Below is email thread forwarded from friend of friend … Accordingly, those doing instructional training videos might want to jump on this opportunity - I know I have! Cheers - cs
=== Email Forwarded From Friends ===
Hey guys - Sorry if this sounds like a commercial - it’s not, but it is such a great deal I wanted to pass it on.
If you have ever needed to make an instructional video by recording the action on your computer screen while you are talking, then you should check this out.
I use a program from the called Camtasia to help friends understand some of the less obvious features in Finale. Even more impressive, I recorded a visual scrolling score while playing the music.
The program I used, Camtasia Studio, normally goes for $299 US. The first time I saw it in action I was absolutely amazed at how cool it was. I’ve been using version 2.0 for awhile now. Right now, the publisher is offering a promo.
They encourage you to download a fully working, unrestricted copy of version 3.13 - in the hopes that you will want to upgrade to their newly released version 5. The publisher (Techsmith) is now promoting their “upgrade”, but version 3 works just fine and really does everything I need.
(Mac Users: This is a .exe file so I believe it will only work on PC.)
To get Camtasia Studio 3, follow these steps:
Download the free trial version of Camtasia Studio 3
Click here to go to a promotion page -> Complete your name, country and e-mail address … Techsmith will send you the software key to unlock the program …
Click here to see the company demo of the program made by Techsmith
There are so many uses for this software, I figured you had to at least know about this.
Saved you $299 too!.
Think of it as a Christmas gift from a frugal buddy …..
For those of you who Santa delivered a Windows Vista machine, be sure to checkout this clip and my recommendation is to return your machine, get your money back, get a new machine with WinXP or maybe jump ship and get a MAC … ho ho ho!
Friday nights used to be date night, but now we’re an “old married couple,” with four-plus years as Mr. and Mrs., and one of the smartest things I ever did was marry her. But I digress; so let me loop back to Friday night, November 16th, when I attended my first Healing Mass at Saint Mary’s in Ridgefield.
The priest at center stage was Father Roy Henderson, and my wife and her people have spoken highly of him over the years; so when Katie, my wife, suggested that we attend his Ridgefield Healing Mass, I decided it would be a good thing to check out, even if on a pseudo date night.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going in. Both of us had our own list of things we’d like to be healed of - some of it physical, some of it emotional and mental, and some of it just plain tactical, like being healed of dead-end jobs and finding bliss in career service to others.
I had heard about the laying on of hands and people falling over with the power of the spirit. I had heard that some people experienced miracles, and yet I had heard from others that “nothing seemingly happened.”
The power of healing and health is something I’m sort of versed in and know that all healing comes from the Source - God. Yet I think I also understand that Source has a management team and that certain Light Managers are like departments and offices in such that some are more efficient in certain areas than others. For instance, why would we call on the Department of Motor Vehicles if we wanted to send a letter? Hence the Post Office and Department of Motor Vehicles are both branches of one government, a government of “we the people,” but still it is more efficient to use Post Office leadership for sending letters and the Motor Vehicle Department for renewing driver’s licenses.
Thus the Heavenly Management Kingdom has its own branches and departments - e.g., Saint Anthony is awesome at helping us find things lost; then there’s the guidance of the departments headed by Archangel Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and other Love Leaders; Mother Mary is awesome with her grace and gift of the Rosary; and her Son, Jesus, God’s Son, is most awesome in His gift of salvation, friendship and inspiring love and brotherhood among all of His Kingdom.
So when a man or a woman is purported to be a healing vehicle for the Divine, I take that seriously and honor their gift and their role in bringing about healing for the rest of us who are not so plugged into the healing lineage.
Father Roy is purported to be such a healer, and Friday, November 16th, was my first opportunity to see him in action. What a gift it was. Not so much because there was wild drama, but more because of the intensity of community and love in the room. Let me explain.
The scene was not in the church but in the auditorium. From the front parking lot, you walked in the doors and down a hallway; then you turned left into the auditorium, which is a rectangular room. As you walked in, the music team was immediately in front to the left, a congregation to their right, and all to the right was rows and rows of congregation, with the altar and priests up front along the long vertical wall. Normally in church, I hear sneezing, babies crying, people coughing and other human anomalies, but not this evening.
Father Roy and his fellow priest performed the Mass according to gospel. Then, after Communion, he started to explain what a Healing Mass was all about, what might happen, and his role in the process. He had such joy and enthusiasm in his manner as he walked from side to side, and he spoke with such relaxed clarity. Even before he started the Mass, he faced the crowd and said, “It’s good to be back in Ridgefield. I see you all haven’t changed.” With this a chuckle rippled through the house and I knew then I was in for a good show, so to speak.
