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Musik des Septembers

September is one of my favorite months of the year. Part of it due to my birthday, and secondly I’ve always thought that from September to December is the “gemütliche” (german for “cozy”) time of the year.

Anyway, this first half of September is accompanied with the vibe of:

It’s All True, JUNIOR BOYS (2011)
I strongly suggest you this album from the Canadian duo, it’s as their past albums really smooth and stimulating. Unfortunately I missed the chance to see them live here in Munich the last month, otherwise I will tell you a bit of their live performance.
Here you can have an idea of what is it Junior Boys alive.

This Charming Man, THEOPHILUS LONDON (2009)
Just found out that the new album is “Timez Are Weird”, therefore I’m gonna look for it and you should definitely look for it. Take my word, I’m a guitar player that has listened Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd or Frank Zappa for instance; and this hip-hop album catches my ears.

Selah Sue, SELAH SUE (2011)
A few months ago someone suggested me to listen to Selah Sue. I gave it a listen but didn’t catch my intention. Now, once again a good friend (AKA El Perro Pilavci) suggested me to listen to her album and this time is in my favorites. Give it a try! I might say is the renaissance from Mr. Bobby Marley and Amy Winehouse, judge it yourself.

The Family Jewels, MARINA & THE DIAMONDS (2009)
Just a few words to say: magnificent vocals and moving “electro” rhythms. Don’t wast your time here reading and start listening.

Jetzt Im Handel!, DIE DROGEN
I will update with more details on the album of this band. Just got to hear them the last week in Munich. I guess they are a local band, but they have the 80′s pop-rock sound of The Smiths and The Cure. Check some of their YouTube’s videos here.

Alright, enjoy it und bis bald!

How I decided to study in Sweden?

Now checking a couple of files in my Backup-Hard-Drive, I found this graph that back in 2007 gave me the first hint of where to study my master’s degree.

The data is a bit old (1998) though, but you can get more updated and interactive info from the NGO Transparency International here.

Ciudad del Carmen, Monterrey and Calgary; cities and their Creative Class (course assignment)

This post, I have to confess is kind of a desperate act to update my blog; even though when I did this assignment for the ‘Experience, Entertainment, Arts and Economics’ course directed by the recognized professor Charlotta Mellander, I really enjoyed it and tried to give a unique and academically supported essay by the review of four Richard Florida’s work on “the Creative Class“…

During the last 5 years, I have been moving around different places, neighborhoods, countries, thus cities. Taking in consideration those changes, my intention to communicate in this paper is to analyze and match the concepts proposed in Florida, R. (2001, 2002) Florida, R. & Mellander, C. (2008, 2009) articles with the particular situation of the three following cities: (1) Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico’s currently most important city for oil extraction and oil industry, (2) Monterrey, the third largest city in Mexico and (3) Calgary, Canada’s petro-center and most economically solid city.

Right after finishing my bachelor’s studies on 2006, I moved to Ciudad del Carmen with the idea of securing a position within the Mexican oil industry and thus obtaining economic security. Even though, I knew that I will have to sacrifice proximity to cultural amenities and my demands of entertainment and arts goods, due to the industrial and small-sized characteristics of this city.

Ciudad del Carmen was during the 1970′s a small fishing village until the outburst of the oil production activities and the discovery of the Cantarell’s Oil field, one of the largest in the world. Responding to this, almost 42% of the economically active population is engaged in the service sector and 36% in agriculture-related activities (Lutz, Prieto, & Sanderson, 2000). Regardless to its small size (aprox. 160,000 inhabitants), you can find regional offices of multinational companies such as Halliburton and Schlumberger. The latter proof how high-tech companies can create human and social capital contributions, as they have shown with community engagements such as “Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development” non-profit development program, which consists in the provision of computers and Internet access to those who can’t afford in cities such as Reynosa and Ciudad del Carmen (Jones, 2002).

But one thing is dissonant: the lack of the “creative class” and in an absurd contrast to the high wages, there’s a poor quality of life. Described sharply by Moisés Frutos, in Ciudad del Carmen –sociologically speaking- you can find two realities: a modern and wealthy middle class related to the oil industry and the remaining benefits of the fishing industry, but confronted on the other side by a huge percent of the population without a fixed occupation, with labor wages under the legal minimums (equivalent to $5 US Dollars a day) and access to detriment public services (Frutos, 2000).

