David and I have both been traveling for the past couple of weeks so time for writing has been scarce. We do, however, have some cool things in the works to look forward to:

Firstly, the next Thursday Book will be Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans, something I’ve really been looking forward to getting the time to read. You can check out a description here.

Secondly we will have a Bonnaroo recap ready when David gets back from the festival.

And finally, we will fully catch up on our Treme Reviews/Locals Guides in the next week or so.

Until then, I recommend checking out Nine Lives and letting us know what you think.

-Patrick R (patrick@rabbitholeconsulting.com)

“Down here in the city of misrule, we are always our own worst enemy.” – Creighton Bernette

This week’s episode touches on some of the darkest and coincidentally most controversial subject matter to date in the series including the debate over issues of public housing, schooling, and the upcoming Mayoral election.

I began formulating ideas for this post feeling somewhat critical of the series due to the fact that at this point I had expected to be more drawn in and engaged by the characters and their respective situations (a la Wire) than I have been, but by the end of the episode I had been swayed by the importance of the bigger picture being portrayed as well as the imminently important social commentary taking place and had my faith in Treme restored.

Simon, Overmyer, et al have done an exceedingly good job of engaging viewers in the real debates and conversations that were taking place throughout the city in Katrina’s aftermath without forcing a partisan political agenda down our throats. From shifting spheres of political influence due to demographic shifts in the repopulated city to the struggle to establish reliable and affordable public housing for the city’s currently displaced/previously marginalized working poor, no punches have been pulled.

I look forward to the possibility of  solutions to the problems being laid out in this season shaping up in the seasons to come.

This week’s locals guide: More »

This week’s review is of a highly detailed book that reaches into the enigmatic history of today’s music industry.  Most people today have come to the understanding that the modern record industry is run by an oligopoly consisting of the “4 majors,” Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Group, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group.  Another label pegged to the music industry is its history of flagrant corruption. In Hit Men, Author Fredric Dannen, covers a variety of these corrupt affairs that have plagued (and built) the music industry to what it is today, most notably – the “payola” scandal of 1978.

Billboard aptly describes Dannen’s portrayal as “a sobering, blunt, and unusually well-observed depiction of the sometimes sordid inner workings of the music business.”

Historically, there were two methods of gaining notoriety in the More »

This week we will be covering Good to Great by Jim Collins. While, primarily corporate-oriented on the surface, Good to Great provides an extremely valuable look at what fundamental characteristics and practices constitute great leadership.

For Good to Great, Jim Collins and his team spent years developing as empirical a set of data-driven criteria as possible for determining what companies, over the span of twenty years, provided the highest value of return to their shareholders, and what ultimately contributed to these returns.

Their findings revealed that in almost every case, regardless of industry, circumstance, or economic climate, the companies that prevailed were those that were headed by great leaders. Collins goes on to determine the criteria possessed across the board by all of the leaders that steered their companies to greatness.

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This week’s episode of Treme explores how the effects of a disaster like Katrina trickle down to affect just about every aspect of a city’s inhabitants’ daily lives. From lost pharmacy and police records, to the struggle to operate a business with a drastically reduced customer-base and cash-strapped distributors. Coming back from a blow of such a scale is no mean feat. The episode also gives lip-service to New Orleans’ long-standing tradition of political satire through Davis’ mock campaign and the real-life Krewe Du Vieux Mardi Gras parade.

Furthermore, this episode continues to explore the conflict that exists between the musicians who create and play real New Orleans music who often struggle to make a living doing so, and the music that is perceived as authentic by outsiders on a national scale. Scenes such as the juxtaposition of Antoine and a group of bored musicians trudging through an uninspired rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon” for a black-tie Mardi Gras ball, and the raw enthusiasm and energy of Albert’s Mardi Gras Indians rehearsing in a dimly-lit ramshackle barroom do an excellent job of conveying the intricacies of this dichotomy to the viewer.

