Ear Candy IMHO

The beauty of having my blog is the ability to put out there things that have impacted me, or influenced me personally and professionally. In this case, I have to share some about the back to back to back jazz I saw last week -- each performer fabulous and distinct. So, in my humble opinion, do your ears and your brain a favor by checking out the following, if you haven't already...and again, if you are already wise enough to be familiar with these artists:

Sachal Vasandani: Last week there was no way I was going to miss my favorite new jazz singer -- -- at his album release celebration at Dizzy's. I can't stand how much I love this guys tones. And it's not just me.

Sachal Vasandani - EPK from Mack Avenue on Vimeo.

While his self-penned "Royal Eyes" has stayed in my head for days, a stranger who wanted to catch some jazz while in town was seated at our table. At the end of the gig I asked him what he thought of Sachal and he said, "That's the best version of "In my Solitude" I ever heard." I'd been thinking the same thing. And while Sachal worked it on "Old Black Magic," he's just so smooth that after only a couple of listens his original songs start to sound like old standards. The first time I heard Sachal was also the first time I heard Gerald Clayton, maybe two or three years back at a showcase at the Steinway Store during the days of IAJE. I was stunned. I think he was maybe 23 then. Gerald performed again at the teeny but serious listening space, Jazz Gallery on Halloween. I saw him there with Roy Hargrove a while back. Now Gerald, with his new debut album, Two Shade, can be the headliner too.

Right now, though, he's off in Europe for a couple of weeks with Gretchen Perlato. The second he's back, go see this wunderkind. And he's a nice guy on top of it.

Maybe that's because he takes after one of the dearest people I know -- his dad, world-class jazz bassist John Clayton. If you want to weep, listen to him bow Jobim's "How Insensitive." If you want to laugh, my old favorite is his classic version of Keter Betts' "Walkin' Bass." But his Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra did it again. Stunned first timers, and confirmed the smarts of people who already follow CHJO, at this week's Champions of Jazz Benefit from WBGO. Not only did John's orchestra co-leaders Jeff Hamilton on drums and brother Jeff Clayton on sax do what they do so well, but they were in more amazing company. First they brought out the evening's honoree, Paquito D'Rivera, who was completely charming. I'd never heard him -- that I know of. But I'm sure his clarinet was on tracks of some of the albums I've heard, since he has 9 Grammys! Then, they brought out more of the old geniuses: singers Ernie Andrews,


He made us ALL feel like "Lucky So and So"s when he did that song...and Freddy Cole (yes as in Nat's brother) was class incarnate.
(Backstage after WBGO concert with Jon Hendricks, Freddy Cole, John Clayton. Nikki and Sachal. Everyone seems to know each other in the jazz world.)
And the new talent that sat it blew us all away, too. Stefon Harris on vibes with Milt Jackson flair, and unbelievably, the scatting and sound that came out of 15 year old Nikki Yanofsky was like she was channeling Ella. And I don't say that lightly.
But, all I can do is lead you to the music. You have to drink it in yourselves if you want. But thanks to this post, I can put it out there, and imagine you listening, and sharing IMHO.

IMHO - Film Fest and Broadway Opinions

I did my third yearly trek to the Hamptons Film Festival a couple of weeks ago. The beach in the fall is wonderful , and farm stands have all those colorful gourds...Well, you get the picture. And speaking of pictures, I saw some great ones...and not as great ones. Here's the scoop in case you can catch or avoid any of these IMHO ("in my humble opinion" for those not IMing w/teens):
In order of favorites of what I saw:
Big River Man - Documentary that you'll swear throughout most of that it can't be real. You'll think it's Spinal Tap, or something. But not only is this film real-life but it's hugely important to see.

