Exposed
Maybe it’s because it’s Sunday and I’m feeling “churchy”. Maybe it’s because I’ve thought too much about it. Or maybe I’m just being cheesy, but this busted tree got me thinking.
We’ve got two of these big trees in our front yard. Identical. They were planted (by someone else) at the same time and for the past ten years or so, they have grown together. They looked the exact same until the other night when a storm came through and decided to rip half of our tree on the right down. Kinda lame huh? Now after pretending to be a lumberjack I’ve got this little pile of wood and a half of a tree. The front is all exposed and all the leaves are on the back.
Now, I’ve had more than a couple people tell me what a bummer it is that the front of the tree is missing, rather than the back because that’s the part that everyone sees. That’s the side that we ‘represent’ our yard to the neighbors with. That’s what makes this tree look good. You see where I’m going with this don’t you?
Now, imagine if the back of this tree had been ripped off. It would look all symmetrical from the front. Matching the other tree and fitting in perfectly. No one would be able to tell there was any damage and we could all go on pretending that this tree hadn’t weathered a storm and continues to stand. The damage would still be there, it would still be half a tree, but at least the ‘public’ part would look good, right?
We love to pretend that our tree fronts are perfect don’t we? We love to show the public our full, leafy side. We don’t want anyone to know that we’ve been through it. Struck by lightning or pushed over by a storm. We don’t want people to see that we’re completely exposed if you just looked at us from a different angle. And you know what? Most people don’t want to even take the time to see that angle. They’d rather see the side of you that is symmetrical and ‘together’. Because then they don’t have to help.
It’s easier to drive through a perfect suburban neighborhood and see symmetry. See the fake. That’s what we show, and that’s what we are shown. Because it’s easier than accepting the fact that we’ve all had storms, and our front sides have been ripped off. And that sometimes all we are left with is a lame pile of firewood that we don’t even know what to do with because we have a gas fireplace that we never even turn on because it seems like a really stupid way to run up your gas bill.
What side of the tree are you showing the people around you?
MYNH – Josh Garrels
Holy voice. Is that even human? Ladies and Gentlemen Mr. Josh Garrels. My friend Damian send me this guys site and his voice instantly blew me away. I searched around on Youtube to find some other live performance stuff, and there’s plenty, but this song just blew me back a bit.
Let’s hear it. What’s some Music We’ve Never Heard? What are you listening to?
Dear Christian Music Industry (Part 12)
Dear Christian Music Industry,
My goodness! It’s been literally almost a year since my last letter to you. You’ve done so well with this whole “social networking / connect with the fans” thing that we’ve talked about so many times. You’ve jumped on Twitter, embraced blogging, focussed on Facebook and to be honest I’ve stood here like a proud second uncle or something watching you become something great. But this week I’ve realized that you’ve started slipping. And you’re tricking me at the same time. You might not even realize it, but it’s happening. And I think it’s time we had a little talk.
Now, if there’s one thing that we’ve all seen, or at least heard the cliche’ saying, we know that history will repeat itself. ”But what do you mean Brody, we’re never going back to Myspace and lame flash based websites.” No, you might not be but let’s take a look back.
Let’s go back to a few years ago when Myspace was the ‘cat’s pajamas’. Yeah, I said it. Cat’s. Pajamas. Remember that? Remember when that was the new and exciting way for artists to connect with their fans and show them music at the same time? They could blog, they could update shows, and they could well…. interact to some level. Then what happened? The race was on to ‘out friend’ the other band. It wasn’t uncommon to hear a label person ask “How many Myspace Friends does Artist A have versus Artist B?”. The race for email addresses and phone numbers were the goal because it didn’t matter about interaction. What mattered was numbers. Right?
Then there was this massive social networking “movement”. Chris Anderson wrote a book called “The Long Tail” and everyone connected to an artist with a fan base ran out and bought their copy. We truly believed that with a firm, cultivated, dedicated fan base we could revolutionize the way people bought music. If we just would pour into those ‘True Fans’, the numbers didn’t matter. Now, here we are nearly two years later. We’ve seen amazing examples of success, we’ve seen some things that weren’t so successful and you know what? You’re heading right back into the pit you just climbed out of. And you’re pulling me with you.
Let’s take a look at Twitter. What a fascinating way to connect with your fans right? I mean you can just send a text and anyone who’s Following you gets it. Brilliant. There’s no tricking them into Following you. No secret sign up, no “exclusive” content. Or is there? What we’ve got now are companies completely based around getting you more Followers on Twitter. You can run contests where people can download something but only if they ‘Re-Tweet’ what you have to say and are Following you. We’ve got things like Twitter Grader letting you know who’s got higher numbers than you and clearly an artist with more Followers is more ‘socially connected’ right? Seems a little like a numbers game again, doesn’t it?
