Or maybe it was the combination of two glasses of brunello along with the greatest little appetizer Italy ever gave the world, arancini.

Ultimately, maybe it was just that after a rough week with barely a moment to myself, I simply needed something to let a little levity and light and all it took was a damn good meal.

I don’t get in funks often, and this one lasted a week. If I dug deep, there would be a lesson here about finding balance in the face of a heavy schedule, and understanding that you have to keep everything in perspective.

This morning, though, I don’t feel like getting inspirational and finding lessons in life’s simple gifts. I just want to thank Nora’s for their Castiglion del Bosco’s Brunello di Montalcino and those perfect little arancini balls sitting on top of fat basil leaves, and for the velvety marina sauce dressing it. I should also give kudos to the eggplant parmesan that followed, that was thinly perfect and tasted like the winner of an Italian Grandma’s cooking contest.

Funk-be-gone. I’m recharged, refreshed, and most of all, very grateful that I couldn’t finish my meal and have leftovers to look forward to for lunch.

On Saturday night, after a wonderful evening with my family, a friend from LA called and asked if I’d heard the news. I had not. Clarence “Big Man” Clemons, The King of the Universe, the Big Kahuna, the Prince of the City, the Duke of Paducah, and the biggest f’ing man you’ll ever see, had died.

He didn’t write the words to Springsteen’s songs, but as one journalist, of the many who have written about Clarence’s death, said, he understood how to play the lyrics. It’s a careful choice of words. He gave the lyrics soul, and his notes blew right through the core of mine.

I know a lot of people who love music, but I know few people who have been truly touched by music the way Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have touched their hard core fans—the E Street Nation—of which I am a proud member. It may be the music that matters most to me, but the soul driver of that music has left this world.

There is a brief moment at all Springsteen shows, just before the stage lights go up, where the excitement of what is to come over the next two to three hours builds to a mountain so high, you need the help of a big man to pull you to the top. In fact, you need the Big Man. The band will go on, and Clarence will be remembered as a vital part of their history and legend. The E Street Band will remain the same earth-quaking, booty shaking, love-making, Viagra-taking, best little garage band you ever saw, but it will not quite be the same.

I think of future “Jungleland” performances. Clarence, with his sax, built the song to an operatic pitch; his music didn’t just punctuate the lyrics or the mood of the song. They embodied the emotion of the damaged world Springsteen had created, where wounded poets “just stand back and let it all be.” 

It’s hard for me to write about Clarence without making this about me. I’ve said many times that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were my first Life mentors. Their music reached through the airwaves of the 70s and grabbed this small-town Mississippi girl by the center of her soul and yanked her into a vibrant world of discontented characters with large hopes and a penchant for redemption. It was fitting, on a personal level, that Clemons passed away when I was in the land of my roots, the place where I became a faithful and loyal member of E Street Nation. I’m back in LA, but in my heart, I’m still in my hometown, driving through the streets at night, 17 again, with Jungleland playing, and I hear that mournful blue sax solo. Everything else fades away, except for the unforgettable sound of his notes.

Many of you asked for a copy of my presentation. Here it is. Please feel free to send me any questions you may have!

It is not intentional.

I am too bogged down to blog. We are all busy people. Literally; I don’t know a single person who is not busy. I marvel at people who manage their time well. I have friends who have a a day full of meetings, then find time to work out, get their nails done, then have dinner with friends—all in the same day. They look refreshed when you see them and shrug off their busy schedule. “What else would I do with my time?” These people say when you ask one of them how they manage it all.

Me? I am the kind of person who is all work, and spare time is something that happens to other people. Foreigners. I want you to say that word with a very deep southern accent. Foreigners. Nothing against actual foreigners, I just wanted to stress the strangeness of spare time to me these days.

Which brings me to my lack of blogging. A blog on marketing, for a marketer, falls somewhere between something you do in your spare time and actual work. Either way, this blog has been low on my list of priorities.

So there you have it, I’m too bogged down to blog. As I look at my calendar and see the next six to eight weeks stretch out in front of me in a sea of giant red letter Xs marked through each day, followed by long arrows and different cities names etched above it, I realized, I should check in on my blog and say something. I should say, “I’m here. I’m still the same hard-working marketer I always was, I’m just too busy to comment on Charlie Sheen’s derailed brand, or the new uber iPad, or the fact that Facebook did away with FBML and gave us iFrames.”

If you are going to do something, go full throttle with it. Doing something half-ass is for pansies, for people who don’t care. With that belief, I am going to send my blog on a cyber sabbatical. When the dust settles around my travel and work schedule sometimes in May or June, I’m going to brush off the log-in page on WordPress to Audacious Ink and check in. I hope I have something delicious and acerbic to say about the world of marketing. I hope I can give you some brilliant advice. And oh God, please let Charlie Sheen be in the news still. Please let him and Lindsey Lohan hook up so that not only celeb watchers can have fun, but marketing people can have an excuse to talk about crisis management and your brand.

