People of the Internet, I love Instagram real hard. The proof is hard to deny – I posted 1,285 photos in 2011. It’s just so easy to grab a moment of your life and share it with friends, and just for kicks, you can add a little faux depth of field or funky color style to the shot as well. On top of that, the app has very little feature-bloat, and a brilliant connection to Foursquare’s location database, so you can tie the photo and place together for posterity.

As for now, the app is only available on the iPhone, but that won’t be the case for long. I seriously doubt this is the first time you’ve hear someone wax on about Instagram, but I’ve fallen deeper in love with the app due to my new best friend, Timehop.

At some point early last year, I signed up for Foursquare & 7 Years Ago a service that would send you a daily email listing all of the places you checked-in on the same day a year before. The idea was kind of fun, and I enjoyed getting the daily flashbacks. The service has since changed it’s name to Timehop, and included connections to Facebook and Instagram profiles. The Instagram integration has blown me away, no longer do I occasionally open Timehop emails, I ALWAYS open their messages.

Instagram lets you capture a moment on (digital) film, Foursquare drops the pin in the map, Timehop gives both of those of those items exponential value through daily reminders of friends and memories. To see what I mean, take a look at what Timehop reminded me about in my morning email. Here is my version of January 31, 2011:

Who doesn't love decision trees? #Appforum11 presentation with Paul Strack and Amy Bradley-Hole

A year ago, Sarabeth and I were in Las Vegas with Paul Strack and Amy Bradley-Hole to give a presentation about the little that we know about helping businesses serve customers through social channels. The opportunity to share a few learned lessons was awesome, and so was the rest of the day. Let’s continue with the timehop, shall we?

We had a wonderful dinner at Mon Ami Gabi. Allow me to introduce you to the Tequila Smash.

We ate on Mon Ami Gabi's patio, under flames to knock off the chill.

Mon Gabi Ami's patio looks out on the Fountains of Bellagio. Musical Theatre #VegasBaby

After dinner, we headed back to our hotel for Cirque Du Soleil's The Beatles Love

Photos were not aloud inside the theater....so this is the best I could do.

The show was incredible. Sarabeth and Amy post-Love, on the floor....

...under the colors of the queen, taking pictures of the ceiling, of course.

Joneses #VegasBaby

Amazing people, opportunities, food and shows. A really great day from a year ago that I got to relive this morning. I really like this future.

I’m out of words now…

Whole Brevity Thing 2011 Mixtape

Not so much a list of the best songs of 2011, more of a set of songs that I really enjoyed last year.

1. Lost In My Mind / The Head and the Heart
2. Abducted / Cults
3. Midnight Life / The White Panda
4. Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh / Say Hi
5. Badaboom / Tapes ‘n Tapes
6. Otis (feat. Otis Redding) / Jay-Z & Kanye West
7. Lee Majors Come Again / Beastie Boys
8. The Whip / Locksley
9. Eleven / Mirah & Thao
10. Whirring / The Joy Formidable
11. Helena Beat / Foster The People
12. Hey Mama / Mat Kearney
13. We Should Fight / Ezra Furman and the Harpoons
14. I Got a Thing / Hanni El Khatib
15. Stomp and Holler / Hayes Carll
16. Lonely Boy / The Black Keys
17. Tongue Tied / Grouplove
18. Touch the Beach (Kanye West x The Avett Brothers) / No Pets Allowed
19. I Missed You (Acoustic) / Joshua Radin
20. Calamity Song / The Decemberists
21. The Civil Wars: Barton Hollow / The Civil Wars
22. So Whatcha Want Loser (Beastie Boys x Beck) / Ugly Lovely
23. Red Solo Cup / Toby Keith

[download the zip file]

I’m out of words now…

Fanboy name calling be damned, I love Southwest Airlines. Spending a few hours with them today is serving to reinforce that fact. Unless I have no other option, I’m committed to travel by air with them alone. I really love having my flights actually fly. There have been too many times that I’ve been stranded by other airlines, and when that happens to me, SWA is frequently the hero that finds a way to get me to my desired destination.

