Gregg Fraley

When I’m traveling one of my rituals is to drop by an airport bookstore and pick up something entirely new. I do a quick survey of what’s hot, and poke around for some hidden gems. It’s often quite difficult to pick out a book; there’s just too much to choose from. Last week, under the gun to get to my gate, I begged help from a shop person and, I’ll be damned if she didn’t pick a winner.  ShopClass As Soulcraft is a newish book by Matthew B. Crawford. The subtitle is “an inquiry into the value of work”.  I guess it wasn’t too much of a risk, it’s a “notable” book by the New York Times, and a best

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I found a compelling book while running to catch the train. Picked up 59 Seconds, think a little Change a lot on the run and have devoured it in just a couple days. The author is a British professor, Richard Wiseman. In the spirt of the book, this will be a 59 second analysis. What this book is all about is untangling the myths around self-help. As a self-helper in my own right I found his research to be thorough, and his insights to be significant. Actually there a goodly number of eye opening insights in 59 Seconds, and delivered in highly digestible, non-academic, bite-size bits. Further, Wiseman provides actions steps that can be done in less than a minute,

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I read with interest a recent article in the New  York Times about the resurgence of interest in hallucinogens. As a child of the 60’s and 70’s it was one of the most common creative myths of all back then — that to be truly creative you had to do drugs. In my social circle of the time, mostly budding artists or film makers, nearly everyone experimented. The myth started even before the 60’s though.  Musicians like Louie Armstrong were doing songs about marijuana as early as the 1920’s.  “Muggles” was recorded by Louie back in 1928 (It’s on iTunes and well worth a listen). Fats Waller recorded “The Reefer Song.” The myth of the link between drugs and creativity

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I feel compelled to write something about J.D. Salinger. I loved his work and read all of it, which sadly for fans such as I, wasn’t really that much.  Beyond Catcher in the Rye, there was Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories, and Raise High the Roombeam Carpenters, and Seymour an Introduction. This is his body of work. And, what incredible work. These stories are gifts, they are some of the richest, most colorful, romantic, accessible, entertaining, and multi-layered fiction written in the last 100 years. For me personally it was an introduction to writing as an art form, but also to the world beyond my provincial Cincinnati. It was a glimpse into Oz-like New York, into genius, insanity, fantasy, humor,

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Branding is something we are imprinted with at a subconscious level. I saw this guy at Hobgoblins, a quite ordinary guy, but with this poofy quiff.  I asked myself why? The result is this drawing. Non-Americans might not get the Bob’s Big Boy reference, click here and you’ll see what that is.

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Briefly noted, a quick from-the-field pop culture report. How many lives can a show biz cat have? I was shocked, and delighted, to see Mickey Dolenz featured on a poster in the London Underground.  Apparently he has the part of Wilbur Turnblad in Hairspray. Dolenz is well on his way to becoming the Mickey Rooney of his generation, at least in terms of longevity. He’s 64 and still doing new things. Mickey (now known as Michael) Dolenz is most famous for being the drummer and a singer in 60’bubble-gum pop group, The Monkees. The Monkees were crassly commercial but had some nice moments in spite of it.  Mickey became a decent drummer and a very good song stylist — The Last

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I can’t let the moment go by without saying something about the recent death of Studs Terkel. Studs was 96 years young when he died October 31, 2008. I have one degree of separation from Studs — I have Chicago friends who actually know him. I’ve heard him speak, only a few years ago when he was “only” 91. His lunch keynote at the QRCA conference was as lively and relevant as any speaker you could wish for. If you are unaware of this man, read his bio here.  I have a few comments to make about him related to creativity and innovation. Briefly, Studs was an award winning writer, broadcaster, actor, and a civil rights/civil liberties activist. He interviewed the

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I just returned from spending a couple days in Liverpool, the city of  The Beatles.  I stayed at the new Hard Days Night Hotel, sleeping below a huge air-brushed portrait of George Harrison. I’ll write more about the hotel, it was, to use a 60’s phrase, a trip. In the meantime, I have a lot of things to say about The Beatles, and their relationship to creativity and innovation. I spent an afternoon at The Beatles Story museum at Albert Dock, which had a great audio tour and memorabilia. The anecdote that struck me was one told by their producer, George Martin. He recounted hearing the first tape of The Beatles and thinking it was awful. Brian Epstein, their manager, was insistent

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It occurred to me that I don’t often share my very different thinking and frankly wacky ideas. I have a lot of ideas. I get paid to have them for my clients and because they are in the corporate for-profit context I’m not able to talk about them. However, I have ideas about a lot of things, products, the environment, government, services that just come to me from out of the blue (and observations). Here are a few I’ve been thinking about lately in no particular order. Feel free to send me builds — that’s what blogs are for. 1. Create a Great American Car I heard Bill O’Rielly on the radio a couple days ago and he was talking

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