Shakespeare in the Park

Every year there is a free Shakespeare play in Central Park. There are always big stars in the shows and the tickets are handed out the day of, meaning super long lines. Tickets are distributed at 1 and so Wednesday I got to the park just before 9 am. The line was already over a half mile long and there was little hope of getting tickets. We were determined to see the show, so the next day I got there before 7. The line was long even then, but I was close enough to be guaranteed tickets. All that was left was to wait and wait and then wait some more. I endured boredom and rain storms, but was successful! 6+hours= 2 tickets to Twelfth Night staring Anne Hathaway and Audra McDonald.

We didn't have the best seats, but it was still an amazing show! Yay for live theater!
You can't take pictures in the theater, so this is view from the back. We were sitting on the upper right side.

Free things save us money

Hey we have some more pictures of things we've done here in NYC and we thought we'd share them with you! And we're not even waiting for a couple months to do it! We're going to try out how the real bloggers do it...

During the summer here they have the River to River Festival, which includes a lot of free concerts and activities and fun things. A couple weeks we went to a fireworks show on the East River featuring music by the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Two nights ago we went to a free concert of Mozart's The Magic Flute by the New York Opera at Rockefeller Park. It was a lot of fun to sit in the park in the beautiful weather and enjoy the concert.

Waiting for it to start...

A couple weeks ago a group of us went to the famed Apollo Theater (We lived about a 10-15 minute walk away...) for Amateur Night. That's when you can actually boo the performers off the stage. They encourage it! It was a cultural experience and a lot of fun.

I also wanted to include this because Michael Jackson performed here early in his career. I can't find any sources to back that up, but it does make it cooler that we went there.


(UPDATE: I found out when Michael Jackson performed at the Apollo Theater. The Jackson 5 won the Apollo's Amateur Night in 1967.)

Internship Update (and a contest!)

Greetings from New York City!

I realized that I haven't really given many people an update on how my internship is going. Initially, the internship was supposed to be from the beginning of May to June 16th, but the people at Y&R gave those who wanted to an opportunity to extend our internships until the first week of August. I've really been enjoying it here and I feel like I get along really well with everybody I'm working with, so Megan and I decided to stick it out here for at least a couple more months and see what happens.

We had to find a new apartment for the remainder of our stay since our first place was only for the duration of the regular internship. Now we are living a little farther north on Manhattan. But it only takes about 30-40 minutes to get to work, thanks to the subway! I love public transportation. If I can have someone else do the moving for me so I can have time to relax or read a book, I'm happy.

Here at Y&R I am working on the recently acquired Office Depot account. On June 1st we launched a new part of the campaign called "The Survival of the Smartest" and the "Small Business Self-Bailout" It involves a website and some funny webisodes with "Matt and Matt" that will be released periodically through the rest of the summer.

A big part of the campaign is the "Adopt a Small Business" contest that ends July 31st. (If you or someone you know owns a small business, let them know about this!) 500 businesses will be awarded $2000 each in Office Depot prizes (gift cards, print services, etc.). To enter, all you have to do is make a 2-minute video telling Office Depot two things: what you are doing in these tougher economic times to be smart (how are you saving money or finding new customers or reducing costs, etc.) and how Office Depot has helped you out. If you're not sure how Office Depot has helped your small business out, you have until July 31st to visit your local Office Depot to figure it out. They also have some great online resources. This is a really great contest. If you want to learn more about that, check out www.thesurvivalofthesmartest.com.

And check out the first webisode next Monday! (June 29th)

Oh, and another cool thing: Y&R finally updated their website!! After nearly a year of being "Coming Soon" or "Under Construction" it is an actual website that you can look at! Check it out, it's cool: http://www.yr.com.

(Map image courtesy NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team and Wikipedia)

In case anyone didn't know...

We graduated!!!

Adios Provo!

Here's Proof.


Scott got a BA in Communications: Advertising

I got a BS in Sociology (in 3 years...)

Yay for us!

Some Things We've Done in NYC

News Flash!!

We really are here in New York City and having a good time! We are not dead!
We are just really bad bloggers. We will try to be better...

Whew, now that that's over, here is our bi-annual-or-so update: (Put your mouse on the pictures for captions.)

Here's the quick summary of what you just saw. Max Brenner is a really fun (and maybe a little pricey) chocolate store/cafe. We ordered the "Eskimo" (or "es-KEE-mo" as the waitress pronounced it). Everything there was presented (or "plated") in cool ways. And of course we've tested out the other big candy/chocolate stores here, like Jacques Torres, and our personal favorite, Dylan's Candy Bar. (Supposedly the biggest candy store in the U.S.)

We've had a lot of fun wandering around and hanging out in parks and eating pizza. So far we like Arturo's the best. It's been raining a lot lately (we heard it was the 22nd straight day of rain, although we feel like it's not true... there have been a few fair days) which makes the subway puddley and muggy. (Mmm, nothing like stuffy damp underground air!)

Overall, it's been great so far. You might say it's been an experience. We'll keep you updated.

We promise.

East Coast livin'

Greetings from New York City!!

