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Top Songs of 2024: Part Three (Songs 1-5)
Here they are: The Top Five Songs of 2024. This is the third year for these rankings from me; prior to that, I did post on Facebook, but 2022 and 2023 had lists and you can read them here: Your Top Ten Songs of 2022, Top Ten Songs of 2023. And, here are the links…
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Top Songs of 2024: Part Two (Songs 6-10)
In Part One, we told you about the Honorable Mentions. Now, we crack the Top Ten with songs 6-10. But presented in reverse order because we grew up as the Casey Kasem generation. 10. Magdalena Bay, “Death and Romance” If you’re Gen X, you’ve no doubt picked up an album and, when you see a…
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Top Songs of 2024: Part One (Honorable Mentions)
These are the Honorable Mentions: Songs outside the Top Ten but worthy of a listen. Let’s Go! Here’s 2024’s Year-End Fiesta of Music. We’re talking about songs released in 2024 that went from “worth a listen” to “earworm city” to “wow, this is amazing.” You should know that these picks are subjective as heck. A…
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On Gender Differences, Being Dispassionate, and Meeting The Steel Man
“Facts don’t care about your feelings.” — Ben Shapiro Gotta be honest with ya, I love a good debate. It’s great to see two really smart people go toe-to-toe, each presenting facts and packaging them into convincing arguments that lead me to see both sides of an issue, and think differently about it when they’re…
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Want to Own The Narrative? Own The Room.
Editor’s Note: Here’s a piece we originally ran over on Substack. Rewatching Global Financial Crisis Movies, and Replaying the Global Financial Crisis in Your Head I am blessed to work with, and know, a pretty age-diverse crowd. Which means a couple things: (1) I need to watch my “Cultural Literacy References” (e.g., talking about how…
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Price’s Law; Or, Make Yourself Indispensable At Work
Remember Pareto’s Principle? He’s So 2006. If you’ve been anywhere around business or business books or hustle culture or anything related to GSD (“Getting Stuff Done”) at work, you’ve heard of the Pareto Principle. The 80/20 Rule. 80 percent of [THING] will come from 20 percent of [GROUP]. Simple, really: if you sell something, 80…
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The Top Ten Songs of 2023
We’re counting them down, just like Casey Kasem. We’ve done this before — here’s a link to last year’s post: Top Ten Songs of 2022 — and we like to think we keep up with the trends, within reason. Please note a couple things from your friendly wannabe music critic: Before we hit the Top…
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A Holiday Blog Post About AI Strategy for Marketers
Your holiday season would not be complete without an obligatory blog post that tells you how artificial intelligence can make your holiday marketing and PR content better. That’s right, there’s no sense in doing everything yourself. Automate! Use AI! For instance, you could go to Bard, like I just did, and type in a prompt…
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Breaking Down the Band: Three Fans Talk About The Best Shows, Albums, and Songs from Oasis, Radiohead, and Pearl Jam
As I was getting ready for Pearl Jam Week in Chicago, a couple things dawned on me. One: I’ve seen this band more often than any other band (north of ten times, lost count). Two: I have opinions. So I thought I would take to the keyboard and throw down a few opinions. Then I…
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Your Top Ten Songs of 2022
There used to be a record store on the North Side of Chicago — and we’re talking actual “North Side” in that it was on Ridge Avenue and not far from a neighborhood called West Ridge and in an uber-ethnic area that was next to another uber-ethnic area — that never changed the letters in…
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Why Rolling Stone’s List of Greatest Songs Ever Doesn’t Suck
One of the great maxims of my life has been the following: “Trust your gut, but DON’T conflate your initial reaction with your gut reaction.” E.g. you meet someone at first and you’re thrown off by something; then you realize that your initial reaction — “hey, this dude is over the top crazy!” — morphs…
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Why This Blog Came Back
“In These Uncertain Times…” That, it seems, is how just about every brand ad begins during the coronavirus slowdown. “The Great Pause” is what some pundits are starting to call it; as opposed to being “The Pause That Refreshes,” it’s “The Pause That’s Uncertain.” Nobody knows what’s next, nobody knows where it’s going, nobody knows…
