Parrotheader.com

Even though my musical tastes have broadened significantly over the years, whenever I look through my list of most played artists I almost always see the usual suspects at the top - sort of a recurring who's who of my general musical tastes: Jimmy Buffett, Eric Clapton, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Chet Atkins, Keb Mo, John Mayer, Tom Petty, The Allman Bros.

But there's always a handful of individual songs which stand out and don't belong to the usual suspects. As I was listening to a collection of my playlists in the background just a moment ago, two of my all-time favorite songs came on back-to-back for the first time. And while they both have a somewhat similar sound and emerged from the same era, they both end up conveying entirely different emotions.

Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine



Dobie Gray - Drift Away


The former is an absolutely haunting melody which conveys the ultimate in me-too despair after a rough day. Meanwhile the latter makes you want to roll down your windows on a sunny day and sing along at the top of your lungs as you roll through the countryside.

The art of the well-balanced mix tape used to be the ultimate, personal musical expression. Yet the simplicity of the 'random' setting on one of my playlists just nailed it (for me anyway.)

I wish I could take credit for this photo, but since I know next to nothing about photography (much less HDR photography) I'm clearly incapable of something like this. I like to change out my desktop wallpaper fairly regularly, however I find that I keep coming back to this shot on a regular basis to the point where it's now essentially my default wallpaper.

I don't really have anything profound to say on it other than I'd simply like to share it. It's a beautiful shot from a local photographer here in Birmingham and I highly recommend clicking through the photo to check out some of his other stuff on Flickr.

This is a very juvenile post and may be semi old news, so I'm going to go ahead and apologize for that right up front. But as I was working I had the TV running in the background and a commercial came on for a new prescription drug for acid reflux. Generally I have the TV on for white noise to (ironically) help me concentrate, but certain keywords are always going to catch you ear's sonar and the first mention of this product's name was no exception. Just close your eyes, ignore the superfluous talk and listen to the product's name.

As a reflux sufferer, I'm glad to hear there's another option out there. As a marketer . . . I'm speechless. Apparently the parent company for this product is based in Japan. But I have a hard time believing this was a mistake that somehow got past American marketing firms. If they were banking on the name to help it go viral then bravo.

EDIT: I Twittered this earlier and my co-worker David Griner (also a writer for Adweek's AdFreak blog) had apparently never seen/heard this before.

You can always tell by the tone of the voice. Sometimes the tone on the other end of the phone is so pronounced, you can even tell by the first words uttered that something's wrong.

Today was one of those days. In the grand scheme or things it could have been a lot worse. But it always makes your heart rate skyrocket whenever you hear that tone.

My mother was in the back yard doing some gardening this afternoon when she tripped and fell backwards onto a large rock. She knew she was falling toward the rock so she twisted and minimized the damage to her head and face. But unfortunately she broke her wrist (as well as banged up her toe pretty badly) in the process. Luckily her next door neighbor was also outside and was able to call an ambulance.

Holly called to inform me. She didn't act upset or overly emotional, but as soon as she said my name (the fact that she rarely starts a conversation with my name was another red flag) I knew something was wrong.

We were eventually able to track down the destination hospital for my mom. And since this hospital was right next to my office I was the first arrive. She was in a lot of pain, but I was amazed that she still had enough concern to feel embarrassed by the fact she was a bit grungy from being outside working (even in agonizing pain we want to maintain a certain level of dignity.) After the x-ray and doctor's examination they set my mother in a temporary cast and will be sending her to an orthopedist on Monday. In retrospect I wish they had been a bit more thorough in their attending to the cuts on her chin and toe, but hopefully those more superficial wounds will heal well. She's definitely going to be in for some pain for the next several days though. And while it's easy for me to say, we all know it could have been a lot worse.

Laney and Holly surprised me with a visit to my office this morning after their trip to our nearby zoo turned out to be a no-go due to crowds. So what is the first thing Laney asks me after giving me a hug? "Can I play with your toys?"

My toys? Oh yeah. Those toys. That oft-forgotten box of schwag and trinkets I have buried in the bottom of my office cabinet is a veritable treasure trove of excitement to my 3-yr-old daughter. It's funny the things a child remembers. She knew exactly where they were and exactly what was supposed to be in the box. As far as she's concerned, playing with those dusty items is the highlight of coming to my office (and probably what she imagines I do all day when I'm here.)

What's particularly strange to me is that I can remember that feeling like it was yesterday. Whenever I was a kid I loved going to my dad's office on the weekends. While he was working my brother and I would draw things on the drafting tables and play with the electric erasers. Later we'd race office chairs around the empty hallways and toss paper airplanes off the balconies of their 8-story atrium (sorry about that one dad.)

As those memories came flooding back to me, it then dawned on me that Laney is now reaching an age when she'll actually remember some of the current events and environment around her many years from now. Up until now, I've assumed almost all of her current memories of her toddler years will eventually fade away. But for her memories of the here and now, that may no longer be the case. I guess I really need to be on my best behavior now.