• @1god “Santa Claus wears a red suit - he’s a communist” - Arlo Guthrie #

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I was in Renton, WA on a business trip, visiting the main office of Classmates.com (I manage a satellite office in Woodland Hills, CA).  It rains a lot there, and while the weather was clearing, we had a rainbow.

Saturday (yesterday) we went to Venice to check it out again; we both really like the Venice boardwalk as it reminds us of younger times.  We found a really cool building while walking around, and I took a shot of the smoke from the fires burning on the hills around the San Fernando Valley; yes, the smoke was driven all the way to the ocean by the Santa Ana winds.

At our apartment, it smells like smoke outside, and I can see white ash and occasional larger burned bits on the ground.

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• Back in Woodland Hills, watching smoke go past us on both sides and ash lying on the ground - fire season here, hope everyone is safe #
• And god bless LAFD and LAPD #

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• Title: Impotence in the Boardroom: MySpace Caught an STD
• Author: Yvette Bowlin, Sonni Carr
• Paperback: 89 pages
• Publisher: B Rae Reese Press (2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0980125308
• ISBN-13: 978-0980125306

I saw this book on the bottom shelf of a local newstand and, given my interest in social networking and marketing, I figured it might be a fun read.  I read most of it on a flight to Renton, WA from Bob Hope Airport in beautiful Burbank.

This book begins recounting the authors’ experience pitching their grand marketing plan to the MySpace Senior Vice President of marketing, Shawn Gold.  “… Shawn strolled in, Sony laptop in hand, no handshake, barely any reciprocated eye contact …” is, I guess, a dead giveaway that this meeting didn’t go well for the authors, and they expend plenty of wasted words expressing that.

On the other hand, I think their comments later in the book about their view of the future of marketing are interesting.  They see a future guided by hormones (not so surprising, look at any sexy ad and you get that part, although they mean all hormones, so adventure and success have places as well) as well as campaigning instead of brand identity.  They also mention ADD - Attention, Diversion, Depth - as the three key qualities of ad campaigns.

While the book didn’t create a “mental orgasm” for me, there are a few parts worth keeping around I think.

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• I made it to the hotel in Renton, WA; flight as a little early, cab ride was short - cab was a nat gas Prius - very cool! #

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• @thelocaltourist But isn’t that the whole story of the growth of the Internet? #
• @thelocaltourist Yes, I understood that was your intent. My opinion is that the Internet subverts most good intentions. #
• @thelocaltourist And the 2 posts 2 hours late is why I’m seriously considering Yammer for my team’s (yes, work, my other life) micro status #
• @thelocaltourist Yea, that’s the Internet-brand soapbox, and that’s another feature of this medium (message) #
• @thelocaltourist Yammer is a business-oriented Twitter; you can find it at http://www.yammer.com #
• @thelocaltourist Status reporting is a required waste of time, and email is too noisy here, so I’m experimenting with internal microstatus #
• @thelocaltourist Thinking of hooking up to internal WordPress to create reporting fast and cheap #
• @thelocaltourist You probably would only use Yammer if you had a staff to work with #
• Survived speech #6 at Toastmasters, but just barely #
• @PPureIndulgence Tried to memorize the speech, realized I couldn’t, ran with notes, just wasn’t what I wanted #
• @PPureIndulgence Good feedback, good ideas to make it better #
• @wendyandlisa The new Grace Jones album is only available in the UK 7digital store, not the other “national stores” #
• Gee, Santa Claus is following me on Twitter, and Sarah Palin on Plurk - yea, right #

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Interesting article in today’s New York Times, “For South, a Waning Hold on National Politics.”

The Republican Party has become a mouthpiece for Christian fundamentalists that want to force everyone to live their life just like they do.  How is this any different than Muslim fundamentalists that want everyone to live their life like they do?

And why do we all need to follow the same rules - are the Christian and Muslim fundamentalists afraid they’ll stray from their path?  Is their resolve so weak that they can’t deal with temptation (and difference)?

The Pilgrims came here due to religious persecution, and the Islamic world was, before the rise of Wahabism, the most tolerant area of the world.

And when are the Christian Rightists coming to get the various minorities in this country, people that have helped build and shape us?  They’ve already used violence here (look at the Oklahoma City bombing, for example).

If the Republican Party wants to be the Grand Ol’ Party again, they’re going to have to stop preaching a socially conservative, Christian fundamentalist doctrine; they need to return to their roots of stressing freedom and small government, and stop seeking to pass laws outlawing abortion, gay marriage, and the rest of their bigoted, racist, facist agenda.

We need a political party that will stress a centralist, more Libertarian viewpoint, especially on individual freedom, a cornerstone of our Republic.  If the Republicans can’t do that, perhaps its time to found a new second party (which has happened at least twice in the history of the United States).

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• Enjoying a cup of chai tea before we go see two more houses for sale #

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In today’s New York Times, there are four articles by four noted economists suggesting alternative approaches for improving the current economic conditions:

• It’s a Time to Listen, and to Obey the Laws of Arithmetic
• Put Away the Wish List, and Help Households Bounce Back
• The Mood Always Matters, So Restore Confidence First
• The Real Mandate Is to Bridge the Wealth Gap

First, I’m gratified that the last guy agrees with my opinion of what’s gone wrong.  Secondly, I think its interesting that the four approaches are not mutually exclusive, and perhaps the right combination of all four might reduce the depth and duration, and therefore the pain, of the current recession.

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We dropped the dog off with Uncle Jeff and drove into LA to visit Michael Kohn Gallery to see the show of Darren Waterston’s work.  He’s one of Aviva’s favorite living artists; we once almost bought one of his watercolors, but we like his paintings much more.  His work is very ethereal and now celestial; I liked a number of pieces, including the painting used for the post card (see below) - if I had the money I’d have purchased it.  It looks like he uses a wax and varnish mix to finish his paintings, but we don’t know that for sure because Aviva didn’t ask him.  Yes, Darren was at the gallery this afternoon - the artist reception was last night and he happened to be in the gallery while we were viewing the work.

Darren Waterston, Agnos No. 2, 2008, Oil on Wood

We then walked over to Forum Gallery; they have a show of Holly Lane’s work up.  Really great work, a mix of painting and woodworking, as you can see below.

Holly Lane, In Preparation, She Cached a Guidebook Near the River of Oblivion, 2008, Acrylic and Carved Wood

While driving on Hollywood Blvd. I noticed a cool sculpted metal gazebo.

We drove across town to visit Wacko bookstore again - I got a nicely painted figure of Shiva sitting, yet another skeleton warrior from the Jason and the Argonauts series, and I happened to find the book All the Money in the World, a book about the graphics used on money, on sale for only $15.

The night sky was bright pink, and, combined with Hope and a portrait of Barack Obama painted on a building side along with the Sex Drive billboard made for a nice sunset picture I think (and isn’t this what LA is really all about, sung to “All I Want to Do is Have Some Fun”).

We drove over to a Chinese restaurant we’d never tried before, Chi Dynasty.  The food was really good and not too expensive, so we’ll certainly go back again.

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