"In every game of chance there's a chump, should that person not be obvious to you then you're the chump." Johnny Martin

"...I don't work. I just dream. My best office is my bed." Philippe Starck

"A truly poetic canvas is an awakened dream." Rene Magritte

Today's image: Still Life Series: Quintet by rbaez. Wonderful. Thanks for sharing!

Friday's unemployment stats are not encouraging (up to 5%). The online-betting market at intrade.com has the contract on a US recession this year north of 55%. The first consumer-led recession since 1991 would not be good for measured media. On the day job our projection is a good year for TV (political cycle/Olympics year), flat for radio. Big media and cable remain out of favor with Wall Street. Retail and other consumer-discretionary stocks are priced for an economic meltdown.

Andrew Olmsted wore the uniform, fought in Iraq, blogged under the name G'Kar. He was killed on January 3. He trusted a friend, leaving a final post to be published in the event of his death. That post is here.

Bonus: Steve Rubel, the prince of PR, makes the case for an end to the "Lazysphere" and more thoughtful, serious and original blogging. Kudos, Steve. The Lazysphere and the Decline of Deep Blogging.

From The Wall Street Journal...

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited." Albert Einstein

"The method of the enterprising is to plan with audacity and execute with vigor." Christian Bovee

"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely." Auguste Rodin

"I think most music will soon be free"

Chris Anderson has posted an interesting item on the music biz from which I have liberated the quotation above. Chris goes on to say...

"And for those who say that this avenue is only available to artists at the head of the curve, such as Madonna and Radiohead, I'd point out that the other group poorly served by the labels are those at the bottom of the curve, the many thousands of bands who fall below the radar of the hit-driven majors. I'd argue that they, too, have nothing to lose by letting their music go free, nothing to lose but the prospect of becoming indentured to companies stuck in last century's model of monetizing music" Read Chris' post Everything in the music industry is up (except those plastic discs) here. Kudos Chris, well said.

Steve Rubel offers up a solid writing on where we are today. The Web 2.0 World is Skunk Drunk on it's own Kool-Aid. Worth the jump here. It is feeling a bit (too much) like 1999. It's great to have the Prince of PR back in the hunt. Serve up the candor Steve. Meanwhile, speaking of refreshing unvarnished candor, Dave Winer shares the gift of perspective and reminds us #1. Remember to have fun and more. Thanks to Steve and to Dave!

Today's image: Sunrise with Ducks II by Peter Bowers. Beautiful shot. Thank you.