Thanks for the 16-year thrill ride, Brett. We cheeseheads have no idea how good we’ve had it for so long. My entire adult life has been spent cheering you on and watching you struggle, learn from your mistakes, try again, scrap and fight through hardship and heartbreak, and eventually celebrate as a true champion.

I am proud to be a Packer fan, and I even appreciate your moments of personal struggle that provided a chance to explain to my kids what being a Man meant. Respect, humility, commitment, leadership by example. Acknowledge your mistakes, grow, move on.

Bruce Wayne’s father in Batman Begins : “And why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” You did that very thing, time and time again, and I am grateful.

In related news… a state-wide suicide watch in Wisconsin is in effect until October. We’ll need to see a solid first month of football from Mr. Aaron Rodgers before relief washes over us, I’m guessing.

I previously posted at Burst Labs about Seth Godin and the music business, but this new video of him speaking at Columbia Records is an absolute Must Watch for anybody in the biz (see vid below, or @ google).

EDIT 2/27 - apparently the video is unavailable until further notice via Seth’s site.

EDIT 3/3 - full transcript posted at Seth’s blog as a PDF

Seth says “the music business is in trouble” because all of the factors that made the industry the Perfect Business are completely changed, all of the old rules don’t apply - but more people are listening to music than ever before.

If you are an independent artist looking to build your career - your brand - he offers so many great ideas here it boggles the mind.

One thing the majors do have on us independents is the size of their bankroll. By virtue of their sheer size, they can create a new paradigm for sharing, or a new way of ‘identifying with your tribe,’ to use some Godin-speak. However, it definitely takes large ships a lot longer to change course, and the majors are the epitome of large ships. Independent artists who can direct their (relative) tugboats around the treacherous ocean that is the music business in 2008 will certainly be rewarded handsomely, and their fans should be stoked, as well.

Just back from seeing U2 3D, the new concert movie from National Geographic and 3eality Digital featuring my favorite band and some pretty breathtaking 3-dimensional visual technology.

Aside from wishing the theater audio system would have been cranked up another 10 or 12 db, I suppose I enjoyed the movie, though it was certainly not soul-shaking or emotionally engaging in a way that replicates the live concert experience.

I went with my brother and a friend of his, and we found ourselves surrounded by people ready for a movie. Popcorn. Soda. 3D glasses. And nary a peep of excitement… no clapping, no screaming, no singing along.

I wouldn’t have thought to expect that behavior, but I took a moment to think about it as the credits rolled and realized it made perfect sense… we were, after all, seeing a movie.

A concert movie, but just a movie.

Being separated from each other by the thick sides of the plastic glasses we were forced to wear (to perceive the effect of visual depth… though the picture without glasses was, oddly, not unwatchable) meant having to turn your head to see anything other than the picture. Maybe the hoped-for effect is more pronounced in the IMAX version - I saw it in a Dolby Digital cinema with a regular movie screen.

Without the benefit of standing through the entire show and singing along, smelling the air, feeling the sound system thundering the earth beneath us… it just felt more like a display of technology than an impactful concert. A really cool display of technology, but a display nonetheless.

The shots above the drumkit were most impressive - all of the different surfaces and depths available at a set of drums really made the 3D effect pop off the screen.

My favorite use of the movie’s 3D effects probably had the least to do with the band :

The first song of the encore features gobs and gobs of 3D text effects, layered over and behind the concert visuals. Having computer generated effects blended with live footage really made the front layers come to the fore, and navigating with the camera lens along a path through these graphics was nothing short of extraordinary. It seems to me this is the real applicable future of this particular 3D technology, and I can only imagine what a director such as Michel Gondry would be able to pull off given these new tools to work with.

If you love U2 and love technology, you’ll probably like U2 3D.

I do, and I did.

I don’t think I’d characterize any of my decisions in the past as regretful. Though some have meant considerable emotional pain and general discomfort, all have brought me to who I am today and I’m pretty damn happy, all things considered.

It is interesting to evaluate your own response, however, when asked “What you would tell your 15-year-old self if you had the opportunity?” as Gaper’s Block does. It was certainly worth a look, and a few minutes of my time today were spent examining the possibility of past regrets.

A great quote from Lucille Ball on the topic… “I would rather regret the things that I have done than the things that I have not.”

Yup yup… the new site design is here! Thanks to Cory Duncan for the fast WordPress implementation and for deciphering this particular amateur designer’s Photoshop files.

So expect some oddities around these parts for the next few days… not exactly sure how much time this will take, as we’re in the middle of some pretty major updates at Burst right now, too. If you run across a broken link or goofy image, feel free to drop me a line. Much appreciated!

Vintage footage of his game against Cincinnati, with Brett being asked about Majkowski’s injury!

From NFL Live with Bob Costas, Buddy Ryan and OJ Simpson?!!!

Who knew OJ played against Mike Holmgren?!!! Wha?!!

What a great trip down Packers Memory Lane. The legend is born.

My lovely lady Kate’s skin care business, Halcyon Mode, is about to launch in Chicago, and plans are coming together for a new space in Milwaukee’s Third Ward. It’s an exciting time, to be sure. So we set about rethinking and redesigning her website this past weekend, with an eye on making sure that people searching for things like “Milwaukee Skin Care” or “Dr. Hauschka Chicago” will find Halcyon Mode as one of the first options (Flash, her previous site/brochure technology, just ain’t friendly with search engines… but Belle did such a great job with it that we’re making it Halcyon Mode’s online brochure).

So here’s her new Wordpress-based install (I’m a big, big fan), with a design most definitely in progress. It’ll take some time, but as sure as I am that she’ll be wildly successful at aesthetics services, skin care, facial treatments, and all the other organic and health related things she’s interested in, I’m just as confident her new website (and business locations) will bring her much happiness, wealth, and peace.

If you’re near Milwaukee, check out her list of skin care services. You won’t be disappointed, promise!

This weekend - between the second best Superbowl I’ve ever watched, trying to finalize an offer on a new house, closing the biggest business deal of my career, and holding my breath for tomorrow’s big day in politics - I happened across this stirring video.

Is it pushing the limits of responsible thought to see the Giants beating the Patriots as some sort of karmic corollary between the big game and the fight that is MOST DEFINITELY ON between Obama and Clinton?

If you live in a state where voting is taking place, please do your part for Hope.

Fingers - and every other appendage - crossed. Emphatically.

And, oh yeah… Randy Moss and Hillary Clinton can SUCK ONE (thanks, Will Ferrell).

Is youtuber a word? If it is, ridi0t is my new favorite youtuber.

I was up until 5 this morning watching all of his videos… they feel like a mirror, eerily similar to my own life experience in so many ways (save for going into the ministry… closest I ever got was touring with ccm artists… eye opening in its own way, I suppose).

There are bloggers/vloggers who are confessional, forthright, soul-baring in ways I can’t imagine myself ever offering here… online, publicly, so naked. It’s more than honesty… it’s unrepentant, but without a hint of malice. I think I’m still too burned by relationships, friendships, and beliefs. I still lust for revenge, for justice of some kind, to make certain people hurt in equal measure to the pain they caused me.

In so many ways it feels like f o r e v e r ago that my search for Truth began, but I’m all too aware of scabs that haven’t quite fallen off just yet.

Much respect, man. Much respect and peace.

Still coming to grips with it. Argh.

This strangely helps, though… thanks, Matt.