“This Pacifico’s for you”

We used to drink (a lot of) Pacifico beer. So this article caught my eye:

DECADES ago, brewers determined that television commercials were just about the best way to sell beer, as anyone can attest who has listened to consumers still able to sing jingles like “This Bud’s for you,” “Tonight, let it be Löwenbräu” or “A beer is a beer is a beer is a beer until you’ve tasted Hamm’s.”

Now, the Internet makes it possible for beers whose sales volume or marketing budgets are not ready for TV to use the power of video — “sight, sound and motion,” as the advertising professors once intoned — to reach potential customers.

A Mexican import, Pacifico, is filling its Web site (mexicoviapacifico.com) with 30 brand-centric video clips that celebrate a life centered on sun, sand, surf, street food and a willingness to eat extremely hot peppers or play checkers with bottle caps.

In Irvine

Here for an all-day half-day meeting. Sitting outside Starbucks now … beautiful morning but got to run as we’re starting in 15 minutes.

The benefits of fewer options

On the plane ride home yesterday, I read this interesting article that is currently the most e-mailed on The New York Times web site:

The next time you’re juggling options — which friend to see, which house to buy, which career to pursue — try asking yourself this question: What would Xiang Yu do?

Xiang Yu was a Chinese general in the third century B.C. who took his troops across the Yangtze River into enemy territory and performed an experiment in decision making.

He crushed his troops’ cooking pots and burned their ships.

He explained this was to focus them on moving forward — a motivational speech that was not appreciated by many of the soldiers watching their retreat option go up in flames.

But General Xiang Yu would be vindicated, both on the battlefield and in the annals of social science research.

Weekend down south

I’m late posting this, but wanted to share this picture from our trip to San Diego two weekends ago, which included a stop at their world famous zoo.

We thought that the hippo exhibit was the most exciting. They looked HUGE — and the photo of this hippo and little girl was priceless.

We stayed at the Hotel Del Coronado, which was just great. The view from our balcony:

I think it goes without saying that if you have the chance, the Hotel Del is definitely worth a visit.

In San Jose

Landed this evening … all day meeting tomorrow … back in L.A. Tuesday evening.

Staying at The Fairmont.

Blu blues

Paul Sweeting, a highly respected and widely read columnist covering the home entertainment industry, shares some thoughts on the Blu-ray and HD DVD format war:

I’ve covered the high-def format battle longer, perhaps, than any other reporter. I started writing about it sometime back in 2002, when JVC came out with its tape-based D-VHS format, and I had to fight to get stories about it in the paper.

From there, I followed the development of what became Blu-ray Disc, first as an MPEG 2-based recording format and later as a prerecorded format, as well as HD DVD from its earliest days as the Advanced Optical Disc format.

And it’s to everyone’s benefit that the industry has finally settled on a single, high-def format, particularly the consumer, who can now make a rational decision about whether to upgrade to high-def.

Still, it has been a remarkable story to cover, not least because it’s a story of how individual companies, pursuing narrow, often parochial interests, led to the industry’s adopting what—I’ll now confess—I’ve always believed is the wrong format.

Read the rest of the column.

Quote of the week

“Man, if they have Friday beer bashes over at Toshiba, this week’s will be a real downer.”

– David Pogue, The New York Times personal tech guru, from his recent column.

Local flavor

It’s 7:45PM East Coast time and our flight has already been delayed one hour. But we’re on the same United Airlines 757-200 PS (premium service) plane we arrived on, so the flight home in business class should be very roomy and comfortable.

On the way to JFK we made a couple stops: Art Brown International Pen Shop on 46th Street and then 2nd Ave Deli (which is now on 33rd Street).

I bought a cool Faber Castell pen since I lost the Mont Blanc pen I had from my days at Warner Bros. And we loaded up on some deli food that we’ll eat on the plane … the reaction from other passengers should be interesting.

Back in NYC

Landed at JFK around 9pm East Coast time on Tuesday. Here with my boss and a colleague for a meeting — we’ll be on the 6:45pm flight back to LAX on Wednesday.

Staying at the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue at 61st Street.

Quote of the week

“The best way to improve the team is to improve ourself.”

– John Wooden

“2Fer”

For Valentine’s Day we took a half-day off work and headed to Disneyland, which had a “2Fer” special — buy a theme park ticket and get a free admission to California Adventure if you within 30 days.

We got another 2Fer that day: Asa Ramen for dinner. We tried different ramen — kotteri (heavy, or rich) shoyu and assari (light) shoyu. They were both really good, with lots of flavor.

