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	Phil's Blogservations Sunday, April 30, 2006 Posted by philgomes 10:45 PM Being Good To Your Fans Being Good To Your Fans Now this is what I like to see... For some time now, one of my favorite bands — Paradise Lost — has been uploading its catalogue of videos to its site. The two most recent uploads are from the Believe In Nothing album: "Fader" (WMV) and "Mouth" (WMV). One of the reasons I like PL so much is because they've grown and changed along with me. The hard-driving sound in 1992's "Pity The Sadness" (WMV), for example, is a far cry from pop experiments like 1999's "So Much Is Lost" (WMV), which is in turn different from the fare on the 2005 self-titled CD. (First single is "Forever After"; WMV). Seriously... They almost look like three different bands. I admire their risk-taking approach. Now all that they have to do is tour the states. Perhaps some of the lesser-yet-inexplicably-more-successful bands they've inspired will take them on tour? Technorati Tags: paradise lost, music, rock, metal Posted by philgomes 11:27 AM Jet-Powered VW Bug Jet-Powered VW Bug Take too much money with a dash of too much time, and you get this: SFGate.Com has the movie. (Quicktime required.) Used in jet-engine mode, it gets 15 gallons per mile. The engine (bought used) cost a quarter of a million. Hat-tip to my buddy Chris Francioch who sent this via the Bzzztnet list. Technorati Tags: cars, vw, volkswagen Posted by philgomes 10:28 AM A New A-List? A New A-List? David Parmet points me to this guest column by Daniel Bernstein over at Silicon Valley Watcher: In some respects, I share her [Strumpette's] concern. I believe blogging, as the delicate olive branch of PR, must be handled by the absolute best-of-the-best our industry offers. These are the Tim Dysons, the Richard Edelmans and the Andy Larks. Gee, Daniel... Great that you mentioned my boss in that list, but besides "years in PR," I'm not sure what "best-of-the-best" means here. I don't think Blake, Erin, Luke, or anyone else got that memo. They should give up? Or wait in some kind of penalty box until they're decades into this profession? Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, blogging Saturday, April 29, 2006 Posted by philgomes 6:16 PM Lefsetz On Alice Cooper Lefsetz On Alice Cooper Amen, brother... What kind of crazy f**ked up world do we live in where "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is revered as a generational breakthrough but "Eighteen" is ignored. Shit, the Nirvana song has got a great riff, but its words don’t COMPETE with those of the Alice Cooper anthem. I agree with Lefsetz... Alice Cooper richly deserves to be in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Technorati Tags: alice cooper, music, rock Thursday, April 27, 2006 Posted by philgomes 6:48 PM Strumpy's Act Is Old(er) Strumpy's Act Is Old(er) As Gregory Kohs pointed out, the flames that burn brightest, burn shortest. In but a few weeks, I predict that the Brian-Connolly-linked sockpuppet known as Strumpette will (to quote Larry) have bruises from all of the ten-foot-poles touching her. I was inspired to write after Strumpette, for some bizarre reason, took a swipe at Shel Holtz -- possibly one of the most likeable people in our business. Shel responded and Strumpette filled the comments area with his/her usual ad hominems and demonstrably ill-informed dreck. (S/he has also demonstrated a newfound affinity for the adjective "inane," as you can also see here and here.) To be honest, if the point of the Strumpette blog was to poke some good-natured fun at the PR blogosphere, I'd probably be a fan. Actually, my girlfriend and I got a pretty big kick out of Strumpette's characterization of me as "a geek who had a website early on and decided to change the content a lot." Good one. Nope... The Strumpette blog is nothing of the sort. It's a mean-spirited site based on an unsustainable premise, thought by a number of folks to be written by a clearly bitter man. I mean, seriously... This is getting ridiculous. Once s/he started running out of new/big targets, Strumpy decided to go after students! STUDENTS! Now, if Strumpette follows his/her modus operandi, this here post will result in an anti-Phil hit piece. Look at the behavior... No sooner had Jeremy Pepper outed Strumpy's puppetmaster and described his IM conversations with Tom Biro, a piece excoriating the both of them went up. Shel got two dings in before Strumpy decided to take aim at him. You'd think Strumpy would change his/her pattern a bit so as not to be so predictable. I don't care. My Give-A-Damn-A-Nometer is way below zero. Thing is, Strumpette can't seem to decide whether it's a character blog or something that people ought to take seriously. S/he dons either hat when it suits him/her. So, yeah... I predict that Strumpy's fan base will probably disintegrate into the half-dozen men who still punch their munchkins in front of his/her homepage, thinking that the woman in the stock photo is someone they'll actually run into at the BlogOn Conference or whatever. Whatever tops your tacos, guys... Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, blogging, strumpette Tuesday, April 25, 2006 Posted by philgomes 10:23 AM Welcome Erin Caldwell Welcome Erin Caldwell A month-and-a-half ago, when I met her in person, she was an intern for the New Communications Forum. Two weeks ago, when she participated in my virtual roundtable, she was one of Robert French's students at Auburn University. Yesterday, she announced that she'll be joining Krempasky and crew in Edelman's DC office. Congrats and welcome aboard, Erin. You've most certainly distinguished yourself through your online efforts and we're very glad to have you here! Technorati Tags: edelman, pr, public relations Thursday, April 20, 2006 Posted by philgomes 10:07 AM Experiments With Winksite Experiments With Winksite Decided to give it a go. Here's Blogservations winksited into mobile-friendly format. The thing is, i'm only doing this 'cause I can. I mean, seriously... The only two people who would want to keep up with this blog that closely would be my Mom and Dad, and their phones aren't even web-capable! Technorati Tags: winksite, blogging, mobile content