Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

“The World’s Slowest Indian,” Road Racing World

01.07.2009 by David Murray // 7 Comments

Doc Batsleer and more than 400 others raced their old motorcycles in the Barber Vintage Festival in October. A couple of road racing newbies were overwhelmed by the scene. From the January 2009 issue of Road Racing World magazine.

[Read more…]

Categories // Rambling, At Home and Abroad

What is the future of PR?

01.07.2009 by David Murray // 9 Comments

Judging from this video, made by Edelman Public Relations for PR Week, it’s essentially the same as the past.

Except, it will be a little more self-serving, somewhat shallower, a wee bit more self-aggrandizing, a dram glibber, a teense more obvious, slightly more phony and simultaneously more cliché-ridden and less intellectually rigorous.

And that is fucking saying something.

 

Categories // Uncategorized

Requiem for a speechwriter

01.06.2009 by David Murray // Leave a Comment

The "retirement" party last night was at the Billy Goat. The beers weren't cutting the sadness, so I left after three.

I'll just say this: It takes an awfully peculiar sort of person—funny and nutty and witty and wise, not too ambitious, not at all lazy, passionate here, dispassionate there, intellectual and well read but self-deprecating, just this much and this kind of ego—to actually enjoy the inherently absurd job of helping institutions communicate.

And when a person achieves and sustains that kind of profound mutation and makes it look natural—well, he ought to have his job as long as he wants it, if you ask me.

And even as he laughed at the satirically mocked-up, framed Vital Speeches cover his colleagues gave him, even as he read his personal version of FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech, even as he reassured everyone he'd be plenty busy between his knee replacement surgery and his plans to write for the Huffington Post, the guy didn't try to hide his sadness.

I admired that, and I didn't try to hide mine, either.

No one did.

Categories // Uncategorized

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 1379
  • 1380
  • 1381
  • 1382
  • 1383
  • …
  • 1433
  • Next Page »

Now Available

An Effort to Understand

Order Now

SIGN UP TO RECEIVE BLOG UPDATES

About

David Murray writes on communication issues.
Read More

 

Categories

  • Baby Boots
  • Communication Philosophy
  • Efforts to Understand
  • Happy Men, and Other Eccentrics
  • Human Politicians
  • Mister Boring
  • Murray Cycle Diaries
  • Old Boots
  • Rambling, At Home and Abroad
  • Sports Stories
  • The Quotable Murr
  • Typewriter Truths
  • Uncategorized
  • Weird Scenes Inside the Archives

Archives

Copyright © 2025 · Log in

  • Preorder An Effort to Understand
  • Sign Up for Blog Updates
  • About David Murray