joshuakelly.com

The year is 19… let’s say 50. American’s subsist on a steady diet of Wonder Bread, Jello, and Kool Aid. There is no Food Network, no wine aisle at your average supermarket, no Trader Joe’s, no Williams-Sonoma, no such thing as organic.

Somewhere along the way in the year’s since then, the culture of food started changing in America. Of course, Jamie Oliver would argue that it didn’t change enough, that the Wonder Bread regime is still firmly in place. But there is also a strong and vibrant food culture that owes much to movements begun by people like Julia Child and Robert Mondavi.

A few years back, industry giant Constellation Brands bought the Robert Mondavi family of wine brands for a whopping $1.2 Billion. It made a big statement about how much equity the Mondavi name had built while Robert Mondavi was helping to build Napa Valley and the culture that surrounds it.

The new website at http://www.robertmondavi.com/ is the first true, unified reflection of what he had in mind all along. The first time his story is told, and reinforced with the brand(s) he created to form the full picture.

The new site takes you through the timeline of how his vision evolved, integrates the on-site events and educational programs that helped make his ideas accessible. It’s peppered with his quotes and ideas, and back-ended with a CMS to keep it all fresh. And above all, it creates a brand platform, using everything from color palette to navigation to content and imagery, where everyday wine and expensive wine can co-exist in a cohesive vision of gracious living.

Somewhere, Mr. Mondavi is tossing back a nice Cab and smiling. Although he probably has some suggestions for improvement.

Ever gotten to a page where it says you aren’t on a page? Where it says you haven’t found a page, right there on the page you found? That existential paradox inspired the copy for the  404 page copy shown below (and soon to be used at places like this:

“Page Not Found”? And yet, here we have a page.
“Wrong page”? Is there such a thing?
“Page doesn’t exist”? Then what are you seeing and reading?
“404 Error”? Wherefore art though 1-403?

It’s true. You may have ended up here, reading this, with the conscious intention of being somewhere different, reading something else. But here you are. After all the clicks, and links, and backslashes, and refreshes, and returns, after everything you’ve been through in your life up to this point, you’ve arrived here, at this page, in this time. This page, then, is not an ERROR. It is your DESTINY!

Let me tell you, my friend, there are no accidents. You will walk out of here a better man, woman, person of non-specified gender, or child.

If the Internet has taught us anything, it’s that you are never more than one click away from something hilarious, shocking, revolting, enlightening, heartwearming, headscratching, or just plain odd. Perhaps this page strikes you in one of those ways. But the NEXT page you visit? Sky’s the limit.

So where do you go from here? That’s really the question. Do you go backwards, retrace your steps, and try again to go wherever it is you thought you were originally headed? Or is there someplace you really, subconsciously want to be next? Make that a conscious choice now, while you’re on a roll. Because rest assured, the next page you visit will be just as much your destiny as this one.

In closing, perhaps the old Chinese proverb says it best: “If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed”.

Welcome to where you were meant to be. Good luck with where you are headed.

Famed music photographer Jim Marshall died today. He took some enduring and iconic shots, like this one of The Beatles walking off after their last concert, at Candlestick Park.

A performance art piece about email communication, using actual emails sent as replies over the last year or so to emails that didn’t make much sense. Not sure what it all means, frankly, except that you know you’ve all received emails that made about as much sense as these, or been tempted to reply like this at some point to limn the sheer silliness and volume of email nonsense we all endure.

View the original article, or read below.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

_________________

From: Jabberwocky
Subject: Latest Project, J.Jub Bird Etc.
To: PD

PD:

Can you ask them to see if they could recalibrate the microspool to optimal boolean hexidecimal interoperability? If they say yes, I’m closer to knowing what’s going on than at first I thought… Thanks.

_________________

From: Jabberwocky
Subject: himiny biminy boo- Very Important
To: PD

Gloinkenhooper:

% – lichtenstein
f – robin hood
@ – squallum con carne. idiopathoposcopy, en garde. Verily.

Spats!

(w/c – wackidy shmackidy doo)

_________________

From: J.Walky
Subject: Ahhh! Hebliphmo!
To: PD

Anyflupe, lackatrackamus eldrift en tallyho. Let’s rintintin all the way to Baton Rouge. Phlid du.

Lolly.

- Scooter

Sent from my iPhone

_________________

From: Jabberwocky
Subject: Necessary Changes. Glinky dinky doo!
To: PD

Heltroscopy, imminy boffco. Ack. Insead:

# – tralala
^ – vinyaveda, oop
g – yo yo ma (times 7)

Wackidy Smackidy Xtry Kersnackity…

Lilo,

Cap’n Rollo

_________________

From: Jabberwocky
Subject: Epiphany!
To: PD

Admiralty -

In truth, the heretofore epiphany made chocolate entropy all but stochastic. Still, I matriculate haltingly at the altar of emblazoned filaments, waffling slowly in the rutted hazelnut effluvium. Ah well, we dance the can-can when we can, can we? Penultimately, my credo is thusly extruded:

- De Doo Doo Doo De Da Da Da is all I have to say to you
- I was born by the river in a little tent, and just like the river I been runnin ev’ry since
- If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now

Pull the ripcord, Effie, the ants look like people from here!

Whatchou talkin’ bout, Willis?

_________________

From: Jabberwocky
Subject: Ahhh! Hebliphmo!
To: PD

Yellow! Wahimpha tillyoscopus!

Oh. I get it. Looks great.

Let’s push it Live.

Thanks.