“How many Myspace Friends Twitter Followers does Artist A have versus Artist B?”
And what about Facebook? These same “we can get you Twitter Followers” companies are going to labels and telling them all the magical things they can do with Facebook. They can do “Fan Only” content because after all nothing is Free right? You want to see this video? Click the “Like” button because I’m willing to sacrifice this “free” video content as long as that number on the left is higher than a comparable artist.
“How many Myspace Friends Facebook Fans does Artist A have versus Artist B?”
What about email lists? This one has been around for a while. We’ve seen every trick in the book to con people into giving their email address. And I’ve seen some pretty massive lists. Hundreds of thousands of email addresses. And you, Christian Music Industry is placing such a high value on it still. Would it shock you if I told you that just a few weeks ago I saw an email blast report sent out to nearly a hundred thousand emails and came back with 82.2% of the emails never even opened? Never. Opened.
“How many Myspace Friends Email Addresses does Artist A have versus Artist B?”
Now, I know this letter is getting long but stick with me. I feel like we’ve grown a lot together and I feel like I can trust you and you can trust me. Because of that I feel like I can say this and not offend you.
Stop sucking me into your traps.
What I mean by that is this. I know there are neat, gimmicky companies out there that can help you play the numbers game. I know there’s these things out there impressing you with their glittery number making machines. And you know what? The talented boys at SkörInc can play that same game if they need to. We can get you your sneaky Twitter following page, we can get you your “Fan Only” content on Facebook, and we can get your numbers up, we can get your email list massive, but here’s the deal. There’s still no shortcut to connecting with real fans. It’s still not a numbers game and it never will be again. It still takes time, dedication and work. It’s still a job, and your fans are still not idiots. Let’s stop treating them that way.
As always, I hope the kids are doing well. I miss seeing you around more, but I know we’ve both been busy. Until next time.
Brody
Read Dear Christian Music Industry Parts 1-11
Read But It’s Still Not Happening Parts 1-4
The Finale
So… What’d you think? Theories? Frustration? Did you even watch it? What did you think of the LOST Series Finale?
Ready? Go.
Radnor Lake
We’ve decided that Sunday is our ‘Family Day’. It doesn’t need to be a vacation or anything, but we just wanted to start going and doing things that aren’t sitting at home waiting for another week to start. A couple weeks ago we went to Fall Creek Falls, and today we found Radnor Lake. The funny thing is, it’s literally about 20 minutes from our house and we’d never heard of it.
With a couple miles of trails and wildlife the trail winds it’s way through thick woods and creeks. In the three (or so) hours of hiking we did we saw three deer, dozens of frogs, amazing looking birds and 2 snakes. Now here’s the funny thing about the snakes. The first was a tiny thing that originally I mistook for a fast worm. It was black with a yellow stripe near it’s head. Kristin freaked out. The second was a little bigger. We were stopped looking at these tiny little frogs that were hopping all over the trail. I heard something behind me and about ten feet off the trail I saw a snake coming down a tree.
Now, I’m not one for exaggeration, so believe me when I say it had to have been between four and five feet long and maybe the thickness of our five year olds arm. I told Kristin to check it out, and almost instantly she was halfway down the trail. To say she freaked out would be a complete understatement. It was amazing. I wanted to go mess with it and see if I could get some pictures, but with Kristin hyperventilating and the boys wanting to touch it, I figured it was best to leave it alone.
Instead, we found this cool looking snail and took some pictures of him. And for the record, if anyone says that in the right conditions, the iPhone doesn’t have an amazing stock camera, they are crazy. That snail looks like it’s sitting in a studio with special lighting.
So anyway, we’re back home now, nap time then LOST. Welcome to Sunday.
Kobe Bryant
Okay, I get it. He’s an amazing basketball player. One of the best ever. Yeah, he’s constantly leaving you shaking your head asking, ‘How did he do that’. Michael Jordan-ish, right? Here’s what I don’t get. How can any one openly and honestly say that they like Kobe Bryant? Is there a more arrogant, self focussed, ‘smirky’ player who has ever played the game?
Now, again, I’m not saying that he’s not an amazing player. I’m just saying, can you imagine knowing this guy? Maybe deep down he’s a decent guy and there’s the whole “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” thing, but this guy just comes across as a total ass. I can’t imagine him in real life if he’s a fraction of what he comes across as during games. Even the interviews I have seen, he comes across that he is fully aware that he’s one of the best players ever and anyone who disagrees is clearly unaware of his talent. Now, the problem with this, is that he’s on the Lakers. So yeah. That trickles down to the whole team.
