Author: I. E. (IrishMyths.com)
An Introduction to Celtic Music [slideshow]
With St. Patrick’s Day fast approaching, playlists will soon be filling up with “diddly-i-o’s,” “mush-a ring dum-a do dum-a da’s,” and “no-nay-never no more’s.” And while it’s easy for even the most musically illiterate person to hear a Dubliners’, Clancy Brothers’, Chieftains’, or Pogues’ song and say definitively, “THAT’s Celtic music!” – getting that person to explain WHY it’s Celtic is a totally different story.
About a year ago, I sought to explain those distinctive aspects of Celtic music that make it so…errrr, “Celtic-sounding.” In addition to using several online resources, I found the textbook Focus: Irish Traditional Music by Sean Williams (available in the Kindle Store) incredibly helpful. My research complete, I presented my findings to my office in one of our weekly “Lunch & Learn” presentations.
Embedded below are the slides from that presentation, which was originally titled “An Interactive Introduction to Celtic Music.” The interactive parts included having my coworkers identify different instruments and having them write a Celtic song using a Mad Lib-style approach. I also gave a live demonstration of some of the instruments that are common to Celtic music (namely, guitar, Irish bouzouki, mandolin, and bodhrán).
Sláinte! (Cheers!)
St. Patty’s Day Teaser Tune (on Irish Bouzouki & Guitar)
My “Whiskey in the Jar” intro…full-length song coming soon!
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Presidential Birthdays [infographic]
Required Reading for Content Creators
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
–Stephen King
Want to know how content can help businesses succeed and how content creation/content marketing fits into the broader context of inbound marketing? Check out:
- The New Rules of Marketing & PR
by David Meerman Scott
and/or
- Inbound Marketing
by Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah
Ready to learn about content strategy, creating a content schedule/calendar, and best practices for producing specific types of content, such as blogs, webinars, white papers, and podcasts? I highly recommend:
- Content Rules
by Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman
Want to convince your boss that giving valuable content away for free is “totally groovy, man”? Go with:
- Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead
by David Meerman Scott & Brian Halligan
Struggling to find that creative spark? Trying to build a pipeline of ideas for blog posts and other content? Tired of books that use too much marketing jargon? Try wrapping your brain around:
- Disciplined Dreaming
by Josh Linkner
and/or
- A Whack on the Side of the Head
by Roger von Oech
Ready to take a break from “business” and read something just for funsies? (Also, are you upset by the deplorable lack of zombies in the above-mentioned books?) Sink your teeth into:
- The Walking Dead
by Robert Kirkman, illustrations by Tony Moore & Charlie Adlard
Further reading:
Check out the Content Marketing Institute’s list of “Five Content Marketing Books You Need to Read.”
Know of other books that would be helpful for content creators? Leave a comment below!
Happy Valentine’s Day, Juliette! [infographic]
3 Tips for Being Creative This Valentine’s Day
For cupid’s sake, make your Valentine’s Day card from scratch
Anyone with five bucks and half a brain can go to the corner store and buy a card. And while giving your valentine a store-bought card is certainly a more thoughtful gesture than not giving a card at all, hand-crafted is definitely the way to go. Hallmark might do a better job of crafting cliche, lovey-dovey Valentine’s prose, but you can certainly do a better job of sharing sentiments (and inside jokes) that only your loved one will fully understand and (ideally) enjoy.
Ideas:
- Go old school – I’m talkin’ construction paper, glue sticks, glitter, etc. (Just be careful with the scissors.)
- Go digital – Bust out the Photoshop (or other design program) and create a card. Better yet, create an infographic that provides a visual representation of how much you love your valentine.
It ain’t about the money, honey: play to your strengths
Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be Spend-All-Your-Savings-on-Jewelry-and-Flowers-and-Other-Crap Day. Instead, it can be a day when you show off your skills and give a gift that you’ve created with your own blood, sweat, and beers. Or tears. (Tears optional, beers recommended.)
Ideas:
- Musician? Write a song about how and when you first met your significant other.
- Chef? Whisk your valentine away to Paris with a romantic, home-cooked French dinner. (Bon appetit!)