And if, by chance, one night in the upcoming weeks, I find myself sitting in the dark, either in my office or a hotel room, with just the glow of the laptop hitting my face and a blank screen staring me down, I’ll check in. Some where, some brand will surely have screwed up, or done something amazing. Facebook will have made changes, or maybe it will be Twitter. There is always news in the world of marketing, and personally, I’d love the spare time to cover it.

Okay, I have to run; I’m very busy these days keeping up with Charlie Sheen’s tweets. #TigerBlood.

Remember when Pope Benedict XVI’s said that priests should embrace digital communication? He meant it! The Catholic Church in the U.S. has even sanctioned the app, and says it gives the faithful a “personalized examination of conscience for each user.” But if you actually need to be absolved of your sins (and I ask you, who doesn’t), you need a priest for that. Sit tight, though, in the future we’ll be able to say, “Need a priest? There’s an app for that.”

UPDATE:
Shortly after I hit the Publish button on this post, an update to the Confession app story hit the news. “The app we created is supposed to be used in the actual confessional,” said Patrick Leinen, co-founder of Little iApps, who created the Confession app. “This is an aid to confession and in no way, shape or form a replacement.”

The food was indeed good. In fact it was great. I spent so much time around the buffet table (and bar, I confess) that the only thing I saw of the Super Bowl was the halftime show, or as we all called it “WTF was that?” Yeah, we’re not Black Eyed Peas fans.

At some point during the game, someone said, “Hey, you’re in marketing, probably all you care about in the game are the ads.” At which point I said, “Oh @#$* I forgot the ads!” Yes. I forgot about the ads. Good food (and wine) can do that to me.

So when I came home I spent a couple of hours looking at the Super Bowl ads online. Most people at the party, those who actually watched the game, my boyfriend included, liked the Go Daddy ad the best. I thought it was cute. Funny Super Bowl ads are a staple of the big game. The ones that stand out in my mind, though, are the miniature movies that are anthemic in scope. The first one that comes to mind is Apple’s famous and futuristic Super Bowl ad “1984.”

So for me, as I watched the commercials, the one that made the hair prickle on my arm and will be engrained in my mind a decade or two from now is . . . the Eminem commercial for Chrysler. Beleaguered and battered Detroit is the star, and 40 seconds in, we see the car–with Eminem behind the wheel. He drives up to what looks like a grand old palace, and walks inside. We see a choir on stage. He turns to face the camera, and with his iconic angry glare points at us and says, “This is the Motor City. This is what we do.” Now all of a sudden I love Detroit, and suddenly think of Chrysler as cool. That’s a great commercial.

A few other commercials stand out for me, too. From a copywriter’s perspective, I love the Mini Cooper “Cram it in the boot.” It really struck a chord with its double entendres and over the top gleeful writing. It left me wondering how this slipped by the sensors, but I admired the clever way they took a potential concern for the small but fierce car–space–and demonstrated in a very engaging and effective way that you can just cram it in the boot.

Then there was Bridgestone’s “Reply All” ad. This commercial works because it’s a fear we all have: writing an inappropriate response and accidentally hitting the Reply All button. The creators very cleverly managed to connect with us, in a harmless and humorous way, by our fear. If Bridgestone tires could let me tear around time snatching up computers of people I accidentally sent an email, too, then where’s my local Bridgestone retailer?

The Audi-”Release the Hounds” ad is another favorite. The satire of rich white guys was hysterical–especially that they like Kenny G. I had never really thought about it before, but I have met one or two insanely rich, old white guys who, oddly, did like Kenny G. Talk about truth in advertising. I also liked the implication. Mercedes is old-school luxury; Audi is luxury’s new face. Again, I think there is some truth in advertising there. I’ve noticed that more of my wealthy younger friends are buying Audi–not BMW, not Mercedes. Part of this could be design: Audi is doing a great job. I don’t have stats to prove it (but will look for them) but I’m guessing Audi’s research knew this ad would resonate with their base.

Next up, who let the dogs out? No seriously. For every car and potato chip ad, there was a dog. I predict that by 2020 all Super Bowl ads will star only canines, no humans. My pick of the pack was probably your favorite–it seemed to be everyone’s: Doritos–Pug Attack. A pug one-ups a smart ass. What’s not to love? Well . . . what does it really say about the brand? Not much. Audi said something about their brand, Mini addressed an issue, Bridgestone found common ground and Chrysler made us feel good about not just a company, but an industry–and a city. Doritos just made us root for a pug. That’s okay. It’s a fun ad, and it gets credit for that.

Of course, the VW Passat ad is getting a ton of buzz. Yes, it went for the “human story” angle, but, sorry, I just didn’t love it. It was too safe for my taste. The only “great” moment was the father’s very subtle and well-timed eyebrow raise. I preferred their Beetle ad–we never even saw the car, but the bug, symbolic of the newly designed 2012 Beetle, took us on its own wild, energizing ride and the tease at the end was just the perfect snippet to create anticipation of the new design.

