Saturday, October 6, 2007

The beginning of the beginning.

Well, I guess the time has come to tell the 4 people who read this blog (mum and dad apparently told two of their friends) about the future plans for TWiN. [Big exaggerated breath... a pause... now go]. We've decided to take over the fruit industry. Well, that's not exactly the whole truth. Let's face it, Jon IS a bit of a fruit, and I do enjoy a dried apple every now and then... but it's more about WHERE the picking and devouring of this seed-based produce will be taking place. Yes people. TWiN is moving to New York City... APPARENTLY one of the largest apples around.

It's been in the twin cards for a while now, and there's a good chance we're not actually telling you something you haven't already guessed... but it's officially a done deal. A couple weeks from today will see 'skinny twin one' and 'skinny twin two' living and working in New York, NY. Keep an ear to the ground for more details, as we're going to do our best to make some noise in the way only a pair of rowdy Australians can. It'll be ads... it'll be more ads... and it'll be music videos of our favourite artists that choose to return our calls and aren't currently winning Grammys OR eating at Hype Williams' house on a regular basis. Or Michel Gondry's. 

Fingers crossed this is the right move. Either way it'll be one of those events where everything else in our lives is either 'before' or 'after' our move to New York City in October 2007.

Josh [Jon].

Monday, September 17, 2007

Little Fella.

It's been a while since we posted last, so let me have a think about what's gone down in the last 2 months or so. 

Kanye West
and 50 Cent had that little release date beef goin on, where 50 said he'd retire if Yay out-sold him... well he DID, and here's hoping Fiddy's a man of his word. Californication hit Aussie TV with both it's witty AND titty dialogue, proving itself to be an enjoyable watch. Oh yeah, the third Bourne movie hit cinemas and kicked a whole bunch of confined-spaces-ass.

Work-wise, I received a script via email about a month ago for Impotence Australia about a little problem known as 'erectile dysfunction'. Gotta admit, I almost deleted it thinking I'd been spammed, but after reading the script and chuckling outloud [in a good way], I decided to take the project on. The ad is basically about a grumpy and overly stressed-out 50 year-old guy, who wakes up with a perfectly half-sized version of himself dressed exactly the same, who follows him throughout his busy day. He doesn't show his 'little fella' much TLC, and after a hectic day at the office they decide to hit the hay. Our big guy looks over and smiles at his wife, signaling for her to 'hold that thought' as he turns over to his 'little fella' for some much needed asistance. Unfortunately he's fast asleep, regardless of how hard he gets shaked. The tagline is 'Look after your little fella, and he'll look after you'. Ha... it's all in good taste, trust me.

We shot the job last weekend, and it looks great... nice humorous moments with some realistic, but very simple visual effects. Should be on TV in early October, so keep an eye out for the loveable 'little fella'. [Can now be seen at www.rabbitcontent.com, under TWiN's work].

Jon [Josh].

Saturday, July 14, 2007

New York Cabs.

This entry is going to be shorter than most... but I remembered this 5 minutes ago and needed to share. It's just a funny little story which is cool, and weird, and I love when cool weird stuff like this happens. It does seem to happen more to us than most people I know... 

Recently my bro and I were in New York, and were staying in the same hotel room. It was the first morning there, and like most mornings in a foreign country, you spend a good 20 minutes wasting time checking emails [and Facebook]. We're both hangin out - a bunch of skinny kids in boxer shorts - when a cool song wofts out from my speakers [if you weren't aware, WOFT is an acronym for 'Waste Of F'ing Time', which is actually quite accurate in this case]. I remember how much I dug the song the second I heard the first bar, and similarly, Jon looks over and says "I like this... what song is it?". I go into my iTunes to check and suddenly explode with laughter. The song was by Death Cab For Cutie... and I shit you not, was called 'Brothers On A Hotel Bed'. Love it. Couldn't have been more appropriate! [unless anyone's heard of that other song called 'Two Aussie Twins In Their Underwear Tapping Away At Laptops While Sitting On A Hotel Bed' by The Anacdotes. That song is just scary].

Josh [Jon]. 

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Future Jon.