Back to his explaining of the healing process. He mentioned things like why some people fall over and why others don’t. He also touched on the concept that all healing is from God, and all of us are entitled to His Divine gifts as He loves each one of us just the way we are.
That last part hit me as my compulsive nature and desire to keep bettering myself often leaves me unresolved, frustrated and easily beating myself up for the errors of my ways, so the reminder that He loves us just as we are - wow, cool - and a concept worth repeating over and over.
While Father Roy spoke, nobody moved. No baby cried. Nobody sneezed. Nobody’s head nodded with sleepiness. Everybody was fully alert, almost on the edges of their seats, fully processing this man’s authenticity, gracefulness, and sincerity of heart. It was a beautiful thing to observe.
But when it came time to get in line for healing, something occurred to me that stopped me dead in my tracks. As I looked around at those starting to line up, I saw blind people being lead to the front, people being wheeled up in wheel chairs, elderly people who looked frail, others who were bald from chemo and ravages of cancer, young people with mental illness, and a host of others all looking for healing.
And then I looked at myself. What was I doing here? What bag of stuff was I asking God to heal me of, and how did that compare to some of the really intense things others were praying for? All of a sudden, I felt small. I felt ashamed of myself to be asking for something when it could perhaps be given to others. Not that God is limited and that healings are in limited supply, but it was sobering for me to watch others and then look at myself and my little ego bag of stuff.
I remember talking to another healer, years back, and asking him about his process. He mentioned how easy it is for any of us to send love through our intentions to others across the room. I also recalled another conversation with a high-level saintly person who stated that oftentimes we can be healed by just being in the presence of a great healer.
Thus I took both these two data points to heart on Friday, November 16th, and resolved that I had already been healed by just being in the room with such charismatic leadership, and that I should sit quietly in the back row and become a spiritual cheerleader and send loving thoughts to each person in line as they stepped up to interact with Father Roy.
It was great fun and brought tears to my heart and mind. I was amazed not so much at the human spectrum in desire for healing as much as I was amazed at all the love that surrounded each one of them. Parents, friends, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, neighbors from all corners, accompanied each of those who stood in line.
I cheered for God and His creation. I cheered at His grace in gifting us friends and family. I cheered at His Management Team, and I cheered for His miracles.
If only I had pompoms, my cheering would have been physically obvious, but perhaps it was best to leave it as silent cheers for ALL.
The next day, I was walking our dog and bumped into two neighbors who had also attended the previous night’s Healing Mass. Both of them recounted how they had received the gift of miraculous healing and how much they enjoyed Father Roy. It was fun to compare notes, and when I told them a little about my experiences and internal processing, they just grinned from ear to ear.
“Of course, Chuck, Healing Masses are for everyone, and you don’t have to be sick to appreciate the love that is the house.”
And so, thanks to my neighbors, I decided to pen this piece and encourage everybody to attend a Healing Mass. Even if you don’t need it, go put on your spiritual cheerleading cap and go root for those who do. Just don’t get too carried away and try doing cartwheels and splits!
Viva the healers among us, and bravo to the Divine’s Management Team!
To those who are concerned about a “global big brother” resulting from all our digital and global village connectedness, I say humbug and let the global standards roll forth.
I say this partly in jest as I believe there is already a Universal All-knowing being, one who is loving and graceful but really really smart and ever expanding who already knows everything there is to know about each one of us, and on a more serious grounded earthly level, I was reminded recently of the glory of universal standards that come from collective agreements among men.
This reminder came by way of processing international credit cards for Tele-Vision DVDs. Up to now, most of my e.commerce exposure has been with processing Canadian and US credit cards.
As running start fyi, early on most of CoolTea’s credit card sales were for event tickets, thus we didn’t care too much about what your billing or shipping address was as you had to come to the event to get the deliverable.
But along the way, Mastercard and Visa started charging bill backs for merchants who failed to run AVS (address verification system). One day, six months after a big event where we had charged $5,000 worth of tickets, I was aghast to see an additional charge to our bank account in the way of several hundred dollars.
I called my Merchant bank and said, “What gives - where are these charges coming from?” and as politely and professionally clean as any large institution can do, they did their best to explain that these were billback charges from Mastercard and Visa because CoolTea did not pass the billing address information to the banks during the real-time credit card transactions.
I tried to explain that CoolTea was in the event business, and the likelihood of some hacker buying tickets with a fraudulent card and then showing up at the event was very unlikely, but they just laughed at me and said, “Sorry - take it or leave it. If you want to accept Mastercard and Visa, gotta play by their rules.”
CoolTea had been capturing your address info just-in-case we needed to call you or send mail but had not been passing this info along during the transaction.
Okay, ouch to bill back lesson ,and when we started passing the address info to banks, double ouch. Our customer service calls started to climb.
“Hey Chuck, why was my card declined?”
It turned out that most of the cards were valid but did not pass the AVS code verification - e.g., most of the time it was a simple faux pax by a customer in that they were at work using their personal cards but entered their work address; or it was the reverse - people working at home using their corporate cards but entering their home address. Most of this got cleared up when we changed our online forms and improved the language about billing address entered needing to match 100% with what is on file with banks.
I should also mention we were always getting your card’s three digit security code but Mastercard and Visa didn’t give us a break - they still wanted to see matching billing addresses, otherwise they would charge us more points.
There is nothing more frustrating than looking at accounting statements and thinking it was all settled and done, only to find a couple of months later that Mastercard and Visa decided to penalize us.
So fast forward and CoolTea has a wonderful e.commerce system, no more charge backs, almost no customer services calls, and all is good, until we ventured into the international scene.
First it was funny stuff like different characters for other languages - e.g., Norwegians have some funny characters, and no, I’m not talking about people, but literal text characters that are considered “high level ASCII” - you know, the E’s with the funny slants on top, the O’s with double dots, etc.
So these funny characters wrecked some havoc with our banking transactions. We got around this with some data scrubbing before passing the variables to the banks, but then AVS bit us again.
In particular, our German customers started complaining, “Hey I know my card is valid, my address is valid, my 3-digit code is valid, so why are you bouncing my card and transaction?”
This triggered my auto neurosis of “Now what have I done and missed” but alas, I came to find out after much technical digging with gateways and banks that there is no AVS with most of the international banks.
It’s not my fault that most international banking systems cannot confirm their customers billing address in real-time, so now what? Don’t do AVS and pay more points, don’t accept international customers, or ..??..
Suffice it to say we found a solution - some logic under the hood that says, “if US/Canada customer go this way, otherwise process it this way”, and now the international cards from around the world are going through the system without hiccups - at least for now until somebody changes the systems or rules, etc. - a reminder of the golden rule, “those with the gold rule” and since CoolTea is not on par with Mastercard/Visa’s gold, so be it and let’s learn to flow.
Which brings me full circle to standards.
The 1980s IBM PC is a great example of the explosion of growth that can occur when we collectively agree to open standards.
MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) is perhaps the most profound example of benefits from standards, but unless you are musically inclined and want to gig and share your music with other like-minded creative folks, it is perhaps a tad esoteric for the average person who is not musically inclined, so let me jump to open standards we all can relate to.
Without the alphabet (e.g., here are 26 symbols that mean this) and grammar (e.g., here is how we arrange the alphabetic symbols) and other open source frameworks like musical chords, notes and scales, what kind of a planet would we have, and how enriching would our lives be?
Thus I say, standards, especially open source, collectively agreed upon ones, are a good thing - even a beneficial thing and necessary for free, open democracies that win with growing markets.
After all, and looping back to credit card processing, I am grateful for the service that Mastercard and Visa provide. I am mindful of the thieves, scoundrels, and risks that the likes of Mastercard and Visa endure. And yet I am committed to providing our customers with the most efficient shopping experience possible that balances et al.
In summary - viva the open standards enthusiasts - and back to my opening point about already being known by some other intelligence - double bravo to accountability and transparency!
Do you know somebody who would love to learn the principles of mixing audio and video on a computer and produce Hollywood-like films from the comforts of home?
For less than twenty bucks, you can own (or gift) Ethan Winer’s Tele-Vision DVD which is packed with over three hours of audio/video educational content.
Below is a seven-minute promotional trailer on Youtube that Ethan recently created to augment the DVD description on his site and clarify the educational values packed into his DVD.
Essentially the DVD contains two music videos, plus three hours of additional content showing in detail how the videos were made.
The educational content on the DVD ranges from intermediate to advanced, split between on-camera technical explanations and screen-cap videos showing details of EQ, compression, reverb, etc. and other mixing decisions.
