one take movie

I received an invitation to test out AddsYou.  Not sure how exactly things work there yet, but what I’ve seen seems interesting.

while we were at blogworld, c. and i had the chance to see the blue man group show.  i’d been wanting to see this for years, but we missed them in s.f. and then in chicago.  so when offered tickets in exchange for blogging about the experience (and it was an experience), i went for it.

reviews like this are difficult because you have to strike a balance between explaining why you say what you say and spoiling surprises.  i’d rather not get into specifics in order to avoid doing so. instead, i will say that the whole thing is more than just a show. part performance art, part physical comedy, it’s an interactive multimedia experience. the thing i liked most about blue man was that it engages the audience. from the time you walk into the auditorium, you feel like you’re part of this… happening. the show accomplishes this in many ways. even little details about things you wouldn’t normally consider part of the evening’s entertainment, like the restrooms, enhance the whole thing.

the show is divided into several parts/skits with themes that are of interest to me — and, I would guess, anybody that’s actually reading this blog. these include science (DNA, perception and cognition), technology and its effects on modern life (information overload, modernization), and music — particularly that heavily percussive music that has become widely associated with the blue man group because of their numerous media appearances over the past several years. the skits also spoof various aspects of pop culture, including rock concerts. (merch i bought as a souvenir = t-shirt that features a number of the featured rock concert movements from the rock concert instruction manual.)

c. and i also met some fellow twitterers (tweeters?) at blue man, and had a great time hanging out with them (hi tawny and karl!) our expectations of the show were set high from talking with them before the show started — they had seen the show before. i, for one, was not disappointed. this is a show you must see at least once. i’m now wondering if the touring shows are the same, and if the one in, say, chicago, is the same as the one we attended.

we went to the grand lux cafe (also at the venetian) for dinner afterward and enjoyed our meal (and the reduced wait time compared to the other grand lux we’d been to *cough**chicago**cough*) perhaps another review for another time.

thanks to the blogworld expo organizers and blog4tix for making this possible.

anybody else going to blogworld las vegas later this week? i’ll be at the e&e sessions on friday, and the conference at large over the weekend. let me know… always interested in meeting my fellow bloggers.

… and even the 99 cents only store is subject to inflationary pressure, apparently.

L.A.-based 99 Cent Store To Raise Prices (knbc.com)

I always wondered about their model. I really do think the whole “ooo, it’s only 99 cents” mentality stems from the same shortsighted thinking as the tendency to go for the cheapo mobile handsets that don’t really meet people’s needs (but hey, they’re free!) and the focus on quarterly results that precludes longer-term planning in corporate investment.

Nirvana “Nevermind” baby, 18 years later. (npr.org)

“Oh well, whatever, never mind”

Sunday’s New York Times editorial by Thomas Friedman. All I have to say about it is: Word.

Just returned from five days in San Francisco, where C. was attending the BlogHer ‘08 conference. I registered as a cocktail party attendee, and managed to meet some cool people at the parties. While C. was at conference sessions during the days, I managed to reconnect with some friends and take in some parts of the city and surrounding areas.

I discovered a place called the Xocolate Bar in Berkeley. It’s at 1709 Solano Avenue, a few doors down from King Tsin. I had gone to King Tsin to pick up some dim sum to take back to the hotel, and noticed the shop. I stepped in and was welcomed by Malena, the chocolatier and one of the owners of the store. I sampled the cantaloupe sorbet (very good… cool and refreshing) and bought some chocolate to bring back to C. The dulce de leche came in a piece of dark chocolate with an elaborate design from a mold, and tasted like I expected dulce de leche to taste. The candied ginger in dark chocolate was also as expected. The fleur de sel caramel, however, was a delight. I don’t remember who it was that wrote that making caramel is essentially a game of chicken, with the candy maker going head to head with the heat. This caramel was so close to burnt without going over the line, its flavor was amazing. It was further enhanced by the fleur de sel and a touch of some sort of pepper (not sure what kind it was). I also noticed that they have a salted caramel flavor gelato. Must try that. I definitely plan on going back for more the next time I’m in town.