Here is this week’s Locals Guide:

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In response to the current oil spill controversy, the Gulf Aid concert was created as a fundraiser for oil relief and served as a platform for some of the local musicians’ opinions.

Notable  recent residents Mos Def, Lenny Kravitz, and Tim Robbins along with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Trombone Shorty performed their new take on the old song “It Ain’t My Fault.” (Video Here)

“It Ain’t My Fault,” is a classic New Orleans original recorded in 1964 by Wardell Quezergue, often called “The Creole Beethoven,” and Joseph “Smokey” Johnson. More »

While digging through the video archives of Loyola University’s Center for Music and Arts Entrepreneurship, I found this great clip of one of my former (and favorite) professors, Dr. Jerry Goolsby, explaining the importance of bands developing business plans:

Given that this is one of the primary services that we offer through our company, I thought that it would be particularly relevant to share. For those of you who are not familiar with the Center for Music and Arts Entrepreneurship, their website is an absolute gold mine of free information for artists and entrepreneurs looking to get started. They have hundreds of hours of footage of top industry professionals explaining all of the aspects of careers in the music industry in great detail.

Enjoy!

As always, we look forward to your comments, thoughts, and ideas.

-Patrick R

patrick@rabbitholeconsulting.com

Interested in how to implement Business Development Strategy and Intelligent Marketing Concepts for your Music Enterprise or small business? ContactRabbitHole Consulting to learn about how we can help you reach your target.

This week I’d like to suggest Predictably Irrational from Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics and frequent NPR contributor Dan Ariely.

Predictably Irrational is a fascinating read premised upon the idea that the way that economists traditionally attempt to justify human behavior and predict outcomes is fundamentally flawed. The problem, argues Ariely, is that economics presupposes that human beings, with their capacity for higher order intelligent thought, think in a rational and reasoned manner and use such thoughts to shape their behavior.

As Ariely goes on to explain, humans beings are in fact quite irrational in the behaviors in which they engage on a daily basis. Contrary to traditional economic theories, when presented with two options (one of an obviously higher value) people quite frequently make the wrong choice.  Based partly in psychology and partly in economic theory, Ariely’s argument proposes that despite this tendency toward irrational behavior, humans are basically predictable in their poor choices, and that we (marketers in particular) can adjust our strategies accordingly.

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This week’s episode is chock full of references to the traditional jazz foundations of New Orleans music and the city’s food culture makes its first appearance as a major topic of discussion as well.

The majority of the episode keeps a light tone and the events that unfold present the most significant indications of optimism and real progress in the rebuilding effort. The most notable of which, the fictionalized interpretation of a January 15th Second Line Parade that took place after the storm, is overshadowed (in very New Orleans fashion) by a violent shooting which provides a sobering reminder of the crime problems the city has always struggled against.

This episode marks a turning point in the show which begins some significant plot development. David Simon does a masterful job of demonstrating the dichotomy between the city’s best and most exuberant moments as well as its darkest.

Here is this week’s Locals Guide:

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The American Dream is dead according to Seth Godin. At least the old version as it applies to our careers is:

Keep your head down/Follow instructions/Show up on time/Work hard/Suck it up…you will be rewarded.

Linchpin is the longest of Godin’s books to date but it is an extremely powerful piece of reading that makes a compelling argument for a new career philosophy. As a recent college graduate and founder of a start-up company, I can’t tell you how refreshing and reassuring it is to hear some of our biggest fears alleviated by a respected author.

Godin’s basic argument in Linchpin is that as traditional career paths and job stability become increasingly eroded by emerging technologies and innovations, it is no longer enough to have the kind of job that you merely show up to every day while doing just enough to keep from being noticed. It is crucial to become an indispensable part of your company and create the kind of value that cannot be replicated or substituted. According to Godin, as soon as what you do can be broken down into a basic set of processes that can be put into a manual, you have lost any security you may have thought you had. As soon as your job can be outsourced, it will be. As soon as a computer can do what you do, it will. More »