Socks in the City

There's an episode of Sex and the City where Carrie Bradshaw can't come up with a column topic. Apparently, the previous week she had written about her search for the perfect french fry, and that current week she's considering examining "men as socks". One of her gal pals offers, "Socks in the City!"

My biggest fear when starting this blog was not having enough talk about. It probably should have been "getting run out of the industry", but - no matter. Turns out, there is SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT. Too much, in fact. Here's what has struck my fancy this week:

Tom Service reports on his Guardian blog that Arvo Pärt (( (swoon) )) and his publisher, Universal Edition, have made his first symphony in 40 years - Los Angeles - available online. The piece will be premiered by the LA Phil next year. Here is further proof that 1. everybody loves downloadable sheet music, 2. we are a culture that expects/demands free things, and 3. The Guardian culture blogs are all awesome.

If you haven't seen it already, this is amazing. Apparently, NEW YORK CITY, as in, the entity, I guess, has APOLOGIZED TO CLEVELAND -  again, the entity, we think - because a Broadway ad executive said "We hate tourists from Cleveland" in The New York Times on Tuesday. Chicago, as in, Chicago, is getting in on the action by offering free - FREE - tickets to anyone who comes to the show on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday in January with a valid Ohio ID. Nancy Coyne's - the Cleveland hater's - agency will also give away tickets from the 24 Broadway shows they represent on Cleveland radio. One wonders why a theater PR person would turn up her nose at any potential ticket buyers, considering things are so bad that Chicago can just give away tickets. Yikes.

Two new(ish?) trends in advertising:

1. Incorporating the ad into a website's logo:

2. Adding content to the ad itself, as predicted on this blog months ago by Alex Sturtevant:

This is fascinating, and I will deal with it next week. Your homework this weekend is to read the linked-to piece by Dan Wakin.

And because I am in a jolly, holiday mood, despite the fact that it is hemorrhaging snow in the city, I'd like to thank all the lovely readers of this blog for sticking around since we launched in July. I'm having a grand time writing the thing, and have learned a lot from all your thoughtful comments and e mails. Sniffle::sniffle, eye-dry::eye-dry.