Author: coffeehousejunkie

New Traveling Bonfires posters

click to download

Finally, I’m finished with the posters I’ve been working on over the last couple weeks. The posters are for The Traveling Bonfires which is a non-profit organization that roams “the country, instigating arts and music events, bringing people together for global peace and multicultural community connectedness.” Each poster features a photo I took in Downtown Asheville.

Here’s a list of the events these posters promote:

November 18
5pm to 2am
The Grey Eagle, Asheville NC. Door, $5.
A Traveling Bonfires/ Third World Asheville benefit show.
Featuring: Vanessa Boyd, Crooked Routes, Dashvara, Sunshine, Phuncle Sam and guests from San Francisco, CA; Deborah Crooks and Mica Lee Williams.

December 3
5pm to 2am.
The Grey Eagle, Asheville NC. Door, $5.
A Traveling Bonfires / Third World Asheville benefit show.
Featuring: Laura Blackley, Mississippi Cactus (touring from Milwaukee MI), Vanessa Boyd, Patty Keough (touring from Boston) and Phuncle Sam.

click to download

Feel free to download the posters. The files are high-resolution (300 dpi) jpeg files that are designed to fit 8 1/2×11 pages (with a 1/2 inch margin). Do some guerilla marketing– promote the gigs by printing the letter-size posters and plastering them all over town. Sorry I can’t make these downloads full-size (11×17). Something about the files being too big for server space. If you would like a full-size (11×17) poster to print, then email me and I’ll send you a PDF file.

The performing artists will love you for it. The Traveling Bonfires will love you for it. I’ll love you for it! Don’t forget to go to the shows to hear great live music. What else could you ask for?

For the performing artists contributing to these gigs… Both posters are available for purchase if you wish to have a more professional quality presentation. Not that guerilla marketing with color copies is a bad thing, but I know you want to wow your fans to The Grey Eagle shows.

I can arrange a short-run printing, but I need your orders by October 15th. Each full-color poster measures 11″ x 17″ and prints on 100lb. gloss cover stock with UV coating (sure beats the copy shop laser color copies). Minimum order of 5 posters. Contact me for more details.

Poetry, painting and other thoughts

Fragile

Last year, about this time, I contributed to “Resonance” Art Opening/Multimedia Performance. The Grey Eagle Tavern and Music Hall hosted the event. I read some of my new poems at the time and then Philip (guitarist) and Julie (rock vocalist) joined me with a music/performance set based on my book Late Night Writing. Julie contributed an original song to the set while Philip added an original soundtrack. The collaboration between the three of us was inspiring (to me at least). It was kind of weird hearing Julie sing my poems “Fragile” and “Driftwood” back to me and to the audience. In a way it was a relief to hear someone else claim them, own the words, project the ideas. I miss that. There are a few live bootleg recordings of the three or four gigs we did together. Maybe when I find some server space, I’ll offer them as free downloads.

Three paintings represented me at “Resonance” Art Opening/Multimedia Performance. “Fragile,” named after the poem I wrote, was painted last summer. Previously, I had done a series of four paintings inspired by the poet Kahlil Gibran (which was part of the 2003 “Resonance” art show) with bright, dramatic abstractions using a simple palette of red, yellow and black. With “Fragile,” the colors deepened in order to create a stark, lyrical image. A young poet from South Carolina once confessed he didn’t particularly get into modern art, but he liked “Fragile” because it seemed like a place he would like to visit. The poem I wrote that inspires this work includes these lines: “I am naked/ When truth strips me/ Of a lie.” And later: “I am reborn/ When the old shattered remains/ swept away, replaced with/ a new vessel to contain my soul.”

Among The Myrtle

“Among The Myrtle,” named after a passage from the book of Zechariah, was also painted last summer. Most people who view this painting don’t know the passage that inspires this work. The passage reads:
“In a vision during the night, I saw a man sitting on a red horse that was standing among some myrtle trees in a small valley… I asked the angel who was talking with me, ‘My lord, what are all those horses for?’ ‘I will show you,’ the angel replied. So the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, ‘They are the ones the LORD has sent out to patrol the earth.’ Then the other riders reported to the angel of the LORD, who was standing among the myrtle trees, ‘We have patrolled the earth, and the whole earth is at peace.’