- Accountant? Ummm, I’ll get back to you.
Give the gift of an amazing memory
Not something that will be kept in a jewelery box, tucked away in a drawer, or thrown away (e.g. flowers). An amazing memory can last a lifetime (and yes, I’m aware that sounds incredibly lame and Hallmark-y). But think about it: If, hypothetically, you’re a dude who gives your girlfriend chocolate and flowers for Valentine’s Day, how unremarkable is that? Years later, will your girlfriend say, “Hey, remember that Valentine’s Day…when you gave me chocolate and flowers? How awesome was that!”? Answer: No, she will not. So instead, think about crafting a moment that you can both revisit years later.
Ideas:
- “Remember that Valentine’s Day…when we drank hot cocoa inside the snow fort you built for me?!”
- “Remember that Valentine’s Day…when you took me to the aquarium and that penguin kissed me?!”
- “Remember that Valentine’s Day…when you took me up to the roof of that building and we had a picnic and watched the stars?!”
Boston Irish by the Numbers [infographic]
I was in a pickle: I wanted to create an infographic but didn’t have Photoshop or Illustrator. Fortunately, a graphic designer friend of mine recently pointed me toward infogr.am: a free infographic creation site that – for better or worse – takes design out of the infographic equation and let’s you focus on data and copy. With infogr.am, you simply choose a template, then drag and drop different elements (text, images, graphs, etc.) onto your “canvas.”
The coolest feature of the site has got to be its selection of interactive charts and graphs. For my “Boston Irish by the Numbers” infographic, I created an interactive chart that allows you to view the percentage of residents with Irish heritage in Boston and other communities in the Boston area. (Unfortunately, the screenshot below is static, so you can’t interact with it here!)
You can view the full “Boston Irish by the Numbers” infographic here.
Team Creativity Exercise: Monster Mash
Here’s a collaborative creative exercise that I recently ran with my company’s content team. As you may have gathered from the gruesome examples below, the exercise requires that participants draw monsters. But more specifically, each participant is assigned to one section of a monster: head, torso, or legs. The final image isn’t revealed until all of the sections have been completed.
What you’ll need:
Pens, paper, and at least three participants.
Step 1:
Fold a sheet of paper into thirds (see above examples).
Step 2:
Have the first participant sketch the head of the monster and fold over the paper so no one can see what he or she has drawn.
Step 3:
Have the second participant sketch the torso of the monster and fold over the paper so no one can see what he or she has drawn.
Step 4:
Have the final participant sketch the legs of the monster and unfold the paper to reveal the finished monster.
Rinse & repeat as many times as you’d like!
(FYI: I found this exercise on the iD Tech Camps blog. It’s a great source for creative exercises and inspiration.)
Kitchen Creation: Pulled Pork Nachos
What you’ll need:
- Bone-in pork shoulder
- Apple cider vinegar
- Cola
- BBQ Sauce
- Tortilla chips
- Shredded cheese
- Toppings (jalapenos, green onions, etc.)
- Slow cooker
- Oven
- Phone number of a well-respected cardiologist
Step 1
Trim off any excess skin/fat from the pork shoulder.
Step 2
Put the pork shoulder in your slow cooker (setting: Low) and pour in some cola and apple cider vinegar (roughly two-thirds cola, one-third vinegar). The majority of the pork should be submerged, but don’t worry if some sticks out.
Step 3
Put the lid on the slow cooker and go away. Read a book. Fly a kite. Sketch a Sasquatch. Bottom line: You’ve got to let that pork shoulder cook for a looooong time. Five hours is good. Seven hours is better. Ten hours or more will make for some seriously tender pork.
Step 4
Pull the pork (i.e. take the shoulder out of the slow cooker, separate all the meat from the bone, drain the slow cooker, then put the meat back in).
Step 5
BBQ sauce bath! Drench the pork in BBQ sauce and let it cook for between 30 minutes and an hour.
Step 6
Spread some tortilla chips on a baking sheet, pile some pulled pork on top, throw on some cheese and toppings, bake in the oven, and voila! Pulled pork nachos.
Erik Devaney 