The computer games book is full steam ahead and it's madness. However, we're starting to get the feel of the industry more and we're really excited by the response. We're having to do an incredible amount of research - especially as we're starting from scratch, unlike the 'main' book - but this has shown us that there's not this kind of resource where there will be all this information in one place. I think people will be surprised at how much is in it, even if they think they know gaming really well.
We're also making our first computer game record adjudication tomorrow. There's a new version of GWR favourite 'Guitar Hero' out and we'll be at the Games Media awards, in Soho, London where journalists will attempt to set the highest score record on 'expert' level, so should be fun. Can they walk the walk as well as talk the talk?
We're also planning to go to the Joystick Awards next week to keep getting ideas and feedback.
As for GWR 2009 (already, I hear you cry?), we're hearing pitches from designers for next year's book. There's a lot of thought (and research) into the look of the book, as well as the content, so it's a very important decision.
We've also had our second pitch for the cover through, which is very very exciting. We're working with a company to try to develop new foil technology for next year's book. They're trying to get holographic foil as opposed to lens based foil, so you'll see full images. As I say, this would be brand new and never done before. Hopefully this idea will come off, but I'd like to hear what YOU think should be on the cover. We're looking for a balance between all our record categories, so put your comments below and we'll take them into consideration when we make our decision.
Wednesday, 10 October 2007
Thursday, 4 October 2007
Books update
Just to give you a litle update on the things we're currently working on...
Next year's book: The first cover foils have come back (remember the LA trip a couple of weeks back?) and they're looking pretty good. As ever, we roll them out for market research to ensure that I have the equivalent mind to a ten year old boy and that our potential readership think they look cool too.
As far as the content of the book, we've been looking into the possibility of a gardening feature, the potential return of the fashion pages and how we deal with animals - their records, not the ceatures themselves. It's that point already - with the book hitting shelves a round the world for the 2008 edition - to think of 2009 and form a mental order in my head (where else...) of how the new book is going to look like and what it's going to feature.
I'm currently spending my weekends working on the upcoming computer game book. It's progressing quite nicely (thank you very much) and are around a fifth completed already. Computer games, like the rest of our records, change pretty fast, so we're having to investigate iconic games in particular. I must admit I didn't think my Sundays would be spent with the Prince of Perisa and Pac Man...
Next year's book: The first cover foils have come back (remember the LA trip a couple of weeks back?) and they're looking pretty good. As ever, we roll them out for market research to ensure that I have the equivalent mind to a ten year old boy and that our potential readership think they look cool too.
As far as the content of the book, we've been looking into the possibility of a gardening feature, the potential return of the fashion pages and how we deal with animals - their records, not the ceatures themselves. It's that point already - with the book hitting shelves a round the world for the 2008 edition - to think of 2009 and form a mental order in my head (where else...) of how the new book is going to look like and what it's going to feature.
I'm currently spending my weekends working on the upcoming computer game book. It's progressing quite nicely (thank you very much) and are around a fifth completed already. Computer games, like the rest of our records, change pretty fast, so we're having to investigate iconic games in particular. I must admit I didn't think my Sundays would be spent with the Prince of Perisa and Pac Man...
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
Thrilling news about Michael Jackson
My dealing with media and the world of celebrity continues...
On Monday, I was on BBC Radio's 1EXTRA channel talking about possibly our most famous record holder, Michael Jackson. It's the 25th anniversary of the launch of his 'Thriller' album, which happens to be the best selling album of all time. There were all sorts of world famous contributors, such as comedian Eddie Murphy, John Landis (who directed the famous video) and me.
They particularly wanted me to talk about the sales of the album. As there is no way to get accurate international sales - normally you can tell from US and UK sales alone - there are many different figures, some suggesting that over 100 million copies were sold. We estimate it's around 60 million, but it's a bit of a moot point as it far outsells the next biggest, which is the Eagles 'Best Of' album...followed by Queen's 'Best of', pop pickers...
In my mind, this makes it even more impressive as 'Best of ' albums usually far outsell original releases. As a pure album, the next biggest seller is Sergeant Pepper's by the Beatles and it lags WAY behind.
Then yesterday, who should call but michael Jackson - or his at least, his people called. They wanted to discuss our making a corporate edition, as we have done for various companies before. A coprorate edition is essentially the main section of the record book, but with bespoke pages on, for example, MJ's records and a tailored cover (such as the image from the cover of the album).
As it's early in discussions, we've not decided anything yet. I'd be interested to hear what you think about these publishing options, so please post your comments belowQ
On Monday, I was on BBC Radio's 1EXTRA channel talking about possibly our most famous record holder, Michael Jackson. It's the 25th anniversary of the launch of his 'Thriller' album, which happens to be the best selling album of all time. There were all sorts of world famous contributors, such as comedian Eddie Murphy, John Landis (who directed the famous video) and me.
They particularly wanted me to talk about the sales of the album. As there is no way to get accurate international sales - normally you can tell from US and UK sales alone - there are many different figures, some suggesting that over 100 million copies were sold. We estimate it's around 60 million, but it's a bit of a moot point as it far outsells the next biggest, which is the Eagles 'Best Of' album...followed by Queen's 'Best of', pop pickers...
In my mind, this makes it even more impressive as 'Best of ' albums usually far outsell original releases. As a pure album, the next biggest seller is Sergeant Pepper's by the Beatles and it lags WAY behind.
Then yesterday, who should call but michael Jackson - or his at least, his people called. They wanted to discuss our making a corporate edition, as we have done for various companies before. A coprorate edition is essentially the main section of the record book, but with bespoke pages on, for example, MJ's records and a tailored cover (such as the image from the cover of the album).
As it's early in discussions, we've not decided anything yet. I'd be interested to hear what you think about these publishing options, so please post your comments belowQ
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
Recovering...
...from a whirlwind week of record breaking. The UK launch went very well, but it really took it out of me.
Most of our record breakers arrived on Monday. Cathie and Walt Jung from North Carolina flew in early morning - normally we try and meet our visitors as they arrive, but it was REALLY early so we couldn't get there.
Next in was Kenneth Lee, who was very cool. He looked like a smaller version of Wesley Snipes in Blade, but wasn't a vampire. He was a fun guy, though very calm as you would expect from a samurai. Finally, we had Narve Laeret and his wife Marianne from Norway. He is an extremely well built man, looking every inch ex-special forces, but in person he's a big teddy bear
At one point when Narve and Ken were walking down the street, we can up with an idea of them in a sketch show as a pair of superheroes. As they were both dressed for their martial arts, Ken became Slasher (as he has his samurai sword) and Narve's alter ego was Smasher.
Tuesday night, we met for dinner with holders in Bertorelli's on Charlotte Street in London. We enjoyed a quiet Italian meal. Thankfully we were not as noticeable as these dinners tend to be as from the just looking at them, they aren't as noticeable as our other record breakers. We all chatted and these very different personalities all seem to have got on quite well.
Wednesday was our busiest day so far. We teamed up with TNR to shoot a promotional PR video to go out to the media, featuring our new friends. We filmed them turning up in Victoria railway station from the Gatwick Express, carrying a suitcase. In the middle of rush hour, we surprised everyone with Leslie, opening the suitcase from inside. In our 'story', I take them all sightseeing, going down to Tower Bridge, where Ken did some samurai apple chopping. He was going to split on that was standing on my head, but I was told that we didn't have the insurance (rats!). We took Leslie and Cathie over Westminster Bridge and to Parliament and then we were all on to Buckingham Palace. There the police were called because of Ken's weapon - not for the first time as we had talked to some other officers at Victoria as well.
Thursday was mainly spent checking the news wires for our pictures and other PR stories, as well as the day-to-day tasks such as working on the video games book. It was a real success with big coverage in all forms of media and with more interviews on Friday. It was especially good to be in the morning Metro paper - a record holder in itself!
Later that evening we had a final dinner with all the holders that were helping us with the launch. Kenneth was tired so had an early night, but were joined by Elaine Davidson, the most pierced woman in the world, who was doing a couple of spots with us the following morning. Our venue was Zilli Fish, owned by famous chef Aldo Zilli, who himself used to hold the record for the Highest pancake toss. Again, it was a very enjoyable evening, and Elaine's body art drew some interesting glances.
