Hello Viking

Paid Search 101 rap

Chuck; aka the Poetic Prophet, aka The SEO Rapper is amazing. This piece on paid search is awesome.

Dr Seuss + Prince

An idea popped into our heads late this afternoon: Could we mashup titles of Dr. Seuss books and lyrics from Prince tunes? It turns out, we can. And you should, too.

"Hop on Pop Life"

"There's a Wocket In My Pocket (And Baby He's Ready to Roar)"

"One Fish, Two Fish, Star Fish And Coffee, Maple Syrup And Jam"

"The Cat in The Hat Would Die 4 U"

"Mr Brown Can Gett Off, Can You?"

"How The Grinch Could Never Take The Place of Your Man"

"My Name Is Bartholomew Cubbins"

"Horton Hears Thieves In The Temple!"

"And To Think I Wanna Be Your Lover"

"Green Eggs and Jam Of The Year"

Business socks

You've likely seen this a thousand times already. Really, that's not enough.

Watch it again.

Sing along.

VMAs and Emmys

The Foo Fighters and Cee-Lo playing Prince on MTV's Music Video Awards? Get out! Brilliant live mashup. We need lots more of this, recording industry! (And shame on MTV for not allowing true embeds...sure, you can grab the code, but you end up with a "Visit MTV.com to see this video" message. Lame, MTV!)

And then there's JT.

From the Associated Press: "I think it's safe to say that when we first set out to make this song, we were all thinking 'Emmy!'" Andy Samberg (of SNL) said in accepting the award Saturday for best original music and lyrics.

"The other thing we were thinking was, 'Hey! Here's this young up and comer, Justin Timberlake, who is clearly very talented and could clearly use a break,'" Samberg said. "So, Justin, if you're out there, congrats to you, kid.'"

Dick In A Box is funny, absolutely. But it's also an example of how an artist can step outside their "box" and offer something worthwhile--witness FF and Cee-Lo playing Prince. It's another product, probably even more funny than Tenacious D.

Where's the follow-up album, or at least another single, JT and SNL?

Making The Broken EP

Caught this on YouTube over the weekend while doing research for a client project.

What caught our eye was the idea of value this video conveys. Because it's not just a music video. And it's not just a "making of" effort.

Essentially, you're watching the handmade production of a (limited) mass quantity item: a 4-track CD, by the New York "electronic-pop superhero" Jen Scaturro, who performs as iamjen. (CD Baby distributes the EP, which was sold out when we checked. But you can download it off iTunes.)

Before we saw the video, iamjen was just a musical effort, a band -- a listening experience. After the video, her music became more than music. Because we've come to realize she's also a clever storyteller and meticulous craftsperson.

Imagine if the people who made your car, your shirt, your desk chair, your courier bag, your shoes, etc. followed iamjen's lead? But with as much style, grace and attitude as the "Making The Broken EP" video. That's the challenge. iamjen's success here is in creating a video that does more than entertain, it provides insight into character and motivation -- part of any product anyone is buying.