Music City moment: On the way to-and-from the Tuesday-evening mandolin lessons of the 14-year-old in my house, he and I lately have been listening to Vanderbilt’s student radio station, WRVU. The station’s eclectic programming means that on the way to the lesson, we listen to obscure late-80s punk music and on the way home, bluegrass. In an “only-in-Nashville” experience, tonight when we got into the car to head home, on the radio, WRVU was playing a recording of the bluegrass song my son had just been working on with his instructor — and it was his instructor — Butch Baldassri, one of the greatest — playing on the radio. Talk about making an impression on a 14-year-old.

A prediction: If Russell Beattie is correct in his prediction that Apple will have a mobile phone within 18 months, then I’m sure some of the folks I hang out with every day will predict I’ll be waiting at the Sprint store for the delivery truck to arrive. (via: Steve Kirks who’s betting $20 Russell is right.)

Word up: The word “blog” would like to thank all the little people who have helped it become Merriam-Webster’s word of the year, 2004. I will not make any predictions about Time’s “little people of the year” going in a similar direction, however, if A-List bloggers on opposite coasts start mentioning similar photo shoots, then I’ll start spreading conspiracy theories.

(via: Steve Rubel)

Make mine a no-fat triple-shot weasle snot latte (no foam): Language logger Mark Libermann serves up the tall and venti on Starbucks lingo, including Dave Barry’s guess at the meaning of the word venti (weasle snot) which I think we all should start using at Starbucks.

Custom publishing update: Here’s an interesting brand extension. Direct Marketer, Penzeys Spices, is launching a magazine, Penzeys One.

Quote from Bill Penzeys’s introduction letter:

Another key difference is who gets to be the hero of our magazine. It won’t be some celebrity chef who spends his evenings away from the people he cares about. The hero will not be some professional writer who claims to know the exact correct way to do everything. The hero of our magazine will be you the reader. You are the one putting forth the effort of cooking to better the lives of the people around you. You deserve the spotlight. I have never understood why magazines that are supposed to be for cooks make people who cook look vaguely like bumpkins who just fell off the turnip truck and are somehow living in the past. I have met you guys and you are bright, charming engaged people. The warmth inside you that drives you to want to enrich the lives around you shines through. You are our future. You are my heroes and the magazine will do its best to show people who cook as the truly cool people they are.

Trivia: The very first magazine published by Hammock Publishing (back in 1991) was an employee publication called “One” for a large corporate client.

Stop it, already: Man, I can’t stand it when people like these blogblox jokers come up with really cool, free, open source stuff I can add to my weblog. I’m tired of folks like them messing up my evenings by enticing me to play around with their clever ideas. Man, that really ticks me off.

(via: Seth Godin.)

Speaking of Rexes: Theories related to narcissistic behavior aside, it has come with the territory of having the name Rex (see previous post) that when friends or family members see a product with the brand “Rex” on it, they sometimes get one and give it to me as a souvenir. Not knowing what else to do, several years ago, I started displaying those Rex gifts on an office bookshelf. The next thing I knew, I had a “collection.” I am no authority in the history of Brand Rex, but am forever surprised by what it has appeared on in the past (beer, cigarettes, rivets) and in other countries (in Argentina, there’s a Ritz cracker knock-off carrying the Rex brand). At left is a shelf of some of the Rex items people have been nice enough to give me.

My collection includes the books from the science fiction series, Anonymous Rex, which one of this weblog’s seven readers informs me is now a made-for-TV movie premiering Saturday, December 4, on the SciFi Channel. While I haven’t read the entire series (nor have I smoked any Rex cigarettes), the premise is absurd, but witty: that living among us is a highly evolved “race” of dinosaurs (the private eye protagonist being one) who have survived by wearing fake suits that make them appear like human beings. Funniest of all, the book names real people (Donald Trump, for instance), who are actually dinosaurs who, at night, zip out of their human disguise. (Obviously, that part’s based on fact.)

Anyway, as always, I’m happy to promote the randomly Rex brand. I sort of think of it as my accidental Lovemark (and here).

Update: Doc says my last name “isn’t exactly unpopular.” However, I think of it as accidental product category rather than as a brand. However, he’s got me thinking, I could use the URL RexHammock.com or Rex.Hammock.com to sell Rex® Brand hammocks.

(Thanks, Barbara.)

Rex’s (the other one) list of ‘best of’ lists: Rex (no relation) is working on compiling a list of 2004 “Best of” lists. It’s a work in progress, he says.

Is Lucky’s Wal-Mart version helping their shoppers discover better places to spend their money?

