Lara’s (Impromptu) Fairmont Commercial

3 Jul
2009

So it’s Thursday night, the last night of our trip to Whistler, Vancouver, and Seattle, and we’re staying at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel here in Seattle. We found an amazing room while shopping online a few days back, and given my penchant for the Fairmont (we ate dinner, tea, and a number of trips to the outdoor bar at the one in Whistler this past two weeks and spent some time with the awesome team over there), we figured it was a great way to close out our trip to stay at this hotel. After checking in and dropping off our stuff, we headed out to Purple for some wine and dinner with a friend, and came back to the Fairmont to change before walking down towards the Puget Sound.

Upon, returning, let’s just say we got the excellent treatment from the staff here at the hotel. I’ll let the video tell the story. There’s an s-word or two if you’re into censoring those sort of thing, so cover the kiddies’ ears. Otherwise, enjoy Lara’s finest video to date.

We’ve got lots more video to come to share with everyone, but I thought this was just to rich not to post asap. Cheers!

Update from Whistler!

29 Jun
2009

We’re one week into our time here in Whistler / Vancouver, and having a great trip.

We rode Whistler Blackcomb’s Peak 2 Peak gondola, which takes you from one mountain to another (no, really), with 1.88 miles of unsupported span between towers. Video is coming. It’s awesome. The photos from the top of the mountains can be seen in this photoset on Flickr.

Needless to say, for someone who’s not usually a big fan of heights, I didn’t have a ton to complain about, scarily enough. Here’s some more details on what the trip is like.

We also had some fun with the wildlife, including this little guy on the left who isn’t exactly wildlife, but also didn’t seem to care that I’d just eaten a smoked pork sandwich from the farm he lives on. Lara’s been chased out of the barnyard by chickens, and we saw baby bears from a ski lift. And their mom, too. Vancouver didn’t disappoint when it came to animals, either. We saw some great birds all about, including ducks new and old on the water, blue herons in a tree making a racket, and this excellent bird whose name escapes me but had excellent color on its wings.

Our second night in town, we had dinner in the Fairmont’s Wine Room, which aside from the awesome prix fixe menu that was offered while we were there, was topped off with vanilla-flavored cotton candy. Stupendously awesome.

Picture 2

We also got to meet the powers that be behind @WhistlerBlckcmb and @FairmontWhistlr, got to hang with them a bit around town, and go to Fairmont’s version of the ever-popular happy hour, Fairmont Friday.

Between the pitchers of Kokanee Gold at the Garibaldi Lift Company that we hoisted while watching the excellent moves in the bike park and ridiculous views in the area, it’s certainly going to be tough to go home later this week.

More photos and video soon!

Things I’ve learned while in Canada

24 Jun
2009

So after being in Canada since Monday afternoon, I’ve learned a few things. It’s not that I haven’t been here before, but I’ve spent most of my time in Toronto or Montreal, and it’s been years since I’ve been back. So here goes:

  • I haven’t found the “law” online yet, but apparently all hamburger meat is cooked well done. I’ve been at three places so far, and all of them say the same. It’s apparently not the same rules for steak. Seeking official confirmation, but all waitstaff in restaurants swear up and down that it’s for real
  • Businesses don’t miss a beat when you pay with a $50. Unlike the U.S., where it’s all “we don’t have to take that.”
  • People near Vancouver hate the Maple Leafs. It even said so on the menu at the Whistler Brewhouse. This is doubly amusing as we’ve met no less than two dozen people from Ontario.
  • That I really missed having Cuban cigars

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’m sure there will be more later.

Tom & Lara’s wedding weekend video #1

23 Jun
2009

Hey everyone – finally had some downtime (five hour flight to the West Coast and some naptime for Lara on Monday) and got to compile some of the great video shot by me, Lara, Brett, JRL (who wins the award for best footage ever), among others, into a short clip of what happened on Friday, pre-rehearsal, during rehearsal, and at our little BBQ afterwards. Huge props go out to Debbie and Liz at Baristanet for the Flip Mino HD, which is absolutely stupendous and made all of this video possible. Enjoy the next 4:14!