In this city everything revolves around the country’s paraestatal company: PEMEX, which by law is the only one authorized to manage the oil industry (García & Rodríguez, 2008), and it’s in the coastal zone of Ciudad del Carmen where 80% of Mexico’s hydrocarbons (goods) are produced. Despite this economic wealthiness, I decided to bet for more inputs of cultural experiences and I had to abandon this city which with the potential of being similar to Houston (USA) or Stavenger (Norway) in economic activity, presents no progress in terms of cultural capital, no creativity harnessing and the only reason that attracts talented people is the economic benefits of the industry; resulting in a group of individuals who settle for just an opportunistic situation.

Before going abroad, my next stop was Monterrey. I don’t pretend to extend much on this city, but just to add that Monterrey is a fluent city with wide diversity of occupations, and as the third biggest city of Mexico, Monterrey has the peculiarity of being a link with the USA for the import and export of cultural goods due to its relative closeness. Mainly the south of Texas, or Austin as an important cultural capital.

With respect to the educational offer, Monterrey has a prominent leading profile among the whole country, with a mix of public and private supported educational institutions and to small-sized organizations that offer specialized knowledge (i.e. CEDIM, leading school on design in Mexico). However, recalling Florida’s importance of ‘tolerance’ for the agglomeration of the ‘creative class’, sadly in Monterrey, Ciudad del Carmen or even the whole country; tolerance and openness may exist in a low level if we can refer it as ‘freedom of expression’. The statistics in Mexico regarding freedom of expression are alarming. 65 journalist have been killed since 2000, to which the voices raise the question «What kind of journalism can be offered, if we are afraid to do our informative duty?» (Carmona, 2010).

Far, up northwest, in America (the continent), we find Calgary, where I lived before coming to Sweden and where I met a fascinating city in which the corporate concentration of the Canadian oil and gas industry is held. Calgary’s downtown is popularly known as the ‘petro-canadian’ skyline. In addition, this city is one of the most economically strong cities with an employment growth of 17%, against the national average of 9% (Langford, 2008). But at the same time, Calgary shows off components of what could be an attractive center for talented people or the so-called ‘creative class’, being the 4th city in Canada with more concentration of talented individuals and in the top five of more bohemian population concentrated (Gertler et al., 2002).

As a difference to Ciudad del Carmen’s example mentioned above, Calgary is potentially more adequate to harness creativity and attract key-talented drivers due to the co-existence of this industry with recreational activities, convergence of cultures and diversity, opportunities to engage in recreational activities, high-tech companies (i.e. Shaw Communications, SMART Technologies, Encana, Suncor) clustering, educational offer and the metropolitan size of the Calgary, with +1 million inhabitants.

Even though, it seems that most of the things that happen in Calgary, are dependent on the Oil & Gas industry. Langford et al. (2006) study show that ‘critical environmental factors’ this industry has a perceived negative effect on entrepreneurship, when it comes to create a new business and the general perception is that if it has not implications or relation to that industry, is better not to try. Thus, this will inhibit the generation of new ideas and the willingness to experiment rather than the established ones.

Bibliography
Carmona, E. (14 01 2010 r.). Recrudecen asesinatos de periodistas en Latinoamérica. 27 02 2010 r., Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacion (ALAI): http://alainet.org/active/35543
Florida, R. (2001) “The economic geography of talent”, Working Paper, Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Florida, R.(2002) Bohemia and economic geography. Journal of Economic Geography, 2: 55–71.
Florida, R., Mellander, C., Stolarick, K. (2008) Inside the Black Box of Regional Development. Journal of Economic Geography, 8: 615–649.
Florida, R., Mellander, C., (2009) There goes the metro: how and why bohemians, artists and gays affect regional housing values
Frutos, M. (2000) Marginación y calidad de vida en Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche (Exclusion and quality of life in Ciudad del Carmen). Congreso Marginación y Pobreza. Universidad Autónoma del Carmen.
García, A., & Rodríguez, J. (2008). Responsabilidad Social en la empresa. La región Marina Noreste de PEMEX Exploración y Producción . IX (4), 17-40.
Gertler, M., Florida, R., Gates, G., & Vinodrai, T., (2002) Competing on creativity: Placing Ontario’s cities in North American context. A report prepared for the Ontario Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation and the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity, Canada
Jones, I. W. (2002). How do multinationals build social capital? Evidence from Mexico. University of Cambridge, ESRC Centre for Business Research. Oxford: Brasenose College.
Langford, C., Li, B., & Ryan, C., (2006). Building the pool of (creative) talent: The case of Calgary. Science, Technology and Society Program. Faculty of Communication and Culture, University of Calgary
Lutz, W., Prieto, L., & Sanderson, W. (2000). Population, Development, and Environment on the Yucatán Peninsula: From Ancient Maya to 2030. Laxenburg, Austria: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