Checkout counter-cyclical? Knowing my fascination with Wal-Mart, one of this weblog’s seven readers (who is not a fan of the big box retailer) just e-mailed me a link to a Daniel Gross “Moneybox” piece on Slate.com regarding the surprising news that Wal-Mart announced its early Christmas sales are lower than projected. Does this mean the consumer-sector of the economy is hitting the skids? Apparently not, as other retailers are reporting optimistic, even robust, numbers, according to sources like ShopperTrack.com which reported that, overall, retail “sales for the week ending November 27 as compared to the same period in 2003 were up a healthy 11.6 percent. (ShopperTrack did note an “erratic weekend” that included a robust Friday and an off Saturday.)

Daniel Gross wonders if this sales disappointment from Wal-Mart means that its potential for growth has run out of steam.

However, I’m guessing (and it’s a complete guess) that a flat Wal-Mart performance vs. an improvement in overall retail performance suggests shoppers feel better about the economy. Perhaps those who “scaled back” the last few years and flocked to Wal-Mart and Sam’s are tip-toeing up-scale this season. No doubt, they’ll stick to Wal-Mart for the basics and commodities, but perhaps this year (at least early on), the word “Wal-Mart” is not popping to shoppers’ heads when they think, “splurge.”

But don’t pay too much attention to my guess, as my other theory is that Wal-Mart shoppers have been purchasing copies of that Wal-Mart version of Lucky Magazine and instead of reading the special Wal-Mart section, they are discovering there are other hipper places to shop. (Note: I don’t really have that theory — it’s a joke, people.)

No surprise to rexblog readers - Martha (the magazine) rebounding: I guess I can’t say, “I’m not one to say, ‘I told you so,’” as I continually disprove that claim on this weblog. So, as one who never misses the chance to say, “I told you so,” I am happy to point to this AP story (via Forbes.com).

Quote:

In a sign that many consumers aren’t concerned by Martha Stewart’s personal legal travails, readers of her flagship magazine are renewing their subscriptions at a pace well ahead of industry norms. That faithful readership may help encourage the return of advertisers who haven’t demonstrated the same loyalty since the magazine’s eponymous founder became tainted by a stock-trading scandal in June 2002. Nearly 70 percent of Martha Stewart Living subscribers said they planned to renew their subscriptions, according to a September survey conducted for WPP Group PLC’s Mediaedge:cia. The renewal rate is 19 percent better than the magazine industry average, an analysis by circulation consultancy Capell & Associates found.

As I’ve said on numerous occasions, including this from an August, 2002, post, “Magazines die when they lose touch with their readers and lose all relevance to the audience they have built. Thus, Rosie Magazine will die, but Martha Stewart (as it is a great magazine loved by its readers) will outlive the current unpleasantness.”

Early exit polling data - Jeopardy’s Ken Jennings: I’ll admit. The same genetic make-up that causes one to blog also makes this blogger need to point to this kottke.org post that reveals when Ken Jennings is going to lose on Jeopardy (tomorrow, 11/30) and what the question is (highlight the text.) (via: Taylor McKnight)

Real-time fear: The last few moments at Hammock Publishing have opened my eyes to what so many families and friends must live through when they are close to someone they know who could be a victim of a tragedy playing out in the news. One of our clients, an Army Reserve blackhawk helicopter pilot, was recently called up and is preparing to deploy to Kosovo. Currently, he is stationed at Fort Hood, Tex., so when news of a blackhawk crash there hit the news services, we naturally became personally engaged in following the story. Fortunately, our friend is safe and quickly notified folks back at his civilian job, so our worst-fears were allayed after only a few moments. Now, my thoughts are with the family and friends of those not so lucky…and those with loved ones in harm’s way who must live constantly with such reactions to wars and tragedies reported to the world in real-time.

Photografee: The NY Post reports “gossip” that, “Photographers are fuming at the strict new contracts Condé Nast is making them sign. ‘If you want to shoot for Condé Nast publications — any of them — you have to sign this contract that basically means you sign your life over,’ groused one lenser.”

Quote:

Condé Nast is offering three types of contracts. “One says they pay you basically nothing and own all the works thereafter,” our source said. “The middle contract states they will pay you $50 if they resell your photo, and the top contract says they’ll give you a bit more money for reselling. But the principle of them all is the same: they own you and your work.

With such an apparent “intellecutal property should be free” point-of-view of concerning the residual value of photography it acquires, I look forward to Condé Nast providing online access to more-and-more of its “content,” perhaps with a very flexible creative commons policy.

(via: mediabistro.com)

Orlando magic? In the oft-blogged trend of local nouveau niche magazines launching, here’s a story about Orlando Style.

Healthy competition clone covers: I guess it’s time for both Time & Newsweek to run health-related covers simulataneously, since it’s been, what, almost 11 months since the last time?

And, oh, by the way. If that Newsweek cover looks familiar, it is. Here it is side-by-side with the February 24, 2003, issue of Newsweek.

For an explanation of the rexblog feature, Clone Covers, visit [Macro error: Can't evaluate the expression because the name "ftpSite" hasn't been defined.]
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