Cold Kiwi...

Snow and Ice at OHare

2012-01-23T06:01:00.001-05:00

Chillin' with a SF RedBull

2012-01-04T20:06:00.001-05:00

Taken at Sox Training Academy

Welcome to Paradise in Maui

2011-12-29T00:13:00.001-05:00

Taken at Grand Wailea ~ A Waldorf Astoria Resort & Spa

Gibson's Steak House for family holiday dinner

2011-12-23T22:18:00.001-05:00

Taken at Gibsons Bar & Restaurant

Crazy Hair Day

2011-12-22T09:57:00.001-05:00

Dead Snowman

2011-12-20T00:18:00.001-05:00

Taken at Glen Ellyn, Illinois

Stryde Larrison the Bears fan

2011-12-19T16:37:00.001-05:00

Taken at Ben Franklin Elementary

Charlie Brown Christmas

2011-12-18T19:30:00.001-05:00

Taken at Glen Ellyn, Illinois

Cold Holiday

2011-12-18T19:01:00.001-05:00

Chicago Bears

2011-12-18T17:26:00.001-05:00

Old Man

2011-12-17T23:42:00.001-05:00

Basketball Game

2011-12-17T19:33:00.003-05:00

The Wedding

2011-12-17T19:33:00.001-05:00

Taken at Bolingbrook Golf Club

Snow Day

2011-12-17T10:15:00.001-05:00

Taken at Hadley Junior High

Lacrosse huddle

2011-12-11T14:00:00.001-05:00

Taken at Players Indoor Sports Center

Movies you should see, but prob have never heard of...

2011-08-24T17:25:00.001-04:00

Trollhunter -

American: The Bills Hicks Story

Love, Wedding, Marriage

The Bleeding House

The Bang Bang Club

An Invisible Sign

The High Cost of Living

NEDS

RJD2: Live at the Rave

Transcendent Man

The Wild Hunt

SHEYMAN

A garden in the middle of Manhattan is hard to find, unless you go on the roof...

2011-07-30T17:47:00.001-04:00

Taken with picplz.

Crazy clouds forming in the Chicago Burbs...

2011-07-30T17:46:00.001-04:00

Taken with picplz.

I Love Red Bull!

2011-07-06T13:08:00.000-04:00

Red Bull is an energy drink sold by the Austrian Red Bull GmbH. It was created in 1987 by the Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz[1] and on market share, Red Bull is the most popular energy drink in the world, with 3 billion cans sold each year. Dietrich Mateschitz was inspired by an already existing drink called Krating Daeng which he discovered in Thailand. He took this idea, and to suit the tastes of Westerners, modified the ingredients, and founded Austrian Red Bull GmbH in partnership with Chaleo Yoovidhya.

Chaleo Yoovidhya invented the Thai energy drink Krating Daeng; in Thai daeng is red, and krating is the reddish brown bovine, gaur, an animal slightly larger than the bison. Red Bull is sold in a tall and slim blue-silver can. Krating Daeng is sold in Thailand and in some parts of Asia in a wider gold can with the name of Krating Daeng or Red Bull Classic. Both are different products produced separately.

Their slogan is "Red Bull gives you wiiings" and the product is aggressively marketed through advertising, tournament sponsorship (Red Bull Air Race, Red Bull Crashed Ice), sports team ownerships (Red Bull Racing, Scuderia Toro Rosso, EC Red Bull Salzburg, FC Red Bull Salzburg, Red Bull New York, RB Leipzig), celebrity endorsements, and with its record label, Red Bull Records, music.

Popularity vs. Influence: The Factors for Brand Marketers Online

2011-05-31T05:43:00.001-04:00

The internet today has been defined by the explosion of social media, and especially through self-publishing platforms such as Blogger and Twitter. Though the term blogging means different things to different people, at the end of the day what Social Media has become is around self-publishing, which blogging is a significant part of. Social Media and all the different forms of self-publishing, from status sharing to link sharing to writing about your favorite recipes on your blog, has become the defining path for the web.

Even more importantly for brand marketers today it is critical for them to continue to invest in building relationships with their most fanatic supporters and also category leaders in their markets. For marketers, in the realm of social media, they need to have relationships, but these relationships have to be defined based on two primary dimensions, popularity and influence.

Popularity and influence have long been used to determine whether a certain blog or social media site is successful. Although they mean differently, these two factors aren’t always regarded as such. Most people still commit the mistake that popularity is similar to influence. Nevertheless, there is a big difference between them and Popularity vs. Influence in Blogging and Social Media: What’s The Difference will tell you why.

What is Popularity and Influence?

Popularity in blogging means that a lot of people like you and your blog; many different people visit your blog and a huge amount of traffic is directed to your website. Then, you are a popular social media user if your page receives various comments and visits. Popularity and influence are different since the latter is the ability to affect the way people think and act. You are considered as an influential blogger if you can influence most people’s views on certain issues. Popularity and influence are both essential factors in the success of various online activities such as blogging and social media.

Popularity vs. Influence in Blogging and Social Media: What’s The Difference?

The difference between these two concepts should be well established since they are fundamental factors of a successful social media or blog. Popularity and influence may seem alike in a number of ways. However, they offer different ideas when used in blogging and social media.

Being popular doesn't necessarily mean influential.

This is one big difference between popularity and influence. You can say that a blog is popular; however, you can’t be entirely sure that the same blog is influential. For example, there are two hypothetical blogs; the first one received 2 million views in a month while the second one got 100,000 visits. You can easily say that the former blog is more popular because of the large difference in the number of views. Nut can you say that the first blog is still more influential? No, you can’t because popularity doesn’t equate to influence. And who knows? The first blog might just be written by a popular person who doesn’t know anything about what he’s talking about. Or, search engines could also cause the high number of traffic for the first blog. This means that the visitors are just passersby who don’t read blogs at all. On the other hand, the second blog can still be the more influential one. Therefore, popularity and influence represent two different concepts.

One difference between popularity and influence is that influence can’t be measured with numbers.

Sure, popularity can be easily described by the number of visits that a certain blog gets. However, the same doesn’t hold true for influence. Influence could only be measured using the qualitative method. Consider the above example again; the first blog may have more traffic and visitors for its website. Thus, it’s a relatively popular blog. However, its influence can only be measured if the writer affected the reader in some way. For example, the writer tried to persuade the reader to use a certain product. If that reader and other people follow, then the blog may be considered influential.

Tips for Nurturing a Brand Community

2011-05-30T09:17:00.000-04:00

The idea of a brand community existed even before the internet was invented but it has only gained importance and prominence with the continuing development of the internet most specifically the growth of social media sites like blogs, social bookmarking sites, social networking sites, and online forums and chat rooms. Today, building and managing brand communities has become a very important segment in the marketing industry. In this age where millions of people are logging in online every single day to meet and converse with other people who share their ideas, the products they use, the hobbies they like, etc., communities grow out of these meetings and conversations. This is where you as a business owner comes in and try to take advantage of these communities not only for the benefit of your business but for the community as well.

Here are some tips on how you can build, maintain, and effectively nurture a brand community:

Pay utmost attention to the needs and wants of your customers. A lot of companies and businesses make the mistake of focusing their attention on how they can get more people to join their communities instead of focusing on providing for the needs and wants of those who already joined. Give to your existing customers what they need and they'll do the recruiting for your brand community.
Allow peer to peer communication. A brand community isn't just about you conversing with your customers. Most importantly, it should be about the customers conversing with the other customers. Relationships should exist between customers and between you and the customers. The keyword here is open interaction. A customer should be able to interact with another customer as much as he can interact with the brand.
A brand community can be built on any type of business, no matter how small the business. Don't think that brand communities are only for huge and major companies. Do you own a small town diner? No problem. An effective brand community can still be built around it. Who knows, because of your brand community, your small diner could grow into a network of diners. Never underestimate the power of these communities.
Make it easy for people to create content about your brand and make it even easier for them to share such content. Take advantage of the popularity of social media sites like blogs, social bookmarking sites and online forums. And don't forget to create platforms in social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter where your community can connect and converse with each other.
Nurture open exchanges and conversations. Don't try to over-moderate your community. The main purpose of people in joining communities is to communicate and interact. So the act of overly moderating a community is contrary to what brand communities are about. Moderate only when it's necessary.
Participate in the community. Don't just be a bystander looking into the conversations. Be active and show your customers that you care about what they think and what they're saying about your brand.

Always keep in mind these tips when building and nurturing your brand community.

The Wonders of Conversational Marketing for Brand Marketers...

2011-05-29T05:50:00.000-04:00

If you have been using the more traditional forms of marketing to promote your products and services to no avail, then you should look into how you may use the many categories of word of mouth marketing to better achieve your business goals. There are various resources that you may use to learn about this practice, all of which will give you certain tips and techniques that you may use to win in your field. Here are certain pieces of information that you may use to develop a word of mouth marketing plan that will benefit your business.

First and foremost, make sure that you understand that the many categories of word of mouth marketing are mainly carried out to increase understanding about your products and services. When you use this marketing technique, you are not simple increasing awareness about your products but you are boosting their reputation among the members of the market as well. For this reason, it will do you well to ensure that all your clients get a clear understanding about your services as well. This way, they will be able to tell others everything that they should understand about your business using pieces of information that they may then use when they talk about your company.

The many categories of word of mouth marketing also do not take any part of the speaking party as the audience. Both personalities that are involved in the conversation are equally receptive to the message that is being transferred. One part may be hearing about the products for the first time, but this does not mean that the one sending it is not susceptible to the message as well. As a matter of fact, the one speaking will most likely be most likely have his image of the products reinforced when he talks about them.

Since conversations are usually done live and in real time, there is no way to predict where it will go next. As a matter of fact, there are instances when people fleet from one topic to another, only to go back to the main topic at hand. You need to be able to understand the fleeting nature of conversations if you were to use the many categories of word of mouth marketing to your benefit. Doing so will allow you to use this characteristic to make your products and services more alive and, therefore, more interesting.

Marketing can be conversational (pdf whitepaper) as long as the two parties involved are genuinely interested in what is being said. This is the main reason why the many categories of word of mouth marketing are found to be most effective when they are used among people who are already using the products and services that are beings discussed. For this reason, you need to focus majority of your attention to ensuring that the different products and services that you offer the market has various qualities that people would want to talk about. With this aspect taken care of, you can basically ensure that people will be talking about your offers in a positive and a profitable light.

Circle of Trust

2011-05-25T11:25:00.000-04:00

Leadership Defined...

2011-05-22T11:40:00.001-04:00

I have been really lucky to be involved recently in a new business environment, aka a new career at a company out West in Cali. More to come on that front soon, but in the meantime I experienced an amazing feeling recently and it has changed who I am.

I forgot how important leadership is to an organization and how much it shapes the company. I forgot the impact the leaders of a company have on the overall company growth and success. I forgot that leadership is what makes companies successful. Leaders are influential in the organization and to me influencer equals leader.

I have been struggling with trying to understand why certain companies were successful and why others were not, it is because of leadership. I have been trying to better understand the impact the CEO or other C-level people have on the success of a company, and I now realize it is leadership. Great leaders are worth their weight in gold. Great leaders will payoff 1000x what you pay them. Great leaders will make the difference regardless of the environment or business situation.

I have had an awaking to something I knew already in my heart and in my head. It is like I have come out of a cloud of confusion and have seen the light. I have gotten religion, it is called the awaking of leadership.

The people I am involved with today are the types of leaders who define the ability to lead. They are the types of people that look out for each individual contributor and respect them for who they are and what they can bring. These people I have joined recently have been tremendously successful in business, and it is not because of luck or timing, it is because of pure leadership. If you think I am speaking to you, I am.

Trust me, when you experience this environment you will know what I am talking about. I understand your confusion. I understand where you are. I understand why this might not make sense to you. But it will, one day.

The Internet Says: Another One Bites the Dust...

2011-05-20T16:07:00.002-04:00

I was in New York City the other day and had just finished up a handful of great meetings with prospects and social influencer's around social marketing.   It was interesting because most of the day was spent talking about the dramatic shift that has occurred in our short lifetime related to the Internet and specifically social media. We talked about everything from social media to conversational marketing to earned media.

One of the topics we spent a lot of time talking about was the fact that consumer reviews and word of mouth marketing has changed how marketers, and especially retailers, operate in the market today. A good example of this paradigm shift can be seen by looking at Amazon, even years ago when they were mostly focused on books.

One of the things that made Amazon such a successful business model was they could offer the true long-tail of books. I remember, even as much as 15-years ago, I told my dad that I was interested in books about toasts and toasting people at parties and dinners.   I had a difficult time finding any of these titles at the local book store and the library, but my dad went on Amazon.com and because they were able to offer such a rich catalog of books that covered every possible topic, he was able to find me a handful of books that were really useful and interesting. Because Amazon didn’t have the overhead of retail locations and the limitations of having only a limited set of local customers, they could really offer almost any and every book you would ever be interested in.

It was interesting as I was walking back from my meeting I looked across the street and saw one of the Border’s book stores going out of business. It struck me as really interesting and woke me up to the reality of the discussion we were just having hours before.

It is clear the downfall of Borders can be directly tied to the growth of the internet and the increase in consumer adoption of e-commerce.

Though there are many reasons Borders failed as a company, a few of the primary reasons were due to the fact that their business model was similar to Amazon, though they had to have local stores. Borders model was to carry any and every book you would ever need.   Yes, they would carry the best sellers and the classics, but they also tried to carry as many other titles as possible.   This is the same story as Amazon, but if you think about the overhead that Borders had to carry with having to stock each of these books in all their local book stores. Since demand for the long-tail of products is almost random, there is no way to scale a business like this unless you can charge a very large premium or you can reduce your carry and logistics costs.

It is clear Borders wasn’t able to pull off their business plan, and though they had other failures, such as being very music focused (another internet nail in the coffin), the internet could account for the majority of this companies failures.

I visited this store that was closing down in the next few days because they were offering really great discounts.   What became apparent to me was even with a discount as high as 90%, I didn’t see value in these books because I now read everything on my kindle or iPad. It made me a little sad to see all these great books that would be fun to read, but realize I had no use for the paper versions.

I took some photos of the store that was about to go under. They were selling everything, from the books to DVD’s to furniture to the cash registers.   Check out some of these photos, you can see a story that is playing out across the US at many Borders, and other book stores.

The one amusing thing I found was that, though most of the books were gone, the Palin and Beck books were overstocked and there were plenty of these books to go around. Even at a 90% discount for the Palin or Beck books, people were much more likely to buy a book on dirt or economics versus buy one of these things.

Nikon's Brand Amabassor: Ashton Kutcher

2011-05-19T11:36:00.012-04:00

This is an interesting relationship between the premier camera company Nikon and Hollywood's A-list actor and producer, Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher has signed on to promote the Nikon COOLPIX brand cameras and is lending his photogenic qualities to Nikon to help them reach a new younger and hipper audience.

Nikon shares the pro-am segment and of course the professional segment of the market, which lends itself to the higher income male 45+ demo. The fastest growing market, especially in digital photography is the active mobile woman and the younger out of college segment.

Ashton Kutcher is going to help promote the manufacturer's new COOLPIX Style series cameras. The campaign will debut nationally on March 25th with a television commercial, which precedes the print advertisements and an interactive online component. The interactive component is really trying to tap into the rich influencer position that Ashton has and his ability to create a scalable conversation with his fans and followers.

Though Kutcher is being paid as a celebrity spokesperson, there are plenty of signs in these vertical categories of brands building influencer relationships with small and mid-sized blogs and websites. You don't need to be a Hollywood celebrity to make an impact, and the brand marketers of today realize that they can tap into their rich fan bases and category influencer's to promote and build their brand message. Though Kutcher can reach millions, there are plenty of others that though effective conversational marketing strategies by brands that can move the needle and drive true ROI.

Customer Feedback & Earned Media in the Travel Industry…

2011-05-18T15:33:00.002-04:00

I travel a lot for business, and one of the things that is as predictable as the sun coming up in the East is the cards and letters you get as a guest of a hotel asking for your ‘honest and candid’ feedback. Now this is not unique to just the hotel industry, it is across many industries, but is predominant within the travel space, for obvious reasons.

Next time you check into a hotel or airline look on the front desk for the postcard sized slip of paper where they are asking for your feedback on your experience ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’. The feedback cards, letters, slips, receipts, stickers, etc… are all over the hotel, from your room to the restaurants to the room service tray, I have even found them in the bathrooms. With most major hotel chains, at least Hilton and Marriott, they will follow-up with an email asking for you to give them feedback online via an online survey or just sending an email to the manager or the hotel chain corporate headquarters.

I have to be honest that I don’t take the time to fill these things out, mostly because I travel so much it would become a second full-time job. Listen, I have a hard enough time doing my expense reports every month. But one of the reasons I usually would never fill out one of these surveys or comments cards was they went into a black hole and I always assumed that no one was reading them. The few times I did fill them out, mostly with good comments about the hotel or airline, I would never hear back and I would never know if the comments I was giving actually ended up in a place where they were useful. Listen, I am more than willing to give a business real feedback if they honestly want the feedback and it will be put to good use and taken seriously. I always got the sense the feedback cards were more of a tradition that something the staff wanted to deal with.

But recently I have seen a shift, albeit somewhat leisurely in nature, in the hotel industry. I have seen some early signs where, though the ‘give me feedback’ theme is still the same, the vehicle and channel have shifted somewhat dramatically. Over the past few months I have seen more and more signs that the travel industry is really interested in my feedback and they are willing to remove the black box and open up the kimono, which has to be driven by the amazing paradigm shift in the marketplace. More and more I have experienced this shift in attitude and approach where I am being asked to share my experience on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, but the most interesting is the introduction of Yelp into the review dialog. It is clear this industry has learned about the value of conversational marketing and earned media.

