Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
It’s way too early to make “best album of the year” declarations, but Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago is far and away the best album I’ve heard in the first three-and-a-half months of ‘08. (Technically the album was released last year but was re-released in February. So that still counts to me.) It’s slow and hushed, not unlike Iron & Wine. If you took Sam Beam from the south, put him in a cabin in Wisconsin and gave him a more soulful voice, you’d get Justin Vernon, aka Bon Iver.
Listen: Skinny Love
Lowe’s vs. Home Depot: It’s the Little Things
Most home owners will tell you that the customer experience at Lowe’s is far superior to that of Home Depot. Besides cleaner stores and a better layout, it’s the little things that matter. Home Depot, for instance, doesn’t even list operating hours for its stores on its website. Smart.
PS3 Outsells Xbox 360 in February
Microsoft will of course blame product shortages, but the PS3 outsold the Xbox 360 by about 30,000 units in February. The Blu-ray win must have bolstered sales because there were not any particular gaming reasons to go with one over another.
I’m still astonished that even eight years after its launch, the PS2 continues to sell at a good clip. Sony sold 351,800 of the aging console last month, roughly 70,000 more than its successor.
More Troubling Economic News
As if the US financial market needed anymore bad news, JPMorgan announced last night it has bailed out troubled Bear Stearns for, get this, $2 per share. Bear’s stock price started last week at almost $70 a share before plummeting over 50% and closing the week at $30. The fact that this deal equals less than 10% of even that price should be the latest sign our economy is headed for big-time problems.
Philadelphia’s Evolving Skyline
Philadelphia’s skyline, which was bolstered with the addition of the Comcast Center, could be seeing another significant change. The American Commerce Center is a radically designed 1,500 foot skyscraper featuring a 26-story hotel, two publicly accessible gardens, 3-to-6 stories of retail and 63 floors of office space. It would be among the country’s largest structures.
Random Musings #1
Some random thoughts from the past few days…
All in all, SXSW was definitely worth the travel and hassle of being away from work for basically 3 days. I thought some of the panels were seemingly targeted at newcomers in the industry (even those marked Intermediate) and were a waste of time, but a few were outstanding (Adaptive Path’s Bryan Mason and Sarah Nelson I especially loved). I’ll probably attend next year’s conference and maybe do a tiny bit more networking.
There were definitely a couple Austin bars I wish I could have packaged up and taken back to Philly, most notably Dog & Duck Pub for its true pub-like atmosphere, and Gingerman which had the largest selection of draft beer I think I’ve ever seen. (Yes, I know there are NYC versions of Ginger, but they’re not quite the same).
Last note on the SXSW front for now. I never quite understood the Dooce infatuation that some people have. Yes, Heather Armstrong is super attractive, has a cute kid, and a dog who apparently loves his picture taken when he has various objects on his head. It turns out she’s a cool ass chick who needs a far bigger stage than just her site. Funny what happens when you actually take the time and read what she has to say. Can we shove Rachel Ray in a box and put someone in front of the camera like Heather? You know, someone with brains and an interesting thing to say.
Moving on… The other guys in the office and I continue to work on a side-project that we think is a little bit funny, a little bit weird but most definitely useful. There’s a good chance it’s going to be a ginormous success and net us more money than Zuckerberg’s currently worth. You heard it here first.
In the world of entertainment, I’m admittedly an American Idol watcher (which is different, I guess, from being a fan) and zipped through tonight’s episode. David Archuleta blew it big time by forgetting his lyrics and looking like a 17-year old for the first time thus far. Poor kid. He’ll still make it through to the next round, however.
Lastly, on a somber note, I got news over the weekend that an ex-co-worker of mine passed away. Even though I didn’t see him much of the past year, I cherished the emails, the random bump-ins on the street or the occasional after-work drinks we’d grab. He always put a smile on my face and made me laugh like a little girl. For that, I’m happy to have known him. Rest in peace, Mike, you’ll be missed.
iCopy Adds Copy and Paste Functionality to iPhone
iCopy uses a cookie-based system to allow users to copy-and-paste text and URLs on the iPhone. It’s not the most elegant solution, and because it’s an online based tool, there are privacy issues. But until Apple provides native functionality, it’s really the only option for emailing copied text or URLs.
Google Wraps Up DoubleClick Deal
Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick was finalized today, after Europe’s antitrust regulators approved the deal, removing the final roadblock in the merger. The news gave a 6.3 percent boost to Google’s stock, which had been recently slumping. We’ll now see what, if anything, this does to Microsoft’s attempt to snag Yahoo!.
Guy Kawasaki Launches Latest Venture
Maybe I’m missing something, but Guy Kawasaki’s new venture, Alltop, looks to be little light in the relevance department. It essentially categories RSS feeds into a sparsely designed layout, one that annoyingly floats a horizontal bar across the page. I guess if you’re trying to discover new content, this could be one way of learning about new sites. Still, there’s nothing here that’s appealing to me at all.
Design Eye for South By
A talented collection of creatives showed off some interesting concepts that transform the SXSW site into a more social experience.
Evian Brumisateur Mineral Water Spray
Never in a million years would I spend $5.50 on water in a 1.7 oz. spray bottle, but I have to be honest: after the last three days, if someone handed me one of these Evian Brumisateur bottles, I would certainly give it a whirl.
Apple, AT&T Intro Unlimited iPhone Calling Plan
How on earth does this new $119 unlimited calling plan still only provide 200 text messages? Dumb.
Thoughts on SXSW: Part Two
A slow start to the morning down here in Austin. Last night’s festivities have probably left a good percentage of the crowd with a foggy head. We somehow found ourselves off the interactive path and wound up at a number of film-oriented parties, the best of which was the ATX Emerge party at Speakeasy Lounge. I bumped into Britt Daniel from Spoon and got to see part of a satisfying set from local band Beleair.
Elsewhere, the Facebook party was filled to the brim with people talking deals and showing off mobile goods. Zuckerberg was all smiles when I asked him about the Sarah Lacy interview. Clearly he knows how bad it was, but in his world it’s such a moot point.
Thanks to a couple friends from Austin, we’ve been able to enjoy some of the city’s finest eats. The Salt Lick and El Chile Cafe y Cantina filled our hankering for BBQ and Mexican, respectively. Props to Paul and Kady for being such good guides as well as providing consultation for a new project we’re working on.
Yet Another Beatles & iTunes Report
I don’t know what’s worse — messages about the Apple Store being down on product release days or news stories that the Beatles catalog is coming to iTunes. For what it’s worth, London’s Telegraph is reporting that a deal was finally struck that will give Apple online rights to the catalog.
How to Make Yourself Look Like an Idiot, by Sarah Lacy
All I can say about the the Mark Zuckerberg SXSW keynote is “Wow.” Given the task of moderating the highest-profile keynote of the conference, Sarah Lacy, a writer for BusinessWeek, had a utterly disastrous performance and turned the event into a maddening experience for the packed crowd. Lacy routinely cut off Zuckerberg mid-sentence, twirled her hair as if she was a 16-year old girl interviewing Justin Timberlake, and flirted with Zuckerberg in such a way that even made me cringe. Worst of all, she was seemingly more concerned with making the keynote the Sarah Lacy show, instead of asking interesting questions of Zuckerberg.
Her response to the public blasting she took from the Twitter audience: “seriously screw all you guys. I did my best to ask a range of things.” It’s not a matter of doing a good job or not. Sarah, you weren’t professional in the least and didn’t help the audience gain insight into anything related to Facebook that we didn’t already know.