That Reena Girl

• Um, who is this again?

08-30-11

The Saddest Song I’ve Ever Heard

The album Hospice by The Antlers has been recommended to me many times over many months for the last couple years. Each person told me how great it is…but warned me of how it is also devastatingly sad.  I heeded the warning and did not listen in mixed company, at work, or any other place I didn’t want to be seen getting teary-eyed.

Hospice is a concept album; it tells the story of a caretaker and a terminally ill patient. You don’t get much more depressing than that right?But finally, curiosity got the better of me and I listened to the song “Kettering” and felt my chest cave in. Heartbreaking. My only hope is that this is truly just a concept album and not a depiction of a time in singer Peter Silberman‘s life.

Prior to listening to this, all my sad song choices were your typical you-don’t-love-me-anymore/we-broke-up type songs. But as sad as those are, breaking up is not the same as well, DYING. For reference, here are my top 5 favorite sad songs, in no particular order:

1. Everything I Once Had- The Honorary Title

2. Ambulance- Eisley

3. In the Arms of Sleep- Smashing Pumpkins

4. Delicate- Damien Rice

5. After the Movies- Cursive

Honorary mention: It’s Cool, We Can Be Still Be Friends/Haligh Haligh A Lie Haligh- Bright Eyes, Everything’s Too Cold…- The Early November, This Bitter Pill- Dashboard Confessional

But seriously, none of those even compare to this. I decided that the song “Kettering” would be the easiest to start with since it was used on an HBO trailer so I had briefly heard it before. Um, nope. I listened to this yesterday and half hour later in my car I was choking back tears just THINKING about the song, thinking about if I were in that position, thinking about losing people I love… just listen.

Because you’d been abused
By the bone that refused you
And you hired me
To make up for that

And walking in that room
When you had tubes in your arms
Those singing morphine alarms
Out of tune

They had you sleeping and eating
And I didn’t believe them
When they called you
A hurricane thundercloud

When I was checking vitals
I suggested a smile
You didn’t talk for a while
You were freezing

You said you hated my tone
It made you feel so alone
So you told me
I had to be leaving

But something kept me standing
By that hospital bed
I should have quit but instead
I took care of you

You made me sleep all uneven
And I didn’t believe them
When they told me that there
Was no saving you

###

So tell me, what’s the saddest song you’ve ever heard?

08-23-11

Earthquakapocalypse 2011: The Best Reactions

There was an earthquake in the United States and NOT in California today. A magnitude 5.9 quake hit the Washington DC area and the Twitterverse pretty much exploded.

Being born and raised on the east coast and now living on the west coast, I expected more from my friends in the east. How appropriate; it apparently takes an earthquake to shake up New Yorkers, Bostonians and the like. I’m seriously considering calling my mom and saying “Oh my God Mom! Are you OK? I heard about the disaster!” like she does to me every time she sees something on the news about Southern California.

But with any ridiculous overreaction comes humor. Here are the funniest earthquake reactions I’ve seen on Twitter today:

@ditzkoff

That was no earthquake, kids. That was God himself shaking his head at the Will and Jada news

@DRUNKHULK

SORRY EAST COAST! DRUNK HULK JUST FIND OUT THEY GO FINISH SEX AND CITY TRILOGY!

@kevinquinn 

Today would have been a bad day to have laser eye surgery. #earthquake

@kristina__g 

Damn… images of the earthquake in DC… bit.ly/pNevem

(Seriously, click the link)

@80miles

These hilarious quake tweets ought to be called “laughter shocks!”

@hodgman

This guy in the cafe and I agree that we liked the earthquake when it first started. But now it’s like, the wrong people are into it.

@TimDuffy 

My favorite part was when we stopped working for a few minutes to talk about the earthquake. #nostalgia

@darthvader 

I just felt a tremor in the Force. No wait, that was an earthquake.

###

Got any others? Please leave them in the comments. Let’s forever remember this day as the day the East Coast lost its edge.

