A Personal Letter From Steve Martin

From Letters of Note (thanks, Shaun Usher!): “Until very recently I’d heard numerous tales of Steve Martin‘s humorous responses to fan mail, but frustratingly had never seen such a letter; thankfully that situation was remedied the other week when I chanced upon the following note, apparently sent by Martin in the early-80s, post-Jerk (ahem), when he was at the top of his game. Written on his production company‘s letterhead to a fan named Jerry, this personalised form letter – in particular the post-script – is further confirmation that almost everything Steve Martin produced during that era was incredibly funny.

Transcript follows. Discovered via Letters of Note at Chattering Teeth.

Transcript

The Aspen Companies
Aspen Film Society
Aspen Recording Society
Aspen Merchandising
Aspen Artist Management

A PERSONAL LETTER FROM STEVE MARTIN

DEAR Jerry ,

WHAT A PLEASURE IT WAS TO RECEIVE A LETTER FROM YOU. ALTHOUGH MY SCHEDULE IS VERY BUSY, I DECIDED TO TAKE TIME OUT TO WRITE YOU A PERSONAL REPLY.

TOO OFTEN PERFORMERS LOSE CONTACT WITH THEIR AUDIENCE AND BEGIN TO TAKE THEM FOR GRANTED, BUT I DON’T THINK THAT WILL EVER HAPPEN TO ME, WILL IT Jerry? I DON’T KNOW WHEN I’LL BE APPEARING CLOSE TO YOU, BUT KEEP THAT EXTRA BUNK MADE UP IN CASE I GET TO Flint.

SINCERELY,

(Signed, ‘Steve Martin’)

STEVE MARTIN

P.S. I’LL ALWAYS CHERISH THAT AFTERNOON WE SPENT TOGETHER IN RIO, WALKING ALONG THE BEACH, LOOKING AT rocks.

A Personal Letter From Steve Martin.”

Pioneering Presentations: Creating Art Through Technology

On the subject of public speaking and innovations to the mediums of presentation, a lot of focus has been given to David Byrne’s creative genius and artistry with the Microsoft application, PowerPoint. Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information, as he calls it, has been featured in many art exhibits since its debut several years ago and has now been reproduced in a DVD and companion book for purchase. His PowerPoint creations are particularly inventive for creating, in Jungian terms, a new neural pathway for our collective conscious…contriving a liaison between creating pure, specious art executed through a rational Microsoft application.  It’s so brilliant and unexpected, it’s almost an oxymoron in and of itself — creating abstruse, ethereal concepts within the boundaries of a defined executable script!!

Wow, breaking barriers in conceptual thought…I hope he rewarded himself with an afternoon off for having single-handedly reset the thresholds of Cartesian philosophy!  This is, of course, above and beyond his tremendous musical legacy, mind you. [In sharp contrast, sometimes I feel pleased with myself just if I make it over to Costco...or finish all of my laundry!]

But just as almost every new conceptual thought is constructed on the shoulders of our philosophical forefathers, David Byrne’s radical art nouveau opened a critical path to re-thinking the presentation of ideas and concepts through the platforms and applications of pc technology.  Enter Gapminder.org, founded in 2005, a Swedish organization that has re-engineered the presentation of statistics into beautiful, moving pictures. This powerful translation of statistics into an evolving story – right before your very eyes – not only translates statistics into language-based concepts, but imparts the lay spectator with access and a sense of ownership to the concepts and  – the story!

Let me phrase this in a different way: cast your mind back to high school, the English Literature class in your Senior year…what was the most difficult book you read? The one that was so hard for you to grasp…do you remember? The words, sentences, syntax and chapters were there, but it was just so hard to see the meaning behind it all!  Was is The Stranger by Camus, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Kundera or Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky?  Then (Heavenly Father be praised), your teacher let you watch part of the movie adaptation – and all of a sudden, the emotions, the motivations, the sequence of events – i.e. the story – came flooding out of the TV and straight into your brain!  A bolt of lightning blazed through your mind and – presto!  The cerebellum processed all of the details in the novel, linked them to the center of your limbic system and emotional comprehension and…. you finally just GOT it!!

