I noticed that “Peach Pit” was trending today and immediately became curious as to why this pop culture institution had re-entered public consciousness. Guess what: Today is September 2, 2010 aka 9.02.10

Any Beverly Hills, 90210 fans from back in the day, closet or otherwise? (We’ll pretend the new version doesn’t exist.) I love how Twitter can expose pop culture moments like this just from letting users know what people are talking about right now. By the way, if you’re concerned for the country because “Peach Pit” is trending, you should know that “Stephen Hawking” is a trending topic as well thanks to his latest book.

Make your 9.02.10 a good one!

Canon 7D vs. Barbie Video Girl from Brandon Bloch on Vimeo.

There is this one part of the program where everyone stands on one side of a line and one of the Challenge Day leaders announces a statement; if the statement applies to you, you cross the line. For example, you might be asked to cross the line if you have ever:

• been ridiculed for your weight
• lived in a household where alcoholism was a problem
• been kicked out of your house

After you cross, you look around and see that you’re probably not alone for what obstacle(s) you have in your life. Or you might see that your friend might be going through hard times and you had no idea. Every show always includes a revelation or two about “I never knew so-and-so dealt with that!” The whole idea of the exercise is to open up the students’ eyes to see their classmates crossing the lines and understand that everyone might be hiding something.

There’s always a lot of talk about how society is a lot more open now thank to social media sites; some would argue that people are too open with what they share. But I still bet that most of us do hold some stuff private and don’t share everything with our online circle. Whether it’s insecurity or just plain embarrassment (what do you think is holding me back from “Liking” Cougar Town?), if someone took a snapshot of all of your personal social media profiles, would they really know the whole you? They might be able to pigeonhole you into a clique like back in high school (adult versions like Hardcore Liberal, Party Girl, Pseudo-intellectual) but I think there is always going to be room for a “What?!” moment in each of us.  I know that my News Feed is typically filled with happy news; I usually don’t read about someone’s darkest moments on Facebook. And would I want to?

No need for revelations but do you agree that you don’t share everything and might still be able to surprise someone about your life even if they’re your [Facebook] friend?

There are probably much more productive things to do with my time, such as sleeping, than watching third-rate cover versions of songs performed in a dorm room but sometimes I can’t help but click on some of YouTube’s “Suggestions” only to travel down that never-ending path of tangentially related videos. You know what it’s like: you find music videos from the artist then you find live performances which have too much crowd noise so you find a better recording after which you find an acoustic cover…it never seems to end!

The thing is, when I do go on one of these multiple-hour web binges, I never go scouring the web from topic to topic. Instead, I usually spend hours looking at essentially the same thing. I wonder if a website’s suggestions/related items feeds into my OCD tendencies? In the past, I’ve also been guilty of losing track of time while:

• Browsing Flickr: I’ll see a contact’s recent upload and check it out and then I’ll see what groups the user put the picture in and then it’s all over. I start looking at group submissions and find all of these random groups and discover new photographers.
• Facebook Hunting: Sometimes I’ll get inspired and try to remember as many people from my past, like high school, and then I can spend hours trying to find them on Facebook. Don’t tell me “Facebook stalking” isn’t one of your pastimes!
• Cleaning iTunes: I do this so rarely that when I do commit to doing it, it’s a huge ordeal. I need to make sure every song has cover art, every title is capitalized appropriately and I even check that the volume levels are equal. I can’t explain the level of satisfaction I get once I’m done!

This post is part confession but hopefully also the start of a support group for people who find themselves doing the same thing. I can’t be alone in this — What sort of sites do you get trapped in when you’re online?

Music, Wine and a Good Cause – is there a better combination?

Here is the video for Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb” which was co-written by Jessi Alexander, one of the songwriters who’ll be at the event. (I wonder if she has any crazy Miley stories!)



Help us spread the word about the Nashville in Napa event and this great cause! If you or anyone you know would like to buy tickets to the event or learn more about it, you can check out Nashville in Napa.

Amanda brought in her beach cruiser from home and we took advantage of some beautiful Long Beach weather and went outside for a brief refresher course. As you can see from this video, Linda had no problems at all. It’s true – you don’t forget how to ride a bicycle!

Happy cycling, Linda!

By the way, if you’re in the Long Beach area, you should support Bike Long Beach, an initiative to make Long Beach the most bike-friendly city in America.

