Elvis & Tubbs Album # 2 David Ackles Self-Titled

And now for another installment of this project dissecting Elvis Costello's 500 Essential Albums.

#2 is David Ackles self-titled debut album. EC calls this album "The Road To Cairo" which is the first track, which I'm quite enjoying! I've never heard of David Ackles, which was one of the motivations behind this project.

So far, it's kind of like the kind of stuff you'd hear being played in a darkened bar in a noir crime movie from the 70s. I'm really digging this first song. It's got some bluesy feels, a little bit of rock, and I love any time an organ can get itself in there.

The second track is a lot more mellow, but I'm not hating it by any means. It's pretty sad, that's for sure.

Third track in, this is a really sad sounding album in general, not that that's ever a bad thing. I'm at the point where I'm doubting this project because what if there's nothing to say about the music. I'm no music critic. Also, this song has really sad lyrics about memories and reminiscing...but also has instrumentals that sometimes sound like a circus...

Jesus Christ, every single song on this album is so sad...David Ackles was like the Morrisey of the late '60s. This guy has a stellar voice though.

What a Happy Day is a little more uplifting but still has a real somber feeling. I'm definitely seeing his influence on Elvis Costello, especially lyrically.

I'm on to Down River, which was apparently his big song. According to Wikipedia, Elvis Costello and Elton John chose this song to do as a duet on Elvis' TV show because they were both such big fans. I'm definitely enjoying it. There's a real conversational feel to a lot of these songs. Like each song is being sung to one person and everyone else is just listening in. That's most evident in this song.

I spaced out a little during Laissez-Faire, but I noticed my toes tapping the whole time.

Lotus Man has really great basslines. In fact, all of these songs have had really great bass lines. The bass player is the real hero of this album, save for David's voice.

His Name is Andrew starts telling me the story of a guy working in a canning factory and I'm already sad. This is definitely not a "windows down" record, I can tell you that. That's not bad mind you, but man, you need to be in a certain mood for this record. I just looked up the lyrics to confirm...he's definitely saying "God is Dead"....phew man.

Last song...Be My Friend. I'm sure it's about a man who is just begging every person to be his friend and then them being so bummed out because he just wants to talk about pancreatic cancer for like...a really long time. Ok, so I'm not exactly right, but surprise surprise, it's not exactly about two pals going to a ball game either. Although, it does sound a little hopeful. Like, perhaps, being this guy's friend is something that acted as a bright spot in his very very grim life. I like this little acoustic guitar solo at about 3:20-ish. It's really good.

I'm looking at the list....it's alphabetical by artist and there's a second album by this guy...I'll have to wait to do that another day to avoid driving into a forest and just....sitting silently until I starve to death. And don't get it twisted, I dug the album, I really did. It's just very sad.

Elvis & Tubbs - A Project & Album #1 Abba Gold - Abba

In addition to sporadic posts about all of the shenanigans and goings-on in my life, I wanted to add something to keep me regular. Pop cultural Metamucil if you will. To that end, I recently came across a list of 500 albums Elvis Costello considers to be essential. I've decided to attempt to have my own Julie and Julia moment. I'm going to listen to all of these albums and jot down my thoughts stream of consciousness style. Then I'll rank the album in the 500. The rankings will obviously have to evolve. So here we go! We begin with Abba Gold by Abba.

We've clicked play and I'm realizing I've never actually listened to an Abba album before in my life. I don't know if this counts, it's a greatest hits compilation after but here we go.

Dancing Queen, I know this song. I love this song because I've got blood pressure. I'm going to be doing this while I'm working, thoughts will be less sporadic going forward. I feel like Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg in the middle of the social network with less misogyny. Spell check had to teach me to spell that by the way. 

I'm on track two (Knowing Me, Knowing You) and seriously, where have I been on Abba...how could you people let me down like this? I needed someone to tie me to a chair and play me some Abba years ago. Could it be like this for Steeley Dan? The Grateful Dead? SELF DISCOVERY!

Of course, I know this song (Take A Chance on Me), I heard it on the Muppet Show once. I wonder how much of my early musical knowledge came from The Muppet Show? I know it's where I first heard Benny and the Jets or For What It's Worth or anything by Harry Belafonte.

So this is Mama Mia...a song I've only heard in movie trailers. What am I, some sort of cave-dwelling martian!? This is such a good album and I've enjoyed every single song so far. It's a greatest-hits, so I guess that's to be expected.

Ok...so we're in the middle here, the last two songs (Lay All Your Love On Me and Super Trouper) kind of ran together so they are pretty unremarkable. Not bad mind you, just didn't snap me out of my occupationally-induced haze.

I feel like this record has taken a pretty hard turn. We're on I Have A Dream now and I'm certainly not toe-tapping. There's no law saying that I have to be, but this song just isn't doing it for me at the moment. Musically, it sounds like a generic country karaoke song that someone is jamming out on the sitar with, like those guys you see in the underground El stations in Chicago. Not feeling it...

