The good people at the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority recently gave us the task of developing a new marketing initiative for the Reno Tahoe region.

And we are smitten.

It's the sublimely unspoiled, supremely authentic, ridiculously cool getaway we always wanted but thought we could never have, much like the unicorn we never got for our birthday.

Part of us (a big part) wants to keep this goodness to ourselves, but where is the fun in that?

Been there done that? No way, hombre. Take the next fun train, bi-plane, or *hitchhike and see what you've been missing.

*Mortar does not condone hitchhiking. Usually.

APRIL 16, 2009 -SAN FRANCISCO, CA: Business/Money reporter David Louie (of the ever-popular San Francisco ABC affiliate KGO TV) seeks the insight of Mortar’s very own Mark Williams about Google’s 1st quarter drop in advertising revenue.
Check out the riveting video, and revealing images of our top-secret lair:

Just goes to show that not even our Silicon Valley neighbors- and by “neighbors” we mean people that would release the hounds if we came close to their uber mansions -are immune to the dreaded “R word.”
The Full Story, if you like that sort of thing

Charles Ogilvie, director of in-flight entertainment at Virgin America, has a special Blackberry just for in-flight suggestions. Seriously. They are sent to him directly, every day. So whip out those consoles and start thumb-jabbing. (only bummer is, he’s leaving Virgin for Panasonic, so that may be ending shortly)

My next in-flight suggestion: I heart you, Charles. Please give me the internets and copious amounts of free booze.

Of course, there were other highlights at the PSFK conference in San Francisco. For example, Jen Bekman’s desire to be the "gateway drug" of the art world by offering cheap limited edition prints to art newbies. Naturally her hope is that like any good drug, she’ll be able to feed their addiction once they get hooked.

Also, whoever thought that Microsoft would be on the cutting edge of branded environments? Hotel Sax in Chicago looks like a yuppie technophile’s dreamland.

For more, check for video coverage and updates on the conference site.

Imagine going to a party, but you get there late, and everyone is already wasted. You’re unfortunately sober, which is bad enough – but then some jerk gets the bright idea to put on a powerpoint presentation, and everyone proceeds to sit around it, yelling at every single slide. For two hours. And the presentation is intermittently interrupted by video clips of a bearded man in plaid raving about the Gold Rush.

That was the Addys last night. Sophie and I got suckered into going as Mortar’s sole representatives. You can’t see it right now, but I’m shaking my fist at Tim and Hugh.

On the bright side Mortar won four Addys! WOOOOOOO!!!!! YEAH!!!! IIIII"M DRUUUNK!!!!!!  (Sorry I didn’t get to yell at the presentation because I wasn’t drunk enough, so I wanted to make up for it here.)

And also there were teeny tiny lemon custard pies with blueberries on them and they were yummy.

Thank you SF Ad Club, for a valiant effort at throwing a classy ad party against all odds, and of course for our awards.

I love you guys.

And the awards go to… (insert drum roll here):

Silver: 48 Pages of Potential (a snazzy notebook we made as a holiday send-out), for Advertising Industry Self-Promotion!
Silver: St. Mary’s "Famous Last Words", for MultiMedia Campaign!
Bronze: 48 Pages of Potential, for Cinema Advertising Movie Trailers! (Wah – ?)
Silver: Playa Viva, for Consumer HTML websites!

Thank you! Thank you. We deserve every one of them. I said every one of them.  (Shut up Sophie!)