I was doing my first radio interview at 4.30 on Friday and spent most of the day at 'Heavy' in Wardour Street, talking to all those radio programmes that had helped Scott Christie and I do the most radio interviews in 24 hours. We let them know that they'd made it in the book and had one every ten minutes! Thankfully Stuart Claxton was there to help me, as there were TV interviews and other broadcast slots throughout the day, including Channel 4 Lunchtime News, Channel 5 news and a live interview on Sky News. It's always quite weird doing these things, as it's just you, a camera and a disembodied voice in the room.
I emerged, blinking, from my last interview around 4.30pm, just in time to help set up for a celebration of a good job done. I was half asleep, but it's amazing what a couple of libations and a spell on Guitar Hero can do for the spirits!!
Most of our record breakers arrived on Monday. Cathie and Walt Jung from North Carolina flew in early morning - normally we try and meet our visitors as they arrive, but it was REALLY early so we couldn't get there.
Next in was Kenneth Lee, who was very cool. He looked like a smaller version of Wesley Snipes in Blade, but wasn't a vampire. He was a fun guy, though very calm as you would expect from a samurai. Finally, we had Narve Laeret and his wife Marianne from Norway. He is an extremely well built man, looking every inch ex-special forces, but in person he's a big teddy bear
At one point when Narve and Ken were walking down the street, we can up with an idea of them in a sketch show as a pair of superheroes. As they were both dressed for their martial arts, Ken became Slasher (as he has his samurai sword) and Narve's alter ego was Smasher.
Tuesday night, we met for dinner with holders in Bertorelli's on Charlotte Street in London. We enjoyed a quiet Italian meal. Thankfully we were not as noticeable as these dinners tend to be as from the just looking at them, they aren't as noticeable as our other record breakers. We all chatted and these very different personalities all seem to have got on quite well.
Wednesday was our busiest day so far. We teamed up with TNR to shoot a promotional PR video to go out to the media, featuring our new friends. We filmed them turning up in Victoria railway station from the Gatwick Express, carrying a suitcase. In the middle of rush hour, we surprised everyone with Leslie, opening the suitcase from inside. In our 'story', I take them all sightseeing, going down to Tower Bridge, where Ken did some samurai apple chopping. He was going to split on that was standing on my head, but I was told that we didn't have the insurance (rats!). We took Leslie and Cathie over Westminster Bridge and to Parliament and then we were all on to Buckingham Palace. There the police were called because of Ken's weapon - not for the first time as we had talked to some other officers at Victoria as well.
Thursday was mainly spent checking the news wires for our pictures and other PR stories, as well as the day-to-day tasks such as working on the video games book. It was a real success with big coverage in all forms of media and with more interviews on Friday. It was especially good to be in the morning Metro paper - a record holder in itself!
Later that evening we had a final dinner with all the holders that were helping us with the launch. Kenneth was tired so had an early night, but were joined by Elaine Davidson, the most pierced woman in the world, who was doing a couple of spots with us the following morning. Our venue was Zilli Fish, owned by famous chef Aldo Zilli, who himself used to hold the record for the Highest pancake toss. Again, it was a very enjoyable evening, and Elaine's body art drew some interesting glances.
I was doing my first radio interview at 4.30 on Friday and spent most of the day at 'Heavy' in Wardour Street, talking to all those radio programmes that had helped Scott Christie and I do the most radio interviews in 24 hours. We let them know that they'd made it in the book and had one every ten minutes! Thankfully Stuart Claxton was there to help me, as there were TV interviews and other broadcast slots throughout the day, including Channel 4 Lunchtime News, Channel 5 news and a live interview on Sky News. It's always quite weird doing these things, as it's just you, a camera and a disembodied voice in the room.
I emerged, blinking, from my last interview around 4.30pm, just in time to help set up for a celebration of a good job done. I was half asleep, but it's amazing what a couple of libations and a spell on Guitar Hero can do for the spirits!!
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
UK Launch part one
Time for another crazy week as the book is launched in the UK, following successful launches in Australia and New Zealand recently. There will be more details of what went on 'down under' in the news section of the website in the coming weeks. I've also bee doing radio interviews around the world, especially in Dubai where there seems to be a lot of interest this year.
The book has a special place in British people's hearts and extolls many of the best British virtues. For example, I was on TV again last week - they'll get sick of me soon - with Giles Brandreth on BBC TV's One show. Giles had a huge teddy bear collection, though not as big as Jackie Miley of the USA, who had 5,029 different teddy bears, as of 1 May this year.
Giles was selling his collection off for charity and it brought up the very British obsession of collecting items. We were on with Ann Atkins, the largest collector of gnomes and pixies (2,302 unduplicated items) and Tim Leigh (100 unduplicated salt and pepper sachets). It's very much in the tradition of the UK for explorers to go out and document the world in details, much as we do here in GWR.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg! This week we have lots of record breakers coming over to our HQ including, among others, Cathie Jung (who has the smallest waist - it's smaller than my neck!), Leslie Tipton (a contortionist who can fit into a suitcase - we were thinking of loading her on to a carousel in an airport in London but don't I think that they'd let us) and Ken Lee, who does some very cool things with a samurai sword.
We'll be out and about in the GWRMobile (honk if you see us) and Edd China will be driving around in another one of his contraptions - he has the record for the fastest office, fastest furniture and largest shopping trolley/cart. See if you can spot what he's been building this time.
Once the madness and the interview glut is over I'll let you know what stories come out of this cornucopia of record breaking...
The book has a special place in British people's hearts and extolls many of the best British virtues. For example, I was on TV again last week - they'll get sick of me soon - with Giles Brandreth on BBC TV's One show. Giles had a huge teddy bear collection, though not as big as Jackie Miley of the USA, who had 5,029 different teddy bears, as of 1 May this year.
Giles was selling his collection off for charity and it brought up the very British obsession of collecting items. We were on with Ann Atkins, the largest collector of gnomes and pixies (2,302 unduplicated items) and Tim Leigh (100 unduplicated salt and pepper sachets). It's very much in the tradition of the UK for explorers to go out and document the world in details, much as we do here in GWR.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg! This week we have lots of record breakers coming over to our HQ including, among others, Cathie Jung (who has the smallest waist - it's smaller than my neck!), Leslie Tipton (a contortionist who can fit into a suitcase - we were thinking of loading her on to a carousel in an airport in London but don't I think that they'd let us) and Ken Lee, who does some very cool things with a samurai sword.
We'll be out and about in the GWRMobile (honk if you see us) and Edd China will be driving around in another one of his contraptions - he has the record for the fastest office, fastest furniture and largest shopping trolley/cart. See if you can spot what he's been building this time.
Once the madness and the interview glut is over I'll let you know what stories come out of this cornucopia of record breaking...
Tuesday, 18 September 2007
Computer game book update
As you know, we're working on a new title at the moment - specifically on the wide ranging subject of computer games. While some of us have Nintendos, Playstations and PCs at home, we've had to learn more about computer games and so, to get into a gamer's mentality (ahem), we've installed some of the top consoles out there in our break out area. It's been interesting to see what everyone in the office likes to play and who is best.
The Wii has been very popular at lunchtime, where you can try a spot of golf or maybe have a game of bowling, but the current favourite is Guitar Hero. There's been some quality thrashing going on at the end of the working day and especially when we had some of our top gamers into the office for a wee party and photo session. Of course, none of us were as good as them, but I'd have to say (if pressed) that I'm best within GWR at the moment as I can pass the first stage at 'expert' level, but Kate, Jane and Matt were all quite good. We've got two 'guitars' now, so there'll have to be a showdown and see who will manage the pressure best!!!
We also took a trip to Leipzig for a games convention - this is where we first saw Guitar Hero and decided that we needed to buy it in the interests of research. From chatting to the real gaming enthusiasts, we got the impression that they were really looking forward to it coming out and there certainly seems to be the demand for this title. It was a great time with some passionate people and it also gave us some more ideas for records - fastest time to play the tetris theme on the piano maybe? - and content for the book so that it's what the gamers want.
The book should be ready by the end of the year and out in February some time, so keep your eyes peeled and try for your highest scores. I'm off to wield my 'axe'...