I have to admit I was a little shocked when I saw my hotel receipt from a recent stay at the Hampton Inn near the San Francisco airport where on the hotel bill they were asking for me to go on Yelp and give feedback to my experience. The hotel room bill had a sticker that said ‘Yelp Us – review your stay on Yelp.com and receive a $5 Starbucks gift card on us!’ Wow, this is a dynamic shift from the black box and smoke and mirrors to letting it all hang out and asking customers to take their best shot, in the public square where everyone will see.

I guess I shouldn't have been shocked, I am in the industry and am a big advocate for businesses leveraging the collective intellect and experiences of their customers to help build and grow their businesses. But I guess I was surprised because it did open up a different convention for me around a business asking me for feedback.

Now as a customer, when I give feedback to the hotel, I know there is real value being created, even if the hotel doesn’t see the same value, there is value. Now, regardless of the $5 gift certificate for Starbucks, which I understand why the incentive is there, the true value is really three-fold.

The first value driver being the fact that I am able to make sure other people that might be interested in this business can get feedback from someone that has experienced the business first hand. This in itself is worth me taking the time to write feedback on Yelp or other review sites. It is the reason I go on Yelp to review a good or bad experience at a local restaurant or dry cleaner already, without someone asking me to do it. This is the media portion of the Earned Media and conversational marketing I was talking about.

The second value is around the fact that I know if I write something the hotel is going to be compelled to read it and at least take it seriously. The feedback is no longer behind closed doors or in a black box. It is not hidden on a managers desk from their regional VP or for that fact other potential customers. What I say has to matter to the hotel, because they know what I say is going to be read by others, especially by those people that know me or trust me. This is the hook, and an important piece of earned media is the hook that gives both parties reasons to engage.

The third and maybe most compelling value is I am providing feedback in an open social environment where there is also a value to me directly, beyond the free cup of coffee. By taking the time to share and review my experience on a site like Yelp, FourSquare or Facebook, I am able to build relationships with other people that might be on these social media outlets. By taking the time to share with others, I gain social currency that today can’t really be measured, but becomes an intangible value to me and my personal brand. People will review my feedback and I can build credibility of my own brand, versus just being a one to one transaction that gives me nothing back in return. This is me building my own brand online, and though all earned media, as long as it is honest and open, allows for personal brand building, this is the true definition of an influencer driving earned media and getting value at the same time.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for the travel industry, and other service oriented industries, and I can see where this expands into scoring of customers to know who is more valuable in providing feedback or who is going to give a marketer real earned media value. I also see the future where brands can leverage these touch points to build true online relationships with their customers and other online influencers, which could revolutionize the way these service industries operate.

Forrester Research just released an interesting report on hotel industry websites that damns virtually the entire industry as ante-diluvian in its approach to web marketing. The research giant reviewed the content and functionality of the four largest four-star hotel brandwebsites: Hilton Hotels + Resorts, Hyatt, Marriott, Hotels + Resorts, and Sheraton Hotels + Resorts. Though this report doesn't bode well for the industry as a whole, I think the signs are there that they are trying. The report also taps into the idea that I am seeing around reviews being key to the conversational marketing strategy of the travel industry.

I am proud of the Hilton brand for investing in the social media channel and taking the risks to let it all hang out, and engaging in open and honest word of mouth marketing. Though, as someone that has been in the space for years, and used to advise major Fortune 1,000 companies on why they should be using the internet for these types of investments and especially investing in earned media marketing and influencer marketing, I do recognize how hard it is to take risks within a large corporation today.

I am very confident that social outlets like Yelp will continue to grow and become more and more a part of the daily zeitgeist of our communities, the real question is how much will marketers embrace these changes versus fighting them, because we all know what happens when you try and fight the change.

How start-ups succeed…

2011-05-17T10:50:00.000-04:00

This is a question that I have had for years. I actually take it on step farther and wonder how some companies succeed and some fail. There are plenty of reasons a start-up will fail, from lack of funding, poor fiscal management, leadership, politics, lack of vision, crappy technology, etc… You could write a book, or many books, on why start-ups fail.

But what I am interested in is why some start-ups succeed. I realize there is a lot of luck involved and there is a lot of hard work, great technology, etc… But I think one of the main reasons a start-up succeeds (all other things equal) is because of the founder and their ability to drive the company to their vision.

Start-ups are not like most other businesses; the vision is a liquid thing and is constantly shifting with the market. Many times the start-up is actually inventing a market and requires the ability to see the vision and then the tactical abilities to translate this to reality. The leader, founder, CEO or whatever you want to call him/her, is the main point of success. In order for a start-up to consider success, it is critical that this one leader plays the key role in moving things forward, making decisions, and translating the vision into reality.

I have been in a few start-ups and people complain that the businesses are run in a hub and spoke model. Many groups having to interact and move forward based on interactions with the founder or visionary. People look at this model and say ‘it is not scaleable’ or ‘we need to rely on others’, and all of these statements are true. But the most important point is missed when someone makes these statements. The most important point is that the start-up is a moving and evolving being and the people that are a part of the start-up have been brought in to execute on a vision. These are not the visionaries; if they were they would be starting their own businesses. These are the people/teams that are here to build and formalize the business.

The only way to make this work is to have the founder/visionary in the hub and have that person driving the organization through the spokes. It has to happen this way because the key to success for any start-up is the ability to build out the vision in a rapid manner that does not require a lot of frivolous debate. Without the hub in the middle, the start-up is almost doomed to failure, the people running the business will not be able to translate the vision into a plan and move quickly.

Don’t look at this as a hub and spoke, look at it as a star in a galaxy and all the planets are taking their energy from the star in the middle. The galaxy is expanding and growing and the middle star is powering the universe.

Now, at some point in the company life stage it will become important to move away form the hub and spoke model and allow for scaling of the business. This will happen over time and will be something that occurs naturally. It is not something you can force and for that matter forcing it can cause even more problems.

So, if you are in a start-up, embrace the hub and spoke model. Encourage it to move quickly and allow for rapid deployment to the market. Leverage the asset of the visionary in the middle, it is what will help to ensure your success.

I am now at a new start-up called Dynamic Signal, and we are building a scalable platform for word of mouth and conversational marketing. One of the reasons I decided to co-found this company was the two other executives at the company are two of the most competent leaders and visionaries I have ever worked with. I realize every time I do a new start-up it is a risk, but each time we do it the risks seem to be as big, but not as difficult to overcome. I am not sure at some point if the risks become so familiar that you lose your edge, but I don't see that coming anytime soon.

Movie Review: The Bang Bang Club

2011-05-16T18:43:00.000-04:00

I was lucky enough to see The Bang Bang Club (2011/Director: Steven Silver) starring Ryan Phillippe (Lincoln Lawyer, Breach) and Malin Akerman (The Romantics, Watchmen) recently and was blown away at how emotionally engaging this movie ended up being. Though I had read the book and knew the details of the story, beyond what I read in the book, it was still a movie that was worthwhile and entertaining. The Bang Bang Club movie is an adaptation of the book (The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War) by photographers Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva. The Bang Bang Club chronicles the four years leading up to the historic 1994 South African election, when the government and its sympathizers aimed to destroy Mandela's ANC movement. The movie portrays the lives of four photojornalists active within the townships of South Africa during the Apartheid period (90-94), from when Nelson Mandela was released from jail to the 1994 elections. The South African general election of 1994 was an election held in South Africa to mark the end of apartheid.

The name "Bang-Bang Club" was born out of an article published in the South African magazine Living. Originally named the Bang-Bang Paparazzi, it was changed to "Club" because the members felt the word paparazzi misrepresented their work. In the movie there is an interesting scene where the photojouralists get very upset and emotional when they are challenged as being over hyped paparazzi's, just with guns aimed at them. The 'Bang Bang' name comes from the culture itself; township residents spoke to the photographers about the "bang-bang" in reference to violence occurring within their communities, but more literally, "bang-bang" refers to the sound of gunfire and is a colloquial form of nomenclature used by conflict photographers.

Told from Greg Marinovich's (played by Ryan Phillippe) point-of-view, the story takes us from the young photographer's (he was only in his late 20's at this time) chance meeting with three experienced veterans to his worldwide recognition and brash recklessness. Ryan Phillippe does a great job playing a young, inexperienced, but highly competent and agressive player. Phillippee is perfect for this role and with his personality and charisma he is the right guy to play the newcomer. As the lead charaters he portrays a slightly bold and confident, yet his face reveals fresh fear as he embarks on neighborhoods other photographers would never dare enter.

This film allows you to see multiple perspectives, from the warriors and victims of the war, to the publishers who are trying to play between the government, social unrest and their reader, oh yes and of course the always looming pulitizer award possibilities hanging over their heads.

As a photographer myself, although not even close to the level of these guys, it is clear from the movie that the Bang Bangs are not just photographers, but are so much more. You realize pretty early in the film that the Bang Bangs, willingly chose a profession that may well be the world's most dangerous non-criminal vocation. Is the thrill-seeking, voyeuristic element of war-zone photojournalism balanced out by its allegedly noble aims, or by the fact that the people who practice it take on all the risks of soldiering without carrying weapons?

The most compelling scene is the reenactment of the famous Kevin Carter Vulture photograph. Though many of the photos coming out of this terrible place gave us insights into a culture and world we could only imagine on the big screen, the Vulture photo takes the story to another level.

The history of this photograph is touched on in the film, though to give you more details I have included a little more of the background on this award winning photograph, and the horrid outcome.

In March 1993, photographer Kevin Carter made a trip to southern Sudan, where he took now iconic photo of a vulture preying upon an emaciated Sudanese toddler near the village of Ayod. Carter said he waited about 20 minutes, hoping that the vulture would spread its wings. It didn’t. Carter snapped the haunting photograph and chased the vulture away. (The parents of the girl were busy taking food from the same UN plane Carter took to Ayod).

The photograph was sold to The New York Times where it appeared for the first time on March 26, 1993 as ‘metaphor for Africa’s despair’. Practically overnight hundreds of people contacted the newspaper to ask whether the child had survived, leading the newspaper to run an unusual special editor’s note saying the girl had enough strength to walk away from the vulture, but that her ultimate fate was unknown. Journalists in the Sudan were told not to touch the famine victims, because of the risk of transmitting disease, but Carter came under criticism for not helping the girl. ”The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene,” read one editorial.

Carter eventually won the Pulitzer Prize for this photo, but he couldn't enjoy it. “I’m really, really sorry I didn’t pick the child up,” he confided in a friend. Consumed with the violence he’d witnessed, and haunted by the questions as to the little girl’s fate, he committed suicide three months later.

This movie is well worth your time and money. During the film when you see the actual famous photos come to life you are able to translate not only what was in the photos, but what was behind the lens and the depth and complexities of the stories that went into these amazing times. If anything else, this movie does a great job of educating and exposing the risks that journalists take to bring these types of photos to the world, and how the risks are not short term or just physical, but can last forever.

An excellent book has been transformed in to an excellent film, albeit a film that is harrowing to watch unfold.

From Twitter 05-14-2011

2011-05-15T03:28:00.001-04:00

Social Media Economics: The Science for Social Success http://j.mp/gReNup
RT @TweetSmarter: How to post tweets on your blog in summary format every 24 hours. http://bit.ly/kmAYIN
Following & Followers on Quora: Whom should I follow on Quora? - Quora http://j.mp/grlsVI

Tweets copied by twittinesis.com

Cool List for Internet Junkies...

2011-05-14T21:56:00.000-04:00

I found this cool list of the oldest domain names on the web. These are sites/domains that have been registered continuously since 1995.

These sites are mostly businesses or technology solutions, with the top consumer site being either HP or Adobe. Though you could say none of these sites are really consumer focused.

Most of these sites would get traffic through word of mouth marketing or through their customers. The sites that became really successful, at least at the time, were the companies that knew how to leverage conversational marketing to get their customers to talk about their internet site.

It is pretty interesting to see most of the domains being corporate B2B sites, and if people had any idea of what the internet was going to become this list would have been much more consumer names, such as wine.com and money.com.

The first site real consumer site I heard about, via word of mouth from my dad, was Yahoo. Though I had used AOL and Compuserve before, the first real site I used on a regular basis was Yahoo.

Rank/Create date/Domain name

15-Mar-1985 -- SYMBOLICS.COM
24-Apr-1985 -- BBN.COM
24-May-1985 -- THINK.COM
11-Jul-1985 -- MCC.COM
30-Sep-1985 -- DEC.COM
07-Nov-1985 -- NORTHROP.COM
09-Jan-1986 -- XEROX.COM
17-Jan-1986 -- SRI.COM
03-Mar-1986 -- HP.COM
05-Mar-1986 -- BELLCORE.COM
19-Mar-1986 -- IBM.COM
19-Mar-1986 -- SUN.COM
25-Mar-1986 -- INTEL.COM
25-Mar-1986 -- TI.COM
25-Apr-1986 -- ATT.COM
08-May-1986 -- GMR.COM
18-May-1986 -- TEK.COM
10-Jul-1986 -- FMC.COM
11-Jul-1986 -- UB.COM
05-Aug-1986 -- BELL-ATL.COM
15-Aug-1986 -- GE.COM
15-Aug-1986 -- GREBYN.COM
05-Aug-1986 -- ISC.COM
05-Aug-1986 -- NSC.COM
05-Aug-1986 -- STARGATE.COM
02-Sep-1986 -- BOEING.COM
18-Sep-1986 -- ITCORP.COM
29-Sep-1986 -- SIEMENS.COM
18-Oct-1986 -- PYRAMID.COM
27-Oct-1986 -- ALPHACDC.COM

This domain list was part of a 30-Nov-2004 blog entry at Jottings.com entitled "My Kingdom for a Time Machine!"

How Durable is Word of Mouth Marketing?

2011-05-13T18:13:00.000-04:00

What is the holy grail in marketing? Having customers sell your products and services for you... Word of Mouth marketing or Conversational Marketing or Influencer Marketing...

Everyday you go to work, everyday you think about work, everyday you are in business you need to give your customers a reason to evangelize your prouducts. A friend of mine June was previously using a Realtor that was a tad on the pushy side. The agent did all those things that really cheese potential home buyers off, like suggesting homes way out of their families budget. The agent basically tried to force her into buying a home out of her price range so that she could receive a higher commission.

Instead of helping my friend, the agent was most interested in helping herself. Finally June got fed up and asked around to find someone that would be a better Realtor for her and her family. She was able to find a new real estate agent named Scott, who came highly recommended. She found a real estate agent named Scott, who was quite possibly the most laid-back person you could ever met. He did everything he could to make June feel comfortable, and went out of his way to help her. Because of his helpfulness and care, Scott eventually sold June a home that she loved.

Instead of using the previous agent’s tactics, Scott instead made her feel at ease. He didn’t try to upsell her, but only worked within the parameters that she had previously set. Because, when you buy something as freakin’ expensive as a house, you definitely want to be at ease with your decision. (There’s nothing worse than a few hundred thousand dollars worth of buyers remorse.) But here’s the real kicker: June has since sworn that she’d refer anyone to Scott. Now that's real word of mouth marketing, as it is defined in your marketing 101 textbook.

But everyone has to realize that word of mouth marketing is nothing new. We’re so caught up with social media these days. You have to have a Twitter profile. You have to have a Facebook fan page. LinkedIn, You Tube, and on, and on, and on. Follower counts are pivotal. Retweets are currency, et. al. Sure, these platforms can help you reach new potential customers, but focusing on the platform instead of the people is a sure way to fail.

Twitter, Facebook… it’s all word of mouth marketing: People talking about your product or service and referring it to friends. On paper, my friend Scott has a stark disadvantage against other, more established agents. They have lots of marketing dollars, with their fake smiles flashed across billboards. Scott doesn’t really advertise, has zero “social media presence”, and only relies on friends and previous clients to spread his brand. Yet at the end of the day, he’s making the sales. Oh, and at night he sleeps soundly knowing that he’s helping people, not looking out for himself.

One thing that is really important to think about - word of mouth is not really social media. With all the focus on social media these days, it feels like people are forgetting what makes the champions of these technologies so great. Companies like Zappos have successfully used social media to sell more of their product. But if you look deeper, it’s not because of social media, it’s because they intensely care about their customers.

Story after story has surfaced about how Zappos has gone the extra mile 20 miles and made sure their customers were happy. Sure, social media has helped, but that’s because it’s an extension of how they care, another way to reach out to customers. And it keeps people talking about their product.

So stop worrying about Twitter followers. Start thinking about how many people you can help, and how you’re going to do it. Use Twitter and Facebook to help everyone, not to flash authority.

Why Every Internet Marketer Should Watch the Justin Bieber Movie - Never Say Never

2011-05-11T15:38:00.002-04:00

Don't get me wrong, I am not a member of the Bieber Army. I have not attended any of the Justin Bieber concerts or shows. Until last week I don't think I had ever even heard a Justin Bieber song. But like any internet marketer I have been intrigued with how influential and powerful a young boy from Ontario, Canada has become in less than 18-months.

I am sure, if you are anything like me, you saw that there was a Justin Bieber movie released this past February and classified it as another Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana groupie film. I remember at the theater seeing lines and lines of millennial aged girls who were coming to see Justin on the big screen in droves. Actually, I believe the majority of the people that went to see this film were girls under the age of 15, though they accounted for an impressive $30MM opening weekend box-office take. If you didn't go see this movie in the theaters I totally understand. I guess I would have looked funny at a middle-aged man or woman with no kids buying tickets to see Never Say Never (though it is a good title for a James Bond flick.)

