhaps it’s still in the house – being used by the new owners. But the flag is gone.

Now I have a flag. It’s new. It doesn’t have the same history. And it’s rolled up proudly in my front hall closet. I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t put it out yesterday. I don’t know why – I had plenty of time to do it. I think it’s because this flag doesn’t have the same history for me as the old one.  But that’s just an excuse. I think I have to change that thinking – and start some history of my own.

Next year – the flag goes up early and stays out late. It’s the least I can do for my father.

Happy July 4th.

Now, where was I ?

richlevyfcb Advertising, Family, Ramblings 2 Comments

A lot has happened since the last time I posted. I’ve been using the excuse that I’ve been too busy to write. The real reason is that I haven’t carved out the time to write. I control my schedule. But lately, I’ve been letting my schedule control me.  I’m changing that. So no more excuses.

Here’s some things that have happened since my last post.

• Most Creative Agency – I’m very proud of this award. Recently, our agency was named ‘Most Creative Agency’ by the leading magazine in our field. This was an incredible achievement and one that every member of the agency helped win. This was the third year in a row that we won. Yes, people were actually using the work ‘three-peat’ for a few days. In an announcement e-mail to the agency, our CEO actually mentioned going for a ‘Four-peat.’ I was hoping to enjoy winning for three years in a row without having to think about next year yet. We were the first New York City based agency to ever win in back-to-back years. (Only an agency in Chicago has ever won it more in the entire history of the award show.)  I’m very proud of the award. I actually think we have a good chance to win again next year. Although I shouldn’t say that. But secretly I think we have some amazing work in the pipeline.

• My Son Kicks My Butt In A 5K – Again. – My 10-year-old runs faster than me. I can’t believe it. My 10-year-old is in better shape than me. I’m in denial. My 10-year-old son is now acting as my personal trainer. I’m thankful.  This Sunday, as a family, we ran the Tarrytown Trek 5k. I couldn’t keep up with my son. I was happy for him. Embarrassed for me. So now the training begins. This morning, my 10-year-old supervised my treadmill session. He kept increasing the speed. He kept telling me I wasn’t going fast enough. He kept choosing the music on my iPhone so I’d run a faster pace. And you know what. I felt great afterwards. He was right. I can run faster. He can push me further. Give me the summer. By the time we’re running a 5k in autumn or late summer, I’ll be able to keep up. Maybe even beat him.  It’s time. No more Mr. Nice Guy. (BTW – as I was typing this last sentence, I actually typed ‘No more Mr. Nice Gut.’ Which is probably more appropriate.)

• My daughter completes her Masters Degree with a 4.0 GPA. This is huge. I’m so proud of her. As I’ve mentioned earlier – my daughter has learned to be a great student. This does not come naturally for her. She has worked very hard. She’s always tired. She’s always working on something. She’s always trying to get to the end. But its paid off. Great grades and a great attitude have helped her land a great position in a terrific school district. She’s thrilled. I’m thrilled. It’s every parent’s dream to have their child succeed. And her success is all due to perseverance and hard work. Congratulations and well done.

• My daughter (and her fiance) pick a wedding date. Less than a year from now, I’ll have a married daughter. Tentative date: June 1, 2013. Everything seems to be falling into place. The site, the band, the video guy, the photographer, the flowers. We don’t have a caterer yet, but that not far behind. I’m so happy. The place seems great. They both seem to really love it. It’s so fun to watch them making joint decisions and loving all the same things.  Ah, a June wedding. How perfect.

• My son passes his black belt test. This Saturday, my son will receive his black belt in Taekwondo. You have no idea how hard he had to work to get this far. For the past 3-1/2 years, he’s been working toward this goal. The test was spread out over three days. First there was an outdoor test. Running. Exercising. Pushing yourself as hard as possible. Next there was an oral exam. The students were tested on their knowledge of all the work they have learned over the past 3-1/2 years. Answers in both English and Korean. Finally, the indoor test. The students had to perform everything they’ve learned since the beginning of their training. The indoor test lasted over 3 hours. The students were exhausted. But in the end – he passed. He found out a few days later the results. He smiled for days.

That’s about it for now. I’m sure I’ll think of more stuff that’s happened. But that will be for tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

6.5.12

Business Travel Is Completely Overrated

richlevyfcb Advertising, Ramblings 3 Comments

I travel a lot for business. And I go to a lot of ‘fun sounding’ places. So there are times when people will assume that these trips are lots of fun. Let me give you a brief glimpse into a recent business trip. Tell me how much ‘fun’ this sounds.

