Kill Facebook

Kill Facebook. One of the best bumper stickers I have seen in a long time. This was on a nice Lexus SUV with a middle-aged woman driving. We are going to send this to our Facebook sales rep.

World Cup Update

As always, I either have nothing going on or all the fun stuff happening at once. On Saturday morning I was on the golf course, so I missed the US vs. Ghana. Luckily there was a replay on ESPN 2 when I got home, unfortunately the US lost that one too. It was a tough way to go out as I really felt like the US was the better team. That said, I read that the US only lead for three minutes in all their games in this year's World Cup. That is not a great statistic. Their slow starts were killing them. The team that scored first had won 35 of 40 games, which seems to prove, it is hard to come back and win at this level.

The tough question is where the US goes from here? The hope was that they'd get into the quarter or semi-finals and that this breakthrough would final popularize the game at home. Now another mediocre performance will have the casual US fans tuning out for the rest of the games, which is a shame as there are some amazing teams left in this Wold Cup.

At this point I would have to say Germany is the favorite to win it all, as they destroyed a good England team. Argentina is also a serious contender as the mad genius Maradona seems to be working some kind of magic with the three best front men in the game and a dodgy defense. South America's perennial powerhouse Brazil, can not be left out of this discussion either. They may not be the glamorous team of years gone by, but they can score in an instant and play good defense.

Should be an exciting couple of weeks, I only wish the US was still part of it.

Chambers Bay

Today we were lucky enough to be invited along on a Nike Golf trip to play Chambers Bay golf course in Tacoma Washington. Chambers Bay just opened three years ago and is still coming into play, but it has already been selected the site of the 2010 US Amateur and the the 2015 US Open Championship.

The course is a links style set up running along the Puget Sound. It is a old rock quarry that has been rehabbed by the city into a first class golf destination. It is a walking only course, but it is not a perfect layout for walking, as there is a lot of space between some of the holes and there is one place in particular where they have a cart that transfers you to the next tee. There is also a lot of ups and downs on the course, so you need to be in good shape to play it.

The piece of ground they have for the course is beautiful and the views of the Sound are amazing. The course reminded me a lot of the Castle Course in St. Andrews, which was also built along the water and has a lot of mounds in the fairways. The greens are a lot fairer at Chambers which makes the course more playable. We should have made it around in four hours, as we had a couple of caddies per foursome, but it got bogged down on the back nine and ended up being closer to five hours.

If you are taking a golf trip in the PNW, Chambers Bay is a must play. Start in Seattle and work your way down the coast to Bandon.

Ball Four by Jim Bouton

I love sports books and one of my all time favorites is Ball Four by Jim Bouton. This was the first book by an athlete that took you behind the scenes to see what baseball was really like. Up until Ball Four was published most sports biographies were all nice, flattering tales of great athletes having a wholesome time on the ball field. Jim Bouton, a pitcher in his declining years with the NY Yankees, blew the lid off the paradigm. He talked about the fights, the drinking, the racial bigotry, and how the players really felt about making personal appearances - they hated meeting fans. He also tells a great story of his struggles to stay in the big leagues as he resorts to a knuckle-ball when his fastball starts to elude him.

Beaverton Sub Station

For those of you who think that Beaverton is just strip malls and chain restaurants, I give you a little gem, the Beaverton Sub Station. Tucked away in old Beaverton, between all the car dealers is a sub shop that has been around for ever. The sandwiches are piled high with meat and cheese and the prices don't seem to have gone up since they first opened. You can get a loaded 12" sub for around $5. But, if you order a 12" sandwich you better be hungry. I went with two big eaters and they only got half way through.

Beaverton Sub Station
12448 SW Broadway St.
Beaverton, OR 97005
503-641-SUBS

Big Shoe

I saw this in a Beaverton shoe repair shop the other day and felt like it deserved to be shared.

Ponzi Vineyards

As part of the Nike Golf Brand Summit meeting, we had a nice dinner and wine tasting at the Ponzi Vineyard. It is a great place to visit because it is only a 15-20 minute drive from Beaverton. Unfortunately they are moving the tasting room up into the hills where the vast majority of the vineyards are, so this space will only be available for private dinners. If you are looking for a place to have a nice party, I would highly recommend Ponzi. The chef they had working the BBQ was amazing. We had steak, salmon on a plank, and an amazing pulled pork, plus it is a quite and soothing setting just a few minutes past the strip malls.

