Memorial day thoughts….
Andy Rooney, brilliant as usual, sharing his thoughts on Memorial Day this year…
DC in May….some thoughts
- Alleyways and nooks of Capital Hill are charming. Wonderful and diverse neighborhood. I love it.
- Site lines from Lincoln to WW2 to Washington Memorials are stunning. Well done.
- Cold war era signage and graphics around federal buildings downtown need updated. They’re dated both visually and politically, though not surprising given current administration’s foreign policy outlook.
Famous for a day….
This chart graphs the traffic on Sphere’s blog in April. As you can see, traffic chugs along fairly consistently at 150-300 visits per day, then spikes to more than 3,000 the day of our acquisition, which was covered by various high profile blogs and mainstream publishers. What’s funny is that the influx of traffic only lasts two days before returning to previous levels. In fact, over the past week, traffic has dipped down in the 100-150 range, which is lower than normal. Perhaps, our ruby slippers are wearing thin:) It just goes to show that fame is often fickle and short-lived….
User generated photos picking up steam on Bergen Carroll
When I put together Bergen Carroll a year or so ago, I setup a feature whereby readers could showcase their photos in a "featured photo" section by tagging them Bergen Carroll on Flickr. For the better part of 12 months, nobody noticed and the only photos rotating through the system were ones I uploaded myself. Then, something happened and people figured it out, possibly prompted by a few Flickr messages sent to neighborhood residents. Over the past two months, 80 neighborhood photos have been tagged Bergen Carroll on Flickr by 3-4 different photographers. I love that this feature has been noticed and is being used as intended. It shows that adoption can sometimes take time (and can require patience) before usage grows. Though having that patience is often a necessity if you believe a product has real growth potential. Another six months without adoption and I may have taken the feature down…..
Yael Naim….wow!
Saw Yael Naim perform last night at a celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary. She stole the show (which actually wasn’t very hard though did require competing with MC, Natalie Portman). People who don’t recognize the name, surely know her most popular song, New Soul, licensed by Apple for the MacBook Air commercials. Along with all the other accolades afforded to Steve Jobs, people are giving him credit for discovering this talent. I’d be curious to know the real story here. I suspect an ad exec with a finely tuned ear suggested a few songs and while Jobs made the final call, it’s this anonymous (for now) guy or gal who deserves the credit. Either way, I’m in love. Here are videos of her performing the two songs I saw her do last night: