Pithy Title Here

I can't even pretend I listened to every new album worth hearing this year. And now that some of the "official" lists are out, I realize that any list I make here is likely going to be terribly incomplete. For instance, you won't see Adele's 21 on this list, despite the fact that it's apparently amazing. I did listen to a lot, though. And let's be clear... this was an underwhelming year. I'm pretty sure even if I included a certain British chanteuse and Bon Iver, this list would still be a struggle. Unlike last year , which was a veritable cornucopia of bad-ass tunes, this year swung and missed more often than not. Anyhow, let's try this. As always, second opinions provided so you don't think I'm nuts. Honorable mentions Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch the Throne - You know, it's good. My issue was more that both of these guys are so much more than good. Maybe I need to chill out, but I kept feeling this could have been so much...

Last year, the annual holiday mix was solid, but, if you ask me, it was a bit pedestrian. Quality of song was pretty high, but there was something missing. Neither the mariachi horns from the Killers nor the fast-paced fun of Julian Casablancas really put the oomph into the holiday. And, as usual, finding Hanukkah songs was a freakin' challenge. One iffy Hanukkah song. I was concerned the supply of great modern holiday indie rock was gone. Friends, I am pleased to say this year's holiday mix is stellar. The dance beat is back in Christmas. You want Hanukkah? We have Hanukkah. Let's dive in! 1) The LeeVees - "How do You Spell Channukkahh?" - The guy with the rich low voice from Guster put this out with some friends a few years ago. And it's a damn fine way to start a holiday mix. An entertaining song (as all good Hanukkah songs should be) about a topic that even the best of Jews has to tackle. Add in driving guitars and clever lyrics and we're off to ...

I work in an industry where I am surrounded by new media "experts." I might even consider myself one sometimes. With new Facebook changes, ongoing mobile device/tablet wars and the like, just about anyone with an opinion is telling us what the future is... occasionally charging money for the privilege of hearing about it. I've been to two social media conferences now. Both have been excellent, but one way they have been excellent has been the "who really knows?" attitude that hangs over most discussions. Someone tried something that worked. It may or may not be easy to duplicate. Or it won't be. Who knows? Recent observations, though, seem to indicate an upswing in sweeping statements that not only could be way off base, but actually (I think) threaten the collective credibility of all of us "experts." I think this started around the launch of the iPad. At the time, tablets were not new to market (though kudos to Apple for making it seem like...

The thing about the "Occupy" demonstrations - and really all of the Tea Party demonstrations as well - is that they make a lot of noise... but what do they do? To some extent, I salute participants on both sides. I may agree and disagree with portions of their views (or entirely... just depends), but I can hardly argue that both groups' efforts have done much to raise my awareness of their issues. I've done some of the background reading on their topics as a result. The thing is... well, a number of things. Let's hit the obvious: lots of ignorant people in each group. For every well-read, thoughtful person, it seems, at least as the news shows via interviews, there's someone who has a lot of hyperbole and no grasp of how the world actually works. A stack of good intentions doesn't change the government, nor does it make a dent in our economy. This is at its worst when people oversimplify. Prime example: the obsession of some Tea Party members (at l...

Did you know me back in high school or college? If so... yeah, sorry about that. In all seriousness, I'm sure we all have moments from the past we cherish and some we wish had panned out differently. What I think is more interesting is how things evolve. Or, in some cases, fail to. Just figure: I graduated high school in 1997 and college four years later. Some of the folks I shared a walk to "Pomp & Circumstance" with haven't been in touch with me for at least 10 years. I don't even know these people, at least. How much have you changed in 10 years? Judging by how much I have changed, probably more than a little. Yet, when I see a Facebook update from a friend from high school or spot a once-familiar face on a trip back to where I grew up, I seem to not give the person that credit. And it's not fair. What I mean is, I might hear something from my mom about such-and-such who I went to high school with who's now doing this-or-that-with-so...