A little history: Dick and Nancy Ponzi moved to the Willamette Valley in the late 1960s with a passion for making world class Pinot Noir. After many research trips to Burgundy and an extensive search for the ideal location, they purchased 20 acres on a small farm just southwest of Portland, Oregon. It was a daring risk — at the time, the Pacific Northwest was not thought to be a place to grow Pinot Noir, but Dick and Nancy realized the Northern Willamette Valley's climate was ideal for cool climate varieties. Pinot Noir cuttings were planted, and in 1970 Ponzi Vineyards was founded. The methods, philosophies and winemaking passion established more than 40 years ago are still practiced today under the family's second generation.

Ponzi Vineyard
14665 SW Winery Lane
Beaverton, OR 97007-8773
(503) 628-1227

Driving in a Mirror

A strange thing happened to me today. I pulled up to a stop sign behind a huge tanker truck and it's polished steel was like driving behind a mirror. I followed it for a few blocks as it was very cool to see my car driving along. Don't worry, I took the picture when we were stopped.

Gruner

Once again Alistair Campbell, the dean of Portland restaurant knowledge, came through with another great restaurant recommendation. Gruner is a pretty unique place, and in a crowded market like Portland, I applaud anyone that is able to stand out. Here is how they describe themselves: Grüner is an adventure through the Alps and along the Danube River which begins in the Black Forest and ends at the Black Sea. As it passes through Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Romania, an alternate Europe emerges, with a hearty, earthier culinary tradition favoring savory, dill, caraway seeds, crème fraîche, horseradish and paprika as opposed to the more familiar southern flavors of garlic, basil, olive oil, fennel seeds and tomato. This rich variety of cuisines is woven together by seasons and mountains and rivers—much like the Pacific Northwest.

We started with some great cocktails, my favorite was their take on the Pimms Cup, the Gruner Cup, which was amazing. The apps were also very good, I would recommend the tarte fl ambée — alsatian “pizza” w/ onions, smoky bacon & crème fraîche, and the beet-pickled hard boiled eggs, which were their take on the deviled egg. For entrees we tried the spätzle - braised chicken, morels, shiitakes, riesling, thyme, crème fraîche, crispy shallots, and an amazing ravioli. Then to top it off there were two delicious deserts, the German Apple Pancake and raspberry filled doughnuts.

In other good news, the service was excellent and the prices were fair. The only challenge is the wine list which is dominated by German and Austrian wines that none of us had heard of, but luckily the waitress came through with a great recommendation.

Gruner

527 Southwest 12th Avenue,

Portland, OR

(503) 241-7163

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

It feels like a cliche to have Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger on this list, but the truth is it is a great book and you should not go through life without reading it. Just so you know, I am not the only one who thinks this; it was included on Time Magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923 and the Modern Library named it one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. I enjoyed reading it in college and re-read it a few years ago and it still held up.

I think Oprah must have had it on her reading list as I saw it is back on the best sellers list at Powell's Books. That said, it has been one of the consistently best selling books since it came out in 1951 averaging around 250,000 books a year according to Wikipedia.

US Open Day

We are in the midst of a pretty great sports weekend. The World Cup is in full swing with the US playing tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM PT, the Lakers and Celtics paying a game seven for the NBA Championship, and the US Open at Pebble Beach, where Tiger Woods won by 15 strokes the last time they held it there.

To help fuel excitment for the Open, many golf courses around the country have a US Open day, where they set the course up to play as hard as possible. Our club is no exception. Today we had the tees all the way back and the hardest pin placements available. The rough was also a little longer and the greens a little faster than normal. I always look forward to playing this set up as it is a great challenge for me to try to break 100. Unfortunately I got off to a bad start with a triple and two doubles, shooting a 54 on the front nine. I played a little better on the back nine, but still missed a lot of puts for a 48, bringing my grand total to 102.

Retiring Early

Mitzy McCallum (pictured on the left) is retiring today after working for Nike for 20 years. She has been one of our Nike Golf clients for longer than I have worked on the business, and has always been great at working with us to get all the athletes fitted out for TV and print shoots and taking us through all the latest apparel product updates. She may look a little young to be retiring, but she has decided to spend more time with her eight and five year-old kids. We are all very jealous.

Big 12 Survives

In a complete surprise move the Big 12 conference has managed to survive with 10 teams - Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State. When Colorado bolted to the Pac 10, I thought for sure all the rest of the Big 12 South, excluding Baylor, would follow to form the new Pac 16. Then with Nebraska applying to join the Big 10 it seemed like a done deal.

Somehow the Big 12 came back with promises that UT, A&M and OU would be guaranteed $20 million a year in TV rights (still smaller than what SEC teams make) and that UT could pursue their own TV network, something the Pac 10 does not allow.