That’s what Gapminder’s proprietary technology does with statistical data, in almost the reverse-but-same method of David Byrne’s art-through-technology creation — the Gapminder group makes technology translate into moving art!  By taking the measured, defined data, inserting it into an executable technological application and revealing the art and story behind the statistics they have found a way to “unveil the beauty of statistics for a fact based world view” !

Here is a paragraph from their mission statement: Gapminder is a non-profit venture promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels. We are a modern “museum” that helps making the world understandable, using the Internet.

This video presentation by co-founder Hans Rosling is a must-see and it will completely transform your thoughts on effectively presenting statistical data.  Set aside several minutes and watch his video, entitled “Debunking Myths About the Third World.” Enjoy!

more about “Debunking myths about the “third worl…”, posted with vodpod

To Be or Not To Be: Grammar is the Question!

Dr. John Austin was the Chair of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Georgia State University during my undergraduate degree program.

Although – on paper – he taught me advanced German language courses, he also taught me to have an infinite appreciation for Linguistics and Grammar. He pointed me towards fantastic books, such as Baugh and Cable’s “History of the English Language”, Noam Chomsky‘s books, and riveting concepts – like understanding the connection between German-English (they share a common predecessor language) through a discussion of the Great Germanic Consonant Shift of (circa) 300AD. He would also give language advice, and once described to me that language acquisition and strategic family relationships could maintain up to 2 separate languages inside the environment of a 3rd language. (i.e. Mother-Child can speak one language, Family nucleus can speak another language…then into the 3rd language of the environment outside the home.)

Cool stuff, right? Way to get my linguistic geek on!!

But apart from his book recommendations, concepts and advice, one particular phrase he stated in class reminded me of the main complaint featured in a recent article I read the other day.

Dr. Austin said, “Grammar should be DEscriptive and not PREscriptive,” meaning that grammar should be sensitive to language trends – and should endeavor to update its rules to match language convention, rather than cling to outdated, obsolete language laws – even when they’re far outside common vernacular.

Just to clarify, his point wasn’t that we should abandon lessons about English grammar, or that we should abort any attempts to standardize phrasing or conjugation! But he felt that grammar rules were often being enforced for their tenure, instead of for their accuracy, relevance and validity.

And rightly so, it seems! Martha Brockenbrough posted an article entitled, “Errors That Aren’t: 12 Grammar Rules You Can Toss Out The Window” wherein she brings to light 12 areas where grammar has failed to keep itself current and relevant.  Please read the article!

You’ll see that she is both correct and amusing in her observations, but alas – if she had studied under Dr. John Austin, this would not have come as such a surprise to her!!  With his great quote, she would have been aware of grammar’s stodgy, change-resistant character and would have investigated this grammar flaw a full decade earlier!!

But this raises an excellent point overall, though – who is going to take charge of grammar and keep it accountable to current verbiage? The French have a designated a special organization to deal with language issues, L’Académie française, – but the US does not have a designated body of learned professionals to deal with these issues. So who are we gonna call?

Alles in allem, here’s a virtual toast to Dr. John Austin, a professor of exceptional learning and talent. Thank you for having launched me in -what’s become- my most passionate, personal life interest. Vielen Dank, Herr Doktor Austin!!

Crash Course on Crisis Communications

One of my favorite brand communication blogs that I’d like to share with you is Biz Growth Live:  Bringing Your Brand To Life. Krishna De is the owner/author of this blog and she regularly features great print and digital content for best practices in the marketing sphere.

But she also has an internet talk radio feature wherein she posts interviews with top marketing and communications experts – and I wanted to share the recent Crisis Communications radio show from January of this year that she conducted with Jim Walsh of Walsh Public Relations in Ireland.