The Wii has been very popular at lunchtime, where you can try a spot of golf or maybe have a game of bowling, but the current favourite is Guitar Hero. There's been some quality thrashing going on at the end of the working day and especially when we had some of our top gamers into the office for a wee party and photo session. Of course, none of us were as good as them, but I'd have to say (if pressed) that I'm best within GWR at the moment as I can pass the first stage at 'expert' level, but Kate, Jane and Matt were all quite good. We've got two 'guitars' now, so there'll have to be a showdown and see who will manage the pressure best!!!
We also took a trip to Leipzig for a games convention - this is where we first saw Guitar Hero and decided that we needed to buy it in the interests of research. From chatting to the real gaming enthusiasts, we got the impression that they were really looking forward to it coming out and there certainly seems to be the demand for this title. It was a great time with some passionate people and it also gave us some more ideas for records - fastest time to play the tetris theme on the piano maybe? - and content for the book so that it's what the gamers want.
The book should be ready by the end of the year and out in February some time, so keep your eyes peeled and try for your highest scores. I'm off to wield my 'axe'...
Monday, 10 September 2007
Celebrity name drop
CLAAANNNG!!! I've been speaking to another global megastar recently. Christopher Lee, star of Dracula, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and The Man with the Golden Gun is going to be entering our hall of fame as, after some research, we have found him to hold three records: most credited screen roles, most swordfights on screen and most connected actor (as in he has worked with more other actors than anyone else). I know there is the 'Six degrees of Kevin Bacon' movement, but the 85 year old British actor seems to be even more ubiquitous. There'll be an update when I get to meet the great man..and I mean great - he's 6 foot 5 inches tall!!
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Facial hair frolics
I've had a wonderfully hirsute weekend in Brighton, UK, where I was called upon to act as a judge for the World Beard Championships. The competition was taking place with the help of the Handlebar Club of Great Britain and you can see winners and more competition details at http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/.
I was judging in the full beard categories. You may thinki that growing a beard is not exactly artistic, but the competition was fierce and had specialist categories - the Verdi (styled moustaches with 10 cm growth), the Garibladi (same, but 20cm growth), full natural beard and full beard freestyle. The winner, Elmer Weisser from Germany ,styled his beard in the fashion of London's famous Tower Bridge! I also got a chance to chat to Karl-Heinz Hille, our record holder for the most years winning the same category - Imperial Partial Beards.
It was a surprisingly racous affair, with men resplended in three piece suits, hats and canes, with as much effort being up into dressing up for the occasion as had gone into the beards. It had the feeling of a rock concert, especially seeing the thousands queuing to get in. It has inspired me to try to develop my facial hair. As well as being in fashion at the moment, it's a great exhibition of manliness, which you don't see very much these days...it's also one of the most acceptable way that men can show off!
I was judging in the full beard categories. You may thinki that growing a beard is not exactly artistic, but the competition was fierce and had specialist categories - the Verdi (styled moustaches with 10 cm growth), the Garibladi (same, but 20cm growth), full natural beard and full beard freestyle. The winner, Elmer Weisser from Germany ,styled his beard in the fashion of London's famous Tower Bridge! I also got a chance to chat to Karl-Heinz Hille, our record holder for the most years winning the same category - Imperial Partial Beards.
It was a surprisingly racous affair, with men resplended in three piece suits, hats and canes, with as much effort being up into dressing up for the occasion as had gone into the beards. It had the feeling of a rock concert, especially seeing the thousands queuing to get in. It has inspired me to try to develop my facial hair. As well as being in fashion at the moment, it's a great exhibition of manliness, which you don't see very much these days...it's also one of the most acceptable way that men can show off!
Friday, 31 August 2007
Canada and who would play me in a film?
The Guinness World Records 2008 edition continues its worldwide launch so I’ve been collecting air miles again. Canada has been my latest port of call. I started in Toronto, spending a week appearing on many breakfast TV shows, promoting our search for the world’s tallest people. During the transmission of Good Morning Toronto a chap came in measuring over 7’4”, which is very pleasing as it shows that our efforts are working. I went to take in evil dead the musical while there, which was brilliant. Being a bit of a horror fan and liking a bit of cheese, it was right up my street and I enjoyed it immensely. After more media interviews, we then flew to Vancouver, where we continued to rack up TV appearances.
Once we had finished our Canadian leg, we had to take a trip to LA to get updates on our cover and while there, I received a phone call from a film producer wanting to arrange a meeting. Last year I was adjudicating the largest game of bingo record at Dodger Stadium, when I get a call from a documentary filmmaker who was shooting a feature length film called King of Kong, between two rival Donkey Kong players. This had since been finished and has already had a release. I was invited to the premiere where I was asked to adjudicate in a straight shoot out between Billy Mitchell and Steve Sanders, but sadly I missed the red carpet as I was flying to Vancouver at the time.
Anyway, back to LA now and the producer said that there were plans to make this into a comedy film and that it was being pitched to the likes of Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn. It transpired that they wanted to have me as a small but vital character in the film! They were wondering if I would give my permission for this to happen and to suggest whom I thought would be suitable to play me. They came up with Robbie Williams – not going for a real likeness there maybe – or Ricky Gervais, who I can see better. Having met him as well when giving him the record for most downloaded podcast, he could be brilliant. Mind you, I have sometimes been mistaken for Robbie Coltrane, so he might be even better.
Once we had finished our Canadian leg, we had to take a trip to LA to get updates on our cover and while there, I received a phone call from a film producer wanting to arrange a meeting. Last year I was adjudicating the largest game of bingo record at Dodger Stadium, when I get a call from a documentary filmmaker who was shooting a feature length film called King of Kong, between two rival Donkey Kong players. This had since been finished and has already had a release. I was invited to the premiere where I was asked to adjudicate in a straight shoot out between Billy Mitchell and Steve Sanders, but sadly I missed the red carpet as I was flying to Vancouver at the time.
Anyway, back to LA now and the producer said that there were plans to make this into a comedy film and that it was being pitched to the likes of Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn. It transpired that they wanted to have me as a small but vital character in the film! They were wondering if I would give my permission for this to happen and to suggest whom I thought would be suitable to play me. They came up with Robbie Williams – not going for a real likeness there maybe – or Ricky Gervais, who I can see better. Having met him as well when giving him the record for most downloaded podcast, he could be brilliant. Mind you, I have sometimes been mistaken for Robbie Coltrane, so he might be even better.
Sunday, 26 August 2007
GWR 2009 Cover Search
From the seat of Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief, Guinness World Records
26 August 2007
01:00 GMT
Somewhere over mainland USA
Well, here I am, back on a plane. This time, I'm flying to the USA not
for a record attempt but to investigate potential new cover materials
for the 2009 edition of the book. I'm travelling with Patricia Magill,
GWR's Vice President of Publishing, and enjoying a midnight snack of
whisky and ginger while watching series two of Battlestar Galactica.
(If you've never watched this excellent series, I urge you to seek out
the DVD boxsets – it's a fantastic show that's been keeping my gripped
for weeks since I got hold of the DVDs. Of course, I'm thinking: any
records here? Watch this space!)
We're flying to LA, during a bank holiday weekend, because the cover
of our book is so important to us. For over 10 years, we've
pioneered many new print-production processes in order to deliver the
most spectacular covers. The first of these new generation covers
appeared with the 1997 edition, which was a black cover dominated by
the book title blocked in using a holographic foil. We then looked at
3-D "lenticular" covers – the kind you can drag your nail down and
feel the grooves that give it a 3-D or motion effect – and more
recently lenticular foils.
The 2008 "vortex" cover is, I feel, the best so far. Obviously I'm
biased but a lot of time, effort and money went into developing this
revolutionary design. The idea came about this time last year during a
trip to Toronto. While on a book-store check (we travel round making
sure the book is available and prominent in as many stores as
possible), a shiny red-foil gift-bag in the stationery aisle really
caught my eye – it was just the colour I'd had in mind, and the foil
effect added to the richness of the colour in a way I'd never seen
before.
The foil effect on the bag was a simple one, but it inspired our
designer, Yeung Poon, to create the unique vortex effect you'll find
on this year's cover. We also, radically, distorted our logo and sent
it flying into – or out of? – the vortex, creating an exciting,
dynamic effect. Finally, we worked closely with Spectratek, the
LA-based company we're currently en route to, to produce a series of
foil lenses, each one bigger than the next, to produce the vortex
effect and give the impression of depth.