But you can't ignore the cold hard facts, that a 16-year old boy has in effect transformed the social media landscape and has ignited one of the most important, and hard to reach, demographic segments in history. Every marketer has to agree that the Justin Bieber story is extremely compelling and it is impressive to see how a young kid has been able to leverage social media to build a direct relationship and dialog with his fans and followers. I think the Bieber story is a testament to everything that is possible online, and should give real hope to every marketer out there that there is a way to ignite their target markets and have a true engaging relationship with their customers.

In case you have not see the stats, these should blow you away:

Twitter Followers: 9.5MM = Pop. of Sweden & approx 3% all Twitter traffic
Google Results: 315MM - Osama Bin Laden - 67MM & Jesus - 340MM
Facebook Fans: 27MM - Coke - 23MM & Starbucks - 20MM
MySpace Friends: 1.3MM
YouTube JustinBieberVEVO: 1.6B views
YouTube Kidrauhl Channel: 330MM Views & 1MM Subscribers

I am confident any marketer out there would love to create or even tap into this emotional tsunami. The Justin Bieber movie gives you an interesting and historical perspective on how this young, talented kid, went from almost nobody to the most influential person online in less than 18-months.

From being discovered on YouTube to tapping into the web to circumvent the existing monolithic music machine to selling out Madison Square Garden in 22-minutes, this film packs the experience into an engaging 2-hours. Oh yes and by the way the music and personal story isn't that bad either, especially if you have children of your own.

One of the most interesting segments from the film talks about how, by leveraging Twitter, Justin Bieber was able to tap into his early fans and call on them to showcase how much they loved him and his music. He would tweet when he was going to be at an event or location in advance, and was able to show the traditional music execs and investors how fanatic his followers were, and where the money was.

Video: Discussing the impact of using Twitter to communicate with fans.

The movie also chronicles the time from when Justin was discovered, to the ups and downs of becoming a viral and social phenomenon. They interview many of the influencers of the music industry and it is clear they are all blown away by how quickly he has taken off.

'Truly a phenomenon, even groups like Back Street Boys and In Sync took years.' - Randy Philips - AEG Tour Promoter

Video: Understanding the social impact from Justin Bieber

For anyone that is trying to leverage social media or build a fan base, or even light the viral wick, this movie is a must see to help give real insights into one formula that actually worked. Maybe this is a perfect storm, but there is plenty to learn from in this film and hopefully be entertained at the same time.

The DVD is coming out on Friday (5/13) and I strongly urge anyone that is trying to market to millennial demos, or even if you are trying to grasp how much of a seismic shift the internet has had on our lives, this is a movie you should see.

Is Thor Headed for a Cliff?

2011-05-10T16:58:00.000-04:00

I am a little shocked at how much of a negative reaction consumers are having to the recent Thor movie, released this past weekend.   Thor did pretty well at the box office, raking in around $70MM in the US and becoming the 11th highest grossing superhero movie opening weekend. Overall it was somewhat of a disappointment following Fast Five's record breaking weekend opening of almost $90MM and the high expectations that were in the market, with some experts suggesting Thor could break $100MM in the opening weekend.   Though I believe the Thor numbers came in about where they should have for a big blockbuster over Mothers Day weekend, I am worried about the following weeks and what type of drop-off they will see.

I think there were very high expectations put on this film by the fan base, and there is no question the movie was hyped, even with a Super Bowl commercial months ago to set the marketing ball into motion.   Myself, I saw the film and thought it was great, interesting, and kept me involved throughout the entire story.   Though I must admit I liked the scenes where Thor was 'at home' in the clouds much more than when he was on Earth, I did find the entire movie interesting and entertaining from start to finish.

I walked out of the movie feeling similar to when I saw Clash of the Titans last year.   I loved both movies and remember being pleasantly surprised at how much I actually enjoyed the entire film.   One of the reasons I think I liked both of these movies so much was I had almost zero expectations for either of these movies going in. I wasn't really looking forward to seeing either of them and I was actually expecting them both to be void of an interesting story and partially expected to see a bunch of old guys dressed in gowns running around killing people. This is where I was surprised and even impressed. There was an actual storyline that made sense, the character development was almost seamless, and the plot of the movie was easy to follow, while being really entertaining.

All that being said, the problem is that I am not your normal Thor moviegoer, and I think that is where there is The Rub.   The problem is the majority of the superhero moviegoers had really high expectations for the film and they were disappointed.   Just looking at Twitter you can see the majority of tweets about the film are tending towards a somewhat negative to very negative sentiment.   There is plenty of data out in the market to suggest Thor is going to have some trouble in upcoming weekends, but the biggest and most telling is from the good folks at amplicate.com.   Amplicate is a great site that allows consumers to 'vote' on what they like and what they don't like. Amplicate monitors brands and products across the social web to identify what people like and what they don't like. It is like a sentiment engine for the world, and it is really cool.   The site allows you to rank categories or look at trends over time. The folks at Amplicate were nice enough to Tweet me with the recent stats on Thor and the numbers reinforce my belief that people are overall pretty disappointed in the film.

First, and foremost, if you look at how Thor (the superhero) ranks versus all other major superheroes, you can see Thor is not loved.   Actually, today Thor is the lowest of the top 15 (in votes) by a measure of 30-50% versus all others.   Even the Green Lantern, which has been getting slammed in the press, is over 5-percentage points higher than Thor. This is a disaster for the Thor brand.

Though this data on its own only suggests that Thor is not loved, or seen in the same light, as other superheroes of our time. But the next stat from Amplicate should scare the hell out of the good ol' guys at Paramount. The trend data from Amplicate suggests the movie has had a dramatic impact on the positive feelings consumers have around the Thor figure. You can see from this trend chart that the positive opinions of Thor were hovering between 85%-90% all last year and into early this year. The likability score started to slip a little at the beginning of 2011, averaging around 80%. Until this weekend when the movie officially opened across the US, where the likability for Thor dropped to a dismal 54%.

What does this mean for the movie franchise? I don't know for sure, but I don't think it is a good thing. I realize the data here is probably more tuned into the social web, which tends to be younger and more mobile, but those are the dollars the studios are going after, and especially for a movie such as Thor.

Wow Chrome is Super Intelligent!

2011-05-09T08:51:00.002-04:00

Don't ask me why I was on this page, but as soon as I got to the Jersey Shore page on Google Images my Google Chrome browser crashed.

Check it out

Great Capture Bin Laden Jokes from Late Night

2011-05-08T10:30:00.000-04:00

"The news of bin Laden's death interrupted this week's episode of 'Celebrity Apprentice.' Which begs the question, how do we kill bin Laden again next Sunday?" –Conan O'Brien

"The Republicans are so happy about bin Laden they've granted President Obama full citizenship." –David Letterman

"Last night the Dalai Lama implied that the killing of Osama bin Laden was justified. I think his exact quote was, "I love all living things, but that guy was a dick." -Conan O'Brien

"Osama bin Laden is in the ocean. How ironic. Once again surrounded by seals." –Jay Leno

"Osama bin Laden had money and telephone numbers sewn into his clothes. Apparently we got him just as he was on his way to summer camp." -Jay Leno

"After all the talk about caves, bin Laden was hiding in a million-dollar mansion in Pakistan. The CIA became suspicious when they learned there was a million-dollar mansion in Pakistan." –Jimmy Kimmel

"Osama bin Laden's death has been in the news all day. Leftish stations are going, 'President Obama saves the world.' Stations on the right are going, 'Obama kills fellow Muslim.'" –Craig Ferguson

"How about those Navy Seals. We're getting our money's worth there. They broke into Osama bin Laden's compound with 12-foot walls topped by barbed wire, and fired a warning shot into his head." –David Letterman

"Elisabeth Hasselbeck of 'The View' is writing a children's book about Osama bin Laden's death. She wants to write a book to explain the whole thing to children. No title yet, but I have some suggestions: 'The Cat in the Fatwa,' 'Horton hears a Helicopter,' 'Goodnight, Douche'" –Craig Ferguson

"Apparently, members of Al Qaeda are online slamming the U.S. I don't understand why they're so upset. Everyone in Al Qaeda just got a promotion." –Craig Ferguson

"There's already been some trouble for Osama bin Laden in the afterlife. There was a mix up and he was greeted by 72 vegans." –David Letterman

"The hot new drink around the country is the bin Laden. It's a Colt 45 and a shot that goes right to your head." –Jay Leno

"Bin Laden was buried at sea. Or as Dick Cheney calls it, 'the ultimate waterboarding.'" –Jay Leno

"The White House says they will release the Osama bin Laden death photo. Better yet, they’re doing it on a set of limited edition commemorative plates." –Conan O'Brien

"What?! Not only did we kill Bin Laden, we killed him in Abottabad! Abottabad sounds like name most New Yorkers would have invented for the fictional place they would have loved to kill Bin Laden." –Jon Stewart

"He was living a half a mile from Pakistan's version of West Point in a town surrounded by retired ex-military officers. Let me put it in New York City terms. Bin Laden was on 21st and Seventh Avenue; they were on 21st and Ninth Avenue. If the Pakistani military academy were Domino's, they would have been delivered to bin Laden on foot." –Jon Stewart

"Osama bin Laden, as we speak, is living with Spongebob in a pineapple under the sea." –Jimmy Kimmel

"He's up to 2,000 friends on Shot In The Facebook." –Jimmy Kimmel

"Osama bin Laden was killed by Navy Seals yesterday. They did DNA testing to make sure it was Bin Laden. Or as I call it, best episode of Maury Povich EVER." –Jimmy Fallon

"President Obama gave the order for Navy SEALs to kill bin Laden. When President Bush heard about it, he was really upset, saying, 'I could have used seals?'" –Conan O'Brien

“By the way, 'buried at sea'? means 'dumped in the ocean.' That’s what they did with him. They dumped him in the ocean. Now I won't feel so guilty about peeing in the water anymore when I go to the beach."? –Jimmy Kimmel

"And so, Osama Bin Laden got his first bath in almost ten years. This could the best shark week ever." –Jimmy Kimmel

"Finding bin Laden was like finding a needle in a country that swore it didn’t have needles." –Stephen Colbert

"I think the next election just got a lot easier for President Obama 'cause his response to every question during the debates will be: 'Wait, I forget…Did you kill Osama Bin Laden? Or did I kill Osama Bin Laden. Oh no, it was me, wasn't it?'" –Craig Ferguson

"President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan. That's right, bin Laden is dead — just like the Republicans' chances in 2012." –Jimmy Fallon

"It looks like President Obama has a new campaign slogan: 'Yes I Did.'" –Jay Leno

"Osama bin Laden was apparently shot twice in the face. It looks like Dick Cheney may have been involved." –Jay Leno

"Oddly enough, bin Laden's last words were, 'I hope you at least use this to interrupt 'Celebrity Apprentice.'' –Jimmy Fallon

"Osama bin Laden is dead, which means the No. 1 threat to America is now the KFC Double Down." –Conan O'Brien

"Bin Laden was living in a house with no Internet access, which explains why there were all those bin Laden sightings at the Islamabad Kinko's." –Conan O'Brien

"Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces. Everyone on TV has been really happy. Glenn Beck was crying — and then he found out about Osama." –Craig Ferguson

"Looking for Bin Laden was like a 10-year game of Where’s Waldo. Only better because when you finally find Waldo you get to storm his compound and put a cap in his ass." –Craig Ferguson

"President Obama must be very happy because he finally took down his arch enemy: Donald Trump. The bin Laden announcement interrupted 'Celebrity Apprentice.'" –Craig Ferguson

"Bin Laden lived in this compound in Pakistan with all of his wives for 6 years. So he did suffer." –David Letterman

"I would like us to kill bin Laden every Sunday night. It makes for a much brighter start to the week." –Jimmy Kimmel

"Jacob and Isabella are the most popular baby names in the U.S. The least popular baby name: Donald Sheen bin Laden." –Jimmy Fallon

My Discrete Choice Model…

2011-05-06T11:23:00.000-04:00

When I am traveling there are very clear and specific choices that drive me. The main priorities are based around flying and the actual travel part of the trip. Since I have been traveling for so many miles I have gotten used to certain things, but now airlines are becoming more and more crowded.

Here are my priorities for travel and wish the airlines would use this when booking my flights… Note – price is the overall priority in all of this and making sure I can actually get to the airport without having to drive 100 miles. I usually will choose from the price that is appropriate for the flight (based on what else is available) and then choose within a budget range from these selection criteria…

The Seat – I would rather sit in the back of the plane than sit in the window or the middle seat. The reason is because I am so large (aka fat ass) and when I get in the middle or even in the window seat and some real fat guy gets into the middle I am in trouble. I love the aisle as I can stretch out, go to the bathroom whenever I want to, and can get up whenever I want. I also can get on the plane at anytime.

Internet access in the hotel – I will only stay in a hotel that has broadband access in the hotel. The only reason I stay at Hilton hotels is because I know they have wireless or broadband access. This is critical!

Airplane Class – First class is great, but I have actually flown first so often I really don’t see it as that great anymore. It is nice to have the extra space, but I can actually enjoy the economy plus as much as long as I have a nice aisle seat. I still do think class is important enough to put in the top 2 in my list.

Airline – I will choose a certain airline over others, such as United or JetBlue because of frequent flyer miles and/or the service. I love JetBlue and Midwest Express. These are such great airlines I wish I could fly them everywhere. I don’t like flying American or Delta as much, and I hate Southwest and Independence Air (they are no longer.)

Airplane seat with no one next to me – again this is all around the space, as I really like to have the middle seat next to me open. This allows for me to stretch out and have room to put my stuff.

Time of flight – this is important as I really don’t like to take the Redeye or take a flight at 5am. I end up taking these flights most of the time, but I would prefer not to actually take these flights.

Hotel Neighborhood – the hotel I stay in should at least be in an area where I don’t have concerns for my car or even myself. I did stay in a hotel in Atlanta that was $60 per night, but I was really worried for my life.

Car rental close to the airport – I have rented cars where you have to travel miles to go pick-up the car. It is such a pain in the ass! I really don’t like the Oakland airport because of this it is such a pain! I would rather rent from Joe’s rental if I don’t have to travel far from or to the airport.

Airplane type – I really enjoy the larger planes, such as the 777 or 747, but most of the time I end up on an Airbus or on a 737. It is so nice to actually get to fly on a triple seven once in awhile! I don’t like the regional jets at all, unless they are like the nice United Express or Midwest Express planes with the leather seats.

Team – I do think the people that work for the airline, hotel or rental car agency are very important to my selection. One of the reasons I choose Enterprise rental car is because the people are so great! JetBlue also has great people working for the company and it is enjoyable to deal with them. United, the airline I fly the most, is probably the worst overall in this criteria, but there are some of their people that are great. They need to treat their people better it will make them better customer service people.

Car type – the type of car I get is really not a big deal, though I would prefer a car that is clean and has unlimited miles. I once rented a car and it was so junky the owner of the car rental place gave me his car, which was not much better.

Airport Connections – I really don’t mind connections, though I don’t like the smaller planes and I really don’t like to connect when I am traveling with the kids.

Those are the main decision criteria I use. When it comes down to it the one that is most important is the trip that does not keep me away from my family for too long. I guess that is not really in the control of the travel companies.

Family Tradition: Friday Pizza & Movie Night

2011-05-05T00:01:00.002-04:00

This post brought to you by FRESCHETTA®. All opinions are 100% mine.

Read to the bottom for a cool product give-away I am running.

We have a tradition in the Larrison household where every Friday night we all gather in front of the family room television and enjoy a pizza for dinner and watch a movie on our amazing Samsung HD entertainment system. I strongly recommend this as a family activity because it is a low stress way for us to spend some time together, enjoy some good food, and the kids don’t have the pressure of having to talk for a couple of hours. Of course we have conversations during the movies and seem to enjoy each other’s company, but we all know the main reason for the tradition is to make sure we are seeing each other and spending downtime together. The rest of the week is where we run around like crazy and high-five from one sporting or school event to the other.

These days the kids are at an age where we don’t have to just watch cartoons or Pixar movies any longer. Though it is not always easy to pick out a movie we all will like, we have come up with ways to make sure everyone gets a voice in the selection process (with Jennifer having the final veto). Of course it is mostly family or kids movies, but it is a fun time for everyone and something we all look forward to. We watched Water World the other night, and I was able to tell the kids about how they filmed the movie and how expensive it was. Of course, because of my work and starting a company, I do end up having to only attend parts of the family movie night, but I am there just also trying to get a business up and running. I find it very relaxing also, even with a ton of work to do.

Now, when we moved from Chicago to DC the one thing we had to give up was good pizza. We knew this was the case and accepted it when we decided to move. I have traveled across the United States and tried pizza (and wings) in almost every major city over the past 10 years and there is no true pizza like a Chicago deep dish pie, or even the thin crust at a place like La Rosa in Skokie. Because we are not able to order Chicago pizza for our family movie night, we end up either cooking a frozen pizza or ordering from the local pizzeria, or if we are really lazy we will order from Pizza Hut (yuck).

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be able to try a new frozen pizza that is just coming out from the good folks at Freschetta. We had never tried the Freschetta brand pizza’s before, partially because we were caught in old habits and partially because I am always worried about trying something new with the kids. Anyway, this new pizza that is called FRESCHETTA® Simply…Inspired™ is really great, and has officially made it into our family tradition. Though I am not ready to change the name to the Larrison Family Pizza and Movie Night, sponsored by Freschetta… I am considering it :).

The good thing about the FRESCHETTA Simply Inspired Pizza is it tastes great! The name is perfect, the first thing I noticed was how fresh the pizza takes. Everything from the sauce to the toppings and cheese are fresh and taste like they are fresh from one of the better Italian restaurants in Northern Virginia. Once in a while we would splurge and order pizza from the Homemade Pizza Co. and of course we loved those nights, there were never any leftovers. Now we can get that same fresh taste without the huge credit card receipt. I feel it tasted similar to a gourmet pizza from the local Homemade Pizza Company or one of the better Italian pizza restaurants in Alexandria.

