A Coronavirus Quarantine Post: Cliff Huxtable's Jazz Collection

So it's taken a global pandemic for me to write my first post since 2018. Wow.

I'm in my 8th week of working from home. I am being very productive for my job but I do have an itch to write about non-work stuff. I usually write about communications or advertising on this blog - but not today! Nope, today I will be taking you on a rambling, rabbit trail of thoughts that center around my newfound appreciation for jazz.

I'll start with some background on how I began listening to jazz. In November of 2019, just before Thanksgiving, I began cleaning up our garage. This included getting rid of clutter, implementing better organization and painting walls. The painting actually required the most time and I passed that time by listening to music.

My free, ad-supported Pandora account was the preferred source of music. Because I was painting at night and didn't "feel" any of the the tailored stations I've built, I decided to give Pandora's Jazz Radio a try.

I was instantly pleased. The music's rhythm helped me establish a good working pace and I was finished with the project in no time.

I moved away from jazz during the holidays in favor of Christmas tunes by Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Perry Como and others. Pandora was a big help here, too.

When we were taking down our 2019 Christmas tree (probably sometime after January 1, 2020), I stopped for a break and flipped through the TV channels. I noticed that one cable network was airing an episode of The Cosby Show. 

 I though it was remarkable that any network would take on Bill Cosby after...well, you know. (Turns out that this network, TV One, is the only network doing so since May 2017).

My cable box's description of the episode explained that Cliff (Bill Cosby's character) is repeatedly forced to venture to a store during a rainstorm to retrieve items needed for Thanksgiving dinner. I thought the timing of this episode was interesting since we just finished the holiday season.

As I watched the episode though, it became clear that this was not a Thanksgiving episode. This episode did not match the cable box description at all. In this episode, the parents of Denise's husband visit the Huxtable home. At one point Cliff and Denise's father-in-law retreat to the Huxtable's basement, where Cliff's record collection is kept.



This scene reminded me of my recently-acquired appreciation for jazz. It also reminded me that I've always noticed Bill Cosby's inclusion of jazz and jazz artists in all of his work - from his Fat Albert cartoon to the music and guests featured in episodes of The Cosby Show. I learned about more examples of his support from this KUVO public radio article.

I watched this scene over and over, trying to recognize the artists in the collection. From what I can catch, he mentions:

• Hawkins (I believe he means Coleman Hawkins)
• Perez or Prez (My research makes me think this is a reference to Lester Young, whose nickname is Pres or Prez)
• Ahmad Jamal (well-known jazz pianist and supposedly who Malcolm-Jamal Warner - who played Theo Huxtable - is named after)
• Louis Armstrong (everyone knows him)

Joe Kendall (Denise's father-in-law) then acknowledges some of the artists in the collection. He mentions Coltrane (for John Coltrane) and something else I can decipher before questioning Cliff's knowledge of a Lester "Motormouth" Sutton album. All of my searches for this artist point back to Lester Young. I wonder if Motormouth was a fictional artist?

So, fast-forward to the COVID-19 quarantine in March of 2020. I'm working from home at my workbench in the before-mentioned garage. I resumed listening to jazz while working and became more familiar with the artists and songs that Pandora played for me. 

On April 24th, I'm flipping through the TV channels again and I come across the very same episode of The Cosby Show - and it has the same incorrect episode description! I watched that scene numerous times, again, and it made me want to get to the bottom of that incorrect description.

The internet is an amazing research tool, if you haven't already noticed. Here are some facts about that episode:

• This is episode 10 of season six and is titled, "Grampy and Nu-Nu Visit the Huxtables"
• It originally aired on November 30, 1989.
• There's a blog that critiques the wardrobes worn in episodes of The Cosby Show. Check out the post about our mystery episode, written in 2014. Looks like there was some re-purposing of jackets!
• Episode 10 of season 6 features legendary jazz singer Nancy Wilson, who plays Denise's mother-in-law. Another example of Cosby incorporating a musical guest into the show. She even got to showcase her talent in scene at the very end of the episode.

Check out the title of the above video, if you can. It indicates that the scene is from episode 9 of season 6, not episode 10. 

I did a little more research on a Cosby fandom site and...wouldn't you know? Episode 9 is actually the Thanksgiving episode. It originally aired on November 16, 1989. That was two weeks before our beloved episode 10, which makes sense because Thanksgiving was on November 23rd that year - NBC ran a rerun of The Cosby Show that night. Use this link to see for yourself!