On September 11, 2001, I had a bad day. I was in my New York City office at 8:20 a.m. Little did I know, I would go home early that day for all the worst reasons. You don't need a recap, but from that day and through the 10 years since, the events of the day have been a focus. We talk about living in a post-9/11 world... at least the commentators do. It is the latest generation's "day." They used to ask my age group where we were for the Challenger disaster. Now, we all remember where we were on 9/11. I am all for honoring the brave who ran to the scene. And for mourning the losses, so heavy. We say "never forget." Honestly, I don't think we ever could . Which brings me to the point at hand: when we spend the entire day of 9/11 every year in solemnity, it does what the terrorists want: it leaves us sad and frozen. The terrorists view 9/11 as their day... the day America was shaken. I say we take it back for ourselves. We can memorialize all we lost witho...

We could sit here and discuss The Wall Street Journal , but any conversation will likely devolve into some nonsense about the merits (or lack thereof) of its editorial page. The paper's business reporting is top-notch. In our complicated economy, you would do well to read it. I really love how they cover every sector in great detail. I never went to business school, or really took business classes, so I made following the airline industry news in the WSJ my own business program. I tell PR students they should pick an industry they can geek out over and follow in the WSJ and the New York Times . You think I'm kidding? Let's just say the whole argument in congress over the Essential Air Service Program has a completely different feel to it if you understand the basic ways the airline industry works. Regardless of industry, story after story shows the complexity of nearly every industry. Which brings us to the topic at hand: believe it or not, you have a porn problem. ...

I take it for granted that everyone has heard of Google+ by now. Such is life when you work in PR and many of your friends are involved in some capacity with social media from a business standpoint. But if, not... Google just reinvented Facebook. There. You are up to speed. All week, my Twitter stream has been filled with Google+ tutorials. Analysis. Predictions. I'm trying to discern what is helpful and what is someone trying to land a new contract for freelance social media counseling. The truth is, no one knows if Google+ is the next Facebook or the next Google flame-out. And anyone who tells you it's going to replace Facebook? Ask them why. The thing about social media is that we users still control it. If Google+ makes it, we, the users, get the lion's share of credit. Sure, Google could entice us all with amazing features, but a social media channel is only as good as the users it carries. You probably stopped using MySpace for a number of reasons, but chief among the...

In case you didn't hear, News Corporation - the same people who bring you Fox News - today sold MySpace for the sum of $35 million . That is not a small amount of money. Though it is much smaller than the $580 million News Corp. paid for MySpace in 2005. Let's put this in perspective. Say you bought a house in 2005 for $200K. Now, in our recessioned world, you might get $165K for it (so I hope for you, anyway). Your house would have lost more than 17% of its value. Under News Corp., MySpace lost almost 94% of its value . Some people thought this was a good deal at the time, by the way. This will be broken down in business and communications textbooks for generations. Mistakes were made. Facebook, seemingly, didn't make them. Whatever. That isn't what this post is about. As of the moment I am writing this, News Corp.'s stock price is $17.83/share. What was it on June 30, 2005? A hair below $17 per, according to News Corp.'s investor site . What I' saying here...

ABC has wheeled out a new show called Combat Hospital . I have not watched it. But just as CBS has made CSI spin-off after spin-off, it seems ABC is content to do this with medical dramas. Let's recap: Grey's Anatomy - Frightfully attractive hospital staff provide services to Seattle's sick and injured in between bouts of providing "other services" to each other. However, when you have good writing and good acting, this can work out. Private Practice - Doctor leaves Grey's Anatomy for sunny Santa Monica to be part of a private medical practice that serves, well... the type of people you expect in Los Angeles that are rich enough to not care if their medical insurance pays for their procedures. Off the Map - Frightfully attractive doctors (in Ecuador?) providing services to the stereotypically Latin American locals while doing some soul searching. Now, we have Combat Hospital , which, from what I can gather, is doctors on the war front in Afghanistan. This i...

