Remembrance
I was walking through Borders the other day and I overheard an old lady asking one of the employees if they had a book in stock called "Shit My Dad Says". (It was little strange to hear an older woman asking a bookstore clerk for the title.) I had heard of the idea before: guy on Twitter in his early 30's lives with his parents, and starts sharing the stuff that his grumpy old dad...
Because I Could (Boo!)
A few weekends ago, I discovered that it's remarkably easy to record spooky-sounding, gothic Halloween music, so I wrote and recorded an album of about 20 songs in roughly a week. I was interested in going through the whole process of creating and releasing an album in our digital world, so I resolved to get the album out by the end of the month. Shortly after I finished burning off most of the auditory warts...
Reminder of Fear
There's an extermination service in my town that sends its servicemen out in pickup trucks with giant plastic black widow spiders on the doors on either side of the car. More than once, one of these trucks pulled up next to me at an intersection and, after glimpsing the outline of a giant black spider out of the corner of my eye, scared the bejesus out of me. Human beings, it turns out, are more...
Respecting the Unknown
A couple of weeks ago, a co-worker of mine starting complaining about one of the local newspapers, referring to it in very polite terms as a "shit-rag". I laughed at this comment, and replied, "Well, in my experience, all newspapers are shit-rags." I was being facetious, and I was talking more about the medium of print than the role of journalism in society as a whole. But, my co-worker took this comment very personally, largely...
The "Me Me" Newspaper
In my experience, most companies that use blogs to promote themselves are getting it wrong. The reason is simple: try to imagine reading a newspaper where all the articles are written about what's happening at that newspaper's headquarters. Would anyone read that?
Criticism in the Cracks
It was over six months ago that Apple released the iPad. I'm not one to blog at length about technology or Apple products, but I remember the day it came out, buzz on the Internet pointed at the iPad as being a ridiculous piece of hardware that was little more a large version of an iPhone, and droves of people heralded it as the product release that would ruin Apple. This criticism is easily forgotten...
Maybe It Isn't the Money
I'm a little cynical about the effectiveness of traditional advertising, so this post comes with a grain of salt. Barack Obama managed to raise $50 million in a month because he was able to leverage the power of the Internet. He had no shortage of funds or supporters, and there's probably not a simple answer, but: Did he win the election in 2008 because he had the money? Did he win the election because he...
The Great Good Place
Sociologist Ray Oldenburg made a compelling case for every person's need for a third place. That is, we're social creatures that crave a place to spend time at, other than our homes or where we work during the day. And in the book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam makes a pretty compelling argument that the United States had its third places dwindle substantially during the twentieth century. Scott Heiferman read Bowling Alone and, instead of commiserating...
Volunteer Gift Cards
Thanksgiving is in just over a month from now, which means that food banks and soup kitchens are just starting to plan for their holiday events. For those of us lucky enough to have food on our tables, I'd like to share an idea. If you're a retailer or a grocery store, take some of your marketing or advertising budget for the holiday season and put it into gift cards in the amount of $5,...
Attack the Stereotype
There are thousands or even tens of thousands of stereotypes in this world. Going by profession: Lawyers are greedy. Accountants have no sense of humor. Salespeople are dishonest. And so on. When someone chooses to attack the stereotype, though, and acts in a way that we didn't expect, it causes us to open our eyes and take notice. Stereotypes aren't just a mechanism present in the morally bankrupt; they're a faculty of the human brain...