Here’s a picture of kotteri shoyu ramen (click to enlarge):

If you’re in the mood for a hearty broth, I would recommend the kotteri shoyu.

Asa Ramen
18202 S Western Ave
Gardena, CA 90248
(310) 769-1010

Heading home

In a few hours will be on a plane … looking forward to heading home.

Will be back here next Tuesday for some follow up meetings.

Newest Cub

Kosuke Fukudome, a left-handed power hitter, becomes the 10th Japanese position player to sign with a Major League Baseball team.

I thought it was funny how the article spelled out the pronunciation of his name:

KOH-skay Foo-koo-DOUGH-may

His explanation on the mechanics of hitting a baseball also got me thinking about my golf swing:

“I was explaining to them that if you told a man to stand on his hands for a day, he couldn’t do it,” Fukudome said. “But if you told him to stand on his legs for a day, that would be no problem.

The point is your legs have more power than your arms so when you’re batting, you’ve always got to be concerned with how to transfer the power of your legs to the bat in your hands.

“Since the hips are the midpoint between the two, the way you rotate them is crucial for delivering the strength from your legs.

This isn’t the stuff of home runs, it’s about effectively harnessing the power from below to make contact with a strongly pitched ball and not be beaten by its strength.”

The Cubs are hoping Fukudome can end their 100 year World Series drought.

From The New York Times.

Quote of the week

“It’s sort of a little poetic justice, in that the people that brewed this toxic Kool-Aid found themselves drinking a lot of it in the end.”

– Warren Buffett, on the U.S. financial sector woes, from Reuters

In NYC

It’s 9:30pm East Coast time and on my way to the hotel. It’s freezing here — according to the car dashboard, the outside temperature is 22 degrees.

The JetBlue flight was cool since I was able t watch the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Congratulations to veteran Steve Lowery — his first win in 7 years and 199 starts, according to Golf Digest.

Nicole at Disneyland

Amy just sent this cute picture (click to enlarge):

Standing up to compete

A facsinating article on Sachio Semmoto, who left giant Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT) early in his career to found what is today called KDDI, Japan’s 2nd largest telecom company.

JAPAN is not known for its entrepreneurs. Bold small-business leaders are scarce; corporate decisions are usually made by consensus.

This was the prevailing mentality when Sachio Semmoto took an engineering job in 1966 at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), then a state-owned monopoly. To become a cog in such a mighty machine was considered one of life’s highest callings.

His talent was spotted and in the 1970s he was sent to America to get a doctorate. But the education he ended up receiving was of a different sort.

Higher broadband pricing

DSL has always been priced much cheaper than cable broadband.

However if you are an AT&T customer, that will begin to change next month.

AT&T is raising the price for its broadband data services by $5 a month, as first reported by The Chicago Tribune. It now offers DSL data service at $15, $20 and $25 a month, depending on the speed.

…prices are going up at phone companies, cable companies and satellite TV providers for all manner of services and options. He called this a “harvest” strategy — the companies are trying to acquire customers with low prices and then reap profits several years later with fee increases.

The current pricing:

– Basic (768 Kbps): $14.99 (will change to $19.95)
– Express (1.5 Mbps) : $19.99 (will change to $25)
– Pro (3 Mbps) services.: $24.99 (will change to $30)

From the New York Times Bits blog.

Quote of the week

“十人、十色”

“jyuu nin, to iro” (ten people, ten colors)

– Japanese proverb

Staying a Step Ahead of Aging

A professor of orthopedics researched active people and learned they were less affected by aging versus those who led more sedentary lives.

YOU know what is supposed to happen when you grow old. You will slow down, you will grow weak, your steps will become short and mincing, and you will lose your sense of balance. That’s what aging researchers consistently find, and it’s no surprise to most of us.

But it is worth remembering that the people in those studies were sedentary, said Dr. Vonda Wright, a professor of orthopedics at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Wright, a 40-year-old runner, decided to study people who kept training as they got older or began competing in middle age. She wanted to know what happens to them and at what age does performance start to decline.

Their results are surprising, even to many of the researchers themselves. The investigators find that while you will slow down as you age, you may be able to stave off more of the deterioration than you thought.

Another 25% more?

“Housing Meltdown” is the cover story of the current issue of Business Week.

Do you believe another 25% decline in home prices over the next 2 to 3 years?

Whether you do or not, the moral of the story seems to be “live within your means.”