This past week, I traveled to New York on business. I had been back east since moving west, but this time, in particular, the signs were all there... I've become a west coaster. Let's review: Tolerance for heat? Gone. Especially the east coast favorite of "HHH" weather - hazy, hit and humid. Last Tuesday, I basically wilted in the NYC heat and it was the coldest day of my brief trip there. On Weds, it hit 95 and, despite having grown up in this sort of weather, I was done with it. I guess it's more of a testament to the miracles of nature and how we're able to acclimate to the areas we live in. For now, though, if it must be hot, let's do dry heat, k? Apparently, I no longer jaywalk. Or I have to remind myself to do so. I was walking to meet a friend in NYC and the sign said "don't walk." So... I didn't. If you've never been to/lived in NYC, this may mean nothing to you. If you do, you're probably going "You're the pedest...

Twitter gives you 140 characters to make a point. If I don't break this blog up into little tiny paragraphs, you may skim its words, if read it at all. Study after study shows that Americans have either shorter attention spans or multitask to the point that they need information quickly and concisely. Not saying any of this is good or bad... or even that these are new problems. Shakespeare said in Richard III : "Tis better to be brief than tedious." That was back in the 16th century. But our world of soundbytes seems to have led to hyperbole and oversimplification that, perhaps, are not the best ways to examine what is anything but a simple world. We can see this all over the place. The recent frenzy over Planned Parenthood's federal funding comes to mind. The soundbyte was "They use funding for abortions." That's interesting when only 3% of Planned Parenthood's operations deal with abortion. Cutting funding would kinda be like if your doctor tells y...

Lately, several of our friends have started considering disconnecting their cable/satellite services. A couple have actually pulled the plug. Their reasoning up-front seems sound: they want to save money. They say they can stream all the network TV content they want and, for any shows they cannot catch online, they can get on DVD (or streaming) through a service such as Netflix . I'm not so sure this plan works out in the long term for them. I can say for sure my wife and I are considering ways we can cut our bill down. Perhaps cutting the Starz /Encore package? But a moment of truth: I watch way too much sports. A friend of mine admits he's "going to likely be spending more time in bars this fall" to catch his college football. For what it's worth, I have definitely spent the equivalent of a cable bill in a bar tab for a sporting event. And when you consider my lovely wife seems to have grown quite fond of the Yankees and Sounders - and since sports is best watch...

In the late 18 th Century, English physician Edward Jenner took an untested (at least in modern research terms) theory and ended up finding a way that led to the eradication of smallpox. A big part of his hunch toward a vaccine was that milkmaids tended to not get smallpox. The theory was that cowpox, a similar, less lethal virus, did something that, in the end, made the body immune to smallpox. In fact, modern science can tell you exactly why this is the case. As an oversimplification, the body "learns" to fight smallpox by killing the similar cowpox virus. So today, as you live your life free of smallpox, you should be happy that milkmaids of yore weren't using Purell every time they got done touching an udder. Would you do the same? I doubt it. My lovely wife wrote a rather humorous blog post on the subject of bathroom habits and it got me thinking... We are flipping nuts. Flushing the toilet with your foot? Washing up like you just left a salmonella factory every...

I fly through Phoenix a lot. Comes with the territory of being a US Airways flyer . I always go for window seats because I am a six-year-old and love looking out the window at stuff. As much as I fly into PHX , I had never noticed something until a few weeks ago. At first, I didn't know what I was seeing. I kept looking... Yes. It's a flipping fountain. But, thanks to The Googles and The Internets, I know it is not just any fountain. Apparently, it is the key feature of the Fountain Hills community and was built in 1970. Our friends at Wikipedia say it blasts 7,000 gallons of water every minute through three 600 horsepower pumps and that "ideally" it shoots water 560 feet into the air. The Washington Monument, by the way, is 555 feet and 5 1/8 inches tall. Yes, friends, in the middle of the flipping desert, we have built a fountain that can top out higher than a major national landmark. I barely know where to start here. I should note that it doesn't constantly ...

