The @glennhendry Appliance Series

(Alternate title) How I came to be almost famous

It started as a bit of a lark but after a few days, I have to admit I kinda liked the attention.

My dream of logging onto Twitter, looking to the right and seeing my name trending was not to be, but still, seeing the @glennhendry Appliance Series of Beer Photos on my feed every day was a helluva lot of fun.

The genesis of this social media 'movement' had its roots in my excuses for not posting beer photos on the daily like my mates on Ontario Beer Twitter. 

I'm in a dingy basement with bad lighting, I said when pressed on the matter, though if I was being honest it was because I'm depressed and taking beautiful beer photos is a bit out of my mental reach some days.

"Nonsense," my pal Don said (it might have been "balderdash" or "hogwash"). "You don't need good lighting to post a beer photo." And then he posted a pic of a beer (with a perfect one inch head) in a branded glass on a microwave (colour co-ordinated) with cherubs shooting branded arrows in the background. "See?"

Except I didn't see it until later in the day and after a few more pictures in the 'series' had been shared. "There's a whole series? About me and appliances? I honestly don't think that will be a big hit," I said, clearly overwhelmed by the moment. "But you have obviously done your market research."

"It's a way to get you to post more pictures," said my Sudbury mate Danny. "And to show you we aren't *looks up famous photographers, doesn't recognize any* uhh ... good at pictures and to just post wherever and however you can."

Or, as Don put it in another thread, my pals were "rallying" behind me, which is a reflection of both the affection they have for me and the uhh ... patience they have for my mastery of technology.

So for the next five days my friends posted pictures on Twitter of beer sitting on various household appliances, tagging a bunch of us in the process. Initially, it was five or six of my pals posting a couple of times a day, which is something they would do anyway.

The difference, of course, is all the pics would be on, in or beside appliances, from fridges and microwaves to sump pumps and toasters. With my name as the flag bearer for these acts of photographic brilliance.

Like this imaginative effort from Don:

And this gem from Greg:

No to mention Graeme's first entry:

The campaign went on for nearly a week, with the original half-dozen participants quickly expanding to a dozen or so people who joined in on the fun. I participated as well, even though the idea of tagging myself in the post seemed just a little silly.

But fun, right?

Yeah, like that.

Beer photos on appliances started to come in from all over Ontario beer twitter (a few breweries were all in as well) and it even went international, with this pic all the way from Pennsylvania.

And everything was just fine in our own little world of beer photos until Drinks On Us, a Mississauga-based podcast duo of Courtney and Michelle (who talk about coffee, wine, spirits, beer and food on 960 AM Sauga Radio), chimed in with a Twitter poll.

Besides drinking them, they asked, what's your favourite thing to do with alcoholic beverages?

The choices were a) cook b) bake c) gift to others and d) take photos on appliances.

"Troll level - master!" Greg called it, and a "hilarious shout-out" chimed in Don, and I agreed with both sentiments.

I had never spoken to Michelle but Courtney, who knows more about beer than most of us (certainly way more than me) had been actively posting beer pics with our little group for a bit and she even contributed to the series.

Now I'm the type of guy who secretly likes attention but has been known to run screaming from it as well and all this kerfuffle was melting my brain a bit. But only a bit, because I freely admit I was grinning ear-to-ear for most of the 24 hours the poll was up.

I was also checking in on the progress and I was happy Team Appliance Series took an early and seemingly insurmountable lead. Team Gift to Others - let's face it, this would be the clear winner in any poll where the participants weren't actively and openly stuffing the ballots - made a late comeback and though the good guys (us!) won in the end, people who were unaware my precious ego was at stake and voted with the logical side of their brains made sure I didn't sweep the popular vote too.

The final tally had the @glennhendry Appliance Series winning the poll with 30 votes of 63 cast. Gift to Others scored 18, with Cook (12) and Bake (2) rounding out the results.

Not exactly Daniel Gerow appetizer poll numbers (Team Devilled Eggs!) but pretty respectable, in my books.

And the photos were still coming in, like this one from Rob:

The poll took place over a 24-hour period while the campaign lasted a little more than two weeks and though I was never 'trending' (63 poll votes does not a viral sensation make) it was a blast to see my name on Twitter so much. My friends like to take the piss with me but it's always born out of love and this experience was no different.

The Twitter social media platform gets a bad rap for toxic bullshit, racism and the like, but it's like anything else in life. If you want to find the good side of people it's there if you look for it.

Who knew you could find it in an appliance series of beer photos?

Here's a few more photos just because they're so damn cool.

From Don again:

... and one from Brad, who was already anxious to start a new series

And finally, a submission from Danny.

So take pictures of the beer you love to drink - in a branded glass or not - or drink them and leave your camera phone in your pocket. Just be you is what I'm trying to say here and remember: It's only beer so have some fun.

We could all use more of that.

Cheers!