Again, as with the painting “Fragile,” I attempt to present a sparse place for the eye and the mind to roam–a place someone would like to sit and rest and visit often. In a way, I was trying to create a sanctuary were “the whole earth is at peace.”

My son, who was two at the time, painted along side me. We would paint outside, on the front deck on Saturday mornings. It became a weekend ritual. At the time he merely enjoyed mixing the colors on an old canvas I had forsaken. He named one dinosaur and the next weekend he would paint over dinosaur and call it puppy. During the winter we stopped the outdoor painting sessions and he began working with pencil and paper. By springtime he graduated to markers. As spring gave way to summer he had developed a curious visual language that inspired me. He began drawing people with arms and legs that didn’t quite fit and dots and lines representing eyes. The smile became his creative signature–it sliced across the heads as if to say “it is what it is.”

One Saturday, after we resumed our painting ritual, I created “I’m Putting on My Socks” in honor of his drawings. Three other paintings were created that day (which I may post at a later date) and a series of twelve drawings. He told me I needed more gray. I told him gray was not a color I liked to use because it’s too bland. He insisted by adding a few strokes of his own. After moving him back to his canvas, I conceded. Gray became the visual language that supported the red, black, copper and white motifs.

I don’t know if there will be a “Resonance” Art Performance this year. Whether collaborating with adults or children, an artist needs support in order to grow. Hearing a poem or viewing a painting from another perspective opens up a world of opportunity. Irving Stone mused that “Art’s a staple. Like bread or wine or a warm coat in winter… Man’s spirit grows hungry for art in the same way his stomach growls for food.” For those who have supported my growling stomach, I thank you.

THE INDIE, September 2005

The September issue of The Indie hit the streets over the weekend including banner story by Michael Hopping, “Your Land is Our Land” and an interview with star of Rosetta’s Kitchen… Rosetta Star Rzany.

The Indie’s September issue also includes three pieces by me: “Confessions of a Coffeehouse Junkie,” “Books & Desktop Icons,” and “Review: Simic’s poem ‘Old Soldier’.”

To obtain FREE copies of the September issue…
go to The Indie website.
or write:

The Indie
70 Woodfin Place, Suite 01
Asheville NC 28801

or call:

Tel # (828) 225 5994

Rapid River published poem


Local arts and culture magazine Rapid River published one of my poems in the September issue. Rapid River is a free monthly magazine you can find almost anywhere downtown. So, walk (don’t run) to the closest Rapid River rack and grab a copy and see what you think of my poem, “A Tube of Wet Rage.” Funny thing about writing a poem in first person… an editor or reader assumes the main character in the poem is the actual poet. Maybe that’s part of the mystery of poetry.

I read that poem and others a Beanstreet’s open mic but I didn’t see either of this blog’s unofficial cheerleaders. Beanstreets Cafe was rather quiet last night. Actually, the whole downtown area seemed rather somber which lead to a rather sober open mic event. Real downer when trying to celebrate a published poem.

Mountain Xpress: Feature Story about Asheville Bloggers

[An abridged version is crossposted on BlogAsheville]
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This week’s Mountain Xpress ran a cover story about the local blogosphere. Screwy Hoolie, Edgy Mama, Modern Peasant, 1000 Black Lines, DEMbloggers and nine other bloggers were mentioned.

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The story, Something To Blog About, is a good overview of the Asheville blogosphere, but (as always) the newspaper sends you to the blogs for the rest of the story.

The article reads:

Looking at 1000 Black Lines, the first impression you may get is that of an old photocopied ‘zine gone 21st century. Poems, essays, random journal entries, images and links to curious items of interest artfully litter the site.

So as not to give the wrong impression, the article was not about 1000 Black Lines. It was about Asheville’s community of bloggers. But this coffeehouse junkie does enjoy the perception of an artfully littered new media ‘zine.

Poem Review: “Old Soldier” by Charles Simic

About four months ago I wrote a review of a poem by Charles Simic for an editor, but I have not received word as to its status. So, here’s an abbreviated form of the review.

