The threats were there, rumors spoken, people speculated and finally it came. At the corner of La Cienega and Olympic in Los Angeles, just a short walk from the Beverly Hills border, a Union 76 posted up prices for the days gas. $4.89 for regular, $4.99 for 89 octane and…wait for it…$5.09 for Premium. Granted, I don’t use Premium, and the prices at this station are not reflected at other shops just a 2 miles south, but the line has been crossed. If the cost of oil goes up another $5.00 a barrel, you can bet that a lot more stations around these parts will follow.

According to GasBuddy.com, one year ago, the average price of gas for this area was $3.16 per gallon, nearly $2 less than today. I think it’s interesting and slightly hilarious trying to understand what Southern California drivers are willing to endure. A month ago, I was screaming at the idea of gas being over $4 and now I would kill for those prices. In a few months, oil companies like Exxon and BP will be reporting 2nd quarter earnings. I wonder how many billions in profit they’ll have made. If you think they’re struggling with these prices too, get real. They also find it hilarious how much we’re willing to endure.

This is insane. When will my motorcycle be ridable again???

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I’m not sure what’s going on, but lately I’ve been using Scribefire for my updates here, but something seems to go awry about every other time I post. I’m pretty sure I wrote something recently about Jay Conrad Levinson’s magnum opus, Guerrilla Marketing and how I decided to read it again, but damned if that post went completely AWOL.

I love Scribefire’s functionality, and it makes posting a whole lot easier than having to login to my WP admin every time, but having things disappear is a bit frustrating, as you can imagine.

Anyway, I wrote this really great piece about Levinson’s book. It was irreverent and insightful and you’re missing out for not being in whatever dimension the post went, but none the less, the book is awesome even after a 2nd time reading it. Go check it out.

I know it’s possible to have too many inputs when it comes to critical thinking, but what about for art and design? Because of the monthly rigors of my day job, the scope of my design work has been less than desirable. I pretty much shit out pages without much care for how well they are designed. For our magazines, it’s not in our nature to be that concerned. “Good Enough” is the mantra spoken company wide. Trust me, I have my issues with that, but it’s taken its toll on my design sensibilities. For the past couple years, I just haven’t had as much energy to do anything of value. The irony to that is I feel I am a much better designer than I was two years ago, go figure.

Tonight I find myself gorging on design work by Scott Hansen of iso50 and listening to music from Jeff Buckley and Elliott Smith (don’t worry, I’m not going to off myself) and the more I take in, the better I feel, the more inspired I get. Scott definitely has a style all to his own, so much in fact that when others do work like his, they call it iso50-ish. I don’t want to copy his work, but it’s so visually stimulating, my mind just wants to do something just like it. Would I be a better designer for trying or am I just a hack riding the coattails of somebody better than me? Either way, I’m just glad that I’ve got the bug again even if becomes short lived.

Thanks Scott, Elliott and Jeff for the virtual kick in the pants.

Apparently, I suck much because I haven’t been by here to update in a very, very long time. I’m sure I’ve lost all my readership by now. If anyone is hanging on, thanks for sticking around. I owe you a beer or something flashy to show your friends. I’ll try to do better, but I can’t promise anything because, well, I suck.

On a completely unrelated note, sometimes in life its good to go back to the beginning and start anew. The first marketing book I ever read on my own volition (in other words, anything that I wasn’t forced to read in college) was Guerrilla Marketing by J. Conrad Levinson. It opened my eyes to the world of marketing beyond what I’d learned in school and it changed the rules for the industry. Without Levinson’s book, there might not be a Seth Godin or John Jantsch, and there definitely wouldn’t be any Dave Conrey Marketing Whizkid (even if he has been noticeably absent).

I hadn’t read the book in several years and since I’ve started doing a bit more freelance work for clients that are bootstrapping their business, I felt a need to read the book that corners that market. The original version came out long before the Internet became widely available, and I was a bit worried the book might not be as up to date, but thankfully Levinson has included new media trends within the pages of the latest version. I’m still working way through it, but it’s just as good if not better than the first time. Sometimes its good to go back to school.

As I’m writing this, I’m suffering through yet another cold, the third one since Christmas. I was talking with Sean, the new editor on Chevy High and he was wondering why I was still sick. I told him getting old sucks. It seems that my immune system gets weaker and weaker with each given year. I’m sure I could be taking better care of myself, and not doing so is part of why I’m still sick, but since my behaviors have been ingrained in me for the past 30+ years (not exactly sure when they started), even if I was taking better care of myself, getting older definitely plays a role in my slowly declining health. That’s obvious.

I’m also not as flexible and limber as I used to be. My bones make more noises now, and things pop with painful reverberations more frequently. It sucks, but I’ve resigned that it’s part of life. That being said, I really do need to change my habits or I might be a decrepit old man by the time I hit 50.

However, age is also just a number. I know this to be true because as I’m writing this, I’m watching Iggy Pop dance around a stage like he was 20 years old. The only thing age has taken from him is a bit of elasticity in his skin.

I’m watching the Swarovski Style Rocks show on Bravo TV which takes modern music and mixes it with runway models and high fashion. The Iggy and the Stooges performance probably lacked a bit of the older CBGB energy of old, but was lively to say the least. Iggy was so pumped to perform, Samuel Jackson had to cut is monologue short because far be it from him to keep someone from getting their ROCK on.

Much later in the show, Whitney Houston comes on stage to talk about the charity foundation that sponsors the show. It wasn’t but a month ago that I saw some horrendous pictures of Whitney fresh off the crack pipe. She’s my age, but girl cleans up pretty damn good.

When Whitney is done with her speech, she introduces some British girl band called the Sugarbabes to sing their version of Lady Marmalade. They’re not bad, but pretty much same ol’ thing as far as pop stars go. Then they bring on Patty LaBelle to join them.

Ms. LaBelle proceeds to wipe the floor with the British pop stars. At 60+ years, she’s got more power in her voice than all three of the other girls on stage. Of course she’s not dancing around the stage like Iggy Pop, but she’s holding her own. Maybe she has a few more creaks in her bones, but for this moment, she owns that stage, untouchable.

I’m inspired. Time to take better care of the body… as soon as I kick this cold.