But that’s not what has made Southwest part of my brand identity. (Nor is it the bonus Bloody Mary that was just handed to me by the flight attendant.) The reason that i love them is this: free SkyMall catalogs! God bless Southwest for giving me a whole catalog dedicated to things that I don’t need. I mean, just look at this:

Really? Someone is going to see that and think *Oh my gosh, that is exactly what I’ve been looking for to (a.) keep me from losing my phone (b.) finally get that job with the FBI (c.) hold my corsage at prom!*

Awesomeness aside, SkyMall isn’t the reason either. My connection with Southwest started long ago in South Texas.

From the time I was 10 until I was 15, Southwest was my gateway to my dad. Every other weekend I would jump on a plane in Harlingen or San Antonio and fly to Dallas to visit him. Life had broken apart my family and placed hundreds of miles between us, but in just a couple of hours we would be together because of the magic of this little airborne carpool known as Southwest Airlines. After a few months of this travel routine, I became friends with the folks that worked the weekend shift at the gate. They knew me and took great care to make sure that I boarded early and got to where I needed to go. Gate to gate they were my surrogate parents. (Remember the good old days when you could go to the gate to meet your relatives/friends when they landed? I miss that.)

Friday nights and Sunday afternoons were spent with Southwest. As I grew older the trips to Dallas to see dad became less frequent. We grew apart in the way that teenagers and parents do. Soon it was just a trip every month or so. Then it became a Southwest free roadtrip in my beloved GMC Jimmy, but to this day whenever I walk into one of these orange and blue cabins I feel at home and excited for what awaits me at my destination. It’s silly to connect with a brand in such a way, but I can’t help it, it’s my reality. My name is Bryan Jones, and I am a Southwest Airlines fanboy.

I’m out of words now…

(A note of disclosure that I’m honored to add: This year Southwest has become a social engagement client of mine. My views about these folks have long been biased due to them being a part of my family, but you should know that I’m paid to help them shine, so take my words with a grain of salt.)

It’s the sport of kings, better than diamond rings – football!

I really love football season. It’s an honest passion, I was raised in Texas and at some point during pre-school all male children are set aside and brainwashed with the need to hold a ball made of pigskin and paint eye-black on their faces. The girls are spared this indoctrination mostly because they have no time for it, given the endless hours of training they receive in aquanet bang-amplification.

Thankfully I’m not the only one who feels this way about football, and at some point in our nation’s history some very wise (obviously holy men) reserved the Sabbath as the day for the NFL to be on display for all to see. Rather than nap on Sundays, I revel in the slobber-knocking sanctity of multi-millionaires playing a boys game. As an advertising pro I’m doubly rewarded because of the ads that are broadcast during this window of awesomeness. “It’s research.”, I tell the family.

As I’ve watched the games this fall, I’ve been struck with how heavily the ads have relied on their soundtrack. As I’ve gone on record before, I’m a sucker for excellent song selection in tv commercials. Shacking up with another passion of mine, mixtapes, the following was born:

Commercially 2010

[download the entire mixtape via .zip file]

1. Evolve [Extended] / Kermit Quinn
2. Home (RAC Mix) / Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
3. The Power Is On / The Go! Team
4. There Goes My Love / The Blue Van
5. Light of the Morning / Band of Skulls
6. Howlin’ For You / The Black Keys
7. Short Skirt/Long Jacket / Cake
8. Check Yo Self / Ice Cube
9. Come Home / Chappo
10. Say Hey (I Love You) [feat. Cherine Anderson] / Michael Franti & Spearhead
11. Paradise Circus (Gui Boratto Remix) / Massive Attack
12. Creep / Vega Choir

Just for kicks, see if you can identify the commercial that goes with each song.

I’m out of words now…

It’s an unwritten rule that when you take a family vacation to the beach, at some point you must get the family dressed up and head to the shore for the group pics. I used to dread this event. With. A. Passion. When the kids were younger I had to resort to scary big daddy voice in order to get them to line up and smile. I mean, smile at the same time. In the same millisecond. Instead of handing them a story to remember, I handed them a nightmare to run away from. It didn’t work out the way I wanted.

So we changed. We’ve only got a few years with these dearies before they leave our hive, so let’s not waste a chance for an awesome memory. Now we give the kids more freedom, and they give us this:

If you want to see the real photo essay of our trip, Sarabeth has a great series running here, here, here and here.