Did you know that there's a guy in Slovenia who has swum the entire length of the disgustingly polluted Yangtze, the Mississippi, and now the 3,300 mile AMAZON river? Do you know the last trek took took this man, Martin Strel, about 66 days and basically drove him to the brink of insanity? He did it to raise environmental awareness (and because he probably already was a little insane). But while he's a hero in Eastern Europe, he's virtually unknown and unheralded in the U.S. Typical. Probably because he's no Lance Armstrong; he's 53, overweight, and a heavy drinker.

I digress. This is must-see, and will be on TV, premiering on Planet Green in January. Go John Maringouin (seen here w/me and my new favorite T-shirt)! A great docu-director who has made a career out of unusual stories. I mean, this guy lived on the Amazon shooting this for two and a half months, too!

• Applaus ("Applause") - Danish film starring the amazing Paprika Steen. She plays an actress battling alcoholism and trying to regain custody of her kids, but its all interspersed with her playing the alcoholic Martha on stage in "Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolfe?" With a tight story line and intense performances everyone in the audience was amazed it was a first time director. REALLY worth seeing if you can find this foreign film somewhere.
• "Solitary Man" - No one does man-on-the-brink better than Michael Douglass. Any guy approaching mid-life crisis, and the self-confident women (Susan Sarandon) who are fed up with them, should see this.
• "Men who Stare at Goats" - I'm sorry. I wanted to love it. I could BE a goat starer. But I only liked it. Clooney? Excellent. (Duh.) McGregor? Dunno.
• "Five Hours from Paris" (Israeli feature film) -- Good. Cute. DEFINITELY look for on NetFlicks. Maybe not for $12.50 at theater.
  

And just to throw in a theater thought? Really enjoyed Brighton Beach Memoirs on Broadway last week! Great set, great cast. Maybe NY-centric story for some, but fun. Looking forward to see the other "bookend" -- the 'sequel' of Neil Simon's story called "Broadway Bound," that also opens soon.

There you have it.

Fueling Students with the right eco-Information

I'm excited to be attending yet another spoke on the Fuel wheel -- a reception with a rare appearance by Sir Richard Branson in support of the curriculum that was created from the movie Fuel. Though it's part of the events for Climate Change NYC week, and attended by folks like Council Member Jim Gennaro of Queens (seen here with Green Drinks NY founder, Margaret Lydecker), this will be a national green curriculum.

Designed to meet national educational standards, the curriculum came about from strong requests by FUEL theatergoers. I know. I was one of them, asking about that at the very first screening in NYC. Education is key. For now... For sustainability... For kids to grow into a "business as usual" frame of mind about living green. I was so passionate about what I learned when I saw the film at its NY premier, that I blogged twice about algae, tweeted about it, etc. It's eye-opening and keenly important.

The reception kicked off with Josh Tickell introducing The Climate Group CEO Steve Howard who talked about how "if I were a young person, but I'm not" --"yes you are!," interjected Sir Branson -- he'd want to improve and visualize the world a better place..." ...to the point of zero impact flights.

"That's why this is such an inspirational endeavor. It's about giving hope to kids."

Then Josh talked about how personal a journey making Fuel was for him, growing up in a toxic area of the south. It didn't begin with a global awareness, but rather a personal one. Fuel is the story of his search for alternative solutions for the past 23 years.

"But it's also an allegory for us taking the journey... and learning to live together peaceably and sustainably."

Rebecca Harrell explained how the curriculum was developed, which included having students build their OWN working bio-fueled cars. Since this curriculum wasn't required, they created a Web site of open source knowledge. She and Josh presented Sir Richard Branson with the first ever award for earth educator, who talked about how Steve Howard told him "inconveniently" about climate change. He realized he needed to take action. We have a "major task to try to tackle global warming:

"For the film to have moved into an education basis is fantastic because there's so much missing information," he said.

Josh introduced Council Member Gennaro has been instrumental in inspiring the people of NYC to collect and use veggie fuel, for one thing. he wrote and passed NYC's climate change bill with a mandate of 30% reduction in overall sector by 2030. Now we're trying to retrofit all of NYC's stock of buildings to be greener.