A couple months ago, my son and I planted seven white pine saplings along the east side of the property. As a three-year old, he doesn’t really “plant” trees but rather roams the near vicinity in search of new wonders to discover. Each dandelion must be plucked and examined and each twig must be picked up and relocated. A chestnut branch, which had fallen during a recent storm, particularly interested his imagination. With chestnut branch in hand, my son defended the homestead from cardinals, squirrels and a trespassing cat.

As I recall my three-year son chasing a yellow rubber ball across the backyard and waving his chestnut branch over his head, I think of how new readers of poetry need to wade into the greater pool of literature by first enjoying what will get their feet wet. This doesn’t diminish the quality of Simic’s work but rather supports the notion that if a poet can speak to the children he will be able to guide them into a broader, deeper appreciation for poetry. The Academy of American Poets recently cited, in their 2003-2004 annual report, that 68% of their active members became interested in poetry before the age of 18.

“Old Soldier” opens with a list of credentials and a storyteller’s wink of wit. The image of this warrior wanting to impishly pull the tail of “a cat lying in the grass” suggests a mischievous tone for Simic’s 22-line poem. The mother figure introduces a contrast of gentleness and the serene garden solitude against the “flying cinders” of aerial bombardment. What’s interesting about the mother figure is that she doesn’t leave the soldier alone but takes him “by the hand.” It’s tempting to wonder if this is a historical account or merely a narrative. Vernon Young, a contributor to the Hudson Review, suggests that Simic writes “by the fable; his method is to transpose historical actuality into a surreal key.“

Simic tells that the soldier’s sword was cardboard and only lacked a horse–particularly a horse which pulled “a hearse/With a merry wave of his tail.” The last lines are striking in that they suggest a ten-year old boy who chooses a funeral horse for his military campaigns instead of a warhorse. Ripe imagery presents numerous literary interpretations.

Malaprop’s Gig Tomorrow Night!

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I was downtown tonight working on the final touches of a poetry reading manuscript and I thought it was pretty cool to see where Malaprop’s hung the event poster–next to the “featured artist” exhibit. Usually posters compete for space on the double glass doors entering the bookstore, but they placed it alone–minimum visual competition (outside of gazing past it to the rows of books and posted art).

The gig starts at 7 PM. I open the event. If you want to hear me read, then don’t show up at 7:30 PM (I’ll be done by then). For those of you coming from out of town–parking is a bit tricky, so come early in order to secure a good space. If you’re late, please stick around and listen to Kimberly, Vanessa and Pasckie or enjoy a cup of java, chai or a good book.

Poetry, a gift

Tonight I was discouraged to recieve yet another rejection letter. Maybe I should have sent him an invitation to Thursday night’s gig at Malaprop’s instead of six poems.

“Chin up,” I say to myself. “Review the poems,” I tell myself. “Make sure they are a gift to the people who will attend.”

A poetry reading is like an art gallery portfolio review. You want to pick your best 12 to 15 pieces and include a couple talking points per painting. This enables the audience/curator to understand the piece in context. It also allows room for conversation after the reading/viewing.

I read today that it’s the poet Philip Larkin’s birthday. It is reported that it took him three years to complete his 50-line masterpiece “Aubade.” His literary legacy can be found in 4 small books (consisting of 117 poems).

This encourages me, for I have been working on a poem for almost four years. Many poems have been created in that period and maybe they will be collected in four or five small books.

Small books often capture my attention. I guess that’s why I like graphic novels and small books of poetry like Simic’s Wedding in Hell or Flynn’s The Lost Sea.

I also read that Thoreau published Walden on this day. It took him five years to get rid of all 2000 copies. I thought of how I’d like each book I create/publish to be a gift. If it takes three years to compose a poem and five more years to circulate copies, it will still be a rewarding gift.

Unfortunately, an editor did not know he received a gift. Instead, he rejected the gift I sent him–finding no room in his poetry review for it. His lose really–not mine.

Poetry Performance–Be Prepared

Malaprop’s Gig in 3 days!

It’s odd to think that I’ve spent the last four weeks preparing for a short block of time –20 minutes. That seems to be the nature of poetry. I’m sure there are some poets who perform public readings that don’t plan what they will say or read. I find that approach insulting to people who come to hear good poetry.