Sunday 3PM – Leave for the airport.  Fighting Sunday afternoon traffic to JFK airport is always fun. Which direction should we go? Is there a Mets game? Is there traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway (there’s always traffic on the Van Wyck – hence the nickname van stuck)? I get to the airport, check in, go through security, head to the gate.

Sunday 6:55 PM – Board flight for 6 hour flight to London. Of course, I can’t sleep. I watch the movie ‘Hugo’ hoping it will make me tired. It doesn’t. I finally fall asleep 1 hour before we land. I get off the plane a little groggy. But I’m in England.

Monday 6 AM – Head to UK Customs and Border Security. I don’t know what it is about Heathrow – but I can never get through customs in under an hour. Today it was 1-1/2 hours. Standing in line next to people who haven’t slept all night. But I’m in England.

Monday 7:30 AM – Taxi to hotel. I should have reconsidered taking a taxi. First of all, it’s far. Secondly, I hit morning rush hour traffic. Plus the taxi drivers insisted on talking to me the entire ride. He called me “guv’ner” a few times, which I thought was cute, so I let him talk. I have no idea what he was saying.

Monday 9:00 AM – Check in to my hotel. Somehow our travel service placed my reservation in my assistants’ name. So for 30 minutes, the woman behind the counter can’t find my reservation. Only when I produce my confirmation number and a few phone calls to someone did she ask the question “are you Laura?” Clearly, I’m not Laura – but she made my reservation. A few more phone calls, and I had a room. I go to my room. Unpack. Shower. Head down to the conference room.

Monday 11 AM to 11 PM – I’m in a conference room preparing for a meeting the next morning. I could be in any room in any hotel anywhere in the world. The only tip that I’m in England is that I need a converter for my plugs. The room in beige and a little smelly. The food is bland and beige, too.  At some point during the day, I walked outside for about 5 minutes. ‘Look, a double decker bus – I must be in England.”

Monday 11 PM – I can’t sleep. The time change has me in it’s grasp. I know my alarm is going off at 6 AM. I manage to get 3 hours of sleep.

Tuesday 8 AM – Head down to breakfast with the team. We eat a light meal together before walking down to the conference room to set up for our meeting. We’ve been told we can begin setting up at 9 AM for a meeting that will begin at 10:00.  We walk in the room at 9:30 – after standing outside the room for about 45 minutes.

Tuesday 10 AM – We begin our two-hour presentation. We finish and talk to our clients until we get kicked out of the room at 12:30 PM

Tuesday 1 PM – Debrief in the hotel café. We’re all exhausted. We talk for about an hour. We agree to meet for a walk at 3 PM.

Tuesday 3 PM – We decide to go on a little walk around downtown London. Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Oxford Road. We walk around for a little more than an hour. It’s raining. I don’t have an umbrella or an overcoat. My sports jacket doesn’t keep me warm enough. Luckily I have a scarf. But, hey, I’m in England.

Tuesday 7 P M – I have dinner with two co-worker. We actually can relax for a few minutes – with the exception that it’s only 2 PM in NYC – which means I’m still working and responding to e-mails from the office.

Tuesday 11 PM – I have to leave for the airport at 5 AM, so I try to fall asleep. I can’t. I’m still awake. Plus, in New York is the BIG advertising award show. We’re nominated for 5 awards. I’m hoping we do well. Sometime around 1 AM, I fall asleep.

Wednesday 2:21 AM – My phone is buzzing like crazy. Every 20 seconds, another text message or e-mail. I’m thinking, “Something good just happened at the award show,” so I decide to look at my phone. Yes, something good happened – we won ‘Most Creative Agency” for the third year in a row!!! I can’t believe it. I’m excited and can’t sleep now. I start e-mailing people at the award show. I decide to stay up for the rest of the night. We win 3 awards.

Wednesday 5 AM – Leave the hotel for the airport. Check in, go through security, go to the gate, get on a flight to Hamburg, Germany. This part of my day was very easy.

Wednesday 9 AM – Arrive in Frankfurt, buy train ticket, walk 20 minutes to the train platform.  But a bottle of water and something to eat for breakfast. I eat while I’m walking, because I’m afraid I’m going to miss the train to Mannheim.

Wednesday 11 AM – Arrive at the hotel. It’s not that nice. But it’s clean. I get a room. I check in the room. Of course, I’ve checked into the wrong room. (See recent blog entry for that story)

Wednesday 1 PM – 10 PM – Prepare for meeting in the hotel conference room. Eat really bad food. Drink lots of coffee. The room is cold, damp and musty smelling. We rewrite the presentation. We double-check everything. Leave the room to go to sleep.

