So I initially was very excited to attend the Texas Book Festival, as Christian Lander would be there speaking – Lander being the author of one of the most snarky yet telling books about…well…white people. Stuff White People Like. Brilliant.
So I saw a handful of other authors while at the festival – amazing how large of a production this was. I love it. Anyway, I was really intrigued by Taylor Branch, author of The Clinton Tapes. The more I read, attend lectures, observe, think…the more I realize that is so much out there I don’t know. Mind blowing really.
Anyway, I won’t make this a novel like many other entries are (my b!) but rather I’ll post a scan of the notes I took during this lecture/symposium with my two main takeaways:
So I don’t know if this is just a me thing or a planner thing, but I find myself using analogies to explain things. Perhaps it’s just easier to understand what one is talking about if referring it in context to something that is already familiar.
So with that said, I guess I could say I am always looking for ways to connect metaphorical dots. The other night I went to a Wilco concert – I think the greatest part for me was during the part when Jeff Tweedy had the audience sing the song as the band played.
In the world of branding we’re always talking about how to build meaningful brands and how to measure feedback – I think this video serves as a great example. The audience is singing the song as the band plays – instant feedback / reaction from you audience regarding what you have produced. And you get to see your audience “using” your “product/service” front and center! Great moment for insight/feedback/ideas/inspiration.
Something else we always talk about: making brands conversational and two way, rather than meaningless one-way projection. Again…Wilco/Jeff Tweedy pretty much owned it, involving the audience, making it personal, building a relationship, turning the show into a conversation, rather than projecting music for 2 1/2 hours.
awesome awesome awesome.
And on a musical level…how freaking awesome is it to be up on stage playing music you love, a few hundred of your biggest fans front and center, singing your music right to you? I love this stuff.
A few months ago I was asked “Where did you move to?” (…and yes, the q. did end in a preposition)
My answer: “Oh, I moved to Texas!”
I was quickly corrected by an Austinite: “No, you didn’t moved to Texas, you moved to Austin!”
“Tomato, Tomawto” was what I thought in reply…and that was basically the end of that.
Fast forward about two months and I find myself in a little placed called Luckenbach, Texas. It was at this point I understood the difference between moving to Texas, and moving to Austin.
I had a great experience in Luckenbach…there is some serious personality to that place. I ended up chatting with one of the guys inside the cowboy hat and cowboy boot shack? …anyway, he has been a Texan since day 1 and had some great stories to share. Had some serious pride to be a Texan, so keeping in mind this project I’m working on…I captured a few stories the guy told me.
Everyone raves about what a great city Austin is and is becoming…and I certainly agree, I love it here. However, all of the great chatter I’ve heard regarding Austin is mainly from 20 somethings like myself who have not been here that long or long enough to know Austin before it began to know. The perspective of this guy…who has known Austin for decades really gave me a few things to think about.
Great experience all in all. I gave a bunch of Heart in Texas stickers to him and his friend at the table…Luckenbach, Texas…wow, what an experience.
So the afternoon began at the Pecan Street Fair – Central Texas’ largest arts + crafts fair. Amazing how much inspiration and ideas can be found at an event like this:
Reminded me of a hybrid of the Eugene Celebration, the Street Fair at UO, Portland’s First Thursday and Portland’s Last Thursday.
Hell yes there was a Greek food stand (and p.s. did I mention I am taking Greek classes now? Getting pretty good at speaking Greenglish…)
Just around the corner was Wheels of Wonderland, put on by Austin Bike Zoo. Austin Bike Zoo is self-described as this: “The Austin Bike Zoo Human Powered Puppetry began with the collaborative efforts of artists, bicycle builders, teachers and like minded folks.”