It is the responsibility of a poet to respect the audience by preparing himself/herself for each performance. So, I carefully select a series of poems–a performance manuscript. Some of the poems have been published. Other’s have not. I read the series outloud to hear how it sounds–how it flows. I make further adjustments. And more adjustments.

All the while, I watch the countdown to Thursday night… 7PM… Malaprop’s Cafe.

Density of Poetry

Malaprop’s Gig in 4 days!

At supper tonight, a friend was telling me that she is looking forward to attending Thursday night’s poetry/music gig. But she couldn’t understand why I chose to read/write poetry.

“Why not stories?” she asked.

I told her that I do write in other genres but I chose poetry as my concentration because it required deep thought to write and read. Not that prose is easy to write, but poetry buries textured truths in metaphor which require those who seek it to search deliberately. What may be investigated in a novel is compressed in 32 lines of a poem.

The German word for poetry is Gedichte or Dichtung. The definition of poetry in German encompasses the idea of compression or density–to condense a thought or theme. The English understanding of poetry embraces beauty and harmony–graceful elegance.

My hope is that in four days I present condensed ideas in a lyrical framework.

Bonfires at Pritchard Park

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Feel free to download a full-size poster I designed for The Traveling Bonfires.
(measures: 11″x17″, resolution: 200 dpi, file size: 631kb):
[Download Poster Here]

Bonfires for Peace at Pritchard Park

Saturday, Aug 6, 2005
3pm to 10pm
Downtown Asheville, NC

Featuring:
Dashvara, Large Lewis, Phuncle Sam, Sunshine

Another BlogAsheville Meetup

Wired. That’s the best way to describe it. I’m drinking Good Earth decaffeinated chai in hopes it will help me wind down a bit.

Over two hours ago I enjoyed yet another BlogAsheville meeting. This time it was in regards to an interview with a Mountain Xpress writer who is composing a story about the local blogosphere.

Screwy Hoolie, Edgy Mama and Modern Peasant were there answering questions and just having an all around good time discussing blogging and other related (or unrelated) topics. DEMbloggers made a showing later in the evening with much to discuss regarding blogging and politics. Seems like each of us Asheville bloggers had much to talk about and thouroughly enjoyed each others company. I’d go into detail about the conversations but I’ll let you follow the links and find out for yourselves.

It’s 5 o’clock GMT… the chai is gone… I’m listening to the BBC news on NPR…

Asheville Blogger Meetup

About two hours ago I enjoyed my first Asheville Blogger Meetup at Tomato Cosina Latina. My wife and I wrangled up a babysitter at the last hour (our first one cancelled) and we were off for a blogging good time.

The introductions were a bit odd because they usually start out:

“Hi Screwy Hoolie, I’m 1000 Black Lines. Oh, your Edgy Mama? I’m 1000 Black Lines. Glad to meet you. So, this is Mr. Edgy Mama. And you’re Modern Peasant. Pleasure to meet. Allow me to introduce my wife, Mrs. 1000 Black Lines.” Introductions might go easier if we all showed up wearing our blog banners. Okay, okay… they weren’t exactly like that.

I did bring my Nikon digi cam along to record the event. But if size has anything to do with it, the Nikon Ashvegas was using should yield better photos. I’ll let you guess who is who. I’m the one behind the camera. Ashvegas is back here too.

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I posted more photos at BlogAsheville.

The food at Tomato Cosina Latina was incredible. I definately suggest trying that place. The conversations around the table were mixed but always stimulating. I really enjoyed my conversation with Modern Peasant about graphic design before MAC, iPods and blogs. I also enjoyed brief conversations with Edgy Mama and Screwy Hoolie.

The couple non-bloggers present seemed to have a good time as well.

Open Mics vrs. Literary Events

If you’ve been to any number of open mic events you are well aware of the anything goes environment. Some people go to perform songs they’re still working on while others go to play a song/read a poem and plug a gig they will be doing later that night/week.

I go to practice, learn and listen. But I have to admit, open mics sometimes completely defeat me. Open mic crowds are accepting only because someone else is eager to have their 15 minutes. The applause is pleasant but forced.

Literary events on the other hand jive with energy. People attending these events want to be there. They want to listen and learn and commune at the table of wordsmiths. There is an honest response to the poet and writer.

