Pap-E

This takes guts, but Katie and I went to see Wall-E this weekend - and it was phenomenal. Go see it.

The more I listen, the more I like...

I think Fleet Foxes may be my favorite new band of the year so far. If you haven't already downloaded White Winter Hymnal, do it now. Then check out Mykonos, which is a song that sounds vaguely like it was sung by Crosby, Stills, and Nash.

Daily Dose of TED

Chris Jordan does some amazing work. His niche is taking various statistics, particularly consumer behavior statistics, and communicating them in a stunning visual fashion. Great thought provoking video.



Link courtesy of psfk.com.

CPG Fear Factor

Inflation Dow-ner. Maybe you missed this story today, but Dow Chemical revised their cost increases from 20% to 45%!! And don't forget about the freight surcharges. I have an inkling that most of this will be passed on to consumers, driving inflation of many fine chemical-based inputs. Dow is the largest US chemical company, and others are expected to follow suit. Wah wah.

Dockworker Strike. Surprisingly, this has received very little press. There's obviously a lot of big stories going on right now, but consider that all of the products we get from China could be held up in harbors off the Pacific coast should the longshoremen contract negotiations go sour.

Private Label. If you're not establishing a meaningful and authentic connection to your consumers, your brand risks becoming a casualty in this down economy. Some product categories, however, are more challenging than others. For instance, I'd be hard pressed to switch my Lucky Charms to Wal*Mart's sad version, "Fortunate Trinkets." (ok, I made that name up). However, I'll take Target brand soap, paper towels, glass cleaner, etc, over branded anyday.

The Atlas List

I FINALLY completed Atlas Shrugged the other day, and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Here's some of my top quotes and thought provoking observations...

Living with a purpose:

"...what's the most depraved type of human being?"
"The man without a purpose."

The kind of people to aspire to be:

"The kind who never asked you for faith, hope and charity, but offered you facs, proof, and profit."

Words to live by(?):

"I swear by my life and love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

Related to this doctrine of rational self-interest, I also watched "The Bucket List" this weekend. For those who don't know the premise, a termally ill cancer stricken odd couple decide to live out their dreams in their remaining months. It was a pretty good movie with some genuinely sad moments, but it made me wonder - why wait until a terminal diagnosis? Ayn Rand would, that much is clear.

Why not live out your dreams right now? I do think that the younger generations are probably more in tune with this philosophy. Perhaps they sometimes confuse material goods for spiritual ones, as credit card debts among Gen Y would indicate, but I think by in large, Gen Y values friends and family much more than punching the clock.

What's on your Atlas List?

Poll for 2007 Kellogg MBAs

Here's the RSS feed if you want to subsrcibe to results:

http://polldaddy.com/pollRSS.aspx?id=FFE8E64703C0C74E

One year ago...

Ankor Wat
Left to right: Me, Jamil, Brett, Dave

Rock The Garden Highlights

We couldn't have had more perfect weather for the show. At 4:30, it was still close to 80 degrees with strong summer solstice sunshine. Overall, I really enjoyed the show itself. Being the first "Rock The Garden" concert in 4 years, I do think the event planning team is a little rusty on their logististics, however. Poor planning for people movement, concessions, and bathrooms. They also negated to use a large field to the left of the stage, which would have been the perfect spot to sit or stand to hear the music.

Bon Iver: I love their music, and I think they have a bright future. I had a hard time getting amped up during their performance because their music is so mellow. I would have preferred sitting in a coffee shop hearing them than standing up with the masses. While part of their musical attraction is that the instrumentation is simple and raw, I think they need a few more instruments. They played most of the tracks from their album, and they all sounded great.

Cloud Cult: I had heard one of their songs on the radio and was just so-so about them. Plus, it was still pretty hot when they went on, so we decided to take a breather and sit on the hill by the side of the stage. We were hoping that we could still hear the music clearly, but it was distorted and difficult to decipher. Perhaps we missed out, because I've been reading people's posts saying they were the best performance of the day.

The New Pornographers: Disclaimer - No NEKO!! I was a little disappointed that she wasn't performing with the band, but she's probably outgrown them with her obviously blooming solo career. That said, they were my favorite performance of the show. They closed with Spanish Techno (my favorite one), Bleeding Heart Show, and a cover of Don't Bring Me Down (by Electric Light Orchestra).

Andrew Bird: I've had never heard him perform before, and I was impressed. His sound is totally unique, with the violin looping and whistling, and I liked the way all his songs sounded. Halfway into the set, the clouds became very ominous ( a la Raiders of the Lost Ark when everyone melted) and they pulled the band from the stage for a 10 minute hiatus. We took that as our cue to leave, as we were pretty hungry and tired.
-------------------------------------------------------------
My next concert is Drive By Truckers on July 2. Can't wait.

United States of Awesome

Link courtesy of Buzzfeed.com

41 Hilarious Science Fair Experiments

This is link is priceless, especially the third one down.

"Animal Magnetism. He has it."




Link courtesy of LaughingSquid.com

89.3 The Current's Rock The Garden

Katie and I are heading to this concert tomorrow... Can't wait.

Here's the lineup:

• Bon Iver - 4:30 p.m.
• Cloud Cult - 5:45 p.m.
• The New
  Pornographers - 7 p.m.
• Andrew Bird - 8:30 p.m.

Give it up to 89.3 (The Current) for being the most amazing radio station ever.

Dutch Shuffle

Yet another music post...

May/June has been overshadowed with the launch of the new My Morning Jacket album (Evil Urges), but there are a few more bands you may want to give a listen too...

