Christmas is Here

As is tradition in our house, the Christmas tree is up the day after Thanksgiving. The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, Mr. and Mrs. Snowman are in the front window and the wreath is up on the front door. It all looks great and it makes the house feel very festive.

W+K also got their Christmas trees up. Now, let the parties begin.

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell

I have really been hesitating to add this record to the line up, but it has to be done. This is one of my all-time guilty pleasures. This is one of those records that I played so much I wore it out. This is Meat Loaf: Bat out of Hell.

Marvin Lee Aday never revealed how he got the name Meat Loaf, but we know this was the moniker he used from his earliest days as an actor in Hair and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In 1977 Meat Loaf teamed up with classically trained pianist and songwriter Jim Steinman to produce the masterpiece that is Bat out of Hell. The record spawned three Top 40 singles, "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad," "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," and "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth," on its way to becoming one of the best-selling albums of the 70's. BOH has sold over 40 million copies and is also one of only two albums that has never exited the Top 200 in the UK charts.

In case you have not seen the Meat Loaf "Behind the Music" on VH1, what ensued was years of litigation and ultimately a bankrupt Meat Loaf. But not to worry, Meat Loaf has nine lives. In 1990 he got back together with Steinman and released Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell, which sold over 15 million copies.

Happy Thanksgiving

I started the day cleaning up the house and yard for our guests, I was thankful that I got that done in time to go to yoga. The 10 a.m. class was packed out, but it was a great class and our teacher did not charge us for the class as her Thanksgiving gift to us. I am also thankful to be married to such a great cook. Barbara made an amazing dinner, with turkey and all the trimmings. She brined the turkey, so it was super moist. We also had cornbread stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and brussel sprouts all topped off with a great turkey gravy. I was thankful that Dede and Jesse were able to join us, it was great to have the company. I was thankful for the great berry pie we got from Ja Civas.

Finally, I am thankful that the Longhorns game is over. It was exhausting and I am drained.

Tyson

For an hour and a half, I sat watching the documentary Tyson thinking what could have been.  When he first hit the boxing scene, Mike Tyson had the potential to be the greatest fighter of all time.  He was so powerful and won fights so convincingly, it was scary.  I was a big fight fan when I was younger, and I watched a lot of the old fighters, including most of the big heavy-weight fights from the 70s and 80s.  I have never seen anyone as ferocious and focused as Tyson.  I don't think the film really captured how great he was, but that is probably not the point.  It seems to me they were trying to get inside Tyson's head, to try to find out out why things turned out as they did.

On that level the film is successful.  Tyson is raw and laid open.  You can clearly see this was a young man who was overtaken by the fame and fortune that came his way.  I used to think that if Cus D'Amato had lived a little longer things would have been different for Tyson, and this movie confirmed that thinking.  Cus was the only person Tyson trusted.  Once he died, the downward spiral began.  Tyson was ripped off and played by everyone he interacted with.  He became bitter and he acted out, he had no impulse control.  You can see he is clearly embarrassed by some parts of his life, and feels greatly wronged by others.  If you have ever seen him fight, or at all interested in what makes a person go off the deep end, this movie is a must see. Oh, what could have been.

Wieden+Kennedy Pie Making contest

This is one of my favorite days of the year, the W+K pie contest. As everyone knows, Dan Wieden loves pie, and would rather eat any pie over a piece of cake. So, every year we have a pie making contest that is judged by Mr. Wieden. This year was a little lean in the number of pies, there were only 60; in years past there have been over 80. However, there was still a lot of enthusiasm. The entire agency gathers in the atrium to participate. All the pies are arranged on tables in the middle of the atrium and there are five initial judges per category. If you are are a category winner, you go to the head table where Dan chooses a winner.


There are a lot of people that are very serious about pie making. In fact Allison Bick, who won three years ago, made a pie even though she has left W+K and now works for Nike. There were eight categories this year: berry, apple, specialty apple, wild card, chocolate, pumpkin, cheesecake and one other I can't remember. I had the misfortune of judging the cheesecake category. Most people do not believe that cheesecakes should be allowed in the pie contest, and that was obvious by the two lame entries we got. We did not give a first place, so cheesecake did not get to the top table.

Once the category winners were all announced, we got down to the serious business. Dan stepped up to choose the overall winner. Usually this takes a while as he goes back and forth tasting each one a few times. Not today. As soon as he tasted it, he declared the pumpkin pie the winner. It was a shock to everyone, but I have to say I tried it and it was an awesome pie..

$20 Jeans. Why pay more?

I think I may have said this in the past, but I can not abide paying a lot of money for blue jeans. When I was a kid I wore Toughskins because that is what my mom bought us at Sears. As I got a little older I begged her for a pair of Levis, and when I finally got them I felt like I had graduated. I think that was in fourth or fifth grade, but either way it was a big deal. In high school I faced another jeans decision. Most of the people I went to school with were wearing Wrangler boot cut jeans, or Calvin Klein designer jeans, but I was a Levis 501 guy. I did not and could not fit into either of those other categories. I didn't want to look like a redneck in Wranglers and if James Dean and the Clash wore Levis, that was enough fashion endorsement for me, despite those great Brooke Shields ads from CK.

