Shooting the video was a great experience. I’m not a patient person at all, but patience was needed for this project. The whole day was spent to capture the footage for less than 1 minute of final product. Have a look at the photos. Most noteworthy is how we worked out plunking Santa with the “traditional hard, flying object” that we’ll refrain from naming. The production boys did that up great in the studio.

If you’ve never been on a shoot, there are simply so many things to keep in mind so the final stitched together product is seamless and consistent. It truly was a fascinating experience that everyone involved enjoyed immensely.

Special thanks to Vernon and Kevin to lend their expertise to the project. If you need any great video work, let us know and we’ll get you in touch with these guys. And if you need some actors, just let me know. I’m sure Sam, Talita, Shannon, Chris, and the girls: Ellie, Hannah, and Avonlea would be happy to help you. Great job folks.

Phd Productions releases its first commercial to celebrate the 2009 Holiday Season. Have a look and share with everyone.

Happy Holidays!

In one hour last Thursday, I had more time on the radio and TV than in my whole 36 years combined and in both instances, the interviews were over before I knew it. The announcers on both JOY FM and MyNC TV were cool and collected as expected while I tried to contain the butterflies. But they were all very nice and helped make me feel a little calmer. Overall they went well. The TV interview aired Saturday and the radio one will air in the next few weeks. Click here for the TV interview!

November 7-8, 2009

We started our weekend Saturday morning in Tuscaloosa to help our friends at Tide Treasures promote the Pocket Disc and to have some fun tailgating before the Crimson tide went on to put LSU in the books. We were treated to a secret Coke and Brown Sugar rub on some of the most tender, tasty ribs I’ve ever had. Thanks to Carol and Randy for all their kind southern hospitality.

Next morning we were up bright and early to help Chris, Brandy, and the rest of the Mountain High Outfitters crew at the Moss Rock Festival just outside Birmingham. D’s were flying all over the place after families passed the Mountain High booth and discovered the Pocket Disc. “I can’t believe how good they fly!” and “Oh honey, look at these!” were some of the common exclamations we overheard. Lots of beautiful artwork, good music and food rounded out the day for us and the many visitors enjoying the sunny weather at the festival. This is one we’ll surely want to return to next year. Big thanks to Chris Groom of Mountain High for inviting us out and making us feel at home.

The Pocket Disc helped kicked off UNC’s first ever Thursday night game. Tailgating next to Bub O’Maley’s, lots of folks stopped by to see what this curious game Skitzlejinx was all about. We all had a great time and a few new styles of shooting were discovered. While most favored the traditional disc toss, some opted for the tomahawk style while others used the horseshoe approach. Each had varying degrees of success. It still remains to be seen which technique is best. The lure of the 4 and 3 holes is hard to resist for some, but the patient old school disc tossers content to rack up 1s and 2s often took the prize. Not a few passer-byers said things to us to the effect: “Huh, we’re seeing the next cornhole right here. Check that out!”

September 2009

I thought the photos would say it better than I could. What a venue! This is where we came to sell Pocket Discs, enjoy music, food and drinks, and camp. When it was dry, the discs were flying. But as most people later told us, “That’s typical Colorado weather!” - I was literally putting sunscreen on my shirtless back in this photo when I noticed what was rolling our way.

Five minutes later, freezing cold rain and not a few hail pellets slammed down upon the crowd.

It was like that all weekend – scorching one minute and freezing the next. But everyone kept good spirits and fun was had by all as this one minute video shows.

On the way back, we drove 8 hours across the great state of Colorado with many photo stops from Montrose to Denver in a convertible rental car. We vowed to keep the top down unless it rained. It snowed, but through it we drove, bundled up and happy as could be. If you drive across Colorado ever, make sure you do it in a convertible if you can. We made it the whole way.

Special thanks to Seth and the boys at www.LokiGear.com for inviting us out and sharing their booth with us.

