Friend and photog Bill Greenblatt is kind enough to share a few of the photos he took of Sheryl Crow this week at an event in Kennett, MO (her hometown and mine). Bill and Sheryl are pals which helps him get nice a close for the great shots he always provides.
SC fan and smays.com pen pall, Ann, points out how happy and relaxed Ms. Crow appears in these latest photos. Hey, she’s just a former twirler from KHS.
“We make money because we blog not from our blog. We earn because we learn from sharing our experiences with others, not because we let advertisers hitch a ride on our writing for a fee. No one pays attention to the ads, so it doesn’t matter if you include them or not.”
— Dave Winer quoting Doc Searls
The old Ely & Walker shirt factory, just off the downtown square in Kennett, Missouri, has been converted to nice new apartments and today was the ribbon cutting. On hand for the dedication was Kennett’s favorite daughter, Sheryl Crow. And smays.com’s Kennett Bureau Chief, Charles Jolliff was there as well and shares his photos.
“I missed the money shot, going to the top of the roof and looking down while the ribbon cutting was going on… but, I can only be in one place at one time for the moment.” [Note to self: send Charles latest draft of Bilocation and You. And You.]
Charles says he didn’t spot anyone that looked like Ms. Crow’s new Friend, so he moved in for this quick shot. Well done, CJ.
Seth Godin writes of a new standard for meetings and conferences:
“Here’s what someone expects if they come to see you on an in-person sales call: that you’ll be prepared, focused, enthusiastic and willing to engage honestly about the next steps. If you can’t do that, don’t have the meeting.
If you’re a knowledge worker, your boss shouldn’t make you come to the (expensive) office every day unless there’s something there that makes it worth your trip. She needs to provide you with resources or interactions or energy you can’t find at home or at Starbucks. And if she does invite you in, don’t bother showing up if you’re just going to sit quietly.”
There’s little doubt I could do what I do from home (or the Coffee Zone) but gosh, I’d miss interacting with co-workers. I could get some of that over the net but I do like breathing the same air.
Having said that, I can do without the travel and hassle just to watch a Powerpoint show. On Saturday, I showed one of our top execs just how easy it is to stream live via Ustream. I could almost reach out and touch the little lightbulb that appeared above his head.
I went skeet shooting with Scott and Christi yesterday. Technically, I went “skeet-shooting-at,” since I didn’t actually hit one of the little clay targets (in the air). Scott placed a couple on the ground about 20 feet from the shooting area (“home intruder range”) and I sent them to the ER if not the morgue.
I haven’t shot a gun in 40 years. Last time was during training for the Postal Inspection Service. We had to qualify with a sidearm (a very un-sexy .38 revolver back in those days) and got an hour or two of training with a 12 gauge riot gun.
I really enjoyed yesterday’s outing and quickly became the designated clay pigeon flinger. Used a little plastic launcher to sling tiny clay Frisbees into the air where Scott and Christie blew them to smithereens.
I was impressed by the skill exhibited by both Scott and Christie. She wielded a 12 gauge pump (is there anything hotter than a woman with a 12 gauge?) and he switched back and forth between a couple of shotguns.
In case you’re wondering… no, I’m not a hunter and don’t plan to be. I’ve never owned a gun. But in the unlikely event someone showed up in the middle of the night, uninvited, I’d like to greet them with something besides my MacBook in my hands. Scott recommends a side-by-side double-barrel 20 gauge.
I know. I’m as surprised as you are.
I’m reading (for the 4th or 5th time) The War in 2020 by Ralph Peters. One of the minor characters in the novel, written in 1991, is Johathan Water, the black president of the United States. Here are a couple of paragraphs from page 120:
“President Waters had been elected in 2016, on a platform that focused on domestic renewal and on bridging the gap between the increasingly polarized elements in American society.
