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Did you cross the Mendoza diagonal last night?
0February 15, 2008 by Colin
Perhaps you were so inspired by Valentine’s Day that you spent hours sifting through thousands of songs to compile the perfect mixtape (or playlist, for you young kids). Or maybe you just slapped something together.
Either way, you’re probably still in high school or college.
But what were the chances you actually “scored” last night? Well, it all has to do with the Vicki Mendoza diagonal, illustrated above.
At the end of the night, did your soundtrack of love inspire sensual behaviour, or a frenetic and often confusing jumble of emotions?
THAT’s the product of the Mendoza diagonal. In an episode of How I Met Your Mother this season, Barney explained how your potential mate had to balance off their crazyness with a suitable level of hotness – much like the artists you picked for that mixtape.
[tags]HIMYM, Barney, mixtape, Valentine’s Day, playlist, How I Met Your Mother, Mendoza Line, Hot/Crazy [/tags]
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That’s gosh darn dangerous, you fool
0February 15, 2008 by Colin
Why the hell would you do that? A natural response to any one of the songs singled out by I am Fuel, You Are Friends in a post called That’s Dangerous! :: the mix. There are 22 songs, including:
- touch me, I’m sick, by Mudhoney
- wondering where the lions are, a cover of the Bruce Cockburn song
- running with scissors, by Ben Lee
- a quick one, while he’s away, by The Who
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Prius(es), Organic food and Expensive Sandwiches
5February 14, 2008 by Colin
Those are all things that white people like, described in detail on Stuff White People Like.
I’ll tell you one thing white people like: McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.
Posts like Candid New York City Rental Ads and Nora Ephron feels bad about Barack Obama’s Neck.
In the interests of full disclosure, I will admit to owning issues 1 through 6 of McSweeney’s.
Also white? The music blog Poptastic. Swedesplease is, as well.
And … as much as I hate to do it … the new music superblog, PopDose, is cornfed white. Abba and Mambo #5 featured in the same week?
But seriously, PopDose is a fantastic blog, drawing from the talents of Jefito, Jeff Vrabel, Jason Hare, Py Korry and many others. But it’s still Wonder Bread spread with Cheez Whiz and the crusts cut off.
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I wish I was bathed in Marmite
0February 14, 2008 by Colin
Cross-promotion in support of a cross-promotion campaign!
The gist of this lengthy post: take a negative, add some humour and ingenuity and make it a positive!
God bless Rax from Splendid Communications. His agency has the Marmite account, and as part of their follow-up to a cross-promotion campaign earlier in 2007, he sent me this little note:
Canuckflack, Oh Canuckflack,
How we all love Colin McKay
So we’re writing him this romantic note
Because it’s Saint Valentine’s day!His quirky take on the marketing world
Fills our lives with daily mirth
Which is why he is without dispute
The most gorgeous blogger on Earth…You’ll always be our classic rock
As you guide us through what’s new
The communications industry has found itself
A poster boy in you.Colin – a man like you, who knows his stuff
And can talk all things social media
Fills our minds with many naughty thoughts
About how we want to feed ‘ya…So we’d like you to try new Lovers’ Marmite,
Which is laced with a bit of Champagne
You should have fellow citizens wondering
About that nice smell on the O-Train…And so when you’re chomping on your morning toast
Before you head out to Uppertown
Don’t forget to reach for the Marmite jar
But you don’t have to put the butter downHappy Valentine’s Day from Marmite
You’re our perfect date
Thanks for showing us some love
Instead of choosing to hate!What cross-promotion, you may ask?
The fabulous Paddington Bear preferring Marmite over Marmalade ad:
But what’s the second level of cross-promotion?
Some little thing called “Lover’s Marmite” – a special blend of Marmite and Champagne only available for a limited time, with a special label on the back. A label where you can write the name of your special darling, as you hand them a jar of yeast extract that says “I Love You” on the front.
The only thing better would be used undergarments from your solo vacation to Thailand.
If that image wasn’t disturbing enough, take a look at the advert for “Lover’s Marmite”:
Honestly, I don’t know why I obsess over Marmite (the product), but Marmite (the marketer) has bowled me over twice in six months!
[tags] marmite, blogger relations, blogger outreach, Lover’s Marmite [/tags]
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the Math of Meetings
3February 13, 2008 by Colin
Working through a meeting yesterday, and I came up with the following calculations to help you understand the probability of certain behaviours or actions occurring during a meeting:
Will the meeting be useful?
# of participants / # of decisions needed = X, where X<1 means the meeting is useful.
Will someone fall asleep?
If the (room lighting (in watts) / # of participants) > the room temperature (in farenheit), then someone will fall asleep
Will you leave to get a snack?
If on a conference call, length of call / # of participants = % chance you will leave to get a snack
Will you get stuck with work?
# of senior executives present / # or participants = % chance you will get stuck with work
Is it a colossal waste of time?
(# of “health breaks” + # of courses at lunch) / # of “breakout” sessions = X, where x<1 is an office retreat, x>1 is an association conference, and x=0 is an awards gala.
Will you start considering a new career?
