PF Fun

Yanni?
Yawn-y, right?
Surprisingly, no! And I’m the newly-eyes-opened witness to tell you why.
Until last Tuesday night, all I really knew about Yanni was that he produced some distinctive New Age CDs, keyboards mostly, awhile back and that his trademark look was long-hair. My only example of his work went MIA when I left it in the CD player of a car I traded off—two vehicles ago.
So, when an Email popped up offering two tickets from Danny Pumpelly to the Yanni Concert at KC’s Sprint Center that night, I mused aloud, “Hmmm….Maybe I should go get those tickets.”
It was already after five, but my ICD compatriots still at their desks, Erin Sullivan and Tracy Benbrook, urged me on–with equal parts ridicule and ‘we dare you’—to risk it for the tickets.
I shoved my way into Danny’s office to discover only one rival for the tix: Shana Kreikemier. She had them in her hand, waving them thoughtfully. “Oh,” I said, not sure if I felt deflated or not, “I guess they are taken.”
Shana offered them to me, saying, “Actually, I’m not sure I can make it to the concert tonight.”
From that moment on, the musical planets aligned. En route to change clothes, I called a friend, who stunned me by saying, “Yes, I’m available for the concert tonite,” despite not knowing the first note about Yanni. We readily found parking and our seats, bought a tee shirt (at Danny’s request)—all good.
The concert itself, styled Yanni Voices, started off with a long, slow bluhh number performed behind a transparent curtain. “Gonna be a long night,” I thought.
It wasn’t. Once the curtain rose, the tempo did, too. The voices: Nathan Pacheco, Chloe, Leslie Mills and Ender Thomas—seen and heard on at least one PBS special of the same name—stunned. The staging turned clever, the camaraderie among performers zoomed to the height of the top tier seating and the level of musicianship astonished. World class!
One highlight—a performance progressing through every Latin dance I could name and a couple I couldn’t—featured Chloe (I think) dancing and singing and vamping through a 10-minute segment that took my breath. (How she had the pipes to keep singing I’ll never know.)
By the second half of the show, audience members were on their feet, moving, grooving and keeping the beat, rapt at the variety of music ethnicities that Yanni and his troupe so powerfully displayed.
I stood, applauding and whooping, for two curtain calls.
In the bathroom, I ran into an exotic woman with a heavy Cuban accent, from Miami. She purred, “I first saw Yanni in MeeAHme (she rhymed) nine years ago and wherever I’m near a concert of his, I go. I just happened to be in Kansas City this week, and look, here I am.”
Indeed. And so was I. Amazed. Thankful that Danny Pumpelly couldn’t make the show. (And yes, Tee, I really WAS sorry that I got those tickets instead of you, but only for two seconds Next time you need to work late so you too can scramble for the tickets…..)

12 Hour Videos Offer a Platform for Fresh Faces and Different Roles

Before the production began, no one who knew Adam Castle envisioned him as a grisly-voiced, face-contorting FBI bad ass. But now it’s hard to see him any other way.
The soft-spoken marketing consultant for Beauty Schools Marketing Group competed in this year’s 12 Hour Video Contest. With his performance in the winning video, 24, he crafted a new persona as comedic actor with a striking impersonation of hard-as-nails cop from television, Jack Bauer.
Castle’s experience exemplifies the magic of 12 hour videos. In the upside-down world of employee self-made video making, the unexpected is the expected … and the expected is as edgy as company videos should ever be allowed.
12 hour video teams consisted of 8 to 16 employees, including a camera person, an editor and a production assistant/grip/writer-editor. Each team was allotted 12 hours to write, shoot and edit a video that follows a given theme. This year, the themes were: Fear, Revenge, Joy and Anger. Beginning at 3 p.m., the teams were allowed to film until midnight on Fridays and then come back to edit the material into a cohesive production on Monday morning.
What happens behind the scenes of a 12 hour video is not unlike what happens when the camera is rolling. The silliness and the camaraderie that spills out when topics are being brainstormed and loose scripts are being developed often makes the transfer to the scenes that are filmed. And, that is the magic of the process. Contributors who take a leadership role in the group are often at the forefront of the shooting process.
In a company-wide vote, employees made 24 by far and away this year’s winning video, which earned it a showing at PlattForm’s annual meeting. Given his unexpected stardom, Castle said the experience wasn’t too of course from what he had envisioned.
“My 12 hours video was basically what I expected,” Castle said. “I was expecting that we would be working on the video until midnight, but we had a pretty defined idea, so we were able to finish up early. Our team didn’t drink as much beer as we thought we would either … it makes me wonder what that says about my expectations of Plattformers? Just kidding … kind of.”
The 12 Hour Video experience was the same across the country as PlattForm’s New York office got in on the act. Jason Penta, who worked behind the camera channeling what he called his “best inner-Spielberg,” helped create the visuals for “Land of Confusion.”
“We definitely all brain-stormed together as a group,” Penta said. “Everyone had great, creative ideas. And of course, everyone was willing to ham it up for the camera. It was also the day of our First Friday/Cinco De Mayo party, so there was a lot of excitement in the office all day. As the margarita count got higher, the video definitely got more interesting.”
Castle said the only other time he ever acted was in ninth grade drama class. He said he had no idea what role I would play in the video before the production began. His teammate, Brandon Gregory, conceived a spoof of the 24 television show starring Keifer Sutherland, and that was all it took.
“Once we had the idea, the whole team was really into it as soon as we started brainstorming,” Castle said.
Castle is the antithesis to the Bauer character, which made it 10 times funnier to see him in the roll.