I’ve got a couple days more worth of footage that I’m still going through, and should have video #2 up for you in the next day or two. In the meantime, enjoy the video stylings featuring Brett, Emily, John, Kate, Lauren, and a host of others. Thanks to all of you who made our weekend hugely awesome, we’re happy that we got to see so many of you in person – and hope that we wrapped together a little bit of the fun for everyone who wasn’t there for it all!

Beer on beer action is hot

27 May
2009

From an earlier IM conversation.

[17:11] David: although i have to admit i’m tempted to float the idea to one of them
[17:12] Tom: i’m tempted to float one type of beer on top of another.
[17:12] David: beer on beer
[17:12] David: it’s one of my favorite types of actions

Black & Tans for everyone! (I’m not paying.)

Weehawken, we have a problem

22 May
2009

Let’s just start this post off by saying I’d started to hold a place for it in my blog on March 29, the day after I’d found a police report request on the windshield of my car after yet another batch of “break-ins” around the way from our place. I let it sit to give myself a little cooling off period, but I’m done with that.

In August of 2007, someone broke into the passenger side window of my car, taking my Dash GPS out of my center console – an item I was beta (alpha?) testing out for the company, and causing me to have to drop $500 in deductible to have a window and the interior or my car fixed. A couple of months ago, in what we figured was “just kids” pulling pranks, someone took the right side exterior of the mirror on my car clean off the side. The mechanical part – and the glass – of the mirror worked fine, and I have yet to fix the busted exterior, but whatever. Today, we walked out to the car on the way to meet some friends at a local spot, ready to kick off Memorial Day weekend, when we found the passenger-side rear window to be shattered. This is now the third time we’ve filed a police report for an issue with my car, and considering the well-populated – no, screw that, overpopulated – area we live in, it’s bullshit.

The fact that this week, when the main road through where we live – Boulevard East, overlooking the Hudson River and NYC – was being repaved, forcing most of us who don’t have driveways to park on side streets or this particular hill road, resulting in probably 7 or 8 break-ins, based on the amount of auto glass we walked past on our way up and down the hill to our car, etc., is total bullshit. Our town’s police are super nice and understanding about it, and I’m sure there are other matters for them to attend to other than taking my information for yet another car window shattered, but how do people get away with this, over and over again. When MY car – which isn’t anything to speak of, is seven years old, and is netting these fucking losers ZERO – has three calls to the police, and we pushed that out against the population of this town, or even just the people I’m living around, this isn’t a small spree, it’s a disaster. [update 5/23 - they did get something out of this, about a hundred CDs that were in a binder in the trunk of the car. Bastards.]

It’s no wonder my car insurance company raised my insurance – already over two grand for a seven year old car – 10%+ this year, but after dropping this deductible, I’m going to have spent close to an extra thousand dollars this year alone for the “privilege” of having a car and keeping its windows closed. No wonder people don’t want to pay for car insurance. That said, I am truly starting to feel this way about Weehawken, because it’s not slowing down – it’s only getting worse – and calling in these problems and answering the question of “where my car is located?” with “I’m just north of YOUR CAMERA” that was put there for just this reason makes me feel like a fool.

This is an unadulterated rant for my own personal purposes, but I guess that’s one advantage of having a blog, however self serving it might be. Needless to say, I don’t understand how this is an acceptable way of doing things, especially when we’re all treated like crap when parking somewhere and forgetting to put a visitor tag in the window overnight, or whatever. If that’s how your tax-paying (or at least rent-paying, to my landlords) citizens are going to be treated, then I most certainly want to see someone pay – dearly – for this type of bullshit, because it’s making me less and less happy to stay in this town. How are people who aren’t lucky enough to afford to have a decent car and pay for the deductible, etc. for this sort of thing, expected to live somewhere? It makes me want to drive my car into the river, buy a piece of trash, and go from there. What a waste. I just don’t see how anyone can maintain this.

Fun with ad ratings on Facebook

22 May
2009

I’m sure this isn’t what Facebook had in mind when offering the opportunity to rate advertising. If you wanna get all contextual, then I don’t think it’s outlandish for me to have said this – I don’t like the Lakers, have never said I did, and so on. Just sayin’. =)

Fun with ad ratings

In other news, I *really* love M&Ms. No, seriously. And yes – it’s Friday, and I’m a little bit slaphappy.

[update: 5/25] It’s an epidemic!

