Sunday, June 22, 2008

Friday, May 23, 2008

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Friday, May 9, 2008

Wishful thinking

What will happen when Obama wins? Twitterers predict, and Kottke collects.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Is it Monday yet?

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Monday, May 5, 2008

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Farewell to a class act flack

There's probably a disparaging show biz joke somewhere that begins, "So a publicist dies and arrives at the Pearly Gates..."

Let me tell you something. When Marty Hendin got there, he was waved right on through. We've lost one of the genuine good guys.

Mr. Hendin, 59, had worked for the Cardinals since 1973, most recently as vice president of community relations after serving in the public relations and marketing departments. Among other accomplishments, Mr. Hendin is credited with the rapid rise of the popular Cardinals mascot, Fredbird, and for collecting all manner of Cardinals and major league memorabilia that virtually spilled out of his office, which became "Trinket City" at Busch Stadium.

I can only add to the chorus of voices quoted in the obituary and at what I'm sure are going to be numerous warm remembrances of Marty over the weeks to come. He was a hell of a guy, the hardest working man in sports publicity and a good, good man.

Somewhere right now, I'll bet Fredbird is lifting a frosty Busch and toasting his biggest fan.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

I love that badger

It's a Christmas miracle: Merry and bright, a rare weblog entry that's a recounting of colorful Christmas songs from our chum Snarkout.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Merry and bright…

My gifts for friends have been wrapped and (mostly) distributed, the last Christmas party of the year has been attended and the final pre-travel load of laundry is in the dryer. In an hour or so, I'll hit the road for the Land That Dial-up Forgot to spend the day before the night before Christmas, Christmas Eve and Day with my mother. From the first day of Bradvent until today, it's been a wonderful holiday season. Delicious dinners, lingering over wine with convivial conversation and laughter, pleasant parties in the midst of snowstorms, lovely nights at the theatre, an impromptu road trip or two...how blessed I feel.

I'll continue sharing My Favorite Things through the end of the year and possibly into 2008, but for now, The BradLands enjoys a brief winter nap while Mom and I hang stockings, enjoy a pre-Christmas clam bake and, probably, spend most of the time relaxing.

In the meantime, why not enjoy a viewing of Chris and Tagert's holiday classic, The Christmas Fairy, spend some time with The Queen, sing along with some caroling, get a little naughty or heed some good advice for surviving holidays with the family.

I'll be back next week. Merry Christmas everybody!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Feature request

I would like it very much if the "Mark message unread" feature in most e-mail and RSS readers actually erased the contents of the message from my brain.

Friday, September 21, 2007

So long, Esmerelda

Man, this has not be a good past few months for the TV touchstones of my misspent youth. Actress Alice Ghostley has died.

Of course, I knew her mostly from Bewitched and, much later, Designing Women, always in daffy roles, always a study in frantic comic timing, and, of course, as a wicked stepsister opposite Kaye Ballard in the original TV Cinderella.

I had the pleasure several years ago of being introduced to her by a mutual friend in Los Angeles. We had a brief chat while we waited to be seated with our respective parties at dinner. I remember her as quite gracious, self-deprecating and—like Esmerelda—I had the distinct impression she was a bit abashed by my attention and might turn invisible at any second. We talked about our mutual Missouri roots, mostly; she hailed from little ol' Eve in the southwest part of the state.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Rest in ______

Brett Somers has died. She was 83 years old.

She was in our production of Happy Ending back in the 1980s, but will, of course, probably be best remembered for the Match Game. I hope she's gone to be with Charles Nelson Reilly in that great _______ in the sky.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

A little bit o’ heaven

Redheads protest Wendy's "racist logo". Man, I love carrot tops with a sense of humor. (But not, I must emphasize, Carrot Top.)

And while I know this was a mixed-sex group, if I got on a subway car packed with redheaded fellas? Repeated swooning. Seriously.

Monday, July 16, 2007

I have a social disease

I've been doing some light consulting lately, getting back into the swing of media relations and public communications training I last did in earnest a decade ago. I'm not actively looking for gigs, but occasionally something interesting crosses my path and I try to make time for it. Largely, I'm working with non-profit (and the odd for-profit) arts organizations, helping them bring their A-game to their current PR strategies and to navigate the thorny thicket of new media and the web.

As a result, we usually wind up talking about one or more of the big social networking websites, like MySpace or Facebook, and how they can be used as or as an adjunct to a group's existing web presence. Of course, the "network" aspects of these sites are the most intriguing bit, particularly since they can reach young people, the predominant users, and the audiences arts organizations most want to attract.

Frankly, although I talk a good game about these sites, I'm learning along with everyone else. Of course I've read the more academic thinking on social networking sites, but the only true way to get a grip on them is to dive right in and get your hands dirty. Last year, I built a MySpace page for my own theatre company and even though it's only beginning to get traction (thanks to pimping it in advertising and other collateral), I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I recently finished helping another group build out a MySpace site and what Friendster calls a Fan Profile so, naturally, now I have to get one of those going for The Rep too.

As I said, I'm learning a lot about these sites as I go. One thing I've learned that will come as no surprise to anyone is that trying to bring any kind of order to a MySpace page sucks. The CSS sucks. The page module control sucks. The tools to manage message, bulletins and media suck. The whole experience just...sucks. Unless you're a teenager gleefully adding videos and glittery GIFs...then MySpace is all good.

But you gotta be there. I feel like a modern-day Willie Sutton. Why is The Rep on MySpace? Because that's where the people are.

In particular, I'm frustrated that as much as I've been able to hack our MySpace page into something resembling attractive and usable (while retaining the characteristics that make the site work), I can't make certain elements disappear. I don't want a MySpace blog, for example. The theatre already has a blog elsewhere and I'd rather folks read that instead. But internal blog subscriptions are a big part of the MySpace magic and I'll probably wind up having to cross-post between the two. That is, until I get the Friendster site set up and have to have a blog over there too.

Even though it makes my stomach hurt thinking about it, I'd be okay with the notion if it didn't make more work for me. Heck, someone could probably write an application that triple-posts my blog entries on our website, MySpace and Friendster all at once.

Oh, except they couldn't. There's nothing resembling an API for MySpace, at least that I can find. I'm too scared to go looking around Friendster. Or Facebook. Or whatever the next big thing is going to be.

And now that theatres and dance groups are beginning to add limited release riders to actor contracts, there's video sharing to think about too, with YouTube and Veoh and MySpace and Google and bang crash, the lightning flashed and well that's another story. Never mind. Anyway...

If you're a pal of mine, you may have noticed an uptick in the number of invitations you've received from me recently to be my "friend" on one service or another. It's not that I'm emotionally needy. (Well, it's not because I'm emotionally needy.) I'm just using some of those long dormant accounts to find my sea legs with social networking. If you really want to reach me or get to know me, I pretty much stick to Facebook. Or, you know, this old place.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Lady Bird Johnson

Lady Bird Johnson died Wednesday at age 94. Political activist David Mixner shares his memories of her:

...her memorial will be Spring time in Washington. Every Spring, this country will be reminded of the Lady from Texas. As trees bloom and flowers carpet our nation’s capital, Lady Bird Johnson will be remembered. Only Lady Bird Johnson could with her vision of a beautiful America, lay claim to Spring as her memorial.