I didn’t attend last night’s Beanstreets open mic because I had much writing to accomplish. There’s a zone I get in when I write (whether it be sitting at the kitchen table or on the futon). Last week I wrote several sketches and a poem at an open mic… but this week I wanted privacy to prepare a manuscript for an upcoming poetry/music gig. When I organize a reading I want the poems to communicate a theme or motif. I’ve been at literary events where a poet reads a random collection of poems. But I don’t want to deliver randomness… I want to deliver purposeful poetry.

For inspiration I went to the The Academy’s website and read this:

In the days leading up to October 7, 1955, postcards circulated in San Francisco inscribed with the slogan, “6 poets at 6 Gallery.” The Six Gallery was a run-down art gallery… and the six poets were: Philip Lamantia, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen, Gary Snyder, and one unknown poet from the East Coast, Allen Ginsberg.

Organized by Ginsberg and his good friend Jack Kerouac, the poetry reading became one of the most notorious literary events of the 1950s. Wine flowed freely from jugs and crowds cheered during the reading. It was in this energized atmosphere that the 29-year-old Ginsberg, having published little up to that point, unveiled an early version of his poem, “Howl,” to a mesmerized audience whose relentless cheers of “Go! Go! Go!” brought him to tears by the end of the performance.

–From This Week’s Spotlight Essay on The Academy of American Poets

That was a literary event. Not an open mic. I still enjoy doing open mics, but I get real jazzed about poetry gigs.

Just got an email today saying that the organizer of a poetry gig (where I’ll be performing) was distributing flyers and posters, which I designed. Two weeks to go. Am I read? Time will tell. Hopefully I’ll have my chapbook available for the event.

Beanstreet’s Open Mic Night

It was a steamy night in Asheville as I headed to Beanstreet’s open mic. The coffee house was hotter than outside which seemed perfect for a congregation of creative energy. Even though sweat ran down my forehead and into my eyes, I ordered a cup of java and renewed friendships with kindred spirits. I listened to young man rip up his guitar with infectious blues rock tunes and another sing ballads but the performance that inspired a poem was a didge (didgeridoo) duet. You got a love didge players setting the tone for poetry incursions. I offered three new poems last night–plus one that I wrote on the spot and dedicated to the didge players. I wrote several poem sketches furiously for over an hour. The heat got to me and I left earlier than usual and followed the full moon home.

Bloggers of Asheville Unite

Scrutiny Hooligans has invited Asheville bloggers to unite! Woo-hoo! I think I can actually make it to the event.

UPDATE: Argh, I missed the gathering because I forgot I was supposed to be a wedding at Warren Wilson’s Chapel.

Guernica — Antiwar Art

Last August I commented that…

Picasso’s 1937 Guernica was evidence that art does not have to be beautiful to be potent. The impact of that painting was colossal… Guernica was painted as a reaction to the atrocities of war…

From today’s The Writer’s Almanac:

And it was on this day in 1937 that German bombers attacked and destroyed the city of Guernica in Spain. Hitler… wanted to use the Spanish Civil War as a testing ground for his new blitzkrieg military strategy…

The first wave of planes dropped blast bombs that destroyed the principal buildings; the second wave flew low, gunning down the citizens; and the third wave dropped incendiary bombs to burn any remaining parts of the city. The attack lasted for three and a half hours… It was the first time in history that a city was completely destroyed from the air.

One of the people who heard the news of the bombing the following day was the painter Pablo Picasso, who was in exile in Paris. He was trying to come up with an idea for a mural to be displayed at the World’s Fair in Paris that summer, and when he heard about the bombing, he began a new painting called Guernica. He did it on a huge canvas: 12 feet high, 26 feet wide, worked on it for a little more than a month. The painting he produced showed no planes, no bombs, no explosions. It was just a black and white image of a wailing woman holding a dead child in her arms, a dead man on the ground holding a broken sword, a bull, a screaming horse, a woman on fire, a woman falling to one knee, another woman leaning in a window and shining a lamp on the whole scene…

It was displayed at the Paris World’s Fair and people weren’t sure what to make of it… some people saw the painting as a warning that everything they loved was about to be lost.

