i thought kerry kicked ass. what about you?

fall blew in overnight. :(

i am all in favor of funky new restaurant concepts, but this one has to take the cake, or is that um, crunch for goofiest. i'm sure most college students would try this -- but would they come back? sheesh.

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...

wow, could there be a story that fits steve and i better?
Man Sues McDonald's Over Lack of Warning Against Forceful Burger Eye Insertion

i am a magazine junkie, that's for sure. but i don't get that many upscale ones for free at the agency, and so when i do decide to shell out money i try to do so for fancy schmancy magazines. this article definitely both whets my appetite and bums me out -- this is a ridiculously upscale magazine that i will probably never qualify for. bummer.

and here's another bit of news to brighten your day (or, i suppose, to cast a dark cloud over it if you're an infomercial fan): the FTC banned infomercial king Kevin Trudeau to "from appearing in, producing, or disseminating future infomercials that advertise any type of product, service, or program to the public". there goes his livelihood.
usually i'm not a big fan of the FTC's decisions (or lack thereof in many instances) but i find their decisiveness a positive thing in this circumstance!

good lord! here's a reason to avoid picking up Playboy:Playboy wants McBunnies

aren't you glad you're not the only one that wants to know?

NYTime's A Reader Asks: I love the commercials for OfficeMax that show an employee of a company who distributes office supplies as the song "Rubberband Man" plays in the background. Who is he?

Stuart Elliott: The actor in the series of spots for OfficeMax, part of the Boise Cascade Corporation, is named Eddie Steeples. The first commercial in the series, which began appearing last December, is among the five spots nominated for a 2004 Emmy Award in the outstanding commercial category. The commercials are created by the OfficeMax agency, the Chicago office of DDB Worldwide, part of the Omnicom Group.

what a crazy week it has been.
a week ago, sr. management at my office asked if they could "borrow" one of my employees for a new business pitch (relatively standard stuff at an agency) and so we shifted priorities and responsibilities around so that it would work. well, apparently my employee ROCKED and we won the new business. horray! except, well, now she is such a superstar to the new client that they want to move her onto that business and management is probably going to go through with it. argh! it took me forever to find her, and she ROCKED because that's what she does -- she is a solid performer, very bright, a great presenter, and a really sweet, nice person. dammit! the worst part is that she doesn't necessarily want to move over to the new business, so it's tough for her too. she's already had to wait several days and staffing for the new account is still being negotiated, so i'm sure if i'm worried about it, she's completely stressed out.

of course, if they take her away from my group, i'll be back where i was a few months ago trying to find someone with the right experience (which was really hard last time) and covering all of the workload myself in the meantime. argh.

on the personal front, i did a really good and brave thing today: steve and i joined the gym next door (between my office and our apartment building) and I went to a yoga class there this evening. it was WONDERFUL and i was suprised at how well i did, since i haven't taken a yoga class in 10 months (!). she's no christy, but he teacher was really nice and next week we may have class on the rooftop of the gym (they have a deck) so that will be fun if the weather cooperates!
i know that this whole gym thing is probably a bit perplexing to people who have visited us, since we have a gym in our apartment building. the thing is, i've been fairly good about going the past few months, but i haven't seen any results. i really want to lose some weight and firm up by my birthday. therefore, change was needed and i decided that i wanted to take classes of some sort to change up my routine a bit. i've been looking for a yoga studio in town, and had found two that sounded good, but both were aways away. we don't have a car here anymore (which we're very happy about), so that would have meant taking the train back after yoga in my yoga clothes, which for some reason was a huge hangup for me. plus, once i realized i was definitely going to miss at least one class each session i was looking at per-class drop-in fees of $15-20 each time. then i realized that there's at least one yoga class a day at the fancy schmancy gym, plus a ton of other classes (including spanish lessons for some reason) and a climbing wall (seven and a half stories high!). steve was impressed with the gym too, and so now we're going to get super buff together! and, if this master plan fails, well, just have to give 30 days notice so we won't get shafted out of a year's fee or anything like that.

so there you have it. every fall i get the self-improvement bug (probably even more-so in than around new year's). that's my plan this year. does anyone out there have any autumnal personal-betterment plans in place?

i guess we'll be waiting awhile to make our next trip to Vegas. after all, we might as well wait until the Hooters Casino Hotel opens next fall.