The FRESCHETTA® Simply Inspired pizza is not only fresh and bursting with flavor, but I love the taste of the sauce and the entire family loves the thin and crispy crust. I tried to figure out how they kept the pizza so fresh, even though it was frozen. I think it must have to do with the packaging they use, it is in a really thin and vacuum sealed package, which is called the FRESH-TASTE SEAL™ on the package. The smaller packaging makes it easy to store in the freezer and also less cardboard and plastic to go into the trash when you are done.

They have eight different flavor combos, including: Classic Bruschetta, Southern BBQ, Farmers Market Veggies, Harvest Supreme, Rustic Peperoni, Hawaiian, and they offer limited editions such as: Tuscan Farmhouse and Chicken Bianco. I have not tried them all, but they look delicious. If the Farmers Market Veggie and the Rustic Peperoni are any indication of the others, I am going to be eating a lot of pizza this year.

I strongly suggest you try out a Family Pizza & Movie night of your own. If you can’t do it every week, or can’t do it on Friday night, try another night and maybe try it with a TV show instead. The pizza is critical to bring everyone together, so make sure to include whatever pizza you like. You should try out the FRESCHETTA Simply Inspired pizza as I think you will love it.

Give Away Details: For my blog readers and twitter followers I am giving away a coupon for a free FRESCHETTA Simply Inspired pizza and a really cool bamboo cutting board. All you have to do is follow me on twitter and follow @FreschettaSI on Twitter. I will pick from my 6K+ followers (and blog readers) a random person to win this free pizza and cutting board (estimated value $120). I will send you a DM when I select the winner at the end of next week. I will announce the winner and the prize on this blog and my twitter feed (@jlarrison).

Let me know if you have any traditions you and your family enjoy.

This is a Great Idea…

2011-05-02T11:33:00.000-04:00

I think donations to candidates running for public office should be tax deductible. I also think the limit should be $50 per candidate per person. I also think each person should have a limit of $200 per year.

I also think local candidates should have a higher limit, as they are more important to each person’s daily lives.

I also think there should be free media for all candidates that have over 2% of the polling or at least enough signatures. There has to be a fix!

If you live in Virginia, like me, you should realize there is a Political Contributions Credit.

When you file Virginia Tax Returns, a Political Contributions Credit is available to individuals who make contributions to candidates for state or local political office. The credit is 50% of the amount of the contribution, subject to a $25 limit for individuals and a $50 limit for married taxpayers filing jointly. Remember, every little bit counts! This is not for Federal Tax Returns though.

We are getting there; we need many more controls on all the money being spent by politicians.

Recipe of the Month: The Best Fruit Salad Recipe Ever…

2011-04-29T19:25:00.000-04:00

Alright, this is a little bit of a stretch, but this old fashioned fruit salad is money and holds up to the test of time. I am sure your old grand-mamma has made many servings of this bad ass salad, but I suggest there is not much that beats it. I also suggest this is a good one to have in the bag of tricks if you need a backup for an unexpected guest or relative coming for a free meal.

This recipe is perfect for a breakfast or a large gathering where you are serving a big dinner. The recipe below serves around 8 guests (or more if they are kids.) Here are the details…

1 Large Can Mandarin Oranges
1 Can of Chunky Pineapple
1 Can Peach Pie Filling
4 Sliced Bananas
1 Box of Frozen Sliced Strawberries (thaw before mixing)
1 Box of Frozen Whole Strawberries (thaw before mixing)

Drain the oranges and pineapples, but leave some juice for later. Combine all the ingredients and chill. You can add some coconut flakes or walnuts, but that might turn off some of your guests. You also can add some sliced kiwi to the mix to spice this up a little.

Overall, this is a simple, but very tasty fruit salad that will please most of your guests. I personally eat around 3-4 bowls when I am at a dinner, and skip the rest of the meal. Kids also like this as it is sweet and tastes like candy.

Now, if you are looking for something a little more modern and good for summer, check out this Grilled Summer Fruit Salad BBQ Recipe from the Weber company.

The Clinton Whitehouse...

2011-04-25T05:23:00.000-04:00

I love this photo from the early days of the Clinton Whitehouse. You can tell these guys are working as a team and are all pumped up about fixing the world.

What a great time, too bad Dryver and Stryde never got to experience the great times of the 90's under President Clinton. Maybe they will be able to experience the late 2000's under President Clinton? We can only hope!

Meeting Set-up Response Email

2011-04-18T14:01:00.000-04:00

I was trying to set-up a meeting with an old work friend and he suggested we meet downtown near his office between 1pm and 3pm. I decided to have fun with the response...

'Anytime works, but 1pm is best. If that doesn't work, what do you suggest? I am flexible and can work with your request. Just let me know if you protest. I am heading to Cali from East to West. Though I am a frugal traveler I must confess. I am United Business Class, not flying Southwest. When we meet I can fill you in on our new business quest. I am pretty sure you will be at least a little impressed. Dynamic Signal will not stand to be second best. So far with funding we have been very blessed. I will come to your office this time and be your guest. I can head your way, can you send me the address? I hate to bother you and be such a pest. It will be good to see you as you have probably already guessed. I am a little slow and have not had very much rest. Starting this company has made me a little stressed. I certainly don't want to be an unwelcome guest. I heard Dick Cheney suffers from cardiac arrest. Have you ever seen a movie that stars Mae West? I'm playing Monopoly and landed on Community Chest. Looking forward to seeing you, you are the best! - Take care - Jim'

How to WIN a Negotiation... Every Single Time!

2011-04-17T23:19:00.000-04:00

Alright, I can't guarantee this one, but I can pass to you a tip that Eric Sink took the time to write out in his blog. Though his theory is truly common sense, it is 100% accurate and on target.

Now, in a B2B or enterprise sales environment, you can see the companies that do well are the ones that use time and planning to their advantage. The companies that fail are those that don’t put themselves in a situation where they can not close the deal.

Time is one of the few resources that is actually very abundant in today’s business world, it is really a question of how well it is managed. The greatest leaders are the ones that utilize time (i.e. planning, resources, capital, etc...) in the best ways possible.

The answer in how to win a negotiation every time? It all ends up being Time. And with time you always have the ability to walk away from the deal...

You can read more on this at Eric's post, but I think he is right on with this one. I have had many personal and business experiences that support his theory 100%.

The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra...

2011-04-15T21:56:00.000-04:00

4/What a great local resource for the arts. I am proud to live in Alexandria because of the great culture that pours out of the city.

The Alexandria Symphony is known Worldwide for their compositions and amazing abilities. The ASO is Northern Virginias’s premiere fully professional orchestra, the Alexandria symphony Orchestra is entering into its 60th season.

A passionate advocate of arts education, Maestro Kluge has developed extensive programs for children and adults that have engaged the community in securing a strong future for the arts.

Finally The Condensed Version That Makes Sense...

2011-04-14T19:21:00.000-04:00

You have to read this series running on Slate. It is called 'Blogging The Bible' and it is one of the best written blogs I have read in a long time. Now, that could be because it is authored by the self proclaimed genius author David Plotz, but let's not get hung up on details.

So this many part series is an amazing journey into rediscovering the bible and reading the passages that you never would have known existed. David, with his amazing ability to tell a tail with true wit and wisdom, gets into the stories about death and pillage. He reads about the despair, and he even relates some of Moses' people to the Mob. It is amazing writing and a great read when you want to step away from technology and/or political blogs.

Here is an excerpt from his initial blog…

For all you people like me, that have always been intrigued by what drives religion and want to better understand the history, David has given us the Woody Allen Cliff Notes version of the oldest and most popular book of all times.

I decided I would, for the first time as an adult, read the Bible. And I would blog about it as I went along. For the millions of Jews and Christians who know the Bible intimately, this may seem obscene:

Why should an ignoramus write about the stories and lessons that you know by heart and understand well? I don't intend any kind of insult. My goal is not to find contradictions, mock impossible events, or scoff at hypocrisy. Nor am I quite stupid enough to pretend that Judaism (or Christianity) is just the Bible.

So, what can I possibly do? My goal is pretty simple. I want to find out what happens when an ignorant person actually reads the book on which his religion is based.

Read the first story, "From Creation to the Flood." You will be hooked.

Travel in India...

2011-04-08T19:24:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture my buddy took while traveling through India. There's not much explanation needed beyond that.

iStrategy SF Conference

2011-04-05T13:59:00.001-04:00

Taken at InterContinental San Francisco

Earned vs. Paid Media in Politics

2011-03-28T22:25:00.000-04:00

While the average person might blanch at being featured in the newspapers or on the local news station, political campaigns often burn the midnight oil trying to orchestrate newsworthy events that will get the media to pay attention to their candidate. All publicity isn’t created equal for political candidates; damaging news stories have sunk many a political campaign, and it’s rare that a political candidate is completely satisfied with media coverage, no matter how flattering it is.

Still, getting positive (or at least objective) coverage from the media is a net plus for any political campaign, although most new candidates overestimate both the value media coverage and the amount of coverage that they should expect over the course of a campaign.

Here’s a quick disclaimer before we go any further: you can rarely win a political campaign on media coverage alone. It’s fine to attach yourself to an important issue that gets your name in the papers on a semi-regular basis, but if you don’t put in the work that a successful campaign requires, you could still be a high-profile loser on election day.

Having said that, a political campaign needs to differentiate between two different types of media coverage that are important to publicizing a candidate: earned media (or free media) and paid media (or bought media).

Earned media is the best kind of campaign coverage to get, since you don’t have to pay for it. When a newspaper, website or television news channel mentions your campaign in a legitimate news story, this is earned media. Most political campaigns are guaranteed to get at least two earned media stories over the course of the election season: when the candidate files to run for office, and on election day when he wins or loses.

Whether or not you get more earned media coverage than that is completely up to you and the amount of work and innovation you try to bring to your campaign. In order to get earned media coverage, you need to make it easy for the media to write stories about your campaign. That means generating interesting news and campaign events, and sending out regular press releases to local media.

Getting earned media coverage is more difficult than you might think, and you’re sure to get frustrated when the local media decides not to cover a campaign event that you put lots of time and effort into. A media organization can’t risk seeming too partial to a specific candidate, and won’t usually mention local candidates more than a few times over the course of election season. Still, you should do your part to encourage earned media coverage by making sure you notify every local media outlet whenever your campaign hits an important milestone or schedules a newsworthy event.

Paid media has its place in a successful political campaign plan, as well. Newspaper ads and television commercials are examples of paid media: getting a candidate’s name, face and message into a local media outlet by purchasing air time or ad space. Since the average candidate can’t count on a media organization to publish a slew of free stories about them, this is a viable–albeit expensive–alternative to earned media.

Whether or not your campaign should invest money into paid media is up to you. Generally, I’ve found that newspaper ads and television commercials just aren’t as effective as direct mail. While direct mail campaigns can be laser-focused on specific groups of registered voters, you’re usually paying for a lot of wasted coverage with newspaper and TV ads. The vast majority of people who see your ad in a newspaper or on television probably won’t even vote on election day.

Still, if you’ve done a good job on the fundraising front and you’ve already financed a broad direct mail campaign, adding some newspaper and television spots to the mix might be a good idea. Especially in larger statewide and congressional races, television can be an effective way to get your message out to a larger audience. Local candidates, however, should think twice before blowing most of their bank account on a few television commercials, and instead focus on mail and earned media.

Famous People I Have Met…

2011-03-26T10:16:00.000-04:00

Sitting on an airplane flying to San Francisco in First Class reminds me of an entry I have been meaning to write for a long time now. I have met some cool people in my life and wanted to keep a journal of these people so I could tell the stories to Dryver’s and Stryde’s kids and grandkids. I figure there is not much about meeting someone famous, except if you can tell people about it.

The reason this is coming up now, is because I am sitting one seat behind Robert Novak, the famous reporter from CNN Crossfire. It is funny to see him, and say hello to him today, because I just watched the video of him walking off the stage at CNN when he was ribbed by James Carville. I said to him that I was a big Illini fan, because I knew he attended U of I, and didn’t want to remind him of Valarie Plaime or James Carville.

So I thought of writing about all the cool people I have met, but that is too subjective. How about all the famous people, that is subjective also. I could write about the people that have made an impact in my life that I have met, but that is a different entry all together. These lists are so complicated.

So I think the best way to make this objective is to create a list of all the famous people that I have met that have an entry in Wikipedia. The reason this is good is because it is current, but also the editors are very careful and controlling about who gets an entry in the online encyclopedia.

Now, this list includes people I have introduced myself to, spoken to or have actually met with in person. This is not people I have seen walking in the airport or even driving in their car. I am not going to list Dennis Rodman, whom I walked next to in Atlanta at the Olympics. I am not going to list out Bon Jovi, whom I saw speak at the CTAM conference last summer. I won’t list out the many politicians, actors, news reporters that I have seen on a plane. These are people I have actually spoken to and there is at least a short story associated with the encounter.

So, in random order, this is the list of famous (as defined by wikipedia) people that I have interacted with… Now, this is not everyone famous, just the people I remember and there was an interesting enough interaction to list. I have also included a comment about the encounter when it was interesting enough to mention…

- Michael Jordan – I met him the year he retired from the Bulls the first time. Eddie and I went to the Dallas and Bulls game and headed back to MJ’s restaurant after the game. We also met and spoke to Quinn Buckner, Jimmy Jackson, Bob Love, and the man himself. MJ the king of the court and of Chicago. He was hanging out at the restaurant and Eddie and I walked up to him to say hello. I introduced myself, and said I was a fan (as if anyone wasn’t a fan.) I asked him for an autograph, and in the nicest way you could imagine, he patted by beer belly and said, ‘Sorry big man, can’t do that here, but would love to give you one outside of the restaurant.’ I will tell you that he was one of the nicest people I have ever met, and for a guy that was so famous, what a great attitude. I wanna be like Mike!

- Steve Dahl & Garry Meier – now this might seem a little random, but I met these two guys when I was a teen. I was a huge fan and a close friend, Billy Horist’s, mom was working for the Red Cross. Steve and Garry did an annual blood drive, and since Karen Horist was coordinating it, we were able to meet these two. I was really excited to meet these guys and had actually bought their fan club membership and was one of the biggest fans around. We got to get our photo taken with these guys and get some autographs. Garry was a great guy and Steve was cool, but started to get irritated when we were getting autographs. It was one of the first times I was disappointed to see a guy that I really idolized not be a good guy, and actually be somewhat of a jerk.

- Ed Harris – I met him a couple of times. He grew up in Evanston and I was in a play with his dad, Bob Harris. His mom was also our family’s travel agent. He had just become famous from The Right Stuff, and had made a few other movies. He was really nice and actually gave my family autographs on our church bulletin.

- John Cusack – He attended Evanston High School and I actually shared a graphic arts class with him. He seemed like a nice guy and I worked on a few things with him. I had no clue at the time he would be a famous actor one day, but he always was nice. I was a freshman in class and he was a junior. I never really had a friendship with him, but do wish I had kept in touch. Joan Cusack was also someone I met briefly. Actually a friend of mine started making out with her one night at a bar in Chicago.

- Jeremy Pivin – We used to go to summer vacation with his family. His dad, Bern Pivin, was an actor also and we knew him as the old guy on the Uncle Ben’s Rice commercials. I took the Pivin acting classes and met Jeremy a few times in the summer and also in the acting class. He was a much better actor than I was.

- Howie Mandel – He played at the Bradley University field house. I was friends with the gal that was running the show and I was able to go backstage and meet him. He was very cool and such a funny guy. Mike Avery and I used to love watching his shows and listening to his cds. I really think he was one of the best stand-up guys I have ever seen. Now, with his new gig on ‘Deal or No Deal’ he is cashing in for once.

- Gary Kremin – Founder of Sex.com and Match.com. Had a few drinks with him and we spoke about the internet and some of the things that were going on in the online world. He was an interesting guy to say the least. His history is amazing; this is one story to read.

- Donald Rumsfeld – I met him long before he became Secretary of Defense. He grew up in Evanston and was in town when I was in college for some arts festival. I had new clue he would be the guy in the hot seat one day.

- Ken Mehlman – Chairman of the RNC and big time strategy guy in the republican party. He was really an amazing guy and I was blown away by his charisma and intelligence. I usually don’t agree with these guys, but now understand why they win so often. With guys like this guy at the top, they are not going to lose very often.

- James Carville – Political Strategy Guy that ran Clinton’s campaign in 1992. He is one of my idols overall and I really respect this guy for what he stands for. I really connect with him in his books and respect him for his energy and drive to win. I was lucky enough to go to his home in Alexandria and speak to him about our business and living in Alexandria. His house was beautiful, Jennifer wanted to get some art like him and Mary had, then I told her they were original Picassos.

- Alan Greenspan – Head of the US Treasury – Talk about a grumpy old man. First of all he looked older than dirt. He is a crabby old guy and had no social skills at all. I really did not talk to him, but I stood next to him at a urinal. I looked down to see what he was packing and understand why he is so bitter now. Anyway, I did say hello and spoke to his wife, Andrea Jacobs, from NBC. Now, Andrea Mitchell was so nice. I spoke to her for awhile and really enjoyed the discussion.

- Molly Ringwald – I met her when she was filming Sixteen Candles in Evanston. She was really an unknown at the time, and me and a friend went to watch them film the movie. It was being filmed about three blocks from our house on Simpson Street. We did say hello to Molly and some of the cast. They were all very nice and took time to speak to us. We also were able to play with the dog that was in the beginning of the film.

