Strategy for the Non-Strategic
THE MORNING BRIEF, Vol. IV, #23 (June 4, 2001) -- Don't have a clue? Join the club!
CONTENTS
How About a
Write-In for Mayor?
Toes R Us
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Apple Store
(More) DSL Hell
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From the Producer of...
2001 Tony's
New Aphorism
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SIX DISK CHANGER
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UPCOMING
CONCERTS
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CONTRIBUTIONS
THAT'S NICE >>> Guess you could say the gloves are off in the Los Angeles mayoral campaign. A recent volley of ads by front-runner James Hahn characterized challenger, Antonio Villaraigosa, attempting to be the first Latino mayor of L.A., as a friend of crack dealers who can't be trusted. The commercial, which features a crack pipe being lit by a glowing flame, is as distasteful as it sounds, successfully casting aspersions upon Villaraigosa's character while simultaneously illuminating Hahn as ruthless, crass, and definitely not of mayoral caliber.
If I could vote in this one (as a citizen of Santa Monica, I can't), I'd certainly not cast my ballot for Mr. Hahn, and would uncomfortably give the nod to Villaraigosa. Suppose there has to be a winner on Tuesday, but no matter how things go it appears the city of Los Angeles will once again wind up the loser.
TOES R US >>> I've been waking up mornings lying on my stomach, even though I fall asleep at night lying on my back. This isn't supposed to be good for my tender, lower back, although it's entirely possible that I'm turning over at night on its behalf. Maybe it wants to be on top. On the road last week, I slept in a bed that was made extremely tight. So tight that when lying on my backside, my toes were unable to stretch out and relax. They kind of hurt. It felt better to lie down on my side. So I've been untucking the sheets at the end of the bed to alleviate the pressure and give my toes a little wiggle room. The result: I caught a cold. But my toes are definitely happier.
NEW APPLE STORE >>> Without going into slavish detail because I probably shouldn't, I want to say a few words about the new Apple Store that recently opened at Glendale Galleria. It's nicely done, The Gap of retail computer experiences, largely because it was designed by The Gap's same architects. With an excellent selection of the most essential Macintosh hardware, software and peripherals, it's a single stop to buy and bring home your entire Macintosh system. Hard to compare to Gateway stores where you couldn't actually leave with the merchandise. However, it is easily the best retail computer buying experience I've seen in several countries, and experience is what Apple is all about.
MORE DSL HELL >>> You'd think that by unplugging my DSL modem and putting it back in the box I'd be taking a big step towards freeing myself from the mediocrity that was Earthlink DSL. You'd be wrong. After calling their "DSL support line" to de-activate the service (I'd had it 7 months and used it for about 8 minutes) I sat down at my computer to download current e-mail. My account had been cancelled. You see, when I told them I no longer wanted DSL service, they somehow decided that I no longer wanted my e-mail account either. Calling them back to help correct the error, I encountered the support agent from hell, who: 1) told me it was my fault, 2) angrily cut me off twice while speaking, 3) hung up on me when I asked for a supervisor.
When I phoned back, I got the same guy again (!), but somehow coaxed him into getting me to a supervisor, with whom I discussed my horrendous treatment prior to getting her to fix the account. This was the coup de grace on one of the worst service experiences I've ever had. Earthlink wins that award hands down. I wonder if this kind of treatment caused other consumers to sour on broadband and the potential of the Internet. The Net is a force now, and one day it will live up to its potential. But experiences like this make me ready and willing to unplug.
FROM THE PRODUCER OF... >>> Am I really supposed to want to see "Swordfish" because someone who got a credit for producing it also got a credit for producing "The Matrix"? The way Hollywood grants producing credits, this "producer" might be a) dead, b) completely unrelated to both films, c) a dog, d) all of the above. Maybe this "producer" really did "produce" both films. Guess as a marketing line it beats, "featuring the star of 'Battlefield Earth.'" Maybe there's more reason to see this film than the promise of Halle Berry's exposed breasts (Ms. Berry evidently plugs both on the MTV Movie Awards). Think I'll wait on this one.
2001 TONY'S >>> Oh, was there another new play on Broadway last year beside "The Producers"? Did anyone see it?
NEW APHORISM >>> The arts and sports often contribute new metaphors to our vernacular, allowing us to describe the indescribable by relating it to a cultural or artistic landmark. For your approval, please consider this aphorism, suitable for describing a person usually adept or excellent in one area, but painfully inept in a slightly different context:
"Like Pete Sampras on clay."
@ @ @
SIX DISK CHANGER >>> Moving the needle away from electronica...
1. Doves, "Lost Souls"
2. Mogwai, "Rock Action"
3. Air, "Moon Safari"
4. Fantastic Plastic Machine, "Beautiful"
5. Tindersticks, "Curtains"
6. Low & Spring Heel Jack, "Bombscare EP"
7. David Gray, "White Ladder"
@ @ @
From the Award-Winning writer who knows the Assistant Director of "Reservoir Dogs":
Have a great week!
