What About Paris? ™

« May 23, 2010 - May 29, 2010 | Main | June 06, 2010 - June 12, 2010 »

June 05, 2010

Change, and its basics: Nova ex veteris

W.C. Williams (1883-1963)

But the trick in mid-2010 is to think new but fast. Change in human thinking likely occurs in the extraordinary moments of the most ordinary, the most "dumbed down", and the least enlightened times--but only if you add some painful "stressors". We've got all those.

And regarding ordinary and dumbed down. My travels have convinced me of this: despite the love and light that struggle to shine through in every human being I meet, we a truly "devo". Five hundred years from now, we will be referred to as living in the Age of Human Spam. We hide, rationalize and cower. We are desperate to conform the lowest and most common form of activity. We have not learned anything from our old men or from history. We have no genuine class--we don't even want it. Very few of our children are "special"; most of them are educational failures, sloths and cultural retards. The self-esteem thing backfired. The best these kids will contribute is a masterful command of Cliff Notes.

If T.S. Eliot were alive today, chances are good that a misanthropic stroke, heart attack or other breakdown would have prevented his completion of "The Hollow Men". We not only love mediocrity, we compete on it, and for it. On standards alone, Eliot would have flipped out on this planet right now.

So much for sweetness, light and puppies from me today. But June 5, 2010 certainly qualifies as our extraordinary moment in this the most dumbed down of all human times. That's wonderful. An opportunity. This Saturday morning, three problems with "no end in sight"--nearly everyone (including elites) with less money, global political tensions, and the Gulf oil spill (day 47) with no end in sight and too close for anyone's comfort--might amount to the right formula.

This is the way the world begins. My fellow suits call it a new paradigm. Poets have called it lots of mysterious--if less goofy and annoying--things. William Carlos Williams called it a New Mind, and Dr. Williams thought of it as "the cure". He wrote that

unless there is
a new mind there cannot be a new
line, the old will go on
repeating itself with recurring
deadliness:

without invention
nothing lies under the witch-hazel
bush...

(By the word "invention" Williams did not mean a better mouse trap or a new widget.)

So what do you do? You pick the New Mind you want everyone else to have--and get to work. Chances are your peers are thinking the same thing.

We say whip it.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

To Ray Ward: We're not worthy--but thanks.

We "don't care what the neighbors say". We never will. We do get compliments--but rarely from people who, like you, put both sentences and Western culture together in cogent ways.

And to be mentioned along with Peter Friedman, who we also admire. We be duck walkin'. Thanks, sir.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:01 PM | Comments (1)

June 04, 2010

Hull McGuire's first print ad in 1998

Misty water-colored memories. In early 1998--after 5 years in business, armed with some extra cash, to experiment, and because "why not?"--the still-new 'muscle boutique' of Hull McGuire PC ran its first print ad in three East Coast newspapers for eight weeks.

Yesterday Dan Hull told me (though the ad he wrote was "way too windy") that in the second week one CFO from a now storied start-up excitedly called the firm's Pittsburgh office from an airport just to congratulate the firm.

For 12 years ago, the ad was, certainly, prescient. The text:

"IS THIS A GREAT TIME TO CHANGE LAW FIRMS, OR WHAT?"

Doing business has changed. But many law firms haven't.

They still charge for "services" and overhead no corporate client should have to absorb. Like associate lawyer training. Duplicative conferences. And senior lawyers who will never understand or care about your business.

The product is disappointing. Service and follow-up are only words. The monthly bill makes you nuts.

Stop being the equipment in games lawyers play. At Hull McGuire, we focus on clients, and solving their problems. We build lifetime relationships with businesses of all sizes.

IT'S TIME, ISN'T IT?

HULL MCGUIRE PC
Washington DC Pittsburgh San Diego

Corporate Planning, Transactions, Tax. Intellectual Property, Telecommunications. Litigation, Employment Practices, Environmental. Legislative, International.

GCs: Don't be compromised by generic law shops. (not in 1998 ad)

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 01:26 PM | Comments (1)

June 03, 2010

The BP Spill: Jann Wenner gets passionate, real, smart.

We don't have the link--but do read in this month's Rolling Stone magazine (RS 1106) Wenner's compelling editorial and call-to-arms on the Gulf spill in "Please, Mr. President". Everyone likes this one. If you don't know who Wenner is, don't read this blog. It's too late for you.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)

Akron: We Are Devo.

Editor's note: This week Holden does time in northern Ohio. Dude, it's not so bad. Ever been to Ada? A corn-fed girl works hard, tells the truth. She can hurl an over-sized fridge 50 feet.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:17 AM | Comments (2)

May 30, 2010

Who doesn't miss Dennis Hopper?

"Zap 'em with your sirens! Zap 'em with your sirens!"

<

Dennis Lee Hopper (1936-2010)

Posted by JD Hull at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)