- Paul O’Neil – I met him at the Treasury for a minute or so. He was nice and formal. I said hello and he shook my hand. I really loved his book. It was too bad he was thrown out, he really had a lot to offer our country.

- Brian Stafford – The head of the secret service for many years. He was the head during 9/11 and was famous for running the show under Clinton’s years. This guy was down to earth and hardcore. Some of the stories he told me were unbelievable. If you like the Tom Clancy books, you would be amazed by what this guy had experienced in his life. Wow, that was one really memorable couple of hours.

- Bill Henderson – Postmaster General under Clinton. Now, this guy I know very well. He is like a mentor to me and I always look up to him for guidance and support. He is another one of those natural born leaders and such a great friend. I have a few people like this that I look up to, but he is the only one that made Wikipedia.

- Robert Palmer – I was down at the David Letterman show when he was filming at the Chicago Theater. I said hi to him and he was also pretty nice. He asked me if I was going to be a photojournalism guy when I got older. He said to take pictures on his good side.

- Joe Lieberman – I met him in 2006 on an airplane. We were sitting in first class together and he was really a good guy. I spoke to him briefly about the effects of the internet on kids and the pros and cons of online controls for children.

- Lecy Goranson – The kid from Rosanne and was an actress in some great movies. I did not know her well, but my sister Molly was really good friends with her. I am sure I tried to beat her up a few times and make fun of her. I am sure I also saw her running around in her underwear when she was having a sleepover at our house.

I am sure there are more, but these are the ones where I actually spent a little time talking to them or had a relationship with them. I have met a bunch of senators and congressmen as living in DC, but there are too many of these to mention and I don’t want to invade their privacy as I still keep in touch with a few of these.

There are a few that I have on my list of people I would love to meet. These include, but are not limited to: Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Howard Stern, Nicole Kidman, Steven King, Bill Gates, Jerry Yang, Billy Graham, Artie Lange, Tim Robbins, and Jimmy Carter.

I hope to update this list one day with the above list completed and a new list underway.

A Classic: The Apollo Theater...

2011-03-25T01:49:00.000-04:00

The Apollo Theater is one of the most famous clubs for popular music in the United States, and certainly the most famous club associated almost exclusively with African-American performers.

Located at 253 W. 125th Street in Harlem, the best-known black neighborhood in New York City and probably the country, the Apollo grew to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance of the pre-World War II years. In 1934, it introduced its regular Amateur Night shows.

Billing itself as a place "where stars are born and legends are made," the Apollo became famous for launching the careers of artists like Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Gladys Knight, Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5, Lauryn Hill, and Sarah Vaughan.

The club fell into decline in the 1960s and 1970s, but was revived in 1983, when it obtained federal, state and city landmark status. It fully reopened in 1985, and was bought by the State of New York in 1991.

It is now run by a nonprofit organization, the Apollo Theater Foundation Inc., and draws an estimated 1.3 million visitors annually. It is the home of It's Showtime at the Apollo, a nationally syndicated variety show consisting of new talent.

Music Video History: Joy Division Atmosphere

2011-03-24T10:50:00.000-04:00

It’s a funeral of mourning and slapstick. Children or midgets dressed in Druid robes conduct the ceremony on a beach, and waddle around carrying a church steeple and iconic photographs of St. Ian Curtis.

The first impression is that director Anton Corbjin made a tasteless tribute to Joy Division’s late singer and drifter of Britain’s post-industrial wasteland. Yet, the band’s brooding, hymnal melodies and tribal, danse macabre rhythms still takes hold of the viewer, and the visuals soon make sense.

Corbjin lets the music flow with the gritty, decayed black and white cinematography, and he only displays the band and Curtis in still photographs, as if Joy Division is just a fading memory. Corbijn beautifully captures the moment when you lose a loved one, and you walk outside to see everything around you in stinging detail. Unforgettable.

Duke's Trophy Case is full...

2011-03-22T12:18:00.001-04:00

Film Review: The Truth

2011-03-21T20:04:00.000-04:00

This film was interesting and kept me involved through the entire 90-minutes. The plot and concepts were not unique, I have seen many movies that follow similar concepts. That being said, it was still an interesting and compelling story, and had some good twists and turns throughout.

From movies such as The Strangers, Desperate Hours, Panic Room, Funny Games, and maybe even Death Trap, the concept of people being locked in their home and being kept hostage is not new.

I think the acting wasn't that great, though there were some recognized names in the credits. I found John Heard's acting the best of the group, though the rest of the actors were so poor it is hard to tell if he was any good or just better than the worst.

If you like movies that have twists and are a mixture of thrillers and mystery you might like this movie.

Top 5 Quotes from Star Wars

2011-03-19T14:35:00.000-04:00

5. “When I left you, I was but the learner, now I am the master.” “Only a master of evil, Darth.”

4. “Into the garbage chute, flyboy!”

3. “Mos Eisley spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

2. “You don’t need to see his identification … These aren’t the droids you’re looking for … He can go about his business … Move along.”

1. “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”

Well, then there is the real #1 - “May the Force be with you.”

Film Review: The Romantics

2011-03-17T19:59:00.000-04:00

I was expecting a romantic comedy with this film, especially after watching the trailer. I couldn't have been more wrong, this movie was charming, complex and real. The writing and storytelling rank up with some of the best movies I have seen in years. Though most people criticize this film for lacking depth, I found the story to be so compelling and realistic I feel some people must have missed the point.

From the start of the movie to the ending you are brought into a group of friends, with all their feelings and baggage that has been created over years. Every group of friends goes through this time in their lives where they are growing up and becoming mature adults. This story shows a time before having children and the burdens of massive mortgages, private schools, and taxes, and allows us to share in the joys of love and the complexity of that love relative to your close friends and family. Throughout the film there is a feeling that this is finally the end of the friends 'aka The Romantics' as everyone is moving on and living their own lives and building their own families.

The casting in this movie was brilliant, with Katie Holmes playing a distinctly mature young woman still in love and struggling as she is brought back into the place in her heart she has hidden away and was hoping never to come back to. I had no idea Katie could play such a mature and interesting character. She doesn't try and over sell the feelings her character is dealing with, and allows the audience to interpret what is really going on in her head and heart.

Josh Duhamel is amazing in playing the cold footed groom, that is carrying more than typical wedding day jitters as he is trying to deal with complex emotions and feelings that go along with growing up and becoming a real adult. He does a great job of playing the groom that is formal and respectful to adults and involved in planning the special day, but also can revert back to his young wild days.

Anna Paquin, Candice Bergen, and Dianna Agron do an amazing job of playing the bride and brides family, who are all struggling to ensure this special day is as great as all special days they have had in their sheltered, albeit sophisticated, lives. Candice is so great as the mom who is trying to hold everything together and make sure her daughter's life is just so perfect.

From the start of the film you are brought into these relationships and can feel the love, tensions, excitement, and even resentment that have carried over from years of this group being friends and comrades as they grew-up. I really felt like I could relate and saw many of my friends in the different characters. I could see the days we would go to weddings together because so many of our friends were getting married. It gave us a time to get back together and relive the old days, but in a new dynamic that always carried over us. The film portrays this brilliantly.

The cinematography is amazing, keeping you interested in the story, but also highlighting the sub-stories and feelings that carry through-out the film. The music that was selected for this film is also an important part to telling the story. I was a little disappointed that there was no official soundtrack because the music was wonderful and uplifting.

I personally feel this movie is underrated. I am not a big fan of romantic films or coming of age movies. I never really liked wedding movies, though did find Rachel Getting Married to be interesting. This is an exception to the rule, it has all the charm and emotions that go along with a romantic drama, but brings to life a complex story of feelings and relationships that I hope everyone that watches can enjoy.

The acting in the movie was great. Everyone from Candice Bergen to Elijah Wood to Adam Brody did a great job at being an ensemble cast, rather than one actor stealing the show.

I strongly recommend this film to everyone. It is such a great film! It is a movie you could watch over and over again. Kudos to Galt Niederhoffer, Sam Levy and Jon Sadoff in creating such a great movie!

I give the film 4 out of 5 stars.

The Best New Comedic Actor - Aziz Ansari

2011-03-16T08:35:00.000-04:00

There are tons of up and coming comedian actors in movies these days. I love Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Bill Hader, Jason Segel, Danny McBride, Paul Rudd and so many more great actors that make me laugh. I think it is about timing as much as anything, and I give a ton of credit to any comedian that can make a great funny movie.

I don't think it is possible to rank the funniest actors these days, because there is so much amazing talent out there.

But... There is one actor that I think is amazing, and I hope his career continues to grow and he gets the exposure that I think he deserves. His name is Aziz Ansari, and he is best known in his role as Tom Haverford on the NBC show Parks and Recreation. He also has cracked me up in his roles in movies such as Get Him to the Greek, Funny People and Observe and Report.

Ansari's performance has received notable praise from critics, including Entertainment Weekly naming him one of 2009’s “Breakout TV Stars,” TV Guide naming him a “Scene Stealer” and Yahoo! TV placing him in the number one spot on their list of “TV MVPS.

If you have not seen Aziz on TV or on film, I strongly urge you to take the time to check out one of his films. He will be showing up in Ruben Fleischer's (director of Zombieland) new film 30 Minutes or Less, which is a movie about two fledgling criminals who kidnap a pizza delivery driver and force him to rob a bank within 30 minutes.

In the action-comedy "30 Minutes or Less," Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is a small town pizza delivery guy whose mundane life collides with the big plans of two wanna-be criminal masterminds (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson). The volatile duo kidnaps Nick and forces him to rob a bank. With mere hours to pull off the impossible task, Nick enlists the help of his ex-best friend, Chet (Aziz Ansari). As the clock ticks, the two must deal with the police, hired assassins, flamethrowers, and their own tumultuous relationship.

If you haven't seen Aziz, check out this short clip from NBC's Parks & Recreation, where he is out at a bar and runs into his boss out on a date with an older gentleman from another town...

Really Funny!!!

What every blog needs to be great...

2011-03-15T16:50:00.000-04:00

Below is an interesting poll trying to measure what makes a blogger successful. The breakdown is interesting:

Which of these qualities is most important to a blog’s success?

The responses to this poll make a lot of sense from both a bloggers and readers perspective. When looking at the blogs that have become the most successful (at least within their categories) they have build a unique personality and are relevant and interesting. What drives people to come visit the blog? Something that is unique, new, interesting, fresh... What has them come back to the blog? They find the information to speak to them and connect with them. What encourages readers to engage on the site or share the content on the site? The blogger encourages the visitors to share and develops a 'virtual relationship' with their visitors. All of these attributes are building blocks to what I believe you could call a 'Distinctive or Fresh Voice' in the category.

If you were to untangle the definition of a distinctive voice you would probably find it is actually a composite value of the niche or area of focus and the ability to have unique and not regurgitated content. I really believe that a distinctive voice is a composite value metric that includes many of the other measures for success for bloggers. These metrics include focus or relevancy (unique niche), compelling/interesting (compelling exclusive content), active voice (multiple channels such as social media, search, etc...), and of course the byproduct of this is the ability for the blogger to build their own brand via personalities or larger brands/marketers.

The only driver to success that I think is missing is past success (could be also known as luck, tenure, or personal brand). I know this is self-fulfilling, but blogs that have built an audience and following in their categories are much more likely to grow and continue their success than a site that has not had success in the past and is trying to drive past the threshold to reach a continued success mark. I know this is a convoluted concept, but due to the social nature of blogs it is clear that the blogs that have a following (the A-blogs) are in a much better spot for future success no matter what other components are at play.

I think the poll is really interesting and telling. I am glad you do these polls and hope you continue to ask these questions of bloggers and marketers. Love your site. You have all of the pieces needed to be successful.

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What every blog needs to be great

SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social-media practices and issues.

Last week’s poll question: Which of these qualities is most important to a blog’s success?

A distinctive voice – 43.41%
Compelling exclusive content — 35.66%
A unique niche – 11.63%
Strong promotion via social-media channels — 5.04%
Excellent SEO — 2.71%
Connections to famous brands, personalities — 1.55%

The results of this week’s poll took me a little bit by surprise. Given that this question was answered by 295 SmartBrief on Social Media readers, I would have guessed that most people would have favored the niche answer. After all, social media is about building community, and communities thrive in niche environments. Think about your favorite blogs for a second. I’m wiling to bet most of them cater to a pretty specific audience. Niche blogs are lean, focused and easy to pitch to their intended audiences.

But then again, the question was, “Which of these qualities is most important to a blog’s success?” And a solid 43% of you say it all about the voice. I can see why so many people feel it’s so important for a blog’s success. It creates a cohesive feel and a sense that you really know this person. It makes that online connection feel that much more real.

But voice is a tricky thing for a writer. It can be a calling card or a fatal flaw that one refuses to correct in the name of style. For some very distinctive writers, the same characteristics that attract some readers may repel others. It takes time and a lot of practice to develop a voice that really clicks. The good news is, if you’re a regular blogger, you’re going to have plenty of opportunities to practice. If you’re diligent and thoughtful about your writing, developing a voice is something anyone can pull off.

In fact, all of the most popular options are things I feel comfortable saying most people could achieve, given a little inspiration and a healthy work ethic. The most specialized attributes — self-promotion, SEO and access to big names — garnered less than 10% of the vote. SmartBrief on Social Media readers clearly feel that blog success is all about the content, and I have to agree. If you can take care of your voice, your niche and your content, the rest should be easy.

What defines a great blogging voice? Who are some bloggers whose voice you admire?

Younger Brother Caught Stealing Donuts...

2011-03-14T09:41:00.000-04:00

I was cleaning up my younger sons (Stryde/4yo) bedroom and came across an empty box of Hostess Powdered Donettes (which are his favorite breakfast and afternoon snack), that we had bought the day before. We had bought the donuts for his older brother (Dryver/6yo) to take to school for his class to share.

At first I thought the box was old and there was no way he could have possibly eaten an entire box of donuts by himself. Then I saw a trail of powdered sugar that went from his bedroom all the way down to the kitchen.

I followed the trail, seeing hand-prints of powdered sugar all over the house, including a stop in the bathroom and even a stop in the broom closet (I am not sure why he was in there).

Well, I finally found the end of the sugar trail and found Stryde 'red-handed', so to speak, and confronted the suspect with the evidence. Having been taught well from many legendary criminals of our times, he had a good defense.

Check out the video for yourself...

Film Review: Sacrifice (2011)

2011-03-13T20:04:00.000-04:00

Film With Some Interesting Ideas, But Overall Bad - (2-Stars)

I am always interested in a Cuba Gooding Jr. movie, as his personality can carry even crappy plots. I feel bad for Cuba as the last few films he has made have been TV movie dramas at best.

This movie is no exception as the film work and writing are slow and dull. Though there were a few good scenes, such as the scene when Cuba visits the snake man.

I would advise against watching this movie, it is a drama/action film, but is missing the action and drama to keep you interested beyond the first 20-minutes.

Though I was able to watch the entire thing, I do feel it was overall a waste of time and I wish I had not seen this film.

It reminds me of a late night HBO rerun movie that you might watch if you have nothing else to do, and even then you probably won't walk away from the film even remembering that you saw it or anything interesting in it.

Though I love Cuba's acting, and I hope he hits a few more home runs in his career, this is not one of them.

The Funniest Jerry Seinfeld Quotes

2011-03-12T13:22:00.003-05:00

It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.

You know you're getting old when you get that one candle on the cake. It's like, "See if you can blow this out."

Men want the same thing from their underwear that they want from women: a little bit of support, and a little bit of freedom.

Dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, one of them's making a poop, the other one's carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge.

Now they show you how detergents take out bloodstains, a pretty violent image there. I think if you've got a T-shirt with a bloodstain all over it, maybe laundry isn't your biggest problem. Maybe you should get rid of the body before you do the wash.

There's very little advice in men's magazines, because men don't think there's a lot they don't know. Women do. Women want to learn. Men think, "I know what I'm doing, just show me somebody naked."

According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.

Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason

Why do people give each other flowers? To celebrate various important occasions, they're killing living creatures? Why restrict it to plants? "Sweetheart, let's make up. Have this deceased squirrel."

Why do they call it a "building"? It looks like they're finished. Why isn't it a "built"?

People who read the tabloids deserve to be lied to

The big advantage of a book is it's very easy to rewind. Close it and you're right back at the beginning.

Men don't care what's on TV. They only care what else is on TV.

My parents didn't want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty, and that's the law.

What would the world be like if people said whatever they were thinking, all the time, whenever it came to them? How long would a blind date last? About 13 seconds, I think. "Oh, sorry, your rear end is too big." "That's ok, your breath stinks anyway. See you later."

You know what I never get with the limo? The tinted windows. Is that so people don't see you? Yeah, what a better way not to have people notice you than taking a thirty foot Cadillac with a TV antenna and a uniformed driver. How discreet. Nobody cares who's in the limo. You see a limo go by, you know it's either some rich jerk or fifty prom kids with $1.75 each.

You can measure distance by time. "How far away is it?" "Oh about 20 minutes." But it doesn't work the other way. "When do you get off work?" "Around 3 miles."

Whitepaper: What Happens When Facebook Trumps Your Brand Site?

2011-03-11T21:14:00.004-05:00

Below is an interesting article that ran in AdAge last fall about a recent market trend where consumers are moving more and more towards social media and open platforms to discuss their affiliations and/or opinions around brands and products they utilize or have an affinity towards. The article highlights the fact that traffic has shifted from the product and corporate marketing sites and moved onto the branded channels within sites like Facebook and MySpace. A lot of this dynamic is a function of the increased investments by consumer marketers, especially the HBA and CPG brands, to accelerate their efforts, and thus marketing budgets, into the social media world. Additionally, it is clear that the mass consumer truly perceives the social platforms as a casual and low risk way to interact in a friendly environment around their daily lives, without major disruption and/or risk. What this translates to is users being more likely to engage around a brand of interest within their social environments, where there is not only a lower barrier to engage, but there is potentially socially redeeming value out of the interaction on these sites versus the corporate and marketing sites of yesteryear.

