2010 June | that damn redhead

Music Monday | Barrett Strong & Eliza Neals – bringin’ Motown back!

June 28, 2010 by that damn redhead · 1 Comment

The Best of Barrett Strong album cover Once upon a time in 1960, a tiny little record label in Detroit named “Motown” released a song called “Money (That’s What I Want)” (you may have heard of it) that became its first hit and the beginning of a musical movement. The artist and songwriter was a man named Barrett Strong, who became a pivotal figure in Motown’s formative years and one of the most influential songwriters of the last century. Teaming up with legendary producer Norman Whitfield, Strong is credited for giving the world such classics as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby,” “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” “Ball of Confusion,” “War,” and “Take Me in Your Arms and Love Me.”

Yeah, he’s kind of a big deal.

A handful of years ago, Strong started collaborating with some new Detroit musical talent and decided to take them under his legendary-Motown-figure wings. His first protogé is an incredibly talented woman whom I am lucky enough to call a good friend, Eliza Neals. Together, they co-wrote her albums “No Frogs for Snakes” and “Liquorfoot,” both available for download on iTunes.

This summer, they’re bringin’ Motown back. REAL Motown.

Written fifty years ago when he was only 16, Barrett Strong released a single called “Misery” that didn’t get the marketing that it deserved. Now, he’s re-releasing it, sung by Eliza, and she’s putting her awesome Detroit diva soul spin on this authentic Motown tune.

Below is the video, just released, and Strong makes a cameo alongside super producer Tino Gross, also of renowned funk band Howling Diablos.

This is the sound of Detroit, folks — the sound that gave it the nickname “Motown,” the sound that started it all. And we all have Barrett Strong to thank.

The single will be available for download on iTunes soon (official date pending), but if you want it now, the only way you can get it is through email via private release. $3 will get you a limited edition copy of “Misery” with the video & outtakes with Barrett Strong and Tino Gross.

Eliza Neals lives in New York now but makes it home to The D once every couple months, and you can see her perform “Misery” and hear some more of her real Motown sound this Friday, July 2nd at Memphis Smoke in Royal Oak, and the following Monday, July 5th at Black Lotus in Clawson.

Find/hear more of Eliza Neals on iTunes, ReverbNation, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, and Barrett Strong on MySpace and CD Baby.

(Note: None of the links in this post are affiliate links, and I am making no money off this post whatsoever. My only disclosure is that Eliza is my friend, and years ago I did a little bit of work with Tino Gross.)

Filed Under: Music · Tagged With: Barrett Strong, Eliza Neals, Howling Diablos, Motown, Musical Monday, Tino Gross

The social web is sink, swim or grab a life jacket

June 26, 2010 by that damn redhead · 1 Comment

You know how you go to a website and you see those little (usually) square buttons with the logos of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other social networks on them? Usually, but not always, in the top right corner?

Those aren’t for decoration, but many businesses, organizations, and other websites seem to think they are.

Case in point:

The other day I was looking up one of my favorite water ski show teams. Having somewhat of a unique childhood, I grew up competitive show skiing and lately have really been missing my sport. My best friend (we grew up involved in the same ski club) and I are thinking about taking a “for old times’ sake” trip to the U.S. Show Ski Nationals this year, and I was curious to see what a few of my favorite teams from the scene were doing.

However . . .

. . . upon going to the team’s website, I noticed it had been redone since the last time I had visited it, which was about six months ago. Right there, front and center, is “Follow us on . . . ” followed by the standards buttons for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

As a social media professional who has always been a fan of this team, this excited me to no end. I couldn’t wait to see what my favorite team had been up to, and was looking forward to seeing some videos of their latest shows and acts.

Cue sad trombone music.

Their Twitter account hadn’t been updated since August 19, 2009.

Their last sign in at their YouTube account was a year ago, and their featured video was highlighting their 2004 show. Their most recently uploaded video was dated January 20, 2009.

On Facebook, 1,183 “like” them, and their last update was more recent than a year ago, but it was almost two months ago.

This saddens me for many reasons. As a fangirl for this über team, I was very much looking forward to seeing what my favorite team was up to and interacting with them online. As a social media professional, it further emphasizes one of the key aspects of the social web:

You must cultivate your garden if you want it to grow.

