Adrian Peterson Orange Peanut Awesomeness

I love it when real life and entertainment collide for humorous effect, and social media is especially great for that.

My favorite example of this lately is Minnesota Viking Adrian Peterson’s now-famous post-game confession of his passion for orange peanuts.

This comes courtesy of Bad Lip Reading. If you haven’t seen their full set of YouTube videos, your life is not as rich as it could be.

Culture Jamming? Orange Peanut!

The best part of this is when Peterson was presented with a real-life orange peanut at an autograph session. And he was a great sport about it. Look at that smile.

Image via tchrox

Importantly, as USA Today notes, “The craftsmanship on the peanut is spot-on.” Excellent.

What do you think? What’s your favorite example of real/online/entertainment world convergence? Have you ever participated in culture jamming? Let us hear from you in the comments.

Related articles

• Adrian Peterson Gets His Orange Peanut (thevikingage.com)
• Yes, Adrian, An Orange Peanut For You (dailynorseman.com)
• Orange Peanut! Bad Lip Reading Finally Does the NFL and It’s the Best (VIDEO)(manolith.com)
• A Healthy Perspective on Peanut Butter (leanonlife.com)

Is There Really No Such Thing As Bad Press?

You know the saying, “there’s no such thing as bad press?” Only to a certain extent do I believe this. The phrase would be more accurate if tempered with two qualifiers:

Potentially, eventually.

Lady Gaga, Oscar Wilde.
Both adept at capturing press attention.

This is because in the event ofbad press, it can be manageable to varying degrees – but it always takes deliberate, meaningful effort, and it definitely takes time.

I absolutely don’t believe, “hey, there’s no such thing as bad press, so let’s just go for it all…” is wise PR strategy, unless the goal is simple notoriety along the lines of Paris Hilton or Lady Gaga. In these cases, I’m reminded of what could be the inspiration for this concept: Oscar Wilde’s quote, “There is only one thing in the world that is worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

The problem with the idea of no bad press is that with today’s A.D.D. news cycle and the everlasting searchability of the Internet, missteps can take an extraordinary effort to overcome, although it can be done. National Strategies Public Relations CEO Jennifer Vickery sums up the concept: ”While there is such a thing as bad press, the main take away should be that good press can come out of it, provided the situation is handled properly.”

Proper handling would mean execution with transparency, honesty and consistency over an interval long enough to shift focus to the present and future more so than the past. In this way, and ifdone right, bad press can become a real opportunity and cataylst, not just in terms of spin, but also toward doing the right thing.

What do you think? Is there truly no such thing as bad press? What are some examples of bad press being handled properly? Let us hear from you in the comments.

Related articles

• The 5 Unbreakable Rules of Public Relations (under30ceo.com)
• How Bad Press Can Get You Canned, Tarnish a Reputation and Destroy a Brand (Jennifer Vickery)
• The Oatmeal Sucks, Even if Buzzfeed Was Wrong (Gawker)
• Ultimate list of online public relations tools (raventools.com)
• What Good’s PR? (Dick Martin)
• The Biggest PR Myth of All: There’s No Such Thing as Bad Publicity(ereleases.com)
• Looking Back: It’s Not Always A Bad Thing (moveintoaction.com)
• Leveson inquiry (nickclarkeconservative.wordpress.com)

Your Own Personal Grammys

Are your favorite performing artists underrepresented for their work? Does the mainstream “best of” not reflect your tastes? Then make your own awards. This is my blog, with my completely biased opinions – The Grammys, this is not. That said, thersmithing.com music awards for the past year go to…

Best Video: Melodysheep, Happy Little Clouds

I interview the mastermind behind Melodysheep, and all-round cool dude, John Boswell, here.

Best Concert: Beats Antique, Cat’s Cradle, May 4, 2012

I recount how I discovered Beats Antique here and document another of their gigs here.

Best New Artist: How To Destroy Angels

It’s atmospheric Nine Inch Nails with a female voice. Totally works.

Best Comeback: Quicksand

The band’s breakthrough album, Slip, is a certified classic.

Best Shoutout to Me: Garbage

One of my favorite bands featured my artwork in a promo video. Full story here.

Album of The Year: Deftones, Koi No Yokan

The Deftones‘ enduring talent surges ever forward.