Mr. Walsh was a contributing author to the recent book, “Crisis Communication: Practical PR Strategies for Reputation Management and Company Survival,” and the interview captures several essential, introductory points on navigating crises.  If you don’t have enough time to listen to the entire interview, I’ve compiled the points into a ‘cliff notes’ summary below for your use.

So, if you’re not already an expert in the area of crisis communications, make this high-points summary (here below) and interview your first stop!

1) As it pertains to brand management, the perception of your brand is very often the reality.  People judge the value of your brand based on their knowledge and experience of it.

2) Not all companies benefit from having an individual head up a company brand. For some of the large firms, the totality of the company has better brand value.

3) Unlike during the course of normal business, crisis dynamics have a very different personality and quickly devolve into an “us vs. them” situation. For that reason, crisis management should be treated as the process above and around crisis communications.  In other words, it’s important not to get caught up in specific phrasing and word choice deliberation to the detriment of operations during a crisis media maelstrom.

4) Every company should perform some crisis risk assessment – what’s likely or unlikely to happen, and then plan accordingly.  But keep it simple: one phone call, step-by-step task outlines and emphasize consistency.  Then put the prevention measures in place. No crisis response effort can surpass the benefit of having great prevention in place.

5) Establish a cross-functional team to head up crisis management and communications. The planning and implementation will benefit from having a full view of the organization’s needs and operations.

6) Avoid any communication vacuums with the media. Move fast and fill in all gaps, even if it’s just a real-time account of what’s happening (or what’s happened) to-date.  Otherwise, media will rush to fill in vacuums with speculation and and that can lead to potentially negative, uncontrolled perceptions of your brand.

7) Given the 24/7, 365-days-a-year aspect of online media, part of crisis communication should be delegated to watchdog, diligence activities. The first thing to do when brand reputation might be in question is to locate the source of the criticism, identify it, create an appropriate message and disseminate the message to your audience.

Condense Your Love Into Six Words

High school English classes have familiarized us with the oft-cited quote, “Brevity is the soul of wit.”  But when it comes to communicating degrees of emotional intensity and experience in relationships – it can be tough to limit your words.  We can all admit to watching at least a few episodes of Donahue, Geraldo, or Jerry Springer, right? The ENTIRE premise of shows such as these is to encourage people to vent, up to 43mn (+ commercial time), on the disgruntled state of their relationships!  Anytime people probe into potentially emotional subjects (they look more like emotional minefields on those shows), brevity – not to mention wit -  is nowhere near the studio!!

So we can all agree that it’s a challenge to express your relationship in a mere six words.  What could you express about your own love/marriage/relationship in just six words? Think of it as a relationship ‘brand’ that you’re advertising. Would you emphasize…perfection, as in “pure goodness to the last drop” ? Endurance, as in “still going after all these years”? Malcontent, as in “sucks the life out of me”? Or with a hackneyed phrase, such as “always the bridesmaid, never the bride”?

This new book review, Love Boiled Down to Just Six Words, in USA Today amused me to no end with its infinite possibilities for relationship branding, using sincerity and humor! I’ve included it to encourage you, the reader, to contribute your condensed love stories in the comments area below!  And in the spirit of encouraging you to share, I’ll go first:

• “True love doesn’t depend on drama.”

(And I’ll also share the one my husband wrote about how we first met – an unusual, but extremely memorable gift that he brought to my office: “A couch brought me true love.”)

Happy writing!!

Everyone has a Muse…

Everyone has a Muse, and Erin McKean at the New Oxford English Dictionary is my favorite verbal consultant and inspiration! Her presentation here at Google in 2006, on the subject of “10 Things she wants people to know about Dictionaries” helped remind me how much I love words, dictionaries and thesauri.  If you love this, she can also be found at http://www.verbatimmag.com/

Enjoy!