Who Knows Anything?

I was watching the great new show “Spectacle” on Sundance Channel yesterday morning. This is Elvis Costello’s show that’s incredibly well done. This episode featured what we in Nashville call a “guitar pull” - basically where you and all your friends get around and play tunes into the wee hours.

Anyway, on this episode was John Mellencamp, Rosanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Norah Jones. Along with Costello, they talked about their songs and then played them in a very sparse, organic setting. Each of the performers played great songs - some new, some old.

However, Kristofferson demonstrated why he’s absolutely one of the best. I have always loved “Sunday Morning Coming Down” - it’s an absolute piece of art. And, there are a few lines in the song that are just amazing.

Here are a couple of the verses:

Well I woke up Sunday morning,
With no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes,
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
An’ I shaved my face and combed my hair,
An’ stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

Amazing - you can really sense the loneliness of the person in the song. But, the best line in the song is yet to come.

I’d smoked my brain the night before,
On cigarettes and songs I’d been pickin’.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid,
Cussin’ at a can that he was kicking.
Then I crossed the empty street,
‘n caught the Sunday smell of someone fryin’ chicken.
And it took me back to somethin’,
That I’d lost somehow, somewhere along the way.

When you hear “caught the Sunday smell of someone fryin’ chicken” - can’t you just smell it. To me, it’s one of the all-time greatest lines in songwriting.

All in all I thought the ads this year were a pretty poor lot with a few exceptions. I always look forward to the ads based on my time spent working in/with advertising agencies. The Super Bowl is supposed to be the best of the best and this year we were let down.

I’m not sure why - maybe the economy? Maybe it’s that marketers are learning more about ROI? AdAge has an interesting take on this concept with their reviews: Ed McMahon’s Bad Ad Steals the Super Bowl.

I personally thought the Coke spot trying to be a remake of the best ad ever - “Mean Joe” - was awful. To me the best ad was NBC’s “LMAO” ad which, I guess, wasn’t in consideration because it was for the network. I did really like the Bridgestone ad with Mr. Potato Head - that was pretty clever. And, the Cheeto’s ad with the birds was pretty good, too. Also, I’d love to know what kind of traffic GoDaddy generated with their ads - I’m sure it was through the roof.

Here is the place you can watch and rate the commercials @ ESPN’s SportsNation. It’ll be interesting how these ads and reviews shake out over the next few days.

I kept hearing today about the numbers report from the National Retail Federation. Apparently, holiday sales were down 2.8% in 2008. Here’s the report:

US Holiday Retail Sales Fell 2.8%: NRF

Here’s my take - at least from the perspective of my household. We finally had an excuse to cut back on holiday spending. Frankly, over the last several years we have way over spent during the holidays. And, we used the economic situation as an excuse to cut back. We didn’t really have to - we chose to. I’ve talked to more than a few people and they have confirmed that they did the same thing.

Now I’m not saying that there isn’t a problem with our economy. It’s very real. But, there are maybe a few more issues relating to what’s really going on.

Here’s an interesting article about a class on what not to put in your corporate documents and emails:

Course shows companies what NOT to put in writing

Dangerous Documents offers such helpful tips as: Instead of writing, “We’ll meet on Thursday to destroy the documents,” it’s better to say, “We’ll meet on Thursday to implement our document retention policy.”

Very interesting what gets archived these days, isn’t it?

For those who don’t know, Franklin, TN is a little town about 15 miles outside of Nashville. I’ve lived here for almost 3 years and me and my family just love it here. The schools are phenomenal and there is a ton of stuff to do. Plus, Franklin is a cool, trendy little town with a Rockwellian main street - lots of street fairs and things like that.

Franklin is also the place where most of the Tennessee Titans live and many of the music and other celebrities as well - Sheryl Crow, Keith and Nicole, etc… In fact, just last night we ran into Ashley Judd at the grocery store. This has been happening more and more and it’s really kind of cool to watch. Our little Publix is a popular spot - you never know who you’ll run into there. Even Santa Claus stopped by Publix last July while he was on summer vacation - really, my 5 year old Dylan got his card.

There’s an unwritten rule that you have to learn about living here and it’s this - this is home, leave them alone. People in Nashville don’t tolerate others being rude to our more well known residents. It’s not cool to go up to someone at dinner, while they’re out or while they’re with their families. They aren’t on stage or on TV while they’re home so we try and let them lead as normal a life as possible.

It’s not uncommon to be standing in line with someone famous or sitting next to them at dinner or at a bar or a party. It happens all the time. You just have to remember that they’re people, too. Just be nice, say hi and if they’re interested (just like anyone else), they’ll strike up a conversation. The best lesson I learned a long time ago is not to talk about their business at all. Based on my experience, they’re dying to be treated normally.

Anyway, I really have no idea what I’m trying to say here other than it’s pretty cool living in Franklin. Watch CMT sometime and you’ll see a lot of our town.

Pork, Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya

1 lb. cubed pork butt (you can use country-style boneless, pork ribs)
1 lb. cubed chicken (I prefer to use thighs)
1 lb. sliced sausage (2 options, if you want spicy add Andouille, otherwise youe a good smoked sausage)
1/4 C vegetable oil
2 C diced onion
2 C diced celery
1 C diced bell pepper
1/4 C minced garlic
8 C chicken stock
1 C sliced green onions plus extra for garnish
1/2 C chopped parsley
salt & pepper to taste
Tabasco to taste
4 C uncooked long grain rice
Optional:
2 C sliced mushrooms

Instructions:
1. In a 2-gallon heavy dutch oven, heat oil over medium high heat.
2. Saute pork 30 mins or until dark brown on all sides and beginning to stick to bottom of pot - very important.
3. Stir in chicken & sausage, reduce heat to med. and cook for 10-15 mins.
4. Add onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic - cook until well caramelized. Be careful not to burn - you want them golden brown.
5. Pour in stock, bring to boil, then reduce to simmer for 15 mins.
6. Stir in green onions, parsley, optional mushrooms. Season with salt & pepper.
7. Add rice & bring to boil. Reduce heat to very low, cover, cook for 30 mins - stirring every 15 mins. Keep covered except to stir - very important.
8. When rice is cooked, stir once more and remove from heat. Cover and let steam for 10 mins.
9. Recheck seasoning and reseason if necessary.
10. Serve topped with green onions & hot sauce.