you should know

Okay kids, here are things that I think you should check out and a few things that you should definitely NOT check out...

DO listen to "Only by the Night" by Kings of Leon. It's such a great CD from 2008 that I never gave a chance to until last week.

DO NOT listen to "For Emma, Forever Ago" by Bon Iver. Don't believe the hype. It's terrible.

DO watch the new season of 24. In case you missed the first four hours you can pick them up on iTunes. It's just as addictive and awesome as ever. Jack Bauer is the biggest badass of all time.

DO NOT watch "Burn After Reading". Seriously on this one, especially if you want to keep your eyes. The movie couldn't have ended sooner.

DO cheer for Scott MacIntyre on American Idol. He has impaired vision and plays the piano. Pretty amazing stuff. Oh, and watch this video of the guy with the deepest voice in the history of mankind... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djDH31mv5Xc

DO spend your Valentine's Day evening at the Cain's ballroom listening to Eric Hutchinson open up for G Love & The Special Sauce. He's worth the $24 ticket price himself.

DO NOT be jealous of me going to work our booth at the Chili Bowl for four hours this afternoon.

DO come gamble at my casino today. It's a good idea.

bringing me down

Verizon is making me hate Jim Halpert. Okay, maybe hate is a strong word but I REALLY dislike the Blackberry Strom commercials that feature John Krasinski’s voice. It’s not the actual commercial that I hate. It’s the fact that they’re pairing such an awesome dude with such a crappy phone. I’m a current owner of a Blackberry Curve and I think it’s pretty decent phone. Recently I recently had the chance to have a hands-on experience with the Storm. It’s horrible! I found my Curve much more user friendly and the touch screen definitely could use some work. Now, every time a commercial for this dreadful phone comes on, I get to hear the voice of everyone’s favorite character from The Office promoting a crap phone. These commercials seriously need to stop before it starts to carry over it’s negativity to The Office.

all the small things

Although my taste in music has evolved over the past few years, I still call blink-182 my favorite band. Their music reminds me of growing up and a lot of good times with great friends. Anyone else that's a fan of the band knows that the band broke up in 2005. The break up was pretty messy and the friendship of the two front men, Mark and Tom was crippled. Following the break up, Tom started Angels & Airwaves while Mark and Travis formed (+44). After not speaking for three years, Mark and Tom have finally reconnected and given hope to all blink fans across the world of a possible reunion. The following comes from an interview that Mark did with MTV on the future of blink-182...

"The future is wide open. ... Blink-182 wasn't manufactured by a label, and we weren't making music to make money or for fame. We were three friends in a band, writing music that we loved. That's where it began and ended. Before there's reunion talk, we need to get back to that point again. Actually, we would need to get beyond that point, to a place where you can say to someone, 'Hey, man, I'm not really feeling this,' and be able to argue constructively about the music. Because that's where the best of Blink-182 came into being. The pull between the ideas the three of us had. I've always thought that the three of us each brought something unique and special to the songs, and the collision of those elements made the music what it was. In short, we would need to get back to where we're all close enough friends and artists to be able to tell each other, respectfully, 'Suck it.' My final thought is this: If — and this is a big if — Blink-182 were ever to re-form, it would have to be the most amazing, ridiculous, mind-blowing show and tour ever. I feel like, as bitter as our breakup was, we stepped back at the top of our game, and we'd have to come back even stronger and better than before."

...and this just made my weekend.

catch my disease

As a kid, I was always fascinated with sports team logos. For reasons beyond my explanation, I always got excited when a team would unveil a new logo or a new uniform. This sickness continues to this day, but it has definitely evolved into something much bigger as I’ve become an adult, especially with the profession that I’ve chosen. I guess it was a sign of what was to come for me in my adulthood. It only made sense that a child obsessed with the way his favorite team brands itself would grow up to work in the marketing field. Today, I’m 26 years old and I still look forward to the unveiling of a team’s new logo just as I did when I was 12, but these days it’s not just sports logos that intrigue me as my fascination has grown to encompass all types of branding. Okay, after reading what I just typed I sound a little obsessive and a lot like a self proclaimed expert. Let me be the first to say that is something that I’m not, and that I will never claim to be. We have professionals that work in the advertising world and this is their jobs. I just admire what they do. Having said this, I do think it helps me with my job though and have to be somewhat grateful for it, even if this curse is a little ridiculous.

The reason for me giving you that brief glimpse into this brain of mine was to set up one topic that I plan to write about. As my roommate Jared knows, as well as many of my close friends know, I tend to pay a little too close attention to most types of advertising. I blame a LOT of this on my boss, but I definitely don’t see it as anything negative. For instance, why can’t I drive down a highway without looking at EVERY single billboard? I’ve been taught that outdated signage is something that should have been added to the Ten Commandments. “Thou shall not have outdated signage” was definitely left out of the good book. Anyways, when I look at billboards, I’m pretty much just looking to see if they’ve passed their expected livelihood. And when I see one that’s still up later than it should be, I can’t help but to point it out. For anyone in the car with me when this happens, I do apologize.

For example, on East bound I-44, near Highway 75 there is STILL a board for the new Best Buy location opening at Tulsa Hills in June. Yes, June of 2008. Pretty soon people are going to start thinking that there’s a second store opening up as we’re now in 2009. Just think of the wasted money by still having that board up! I’m guessing at around a total of $10,000. At least we aren’t in a recession or anything.

Now, onto the logo presented at the top of this article. Formally spelled "Wal-Mart", now "Walmart" with a new “burst” next to it instead of a star in the middle of the two words. When I first saw this logo I looked at it closely. I think I looked at it a little too closely. I then thought, “Wow, that’s genius!” To me, the starburst isn’t just a starburst. It’s a W and an M. The three lines at the top make the W and the three lines at the bottom make the M. I was certain that this was the intent of this corporate giant. I expressed my idea to a few friends and coworkers and everyone thought that it was absurd idea. So I researched this new logo online. There are many hypotheses about the logo, including the WM concept, but I’m unable to find a clear cut answer. What do you think? Maybe I’m giving them too much credit…

Well that’s it for my initial post. Thanks for listening to my nonsense. For those of you in the creative world, I would definitely appreciate your input and the same from anyone else that would like to chime in. Also, for any of you out there that are interested in sports uniforms and logos, I highly reccommend that you read uniwatchblog.com It's good stuff. Until next time….

so this is the new year....

...and for some reason, it just feels like it's going to be a good one. Normally, January comes around and it feels like any other time of the year, but this year seems different. 2009 seems full of opportunity. Maybe it's the LONG awaited opening of the new casino....maybe it's the fact that I considered 08 a subpar year...or maybe it's just the fact that I can't help but to be an optimist. Whatever it is, I like it, and I can't wait to see what this year brings.

That's enough rambling from me. In case you don't know me, I'm Kyle and I have a job in marketing at an indian casino. In case you didn't catch it, the name of this blog is definitely a baseball reference. The writing I do on this site will be nothing of specific nature. It will however be awesome. I guess for right now I envision it to give you my thoughts on life, a few music reccommendations, and hopefully good entertainment. Cheers to 2009 and all the good things to come!