Notes on NOTES

I'll tell you what. The NOTES chapter is an amazing resource--I could spend another month just wandering through the maze of links and related readings it references. I hope that when you decide to piss off all of your "business partners" and put the whole book online, you include the NOTES chapter, with all of its references available for our hyperlinked exploration. If Gonzo readers could post related readings and net sightings we come across to this online NOTES place--or off of it on a separate page--that would be even cooler.

Here are a few of my favorites, for anyone visiting who wants quick links to some of the references:

Everything you never wanted to know about Disney. Shall I quote? "Why does Disney take such care with its casting department? The job market in central Florida is quite competitive. The unemployment rate is about 3 percent, and Disney has to compete to get the best workers. In addition, Disney cast members are represented by 34 unions, and the company deals with 11 contract negotiations a year. Quality cast members are a direct result of quality hiring practices." (There's more links in the Notes section--but you get the drift.) Can you imagine what they're saying now? Get out--we don't no stinkin goofies!

And this (dramamine is advised): "It's easy to have a cheerful, helpful and motivated cast member when he or she comes right out of the Traditions class at Disney University, says Parker. The challenge is to keep that person motivated six months later when it's 90 degrees outside with 98-percent humidity. The answer is not constant training, it's leadership." Powers of the Net unite. They must be stopped.

Ah, the Ad Age top jingles of the century are enough to snip the heartstrings of any aspiring artist. Besides "I wish I were an Oscar Myer Wiener," let's give props to "See the USA in Your Chevrolet"--who could forget that little diddy. (?) And that wonderfully sexist Brylcreem anthem, "A little dab'll do ya." (Can you see her now, peering into the mirror behind the shoulder of her cherished stud? Mission accomplished.)

The Courtney Love you didn't know in "Courtney Love Does the Math" (I love what she says, but am I the only one wondering if Love's outfit here was the inspiration behind Flying Butterfly Barbie?)

Great article about getting personal and getting connected from October 4, 1999 New Yorker, ANNALS OF MARKETING -- The Science of the Sleeper: How the Information Age could blow away the blockbuster, by Malcolm Gladwell.

More to come...