“Hello, pussy”

Posted on by

That’s how Lou Gossett addresses David Caruso’s character before choking him into submission in An Officer and A Gentleman (1982). Later in the movie, Caruso has to be rescued from the bottom of the pool in a training exercise. Caruso is an acquired taste but I always found him one of the baddest dudes on the little screen. It hurt me to see him get humiliated.

But this post was going to be about Debra Winger, who made a bunch of bad movies but was really good in two: AOAAG and Urban Cowboy. And she was sort of okay in Black Widow.

I know squat about Hollywood but have to believe she had bad management. Her deep-throated sexiness and more-than-adequate acting chops should have taken her farther.

And for your comment hounds, how about the best drill instructors (or non-coms) in military movies? R. Lee Ermey  from Full Metal Jacket? Adolph Caesar from A Soldiar’s Story? Tom Berenger from Platoon?

Ice Storm

Posted on by

The ice storm that hit mid-Missouri last night knocked out our power about 10 o’clock this Sunday morning and it didn’t come back on until after 6:00 p.m. We spent the day camped in front of the fire place.

Any information about the extent of the power outage or when juice (and access to the net) might be restored was going to have to come from one of our area radio stations. I’m sure that if I could stand to listen to the Rams broadcast (local AM) or an opera (NPR) long enough, I’d hear something about our situation.

But Google has conditioned me to expect (and demand) instant access to the information I need. Yes, I understand that the radio station has to serve the needs and interests of all of their listeners. Some want music (maybe), some want sports, some want news and weather. So everyone has to wait patiently and trust the radio programmers to dole out info and entertainment, like UN aid workers tossing bags of rice to screaming refugees.

So there we sat in our chilly, dark living room, unable to tap into the Great and Powerful Internet. My only source for information –had I the patience to wait for it– was the local radio station. And it’s not fair to second-guess the local radio guys. I don’t know what was happening at the station. But they were reporting 17,000 people in and around Jefferson City without power. I think I might have gone wall-to-wall with updates.

So, does this situation make me value my local radio station any more than I did before the lights went out? Or has on-demand access to… everything, raised my expectations to a new level that will be difficult or impossible for terrestrial radio to every reach again?

Long live King Bob!

Posted on by

Friend and co-worker Bob Feldisch has been with our company about a year longer than I. He’s taking on new duties and the post on our corporate blog is note-worthy.

When King Bob started with Learfield:

  • Ronald Reagan was President
  • Lee Iacocca was pitching K-Cars
  • “The Terminator” was released
  • Michael Jackson’s hair caught on fire while filming a Pepsi commercial
  • Apple released the very first Macintosh

Since that time:

  • King Bob has logged about one million frequent flyer miles serving his clients
  • He’s driven over half a million miles across Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and Oklahoma
  • He has generated nearly 30 million dollars in sales for the company

This makes a great blog post but you probably wouldn’t see this much imagination and fun in a corporate, inter-office news release. I love the fact that the blog was was the first and –as far as I know– only place this news was posted.

World’s smallest indoor radio-controlled airplane

Posted on by
Reply

“The Butterfly” and it is billed as “The Living Room Flier” a full radio controlled mini plane you can fly around your living room. “Full Proportional radio control enables you to fly with precision in any room 12′ X 16′. Just add 4-AA batteries to the combination transmitter/charger and you’ll be ready for action anytime Take the Butterfly with you ANYWHERE in it’s own protective aluminum briefcase (included!). The Butterfly costs $239 and it would take Lucy about 2 seconds to shred it.

Calculate your Real Age

Posted on by

I love these things because they almost always tell me what I want to hear.  You answer 10 or 20 questions about life style, diet, family medical history and so forth. Sort of the web’s answer to those scales that would tell your future as well as your weight.

My Real Age is 44.5 (not that there’s anything wrong with 59), my life expectancy is 92.5 (compared to average of 78), which means I can expect to live 12,200 days. But who’s counting.

Terry Heaton: Gratitude

Posted on by

“…we are most vulnerable at the moment of success. It’s when we choose to shine a light on US and all our greatness. This is why it’s so important that we maintain a heart full of thanks, one of gratitude that will survive the roller coaster ride of life. For in the end, we have no power over anything — only in how we react. And I can tell you from experience, my friends, that a heart full of gratitude will survive where others will not.”

— Terry Heaton

Music videos, guerrilla style

Posted on by

“As far as I know, MTV and VH1 don’t play music videos anymore; it’s all reality TV and game shows, so I don’t know if they’ll really pick up a video. To me, it’s an interesting time because you used to make a video for a million dollars with a great director. Now, you spend $10,000, if that, with no hair and makeup, and do it completely guerrilla style. For example, we did a song called “God Bless This Mess” about the war and we shot it in front of the White House and nobody stopped us. It’s really really exciting to just go out and shoot, like how Bob Dylan shot “Don’t Look Back” — it’s just a guy with a camera and you’re performing the song.”

— Sheryl Crow on using YouTube to promote her new CD

Scott Adams: Apology to Iraqi people

Posted on by

“Whatever you think about the reasons for invading (Iraq), everyone seems to agree that we botched the occupation, and the results have been a disaster for the Iraqi civilian population. I feel like I owe them an apology for letting my idiot government screw them so thoroughly.

Your first reaction might be to explain all the rationalizations, and how war is messy, and it was really Saddam’s fault, and blah, blah, blah. But apologies don’t work that way. I could be wrong, but I think the Iraqi people who were minding their own business would like to hear an apology.

But how? My idiot government won’t apologize on my behalf. And if I fire them and get a new idiot government, they won’t do it either, until fifty years are past. That seems too late.

So here’s my public apology to the Iraqi civilians who did nothing to deserve their current situation: I’m sorry I trusted my idiot government to handle things correctly. I should have been watching more closely. To be honest, I never once thought to even ask if there was a post-war plan. That was clearly a mistake on my part. For that, I am sorry.”

Full post at Dilbert.Blog

“I’m sorry for the way things are in China, I’m sorry things ain’t what they used to be.” — John Denver

IBM Report: “The End of Advertising as We Know It”

Posted on by
Reply

Podcasting News points to a report compiled by IBM with the scary title: “The End of Advertising as We Know It.” I’m not sure what IBM knows about the state of advertising but they surveyed more than 2,400 consumers and 89 ad execs globally.

The report from Big Blue forecasts “greater disruption for the advertising industry in the next five years than occurred in the previous 50.”

When I read stuff like this, I ask the men and women in our company (who sell a LOT of advertising) if they get a similar read and the answer is always, “Nope, everything is A-OK.” No changes on the horizon. Everything is hunky-dory.

Well, five years isn’t that long. We shall see what we shall see.

PS: Here’s one more graph from the report summary:

More than half of ad professionals polled by IBM expect that in the next five years open advertising exchanges (currently led by companies like Google, Yahoo, AOL) will take 30 percent of current revenues now commanded by traditional broadcasters and media. Nearly half of the advertising survey respondents anticipate a significant (greater than 10%) revenue shift away from the 30-second spot within the next five years, and almost 10 percent of respondents thought there would be a dramatic (greater than 25 percent) shift. Two-thirds of advertising experts surveyed by IBM expect 20 percent of advertising revenue to move from impression-based to impact-based formats within three years.