New Blog Home

Dear Friends and Readers. I’ve moved my blog to a more permanent, well-designed home. Please check it out at chriswalbert.com.

In Rainbows by Radiohead

As pretty much everyone knows by now, Radiohead released their new album, In Rainbows, today. The album isn’t available in stores or on iTunes, only directly from Radiohead. The band basically shocked the music industry when they announced on October 1st that they would be releasing this album themselves, without the backing of a label. A much bigger deal was the fact that there would be no set price for this album. Instead, Radiohead believed that people, when given the choice, would pay a fair price for the album.

This is genius, and actually works, for so many reasons. First, they didn’t release any promotional copies to radio stations, stream new songs on MySpace (they don’t even have an official page), or allow the album to leak in any way. They merely announced 9 days ago that they had a new album coming out and told you where you could get it.

The Wire is On Demand

That’s right. The best show on television can be viewed on Comcast On Demand right now. Season 1 will be available until October 28. Then, hopefully they will continue playing the other seasons up until Season 5 premieres in January 2008.

I watched episode 1 last night. Even though I’ve seen it before, I still love watching The Wire. This show is just so well written and real. So much so that it can almost be hard to watch some times. Season 1 is really focused on the drug game and the battle between Avon Barksdale’s crew and the police. The most notable quote from this episode is when Carver, a detective, says this about the drug war. “You can’t call this a war.” Why’s that? “War’s end.”

Fastest 3 Miles

Last night, I ran my fastest 3-mile run to date. My overall pace was 7:57 per mile, finally breaking that 8-minute mile time. Yesterday was a beautiful, hot, humid October day. After a somewhat trying day at work the run was exactly what I needed.

I decided to run to the song Let Down by Radiohead on repeat. It’s a beautiful song, but not something you’d think of as a running song. For whatever reason, I just wanted the repetition of that song over and over. And each time the song restarted, it was just as good as the first time.

Dove’s Onslaught

I’m sure just about everyone saw last year’s highly praised Dove campaign entitled “Evolution”. The short film depicts a seemingly average looking woman being transformed by makeup, lighting, and Photoshop, into a beautiful supermodel. For those of you who did not see it, or need a refresher, here’s the video:

Today, Dove launched their follow-up to Evolution with a short film called, “Onslaught”. Here it is:

As you can see, Onslaught shows the insane barrage of “beauty” messages that young girls receive on a daily basis. This campaign directly supports the Dove Self-Esteem Fund, with the goal of reaching 5 million girls by 2010.

Christmas Party Sponsorship

Let me run an idea by you. This is one of the things that I really enjoy about blogging. Sometimes you just need to get an idea down, and see if it’s worth pursuing.

As anyone who knows me in real life knows, each winter for the past 5 years, whatever house I’ve lived in has hosted a large, semi-formal Christmas Party. Each year seems to get bigger and even more fun. Last year was an absolute blast. Throughout the night we probably had 150 people in our Hampden duplex, each of whom was well-dressed, somewhat well-behaved, and definitely enjoying themselves.

An idea came to me this morning, as we have already begun planning this year’s party.

City Paper Best of Baltimore Party

Last night was the annual Best of Baltimore party hosted by everyone’s favorite free alternative weekly, The City Paper. And what a party it was. Held at the Museum of Industry on Key Highway, this year’s event had many things working in its favor. The venue was great, food was excellent, beers were free, and there were lots of people enjoying themselves on a beautiful Baltimore night.

As is typical with most large party-type events, I spent the majority of the evening hanging with my good friends. Mingling really can’t begin until everyone has had a cocktail or two anyway. I also had a chance to talk to some of the good people that work at the City Paper and, for some reason, continue to invite us back to their events.

Also, the view from the outdoor patio at the Museum of Industry is one of the nicest in the city. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures to post soon. It looked like some of the shots they show when the Ravens are on Monday Night Football. One of those views that reminds you why you love this city so much.

DC Advertising Week

Today marks the beginning of DC’s Advertising Week. While it’s not as large or as flashy as New York’s, DC Ad Week still seems worth a visit.

Tomorrow, I’ll be heading down to DC, well Northern VA really, to catch day 2 of the event. The topics being discussed tomorrow include, “Digital and Online Marketing’s Latest Trends & Tools”, “The ROI of Going Green”, “That’s So Two Hours Ago: Successful Strategic Planning in an Era of Massive Media Change”, and others. The full schedule can be seen here.

The Need for Change

The beginning of a new season always seems to bring with it the desire for something new. I’ve experienced this feeling nearly every time the seasons change for the past few years. It’s a feeling that is hard to describe, but it’s as if my body, understanding the change that is happening in the atmosphere, is craving an equal change for itself.

Over the past 6 months I’ve experienced some major changes. I moved, started a new job, joined two different community-based volunteer programs, and ran my first triathlon. Despite these new experiences, or maybe partially because of them, I can’t help but feel the strong need for a significant change.

I usually think of the desire for change as being birthed from a negative experience. People look for new jobs because they don’t like the one they have. Or, people move because they don’t like where they live. But I really like where I work and the people I work with, and I live with one of my best friends, and I’ve also really enjoyed the new things I’ve become involved with.

A Day at the Track – Now with pictures!

To most of us, Labor Day signifies the end of summer. What better way is there is close out the summer than to gather 20+ of your closest friends for a day at the horse races?

Yesterday, a group of us hopped on the Light Rail with coolers in tow and headed up to Timonium Fair Grounds. Horses raced every 30 minutes from 1 pm until 5. I bet on almost every race but didn’t win a single one. I did, however, manage to only lose $20. Two of my friends won $70 each on one race, and a bunch of others won a few bucks here and there.

This was my first time actually watching and betting on horse races. It was an absolute blast. It’s just so much fun to hang out with your friends, cheer on horses and gamble. Check out Mike’s blog for some excellent pictures of the day.