On a recent trip to New York, me and Josh finally managed to live out one of our wildest adulthood dreams - to ride around Manhattan on BMX bikes.  I'm not talkin about those lame riverside kiddie bike paths... no, no, no.  I'm talkin rollin down 5th Avenue against traffic with no helmets on, dodging cars like bike messengers... a hotdog in one hand and a video camera in the other, man.  After a good couple hours into the ride, we zoned in on Washington Square Park and stopped to take in a three man band playing some funky-ass ?uestlove-style drum & bass.  Throwing our bikes up against a tree, we look over and it slowly dawns on us that the drummer looks a little familiar.  Josh glances over to me and jokes "Dude, how long have you been playing the drums?"... but the closer we get, the more freaked out we become.  This guy looks EXACTLY the same as me... freakishly, even more than Josh does... AND HE'S MY TWIN, PEOPLE.  How weird is that?!!  No, seriously think about it for a second.  They say 'everybody has a lookalike', a 'doppelganger' if you will, but I met mine, and he lives in Manhattan!  His band was just as giggley as we were, and said we HAD to get a photo together.  I even got passed a similar pair of white sunnies to throw on... just to make it that little bit more ridiculous.  Ha.  This photo still makes me smile when I look at it.  It felt like Marty Mcfly watching himself in Back To The Future II... me in 3 years having moved to Greenich Village, learnt to play the drums, and rockin the white glasses / wife-beater combo.  So he's now known as 'Future Jon'.

Jon [Josh].

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

"What are you in here for?"

I gotta share what happened to me last night, in a Peter Griffin 'grind my gears' kinda way. I was at the Joss Stone Sydney show, and straight after the encore, these two E-poppin teeny Joss wannabes came stumbling to where my girl and I were standing, and insist on using us as structural support while yelling at the top of their voices. Now it's a show, and I know they're fully in their right to get a little vocal... but I'm talkin everything from "where's the bathroom Joss?" to "Joss, the ice in my drink is cold!" to "I love that colour on you Josssh"... everything BUT. So I politely turn around and smile, expecting to hear a cute "sorry, we'll watch the show now"... but instead, after facing the front again, the bitch... pours her drink... over my head.  

I'm just gonna let that sink in a little... let you think about what reaction you'd have in that situation. Huh? What? You'd smash her? Yeh, that's how people end up with a permanent record. But it sooo crossed my mind. 

So I turn around, grab both their drinks [one a little emptier than the other] and throw them over the front railing, then I look her in the eye with my best Pacino face and calmly say "back... up". She crawls into her shell, just in time for her friend to adjust from go to whoa and SCREAM obscenities all over my face. I'm talkin everybody lookin on with those eyes saying 'dude, I know you're so in the right right now, but I'm thrilled it's not happening to me, so I'm just gonna chill over here in the safe zone, cool?'. I want to hit her, I really do... I even want to grab them by the arms and 'remove' them from the show... but seriously, what are my options here? So I turn around, shake the beer outta my hair, and try to get back into the show... while she screams stuff like "yeah that's right, you TURN around!!" Then the original chick leans forward and sarcastically whispers, "Don't worry, my Dad's a Neurosurgeon... I know how you people are". WHAT?! You people?? Bitch, I'm a music video director..... how much more of NOT a doctor or a lawyer do you want me to be here??? Man, that made my blood boil. But again, throwing a drink over somebody's head probably isn't classed as 'assault', where I can guarantee forcing the bridge of her nose up into her frontal lobe IS.  People suck.

Jon [Josh]. 

Saturday, February 17, 2007

It's in the pudding.

So after months of patiently waiting, TWiN have finally broken into the New York modeling scene, and we ain't talkin' no small time nonsense! Ha. These are some of the final ads for the Converse - John Varvatos campaign that we mentioned in a previous blog [scroll down to "It's ringing!" for the full story], and as promised, our skinny asses can now be seen on billboards and in subways across Manhattan. Funny... I guess they weren't havin us on after all. Apart from the fact we're seen heavy-petting with the same girlie, I just don't like the look of what I'm doing in the background to that there BBQ. I'm 'Stralian, and it looks like this is my virgin incounter with a grill!... ha. What exactly is the point of the two hand stab technique Jon? Huh? You're an embarrassment... now hurry up and cook your young friends some steaks before they get to second base, for goodness sakes!