Best Electronica: Photek, KU:PALM

Photek came back after many years with a sparse-yet-rich new record.

Best Topical Humor: CollegeHumor, Look at This Instagram

Thanks to Sarah Khanna, food blogger at butteredup.com, for turning me on to this. I think.

What do you think? What were your best musical moments of the past year? What other categories would you include? Let us hear from you in the comments.

Related articles

• Photek’s KU: PALM Embraces Past, Present, Future (rsmithing.com)
• Deftones December Wrap Up (cgiovanniwrites.wordpress.com)
• Melodysheep: ‘The Face of Creation’ – Higgs Remix (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
• Who is Skrillex and Why Did He Win Three Grammys? (…What is Dubstep Anyways?!?!) (CA Music Industry Summit)
• Abum Review: Photek – KU:PALM (Five Fist Reviews)

Stylized Instamatic 104

Stylized Instamatic 104, a photo by rsmithing on Flickr.

I dig the convergence of technology and time here in one brief second, now extended to the world and infinity. Here’s a snapshot of one of our modern photographic ancestors I modified with the amazing ToonPaint iPhone app, after shooting with Hipstamtic (a modern-retro simulator, no less). I found the camera at a sweet vintage shop called “Ideas” on Burke Street, Winston-Salem, NC. Original here.

What do you think? Do you see a connection between analog cameras and today’s mobile photography? What apps or camera discoveries have you made lately? Let us hear from you in the comments.

Related articles

• Product placement for hipsters: Kodak Instamatic (brandsandfilms.com)
• Waterworld (tawcabout.wordpress.com)
• Gothic Stylized Shoot (specialeventrentals.com)
• photography with low end cameras (tingilinde.typepad.com)

For When You Don’t Feel Like Blogging

Writing a blog post shouldn’t be a big deal, especially if you’re serious about blogging. That said, there are going to be days when you just don’t feel like it.

Check out the full series of blogging-themed images
I created over at Flickr and feel free to use them on your own blog.

Having done this for over a year now, a couple times per week steadily, I can fully attest to the occasional lack of motivation – but I always fight through and deliver the goods. Along the way, I’ve picked up these tips for those dark moments when you might not feel like keeping up with your own blog.

1. Have some posts in the bank

In those spells when you feel like writing, or when an idea hits, try to go with it. Take two minutes to get your thoughts into a few sentences or headings you can easily expand upon later. I’ve found the best tool for doing this is dictation software, or at the very least, the drafts feature in WordPress. I’ll even email some ideas to myself as a way of quickly capturing a subject or notion I know can be expanded upon down the road. That way, when the time is right, the content is ready to go.

Another great site for
writing inspiration:LanguageIsAVirus.com

2. Know your inspiration

Have some role models or examples of sites you enjoy on hand to get you thinking about material for your own blog. Or, as Janet Aronica aptly states over at Shareaholic (among the many other excellent tips there):

“Consume the content you want to create.”

By being able to easily refer to your sources of inspiration, you’ll be more likely to generate your own material with your unique perspective – which is the very best part of having your own blog. Set up some bookmarks, feeds, subscriptions, or whatever aggregation method works best for you so you can get inspired and have your own creative juices flowing.

3. Keep it simple, genius

A blog post does not have to be 10,000 words, nor should it be. In fact, brief is often better. I’ve found some of my most popular posts are sometimes the ones with just a compelling image and only a few sentences. Being handy with the phone cam and always on the lookout for quality visuals to share is something I enjoy, and also something I recommend for having interesting blog fodder at the ready.

What do you think? Are these suggestions useful? What tips would you suggest for drumming up motivation or inspiration in blogging? Let us hear from you in the comments.

Related articles

• Ask an Expert: Does the Length of Your Blog Post Really Matter?(blogs.constantcontact.com)
• Don’t Go Slick (stirrup-queens.com)
• So you want to start a blog… (lipglossismylife.com)
• How To Blog Successfully About Anything (seomoz.org)
• I love blogging but can’t find the time (awesomeelo.wordpress.com)
• An Amateur Blogger’s Tips For Creating A Better-Than-Amateur Blog(sitdownatatypewriterandbleed.wordpress.com)