My first speech in Swedish

After living in Sweden for 9-months already, I’ve realized that I have good skills to learn and speak a new language. Obviously, without the necessary interest you will never get to learn anything.
And have to say that this of learning Swedish which even the Swedes have told me “Why do you learn Swedish? It is only spoken by us, only 9 million buddies, less than 0.5% of World’s population….”, moreover they speak the best English language among countries whose mother tongue is not English, then, Why?

Well, I have my own reasons. I can tell you that I like this country. I like the region. I like the fact that is too much buzz about Sweden as an innovative country; to give you an example, Richard Florida sets Sweden in the top-8 countries that almost half of their productive population works in occupations he considers the “Creative Class”, with 42.4% (Florida, 2004. America’s Looming Creativity Crisis). And many reasons that I might explain in other post… Oh yeah, and girls in Sweden are beautiful and friendly as heaven, couldn’t stop mentioning that one!

Anyway, here’s my first “official” speech in “Svenska”; I’m sorry to disappoint you, but it’s not a company’s business brief or something, it’s just about my family; but after 4 months in a row learning, plus the first months here that I spent really with my ears open to learn whatever, this is what we got, judge it yourselves:

Min mamma heter Cristina och min pappa heter Enrique. Min mamma är 45 år gammal och min pappa är 49 år gammal. De träffades varandra i Chihuahua och efter ett år, gifte de sig 1984-år och sedan födes jag. När jag var 4 år gammal, födes min syster Pamela. Jag var mycket glad att jag var inte ensam och vi spelade mycket med varandra. När jag var 8 år gammal, födes min yngsta syster som heter Fany. Sedan flyttade vi från norr till söder i Mexico.


Nu ska jag prata lite om min pappa. Han är jätterolig och han gillar att skogar mycket. Han har brunt hår och vi ser likadana ut men han har en större näsa än jag. Jag är lycka lång som min pappa. Han är civilingenjör och han arbetar i Mexicos stora oljebolag. På fritiden gillar han att göra rent billen och han älskar att polera och rena all sina skor.
Nu ska jag prata lite om min mamma. Hon är vacker och ser alttid ung ut. Hon gifte sig när hon var 19-årig därför tankar all att hon är min syster. Hon har brunt hår och stora ögon. Hon är lite kortare än jag. Hon gilla att lyssna på Barry White, ABBA och mariachis.
Hon gillar att dansa salsa på helgerna och att dricka mojitos ibland. Hon är lite komplicerade och hon gilla att lägga enkelt matt.


Pamela som nu är 22 årig gammal studerar ”grafisk design” och hon bli färdig med studierna detta år. Min andra syskon Fany, hon tror att hon ska bli arkitekt någon dag. Fany har en jätterolig hund som heter Zorak. Han är en Pug, som är mycket ful.


När jag besöker min familj i Mexico, känner jag mig mycket glad. Mitt hem är stort, sovrummen ligger uppe i huset. Ibland träffas familjen i köket, vi gillar det. Vi sitter runt mattbordet och pratar flera timmer.
Det finns 3 familje-medlemmar mär, 2 av de är tyvärr i himlen. Dessa 2 heter Kurt och Dixie. De var mina basta kompisar, Kurt levde 11år och Dixie levde 14år, hon dog i december. De var 2 vackra Bullterrier/Pitbulls, Kurt var tjock och brun, och Dixie var vitt med en stor brun punkt på ryggen. De var mycket vänliga.
Den andra medlem är en papegoja som är 35år gammal och födes innan mig. Hon är konstig och säger alltid fula ord.