Your pal,
David.
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Does it count if I didn't actually win the award for writing???
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The Morning Brief can be read each wwweek @ www.smmirror.com -- in the Web Stuff section.
You can also find prior Briefs at www.morningbrief.net if you've got the time. Or load it up from www.avantgo.com and take your Briefs to go.
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DISCLAIMAGE >>> Please feel free to forward The Morning Brief to whomever you like. If you do, in part or in segments, or if you'd like to re-publish, please copy me or just let me know. Thanks for reading!
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Notable shows in and around Southern
California.
Highly
recommended shows this color.
Red
alert; must see!
6.06.01 - Buddy
Guy @ El Rey Theatre
6.06.01 -
Fantastic Plastic Machine @ Fais Do Do
6.08.01 -
Kristin Hersh @ Knitting Factory Hollywood
6.07.01 -
Tortoise @ Vynyl
6.08.01 - Tortoise @ Royce Hall
6.09.01 - Spain @ Knitting Factory Hollywood
6.10.01 -
Mogwai @ El Rey Theatre
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6.12.01 - Paul Simon and Brian Wilson @ Greek Theatre
6.13.01 - Paul Simon and Brian Wilson @ Greek Theatre
6.14.01 - Pete Yorn @ Roxy Theatre
6.14.01 -
Doves @ The Palace
6.15.01 -
Widespread Panic @ Wiltern Theatre
6.15.01 -
Tricky @ The Palace
6.16.01 - Dido w/Travis @
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
6.16.01 -
Widespread Panic @ Wiltern Theatre
6.17.01 - Widespread Panic @ Wiltern Theatre
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6.19.01 -
Stereo MCs @ Whiskey a Go-Go
6.20.01 - Guided by Voices @ House of Blues
6.21.01 - Robert Earl Keen @
The Roxy Theatre
6.22.01 -
Mark Eitzel @ Knitting Factory Hollywood
6.23.01 -
Thomas Mapfumo & Blacks Unlimited @ House of Blues
6.23.01 - Timo Maas @
Spundae/Circus
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6.27.01 - Phil Lesh @ Greek Theatre
6.28.01 - Michelle Shocked @ Santa Monica Pier (Twilight Dance
Series)
6.29.01 - Red House Painters @ The Troubadour
6.29.01 - Radiohead @ Santa Barbara Bowl
7.01.01 - Ani
DiFranco @ Universal Amphitheatre
7.01.01 - Cesaria Evora &
Bebel Gilberto @ Hollywood Bowl
7.01.01 - DJ Spooky @ The Troubadour
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7.07.01 - Dick Dale @ Roxy Theatre
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7.09.01 - The Posies @ The Troubadour
7.11.01 - Air
@ The Mayan
7.12.01 - Air @ The Mayan
7.12.01 - Trey Anastasio
(Phish) @ The Greek Theatre
7.15.01 - Buena Vista Social Club @ Hollywood Bowl
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7.19.01 - Transglobal Underground @ Santa Monica Pier (Twilight Dance
Series)
7.19.01 - Craig David @ El Rey Theatre
7.20.01 - Sade @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
7.22.01 - Sade, Youssou N'Dour, Rachid Taha @ Hollywood Bowl
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7.23.01 - Sade @ Hollywood Bowl
7.26.01 - Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers @ Santa
Monica Pier (Twilight Dance Series)
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7.30.01 - Yes @ Hollywood Bowl
8.01.01 -
Toots and the Maytals @ House of Blues
8.01.01 - The String Cheese
Incident @ The Greek Theatre
8.02.01 - Lagbaja @ Santa Monica Pier (Twilight Dance Series)
8.03.01 - War @ The Greek Theatrez
8.04.01 -
Neville Brothers/Steel Pulse @ House of Blues
8.04.01 - Brian Setzer w/Joe
Strummer @ Greek Theatre
8.05.01 - Area:One (Moby, New Order, Tmo Maas) @ Glen Helen
Blockbuster Pavilion
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8.06.01 -
Roxy Music @ The Greek Theatre
8.07.01 - Roxy Music @ The Greek Theatre
8.09.01 - Buckwheat Zydeco @ Santa Monica Pier (Twilight Dance
Series)
8.12.01 -
Baaba Maal, Angelique Kidjo @ Hollywood Bowl
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8.14.01 - Depeche Mode @ Staples Center
8.16.01 - Venice @ Santa Monica Pier (Twilight Dance Series)
8.17.01 - Eric Clapton @ Staples Center
8.18.01 - Yellowman @ House of Blues
8.18.01 - Eric Clapton @ Staples Center
8.19.01 - Erykah Badu @ The Greek Theatre
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8.20.01 - Aerosmith @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
8.22.01 - Aerosmith @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
8.23.01 - Reverend Horton Heat @ Santa Monica Pier (Twilight Dance
Series)
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10.06.01 - James Taylor @ Hollywood Bowl
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HAVE YOU ever reconsidered? HAVE YOU done something on the spur of a moment? HAVE YOU eaten anything extra yummy? HAVE YOU found a haven? HAVE YOU considered moving to a new climate? HAVE YOU got an axe to grind? HAVE YOU taken a deep breath lately?
