I seek
the divine
and daily
unexpected
and unguarded
moments
like blossoms
fall
haphazard
infrequent
moments
when I approach
the eternal
when empathy
embraces and
emboldens me
moments
when I awake
for certain
and grace
ruthless
as an army
overtakes me
renders me
expressionless
sick with
the fever
of fleeting joy
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Verse: Cherrywine
Dance now
and often
break silence
with wonder
with light
cut words
with truth
to keep
them pure
lay your hands
upon the sky
and seed it
in my
impatient heart
and then
pour the wine
a sacrament
for the ceremony
yet to begin
and often
break silence
with wonder
with light
cut words
with truth
to keep
them pure
lay your hands
upon the sky
and seed it
in my
impatient heart
and then
pour the wine
a sacrament
for the ceremony
yet to begin
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Horizon Realty grapples with the reality of social media
One of the main trending topics on Twitter today is Horizon Realty. According to Mashable, the company is suing a woman for $50,000 over a tweet that one of its Chicago apartments she rented was moldy.
Mashable's story, which references an article in the Chicago Sun-Times, says that the company did not attempt to contact the woman who posted the tweet or ask her to remove it. Instead, a Horizon Realty rep, Jeffrey Michael, said, "We're a sue first, ask question later kind of an organization."
And with that, a tweet that, at best, less than two dozen people originally saw, became a topic of discussion among thousands and thousands of people on Twitter. And you can imagine the kind of commentary it has generated about Horizon. Makes you wonder how many lawsuits the company could conceivably file, given the quote above.
Here's the thing: Whether the post was factual or not, Horizon really should have done a reach out to the customer first. By launching a lawsuit, the company has drawn attention to itself and stirred up a hornets' nest of unflattering comments. No doubt more media outlets will pick up the story, inviting or encouraging more scornful commentary. That's how a PR nightmare is born. The comment about suing first really doesn't help the company's brand either. Now, it will have to expend time, money and energy trying to rehabilitate its rep, all of which it could have avoided if it chose to handle the situation differently.
Ultimately, this is another example of why you want to very carefully consider any measures you take when dealing with customers in any forum, particularly social media. Because it only takes one comment by a company rep to fan the flames of hostility on the internet and make your company internationally infamous. That's the kind of property damage you can't easily repair.
Mashable's story, which references an article in the Chicago Sun-Times, says that the company did not attempt to contact the woman who posted the tweet or ask her to remove it. Instead, a Horizon Realty rep, Jeffrey Michael, said, "We're a sue first, ask question later kind of an organization."
And with that, a tweet that, at best, less than two dozen people originally saw, became a topic of discussion among thousands and thousands of people on Twitter. And you can imagine the kind of commentary it has generated about Horizon. Makes you wonder how many lawsuits the company could conceivably file, given the quote above.
Here's the thing: Whether the post was factual or not, Horizon really should have done a reach out to the customer first. By launching a lawsuit, the company has drawn attention to itself and stirred up a hornets' nest of unflattering comments. No doubt more media outlets will pick up the story, inviting or encouraging more scornful commentary. That's how a PR nightmare is born. The comment about suing first really doesn't help the company's brand either. Now, it will have to expend time, money and energy trying to rehabilitate its rep, all of which it could have avoided if it chose to handle the situation differently.
Ultimately, this is another example of why you want to very carefully consider any measures you take when dealing with customers in any forum, particularly social media. Because it only takes one comment by a company rep to fan the flames of hostility on the internet and make your company internationally infamous. That's the kind of property damage you can't easily repair.
Song of the Day - July 28, 2009
Joe Jackson - the angry, angular white musician from Britain, not Michael Jackson's father - came to public prominence with several other angry, melodic and witty young Brits in era of New Wave, specifically Graham Parker and Elvis Costello. He was probably the most successful of the lot in terms of sales, at least for a spell, though his critical rep has never quite been their equal. Like Parker, he has a tendency to sound hectoring, particularly given his rather brusque, sneering vocals. Like Costello, he has a fatal tendency to dabble that dilutes his best material and his song craft.
I'm particularly partial to Body and Soul, but the first album is the one that, in many ways, is his best. Not just because it was free of exceedingly lofty ideals or ham-fisted lecturing or any other reason you care to cite. It was the clarity of his vision, the energy of his attack, and the hooks. Sure, he was a little rough and a little belligerent, but those songs...
