ARTICLES and Columns

COLUMN: We spend our entire lives looking for ways to get what we want and to feel good. The fact of the matter is that it's actually pretty simple. Here we have two choices in life: living a love-based life or living a fear-based life. Many feelings encompass these two areas. The first is anything that brings pleasure: peace, joy, acceptance, and those things that feel good.

COLUMN: Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth, Massachusetts is a day when the hopes, dreams and troubles of our nation will find expression. Plymouth has become the symbol of our highest aspirations and our most grievous transgressions. Symbols are important to focus the mind and emotions. A symbol can uplift us, it can take us down; it can bring us together, and it can separate us.

COLUMN: Ours is only a suggestive language attempting to grasp and describe concepts that are beyond words. Our ability to conceptualize is derived from the words we use and the construct we have created to analyze and categorize experiences. The concepts proposed here are outside of the commonly agreed upon construct and beyond any words we might have to describe them.

COLUMN: From the standpoint of wishing well to others, we have come a long way baby. In the 80's we were rather casual as we suggested that people have a "great" day, and in the 90's we were admonishing them to have an "attitude of gratitude." Today we say many things to promote peace and good will to each other in the course of our daily lives. Salutations, greetings and closings have taken on new meaning as we move from jet setting competition, to a spirit based collaboration that's welcoming.

COLUMN: In all the heated and at times violent confrontations that have taken place over the issue of a seemingly out-of-control illegal immigration from Mexico into the United States, charges of racism have been raised against those who voice strong opposition toward this socially devastating invasion.

COLUMN: Scott G has been paying attention to the taglines in ads. Somebody needs to, because marketers are making a ton of mistakes in this important area of communication. Taglines often seem to be a cute little part of advertising but can actually be a deft tool of marketing. More appropriately called theme lines, they are supposed to help cement the most important brand attributes into the minds of consumers. When they work, it seems like magic.

COLUMN: Why write a six-word sentence when it's more fun to use 82 words and a bunch of gobbledygook? Scott G pokes fun at the way some businesses pontificate about themselves online and off.

MUSIC REVIEW: I was pretty excited to hear about the new disc "Fingerprints" from Peter Frampton, a seminal guitar god from the '70s who became enormously famous for his "Frampton Comes Alive" album and for his formant-tube guitar "talk box" sound on that record 30 years ago. I hadn't really thought about him much lately except when my iTunes jukebox cycled around to his tunes. So, getting the new disc was like hearing from an old friend again.

INTERVIEW: Matt Forger speaks out to Scott G about everything from working with Michael Jackson to producing new artists like Mutant Radio. According to Matt, a pop song is a three minute fix of an emotional drug. We are connected through our humanity, and most successful songs speak to this.

COLUMN: Following the announcement of a patent for the video enhanced gravemarker, Scott G ponders the next phase of cemetery chic. Might there be an iTomb in your future? Hats off and a twenty-one gun salute to television commercial producer Robert Barrows, recent recipient of U.S. Patent 7089495 for an invention called the Video Enhanced Gravemarker (VEG).

COLUMN: Companies need to do a better job of policing themselves when signing up new customers on the Internet and through mail campaigns, otherwise...

COLUMN: Three personal managers of independent artists outline pathways for success in an increasingly competitive marketplace. "An artist's music must be something I love," stated Jennifer Yeko of True Talent Management. "It has to be music I want to hear in my personal life as well as when I'm working."

Just when you think it's safe to go shopping on eBay for used gear, like a vintage tube mic, or analog keyboard, the phishing artists have to ruin my day. Phishing, is the practice of trying to fool you into going to a website pretending to be a legitimate site, like a bank or eBay, or to contact somebody about a product or service through "real looking" email communications.

The numbers are supposed to be big in online marketing, but are they significant in the online marketing of music? Clearly, we need someone with 'Net experience to set a few things straight. Scott Meldrum is a businessperson and musician with a dry wit and a background in bulk mail. Oops, excuse me, direct response advertising. He's also the man called on by major labels when they want to brand an artist and reach millions of fans via the Internet.

If you're young enough, all you know is digital music. Forget about records. Or vinyl. Or eight-tracks. Or even cassettes. To these people, the brouhaha over digital rights management and pay-per-download models seems pretty silly. And the changeover from physical products to sound files isn't even an issue for them.

An interview with Nobel Peace Prize winner, human rights activist and world renowned author and lecturer Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who shares a few thoughts on his book "God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time."

COLUMN: Apparently shaving is no longer hip and cool. I'm watching TV, the commercials come on, and I am blinded by the stubble... oh the stubble ... Does Paris Hilton think "that's hot?" Ohmigod! I need to stop shaving or I'm not going to get past that velvet rope!

Some ad campaigns don't work. Like the recent mistake of putting an American Idol winner in a retail automotive ad. Scott G comments on Ford's chopping of Taylor Hicks.

Copywriters and art directors get much of the attention in the ad world, but Scott G is one creative director who claims it's the account management function that controls how a campaign soars or collapses.