Image credit: Always On
Thanks Tony.

David Carlick has written a two-part piece on marketing and advertising. Part one, Messy Online Marketing here. Part two, The Future of Advertising here. Kudos David!

Fred Winston blogs about the beauty of Cleopatra here, and stamps that tastes like pork here. As original a blogger as he is a radio star.

For the first time in school history Wisconsin hoops are #1 in the AP Top 25 poll. Booyah! Congrats to Bo Ryan and team.

"Beautiful forms and compositions are not made by chance, nor can they ever in any material be made at small expense. A composition for cheapness, and not for excellence of workmanship, is the most frequent and certain cause for the rapid decay and entire destruction of arts and manufacture." John Ruskin

"The price of progress is trouble." Charles Kettering

"Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air." John Quincy Adams

Congrats & cheers: Jerry Schnacke promoted to Bonneville's Chicago market manager. Well deserved! Jerry is a gentleman, a mensch and a good broadcaster. Edward Sussman promoted to EVP of Mansueto Ventures and prexy of Mansueto Digital a new division.

Bruce Rave, maven of indie rock, offers up a new (2/13) Go Deep webcast here. Bravo Bruce! Enjoyed the tunes and your commentary too, thank you.

Thoughts on the business of music: Fred Wilson has written a thoughtful post on what's happening, and not happening, in the music business here. Fred also tips us to the Bob Lefsetz writing The End of Innocence here. Kudos to Fred and Bob. (Thanks Fred for sharing the new Modest Mouse track Fire It Up).

We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank: The moment I first heard the title of the new Modest Mouse project - thanks to Tom Teuber on WSUM - my sense was this was music worth waiting for and so far the early reviews are strong. Love that title.

Miles to go before they sleep: This morning's call with Karmazin & Parsons - Ryan Saghir live blogged it here. The first buzz, as Borat would say, is "not so much." Jimmy Guterman rounds up the early bidding, Thumbs Down, here. Nice work Jimmy!

QE2 + QM2: Ron Fell told us, via his blog, these two ships would be in Sydney harbor at the same time this week. An event their respective namesakes last experienced during the 1940s. Certainly someone at NRO, for security reasons alone, must have been asked to task a KH or other EIS platform to provide imagery cover of this historic 21st century event. Perhaps Ron has images to share? LATER: Related story here - QM2 has set sail leaving her smaller sister behind. LATER2: Ron checks in from Sydney to say it was a spectacular event replete with first-class fireworks but, sadly, he has no images to offer up. Thanks Ron!

What he forgot to say: My thanks to Lee Arnold for his very kind words. The simple facts are I was the one that worked for Lee, he was one of my bosses. It was an honor, a privilege and my pleasure to serve and support Lee. The job of corporate staff is to serve those in the field, to help them to make things happen, to assist and support them in producing results. Corporate is nothing more than a cost center. Everything that's important in the enterprise happens in the field period, paragraph. Staff's mission is to serve the field. It's all about servant leadership. My first staff job required me to leave behind a good company and a field job in Chicago, I had to move to the city. I'm reminded of the words Eisenhower wrote after a week at his new desk job in the War Dept "There are lots of amateur strategists on the job, and prima donnas everywhere. I'd give anything to be back in the field." Early on in my new corporate post came a meeting with a consultant to the firm. Commenting on one of our station people, the consultant said to me "he can't be any good, he works for us." Unable to get him to understand why that kind of thinking was plainly wrong I let him go. He was later rehired after I left the firm. The lesson here is subjective issues are too often nothing more than issues of politics. I remain proud of the fine work that Lee and his Detroit team achieved during and after my watch. I am blessed he is my long-time friend, Lee is one very remarkable and gifted professional.

Really good red wine <$10: My love affair with Spanish wine continues. One of the best reds for the money is the 2005 Casa Castillo, Monastrell Jumilla. This is a 100% Mourvedre varietal (the Spanish call it Monastrell). The second leading Spanish grape variety after Grenache.

