by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
When I was growing up, America's opinions were shaped by a handful of influential people whose advice on any subject under the sun (but usually national affairs and politics) could be read, first, in newspapers... then heard on the radio and television.
These are great names, masters of pungent comments, wry humor, intelligent observations, and refined styles all their own. Here is my (partial) Honor Roll... one could add many others, the very best of the very best:
Westbrook Pegler of the United Press (died 1969).
H.L. Mencken of the Baltimore Sun (died 1956).
Edward R. Murrow of CBS (died 1965).
Walter Winchell of New York Daily Mirror (died 1972).
Paul Harvey of ABC (died 2009).
And now another name, destined for greatness and the prosperity that generally accompanies it, can be added to the list:
YOU!
I'm here, your advisor and friend, to assist your rise to global eminence, as Internet blogger and meaningful commentator par excellence.
The Internet has made it possible to become such a commentator. You now have a power, and at your fingertips too, previously reserved to the few; now available to anyone.
You are now able to comment on and draw forth the true meaning of events great and small, events of cosmic significance and the little secrets that someone (usually office holder or government official) didn't want anyone to know, thus motivating the commentator to be sure to disclose.
Now you can be a new, soon to be important voice... a voice of humanity, intelligence, stern admonitions and home truths, resoundingly delivered. In short, you can be an unceasing engine for truth, justice, and the improvement of mankind, in a style and with a spin all your own. Kool.
Here's how to begin and prosper.
Most bloggers, think small, picayune, trivial. You cannot.
Their authors, that is, chew more than they bite off. (Sadly, I cannot take credit for this telling mot. Mrs. Henry Adams rendered this artful observation on the ponderous American author Henry James. She later killed herself, but probably not as a consequence of this remark.) Your view must be different, broad, cosmopolitan, catholic in the best (non-sectarian) sense.
If you want an important blog, write on important subjects. This formula is tried -- and true.
Always talk directly to your readers.
The great commentators of any age and culture never address the world en masse. They talk directly to you, as in a personal conversation between someone with Something Important to say... and someone anxious to learn it, all of it.
Use your blog to tell stores.
People need more than facts, assertions, and (worst of all) windy pontifications to attract them, though this is what they get from most blog writers.
People have always liked... and will always like... interesting tales. Great communicators like Jesus, Gandhi, Franklin Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln were expert at capturing the full attention of their audiences... and what's more, keeping it with stories with a beginning, middle, end.
Develop a format. Make it your signature.
All the great commentators, like the ones listed above, delivered their comments in a certain, defined way which the folks who followed them immediately recognized. You must do the same.
Enter into the lives of the people you are commenting on... and the ones you are delivering your comments to.
The best commentators enter into the situations and conditions, nay into the very skins and brains, of the people they are writing about. This is what gives their comments an edge and credibility.
The goal of the great commentator is most assuredly not to set up a card board effigy of the person he is writing about. That's unfair, inadequate, infra dig.
The objective, instead, is to show that you truly understand the people and events you are writing about... then make your comments about them, pungent, fair, honest, aphoristic accordingly.
This is not easy to do... but it is what great commentators do... and which makes them irresistible to readers.
Avoid pedantry, but never the chance to instruct.
The purpose of a blog is NEVER to show how smart you are. It is to inform, educate, edify and instruct your readers, all done with the lightest, but always sure, touch. In short, it about enhancing their smartness...never merely dazzling with your own.
Thus, don't use your blog as the opportunity to demonstrate how clever and intelligent you are. Commentators are not, and always eschew the opportunity to be, ponderous. That's the role of too many professors from the Academy. Such people do not flourish, in blogs or elsewhere, because their readers flee andante.
You must capture and enthrall them, not as professors do by forcing attendance, but by entrancements, the apt selection of topics, the masterful presentation of what you have to tell... and the unique way you present it.
Master the great information sources you will come to rely upon to glean critical facts for your comments.