The significant thing to note out of the study and data is the vast majority of the brands and products are mass market consumer packaged goods. These are informal branded relationships and have more of a uncomplicated one-dimensional value between the brand and the consumer. At the end of the day the value is actually spread to both parties, but on a totally different plane, where the consumer value is really socially oriented in building and developing their personal relationships, where the marketers actual value is around market knowledge, research, data, and creating more efficient ways to reach their audiences via paid media. There are many benefits for the mass marketers to continue to 'go where the consumers are' and allow their customers to not only self-select, but to also engage in a perishable conversation around their brand affinity. that being said, the article doesn't touch on the fact that the dark side to this story is when consumers leverage this same ecosystem to highlight their dissatisfaction with the brand or products, and though there are many players such as Microsoft and Salesforce.com that are building rapid CS/CRM systems to support this shift, the risk is real. Look at the recent Facebook fan page for Target and you can better understand and appreciate the crowd bulling that can happen when the message gets out of control in an environment like this.

At the end of the day it is reasonable for brands such as Starbucks and McDonalds to build a strong social relationship with the mass consumer on these large social platforms. These brands would love to be involved in the day (trusted) interaction with their friends and family, and want to be a part of the discussion, even if it is just a superficial relationship at best. A brand marketer such as P&G with Pringles or Kraft with Jell-O or Oreos doesn't have depth to their relationship with their customers and is really looking for broad, but shallow associations. The value of one person that buys chips or snack food is arguably as valuable as another person that buys snack foods, with very marginal differences in overall lifetime importance of each and every customer for these market segments.

What is missing is for all the other thousands of large brand marketers that are not on the top 10 list. Though brands such as Nikon, Nike, Apple, Home Depot, Avon, Army, Visa, Rolex, BMW, Pottery Barn, etc... have a presence on Facebook, the value of their social media outlet existence, is limiting at best. The idea of a one-to-one relationship in a high value, durable product group, or higher engagement/risk categories, is not only wildly cost prohibitive, but perhaps 100% impracticable to scale in a way that is sustainable.

What this article has proven is brands have figured out that it isn't about getting consumers to come to you and building up a relationship by pulling them in, it is about pushing out into the market where the right consumers are engaged already and building a relationship where they already are engaged, loyal and trusting. It is the same paradigms we saw when the Vertical Media Network businesses were starting to form at Adify in early 2009, but in this world the market economics have already been proven to be dramatically more favorable for all parties involved.

This article has also reinforced the fact that we are not, based on the broadly accepted definition in the market, a social media solution. Yes, we are enabling direct relationships between category influentials and the associated brands (this is small scale at best), but at our core we are not in existence to continue the development of the social relationships people have with their friends and partners. We are not in existence to enable the daily lives and journal the thoughts and ideas people share within their social circle (note the recent important study out of HP Labs that says most social media is 100% perishable within hours of publishing). We are building a long term framework that will string together the evergreen social trust relationships that exist between the influentials and their audiences, but we are much more trust brokers or enablers of a different type of social relationship that is founded on the content, opinions and ideas of the influentials.

I would argue that the more we focus on social media as a definition of what we are, the more we are going to end up limiting what we are and what we solve. I am not suggesting we need to change our go to market strategy or what we are saying in the market (I do think using Brand Safe Social Media is a good way to be tapped into the buzz around the space), I just suggest we need to remember that our primary mission isn't to encourage and empower the social relationships between friends and neighbors. Our primary mission is to establish a fair and trusted relationship between brand marketers and online category influentials in order to enable the sharing of trust between the brand and the influentials audience. This is really important as we are working internally, looking at the market, understanding how it is operating, and where we are going to add the most value that has the highest returns.

Maybe this is overly simplistic in how we would differentiate ourselves, but being a vertical trust broker is much more descriptive of what we are doing than a social media platform.

Just a few thoughts I thought I would share.

Face Book Trumps Brands AdAge 08242010

For Movie Night: Make Your Own Kettle Corn

2011-03-10T16:30:00.000-05:00

Makes: 8-10 cups

Ingredients:
1/4 Cup oil
1/2 Cup popcorn
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Preparation:
1. Heat oil in a large pot, over medium heat.
2. Add the popcorn when the oil is hot and begins to shimmer.
3. Sprinkle the sugar over the kernels, tightly cover and shake the pan to keep the corn from sticking.
4. When the popping slows down remove the pot from the heat and toss with salt.

Why We Support Our Church....

2011-03-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

When I was thinking of why I support Westminster Church, one thing became clear... it is the same reason as when we joined six years ago. Below is a speech I gave at our church last Sunday to show our support of the Church and donating time and money.

The reasons we contribute our time and money to the church is the same as it has been since in joined in a warm spring morning in 2000. It is because of the capital campaign. But this is not the capital campaign that just started about 18 months ago, it is not the capital campaign that has daily updates on the website, or even a campaign that involves boards, nails, insulation, and by the way, city inspections. No, none of that exists with the capital campaign I am talking about.

But there are similarities. They both involve building an infrastructure that will ensure our church is around for a long time after I am gone. They both involve setting a solid foundation for our church so that we continue to be such an important part of the community and our families.

The capital campaign I am speaking of is the Children and Youth ministries. From the day we bought our first son Dryver and dropped him off in the loving arms of Barbara in the nursery, we have been hooked.

We have experienced an amazing ride, yes it included being paged by the Sunday School team because Stryde was throwing toys at all the girls. But is has really touched our lives and reinforced why we give our time and money to Westminster.

We have been involved personally in working in the nursery, to teaching the children in Sunday school, note – if you haven’t tried gram-crakers and water you don’t know what you are missing. We also have been more recently involved in Creation Station. The time and money that is put into the program, pays off 100x when you see the children interacting with God with such as passion. If you haven’t volunteered for Creation Station, it is something you need to experience, if just once in your life.

Creation Station is a program that allows the children to learn about our church though building, art, crafts, and even cooking. Yes, cleaning is not included in that list. It is a real joy to watch these Kindergarten to 5th grade children really learn and grow every Sunday. It is amazing.

And of course there is the youth programs. I have been a Middle School youth advisor for over five years. The time I spend with both the middle school and Senior high youth is time I will cherish for my whole life. They are so engaged. They are so caring. They really are the future of our Church.

So maybe Harry Braswell is putting the nails in and hanging the drywall, maybe he is creating a solid building for our future. But I would argue that the youth are doing one step better, they are building the soul of our church family.

10 Sports Documentaries You Should See Before You Die:

2011-03-08T22:03:00.000-05:00

10. Deep Water (2006/PG) – Boating – The story of the first solo, non-stop, round-the-world boat race, and the psychological toll it took on its competitors. This film goes beyond the event and gets into the mind of the ship captain who is dealing with his own demons and the nightmare of being at sea for almost a year. Deep Water is an unforgettable journey into one man's heart of darkness. This film was produced by the same producer as Touching the Void, which is number 6 on this list.

9. Riding Giants (2004/PG-13) + 9a. The Endless Summer (1966/G) – Surfing – Endless Summer: For this documentary-style sequel to the 1966 film that's achieved a cult-like following in the surfing world, director Bruce Brown trails two Californians to places across the globe searching for the ultimate wave. Riding Giants: A semi-serious insider's look at the origins of surfing. The movie covers the colorful and subversive birth of surf culture, and the mythology and lure of the "big wave."

8. Pumping Iron (1976/PG) – Bodybuilding – In this classic you can watch Governor Schwarzenegger defend his Mr. Olympia title against the Hulk, Lou Ferrigno. Pumping iron is as ‘satisfying as having sex with a woman and reaching orgasm’, says Arnold Schwarzenegger in this fascinating docudrama. Though part of this movie is scripted, it is still a great documentary film to check out. This movie becomes even more fascinating when viewed in the context of Arnie's now notorious political career.

7. Boxing Gym (2010/NR) – Boxing - Explores the world of a boxing gym in Austin, Texas, dwelling on the discipline of training as people from all walks of life aspire to reach their personal best. The film examines what violence looks like when it's a controlled outlet, as opposed to a spontaneous one. The only word of caution is that Boxing Gym is all without comment, letting the rhythm of the place tell the story, so be prepared to pay attention to everything you see and hear. One critic said of Boxing Gym: ‘The soundscape is endlessly fascinating, a layer cake of squeaks, grunts, gasps, and rattling chains that, combined, catches a rhythm that sounds an awful lot like song’.

6. Touching the Void (2004/R) – Mountain Climbing – In 1985 two young and fit climbers decided to climb the west face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. They ran into many problems, including one of them falling and breaking several bones in his leg. The story is told by them as they try a never before attempted rescue technique that was likely to kill them both. If you liked 127-hours, you will love this story.

5. When We Were Kings (1996/PG) – Boxing – This is an amazing movie that chronicles the heavyweight championship matchup (Rumble in the Jungle) between reigning title holder George Foreman and challenger Muhammad Ali in 1974. On September 25, 1974, in the wake of one of the greatest political scandals in its history, Watergate, America was poised to watch a knockout punch that would redefine it as a nation of champions. This film goes beyond the boxing and covers the socio-political impact this fight had on our history books. A great critic quote on this film: ‘No comedian was ever funnier, no fighter ever faster than Muhammad Ali, who is caught at the top of his game in Leon Gast's valentine, When We Were Kings’

4. Hoop Dreams (1994/PG-13) – Basketball – I assume almost everyone has seen this film, but it is worth watching again. It is such an obvious pick that it almost deserves a stand alone ranking. The only reason I didn't rank it as #1 was because I wanted to highlight a few other films that you probably have not seen, that are well worth going to see. So, if you have not seen Hoop Dreams, you should put it at the top of your Netflix rental queue. This extraordinary movie shattered the illusion, once and for all, that factual films can't be as entertaining as fictional ones. When it didn’t even get nominated for best documentary in 1995 there was a big uproar because it is such a brilliant film (though it is almost 3-hours long). The movie is a chronicle of the lives and high-school careers of two inner-city youths who both harbor legitimate hopes of playing professional basketball.

3. Solo (2007/NR) – Kayaking - Michôd and Peedom's hour-long documentary recounts the tale of Andrew McAuley, an Australian adventurer who, in 2006, launched a quest to become the first person to paddle a kayak across the treacherous Tasman Sea, one of the loneliest and toughest stretches of water in the world. This movie is really a sleeper, and you might have a hard time finding it on DVD, but it is really a great film if you can track it down. I am pretty sure this film didn't make it on any other list you will find online, but it is a brilliant story.

2. Bigger, Stronger, Faster* (2008/PG-13) – American Sporting Culture – Such a great movie and the way it was put together has you totally engrossed in the story from the first set of credits. This film digs into our American culture that is so focused on being the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. Director Christopher Bell explores America's win-at-all-cost culture by examining how his two brothers became members of the steroid-subculture in an effort to realize their American dream.

1. Murderball (2005/R) – Rugby – By far the best sports documentary ever made, including the Baseball mini-series produced by Ken Burns. This movie is so good I am shocked that almost everyone I ask has not only not seen the movie, but most have not heard of it. Like any other great sports story, 'Murderball' features fierce rivalry, stopwatch suspense, dazzling athletic prowess, larger-than-life personalities and triumph over daunting odds. But Murderball, the original name for the full-contact sport now known as quad rugby, is played by quadriplegics in armored wheelchairs.

'Murderball' is a story like no other, told by men who see the world from a different angle. Quad rugby players have suffered injuries that have left them with limited function in all four limbs. Whether by car wreck, gunshot, fist fight, rogue bacteria or any of an endless list of possible misadventures, quad rugby's young men have found their lives dramatically altered. Watching them in action -- both on court and off -- smashes every stereotype one has ever had about the handicapped. It also redefines what it is to be a man, what it is to live a full life, and what it is to be a winner. It was nominated for Best Documentary Feature for the 78th Academy Awards. This film is also #1 on the Rotten Tomatoes countdown of the top sports movies of all time.

Honorable Mentions: Baseball (Ken Burns Mini-Series), The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (Video Games), Grizzly Man (Camping/Outdoors), Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (Ken Burns Boxing Film)

iPhone Millionaires

2011-03-07T03:27:00.000-05:00

Though this is a funny comic strip, it is actually sadly pretty true. If people (including myself) could learn to save their money and invest wisely, the whole world could be much better off.

The one story to me that is most sad is the young military folks that are signing up to rejoin or 'up' their contracts with the US Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force. Those young men and women that decide they are willing to sign on for 4 more years, or more, are given a big tax free check from the government. If they are in a combat zone, they are given a bigger check.

The kids get $50-100K in cash and then within a few months they have spent it on the top of the line pick-up trucks, new sound and video systems, enough parties and booze for their buddies, and of course time with the women.

If you think about what they should do with the money, or if Uncle Sam was looking out for them they would come to these kids and tell them that they could either get a new truck, or they could have $1MM when they retired at 65. With compounding 5% annual interest on the money (assuming they have no other bonuses that are paid out or they don't get more money when they re-up again) the total they would have in the bank when they were 65 would be $995K and if they could get 8% interest on their money, they would have $3.7MM in the bank.

I think it is up to the military to help these kids out. I wish I had this help when I was a kid, and if someone had given me $50k in an account when I was 20, I could be in good shape right now for retirement when I turned 65, or even 60.

This is the stuff that I wish Obama would do and step-up to make changes.

Steel Town Cinema

2011-03-05T19:23:00.000-05:00

I have always been intrigued and exceptionally interested in movies which are set in steel or factory towns. These stories are usually tremendously multifaceted, as they also carry the burdens and pains associated with living in such a complicated time and situation. Many of the finest steel town movies transport you right into an active ingredient and member of this intricate culture.

The story of a steel or factory town is interesting in itself, there is so much history in the US, and similar to farming settings, the past is austere, miserable and dark. When a director decides to place the factory life as a dynamic part of the challenges that the main and associated characters face, the audience feels and sympathizes directly with this situation. These movies make you feel and understand the pain that Michael Moore was attempting to portray in Roger and Me.

The Top Steel/Factory Town Movies of all time are:

The Deer Hunter
Rudy
All The Right Moves
Silkwood
Erin Brockovitch

A Personal Check-up...

2011-03-04T04:35:00.000-05:00

Okay here is a personal question for you...

Have you ever had so much going on in your life that you are not sure where to start to get caught up or take a breath? It is not a feeling of helplessness at all, it is more a feeling of empowerment that you have so much control over where you are headed.

I think that is where I am and I look at all the stuff that needs to be done (from daily tasks, to follow-up, to large sales deals, to even long term life planning) and the areas where we need to focus and I realize there is so much that it just is a non-stop effort to chip away at everything in my life. Maybe when you turn 37 that is what happens, you start to realize you are chipping away at life.

I wonder if this is a function of being older and now having a broader view of everything around me, or if it is actually the fact that I do have literally 500 things that I need to do, including simple things that are in my daily life.

It is such a great time in our lives for me and my family. The kids are at the best times of their lives, Jennifer is doing great at work, and I love my job more than ever. I really enjoy the creativity and the energy of the company and people I work with.

I wonder if I were to just take everything off my ‘to do’ list and start over if I would be in better shape? I don’t think that is reasonable, though it is an interesting idea. I guess as long as I don’t lose focus on what is really important all is good.

I always remember to kiss my family and give them hugs. That is about all that is priority 1AAA for me, everything else is below that!

Following Movie Sequels

2011-03-03T10:56:00.000-05:00

Here is my review for the best sequels, both the follow-up sequel and the third in a series. Most of the films that are listed in the first set below (#2 movies as good as #1) are not better than the 1st because I realize it is difficult to develop a character and plot and that has to give credit to the 1st film, but these are movies where the second movie was as entertaining as the first in the series.

There are a few films where the 2nd film is so much better than the first they stand out and I have highlighted these below in red.

Movies where #2 was as good as #1 (if not better)

The Godfather II
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Spiderman II
Clear & Present Danger
Super-Man II
The Bourne Supremacy
From Russia with Love
Kill Bill Volume 2
Final Destination 2
X2: X-Men United
Empire Strikes Back
Die Hard 2
Christmas Vacation
Before Sunset
Toy Story 2 & 3
The Dark Knight
Evil Dead 2
2 Fast 2 Furious
Aliens 2 & 3
Mad Max 2: Road Warrior
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Movies where the 3rd was as good, if not better than the 2nd:

Back to the Future Part III
Ice Age3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Jackass 3D
The Bourne Ultimatum
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder
Spy Kids 3D
Transporter III
Universal Soldier: Regeneration
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Scream 3
Step Up 3D

The Last Fieldgoal

2011-03-02T10:44:00.000-05:00

Cold and dark and only 3 seconds left on the clock. He seems almost alone, if it wasn't for the 20,000 other people watching him.

He was so cold as the last time out had really iced him, and though the fall night was around 85 degrees, it was colder than he had ever been.

Snap..... Get the ball straight! Rushing in.

The crowd roars!

Whitepaper: Paid, Earned & Owned Media

2011-03-01T22:04:00.000-05:00

Attached is an interesting deep dive into the different forms of media. The analysis drills into the expanding media forms that reflect dramatic changes in the way consumers perceive and absorb marketing messages.

Many marketers use this framework to distinguish different ways of interacting with consumers, forms of financing, and measures of performance for each contact. Yet the paid, owned, earned framework increasingly looks too limited. How, for example, should a marketing strategist for a company react to requests from other companies to purchase advertising space on its product sites? How should a company deal with online activists when they take hold of a product or campaign to push a negative emotional response against it?

