This is a great discussion on advertising's past, present and future featuring Lee Clow and Alex Bogusky. Part 1 is embedded here; once you’re hooked here’s part 2, part 3 and part 4. Enjoy!

Breakfast at Sulimay’s – this is a great weekly series. In short, Bill, Ann and Joe meet up at a diner in Philly to critique current music. The twist? They’re retirees. Hilarity (and astute reviews) ensue. Read more about the gang here.

When all was said and done (yesterday), I came out with 198 photos — an admirable effort, but well short of the goal. It’s still a blast to look through the photos and see where I was (or where my head was) throughout the year.

With that in mind, I made a quick movie of all the photos set to the song I listened to the most in 2009, Radiohead’s “Gagging Order” (199 plays, according to iTunes). Enjoy!

(and if you want to participate in 2010, it’s the perfect time to start. I’ve already posted my first photo for 2010.

iPhone 365 – 2009 from Kyle Johnston on Vimeo.

I decided to tune in again Friday night, and was treated to—dare I say—an even better performance. Here’s the setup: Fallon asks members of the audience for a few details of their lives, then challenges The Roots crew to freestyle a song on the spot. Even better, they have to match a specific style or genre of music. It’s incredible to hear what they come up with in a pinch. The clip below is about 10 minutes, and you’re in for a treat if you have time to watch the whole thing. Hint: The Roots channeling Paul Simon.

I have to say, this show is really growing on me.

On a totally unrelated note, this blog has been woefully neglected over the past few months in favor of—in no particular order—getting Creative Cohort off the ground, a couple of extensive freelance projects, gobs of activity at the regular gig and livin’ life. More posts to follow soon, probably a short burst of activity followed by another month or two of dead silence. Such is life.

I probably wouldn’t have been inclined checked out the new show, but Mr. Fallon managed to secure The Legendary Roots Crew as his house band. After watching a few minutes of the show, I started to doubt they could be used to their full effect. Then, they started to slow jam the news. Faith = restored.

The folks at CP+B are talking integrated producers — meaning they pair specialists in web, video and interactive on projects. As they work together, those specialists push projects to new places with the added benefit of learning new skills along the way. As they begin to see projects from different perspectives, you end up with a video producer who could excel at creating (or overseeing the creation of) a website, web pros shooting videos for online spots, etc.

This kind of idea has been knocking around in my head for the past year or so, but this video does a great job of putting the disparate ideas in my head down on pixels. I think this approach is a natural evolution of online media and those who create it.

Watch it ASAP — I think Creativity locks their content behind a subscription page after 7 days or so.

The Orange Underground – an interesting campaign for Cheetos by Goodby Silverstein. There are a lot of nice little touches, like the pattern overlaying the video and the cheap “paper” and felt-tip pen drawings in the cookbook.

Exiled!, a new show from MTV. Take the Super Sweet 16 kids and send them to live with tribes in Africa and Antartica. It sounds like a joke, but the Fallon Planning Blog has the skinny.

Guinness, Life of a Dot, a nice progression of their award-winning Evolution spot. I think these pieces complement each other nicely without trying to rehash the exact same idea.

CP+B’s Holiday Card – made for a select group of their clients, this card features a nice little customizable video and some surprising interaction at the end. (Use this code: 547WERT)

More on the CP+B tip, they’re doing some nice work for Domino’s now; taking them back to their “30 minutes or it’s free” guarantee.

Cool Flash-based website for Soïa & Kyo, a fashion outerwear maker. Love the 3D space mixed with the hand-drawn elements.

Just Do It South Africa — a fantastic new Nike campaign from W+K Amsterdam. Check their blog for samples of the print work, which features beautiful photography and pitch-perfect copywriting (the real star of the show). Similarly, the TV spot (below) looks stunning, but the VOs and sound design make it sing.