I really do hope you look forward to seeing what each new edition will
look like, especially when it comes to the cover. The feedback we've
had in research is that people enjoy collecting the books
because of the fascinating, ground-breaking covers. Of course,
the insides are what really matter, but why not make the cover
as fun and as cool as possible?
What this means, however, is that every year we need to work that
little bit harder to develop an ever better cover than last year.
Hence the 12-hour flight to the US over the bank holiday weekend. Ah
well, I've got a few more episodes of BSG 2 to get through and I'm
being offered another Johnnie Walker and Canada Dry. I'm not one to
complain…
26 August 2007
01:00 GMT
Somewhere over mainland USA
Well, here I am, back on a plane. This time, I'm flying to the USA not
for a record attempt but to investigate potential new cover materials
for the 2009 edition of the book. I'm travelling with Patricia Magill,
GWR's Vice President of Publishing, and enjoying a midnight snack of
whisky and ginger while watching series two of Battlestar Galactica.
(If you've never watched this excellent series, I urge you to seek out
the DVD boxsets – it's a fantastic show that's been keeping my gripped
for weeks since I got hold of the DVDs. Of course, I'm thinking: any
records here? Watch this space!)
We're flying to LA, during a bank holiday weekend, because the cover
of our book is so important to us. For over 10 years, we've
pioneered many new print-production processes in order to deliver the
most spectacular covers. The first of these new generation covers
appeared with the 1997 edition, which was a black cover dominated by
the book title blocked in using a holographic foil. We then looked at
3-D "lenticular" covers – the kind you can drag your nail down and
feel the grooves that give it a 3-D or motion effect – and more
recently lenticular foils.
The 2008 "vortex" cover is, I feel, the best so far. Obviously I'm
biased but a lot of time, effort and money went into developing this
revolutionary design. The idea came about this time last year during a
trip to Toronto. While on a book-store check (we travel round making
sure the book is available and prominent in as many stores as
possible), a shiny red-foil gift-bag in the stationery aisle really
caught my eye – it was just the colour I'd had in mind, and the foil
effect added to the richness of the colour in a way I'd never seen
before.
The foil effect on the bag was a simple one, but it inspired our
designer, Yeung Poon, to create the unique vortex effect you'll find
on this year's cover. We also, radically, distorted our logo and sent
it flying into – or out of? – the vortex, creating an exciting,
dynamic effect. Finally, we worked closely with Spectratek, the
LA-based company we're currently en route to, to produce a series of
foil lenses, each one bigger than the next, to produce the vortex
effect and give the impression of depth.
I really do hope you look forward to seeing what each new edition will
look like, especially when it comes to the cover. The feedback we've
had in research is that people enjoy collecting the books
because of the fascinating, ground-breaking covers. Of course,
the insides are what really matter, but why not make the cover
as fun and as cool as possible?
What this means, however, is that every year we need to work that
little bit harder to develop an ever better cover than last year.
Hence the 12-hour flight to the US over the bank holiday weekend. Ah
well, I've got a few more episodes of BSG 2 to get through and I'm
being offered another Johnnie Walker and Canada Dry. I'm not one to
complain…
Friday, 10 August 2007
US Book Launch: Day 6
From the bed of Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief, Guinness World Records
9 August 2007
10:00 pm Eastern Time
W Hotel, Union Square, New York
9 August 2007
10:00 pm Eastern Time
W Hotel, Union Square, New York
Have just been to see A Chorus Line on Broadway, a show that
for years was the longest running show on Broadway, a record it broke
on 29 September 1983 after 3,389 performances (and on that night, to
celebrate, the producers organized the world's longest chorus line,
with an incredible 332 top-hatted dancers on stage at once!).
The show premiered on 25 July 1975 at the Shubert Theater in New York
and eventually ran for 6,137 performances until 28 April 1990. And if
the production I've just seen is anything like the original, I can see
why it lasted so long. (Incidentally, in a previous job as a theatre
drummer, I had the pleasure of playing percussion in a touring version
of the show in Scotland; it was years ago, but I had such fun, the
memories remain vivid.)
It's an incredible piece – a string of desperate, competitive dancers
striving to secure work in a chorus line bare their souls – and often
more – at a tense audition. And how these actors and dancers can move
they way they do while singing and acting so well is beyond me. Go see
it if you can!
The current record for the longest running musical on Broadway is
Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, which opened on
26 January 1988 and had its 7,486th performance, at the Majestic
Theatre, on 9 January 2006, beating Webber's own Cats.
Wednesday, 8 August 2007
US Book Launch: Day 5
From the bed of Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief, Guinness World Records
8 August 2007
4:00 pm Eastern Time
W Hotel, Union Square, New York
What an exhausting day! Up early once again, this time to find that
New York had been hit by a torrential storm that had flooded our
hotel, not to mention most of the subway system. I was hoping that
this spectacular storm might have put an end to the heatwave, but once
the sun rose, it was hotter than ever. The city was in chaos, too, as
the closed subway meant that the streets were jam-packed and the
traffic was a nightmare. You couldn't get a taxi for love nor money.
Luckily, Neil and I were only briefly aware of this as we cruised,
albeit very slowly, down the street in our stretch limo!
We also had a chance in the car to read the Daily Post article – we
made an entire page with our photo and story, so that was cool. The
hassle of the day before was certainly worth it.
After a brief appearance on CW11, our first show of the day, the big
man and I headed off to another TV studio for our "Satellite Media
Tour". This weird experience involves sitting in a tiny studio, in the
glare of baking hot lights, with just an earpiece connecting you to
the outside world. The idea is that we get beamed into the studios of
TV shows around the USA and interviewed by the local hosts; they can
see us, but we can't see them, we can only hear them in our earpiece.
"You're on the bird!" shouted the camera operator, which I eventually
understood to mean that our picture was being beamed live from the
satellite and that we shouldn't be picking our noses or saying
anything that we didn't want broadcasting!
We must have cracked off about a dozen interviews in a couple of
hours, answering the same questions each time. We also had to keep
standing up to show just how tall Neil stretches. I've never felt so
small in all my life…
I'm now back in the hotel, enjoying my comfy W bed, which I've notice
can be bought and shipped home – a very tempting offer! As I tuck into
the complimentary chocolates that keep on materializing on my pillow
every time I leave the room, I wonder what the largest object ever
posted was. Somewhere in the back of my head, I seem to remember a
story of an architect in the USA who posted a bank building, brick by
brick, through the mail system, resulting in a state law banning the
delivery of buildings using the postal service…
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
US Book Launch: Day 4
Tuesday 7 August
Manhattan NYC
Another early start, this time for Good Morning America! I did this show last year, when host Bill Weir broke the record for the highest pancake toss, so it was a real pleasure to be invited back, this time with Neil. We shared the show with a team of inline skaters, an American bald eagle, a dentist who could diagnose illness by looking at your teeth, and a grandmother who gave birth to her own twin grandchildren - a mixture almost as random as our very own book of records! Indeed, I must make a note to follow up the grandmother - I think this would make a fascinating record category: Oldest person to give birth to their own grandchildren!
Neil and I secured a slot at the end of the show, when Diane Sawyer asked some interesting questions of Neil's stature. In terms of all the interviewers who spoke with Neil, Diane asked some of the most pertinent and sensible questions, and the segment went really well. Diane was also keen to feature the result of our search for America's tallest man - the results of which will be announced on 8 November this year as part of GWR Day. Hopefully, you'll even see the results on Good Morning America!
Manhattan NYC
Another early start, this time for Good Morning America! I did this show last year, when host Bill Weir broke the record for the highest pancake toss, so it was a real pleasure to be invited back, this time with Neil. We shared the show with a team of inline skaters, an American bald eagle, a dentist who could diagnose illness by looking at your teeth, and a grandmother who gave birth to her own twin grandchildren - a mixture almost as random as our very own book of records! Indeed, I must make a note to follow up the grandmother - I think this would make a fascinating record category: Oldest person to give birth to their own grandchildren!
