Four your consideration, 62 (now 118) YouTube videos of “the Sukiyaki song,” actually Ue o Muite Aruko?,” or “I Look Up As I Walk,” originally sung by Japanese pop singer Kyu Sakamoto. I first remember Japan’s only #1 international pop hit ever, called Sukiyaki in the West, as my brother’s “favorite song.” He does not, I suspect, share that recollection, but it quickly became my own favorite song back in 1963, listening on a tinny transistor radio, itself a Japanese product. It’s not clear who exactly attached the name Sukiyaki to the song for English-language purposes, but the logic seems
Continue readingReview: A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens My rating: 3 of 5 stars The opening and closing lines are immortal classics, and the book does has some great characters and set pieces. But it’s my least favorite Dickens, showing off his biggest flaws, especially overwrought language, rank sentimentality and coincidence so arbitrary as to be lazy. Plus, his characterization of the French Revolution is distinctly unhelpful. Indeed, it shows that this champion of the downtrodden was still absolutely terrified of poor people. View all my reviews
Continue readingReview: Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands, 1325-1515
Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands, 1325-1515 by Anne van Buren My rating: 5 of 5 stars I can’t say I could explain the difference between a houpeland and a cotehardie, but now I roughly know what they are. This culmination of a lfe’s work is a truly amazing book, tracing the evolution of late medieval high fashion over two centuries. Van Buren systematically analyzed the clothing In every image she could firmly date for her period. The illustrations are beautiful and the text’s illuminations bring a new dimension to pictures that might sometimes
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Review: American Ruins
American Ruins by Camilo José Vergara My rating: 5 of 5 stars Ruin porn with redeeming social value. Vergara doesn’t just exploit decayed and collapsing buildings for their sad beauty. He gets to know them, and sometimes their denizens and neighbors, complementing his lovely photos with engaging, and often depressing, stories. View all my reviews
Continue readingConnections
Best thought from today’s Salesforce.com keynote: Customer connectivity demands responsive companies. Companies that don’t connect back to their customers as actively as customers themselves are connecting will systematically miss opportunities and disappoint.
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The Snake in Google’s Garden
Could Google follow the sad history of other once-leading companies? It doesn’t take going out on a limb to believe that Google’s appearance of impregnability is only an appearance. Dominant companies can and do lose their position despite superior products, clear market leadership, vast resources and brilliant employees. Harvard Business School Prof. Clayton Christensen has made that case persuasively through his Innovator’s Dilemma series of books and talks.
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Review: Customers Included: How to Transform Products, Companies, and the World – With a Single Step
Customers Included: How to Transform Products, Companies, and the World – With a Single Step by Mark Hurst My rating: 5 of 5 stars An essential read if you care about the customer experience. This book is both an argument for attending seriously to customer experience and a how-to guide. The two authors have been enormously influential advocates and bring years of experience helping senior executives understand the supreme value of really understanding their customers. The book is a quick and engaging read that will pay off well. View all my reviews
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Book Review: Great and Mighty Things: Outsider Art
“Great and Mighty Things: Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection,” Edited by Ann Percy with Cara Zimmerman; With contributions by Francesco Clemente, Lynne Cooke, Joanne Cubbs, Bernard L. Herman, Ann Percy, Colin Rhodes, and Cara Zimmerman, Yale University Press, 288 pages, 245 color illustrations and 1 b/w, 2013. ISBN 978-0-3001-9175-2. Hard cover $60 This is a blockbuster catalog for a blockbuster exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, yet like a parade of similar volumes it is built around samples of work by mostly well-known artists, each equipped with a one- to two-page biography, followed by essays
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