Friday, January 29, 2010

Mum's Shabu Shabu!

Friday Chill Music (January 29, 2010)

Over the last few weeks I've been sampling a lot of my friends' Best of 2009 mixes. This week it's new music time. These are all songs I've bought in 2010 and I couldn't be happier with them. Here's a quick scouting report:

Freelance Whales comes from the Gonzo Gal and I really like this whole disc. It's chill music at it's best.

The version of My City of Ruin on this playlist is Bruce Springsteen's. However, Eddie Vedder covered it recently in a tribute to the Boss. Eddie put it out for sale as a benefit for Haiti so go buy it here now. Eddie's version is epic as always.

Only a Song is by Ben Sollee, who is a buddy of My Morning Jacket's, and this song is really cool.

The rest of the tunes are a little eclectic and some I was late to the party on, but at least I'm at the party now.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Molly Meow

My friend, Molly Mundt, created the coolest Doggy Duvet in the industry called the Molly Mutt. But she didn't stop there, she has just come out with a Kitty Duvet called the Molly Meow. Molly is one of the best designers I know and she really came through on the Meows. I'm so proud of her for all she is accomplishing.


Btw - she already has the endorsement of Furio Bain, the coolest cat with a blog around. Here's Furio during his Molly Meow photo shoot.


Behind the scenes at Furio's MollyMeow photoshoot from Alex Bain on Vimeo.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Peter Gabriel Covering Bon Iver's Flume

This cover needed to be shared immediately.

SavantMD & Living With Ataxia Partner for Physician Videos

Many of the readers of this blog know about the organization Ben Munoz & I started called Ben's Friends, that builds patient to patient support communities. We have started 6 patient communities to date and recently brought on Eric Kroll, a friend of a friend with online community building experience, to help scale the organization.

We're excited to announce that we partnered with SavantMD on a video series that produces physician answers to questions posed by the patients in the communities. Dr. Savant is a friend and my personal physician and he has built a Internet portal along with 11 other physicians (and growing) designed to reach out and educate patients around the world. SavantMD promises to be a terrific service for patients and physicians alike and we're proud to be working with them. Below are two videos from Dr. Savant. The first is a hello to Living With Ataxia.



Many of the people who join Living With Ataxia (and the other networks) have recently been diagnosed and are looking for basic info on their conditiion. Here is Dr. Savant's answer to a general question from our community, "What is Ataxia?"



We're very thankful for the help from Dr. Savant and his business partner, Brian Colbert.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Friday Chill Music (January 22, 2010)

I've been reblogging John Hamilton's mixes for a couple of weeks. I'm sorry, but they're just so good. This is Honorable Mention for best songs this year. I love it and have listened to it at least 10 times since he released it. Enjoy. Click through to read the summary of the stuff that didn't make the big list, but made this wonderful mix.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Healy on Late Stage Venture Rounds

Great post by my buddy Healy Jones on what to make of the huge late stage rounds startups are doing and what to do if you're a middle level employee (like most people our age).

While I'm at it, I want to plug Healy's excellent startup, Pixily. They do document scanning and management. It's all outsourced for you through the mail and it's a great price point. If you work in a paper intensive business, you should give Pixily a chance.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Kenny Kellogg's Most Popular Posts of 2009

I thought folks might be interested in seeing what the most popular posts on Kenny Kellogg were in 2009. Here is a screen shot from Google Analytics which shows about 22k page views for the year which means about 60 people check out the site every day. Not too shabby.

Btw - thanks for your support. It's great motivation to know that people read the site! The top 10 is below.



1. Razeghi & the Power of Scribd - the story of how my Kellogg Professor, Andrew Razeghi, used Scribd.com to publicize his thoughts on the recession.

2. New Twitter Design - Molly Mutt made me a new Twitter background and this rocked the Internet. Actually, this shows the power of Search Engine Optimization as I think a lot of people found the blog thinking they were getting a sneak peak at the new Twitter.com design.

3. Painted Turtle Benefit - a fundraiser for one of my favorite charities. I was happy to help raise awareness, plus it was an awesome time! Go next year.

4. Fun Recession Facts - a quick story about saving money by scooping the back out of hotel soap. More SEO at work here, although it's a riveting story and even led the Himmelsblog to create a tumblr page dedicated to pictures of hotel soap.

5. Slumdog Millionaire - great movie. I have a confession. The whole time I thought it was an Indie flick and kept thinking about how "flat" the world of filmaking had become.

6. Crowdsourcing Your Wedding Playlist - Ananda & Aaron did just that. Apparently a lot of other people on the Internet did it too. Great reminder of how awesome their wedding was. :)

7. Lulu Lemon - I'm convinced this will be a big company someday because people are gravitating towards wellness and sports that promote it. Still haven't bought the stock though.

8. Moral Hazard Cartoon - great cartoon and no shock that in a year of huge government bailouts, that Moral Hazard was something that people wanted to learn more about.

9. Carsala - my friends started this innovative way to buy used cars. Cool concept and great guys.

10. WWDDD - What would Don Draper do? The main character of my favorite show, Mad Men. So glad it made the Top 10.

Thanks again for reading day after day!!!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Great Question by Seth Godin

"If the industry can't make money selling what you're selling, why will they help you?" - a terrific quote from a terrific post by Seth Godin. I've been thinking about this question a lot with respect to Ben's Friends - patient to patient support sites. We are not really selling anything except free support and camaraderie, but getting more help would sure make things a lot easier.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Howard Seeing the Future

via Papilicious

Do It Yourself Book Tour by Stephen Elliott

Fascinating New York Times essay on the "Do It Yourself Book Tour" by Stephen Elliott, author of The Adderall Diaries, and a favorite author of mine. I covered his pre-release lending program back in July. Shortly after, he organized a book tour consisting of small readings across the country, hosted by everyday people who liked his work and invited him into their house. Here is one of my favorite excerpts from the essay.

