Mercury in Retrograde and Other Musings...

So it's September and it's been that way for a week, but here in sunny Southern California it feels like summer still and it may for some time (though the record heat broke a bit yesterday, whew). Today I found out that Mercury is in retrograde, which can make the things you take for granted every day suddenly rise up and revolt and remind you that you take them for granted - i.e. your email working, your computer working, the check arriving in the mail, knowing where your cell phone is, having all of your numbers programmed into your cell phone and having them work, and on and on.

Mercury in retrograde, or so I've been reading today, is an excellent time to dot your "i's" and cross your "t's" which is what I'm working on - because here's what I really try my best at as a publicist, never asking my clients to do things that I haven't done first. I want you to have a great up to date headshot, so I've got one. I want you to read the media of your industry, and know who the top players and journalists are following your topic, and so I'm reading the media of your industry (sure, you can send blind press release blasts via a service and sometimes they'll get picked up, but it usually takes focus, persistence, and an interesting angle pulled together just for that press outlet to get good stories placed). I want you to be on facebook and twitter sharing your industry focused thoughts (and showing off your personality) regularly, daily+, so I'm on it doing just that. I want you to blog and so I blog (though I admit I should do so at least four times a week and I haven't been of late, my bad, but normally I'm pretty darn prolific). I want you to have a clean, interesting, engaging website that is search engine friendly with the right SEO keywords and yep, I've got one - and now the second one, an expanded and more strategic approach, is in the works.

Whew! But it's important. How can I ask my clients to do things I can't do? Some people do it very easily every day. I can't. I'd feel like a fraud.

What I have not done yet, but need to do asap is back up everything on my new external hard drive, and find a great Mac expert locally. However, I did email someone locally on craig's list today who purports to be just that and am keeping my fingers crossed.

What Refreshes Your Creative Spark?

I've spent the early part of the day doing research for inspiration on new websites for my new partner's personal site, and also our new site together. We will be working with some very talented graphic designers, but of course we need to have details and directions for them to go on. We are on a tight timeline to pull things together and want them to flow nicely, and of course we want the new sites to be beautiful and clearly understandable and emotionally engaging.

I love the photo above by Robert Flannagan from www.123rf.com. I have used his work before and it's so inspiring. What I love particularly besides the yummy fresh green, is that though these are under water creatures they so mirror the look/color of spider chrysanthemums that I love so much.

Today I also revisited Vanilla Bicycles which I love the great use of photography on, and so love the stylish-yet-organic look of (and has me longing for a vintage bike). I'm going to buy some kind of bike soon, alas not in this sort of hand-made price range. And via twitter I stumbled upon Creative Coast, a non-profit site out of Savannah Georgia that is really nicely done - great use of color and theme and the layout is so fresh and easy to use. Really, big kudos to them on a spectacular idea and subject.

My creative spark is refresh through reading and visual imagery. I am over using the word "love" this post so I'll say that I adored the September issue of Vogue. I dog eared so many pages it's crazy. I love nothing more than going through old (or new) magazines for ideas, for sparks, for connecting the dots. I especially loved the article by Beverly Johnson on her first Vogue cover, and being the first African American woman ever on the magazine's cover - things have changed a bit over the years, but not enough. But Oprah is helping, she is. I also love that hand-painted illustrations of restaurants and stores are popping up again, as a more whimisical way to show off a place, a room, a feel. It made me want to get out my paints again, which I've put away now for years.