The changing role of older media and the emergence of newer ones extend the marketer’s role well beyond the allocation of budgets and channels. Marketers today require a deep understanding of how consumers engage with different types of media at each stage of the journey toward a purchase decision. What’s more, these different kinds of media are related and interact with one another (Exhibit 2), so marketing plans and capabilities must adapt and evolve. Paid, owned, earned, sold, and hijacked media are evolving in four primary ways.

Read the attached to get the details from David Edelman and Brian Salsberg who are both principals at McKinsey.

I hope you find this useful.

McKinsey Beyond Paid Media

The Effects of Media Fragmentation on Your Marketing Strategies

2011-02-28T09:06:00.000-05:00

In the simplest of terms, media fragmentation is the breaking up of media channels into categories and sub-categories. Before, media referred only to television, radio, and print publication. Now we have the word wide web. Furthermore, each of these media channels are also being fragmented. Television for instance has all sorts of categories like free TV, cable TV, satellite TV, etc. Newspapers are breaking down their pages into more and more sections. We now have digital radio, satellite radio, and internet radio. Magazines are becoming more and more focused on a niche. We now have magazines that solely tackle bird-watching or coin collecting or making toy airplanes. The internet is probably the most fragmented of them all.

With that said, it's interesting to learn how all these are affecting the marketing industry. The marketing industry is directly connected to the media so it's just natural that it's among those who are affected the most by all the media fragmentation that's been occurring. After all, the main reason why media channels break up and take new routes is to find ways on how to effectively market a product or a service to targeted consumers.

If you are to look into the big picture, media fragmentation actually benefits marketers overall. There are of course huge negative effects but these are nothing compared to the opportunities and advantages that all these new media channels are bringing to the table. And let us not forget that all these things are meant to happen. This is what technology and development is all about. For us to seek new ways in doing and accomplishing things. Imagine if we have no internet today and that we're still stuck to getting our news from radio, TV and print mediums. This doesn't sound too encouraging, is it?

Now, if you are a marketer, how will all these affect your marketing strategies? The first glaring benefit to marketers is the fact that you now have more venues to conduct your promotion activities. If for instance radio marketing is your main cup of coffee, then there's the added opportunity of advertising whatever it is you are selling to audiences from all over the world via internet radio. And this is not to mention the fact that only are you advertising to more people, the advertising fee is often much less as well compared to traditional radio advertising.

The biggest component of media fragmentation is probably the arrival of the internet. The internet literally revolutionized how marketing is done. This is not to say that it signals the end for other media channels like radio, print, and TV. It instead offers more opportunities for them to showcase their content. This is where you as a marketer comes in – to show to them how they should go about promoting and marketing their content online. There are TV shows who are able to ramp up their viewer ratings due to their online presence.

As we stated earlier, media fragmentation has its own share of ill effects. But don't let these take your eyes off the big picture and lose sight of the many benefits and advantages if can provide for your marketing strategies.

Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes

2011-02-27T21:13:00.000-05:00

Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes
adapted from Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess'
makes 12 cupcakes

Cupcakes
1 1/2 Cups flour
3/4 Cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1/2 Cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 Tbs cocoa powder
3/4 Cup Coca-Cola
1/4 cup marachino cherry syrup
24 marachino cherries

Cola Icing
1 cup Icing sugar
2 tbsp cola

Preheat the oven to 350 F.In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Beat the egg, buttermilk, and vanilla in a second bowl. In a saucepan, boil the Coca-Cola, and cherry syrup gently for five minutes. Melt in the butter and cocoa powder. Pour into the dry ingredients, stir well with a wooden spoon, and then add the liquid ingredients, beating until everything is blended.

Pour into the cupcake pans and push a cherry into the center of each cupcake. Bake for 15 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

When cool drizzle over the Cola Icing and let dry. Top with cherry buttercream and a cherry...

Buying & Selling A Home Is EXPENSIVE!!!

2011-02-26T21:15:00.000-05:00

I was running some calculations on how much it is going to cost me to sell our home in Alexandria and buy a new home (in the price range we are shopping).   The Realtor market is going to get almost $200,000 from me for doing very little, but it is a cost of doing business these days.

Though I believe the market will adjust and fix the problem where realtors are not compensated correctly, it is going to take a long time for this to happen.   The reason it is going to take a long time is partially because the market is locked up and there is no way the real estate companies are going to give up any of their market share.   In a perfect competitive market you would see these crazy rates that realtors are being paid change, but the problem is the realtors that own the market are never going to let it change.

The only way something is going to fix this obviously broken market is for a major disruption to occur. I am not talking about a market shift or even a change in the laws. The only way the market changes is through some paradigm shift in the ways people buy and sell their homes.   Maybe the internet will help fix this problem, but until the sellers or buyers actually feel the pain when they have to pay 6% of their total home price to sell it, with zero performance incentives or guarantees, the problem will never go away.

The only way to fix this is to have the contracts written where the realtor is paid when the house is sold above the appraised (or market) price.   There should be accelerated payments where the realtor can make up to 40% of the incremental amount on the deal after the floor is hit.   For example, if our house is appraised by the city at around $1MM, the realtor will make $2,500 for being the realtor, and then for every $1 over the $1MM they make .25 cents. For every $1 over $1.2MM they make .50 cents on the dollar.

- If we sell our house for $1MM, the realtor makes $2,500.
- If we sell the house for $1.1MM the realtor makes $27,500
- If we sell the house for $1.3MM the realtor makes $102,500
- If we sell the house for $2MM the realtor makes $452,500

This is a simple way to make the sellers agent work. The buyer agent needs to work in a different way, but should also be tied to finding a home and getting the best deal.

This video says it all!

I Love Living In DC!!!

2011-02-24T11:58:00.000-05:00

Where else can you see a commercial like this from Eastern Motors? I used to watch tv during the day when I was a kid and you always saw the local ads for car dealers that looked like a homemade video. I still remember many of them, even over the great national super bowl ads that were funny.

Even when I was seven I always wondered why the quality was so crappy and that they did not spend much time actually creating a professional look and feel. My dad owned an advertising agency and I always asked him why the dealers did not come to him to make a nice ad.

Well, now I understand. Watch this commercial from Eastern Motors, it is the best ad ever produced and just damn wonderful! You can see others at their website download page.

Wow! It is like a fine wine, it needs to be aged.

History of Playboy...

2011-02-23T10:30:00.000-05:00

So it is a cool company and the story is pretty cool. Here are some facts you might like to know...

Playboy, first published in 1953, is the world's best-selling men's monthly magazine, and launched one of the world's most successful entertainment empires. Almost 10 million American adults read Playboy every month, and the magazine's U.S. total paid circulation of 3 million is larger than that of Esquire, GQ and Rolling Stone combined.

Fast Facts:

- The first issue, published in December 1953, did not carry a date, as Hefner was unsure whether there would be a second edition
- The first centerfold was Marilyn Monroe, from a picture originally taken for a calendar.
- The first issue was an immediate sensation; it sold out within a matter of weeks.
- Known circulation was 53,991.
- The cover price was 50¢, the same issue in near mint condition is worth about $5,000 today.
- The famous logo, depicting the stylized profile of a rabbit wearing a tuxedo bow tie, was designed by art designer Art Paul for the magazine's second issue and has appeared on every issue since.
- A long running tradition involves hiding the logo somewhere in the cover art or photograph.
- Hefner said that he chose the rabbit as a mascot for its "humorous sexual connotation", and because the image was "frisky and playful".

Anyway - pretty cool company and cool story.

Cool New Video: Choose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable Snowman!

2011-02-22T20:55:00.000-05:00

I came across this really neat video at Barnes and Noble, which took me back to my Middle School days. Well, I am not sure I really wanted to be taken back, but as soon as I saw the video on the shelf.

I looked over and as I saw the cover of the video I had this great feeling of joy. It was a feeling like you had rediscovered something that you really enjoyed as a kid. Remember when you were walking down the grocery store aisle and saw that can of Tang? Or when you were at the amusement park with your kids and you wanted to try that Snow Cone again?

Well, things never are as good when you are older as you remember them to be. But this was a video that was targeted towards kids and it was an extension of the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. Man, I used to love those books when I was in 5th – 8th grade. They were books where you would read an adventure and would make choices throughout the story of what you would do in a given situation.

There were a series of children's books first published by Bantam Books in the 1980’s. Each story is written from a second person point-of-view, with the reader assuming the role of the main character. I later found out that the books sold over 250 million copies, making it one of the most successful book series of all time.

When I would read these books, I would become a part of the story. You normally would read an introduction and then you were given choices of how the story should progress. For instance: If you decide to start back home, turn to page 4. If you decide to wait, turn to page 5. Depending on my choice, the plot would unfold in different ways and eventually lead to many different possible endings.

Well, I found a video that was based on these books. It was called Choose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable Snowman DVD. It was the same branding and the cover looked the same. Wow! I was so happy to be taken back to reading these books and really becoming involved in the stories. I couldn’t wait to watch the DVD. I have two sons now, so I have an excuse to buy the video, and if it is even somewhat close to the books, Dryver and Stryde will love this.

I immediately bought the DVD and headed home. It was a cool Saturday and I figured I had a good excuse to watch the video during the day with the kids to keep them busy. Jennifer wouldn’t mind too much, as long as they were not making a mess. I got home and told the kids about what I had found. They seemed as excited as if I had bought anything new home. Stryde has a tendency to jump up and down, regardless of what it is that I bring home. He also is the first to complain if he does not like something later.

Anyway, we went to the family room and put the DVD into the player. The movie started. It was actually good animation and the story seemed to be good. The voices were professional with William Macy, Felicity Huffman, and Mark Hamill all doing the main characters. The video was much more professionally produced than I had expected.

We started to watch the video, and the kids were really getting into it. I had to admit that I was also really into the story. It was really a great adventure story and when we got to our first choice we were all excited to choose which way we wanted the story to go. I let Dryver do the driving on the remote and Stryde was able to choose once in awhile when Dryver and I could not agree on a path to take. It ended up being a good system.

We watched the story (and made many decisions) until we ended up in an endless maze and the story was over. But, we could start over and take another route. It was great. We really had a great time, and now a movie that the kids would normally watch 100 times, at least had a different storyline every time we watched it. I also felt like the kids brains were actually working, rather than when they are normally watching a movie.

The kids really enjoyed the whole adventure, including when the plane crashed or when the Abomibal Snowman got us. Unlike the disappointment I had when I tried Tang again, or when I had a Pop-Tart again after many years; this movie was great and it reached, if not exceeded all my expectations.

I would recommend this video to anyone that enjoyed the books. I also recommend it to anyone that has kids between the ages of two and eighteen. Well, I could see where even college kids or young adults would also enjoy this video. You can pick it up at B&N or Amazon.com if you want to buy it for this holiday season or just for fun!

It is a great present for the holidays coming up. I hope the next video they produce will be the Cave of Time or Journey Under The Sea! Those were my favorite books in this series.

Word of Mouth Marketing Really Works!

2011-02-14T18:05:00.000-05:00

I love to split firewood. Have you ever split wood before? I love word of mouth marketing. I’m sure by now the connection is obvious.

See, splitting firewood involves cutting down dead trees, slicing them into logs and hitting the logs with an ax. You can’t use a jigsaw to cut down a hickory tree. This isn’t about finesse or details. It’s about getting tangible results with hard work.

Anyone who has ever been in a gym can quickly identify two types of people in the weight room. There are the guys who put a lot of weight on a bar. They squat, they deadlift and they bench as much weight as they can as many times as they can. In the next workout, they try to squat, deadlift and bench a little more weight. They are big. They are strong. They are lean. They say things like “Go Heavy or Go Home.” They probably have been doing this years and will keep doing it for years because working out makes their lives better.

Then there the guys doing a LOT of bicep work. They toss in a few wrist curls and calf raises. They burn no calories, get very few results and probably won’t be back next week. They probably wear way too much Spandex too.

Are there ever cases when you should use a jigsaw? Sure, but not until after a tree has been milled into a piece of finished lumber, Should you ever do a bicep curl? Again, sure, but they aren’t in the same zip code as developing a strong core.

Word of Mouth Marketing is no different. I’ve observed, worked on and led many Word of Mouth programs. While there is no guarantee of success, there are some pretty good indications of program headed for failure.

You guessed it, I’m talking about the programs that start with the jigsaw and the wrist curls. If you come up with an innovative way to cut through the clutter, reach your audience and excite influencers, don’t spend a lot of energy trying to get the perfect shade of blue on the microsite.

Take Twitter, for example. Here is what a chainsaw would say: “So people can connect with others on this network and instantly send and receive real time updates on their phone, desktop or browser? The application by its nature will go viral because every member has a vested interest in recruiting new members. NASA, the next president and major news networks, along with 3 million others, will use this as a part of their everyday work and social life.”

Here’s a jigsaw: “The site is ugly. There is not enough text to tell me what to do. What’s up with the bird? Can we call it something like ‘instantupdate.com’? Why didn’t you include more graphics? I’m not sure what to do when I land on this page. Where do I click?” (The jigsaw would probably say the same thing about LinkedIn) - So what causes “jigsaw” thinking on Word of Mouth strategies? Probably the same thinking that stifles any innovation:

It’s easy. I can look at Twitter and quickly say that I don’t like the blue background or I don’t “get” the bird. I can delay the launch of Twitter for months by spending my time, energy and money on site copy and design. That’s a lot easier than focusing my mind on changing the way people use real time communication for business and socializing.

It’s safe. I won’t get fired for following brand guidelines. I can’t fail by insisting that terms and conditions are prominent on my home page. There is no fallout from suggesting a script shouldn’t include a gorilla playing the drums. Criticizing, delaying and getting the little pieces right are all safe things to do. Pushing ahead and saying, “we’re going to do something big, innovative and different” is a high risk claim. You’re laying your name on the line. You’re walking up to the edge and jumping. The program may backfire. Bloggers may say bad things. You may not move the Buzz needle.

Word of Mouth marketing, viral marketing, social media marketing and blogger pitching are all great ways to cut through clutter, get people talking (and buying) and produce great results. But they are not for those who like to play it safe or take it easy.

Seems Racist To Me...

2011-02-13T22:49:00.005-05:00

I received this email to sign-up for a MyLikes ad campaign this evening. The campaign (as with any MyLikes campaign) wants me to promote the advertiser via social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter.   In the past MyLikes has worked with a broad range of advertisers such as Tabasco, Gatorade, and Duracell.   I never really liked MyLikes because it seems like they are 'pimping out' their audience to the highest bidder, and though I am not that important, they have done a great job of sending me crap and trying to sell me to any advertiser that might be interested, even if it makes zero sense.   Why would I want to promote Secret deodorant or even Swifter cleaning supplies.

I am interested in these business models, and have been trying to get involved in opportunities to leverage any influence I might have, though limited.   I have worked with social advertising aggregators such as BuzzAgent and even IZEA.   Though most of these experiences have been mediocre at best, my experience with trying to promote some of the advertisers via MyLikes has been terrible.   Working with MyLikes, I have posted opinions about certain brands, to not only see a very critical response from my followers, but lost more followers on Twitter that day than any other day in the history of me being on Twitter.

So tonight I was lucky enough to get an even worse offer from MyLikes.   This offer came via email and was for me to run a social promotion for a Facebook marketer.   The problem is the ad is not only for a crappy low end app or dating company, it is racist.

Look at the offer below and tell me if you diagree...

I would love to see companies like MyLikes do well, but they are not getting very far with this crap.

Here is the actual ad they want me to promote to my friends and family. I guarantee I would not only lose followers, but probably neighbors and friends also...

Flight Patterns

2011-02-11T12:01:00.000-05:00

I have seen this video on documentaries about air traffic control and even September 11th. It is really amazing to watch the flights across the US and how many planes are in the air at any given time.

I fly a lot for work and I am always amazed at 3 things every time I fly. First of all, how the heck does a big bus of steel can get up in the air. Secondly it is amazing that these airplanes don’t run into each other in the air, or on the ground. And last, but not least, how the hell the airlines can keep things on time (oh forget that one).

This is a great video of all the airplanes flying around the US on any given day. The producer of this video went a step further and actually added some interesting graphics and comments.

It is worth the few minutes to watch. You can see more of this work at the Aaron Koblin website.

Cold Kiwi's Favorite Actresses - Winter 2011

2011-01-20T09:53:00.000-05:00

We appreciate how difficult it is to be a great actress/actor. Everyone thinks they can act, but only a select and rare few can actually perform at the level that can move people to tears, laughter, and more. Hollywood has been blessed with some really great talent lately, especially in some of the younger female talent that has broken through.

A few actresses that stand out over the past few months in recent film roles include, but are not limited to:

Kristen Stewart - She has been a great lead in the Twilight series, but she was BRILLIANT in The Runaways playing a young Joan Jett. This was a sleeper film for 2010 and every music fan that grew-up in the 70's should check this film out, it is great! Kristen has matured into a really excellent actress and she seems to have a great career ahead of her.

Amy Adams - Amy has had a great early career, with some really excellent roles in excellent films including: Sunshine Cleaning, Enchanted, Julie & Julia, and her recent wonderful role as the girlfriend in The Fighter, which is one of the best films for 2010. Amy has historically played a more comic relief or lighter role (with the exception of Doubt where she was also brilliant as a supporting role to Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman), but she is amazing in The Fighter and this could be her break-out to many future dramas.

Emma Watson - Emma is best known for her roles in the Harry Potter films as Harry's sidekick Hermione Granger, she has shown real talent on the silver screen. She has been working non-stop filming eight Potter films over the past 10-years and has just wrapped up the final in the series - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. She is now headed to Brown University to get an education so she will know how to manage all that money.

