Bare Naked Ladies lets fans do remixes - gets extra publicity mileage

This must be a first...guerilla marketing at its best...using new technology to let fans do the work...

I heard about this today on NPR's Day to Day program...it's a very cool idea.

The band Bare Naked Ladies has created a remix sitewhere they've posted "multitracks" for each of their new album's songs. Then with software such as Garageband, users can remix the tracks - and do other things- to make a totally new sound with the same song - but you still have the same melody when including the vocal track.

Then share your remix with the world by posting it back on the remix site. The band liked some, one even rocked 'em, and some they could just do without.

This is a great way to create buzz, get viral, engage your audience, and get mainstream media coverage...I wonder what other bands might follow suit.

All the tracks are copyrighted - you have to pay $2.49 to download each track.

Give a listen to some pretty cool - and really out there - remixes.

Go to the Bare Naked Ladies remix site here.

Go the the Bare Naked Ladies website here.

Read the story or listen to the Day to Day audio piece that includes interviews with BNL singer Steve Page and guitarist Ed Robertson here.

New inspiration to pick up blogging again

I attended an OCIABC meeting yesterday on podcasting, presented by Josh Bancroft, a blogger, podcaster, geek (so he sez - look it up on his blog), that has given me some inspiration to pick up this blogging thing again.

We'll see how this goes. Previously I'd felt that I needed to add at least one post per week. Maybe now that aggregators are de rigeur for serious blog watchers and new posts show up automatically, maybe I can post less often and feel less under pressure to produce something so often.

Thing is, I love the process of writing...and posting to my blog. I love the reflection that it takes to write. I love the physical activity of tapping out a message on the keyboard with the added hopes that someone will actually find interesting what I have to say.

But life seems to get in the way. Other things seem more important, more pressing, needing immediate attention. We'll see how this goes...

Muckraker Jack Anderson bridged present with past

Investigative journalist Jack Andersonwas in his heyday in the days of my youth, the decade of the seventies thatwas peppered with Watergate and the rise of the journalist as celebrity,a la Bob Woodward.

Anderson, who inherited the Washington Merry-Go-Round column in 1969 from its founder and an original muckraker, Drew Pearson,died yesterday at age 83. He'd worked on the Washington Merry-Go-Round columnsince 1945 or 1947 -- depending on which source you believe. (Wikipedia reports 1945; most news stories report 1947.)

Backin 1977 or '78 I came to feel an affinity for the likes of Jack Andersonwhen I changed my college major to Journalism. Watergate, and Woodward andBernstein were still fresh in our youthful memories. I'd pick up a San FranciscoChronicle on my way to classes to check out Herb Caen and hand off the Sportssection to a journalism classmate while I turned to the news and featuressections.

It would seem that I and many of my classmates chose journalism,as I'm sure many of my generation did back then, because of the likes ofWoodward and Bernsteinand Anderson, with a taste of altruism, to "make a difference" in the world.I'm sure many did. I chose journalism because it seemed to be a career thatwould fit my love of reading, research, and a curiousity and interest ina wide variety of subjects.

I made no claim then or now to be a BobWoodward or Jack Anderson. But I won't deny that maybe I had some dreamsabout being that bold. While my career as a reporter was short-lived, I'vefound I've still clung to the principles of accuracy in my work of what'sbeen a checkered and varied working life some might call a career.

Althoughhe may be lumped together with other investigative journalists, Andersonwas one of them, and one of a kind, the last of an old breed.

Washington Post staff writer Howard Kurtz writes of his experience as an intern with Anderson in the Post: Jack Anderson, Gentleman With a Rake

The AP in the San Francisco Chronicle: Pulitzer-Winning Columnist Anderson Dies

Reuters: Crusading journalist Jack Anderson dies at age 83

Blogging is a tough gig to keep up

OK, so it's been a while since I posted. I've not faithfully kept up on this as I know a good blog ought to be maintained.

And that's the tough part -- keeping up on a blog on a regular basis.

You have to stay alert to things to write about, to keep things interesting, to keep people coming back...

It'stheregularity of it that's tough for me right now...how to do it? It seemslifegets in the way. How do some people do it and have a life?

Maybe that's it...blogging is their life?

And then that brings up the question -- isn't there more to life than blogging?

I sure hope so.

This Chicagoan reluctantly roots for the Sox in the Series

Ah, baseball. That summertime game that leads to fall playoffs, and the pathos and drama of the Fall Classic, the World Series.

Over the decades the World Series has always been that bright spot when the days are dark. This year is no different. In the aftermath two horrific hurricanes to hit the U.S. in short order, two Cinderella-like teams face off in the waning days of fall -- the Houston Astros who have never been to a World Series, and the Chicago White Sox who haven't been in the Series since ... forever. Well, 1917, anyway.

Chicago is a rare two-team, with the hapless Cubs calling North Chicago home. The Sox call home on the Southside. You'd think that all in Chicago would be happy to root for a "hometown" team in the big dance.

But that's not so, according Aaron Freeman, a Cubs fan. In a hilarious commentary I heard on National Public Radio's All Things Considered today, Freeman admits he's a reluctant fan.

You can hear Freeman's commentary online here.