Notes From A Clever Ogre: florida

Showing posts with label florida. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Ogre Shawn Knows the Key Code: It’s F#m

Alright, listen up. If this is your first time here, look around a little. This is the final installment in our Clever Ogre “What are the ogres listening to?” blog series. We’ve talked about all kinds of different music, from Christopher’s old school jams to Nora’s punk bluegrass (Punkgrass? Blunk?) across to Dadant’s reggae and Dan’s jam bands. We finally had a chance to catch up with ogre Shawn and get his take on the listen.

When we found him, Shawn Grimes was sitting in a dark cubicle in the corner of the basement. It smelled like a coffee shop in a cave. He was wearing headphones and typing away like a crazy person. Shawn is Clever Ogre’s front-end web developer. He doesn’t work in words or images, instead he uses special characters, acronyms, and abbreviations to do his work. In other words, he’s free to rock his music loud and constantly.

So, loud and constant it is. If Shawn is streaming music he’s either using rdio or Pandora. He cranks his headphones to drown out all external sounds allowing him to dive deep into codeland. When coding, he turns to his favorite band, 311, for good tunes. Alternately, if he’s in the mood for mostly lyric free music, he’ll listen to Deadmau5, Skrillex, or some other dubstep-electronic grooves.

If Shawn finds himself cleaning the house or doing other non-web related work, he listens to a wide variety of music. Of course, 311 makes a return, but he also likes to throw in Mumford & Sons, Jimmy Eat World, Sufjan Stevens, Sublime (even with Rome), Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed, and pretty much any 90s alternative including Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Stone Temple Pilots. Old habits die hard, indeed.

On the off-chance he finds himself with little to do other than relax, he puts on some Pink Floyd or Adele. The melodies of Adele and lingering instrumentals of Pink Floyd allow his mind to rest. It’s tough when a person thinks in <html dir=”top”> <head> all the time. A little decompression is important for everyone, but for a programmer it’s kind of like when a daycare worker is finally able to be around adults and have actual adult conversation.

Phew. That’s 100% of the ogres. Do you think you’ve gotten some good tunes out of this series of blogs? There certainly has been a wide variety of artists in these posts. If you dig or hate any of the bands mentioned, let us know. We’re all over the place and ready to hear from you.

You’re already clicking around the internet. Click here to check us out on Facebook and here to Tweet us. Oh, don’t forget to click here to go to our website.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Music is My Literature – the writing ogre listens

If you’ve been waiting for our next ogre music blog, your wait is over. If you haven’t, hopefully you’ll be waiting for the last one – which will be out after this one.

By now, we hope to have turned you on to at least one really good band or artist. Have we succeeded? We can’t hear you or read your thoughts, so please nod at your webcam. Cool. Speaking of music, we recently told you Christopher listens to a lot of really good, but obscure, music; Chris Dadant likes his music melodic, driving, and jammin’; and Nora likes a little punk in her bluegrass. What about Dan?

Dan Fugate is Clever Ogre’s writer and social media manager; sometimes he even does graphic design. Writing doesn’t afford the same listening freedom as social media and design, so he has a couple of listening trends. This has been bittersweet for the one-time loud singing jam band enthusiast.

Being a writer, you might expect Dan to be a voracious reader. Well, he’s not. He goes after and gets into music the way other writers devour books. He often says “Music is my literature.” We believe him. When he’s writing, music generally leans toward instrumental stuff. Widespread Panic, the Grateful Dead, Phish, the London Symphony Orchestra, and Deadmau5 are where he turns for lyric free tunes.

Behind the social media and design wheels, Dan likes to add the lyrics back into his listening. The same jam bands from before are present, but also folks like: Mumford & Sons, MGMT, Keller Willaims (who he’s going to see at Vinyl in May), the Black Keys, and Ok Go.

Dan also has a soft spot for female singers. The emotion that comes through is “so powerful”, he says. When he’s in the mood for lady listening, he turns on: the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Feist, Mates of State, Tori Amos, Regina Spektor, and Sugarland. Melt and swoon.