Mind Control (lecture’s annotations)

The following is the annotations I made of a guest conference given at the Jönköping International Business School by Martin Larsson of MTG Radio, on September 16th, 2009. Hope you find it useful and interesting. The conference title was “Mind Control” and mainly, the intention of the speaker was to share with us how the understanding of the person’s behavior and brain’s operation it’s a key element when designing marketing communication campaigns.

The strength. One of the first things one has to work on, is to know what is “my strength”. That basically is to know what makes my service/product different and better than the others.

Campaigns centered on the person. There has been recent campaigns of marketing, which have resulted quite successful. For example, we found the Rolex Explorer campaign in which basically the idea was how the “Everest expeditioners faced the challenge without oxygen, but not without Rolex” . The message here is to understand that this successful campaign are “about me”, they are centered in the person, and how as individuals we obtain success.

Disrupt predictability. …Important to attack the “judgement” of the spectator, otherwise they won’t remember the ad.
Also, as creatives, we have to consider the Wernicke’s Area (of the brain); which according to Wikipedia is “one of the two parts of the cerebral cortex linked since the late nineteenth century to speech (the other is the Broca’s area). It is involved in the understanding of written and spoken language.” And the remarkable here is “the Broca”, which we have to stimulate it, as it’s responsible of our “human predictability” (i.e. when you go to sleep, and suddenly you realize that the water pipes are spilling drops and doesn’t lets you sleep because distracts you).

Pavlov. Another science knowledge to take in account is 1904′s Nobel Prize winner: Ivan Pavlov. His studies are the foundation of the psychology of the “continuity, frequencie, repetition” and even more important in terms of branding: emotional anchorage.

Ordinary VS. Innovative
1. Rational Pricing VS. Emotions
2. Time VS. Money
3. Possibility VS. Safety
4. Sight VS. Sound
5. Journalism VS. Creative Writing (ticking Broca)
6. Passive VS. Active
7. Pain VS. Pleassure

IKEA’s wagon sound. The level of innovation in order to catch people’s mind attention, can be seen for example with approaches made by companies like IKEA, where suddenly after realizing that the customers had problems finding the shopping cars; they decided to catch their attention by the “ear”; thus placing speakers with sounds alike shopping cars crashing and being lined up. The problem was solved.

Seven deadly sins planning advertising.
1. Instant gratification (expecting huge sales right after)
2. Reaching wider than the budget
3. Assume decision maker knows best
4. To think “short-term/single Ad” instead of “campaigning”
5. Follow unwritten laws
6. To confuse responses with results
7. Prioritization of production above “the copy”
Examples of Swedish radio advertising, click here. Lyssna på bra radio reklam.

Robert Frank’s photography. Finally, in the visual arts field it is important to consider Robert Frank‘s photographic work. Always distinguished by three rules:
1. What to leave out? Focusing only in the important object (i.e. Children’s faces inside the car, not the car)
2. Where to end it? (i.e. The mafiosos crowd seen from the back, catching Details)
3. Where to start it? (Choosing the angle)

The word “share” in the global society

This came to my mind a few minutes ago, just ended up cooking and cleaning dishes; and following as well with this 2010 new years’ eve in a cold place on earth named Jönköping, Sweden; at -15 degrees… anyway, the word share is quite relevant in what comes to be my lifestyle, perhaps similar to yours.

Starting on the “marketing” area, this word is useful when you want to express “how much slices of the cake” (cake seen as the market, customers and so…) each of the players own.

Moreover, on the digital social network arena, sharing is kind of the ultimate goal of each person who interacts with others in specific networks that can be Facebook (sharing photos, videos, ideas; of your social life), LinkedIn (sharing information, ideas, goals, contacts related to your professional career), Flickr (sharing photography that you can produce either for fun or professional stuff) and basically all of the social networks over Internet. Sharing is the purpose of getting into those “virtual dimensions”, and as a consequence you’ll get a feedback/response of what you share; those are the basic principles in which Web 2.0 emerged.

Changing a little bit of arena, you can also expect sharing to be the ultimate purpose when you simple get to sit down at a café-bar and share your party/job/etc. experiences with your friends or closer people. However, not all the people -in the real context- expects to have feedback, maybe they just wanted to be heard, they just want to share but don’t want you to share them. Weird though.