I could have opted for Is She Really Going Out With Him, but I thought I'd select Got The Time, a very punky number that pogos with vigor through a hectic lyric about trying to get by in a busy, chock-a-block day. Here's Joe's version, albeit a more recent live one:
Anthrax did a version as well. Note how the inherent aggression of the song suits the band well. I had to use the Lego version because the Universal version wouldn't let me embed it.
I'm particularly partial to Body and Soul, but the first album is the one that, in many ways, is his best. Not just because it was free of exceedingly lofty ideals or ham-fisted lecturing or any other reason you care to cite. It was the clarity of his vision, the energy of his attack, and the hooks. Sure, he was a little rough and a little belligerent, but those songs...
I could have opted for Is She Really Going Out With Him, but I thought I'd select Got The Time, a very punky number that pogos with vigor through a hectic lyric about trying to get by in a busy, chock-a-block day. Here's Joe's version, albeit a more recent live one:
Anthrax did a version as well. Note how the inherent aggression of the song suits the band well. I had to use the Lego version because the Universal version wouldn't let me embed it.
Vintage Commercial of the Day - July 28, 2009
Sorry, I took a week off from blogging due to time constraints, and things aren't likely to quiet down for a while, so it's going to be very quick hits for the foreseeable future. Which means ads and songs of the day as well as words continue. Poems and perspective less likely.
Speaking of ads, today is Milk Chocolate Day, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate than with a classic Rolo ad from the 1970s. They certainly don't compare to the The Lockers, which may be why their career was so short lived. Anyway, enjoy:
Speaking of ads, today is Milk Chocolate Day, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate than with a classic Rolo ad from the 1970s. They certainly don't compare to the The Lockers, which may be why their career was so short lived. Anyway, enjoy:
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Word of the Day - July 21, 2009
Word of the Day is adumbrate, which is to sketch out, suggest, foreshadow or overshadow.
verse: Conspiracy
cool blue
and silent
The morning
happens by
taps at our window
and awaits
our reply
mason jars upon
the sill
now filled with
the dust of light
And the wind
scatters snow-white wisps
of clouds like paper kites
heaving and honking
the morning accelerates
reluctantly
we leave our bed
and set out our plates
hatching newspaper vendors
racing to take the stands
time doubles up around us
as tight as elastic bands
breathless and bustling
the morning soldiers on
greedily scoops up the
dew drops strewn about
our lawn
the light creeps up
our kitchen wall
like a pillar of fire
fortified by scrambled eggs
we start to conspire
impetuous and impatient
the morning leaves us behind
Coaxes and cajoles us
yet we pay it no mind
with all that we have
here and now
why think of what's ahead?
Let's finish our breakfast
clear our plates
and then go back to bed.
and silent
The morning
happens by
taps at our window
and awaits
our reply
mason jars upon
the sill
now filled with
the dust of light
And the wind
scatters snow-white wisps
of clouds like paper kites
heaving and honking
the morning accelerates
reluctantly
we leave our bed
and set out our plates
hatching newspaper vendors
racing to take the stands
time doubles up around us
as tight as elastic bands
breathless and bustling
the morning soldiers on
greedily scoops up the
dew drops strewn about
our lawn
the light creeps up
our kitchen wall
like a pillar of fire
fortified by scrambled eggs
we start to conspire
impetuous and impatient
the morning leaves us behind
Coaxes and cajoles us
yet we pay it no mind
with all that we have
here and now
why think of what's ahead?
Let's finish our breakfast
clear our plates
and then go back to bed.
Song of the Day - July 21, 2009
I first became aware of Peter Gabriel in 1982, when Shock the Monkey became a somewhat surprise top 40 US hit and was all over the radio here. Based on that song and an interview/videos I caught on a show called The New Music (JD Roberts' old stomping ground before being a US news anchor), I pegged him for a new waver. I'd no idea he'd started out an art rocker in Genesis.
In 1983, Gabriel released Plays Live and it provided a good opportunity to do some catching up with the man. Two songs from that album were in heavy rotation on the radio/local video countdown show that summer: I Go Swimming (whose repetition of that line drove my mom batshit crazy with derision) and I Don't Remember, which is our Song of the Day.
