The Hunt For New Music: Van Morrison closes out the holiday season’s music with this terrific version of “Celtic New Year”. Click it on, turn it up, take it in. It’s a great way to end the old year and bring in the new one.
The Fine Print: Embed courtesy of YouTube(thanks guys). Posted on 23 December 2010 by fairhavenwi. All rights belong to their respective artists. Happy New Year. Make it a good one.
Looking Back
The end of the year 2015 offers the chance to put things in perspective. Below, a group of “best of” lists covering 2015. Click through to get an informed overview of the what happened of consequence in culture, money, music, news, and sports in 2015.
The Year in Money (Source: Bloomberg.com)
Forty-Seven Weirdest Charts from 2015 (Source: fivethirtyeight.com)
The best songs of 2015 (Source: nytimes.com)
The Hollywood Shuffle: Winners and Losers 2015 (Source:bloomberg.com)
The Best Of Best Of Lists (source:fivethirtyeight.com)
Best and Worst Asset Performers in 2015 (source:bloomberg.com)
Best Albums of 2015 from New York Times (source:nytimes.com)
Bloomberg’s Best Graphics Of 2015 (Source: bloomberg.com)
Five Best Performing Retail Stocks of 2015 (source: bloomberg.com)
Top 5 Gadgets of 2015 (Source:wired.com)
Top News Stories of 2015 (Source:TheGuardian.com)
Top Sports Stories of 2015..with a New York Bias (Source:nydailyNews.com)
Top 5 Security Stories of 2015 (source:wired.com)
Weekend Concert Series: Robert Cray Band
The Hunt for New Music: There’ll be lots of New Year’s Eve Concerts to select from this coming Thursday, but, just to wrap up the Extended Christmas-New Year’s Holiday Weekend, why not a little searing music from blues master Robert Cray and his band. Here, as the final Weekend Concert Series program for 2015 is The Robert Cray Band. As always..bump it to the flat screen (Chromecast works very well), run it through your stereo system (we like big McIntosh amps but Pass, Mark Levinson, and Classe’ will also do the job and pair up with Wilson Audio speakers) and sit back and enjoy the a concert from one of our finest bluesmen. As for what to expect, this comment from the YouTube post pretty much sums it all up:”Sings like Sam Cooke. Plays like a cross between Buddy Guy and Albert Collins. Perfect.” And so it is. Merry Post-Christmas and Happy Pre-New Year. See you in 2016.
The Fine Print: Embed via YouTube (thanks guys). Original YouTube post by Brother Lebowski (thanks Bro). Cookin’ in Mobile is from a live CD/DVD release by Robert Cray. It was released on 27 July 2010. The CD/DVD was published through Vanguard Records (support them, please). The concert was recorded on 21 February 2010 at the Saenger Theater in Mobile, Alabama. All rights belong to their respective rights holders.
John Wayne on Fighting
“Don’t pick a fight, but I suggest if you find yourself in one, make damn sure you win..”
LV's new exhibit
Paying Attention: The Brand Train continued it’s very long run at the top of the social “got to have it list” in 2015. But as anyone who’s ever been on top can tell you, uneasy is the head that wears the crown. So the only correct thing to do is to double down and press your advantage while you have it, hoping to not just maintain but build market share (there is the famous story of how The Coca-Cola Company increased advertising and marketing in down times to gain market share while the competition cut back because they didn’t want to spend the capital…and then, when the markets returned to normal, the competition found that Coke had built up their market share to yet another high level –one that was now exponentially more expensive to attack) . If you’re Louis Vuitton, you show everyone your market power by opening a new exhibit in the City of Light. Which is precisely how winners maintain their market presence and share through brand evangelism and promotion.
LV’s new exhibit
Paying Attention: The Brand Train continued it’s very long run at the top of the social “got to have it list” in 2015. But as anyone who’s ever been on top can tell you, uneasy is the head that wears the crown. So the only correct thing to do is to double down and press your advantage while you have it, hoping to not just maintain but build market share (there is the famous story of how The Coca-Cola Company increased advertising and marketing in down times to gain market share while the competition cut back because they didn’t want to spend the capital…and then, when the markets returned to normal, the competition found that Coke had built up their market share to yet another high level –one that was now exponentially more expensive to attack) . If you’re Louis Vuitton, you show everyone your market power by opening a new exhibit in the City of Light. Which is precisely how winners maintain their market presence and share through brand evangelism and promotion.
Woody Allen on Innovation
“If you’re not failing every now and then, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative..”
The Cheaters
Paying Attention: Not much is better on a cold December night than watching classic Christmas Movies, in black and white. This one, “The Cheaters” is from 1945 and is considered a little gem, even though very few have heard of it (Might be the fact that it also has another title, “The Castaways“..that’s always confusing. Interesting tale with a great ending, so watch it all the way through.) As we wind our way down from another Christmas holiday, the long weekend provides ample time to see all of the traditional Christmas movies that you didn’t quite get a chance to watch before The Big Night….so here’s one more video to add to the list of Holiday must-see-agains..
The Fine Print: Embed via YouTube. Posted by 123User4567. All rights belong to their respective rightsholders. Thanks for sharing.
Tracking Santa
Paying Attention: Once a year we hear from NORAD with their now-traditional Santa tracker, which tracks Santa all across the globe. Here’s the link to follow Santa on his world-wide journey. Pretty terrific stuff….let’s hope we don’t hear from NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) any other time of that year. That would fall in the “not good” category. But tonight…they’re bring us good news….
One last story: Here’s how NORAD’s Santa Tracker started.
The Fine Print: Santa graphic from “Official NORAD Santa Tracker”. All rights reserved to respective parties. The following companies contributed images, software and technology to make the “Official NORAD Santa Tracker” operative: AGI, CESIUM, Analytical Graphics, CGIAr-CSI, NASA, Earthstar Geographics SIO, Microsoft Corporation, NAVTEQ, Harris Corp, AND. Thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas to all (and to all a Good Night).