If you don’t keep your content fresh, both on your website and your social networks, not only will you will fade into SEO oblivion, but you will disappoint your brand enthusiasts/evangelists, and your community will either a) wane, or b) not grow to its full potential.

The social web is no joke, people. If you’re going to make the commitment to have presences on certain networks, you better be fully prepared to fulfill that commitment to your community and update your stuff. If you’re going to put the “Follow us on . . .” buttons on your website, people expect you to be active. If don’t have designated people to update your social networks, if you have organizational problems internally, if your legal department is a PITA, or if there’s some other reason why you’ve got presences on social networks and you’re not active, please take the social network buttons off your website. You’ll be doing yourself a favor.

If you, your business, organization, or whatever are willing to dive into the social web waters head first, reality is that there’s no boat to tow you and your team. It’s sink or swim, and if you can’t do it yourself and need a life jacket, that’s what agencies are for.

Photo by Spierson82.

Filed Under: Featured, Social Media ·

This is why fireworks outside of Orlando do nothing for me.

June 21, 2010 by that damn redhead · 1 Comment

When you live and work at Walt Disney World for nearly a year, you get used to seeing these every night, and then nothing else ever compares. I know video isn’t the same as being there, but it’s the closest thing I’ll come for a while. Use your imagination — that’s what Disney’s all about.

Wishes – Magic Kingdom

These are what I saw every night while I worked at the Magic Kingdom:

. . . when I wasn’t at the Magic Kingdom, I was at Epcot, watching my favorites:

Illuminations: Reflections of Earth

For good measure, I’ll include Fantasmic, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Many people like these the best, but my heart will always be at Epcot.

(Yes, I know I’m acting like a total spoiled Disney princess. Kiss my tiara.)

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, personal · Tagged With: Disney, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Fantasmic, fireworks, Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Wishes

I can quit Twitter, but Twitter can’t quit me.

June 16, 2010 by that damn redhead · 4 Comments

Between friends getting married, friends passing away, getting used to a new schedule, and just overall life things, you could say I’ve had a lot going on lately. Sometimes, one can only take so much before wanting/needing to pull the plug on some things that cause more noise than signal in life.

The other day, after attending the funeral of a friend, I decided to quit Twitter for a while.

I’m quitting Twitter for a while. See ya.Mon Jun 14 21:08:11 via UberTwitterStacy Lukasavitz
damnredhead

Many didn’t think I could do it. I’ve tried to “take a Twitter hiatus” before, and have only lasted a few days, at most. This time, however, I was pretty sure that I was done spewing <140 character blurts into the ether for a while. I just needed my “Stacy time,” my time to be lost in my own thoughts without the internet bugging me or me bugging it.

I really thought I could do it.

Fat chance.

It didn’t occur to me until after I had posted the above that even when I have no intention of tweeting, I tweet anyway. I’ve integrated so many webby things with my Twitter account that it’s nearly impossible.

Hitting the “Tweet this” button at the top of an interesting blog post or article after reading it has become second nature to me. BOOM! There’s a tweet.

If I subscribe to a YouTube channel? BOOM! There’s a tweet.

If I just “like” a video on YouTube? BOOM! There’s a tweet.

If I check in somewhere on FourSquare? You got it — BOOM! There’s a tweet.

You get the idea.

try as I might, I realized I can’t quit Twitter for a while so long as I have things autotweet to it like 4sq & stuff I like on YouTube. Tue Jun 15 18:02:40 via HootSuiteStacy Lukasavitz
damnredhead

Not to mention, that if somebody chooses to retweet (RT) or reply to one of my auto-tweeted tweets, it’s usually appropriate to say something back to them.

Oh sure, I could manually go and remove all of my Twitter connections/integrations on each app, but really, that’s a lot to go though if I’m only planning on a temporary hiatus. Plus, I’d have to re-hook it all back up when I came back.

So I guess I’m stuck tweeting, whether I intend to or not.

I guess I just find it funny — these days, there are still hoards of people trying to figure out HOW to use Twitter and why; meanwhile, I’m so enmeshed in it that I can’t easily quit using Twitter, even if I wanted to.

Has anybody else had this problem?!

Filed Under: Social Media, twitter · Tagged With: Social Media, twitter