At that point, we headed outside to the waiting Algaeus, the world's first algae gas powered blug in hybrid, which was the first to cross the U.S. powered by green critters! They poured the final gallon of alternative fuel into the car.

Then we got to tour the van made famous by the Sundance winning movie and Letterman -- the Veggie Van!

It was a great event. See Jon Vachon's pix (better than mine!) here.

Reminds me that a green curriculum isn't just for kids.

Miss Manners is Rolling her Eyes

I don't always keep my elbows off the table. Sometimes I opt for the easy email reply vs. a handwritten thank you...or worse, forget to do either. I'm sure I can think of other manners-shortcomings -- just none I'm willing to cop to right here.

But I have never threatened to shove a tennis ball down someone's throat, or jumped on stage to steal the glory from someone making a gracious acceptance speech. And even some time since 4th grade, I've probably called someone a liar. But this was a bad week for high profile people forgetting their manners in a massive way.

We are on a slippery slope of letting some of our role models get away with murder -- or at the very least character assassination -- with some people applauding the temper and disrespect excused as "passion" of Joe Wilson, Serena Williams and Kanye West. Was it a full moon? It's really hard to keep cool under pressure, but these are people we've elected or elevated to celebrity status, or who are USED to major pressure (er, we're talking "World Champion" pressure.) I don't know how or what we'd censure, but I think just being aware of it, posting or tweeting about it, and not letting them off the hook with a shoulder shrug is a start. At least most of the comments about Kanye on CNN's Facebook page were more condeming. But where's the remorse? It takes a big person to make a big and sincere apology.

It's scary to lose it. We've all done it to a degree. Words you can't take back in an argument. Getting frustrated in traffic. Throwing the spaghetti against the wall. (Wait, I said I wasn't going to mention that.) Our personal Lizzie Grubman Moments. Times when better judgement is sadly obfuscated by the heat of the moment. And it can change everything -- like your whole life. There are TV shows based on those moments.

Maybe the trick is meditating? Maybe a little group therapy? I for one would pay to see Joe, Serena and Kanye in school with Miss Manners. Then again, maybe she should have a regular program in addition to her forum and columns. We could all use a refresher course in what shouldn't be tolerated before we all become social flunk outs.

A Facebook-Off with a Friend

I sent some personal emails to my exec-level friends to encourage them to consider having me "train them" in social media best practices with my private coaching "C-Tweet" service. I got a fairly strong POV email back from a friend who couldn't understand all the fuss about Twitter. I didn't write back immediately, and he sent me another note via Facebook (ironically), concerned he'd upset me.

Our back and forth, quoted below, was a great illustration of exactly why I think this social network seachange we're facing almost a social version of the VHS/BetaMax facebook-off. The use and the use-nots? The cares and the care-nots? (Of course I'D like to think it's the at-least-TRY-to-keep-ups vs. the head-in-the-sands!)

He wrote:

I hope I didn't make you mad at me... But interestingly enough I saw this article on CNN Money* this morning which tells me I am not the only one.

I am not wanting or trying to offend you. I hope you make a ton of money off of social marketing and Twitter. I still just don't get it. Maybe I am wrong. But I always change the channel when CNN starts posting Tweets on air. Which is funny considering that I used to like Letters to The Editor in my news mags and newspapers. But it has gotten so pervasive that I am beginning to not care what Joe sixpack has to say anymore. I guess to each his/her own.

I hope you are well!

MK

*A rant about Twitter (in six bite-sized tweets)

Source: money.cnn.com

omg! twitter's down! what did shaq eat 4 lunch? i don't know. but who cares? tweets are junk food 4 brain. where's the biz, biz? aykm?...

E.B. Moss

Today at 11:28am

Hi - you didn't make me mad; just busy (maybe with the time suck of social media!?) But this isn't personal at all, at all, so no worries, and I've known you forever! But you underscored my realization that educating executives on the big picture of social media marketing understanding is more necessary than ever! :-) I don't really care about Twitter per se -- and C-Tweet is described as teaching that and all social media best practices to the C-suite level, but I do find Twitter an incredible crowdsourcing tool. And it's worthy of a second look, I think.