In a way it makes sense. They'll loose the Big 12 Championship game and now the UT vs. OU game will essentially be played for a BCS bowl bid every year. Why compete with 15 other teams for a BCS bowl game, when you can compete against nine. It also keeps the Aggie game intact, as one of the scenarios had the Farm School going to the SEC. I didn't understand the logic in this as the Aggies suck in the Big 12 and they want to move to a harder league?

So now the remaining questions. Will the Big 12 and Big 10 change names and they have the opposite number of teams? Will the Big 12 expand to get back to 12 teams, so they can keep the championship game and the money it brings? If so, will they invite TCU, Rice and UH back and recreate the Southwest Conference days?

Longhorns Season Over

The baseball season is officially over for me. The Longhorns lost to TCU in the Austin Super Regional showdown over the weekend in a best of three match up. I was pretty concerned when TCU won the first game Friday as their pitching looked great, but then the Horns came back and won the Saturday game 14-1. Unfortunately the TCU pitching dominated again on Sunday and the Horned Frogs won 4-1. It was a great season for the Longhorns who went 50-13, with a stretch where they won a record setting 21 games in a row.

It is a shame Texas had to face TCU in the Super Regional, as both teams were ranked in the top 5 and should have been at the College World Series. I think the regional game format needs to be redone as there are too many good teams in the southwest knocking each other out and lesser teams making it to the CWS.

My yard is a Nuisance

If you live in Portland you (hopefully) know that you are responsible for the sidewalk in front of or behind your house. That means you have to clear it of snow in the winter, overgrown plants and grass in the summer and you also have to repair any chips or cracks in the sidewalk. Last week we got a notice that the overgrown weeds and trees were causing a nuisance and we had to clear them so the entire sidewalk was accessible up to seven and a half feet.

So I spent the day out there clearing everything and cutting down the low hanging limbs. It was a nice day so I had to stop as all the joggers and walkers went by; I kept apologizing telling them it would be better next time they came by. I got my area looking good, but as I was walking back to the house I saw how bad some of the other neighbors sidewalks looked. Given their lack of interest in their yards, I doubt they will do anything and will probably have to pay a $300 fine.

Pepino's Mexican Grill

It always pains me when I have a bad meal, especially on a Friday night out. I get excited about trying new places and I guess the cost of that is sometimes they are not going to be good. Pepino's Mexican Grill is not good. They have a great location on SE Hawthorne across from Cinemagic, where Ken's Home plate used to be, but they are not capitalizing on it. We tried a wide range of their offerings from the fajitas to enchiladas to the tamales and everything tasted like it was bought a week ago and heated up in the microwave. There was no flavor to any of the food, it was all bland and tasted like cardboard.

I know they have several locations around town, but it is hard to imagine any of them being better.

Pepino's Mexican Grill
3832 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 236-5000

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

You've read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, right? I think we were all supposed to read it in high school. I loved the book (and the movie). I love calling any quite and withdrawn person Boo Radley. I love that there is a band called the Boo Radleys. I love that Harper Lee never wrote another book and that she is a recluse, so the kids who live next door to her think she is Boo Radley. And most importantly I love that there will be a special 50th edition of this book published this year. If you haven't read it, get hold of a nice old paperback, then put the 1962 film version with Gregory Peck on your Netflicks list.

Holey Shoe

We have been experiencing biblical like rain here in Portland for the last few weeks and there is nothing I can think of that would be worse than a hole in your shoe in this weather.

Get him to the Greek

Jonah Hill and Russell Brand, how can Get him to the Greek not be funny, right? Well it was funny in parts and it was slow in parts. This movie made me realize the genius of The Hangover. Sometimes it's funnier not to show the craziness, because you are always going to build it up as even more crazy in your mind. In The Hangover, we don't see what happened that night until the credits roll, and by that time we are so hyped we really don't care any more. We have already built it into the greatest night in the history of Vegas.

This is where Get him to the Greek lets us down. We follow Jonah Hill's record industry flunky character as he tries to get rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) from his drug den in London to a come back concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. There is a lot of partying and wildness along the way, as well as some sentimental moments as Hill's character is experiencing girl problems. The thing is that the wildness and partying is never as crazy on screen as it is in our imagination. While it is funny, it's like a sugar rush, it soon fades and leaves us feeling a little down.

The best thing about this movie is the crazy record company president, Sergio Roma, played to the hilt by Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. His character is so believably insane, that you sometimes wonder if they let the camera's roll and he's just playing out his life. He also has one of the best lines of the movie, and as with any Apatow Joint, there are a lot of great lines. He is talking to his staff about needing to make more money, when he says, "I have six kids. Do you know how many Air Jordans six black kids go through?" Who knew P. Diddy was so funny.