I got kind of lost in The Winner Takes It All. I was just enjoying it and not paying any attention. However, now we're on Money Money Money and I'm...like....what are we doing here?

You're starting to lose me Abba...I like the general sound of Chiquitita, but it's just not hitting me. It is really fun to say though!

Fernando, no duh I loved Fernando. I'm a carbon-based lifeform.

Voulez-Vous is bringing me back in, I'm tapping my toes while I answer e-mails.

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) is a lot of fun. I can imagine I'll be singing this chorus for the rest of the day...I don't know if that angers me or not.

I'm instantly hating Does Your Mother Know, like I'm having an adverse reaction from note one...but now that we're singing and stuff, I'm a little more "on board", but not in love. As it comes to an end, this song has won me over. What a journey that was.

We've moved on to One of Us and man, I'm in love. Even with the weird synthesized...tuba, I think it is, that's a super catchy song.

And we're done. I didn't have too much to say about the last two songs (The Name of the Game and Thank You For The Music) and then there's Waterloo, which I already knew and loved.

So that's that, one album down. I think it's fun to post my stream of consciousness thoughts and leave it at that, so I only edited this for spelling and grammar.

We'll end by saying that, no duh, my favorite song was Dancing Queen. My least favorite song was probably Money, Money, Money.

EC's 500 Albums Power Ranking

1. Abba Gold - Abba

No Joke - Why Humor at Work is Essential

Note: This post originally occurred on my company's internal blog. I got permission to repost it if I wanted to and since I haven't made a post in a while (I'm working on some, I swear) I thought this would be a good time. Enjoy!

I’ve been interested in comedy ever since the age of 5 when I overheard my parents and their friends laughing at a popular stand-up comic on television while I was supposed to be asleep. All I wanted in life was to hear people laugh. In high school, when I watched an improv troupe perform at a local coffee shop, my obsession with doing improv comedy was born. This obsession deepened as I studied acting in college and moved to Chicago to pursue it. I have been doing improv for about 18 years now. 

Recently, I began thinking about how humor can affect the way we work. A friend and fellow improvisor Drew Tarvin has made a career out of using humor at work - his most recent book Humor That Works gave me a whole lot to think about. 

I first met Drew when he came to visit my improv theater while he was working on a book about doing comedy in all 50 states in the US. Drew has a few TEDx talks about using humor at work and refers to himself as a Humor Engineer. Here are a few reasons Drew believes humor is important at work when executed properly: 

1. Studies estimate that 83% of Americans are stressed at their jobs, 55% lack job satisfaction, and 47% struggle to stay happy. This, in turn, costs the US economy nearly one trillion dollars a year in lost productivity, healthcare costs, and turnover. Using humor to reduce stress, engage our workforce and promote more joy in our working lives could lead to real cost savings. Having more humor in our workplace isn’t just a nice idea, it feels like an imperative. 
2. Drew lists 30 benefits of humor in his book, including increasing productivity, enhancing problem-solving skills, encouraging collaboration and even strengthening the immune system and burning calories. Drew suggests that by using humor, we could create an even more positive work culture, strengthen loyalty and morale, boost engagement, and raise profits. 
3. Humor is not without its pitfalls. When used improperly, humor can be distracting, divisive, disparaging and offensive. But if we’re mindful of the ways we use humor, use good timing, make sure everyone can be in on the joke, and make sure we’re not engaging in humor at the expense of others, we can avoid these pitfalls. 

So what do we do? What would it take to inject a little bit more of this into our workday? 

• Play work – making work fun can sometimes be a challenge. But what if it was a game? You could time yourself while doing a task and then see if you could increase your speed the next day. You could compete with a colleague for efficiency. You could have a meeting while going for a walk to get your blood pumping (I’ve done this one and found it quite enjoyable). 
• Spark insight – taking some time for yourself to clear your head before you have to go into a situation requiring critical thinking is a new idea for me. Drew suggests that by doing something fun for 5 – 15 minutes before needing to make an important decision, you’ll warm up your brain and be more prepared to think critically. We can do this by watching a funny video, playing a game, working on a puzzle for a few minutes, or doing a simple improv warm-up game. 
• Reference funny - sometimes, effectively expressing the ideas you want to communicate is difficult. You know what you want to say, but you get blank faces looking back at you. I developed a real knack for creating analogies in these circumstances. It helps my ideas relate to the people I’m communicating with and my analogies get people laughing! Drew suggests that in order to effectively use this skill, keep your analogies simple (they shouldn’t require a great deal of explanation), keep them relevant to what you’re trying to communicate and, of course, make it fun. 

These are just a few of the many ways we could use humor to help us foster creativity, connection, and joy in the place where we spend on average 10.2 years worth of our time during our life. All it takes is ending an e-mail with a pun or a relevant quote or spending a few minutes doing a crossword before you go into a big meeting. 

There’s a lot more excellent information to be found at Drew’s website, including a comprehensive humor database featuring funny pictures, videos, and jokes you can use in presentations and when interacting with colleagues. 

I highly recommend checking out his book.