08-15-11

The following band has been brought to you by…

As I was checking my Twitter feed this afternoon I came across this tweet from a local venue:

@SOMAsd SOMA San Diego

Nov 6 – Motel 6 Rock Yourself To Sleep Tour 2011…. More Details coming soon ~

My initial thought was “Really? Motel 6?” (along with “Really? That’s the name you’re going with?” and “And those are the bands you chose to sponsor?”) but the more I thought about it, the more brands are popping up as music tour sponsors. As a music lover, a former marketing agency person and now, someone who works for a worldwide mega brand, I’m kind of torn with regards to how I feel about this.

A few months ago I went to see Thursday and Taking Back Sunday. The ticket and the House of Blues marquee read “Coca Cola Presents Taking Back Sunday”. As I entered the venue, there were Coke banners everywhere and a Coke booth giving out free samples. Coke Coke Coke, everywhere you looked (sounds like I’m talking about scene in Scarface not a concert…unless we’re talking backstage at Fleetwood Mac on their Rumours tour). What was the point really? Yes it is advertising, but I highly doubt that anyone in the room took a swig from a Dixie cup and said “OMG what is this delicious fizzy brown liquid!? I must have more!” You’re not going to see a major sales increase and if you’re a mega brand like Coke, I don’t think you need to generate brand awareness, so really, why are you there?

I think the key to corporate sponsorship of tours is to add value to the concert experience, not just ads. Your mere presence is not going to increase sales or make you synonymous with whatever demographic the bands/artists on tour attract.

A simple thing a brand can do: Have a booth with a QR code that people can scan and get free exclusive live tracks of the bands playing the show.

For Motel 6, a cool thing would be if bands could get free rooms based on how long their tours are. For every week on the road you get one free night at a participating Motel 6 <insert “free bedbugs” joke here>. Or maybe there can be a special band account sign up so bands can get discounts.  It’s a simple way to promote the brand and support live music.

Even though consumers are so much more advertising savvy, we’re only going to see an increase in this type of thing: bands need to tour to make money and brand need the “cool factor”. But hopefully, it will move beyond banners and onto more creative and cool ways of spreading brand messaging.

Have you seen any examples of corporate sponsors doing cool, value adding promotions, booths, activities, etc at concerts? If so, please share in the comments.

08-03-11

Wait wait wait…the new Spiderman is BLACK?!

Sigh. What year is it? Really…

Yesterday Marvel Comics announced the new Spiderman will be Miles Morales, a half black, half Hispanic kid from New York. While the passing of the superhero torch has often been done – think Batman—I have never seen such controversy over a successor. Is it because readers still miss the deceased Peter Parker? Maybe, but most of the commentary seems to be focused on Miles not being white.

To be honest, it makes me sick to my stomach that this is even an issue. Yes, I’m white girl who grew up in a pretty nice town in Massachusetts but just as a decent human being I can’t tolerate this kind of senseless bigotry.

My dear friend Buffy made a great point by saying “ any time you have to preface a statement with “not racist/sexist/etc, but ____” then what you are about to say is definitely racist/sexist/etc, there’s just no way around that. “ And she’s right. Think about it.

The shock of it all is well, shocking. Of all the things that happen in comics, Spiderman being a minority is too hard to believe?! Not that kid gets bitten by a radioactive spider and then can climb up buildings, have super speed and strength, etc…that’s all totally understandable. Maybe I’m missing something. Can only white people be bitten by radioactive spiders? Do they have a pasty flesh tone preference?

Think I’m being ridiculous? This whole thing is ridiculous!

Part of what I don’t get is that people are acting like this is the first time there has been a minority superhero. Really? You don’t have to be a fan of comics to know that Storm from X-Men is most certainly black. You can’t forget Bishop if you are a fan of X-Men storylines like “Age of Apocalypse” or “Civil War” or if you ever watched the X-Men: The Animated Series version of “Days of Future Past”.

Now, let’s talk Nick Fury. He has been both white and black, the latter being portrayed by none other than Samuel L. Jackson in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and the upcoming Avengers movie. Oh and while we’re on the subject, black Nick Fury appears in Ultimate Marvel Universe, where the new Spidey will also be, so it isn’t even the first time there is a minority character in that world!

