"We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are." Talmudic saying

"Neither man nor nation can exist without a sublime idea." Dostoevski

"The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market." Oliver Wendell Holmes

Today's image: Graffiti Alley by Metrix X. Great shot. Thank you for sharing.

F5: Greg Strassell, SVP programming for CBS Radio, writes about the evolution of HD Radio and the CBS HD2/3 initiatives. Via RBR here. Kudos, Greg. Well done.

Congrats & cheers: Internet radio ace Kurt Hanson and company bow Slipstream Radio, partners with Triton Digital. More info here. Our uber-cool social media pal Col Tribune proves that some dead tree guys do get it and gets nom for Groundswell award, well deserved. Details here.

Take Two: Bill & Jerry are back. New Family runs 4:30 and features the two rich guys slumming that they may better connect to real people. The creative is available now via YouTube. The theme is connecting. Seems to me the only connecting going on here is happening between the agency and Microsoft's cash. There's wasting money and then there's burning money. They've managed to do the latter. Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami drinks Mr Softy's milk shake. You decide. [Hint: If you want to create buzz hire Dale Pon, few know that territory better. Should you want to stir emotion w/pictures and sound then Chuck Blore is the go-to guy] The dolls and guys at the Economist have a different pov...

"One of the world’s richest men comes across as unassuming and approachable, the antithesis of Apple’s aspirational cool, which some find annoying and snooty. In a country that loves to poke fun at “elitists” (especially during elections), it would be wrong to write off Microsoft’s new campaign just yet."

Read Postmodern wriggle. To save Microsoft, Bill Gates adjusts his shorts here. Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins blogs I Don't Care What You Say, I Love the Microsoft Ads, here. The latest official word from Team Vista, thanks to Chris Flores is here. Earlier, David Webster, general manager of brand and marketing strategy at Microsoft said...

"We've crossed the line where we're not going to let a competitor define our story anymore," he said. "We want to tell our story not somebody else's." [via AdWeek]

Totally agree with David's concept, all he's missing now is one pesky detail - the story.

Must-read: Hugh MacLeod shares a piece from his upcoming book, Ignore Everybody...

"good ideas have lonely childhoods"

"You don't know if your idea is any good the moment it's created. Neither does anyone else. The most you can hope for is a strong gut feeling that it is. And trusting your feelings is not as easy as the optimists say it is. There's a reason why feelings scare us."

Bravos, Hugh! Outstanding. Read the entire post here.

Bonus: Got Flickr? Got a Flickr set with at least 18 images? You're ready to play the Flickr Memari Beta, thanks to zefrank here.

Closed circuit to high profile Chicago based media company - running XP is ok, running IE6 is not.

Have a wonderful weekend. See you next week in a brand new show!