The tutorials cover both the audio and video aspects of production including video editing, green screens, lighting, using multiple cameras, and much more.
It’s not a beginner’s how-to guide for connecting a microphone to a sound card, but it will be useful to anyone who wants to see how a sophisticated video production is put together.
While downloading music from online stores might be all the rage with iPod enthusiasts, business people could learn a thing or two about how to leverage their knowledge by selling audio content that is made available as digital downloads.
Consider three doctors from New York who recently released their new book, The Somatic Companion - Your 30 Day Emotional Makeover, as both a traditional audio book (cds plus printed booklet) and as a digital download (mp3 audio files with pdf version of the booklet).
This is a seven hour audio course that will change your life in 30 days, and CoolTea is honored to have created their CoolTea Store with our new digital download technology.
For customers on the go who travel and commute, downloading mp3 files to your computer’s hard drive then transferring to your favorite portable mp3 player (zoom, ipod, etc) makes tremendous sense. Not only is the digital version less expensive, it is available immediately upon successful checkout so there is no wait for shipping.
In these days of instant gratification, I’m really excited by this new download option. Part of the trick was how to make the download files private, meaning unavailable off the web root of the server and also making the download link secure so that it could not be shared with others - e.g., somebody pays for digital download and gets idea to highlight the url path (and code) in their browser’s url bar, then copies it to text file and forwards to friends with “Hey - I just bought this cool program and here is link if you want to go get a free copy on my nickel - just paste this link into your browser and enjoy.”
Our CoolTea technology does not use cookies (which can be easily hacked and/or forged) but uses a proprietary method that insures the client has only one option to click on the link to begin their download. Our technology is logging their browser session, their ip address and several other variables so in the event they encounter a problem, our customer service team can quickly confirm and make sure they get to a happy ending.
As more and more of us become knowledge workers, the opportunity to leverage our knowledge by bundling it into audio (and/or video) clips and products is a huge market opportunity.
After identifying your market, probably the most important step is making sure you have a quality production (e.g., solid sounding audio and/or good looking video), and then after that, having an e.commerce partner like CoolTea who can deliver 24×7x365 digital downloads in a secure, fast and friendly format.
I should also mention that our shopping cart with digital fulfillment is only three pages, including the confirming success page - i.e., page 1 - enter your info, page 2 - confirm your info, page 3 - success (or error if credit card is declined) with receipt and download option (if selected, otherwise tracking information for physical delivery is presented) - how cool is that 1-2-3 and downloads away!
Lastly, your bank or ours. If you have a traditional Merchant Account (e.g., you are already processing Mastercard and Visa) and your bank offers Authorize.net as their payment gateway, we can wire our shopping cart to put the money directly into your account. And if you don’t have a merchant account or authorize.net gateway, we’re happy to collect monies for you and send you your checks.
Stay tuned for my upcoming blog post about the joys of processing international credit cards - ka ching and to be continued! cs
I’m thrilled to announce that my good friend Ethan Winer has just gone live with his latest video and DVD release.
Tele-Vision is an orchestral rock video by Ethan Winer that follows on the heels of his wildly acclaimed, “A Cello Rondo” - a video that has received critical acclaim and has exceeded over half-a-million downloads.
Tele-Vision is dedicated to the electric guitar and features original music written and produced by Ethan. His exciting soundtrack is mixed visually with an array of over 40 different Ethan’s on stage (via green screen technology) performing each of the instruments used in the score, timed exactly to the beat.
And would you like to take a guess at who did all the filming - yes, homeboy - some of you might even recognize some of my CoolTea event wardrobe being repurposed, like the multi-colored jacket, hats, glasses, etc.
This was a great summer filming and working with Ethan on his latest release. At 4:30AM this morning we went live with the CoolTea shopping cart, and by 11AM we had already sold several orders from around the country.
Not only is this a very entertaining DVD, but it is also jam-packed with hours of behind the scenes and making of sections that cover the principles behind audio and video editing on today’s PCs, plus interviews with guest performers like Ed Dzubak, three-time Emmy winning composer, who sat in on drums for this production.
Below is a ten minute video clip I produced for Saint Patrick’s Church that features their Bible Camp 2007 - A Quest for Truth. The clip is currently hosted at YouTube and originally I wanted to share this as a heart-warming, intimate look of the children and families who participated with this year’s camp.