Yup. And they came together to put on a production of Alice in Wonderland. Brilliant:
Here’s a bit of footage from the production:
So as we were heading back to the car, we saw a building with a ton of people, some togas and architecture looking things, so we went inside to see what it was. Turns out it was a public performance and installation of The 24 Hour Roman Reconstruction. Crazy. Awesome. Crazy awesome:
And then the Capitol building, looking quite beautiful. Perhaps it’s because I’m from a capitol city and spent alot of time at the capitol building giving holiday performances with orchestra + choir, as well as the annual mock youth legislative session (oh, memories!)…but there’s just something about capitol buildings that I sure do love:
As I’m sure we all know by know, Reading Rainbow in done and done. What a shame. And another beautiful example of how off kilter our view of education is. And by our, I mean those in charge of the education system…so perhaps the Dept. of Education…the Government?
I heard a piece on NPR about Reading Rainbow – the most interesting point to me was this: ‘ . . . decision ot end “Reading Rainbow” can also be traced back to a philosophical change about TV and reading. He says the change started with the Department of Education under the Bush administration, which wanted to see a much heavier focus on things like phonics and spelling, the basic tools of reading.”
So, pause right there.
Yes, the basics are obviously important, but engagement is the first step. I was hooked on Reading Rainbow because it taught me WHY to read first…then I was taught HOW. Apparently this system of thought is backwards now – teaching kids HOW to read first, skipping what I think is arguably the most important step in the process, why they should love to read. Ugh.
So to mourn the loss of Reading Rainbow, I went to the public library here in Austin and spent some time in the children’s section, reading through books I had read because of Reading Rainbow. It was a fantastic experience, I can’t tell you how much inspiration and ideas can be found in children’s book. Inspiration and ideas about design, thinking outside the box, storytelling, typography, imagination…
So what’s children’s programming going to look for our next generation?
Well, I read Eat, Pray, Love a few years back and really enjoyed it – just watched Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk – makes me feel a little better and certainly reminds me alot of the great minds in the j. school:
So my Firefox just shut down and this message appeared. Normally this would be extremely annoying, but honestly, this error message made me laugh. Conversational, spoke my language, yadda yadda.
So, good job Firefox – you have owned failing well. Actually, wouldn’t it be great if there was a series of campaign fail messages. (does Twitter already do this with the fail whale?) I don’t know but either way, I’m a fan. Keep failing, Firefox.
During my long weekend here in Houston, I met up with some good friends from back home and went to a dueling piano bar – freaking awesome.
The whole night was great of course, but perhaps my favorite moment of the evening was when the band had all our US service men + women up on stage and the whole bar sang “God Bless the USA.”
Now I’m not trying to be emo with this post, but I think that because we are so fortunate, it’s sometimes easy to forget all that we have AND to thank those who have allowed us to have/maintain this freedom. Of course nothing is perfect and we certainly have things to work on, but all in all we are extremely privileged to live in this country and to have such selfless men/women/families/husbands/wives/siblings/children who have made major sacrifices to defend and protect our country and our freedom:
As much as I say I hate social media, at times it can be a source of some pretty great insights. Courtesy of LeGarette Blount’s disgustingly repugnant, immature and flat out embarrassing display of incredibly poor sportsmanship during last night’s Duck game, I was provided with content for this post. So…thanks LeGarette!
Insight #1 is brought to you by my cartographic skills:
One of my favorite quotations (and not ‘quotes’…bc to quote is a verb, a quotation is the actual thing that was said…thank you Duncan McDonald and Grammar 101) about Blount’s shameful behavior: “General rule of thumb: When your night ends with you being restrained by an ad hoc coalition of authority figures and security guards, you have had a very, very bad night.”
Insight #2 has been provided by my Facebook feed:
Of course Twitter exploded too. Perhaps my favorite tweet I found in my “Oregon” search:
Takeaway #1: Citizen journalism is actually pretty sweet.
Takeaway #2: At least Duck fans are still classy.
Takeaway #3: It’s amazing how the actions of just one person can have such a powerful impact on a brand. In less than a minute, Blount did wonders of damage to the wonderful and once respected brand Oregon had spent so much time to build.
Conclusion: If Blount gets kicked out, can I have his scholarship money? I don’t punch people and I think I could be a far classier brand advocate for Oregon. Just throwing it out there. (=
