Sunday, November 26, 2006

Amanda Congdon - "Dance Across America" Is Silly Fun

This is a down right silly vlog. But for some reason I can't put my finger on, I liked it. The music is kitch, and so is the whole concept, but it works at what I presume it's supposed to do -- catch your attention for a moment.

Check it out...

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Lincoln Mark 9 - The Car Ford Must Build To Save The Lincoln Brand




Over the past 10 years, Ford Motor Company has ruined the Lincoln brand simply by robbing it of its identity forged over 40 years. Lincolns were always luxury cars and not trucks or SUVs. Yet in its unreasonable march to have an SUV for every taste Ford wrecked Lincoln and paid less attention to its signature brands the Town Car and the Mark series.

These cars were the backbone of Lincoln for years. Bill Ford may say that they don't do well in focus groups, but I counter that Ford took the passion out of them. That has transfered to Mercedes and BMW, and if they can make cars that stir the soul, why can't Ford make a Lincoln that shakes the blood.

A Lincoln like the Mark 9 Concept car. A car introduced in 2001 that Ford still has not made. No wonder observers are betting on Ford's demise; they don't roll the dice and make cars like this. This would -- with the proper marketing -- save Ford and reclaim Lincolns's position as a luxury brand against Cadillac.

Jim Mora Sr. Is Off-Base: Is This Because Michael Vick's Black?



Recently, Jim Mora Sr. made a comment that Michael Vick was a "coach killer." I really think that's an off-base statement, and I've got to wonder to what degree Michael Vick's skin color has to do with this. I mean if Mora Sr. was the coach of the Falcons, would he have started, let alone draft Vick?

I say no.

I state this based on a lot of drive-time hours spent listening to the elder Mora on Fox. One day, Mora said that he'd routinely hire any coach with an Italian last name. He did say this, went on and on about it, and I fumed. I was thinking "I guess that's a weird way of saying he'd never give a young black head coach a chance."

Wow.

So I immediately formed the view that the elder Mora may have a race issue that clouds how he sees NFL talent, including Michael Vick. Mr. Mora, I've got news, the problem with the Falcons passing game rests in the design of the passing game, not in Michael Vick.

I was just watching the NFL Network's telecast replay of the Falcons / Ravens game of last Sunday. I noticed that the passes called by Mora Junior's staff -- Greg Knapp -- were all five or seven step drops or play action. No three step drops. None of the quick passes to receivers who are standing on the line of scrminage. Nothing to take the pressure off the Falcons offensive line. Nothing.

The passes were the same one's I've seen the Falcons run game after game -- in other words, they're predictable.

So when the passing pocket collapsed, as did happen often, Vick was forced to run.

This is bad coaching in action. The Falcons are great at designing running plays for Vick, but terrible -- and I mean just bad -- at creating a great passing system.

And Michael Vick gets blamed for a problem that would have given backup Matt Schaub a separated shoulder.

Geez.

The Falcons need to fix their passing game, before it's too late.

Jim Mora Says Michael Vick Is A "Coach Killer" - AP



I will comment on this in a separate post, but here's the news. I think Jim Sr's way off base here.

Vick 'speechless' after coach's father rips him
Falcons rally around Vick after elder Mora calls QB a 'coach killer'

Chris Gardner / AP
Falcons quarterback Michael Vick has struggled in the last three games. Earlier this week, Jim Mora's father labeled Vick as a "coach killer" on his radio show.

Updated: 2:02 p.m. AKT Nov 22, 2006

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. - The Atlanta Falcons closed ranks around embattled quarterback Michael Vick, who was clearly stunned by reports that Jim Mora’s father referred to No. 7 as a “coach killer.”

Vick said Wednesday that he shut off his cell phone because he was getting so many calls about comments made by Mora’s father, a former NFL coach who shares the same name with his son.

“Honestly, I don’t even know what to say,” Vick said. “I think it was inappropriate. But, hey, when you’re commentating, I guess you’ve got a right to say what you want to say. I just keep playing football. At the same time, it’s crazy.”

Earlier this week, during his show on Fox Sports Radio, the elder Mora agreed with the co-host’s description of Vick as a “coach killer.”

“It worries me a little bit because my son is the head coach down there,” Mora added. “But he’s a great athlete, my son likes him a lot, he’s a good kid. But he’s not a passer. And you need a passer at quarterback to be successful consistently in the National Football League. And he ain’t getting it done in that category.”

The younger Mora said he’s spoken with his father about the statement — “he regrets it” — and went to great lengths to show that he’s still got faith in his quarterback, despite a three-game losing streak that has severely hurt the Falcons’ playoff hopes.

Jason Calacanis Ponders His Next Gig After AOL



Jason Calacanis -- pictured here at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business -- the man credited with putting New York City's growing digital media industry on the map of popular culture and who sold his network of weblogs to AOL for $25 million, is pondering his next job having quit AOL just over a week ago.

On his blog, Jason lists the following possibilities:

1. Weblogs, Inc. of Podcasting
2. Weblogs, Inc of Video
3. Run NickDenton.net: all Nick Denton news all the time.
4. Become a professional poker player.
5. Buy CNET/Become CEO of CNET (no offer has been made--really)
6. Buy an ailing newspaper, reinvent.
6. Become a VC
7. Put 100% of my energy into CalacanisCast/JasonNation
8. Take a job at a Hollywood agency and start over in the movie business
9. Do a media roll-up (i.e. buy 20 small to medium-sized media properties and take get them to scale)
10. Partner with Peter Rojas and start a gadget company (i.e. a non-DRM, wifi enabled, Mp3/Media player)
You guys have any ideas?