If you, like me, are still full of Olympic spirit and are looking for a way to wrap up your Olympic experience, check out the Did Finish Last blog, celebrating those who competed -- and finished -- their events, but finished last.

my favorite not-really-news item this week (well, actually last week, since i just realized this had been labled a "draft" instead of posted as a blog entry):

From Telegraph (UK):

German men were being admonished to pee sitting down by a gadget called the WC ghost; when the device detects a lifted toilet seat, it says, in German: "Hey, stand peeing ("Stehpinkeln") is not allowed here and will be punished with fines, so if you
don't want any trouble, you'd best sit down." It was reported that the term for a man who pees sitting down, "Sitzpinkler," is a synonym for "wimp."

(so use that one on a friend this week!)

thank you, mr. bora, for letting me know that not only am i one of the sad few working here at my company on this beautiful sunny day, but i'm missing out on the Air Guitar World Championships in Oulo, Finland. In case you're wondering about the ideology behind the contest, here it is:
* All wars would end and every bad thing would disappear if all the people in the world played air guitar
* A person playing air guitar cannot simultaneously be up to any mischief
* After playing air guitar, mischief just does not seem like such a good idea anymore

hmmm... can't mischief be a not-so-bad thing? is not being able to mischief-ize really all that good?

i guess if you're not into air guitaring, or if you just don't like the idea of participating in something whose ideology is anti-mischief, you can always take up parkour. it kinda reminds me of EXTREME WALKING, which vanessa and bruce came up with and were kind enough to teach steve and me.

"Truth in Advertising"... um, or so i hear. i mean, i'm just on the media side. yeah...

With its two classes of stock, few outside directors and a prospectus that puts its do-gooder philosophy above profits, Google earned the very lowest corporate governance rating of any S&P 500 firm. Out of a possible rating of 100, Google rated a 0.2.

yipes.

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hey, if anyone out there reading this wants a Gmail account, let me know.

ooh cool!
RealNetworks partnered with NBC to promote its Rhapsody digital music subscription service. During the games, U.S. users are being offered a free trial of Rhapsody both through NBCOlympics.com and Real’s Web site. Bjork’s song “Oceana” is offered exclusively through Rhapsody until her album is released on August 31. The promotion ties in with the games by featuring athlete-created playlists on the site.

i am a new convert to Rhapsody, and a big fan!
if you haven't checked it out, definitely use this promo as an excuse to do so.

from today's Houston Chronicle:

Dick Ebersol, the NBC Sports chairman, uses a simple, cynical formula to broadcast the Olympics:

1. It's all about America.
2. It's all about overcoming adversity.
3. It's all about keeping us waiting to watch what we want to watch.
When we cover war on TV, we're the good guys, and the other folks are the bad guys. When we cover the Olympics, we're the only guys; the rest of the world is cast as extras.

(By the way, I'm as American as the next tax evader, but if I hear the national anthem one more time in the next week, I'm swimming to Cuba and seeking asylum.)

Meanwhile, every single athlete has overcome some kind of childhood misfortune, family hardship or near-fatal disease to make it to Athens. To which I say: Hey, everyone's got problems, pal.

Most exasperating of all is Ebersol's stop-and-go, now-you-see-it-now-you-don't presentation of the Olympics.

Every time we get emotionally invested in an event, NBC will break away from it, telling us, "We'll get back to the weightlifting a little later, but first ... "

This one-from-Column-A, two-from-Column-B approach might work well in a Chinese restaurant, but it is endlessly frustrating for an Olympic viewer.

That's why, even though track and field holds some interest for me this week in Athens, I'll opt instead for TV Land, where I know what time Bewitched starts, I know what time Bewitched ends, there's always a surprise or two between Samantha and Darrin, and it's over in 30 minutes.

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i don't think i'll tune in to Bewitched, but maybe i'll tune in to the Charlie Chaplin fest on Turner Classic Movies who has a really cool website to promote their Summer Under the Stars month.

steve and i are wondering (please write us if you have thoughts on this);

is there anything less cool than being in the band that backs up jessica simpson and nick lachey when they sing "take my breath away" by berlin on the oprah winfrey show's most romantic man search episode?

we didn't think so.

i think it was steve's first time watching oprah. god bless oprah!

things i miss about ann arbor:

* hyderabadi chicken at shalimar
* having a deck in my backyard that i can hang out on without anyone seeing whatever i feel like wearing (ripped tshirt? bathing suit? pjs?)
* fields of buffalo roaming outside my office building
* walking around the west side and seeing what people have planted in their yards and gardens
* hanging out with old friends that i know and love and that know and love me


things i really like about chicago:

* the air and water show (well, at least the air part -- we kinda missed the water show both days)
* really good mexican food: adobo grill, frontera grill, chilpancingo
* buckingham fountain
* having a sundeck on our building that we don't have to remove wasps nests from
* having a really nice view of downtown and the river from my desk
* walking along the waterfront
* hanging out with new friends and getting to know them