i know i haven't blogged in awhile, but i really felt obliged to drop a line tonight and provide ya'll with the quite comprehensive Borat Soundboard - Season 2, just in case you don't have it already.

i'm in NY this week. i love NY, which i believe you all know. ever since i lived here i have told everyone how much i love it. however, i find myself less and less head-over-heels as time goes by. it could just be that it's been a lot of time since i lived here (over 5 years) but i think that's too vague: the city really hasn't changed much and there are a lot of things i still love that i loved then. it's probably some combination of having less friends that live here as time goes by, and feeling older and lamer each time i come to visit.
i haven't been here since moving to chicago, and the feeling is even stronger this time. i just got back from a few ad industry parties (more below) and i was just not feeling the NY-love tonight. at least not like i used to when i visited in the past.
it could be that chicago is better. i dunno.
steve and i are constantly comparing the two cities, and we love that chicago is cleaner and that you can take the train out to the airport very easily. i know NY has more overall STUFF, but each time i'm here i'm reminded how i'm not as hip as most of the hip stuff, i'm not young and daring enough to do the craziest stuff, and i'm not really old fart-y enough to get really into the highbrow stuff (cabaret, opera). okay, so i take that back: i love the Met and could go to the opera on a regular basis. it's just that i really love the spectacle of it more than the actual opera (is it okay to admit that? can i still be considered an educated intellectual?). oh yeah, and not least: i feel even chubbier in NY than i do in chicago. do the women here eat? sheesh.

so i'm here for Advertising Week, which is a week of events that the ad community here has set up to draw attention to just how big, beautiful and babealicious the industry here is.
"C'mon New York City! Love us! We're a HUGE industry here! This is our headquarters, dammit! We're important, like the Finance and Tourism folks!"
we'll see if it works.
my guess is that most events will be covered only in the trade press, and attended by the people who put them on and their co-workers. but maybe that will be considered a success too.

we're presenting a study tomorrow that we did with yahoo, and that i project managed on our agency's behalf. we found some folks willing to give up the internet for two weeks and had them record their experiences: what they missed, how they felt (WITHDRAWL!), what media they substituted into their lives. there aren't any huge findings for those of us who work in the internet industry -- or even for those of us who just plain use the internet on a regular basis -- but it's a nice "back to basics" way of showing what this medium means to people, beyond the zillion self-congratulatory quantitative studies that are released all of the time showing the growth of the medium. once the study has been released to the public there will be a website up with details, and hopefully some of the amazingly funny webcam diaries that the subjects filmed. i believe the website will be here.

i'm staying at a ridiculous hotel, the hudson, which is an ian schrager hotel (for those who give a crap). the rooms are even smaller than the rooms at the W hotels, and the lobby/bars/common areas are even more ridiculously appointed. they definitely spent much more effort making the hotel into a scene instead of making the place a decent place to stay. and we've had such a bad experience that i will NEVER stay here again, despite the hipster nature of the place.

here's the story: steve and i went to LA this weekend as guests of TV Guide, whose website has recently relaunched and is quite a good entertainment resource. every year they have a huge post-Emmys party (you can see the photos here: Velvet Revolver played and was really wild). and so they host a lot of us ad buying folks out in LA at the lovely Los Angeles St. Regis (my favorite hotel chain). the staff there really takes care of you, the food is great, the rooms are amazingly large and sumptuous and there's a great view. although TV Guide threw a nice event, honesty the hotel was the best part. (i only really saw a couple of celebs at the event: amber tamblyn, who sat right by us, and aisha tyler).

so anyway, steve and i were really pampered this weekend. and then we flew to NY and checked in here. we had a little bottle of bubbly in our bag from the weekend, and decided to see if the hotel could put it on ice while we went out to dinner. we also asked for extra pillows. we got back from dinner to find neither had been delivered. argh. we are convinced they just wanted to deliver the ice bucket and champagne flutes (no ice bucket in the room!) so that they could get tipped. i have no idea what the issue was with leaving the extra pillows, but apparently they didn't feel like getting to that while we were at dinner either. so we called again, and when we did so, we asked for an ethernet cable too. might as well get some post-dinner work done while the champagne chilled. well, they brought the ethernet cable, but the only place in the 8x8' room that has a port is by the bed's headboard, and the desk is at the foot of the bed. and the cable was like 4 feet long. so i worked on the bed (which was no good for my bad back). sometime while i was gone today steve got a longer cable, and i have no idea how he did it. we called this morning and they said they didn't have any and maybe they could come and rearrange our furniture. sheesh. anyhow, that wasn't the kicker. after talking to the concierge about the ethernet cable he transferred us to housekeeping about the pillows. and they didn't answer. so i called room service, who didn't answer. and then i called the concierge again, and they didn't answer. steve finally went downstairs to the front desk and they said they'd send some. they never arrived. finally i stopped working last night and we drank our champagne. about 1 am we decided to get some rest. steve was taking the ice bucket and champagne flutes to the door when he bumped something (did i mention that the room is miniscule?) and both champane flutes fell to the floor and shattered. so we made all of the calls again: housekeeping, room service, concierge -- no answer. i called the front desk -- no answer. i finally got out my cell phone and dialed from an external number and they answered. boy, were they surprised that it was their friends in room 410 with all of the *crazy* requests (ice bucket! pillows! ethernet cable!!! how dare we be so demanding!?!). they said they would send someone with a broom right away.

we waited patiently for awhile, and then not so patiently. at 1:45 am steve went downstairs to get a broom and hit whoever he could find over the head with it. eventually he found someone and by 2:05 our room was shattered-glass-free. argh.

did i already say it: i don't care how hip this hotel is, i will NEVER STAY HERE AGAIN. waiting an hour for a broom at 1 in the morning is ridiculous. and the damn room should have an ethernet cable near the desk and a real ice bucket (we eventually found out that they have mini ice buckets down the hall, but they weren't large enough for even our mini bottle of champange). i don't think that's too much to ask, is it? it makes me want to create my own version of that infamous Yours is a Very Bad Hotel presentation.

so that's been our NY hotel adventure. steve is out at a david byrne concert tonight (!), which i wish i could have gone to. hopefully he'll come back and hang out with me soon so i'm not in this god forsaken hotel room by myself.

in the meantime, i'm trying to think of what else i've been up to, since i've been amazingly bad at blogging regularly.

steve's parents were in chicago. it was fun because they LOVED everything and were amazed at how wonderfully clean and functioning the city was compared to detroit. of course, this is no surprise to most people, but i guess if you haven't been in a functioning big city lately, well, then i guess it's a really big feat. the best thing that we did while they were visiting was take an architectural cruise of the river. i would definitely like to follow it up and learn more by taking some of the many walking tours that there are around town. in the meantime, i found this pretty cool virtual chicago tour website. gee, i feel more chicago-savvy already!

okay, that's it. i give up on waiting for steve. i think i'll see what i can come up with to call and request from housekeeping. hmmm...