Two years later Hitler invaded Poland, using the same bombing strategy, and Picasso’s painting went on to become the most famous antiwar painting of the 20th Century.

So where are all the famous antiwar paintings today? There’s been a lot of publicized protests and antiwar rock concerts but where’s the honest reaction to war? I’ve seen more hate messages than legitimate antiwar protests. At UNCA on the sidewalk near the library is a spray painted image of President Bush with an antiwar slogan “Number 1 Terrorist.” That is not “shining a lamp on the whole scene” but rather demonizing the US government. Attacking one individual (though it be the leader of the free world) isn’t really “a warning” of the consequence of war nor what or who will be lost. High art embodies goodness, truth and beauty. Not all three elements need to be exhibited in a single painting. But all three need to be represented collectively in high art. Picasso’s Guernica is just as relevant today as it was the day it was completed.

Most of the antiwar posters, bumperstickers and banners which I have witnessed represent angry propaganda–and poor propaganda at that. Locally, there was an art show titled Dissension Convention last October which featured several paintings with antiwar sentiment–most were of the paintings more anti-Bush or anti-Republican (which shouldn’t surprise you). The only painting that seemed to convey the spirit of Guernica was presented by Joshua Vaughan. The painting suggests the idea that what you sow you shall reap. That painting alone has more longevity than the other works of art represented at Dissension Convention.

I suspect the void of serious antiwar art is due to the aftermath of existentialism and postmodernism. As intellectuals churn out book after book (or in Howard Zinn’s case audio CD after audio CD) proposing that nothing is objective and everything is subjective the whole message of antiwar becomes vapid. The key to “shining a lamp” on the national antiwar debate is to propose objectivity.

Paintings on Tour

Last night I delivered four paintings that are scheduled to make appearences further up the coast. If you’re in the DC or Baltimore area, check out my paintings and enjoy live music and poetry!

Back at the waterfront… more poetry, songs, peaceful vibes

Featuring Dave Cipriani, J Ryan Coffman, Pasckie Pascua, Reed, Shodekeh
Thursday, April 21 2005, 8:30 to 11pm
Wydeye Coffee House
1704 Aliceanna St., Fells Point, Baltimore MD 21231
Tel # (410) 342 7474
no cover, but donation is always cool

 
The Wind Cries Peace, Part 2

Featuring Dave Cipriani Band, Counterfeitmatt, Dawn Humphrey, Kelly Richmond & Blue Star Kachina, Pasckie Pascua, Shodekeh, Alex Udis
Friday, April 22 2005, 8:00pm to 1:30am
Cafe Mawonaj
624 T St., NW, Washington DC 20001
Tel # (202) 460 5929
$3 to $7 sliding scale donation

Humbled

Imagine my surprise when I visited one of my favorite marketing weblogs, The Marketing Playbook, and found that they had linked to my weblog. The Marketing Playbook linked to a meager post about strategy and tactics. All I did was post two quotes (one from a book I read and the other from a post from The Marketing Playbook.

The reason I have been studying marketing (specifically strategy and tactics) is partly to support marketing clients at my current company and partly for the marketing of my upcoming poetry book. Trust me, poetry books need all the marketing genius you can throw at them.

Last night, at writer’s group, I was asked how I organized the collection of poems that make up Late Night Writing. The short answer is that I wanted to create a purchasing/reading experience that left the reader with a feeling that they made a good buy and literary investment. That’s how I buy music albums and books. The packaging and content work together to create an intellectual and emotional reaction. For example, I just received Over the Rhine’s latest release and the packaging art and the band’s musical offerings work well together. I enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) that experience and naturally evangelize that product. That’s how I want my books or products to be received. And that’s why I’ve been researching marketing.

Like a narrative, marketing will do you no good unless you know the desired target. The first thing most established writers will tell a novice is that you can’t start writing a novel unless you know the ending. Marketing without strategy (the plot) and tactics (chapters, paragraphs, sentences) is pointless.

Now if I can just make sense of distribution…

“The map is not the terrain”

Strategy and tactics intertwine in their usefulness, but they are not synonymous.