I’m out of words now…

]]> http://wholebrevitything.com/2010/07/21/polaroids-from-the-edge/feed/ 3 34.803099 -92.248271 34.803099 -92.248271 bryan jones DSC_0136-pola DSC_0034-pola DSC_0055-pola DSC_0088-pola01 DSC_0080-pola DSC_0146_2-pola DSC_0128-pola DSC_0192-pola02 DSC_0171_2-pola http://wholebrevitything.com/2010/07/19/being-malcolm-gladwell/ http://wholebrevitything.com/2010/07/19/being-malcolm-gladwell/#comments Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:48:46 +0000 bryan jones http://wholebrevitything.com/?p=1279 ]]> I am very thankful for Malcolm Gladwell. Thankful for his mind (the things that he finds fascinating) and his heart (the way he shares about those fascinating things).

Gladwell’s latest publication, What The Dog Saw, is a collection of essays that he has written for the New Yorker. The content may not be new, but it carries a sense of timelessness about it. I think that is due to how much interest he has in the subject about which he is writing. He is highly passionate without being intrusive, a truly amazing feat, and he is careful without being reserved; equally impressive.

I’d like to show you what I mean. Take this article written in 1999 for example, True Colors. Do you see it, too?

I’m out of words now…

I blame @ghidotti

#LRTweetup killed my blog.

Before I gave myself fully over to the microblog, I was cranking out three posts a week to wholebrevitything.com, but then the 140-character miracle took over my social life, and I found a truer whole brevity thing. Okay, maybe it didn’t kill this blog, but I need someone/something to blame. I love to blog, but as far as time investment goes, Twitter is just way too easy.

I joined Twitter in the fall of ’07, but I did not really become an active user until the following summer when I got hooked on @Loopt. Loopt was the bridge that moved me from Facebook to Twitter. I went from tweeting once or twice a month to tweeting like ten whole times a week.

The Little Rock Twitter scene raised it’s head above water in the fall of ’08, and then really took off in the Spring of 2009 – I blame Lance Turner and his LR Twitter directory. Yes, back then, there were so few Little Rock folks using Twitter that Lance could house all of our names in a single blog post.

Soon, the idea of this crew getting together in person started churning and then this happened:

I jumped in with a two word commitment

I’ll save you the chronology of the next twelve months of this community’s growth, but that first night was an awesome experience of having drinks with a competitor, meeting amazing young talent, discovering how hilarious @robertblake truly is, and learning that there really was a person behind the pseudonym, @tsudo.

If it doesn't have a hashtag, it didn't happen

It has been very difficult for me to put into words how LRTweetup has crossed Twitter over from an online chat into real world relationships, so let me get all PowerPointy on you:

• This has turned my colleagues into my friends.
• This has nurtured kindred spirits out of profile pics.
• This has shot the hell out of Dunbar’s number.
• I have hired two people because I first got to know and trust them through this local Twitter community.
• This community have shown me real, tangible love and concern.
• My heart goes out to these folks when their lives get sideways, and I really do smile with them when they stumble into happiness. (however, I will never LOL)

It is surreal how real these LRTweetup connections have become. I feel very lucky to have found a place with these friends. Maybe I can get these folks to help me kick start this blog back to life.

I’m out of words now…

(ps. If you haven’t been following #LRTweetup Stories, I think that it would really be worth your time to do so.)

There was no reason to fear that something bad would happen, her body was very strong and healthy. The problem was with me – I had no power to control the situation. I could make sure that she was in safe surroundings. But that night, that was all that I could control, and I was not prepared for such a realization.

The reason that this day has had a similar feeling is because yesterday I spent the day in two different – and I cannot stress how different – hospitals with a broken child. My little angel had fallen to the ground while playing a game at church and when she reached for the ground to brace for the fall, her arm twisted awkwardly causing three major fractures. I was standing nearby when the accident happened so I scooped her up as quickly as I could and within moments I was holding her in the back of a dear friend’s minivan as we raced across town to an Emergency Room. With every bump in the road her pain intensified and each scream was soul-wrenched. I was helpless to ease her pain, and with each wail, I lost a day of my life.