Thursday 2 AM – I finally stop answering work e-mail

Thursday 7 AM – Breakfast with the team before we present at 10 AM.

Thursday 10 AM – 3-hour presentation. It goes really well, so we’re feeling pretty good. Dash for the train station.

Thursday 2:20 PM – Jump on a train from Mannheim, Germany back to the Frankfurt airport. I fall asleep on the train and almost miss my stop. Jump off the train with about 30 seconds to spare.

Thursday 3 PM – Check in at the airport, have 2 hours until my flight. Make a few phone calls, answer a few e-mails.  I’ve seen absolutely nothing of Germany.

Thursday 5 PM – Board flight. Exhausted. But now I don’t want to fall asleep, because I want to be tired when I get home. Get in my seat. Watch 3 movies. Arrive in New York, JFK airport.

Thursday 6 PM – After my 7 hour flight and 6 hour time change, I arrive at US Customs and Border Crossing. The line is really, really long. Two hours long. I’m tired. I’m cranky. I can’t wait to get home.

Thursday 8:30 PM – Arrive home. Hugs and kisses all around.

I flew to 2 different countries; saw the inside of 4 different conference rooms. 8 different taxis, 3 planes, 1 train, made 2 presentations, and slept a total of about 12 hours in 4 days.  Business travel is important, it’s critical to business, but it’s certainly not all fun and games.

5.8.12

Somebody’s sleeping in my bed ….

richlevyfcb Advertising, Ramblings Leave a comment

I had a very unusual thing happen to me last week. And in a way, I really can’t believe it happened.

Let me start at the beginning.

Last week, I was in Mannheim, Germany for a business meeting. Mannheim is a pleasant little town about a 40 minute train ride south of Frankfurt. I stayed in a fine hotel where the meeting was being held. I checked into the hotel around noon. They handed me a key and on the keycard envelope was written the room number — room 527.

I took the elevator up to the 5th floor, walked down the hall, put the keycard into the door, the door opened, and I found a small but clean room with a bed, chair and desk. The very basic business hotel room.
I took the next few minutes to unpack, charge my electronic devices and have a quick shower.

Exactly as expected. Nothing unusual.

After I got cleaned up, I got dressed and went downstairs into one of the conference rooms for an all day meeting. At around 8 PM, I headed up to my room to get something I needed – and I found my keycard wouldn’t work in my door. I tried again. It still wouldn’t work. Convinced I could make it work, I tried a third time, still no luck. Just as I was about to head down to the front desk, a woman walked out of my room. She was clearly surprised I was standing there – just as I was surprised that someone was coming out of my room.

Luckily, she worked for the hotel. In her broken english and my high school german, here’s what we discovered. I was given a key for room 527. Somehow, I used that key and walked into room 528. I didn’t even notice that I had entered the wrong room. Probably I didn’t notice because my key worked in the door. Later in the day, they gave a key to someone else for room 528 – and they went up to the room and announced that someone’s stuff was all over the room.

The hotel spent the entire day trying to figure our who was the mystery person in room 527. Since I was in the conference room all day, I never picked up the message or never went back to my room. I have no idea how long the hotel employee was camped out inside my room. I don’t think for very long.

But it got me thinking – how did that happen? How did my room key work in more than one door? Do all hotel keys work in multiple doors and we don’t know – because as honest people we only try our own door?

And what would have happened if the real owner of room 528 entered to find me fast asleep in their bed? Or I walked in on them showering or getting dresses?

I’ve checked into hundreds of hotels during my career, and I don’t think anything like that has ever happened to me before. But I know it will definitely do one thing differently next time I enter a hotel room. I will 100% chain the door behind me.

Because you never know who may have a key that fits into your door.

Calling All Guitar Players

richlevyfcb Ramblings 4 Comments

I’ve hit the wall.

I’ve run out of ideas of songs to ask my guitar teacher to work on with me. Perhaps I’m tackling too many songs at once. Perhaps my teacher is throwing too many at me too quickly. Perhaps I can’t see some obvious choices right in front of me.

Here’s what I’m working on right now:

Proud Mary – Creedence Clearwater Revival version – this is a lot of fun (a crowd favorite as my teacher calls it). I learned the song in about 45 minutes. It’s really easy. Now I’m working on the guitar solos that I’ll only play if I’m playing with someone else.