“Strategy is the art of making war upon the map, and comprehends the whole theater of operations. Grand Tactics is the art of posting troops upon the battle-field according to the accidents of the ground, of bringing them into action, and the art of fighting upon the ground, in contradistinction to planning upon a map.”
–from the The Art of War by Baron Henri de Jomini

And here’s how it applies to marketing:

“To really understand the terrain you have to go to it. If trying to understand the gaps/needs of your targets/customers – be one, use your products, talk to other users, spend a day with them (not just an hour in a focus group drugging them with M&Ms). If trying to understand your competition don’t just read their website and read their reports – use their products, go to their trade-show booths, interview their customers, try to think like them, maybe even hire some of them. And if trying to understand your own strengths and vulnerabilities, don’t rely on yourself – go back and ask those above. It’s great to map all the gaps in your playing field, but remember the map is not the terrain.”
–from the post The map is not the terrain by Marketing Playbook

New Media Marketing Strategy

With homage to and help from Seth Godin’s Music Industry: Aspen Report, I assembled this strategy.

Last summer I suggested to a publisher of a national newsmagazine the possibility of creating downloadable (PDF) versions of his publication. With micro payment purchases ($0.50), he could add revenue to the Web side the company. I withdrew that position recently after reading up on the concept of permission marketing.

Here’s two reasons why I think newsmagazine Web content should be free:

One, the Web audience contains individuals that will copy/paste, reference or hyperlink to the newsmagazine’s Web site. It’s a personal positioning statement (here are my friends’ links and my trusted news source link). The newsmagazine does not pay them and they spread news content more efficiently than the USPS. These individuals trust this newsmagazine as a reliable source and in turn share it with people who trust them. It’s the best and cheapest public relations effort.

Two, the newsmagazine’s Web site could potentially provide an enormous email list for potential paid subscribers. In order to read the newsmagazine content, a reader must click on “This week’s issue.” With one click, the newsmagazine can ask a reader to submit their email address. That’s all. Simple and free. The “email request” window could offer a monthly “newsletter direct to your email box” message or something along that line. This would offer newsmagazine’s marketing department an avenue to target online marketing and deliver value to already loyal, influential readers.

How is this newsmagazine supposed to the bills with that kind of strategy? Simple. It’s the same basic principle as direct mailing.

OLD STRATEGY: On a small direct mail campaign of 500,000 names, the newsmagazine might acquire 5000 new subscribers. Of those new subscribers, the newsmagazine may lose as much as 1500 due to unpaid subscribers. Direct mail campaigns cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire 3500 new paid subscribers.

NEW STRATEGY: What if the newsmagazine received 20,000 new email addresses monthly? If we apply the same numbers, then the newsmagazine could benefit from 100 to 200 new paid subscribers. Though the newsmagazine may want to offer something other than subscriptions (gift subscriptions may work) in email campaigns. Possible product suggestions would include company branded day-timers, coffee mugs or other existing branded product. Each one of these branded product ideas would help maintain loyal online readers and support their personal positioning as well as promote the newsmagazine beyond our current subscriber base.

Any thoughts on this strategy are welcomed.

iPod, therefore iAM?

The author of A Word In Your Ear caught my attention with iME. It’s basically a link to an article by Andrew Sullivan in The Times titled “Society is dead, we have retreated into the iWorld” about the iPod infection.

“I’m one of them. I witnessed the glazed New York looks through my own glazed pupils, my white wires peeping out of my ears. I joined the cult a few years ago: the sect of the little white box worshippers.

Every now and again I go to church — those huge, luminous Apple stores, pews in the rear, the clerics in their monastic uniforms all bustling around or sitting behind the “Genius Bars”, like priests waiting to hear confessions.

Others began, as I did, with a Walkman — and then a kind of clunkier MP3 player. But the sleekness of the iPod won me over. Unlike other models it gave me my entire music collection to rearrange as I saw fit — on the fly, in my pocket.

What was once an occasional musical diversion became a compulsive obsession. Now I have my iTunes in my iMac for my iPod in my iWorld. It’s Narcissus heaven: we’ve finally put the “i” into Me.”

I am not one of the 22 million “little white box worshippers.” Not that I’m opposed to the idea. In many ways it seems practical for those radio surfers that switch to the next FM station when they don’t like a certain song, commercial or idea.

