ChrisKempt.com

I'm currently sitting watching the stream from today's Apple event in Cupertino, they've just announced the iPad Air 2 (much to the chagrin of one of my iPad Air - owning team) and it reminded me how much things have changed in the last 3-4 years thanks to Apple. Just this morning I witnessed a scene which distilled this change more clearly than I would have ever thought possible. On the way to work i stopped off at our local Tesco filling station, it was about 9:30 - hardly peak time, and it's a big station so you wouldn't expect it to be too busy - but what greeted me was an end-of-the-world-style scene reminiscent of a George A. Romero movie - cars queueing 5 deep, people shouting at each other in frustration and trying to barge each other out of the way in order to get to the pumps. Did some kind of flash fuel crisis which cause panic buying? Was there some kind of crazy special offer they were all racing to get? No... it was an upgrade of the pumps

Today I visited a local school to do a careers talk - one of many that I've done in the area since we moved here. As ever it was loads of fun to do - it's great to chat to kids about the industry and, lets face it, Me is one of my favourite subjects :) Anyway - since the talk is fresh in my head I thought it might be useful to jut down some of my key tips in case someone out there can benefit. So here we go: If you want to have a great career in the creative industries I suggest you: 1) Be Interested As well as interesting. Whilst you should be proud of your ideas and skills, remember that experienced people probably won't be so impressed initially. They're probably wrong, you're definitely going to be the next big thing, but there's still a huge amount you can learn from them. Remember that creative people love to talk about themselves so, be interested, ask as many questions as possible and wait for them to be interested in you. 2) Be Confident Follo

When I was younger I knew 3 things for certain: The more exhaust pipes a car had the faster it was, Sarah Greene was very interesting for some reason, Anything "turbo" was automatically awesome. Now that I'm older I'm enlightened - I understand that car-manufacturers play with your head by adding additional, technically unnecessary, exhaust pipes to their cars but I'm kinda okay with that. My understanding of Turbo however is different matter, I now realise that there are only two acceptable uses of the term: In a post-modern/retro/ironic fashion i.e. "he's a turbo bell-end" or "Turbo Super Ultra Mega Snail Racing will be out on iOS this fall" If something actually has a turbocharger on it - in which case it is way too cool for its own damn good. What's the significance of this? Well, one of my obsessions in life is efficiency, specifically how to get maximum effect for minimum effort. This obsession seem to permeat

One of my favourite songs is Alice Cooper’s “Lost in America” which I’ve loved ever since I caught it late one night on an episode of Beavis and Butthead, it's a hilarious example of 80s rock cheese - the lyrics for the first verse are: I can't get a girl, 'cause I ain't got a car I can't get a car, 'cause I ain't got a job I can't get a job, 'cause I ain't got a car So I'm looking for a girl with a job and a car Which, in the video B&B riff-off to great comic effect. For me though, this song works on two levels: On the one hand it gives me a wonderful sense of nostalgia for the naivety of my early teens - a time when life appeared to be much simpler,  full of such bright colours and contrast and not the complex (but still beautiful) shades that it is now. On the other it seems to rather beautifully sum up the frustration that anyone who finds themselves at a disadvantage can feel, a sense of powerlessness that will also often be accompan