Episode 9 is titled "Cliff's Wet Adventure" and that seems to match more closely to the description given by my cable box. 

Episode 10 and 9 were playing back-to-back when I was watching on April 24th and the cable box description of these episodes was still flipped! It is crazy that these two episode were playing in succession 31 years after they originally aired. It's also crazy how I noticed the backwards cable box descriptions when watching episode 10 twice in a span of a few months. 

This concludes the rabbit trail research. My appreciation for jazz continues - I'm still listening Pandora Jazz Radio during the quarantine. I would say that Grazing in the Grass by Hugh Masekela is typical of a jazz song that I like...lots of trumpet or sax and no vocals. Enjoy the song below and let me know what other artists I should check out!

Oh, one more thing. I can't pass up the chance to link to another post I wrote that mentioned Bill Cosby. It is so amazing that he was once so in-demand as a spokesman and is now an 82-year-old man pleading to be released from prison due to a fear of contracting the coronavirus. Crazy times.

3 More Social Media Wishes

I was satisfied with my post about my Top-3 social media wishes but since then, I've come up with a few more wishes. Just like my original wishes, these wishes are a little nitpicky but relevant enough to really enhance my experience with these particular social media outlets. Let's get right to it.

Pandora – List the Year! 

I'm not big on music. It doesn't dictate my life as much as it did when I was in high school. However, I do enjoy playing a radio in the background when I'm working on a project at home. Pandora does the trick for me. Hearing some of my favorite songs my own 90's Alternative channel really takes me back to days with fewer responsibilities (yet more angst). Pandora is great about providing details of songs such as the artists, the cover art from the album on which the song originally appeared and even the lyrics to the song. What isn’t provided is the release year of the song – and that sorta bugs me. XM Sirius displays the year of songs currently played by users and my DRV guide lists the release year of movies in the channel description. I always catch myself looking at the screen and searching for the year when Pandora plays a great song. I'm sure they have their reason for excluding the year but this would be a great addition, in my opinion.

(By the way, Pandora is a social media network because it requires a unique, personalized profile and custom channels can be shared with other users. Also, if you're in the Birmingham area and like 90's alternative music too, check out 94.9 The Alt FM. They play a lot of songs from the 90's and 00's with a tolerable amount of late 00's Emo music and today's "HEY" music.)

Google+ - Let the People Hoot! 

I enjoy using Hootsuite to schedule social media posts. It's very flexible and allows me to send messages from all of my social media messages – except Google+. Yes, you can send and schedule messages for your Google+ business page with Hootsuite, but not your personal profile. From what I've determined, this is a Google decision – they won't permit users the ability to manage their personal G+ posts with Hootsuite (or any other social media dashboard, from what I can tell). This is a real head-scratcher. It seems that Google would allow this type of connectivity if it ever wanted Google+ to shake its "ghost town" image. Sure, there are workarounds available through IFTTT but they're too convoluted. I'll just continue to keep my fingers crossed in hope of day when Google throws Hootsuite users a bone. Facebook does…just sayin'. Then again, it may not matter as Google seems to be repositioning Google+ as a business tool, according to this recent

video.


Tumblr & IFTTT – Can't We All Just Get Along? 

I use Tumblr primarily as a place to share content from others. IFTTT helps streamline a lot of "sharing steps" for many of my social media profiles. For a reason I cannot determine, YouTube and Tumblr do not want to connect via IFTTT for me. I've tried several recipes that are built to take the YouTube videos I like and instantly share them on my Tumblr. I've even tried building my own recipe to accomplish this but to no avail. It just…does…not…work. It's the only recipe I have trouble with and, even though it won't cause me to quit YouTube (never!) or Tumblr, my Tumblr experience sure would be a lot cooler if there was more harmony in this relationship.

Share your social media wishes with me in the comments below or with me on Twitter! Who knows? I may add even more wishes soon!

I Hope Radio Never Leaves

While recently reading up on the demise of RadioShack, I was reminded about how this outlet for batteries, robotics, fuses and everything in between originated: as a source for equipment to the budding radio industry and hobbyists back in 1921. This realization sent me down a rabbit trail of memories about how radio has impacted my life.