Head Injury

This fella was sitting in front of me on the bus today. At first I thought, wow that is an amazingly large scar. Then after a while I started wondering what happened to this guy and if he suffered major brain damage. You know the brain is an amazing thing, you can loose large parts of it, and it often compensates with other parts of the brain taking over. Unfortunately this guy never turned around, or really even moved on the entire trip downtown, so I have no idea how functional he is.

Sushi Mazi

After the fundraiser last night we stopped by a new sushi place called Sushi Mazi on lower SE Division. This area is becoming very popular with lots of new bars, restaurants and some now famous places like Pok Pok and Nuestra Cocina.

Overall the sushi was good. We did not order a lot as we were not super hungry and that was a good thing as the super rock and roll (Shrimp tempura wrapped inside roll., topped with
spicy tuna &crunchy sweet mango and krab) was giant. In fact we could have just had that and been satisfied. The space is small, but cozy and the waitress was very nice. I think it is a great addition to have a sushi place in this area, you can probably eat your way around the world now.

Sushi Mazi
2126 SE Division
503-432-8651

Lost Dogs

Several months ago I was asked to talk on a panel about film marketing. It was a little strange in that everyone else there was making low budget, independent films and all I have worked on is one big budget, Hollywood production. That said, it was still an interesting afternoon. After the panel was over, a producer came up to me and asked for some advice on fund raising for a film she was working on. I had to admit that I didn't know anything about fund raising, but that I'd be happy to help with any marketing as it was about my favorite topic, dogs.

Last night we were invited to a fund raiser to help get the movie finished. It was held at my office and although the turn out was light, the people there seemed very engaged. The film is about homeless and free roaming dogs in Chile and how the government deals with them. In short, they poison them. It is a pretty horrible situation. The director's hope is that the film will raise awareness for homeless dogs and cats around the world. As people become educated to the problem, humane societies spring up, spay and neuter programs get started, and animals start to have happier lives. Who wouldn't want to support that?

If you would like to watch the trailer or find out more info, check out the Lost Dogs website. Be warned it is pretty graphic and a little sad.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

When I finished reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon I had to double check that it truly was fiction. As the title suggests, it is an amazing story of two characters, Kavalier and Clay, who build a comic book empire during it's golden age around WW II. It is an amazingly well written page turner. It feels like a fictionalized history novel, but the characters are totally out of Chabon's imagination.

I have had mixed feelings about Chabon's books over the years. Wonder Boys was almost unreadable, but The Yiddish Policemen Union is excellent. K&C is one of the best American novels of the 20th century, and I am not alone in this opinion, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001.

Storm Drains

Today I met with an Environmental Tech. from the city to get the storm drains that caused our flood cleaned out. She was very helpful and promised to get them cleaned up very quickly, so we'll see how that goes. As it turns out, if you want anything done in Portland, you have to go to your councilman. For years I have been calling the city and leaving messages to clear out the drains and nothing happened, then with one phone call I have someone over at the house making things happen.

As you can see from the pictures I have posted we have one storm drain that is a swimming pool at the top of the street, and the one right under it is plugged too and the water just flows right over it. By the time the water gets to the bottom of the street it doesn't take to much to clog a drain and put a lot of pressure on the one in front of our house. Hopefully this will make a difference.

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played with Fire is the second in a trilogy of books by Stieg Larsson. Unfortunately he died shortly after delivering the manuscripts, so there will only ever be three books, despite his plan to publish 10 or more.

The NY Times recently published a very interesting article about the author, "The Afterlife of Stieg Larsson" which details the fight between his family and his common law wife over the rights to his book. It is actually quite sad, it turns out that Sweden does not recognize common law marriage, despite the fact that no one there gets married, so his "wife" has no legal rights over the published books or an unfinished manuscript. There are also some juicy conspiracy theories that the wife actually wrote or rewrote large parts of the book, because many people just don't believe Larsson was a good enough writer to put this trilogy together.

Here is where I think we confuse good writing with huge book sales. Neither this book nor the first in the trilogy, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, is a work of great fiction. They are page turners, they have a captivating plot and interesting characters, but they don't belong on the shelf with Carver and Elmore. They are a great summer read, that probably would never have gotten any noteriety if the author had lived. In fact it took for ever to get them out of Sweden.

So make sure you read Dragon Tattoo before you jump in here, it'll be more rewarding if you know the back story and a few of the characters. That said, there are plenty of new and interesting characters in Fire. Lisbeth Salander, our heroin from the first novel, is implicated in a triple murder and while there was little doubt in my mind that she ever did it, it was a hell of a lot fun finding out who did.