The other night I watched as Kobe scored 40 against the Suns and they took game one by over 20 points. Sure, the Lakers are good, but they’ve got this unbelievable swagger that I just can’t respect. Even Phil Jackson has it. And I used to love the ‘early 90′s’ Bulls.
So here’s the question for you basketball peeps. What’s the deal? How can anyone truly like Kobe Bryant? Or is it that you just appreciate his talent and can overlook the rest?
Morgan Freeman – Career Killer?
I used to work with these two guys. One guy I was friends with and typically to pass the time during the day we would come up with some sort of “debate” to discuss. Even if we saw eye-to-eye on the specific subject one of us would take a ‘side’ and we’d spend the day thinking on that particular subject and debating both sides of the issue. Environmentalism, Politics, Business, Music. Anything was fair game because the debate passed the time, kept us thinking and quite honestly made the day go by faster. The second guy I worked with always tried to jump in on the discussions, and we’d typically let him. He could speak his mind and try to convince us why at least one of us should agree with him. Typically we’d include him and try to see his view on thing until he came up with the ‘Morgan Freeman Career Killer’ discussion.
Here was his theory. And this was his exact wording.
“Once an actor or actress is in a movie with Morgan Freeman, their career is over from that point on.”
What?! That’s not even remotely a valid way to start a debate. Not to mention the complete joke that that statement even is. Now, keep in mind that this was roughly around 2002-2003. And if I were to look at movies that were made in 2002-2003 and took all the actors in those movies and cross checked to see if any of those successful actors had ever been in a film with Morgan Freeman, there’s argument that it would completely kill the discussion even now. But really my argument came down to one person. Brad Pitt. Seven? Morgan Freeman. Brilliant movie, and I think Brad went on to have a couple of decent movies after Seven came out. Are you kidding me?
He tried for a while to keep the “discussion” alive by saying that none of Brad Pitts movies had done well (or were any good) after Seven and that his career was “basically over”. And he also tried to throw in that Morgan Freeman wasn’t necessarily the problem, because he was a good actor in good movies.
I’m pretty sure I ended up leaving early that day.
Anyone else heard of this completely asinine theory?
Steven Delopoulos
I wish I could describe the feeling I get when I listen to Steven Delopoulos. It’s almost like a good meal you’re sad to see end. Only it’s music that I own, but I still have this feeling that I’m constantly wanting more. The guitar playing, the vocals, the songwriting. Brilliant.
Now, most of you have probably heard of Steven, or at least the band he was in called Burlap To Cashmere, but he’s still making music and it’s still beautiful. And every song literally leaves you wanting more. Fortunately you can get some of his stuff at NoiseTrade.com, but make sure to tip him well. We need him to keep writing.
What music are you listening to, that we’ve never heard?
Spinning
I started getting this headache yesterday. I get them every few times a month, since I had a bad car accident in 2000. The doctor told me my neck and head would never be the same, but I’ve just sort of gotten used to the migraine/neck headache a couple times every month. My neck starts to tense and I can feel it working toward the front of my head. Behind my eyes starts to pulse and it lasts for a few hours. Normally I can catch it and take a handful of medicine and it will eventually go away. Not this time.
This morning I woke up and could barely stand without feeling like I had just had way too much to drink. Literally almost falling down the stairs and unable to shake the feeling that I had just spun around in circles 100 times, I thought it was maybe a coffee thing. Nope. Food thing? Nope. Congestion? Nope. And the weird thing was, my head didn’t hurt that bad either. I just could barely stand. I’ve never had anything like this happen before, so being the pseudo-hypochondriac that I am, I can picture my brain literally breaking into pieces.
Kristin made me lay in a dark room with an ice pack on my neck and that seemed to help in the ‘knocking me out’ process, and I’m a tad less dizzy now. Everything is still a little streaked and foggy, but my neck is less stiff and something seems to be working. I don’t know what vertigo is, but I after reading about it a little and listening to that U2 song, it could be something like that. Who knows.
Anyone else ever feel this way?
Team Building
So, if you’ve been around me for the last few months you’ve probably heard me going on and on about two things as far as work is concerned. Team Building and Communication. I know it sounds all touchy-feely and all that, but I don’t care. I think there are some really important keys to the success of businesses and being able to put up with each other is a big one.
Now, I’m not claiming to really know anything about business, because quite frankly, I don’t. I’ve never run a business and I’m trying to grow with the company as well. Seems like a decent thing to do right?
So here’s my first step in the ‘team building’ process. A reading list. Yep. Like a book club. Like Oprah. I’ve got the first three books planned already. I don’t know if I want to tell you the names of the books just yet because I think it’s important that we finish reading them first, but I’m curious what books you would recommend for smaller companies looking to create a team?
And yes, I know who Seth Godin is. I’ll let you know when we’re done with the first book.
