Pop Culture Blog: Music, Movie and Humor

Leveraging low-hanging synergies outside the vertical fruit box since 1999.

What In The Frig Is A Blog, Anyway?


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Blog this, and blog that. You’re sick of hearing the word. You’ve met 7-year-old kids who have told you your company needs a blog. And now you’re not allowed to be within 30 feet of 7-year-old kids anymore. What the heck are blogs, exactly – and why do they make a difference to your marketing mix? Why am I bothering to tell you? Show me on the doll where the bad man blogged you.

At its simplest definition, a blog is little more than an easily updateable, content management system (CMS). At it’s most effective, it gives individuals and groups the ability to become authorities in their chosen field. Coupled with a service or retail based website, an objective and original blog of quality can drive scores of relevant visitors who may then convert to customers, employees or new friends.

But how do blogs relate directly to SEO and SEM in general? The original content your company creates is ideally updated every few days. Indexing spiders are more likely to visit, and look favorably upon, websites that have changed somewhat each and every time the drop in for a visit. This will increase spidering frequency, and also improve your legitimacy in the eyes of the major algorithms. Not to mention all of the unsolicited incoming links that objective resources effortlessly attract.

Make it good and make it frequent. Add good, niche subject matter and the rest just may take care of itself. I’ll spare you the Field of Dreams analogy.

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Friday’s Quizzlet: Pine And Dine Me.


in Monday's Quotelet

Appetizer: Fill in the blanks: I ________ when I _________.
I burn when I pee. I smile when I punch the clown. I sweat when I think. I laugh when I murder. I cry when I skydive. I cringe when I take SATs. I rejoice when I eat Greek.

Soup: Name something you use to make your home smell good.
Anything that doesn’t smell like Nate. He has been in New York for a long time, and when he gets back to Boston his bedroom is going to look like that of the ‘Sloth’ victim in Se7en.

Salad: If you could get a coupon for 50% off a product, what would it to be for?
The space shuttle. I heard it’s worth something like 300 billion, so I could sell it back to NASA for a tidy profit. I’d also take a calling card. I don’t want to say that was a bad question, but there are currently prarie dogs in Saskatchewan who are wincing, Quizzlet.

Main Course: Besides sleeping, what do you spend the majority of the day doing?
Writing. Emails, contracts, marketing collateral, instant messages, blog entries – I must average several thousand keystrokes a day. There are far worse types of strokes to have daily.

Dessert: What can you hear right now while answering these questions?
A little voice telling me to get a goddamned life. And my beloved office air conditioner. Most people think I chose my desk location for the view of the Common – not true. A nice, old, effective AC unit sits directly to my right, and I love it so much let’s just say it’s a good thing there isn’t an exhaust valve at waist level.

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Then We’ll See Who Can Go Fuck Who’s Self.


in Television

I saw a little kid this morning with the same Sunnyvale T-Shirt you see me wearing in the photo below from the Beachcomber. He was with his family outside the Park Plaza. I yelled out “Freedom 35!” and he looked at me like I’d just opened the sliding door of a black 1975 Chevy van and offered him moist candy corn. Then it seemed to sink in and he laughed, as did his father. I assume he was a Canadian tourist, but what if he wasn’t? What if the upcoming movie becomes a cult classic along the lines of Strange Brew or FUBAR and I’m suddenly vindicated for all the TPB prattling I’ve been doing on here for the last 24 months? October 6th fast approaches.

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Something’s Got To Give.


in

I’m really looking forward to digging a hole and crawling into it just as soon as I possibly can. Things have gotten overwhelming fast, and I am looking for ways to quickly cull the herd of stress monkeys stampeding through my weakening psyche. Yoga, aromatherapy and hard drugs aren’t going to cut it. I have to learn how to say “no”. Learn how to say “I am too busy”. Learn how to change my phone number and mailing address before I’m found pushing a shopping cart full of dead squirrels through the Public Garden.

What I should do is stop managing my building. But I’m going to press on, as the worst is almost over. I’m not worried about jinxing myself because short of Godzilla, locusts, nuclear termites or Tom Hanks and Shelly Long moving in – the worst is definitely almost over. It has to be, or I’ve obviously got to start considering the possibility that I may have somehow angered a Mayan God at some point. What I am going to do, is wrap up all the side-projects I have on the go that aren’t making me any money. This blog being one of several exceptions.

Family – I don’t talk about much here. The job – same rules apply, however I will say that both are a bit fucked at the moment. Life happens, and I’m not cruising for sympathy by any means. There are 8 million stories in the windy city, afterall. I’m simply getting the monkeys down in writing to help me figure out a way to combat their growing numbers. Membership is way up this year. I don’t make enough money, have enough ex-wives or have lived the sort of evil life that should warrant me considering becoming a sherpa at 32.

The most important thing I have decided to do, and I’ll likely live to regret publicizing this, is to cut down on the vices and stock way up on the healthy. Vices may constitute beer or frozen DiGiorno’s pizzas. Healthy might consist of a new gym membership or a garden salad. I haven’t figured out the details yet, but have been running some personal experiments that have proven promising in terms of productivity and clarity. This isn’t a mid-year resolution. This is a sea change. I’m calling my shot, and you can just watch me. Besides – Tiernan’s is history. That’s bound to add 5 years to my life right there.

Sort it out, Pye. Sort it out. Sherping awaits.

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Cape Crusaders.


in Heartwarming

I was excited enough to be spending the weekend in the Cape – Orleans to be exact. Running into good friends minutes after arriving at Land Ho! was the icing on the cake. After a lovely round of my beloved poppers, we moseyed on over to Wellfleet and hit the Beachcomber. “May I see your ID please?” “Yeah, yeah”. Just tell me where I buy the Frank Black tickets.” After I procured four of them, I set out in search of the Healey brothers and Jeremy – and there was much rejoicing.

Saturday saw the great white whale hit the beach for the first time in a couple years. I gotta tell you, I really enjoyed it. I should be in a burn unit right now, but I had fun getting there. Then we headed back to Mark’s hacienda and spent several hours playing with Henry the baby English Bulldog before getting our grill on. I cooked for 10+ people, and had a great time doing it. Props are definitely due to my assistant griller, Damaris. She refused to cut my hair on her day off, but kept the hot dog buns blazing. Subsequently, Moynihan kept the Rolling Rocks blazing and before I cashed in my chips around midnight I’d heard at least 7 stories about Baader Meinhoff.

Sunday we headed back to the beach for a seal sighting, some whiffleball and paramedics. An older gentleman who was lounging right in front of us had to be carried away on a stretcher after having a reaction to the very cold water. It was a little scary but luckily I think he’s alright. The same can not be said for my stomach which looks like a tomato right now. I’ll add some photos when I eventually get them. Of Henry the Bulldog, not my stomach. Alright, my stomach.

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