New Book Chronicles 1,000 Years of British Royal Weddings

New Book Chronicles 1,000 Years of British Royal Weddings

Falling Skies

Based on the notion that an electromagnetic pulse could instantly wipe out all of the microprocessors on the planet, this new series coming from TNT stars one of my military and movie heroes, Dale Dye. According to the site, we should look for it to launch this summer.

Are you Avoiding Twitter?

I signed up for Twitter a while ago. When I first started I began to follow a woman in my field--someone I had heard of, but had never met. When I saw that 90% of what she tweeted were things like “I’m changing Noah’s diapers” and “I think we’ll eat out tonight,” I was totally turned-off. Most people who have just a passing understanding of this great tool assume that that’s what it’s all about.

Then, about three months ago, my boss was in town for meetings and I saw her furiously engaged with an application that I had never seen before. It turned out that she was using Tweet Deck. I knew that she was an active tweeter, but I didn’t know about the power of using Twitter client software. She came over to my desk, sat down, and downloaded the powerful little ap for me. She then set up some columns--at the time she was actively engaged in promoting #dbw, Digital Book World--and added that and her own feed to my screen. She showed me how to adjust the notification settings and changed my theme to a cool black background. That was a truly transformational moment for me.

Since then, I have garnered 217 followers and am following 580 tweeters. I’m still a babe in the twittersphere, but here’s what I’ve learned so far:

This thing is more powerful than Google. Let’s admit it, most of us use Google in the same way we used AskJeeves.com: we click on a search box and type in our question for whatever it is we’re looking. One of my recent Google searches: Who played bass in Derek & the Dominos? In .02 seconds I had the answer: Carl Radle. But Google cannot tell me that there’s a review in metacritic today about a new box set of the legendary bassist’s recordings (I wish there were!). If I were a regular reader of that site, I would have stumbled on that article on my own. With Twitter, I won’t miss it.

A topic that I am passionately concerned about is the future of the chain bookstore Borders. Because I’m following about 25 people on Twitter that are also highly concerned with the same topic, there is a daily feed of tweets and retweets with links to bleeding-edge articles about the company. In real time, I am able to get news that is not making it onto the Today Show or USA Today, but is most important to me. And even if it were big headline news, Twitter takes me deeper than any of these mainstream outlets can go. When I Googled ‘borders’ I got a listing of Borders locations in my area, a link to their corporate website, and a link to the Wikipedia article on the chain, but nothing on the news breaking on the company’s credit problems. Granted, most of us don’t use Google anymore to find news. If we want news we go to NYTimes.com, MSN.com, etc. Still, if I had used those sites, I would not have been shown links to articles from the UK publishing trade newsletters which I found on Twitter or the fantastic analysis I was directed to in TheAtlantic.com.

Twitter search is not perfect. Typing in ‘borders’ also returned tweets like this: ‘Insanity is not a distinct and separate empire; our ordinary life borders upon it.’ Nevertheless, it is an incredibly efficient means for gathering up-to-the minute news and information.

Twitter is personal

A few years ago, I read an article on-line about ‘mind maps.’ If you’re not familiar with them, they are diagrams of the things that are important to you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

Because there are now so many interesting people using Twitter right now, I am able to follow people that are passionate about the same things I am. If you’re like me, you’re into some pretty off-beat stuff. There’s no one, however, who shares all of my interests. With Twitter, I can get updates from different people on items for everything that is important to me. It’s like having my own personal wire service.

Twitter is great for marketers

If America is a nation of salespeople, then Twitter is the next stage in our evolution. While the ap does have more than its share of annoying telemarketing types who only want to sell you junk, there are oodles of thoughtful people who are willing to share with you everything they know about their professional field. Of course, everyone is out there trying to build his or her ‘personal brand’ (who isn’t?) and more often than not the links shared are less interesting than advertised. Nevertheless, Twitter is a gold mine of interesting, hard-to-find information. Here are a few helpful tidbits that I’ve discovered so far:

http://www.advertisearea.com/blog/2011/01/14/gary-vaynerchuck-reveals-his-online-marketing-secrets/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
(I know, I’m the last person on the planet to hear of Gary Vaynerchuck, but his book, Crush It! really does rock!)

http://mashable.com/2011/01/15/new-social-media-resources-15/

http://tpdsaa.tumblr.com/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704739504576068210683828524.html

To sum up, I highly recommend that you visit www.twitter.com and www.tweetdeck.com, set-up your account, and start discovering news and information about what is most important to you.

Studio or Live?

With very few exceptions, the economy of devotedly following a particular musical group is this: you always wish there were more songs, albums, tours, bootlegs, etc to choose from. (I am making the assumption that Grateful Dead fans have more than enough material to last a lifetime). Sometimes the desire comes down to the length of a favorite song--you wish that that three minute gem were just a little longer. Like many bands, Rush has augmented their studio output with a string of live album releases. For many years, their habit was to put out a live album after three studio albums had been released. Interestingly, the band’s musical direction would often change after these tour mementos. As band members have repeatedly said, their goal in concert is to reproduce as closely as possible, note for note, the music captured on their LPs. Their live releases are certainly testament to this.

So why bother? The live versions of Rush’s songs offer a pleasing difference to the ear from their studio work. The studio versions are perfect, completely realized, and artfully “tuned” to bear repeated listenings. The live versions, on the other hand, show the trio in all of their raw power. One song that comes to mind is ‘The Trees.’ The studio version on Hemispheres has a smoky, almost folky feel to it. On their live album, Exit Stage Left, there’s this heavy reverb that gives the song an energy lacking on the original. Also, Geddy’s bass is louder in the live mix and Alex is using a flanger that totally kicks butt. I don’t know how to test this, but the the live version also seems to me to have a slightly quicker, more exciting tempo. Otherwise, it’s a note-for-note repro of the original. Those changes, however, to a fan like me, nearly make it an entirely different song. Practically speaking, that means that sometimes I want to hear the studio version of ‘The Trees,’ sometimes I want to hear the Exit Stage Left version and sometimes I want to hear the Rush in Rio version.

When I was a kid, Rush used to put out an album a year, which was just enough to keep me satisfied. Now that output is more like one every four or five years--and there’s a constant threat that their latest release will be their last. Still, I’m grateful to the band for having the foresight to release so many live records over the years. Because of that I’ve got a lot more of their awesome music to keep me going.

Crush it!

Crush It!: Why Now Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book makes me want to quit my job and blog all day! Vaynerchuck's enthusiasm is irresistible. I can only hope to someday be half the marketer and salesman that he is!



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"Hey, it's hard writing about technology!"

Loved this article from Calvin Reed at Publisher's Weekly on the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. On Thursday I had tried following Tweets from the show, but they were like tidal wave. Thanks to Calvin and PW for breaking it down for us (or trying to!).

The Corrections

Frantzen's slightly exaggerated characters provide excellent insight into the state of the suburban American psyche in the early 21st Century. He brilliantly shows how it's the small decisions in life that make up our destinies.

Slice of Life: Christmas 2010

Christmas is chaotic at my parents' house. People are eating even before all the food is brought out of the kitchen and everyone opens their presents all at once. This year my brother and his family home from Germany, which was a blessing. We were also blessed to have my parents and grandparents in good health. And the two greatgrandboys enjoyed the day too!