Do you remember how in interactive TV advertising we always used to describe it as being able to use the remote to "buy Jennifer Anniston's sweater"? Well, it's common now for the masses who don't really use it to say, "I don't want to know what so and so had for lunch." It's so NOT that, unless you're choosing to follow knuckleheads who aren't interesting, and aren't savvy about how to contribute. BUT, I agree it has no business model yet, and it is a time suck. (Though I spend a lot less time blogging now since I can share thoughts quickly and easily on Twitter.) Anyway, what it is good for now, at the very least is, as Christian and Troy said in the comments of that article, is that it's another tool that represents the way the world is going. The more facile you are in multiple tactics, the better you'll keep up with change and new marketing insights.

And, the overarching theme of what I try to share in social media for marketing/business relationships especially, is that you have to LISTEN first...and to do that you need to know WHERE to listen for conversations of interest to you (or your business.) It may be that it's not even ON Twitter (though with a year to year increase of 1400% year to year in users, it is increasingly so for our peers!) And, by the way, some companies ONLY listen, without joining the 140-character conversations. It may NOT be for youth. They are still predominantly into Facebook. Just as they USED to be predominanly into MySpace. I barely ventured onto THAT platform even in its heydey. Now they're moving into Tumblr, etc. as the "oldsters" start taking to Facebook. And so on.

Would love your thoughts on this. And this convo is great material for a blog post, by the way!

Best,
EB
PS: I think it's lame when all the news shows try to Tweet, also. It's like Lawrence Welk saying "Get-ah down, Get-ah Funky, everybody." It bugged me when iVillage first added their email jockey, and bugs me when the TV bugs cover up on-screen headlines with urges to follow them on Twitter. I believe in convergence, but not forcefitting it just to try to be groovy. I DO however, follow Anderson and Sanjay, etc. on Twitter, because when I'm USING the medium I choose at the moment I can choose to see them then. Just like I CHOOSE to sometimes watch them on TV instead. Know what I mean?

Now how about YOU all? What do you think? Important to at least be up to speed on what's happening now, or dismiss it? (Hmm, perhaps that question came across a tad slanted.) Well?

From Twitter's suggestions for business to a Slice of Real Life

I work with some big companies and some small companies. What they have in common is that they are made up of human beings...most of whom have not quite wrapped their brains around social media, or at least social media best practices and strategies. I work to help them enter that space with some 1:1 trainings (C-Tweet!), some team workshops, and ongoing real-time doing (okay, or doing as a say, not always as I do!) as we set strategies for Listening, Learning, Participating and ultimately, we hope, Leading.

This morning, I was catching up on blogs, tweets, etc., and reading some stories associated with some keywords I’m interested in -- or my clients are. My thought process was centered on what I needed to learn...and if I needed that info, might my “readers” or my client's readers be interested, too? If so, I'll alert my clients, if they're not up to speed on alerting themselves yet! I sent one client an article, with a suggestion they post or comment...and then as one thing led to another in the DOING of the 'best practices,' it dawned on me, that what I was doing is what I've been trying to explain they start doing on a regular basis.

So I thought I'd use this as a real-time (sort of) example of my process of "organically" noticing, sharing, commenting, following, and being a little farther into the social scene. Since this morning I was involved in my core competency, Ad Sales Marketing, those are the examples used here:

