www.essential-cohen.com is open !!

[Stephane]

Dear Friends,

http://www.essential-cohen.com is open !
Some of the links, such as
pages with reproduction of items sent by L. Cohen (pictures, notebooks...)
are going to be active on November 1st (or before)
For now, enjoy the preview and don't forget to download
The Essential e-Card now !!!
http://www.essential-cohen.com

[Sue]

Dear Stephane,

I downloaded the 'e-card' and it seems to be a very stylish Flash animation advertising the CDs. In what way is it a card? Is there some way I can put a message on it if I want to send it to someone, or do I just attach it to an e-mail?? And suppose the recipient doesn't have a recent version of Flash installed? To be honest it wasn't what I was expecting. Have I got the right thing?

Sue

[Stephane]

Dear Sue,

You are 100 per cent right. An e-Card should not be a simple "animation"
True, you can usually send a customized text with an e-Card...
You got me !

Well, to explain you, I created this animation and did not really know how to call it. Download the "animation", download the "e-Card"...
I wasn't sure I must recognise...
Then I remembered there was a Flash "e-Card" on the official sony music site (leonardcohen.com) so I went there to check it out, see if there were any possibility to insert a text in it...

And I finaly discovered that it was the same thing... a Flash animation... without any possibility to insert any text...
Then I said to myself "Stephane, Sony Music people are professional and they call it an "e-Card". I guess then that you can just call it the same..."

Anyway, it's not really a big deal... Is it ?

You said that it was not what you were expecting... I am sorry and I sincerly apologize for that. You took of your time to download it and did not get what you were expecting. I feel like I've cheated...

Please accept my excuses.

Anyway, thank you for this feedback. Next time, I'll make a preview page so people can "preview" what they are downloading.

Best wishes,

[Sue]

Thanks for taking the time to reply Stephane. You're right, it's no big deal -but it's my sister's birthday on Monday and she likes Cohen so I thought I might surprise her with it -- then when I saw it I thought, "uh huh.." because:
1) she probably hasn't got Flash and
2) she doesn't use her speakers much so she probably wouldn't have them switched on and SO, she wouldn't realise there was music on it.

But it's very cool and I liked it myself - it has a nice feel to it, soft, but quite tantalising/exciting at the same time. It's the way the text and photo just appear, like someone is quietly dealing cards. The big grey text floats out to grab you and then - pouf!, gone like the smoke. In fact I think it was most inspired to put these visuals against a background of "it's not a trick, your senses all deceiving.."

I've just had a look at the e-card on the Sony site and doesn't have any of the same excitement!

Sue

[Stephane]

Dear Sue,

Thank you very much. Many webmasters would probably tell you that we usually do not have enough objective feedbacks.
It is very helpful to have visitors opinion.

Next time I'll build a sound e-Card, it is going to be a simple HTML (webpage) to warn visitors, to tell them they need to download Flash and to tell them to turn on their speakers.
Then, at the bottom of the page, a button to run the animation.

The other day, I received a mail from Leonard Cohen and he didn't seem to be aware of this eCard. I did not want to tell him the whole thing -such as "Download it, then click here or there..." -

So I exceptionally prepared a simple page with the eCard for him to see it.
You can give your sister this address :
http://www.leonardcohenfrance.com/perso2lc.html
or, if it she uses something else than Internet Explorer :
http://www.leonardcohenfrance.com/ecardprev.html

And tell her Happy Birthday !

Regards,