The Hunt for New (Christmas) Music: This is the seventh in our series of of posts on the very best music of the Christmas/Holiday season. There are a couple of absolute standouts on this list: The Tractors version of “Santa Clause is Coming to Town”, a live version of “Holiday Road” (theme from National Lampoon’s …
Monthly Archives: December 2015
When Bad Things Happen to Goodwill: The Unwinding of the J.Crew Brand.
Paying Attention: At one time, J.Crew was the hottest brand going. It had perfect pitch for millennial styles. The right sweaters (cashmere). The right shoes (ballet influenced flats). The right cut to the suits; the perfect fabric for the shirts. And then…they lost the touch. It happens and–warning to brand management pros everywhere–it’s going to …
Continue reading “When Bad Things Happen to Goodwill: The Unwinding of the J.Crew Brand.”
Imagine
Paying Attention: John Lennon was assassinated on 8 December 1980, thirty-five years ago. He was shot outside of his apartment in New York City–a place he had moved because he believed he could have more “freedom” than in England. In New York, John Lennon could become anonymous…but not anonymous enough. The irony is powerful and unmistakeable. …
COMT VI
The Hunt for New Music: Christmas One More Time, Playlist VI. Another playlist of great holiday songs. Play it loud. 18 Songs, 1 Hour
The Netflix December Lineup
Paying Attention: It’s December and you’ll be home for the holidays. With plenty of time to watch some great new films or old classics…on Netflix, maybe. Netflix is a disruptive company. They crushed Blockbuster (and Blockbuster’s oppressive late fees) with a simple order-it-online/return-it-via-mail DVD business model, then upped the ante again with major league streaming technology …
The Best Magazine Cover Ever
Transitions: Michael Gross (1948-2015). Before there was Saturday Night Live there was National Lampoon, a humor magazine founded by former members of the Harvard Lampoon along with a random, wild-bunch group of writers, illustrators, humorists, photographers, most of whom were educated at East Coast Ivy League colleges and all of whom possessed a very …
The Breaking News Epidemic
Paying Attention: No doubt, we know precisely where the current “breaking news” /”breaking alert” epidemic started: September 11th, 2001. On that day, every news channel and every broadcast station was bombarded with news, news feeds, photos, videos, interviews, theories, conflicting reports about the Twin Towers attack. So much information was coming in so fast and …
COMT VI: The (White) Christmas Album
The Hunt for New (Christmas) Music: This is Number 6 in a series of 10 lists of the very best Christmas/Holiday/Spiritual songs of the season. As with previous lists (and lists to come) occasionally a song with a spiritual/holiday component is added to a list of purely traditional Holiday music. At this time of the year..its …