Beastie Boys Come Home

Last night the Beastie Boys played a sold out show in their home town of Brooklyn, NY. The show took place in one of NYC’s most unique venues, McCarren Park pool. McCarren is an old community pool that is the size of at least 3 Olympic sized pools. The audience stands “in the pool” and the stage is on one of the edges.

The weather was threatening rain from the get go but held off and provided a perfect night to jam out to some great music.

It was surprising to learn that they have never played a show in Brooklyn. With 2 members hailing from the borough, you’d think after all these years they would have played there. So it was a special show for the boys as well.

There was no opening band just Beastie Boys from start to finish. They played a great mix of the hits you gotta hear, like Sure Shot, So Whatcha’ Want, Intergalactic, Body Movin’, Root Down, and their new instrumental stuff. The new stuff is great too and makes me wish I were going to the show tonight at Hammerstein Ballroom which is all instrumental.

Between many songs they would scream “BROOKLYN IN DA’ HOUSE!” and the crowd would go nuts. So you could imagine the anticipation and expectation that they would play No Sleep Till Brooklyn. Well following a great encore that included Sabotage and Intergalactic, they delivered! The crowd went insane and was an unreal feeling throughout the venue.

Everyone left with big grins on their faces knowing they had seen a unique show and one you know the Beastie Boys themselves will remember.

Some great pics from the guys over at Brooklyn Vegan, who were obviously much closer to the stage than us.

 

Calise’s In the NY Times

Last Monday my wife and I attend a pretty great event at the Rainbow Room in NYC. It was an annual fund raising event for Mary Mount College in the city. Anyway, the MC for the night was Natalie Morales (vavavoom) from the Today Show (was supposed to be Ann Curry, but duty called in Darfur) and the honoree for the night was Geraldine Ferraro. So with all these fancy schmoes there, somehow we got our picture taken and were in this past Sunday’s Style section of the NY Times.

 

Web Analyst Job Opportunity

Doubt enough people read my blog for this to be worthwhile but figured I’d put this on here. A recruiter from eLearning contacted me for this position, can’t take it so wanted to pass it along.
It’s in Hoboken, NJ and the HR guys contact info is at the bottom. Good luck!

 

Web Marketing / Business Analyst

 

POSITION SUMMARY

eLearners.com, a fast growing internet marketing services company is seeking talented business analysts to help run our paid search advertising campaigns (PPC), enhance our search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, and perform other critical marketing analysis functions in support of the business. The successful candidates will also provide analytical support to Sales, Marketing, Account Management, Technology, and Executive Management.

 

As an employee of a small, fast-growing company, you will have the opportunity to work closely with all levels and all areas of the organization, and significant empowerment to help achieve our performance and growth objectives.

 

RESPONSIBILITIES

Include: SEO and Paid Search Management and Optimization – Manage keyword selection and bidding strategy across multiple per-per-click search engines using both proprietary, in-house designed tools, as well as commercially available products. – Develop and test creative, update ad copy and bid strategy . – Analyze click and conversion data, expenses and return on investment (ROI). – Implement both structured and self-designed search engine optimization strategies. – Significant discretion will be given to analysts that demonstrate sound judgment and the ability to effectively grow traffic to our web properties. Data and Trend Analysis – Analyze site visitors using state-of-the-art 3rd party and custom web analytics, and make recommendations for SEM, consumer and client marketing, and off-site strategies. – Analyze paid campaigns and make recommendations for revisions and strategy improvements. – Analyze visitor behavior, design and perform A/B and multivariate tests. – Conduct drill-down analyses, “what-if” analyses and adjust strategies based on findings.

 

Other Responsibilities – Perform special ad-hoc analyses for clients, sales, business development, marketing and account management team. – Provide analytical support for new and existing products and services.

 

New York weather

Gotta love it! I’m finnaly understanding why New Yorker’s have such a rep as being tough. IT’S THE SURVIVAL THROUGH THE WINTER! Recently relocated from NC this is my first true, true NYC winter. I lived on Long Island till I was 13 but when you’re young you have no clue and only pray for it to snow so you can play. Well today, with the wind it is -5 degrees. This is not so bad if you have a commute that keeps your exposure to the elements at a minimum….mine does not. I have a 4 Avenue hike due West from 7th Ave. This means I walk right towards the water and into the wind that howls off the Hudson. Let’s just say by the end of that walk I wasn’t sure if I was still in possession of the family jewels(wink wink).

So come on up and visit my NC friends and family! We miss you!

 

You look familiar……

Ok, not to overshadow the great musical performances of the show I described in the last post, but there was a significant star sighting..no star meeting on Friday night as well. Courtesy of my overworked, sleepy wife.

So we’re at the show and enjoying the tunes. My wife is progressively becoming more and more tired and gets to the point where her eyes are closing. So she leaves the stage area to go get our coats and chill in the lounge downstairs(there are only like 3 or so songs left). I head down following the encore to meet her and she is wide awake and grinning ear to ear. So she proceeds to tell the “conversation” she just had.

 

Ron Sexsmith @ The Bowery Ballroom

Went to see this guy, Ron Sexsmith, at the Bowery on Friday. He’s been around for years, playing up in Canada, but now is making waves in the US and I’ve been hearing a lot about this guy lately so wanted to check it out. He’s been backed by some big names in music and Hollywood. One in particular, in my opinion gives him a lot of cred right off the bat, that of Elvis Costello. Big fan of his and if he says someone is alright, then I gotta check them out. The show was good, he’s a singer/songwriter type but had a full band behind him which was great. Was expecting him and a bass player only but nice to have the full sound of a 5 piece band. He has a killer voice, not far off from that of Paul McCartney or Costello himself. The songs were reminiscent of the old 2min 30sec hits of the vinyl days(when that’s all they could fit on a side of the record), so they were powerful and quick and left you wanting more. He’s def. worth a listen and think you’ll be hearing more from him.

Kim Taylor from Cincinatti, Ohio opened for him and she was pretty cool too. Had that raspy, smokers singing voice that is awesome and makes any note, any lyric sound cool.