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Thursday, May 11, 2000
B r r r o o o o o m m m We get letters. Emails. Thousands, by now. Some stand out more than others, of course. The one that stood out most for me recently was this one, from Ladybiker:
my drag pipes blast those execs.
I've recently created a sweet new freelance niche as a sitewriter. Armed with my portfolio containing samples of my work---all motorcycle articles---I landed some terrific new opportunities with big corps as their freelance copyeditor and sitewriter.
It must be my freespirited bohemian biker communication that appealed to them.
Another thing that made me go h-m-m-m solved from reading excerpts from cluetrain.com
Oh the desire to be a REAL human; I'd like to teach the world to ride. . .
Thank you for your cool insight, friends.
Kind regards,
Sasha Mullins
NYC's favorite and most outrageous biker chic.
She wrote today to report that she just got a gig with one of the world's top advertising agencies. Details:
I won out over the other talented, traditionally educated folks jockeying for the gig. Unbelieveable and to think only a few short months ago I was a gypsy writing rider who could barely afford gas for the bike. Persistence and faith in my free spiritedness has paid off!
Ride on.
Markets made Florence: Written between 1521 and 1525, Dedicated to Pope Clement VII and commissioned in 1520 by Giuliano de Medici, seven years after the author's release from prison and an equal number of years before his death in poverty, History of Florence is a remarkably good read. More imporantly, it suggests that the ancient hilltop town of Friesole created Florence in a marketing move:
It is exceedingly probable, as Dante and Giovanni Villani show, that the city of Fiesole, being situate upon the summit of the mountain, in order that her markets might be more frequented, and afford greater accommodation for those who brought merchandise, would appoint the place in which to told them, not upon the hill, but in the plain, between the foot of the mountain and the river Arno. I imagine these markets to have occasioned the first erections that were made in those places, and to have induced merchants to wish for commodious warehouses for the reception of their goods, and which, in time, became substantial buildings. And afterward, when the Romans, having conquered the Carthaginians, rendered Italy secure from foreign invasion, these buildings would greatly increase; for men never endure inconveniences unless some powerful necessity compels them. Thus, although the fear of war induces a willingness to occupy places strong and difficult of access, as soon as the cause of alarm is removed, men gladly resort to more convenient and easily attainable localities. Hence, the security to which the reputation of the Roman republic gave birth, caused the inhabitants, having begun in the manner described, to increase so much as to form a town, this was at first called the Villa Arnina. After this occurred the civil wars between Marius and Sylla; then those of César, and Pompey; and next those of the murderers of César, and the parties who undertook to avenge his death. Therefore, first by Sylla, and afterward by the three Roman citizens, who, having avenged the death of César, divided the empire among themselves, colonies were sent to Fiesole, which, either in part or in whole, fixed their habitations in the plain, near to the then rising town. By this increase, the place became so filled with dwellings, that it might with propriety be enumerated among the cities of Italy.
The author? None other than Nicolo Machiavelli. The full title is History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy from the Earliest Times to the Death of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Thanks for the goods go to Melissa Snell and the Medieval History pages at About.com.
— Doc Searls
Copyright 2009 The Doc Searls Weblog
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