I Don't Remember originally appeared on Gabriel's third self-titled album in 1980 (it's also known as Melt because of its cover, pictured above). It was the album that ended his tenure with Atlantic Records in North America as it was deemed noncommercial. Not only was that album the biggest yet of Gabriel's solo career, it is regarded as the debut by some of the 'gated drum' a sound that he or Phil Collins or both of them created and became the hallmark of Phil's style.
What I like about I Don't Remember is how diseased it sounds, from the thick anxious bass lines of Tony Levin to Gabriel's primal yelps. I always thought it was meant to be a song about an amnesiac, but there's a certain bristling defiance in the lyric - no ID, no papers, and no giving a damn - that made me interpret it as a song by a conscientious objector resisting an interrogation. But enough talk from me. Get infected:
Vintage Commercial of the Day - July 21, 2009
In light of the Sprite Spec commercial, I've chosen this 1980s Sprite spot featuring Kurtis Blow, complete with 7-Up dis. Those are the breaks...
Popping the top of the Sprite Spec Commercial
Despite what you read here, I don't shock or offend easily. I've watched or listened to nearly every form of entertainment you can think of. Some of them you'd be hard pressed to defend as entertainments. And I can mount a defense of the depravity and dehumanizing acts depicted in Pasolini's Salo as a statement on our callow and base natures using American Idol as an example.
So when I rail against a non-commercial that has not been banned in Germany, a spec commercial created for Sprite and viewable here in this Young Turks YouTube clip, it's more out of sheer disappointment. Disappointment that so many creative types reduce sex in marketing to something leering, immature and creatively bankrupt.
BK has done it. Hardee's has done it. And I I summarily dismissed both for their sophomoric efforts some time ago. No doubt, other companies are looking to do it, too. In this case, the spec commercial, if you haven't checked the link above, shows a woman who appears to be performing fellatio getting sprayed in the face with the contents of a bottle of Sprite.
Sex can be funny. Sex can be rendered with sophistication. European ad campaigns have proved this time and time again. This spec commercial for Sprite, and the BK and Hardee's campaigns, is neither funny nor sophisticated. It's not even really a commercial at the end of the day. So why am I talking about it?
1) The spec commercial is likely to be circulated virally, thus becoming a de facto commercial, whether Sprite likes it or not. I gather the company does not. It creates a rather unfortunate and embarrassing public relations situation for Sprite that it probably hadn't anticipated (if the company played no part in encouraging the creation of this item).
2) Somewhere, someone is creating content using your brand or product, and they are sharing it with friends, posting for all to see on the web. So you need to be aware of what it going on with your brand and engaging and guiding consumers where possible in the creation of that content so it is in keeping with the brand and messages you want to communicate.
Obviously, you can't control all content or commentary on your brand, but you do have to be more vigilant than ever to protect ya neck. Your willingness to be transparent and engaging also goes a long way to maintaining your reputation when content like this pops up, pardon the pun.
So when I rail against a non-commercial that has not been banned in Germany, a spec commercial created for Sprite and viewable here in this Young Turks YouTube clip, it's more out of sheer disappointment. Disappointment that so many creative types reduce sex in marketing to something leering, immature and creatively bankrupt.
BK has done it. Hardee's has done it. And I I summarily dismissed both for their sophomoric efforts some time ago. No doubt, other companies are looking to do it, too. In this case, the spec commercial, if you haven't checked the link above, shows a woman who appears to be performing fellatio getting sprayed in the face with the contents of a bottle of Sprite.
Sex can be funny. Sex can be rendered with sophistication. European ad campaigns have proved this time and time again. This spec commercial for Sprite, and the BK and Hardee's campaigns, is neither funny nor sophisticated. It's not even really a commercial at the end of the day. So why am I talking about it?
1) The spec commercial is likely to be circulated virally, thus becoming a de facto commercial, whether Sprite likes it or not. I gather the company does not. It creates a rather unfortunate and embarrassing public relations situation for Sprite that it probably hadn't anticipated (if the company played no part in encouraging the creation of this item).
2) Somewhere, someone is creating content using your brand or product, and they are sharing it with friends, posting for all to see on the web. So you need to be aware of what it going on with your brand and engaging and guiding consumers where possible in the creation of that content so it is in keeping with the brand and messages you want to communicate.
Obviously, you can't control all content or commentary on your brand, but you do have to be more vigilant than ever to protect ya neck. Your willingness to be transparent and engaging also goes a long way to maintaining your reputation when content like this pops up, pardon the pun.
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