It is truly an Americana inspiration and gives hope to the soul - especially when we are bombarded with negative news from so many corners of the globe, this humble clip shows youth from all walks of life singing, playing, building, learning, and sharing in manner that gives me hope for the upcoming generation - a generation I’ve heard referenced as “The Rainbow Generation.”
It is also a great example of Church Marketing and the power of today’s multimedia technology. The Pastor shot the footage with a simple, handheld video camera - nothing fancy - no lighting, no staging, no separate sound team, etc. He handed me approx 6 or 7 mpeg-1 clips, each of which varied in length from 5 minutes to 15 minutes.
The hardest part for me was finding “The Arch of the Story” and how best to present these clips. Knowing I was limited to 100 meg file and 10 minutes max per YouTube, I started with the end in mind. Showing a strong finish, with professionally recorded patriotic music - Thank You Katie - timed to a slide show of higher resolution pictures taken from one of the Religious Ed leaders per the Pastor’s permission, I then worked backwards.
I also knew that the kids signing the Americana medley was also a strong start, even though that section occurred toward the end of the bible camp week, I put it upfront to give a sense of the “stars of the show.” With beginning and ending in place, I then edited the clips for those scenes that reflected the week’s activities - including making their Resurrection Butterflies, FBI Badges (firm believers in Christ), plus sundry other crafts.
Once I had a story board in mind, the next issue was of Sonic Branding - e.g., what kind of opening sound and visual theme could we create to help brand the church and use as opener for the other videos in development? Thus I found some funkee orchestral flute-guitar rock clip that was in my sound library that I had created over seven years ago with Acid Loops, and put this sonic bed to a beat with the lead images from their web site and voila - opening sonic / visual branding bug :>)
Lastly, I had to decide on project settings with Vegas. I started with Square Pixel 640×480 1.0 PAR (pixel aspect ratio) thinking we were just going to distribute the finished clip on the web, but as I got into it, I realized that some of the families might want a VideoCD or DVD version for their family archives, thus backed up and created the Rectangular Pixel (720×480 .909 PAR) version required for TV sets. In the end, I created two versions so that no black bars would appear in either version and both would display correctly - e.g., TV version on TVs and the squared computer version on monitors.
In AlwaysCreative, I argue that property rights as currently advocated in North America are a human tragedy in their current state.
Balancing cultural needs with artists' and inventors' rights has been an ancient issue and one that our Founding Fathers spent a great deal of time in drafting a suitable framework, which as time has moved forth, has been all but lost.
U.S. property rights seem to resonate the greatest with those rooted in greed, stinginess, insecurity, and/or paranoia. Often found hiding behind soulless bureaucracies, these Darwinian life forms continue to advocate tinkering with a system mostly for their own profits while failing to consider the overall culture's needs (e.g., Fair Use, Public Domain).
Why is it the man most responsible for cementing the democratic framework has been so ignored in this department?
Thomas Jefferson realized that a balance between cultural need and artistic need could be solved by offering the artist limited rights for a period of time. The U.S. Constitution states:
Article 1, Section 8 - "The Congress shall have Power…To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries… Amendment I - Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…"
Even the Universal Declaration of Human Rights via the United Nations (1948) places cultural needs above artists' rights:
"Article 27 - 1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits."
Michael Hart's Project Gutenberg newsletter, March 1997, states:
"Copyright in the US was originally proposed by Jefferson to be 14 years - which was extended to 28 years immediately, then 56 years to defeat the first steam and electric powered printing presses of a century ago, and to 75 years to defeat the Xerox machine. Now they are trying for 95 years to defeat text made available via computer networks."
Hmmm.
I've heard intellectual property experts argue that patents are the highest form of absolute protection under U.S. law; they are above trademarks which are above copyrights. The U.S. Patent Office, created in 1836, legislated in 1790, offers patent recipients only seventeen (17) years of free reign. This is only three more years than originally proposed by the great frameworker, Thomas Jefferson, son of the Republic, for copyrights! What's more is that many patent attorneys will confess most patents don't make money. So why the stranglehold on copyrights - greed hidden behind the soulless!
Consider the Grateful Dead, Dave Matthews Band, and The Black Rat's approach to intellectual property rights.
Both bands allow their customers to tape the live concerts and share those tapes with friends and family. During an interview with Charlie Rose, Dave Matthews even went so far as to suggest this sharing strategy was a huge part in their growing popularity. And during another interview, Grateful Dead lead guitarist, Jerry Garcia commented, "My responsibility is to the notes. Once they leave my guitar, they have a life of their own."
