Black Mountains is a rock band. It sounds simple, and that’s because it is. They are a rock band with a great ability to build steam with their music and build on it with some incredible talent. Drums, synth, guitar, bass, and both male and female vocals all seem to get their integral piece of the song.
On top of the quality music, they have a knack for amazing cover art (something that I very much value) as can be seen with the cover of their forthcoming album Wilderness Heart. Their first single “Old Fangs” is linked to below, make sure to listen to it while looking at the cover art.
Though I don’t doubt that it will be just as good as their others, the best part of the new album might be that they are back to touring. They are must see live.
I regularly make every effort walk to places that are walking distance. Before I moved to New York, I would usually find my desire to walk to the store crushed by a major road and the impatient drivers driving it.
This is why am happy to hear that Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has changed the department’s policies to encourage “investments that go beyond the minimum requirements and provide facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities”.
I see this policy change finally creating safer environments that aren’t defined by which side of a five lane road its on. as a comment on Wired states: “tired of driving my car from one mall to the next one 100 yards.”
Google TV ads came out recently to ease the process of placing ads on TV. This seems like a natural extension to Adwords (and Google’s slow encroachment on traditional media). So natural that I don’t think that many people have noticed it.
Slate though that they wanted to try out the system and see how well it works. Without a product to advertise, they created a hilariously surreal ad to promote their website. Slate created a video on how easily got the ad set up to air. With a small budget, the ad was shown 54 times reaching 1.3 million people.
Something about the video really brought out the DIY in me. I can see this as a gateway to have a wide variety of small or newly launched companies to get a large audience… though at first it might just be techy blogs and individuals trying out the service. Expect to see a variety of campy ads for blogs on late night television in the next few months.
The last post was about the year 2009 in review and then silence for three months. I promise that I not I wasn’t waiting for the next year in review. I was simply distracted. My bad.
a few changes have happened; the most important of which is that Mae now has her own blog, Work It. That leaves this as the location for my posts. As much as i would love to stick to a focus, I am likely to write about social media, new web trends, music, good food, marketing, copyrights, soccer, statistics, and the beautiful city of New York. Basically I plan to write about what I know and love while trying to not oversell the whole blog thing.
So if you are still interested in reading what I have to say, you are at the right blog. Otherwise, there are more than enough blogs to go around. (have I mentioned Mae’s new blog?)
December inevitably brings lists upon lists of the best for the year. I usually stick to music lists that help me supplement the music that I hear with the many great albums I inevitably miss. This year NY Magazine came out with an even better list, the year in ideas.
The list genuinely made me happy. It is a condensed view of the things that we have done right in the year. As much as I try to keep up with what goes on in the news, most of them were new to me.
Take for instance the ban on new Cul-de-sac’s passed in Virginia. Its a sensible idea that has needed to take root, and seeing that its now law, put a smile on my face. I have no doubt that the results will speak for themselves and our cities will be better for it.
Honestly there are so many great ideas to go through that I will refrain from even listing them. The span from technology, engineering, social science, fashion and health. They are packed with information that can lead to Wikipedia fueled tangents and illustrations that tend to add to the idea being proposed (including the one at the top of the article).
I suggest reading each idea from end to end. The list is not ranked, a rarity in the world of lists, but it effectively highlights the great ideas and progress made throughout the year.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I wish everyone the best this Thanksgiving and that includes a nice helping of being full from Thanksgiving dinner.
NYTimes made some analysis based on Thanksgiving meal keyword searches showing national and state trends. I find the regional differences to be the most interesting. Who knew that “Sweet Potato Pie” stays inside the old confederacy or that the Midwest eats their corn casserole while the Northwest has something called Turkey Brine.
Most interesting is the regional understanding of pies. The Northeast has their apple pie,the Midwest cherry pie, the South sweet potato pie, while a confused smattering of states have peanut butter or chocolate pies.
ESPN had a prime, though unintended, example of the dangers in basing an ad campaign around an athlete. Nike scheduled a new campaign for Nikepro Combat to coincide with the opening of the NFL season in prime sports locations including ESPN.com. As a major source of sports news, the page has a large number of athletes and sports fans.
The day after the Urlacher’s first game, the ads were ready to coencide with another great performance
However, the unexpected happened and Urlacher had a season ending injury. The news was one of the top stories of the day.
The whole message is now changed, Nike has “Prepare for combat” along with the face of someone that will not play for the next year. It seems similar to the poorly placed AdWords campaigns that features deals on a flights next to a story about a recent crash. The one possible benefit is that there are going to be fans looking for information about his injury that might be more willing to click on the ad.
One of my biggest political passions is copyrights. It might sound random at first but think about how copyrights affect each and everyone of us.
Think of the music that you have burned a DVD you have ripped. That action is illegal. Why is it illegal? my answer is: because copyright law is not resided with people in mind.
I would keep going, but Ryan Singel has written a great FAQ about Google’s desire to scan every book and does a good job of describing many pieces of copyright law. Go ahead, give it a read.
Nate Silver has it right: Any understanding of Health Care needs to be done with simple language and lots of images. I strangely feel that the the post on the difference between Canada’s and UK’s health care is actually necessary. Pass it around.
When you are in a hole, whats the first thing you need to do to get out? Stop digging. Its a visual way of saying that what got you in the mess will not get out out of it. Simple enough right?
I was reading about the new quarterly GDP numbers being better than expected, good news to be sure. then I saw this NYTimes article quote: “We’re in a deep hole, and now we’ve got to dig ourselves out of it, which is a very difficult task,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, said.
I know that its only metaphorical language but it still struck a nerve. If digging is what got us here, you need a new plan to get out. To me, the quote tells the story of how the entire financial sector has learn nothing, changed nothing and is going on with the same system as before - or at the very least, Mesirow Financial.