Neil and I secured a slot at the end of the show, when Diane Sawyer asked some interesting questions of Neil's stature. In terms of all the interviewers who spoke with Neil, Diane asked some of the most pertinent and sensible questions, and the segment went really well. Diane was also keen to feature the result of our search for America's tallest man - the results of which will be announced on 8 November this year as part of GWR Day. Hopefully, you'll even see the results on Good Morning America!
Monday, 6 August 2007
US Book Launch: Day 3
Monday 6 August
Manhattan NYC
An early start today, thanks to a brief appearance on Live with Regis and Kelly. Serial record holder Suresh Joachim began his attempt at the solo karaoke marathon, and to fit the end of the 26-hour non-stop attempt into tomorrow's show, we had to start early, pre-recording the kickoff. I gave Suresh his 3-2-1 countdown and listened, in agony - it has to be said - as the determined record smasher crooned his way through some of the worst karaoke classics ever. I guess the fun of karaoke is listening to someone who can't sing wail their way through some of the cheesiest songs ever, but at 8 am? And Suresh - we love you, mate, but you can't sing! You can run 257.88 km (160.24 miles) in a day on treadmill, or stand on one foot for 76 hr 40 mins, but singing ain't your game...
One of the fun things about these shows, if you can survive the early starts, is the weird feeling that you're on the same show as other really famous people. Regis wasn't around, so Carson Kressley of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (and record holder for the Highest Annual Earnings for a TV Stylist!) took his place alongside the lovely Kelly. What's more, Steve Buscemi of Reservoir Dogs fame popped in, as did fellow actor Chris Tucker. There's nothing quite like acting cool in the green room when some of your favourite actors are sharing the croissants!
(My ultimate green-room moment of the past year had to be chewing the fat with Beyonce in Michael Jackson's private green room while waiting as the superstar had his hair done at the World Music Awards last year! Sorry, I love just dropping this into conversation!)
Next was a photoshoot in Times Square with Neil. Standing at 232.5 cm (7 ft 7.56 in), Neil is unmissable, and we emerged from our black stretch limo into one of the busiest junctions in the world, we were swamped by curious onlookers all keen to tell Neil that he was tall. "Wow, you're tall!" they'd exclaim. "What's the weather like up there?", etc. Despite the constant pestering - and his hangover! - Neil coped well and posed with me for some cool shots for the New York Daily Post.
Manhattan NYC
An early start today, thanks to a brief appearance on Live with Regis and Kelly. Serial record holder Suresh Joachim began his attempt at the solo karaoke marathon, and to fit the end of the 26-hour non-stop attempt into tomorrow's show, we had to start early, pre-recording the kickoff. I gave Suresh his 3-2-1 countdown and listened, in agony - it has to be said - as the determined record smasher crooned his way through some of the worst karaoke classics ever. I guess the fun of karaoke is listening to someone who can't sing wail their way through some of the cheesiest songs ever, but at 8 am? And Suresh - we love you, mate, but you can't sing! You can run 257.88 km (160.24 miles) in a day on treadmill, or stand on one foot for 76 hr 40 mins, but singing ain't your game...
One of the fun things about these shows, if you can survive the early starts, is the weird feeling that you're on the same show as other really famous people. Regis wasn't around, so Carson Kressley of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (and record holder for the Highest Annual Earnings for a TV Stylist!) took his place alongside the lovely Kelly. What's more, Steve Buscemi of Reservoir Dogs fame popped in, as did fellow actor Chris Tucker. There's nothing quite like acting cool in the green room when some of your favourite actors are sharing the croissants!
(My ultimate green-room moment of the past year had to be chewing the fat with Beyonce in Michael Jackson's private green room while waiting as the superstar had his hair done at the World Music Awards last year! Sorry, I love just dropping this into conversation!)
Next was a photoshoot in Times Square with Neil. Standing at 232.5 cm (7 ft 7.56 in), Neil is unmissable, and we emerged from our black stretch limo into one of the busiest junctions in the world, we were swamped by curious onlookers all keen to tell Neil that he was tall. "Wow, you're tall!" they'd exclaim. "What's the weather like up there?", etc. Despite the constant pestering - and his hangover! - Neil coped well and posed with me for some cool shots for the New York Daily Post.
Sunday, 5 August 2007
US Book Launch: Day 2
Sunday 5 August
Manhattan NY
Thanks to my lost luggage situation, I was forced to go clothes shopping today with Sam (GWR Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing). I hate shopping, particularly for clothes, but there was, however, one highlight: the pretzel dogs in Macy's. One of my more vivid memories of last year's book launch was being introduced to Auntie Anne's pretzel concession on the second floor of Macy's. There, you can buy for a couple of dollars the most amazing foodstuff ever: Auntie Anne's pretzel dough coiled around a Nathan's all-beef hot dog then cooked - maybe even deep fried? Being Scottish and hence from the land of the deep fried Mars bar, I can appreciate a snack such as a pretzel dog. I had to stop, though, after three. Three is pushing it. Then, of course, the thought popped into my head: could there be a record in this? Most pretzel dogs eaten in three minutes? Fastest time to eat three pretzel dogs?
The regular hot-dog-eating Guinness World Record is four in 3 minutes, by none other than GWR glutton Peter Dowdeswell, back in 2001. This involves downing the dog plus bun and condiments - and using only one hand, just to make it extra-difficult! I wonder what Peter would make of Anne's pretzel dogs? These babies slip down so easily, I bet he could establish an impressive standard to beat! If you're interested in setting this record yourself, why not make an application today? Just click the "Break a World Record" button off the homepage. Good luck!
Manhattan NY
Thanks to my lost luggage situation, I was forced to go clothes shopping today with Sam (GWR Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing). I hate shopping, particularly for clothes, but there was, however, one highlight: the pretzel dogs in Macy's. One of my more vivid memories of last year's book launch was being introduced to Auntie Anne's pretzel concession on the second floor of Macy's. There, you can buy for a couple of dollars the most amazing foodstuff ever: Auntie Anne's pretzel dough coiled around a Nathan's all-beef hot dog then cooked - maybe even deep fried? Being Scottish and hence from the land of the deep fried Mars bar, I can appreciate a snack such as a pretzel dog. I had to stop, though, after three. Three is pushing it. Then, of course, the thought popped into my head: could there be a record in this? Most pretzel dogs eaten in three minutes? Fastest time to eat three pretzel dogs?
The regular hot-dog-eating Guinness World Record is four in 3 minutes, by none other than GWR glutton Peter Dowdeswell, back in 2001. This involves downing the dog plus bun and condiments - and using only one hand, just to make it extra-difficult! I wonder what Peter would make of Anne's pretzel dogs? These babies slip down so easily, I bet he could establish an impressive standard to beat! If you're interested in setting this record yourself, why not make an application today? Just click the "Break a World Record" button off the homepage. Good luck!
Saturday, 4 August 2007
US Book Launch: Day 1
From the desk of Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief, Guinness World Records
4 August 2007
16:30 GMT
London, UK
I’ve never been a big supporter of the theory that humans are destroying the planet with the carbon dioxide we produce. As far as I’m concerned, the Sun, that fiery, 1.4-million km-diameter ball of nuclear fusion that we orbit, is far more likely to be the cause of global warming than the taxi I’ve just taken to the train station.
Until I hear otherwise, I’ll continue to have the same feeling in my gut that I had when I first heard about the Millennium Bug. (My journalist friend Simon Richmond was one of the first to “break” this story in the UK, and I doubted him from the moment he first talked about it.) There’s a lot of bandwaggoning going on, and as someone who works in an office where everyone’s forever flying around the world, I feel under a lot of pressure to act.
But who can say for sure that we need to? For every argument in support, there’s another against. In The Times today, for example, we learn that your carbon footprint between your home and the corner shop is larger if you WALK than if you DRIVE! Why? Because the production of the food that you require for energy to make that walk is more damaging to the environment – especially if you get your energy from those pesky methane-producing cows, and particularly organic cows, which give off more of a whiff! – than the production of your car’s fuel and its emissions.
Anyway, whatever the case, I’ve decided to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from the flight I’m about to take from London to New York. If the whole thing is bogus, I’ve at least still contributed to the promotion of industries that care about the environment. This, to me, is important – we need to do what we can to limit the impact we have on the environment, from caring about litter to reducing waste. Also, it’s a win-win situation – especially given the fact that it costs a mere £4.80 ($10) to off-set this one-way flight.