On the last day of my vacation in Maryland, I took the girls to the pool. While hanging near the diving board I asked a random guy if he’d let us video him while jumping off the board. Pretty lucky I asked him. Jump? No, obviously not good enough for him. Patrick dove and snagged it on the first go. On his second, he did a gainer and I nailed him in the ribs with the ‘D. He clamped down his arm executing a perfect chicken wing catch before hitting the water. Then he says, “Let’s try a gainer off the high dive.” Just being the thrower, I readily agreed. Seemed like a good bargain to me. My first throw blew and I thought he would kill himself reaching back behind him. He got right back up there and we did a bit of triangulation. I fixed on a spot, he took off, and with some good fortune, my aim was true. Patrick didn’t miss a beat.

Patrick and his friends have since helped us with some game and uses ideas and he hopes to do some video work himself to add to the cause. We are looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.

Our first venture at a festival where we rented booth space was a huge success. Tim landed us a great spot at the top gentle hill overlooking the meadow stage. We were busy throwing, talking, and laughing with Pocket Disc lovers all weekend. Watching kids, parents, and everyone in between hurling Pocket Discs through the air was a thrill for us. When I snuck out of the booth to take a swim in the river, I saw Pocket Discs. When I went to get bloomin onions and other treats that taste so good at the shows, I saw Pocket Discs. When I saw random people, they would say, “Man, everywhere I look your Pocket Discs are flying around! Congratulations”

Perhaps the most exciting part was our connection with several nomadic festivalers who are very interested in helping us expand our festival presence. We’ll see if we can hit a few in the fall and then have a huge effort in 2010. We also are excited about meeting several college students who will be helping us with our Fall of 2009 college campus campaign. Special thanks to Tim for handling all logistics and to Cristina and Wylie for coming out to help out in the booth.

Here are a few photos of some happy folks tossing the Pocket Disc.

February 12, 2009
Headed to the NY International Toy Fair

Packed way more stuff into the old PHD Van that we thought possible including a partially lame sales manager that just joined the team. Timothy Dowdall, who’s many years of basketball finally wore his knee down, crammed himself into the back corner of the van with his leg propped up on God only knows what. (Tim is known as Analog in our camp due to his numerous paper files. “I have a file on every rep!” “Tim, have you ever heard of Excel” Chris asks often)

Boxes of PHDs, coolers of food, and all the other fixins’ to make our booth pop at the show. Guitars? How are we gonna fit them in there? By strapping less delicate stuff to the top of the van of course. Off we go to MD to stop by the folks place. Along the way, there is much moaning and groaning from the backseat about my liberal use of the whole highway. It is settled upon; I will not be driving tomorrow. At a rest top Tim and I have a healthy spat over a misconstrued blackberry message he sent me. Funny how emails read the wrong way can ruffle feathers. Good to clear the air!

Got to MD and Mom’s smiling face and homemade pizza – best in the world but it sat like a ton of bricks in our bellies as we tried to sleep it off.

Feb 13, 2009
Away we go to NYC. I grew up outside of DC, but never in my 35 years have I been there. Silly huh? So I have a bit of anticipation to see this place.

We pass the time cutting Velcro to stick the PHDs on the felt lined display. We have to stop in Philly for more. You ever cut 500 squares of Velcro from a long spool? The scissors get quite gummy with that adhesive gunk. In the end we have some pretty sore thumb bones but our PHDs are ready.

Yeah, NY looks pretty impressive, but we’re just jazzed about the show. The Javits center is ridiculous! I feel like a small fry. There is Melissa and Doug toys with a space bigger than my house. I have those butterflies like before my first at bat against a fireball pitcher in a big game back in HS. It’s an exciting feeling but not all the way a good one.

Boxes and noise everywhere. Everyone is building their booths. We find ours and get to it. The work helps me forget my nerves and in a few hours our space is glowing with the simple beauty of our Mayan handicraft.