"Soon 19 of her friends showed up, and we spread out into the living room and small kitchen. Many of them also worked at the hospital. One was a professional jujitsu fighter and personal trainer, another a real estate agent. What was most interesting to me was that none of them had ever been to a literary event. Several told me they were big readers, at least a book a week. But when I asked a few of them about their reading habits, they hadn’t heard of the authors who are famous in my world: Lorrie Moore,Roberto BolañoMichael Chabon. This is most of America, I thought; I’ve stepped through the door."

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Life Unexpected

I watch a lot of Two & a Half Men (I find it funny, so sue me) and the CW has been promo-ing this new show called Life Unexpected. It just so happens that my friend Jen Basile's sister created the show! Jen claims the lead  character is named after her, "Basil." Looks cool, check it out on Monday night.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Palladia Commercial

I watch Palladia, MTV's channel that actually shows music, all the time now. I was watching last night and came across this commercial for the channel and thought it was cool.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Thursday Music

33 Forever, aka John Hamilton, aggregated my 3 "Best Music of 2009" posts and turned them into 1 easy list and 3 easy playlists. I'm a little embarrassed because I should have done this, but hey, that's why Consultants (or ex-consultants) exist, right?

Thanks John. Hope everyone enjoys an easier consumption experience of some of my favorite posts of the year.

She's the Best

via Bain Favorites

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Birthday


I had a great birthday saturday night at Eric Becker's wedding. Thanks for all the well wishes. I particularly enjoyed this one from the Gonzo Gal via Someecards, which came in just under the wire.


Brunch with the Becker Bride

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Dranove on Health Insurance Mandates

Kelllogg Professor, David Dranove, is one of the best Healthcare academics and commentators that I've come across. His blog, Code Red, is appointment reading in my RSS Reader. He has a great point on the parallel between national defense and healthcare below that I never thought of before reading it today.

"Conservatives who oppose insurance mandates need to answer the following questions: Are you going to mandate that providers stop treating the uninsured? Or are you going to mandate charity? If neither, then the uninsured are going to receive care and free ride on the rest of us. Government has every right to act on the behalf of the majority and limit the free riding. Look at it this way. Conservatives endorse the right of the government to raise taxes to pay for the national defense, lest those who do not want to pay their share free ride on the rest of us. Just as the national defense protects all of us, so do our medical providers. The parallel to health care is close to exact."

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Living With Ataxia Video

I'm proud to announce that we have created a video highlighting Living With Ataxia, a patient support network that Ben and I built for people suffering from Ataxia. It's very similar to AVMSurvivors.org (AVM) and LivingWithTN.org (Trigeminal Neuralgia). The two other moderators, Kati & Alan, are total superstars. Kati published her story about Communicating with Ataxia in a journal a couple months ago, and Alan contributes quite heavily to Ataxia UK, among many other ataxia oriented groups.

We hope you enjoy the video and you can spread the word in some small way with it.

One other thing, we're putting the finishing touches on a broader site called BensFriends.org that will pull together the networks we have built. The current site is a bit of a placeholder, but hopefully the bigger and better site will allow us to build even more networks.



Born Standing Up

I loved Steve Martin's book, Born Standing Up. There are so many good stories and life lessons. Definitely read it.


Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
awesome

View all my reviews >>

Friday, January 1, 2010

Kenny Kellogg's Best of 2009 (#5 - #1)

I hope everyone had a great NYE. Hopefully the Best of 2009 ( #5 - #1) gives you something to do while you are nursing your hangover. Here are links to the previous two lists - Albums #15 - #11 & Albums #10 - #6b. There is a playlist below and a list of the best Albums & songs as well. Hope you enjoy!




5. Elvis Perkins in Dearland - Send My Fond Regards to Lonelyville, Shampoo, Doomsday, I Hear Your Voice in Desden. The lovely ladies of I'm All Ears told me about this band. They're awesome.



4. Dirty Projectors (Bitte Orca) - Stillness is the Move, Two Doves, Useful Chamber, No Intention. I agonized on where to put this album on the list. Easily could have been #1.



3. The XX - Intro, VCR, Infinity, Crystalized, Islands, Night Time, Shelter. Favorite discovery of the year. Can't wait to see them live again. Here are a couple video samples.








2. Dark Was the Night - Big Red Machine (The National & Bon Iver), Brackett, WI (Bon Iver), Deep Blue Sea (Grizzly Bear), El Caporal (My Morning Jacket), Hey, Snow White ( New Pornographers), Happiness (Riceboy Sleeps), Gentle Hour (Yo La Tengo), So Far Around the Bend (The National), Amazing Grace (Cat Power).. Powerhouse compilation CD from the guys from the National. Big Red Machine is a terrific song.

1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs (It's Blitz) - Heads Will Roll, Hysteric, Zero, Soft Shock, Dull Life and Runaway. She's amazing and this album got me through the last 3 miles of a 11.5 mile run last week. Earned it the top spot!

2011

via Anne Hubert