Find out more about the impact we – and the sun – are having on the planet by checking out the forthcoming edition of GWR 2008. And be sure that, going forward, everyone at GWR will be trying our best to offset the amount of travel we do. After all, we don’t want to be contributing to the breaking of any more environmental records!
CG
4 August 2007
16:30 GMT
London, UK
I’ve never been a big supporter of the theory that humans are destroying the planet with the carbon dioxide we produce. As far as I’m concerned, the Sun, that fiery, 1.4-million km-diameter ball of nuclear fusion that we orbit, is far more likely to be the cause of global warming than the taxi I’ve just taken to the train station.
Until I hear otherwise, I’ll continue to have the same feeling in my gut that I had when I first heard about the Millennium Bug. (My journalist friend Simon Richmond was one of the first to “break” this story in the UK, and I doubted him from the moment he first talked about it.) There’s a lot of bandwaggoning going on, and as someone who works in an office where everyone’s forever flying around the world, I feel under a lot of pressure to act.
But who can say for sure that we need to? For every argument in support, there’s another against. In The Times today, for example, we learn that your carbon footprint between your home and the corner shop is larger if you WALK than if you DRIVE! Why? Because the production of the food that you require for energy to make that walk is more damaging to the environment – especially if you get your energy from those pesky methane-producing cows, and particularly organic cows, which give off more of a whiff! – than the production of your car’s fuel and its emissions.
Anyway, whatever the case, I’ve decided to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from the flight I’m about to take from London to New York. If the whole thing is bogus, I’ve at least still contributed to the promotion of industries that care about the environment. This, to me, is important – we need to do what we can to limit the impact we have on the environment, from caring about litter to reducing waste. Also, it’s a win-win situation – especially given the fact that it costs a mere £4.80 ($10) to off-set this one-way flight.
Find out more about the impact we – and the sun – are having on the planet by checking out the forthcoming edition of GWR 2008. And be sure that, going forward, everyone at GWR will be trying our best to offset the amount of travel we do. After all, we don’t want to be contributing to the breaking of any more environmental records!
CG
Monday, 30 July 2007
Simply a Smashing Time....
From the desk of Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief...
Concrete... Wood... Ice... If you put it in front of martial arts expert Eduardo Estrada, he'll likely bash his fist through it. Guinness World Records' Editor-in-Chief, Craig Glenday, braces himself for a smashing time as he visits Saltillo in Coahuila, just one stop on his trip across northern Mexico.
So, I'd sampled the largest soup in the world, and met the world's heaviest man (more on him in a later post!). Now it was time to end my Mexican odyssey by spending an evening with strongman and martial arts expert, Eduardo Estrada.
I'd been hearing about Eduardo a lot in the run-up to his record attempts - his friends and family who helped to organize the event had speak with great admiration of his abilities; the students at the martial arts club where he trains idolize him as a living legend; and even his usually-silent maestro or Sensei was enthusiastically vocal with his praise.
So by the time did we eventually met - just an hour of so before the four record attempts he would be making - I was expecting an encounter with a living god, not the jolly, cowboy-hat-wearing Mickey Rourke lookalike who bounded over to say hello and give me a friendly, crushing hug!
With their hero now present, the crowd went wild, silence only by the playing of God Save The Queen - a special request made by Eduardo, a lover of British culture. With TV cameras in my face, I nervously mouthed the words like football players do when they clearly don't know all the words. Three verses later, I was ready to die of shame.
Attempt one was Most Concrete Blocks Broken in One Minute, with a total of 120 to beat. The blocks, as per the guidelines, were arranged in a sequence of 1, then 2, then 3, then four, etc, up to a massive stack of 16, giving a total of 136 blocks. After a rousing blast of "Eye of the Tiger", Eduardo ran along the line of blocks, pummelling one after the other. With just seconds to spare, he annihilated the lot and despite 9 blocks disqualified for falling and smashing on their own, the total came to 127...A new Guinness World Record!
Sadly, the rest of the night was not to be so successful. Attempts at the Most Concrete Blocks Broken in a Single Stack, Most Pine Boards Broken Across the Forehead, and Most Pine Boards Broken in a Minute ended without success (and a lot of blood everywhere!) but Eduardo gave it his gallant best.
To end the night, the Mexican strongman attempted to smash massive ice blocks measuring 1.4 x 1.4 x 0.25 m (45 x 45 x 10 in). The seven blocks, which took over an hour to stack, were in pieces in seconds once Eduardo stepped up to the stage. Unfortunately, a couple of blocks failed to smash all the way through.
As disappointed as Eduardo was, there was still a party atmosphere in the club that night - attaining even one Guinness World Record is cause enough for celebration and, for many, a lifetime's achievement. I suspect, though, that this is not the last we will be hearing of Eduardo...
- CG
Concrete... Wood... Ice... If you put it in front of martial arts expert Eduardo Estrada, he'll likely bash his fist through it. Guinness World Records' Editor-in-Chief, Craig Glenday, braces himself for a smashing time as he visits Saltillo in Coahuila, just one stop on his trip across northern Mexico.
So, I'd sampled the largest soup in the world, and met the world's heaviest man (more on him in a later post!). Now it was time to end my Mexican odyssey by spending an evening with strongman and martial arts expert, Eduardo Estrada.I'd been hearing about Eduardo a lot in the run-up to his record attempts - his friends and family who helped to organize the event had speak with great admiration of his abilities; the students at the martial arts club where he trains idolize him as a living legend; and even his usually-silent maestro or Sensei was enthusiastically vocal with his praise.
So by the time did we eventually met - just an hour of so before the four record attempts he would be making - I was expecting an encounter with a living god, not the jolly, cowboy-hat-wearing Mickey Rourke lookalike who bounded over to say hello and give me a friendly, crushing hug!
With their hero now present, the crowd went wild, silence only by the playing of God Save The Queen - a special request made by Eduardo, a lover of British culture. With TV cameras in my face, I nervously mouthed the words like football players do when they clearly don't know all the words. Three verses later, I was ready to die of shame.
Attempt one was Most Concrete Blocks Broken in One Minute, with a total of 120 to beat. The blocks, as per the guidelines, were arranged in a sequence of 1, then 2, then 3, then four, etc, up to a massive stack of 16, giving a total of 136 blocks. After a rousing blast of "Eye of the Tiger", Eduardo ran along the line of blocks, pummelling one after the other. With just seconds to spare, he annihilated the lot and despite 9 blocks disqualified for falling and smashing on their own, the total came to 127...A new Guinness World Record! Sadly, the rest of the night was not to be so successful. Attempts at the Most Concrete Blocks Broken in a Single Stack, Most Pine Boards Broken Across the Forehead, and Most Pine Boards Broken in a Minute ended without success (and a lot of blood everywhere!) but Eduardo gave it his gallant best.
To end the night, the Mexican strongman attempted to smash massive ice blocks measuring 1.4 x 1.4 x 0.25 m (45 x 45 x 10 in). The seven blocks, which took over an hour to stack, were in pieces in seconds once Eduardo stepped up to the stage. Unfortunately, a couple of blocks failed to smash all the way through.
As disappointed as Eduardo was, there was still a party atmosphere in the club that night - attaining even one Guinness World Record is cause enough for celebration and, for many, a lifetime's achievement. I suspect, though, that this is not the last we will be hearing of Eduardo...
- CG
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Souper-Size Me!
From the desk of Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief...
Guinness World Records' Editor-in-Chief starts his weeklong tour of Mexico by shedding a tear at the unveiling of a rather large pot of spicy soup...
The pretty Mexican city of Durango, in the state of the same name, may not sound all that familiar to you, but movie fans would recognize, on the outskirts of town, the flimsy fake-fronted movie sets shot to pieces by the likes of John Wayne in many a western. This week, however, Durango has made its mark on world culture by creating a very real - and very large - bowl of soup... indeed, the largest bowl of soup in the world!
So, why did tears stream down my face when contemplating this mammoth record attempt? Was it the emotional show of support from the thousands of people who turned out to celebrate this super-sized soup? Was it the honour of being treated like a movie star myself by the kind, generous people of this sleepy spot in the desert? Was it the joy of seeing this project - months in the planning - finally reach completion?