Read, on line now, the New York Times and Washington Post, to name but 2 key sources. These publications, soon to be history because of the Internet, will inspire you with both facts and story ideas. Scrutinize them closely.
Use too the Associated Press reports and those of UPI and Reuter's. They are crucial for providing both story ideas and the hard details which give your commentaries backbone and grit.
Learn to master the art of searching the great search engines, where the crucial supporting information is available whenever you require it,which means whenever you want a comment taut, never flaccid, girded by fact.
Use the Wikipedia, one of the greatest information sources ever. It is a noble idea, essential to commentators, ever available. Bravissimo.
One last thing. Set your blog publishing schedule... and stick to it.
Your readers want, indeed insist upon, predictability and regular delivery of your blog. Give it to them. If your publishing date is each Thursday at 12 noon Eastern time... adhere to it, religiously. "Punctuality," as King Louis XVIII of France observed, "is the courtesy of kings."
Nowadays your readers are the sovereigns, each and every one. Succeed with them... and your results and benefits, financial and otherwise, are assured, abundantly so. These are your masters, your audience. Treat them accordingly and soar.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Elspeth Anderson http://onlineprofitsite.com/. Check out The List Edge - http://www.OnlineProfitSite.com/?rd=cv2C3aRv
Saturday, 19 February 2011
Monday, 14 February 2011
An appreciation for the life and more innocent times of Gladys Horton, Marvelettes lead singer, dead at 66.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author's note: To get yourself in the mood for this article, go to any search engine and find some of the tunes of Gladys Horton and her Marvelettes, particularly "Please Mr. Postman" or "Don't Mess with Bill." Kick off your shoes and remember Gladys Horton was all about a catchy rhythm and grooving at the soda shop with your main squeeze. Put on your head phones, close your eyes, and it's 1961. Gladys Horton, just 15 years old, is on top of her game...
To think of Gladys Horton, you must first of all remember her times. Dwight David Eisenhower still cast his mantle of security over the nation, although as Gladys' tunes hit the top of the Hot R & B/Hip-Hop Songs and the crucial Billboard Hot Singles, John F. Kennedy was getting himself nominated for President, spending daddy's money lavishly.
It was a time when good girls were expected to fight for their virtue in a known ritual that left that virtue intact... and their boyfriends exhausted. Good girls did.... but only after securing a tangible token of the boyfriend's affection. And it all occurred against a background of music, including that all important dance music... loud, raucous, catchy, blaring in every teenager's life.
Denizens from those mellow years like to call them innocent, romantic, simpler... and perhaps they were. But if you were a poor black girl from Inkster, Michigan they were anything but uncomplicated. For you had your way to make in the world with just your slender talent... and your one shot was a new record company situated on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit.
This was Motown, and though America didn't quite know it yet, this was about to become the most important place in the world for teenagers everywhere. It was ground zero for that frustrating, elusive beat that Motown executives needed and which they became so very good at finding.
Gladys Horton, in 1961, was in the right place at the time right. And, right from the get-go, she was lucky. She came as part of a quintet... but though Motown eschewed groups of 5, ordaining that only groups of 3 were welcome.... this day they made an exception and allowed this larger-than-usual group to audition before Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson. Gordy was looking for his first Big Hit... and he had a feeling about these girls.
They passed this audition... and this break proved to be their launching pad. So far... so good. A second audition was scheduled.
The second audition got down to the business of finding a song for the group now called the Marvels. Pianist William Garrett had a few ideas for a blues tune he titled "Please Mr. Postman." It was unfinished, only a few words, no music. That didn't matter. Motown was about to prove it knew the secret of spinning dreams (and money) from next to nothing. It's what made them great. Gladys Horton (and Georgia Dobbins who wrote their first song, although Garrett got the credit) helped show them the way...
"Please Mr. Postman" was the result. It was sweet, it was snappy, it had the right "good girl" message... and most important of all, America's teens could dance to it and let themselves go.
