About

I nearly called this blog “Communications Breakdown.” I even designed this image for it, which hangs as a poster on my office wall.

I guess I didn’t call it that because it was too grandiose of an idea. Like the name of my old blog, “Blue Collar Rocket Science” which ended up being too hard to live up to.

Those are names rooted in the attitude of trying to promote myself as a thinker. Which I certainly am, but I no longer think I must be the best, the most insightful of the thinkers. I no longer believe that people will rush to help me achieve my career goals based solely on encountering my thoughts.

As most of us eventually learn, public success favors the slippery. And there exists within me something that generates friction; friction with others certainly, but even more so with myself. Slipperiness is not my strong suit.

The other name I thought of for the blog is the extremely loaded phrase “When I hear the word culture…” This, I thought, would allow me the liberty not just to talk about communications theory and such, but also to share my excitement or disappointment with movies, music, television, and books. But did I really want my blog to be named after a line written by a Nazi playwright? Not really.

Some time back, I made a couple short videos for people. At the end of them, mostly because I was trying to make them look fully-produced and professional, I added logos that said “b media,” a name I’ve never actually done business under.

After delivering the videos I did some poking around and discovered a surprising number of small companies called “B Media.” I just came up with the B because it’s the letter my first name starts with, but maybe the others have different reasons.

Nobody seemed to be using the name “Letter B Media,” which I like for the definitive clarity of why the B is there, and also because in my head I hear it as “let ‘er be.” It’s a comforting phrase, reminding me that existence in the moment is a better goal than the endless, frustrated striving that consumed so much of my energy for so long.

So I bought the domain letterbmedia.com. And promptly forgot about it. Until I was setting up this new blog and needed a place to put it. I saw I own the domain and thought “Why not?” It not only gives me the latitude to blog about whatever I choose, it also may yet become an umbrella name for future projects.