From Me to Nifty: A Plea to My Blog

Dear blog:

I've been thinking about you quite a bit lately. Actually, you and me and how we've been working together. I love you very much, and enjoy spending time with you, but don't feel we're as close as we can be.

I like writing about pop culture, social media, and life in general, but most of the time I don't feel like we really talk about things that are very significant or make a difference in people's lives. And this--ultimately--is what I want and expect from our relationship.

So through this post, I urge the both of us to ponder what direction we want to take moving forward, and be open and communicative with one another. Of course, our readers play an important part in this, so if they have any thoughts or opinions on this matter...we must listen to them.

Thank you for hearing my cry, blog, and I look forward to our growing relationship.

Love,

Social Citizen

It's my one-year-birthday! (Well, for this blog anyway.)

Tomorrow is my one year blogging birthday! Yup, I started this "Nifty Nation" blog exactly one year ago tomorrow, while I was in New York City for a conference. And while there have certainly been slumps, and what I would refer to as weak content, overall I feel I've provided something interesting and entertaining to the folks who've stopped by.

I will continue to do my best to create original, engaging content, and certainly always appreciate feedback and suggestions. After all...you're here reading what I'm producing, so I want to create content that's intriguing to you.

Video Killed the Radio Star? (Part 2)

Last week I wrote a post about my infatuation with music videos. Now, mind you...I don't really watch American music video channels like MTV or VH1 because they play nothing but crap, that is essentially bought by powerhouse music companies to get promotion for their artists. (Bitter, party of one, please!) That's OK...I can live with that. (Thank you, YouTube.com.) Anyway....

I always find it interesting to see the visual interpretation of a song, so in paying homage to the artistry of music videos I'd like to kick off "Music Video Week" here on Nifty Nation. That being said, it's only right to begin with one of the most visionary music video artists of our time: Madonna. Now, "How in the world can he choose a video from such a robost catalogue of work?" Well, it's certainly not easy, and there's a possibility another one of her videos may appear in the coming week. But for the sake of recognizing a video for the "creativity" aspect, I'm going with "Nothing Really Matters" from the groundbreaking 1998 release "Ray of Light". An exceptional song lyrically, to the naked eye the video makes no sense, and is really a mish-mosh of weirdness; however, there is a story behind the video, and it was inspired by the story Memoirs of a Geisha. If you'd like to learn more about the backstory click here.

Here is the video for "Nothing Really Matters":