Quickthink

Levon Helm, drummer for The Band passed on the other day. Here is a link to his NYT obit. I liked the comment that he made about the success of The Band in the late sixties. He said it was a revolution from the revolution. The Beatles had just revolutionized pop music with a hip, breezy urban sound.  The Band celebrated that they were from the country and rooted in the past. You see that in this rather famous photo (from Cleveland Does not Rock). Notice how nature intrudes into the composition

 You might compare the above with this famous image of the Beatles strutting their stuff  (from Second Views)

We move from country to city. But there is more to it. The Beatles actually don’t want to fit into the urban landscape. They want instead to stop traffic if just for a moment.  By way of contrast, The Band do seem to fit into their natural setting much better. But whether they want to “fit” or not,  the Beatles definitely want to be in the urban setting — and in your face so to speak for the moment. In that vein, I also like the contrast between The Band standing still in front of the camera and The Beatles giving a side view walking across the street. Rooted versus not rooted?

Well, back to the point. The Band’s updated country style  influenced quite a few musicians who then made a lot of very good music. My favorites were the New Riders and the Grateful Dead. The links go to some good tunes. And here is Levon singing for The Band.

So thanks Levon! You done good!

One of the things I love about blogging is the freedom to write about whatever captures my attention. From prostate cancer to quantum computing to business models and onward to … cocktails. BTW, I am a bit partial to Manhattans made with Jameson’s these days. But it would be difficult for me to write only about cocktails. Yet, it appears that some people do that.

Saveur is promoting its competition for best special diets blogs, wine and beer blogs and cocktail blogs.  Indeed, one of the cocktail blogs limits itself further - cocktails and drinks made with bourbon. Now that is passion. Bravo!

Enjoy!

Wow!

IBM has enjoyed very good press about its switch from a hardware producer to a high tech service provider. But … is there a darker side? Cringely says “yes”. And he is going after Big Blue for its strategy of selling top priced business tech services without insuring top quality.  What is going on? IBM is offshoring all of its service workforce to dramatically cut costs.

Here is Cringely’s first shout out

Here is a link to the second episode

Here is a link to the third

And here is the very sad conclusion

If IBM is planning a 78 percent staff reduction, then that will of necessity involve all USA operations, not just Global Services.  Hardware, systems, software, storage, consulting, etc. will all see serious staff cuts.  This means IBM could be moving a lot of its manufacturing and product support offshore.  Raleigh, Lexington, Rochester, and several other IBM communities are about to lose a lot of jobs.

Every non-executive job at IBM is viewed as a commodity that can be farmed out to anyone, anywhere.

IBM was once so special but today there’s little difference between IBM, AOL, or Yahoo except that IBM has better PR. All three are profitable, something we tend to forget when it comes to AOL and Yahoo. All three are effectively adrift. All three are steadily selling off the bits of themselves that no longer seem to work. When Global Services is gone, what will IBM sell next?

Everything else.

Ouch!

This is not pretty. But I do like the way that Cringe finished up his series. Instead of just leaving us all with doom and gloom — with the story of another great institution gone bust, he suggests STANDARDS to assess what IT service providers are doing. I found these to be very informative.

Here is the link.

BTW - this is an interesting case study for the role of expertise in starting off a dialogue. Cringe has taken the “mantel of expert” in his posts. And he has bravely delivered a series of conclusions that merit response. Whether he is right of wrong, we owe him a debt of gratitude for starting off a challenging thread of conversation. That is where great ideas come from.