Lee Kemp

One Mile of Style – Style Birmingham from Style Birmingham on Vimeo.

The Style Birmingham TV commercial went out last night on ITV1 after Emmerdale. I directed it and Rachel Carter produced it from a concept by Fullrange. It occupied the same slot as the Telford shopping centre which I feel probably didn’t have such a brave, open minded and long term thinking client as Retail Birmingham and I have to say, it felt totally unlike any other ad during that break. It then showed later during I’m a Celebrity but I’d already got my fix. It’s on quite a lot more until Christmas.

Thanks to 383 Project for the opportunity and John Newbold at the agency for letting me watch it round his lovely new house.

You can look at it here on Style Birmingham if you want to see it in context.

I’ve just watched the entire seven episode mini-series in about two days. HBO really do know what they’re doing. Funnily enough I had a very brief email exchange several years ago with Capt. Nathaniel Fick after he appeared on BBC Radio Five Live and he turns out to be the platoon leader in this stunningly good TV series. I’m not gonna go on about it how good it is, instead I’m gonna give you some of my favourite lines of dialogue. Suffice to say it comes from the same stable as The Wire and is based on the book of the same name. That should be all you need to know.

Is it realistic? Probably. I’m not the best person to ask but I can tell you it completely matches my experience of being in the army on a day to day basis. It never ceases to amaze how quickly and bizarrely things can be fucked up. How tasks can be made more stupid, more inane and inexorably harder by what can only be incompetence, arrogance or impatience higher up. That’s real life for you. The bits that I would know about they got right enough to let me trust the bits I don’t know about.

Much of the action takes place in the lead humvee. Here’s a couple of my favourite bits:

Trombley:
didn’t your Mom put your picture up on the Wal-Mart wall of heroes?”

Ray:
Yep. My grandma did when I went to Afghanistan. I’m on the Nevada Missouri Wal-Mart wall of heroes. I’ve even got my dress blues on.

Brad:
If my mother ever distributed my likeness without written authorisation I would disown her.

Ray:
Technically speaking Brad but didn’t your biological parents disown you when they put you up for adoption?

Brad:
Point Ray . I was one of those unfortunates adopted by upper middle class professionals and nurtured in an environment of learning, art and a socio-religious cultured steeped in more than 2000 years of Talmudic tradition. Not everyone is lucky enough to have been raised in a whisky tango trailer park by a bow legged female who’s sole qualification for motherhood is a womb that happened to catch the sperm of a passing truck driver.

Ray:
At least my Mom took me to Nascar.

———————————–

Brad (to Ray):

But then again the world wouldn’t have to deal with the prospect of you returning to your cretinous daughter fucking trailerpark red-state shithole and producing mutant whisky tango scrotum faced buck toothed zit exploding progeny.

———————————–

Ray (to Brad):

Look at me Brad, I’m a man now. Just like you. Except I don’t look like a faggot and talk all educated.

———————————–

Generation Kill screens on Channel 4 later this year.

I’m not a big fan of smart cars. There’s nothing actually wrong with them, I just couldn’t see myself driving one for the amount of driving I have to do. In fact even if I lived in London, or Tokyo or Ridley Scott’s LA of 2019, I couldn’t see myself driving one.

Until now. These bodykits are awesome to the point of ridiculous, or vice versa.

I defy you not to look at these and grin like a maniac. I’ve posted two of my favourites but please do go check out the original post for all seven over at Gizmag.

Technology is ace. I love it. Check this out from from Crunchgear. US Army scientists, so often the bad guys just because they spend their time working out more efficient ways of wiping out civilisations, have come up with nanofibre technology that means missing limbs and damaged organs can be regrown.

One guy re-grew a fingertip, bone nail and all, that he’d lost in a freak model aeroplane accident. (Not sure what was so freak about it, he probably stuck his finger in something sharp and fast moving)*. And apparently a little girl grew a foo foo she never had in the first place!

Perhaps not the head he wanted

This is so awesome I almost don’t quite believe it. The full story’s here.

*what constitutes a freak accident, as opposed to a run of the mill accident?