Hound Dog Blog

♫♫♫♫ Cheers . . . to our friends so dear... ♫♫♫♫♫♫

Here's the last post of 2008. I'm sure that is not buzzing around the blogosphere righnow

For that... and ... for me... I don't like the anything that is 'of the norm' - not because I am rebellious... just because: Why be normal? So instead of a resolution, I'm going to tell you the best things to happen this year ... (to me... that is)

1. I made a fairly decent income
2. I have developed an indispensable social network (twitter, facebook, this blog)
3. Ruby has settled a bit (I still remember when she was about 8 weeks old, a lady came up to Ruby and I and she pet her - she kindly quipped, " BE PATIENT!!! Beagles are an ENORMOUS amount of work, but only for the first 2 and 1/2 years... then ... they are TRULY your best friend... with only a MODERATE amount of WORK") ... how true that TRULY is. 
4. I have no more 'resentment' towards people that 'scorned' me: In fact, after further review - I consider myself lucky to be rid of people that possess extraordinarily LOW intelligence quotients. Extremely 'uninteresting' people anyway... What was I thinking? :)
5. Little Lily (Andrew & Mistie's first creation ... with another one cooking!) 
6. I have learned how to blog - (I know you think it's dumb - and opinionated - ok, fine... then... post a comment and SEE what happens . . .)
7. I am perfectly content being ALONE - (though the alternative does not bother me) 
8. I have my health  
9. I can still play the guitar...  
10. I am going to see Sister Hazel right now ... complements of a SMOKIN guitar player...  ♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

. . . some inspiration music . . . maybe today. . .

If you haven't heard of Ryan Montbleau... check him out... just amazing... 

For Ted, Brandy and Piper - and of course Bella - The Rainbow Bridge

Bella

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. 

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. 

There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.

There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. 

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. 

The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind. 

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster. 

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart. 

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together.... 

Author unknown...

Letter to Modite ...

Hi Rebecca,

you invited me to the 'brazencareerist' thing... which I get quite a kick out of...but unfortunately... just like all 'networking' things it gets diluted with obsolescence.

I do feel like I can give you some 'career advice' since I am (not much) but slightly your elder...

Move to NYC... if that is what you want to do... I have lived there,(Ilived there perhaps during the most tumultuous times... 9/11, Bush, Clinton Leaving, Giuliani was cool... etc... I could really write a book about it)... so go... I have traveled the world... and there is NO city (AT ALL) better to be in ... at your age... you have a knack for writing and marketing... that city is your oyster... usually it is vice versa...

See... for me... I was (and am to some extent - just not for $$) a musician.... who always 'wished' that I could be there... and live there and 'play' on the stages there...

And.... to conclude ... I did it.... and you know what ... I left...  (for personal reasons), but I did it... my 'dreams' came true...

To that I will say this about NYC: it has a MAGICAL power ... it brings forth your best (but you must be ready for the Genie to appear when she does) ... otherwise you will fail... the Genie only appears when YOU are ready to make the leap...

  I read this (I think it was in the New Yorker) when I was 'literally' in New Jersey at my Sister's house trying to make my way to the island of Man hattan:

If you are trying to make it in Manhattan, you'd better be prepared, especially if you are a broadway dancer who can swing their leg high... because if you aren't prepared there is someone in Asbury Park (or Wisconsin in your case) who is prepared to kick their leg higher than yours...

That is the feeling of aliveness (I presume) you get while you were there... people that don't .... shouldn't be there... but they are an essential part of the landscape....

In sum.... move to the city if that is your 'wish' ... there is NO amount of $$$ that could take away what I learned from New York City living...

Peace Love and Laughter,
alex

God is there Margaret... (or at least I'm intimating it).

My 2 years of advertising sales 'objections' (and what I plan to do about it... to follow):

• It doesn't work (advertising, that is)
• Nobody looks at a magazine for what I sell 
• We 'tried it, but didn't get any calls' 
• I haven't the money for marketing, times are tough 
• Are you kidding me? In this economy?  
• You must be hurting, too... I can't be the only one 
• How about this? "I run an ad, and as soon as I sell something - I'll pay you back 10 times the amount the cost of the advertisement space" 
• I just don't have 'time to think about marketing' right now 
• Everybody's on the Internet 
• AND... here's the BEST one FOR LAST... "We are putting all our dollars into the internet, because that's where our results are coming from... we can quantify that, and the phone rings"  

Well... I can tell you... I am not ad sales guy... but I am also not a snake oil salesman. The only relevant objection on that list is the last one... and it happens to be the MOST ridiculous... here's why: the people that are selling (or at least the people I sell ads to) these folks ad space on the internet ARE selling SNAKE oil... they (both the ad sales person, and the buyer) have NO clue what they are selling... unless of course they are one of the Google Web Developers (which, btw, I highly doubt). 

 

50 Ways to Leave your Lover

I don't mean to be 'coy roy' do I mean to 'discuss much' - but it just seems odd that 'marketing' and 'sales' and the pillars of which they stand are turning into relics. It's almost as if you can go into some 'sales' organizations and feel it... sense it... like a hound dog picks up on a rabbit trail. It's just 'there' - there is something going on... that is 'odd.'