Yet, The Brothers Grimm who a century before Walt Disney came on the scene, wrote about folklore and fairytales, many of which became the basis for Disney motion pictures. The reason we have the Sony Bono Copyright Act which extended copyright protection another twenty years on average, is chiefly because the Disney corporation's home turf was in Sony Bono's district when he was serving as a Congressman.
So even though the Disney organization (aka The Black Rat) has enjoyed so many cultural heritages leveraged from the likes of the Grimm Brothers, the Disney position can only be viewed as being about money and greed. Apparently, then Disney Rat Pack CEO called Congressman Bono and said, "We're going to loose Mickey if you don't do something. Under current copyright law, Mickey is about to expire and enter the Public Domain."
So here we are with yet another round of unnecessary copyright extensions that prohibit all of us from truly participating with our contemporary cultural heritage for the balance of our foreseeable lives.
But there is a bright spot and a reason for hope despite the misguided government action and corporate one-sidedness, and that is with the work being championed by the Creative Commons.
Viva the intellectual property rights' rock stars among us!
And here's hoping a new breed of government leaders will emerge in the near future and help course correct back to Jeffersonian wisdom.
This audio interview is approximately 35 minutes in length and an 8.6 meg mp3 file
Some of the Themes Discussed in This Interview with Howard Include:
Why capitalism should be re-invented …
The ethical imperative of saving neighbors …
Institutional growth in the record industry ala Warner Brothers vs CBS …
How to feel great about your work no matter where you are or who you are working for …
The cost of ripping people off and Enron reflections …
Selling commodities versus selling novelties …
Getting to the heart of art, science, and everyday things …
Saving Western Civilization and the miracle fabric of kings …
The protest industry …
And, the truths behind Vision Quest Live that will change your work life forever plus more …
About Howard Bloom Howard Bloom, a Visiting Scholar at New York University, is founder of the International Paleopsychology Project, executive editor of the New Paradigm book series, a founding board member of the Epic of Evolution Society, and a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, the National Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Society, the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, The International Society of Human Ethology, and the Academy of Political Science. He has been featured in every edition of Who’s Who in Science and Engineering since the publication’s inception.
Bloom has taken an unusual approach to the study of mass moods and cultural convolutions. He started out normally enough, building his first Boolean algebra machine at the age of twelve, becoming a dedicated microscopist that same year, codesigning a computer which won a Westinghouse Science Award before he left grade school, and being granted a private brainstorming session with the head of the Graduate Physics Department of The State University of New York, Buffalo, at the age of thirteen. By sixteen he was a lab assistant at the world’s largest cancer research center, the Roswell Park Memorial Research Cancer Institute, where he helped plumb the mysteries of the immune system. And before his freshman year of college he designed and executed research in Skinnerian programmed learning at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Education.
Then came an act of academic heresy. After graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from New York University, Bloom turned down four graduate fellowships and embarked on a 20-year-long urban anthropology expedition to penetrate what he calls “society’s myth-making machinery”–the inner sanctums of politics and the media. During his foray into “the dark underbelly of mass emotion” he edited a magazine which won two National Academy of Poets prizes, founded the leading avant-garde art studio on the East Coast, was featured on the cover of Art Direction Magazine, then gave up listening to Beethoven, Bartok, and Mozart to become editor of a rock magazine. Using correlational studies, focus groups, empirical surveys, ethnographic expeditions into suburban teen subcultures, and other scientific techniques, Bloom more than doubled the publication’s sales, and was credited by Rolling Stones’ Chet Flippo with having founded a new genre–the heavy metal magazine. Seeking still further ways to infiltrate modernity’s mass mind, Bloom formed a public relations firm in the music and film industry and won the confidence of those whose territory he’d invaded. The payoff in knowledge proved invaluable.
Bloom worked with Michael Jackson, Prince, John Cougar Mellencamp, Kiss, Queen, Bette Midler, Billy Joel, Joan Jett, Diana Ross, Simon & Garfunkel, The Talking Heads, AC/DC, Billy Idol, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Run D.M.C., Simply Red, and the heads of many a media conglomerate. He was adept at spotting new subcultures, entering them, and helping their members achieve their goals…a skill which gave him an inside role in the rise of rap, disco, and punk rock.
Happy New Year Everybody!
To those who are concerned about a “global big brother” resulting from all our digital and global village connectedness, I say humbug and let the global standards roll forth.
In 