I did what I could – I stroked the tears from her face, I held her body as steady as possible, I called the ER to let them know that I was bringing in a badly injured girl. None of it was enough. She was in incredible pain and she desperately wanted it to stop, but Daddy couldn’t make it stop.

When we rushed into the reception area of the ER, I expected to be met by a team of trauma nurses, not an admissions clerk who was solely focused on keeping the situation calm. As Elizabeth screamed, we filled out the appropriate paperwork and then stood alone in the empty waiting room…just waiting. I studied the place trying to find the right doors to tear off of their hinges so that my daughter could receive medical attention. Eventually we were taken to an exam room where a group of polite nurses, and an attending physician let us know that their hospital could not take care of my daughter, and that we would have to move her to Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

Our time at ACH was a blur of compassion and healing. Many doctors met with us to determine what had happened and what would be best for her restoration to full health. We consulted with the anesthesiologist and wheeled Elizabeth into the surgery center. One of the state’s top pediatric orthopedic surgeons performed the operation, and within a span of four hours our family was on our way home.

Now after a day has passed, Elizabeth is resting well and her three broken bones are healing. My healing is taking place in a different way. I think that I’ve been broken for a while and this window into the reality of control (or lack thereof) may make things right. With that, I’ll say goodnight.

I am exhausted. I had no idea how tiring not-ripping doors off hinges and not-strangling people could be.

I’m out of words, now..

Whole Brevity Thing - Summer '07

While loading up the magic phone with music for this unexpectedly awesome weekend, I discovered a mixtape that never made it to the blog. It was a sad realization. (I held the tears at bay with a promise to post it over the weekend) I’ve been listening to this playlist all day, and it still serves. I hope you enjoy this two-year step back in time. …

[download whole brevity thing - summer 2007 mixtape]

1. Be Your Husband / Jeff Buckley
2. Searching for the Ghost / Heartless Bastards
3. Hospital Rooms Aren’t For Lovers / Bear Colony
4. 10 A.M. Automatic / The Black Keys
5. Baby Fratelli / Fratellis
6. Hang Me Up to Dry / Cold War Kids
7. Side with the Seeds / Wilco
8. Faberge Falls For Shuggie / Of Montreal
9. Forget Myself / Elbow
10. 23 / Blonde Redhead
11. Naive / The Kooks
12. Back to the Life / Spoon
13. We’re from Barcelona / I’m from Barcelona
14. Fake Tales of San Francisco / Arctic Monkeys
15. Lazy Eye / Silversun Pickups
16. 7/4 (Shoreline) / Broken Social Scene

For the rest of the mixes available via whole brevity thing, here’s the link: original soundtrack

I’m out of words now…

Whole Brevity Thing - Summer 2009 Mixtape

School supplies have invaded my house, and so has the sadness that comes with the realization that summer is not immortal, and that soon my tan will fade. But I’m not ready to give in to the darkness of reality – not as long as there is a windows-down road trip to be had.

So, if there is going to be a road trip, we must have a soundtrack, right? …Cheers!

[download whole brevity thing - summer 2009 mixtape]

1. No One Said It Would Be Easy / Cloud Cult
2. Heavens To Purgatory / The Most Serene Republic
3. Vacationing People / Foreign Born
4. Heart It Races (Architecture In Helsinki Cover) / Dr. Dog
5. Broken Hearts Sounds Like Breakbeats / Los Campesinos!
6. Quiet Dog / Mos Def
7. Too Many Rappers (feat. Nas) / Beastie Boys
8. Percussion Gun / White Rabbits
9. Summer Grof / The Spinto Band
10. Stillness Is the Move / Dirty Projectors
11. Red F / Dan Deacon
12. D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune) / Jay-Z
13. Two Weeks of Hip-Hop (by The Hood Internet) / Dead Prez vs. Grizzly Bear
14. Young Adult Friction / The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
15. Harold T. Wilkins Or How To Wait For A Very Long Time – Fanfario
16. Natural Man / Harlem Shakes
17. People C’mon / Delta Spirit
18. Friends / Luke Top
19. Coast of Carolina / Telekinesis
20. Eleven Saints / Jason Webley
21. Can I Kick It? / A Tribe Called Quest

For the rest of the mixes available via whole brevity thing, here’s the link: original soundtrack

I’m out of words now…

Whole Brevity Thing: Savinelli Slowdown

There are days.