So for the past week I (Scott) have been in New York City in preparation for an internship that starts tomorrow (the 3rd). You might think, Hey, cool, you get a free week of touring the city and seeing all of these amazing things with no obligations! But Megan hasn't been out here and it just isn't as fun without her. She's been in SLC/Provo working on a paper with one of her professors and getting things ready to come out here on Thursday! I'm so excited to tour the city with her. I am getting to be quite an expert with the subway here. I could almost be a tour guide on one of those cheesy double-decker tour buses. Okay, not really.

We're staying at some dorms called the International House by Columbia University. We ended up with a pretty good view of the Hudson River and Grant's Tomb. (Sorry, all of these pictures are going to be from my cell phone. This one is through a screen in my window and with bad lighting...)

I've found some Ukrainian places in East Village, I've walked through Times Square, I've been in the largest cathedral in the world, and yesterday I even went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island with our internship group. Here are a few pictures to prove that I was there:

At the subway stop where we live. Yes, some subway stops are above ground.


Times Square. The 2009 ball is still at the top.

The Flatiron building.

This is a sculpture that was nicer-looking and stood in the main lobby of the World Trade Center towers. (That should explain the "was nicer-looking.") It now is a memorial in Battery Park.

Downtown New York City from the Liberty Island ferry.

The Statue of Liberty.

Big things are still to come from this amazing city. Stay tuned.

Are you getting thirsty yet?

Finally, something we can ALL drink to!

Okay, I think it's about time that I shared with you one of the coolest projects I've been able to work on at the BYU Ad Lab: The Tap Project. Two years ago, the ad agency Droga5 teamed up with UNICEF to develop a way to raise money to provide clean water for children around the world. Since then it has spread to other cities and this year we picked it up here in Utah!

This has resulted in a lot of work. Each city is responsible for collecting their own media donations as well as creating their own advertising (billboards, TV spots, posters, etc.). The creative team in the Ad Lab has put out some amazing work.

Here's a video that explains how this works
(parts of the video are from UNICEF):

The Tap Project is based on collecting money at restaurants. People will often just order a glass of water when they go out to eat. During World Water Week (March 22-28), restaurants will ask patrons to donate just $1 for that glass of tap water, and the money goes straight to countries that don't have easy access to that water. That one dollar can provide one child 40 days of drinking water! How easy is that?!

As I said earlier, the creative team has really worked hard to come up with some great ads. One of our print ads were even featured in the New York Times! (scroll down, look on the left.) And if you live in Utah, look for one of these TV spots:

Utah Tap :: Here's to the World from Mike Morris on Vimeo.
You can see the other four spots if you search on Youtube or Vimeo for "Utah Tap" (like this).

Wherever you are, please search on the Tap Project website to see if there are any participating restaurants near you! You can even find participating restaurants and then check out their reviews on Zagat.com.

So save a dollar or two and take someone out to dinner during the week of March 22-28 at a participating Tap Project restaurant. Make change for a dollar.

But don't forget to tip your waiter/waitress. The restaurants are doing a lot for this, too.

Guess where we're going in May?

Well, I guess it's about time to give an update on some of our future plans... A few months ago I was accepted into the Department of Communications' internship program in Chicago and New York City. This is an awesome opportunity because the professors will then go to advertising and PR agencies and broadcast stations to help place students at internships. It's a lot easier than trying to find one yourself (especially across the country).

So a few weeks ago one of my professors spent a few days in NYC and dropped off a few portfolios and resumes. Not too long ago another professor pulled me aside and told me that he had already heard back from one particular agency. My internship will be at Young and Rubicam! (Their website has been "coming soon" for at least 4-5 months now, so it doesn't have much to look at, but you can see some of their work from all of their offices...)

Anyway, we are both really excited to try out life in the Big Apple. We've got a couple guidebooks and we are set to get the full experience. (Well, maybe not the full experience--that might include a mugging or something...) But we'll be sure to chronicle our life together on the East coast!

Maybe I am somewhat crafty after all...

Over Christmas break I discovered that my old Young Women's leader, one of the most influential women in my life, is going to have baby girl in February. Since I had no homework, I decided to do something special for her. Here is my first attempt at any large scale sewing project. I love how it turned out! Thanks for all the help Mom!

We celebrated Christmas last year...

Yeah, I know... We put together this beautiful blog and decorated it with wonderful words and pretty pictures, and then we abandoned it. We had a wonderful Christmas break, and then school happened. And it happened very suddenly. Now we are a month into the semester and it's still moving.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that we did celebrate Christmas and we even have some pictures to show for it. We went to Burley for Christmas day and had a great time. We never left the house due to the fun and games and a lot of wind and snow.
Megan is standing on one of the snow drifts in the driveway. Yeah you read right, it wasn't a big pile of snow gathered from clearing out the driveway. It was the driveway.

Then for New Years we came back south to SLC and partied it up with Megan's family. Then a few days before the end of the break we reluctantly came back to Provo to get ready for school to start up again. However, we were cheered by the idea that this is our LAST SEMESTER of school. That does make things a little easier. But it doesn't make the assignments and projects any easier...

Oh, and just to bring a little holiday cheer into our apartment, we purchased a small tree and some decorations. We decided to keep it simple because we didn't have room for a big tree. And if everything goes like we think it will, we won't have room for a big tree for a while...
And if you're wondering what the pink thing is to the left of the tree, just be jealous that you don't have one. Maybe sometime I'll tell the story here of the Pink Flamingo Tree...