RE: COMFY SHOES >>> Sorry, the MOST comfortable shoes in the known universe are Ecco http://www.ecco.com/. Available in a range of men's and women's styles from dressy to casual these shoes rule the comfy kingdom [notice how I resisted the urge to spell comfy with a k]. I was in New York a couple of weeks ago and found myself with a free afternoon. I donned my Ecco shoes and proceeded to walk from Rockefeller Center to Greenwich Village and back [about a hundred blocks round trip]. My feet remained comfortable and blister-free. And the topper to this story...these were BRAND NEW Ecco shoes. When have you ever bought a new pair of shoes that were that comfortable from the instant you first put them on? Hobble in to Macy's in your old ouchy shoes and glide out in Ecco style.
-- David Walske.
RE: CAL ENERGY CRISIS >>> George W. Bush makes his first presidential visit to California next week. He can expect a chilly reception both from the state's politicos, led by Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, and the increasingly hostile California press.
They fault Bush for not bailing California out of its self-inflicted electricity crisis (the result of a misbegotten, misnamed "deregulation," plan, which, among other things, required the state's utilities to divest themselves of their power generating plants). They claim that the president is indifferent to the Golden State's woes. And they lament that the Texan does not feel California's pain the way, say, Bubba would have.
Davis, whose job approval rating has plummeted 20 points since last fall (according to recent poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California), has become particularly strident. He excoriated the president last week for supposedly "allowing the price-gouging energy companies, many of which reside in Texas, to get away with murder."
And he directed yet another cheap shot at Bush, challenging the president "to stand up to your friends in the energy business and exercise the federal government's exclusive responsibility to ensure energy prices are reasonable."
Davis is desperate. To save his political hide, he reckons, he's got to find someone, other than himself, on whom to blame California's electricity crisis. So he suggests that Bush, a former Texas oilman, is in cahoots with those nefarious Texas energy companies; that the president is getting some sort of pay-off for allowing electricity suppliers to charge what the market will bear. But here's the dirty little under reported secret about Davis's own relationship with energy companies: They've been among his biggest financial supporters.
Indeed, Davis accepted more than $600,000 from utilities, power generators and marketers during 1999 and 2000, according to Common Cause. (By comparison, electric utilities contributed slightly less than $450,000 to Bush's presidential campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics).
Then there's the matter of the governor's decision to retain the services of "consultants" Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane, who also happen to work for Southern California Edison (trying to win support for a $3.5 billion bailout to rescue that utility from bankruptcy). The former Clinton apparatchiks will be paid a combined $30,000 a month by California taxpayers for at least the next six months to assist Davis in an attack campaign against Bush administration energy policy.
Also, to help the governor persuade California's more than 30 million residents, facing rolling blackouts this summer, that he bears no responsibility for the state's electricity crisis. Of course, to make such a case requires that Davis and his hired guns gloss over a few very salient facts, as The Sacramento Bee's Dan Walters reported last weekend.
Davis got an early warning about California's looming electricity crisis, Walters reminded, when San Diego Gas & Electric customers began receiving substantially higher bills a year ago. Private and public energy experts proposed that the state's putative "deregulation" be suspended, that rates be raised slightly and that California utilities be allowed to enter long-term electricity supply contracts to stabilize the market.
"But," noted Walters, "Davis and his handpicked state Public Utilities Commission president, Loretta Lynch, stalled for time.
Less than a month after the crisis first revealed itself in San Diego, the PUC voted 3-to-2 to allow long-term contracts at roughly 5 cents per kilowatt hour. But Lynch denounced the commission's decision. And in a matter of days it was overturned by legislation that Davis signed. So now California utilities are forced to pay more than 10 times as much for electricity.
And the governor who could have prevented that from happening, could have spared the state treasury billions of dollars, could have protected the state's biggest utilities from bankruptcy, places the blame on a president who wasn't even in office when Davis first became aware of his state's looming electricity crisis.
Bush has refused to order wholesale price caps of electricity -- even though doing so would ingratiate him to Davis and other California politicos. Even though it would earn him favorable press coverage in the nation's most populous state.
The president stands on economic principle (rather than political expedience). That may not go over especially well here in the Golden State. But that doesn't mean Bush doesn't care about California.
-- forwarded by Rick Gianvecchio.
RE: CLICK OF LIFE >>> The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site & click on "donating a mammogram" for free - their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate a mammogram in exchange for advertising. Here's the website! Pass it along to all your women (and gentlemen!) friends!!
http://www.thebreastcancersite.com
-- forwarded by Judy Palnick.