Gladys Horton and the soon-to-be-called Marvelettes began the high flying ride of their lives and, for this exceptional moment, they were living their dreams... while they relied on the unflagging energy that comes with youth... to show themselves to a nation that just couldn't get enough of these peppy girls, their simple message, and that beat, that wonderful beat. "Please Mr. Postman" was their elevator to heaven and for a while, that wonderful while, it took Gladys and the Marvelettes where they all wanted to go: up!
That was the good news.
The bad news, although they wouldn't know it for some time, was that that sweet little tune, their first record, was destined to be their most popular and biggest seller. In other words, the moment when life was sweetest would prove be a flicker, a tease. They had peaked... and they weren't even 17.
Still, they didn't know this yet and Berry Gordy and Motown remained committed to these girls... for a while. After all, they had delivered when he needed a hit and needed it Now. And so, in due course, there were 21 Hot R & B/Hip-Hop Songs and 23 Billboard Hot 100 hit singles. Of these hits 3 were Top 10 Pop singles, 9 were Top 10 R & B singles; their debut was #1 on both charts.
It was good... but it wasn't quite good enough. And, besides, there were the usual cat fights, personnel problems, and mistakes, including an embarrassing gaffe on American Bandstand in 1962.
None of this would have mattered had the girls had Talent, that elusive je ne sais quoi that no one can quite define... but which we all know when we see it.
A girl named Diana Ross had it... Gladys Horton didn't, quite. But without Gladys Horton and the 6 other girls who, at one time or another, were members of the Marvelettes, there might not have been a Diana Ross. Berry Gordy, after all, cut his teeth on them... Katherine Anderson, Wanda Rogers, Anne Bogan, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart, Georgia Dobbins.... and Gladys Horton. They helped build a great empire that transformed American culture at a time of American greatness. Moreover, when all is said and done, they had a longer and more fruitful run than most of these fragile, evanescent girl groups and their boy group counterparts.
Now Gladys Horton is dead too soon of a stroke, January 26, 2011, aged just 66. But (some of) her music will live on. My favorite is "Too many fish in the sea." (Released 1962). It has legs... look it up... and dance! You won't be able to help yourself; your toes will tap...the true legacy of the Marvelettes... and Gladys Horton.
For more information, see Girl Groups, Girl Culture: Popular Music and Identity in the 1960s. Routledge; New Edition February 2007 by Jacqueline Warwick.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books and an avid art collector. Republished with author's permission by Elspeth Anderson http://onlineprofitsite.com/. Check out The List Edge - http://www.OnlineProfitSite.com/?rd=cv2C3aRv
Author's note: To get yourself in the mood for this article, go to any search engine and find some of the tunes of Gladys Horton and her Marvelettes, particularly "Please Mr. Postman" or "Don't Mess with Bill." Kick off your shoes and remember Gladys Horton was all about a catchy rhythm and grooving at the soda shop with your main squeeze. Put on your head phones, close your eyes, and it's 1961. Gladys Horton, just 15 years old, is on top of her game...
To think of Gladys Horton, you must first of all remember her times. Dwight David Eisenhower still cast his mantle of security over the nation, although as Gladys' tunes hit the top of the Hot R & B/Hip-Hop Songs and the crucial Billboard Hot Singles, John F. Kennedy was getting himself nominated for President, spending daddy's money lavishly.
It was a time when good girls were expected to fight for their virtue in a known ritual that left that virtue intact... and their boyfriends exhausted. Good girls did.... but only after securing a tangible token of the boyfriend's affection. And it all occurred against a background of music, including that all important dance music... loud, raucous, catchy, blaring in every teenager's life.
Denizens from those mellow years like to call them innocent, romantic, simpler... and perhaps they were. But if you were a poor black girl from Inkster, Michigan they were anything but uncomplicated. For you had your way to make in the world with just your slender talent... and your one shot was a new record company situated on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit.