I know - if you read this and you are someone who disagrees - or happens to be in 'sales' or 'marketing,' and everything is working, than maybe it is time to cash out

The reason why: because I am ONE of MILLIONS of young professionals out there who not only believe this, but 'know' this. Here are the things you can bet your life on in the next year:

• Telecommuting - as essential as a 'desk chair'
• Blogging - as a business tool - (and I don't mean content aggregation [CBS taught me that]] blogging - I mean people who work for companies whose 'sole' responsibility is to 'aggregate' content (not for pr), but because people communicate through blogs and provide transparency
• Newspapers - Bye Bye... sorry... just the way it is. 
• Subscriptions to Magazines - UP - but only to the magazines that have RELEVANCE - what does that mean? I'll tell you in 2009. 
• Less qualified 'applicants' to your business - why? because if you aren't out in 'front' - they (the applicants) can vet you first - yes, that is right - small companies with a grand façade, beware - the cream of the crop will go where the other cream is.
• And finally - the 'elders' who refuse to change with the times (i.e. the people that just recently, at the end of 2008 found out that Facebook and LinkedIn were a great way to network - and I don't mean all of you...) are in for the same tough road that we 'young professionals' are faced with except you probably have some money that you aren't willing to disperse... in which case... this will make it even more difficult because the way in which we (bloggers, networkers, etc.) communicate - they will know this about the company before they even consider working there.         

Well - that is all folks...  I hope I am wrong about this; however, I feel this ever second I see a place that thinks Ronald Reagan was the best American President that graced the Earth... 

Merry Christmas to all... and FYI... that Mouse. . . (that doesn't stir...) is stirring... :)

Have a wonderful Christmas...! ! !
  
  

Wot's . . . uh the Deal?

Wots ... Uh The Deal

 

The way things get published have changed.

Not the message, but the way in which it is dispensed.

At this moment - I can communicate in about 5 (off hand) different ways with someone on the other side of the globe. What does that mean?

Nothing - if you are in the business of harvesting Christmas trees. Just know this: if you have a client that is in 'Brazil' - you'd better get a hotmail account. Better yet, maybe get a gmail account - might be a bit more cutting edge - but, by the time you read this - all may have been 'felled' - (no pun intended)...

I have (seriously) come to be amused by the 'lack of' interest by anyone who has an interest in the future - that has failed to recognize the shift in attention by 'buyers' and 'sellers' - I am completely confounded by this. 

I have no idea how this simply wouldn't be embraced by anyone in the media business. I understand one's reticence as well as I understand one's diffidence, but not to the point of "I will not go there" - not at all...

No doubt there are 'privacy' issues, and no doubt, anyone can say anything about you online... but isn't that the logic in being fearless to the socialization of the internet?

The internet has gone FAR beyond 'monetization' and 'rankings' because people (and bots) have gamed the system. If I were a credible media outlet, I would have (or recruit)  the most evangelical, fanatical, loony social media junkies on the planet earth...

But that's just me... I still listen to The Beatles ... think that the Black Crowes are the best Rock 'n' Roll band of the 'my generation,' believe that Widespread Panic cultivated a following by the ONLY way a performance artist can integrally do so in these times, and thinks that living with a hound dog and a human being who understands 3 and 4 syllable words for a living are still commodities...

Butcher Cover

This cover caused such a stir, even though it was so very typical of Beatles humor. If you've ever seen 'A Hard Day's Night' or 'Help!' you'd know what I was talking about. Their dark comedic references were likely only recognized by the most intuitive of all Beatles fans in the first place.

What is so darn funny about it is how really 'gruesome' the cover is - perhaps even by today's standards - Just look at it ... The innocent moptop, love song singing Beatles on a COVER with broken headless babies and 'raw meat' - in butcher attire to boot!

I'll spare you essential Beatle history if you know not what you see, but in sum: Before this album they were the lovable moptops that could well have been stand ins on a 'Leave it to Beaver episode... or at least that is what the press would have had you believe.

I am also certain I could wax on about how there was really a 'recall' of this album because of the backlash that ensued. Or I could go on about how they went as far as 'pasting' on an entirely new cover which was... by no means as 'offensive.'

What I find amazing about it is that this album (which it really wasn't even an album because of the way in which albums were realeased in the UK and the US... which is also an entirely different discussion) is that it has the song: Yeserday on it - originally realeased on the album 'Help!' (IMHO, this is not even close to their best song, not even on this album... I'm Only Sleeping, Nowehere Man, Dr Robert... just to name a few).

Yesterday is purported by the Guinness World Records as the most 'covered' songs EVER. I might argue that one... these days anyway.

That to me is funny. What else is funny? People used to try to peel off the 'slick' (the one with Paul in the trunk) to see if they had that 'horrifying' cover of the Beatles goofing off at a photo shoot.

One thing I will tell you... If you have an original in a wrapper... you can fetch a pretty penny for it. But hold on to it... it will REALLY be worth something someday.

Sweet Serendipity

Some things are serendipitous - by that I mean they aren't planned at ALL - which is precisely why the beauty is there in the first place. take, for example...the song 'Yesterday' - Paul admittedly woke up one morning humming the tune 'scrambled eggs'... which has the same meter as 'yesterday'... by no means am I saying that planning is a bad thing, but I am saying that the most glorious and riveting experience of a band like Widespread Panic is when they play that 'unrehearsed' part... which one?

 I don't know ... cuz I just 'happened' to be there when they created it... Almost like a perfectly planned sunset, or a meeting of John and Paul in Liverpool in the 50's... the serendipitous nature and their natural origins are precisely what fill them with their glorious splender.

get your Soul Singin' before I do... that way, I can sing along, please

Was absolutely trying to finish my exposé on Widespread Panic until all of the sudden ... this crazy thing called L I F E got in my way and I suddenly started singing that great Stealers Wheel tune: