I’m calling it quits for a half-year on this blog. Back on July 1, maybe … Hit me up on Twitter @robertcollings if you want to connect or shoot the breeze. Ciao for now and keep well.
UPDATE: I’ll post pix of my culinary expeditions on my Tumblr.
Review: my Year With No Beer #ywnb
In late 2010 I set myself the challenge of not consuming alcohol during 2011. I’m chuffed to say that I achieved my goal. Perhaps importantly it was easier than I had expected—which means anyone can do it!
I hope the following outcomes from my experience will inspire you if you’re thinking about meaningful change in the New Year:
- My physical health improved. (I didn’t have a single day of unwellness during 2011.)
- I experienced significantly improved mental health. (Any self-doubt I had is completely gone and I’m plain and simply happier.)
- And lastly in a nod to Seth Godin, I became significantly more focused and I now ‘ship’ without fail.
My hope is that if you’re experiencing any unwellness, or perhaps if you haven’t achieved the things you wanted to achieve in your life, that you’ll take inspiration from my Year With No Beer and give it a go in 2012.
Hit me up on Twitter @robertcollings if you want to chat about your #YWNB. I’m doing it again.
OFF! at the Annandale Hotel
I had the great privilege of driving punk band OFF! around Brisbane during the locale leg of their first Australian tour. OFF! comprises four of the better known indie punk musicians on the planet in Keith Morris (co-founder of Black Flag), Steve McDonald, Dimitri Coats and Mario Rubalcaba. They’re also the most respectful artists I’ve worked with.
Fasterlouder.com.au had this to say about their Sydney gig at the Annandale hotel:
As soon as all four members of OFF! arrived on-stage … not a single thing else mattered. Black Thoughts flew past in a blur of screeched vocals, buzzsaw guitar and a mass of flying bodies leaping from the stage, while Darkness did exactly the same with literally milliseconds of stopover time between the two. Chaos was inevitable from the get-go, but the intensity levels were beyond boiling point as the crowd surged, spilled out and slammed about the venue like they would never attend another punk rock show.
The performance was that perfect balance of unhinged raw energy and the kind of cohesive precision that can only come with the wear-and-tear of veteran status. Although the four musicians that make up OFF! have all spent countless years in countless bands, it’s clear that they have collectively invested in something that they all love, excited by its freshness and the new take on a vintage sound. OFF! is, at its core, a passion project of the highest order.
OFF! have a few shows in Melbourne remaining on this tour, including a stint at the Meredith Music Festival. If you love raw, Californian punk, OFF! is an absolute must see.
On the Maron/Lefsetz emails
The title of this post could easily have been “Lefsetz doesn’t get he’s the problem”. First up, read this email exchange between blogger Bob Lefsetz and comedian and podcaster Marc Maron.
If you don’t have time to read: Maron offers 50 of the latest podcasts for free and a paid archive via an iTunes app and in-app subscription. Lefsetz linked to a paid archive interview, Marc let Lefsetz know and Lefsetz went off on his ‘recordings should be free, it’s about exposure, make up the money on the stage’ rant.
What Bob doesn’t seem to understand is that the reason some of his readers won’t pay to listen to Maron’s podcasts has less to do with Marc’s business model and speaks more to his authenticity as a tastemaker, or possible lack thereof. Interestingly Marc suggested that his business has never been better.
I believe it’s important as an analyst to live one’s assessments as much as is humanly possible, otherwise we’re no better than a clanging gong. And people get hurt …
Piracy and lost sales
I was reading a post from Seth Godin recently where he discussed the correlation between selling and reading in the pre- and post-internet eras. He concluded with a footnote worthy of further discussion:
An example of this is the publishers and authors that oppose libraries and the lending of ebooks. In these cases, even though money was paid, they’re apparently against being read–even though there’s zero evidence that library reading hurts book sales.