C. and I both got iPhone 3Gs this Sunday. The experience and process definitely left much to be desired. Because we were AT&T customers prior to the whole thing and I had a discount thanks to a previous job, I had been led to believe that I had to go to the AT&T store to purchase one in order for them to set up the plan correctly. We went and got in line on Friday morning only to find that there were few units left, and none of the 16GB ones. Not a lot of happy faces in that line. We tried an Apple retail store on Sunday, and had better luck there. Even though we were happy at only having to wait in line for 20 minutes or so, it still took almost an hour once we were let into the store to get the thing set up to work with the particular plan that my account was on. The employee that helped us was very friendly and really went above and beyond the call of duty, which we really appreciated.

I can’t help but wonder how this will affect customer goodwill toward Apple and AT&T. Surely the much-ballyhooed reality distortion field isn’t a permanent thing, and there are limits to the so-called fanboyishness of the stereotypical Apple customer. In particular, given the market share they are supposedly taking from other companies in various product areas, it doesn’t seem likely that only the loyal Apple users would be trying to get their hands on an iPhone in the first weekend of sales. Good marketing includes figuring out where the demand for your product is and getting it there. Pissing off 80 people in a 100-person line because you only sent 20 units of your product to the retail location AND inconvenienced them by making them wait an unnecessarily long time can’t go that far to build customer loyalty, can it? (Before you say it — yes, I have read the Stephen Brown article. And while there is a certain sense to it, I would argue that it is possible to go too far. There are limits beyond which people will say “Enough.”)

Initial impressions:
On the whole, I’m happy with it. My previous phone was a Treo 650, with Chatter installed as the email application. I still think that the physical keyboard is a good thing. I don’t know that I’ll ever be as fast at whipping out messages on the iPhone as I was on the Treo. Maybe haptics will be a workable compromise on touchscreen keyboards. Maybe it won’t. But I’m still accustomed to the old keyboard.

What Brian Unger says about his version 1 iPhone still applies to the new one.

I can definitely use more web sites than I was able to with the Blazer browser on the Treo, thanks to Safari. Things aren’t perfect — no Flash, for example. But closer to perfect than before.

I’ve found myself relying on Wi-Fi wherever I can. The 3G network is a good thing, when it is available. But today, as we drove around San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and the surrounding areas, I noticed very few areas where I was actually connected to the 3G network. So it’s great when it’s there. I just haven’t been able to find it very often. More often than not, I’ll look at it and see the “E” for EDGE (the older, slower network) instead of the “3G” indicator.

i was at borders in tustin this afternoon when it happened. i was in the lit crit section when the little voice in my head said that i really should get cracking on my book instead of buying yet another book or three. i can’t be the only one this happens to, can i?

so i’ve been really remiss at updating this blog. there are some half-written posts stored on my laptop, but nothing in publishable condition. i think i now see the appeal of that tweeting site. 160 characters is far from intimidating, at least on a good day

It seems that Kurt Weill was right, that the days do get shorter when you reach September. (Also in the sense that they seem to go by faster.) I had thought about doing NaBloPoMo this year, but before I knew it the month was almost gone.

I’ve accepted a position wearing many hats, with a company that is essentially a start-up but that is backed by a large company. It’s a good fit as far as my interests and my desire to do more than one thing at work — I get to do some marketing, some product work, some business development, and if all goes well set up an actual physical office. Work’s been busy, which is a welcome change from before — there were days when I felt like I had accomplished absolutely nothing. The virtual office arrangement took some getting used to, but I’ve gotten the hang of it.

I’ve also been enjoying meeting with some prospective applicants to the GSB. Some days it feels like I’ve stepped through the looking glass, like the shoe’s on the other foot, and I’m still not completely used to it.

I also realized that my old blog’s domain expired back in June and has been taken over. This domain expires in January, and I have to decide what to do with it. Decisions, decisions.