On Tuesday night, I'm attending the opening of Major League Soccer's 2011 season. In fact, I'll be at all of the Seattle Sounders FC games this season as a season ticket holder. I have to admit, if you had told me 10 years ago I'd be an MLS season ticket holder, I probably wouldn't have believed it. But, 15 years in, MLS is starting to gain some respect as a soccer league. Players in offseason training with Barclay's Premiership teams in England come back reporting that the gap is closer than ever. And, to be honest, the way Seattle cheers its team on makes the games worth it out of the box... 36,000 rowdy, chanting, singing fans. When I first went to a Sounders game, I was stunned by the crowd. I've attended a lot of sporting events in my life, been in some jacked up crowds... but never have I seen a crowd quite like the Sounders fans that fill Qwest Field. It makes some sense. More Americans grew up playing soccer in the last generation than any other...

In early 2003, I worked at a PR firm that promoted BBC Video. Not a bad gig for a somewhat-recent college grad. Especially if you like British humor (oh how I still think it's a tragedy what the USA did to Coupling . And don't even start me on my thoughts on the original British version of The Office ...). There was one DVD release, though, that took me by surprise. I had never heard of The Singing Detective . Our product managers on the client side spoke well of it... very well. And, when a member of the PR firm spoke to then-TV critic at the New York Daily News David Bianculli (he's now a guest host and TV critic on NPR's Fresh Air and founded TVWorthWatching .com), the well-respected critic referred to the 1986 BBC production as one of the best bits of dramatic TV ever. He ended up writing the DVD liner notes. Most of you have likely encountered Michael Gambon in the Harry Potter films. A younger Imelda Staunton (who also made her way to Harry Potter ) has a ro...

Last week, for the second time in my life, I found myself in Las Vegas. A side note: both times, my trips to Vegas have been for Ragan / PRSA social media conferences and they have both been amazing. These haven't been two days of listening to presenters pat themselves on their backs about what a great job they're doing. These have been real-time forums and discussions of using social channels as communications tools. I cannot recommend them enough. Anyhow, back to the story... I kind of hate Las Vegas. I am all for societies having their places of ill-repute. I just always thought Los Angeles fit that bill nicely. I challenge any group of frat boys to have a bachelor party in Los Angeles that doesn't go as well as one in Las Vegas. Hell, minus the gambling, it might go better in LA. And therein lies my first issue with Vegas: the assumption that you are up to no good. Usually, I go to conferences and it's easy to network and meet people. In Vegas, if I start talkin...

Was speaking to my lovely wife today. As you likely know, we each love our Kindles. Sarah has been a bit flummoxed as to why Kindle seems to be the holdout when it comes to library books being available on the #1 e-reader device. After all, the Nook handles formats that most public libraries have adopted. The answer, to be sure, is why should Amazon encourage you to get loaner books for free when it's making enough money off e-book sales to offset the loss it takes on Kindles themselves (though, I read that the margin on Kindles may be improving)? From a business standpoint, that doesn't make much sense. Especially when market share is in your favor without offering support for the file formats libraries prefer. That said, I have a solution that I hope people smarter than me are already considering. It would look like this: Amazon and your local public library enter a contract where Amazon delivers content, likely segments of books at a time, for free to library members. The li...

I've been holding off on this blog for several months in order to distance myself from when the events happened. This is mainly to keep the confidentiality of all involved... the conversation that inspired this post was over drinks in friendly conversation. But, especially after reading the reactions to yesterday's shooting of a congresswoman in Arizona, I think it's time. During my travels in 2010, I found myself in a chat with some friends, one of whom is something of a big shot on the staff of a high-profile politician (you've likely heard of this politician). Names, locations, party affiliation... even the level of government isn't important, because I'm pretty sure what this person told me applies to everyone running for office above your local town council. This person is interesting... has worked on various national/local campaigns and has, somehow, been in the middle of some very interesting political events. In all posts, this person has been successful...