As I’ve written about here in the past, HBO’s The Wire is the best show I’ve ever watched. Impeccably written and plotted, painful and heartbreaking characters, and great mysteries along the way. It’s an amazing show, all 5 seasons of it.
For a while now I’ve been wanting to watch HBO’s other epic show–no, not Sex in the City. I’m talking about The Sopranos. I’ve heard amazing things, so I signed up to get the discs on Netflix, and I plan on watching one episode a day during dinner until I finish the series. Hopefully that’ll be before the fall TV season starts.
What are your experiences with The Sopranos? Worthy of all the hype?
I’ve been encouraged by the early signups for the TypeTribe launch e-mail (sign up directly here–the 100th signup gets $25!), many of them motivated by an aggressive Twitter campaign I’ve been working on for a few days (see the bottom of the TypeTribe business page on this blog for more info on how I’m using Twitter to get the word out about TypeTribe).
But I’m realizing that I need to do more as I build a brand image. I need to gain consumer trust. I need to infuse TypeTribe with a personality.
That’s why I’m starting a short daily series on the TypeTribe blog called “Should’ve Used TypeTribe” (SUTT). You can see the first entry here.
In each SUTT entry, I’m going to make note of something written or something that originate from something written (like a movie) that could’ve been better if the writer(s) had created a customizable, targeted focus group on TypeTribe before finalizing their work.
The first example is an inane song lyric Nancy mentioned to me from a group called 3oh!3 (they need a TypeTribe for their group name as well).
There are tons of examples of things like this, but if you’ve ever heard, read, or watched something and thought, “If only they hadn’t said that, this would be great!”, post it in the comments below or on the TypeTribe blog. Or send it to me at jamey.stegmaier@gmail.com and I’ll include it in a future edition of SUTT. Please be specific, down to the line if possible.
As I wrote about a few days ago, I am the featured writer in the great online literary magazine Reflection’s Edge this month. This news came as a suprise and an honor.
An even bigger surprise came a few days after my story was published. I got fan mail. My first-ever piece of fan mail (in e-mail form). I have to say, it’s awesome.
I won’t print the entire letter here, but here’s a piece of it:
“I started reading your story, The Urban Parasite. It was a long story. And within a few paragraphs, it was the only thing I was concentrating on. And when it ended, I immediately took the link and sent it to anyone I could think of with what every reader says to his friends. ‘You have got to read this.’”
I read the e-mail a few times and could not have been happier. Of course, I was also a bit wary–who was this person who was so bold as to e-mail me with such praise? Are they an ax murderer? Are they a really hot chick (that was Nancy’s first reaction)? And so on.
So I checked out this person’s blog, and as it turns out, he’s a normal, married dude. Nice guy. Writes a blog. Also writes fiction. In fact, I took a look at one of the stories he’s published, and he writes good fiction. Which made his praise for my story all the better.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this happy little tidbit with all of you. This is a long way off from people writing me asking for autographs and signed photographs and the inevitable boob autograph, but it’s a start.
In today’s “What Would You Have Done?”, an ongoing segment that I just made up, I pose the following situation to you:
Today I was walking across my gated parking lot to the back door of my apartment building when I noticed something strange. There was a two-door car parked near the door–I’ve seen this car before, and it belongs in the spot where it was parked–with the passenger-side door wide open.
I didn’t go over to the car, but I was standing only a few feet away, and there was no one in or around the car. Nor was anyone in the vicinity carrying anything over to the door (having propped the door open). There seemed to be no plausible reason why the door was open.
In fact, 3 hours later, the car door is still open. I can see it from my back window. In fact, I even took a very fuzzy photo:
My question to you is: What would you have done? I’ve left the poll below open in case you would have done something that I didn’t think of.
Last night I was up late doing what most Americans do on the night before Independence Day: I was creating a pre-site blog and signup page for my new company, TypeTribe.
If you’ve been curious about what TypeTribe is, go to that page and be one of the first to know.
Also, sign up on that page to be notified when TypeTribe launches. On a whim, I decided to up the stakes and offer a $25 Amazon.com gift card to every 100th person to sign up. I’m going to post about it on Twitter in a minute, so by the time my faithful blog readers read this post, it should be right around the 100 mark…
Update: I wanted a way to appreciate people who refer others (especially readers and writers) to TypeTribe, so I’ve added a $100 cash drawing to be held at the launch of the site for all referrals. You get an entry every time someone other than yourself enters your e-mail in the referral box of the launch e-mail notification signup. So tell your friends!
Happy Fourth of July. America isn’t perfect, but it’s great to live in a country where a guy can turn a passion project into a legitimate business.
(It’s also great to not be in the hospital today. Yep, that’s where I spent the Fourth last year.)
