When it comes to music I abide by the rule of three: if three trusted sources recommend it, I’ll go out of my way to track it down and check it out.
An artist named Jamie T, and his album Panic Prevention, met the requirements when Fred posted on him earlier this summer (after the excellent Very Short List covered him earlier this year and one of the music blogs that I read featured him shortly thereafter).
He’s British, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been following my music tastes in the past year+, and Amazon notes that “his musical style incorporates a wide mix of genres from rock, pop, drum and bass to hip hop.” A big part of what’s appealing about Jamie is his diverse and rich sound.
I grabbed the album Saturday and have listened to it non-stop this past weekend while I did chores and errands around the house. First listen? I thought it was good. Now? I think it’s excellent. And it only continues to grow on me.
Here’s a b-side to the lead single from the album. The track’s titled Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend and features the most excellent Dizzee Rascal.
I’m taking a bit of heat via email for the list of initiatives when managing a turnaround included in my review of Hardball.
Specifically, people have taken issue with these two points:
- Don’t allow people to identify obstacles to change without also proposing solutions to overcome them
- Don’t tolerate failure to deliver more than once
Now, this isn’t my list, it’s the authors’. I may not agree with all of the points, but to be fair I stole the headings without providing the supporting arguments.
Regarding not tolerating failure to deliver: the author’s aren’t referring to doing something incorrect/wrong; rather, they’re talking about failure to execute. While I think it would be stupid for a manager to not accept failure, when managing a turnaround failure to execute (/ do things) is a pretty big sin.
Regarding not allowing people to identify obstacles without proposing solutions: I had an interesting discussion today on this. I think it’s fairly important to keep the culture positive and focused on forward momentum, and too many people drawing attention to potential barriers to change may cause the entire organization to fail to deliver.
I eventually solved my problem, finding out where to buy tickets for the Cold War Kids show in Toronto. I bought six of them and a bunch of us had an incredible night celebrating my friend Greg’s birthday.
The band opened for Tokyo Police Club and put on an energetic show. Here’s some videos I found on YouTube from the concert:
I’m guilty of always having a few books on the go; however, lately it has gotten out of hand. To solve the problem I’ve put a new rule in place – no new books until all of my partially completed ones are finished.