Or was it the 530 kg (half a ton) of onions being chopped beside me?
Or did I accidentally rub my eyes while weighing the 182 kg (400 lb) of dried pasado chillies?
Or was the baking noon-day sun simpy burning my retinas out?
Or was I mourning the loss of the 15 or so cows that contributed their meat to the recipe?
Whichever the case, I certainly felt the emotional impact this record had on the city of Durango. At first, it sounds like a simple exercise: make a bowl of soup to beat the current record - a 5,045-litre (1,332-gallon) goulash from Romania. But contemplating just the cooking vessel is a task in itself - where does one find a cooking pot and stove sufficiently large to house enough soup to fill around 70 bath tubs? Let alone the problem of finding the ingredients for the chosen recipe, a chilli-beef soup called caldillo...
The project pulled together the resources of the entire region. A month was spent planning and building the bowl - a UFO-like steel contraption that served as both container and gas cooker; local farmers provided the produce; restaurants put aside their competitive grudges and offered up their chefs; countless volunteers acted as security, servers and cleaners; and local schools put on a day-long variety show.
In the end, everyone pulled it off and created one enormous caldillo measuring 5,350 litres (1,413 gallons). The Municipal President Jorge Herrera Delgado joined me in taking the first sip - after the thumbs-up from the local health authority advisor on-hand to oversee proceedings, of course - and received the official Guinness World Records certificate in front of a queue of thousands desperate to sample the world-beating dish.
Guinness World Records' Editor-in-Chief starts his weeklong tour of Mexico by shedding a tear at the unveiling of a rather large pot of spicy soup...
The pretty Mexican city of Durango, in the state of the same name, may not sound all that familiar to you, but movie fans would recognize, on the outskirts of town, the flimsy fake-fronted movie sets shot to pieces by the likes of John Wayne in many a western. This week, however, Durango has made its mark on world culture by creating a very real - and very large - bowl of soup... indeed, the largest bowl of soup in the world!
So, why did tears stream down my face when contemplating this mammoth record attempt? Was it the emotional show of support from the thousands of people who turned out to celebrate this super-sized soup? Was it the honour of being treated like a movie star myself by the kind, generous people of this sleepy spot in the desert? Was it the joy of seeing this project - months in the planning - finally reach completion?
Or was it the 530 kg (half a ton) of onions being chopped beside me?
Or did I accidentally rub my eyes while weighing the 182 kg (400 lb) of dried pasado chillies?
Or was the baking noon-day sun simpy burning my retinas out?
Or was I mourning the loss of the 15 or so cows that contributed their meat to the recipe?
Whichever the case, I certainly felt the emotional impact this record had on the city of Durango. At first, it sounds like a simple exercise: make a bowl of soup to beat the current record - a 5,045-litre (1,332-gallon) goulash from Romania. But contemplating just the cooking vessel is a task in itself - where does one find a cooking pot and stove sufficiently large to house enough soup to fill around 70 bath tubs? Let alone the problem of finding the ingredients for the chosen recipe, a chilli-beef soup called caldillo...The project pulled together the resources of the entire region. A month was spent planning and building the bowl - a UFO-like steel contraption that served as both container and gas cooker; local farmers provided the produce; restaurants put aside their competitive grudges and offered up their chefs; countless volunteers acted as security, servers and cleaners; and local schools put on a day-long variety show.
In the end, everyone pulled it off and created one enormous caldillo measuring 5,350 litres (1,413 gallons). The Municipal President Jorge Herrera Delgado joined me in taking the first sip - after the thumbs-up from the local health authority advisor on-hand to oversee proceedings, of course - and received the official Guinness World Records certificate in front of a queue of thousands desperate to sample the world-beating dish.
More than just a bowl of soup, this project showed to the world that the people of Durango could pull together to achieve anything, said President Delgado. And he has his mind set on a few more Guinness World Records... Watch this space!
- CG
Special thanks to Alejandro and Pablito for their friendship and assistance
If you like your soup spicy, this Durango speciality is a must... although take care with those chillies - I now understand why John Wayne walked so funny when heading off into that sunset! If you fancy trying your hand at a traditional Caldillo Durangueno, and you want to set a record, here's what you'll have to beat:
- 182kg dried pasado chillies, soaked over night in five times the volume of water
- 100 litres (26 gallons) vegetable oil
- 1,926 kg (2.12 tons) lean beef steak, cubed
- 36 kg (80 lb) garlic, chopped
- 530 kg (1,168 lb) onions, diced
- 27 kg (60 lb) spice mix
- 16.7 kg (36 lb) ground pepper
- 53 kg (116 lb) salt
- enough water to create the desired consistency (around 3,000 litres; 800 gallons)
- Soak the dried chillies for 24 hours; when rehydrated and up to four times their original size, macerate by hand, picking out the stalks as you go.
- Heat the oil in the cooking pot.
- When the oil is hot, add the cubed meat and stir regularly until evenly browned.
- Add the remaining ingredients except the water and stir continuously until all the elements are completely incorporated. Cook for a good hour or so.
- Add the water, slowly, to prevent the meat sticking, and to achieve the desired consistency.
- Serve with a cold beer!
Friday, 8 June 2007
Drink anyone?
From the desk of Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief
While enjoying a cocktail or two at the Groucho Bar of the Hotel Arts in Barcelona, where we’re staying while printing Guinness World Records 2008 edition, I challenged the bar staff to create the world’s most expensive cocktail. The rules are fairly straightforward:
1. The value of the cocktail must lie inherently in the key ingredients. This means no diamond rings in the bottom of flute glasses, or white-gold cocktail sticks holding a diamond-filled olive.
2. The cocktail must be commercially available, at least until stocks last.
3. The name of the cocktail must be printed on a menu (and not just a one-off).
At some point last year, I found myself in the Windows on the World bar atop the Park Lane Hilton, where the Lord Bowmore cocktail was sold for £799 (then $1,431). (The service charge of 12% to bring it to your table added up to over £95 ($180)!! It contained 50 ml (1.75 fl oz) of 40-year-old Bowmore malt whisky and 15 ml (0.5 fl oz) of pure, dark melted chocolate. But the following day, when I called back to confirm the cocktail’s record-breaking status, it had been taken off the menu, never to be seen again!
So, for the past few years, the official most expensive cocktail was the Hemingway Sidecar sold at the Hemingway Bar at the Hotel Ritz, Paris. There, bar manager Colin Peter Field (dubbed the "world’s greatest bartender" by Forbes, a title I’d be more than happy to bestow on GWR’s behalf, if only it were truly quantifiable) created a version of the classic Sidecar cocktail using an 1865 pre-phylloxera Cognac.
"I may as well serve a cocktail on top of a mink coat and call it my $20,000 sidecar," says Duncan Halden, Gordon Ramsay’s bar manager at the London in New York. He serves up a $550 Sidecar upon request that, he says, "out-luxes" Colin’s version at the Ritz. It features Hennessey Ellipse super premium cognac - poured from a decanter specially designed by Tomas Bastide, a designer at Baccarat - and Grand Marnier 150. But who cares who designed the decanter… and if it’s not on the menu…?
So, what will the Hotel Arts need to compete with? In the forthcoming 2008 edition, we’ve listed a cocktail – on the menu and worth its price – that beats the Hemingway Sidecar. I’ll say nothing more than the fact that it’s a Mai Tai made with 17-year-old Jamaican rum and that it sells for a whopping £750 (currently about $1,483). The gauntlet is down – now, just let’s hope that, should the Groucho Bar at the Hotel Arts rise to the challenge, I get a chance to taste it! Cheers…
CRAIG GLENDAY’S HEMINGWAY SIDECAR (with apologies to Colin Peter Field):
5 parts Cognac (the most expensive you can afford)
3 parts Cointreau
2 parts freshly squeezed lemon juice
Fill a cocktail shaker two-thirds with ice and add all the ingredients. Shake vigorously for 20 seconds (and no less) and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a glace cherry in the bottom of the glass and, if you're trying to impress, an orange slice on the rim.