Someone Like You – Adele – Yes, I’m working on arpeggios. The interesting thing about this song is that unless you sing along, it really sucks. The music itself is nothing special. And really not that fun to play. And for those of you who have heard me sing – you know that’s nothing special, too.

Pumped Up Kicks – Foster the People – is a request from my son to learn something from this decade. (Adele doesn’t count) This song has 4 notes in it. If Proud Mary took 45 minutes to learn, this took 3 minutes. But I have to admit, I enjoy playing this song and it’s definitely a fun sing along song.

Hallelujah – Jeff Buckley version – fingerpicking drills. I hate fingerpicking drills. But this song is so damn pretty, it makes it fun. I wish I could sing like Jeff Buckley. Nobody can except him. Great song.

Dear Mr. Fantasy – Traffic – every now and then, I hear a song and wonder if it would be fun to play. This is a very, very simple song (except the guitar solos which are not easy). I love the idea of this song more than I love playing it. Taking a very electric song and trying it out acoustically.

Now I need your help.

Please comment below on some fun songs you think a (sort of) beginner should know how to play. Added bonus – songs with F and Bm chords. For some reason, I suck at both F and Bm. So I’m looking for songs with a lot of F and Bm chords in them. That will force me to practice them a lot. I need to get better – as virtually every song has either F or Bm in the song.

Thanks in advance. Oh, and songs from this century would be greatly appreciated, but not required.

4.20.12

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

richlevyfcb Family, Ramblings 10 Comments

My daughter Kristen got engaged on Saturday afternoon.

It wasn’t that much of a shock, since her fiancé asked permission a few months ago. I knew it was coming. In fact, since we’re meeting his family this coming Saturday, I expected that it would happen before we met.

Ian (we call him I-an Mil-ler – like the groom in ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’) did everything right. He asked permission (huge), bought a vintage ring (perfect for my daughter’s taste) and proposed on a picture perfect Saturday at a botanical garden. They will remember that day for their entire life.

The interesting part for me is that everyone asks how I feel about it. Really? I’m thrilled for my daughter. I’m thrilled for Ian. I’m excited to help plan a wedding. I’m excited to watch my daughter enter the next stage of her life. (Just for the record – Ian is an incredible guy. The kind of guy I hoped Kristen would meet.)

And now the planning begins. Sometime after Saturday, I’m sure we’ll begin talking about when, where, who, how many, what kind, what color and all the details which make a wedding a wedding.

A date not too close, and yet not too far away. Something that doesn’t far on a major holiday weekend or someone else’s event. (Like Adam’s bar mitzvah next year)

Let’s avoid hurricane season. Let’s avoid rainy April. Let make sure it doesn’t fall on anyone’s birthday or anniversary. And most of all – let’s make sure it’s not a full moon. OK, I may be overthinking this already.

And since it’s never too early to plan – I have a few requests: The band can’t plan ‘Celebrate’ and the best man’s speech has to be short. I want to dance with my daughter but I don’t want a cheesy song. Perhaps ‘what a wonderful world’ from our favorite movie. (…when Harry met Sally) And of course, I want the details to be just right. Because it’s all about the details. Just like asking permission, a vintage ring and Longwood Gardens.

Because this should be a night, they’ll never forget.

Please join me in congratulating Kristen and Ian.

4.17.12

Cleavage and Crack Are not the same thing

richlevyfcb Family, Ramblings 2 Comments

Thanks to American Idol and The Voice, my son has discovered cleavage.

Yes, my (now) 10-year-old son who misses nothing — has noticed that the women on these shows like to show off their ‘chest crack’ (the phrase he was using).

First there was Christina Aguilera on The Voice. Check out the outfit on National TV.

After you get past the stupid hat, you almost can’t miss the neck line. I know my son didn’t.

Next there was Nicki Manaj

17 million people watched this episode – include the very same 10-year-old. And thanks to the wonder of DVR – he’s watched her almost have a wardrobe malfunction more than once. In fact, we got so tired of hearing him talk about her ‘chest crack’ we decided to teach him the word ‘cleavage’ — which isn’t the usual thing we teach our son — so at least if he was going to talk about it, he’d use the correct terminology.

When did it become OK to dress like a stripper on national TV? I thought Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake ended that years ago. When did American Idol – the king of middle America decide to let it all hang out? Am I over reacting? I don’t think so. But I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please fill out the poll below. I’ll let you know how much ‘chest crack’ I see on this week’s episodes.

4.16.12