Somehow, probably due to the ranting of conservative radio psychopath Glenn Beck, there is talk of Miles Morales also being gay. 1. Nowhere did it say he was gay. You are misinterpreting a quote from Sara Pichelli who was one of the artists that helped create the new Spiderman. And even if he was, so what? Again, not like there haven’t been gay superheroes before Northstar, and now Colossus in Ultimate Marvel Universe!).

We all miss Peter Parker. But like the saying goes, “with great power, comes great responsibility” and someone needs to carry the torch. Maybe before you state your oh-so-important opinion on Spidey’s race, remember Buffy’s tip. Oh and do your homework before you start running your mouth.

Or better yet, just don’t say anything at all.

08-02-11

Things You Need To Stop Doing

I write a lot about trends I notice, trends I like. But when you work in social media, you also get bombarded with the most annoying trends on the Internet. Consider this an open letter to the Internet in general regarding things I do not wish to see anymore.

1. Lol-speak

I often imagine what it would sound like if my dogs could talk, what their tone would be and what they would say. However, I’m pretty sure since they are both adults they would not ask me if they could “haz” a treat (not to mention, one of them can already say “I love you”. For real). I Can Haz Cheezburger is cute; I’m OK with Lol-speak as captions on cute pet photos. But where I draw a big, fat line is when 1. You pretend to be your pet online and 2. You insist on talkinz lyke dis.  It’s bad enough you have a whole separate profile for your dog, however I am also guilty of this, but in my defense…

Does my English Bulldog have a Facebook Page? Yes, because he’s ridiculous looking. What do I post there? Photos and videos of him looking ridiculous. Do I pretend I’m him when posting updates? No, because he’s a dog and I’m a person with a pretty decent grasp on the English language… and because if he could update Facebook I’m pretty sure he’d talk major sh** about me. He’s kind of a jerk.

(Don’t be fooled by how cute he looks when he’s sleeping, he can be a total ass)

2. Ridiculously long hashtags

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the point of a hashtag on Twitter is to create a clickable, searchable term. Often they are used for humor (my favorite example being #firstworldproblems) or to participate in a discussion. But almost every day when I look at the trending topics, there is at least one that is pretty much an entire sentence. Example: #icantbelieveitwhenguyssaythingslike

A hashtag is not supposed to take up ¾ of tweet. You are not using your 140 characters wisely or allowing your careful crafted message to be shared as easily.  I’m guessing that the majority of these are caused by someone forgetting how to use a space bar and throwing# in front of their update. Somehow their followers assume this is intentional – “OMG! #isototallyhateitwhenmymomtellsme to pick up my room too!” – and spread this nonsense across the Twittersphere.

Some Twitter users are clever enough to work around them, working them seamlessly into their update.  But most people don’t get the point of hashtags, tack them onto the end and then, in order to fit the max character limit, abbreviate everything until it barely resembles English.

So, please, moving forward #keepitshort, #keepitsimple and #stoppostinguncessarilylonghashtags.

3. Calling your blog a “bloggie”

This is more of a personal one. I’ve been working on a social monitoring project and this term keeps coming up. Listen, amateur bloggers of the world. It’s a BLOG, not a bloggie! No need for to make an already kind of silly word even sillier. Do you update your “Facebookie”, post on your “Tumblrie”? No? Then stop calling your blog a “bloggie”!

If you take it to the next level of annoying by calling it –and I’m not joking, this is really common—a “bloggie woggie”, it takes all my self control to resist the urge to punch my computer screen. OK, if you’re 14, you get a pass. But as an adult, trying to get people to read blog posts you’ve worked really hard on, you should probably not instantly kill your credibility.

I hear the words “bloggie woggie” and I automatically assume your blog is chock full of updates about conversations you have with your cat, how much you wish Edward Cullen would take you away from your sad existence and detailed regurgitations of everything you’ve already posted on Twitter, that I didn’t care to know the first time.

Maybe I’m just being really particular here, but for some reason, it just bothers me. It also makes my job much harder.

Now if only I were The Oatmeal and could illustrate this in a brilliant web comic/infographic…

UPDATE: Contribution sent over by my friend Dan. This proves I’m not the only one that feels this way: