When you’re a Jewish kid growing up in the suburbs, your choices are pretty slim. You like Billy Joel, you go to Hebrew School, you get braces, and you practice for your Bar Mitzvah. That’s pretty much all you get ’til you head off to college. For me, such was life. And it wasn’t a bad life by any means, but I found it kind of hard to look up to musicians that seemed...
Last year, my company (D.I.-Why) sponsored the New Music Seminar. It was our first sponsorship ever as a company, and we were a bit nervous about what could happen. Having worked in multiple marketing departments over the years, it’s far more fun to spend money when it’s not actually yours. But when it’s your company, and your money, you toss dimes around like they’re...
I held off on writing a SXSW post because everybody else is. Who wants to be a sheep, right? When March rolls around, every musician and music industry hack starts frothing at the mouth. SXSW is a big ol’ schmoozefest accompanied by bbq. All things considered, it’s right up my professional alley. I’ve attended SXSW a bunch of times in the past as a rep from whatever company I...
Happy (would’ve been) 67th Birthday to Bob Marley. Didja know that in the early ’70s, Bob Marley and the Wailers were booked to open dates for Sly & The Family Stone? After 4 dates, Bob and company were dropped from the tour. Turns out they were more popular than the headliner… Can you imagine that double bill?!?! And if you were there, what’re the odds you’d...
After months of effort, research, head-scratching, and stress, I finished my book. The first copies of the The Analysis of Hype are now in the hands of those who purchased the eBook. Printed editions are printing and will be shipping later this week. But, holy crap, I wrote a book! As someone who’s been writing and blogging for years, and done probably thousands of pages of web copy for...
Pretty much everyone knows the story of Kubla Khan. It starts out, “In Xanadu did Kublai Khan A stately Pleasure-Dome decree, Where Alph, the sacred river ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.” Some know it from the intro to Citizen Kane, others were forces to read Coleridge in college. Regardless, it’s one of the most famous poems of the last few...
Here in Boston we’ve got our knickers in a potential twist. Yet again, there’s talk of raising fares on the “T” to offset some staggering deficits. It amazes me that so many companies (and politicians…) think they can continually cut spending in order to raise revenues. The natural logic is that if you spend less, you’ll earn more. Unfortunately that just...
I’m the first person to tell you not to believe everything you read on the Internet. For every useful piece of information, there’s a Nigerian price lurking right around the corner. But when you’ve found something so unbelievable, so fantastical, that it must be obviously a joke –and it’s not– this must be (further) shared with the world! For quite a few years...
OK – maybe it’s a stretch, but ….
Today would’ve been Harpo Marx’s 123rd birthday. Bizarre? Any excuse to add a little Marx Brothers to the festivities, right?
I’m gonna say it: I hate Kickstarter. I hate the fact that they make it easy for anyone to ask you for money. That’s not to say I’m a total Scrooge, but I keep getting hit up to back people’s projects. Somehow, it seems fundamentally wrong for me to “invest” in your project without getting a return of some kind. And yeah, I know you get a copy of the CD, a...
Marketing. Music. Occasional Wisdom.