-CG
While enjoying a cocktail or two at the Groucho Bar of the Hotel Arts in Barcelona, where we’re staying while printing Guinness World Records 2008 edition, I challenged the bar staff to create the world’s most expensive cocktail. The rules are fairly straightforward:
1. The value of the cocktail must lie inherently in the key ingredients. This means no diamond rings in the bottom of flute glasses, or white-gold cocktail sticks holding a diamond-filled olive.
2. The cocktail must be commercially available, at least until stocks last.
3. The name of the cocktail must be printed on a menu (and not just a one-off).
At some point last year, I found myself in the Windows on the World bar atop the Park Lane Hilton, where the Lord Bowmore cocktail was sold for £799 (then $1,431). (The service charge of 12% to bring it to your table added up to over £95 ($180)!! It contained 50 ml (1.75 fl oz) of 40-year-old Bowmore malt whisky and 15 ml (0.5 fl oz) of pure, dark melted chocolate. But the following day, when I called back to confirm the cocktail’s record-breaking status, it had been taken off the menu, never to be seen again!
So, for the past few years, the official most expensive cocktail was the Hemingway Sidecar sold at the Hemingway Bar at the Hotel Ritz, Paris. There, bar manager Colin Peter Field (dubbed the "world’s greatest bartender" by Forbes, a title I’d be more than happy to bestow on GWR’s behalf, if only it were truly quantifiable) created a version of the classic Sidecar cocktail using an 1865 pre-phylloxera Cognac.
"I may as well serve a cocktail on top of a mink coat and call it my $20,000 sidecar," says Duncan Halden, Gordon Ramsay’s bar manager at the London in New York. He serves up a $550 Sidecar upon request that, he says, "out-luxes" Colin’s version at the Ritz. It features Hennessey Ellipse super premium cognac - poured from a decanter specially designed by Tomas Bastide, a designer at Baccarat - and Grand Marnier 150. But who cares who designed the decanter… and if it’s not on the menu…?
So, what will the Hotel Arts need to compete with? In the forthcoming 2008 edition, we’ve listed a cocktail – on the menu and worth its price – that beats the Hemingway Sidecar. I’ll say nothing more than the fact that it’s a Mai Tai made with 17-year-old Jamaican rum and that it sells for a whopping £750 (currently about $1,483). The gauntlet is down – now, just let’s hope that, should the Groucho Bar at the Hotel Arts rise to the challenge, I get a chance to taste it! Cheers…
CRAIG GLENDAY’S HEMINGWAY SIDECAR (with apologies to Colin Peter Field):
5 parts Cognac (the most expensive you can afford)
3 parts Cointreau
2 parts freshly squeezed lemon juice
Fill a cocktail shaker two-thirds with ice and add all the ingredients. Shake vigorously for 20 seconds (and no less) and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a glace cherry in the bottom of the glass and, if you're trying to impress, an orange slice on the rim.
-CG
Thursday, 7 June 2007
Welcome....
From the desk of Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief...
So, welcome to OFF THE RECORD, the first ever Guinness World Records Editor’s Blog. I’m typing this now in my fluffy white dressing gown, looking occasionally over the top of my laptop and very freshly made gin and tonic to enjoy the Mediterranean view from my room at the Hotel Arts in Barcelona. I’m in heaven… and, at 28 floors up, almost literally. I’m not long out of the rooftop spa – where it felt like a hundred fat mice were having had a disco on by back – and I’m smelling unusually, pleasantly fragrant; talking of BO, a Beethoven piano sonata tinkles away quietly on the Bang & Olufsen stereo, and the only other sound is the ice creaking and cracking in my glass. If I were any more relaxed, I’d be dead.
Why the decadence? Well, it’s something of a tradition. We like tradition at GWR. Every year, for the past 20 years, the world’s biggest-selling copyright annual has been printed at Printer Industria Graficá in Barcelona, and over the past 10 years, whenever we visit this beautiful city in the northeast of Spain, we stay at the Hotel Arts, which has to be the best hotel I’ve ever stayed in. And I guess that’s something, considering the amount of travel GWR staff have to do every year to create the famous book.
Stephen King fans will remember how Misery author Paul Sheldon celebrated the end of each of his books by smoking a single cigarette and drinking a glass of Dom Perignon; well, here at GWR, we stay at the Arts, a guest of Printer Barcelona, and enjoy a massage and a G&T. (Thankfully, we don’t have a psychotic Annie Wilkes bearing down on us with a hatchet and a blow-torch!)
Yesterday, I watched as the first copies of the USA edition glided off the press – an incredible, new, hanger-sized monster of a machine just recently installed at Printer’s sci-fi-like industrial complex outside the city centre; the space-age feel is augmented by the little men in blue crawling all over the mothership, still proudly buffing its panels with their greasy shirt elbows as if tending to their own new car.
Alongside me were GWR’s Head of Production and Publishing VP Trish Macgill and Production Exec Jane Boatfield. (I stress the "were" – they’re not here now beside me in my towelling gown!) Jane had taken over press duties from Ben Way, the Deputy Editor who had helped me read through the final plotter proofs the few days before. It’s an awesome responsibility reading the final proofs – it’s (almost) the point of no return; the only other chance for a change comes when you yell "Stop the press!" and the vast machine is brought to a halt for a plate change. (I’ve always wanted to do this, secretly, like shouting "follow that car!" or "hold the front page!")
Anyway, today, everyone else has gone home, leaving me to enjoy the book on my own in the Hotel Arts and contemplate next year’s edition. My role as Editor-in-Chief is to get thinking about 2009 already. This book is going to be a hard act to follow, I have to say. I’m biased, of course, but what an edition! I’ll drink to that…
-CG
So, welcome to OFF THE RECORD, the first ever Guinness World Records Editor’s Blog. I’m typing this now in my fluffy white dressing gown, looking occasionally over the top of my laptop and very freshly made gin and tonic to enjoy the Mediterranean view from my room at the Hotel Arts in Barcelona. I’m in heaven… and, at 28 floors up, almost literally. I’m not long out of the rooftop spa – where it felt like a hundred fat mice were having had a disco on by back – and I’m smelling unusually, pleasantly fragrant; talking of BO, a Beethoven piano sonata tinkles away quietly on the Bang & Olufsen stereo, and the only other sound is the ice creaking and cracking in my glass. If I were any more relaxed, I’d be dead.
Why the decadence? Well, it’s something of a tradition. We like tradition at GWR. Every year, for the past 20 years, the world’s biggest-selling copyright annual has been printed at Printer Industria Graficá in Barcelona, and over the past 10 years, whenever we visit this beautiful city in the northeast of Spain, we stay at the Hotel Arts, which has to be the best hotel I’ve ever stayed in. And I guess that’s something, considering the amount of travel GWR staff have to do every year to create the famous book.
Stephen King fans will remember how Misery author Paul Sheldon celebrated the end of each of his books by smoking a single cigarette and drinking a glass of Dom Perignon; well, here at GWR, we stay at the Arts, a guest of Printer Barcelona, and enjoy a massage and a G&T. (Thankfully, we don’t have a psychotic Annie Wilkes bearing down on us with a hatchet and a blow-torch!)
Yesterday, I watched as the first copies of the USA edition glided off the press – an incredible, new, hanger-sized monster of a machine just recently installed at Printer’s sci-fi-like industrial complex outside the city centre; the space-age feel is augmented by the little men in blue crawling all over the mothership, still proudly buffing its panels with their greasy shirt elbows as if tending to their own new car.
Alongside me were GWR’s Head of Production and Publishing VP Trish Macgill and Production Exec Jane Boatfield. (I stress the "were" – they’re not here now beside me in my towelling gown!) Jane had taken over press duties from Ben Way, the Deputy Editor who had helped me read through the final plotter proofs the few days before. It’s an awesome responsibility reading the final proofs – it’s (almost) the point of no return; the only other chance for a change comes when you yell "Stop the press!" and the vast machine is brought to a halt for a plate change. (I’ve always wanted to do this, secretly, like shouting "follow that car!" or "hold the front page!")
Anyway, today, everyone else has gone home, leaving me to enjoy the book on my own in the Hotel Arts and contemplate next year’s edition. My role as Editor-in-Chief is to get thinking about 2009 already. This book is going to be a hard act to follow, I have to say. I’m biased, of course, but what an edition! I’ll drink to that…
-CG
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)