Wednesday, April 19, 2006 Posted by philgomes 8:59 PM Catching Up Catching Up Debbie Weil interviewed me (and my thrashed, sickly voice) during the NewComm Forum. She recently posted the interview. As Luke mentions in Forward, I did some interviewing of my own about careers in communication — the next episode of the earSHOT podcast. Great group of guests. Making time to cut the various pieces of the episode has been a bit of a challenge this week, but I'll have it up early next week. Listening to di.fm. Great work music. Friday, April 14, 2006 Posted by philgomes 11:11 AM Comedy Central Is Spineless Comedy Central Is Spineless Again, just another reminder that there are but ever-fewer "safe" targets of satire in this world. Tuesday, April 11, 2006 Posted by philgomes 3:36 PM Most Controversial Video Game Ads Most Controversial Video Game Ads This is pretty fun. Gamepro has a list of the most controversial video game ads. I wish someone would do something similar for guitar ads. I remember when BC Rich came out with their "Virgin" guitar. The ad was a drawing of an attractive woman lying in bed next to a very happy skeleton wearing a metal shirt and long hair. The Virgin guitar was lying next to said skeleton. The tagline said something like "You haven't lived until you've plucked a Virgin." Needless to say, the guitar mags got a few angry letters. Hat tip: Geekologie Technorati Tags: advertising, guitars, games Posted by philgomes 1:54 PM Shout Out To An EdelBuddy Shout Out To An EdelBuddy Just wanted to say that I was sorry to see Josh Morgan resign from Edelman, but I will also say that early-stage startups would do well to give the man a call at his new venture Morgan/Dorado. Josh worked in our Sacramento and Silicon Valley offices. Great guy. Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, startups Monday, April 10, 2006 Posted by philgomes 7:12 PM Fishing Video Fishing Video Can't wait for the annual Kennedy Meadows trip... Posted by philgomes 4:02 PM Out Of The Mouths Of Babes Out Of The Mouths Of Babes This is a funny story, sent via email (emphasis mine): Apparently, our daughter struck up a funny dinner conversation last night... She told everyone that there are some bad words like, "Sh*t". And you shouldn't say, "Sh*t" because "Sh*t" is a bad word to say! And "Sh*t" means when you can't find something! And only adults should say that word! That's when Bob said, "Well, let's not use that word anymore, OK?" She said, "OK, I know it's a bad word and you should never say it!" Friday, April 07, 2006 Posted by philgomes 11:21 AM Build Traffic! Rehash Old PR Complaints! Build Traffic! Rehash Old PR Complaints! I want to start by saying that I like Bill Holstein of Chief Executive magazine. I met him (I believe) at the International Industrial Conference that my then-client, SRI, helped put on with The Conference Board. At that time, he was writing for U.S. News & World Report. That said, I can't help but wonder if he is the latest to be seduced by the traffic-building tactic that Tom Foremski and Brian ConnollyStrumpette have discovered: Beat up on PR people, either individually or as a group. Wait for all of the attention. Watch traffic rise as a result. Beating up on PR people is a nice, easy target. Journalists are in a fairly safe position to do this because any real retaliation from the flack would be a severely career-limiting move. Hey... I gotta call it as I see it. As I've said before, it's about as interesting as a lawyer joke. IMHO, I have nothing to defend. Honestly... Every quarter or so, you get the old, rehashed complaints about the field's worst practitioners. Heck, even Holstein's comment about PR's "Jason's and Jennifer's" harkens back to a column Ed Cone wrote for the defunct Interactive Week in 2001 or so. (Cone references it in his blog in 2003, but I can't find the original.) I humbly suggest: If Chief Executive magazine wants to get into an interesting argument about PR that comes close to cresting a CEO's interest level, I recommend: Discussing PR's value as a management discipline. The attention paid to communications versus law and even finance. I'll participate in any rhetorically sound argument discussing PR's value. Honestly, I'm still waiting. (Hat tip to Flackette.) Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, chief executive Monday, April 03, 2006 Posted by philgomes 11:48 AM Fill Out FIR's Listener Survey Fill Out FIR's Listener Survey I did. Technorati Tags: shel holtz, neville hobson, for immediate release, podcasts, surveys Sunday, April 02, 2006 Posted by philgomes 8:47 PM From My Dad, This Coming Wednesday From My Dad, Re: This Coming Wednesday Got this in my email: On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be: 01:02:03 04/05/06. That has never happened before and it will never happen again. You may now return to your normal stuff. Saturday, April 01, 2006 Posted by philgomes 11:16 PM My Office My Office We recently got new nametags for our offices. I've decided to make changes to mine. I'm sure they won't let me do this on my business cards, though. My sometime-officemate's name has been blurred for privacy reasons, obviously. Posted by philgomes 10:57 PM Another Reminder That I Need To Practice Another Reminder That I Need To Practice Dammit... Technorati Tags: guitar Posted by philgomes 5:53 PM Boils, Frogs, Flies, Rivers Red With Blood Boils, Frogs, Flies, Rivers Red With Blood Yes. In other words, we've received a sign that the apocalypse is here. Discovered by Josh Hallett and discussed by the likes of David Parmet and Brian Oberkirch, a surefire indicator of PR armageddon is upon us — Steve Rubel and Jeremy Pepper are joining forces. In other news... Brian Connolly Strumpette might be able to make some imaginary money from his her imaginary office pool. Oh, Steve... Edelman hardly knew ya... Before you leave, though... Do you think I can have your Powerbook? Ship it to 5670 Wilshire, 22nd Floor... *8-) Technorati Tags: david parmet, jeremy pepper, brian oberkirch, josh hallet, steve rubel, pr, public relations, blogging HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes[[dot}]com SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. 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