Finally, someone has the guts to equate the SUV phenomenon with helping oil companies support regimes that support terrorists. Finally, and one of the people behind a new TV campaign is none other than Arianna Huffington, who apparently traded in her SUV last year for a fuel-sipping hybrid car. The ads are going to start running Sunday and they sound very smart, a take off on the anti-drug ads now being show everywhere. Here’s the clip from the linked article:
“This is George,” [what a great name for a strawman, ed.] a girl’s voice says of an oblivious man at a gas station. “This is the gas that George bought for his SUV.” The screen then shows a map of the Middle East. “These are the countries where the executives bought the oil that made the gas that George bought for his SUV.” The picture switches to a scene of armed terrorists in a desert. “And these are the terrorists who get money from those countries every time George fills up his SUV.”

Have a cold. But what with all the other crappy news out there today (the government is allowed to keep anyone they want any time if they are suspected of being a terrorist, the Republicans allowing ol’ Mr. Pickering to be a top judge, a highly inequitable “stimulus” package, two plane crashes, and many deaths in Israel), Apple came out with is own Web browser, called Safari. Well, it only runs on Mac OS X 10.2 (a.k.a. Jaguar) but it’s very cool and steely in color and it’s fast as hell and has Google search bar integrated in the “chrome” and it prevents pop-up windows from popping-up. (Truly Deckchairs on the Titanic material.)

I hope I’m not sick of mind, but I’m wondering why the press has given so little (okay – zero) thought to the possibility that Mr. Hussein will take hostage the United Nations arms inspectors in Iraq. I mean, with the U.S. saber-rattling, the Arab nations not being nice, and Mr. Hussein feeling backed in a corner, why not just take these people hostage? He’ll provoke the coming war, of course. But he’ll also start an international effort to mediate the terms and influence international opinion. I hope that this does not come to pass, but I’m sure that the inspectors have been warned of such a potential calamity.

I am sometimes embarrassed to be writing a blog such as this. Nevertheless:
Pepperidge Farm always seemed to me to be a strange company. Somewhere between homemade baked goods and Wonderbread, the company never really made sense to me. They had an outlet store near where I grew up in Philadelphia — but I could not as a kid understand why they were selling “high quality” goods at cheap prices. Mostly their brand looks kind of awkward, out of place on a package of bread; they recently re-branded I see — the text is larger, in all caps, and the “farm” is represented by a larger yellow and red barn that is snow-covered and imposing.
I guess they are now owned by Campbell’s Soup. I recently bought their Raisin Cinnamon Swirl Bread and following is the text on the “back” of the package:
“. . . This dedication to baking is what makes Pepperidge Farm Raisin Cinnamon Swirl Bread a delightful start to your day. Everything else is toast.™ Never have an Ordinary Day.™” What? They actually went to the trouble of trademarking these last two sentences? Only in America can a company not only come up with a silly couple of lines like that, put it on their package, and then prevent others from using it. (See comments on U.S. copyrighting below . . . )

Because of the Sabbath, I rarely, if ever, post anything on Saturdays. However, the incredible beauty and gorgeous use of technology has forced my hand to post this link of a full screen, interactive image of the Chateau de Salm in France. It is stunning, fundamentally sublime, and romantic. The other links to images at the top of the site are also incredible. Take a look at this panorama of the lights memorializing the WTC.

I read a great article last night in this month’s Fast Company (it’s not online yet) about a company called Amoeba that seems to far outsell and out-cool the big retail record conglomerates like Virgin, Tower, and HMV. The company is in the SF area and they specifically cater to the small consumer, the afficionado, the musician, the person that takes their music and music history seriously. For those who take the latest hits seriously, they can go there, too. Run by knowledgable staff, Amoeba sounds like a music consumer’s dream come true, with 3 or 4 times the number of titles found in an ordinary, vanilla box record store. The music industry continues to create cardboard cut-outs (literally) for its store while customers in their prime demographics are yearning for something real. I just bought the latest God Speed You Black Emperor. More soon.

Sometimes I believe that the Europeans are about 50 years ahead of the United States with regard to setting cultural policy (not so for political and economic policymaking, however). In this NYT article, European Copyrights Expiring on Recordings From 1950’s by Anthony Tommasini, while the United States gives the long-dead Mr. Disney and other megacorps(es) 95 years of copyright insurance, recordings from as recently as the 50s will soon be publicly, freely available. Amazing. It’s no wonder that American record companies are free-falling with poor revenue models, no Internet music sharing strategy, and silly pop artists; they’re trying to hold on to whatever small scraps of business they’ve been cultivating for 70 years. Perhaps they should hire a few Europeans to run their businesses, like car companies and magazines have in the past 5 years.

I can’t help but notice that, although there are amazingly unusual movies out right now, such as 8 Mile, Adaptation, Frida, Far From Heaven, Ararat, and Max, the top ten movies today are terrible. Come on, people, what’s going on? Maid in Manhattan, a rip-off of Pretty Woman featuring J. Lo? Gangs of New York, a scenery piece that is historically inaccurate and too long? The Lord of the Rings???? The Hot Chick!!! People, people, ever heard of video? These truly are Yahoo Movies.

This New Year in particular does not feel particularly exciting, as many polls and pols seem to report today. But there are many things to be thankful for and I intend to focus on the following:
1. Life itself, puttering and winding along on unpaved roads.
2. The mirror, as it always reflects something.
3. Time and its misshapen handles on everything.
4. The cosmos, which will always astound by making us smaller and smaller by the day.
5. Animals, which work to live, not live to work.
Here’s to 365 good days in 2003.

Being a recent dad, and having had this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money–That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!, recommended to me many times, I read and finished it today.
It’s not very good. I guess I should say, it’s great if you need a kick in the pants to start getting your financial life in order and you want to start getting into real estate investments, which Mr. Kiyosaki pretty much out and out says is the only way to become wealthy. He may be right. But his condescending tone, his psycho-babble speak, and his one-line argument makes for some dull reading. I am interested in getting rich. So is almost everyone. But the author frames his own ability to make private wealth in the language of “should” which never works on me. I hate being told “you should.” Loathe it, in fact. I guess I’m going to be a Poor Dad.
Lessons learned from the book, however, are: 1. Start investing now, not later. 2. Stop spending your money on crap, even nice crap. 3. Get a good proofreader, as his book, a #1 New York Times Bestseller, is laden with errors.