My grandfather operated an appliance store that sold and serviced radios back during a time when families gathered around large radio cabinets in their living rooms for their evening entertainment. My father took over the store as more and more families transitioned to televisions and VCRs. But like his father, Dad isn't fond of throwing things away. Many of my grandfather's replacement tubes and other radio parts remain in storage. I invite any radio enthusiasts that happen to be reading to contact me for some great deals!

Early my career, my duties allowed me to become very familiar with radio advertising. I made a lot of contacts at stations in small markets and I'm still appreciative of their guidance. One particular gentleman that I worked with arranged for me to be a frequent studio guest at his station and the play-by-play announcer for the local high school's football games that they covered. Thankfully, no copies of those broadcasts exist … but it would be fun to listen to them again in all their cringe-worthiness.

These days, I work with Birmingham radio stations when the budget allows. I’m very excited about what will be a new venture for me: internet radio. I just kicked off a campaign with Pandora that incorporates audio and visual ads. The incredible targeting provided by this service estimates a huge amount of impressions and I'm anxious to dive into the wealth of analytics as the campaign proceeds.

Radio has a lot competition in today's world but I think it will fare better than RadioShack. Satellite radio is great but these days I find myself tuning my car's radio to local stations more than ever. The devices we enjoy today are used on such a personal, isolated level that I don't think we'll ever go back to gathering around a radio cabinet in groups. Radio has actually had a big impact on me. I hope it never leaves.

A Missed Target in the Soda Wars

I'm a bit of a challenge for my fellow advertisers when it comes to casting marketing messages my way by traditional methods. I'm a proud cord-cutter and don't do appointment television so it's almost impossible to catch my attention with TV ads. In the car, I switch stations so fast during commercial breaks that it's almost like an instinct. Forget newspaper and magazine ads too.

My recent post about the relationship between Santa Claus and the Coca-Cola Company made me consider the ways such a huge company (and Coke's competitors) could reach people like me. So I made a quick list of the main ways advertisements reach me in my personal life:

• Web ads based on browser activity.
• Preroll advertisements on YouTube and Hulu Plus.
• Ad breaks on my free Pandora account.
• Sponsored posts on Twitter and Facebook.
• Email subscriptions. 

I'm sure I'm missing a few but the list isn't very long - and these are all channels that are clearly not traditional methods. 

So back to Coke. They cover the globe with advertising and, to keep up, Pepsi does too. Their behemoth brands are instantly recognizable and the Soda Wars require each company to keep pushing. But as I thought more about how these companies reach people like me, I realized that it's been a while since I've seen any type of ad from Coke or Pepsi. I really racked my brain and came up empty. So, starting with a clean slate, I kept track of any exposure I had to these brands for 2 weeks. Here are the results:

First, Coke:

• I went to a movie in a theater that serves Coke products. After an seemingly endless run of ads, trivia and etiquette reminders, a Coke ad appeared just before the movie began. You know the one - ice cubes fall from the top of the frame, clinking along until they fill up the entire screen. Audio of a beverage being opened follows this image, which is then covered by a poured soda. 
• I happen to follow Coke on Tumblr, which I forgot because their posts get lost in the mix. But, a few weeks after the movie theater ad, I scrolled past the Coke Tumblr in my feed and a bright, red image that featured the white silhouette of the Coke logo definitely caught my eye.

That's all! Two instances in two weeks! 

Pepsi didn't perform much better:

• I spend a lot of time watching videos on YouTube and lately I've come to really appreciate the perspective given by drone videos. During my 2-week experiment, I happened to come across this video that featured drone footage of New York City's five boroughs. Here's a screen cap of something in that video that stood out: 

• I also find myself watching a lot of viral videos on YouTube, like this one that featured some cool, slo-mo footage of a room full of mouse traps being set off by ping pong balls. Turns out that this viral hit was made possible by it's sponsor, Pepsi Max. I know...it's not Pepsi, but it's in the family.

That's all for Pepsi. It's a tie. For the most part, I was a missed target during this observation of the Soda Wars. I'm not sure what to make of this. My only conclusion is that I'm not a very "visible" target by traditional means and, because I don't search for or visit the websites of these brands, I don't appear in new media cross hairs either. 

I know I'm not the only person that is exposed to ads exclusively by way of the methods I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Time will tell if big brands make adjustments and the Soda Wars impact my life once again.