Behind the wheel of a taxi

The Graceful Taylor spoke to author Rachael Guthridge about her recent and revealing publication, Taxi - the inside story.

Here's four reasons to sit in the front of the taxi.

1. the drivers are really nice

2. they have great stories to tell about other passengers!

3. they have great stories to tell about their own lives

4. the drivers are really nice

Rachael Guthridge sat in the front seat of a taxi one day...next thing you know, she's the taxi driver pin-up girl! Taxi Project is a social marketing phenomenon, an exercise in how to improve public perception of a group in our community who, let's face it, often cop a lot of flak, despite doing a vital and potentially dangerous job for little financial reward.

Thanks to Rachael, we can now discover the human beings behind the wheel. Like the driver who had to round up a flock of sheep on his way to taking one of our elderly citizens to an appointment - not quite in the job description! Or the driver who's scared everytime he goes out to work because he's had to deal too many times with drunks, and people who get aggro and don't want to pay.

Taxi Project is a book, a website, a network, an exhibition and a fundraiser for Very Special Kids. So if you're interested in social marketing, check it out here: http://www.taxiproject.com/blog/

A stairway to viral marketing success

If a stairway was turned into a piano keyboard that actually played notes when you walked on it, would more people use it? Yes! In a novel social experiment in Sweden, 66% more people used the stairs instead of the escalator because it was more fun.

No, this is not a piece of public art, or social research. It's a very clever marketing campaign for Volkswagen. Yes - they sell cars. Please explain!

Viral/social/web marketing is hit and miss, right? Getting your video seen by millions on YouTube is harder than getting a camel to pass...you know the rest.

So VW's ad agency devised a social marketing campaign built around the concept that, if you make something fun, more people will do it. Turning a train station stairway into a piano that actually plays notes might seem a world away from VW's ultimate goal, but as a high-profile element of an integrated marketing strategy that includes other gags, a website called The Fun Theory and an anyone-can-enter competition, it drives brand recognition of Volkswagen as the company whose enviro-friendly cars will be more FUN to drive than anybody else's. It's genius.

For more on the piano stairs, and the whole campaign, go to "the fun theory"

photo above by kj.vogelius

Restaurant review: Gigibaba

Lamb cutlets with wild oregano and sea salt, smoky baba ganouj... a taste of what to expect from one of Smith Street's new gems - gigibaba.

Being a restaurateur and a lover of all things food, it can take me up to two hours to decide where to eat when I head out. In a group situation, the onus is invariably on me to sniff out the best or latest place.

Gigibaba is uber cool. A tiny shop front with the obligatory hanging bare globes, a mother of a marble bar, a Persian rug cleverly featured on the back wall and a couple of quirky tables and chairs... for the lucky ones.

They have menus I'm sure, but I've never seen one. Bruce the cool waiter intuitively steers me towards the sardines stuffed with pinenuts and fetta, tomato and walnut ezme and steamed prawns with capsicum butter. Plenty of good quality bread to mop it up and a half bottle of Barossa Valley rose for good measure. This place really lives up to the hype it attracts. You might struggle scoring a table on Fri or Sat nights so during the week is probably the go. This is truly one of Melbourne's best little bars / eateries. And it only took me half an hour to decide tonight! Gigibaba, 102 Smith St Fitzroy, Victoria

Mr Jones (Jason McLaren Jones) is a contributing food & lifestyle writer to the Graceful Taylor and runs a number of successful Melbourne cafes, Snow Pony Porgy + Mr Jones.

Photo source - click here

Things that floated our boat this month

Eno Henze is a digital artist & art director who designed these exquisite custom printed wall paper prints - the image below was a commissioned piece for the Maxalot Gallery in Amsterdam.

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Autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire took a short helicopter ride over Manhattan. He then proceeded to sketch the skyline from memory. Every building was 100% correct and drawn to scale - astonishing! Click here for more

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Who designed the Chupa Chups logo in 1969? You guessed it...

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Coffee and interiors to die for at the fabulous Snowpony of Balwyn - 95 Whitehorse road

Literary and musical brilliance on our doorstep

The must-read for summer is Piano Lessons, by pianist and writer Anna Goldsworthy. Just published by Black Inc, the book is at once the memoir of a prodigiously talented young girl who has become one of Australia's best pianists, and an homage to an extraordinary teacher and the type of teacher/student relationship that so often lies behind greatness.

When nine year old Anna met Eleonora Sivan, Russian émigré and world-class pianist, an amazing relationship began that was to define the pianist Anna would become. As Anna told Graceful Taylor recently, "I would still have played seriously, but the piano would be a different beast to me if I hadn't met Eleonora".

In the book Anna vividly gives us Eleonora's idiosyncratic voice and we begin to understand that learning to play the piano was a process of learning to understand life and learning to understand self. "It was hard being deconstructed every day," says Anna now. But the value of the lessons is evident in the person she has become, successfully managing careers as a solo pianist, member of the Seraphim Trio, teacher, writer and now mother.

The book is so honest that some of Anna's students have told her that they feel like they're trespassing when they read it. "But they're absorbing the teaching, " she says proudly. "Writing the book has forced me to articulate my relationship to music." And we're the better for it. This isn't just about the piano, or music, it's an insight into creativity from a woman who has an abundance and who once met a teacher who showed her how to release it. Sensational.

For more info, go to http://www.annagoldsworthy.com/

We're very proud to be involved with Anna through the Seraphim Trio (a classical piano trio). Cover graphic for the 2010 series brochure we've just developed is below.