Useful Lunacy

The Joy of Conversation

Every innovation I can think of, every clever gadget, every great headline—was incubated in conversation. It is in talking with each other, in hashing out the perspectives, insights and opinions, that progress is made on any level and in any endeavor. 

The past 48 hours have been a joy and an inspiration.

Many thanks to David Armano for the generosity of his time and wisdom. For taking the bait, and coming to Minneapolis to share his perspective first at MCAD and then at CATFOA. But also for being accessible, and eager to hear what other people had to say. Thank you, David, for your willingness to learn from us.

And even greater thanks to this marvelous community—for showing up, for having questions, for challenging each other, for congregating versus separating. It is incredibly rewarding to see so many people make the collective effort. We're fortunate to have each other. 

The new Internet song

Another MIMA Summit 2008 update:  We've hired Rhett and Link to create a MIMA Summit theme song; and they created not only a song, but a video. Spread the word!

Rigging the viral market?

One of my Blogger-Social karaoke conspirators, Paul McEnany, puts the viral odds on this new Weezer video at 8 million views. Personally, I'd love to see the math. Sort of like how they predict box office gross for films in Entertainment Weekly, I imagine. "Let's see, one Chris Crocker + the Numa Numa guy + the Will It Blend idea + some Star Wars stuff, and on and on = oh hell, let's call it 8 million views." And Gavin Heaton's comment to Paul's post is spot on: "If they were really smart they would release a low quality version of the song as an mp3 and allow people to create their own mashups." But they won't because that would make sense.

 

I'm especially happy to see Minneapolis' own Tay Zonday make his cameo appearance, since he and I had breakfast together a few days before he flew to LA for this shoot.

But there's maybe a bigger idea at stake here. We've created at least the appearance of a machine that spits out viralness, and encourages lunging at the podium. Could there a marketplace for virality? What if you could place bets--wait, let's call them something sensible, like "investments"--on the over/under for a particular "viral video?" I think that might be kind of fun.

(However it works out, the song itself, "Pork and Beans," is actually quite nice. Very Weezer. I'll be downloading it soon.)

VibroMania & Bootsy

This is just the sort of thing that makes me wish I was born in 1920 and was working as a session player in NYC in the late 40s. It's no Spike Jones, but still spectacular.

And while we're at it, how about some Healing Power with Bootsy Collins, David Sanborn, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Omar Hakim, and Hiram Bullock? The interview at the front with Bootsy and Dave is worth the price of admission. I believe Carla (on piano) wrote the tune with Steve. Hiram does his usual shredding.

RE: 2007

I turned 40 this year.

I got let go from a job in advertising for the third time. (Thanks, Bill Miller, for telling me years ago, that this was completely normal.) And I helped start my own company for the first time. Talk about a refreshing change of pace!

Our second son arrived in February. Ellington is absolutely amazing. Tremendously loud. Always moving. Since starting my own gig, I've really enjoyed having the ability to set my own schedules and see more of our kids. (Working for oneself = a wonderful gift.)

I started this blog on March 28, 2007. 90 posts later (including this one), the blog's amassed 4,068 page views (avg. 15.24 page views per day) and 62 comments. Who'd a thunk it?

And thanks to Netvibes, it's been really easy to follow more than 40 blogs this year. Shout-outs to Jaffe Juice, CK's Blog, Logic+Emotion, Conversation Agent, TechnoMarketer, TwoFortyEight, Mark Silva, BNOX, and Herb Sawyer for making it worthwhile. I'm looking forward to seeing many of these people in person at Blogger Social in April 2008.

I can't remember when I started Twittering this year. But 1,788 posts later, I feel like I've always been using Twitter. So oddly useful and addictive.

Same goes for Facebook. I got into it in 2006 (yeah, a newbie), but didn't get rolling until this year. I suspect I spend 90 minutes a day there, on average now. It fills roles for both work and procrastination (or "workstination?"). Anyone else find it even partially irreplaceable?

2007 has been really chaotic; full of adventure, new contacts, friends and inspiration. I wouldn't have it any other way.

And you?

Tastemakers

Music for Picture has their latest NMR out, and it's quite fantastic. And not just because my pal Dmitri Cavander guest-designed the cover. These guys have taste. You should sample it.

I'm drawn to "L'Heros - Remix By Torpedo Boys" by The Pinker Tones, "Rumors" by Josh Ritter, "Summertime" by Project Jenny, Project Jan and "You Don't Stand A Chance" by Robbers on High Street.

Thanks, Peter! Thanks, Ben!

Next to 20,000 other Police Fans

Saw The Police on Tuesday at the Excel Center in St. Paul, MN. Pretty awesome show, but I'm biased. I must have been in my early teens when I heard Zenyatta Mondatta and something clicked. I had to play the drums after that.

So whatever diet/exercise regimine Sting is using works. He's, what, 60? He looks awesome. He sounds awesome. It was interesting hearing his stadium rig, too. They clearly augmented the bass sound with lots of low end synth to boost coverage and weight in such a large room. I call it "slab tone." 

It was also nice to hear them rework their songs. They didn't just play the old, recorded versions. Every tune had some fresh rhythm, orchestration or harmony. Of course the lyrics are familiar, but the reworking gave the set some appreciated energy.

Andy Summers surprised me -- I had forgotten what a knowledgeable, yet soulful soloist he can be. Stewart appeared to have a cold. At least, that's what he looked like on the big screens. I've played with a cold and it ain't any fun. Didn't look like Stewart was having fun. But he did smile a lot at the end. And, of course, his playing was brilliant. Drums sounded fantastic as well. (Much better than the drums for Fiction Plane, who opened.)

The crowd was pretty old, however. Lots of guys losing their hair, but screaming their hearts out.

But that's the way of the world, now, isn't it?

- - -

UPDATE:  Interesting negative review of the St. Paul show in the StarTribune. But apparently the fans, like me, who saw the show totally disagree with the negative review. (Link also includes video and set list from the show.)

Babysitters & Fountains of Wayne

My wife, buddy Robb and his wife went to the Fountains of Wayne show tonight at First Avenue tonight. Simply put:  Awesome. Granted, they played more of the mellow tunes ("Valley Winter Song," etc) tonight than I prefered. I missed "Bright Future In Sales." But still, this is pop music. We got "Mexican Wine" (with a nice, sarcastic tribute to Kenney Chesney). And they threw out the Neil Sedaka reference. You should have been there. A great set list, ending, of course, with "Sink To The Bottom."

Or, as Robb put it, "Maybe all the babysitters should be here and we should be home."

(There's a nice tour diary for FoW written by lead singer Adam Schlesinger here.)

Stuck in my head

So for the past few days I've been driving to work listening to the same song, over and over: "Hide and Seek" off Speak For Yourself by Imogen Heap. (Thanks to Peter and Ben at Music For Picture and their Winter 2006 New Music Review.) Kind of reminds me of Laurie Anderson's vocoder work, and for some reason, Imogen's melody brings up fragments from "Blue Sound - Note 3" off Domino Theory by  Weather Report. Crazy.

Half way to 80

We celebrated my 40th birthday on Sunday.

The piano player was awesome. The catering was awesome. The 2005 Domaine de Dragon rose was awesome. (Perhaps a little too awesome.)

Now what?