On the cold morning of January 4th a fire ravaged an apartment building here in East Allegheny (aka Deutschtown). The fire gutted the building, leaving 21 of our neighbors homeless, including 11 children. It followed on the heals of another fire on New Years Eve in an adjoining neighborhood. It was a bad start to a new year for many here.
No, this is not a story about cats, in spite of the photo here. But my cat launched the following reflections on this New Years Day 2009. I watched her march through new fallen snow in the bright, but rare Pittsburgh sunlight, leaving tiny footprints in her path— a record of her travels while doing her “cat work.” The footprints show me what she’s been up to, where she’s been. Unfortunately it doesn’t tell me what she’s up to next. 
This week on Studio 360 I heard the most amazing performance by Sarah Jones, an accomplished actress and writer with one-woman shows on Broadway. During this program she skillfully slipped in and out of various character roles, demonstrating the rich variety of peoples in our American tapestry. (MP3 Studio 360 playback)
What particularly amazed me was the ease with which she shifted from one to the other and captured an essence of each… often stimulating vivid images already stored in my brain over the years.
Today a friend linked me to a hilarious video about a senior citizen trying to get ready for the conversion of all TVs to HDTV/digital in 2009. As I watched, I thought of my parents who got their first computer last year and still struggle to do what I consider to be the simplest things. Mom suffers from “wild mouse” syndrome, which makes doing anything on a computer difficult.
After a couple of decades in the business, I continue to be amazed at the opportunities to learn even more about the dynamic world of marketing. In this world it’s all about choosing the right target, the right message, the right media and the right time. And the internet is changing the game so rapidly.