Natalie Portman - Natalie has proven her depth as a great actress in films from Garden State to Brothers to Star Wars to her recent highly praised role in Black Swan. Though Natalie has been in many films and the Black Swan is a film everyone should see, the movie that she had a break-out role was in The Other Woman.

Last but not least, we want to highlight an actress that has had some really amazing recent successes in her career, and 2010 was a tremendous year for this starlet. Carey Mulligan is an amazing new star and has proven her chops over the past couple of years. Carey has been in some of the best recent films including such greats as: The Greatest, Public Enemies, Brothers, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and was tremendous in two of the best films over the past few years: Never Let Me Go and An Education.

Playboy's January 1965 Interview With Martin Luther King, Jr.

2011-01-19T08:58:00.000-05:00

"Measures must be taken at the federal level to curb the reign of terror in the South. It's getting so anybody can kill a Negro and get away with it, as long as they go through the motions of a trial."

Playboy Magazine - January 1965 | MARTIN LUTHER KING
a candid conversation with the nobel prize-winning leader of the civil rights movement
By Alex Haley

On December 5, 1955, to the amused annoyance of the white citizens of Montgomery, Alabama, an obscure young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr., called a city-wide Negro boycott of its segregated bus system. To their consternation, however, it was almost 100 percent successful; it lasted for 381 days and nearly bankrupted the bus line. When King's home was bombed during the siege, thousands of enraged Negroes were ready to riot, but the soft-spoken clergyman prevailed on them to channel their anger into nonviolent protest -- and became world-renowned as a champion of Gandhi's philosophy of passive resistance. Within a year the Supreme Court had ruled Jim Crow seating unlawful on Montgomery's buses, and King found himself, at 27, on the front lines of a nonviolent Negro revolution against racial injustice.

Moving to Atlanta, he formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an alliance of church-affiliated civil rights organizations which joined such activist groups as CORE and SNCC in a widening campaign of sit-in demonstrations and freedom rides throughout the South. Dissatisfied with the slow pace of the protest movement, King decided to create a crisis in 1963 that would "dramatize the Negro plight and galvanize the national conscience." He was abundantly successful, for his mass nonviolent demonstration in arch-segregationist Birmingham resulted in the arrest of more than 3300 Negroes, including King himself; and millions were outraged by front-page pictures of Negro demonstrators being brutalized by the billy sticks, police dogs and fire hoses of police chief Bull Connor.

In the months that followed, mass sit-ins and demonstrations erupted in 800 Southern cities; President Kennedy proposed a Civil Rights Bill aimed at the enforcement of voting rights, equal employment opportunities, and the desegregation of public facilities; and the now-famous march on Washington, 200,000 strong, was eloquently addressed by King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. By the end of that "long hot summer," America's Negroes had won more tangible gains than in any year since 1865 -- and Martin Luther King had become their acknowledged leader and most respected spokesman.

He earned it the hard way: In the course of his civil rights work he has been jailed 14 times and stabbed once in the chest; his home has been bombed three times; and his daily mail brings a steady flow of death threats and obscenities. Undeterred, he works 20 hours a day, travels 325,000 miles and makes 450 speeches a year throughout the country on behalf of the Negro cause. Inundated by calls, callers and correspondence at his S.C.L.C. office in Atlanta, he also finds time somehow to preach, visit the sick and help the poor among his congregation at the city's Ebenezer Baptist Church, of which he and his father are the pastors.

So heavy, in fact, were his commitments when we called him last summer for an interview, that two months elapsed before he was able to accept our request for an appointment. We kept it -- only to spend a week in Atlanta waiting vainly for him to find a moment for more than an apology and a hurried handshake. A bit less pressed when we returned for a second visit, King was finally able to sandwich in a series of hour and half-hour conversations with us among the other demands of a grueling week. The resultant interview is the longest he has ever granted to any publication.

Though he spoke with heartfelt and often eloquent sincerity, his tone was one of businesslike detachment. And his mood, except for one or two flickering smiles of irony, was gravely serious -- never more so than the moment, during a rare evening with his family on our first night in town, when his four children chided him affectionately for "not being home enough." After dinner, we began the interview on this personal note.

PLAYBOY: Dr. King, are your children old enough to be aware of the issues at stake in the civil rights movement, and of your role in it?

MARTIN LUTHER KING: Yes, they are -- especially my oldest child, Yolanda. Two years ago, I remember, I returned home after serving one of my terms in the Albany, Georgia, jail, and she asked me, "Daddy, why do you have to go to jail so much?" I told her that I was involved in a struggle to make conditions better for the colored people, and thus for all people. I explained that because things are as they are, someone has to take a stand, that it is necessary for someone to go to jail, because many Southern officials seek to maintain the barriers that have historically been erected to exclude the colored people. I tried to make her understand that someone had to do this to make the world better--for all children. She was only six at that time, but she was already aware of segregation because of an experience that we had had.

PLAYBOY: Would you mind telling us about it?

MARTIN LUTHER KING: Not at all. The family often used to ride with me to the Atlanta airport, and on our way, we always passed Funtown, a sort of miniature Disneyland with mechanical rides and that sort of thing. Yolanda would inevitably say, "I want to go to Funtown," and I would always evade a direct reply. I really didn't know how to explain to her why she couldn't go. Then one day at home, she ran downstairs exclaiming that a TV commercial was urging people to come to Funtown. Then my wife and I had to sit down with her between us and try to explain it. I have won some applause as a speaker, but my tongue twisted and my speech stammered seeking to explain to my six-year-old daughter why the public invitation on television didn't include her, and others like her. One of the most painful experiences I have ever faced was to see her tears when I told her that Funtown was closed to colored children, for I realized that at that moment the first dark cloud of inferiority had floated into her little mental sky, that at that moment her personality had begun to warp with that first unconscious bitterness toward white people. It was the first time that prejudice based upon skin color had been explained to her. But it was of paramount importance to me that she not grow up bitter. So I told her that although many white people were against her going to Funtown, there were many others who did want colored children to go. It helped somewhat. Pleasantly, word came to me later that Funtown had quietly desegregated, so I took Yolanda. A number of white persons there asked, "Aren't you Dr. King, and isn't this your daughter?" I said we were, and she heard them say how glad they were to see us there.

PLAYBOY: As one who grew up in the economically comfortable, socially insulated environment of a middle-income home in Atlanta, can you recall when it was that you yourself first became painfully and personally aware of racial prejudice?

MARTIN LUTHER KING: Very clearly. When I was 14, I had traveled from Atlanta to Dublin, Georgia, with a dear teacher of mine, Mrs. Bradley; she's dead now. I had participated there in an oratorical contest sponsored by the Negro Elks. It turned out to be a memorable day, for I had succeeded in winning the contest. My subject, I recall, ironically enough, was "The Negro and the Constitution." Anyway, that night, Mrs. Bradley and I were on a bus returning to Atlanta, and at a small town along the way, some white passengers boarded the bus, and the white driver ordered us to get up and give the whites our seats. We didn't move quickly enough to suit him, so he began cursing us, calling us "black sons of bitches." I intended to stay right in that seat, but Mrs. Bradley finally urged me up, saying we had to obey the law. And so we stood up in the aisle for the 90 miles to Atlanta. That night will never leave my memory. It was the angriest I have ever been in my life.

PLAYBOY: Wasn't it another such incident on a bus, years later, that thrust you into your present role as a civil rights leader?

MARTIN LUTHER KING: Yes, it was -- in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. E.D. Nixon, a Pullman porter long identified with the NAACP, telephoned me late one night to tell me that Mrs. Rosa Parks had been arrested around seven-thirty that evening when a bus driver demanded that she give up her seat, and she refused -- because her feet hurt. Nixon had already bonded Mrs. Parks out of prison. He said, "It's time this stops; we ought to boycott the buses." I agreed and said, "Now." The next night we called a meeting of Negro community leaders to discuss it, and on Saturday and Sunday we appealed to the Negro community, with leaflets and from the pulpits, to boycott the buses on Monday. We had in mind a one-day boycott, and we were banking on 60-percent success. But the boycott saw instantaneous 99-percent success. We were so pleasantly surprised and impressed that we continued, and for the next 381 days the boycott of Montgomery's buses by Negroes was 99 9/10 successful.

Read the rest of the interview on Playboy Magazine Website

Now This Is High Level Security!!!

2011-01-18T08:53:00.002-05:00

I Have A Dream Speech

2011-01-17T19:53:00.000-05:00

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

\We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Employee Warning Record - Team DPE

2011-01-14T12:53:00.000-05:00

Screenshot of Glen Beck's Website Yesterday...

2011-01-12T16:23:00.000-05:00

What Goes Around....

2011-01-12T13:02:00.001-05:00

When you tell your flavor of wacko that they should feel hatred towards the opposing side then don't act all surprised when someone actually takes you up on your offer...

The problem is that people like Palin work everyone up telling the country that Obama pals around with terrorists, and that he's intentionally trying to erode the country, and THEN they put targets on him. They do this for the real Americans; the ones that know that no one should stand between them and their guns.

Of course she didn't mean to go kill politicians, and of course people use those terms every day. But put it into perspective. If you stoke a fire and stoke a fire, eventually throwing in a single firecracker can blow someone's finger off.

New Year promotion - Free MS Office trial! - Sponsored Post

2011-01-11T15:45:00.000-05:00

Get a free trial for MS Office! All you need to do is hit the Like button on the next page >>

Travel Movie Update for 01/10/2011

2011-01-10T22:46:00.001-05:00

I do love the end of the year because a ton of good films come out and you run into great movies that are sleepers or films you would never expect to be as good as they are.   Of course there are the bombs also that you wish would be good movies, and they stink.   This year is no exception, there are plenty of great movies that deserve awards.

Over the holidays and this past week I was on the road, which means I was able to see a few movies when I was up at 2am trying to get some work done.   I have a short attention span, and have found a way to work at night or on a flight while watching a movie or something to keep me interested.   I am multi-taskaholic and I feel anxious if there is only one thing going on.

Anyway, since I have a few movies that are worth seeing before the Oscars come out, here are a few movies you might want to check out…

- True Grit - (4.5-stars) – A great Western film written and directed by the Coen brothers. It was an adaptation of the John Wayne 1969 film of the same name.   I have yet to find a Coen brothers film that I don’t enjoy, and this is no exception to that rule.   The story is great, and the actors are brilliant. I am not sure it is as good as the original, but well worth seeing.   I would be surprised if it didn’t at least get nominated for an Oscar or two.

- Rabbit Hole - (4-stars) – An amazing drama starring Nicole Kidman and Dianne Wiest (one of my favorite actresses – she is in In Treatment). This movie is a really really sad film about a married couple that loses their young son Danny in a car accident. As a parent it is really hard to watch this movie and I would put it in the same league as Bella, The Greatest, and Sophie’s Choice.

- The Other Woman - (4-stars) – I really enjoyed this movie, and I actually expected to be bored by it. The film has Natalie Portman and Lisa Kudrow and is a sad movie with some light and amusing scenes to keep the moving going. The story focuses on a young woman (Portman) that has an affair with her boss at the law firm where she works. They end up getting married and thus the story is about the step-mom and how she fits into the family. It is a sad film and frustrating at times. But worth renting on DVD for sure.

- Machete - (3.5-stars) – If anyone tells you they didn’t like this movie, they don’t get it. I wasn’t a huge Grindhouse fan, but this movie is just brilliant. Machete continues the B movie and exploitation style of Grindhouse, but has a great storyline and really good acting. I know the movie got mixed reviews, but you can’t watch it in the mindset of a 2010 box-office smash film, it is a B-Movie take-off and they do a great job at accomplishing this.

- Skyline - (3-stars) - This is one of those films that I actually thought I wouldn’t like for some reason. I actually thought it was good, and it reminded me of a more stable Cloverfield type film, though not as good. The story is pretty simple and the special effects are pretty good. The best part of this movie is the sci-fi aspects of it and how the movie wraps-up at the end. If you liked Cloverfield or War of the Worlds, you probably will like this movie.

- Secretariat - (3 -stars) – I assumed this was going to be a really corny Disney movie that was just for kids. I was wrong, it was somewhat corny, and it was always uplifting, but it was actually a pretty good story. The acting was good and the movie overall was great. If you want a fun film that is a feel good and great for the entire family, check out Secretariat.

- Tomorrow When the War Began - (2-stars) – This film is based off the best-selling Australian Teen novel of the same name Tomorrow When The War Began is the first in a series of books by John Marsden about a group of high school students who take a camping trip before school starts and return to find that the country has been invaded by an unknown force, and they make a stand to fight the enemy using guerilla tactics. Over all the film was not bad, though the script was a bit clichéd. If you like the Twilight saga films you would probably enjoy this film, and the many that will come out to continue the story.

- Saw 3D - (1-star) – I am not sure why I keep watching these movies, they get worse and worse every time. I loved the first one, and the second wasn’t that bad. They started to get really bad when they tried to make the story so complex around who was doing this to these people. The only redeeming value to this movie is the ending; it actually closes the story series out and helps to bring you back to the first film. If you like Saw and are really bored, you could watch this on HBO or something. Otherwise don’t waste your money.

I hope you find these reviews helpful. Have fun at the movies!

Mug Shots: Now This Is A Trend...

2011-01-09T12:44:00.000-05:00

Travel Movie Update for 01/05/2011

2011-01-05T21:31:00.001-05:00

Since I travel so much I get time on planes and in hotels to watch movies. I am going to try and at least make those times useful by sharing my experiences with the films I see with others.

Here is a list of recent films I saw while traveling and some thoughts on each.

- The Town - (5-stars) - MUST SEE!!! - I saw this awhile ago, but it is such a great film I am listing it so people go see it. It was directed by Ben Affleck and includes a great role by Jon Hamm as the FBI agent. I really think this film should at least be nominated for best picture.

The Town (2010)

- The Fighter - (5-stars) - MUST SEE!!! - Go see this film as soon as you can, it is amazing! Another best picture candidate from my perspective. Christian Bale is really great in this film and deserves an Academy Award for best supporting actor. Also Melissa Leo (also in Conviction) does a great job as the crazy mom, and should get best supporting actress. And of course, I love Amy Adams in any film!

The Fighter (2010)

- Exit Through the Gift Shop - (4.5-stars) - Best documentary I have seen all year!!! Wow, what a great film, you have no clue where this movie is going to take you until you get there. Well worth tracking down and watching. I won't tell you too much, but it is a movie about street artists, at least that is how it starts out.

- Get Low - (4.5-stars) - Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Bill Murray are all really great in this sleeper. This film is so good, I am shocked it has not received much buzz in the media. If Duvall and Murray don't get awards for this film, something is broken in Hollywood. Murray plays such a great character as the funeral director.

Get Low (2010)

- Black Swan - (4-stars) - Directed by the guy that did The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream, this is a thriller. Though the word on the street is that it is a ballet movie, it isn't really what I would classify as a ballet film. It is a dark thriller, that just happens to have the setting as the New York City Ballet company. The films gets into the stresses put on performers and includes some crazy lesbian scenes and overtones of mental illness.

- Conviction - (3.5-stars) - Another sleeper, with Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell. This is a true story of a working mother puts herself through law school in an effort to represent her brother, who has been wrongfully convicted of murder and has exhausted his chances to appeal his conviction through public defenders.

- 127-Hours - (3-stars) - Another great film from Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 28 Days Later, The Beach) and one of my favorite actors of all time (James Franco - he was in my fav movie - Pineapple Express) is the lead and does a great job in this role.

127-Hours (2010)

- Yogi Bear - (2-stars) - Good movie to see with the kids, but not something I would see otherwise. Though Dan Aykroyd did a great voice of Yogi and Justin Timberlake actually sounded like Boo Boo, it was not really much more than a dumb kids movie.

Yogi Bear (2010)

- Paranormal Activity II - (1-star) - I loved the first one, this second one sucked! It was not even scary, it was just stupid. I am not sure how they were able to take such a great first film and make the second one so bad. It is the same thing that happened to Blair Witch Project.

I will post later some thoughts on other films I have seen recently.

Old School Mug Shots...

2010-12-27T12:33:00.000-05:00

We are used to seeing the mug shots of Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton, and Nicole Richie. But these so called A-List celebs, have nothing on some of these brilliant old school mug shots from the 60's.

I guess now mug shots are a status symbol. We need to go back to the old school look and feel where people were not very happy when they got arrested!

New Study - The State of the Blogosphere

2010-12-21T22:40:00.000-05:00

Another interesting report out from eMarketer this week for your pile of things to read this weekend. I do think the increased number of reports that we are seeing that are relevant to our business model does speak to the fact that we are in the right space.

This is an updated study that looks at the size of blogs, trends in personal publishing and how it fits into social networking.

I found a few interesting points that really hit home:

112MM users read blogs in the US today (about 50% of the total audience)
Estimates increase blog readership to 60% by 2014
26MM people blog (have an active blog) - note we believe there are over 100MM blogs online today, though most are inactive or have no traffic
Blogging is up overall, though younger segments are less likely to blog now there are social networking platform
The shift in younger audience is not really a loss of blogging, it is more technology coming in to solve a problem that was being temporarily solved via a blogging platform
In 2009, of the 'US Social Media Users', over 85% used Facebook, 46% used MySpace (down about 35% versus 2009), and 15% blogged
Rates of blog reading will rise through 2014. The increases will be driven by a confluence between blogs and traditional media and by growing use of corporate blogs.
Social media will steer traffic to blog sites. However, this will be a double-edged sword, as social venues also inhibit blogging by providing users with powerful platforms of self-expression.
Blogging platform Typepad estimated that including a Facebook “like” widget to a blog sidebar resulted in a 50% increase in traffic from Facebook to that blog.
Adding the Facebook widget to blog post footers resulted in a 200% traffic increase.

Understanding the Blogosphere