My first PRWeek column is up

19 May
2009

My first PRWeek column is up, you can read it here, if you’ve got a subscription. Rather than talk about the shiny object for my initial piece, I thought it proper to talk about something that (sadly?) is still necessary to talk about in 2009 – getting real “buy in” that your agency / team needs to truly incorporate digital / different types of media into their public relations skill-sets and outreach.

Also, Googlezon. [see here]

Twitter continues to amaze – now go buy some beef jerky

13 May
2009

Earlier today, I posted the following on the @MTV Twitter account.

mtvjerkytwitter

The link was to a blog post about rapper Paul Wall and discussed, among other things, beef jerky.

Amusingly, six minutes later, the Oberto Sausage Company folks responded in kind.

obertotwitter

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about.

“That’s a negative Ghost rider, the pattern is full.”

27 Apr
2009

Maverick: Tower, this is Ghost rider requesting a flyby.
Air Boss Johnson: That’s a negative Ghost rider, the pattern is full.

Let me just start this off by saying that this blog post won’t be as funny as Tom Cruise’s “Maverick” and Anthony Edwards’ “Goose” having their way with control towers in “Top Gun.”

On Monday morning, I received a frantic voice mail from my mom on my work number, just moments after she left a message on my cellphone, asking if everything was okay. Having no idea what she was so concerned about, and why she was calling about “what was happening” in the NYC area, I rang her back, only to learn that someone she works with received a phone call from a friend who’d just run out of their building in Jersey City’s financial district, on the Hudson River right across from NYC’s financial district, after a large plane along with a fighter escort was flying very low over the area. Nothing was on the news, nothing was online, except for half a dozen people on Twitter, including the WFMU radio station.

@WFMU: Commercial jet is circling very low above WFMU / Jersey City, being escorted by single fighter plane. Has circled 3 times already. wtf?

As someone who’s lived in some portion of New Jersey that planes fly above or along for his whole life, you have a pretty good handle on where the planes are or aren’t supposed to be. That, of course, has been exacerbated by the post-9/11 observations of people, who are probably paying attention slightly more than they ever did before that sunny September day. Shortly thereafter, the WSJ (among others) reported that it was actually just a photo op.

Are you kidding me?

As it turns out, there wasn’t any kidding involved. NYC’s Mayor Bloomberg, among others, were not happy. I’m gonna presume that the hundreds (thousands) of workers that evacuated their buildings weren’t happy either.

Now I don’t mean to be overly-sensitive, but if this was supposed to be a test or something like that (which it wasn’t), you’d think maybe people in the government would be smart enough to tell the necessary parties (apparently the NYPD, among others, knew), and that they’d at least have the ability to grasp that someone might overreact or react the way they did today when the large plane and military escort flew far lower than planes normally do?

Of course, it didn’t seem like anyone had their stuff together. Government fail.

@tombiro: White House with no comment on the military directing press to talk with White House about this morning’s plane incident. Redirected back.

Here’s my favorite part from today’s White House press briefing where press secretary Robert Gibbs had an interesting time answering questions about the flyover.

Q It doesn’t — it’s not a concern at all to the administration that you don’t have your person there and then they don’t have their people there? Not at all?

Second question, do you guys feel you owe folks in New York City this morning an apology for this incident having to do with the airplane that looks like Air Force One with two fighter jets? There seemed to be a lot of panic –

MR. GIBBS: I would point you to the FAA or Air Force.

Q Everybody’s pointing us to the White House Military Office, so that’s why –

MR. GIBBS: Well, then I would contact the White House –

Q Well, the White House Military Office won’t tell us anything — they’ll refer us to you. (Laughter.)

MR. GIBBS: Well, then let me go discuss with the White House Military — I don’t — I have seen some news reports but –

Q What was the photo op for?

MR. GIBBS: I don’t know. That’s — I have no information on this other than what I saw –

Q I mean, I understand the way this works. I’m just saying, appearance-wise, it’s odd that you guys don’t have a response. I mean, this is the President’s aircraft or what looks like –

MR. GIBBS: I understand. I was working on other things. You might be surprised to know I don’t know of every movement of Air Force One or what happens to it. But I will certainly talk to the Military Office.

At least Monday is over. And you can thank “Top Gun” for the quote. And John for using it regularly.

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