# of windows in meeting room / # of powerpoint slides = X, where x<1 means you start thinking of better things to do.
Will the meeting organizer be mocked?
# of blackberries in room / # of participants = % chance meeting organizer will be mocked during his/her own meeting.
Was the meeting led by a consultant?
% chance meeting was led by a consultant = ((length of meeting) times (# of branded items left at each seat)) / number of times the following words are used (energize, operationalize, low-hanging, offline, priority, “report back,” or brainstorm)
[tags] productivity, time management, meetings [/tags]
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Can coporations manage the migration to social media?
3February 10, 2008 by Colin
Mitch has nailed it. A lot of companies being slammed by online controversies – like Hasbro – just aren’t used to dealing with emotional, irrational and impetuous humans.
Their relationship with the marketplace is framed by the work of their distributors, an import/export firm, or a licence holder.
The issues involved are often complex, with plenty of lawyers involved. Corporate positions frequently cannot be distilled into blogger-friendly language without affecting corporate interests in liability, finance or intellectual property.
Any corporate public relations pro will recognize their dilemma.
As Mitch points out, it’s hard for a company built to a fifty year-old model to adapt to a new business flow chock full of eddies, breakers and dangerous rapids.
Increasingly, though, they are trying. People like Petro Canada or Ford are dipping their toes into the social media swamp – and taking the punches and expanding their influence.
The transformation of the corporation demands participation and understanding at many levels – not just in the marketing and communications department.
As Doug Walker points out in a comment to Mitch’s post, the simplest point of contact may just be the customer service representative – if finance, facilities and human resources help you expand your CSR force to deal with the pressures that can be generated by social media.
And that means finance, facilities, human resources, and the call centre manager will all have to understand the needs and challenges of playing in social media.
Oh – and Mitch’s other point, about bloggers demonstrating the same qualities they demand from corporations? I agree as well.Anyone can build a bully pulpit, whether they’re a fascinating storyteller or simply a demagogue.
It takes a level of dedication and transparency to actually maintain relationships and effect change in a community – small or large.
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Improbable yet Accurate Spam Header
0February 10, 2008 by Colin
Be like Ron Jeremy
While there may be an implied promise vis-a-vis your package, there is no guarantee about improved attractiveness. In fact, you will probably remain the same fat, overconfident and overly hairy person you have always been.
It’s important to note that at one time – the 1970s – it was fashionable to be a bear. That’s the only explanation for Barry Gibb’s open shirted chest pelt.
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I just can’t help myself
2February 10, 2008 by Colin
… but I must remind everyone that grey-haired John Roberts of CNN fame used to have a respectable career as a music journalist and video jockey up here in Canada.
I found this choice picture while watching a video compiled of clips from Soundproof, a 1980s cable television show that brought breaking alternative bands into a very rough set.
Note the mullet, faux hawk and parachute silk jacket with far too many tabs and buttons.
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Macarthur Park changed my life
0February 9, 2008 by Colin
Oh my. In grade 4, I spent several months learning the role of second trumpet in the Richard Harris classic Macarthur Park. Paired with the theme from Rocky, it was the centrepiece of our annual music recital.
And it was painful. It scarred me for life.
And now WFMU has dredged up all those memories by featuring 12 – twelve! – different versions of the song.
I really like the SCTV version, with “Richard Harris” appearing on Mel’s Rock Pile. And here it is:
WFMU also featured a commentary on the song as one of the “top one hit wonders of the 20th century”:
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Interesting stories not told by boring people
1February 8, 2008 by Colin
Are you the type that likes listening to long form documentaries or character vignettes on public radio – but really get tired of sitting in your car in the driveway as they finish up?
I’ll admit something – I do not have a radio in my house. At least not one uncovered by dust and not hidden by old Christmas ornaments.Which is why Speechification is so valuable to me – it’s a way to stumble across good radio programs without going for milk or motor oil.
Speechification is a not very orderly or predictable series of jot notes to interviews, broadcasts, documentaries and splashes of audio – on a wide variety of subjects. Exactly the sort of field guide to online archives you would expect from the varied tastes of Dan Hill, Russell Davies, Steve Bowbrick, Bobbie Johnson and Roo Reynolds.
[tags] speechification [/tags]
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the long and short of being an omnivore
1February 6, 2008 by Colin
What are the desirable qualities of an designer? How about a creative generalist? How about an unceasing appetite for information, for synergy, for identifying relationships?
Here are two takes: a short answer from Steve Portigal, and a long exposition by Steve Hardy, the Creative Generalist.
What is it that makes a great design strategist?
A great design strategist may not see themselves as a design strategist. They’re probably someone who has had a few different professional identities and gets excited by the spaces where disciplines, schools of thought, and methods overlap. They are curious and easily intrigued: they like to observe what’s going on around them and they’re good at listening to people.
And they know how to use all this data to synthesize new patterns and communicate them clearly to a range of audiences. Charlie Stross, in the sci-fi book Accelerando, describes the profession of a “meme broker” and the intense amount of content they have to assimilate every day in order to do this.