So, that gets me to where I am today. I will not wear Diesel, Lucky, or any other $200 pair of jeans. I went to the Fred Meyer where they had Levis 505 jeans, normally $44, on sale for $34.99. With my 40% off coupon I paid $21 for my new jeans. That sounds about right to me.

Deschutes Brewery

One of may all-time favorite beers is Deschutes Black Butte Porter. I like it so much, I was able to talk everyone into featuring it in an Oregon Tourism ad a few years ago. At the shoot, we got to tour the brewery and taste a lot of samples. They also have a great little brewhouse tavern down the street from the brewery in Bend, Oregon. So, needless to say I was very happy to see them opening a restaurant and brewhouse in Portland, right down the street from the office.

It is a large, well light space with a modern northwest feel. There are lots of booths and big tables for group lunches or drinks after work. They only serve their own beers, but there are plenty of great ones to choose from. They serve up a good selection of pub foods and pizza. The best way to start is to get the pretzel with white cheddar and mustard dipping sauce, awesome. The pizzas and burgers are really good, I can recommend the Blue Bacon burger, but not the Hawaiian Chicken burger. The Ruben and the Cuban sandwiches are also good.

So next time you are in the Pearl District and you want to get a great beer, stop by Deschutes.

Deschutes Brewery & Public House

210 NW 11th Ave

Portland, OR 97209

(503) 296-4906

Facebooked

I love Facebook, it is great to hook up with friends you haven't talked to in a long time and not really have to talk to them. That said, it does have it's downsides. I am learning how to block people that send you Mafia Wars updates all the time and people who like to broadcast their political views, but what do you do with beloved friends who start posting old pictures?

One of my favorite people from college, Scott Cain, had some time on his hands and he scanned in a bunch of pictures from the old days, several of which featured me. I guess it could have been worse, but it's weird that all the people you work with can now see pictures of you from 20 years ago. I guess it's my fault for friending all of them.

Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Sessions

The Cowboy Junkies are one of my all time favorite bands. I first saw them live in Austin in 1989, and they were so quite and shy on stage it looked like they were in pain. More recently they have played a few gigs at the Portland Zoo and the lead singer Margo Timmins stayed on stage after the show and talked to fans. Quite a turn around. The Trinity Sessions was the band's first major record release and was followed by another great effort, 1989's The Caution Horses. The Trinity Sessions got a lot of critical acclaim, but it never took off sales wise. One of their best know songs is a cover of Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane" that Lou called the best interpretation of any of his songs he has ever heard.

The band has continued to record and tour, despite not having a record label deal for years. You can order "Cowboy Junk" directly from their Latent Recordings website, they have a great selection of CDs, DVDs, videos, tour info, etc. You can also sign up to get their newsletter. They are the only band I have ever sent a note and gotten a real response back.

My Grandmother has Worms

I think I have talked about school field trips on the bus before, but to refresh your memory, Portland schools do not have yellow buses, so kids take public transit to school and on field trips. Every so often, 20 or so kids will get on the bus at around 36th street and ride downtown to a museum, the library, or wherever. Usually it is not too big of a deal, but if the bus is full it can be a tight squeeze. This morning was one of those days. One of the teachers was sitting next to me and a couple of kids were in front of us sharing the seat with an older lady. The teacher kept asking the kids questions about where they lived and what high school they would be going to. This led one of the girls to start talking about her grandma:

Girl: They put my grandma in a home, she things she's sick.
Teacher: What's wrong with her?
Girl: She's a hypochondriac.
Teacher: How do you know she's not sick?
Girl: She says she has worms.
Old Lady: People can have worms.
Teacher: When I was a kid growing up in the south we wore shoes so we wouldn't get worms in our feet.
Girl: What?
Old Lady: They cut people open all the time and find worms.
Girl: What?
Old Lady: She probably really has worms and they are driving her crazy. You need to help her.

Il Piatto

Il Piatto is one of the first restaurants we went to when we moved to Portland back in 1995; back when Italian restaurants dominated the landscape. It has always been know as a romantic, cozy place with good food and wine. We had not been there for years, and unfortunately our return visit last Saturday night did not live up to the memories. We got off to a bad start, as our table was very small and way too close to our neighbors. The waitstaff also seemed a little disinterested. Another big disappointment was how well lit the place was, it had lost it's intimate charm and romance. It didn't help that we were sitting across from a door that led to their bar, where a live band was playing. Every time one of the waiters opened the door, we'd get blown out by the music (and for some reason they opened the door a lot).

So, most importantly how was the food? In short it was mixed. One of their old standby appetizers, the portobella con polenta, was still great. But the entree pastas were not. We both got the chicken linguine and it was ridiculously sweet, so much so that it was hard to eat. Luckily we got a fantastic sangiovese off the wine menu, where they were featuring five nice choices for $25 or less, to drown out the food.