And while I’m at it, a shameless plug about my own blog. Nothing more than photos, videos and recipes documenting our days…check it out » www.styleandsyntax.com

I thought today might be a good day to watch some videos that have been posted online. I came across this video of Adora Svitak speaking at the TED Conference earlier this year. In the video, she talk about how we often use the word “childish” as a negative when the world might benefit from some of the traits children embrace like creativity and optimism. Did I mention that she is only 12?

Watch Adora’s amazing talk:

I was impressed not only by her composure and charisma but also her thoughts on how children can enjoy creativity and the pursuit of perfection because they haven’t learned all about the world yet. Or how learning should be a two-way street between teacher and student but it often doesn’t work out that way due to a lack of trust. Such wisdom for someone so young!

After watching the video, I can’t think of a better spokesperson for the idea that adults can learn something from a child.

Sad view from my car

Granted, I didn’t care enough about it before to even learn it’s true name or history; I only knew it as “that green roof thing in the parking lot that you can kind of see if you’re strolling down Ocean Blvd in downtown Long Beach.”

If you live or work in downtown Long Beach, you have seen the roof before and have undoubtedly wondered, “Huh?” about this random structure. To write this post, I looked in to the history of the structure to find that it’s the top of an old carousel that dates back to the early 1900’s as part of Nu-Pike Amusement Park. After years of sitting idly in a parking lot, it’s being torn down to build a new condo project.

R.I.P. Random green roof of downtown Long Beach

Growing up, I lived in a few different towns, each with their own little quirks and personalities, but the thing that they each had in common was an abnormally low homeless population. And because the homeless populations in these towns were so low, everybody knew who the homeless people in each town were and where they lived. Furthermore– at least in middle school– it seemed that each of the homeless people living in the community were given a name by the other children in town, and the name was usually the same throughout the community. The thing that interests me is how common I found this to be. Ethical issues aside, it’s fascinating to think that a made up name assigned to a person without their consent could be used unanimously for any reason, let alone without traditional advertising. As somebody working in the marketing field, the whole situation raises a lot of questions:

• Why were the homeless members of the community singled out in this way?
• How did the most popular names come about in the first place?
• What factors lead to the most popular names being popular?
• How did the names make their way throughout the community?
• Is it possible to duplicate this viral flow of information on purpose?

While completely answering these questions without proper research would likely prove difficult, it isn’t impossible to come up with at least some explanation as to why the situation seems to be so common. First of all, homelessness is a very difficult concept to grasp onto and is especially difficult to ignore; which is even truer for kids.  Second, because the number of homeless people in these communities is low, there isn’t much competition (if you can call it that) for attention. Also, talking about issues such homelessness borders on the taboo, which makes it interesting.

When I moved to Long Beach for college, I moved to a town where homelessness is much larger issue. There are close to 4,000 people suffering from homelessness in Long Beach, the majority of whom go largely ignored. The difference in perception of the homeless population in Long Beach compared to the smaller towns I lived in is enormous. Most of the homeless people in Long Beach are seen as being not only nameless, but also faceless. But, again, that’s the majority; some homeless in Long Beach are well known throughout the community. Take Bob Hurt, or ‘the waver’ as he’s more commonly referred, who spends his mornings waving at students on their way to Cal State Long Beach. Bob Hurt is known so well throughout the community that I once saw a t-shirt featuring his likeness in a local independent clothing store. What sets Hurt apart from the other homeless people in Long Beach is obvious. He is easily identifiable, he has a prime location where is seen by a large number of people on a daily basis, he’s consistent and predictable, and he has a likeable personality. If those attributes sound familiar, it’s because they’re also the attributes common among some of the most successful branding strategies in business.

I’m not trying to say that you should abandon traditional marketing in an attempt to market your business for free. What I am trying to say is that even when it’s unintentional, the things that make good marketing great still apply. In short, when you’re doing anything related to the marketing of your business, it’s important to focus on the basics. So while it is important to make sure your marketing materials look good, it’s even more important to ensure that they communicate what it is that you’re trying to say effectively. Good marketing should be consistent, set you apart from your competition, be are easily identifiable, and make your company likable.

(By the way, I’m the new guy around here. I’m currently interning as a Jr. Copywriter and Social Media Developer. My name is Allan. Hello.)