Prima facie there’s plenty of evidence that library lending hurts book sales; once a book is read its value has been extracted and there is a disincentive to then purchase the book. A quick check around the Red Hill Publishing office suggests that very few books borrowed are then purchased (to the point of statistical insignificance).
However—and it’s a big however— I expect that those who choose to source reading material from their library rather than a book store are not even in the market to buy the book. Libraries and book stores are economic substitutes.
Interestingly we hear complaints from the content industries, particularly the record industry, that online piracy hurts (record) sales. To my mind there’s no doubt that’s true. Yet an ‘illegal’ download doesn’t always equal a lost sale if the downloader was never going to buy the record. That’s where the statistic analysis needs to take place and that’s where it’s absent.
Hit me up on Twitter if you’d like to discuss this, or just shoot the breeze: @robertcollings.
How to live each day like it’s your last
We’ll often hear motivational speakers, self-accredited gurus and even the odd spiritual leader say that we need to live each day like it’s our last. But what does that really mean?
I think I have an answer, for me anyhow.
The obvious response is that we’d live our life doing what’s important to us, whether it’s giving those we love a big hug, or sitting on a beach, or partying like there’s no tomorrow. But I don’t think that’s it, not the least because it’s unsustainable whichever way we look at it.
For me living each day like our last is to constantly ask ourselves, “if this was my last day on Earth, would I be doing ‘this’ (insert action, thought, etc) at this very moment?”
Would I be watching TV? Playing games on the cellphone? Chatting aimlessly on Skype? Avoiding doing the work that needs to be done? Treating myself and/or others like shite? Writing this blog that almost no-one reads …
Whatever the answer I can guarantee that for most people there is a lot of stuff in their life that doesn’t need to be there.
So if you’re not achieving the things you know you can (or really want to), perhaps it’s time to work out what’s in and what’s out?
Steve Stoute on marketing (and Kodak)
I posted a few vids a week or so ago featuring music biz meets ad-man impresario Steve Stoute (yes, I know I misused impresario), and the author of The Tanning of America. Appears to be an interesting guy.
In an article in the New York Observer he had this to say about Kodak’s recent campaign featuring Rihanna and a slew of other musicians.
“Marketing? You call that marketing?” Mr. Stoute asked. “You’re trying to skip the entire process and just hire some celebrities to save your ass. That’s the epitome of ridiculous. Marketing? Kodak?” He was nearly shouting. The commercials, he said, didn’t convey the function of the product. “Can you imagine how stupid that is? What am I gonna do with a Kodak? It’s not a smart phone. If I don’t tell you why you need it, why would you buy it? Because Rihanna and Pitbull said so? Yeah, congratulations.”
Now go and watch an ad for the iPad 2. You won’t find any superstar recording artists, but you will find emotional reasons for buying one.
Steve Jobs & the seeing eye
Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs caused a bit of a stir amongst Apple fanbois and observers of Apple. I’m just getting down to reading it myself. John Gruber believes the book is ‘flawed‘ (but doesn’t explain why) citing an article by Malcolm Gladwell who suggested that Jobs was a tweaker.
I don’t see any causal relationship between Isaacson’s book and Gladwell’s inability to understand the nature of invention, particularly in regards to Jobs.
One of Jobs’ geniuses was his capacity to see what others couldn’t; I call it The Seeing Eye. It is one very large part intuition, one part intelligence and one part experience. It explains some of Jobs’ apparently less attractive behavioural traits: doesn’t justify them, just explains them.
By way of example, if I say the sky is blue, but you don’t see it when to me it is self-evident that it’s blue, it can be frustrating to have to then explain why it is so. Worse is having to sometimes justify why one sees it that way when time would be better spent maximising the advantages blue sky presents.
This was Jobs’ genius. It’s why he can’t be replaced and why Apple will be a very different company without him. The only question I have is whether Jony Ive has The Seeing Eye too?
(And I’m guessing there was a lot of blue sky in Jobs’ life, although if Gruber’s assessment of Isaacson’s tome is accurate I might never know.)
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