Welcome to the New Frontier

“I hear you’re mad about Brubeck...I like your eyes, I like him too. He’s an artist, a pioneer. We’ve got to have some music on the New Frontier!” When Donald Fagan (half of Steely Dan) penned these words more than 25 years ago, he created an interesting time warp. Written around 1981, these lyrics spoke about the life of an artistic young man growing up during the Cold-War Fifties, overcoming his fear of the nuclear age, as he was coming of age. Now in 2007, the song “New Frontier” is indeed a classic that shouldn’t be missed. Exactly how long a song must wait to become a classic is subject to debate, but get this. Shortly after it was released, a friend made a cassette copy of this album for me. Loving the music so much, I quickly purchased the CD, and added it to my collection. Now, years later, that same friend has bequeathed his entire vinyl library to me, which contains…you guessed it…the album from which the cassette tape copy was made more 25 years earlier! In my case, the song was a classic before I finished hearing it the first time. The rest of Fagan’s first solo effort, “The Nightfly” is equally enchanting, but we’ll discuss that in more detail later, that is to say...in the future!

In our ‘New Frontier’ the fascination with the future has been traded for a fascination with the past! Whoever is responsible for the phrase, “Everything old is new again,” was obviously a keen observer of society. An entire cable network, TV Land, is now devoted to keeping the classics alive, while the TV program, That 70’s Show, is an obvious reminder that we enjoy reliving our past. As humans of the 21st century continue to cram more events into the same 24-hour period, VH1 has come to our rescue. In their attempt to create an instant reply of life, the music video channel brings us, The Best Week Ever. This program has taken the notion of nostalgia to its practical limit with a review of what happened last week!

I’m going to take this idea to the extreme now, and write a review of something you just read moments ago. Remember the first paragraph? Wasn’t it enjoyable? Did you notice how I referred to a classic song that defies categorization? The inclusion of lyrics was also a nice touch. How about the way I drew parallels between between when it was written, and the time period it was recalling? By the way, Dave Brubeck, the artist Fagan was singing about, will be performing at the U.T. Tyler Cowan Center, tomorrow night. Will I be there? Count on it! For my next feat…I’ll connect all of this with a nice, tidy summary paragraph.

The blog you’ve been reading is an introduction the never-ending school of marketing in the New Frontier, taught by yours truly. As you were reading this, I exposed you to one facet of marketing, known as Public Relations. I made mention of three separate things that you could possibly spend your money on, without making you feel like I was trying to sell any of them to you. Do you know what they were?

What I hope to share with you in future posts about marketing will be educational, entertaining, edgy and perhaps alliterative. It will sometimes be personal, often humorous, but mostly observational. Why do I share all of this with you? As a grad student of life, I’ve learned that giving is actually receiving. Sounds odd, but consider this. Nobody can simply ‘give you’ the satisfaction of helping others. Only when you choose to give someone your time and knowledge, will you receive the feeling of helping another. This is the basis for my desire to write this blog. I’ve spent my lifetime learning from others…parents and relatives, schoolteachers, co-workers and corporate leaders, and an array of experts too long to list. Now it’s my turn to share what I’ve learned with you. I’ll close with this, “Standing on the shoulders of giants, we reach heights beyond our own grasp.”