Three reasons why.
1. Yello. Well-heeled pop music conceived by Groucho Marx and Kraftwerk on a Sicilian holiday.
2. He works with ReWATCH, a Swiss company that recycles aluminium cans into watches.
3. In 1972, he installed a commemorative plaque at Kassel railway station with the message: ‘On March 23rd 1994, from 3 to 4pm, Dieter Meier will stand on this plaque.’ 22 years later he did just that. He did what he said he was going to do. He delivered his promise.
And that’s why I think I like him most of all. It’s exactly the sort of thing my long lost friend Graham Sutherland would have done, with a bottle of cider sticking out of each coat pocket.
Today is Dieter Meier’s 64th birthday. Celebrate his beautiful timing and well-delivered brand promise by playing 3rd of June from the album Flag.
Mark Griffiths www.idealconsulting.co.uk
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I could never understand why you liked Yello and now I begin to understand.
ReplyDeleteI love the story about the plaque. I blogged recently about a client of mine who appear to value expertise over execution. They have well informed internal debates but don't do anything about it. They promote people based on expertise and that just fuels more debate. What they need is some of Dieter's determination, action and commitment to a date.
Of course its always easier to be a conceptual artist and deliver on your promises if you are born with a silver spoon in your mouth. But enough of Graham, who not be a lost as you think ...http://www.applegate.co.uk/company/12/21/968.htm
(although he answers the phone as often as you Mark)
Phone? How very 20th century! The issue is that I find it difficult to have two conversations at the same time. There’s always one going on inside my head and I have to pay particular attention to it (if not, it gets louder). The idea for blogging came from this conversation. Funnily enough, that voice has grown a lot less insistent and sounds a lot more happy since I began. Graham? I received a text message from him last Christmas Day asking if I still lived in Arundel. I was smoking a cigar in a Havana bar at the time (very Dieter Meier). Interestingly, Graham was a big fan of the novels of Graham Greene, Our Man In Havana et al. There is a plaque outside room 501 in the Sebilla Hotel, where the fictitious character lived out his life. I haven’t read the book. I have stayed at the hotel. But, I think the only reason I went to visit that plaque was Graham. Sutherland, that is.
ReplyDeleteThe cathartic effect of blogging, purging the conversations in your head. I am fortunate to have kissed the Blarney stone (twice) and thus all conversations tumble freely - always have - not stopping to befuddle me, not to be properly arranged.
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear that you're traveling far and wide. No so happy about the smoking though - that's scourge you'd wisely avoided before.
PS: Hope you took some salad cream
As Ian Curtis said, 'Heart and cigars, one will burn.' Done the first - it's a matter of progression. As for salad cream - a much derided brand product, carried around the crowded beaches of the Costa Del Sol (and now Aya Napa in Cyprus) by my father. Mayo just won't do it and the world needs to know.
ReplyDeleteSounds like 'Architecture from the hooded claw'.
ReplyDeleteIn my youth, travel was only possible via TV, Channel ferry or spliff. My eyes were wide with wonder and possibility. Though possibility was all it remained. Now the world is my ostrich, I find I'm being quite selective. As a special 50th celebration, however, Japan is looming. But my one real aim in this life is to orbit the planet. Though not with Ryanair. My bladder wouldn't stand it. I'd really like to do a Dieter Meier and say something like: 'On May 29th 2031, Mark Griffiths will orbit the planet.' That is a promise I would like to keep to myself.
ReplyDeleteIn my youth, travel was only possible for others. I was merely allowed to admire their exploits via TV. I was even Split from friends for lack of funds.
ReplyDeleteThe world became my oyster later (when cheap flights opened avenues to exotic destinations like Maastricht). I even found my pearl in foreign shores. Today my string of pearls has become a beautiful tether, for a few years at least. Japan is long way off.
So I'll toast your promise and I work to make the same trip too.