Let me think about another area… well, basically what I wanted you share with you, is to make you think how our lives are related to the sharing concept -for instance, what I’m doing now is sharing this thought-; I have a feeling that this modus operandi of our society and communities have shaped the way we are, and probably the way we’re going. Goodbye until next -random- ideas… oh, and my best wishes for the 2010!

Beatles’ Everyday Chemistry, a mashed up album?

A couple of days ago I got a link recommendation from a friend suggesting me to read the history of James Richards, a guy who supposedly had an incredible experience traveling to a parallel world to ours, and then discovering that in that ‘parallel world’ The Beatles never broke up and even John and George are alive and rockin’ on. If you are interested in reading the history, which in my opinion if not true, the guy only needs a gentle dose of space cakes to create a Hollywood-esque movie script, anyway read it here.

To this, dozens of bloggers, critics and mainly Beatles hardcore connoisseurs have summed up giving their sharply bladed word, for instance you can find Bungallow Bill’s post ‘Everyday Chemistry Beatles Hoax: The unreleased Beatles’ album? Review’ or Nick Spacek’s post on Pitch Music Blog.

Well, this post is not to discuss the validity of that history, even though is 99.9% hard to believe to be truth.
What I’m proposing here is to break-up each of the songs of the Everyday Chemistry album, which is clearly a mash up of Beatles soloist’s career. Although is not an official album, I have to recognize that this mash-up is starting to like me, specially the second track ‘Talking To Myself’.

By now I just can recall a few soloist songs I identify by hear, but I’ll updated when I’m done reviewing my Beatles library or with your comments, we can work it out together though!

1. Four Guys
Lennon interviewed, Anthology DVD
Band On The Run, McCartney
When We Was Fab, Harrison
I’m Moving On (riff), Lennon

2. Talking To Myself
“I’m Loosing You”, Lennon
“Stuck In A Cloud”, Harrison
“Uncle Albert-Admiral Halsey”, McCartney

3. Anybody Else …my favorite by the way, and I really like it hehe!
“Somedays”, McCartney
“One Day (At A Time)”, Lennon

4. Sick To Death
“Gimmie Some Truth”, Lennon
All By Myself, Ringo Starr
“Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)”, Harrison *
“Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”, Harrison *
Some brass still unidentified *

5. Jenn
Jet, McCartney
Hard Times, Ringo Starr *
Dialogue from ‘A Toot and a Snore in ’74′, Lennon*
And another unidentified Guitar Riff *

6. I’m Just Sitting Here
Give Me Love, Harrison
Watching The Wheels, Lennon
I Feel Fine, The Beatles (alike guitar riff)?
The title comes from the lyrics of Watching The Wheels as well

7. Soldier Boy
Listen To What The Man Said, McCartney
Isolation, Lennon

8. Over The Ocean
You Are Here, Lennon, J. (Album: Mind Games)
Title also taken from “You Are Here” lyrics

9. Days Like These
Nobody Told Me (riff), Lennon
Soft-Hearted Hana, Harrison *
Nobody Told Me, Lennon *
Take It Away, McCartney??

10. Saturday Night
Cold Turkey, Lennon
Vatican Blues, Harrison

11. Mr Gators Swamp Jamboree
Flying, The Beatles (Album: Magical Mistery Tour)?
Mommy Miss America, McCartney, P. *

Update 2010-10-12, check the update on track #8… thanks at *John Laidlaw for updates as well!

The difference between Product and Brand?

“A product is something that is made in a factory; a brand is something that is bought by a customer. A product can be copied by a competitor; a brand is unique. A product can be quickly outdated; a successful brand is timeless.” Stephen King, WPP Group

On-air at “What Shakes”, CJSW 90.9FM

Click here to listen/download What Shakes, CJSW 90.9FM (Apr-28-2009)

Hello friends, just writing to update you about what I’ve been doing. One of those awesome things are my volunteer activities at CJSW 90.9FM, where finally I got to put my words “on-the-air”, today at 11AM during the arts and concerts segment named “What Shakes”, co-hosting the show with “the royal” Katie, Volunteer and Office Coordinator of CJSW.

The content of the audio segment is:
- Recommendations for the Visual Arts field of shows in Calgary and closer cities
- Music: What’s Bad About Feeling Good, Ben Lee
- 3 recommendations for the Performing arts
- Music: Nigeria 70′s, Shango by Peter King
- Final comments, contact details and a brief discussion about Zoé
- Reptilectric, Zoé