Don’t be surprised if you see Lori Oswald acting out of character – surviving on nothing but Starbucks, wearing windshield-sized sunglasses indoors, dressing like a hobo … That’s just what celebrities do.

And Lori is practically famous.

Recently, she was hand-selected to be part of the Chevy Traverse Kansas City Mom Squad. Along with four other KC mommy bloggers, Lori was chosen to test-drive a brand new Chevy Traverse for eight weeks.

In return for these two months in a free car, Lori just has to pimp it online and enjoy perks like free massages at Massage Envy, grocery store gift cards, Royal’s games, and a Flip video camera … man, being a celebrity is rough.

But so far, Lori hasn’t let fame go to her head: “Hearing my name on Q104 the other day was so surreal! I was like ‘Skyler! That’s me, that’s me!’ But she couldn’t care less, so I was frantically trying to find someone to call. So of course I called my mom.”

Oh, Skyler. She’s just jealous. After all, it’s thanks to HER that Lori started blogging in the first place.

Lori began mytwo.wordpress.com over two years ago, as a way to keep her friends and family updated on her pregnancy. Since then, Lori’s blog has blossomed into a place where she can showcase her photography, vent frustrations, and record her life with 20-month old daughter Skyler and husband Ronnie.

Now that the Oswalds have the Traverse; life has already gotten easier. 2 weeks into the 8-week test drive, Lori says: “It’s been super fun driving the Traverse so far – and it’s been a new creative outlet for me to work with video blogging that I’ve enjoyed much more than I expected (despite my first embarrassing attempt - see “Awkward Interview” on the list of videos)”

So – here’s the thing. Like all celebrities, Lori is only as famous as you make her. She doesn’t expect to be the top Google search for 2009, but she expects her fans friends to vote for her. So check out Lori’s entries at www.mommymadnesskc.com and vote for her as Kansas City’s favorite Mommy Blogger! She’s been known to bribe people with rides to Happy Hour in return for votes.

Sidebar: Vote for Lori at www.mommymadnesskc.com, and visit her at mytwo.wordpress.com.

Sidebar: Want a taste of the celebrity life for yourself? Get your own free massage by visiting your local Chevy dealer! Just test-drive a new Traverse and receive a Massage Envy 1-hour gift card!

My grandfather was a pretty smart guy.  Aside from being pretty much the definition of awesome, he gave me the best advice I have ever received.

On February 27th the Plattform Interactive department was treated to the Big Fuss Party Buss (©Justin Gill) to celebrate an amazing January.  We managed to grow business in record breaking strides and (being the awesome people they are) John VanFleet, Mike McHugh, and Justin Gill booked two party buses to celebrate.

In truth, I hadn’t given much thought to what they would look like (the buses not Gill/McHugh/VanFleet) but I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting two school buses to be parked in front of the building.  Everyone started laughing- all the build up for a “party bus” and we were rolling out in a Dunham Special.

