Branding

I had not been awake for long the morning that a text came in telling me that my friend’s new PingWi-Fi t-shirt had been delivered, way way up north in the top of the Texas Panhandle.

In my groggy state, it seemed appropriate that I should give him some BS line to make it seem like the shirt was really special.  “Cool.  You know that is the only PingWi-Fi shirt within 200 miles of the Capulin Volcano. (Capulin, yes, a volcano in New Mexico, just across the Texas border, lies dormant … but is an awesome photo opp.)  So anywho … “dormant volcano nearby” — that was the best, seat-of-my-pants response I could come up with to make the shirt seem mo special in Dalhart, Texas.

Ha … about as much planning went into that response as the actual shirt design itself.

You see, for a couple of months and numerous e-mails back and forth with two graphic designers, the concepts for the Ping shirts just weren’t coming together.  Then one day …

One day I was cruising west on my motorcycle, enjoying nice weather and great tunes on my iTunes shuffle, when this old, old blues standard song popped up.  It was actually part of the British Blues movement, and the band’s name — Fleetwood Mac.  However, this was Fleetwood Mac back when there wasn’t a single female in the band.  Lindsey Buckingham was unheard of.  The only similarity of this 1960s iteration of The Mac and the one we know is the namesake, the spindly, hollow-staring Mick Fleetwood on drums.  And there were none of the pop sensibilities perfected much later by Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie.  This Fleetwood Mac song was a raw interpretation of American Blues strained through a Union Jack filter … I digress.

So this Limey (Peter Green, I believe) was warbling on with an old, old blues line, “Come on and shake your moneymaker …” for a second, I thought “Why in the world do I own that song … don’t even like it much?”

Then it hit me.  I nearly slammed on the brakes in the middle of the highway.  “That’s it!”  That’s the line I want on the next PingWi-Fi t-shirts … what a funny old blues way of saying “get up and dance” … much like the later disco era philosopher said, “Shake yo groove thang.”

Would anyone know what it means?  Would anyone know where the line comes from?  Who cares?  In my mind it was just obscure enough and quirky enough for me to run with the idea.

7 Pings = perfect score

But the line needed something to graphically enhance the words.  Well, if you have ever seen the rating system — the 1-7 scale of quality on PWF — you may have notice the likeness of a lanky, tuxedoed guy, raising a leg in the air, twisting, pointing fingers in time to the music quite awkwardly … In effect “shaking his moneymaker.” Logically, that became the artwork to go with the silly words.

Additionally, it seemed the headline needed to have a little more significance for the blog about Wi-Fi, so one word was inserted.  The old line, first recorded by Elmore James in 1961, who borrowed the line from something else became, “Shake Your Wi-Fi Money Maker.”  (No … it makes no sense whatsoever and that is exactly why we like it. I digress …)  And it went to press. 

Great Moneymakers In History:)

Somewhere in the process, I Googled “Shake your moneymaker” and saw that some rap artist had also borrowed the line from the old men of Blues, and recorded a song.  Then, now, and forever, I don’t pay rap no mind.  I figured most of the PWF readers would also care not. So … no biggie.

Then it got crazy.

Well you know how this old universe just laughs in our face sometimes or tries to entertain us with the absolute craziest coincidences.  It turned into one of those.

A couple of days after I picked up all of the Shake Your Money Maker t-shirts, I was hangin out and binge watching a little TV at home.

Earlier that day, I had watched an episode of the violent Irish gangster series “Peaky Blinders.”  After The PBs, it seemed like a good time to lighten things up a bit, so I searched the comedy genre.  Hmmm … I had never heard of “The Big Short.” 

No. I don’t get out much — at least not to go sit in a theater, so I may have been the last person alive to know about the film.  I read the description … it was some dark comedy about the mortgage/banking crisis of a few years back.  Woohoo … now that sounds “hilarious.”  J/k …  Certainly not my cup of tea!  But you know what?  For some unexplained reason, I defied all odds and fired it up.

You probably guessed it.  In this film about money, the love of money and the crazy schemes to make obscene amounts of money — about a third of the way through the film — the soundtrack takes an active role in the film — even showing a rapper and dancers performing to … yes … (a somewhat lewd take on) “Shake Your Money Maker.”  I nearly slammed on the brakes (which is really weird because I was on the couch …)

What are the odds!?!  Unbelievable!  I was completely blown away.

I have no doubt this was a very strong message sent to me directly from the universe or even better from it’s Creator.  Don’t know if it was a good sign, or a bad sign … I just feel it was in some way relevant.

So … anywho … the shirts are in.  Many have been mailed out already.  If you want one, don’t be shy to let me know.  The only thing I ask is that someday in the near future, you wear the shirt and shake your own moneymaker in it — in a cool venue of your choosing. — for a photo. Then send the picture to me for the ViPings album on Facebook.  And no, you don’t have to climb down inside a dormant volcano for a good photo … but it couldn’t hurt.

Know what I sayin?