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal.

True to the song title, it starts out sounding like a spiritual, but once the rest of the instruments kick in, it's got a breezy Friday Chill Music quality to it. Great tune.

http://hypem.com/track/575552/Fleet+Foxes-White+Winter+Hymnal%7E

Shearwater - Rooks.

http://hypem.com/track/572253/Shearwater-Rooks

I'm Amazed (too)

Great recommendation from Orn and Beth. The new My Morning Jacket album is amazing.

My internet is finally fixed...

More blogging on the way...

Dutch Country

Though it may seem like some sort of contradiction, I was actually raised on classic country music. You heard me right, me, a New Englander by birth, raised on country music.

I've got a pretty eclectic taste in music, but these are some great classic country tunes that everyone needs in their iPod. It's kind of a starter kit... if you like these, there's lots more for you.

Merle Haggard - Working Man Blues
I imagine Merle, who's pushing seventy, has had his gruff, no BS, country music voice since he was a teenager (much in the way 2007 NBA draft pick Greg Oden was born with a beard). Working Man Blues is a great song to play after a long day at the office/coal mine.

Willie Nelson - Whiskey River
Drinking to forget something painful. I know - it's a novel premise for a country song, but this is probably the best real drinking song there is.

Waylon Jennings - Good Hearted Woman
A song in praise of Waylon's wife, who put up with all the trouble he made and still remained resolute in their marriage.

Political Brew

John McCain wants to veto beer. He's definitely lost my vote. At least he could have said he wanted to veto Zima, or today's equivalent, Mike's Hard Lemonade.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/06/10/mccain-i-will-veto-every-single-beer/

Jack Handey

Deep Thoughts was one of my favorite segments of Saturday Night Live, and thankfully, they've been (officially) published online. Some of them are too odd to be funny, but some strike the perfect balance of absurdest humor that makes me laugh.

One of my favorites...

"If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell
him is, "God is crying."  And if he asks why God is crying, another cute
thing to tell him is, "Probably because of something you did."

Evidence of Commitment Bias?

Someone paid $55 + for a $50 Target gift card.

Like a wise man once said, this is "mind bottling."

ServiceLive

Congrats to my good friend Jamil Hossain and company for getting ServiceLive online. ServiceLive is a web service whereby people can find qualified contractors to help them complete "any project, anywhere." Homeowners can reap the benefits of finding proven professionals to complete contracting work, which can be quite a headache. It's services like these (also yelp and angie's list) that are helping to decrease the information asymmetry in the search and purchase of services.

(And again, another sign that the yellow pages advertising model is outdated.)

Namethis

Here comes another innovation in crowd-sourcing brought to you by the minds at Kluster. Namethis is a platform where entrepreneurs (or anyone those seeking a new brand name) can link up with the masses for naming ideas for their product/service. Namethis guarantees entrepreneurs a list of three "world validated names for your thingamajig in 48 hours" for $99. On the supply side, there is monetary incentive for those who create names ultimately chosen by the crowd. I actually think this will not only be beneficial for the businesses participating, but fun for the producers as well.

Sign up here... http://namethis.com/signup/referral/4879

Techno Clutter

I enjoyed reading this article about Google Labs in yesterday's NYT. More specifically, the article addresses what I think is a negative side effect to the advent of a barrier-less, open-source software development environment... too much clutter. The most prominent example of techno-clutter I see is the ever expanding Facebook application list.

The author summarizes his main query here:

But the question Google, Facebook, and Mozilla have not finished answering is how the power of open can be balanced with the simplicity of closed.

Going Back to Cow

According to the latest issue of Men's Journal (June 2008, Jack Johnson cover), all men should avoiding consuming soy based products. Essentially, the article points out that soy is the nutritional equivalent of a prolonged vasectomy. No Thanks!

Mealy Apples

Is there anything more disappointing than biting into an apple that has no crispness and flavor? It's so annoying because it's frustrating and unexpected. The apple looked good, right? Now all you can do is throw the apple out and dish a few bucks out for another snack.

I liken getting a mealy apple to that of any product or customer service issue that unexpectedly frustrates you. Today, I bit into a mealy apple of my own. My bestbuy credit card started charging me a "debt cancellation" fee. I recently bought a nice expensive system on credit because of the no interest financing. Well, I must have unwittingly accepted a term that included a "charge me $30 a month in case I go bankrupt" provision. I was able to have the provision dropped, but it made me angry nonetheless. Although I don't have an affinity for Best Buy (as I suspect most people do not), I now have a very negative experience to draw from.

If you're the manager of a service or product, do your best not to give your consumers mealy apples.

Photo courtesy flickr creative commons license.

Death Cab

These guys were awesome in concert tonight. My favorite concert of the year so far. If you go, bring your earplugs. Them kids like their music loud!

The Bloody Macho

This is my new invention. Actually, it's not my invention, but I named it.

Take your everyday Bloody Mary and substitute (snap into?) a Slim Jim for the celery. Beef jerky is an acceptable substitute.

Imbibe and enjoy.

Bee Highlight

The national spelling bee is full of hilarity, and this year's contest is no exception.


Spelling Bee Blooper - Watch more free videos

Congrats to all those smart kids.

These are great....

Worst album covers ever. I can't get over how great the first one is.




Link courtesy of buzzfeed.com.

Rudie! I told you!

Bill Cosby is auctioning off his namesake "Cosby Sweaters" for a good cause. Line up people!

Note: Theo's Gordon Gartrelle shirts will not be available for sale.