Jon [Josh].

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Remember back when...

I was thinking back to our childhood the other night, and realised just how great it actually was. When averaging all the ups and downs of our past, it sorta comes up roses... as opposed to those large brazilian jungle flowers that smell like rotting meat, put it that way. I'd like to think we're pretty stable personalities now, with very little going on upstairs in regards to deep-seated* issues from our childhood, and I think I'm gonna attribute a lot of that to the first 13 or so years of our life. Oh, and our parents probably had something to do with it too.  Cheers guys.

As you can imagine, loneliness was never an issue growing up. Competitiveness, stealthy food fights, top and lower bunk rotation, always buying two of everything in blue AND red... those were issues, but never loneliness. We didn't have the widest circle of friends growing up either, but we certainly didn't discriminate. We'd play with anybody... the nerds, the cool kids, the girls and even the little punks down the road that'd burst into tears, pack up their toys and leave in a wild cussing fit if and when they so pleased [what's up Tyrone]. Actually, I'd like to think most kids enjoyed the little adrenaline rush of coming over to the twin's house, because they knew they'd be involved in some activities they couldn't or wouldn't try at their own place. Not that we were the evil kids that peer pressured your ass into shooting birds or something [not AT ALL], think more along the A-Team lines of things... the Ninja lines if you will.  

We were blessed with slightly more adventurous spirits than the average 9 year olds, and this became evident in the post-school hours of the day. Building a cubby house in the sappy backyard pine tree, which honestly only consisted of a single wooden board to seat ONE... it became a race to get up there, and then a charade to make it look like you were having way more fun up the tree than down. This probably started our obsession for constructing things outta the junk in Dad's garage. The ways of the Ninja also became a big part of our childhood... throwing-stars cut from lead or tin, katanas and sais made from sharpened wood, bo-staffs made from... well not really made, more adapted from the kitchen broom. And of course, the black tee-shirt wrapped intricately around the head to reveal ninja eyes, but which had to be taken off due to breathing complications. Night falls, and we'd run around battling nobody, and hiding from nothing.

The 'game' though that achieved legendary, nay MYTHICAL repute in the adolescent community, would have had to be 'Missions'. Missions were born simply through 'dares', like so many other pure games before it. "I dare you to jump our back fence, run through Mr Johnson's yard and meet me on the next street"... or Mission A. "I dare you to walk along our back fence until it becomes the crazy woman's house, then run through her yard, jump the fence into the yard with the rottweiler, over their gate and out through the back lane".. or Mission C [which was only ever done once by the way, and just barely once]. By Mission D, we were on people's roofs, and I'm pretty sure you couldn't complete Mission G without a grappling hook... [or was it bolt cutters?] The one piece of equipment required for every Mission though, was the trusty tennis ball. If ever caught while on enemy territory, you'd immediately resort to making exaggerated head movements while squinting the eyes, and swatting at random plantlife. You'd be surprised at exactly how well "I'm just looking for my tennis ball" can get you out of an awkward trespassing dilemma. One time when I forgot to bring one, I can remember having the owner of the house looking with me for half an hour for a ball that was never there, only to pull out from the garden an actual tennis ball covered in a thick layer of dried mud and leaves that was so obviously NOT the ball in question... "Is this what you're looking for?" C'monnn, what would you have said if you were given such a quick out? Anyway, bottom line is... you came to the twin's house when you wanted to star in your own personal spy movie, and we were proud of that fact [it actually became our most responsive viral marketing line!].

Maybe it was due to not owning a TV for much of our early years? [although I'm definitely sure that's why we're obsessed with it now!] Maybe it was the double-story design of our house that just begged to be climbed up, swung from and jumped off? Maybe it was our parents, that maintained a firm-but-fair attitude of 'just be careful', and were probably okay with letting us prance around because they knew we had each other's backs. I don't know, but I feel like we had a pretty solid childhood... and a part of me wishes we could start up Missions again without the fear of serious jail time.

Jon [Josh].

* 'Deep-seeded' or 'deep-seated'? http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/deep.html