There are always days.

There are days when I’m thankful for traffic jams that stretch the drive home at the end of the day from the normal 15 minutes to 30 or so. It’s not a sadistic pleasure, this is a decompression necessity. I love The Dramatic and the Little Dudes and Dudette, and I think that it’s best that they not see me when I’m frustrated by the immovable objects that exist at my place of employment.

On those days, rather than driving home to the jaunty rhythms of Los Campesinos! or the good ol’ Beasties, a more mellow vibe is needed. So my good friend Mr. Savinelli and I meander home via the long way with the chilled Savinelli Slowdown mix.

Because you may also have the need for an attitude adjustment from time to time, I’m sharing the goods. Not Mr. Savinelli, the tunes, man…

[download savinelli slowdown]

1. Details In The Fabric (Feat. James Morrison) / Jason Mraz
2. Float On (Live Modest Mouse Cover) / Ben Lee
3. Be Be Your Love (Live At KCRW) / Rachael Yamagata
4. Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own (Live In Studio) / U2
5. In the Middle / Mat Kearney
6. No Envy No Fear / Joshua Radin
7. Dance, Dance, Dance / Lykke Li
8. Heretics (Early Version) / Andrew Bird
9. Love Vigilantes (New Order Cover) / Iron & Wine
10. Modern Love (David Bowie Cover) / The Last Town Chorus
11. Running To Stand Still (U2 Cover) / Elbow
12. Naked As We Came (Iron & Wine Cover) / MDL
13. The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (The Postal Service cover) / Jonna Lee
14. You Really Got A Hold On Me (The Miracles Cover) / She & Him
15. All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down (Hank Williams Jr. Cover) / Elliott Smith
16. Thank You Jack White (For the Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me) / The Flaming Lips
17. Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard (Paul Simon Cover) / Julie Doiron
18. She Says (One-U2) / Howie Day
19. To Zion / Lauryn Hill

For the rest of the mixes available via whole brevity thing, here’s the link: original soundtrack

I’m out of words now…

Album: Bon Iver – The MySpace Transmissions
I can barely tell you the individual track names for this EP. Whenever I play it, I just let it loop through over and over, I feel like it’s one awesome 18 minute song.

Artist: Cloud Cult
Amazing indie-indie vibe from this eco-friendly tribe of artists.

Song: Architecture In Helsinki – Like It Or Not (Version 2)
This song is an absolute blast. It kind of holds the spirit of the music scene that i was most attracted to in ’08.

Song For When You Have To Clean The House and You Really Don’t Want To: Busta Rhymes – Don’t Touch Me Now
My daughter accidentally introduced me to this song via the Dance Battle. I then proceeded to play it daily for about three weeks. Sorry ’bout that

Live Show: Reckless Kelly – Gruene Hall, December 28
We really just lucked out and stumbled into this show. Gruene Hall is Texas’ oldest dance hall, and RK is Texas’ best band. It was a match made in alt-country heaven. Absolutely nothing Nashville about it. Just raw and real.

Reckless Kelly Live @ Gruene Hall

Book: Dan Kennedy – Rock On: An Office Power Ballad
I like to think that if I wrote a book, that I would write like Dan Kennedy. I like to think that, but it is not anywhere close to reality. Dan writes with fantastic wit and transparent honesty. Try this excerpt on for size:

“I would be lying if I didn’t admit that, like a lot of the other 18,321,745 grade school kids that the census bureau says were living in the U.S. suburbs in the seventies, my early love of music led to daydreaming that maybe one day I’d be a rock star myself. Maybe you were doing this sort of daydreaming, too. Your resume may even look a lot like my own. A brief review:

• Fourth and fifth grade: Started /lead several lip-synch bands that rehearsed and mimed the bittersweet radio songs of 1976 in Jason Mace’s garage. We played brooms and gardening tools, and our set list was basically whatever was on the radio at the moment we turned it on, mostly mid-tempo odes to lost love written by men I always pictured as bearded, very tan, and wearing white slacks and maroon silk shirts with the first four buttons undone. Men who wrote mostly of meeting new lovers while still lamenting a recent divorce. Sometimes the metaphors for lost love were thick and guarded: a horse running free and not returning when its name was called, for instance. Women back then sang a little more openly and less metaphorically of the rigors of love and lust, preferring scenarios of, say, magic men with magic hands, and hoping their mothers could try, try, try to understand that he’s a magic man. We lip-synched those songs just as emphatically as the ones from a man’s point of view. Jason especially identified with the material back then because his mom and Bob were always arguing about whether or not they had made a big mistake in getting remarried after both having had first marriages that wound up in divorce. During the more emotional parts of songs I’d look over at Jason to make sure he was okay. To lighten things up, I’d give him one of those mid-song nods and knowing grins that you see musicians give each other on stage occasionally.
• Seventh grade: Nearly flawless gig as DJ for Valentine’s Day Dance at school, the only real glitch coming when I had to fall back on playing “Stairway to Heaven” three and a half times in a row for reasons I won’t go into now, locking peers into roughly twenty-four-minute slow dance. Threats to my welfare were hollered by both boys and girls; even the substitute-teacher chaperone looked pissed by the third time.
• Four-year hiatus after “Stairway” incident: Frankly, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever want to work with music again.
• Eleventh Grade: Reevaluated, regrouped, and reemerged at age sixteen with my first band. I played guitar and sang in our power trio. We played at parties. We covered “Repo Man” by Iggy Pop and also played a slightly out-of-tune version of Agent Orange’s version of the sixties surf classic “Wipeout.” Our set list took about seventeen minutes to play through, and then we would simply play it over and over again at different tempos.
• After high school: Worked a bookstore job and the requisite record-store job, and later took a job in a wholesale record warehouse near Sacramento. Then I quit the northern-California agricultural-town rat race and drove to Austin, Texas, to finally get serious about starting a career as a singer-songwriter. I returned from Austin to my previous record store job after about a week and a half of what I like to think was a matter of being ahead of my time.”

Business Book: Rob Walker – Buying In
I loved Groundswell for the shortcut it afforded me in explaining the social media landscape to my colleagues, but personally Buying In served me more. Excellent insight into the human syche, and a great debunker of some marketing mythology.

Movie: Juno
Brilliant and fun. The Dramatic and me, we loved it a lot.

“Thanks for having me and my irresponsible child over your house.” – Mac MacGuff

Actor: Heath Ledger
Before Dark Knight, I wasn’t that much of a fan. But seeing him make Morgan Freeman, Christian Bale and Michael Caine look like ordinary actors…wow, that was impressive.

SNL Sketch: Justin hosts SNL in two minutes flat
Just watch it, and enjoy.

Photograph: A Floating City With Junkyard Roots
This entire collection tells a beautiful story.

Floating City With Junkyard Roots - NYTimes.com

App: Tumblr
Guy introduced me to Tumblr in the summer of ’07, and I thought that it was pretty cool. In ’08, I became addicted. Explore the possibilities of Tumblr, and you’ll be blown away.

Site: MOKB
I respect the taste of MOKB a ton. It is rare to come across a featured artist that isn’t absolutely stunning.

Business Site: MarketingCharts
My daily must read for business. This really is an essential resource for marketing folks. Or data geeks.

Looking forward to see what ’09 holds, I’m out of words now…

What it’s all about:

“the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.”

I love the concept. Focus attention on an issue, and make a valuable difference. I have 30 minutes left to post on Blog Action Day, so here we go.

I don’t have an organization to point you to to reach out and make a difference. If you’re looking for one, maybe the List of 88 ways to fight poverty can help. Or, hop on over to advergirl, where I was first introduced to this whole campaign. My approach to fighting poverty is a little more hands-on. Get ready, it’s complicated: When someone in need asks for help, help.

On an almost-daily basis, as I walk the couple of blocks to work from my parking spot, I get the opportunity to help someone who needs a hand. It might be a ride to a shelter, or McDonald’s. It might be a couple of dollars. Every once in a while, it’s just a kind smile and an ear to listen to a story. It doesn’t take much to make a momentary difference in someone’s life. It’s simple really, I just try to always keep a couple of singles with me all the time, and then when I walk through downtown Little Rock, I keep my eyes open for folks that might need some hope.