If you want to watch all the Super Bowl ads, you can do it here. Which is your favorite?

Do I sound grouchy? I might be. I don’t ask for much in life. I’m not a member of the grammar police, so go ahead and dangle your modifiers. I’m not politically sensitive, so go ahead and criticize whichever politician you want. I don’t care what your clothes look like, and I don’t care if you are overweight, and prefer cats to dogs. Good lord, though, if you tag wrong on Facebook, I may delete you as a Facebook friend.

So here is how you tag. It’s really simple.

First, make sure you are either Facebook friends with the person you want to tag, or if it’s a brand, that you first “Like” their page. You cannot tag a person or brand you are not connected to on Facebook.

Next, as you are writing your update, hit the “@” before the person or brand’s name you want to tag. So type “@” then start typing in the name, such as John Doe. You have to use both the first and last name of the person. You cannot type in just “John.” The tag, if done correctly (meaning it’s linked to my page and posted on my walll) will say “Hey, @John Doe.” Facebook will automatically offer a pop up menu the moment you start typing after the @ sign with all the possible names that fit the letters you are typing. So the moment you hit “Jo” in “John” every company and friend whose name begins with a “Jo” pops up. Select the name you are trying to tag.

You are done. You have properly tagged a person. Take a look at your update. If it was John Doe you are trying to tag, John’s name will not have the @ sign in front of it, but will appear as a slightly different color, the universal sign for “hey, click here on this officially tagged name.”

If you are stubborn and want to type in only the first name, for example, “@John,” all this does is put “@John” in your update. John will not be tagged. People will think you do not know how to do one of the most basic functions in Facebook. They will go to Twitter and make fun of you. The world will spin backwards. Meteors will crash into the Earth. Dogs will howl–maybe because the world is spinning backwards and meteors are crashing into the Earth, but understand this: it will be your fault.

So do not tag incorrectly. Thank you.

The only real surprise to me was that message boards are still as popular as they are, though in retrospect, it really shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s where we go to ask questions, file complaints and seek answers to strange product issues.

Facebook, on the other hand, really remains as a mini-press release for many companies. It’s the perfect place to broadcast news, and to start a positive conversation–as opposed to “Gee Dustbuster, why can’t I change my fan belt? I followed the instructions in the manual.”

I admit to a tiny bit of fear every time I write an update. What if I get crickets after I post a new update? Every time you create a tweet or post an update, it’s like throwing a party. You want people to show up. You’re playing the music, but sometimes, no one wants to dance. Worse, they don’t like your song choice. Like the host at a party, you sometimes struggle to keep the conversation lively and interesting. So what do you do to make sure you’re not a huge yawn to your guests? Throwing a lampshade on your head and doing the mambo is not an option–truly, not in the online world or real one.

After speaking to a few of my colleagues about what they do to keep their postings interesting, and ruminating over my own best practices, here’s a few power tips I’ve come up with from social media marketers, who, on a daily basis, numerous times a day, have to summon the muses.

1. Research is your best friend. One of the many reasons I like Hootsuite is because I get to organize my Twitter lists and see them all with a dashboard view. Let’s take one of my diamond industry clients, I’ve categorized the people they follow on Twitter into the following categories: Bridal, Jewelers, Fashion, Celebrity, Engagements. These are all shorthand terms that mean something to me. For example, take engagements. I have set up Twitter keywords to follow videos people post of proposals, whether they are funny or romantic. If a celeb gets engaged and it hits Twitter, it will show up in the stream for this list. In the celeb list, I have some intended redundancy to not only capture a newly announced engagement, but in case someone has posted a photo of a celeb wearing some jewelry that may be of interest to the members of the client’s Facebook page. Basically, Twitter is my research mine field for not only my tweets for this client, but for their Facebook page, too.
2. Write a weekly content schedule. Once a week, I sit down and create a schedule of what my weekly Facebook Page status updates will be. I do this for each and every client. It’s the best way to go over recent news and think about what to write about. To save time, I also collect ideas and info throughout the week so that I often have half the work already done.
3. Like any other writing, you have to write and rewrite. One of my clients once told me that he’s not satisfied with a press release unless it’s been edited at least nine times. I didn’t blink an eye. I get it. Every writer knows that writing is the fun part, but the editing is where goods words are sculpted into great ones. Right. I’m talking about Tweets, I know. While we’re not aiming for poetry, we do want to capture a conversational tone with a consistent voice, unique to each client. We also want those tweets to be interesting and fun. So tweak those tweets.
4. Mix it up. You are not writing a Dan Brown novel. There is not a tried and true formula for success. What works in your updates and tweets this week may get tiring after three weeks. So watch your sentence patterns, and mix up the topics a bit. Keep it lively and never, ever be satisfied with the status quo. Look for words that you use a lot and take a vacation from them. Make friends with words you don’t normally use—but, of course, be true to the voice of the brand.