Back To Regularly Scheduled Programming

Not.

I must say I think this post marked a turning point - and if you know how much I cried two days later, a watershed moment would be more apropros term - in this blog.

Not sure we will ever be going back to regularly scheduled programming here.

I am counterintuitive, outrageous, "unreasonable" (as my friend Ruby loves to quip, and she encourages unreasonableness) - and myself. And that's just the way it is.

I heard Sally Clough tell a story and maybe she was quoting from Sue Monk Kidd but I don't really remember about how in Africa the villagers would journey on foot for three or more days to attend a wedding feast. After a few days, they'd need to rest so 'that their soul would have a chance to catch up.'

People used to tell me after they'd first meet me, "You are just like your blog voice." As if that were a surprise - isn't that the point?

But I don't think my blog voice reflected 'me' anymore.

Much of 2006 I'd find myself far yonder skipping merrily on the wedding trek and my blog voice trailing further behind. The last few weeks the flurry of prolificity (writers make up words willy-nilly you know, but I'm startled to find prolificity is an actual word and get this, it means power or character, rather than abundantly spewing words like there is no tomorrow) has allowed the blog voice to catch up a bit.

I don't know what this means, but it doesn't mean that it won't be relevant to business, or relevant to blogging, or relevant to putting the social in social media, or relevant to marketing, or relevant to innovation.

My main focus is visionaries and visioneering, because when you act from that inspiration the rest falls into place. And when you don't, all the advertising in the world couldn't right a sinking titanic.

One topic I'll be delving into more is voice. Here are a few tidbits I recently read:

"Al Gore has often struggled to get his timing right. He ran for President in 1988 at just 39 years old, too young for many voters. He ran again in 2000, took forever to find his voice, and when he did, it was too late. Last year, however, the former Vice President and but-for-chads winner of the 2000 race timed his swing perfectly, teeing up on an issue that has long been his passion : global warming." - "People Who Mattered: Al Gore", Time Magazine, December 25, 2006

"In eight months, Bennett (real name: Anthony Dominick Benedetto)...has become one of the top record-sellers in the U.S... Tony makes his stage entrance in a breathless vaudeville lope. When the applause and giggles have died down, he begins his act, swaying his loose-limbed body, singing in a style derived from several of his colleagues...BENNETT'S VOICE, HOWEVER, IS DISTINCTLY HIS OWN; IT HAS A DIFFUSED, SAND-PAPER SOUND, A QUALITY THAT HE FEELS HAS ENDEARED HIM TO HIS FANS. Says he: 'At first, I tried to eliminate things like that from my voice. But I've decided now to let it all alone.'" - "Tireless, Timeless Tony," Time Magazine, December 25, 2006 sharing snippets from their January 14, 1952 issue (Capital letters are present in the 2006 print version)

"And I think we rediscovered that the medicine we've been prescribing - that successful companies and brands are the ones who stay truest to who they are - is also good for ourselves." - Ben Stallard, Deskey Marketing Services Director, on the volunteer brand makeover effort for Dave's Gourmet, "Is Dave Insane?: Inside a Brand Makeover" Inc., January 2007 (recommend this well-written, and humorous, article)

image my alter-ego Evelyne Axell's La conductrice  et son double (The conductor and her double). Paxell was once quoted as being "Life incarnate." I'll write about her some day soon.

Comments

[Tom Guarriello]

The "voice" issue is one I've been exploring on my YouTube channel, Evelyn. I love to write. I think I'm OK at it.

Talking, however, is my wellspring. Thinking aloud enables something in me that's not enabled in any other manner.

[Evelyn Rodriguez]

That's wonderful Tom. I'm excited that video has opened a whole new world to explore for many people. I have so many visual artist friends that their gift is definitely speaking and showing, not writing.

I want to do more with video, but the how that'll look hasn't revealed itself to me yet.

It's funny that lately all the 'voice' examples I've collected (I've more, including Charlie Parker for instance) are musicians!