It's a rainy day and on my way into work I was humming parts of Mahler's Symphony #9, at least, the parts I remember - I don't listen to Mahler's work much these days, but I did as a teenager - a lot.  In fact, growing up I identified with Gustav Mahler's music more than any other.  

But I did not really understand what Mahler's music was really about ……. the why of it. 

All I knew is that was Romanticism - along with Bruckner, etc (I don't even recall all the names of the Romantic movement in Music like I might in Painting).

Anyway - the movement towards the "heroic" in Mahler's work might be traced back to what was going on in his life at the time he wrote his last completed symphony - the unforgettable Ninth Symphony, shortly before he died. 

While I was not thinking so much of Gustav Mahler's marital problems (as mentioned in the Wikipedia post on the 9th Symphony), I was thinking the music was about his progressive heart disease, a well known fact (tie this in the Web Analytics - I'll get to that in the next paragraph or so).  

In my mind today, I suddenly made the connection between the some of the passages in Mahler's 9th, and his disappointments, sadness - his suffering became Mahler's 9th symphony, music people still relate to 100 years later. 

The transformation of everyday joys and sorrows into a heroic struggle is the essence of Romanticism - as a teenager I did not realise the essence of inspiration for Malher's music tied so closely with his life …. the pain, and some joy, that was in it. 

And if you listen to the music, especially the long first movement (I think it's like 29 minutes if you listen to all of it) while reading the Wikipedia entry about Mahler's 9th, it's much clearer what was going on in Mahler's life - and how he felt about it - it's in the music.

In the same way, when I've often stood in front of a motif and painted it - I've noticed  colors in my palate needed to correspond to the landscape through my mind … to find meaning in matching up what goes on inside  me and what I'm seeing and painting outside of me.

I hope I get to Aix later this year, I'll stand before Mount Saint Victorie, like Cezanne did I (if I can manage to find the time and money to pay for this pay for this trip).

Web Analytics - same thing…… different application - same problem - creativity only limited by the Creator's mind.  The issue to me - with figuring how analytics is going to help a site understand it's visitors and up it's conversion rates - is to make a correspondence between visitor traffic AND the actions that happen on the site.

While looking at travel site Chaa Creek,  one of my SEO/SEM/Web Analytics Clients, I'm noticing a pattern of traffic from certain travel related sites are much more meaningful to conversions (as defined by Google Analytics Goal Setting which I wrote about recently in regards to this site) - I can almost "imagine" who that customer is. 

I can make the connection between what Google Analytics shows me and the actual customer, in my mind, call it the power of imagination (or whatever you want to call it- I can see that customer in my mind). 

Hmm…. it's same ability that let me see the connection between Gustav Mahler's music and this life. The ability to get "into" a visitor segment's head, their shoes, their life - what the data means - are incredibly important to create meaning out of Web Analytic Data.

This is a long post, time to end it - I just did not want to lost the thought so I had to write it down before it passed though my memory.