This was Motown, and though America didn't quite know it yet, this was about to become the most important place in the world for teenagers everywhere. It was ground zero for that frustrating, elusive beat that Motown executives needed and which they became so very good at finding.
Gladys Horton, in 1961, was in the right place at the time right. And, right from the get-go, she was lucky. She came as part of a quintet... but though Motown eschewed groups of 5, ordaining that only groups of 3 were welcome.... this day they made an exception and allowed this larger-than-usual group to audition before Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson. Gordy was looking for his first Big Hit... and he had a feeling about these girls.
They passed this audition... and this break proved to be their launching pad. So far... so good. A second audition was scheduled.
The second audition got down to the business of finding a song for the group now called the Marvels. Pianist William Garrett had a few ideas for a blues tune he titled "Please Mr. Postman." It was unfinished, only a few words, no music. That didn't matter. Motown was about to prove it knew the secret of spinning dreams (and money) from next to nothing. It's what made them great. Gladys Horton (and Georgia Dobbins who wrote their first song, although Garrett got the credit) helped show them the way...
"Please Mr. Postman" was the result. It was sweet, it was snappy, it had the right "good girl" message... and most important of all, America's teens could dance to it and let themselves go.
Gladys Horton and the soon-to-be-called Marvelettes began the high flying ride of their lives and, for this exceptional moment, they were living their dreams... while they relied on the unflagging energy that comes with youth... to show themselves to a nation that just couldn't get enough of these peppy girls, their simple message, and that beat, that wonderful beat. "Please Mr. Postman" was their elevator to heaven and for a while, that wonderful while, it took Gladys and the Marvelettes where they all wanted to go: up!
That was the good news.
The bad news, although they wouldn't know it for some time, was that that sweet little tune, their first record, was destined to be their most popular and biggest seller. In other words, the moment when life was sweetest would prove be a flicker, a tease. They had peaked... and they weren't even 17.
Still, they didn't know this yet and Berry Gordy and Motown remained committed to these girls... for a while. After all, they had delivered when he needed a hit and needed it Now. And so, in due course, there were 21 Hot R & B/Hip-Hop Songs and 23 Billboard Hot 100 hit singles. Of these hits 3 were Top 10 Pop singles, 9 were Top 10 R & B singles; their debut was #1 on both charts.
It was good... but it wasn't quite good enough. And, besides, there were the usual cat fights, personnel problems, and mistakes, including an embarrassing gaffe on American Bandstand in 1962.
None of this would have mattered had the girls had Talent, that elusive je ne sais quoi that no one can quite define... but which we all know when we see it.
A girl named Diana Ross had it... Gladys Horton didn't, quite. But without Gladys Horton and the 6 other girls who, at one time or another, were members of the Marvelettes, there might not have been a Diana Ross. Berry Gordy, after all, cut his teeth on them... Katherine Anderson, Wanda Rogers, Anne Bogan, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart, Georgia Dobbins.... and Gladys Horton. They helped build a great empire that transformed American culture at a time of American greatness. Moreover, when all is said and done, they had a longer and more fruitful run than most of these fragile, evanescent girl groups and their boy group counterparts.
Now Gladys Horton is dead too soon of a stroke, January 26, 2011, aged just 66. But (some of) her music will live on. My favorite is "Too many fish in the sea." (Released 1962). It has legs... look it up... and dance! You won't be able to help yourself; your toes will tap...the true legacy of the Marvelettes... and Gladys Horton.
For more information, see Girl Groups, Girl Culture: Popular Music and Identity in the 1960s. Routledge; New Edition February 2007 by Jacqueline Warwick.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books and an avid art collector. Republished with author's permission by Elspeth Anderson http://onlineprofitsite.com/. Check out The List Edge - http://www.OnlineProfitSite.com/?rd=cv2C3aRv
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