Il Piatto
2348 SE Ankeny St
Portland, OR 97214-1627
(503) 236-4997

Trapped on Hyper Island

I just finished a three day master class in all things digital. It was taught by Hyper Island, a two-year university course in Sweden focused on on-line related technologies, products, services and businesses. The Hyper Island Master Class is designed to increase knowledge and competence among its participants, through short-term and intensive courses, when it comes to understanding interactive and digital media and the effective use of it. We spent three days from 9 AM to 7 PM, in the W+K cafeteria (luckily it was rainy outside, so we didn't feel like we were missing too much). There were several guest speakers and a lot of small group exercises, but the most productive part in my opinion was the talk amongst the group about how we can change our business to be more digitally savvy.

Since I have been back at work a lot of people have been asking, what did you learn? This is a hard question to answer as there was a lot of stuff we covered and most of it was big picture. How would we staff or organize the agency differently to be more digitally focused? How can we think about things differently, so we make sure we are addressing digital in everything we do? That said, here are a couple of interesting things to think about:

How good is your network? If all you are getting from your network (twitter, facebook, etc.) is boring updates on Mafia Wars, then change it. Start following people that are pertinent to your life and work On twitter you can follow anyone, so look for experts in your field or people who are doing things you find interesting. It is amazing how much cool (and free) info is out there.

Speaking of interesting free info, check out quantcast.com and kosmix.com. These sites give you lots of interesting info about your competitors sites, who is using them, how they got there, and other interesting demographic info.

Lastly, start thinking about how you can combine existing technologies and ideas to make better stuff. Bread and slicing had both been around for a while before someone put them together and started selling sliced bread. If you combined concert info with your iTunes library, you could get an alert on your iPhone whenever tickets were going on sale for your favorite bands. Unfortunately, that one will have to wait until Apple loosens access to iTunes by outside apps.

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On

Released in 1971, What's Going On was a game changer. Up until this record Marvin Gaye was a prolific hit maker for Motown Records. He had written or sung over 30 top 40 hits and was married to Motown Founder Berry Gordy's sister. However this was the first "political" record that Motown released, over Gordy's strong objections. It was very personal and introspective, as Gaye channeled his anger over poverty, racism and his objections to the Vietnam War. He was deeply influenced by his brother Frankie who was recently returned combat vet. Gaye was vindicated when the title track reached the number two spot in 1971, and both of the follow-ups, "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" and "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," also reached the Top Ten. The album's success guaranteed Gaye continued artistic control over his work and helped loosen the reins for other Motown artists.

David Kennedy's Art Show

David Kennedy is one of the founders of Wieden+Kennedy and also one of my favorite people. He was a great art director in his day (he is in the hall of fame), but he is also a multi-talented artist. He has done a lot of amazing paintings and taken some great pictures over the years, but I guess his first love was metal work. He has a show opening tonight in the W+K lobby, and the work is beautiful. Several pieces are influenced by his love of Native American culture. If you have the chance, please drop by and take a look.

Red Coach

Any "best burger" in Portland discussion should include Red Coach. Located in the every more grimy looking Pioneer Place area off Broadway, this Portland mainstay delivers the goods. You want to order the Karl's Special - a cheeseburger, fries and a soda for $8.95. The burgers are old school, cooked on the grill and the fries are great.

Red Coach opened on 3rd and Alder in downtown Portland in 1958. The long-time owners retired last year and turned the operation over to their daughter, but there are still a lot of friendly people to take your order and the service is fast. I added an excellent strawberry shake to my order, my only gripe is that the large shake cost $6. If you like old school diners, you'll love the look here; lots of red leather booths. I think there are other things on the menu, but there is no need to depart from the Karl's .

Red Coach Restaurant
615 SW Broadway

Portland, OR

(503) 227-4840

Method Putter

Yesterday Nike Golf put 100 special edition Method putters on sale for $500. The putter comes in a really cool box and you can get your initials engraved on it as well. You also get to talk to a custom fitter to make sure you get the right length and lie. The putters sold out in two and a half hours. The rest of us can buy one for $200-$250 on February 1st, but you won't get the cool box and plaque.

Murata Restaurant

If you are looking for ambiance, Murata is not the place. It looks like most of the sushi bars I saw in Tokyo about 15 years ago. Clean, overly well lit and boring. But, if you are looking for good Japanese food this is the place. The sushi menu is short, but super authentic. The sushi chefs are really Japanese; Mr. Murata hardly speaks any English. The waitress is also Japanese and although she speaks good English, I am sure she would prefer if all the clientele were Japanese.

It is a little more expensive than the average sushi place, but I think it is worth it. It has often been voted the best Japanese restaurant in Portland, but it still flies under the radar due to the crappy location and the poor ambiance. However, the people who know, know. It was voted one of the best restaurants in town by other Portland chefs in Portland Monthly. We had not been there for years so it was great to see that the food was still top notch. We had the toro, spicy tuna roll, yellow tail, fresh salmon, scallop and fresh water eel. All the sushi was amazing, and we probably over ordered as the portions were a good size. The one disappointment was the seaweed salad, which had three kinds of seaweed, but not much taste. For a little taste of Tokyo, you should check out Murata, but be sure to make a reservation.

Murata Restaurant
200 SW Market St.

Portland, OR 97201

(503) 227-0080