This isn’t a heroic thing, it’s a human thing. The line between living on the street and living in an air conditioned home is incredibly thin. The line between sanity and insanity is even thinner. When I was in college, I had the unplanned opportunity to share my house with a couple of homeless guys. When I say share my house, that’s an exaggeration. I lived inside the house with my roommates, while Mike and Jacob lived on our large covered porch. But any time that the temperature hit freezing or below Mike and Jacob slept inside in our warm room. (to save money, we only heated/cooled one room in the old house, and all the roommates would tote our sleeping bags into the warm/cold room at night to sleep)

How we met Jacob and Mike, and came to ask them if they’d like to stay on our porch is a long story. A much shorter story is that having known these men changed my life forever. The year that we all lived together I learned the simple fact that people are people. There’s not much that separates us from one another, except for the walls that we build over time.

Mike found himself outside of my wall of “normal” because fighting in Viet Nam had robbed him of his clarity, and he had trouble balancing the real world and an imaginary one. Jacob’s path to the margin of society was marked by addiction, and the shame he carried along with it. I realized way back then, that it wouldn’t take much for me to find myself in their shoes. It’s totally by Grace that I haven’t. And that’s why I choose to share hope with anyone who needs a little bit.

And because today is Blog Action Day I’ve jumped on this soapbox to ask you to keep your eyes open as you walk through your day. You’ll find folks all around that need hope, and if your reading this, I’m 99% sure that you have the ability to share a little.

I’m out of preachy words now…

Photo Credit - some dude named Joel

Mecca. Shangri-La. Heaven. Call it what you will, Austin, TX is a very special place. There’s this vibe to Austin that is unlike any other place. I was raised an hour down the road from Austin in San Antonio, and this urbanized hippie hollow has always been special to me.

A couple of days ago, I found myself back in the holy land for few hours. This was a work trip, but c’mon, I couldn’t pass up a chance to slip into Waterloo Records (Quick visual – think High Fidelity with a little more heart) for an hour or so. Sweet Providence, there was vinyl everywhere, an entire wall dedicated to Texas Brewed music and I even found a limited edition 10th Anniversary Big Lebowski DVD Set. Life was good.

Reconnecting with my musical roots reminded me that I’ve been meaning to post a mixtape of the tracks that I’ve been living with all summer long. I know that the folks in my office are ready for me to move on to some different music, but, I go back to this playlist at least every other day.

Whole Brevity Thing - Summer 2008 Mixtape

You can download the entire mix here. [ZIP]

1. When Water Comes To Life / Cloud Cult
2. White Winter Hymnal (Black Dominoes remix) / Fleet Foxes
3. A-Punk / Vampire Weekend
4. Fools / The Dodos
5. Bag Of Hammers / Thao [MP3]
6. Lolita / Throw Me The Statue
7. Like It Or Not (Version 2) / Architecture In Helsinki
8. Pork and Beans / Weezer
9. I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You / Black Kids [MP3]
10. Crawl / Kings Of Leon
11. Them Kids / Sam Roberts
12. Right Hand On My Heart / The Whigs
13. In A Cave / Tokyo Police Club
14. Great DJ / The Ting Tings
15. Death To Los Campesinos! / Los Campesinos!
16. The Good Old Days / The Lodger
17. 5 Years Time / Noah And The Whale
18. Tonight I Have to Leave It / Shout Out Louds
19. Abandon / French Kicks
20. Black Fur / Fredrik
21. Heretics (Early Version) / Andrew Bird [MP3]
22. First Sight / These United States
23. Sunshine / Paul Westerberg

Merry End of Summer!

I’m out of words now…

Reckless Kelley - Bulletproof

If you’re not a Reckless Kelly fan yet, I’m about to change that. Bulletproof, their first studio recording in three years dropped this summer, and it has grown on me so much that it’s now my favorite album of the 2008. It’s also my favorite Reckless album.

Rebellious alt-country never sounded so good.

Here are a couple of tracks for you to sample with the understanding that if you dig ‘em, you’ll go out and buy the full album at your dealer of choice. C’mon folks, support independent music!

Ragged As The Road (mp3)
Passin’ Through (mp3)

I’m out of words now…

a.k.a. The Big Show

We have this Christmas tradition of covering the tree with coupons after the kids have finally hit the rack on Christmas Eve. These personalized coupons cover things like “Sipping @ Starbucks with Mom” or “Donuts with Dad” (that one seems to be re-usable) and they’re cashed in throughout the year.