The candidacy of Jonathan Water succeeded on the premise that all Americans could live together. He promised education, urban renewal, and opportunity, and he was a handsome, magnetic man, who spoke in the rhetoric of Yale rather than the Baptist Church. A campaign-season joke called him the white-man’s black and the black-man’s white… and he felt like the right man for the times to a bare majority of the citizens of his country. He defeated an opponent who was a foreign policy expert, but who had few domestic solutions with which to inspire a troubled nation.”
The National Ledger –quoting Life & Style– reports Sheryl Crow is dating John Cassimus, a restaurateur from Birmingham, Ala.
“John, who’s also a pilot, has been flying his plane to Nashville to see her. They’ve kept it pretty low-key — cooking together, riding horses, going up in his plane.” And if they decide to dine out, they’ll never have to worry about a reservation.
“John runs a restaurant chain in the South called Zoë’s Kitchen,” the insider says. “He’s also a partner in a Japanese place called Jinsei in Homewood, near Birmingham.” Sheryl is set to perform in nearby Pelham on May 23 — and, according to the insider, be with her new beau.”
I don’t think I’ve ever heard a sadder love song than We Just Get Along by the Evangenitals.
I gave it some thought before I wrote that. I tried to remember some of the saddest love songs (are all sad songs love songs?) I’ve heard in the last 40+ years. Don’t worry, I won’t try to list any here. My list wouldn’t look anything like yours.
How sad and achingly beautiful is We Just Get Along? Do you remember the moment in Thelma and Louise when Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are sitting the car near the edge of the cliff with the cops coming for them and they look at each other with perfect understanding? It’s that sad. And just a little bit sadder.
I’m nothing like her
Which may be why he likes me so much
I don’t have her power
I don’t have her touch
No one’s in heaven here
but no one’s in hell
We just get along
Naw, that doesn’t cut it. You gotta sit in the dark with that last beer, remembering. Remembering a time when you were in love and they weren’t.
As I listened to the half dozen cuts from the CD (Everlovin’) I kept wondering, “Why aren’t these songs hits?” But that’s just the old DJ/Billboard Hot 100 coming out. We don’t need radio to make hits anymore. The songs –if they’re good enough– take on a life of their own and roll across the Internet, from one link to the next.
I gotta face it. I’m a radio guy. I have neither the face nor the concentration for TV. That’s my take-away from this morning’s live webcast from the Coffee Zone. Just too many things to keep track of. Watch the chat stream, monitor the audio (which is several seconds behind what is being said), look at the camera… whew!
As I replayed our half-hour chat I found myself thinking, this would have been much easier (and less painful for all concerned) if we’d just streamed the audio. Pictures added nothing to our little experiment.
We had 9 or 10 people watching, giving us encouragement in the chat room like parents at a grade-school production of 12 Angry Men, whispering our lines from the wings (“Turn up the mic!”).
I think I’m going to look for some sort of live event for the next webcast. Perhaps the 4th of July parade or something. Stay tuned.
I really enjoyed the movie Million Dollar Baby… right up until I realized it was not going have a happy ending. I spent the last 15 or 20 minutes of the film in the lobby, watching some brats play air hockey. I didn’t watch the ending of Old Yeller either. I bring it up because I just discovered a connection between Maggie Fitzgerald (the Hillary Swank character) and Juli Crockett, the lead singer of the Evangenitals who dropped us a comment last week.
“Boxing trainer Jerry Boyd had never met Juli Crockett when he wrote the stories on which the film Million Dollar Baby is based. But when he did–at a bout in San Diego–he was convinced she was Maggie Fitzgerald, the tough and driven fighter of his fiction (played by Hilary Swank in the movie) come to life. Like Fitzgerald, Crockett came from the South, grew up without a father (but found one in the ring), and had a brief but stunning pro career (3-0, with 2 knockouts) cut short by injuries (though not nearly as severe as Fitzgerald’s). Other parallels: ambition, boxing style, that smile. Crockett, now 29 and a grad student, saw Million Dollar Baby for the first time last week.” [Interview in USNews]
Turns out Ms. Crockett is much more than a humble singer/songwriter.