Photo: dawn perry
Avenue of Trees in Snow
Thank you, fine shot. Winter has arrived in Madison. Snow and single digit temps.


"We are all suffering from a major disability, none of us are twelve years old." Peter Hirshberg

"You can reach the right people but if you don't say the right thing to create the connection to that person there's nothing there." Steven Yee

Today's quotations from my notes on the AlwaysOn Media session Surviving the media disruption. More from Peter Hirshberg: "People trusts people like them...What can a brand do to stimulate people to want to believe and to share and talk about it...this is more like a political campaign...we've gone from creating awareness to building relationships and meaning...If Web 1.0 was about pages, Web 2.0 is about people...we need to go back to school." Excellent points Peter. Bravo! Peter also announced the cool new feature @ Technorati, Where's the Fire? What's Hot and Why. Check it out here.

Congrats & Cheers: Michael Yavonditte and his team on Quigo being named company of the show at AO Media. Accepting the award Michael said his New York based firm was just "blocking and tackling" and his pov is "opportunities seem boundless." How totally refreshing to hear a CEO excited about the future of marketing and advertising, focused on the fundamentals. Quigo is a company to watch. Reed Bunzel has joined Ed Seeger's American Media Services, Reed will serve as prexy of Ed's new interactive venture. Ed and Reed are in the right place at the right time. Brent Alberts named Director of Operations and Programming for Citadel's midwest region.

Charming & Delightful: Our beloved Uncle Lar, the one, the only Superjock, has started blogging...

"Nothing new with me...just hangin' out...golfin' a few balls...awaiting my next ill-fated comeback. The last two haven't gone well. Who knew that "Jammin" Oldies format on WUBT would have such a short shelf life? And that R-R-R-Real Oldies 1690 thing! What the hell was that?"

"If you don't get Animal Stories CDs as a gift, it means you're not really loved...you're just being used!"

Bravo Uncle Lar, welcome to the conversation. Check out the Larry Lujack site here, where you may also affirm the veracity of your love with the purchase and repeated gifting of Animal Stories CDs. Thanks to Robert Feder for the tip.

Bonus: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Read post, print post, burn printed post. Bravo! Well done. Check it out while it lasts here.

Bonus 2: Two more Blogs of Note via Blogger: ts0 (a Liverpool gent launching his own shop) and Varieties of Unreligious Experience (Conrad H. Roth blogging on, uh, language).

Photo:
Ron Fell
Good shooting, thanks Ron!

"Successful, effective messages - words and language that have been presented in the proper context - all have something in common. They stick in our brains and never leave, like riding a bicycle or tying our shoelaces. Not only do they communicate and educate, not only do they allow us to share ideas - they also move people to action. Words that work are catalysts. They spur us to get off the couch, to leave the house, to do something. When communicators pay attention to what people hear rather than to what they are saying, they manage not merely to catch people's attention, but to hold it." Frank Luntz

Congrats & Cheers: Tony Perkins and his AO team have done it again, another successful meet, this time it's AO Media happening this week in the city. Live + archive video and program details here.

David Weinberger speaking at yesterday's AO Media Buzz Marketing session (from my notes, not exact but close): "Basically you want to be interesting but marketers generally have forgotten how to be interesting because they are so concerned with shaping the message...If you can manage to be interesting you've got buzz...The fact that it sometimes works is not a model for how you market...Buzz marketing is all exceptions, an act of genius, you can't do a methodology for exceptions, for genius, can you?...Go forth and be interesting...except, you are probably, the company, especially the marketers, are probably incapable of being interesting anymore, the most interesting people in your company are your customers, your market, way more interesting than you are...message control does make people boring...Marketing is still at war with its customers." Brilliant, David! Bravo! Kudos too to Jarvis, just back from Davos, good job moderating.

Equal parts Marvin Gaye and Jack Johnson: That's the Rhapsody take on Paolo Nutini, his debut album drops in the USA today. His New Shoes track is tight, love it. Paolo clearly has buzz. Artist site here.