He will listen to most anything once and he’s found he has no place in his heart for rap, r&b, or the heavier rock/metal stuff. They have too much anger and screaming for his liking. Dan has a bit of music snobbery in him too. He’s of the belief if a band can’t perform as well on stage as they can in the studio, they’re not worth his time. He says he’s just about stopped listening to Modest Mouse after seeing them live.

Alright, readers, that’s 80% of the ogres down. Now, if we can track down Shawn Grimes we’ll feature his preferences next time to round out this musical exposé series.

Let us know how we’re doing. Have we turned you on to any new music? Sound off on Facebook or Twitter.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

What the Lady Prefers

Welcome back! Last time, we started a series of blogs dedicated to each ogre’s musical preferences and listening habits. If you read that blog, you now know what kind of music Christopher Davis enjoys and when. You also know he’s a bit of a music snob. This go ‘round, we’re going to discuss the lady ogre’s musical taste.

Nora Jones loves music like no one we’ve ever known. One time, she referred to music as her Xanax. We’re assuming that means it relaxes her and helps when things get too stressful. Either that, or it’s a drug that requires a prescription and she’s hiding her addiction from the public. (Hmm, a daily dose of music doesn’t sound like a bad medication.)

She’s constantly on the lookout for a new band to get into. Relix magazine is a good source for interesting tunes, and their monthly compilation CD showcases the artists featured in that particular month’s issue. Other sources for new music are Paste Magazine’s website, Spinner.com, and Spotify.

There is not a particular genre of music Nora sticks to and her listening is steady across most moods and activities. She has an affinity for punk band members who’ve gone solo and broken away from their punk roots. Among her favorites are Tim Barry of Avail, Dallas Green of Alexis on Fire, and Ben Nichols of Lucero. Though she doesn’t limit herself to one particular genre, bluegrass is far and away her favorite type of music. Her love of bluegrass and interest in punk has drawn her to bands like Old Man Markley, who’ve created an interesting blend of the two musical styles.

Like every audiophile, Nora has a specific preference for when she’s feeling sullen and down. On the rare occasion when something is troubling her, she likes to listen to mellow sounds like Adele or Florence and the Machine.

Alright, that’s two down and three to go. Up next…maybe Chris Dadant.

Do you share Nora’s musical preferences? Get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter and let us know.

Thanks for reading.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

AAdvertising Dollars Well Spent

Have you gotten this phone call?

“Hello, may I speak with the business owner or whoever is in charge of advertising and marketing decisions?”

It’s the Yellow Pages or one of the other phone book companies, and they want your business to advertise in their publication. What to do? What to do? Well, you have two obvious options: buy an ad or don’t. It’s that simple. The decision, however, might make you want to commit hari-kari.

There are pros and cons with each. So what’s new? Everything has a dark side, even duct tape. A lot of businesses still advertise in these directories, and they’re one way to get your name out there. People will see your business name, and maybe a little blurb about what you do, but that’s it.

In the not-so-distant past, this ad space was priceless. If your business wasn’t listed in the yellow pages, then your potential customers couldn’t “let their fingers do the walking” and find you. Of course, if you operated Wilson’s Whitewash, your listing would be well below AAble Whitewashing Company. As a result, you probably got a lot fewer calls. So, even though it was incredibly important to be listed in the telephone directory, there were still drawbacks.

Fast forward to today. When was the last time you pulled out a phone book to look up a number? It’s more likely that you use the book as a booster seat at the Thanksgiving dinner table. It’s going away, and replacing it are Google rankings and search engine optimization. A well programmed website will go a long way to increase your chances of landing a job when a potential customer searches for a whitewashing company. The old trick of adding a couple of “A”s to your business’ name to beat out the competition are over. Good riddance to bad practices.

Even if you and your audience are not computer savvy, there are still better ways to spend those advertising dollars. Instead of buying a phone book ad, consider a billboard or vinyl lettering on your company cars. Remember, not everyone is going to see the van driving down the street with Wilson’s Whitewash emblazoned on the side, but a lot more will see that than the phone number buried under little Timmy’s tush.

If you want to explore your options, find the best place to put your money, contact an ogre for a free consultation. We have a phone. The number is 850.912.4203. We’re on Facebook, Twitter, and at cleverogre.com. You can even email us.