Of course, inside was another matter completely.  With nightclub seatin, lighting and sound system- things started looking up.  Certainly once the booze made its way on board- that helped too.

I will go on record right now, as saying that Eric Dahlstrom’s home brew that he shared with us on the bus was amazing.  That guy can make some beer.  I would buy it if it were in stores.

After sampling some of D-Storms brew, the serious matter of getting to happy hour was at hand.  I mean, partying on the bus is all well and good- but then what?

The Levee- that’s what.

Well…the restroom at the Levee.  I mean- we were drinking the entire way to the plaza from Lenexa.

From the Levee we made our way to Baja 600- except that Justin Gill and I almost got left behind.  We couldn’t find the buses.  I don’t know Justin’s excuse- but I blame Joe Mulvihill.  More on him later.

At Baja John had scored us a fajita buffet.  And at this point- I think we all needed a bit of food.  Apparently Dan needed more than most of us- or maybe it was the ten dollars he was offered to plant his face in the plate of guac.

I said I would speak more about Joe, well this pertains to Webster Jorgensen too.  Apparently I thought it would be a good idea to hand over my phone to them and let them text my girlfriend.  What follows is a list of some of the messages my girlfriend received.

·    Hi I am joe?a
·    You are my friend
·    I just hot sauced myself to a tree

That is the last time I buy Irish Car Bombs for Mulvihill.

The last stop before moving on to power and light was a stop-over at Granfalloon next door.   Most of the team had split off and were talking at booths, and some were back playing pool.  However I used my slightly more courageous state to talk to Mike McHugh and John Van Fleet.  After a month I hadn’t really talked to them yet, they are the CIO and VP of Internet Marketing, respectively.  A bit intimidating right?  I should have known at Plattform that wasn’t the case.

Both of them have come up through the ranks here at Plattform and were more than happy to take the time to talk with me.  John told me that after 9 years, you can’t really see how the company looks through fresh eyes, and it’s important to get the input of new people in order to stay relevant and vibrant.  That’s not talk I am used to hearing at a company- which is part of what makes Plattform such a great place to work.

Around that time, we were departing- one bus heading back to Plattform, and one on to the Power and Light District.  Well for those of you wanting sordid details about the goings on at P&L… you aren’t getting them from me.  I was on the first bus.  But I was there long enough to know- I work with some awesome people.

And in case you were wondering- we had several designated drivers- and no one was allowed to drive that wasn’t sober.  Was I sober?  Yes.  Able to drive?  That’s questionable in any state.

Till next time-

BE CHAMPIONS.

When you think of a typical work day you picture; desk, computer, meetings, conference calls, decisions, problems, solutions, etc.  Well ladies and gentlemen the typical workday has now changed. We’ve got trouble. Right here in PlattForm City. Trouble with a capital “T” And that rhymes with “P” and that stands for Ping Pong. Ping Pong, AKA, Pong, AKA Ball, AKA Ping-a-ding Pongalicious, has invaded the walls of Plattform. It is corrupting the minds of our workforce. It encourages our children to eat puppies (or so I hear). This once friendly game to get you out of your desk and keep your mind off work for 10 minutes has turned into an egregious, pernicious, percutaneous, challenge amongst fellow PlattFormers.  Who can hold their head high and who must walk with their head down because they cannot win a match?  “Ha, in your face!”  is the new “Good Morning.”

The Ping-Pong distribution list, allegedly, hypothetically, a list I have never heard of and am definitely not on, has been turned into a veritable battleground of vitriol gloating.  The obsession with the game has begun to dip into the pockets of these PlattFormers.  Some have gone as far as purchasing their own special ping pong paddle.  Some, just bother other peoples’ paddles without asking them, with no regard for the concept of ownership. The paddles that PlattForm purchased to keep down in the rec room were not good enough for these hard core pongers.  These paddles are usually hidden in desks so nobody else can have an advantage of having a better paddle.

This game, that has now made the geeky guys cool, has excited people to the point that they wake up in the morning and say “yes, I get to play some pong today!”  That feeling they get when they reach 21 first is indescribable and cannot be replicated with their obviously satisfying, well managed, and completely focused upon projects.  So why not stay down there and play another game?  What is another 10 minutes when you could experience that coveted feeling of victory and fame!

Hey, want to play?