Bruce Sterling calls this activity “scanning“ looking at all the sources one can and constantly asking what does this mean for my clients. Being able to work through all those data sources and pull out the implications is crucial for design strategy.” (Influx interviews Steve Portigal)
And here is the nub of Steve Hardy’s long but fantastic post:
I’ve identified five core areas at which Creative Generalists excel. They are:
• Wander & Wonder – finding possibility
• Synthesize & Summarize – presenting information
• Link & Leap – generating ideas
• Mix & Match – connecting people
• Experience & Empathize – understanding worldview
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I wonder if he still has a career…
0February 6, 2008 by Colin
I’m working my way through Chuck Thompson’s Smile When You’re Lying, a wonderful and funny evisceration of the props and trickery of travel writing by a well-established travel writer. Here are two excerpts:
“… but I’d endured worse during all those Presidential Fitness Awards I’d narrowly missed in junior high. You want to kill a kid’s self-esteem, throw some fucking compulsory pull-ups at him and deny him a medal, three years running …”
“…Travel writers are a lot like recovering alcoholics. All they can talk about is their own trip, and it almost always boils down to the same story…”
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i sing the body ironic
0February 5, 2008 by Colin
You know, not all poets have hazy portraits of Walt Whitman in their bathrooms. New York Times magazine interviewed Charles Simic, the US poet laureate, in the magazine this weekend.
As a Yugoslavian-born émigré who endured the bombings of Belgrade during World War II and whose work is urban in spirit, why do you live in quasi isolation on a lake in New Hampshire?
It was an accident. I moved here when I got a teaching job at the University of New Hampshire in 1973. I am not rapturous about nature, although I live in nature. I don’t have some sort of nature poem where I idealize a sunrise or climbing a mountain or being outdoors.”
Some more curt but witty responses from a 1998 interview in the Cortland Review:
“….I’m a hard-nosed realist. Surrealism means nothing in a country like ours where supposedly millions of Americans took joyrides in UFOs. Our cities are full of homeless and mad people going around talking to themselves. Not many people seem to notice them. I watch them and eavesdrop on them…
Where do you find your inspiration these days?
Piece of cake. One needs inspiration to write when one is twenty. At the age of sixty, there’s the mess of one’s entire life and little time remaining to worry about.
[tags] poetry, Charles Simic, naturalism [/tags]
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I’ve got some shorties
0February 5, 2008 by Colin
Portland blogger discusses how to be the best faux sports journalist around. Tip #1? Don’t drink in the press box. No-one tell Jim Carr or Harry Doyle.
Young journalist complains about getting up at … wait for it … 6 am. (SPJ blogs)
“My life is begging for trailers” – from Creative Loafing Atlanta:
“…It wasn’t the official Disney campsite, but one of those bargain ones owned by a chain-smoking, retired forklift operator who kept his horny dog tied to a post by the check-in window. To my sisters and me, though, it was the Taj Mahal of trailer parks. We’d lie awake under the moon in a three-way spoon, counting stars and listening to the uncharacteristically subdued murmurings of our parents. It’s one of the few snapshots of immeasurable happiness from my past.
[tags]Sports journalism, Disney trailer [/tags]
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A fresh attitude to your work
1February 4, 2008 by Colin
“Act like you just quit” – fantastic advice from Advertising for Peanuts.
That’s doesn’t mean flip your boss the bird, or burn down the Initech division where you work.
Instead, challenge the conventions, the traditions, the ingrained habits that have held you back.
Do you have a great idea gnawing away at your soul? Are there business processes you are certain can be improved?
Or do you just feel disaffected and detached from your work? Chances are, your colleagues and boss have noticed as well.
Think about that period between an old job and a new one. What’s your normal behaviour? You:
- immediately forget all the petty interpersonal conflicts that took up your workday
- begin forecasting the work environment, work projects and personal relationships you want to develop at your new job
- maybe even take a stab at career planning – imagining two or three steps into the future
That’s right. You embrace the opportunity to change, the opportunity to abandon all your old habits and your less-than-favourable practices.
Why not do that now? Change does not require packing boxes. It just demands a level of confidence and a willingness to risk the status quo.
You’ll be surprised by how others welcome your willingness to change your life and your performance.
Quitters may be dismissed out of hand, but you’re rarely faulted for trying your hardest.
Canuckflack
… Colin McKay has some thoughts about design, data, management, government and oddities … written in Canada!
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Blood Stains from the slaine Monks of Lindisfarne in the Viking attack of 793AD. Folios 191v and 192r of the Lindisfarne Gospels - written and illuminated by the Anglo-Saxon Bishop Eadfrith in 698AD.
Liber generationis Jesu Christi
“Lo, it is nearly 350 years that we and our fathers have inhabited this most lovely land, and never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought that such an inroad from the sea could be made. Behold, the church of St. Cuthbert spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples.”
Alcuin, Letter to Ethelred, King of Northumbria
Images: British Library
I had a Brooks Brothers 15 1/2 - 35 shirt and we used its front pocket to determine when the Pilot design was “pocket sized” - Joel Jewitt, discussing the invention of the Palm Pilot
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130408043926-7298-early-employees-joel-jewitt-palm
Before I discovered the Internet
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