1. Ironically, it started with the story I saw through my Adweek Interactive news alerts about about Twitter teaching companies to tweet. I thought it was a good reminder of what I've been encouraging, so I read, then forwarded to my client. After reading that story, I saw the link to “related stories" or "most emailed" -- which included the Ad biz facing the “New Normal.”
2. I suggested that my client post that article as a way to continue being a resource for interesting info about their media business, but even better — suggested they add a comment contributed from one of their execs, one that hopefully shared a POV, because that would also show him/him being PRESENT in the very space where their clients are.
3. In reading the COMMENTS you see many interesting points of view and they lead you to more people who are more involved -- or more engaged -- in the social media space.
4. Of the 30 or so comments, I saw one written by “S. Postaer” who said: “There is a silver lining, albeit small consolation to those eliminated: http://godsofadvertising.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/the-recession-in-adland-do-the-bad-times-have-a-silver-lining/ “ Didn’t know who he was, but it was simple, compelling, and it offered a link with an intriguing title, so I clicked on it.
   
5. THIS a good example of how the commenter, S. Postaer, drove people to HIS blog, where I can learn more about him the human, maybe read an interesting post, and now follow him — perhaps by subscribing to his blog
6. His blog includes a link to instantly enable you to follow him on Twitter (which I have done for me...AND suggested my client follow him, too, because even following him means, again, at least for my client, SHOWING UP and being present).
7. His Twitter profile doesn’t have a lot of followers. Yet. But he’s there. S. Postaer is present. He’s available to be humanized and share some personality, which makes me — suckers that we are — like / trust him a little bit more. Even if we don’t always agree with him. Oh, and did I mention he turns out to be "Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of one of the world’s largest advertising concerns, Euro RSCG Chicago" according to his bio? Granted, I could have done a search for him specifically, or the keywords associated with his business, but it's a big world. And now I know a little more about this executive other than just doing a knee jerk "follow" or "friend."
   
8. THAT whole sharing the process thing that I went through with my client as a teaching example led me to write this, my next OWN blog post...which I think might help others.
   
9. So maybe, someone will share MY link or tweet it, and so on.
   
10. And see ME as a breathing human being behind the Moss Appeal brand and will turn to my company more because as Sally Field once said... Oh you know what I mean.
    

Sigh.

Don't Push Mainstream off the Green Bandwagon

I read a tweet ( RT rocknrod The dirty tricks behind local-washing: How national corporations are co-opting the idea of "local"... ) that led me to Indyweek.com for that post on Localism. I think this is an article worth reading. With a caveat. Read the reader comments, and this post, too. And tell me what you think.

I agree with most of the comments: very good in-depth reporting and awareness raising. I am, however, sensitive to the fact that there are a LOT of buzzwords -- greenwashing, astroturfing -- and labels incorporated into the article...and a proposal that we create yet ANOTHER label ("independently owned.")

I'm not opposed to creating clear and transparent descriptions, but I also know -- as evidenced by one of the earliest reader comments -- there is already massive consumer confusion. It's bad enough that we don't have consistent certification programs for green businesses and services, so it's easy to stake a claim and risk being accused of "greenwashing." But I try to minimize use of that word because the fact is, among mainstream consumers, there's still a TON of education and action that has to happen to get the majority on a green path.
We don't want to add to the cynicsm and give mainstream a chance to fall OFF the green bandwagon before we get them on it.

Just as Adam Werbach of Saatchi & Saatchi S is a proponent of moving the sustainability* movement description towards the word BLUE to be more encompassing of the issues, LOCAL is another issue that falls under that category. Do we need to keep chunking things out? What about when "Independently Owned" soon becomes besmirched by the "Home Gardened" crowd or the "Virtual Workers Creating Less Carbon" (me.)? We run the risk of alienating people with too much pressure on politically correct labeling before we've had a chance to educate them in general about simple steps to take at the very least. Again, I'm a big fan of the content and intention...just hoping we can put emphasis on action vs labeling.

I remain perhaps a Pollyanna in promoting my mantra that every step is a good step... even if it is a corporation using marketing to move the ball forward...for NOW. Let's start the skewering AFTER we've saved the world!

*Sustainability: Not robbing the future of resources for today's business practices (Think adherance to triple bottom line people (fair trade, etc.), planet (eco-conscious) AND profit.)