Our first night in the city was to be spent near the airport so we had to drive over some bridge to get there and I realized for all the beauty of the city, this is why I don’t care much to return anytime soon. I think we sat through about 8 cycles of lights to get through. Chris was driving, or mainly just sitting behind the wheel cussing. Somehow we missed a turn, and said the heck with it and decided to eat somewhere. So we ate and drank out the rush hour and headed back – much more smoothly this time, until the back hatch of the van popped open suddenly and out went half of Analog’s stuff. Chris slammed on the breaks and out into traffic we poured to recover his stuff. Thinking we had all of it we loaded it back in and heard “Eh, these yours?” God bless that kind New Yorker. How would Analog read his paper files without his glasses? Grabbing them, he hobbled back to the car and off we went.

A view of the city from the hotel rooftop made think that traffic might be worth it once in a while. Wow!

Some shenanigans in the stairwell – Hotels are great places for Practicing Hockey Defense – see the video here – one person defends the doorway at the bottom of the steps and the other one stands at the top and fires PHDs down trying to score. Toughest shot to block? The bounce shot off the ceiling. Yup, the ceiling at the bottom of the stairs just above the goalies head. Zing it off there and you’re almost guaranteed a goal as the deflection is almost impossible to save.

Feb 14, 2009
Showtime. I don’t think I sat down from 8 AM till sometime around 3. I think I had a granola bar. The same goes for the rest of our team. Well that’s not entirely true. We each sat to take orders. And orders we took! The first hour and a half was bit slow, but then did it start kickin. What nervousness I had was gone. We were chuckin D’s at whoever came by and spreading the good word about our Fair-Trade based toy.

After a very productive day, we headed over to the ASTRA event at FAO Schwartz. But we were late and couldn’t find a taxi so we jumped in a 1980’s Lincoln Limo with some hilarious driver. The fellow claims he never watched the Dukes of Hazard, but at every green light, he let rip a jolly “Yee Haw”. As we rolled out of our stylish ride, we admired the groovy Apple building in front of FAO. We checked in and having not eaten all day, I was not especially shy about hitting the food line a few times. Cajun grub and hurricanes. I was feeling good. Dancing, throwing PHDs around FAO, and mingling, we met a crazy cat that I’ll never forget named Animal. He’s a Myachi www.Myachi.com disciple and works at FAO all week awing kids and adults alike with his sick hand bag moves. His buddy, Core, added his own set of nutty tricks. Later I was inspired with some Myachi cross marketing ideas that I’ll pitch their way like Myachi Mitts and Myachi Bocce that should help both our causes. Either way, check their site out.

The ride home was your typical boisterous back of the taxi experience. How do those drivers put up with such idiots on a regular basis?

Sleep? So the room wasn’t quite what we bargained for. We had reserved 2 queen beds but they gave em all out before we could claim one, so the boys had to head down the way. I think they went off and snored in some other room in the end. One night of peaceful rest!

Feb 15, 2009
Oh the morning came way too soon. What else is new? It was our job to set up the booth, but Chris and Tim were already there! Racing down the street, I wished I could find my earpiece to my cell phone. I had no gloves and had to get the day’s instructions to our office manager out before the mayhem at the Javits. Damn it was cold! My hand about froze, luckily my thinning hair was aided by a PHD to keep the head warm – did I mention that PHDs Prevent Heat Diffusion from the extremities like heads?

We made it in time and the day turned out to be another great one for us. The rest of the show followed suit. After 4 days of broken sleep, slurping down gulps of room temperature coffee saturated with sugar whenever possible, granola bars, and lots of great fun, we finally neared the end. We had made distribution contacts in Canada, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Mexico, and more. We written enough orders to double our presence in America and met tons of fun people. PHDs will be flying all around the world before long.

We wearily broke down the booth, packed up in the rain, and had a relatively uneventful drive back to Maryland, and then to NC the next day. The next big show for us will be the Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City this summer.

A friend of PHD Productions, Gisele Abrahao, is doing a very special thing in Africa. To help her cause, we gave her 40 PHDs to take to the orphans where she is volunteering. Judging by the photos, the kids are having a great time with their PHDs.

Please read more about Gisele’s adventures around the world http://www.giseleabrahao.blogspot.com/ and her inspiring volunteer work for the African Child Foundation in Uganda - www.acfuganda.org.