Happy April 1st!

I’ll be darned, Starbucks has a sense of humor.

Surprising for them, but that’s why I like it.

Sorry for the paucity and brevity of posts.  That kind of week(s).

But thanks for the positive vibes on the music mix.  By request, this weekend I’ll be putting up some mixes from prior years.

By the way, for another smile, Google something today and take the time to learn about their re-branding effort.

Clever vs. True

In most corners of the media business, there is an almost maniacal obsession with being clever.  Seemingly above all else, people push for a core concept that– in itself– is unique.  A movie genre that has never been seen, a concept album that redefines what an album is, a marketing approach that upturns how we think about marketing, etc.  This push becomes almost maniacal in the marketing world, where people (like, well, me) strive for an idea for a product or a brand that is cleverly novel in its own regard.  How can one think of cheese in a way truly different than anyone has ever considered cheese?  I exaggerate, but not by much.

Increasingly, I’m coming to think that this cleverness craze is over-rated at best; and at worst, flat wrong.

Don’t you know what time it is?

For years, I woke up each morning to a particularly punishing alarm clock.  It was a bracing way to start the day, but I held onto it forever (probably convinced that, conditioned to the ear-piercing, anything calmer would no long wake me up).

These days, NPR wakes me.  But what I really wake up to is my e-mail.  Half-asleep, I shuffle over to my cell phone or my laptop and boot up my work e-mail.  Kind of sad, I know– but I’m not alone.

Given all the people who do the same thing, what puzzles me is why these devices don’t know what time it is.