Last Sunday, my littlest little dude cashed in his “Build Me a Blog” coupon. He was the last in the family to stake a flag in the world wide interweb, but he jumped in with gusto.

He picked the theme, name, and his header image in all of 2 minutes.

Then, it was time to write the first post. “Will,” I said, “what do you say when you meet someone…what do you tell them about yourself?”

“Uhhh…Oh! I know! I say ‘Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die.’”

Excellent. He is already speaking in movies. For his about page, I asked him what his blog was going to be about.

“I’m funny, and this website is all about funny.”

My pride cup runneth over. Hop on over to The Willinator and check out his site.

I’m out of words now…

…One more thing… The Willinator found a perfect youtube clip to sum himself up. But there was a problem since there’s a bit of swearing at the end of the clip. We couldn’t let him put the clip on his site… but this clip is extraawesome, and I couldn’t pass on it. I mean, c’mon, it’s Inigo Montoya wielding a lightsaber!

Cheers!

flairification is the latest addition to this little of blog consortium I’ve been building over the last year or so.

Here is the rundown:

wholebrevitything.com – just one dude’s slice of life.
extraawesome.com – my collection of cool found on the interwebs.
adfeed.extraawesome.com – OPP (other people’s posts) about advertising.
flairification.com – truth well flaired: a place where I can write about advertising, thereby saving wholebrevitything from shop talk.

I hope flairification turns into a place where lots of folks can post, and add thier perspective on advertising. Like SB’s appreciation of Target’s latest 30 second spot. So feel free to be a guest writer of the flair.

It’s after 3AM now, and I’m out of words…

“If you were stranded on a desert island for the rest of your life, what three items would you want to have with you?”

We’ve all been asked that question. Sometimes the game is narrowed down to books, or movies, or albums or… you get the drift. Here is my list of non-negotiable essentials for a stranded life. This list is comprised of things that are completely the opposite of the extraneous items available via SkyMall.  …

I’m totally kidding. This is a list of extraawesomeness that I’ve pulled together from the amazing Think Geek catalog. Click on the images to learn more about these fine products, none of which are As Seen On TV.

iPhone Telescope Lens

SD Star Wars Plush

Luxeed Dynamic Pixel LED Keyboard

Nintendo Wall Graphics

Monty Python Killer Rabbit Plush

PixelBlocks

Puzzle Calendar

Though all of the above items are undeniably essential to creative successfulness, this little jewel is my favorite:

The ThinkGeek 8-bit Tie

I’m out of words now…

On this day back in 1993, Sarabeth Mahnken foolishly stood up in front of a jury of her peers, and exchanged vows with me. OK, so we had more than 12 in our bridal party…there were 16, and I’m not including our beloved ushers and the other 2nd string attendants. It was a big crew. …

Children. We were children. I’m still shocked that we pulled it off. I still had two years of college left (due to academically red-shirting my freshman year) and Sarabeth was hired by Baylor to travel around and recruit highscholl students to spend the “best years of thier lives” in Waco, TX. I still vividly remember studying for my first set of finals after we married and I realizing “Wow, If I screw up this time I’m gonna ruin two lives, not just one!” No pressure.

So, now I’ve had 15 years to run her off, but she still chooses to stay. I’ve accidentally tried hard to do it, but she understands me as noone else can, so she knows that somehow it will work out. She’s one stubborn amiga. And there is nothing in life for which I am more grateful.

Happy 15 Sunshine! You always leave me at a loss for words…

One thing I’m really digging about these Olympics is the musical taste of the folks at GM and Nike.

Silversun Pickups. The Killers. Brandi Carlisle. Marvin Gaye… Well done folks. Very well done.

Nike – Courage – long (2008) :60 (USA)

GM – Shiny, Blue & Beautiful (2008) :60 (USA)

I’m a sucker, I just conect with the music, I guess. If you like the tunes, you may or may not find the songs…

…here. Enjoy.

Nike – Courage featuring The Killers’ All These Things That I’ve Done
GM – Shiny, Blue & Beautiful featuring Brandi Carlisle’s The Story

I’m out of words now…