Back in high school I used to dub my own cassette tapes with all my favorite music. I’d have one cassette with mixes of Motley Crue, Whitesnake and Def Leppard. Another cassette might have songs by Paul Simmon, U2 and Michael W. Smith. And yet another would have samplings of The Oak Ridge Boys, The Statler Brothers and Johnny Cash. I had a plastic grocery bag with a half dozen 90 minute dubbed cassettes representing my soundtrack. My music tastes have matured somewhat since those high school days.

As technology advances I can now listen to online radio stations like listener supported Radio Wazee: Modern Alternative Rock or my local favorite 88.7 WNCW where I can hear everything from Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be The Day” to REM’s “Final Straw” to Pete Yorn’s “Just Another” to Townes Van Zandt’s “Black Widow Spider.” The reason why I enjoy iTuning these internet radio stations is because I hear new artists that I normally wouldn’t hear outside my scope of friends and influences.

Andrew Sullivan goes on to write:

“Walk through any airport in the United States these days and you will see person after person gliding through the social ether as if on autopilot… You get your news from your favourite blogs, the ones that won’t challenge your view of the world. You tune into a satellite radio service that also aims directly at a small market — for new age fanatics, liberal talk or Christian rock. Television is all cable. Culture is all subculture… Technology has given us a universe entirely for ourselves — where the serendipity of meeting a new stranger, hearing a piece of music we would never choose for ourselves or an opinion that might force us to change our mind about something are all effectively banished.”

The serendipitous meeting of strangers on the bus fills me with a greater awareness of others around me. I begin to understand the neighborhood. The fact that I am an Anglo, professional, with a young family makes some of my neighbors feel threatened. So, I take the bus and listen to conversations. I learn that I talk funny (according to one of the neighbor boys) and that Usher is not a person who helps you find your seat at theater but is actually a popular musician.

I guess this means I’m one of the uncool Americans who doesn’t have those white pods budding from my earlobes. I’m one of those unhip people who enjoy listening to the bark of the neighbor’s German Shepherd who warns a trespassing squirrel or knowing that it’s 4 P.M. because the bus just passed en route to the transit station. If missing out on iPod, iShuffle or iLife makes me uncool, then I’m okay with that. I’m content to listen and observe the world around me in all its grit and glory.

Poetry Vibes Coming Soon

Just got an emailed press release:

FRI (3/4), 8-11pm. — The Traveling Bonfires’ “Vagrant Wind 2005 Road Journey” kicks off in Asheville, featuring the poetry of Nina Marie Collins, Matthew Mulder, Pasckie Pascua, Riley Schilling, and the music of Dashvara and Tim McGill. Bearly Edible Cafe, 15 Eagle St., downtown Asheville. FREE.

Positioning Poetry: part two

A few days ago, I mentioned that I had called the publisher of my first book. He reminded me that most poets seem to be elated that they have their words captured between covers and they don’t market or sell their books. I am not naive in thinking I’ve arrived because I’ve published a book of poetry. I knew distributing a collection of poems would be a difficult activity and it has. So, after careful research, I released the book quietly with the intention of putting copies of Late Night Writing into the right hands.

I sent copies to a few editors I knew (and some I didn’t) and to a few magazines that review small press poetry. A very nice review was written out of that effort (see The Indie’s review). The next phase in promotions was to send copies of the book to writers and poets whom I respect. Another kind review was written by an author/editor.

Part of the reason for directly and indirectly soliciting reviews is because publishers think in genres. Publishers know (or think they know) where the audience is who will buy their books. So, the publisher reviews a manuscript and labels it “beat poet” or “slam poet” or “activist poet” and then packages it in a manner that attracts that specific audience. By including reviews or endorsements, a publisher is assisted in targeting the correct market (i.e. audience by association).

At times, I am almost embarrassed to show people Late Night Writing because its dated. Well, dated for me anyway. Many haven’t read it. So, it would be considered new material. A couple of those poems I’ve been crafting for over ten years. I’m done with it. I want to move on and have. Most of the poems included in Late Night Writing were completed before the fall of 2002. So, I’m itching to publish the next collection. Originally scheduled for this March, it has been delayed for various reasons.