If you do visit his blog, which you can do by clicking on the link to it from this post..

Friday, November 24, 2006

Ticketmaster Sells $500 New England Patriots Tickets, Yet Not Being Sued

Yep. That's right. The New England Patriots are suing StubHub, which isn't a ticket brokerage but an exchange and does have below face tickets posted for many events, for allowing the sale of high priced tickets for up to and over $500.

Well, Ticketmaster has tickets for the Chicago Bears' visit to New England for $500, but you want to know why the New England Patriots aren't suing them?

Because they benefit from it. Check out this link to the proof with a click on this sentence.

This lawsuit should be thrown out of court. Ticketmaster's probably behind the scenes pulling the chains of unknowning Boston fans who want lower ticket prices, yet don't know what to do.

The simple fact is that Ticketmaster's own online system is getting the sales tar beaten out of it by StubHub's and Ticketmaster can't stand it. Ticketmaster wants to be the only ticket brokerage and seeing StubHub, which is not a brokerage but a simple market exchange online, as a threat to its survival.

Folks, don't be fooled by the Patriots or Ticketmaster in this lawsuit, they're not trying to do the fans a favor at all. At least that's my reasoned and experienced view.

New England Patriots Sue StubHub - Profootballtalk.com's Latest Report

Profootballtalk.com may have rolled up it's sleaves -- and it does this well -- but it totally misdiagosed the entire matter of the New England Patriots' lawsuit against StubHub. First of all, and this shows just how dumb the lawsuit is, StubHub can't "induce" a season ticket holder to scalp. In no ad material does StubHub encourage any ticket poster to do this. So if the Pat's lawsuit focuses on this idea, it's wrongheaded.

Second, Profootballtalk.com claims that 30 tickets per game sold at StubHub's sites are fake -- but that's not StubHub's fault as many ticket brokers are guilty of selling fraudulent tickets and try to use StubHub to do this; Stubhub's the only company that actually does have a money-back guarantee to protect this. Ticketmaster has no such program, which brings me to Ticketmaster.

Ticketmaster is a true ticket brokerage, period. They've even told high-priced secondary ticket market tickets to Presidential inuagurations. But why isn't Ticketmaster, which sells nothing but at or over face value tickets, being sued? Because it has a contractual relationship with the New England Patriots. For example, Ticketmaster has tickets for the upcoming Patriots / Bears game for up to $500, far in access of the face value for the ticket. Why isn't Ticketmaster the focus of the lawsuit? Well, because the site where the tickets are sold belongs to Ticketmaster and the New England Patriots.

Check it out for yourself. If one know's what to look for, what appeared to be a lawsuit based on the idea of stopping ticket scalping, turns out to be a tool to clear the competition for Ticketmaster, leaving them to jack up prices.

Nice.

Here's Profootballtalk.com..


MORE ON PATS' SCALPING SUIT

We've rolled up our sleeves and tracked down some more information regarding the lawsuit filed on Tuesday by the New England Patriots against online ticket scalping company StubHub.

Okay, actually the stuff kind of fell into our laps but, hey, we take what we can get.

The action, as we understand it, isn't an effort by the team to attack the near-universal and long-standing practice of people selling tickets to sporting events for value greater than the price printed on the thing. Whether it's a guy with a computer or a laminated piece of cardboard with "I NEED TICKETS" in block letters, someone always will be looking to make a buck (or a few hundred) via the re-selling of seats.

The Patriots are focusing on a more specific dynamic -- the focused efforts of StubHub to induce season-ticket holders to engage in activities that violate their individual agreements with the franchise.

Put simply, the folks who have secured the ability to buy tickets to all Patriots home games agree not to re-sell the tickets at an increased price. For individuals who can't use their tickets to a given game, the team maintains a waiting list of folks who can acquire the tickets at face value, plus a relatively small service charge from Ticketmaster.

StubHub, we're told, was placed on notice of these contractual rights and responsibilities, yet has continued to induce season ticket holders to breach their agreements via specific advertisements in publications like the Boston Globe, which ads contain messages like "Are you a Patriots season-ticket holder who can't sell your tickets?"

The prevalence of the advertising efforts caused the organization to become concerned that the franchise is condoning the practice. The other problem is that some of the tickets bought and sold through StubHub are counterfeit. Per a source with knowledge of the situation, roughly 30 tickets per game purchased via StubHub end up being phony. And although StubHub eventually refunds the money, the consumers typically must jump through multiple hoops to make it happen.

Thus, one of the claims in the lawsuit is that StubHub has tortiously interfered with the team's relationship with its season-ticket holders, and the primary goal is to get the company to stop the practice. Any damages recovered will go to the Patriots Charitable Foundation, not to the team itself.

With all that said, the decision of the Patriots to pursue the action against StubHub creates a real risk that the media will begin to scrutinize more carefully the involvement of teams in the scalping of tickets -- including the widespread manner in which some teams turn profits on the sale of Super Bowl seats. But it appears that StubHub backed the Patriots into a corner on this one, and it should prompt any NFL team that maintains a relationship with StubHub to re-examine the wisdom of dealing with a company that might have provoked a course of action that, depending on how the dominoes fall, could eventually make it harder to realize those late January windfalls.