Welcome to the August Hour News update. This is our first post using Word Press so bear with us.

The news:

Right now it’s 70 degrees and sunny at 9:10AM on Saturday.

We’re working on a few projects right now.

For Wellspring Resources/MTTI we’re working on a graduation video projection for their graduation ceremony.
For Dry Basement & Foundation Systems we’re preparing some podcasts and radio ads for their foundaiton repair services.

We just uploaded our new demo reel.

“I scream at you for sharing
‘n I curse you just for caring
I hate the clothes you’re wearing, they’re so pretty
‘n I tell to not to see me
‘n I tell you not to feel me
‘n I make your life a drag, it’s such a pity
‘n I watch your warm glow palin’
‘n I watch your sparkle fadin’
As you realize you’re failin’, cos you’re so good”

– Ian Hunter/Mott the Hoople

I still don’t completely understand what Ian was talking about in that song. But I guess, knowing Ian the way I don’t, that he would say it’s about what it means to you and I, not him.

So I’m putting them out there for who ever reads this.

Tell me what they mean.

I spent some time with an old and very important friend last night, Tug McTighe. Tug’s an ace copywriter at Sullivan Higdon and Sink. You should note that Tug is responsible for some of the most entertaining and elevating work right now in the advertising business.

Remember when the Lucky Town campaign was running and funny? Although he wouldn’t take all the credit, Tug was the guy behind that. Also, he wrote some GREAT scripts for Gold Bond Medicated Powder ads which never saw the light of day. Which is too bad because damnit, rashes, itch and chaffing ARE funny.

Tug and his buddy John January have a great podcast called American Copywriter. They make some very astute observations of popular culture, advertising, marketing, etc.. It’s not the typical, stodgy “corporate” schtick. These guys knew about Seth Godin’s purple cow before it became a management-by-best-seller stratagem (note my corporate speak; “stratagem”).

Anyway, Tug and I talked about how much better reality is than anything we could concoct. Not the humiliation packaged as “reality” on TV. But people being their selves, read that again, people being their selves. It’s why a day on the streets of new york watching people go on about their lives is infinitely more compelling than going to a play or any of the typical tourist attractions. It’s why talking to friends about their families and lives means more than sitting around watching TV.

And it’s why, in spite of having more beer in one night than I’ve had in the last year, I don’t feel the least bit horrible for having spent time in a bar with my old friend. In fact, I feel better for it.

Saturday night a friend and teacher came back from the dead.

Alejandro Escovedo is easily one of the best songwriters living among us. He’s also a very very dear friend and, through his songs and words, has saved my life more times than he knows. He’s one of a few reasons why I still make music and art.

Well, about two years ago he collapsed after a show from the effects of hepatitis C. He nearly died. Given one of my musical mentors had passed a couple years earlier from cancer, the blow of Al’s situation refocused my perspective and reminded me how important it is to make a difference in this world.

But I digress.

Lately I’ve been struggling with finding the larger, global reason that I do what I do. When I was touring and writing songs it was clear; the music we made was for anyone who would listen. I tried to infuse some reason to live, love and look at the world into every song we wrote. But in doing this video production and graphic design, the “global rationale” is a little murkier.

I know the specific reasons for what I do; help the client get their message across.

But what does August Hour do for EVERYone. Mankind. etc..

I know some would say that is not the point. But it has to be the point, for me at least.

So I was really ruminating over this question Saturday night when I went to see Alejandro play for the first time in two years. In addition to all the excitement and anxiety of seeing Al for the first time in years; wondering how his health was, wondering about the show.

Well, the show was top notch. You never would have guessed that this 53-year-old man had been near death just a few months before.

Late in the set Alejandro introduced a song as one of the new ones they were working on. It’s called “I Died a Little Today” and it’s one of THOSE songs; the kind that mixes the beautiful and the personal into something perfect.

So there I am, listening to this song and I realize that this man hasn’t lost a step. I’m on the verge of tears because . . . well . . . when you see and hear something so beautiful if you have any kind of heart at all you bawl like a mother at a wedding. And just as the tears start Alejandro looks down at me and smiles. It’s a smile that says he’s glad you’re there and so happy and humbled that he gets to do that for you.

And I remembered something he told me about 8 years ago. We had just been playing some songs for these kids in a head shop here in Kansas City and we were back in the van waiting for the rest of his old band Buick MacKane to get in. And Al says, did you see what you were able to do for those kids with your voice? You have an amazing voice and you can make people fall in love with your voice. You always need to remember what you can do for people with your voice.

It occurred to me that a voice doesn’t always have to breath through a microphone in a bar or on a CD. Your voice is anything you do to communicate with others. Art, design, video, music, speaking, riding a bicycle — anything you do to express yourself is your voice.

And Al’s right. We can move people once we find our voice. And we all need to remember what we can do for anyone with our voice. We can bring jaded old assholes to tears with our voice. We can create a life with our voice. We can make people fall in love with our voice. We can make people see worlds they’ve never seen before with our voice.

Given all this, why would any of us want to be silent? And why would any of us want to be careless with our voice?

Thanks Al.

Jai Guru Dev(a) om

May we all die a little today.

We shot our short short a couple weeks ago, Zen and the Art of Flying Pigs. In it a young boy, Zen, has a problem in that pigs can’t fly. He solves this problem not by throwing money at it, but by using his imagination.

After we finish editing and scoring it we’ll upload it to the site.

But it brought up one of the things I’ve always noticed in the world of marketing, business, and creativity. People like to throw money at problems, but they rarely throw their (more cost effective) creativity at them. Businesses seem to stick to their old patterns, lowering the bar and staying safe no matter how much it costs them.

Creativity and imagination are the most cost effective tools a business has and you don’t need to hire some ad company or marketing consulting firm to find it. To turn away from the best idea, the most creative way of doing it, and turn towards the old, mistake-ridden methods you’ve used before – just because that’s how it’s always done – is just throwing money at something.

Maybe it’s my years in the music world where you had no choice but to be as effective as possible with no money at all – using only your creativity. But to me this rises to the level of cardinal sins in business.

Next to never ever ever re-hiring someone who was terminated (not laid off) I think you should NEVER EVER EVER throw money at something instead of imagination.

I’m trying to develop a demo reel of cinematography for the company. The problem is; I have lots of footage of non-people subject matter. But finding compelling characters for the montage I want to create is a challenge. Maybe it’s just the heat, and my desire not to shoot in it.

Maybe it’s that all the compelling looking people are avoiding me.

I don’t have any answers.

I could sit here and shoot squirrels all day long. One is finally trying to climb the tree to Judi’s squirrel feeder. It rotates, so he’s pissed at it.

Maybe there’s something compelling here after all.