Lakers v. Celtics: the Celtics talk too much

The Los Angeles Lakers and The Boston Celtics are back to assure great NBA TV ratings and give Boston and LA yet another version of the same reason to hate each other.

In the past, these Lakers Celtics NBA Finals contests have went so far as to divide the country with whites and conservatives cheering for the Celtics because Larry Bird played for them, and blacks and hipsters rooting for the Lakers.

Today, Doc Rivers, who's black, is the coach of the Celtics, and all of their star players are black. The Celtics have the spice and the swagger. The Lakers, by contrast, have the Zen Master that is Phil Jackson coaching them in the NBA Finals for the third straight year, and has reached the NBA Finals remarkable 13 times.

Phil Jackson has learned a thing or three along this remarkable path of success; something the Celtics' Doc Rivers and the Celtics team should learn. When to talk. For the Lakers, Phil Jackson does the talking during The Finals; for the Celtics, it's everyone from Doc Rivers to the water boy. The Celtics talk too much.

Take Ramona Shelburne's ESPN article from LA and Rachel Nichols's TV segment. The Celtics, in responding to Jackson's statement that the Celtics play a smack down game, offered Rivers view, Ray Allen's view, and Kevin Garnett's view.

Then there was the Celtics' Paul Pierce, who offered this blast:

I really don't have no friends on the Lakers. I don't know who on this Boston team does. So it's going to be interesting. I'm not going to say it's going to come to blows, but it's definitely going to get fiery and it's going to get real competitive.

The Boston Celtics have done a lot of talking over the course of this week. What the Celtics need to do is shut up and play basketball.

Steve Jobs Apple iPad will not save journalism

Charlie Sheen's iPad will have a lot more than Old Media apps

At the All Things D Conference on Tuesday, Steve Jobs was asked the now all-too-familar question: "Will the iPad save journalism." Rather than chuckle or make the All Things D interviewers Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher look stupid, Jobs gave an answer that was essentially feeding them catnip. Jobs said:

We have a lot of goals for it, but one of my beliefs very strongly is that any democracy depends on a free, healthy press...I think we need editorial now more than ever," he said. One way to overcome the economic hurdle is for people to pay for content, he added, and the iPad offers a way to have applications rather than just static web pages."

Those statements prove Steve Jobs himself is so in love with his elegant creation the iPad, he thinks it can stop a tidal wave and keep Charlie Sheen out of jail. The comments at the All Things D Conference also prove that Steve Jobs is old. He doesn't really understand how much culture has changed because of the advent of the web, demographic change, and web economics. All of this and Steve himself is still feeding the same monster that's eating the press as this is written.

It's no wonder Apple had this awful iPad video I mentioned before:



All of this was evident to me at the Tech Crunch Disrupt Conference last ween in New York City, as I was talking to a WIRED Magazine representative about their new iPad app. All of the iPads were adjusted such that it looked as if the machine was just for WIRED. It looked like an electronic version of the magazine. But when you pressed the appropriate control, the WIRED content went away and its app was in a sea of other iPad apps on the screen.

All iPad apps face the same life fate: people get excited about them, the app is hot, it builds a following, then its used, and as it is, other apps are created to compete against it, so it eventually becomes used less and less and just one of a sea of apps on the machine.

And Old Media expects to survive in that process? That's silly. Additionally, and to rub salt in the wound this blogger created, appropriate since Steve Jobs quipped that he didn't want to "see us descend into a nation of bloggers," WIRED had not figured out how to price their iPad app to reflect content changes, according to the rep I talked to.

The WIRED iPad app's price does not include update pricing because WIRED had not figured out how to do that as of this writing.

OK. So lets' say they did figure it out. Here's my question: how do you notify the user and get that person to pay again for the WIRED content with the same energy they did so (assuming they do) when the app was first released? Just saying they will is the stuff of fools. The System Dynamics of web and mobile user behavior is they will not.

Why does an iPad media app have to be a paid affair? Why can't a media company make a free app, stuff it with adds by sponsors, and promote the hell out of it? That would harm the "paywall" apps like WIRED's, reducing their potential revenue and causing the app to get lost in that sea of icons I referred to.

Then, what's to stop popular bloggers or any blogger from having their own free iPad app? Nothing. After a time, the same System Dynamics of Internet choice, click demand, and oversupply of choices will conspire to wreck Old Media dreams that the iPad will save it.

And the same bloggers Steve Jobs seems to discount will end up taking over his beloved iPad.

Stay tuned.

Bloomberg's Orwellian Ad Campaign by Suzannah B. Troy

http://mayorbloombergkingofnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/06/bloombergs-legal-graffiti-vs-clayton.html

Watch my sometimes humorous but very serious  two part YouTube series and see how Mike Bloomberg, the little emperor of NYC lives above the laws, changing them, enforcing them on a certain group of New Yorkers with the goal to push them out including ticketing them to death, etc.

I interview Clayton Patterson on being given a $300 ticket for his door that has graffiti on it and he wants the graffiti to stay but we have a nanny mayor and the city demands Clayton paint the door black to remove the graffiti.

It is hard to distinguish from the photo above if this Orwellian Ad campaign on the public steps of Grand Central Station is for Mike's private empire or his public although way the bottom it does say Bloomberg.com it seems very similar to his Orwellian Ad campaign for mayor of New York City where he spent a record amount of money to win or buy the election.

In my two part interview, Clayton Patterson  talks about how the mayor is driving out the people, and how the mayor is part of a movement that wants everything homogenized meaning everything made the same -- like the tv shows...."Housewives", like Starbucks --  could be anywhere -- any  city and we talk about how that is how Bloomberg wants women...

Bella Abzug could have been speaking up  anywhere  and you would have said that outspoken woman with the hat who said "Women belong in the house --- House of Representatives" is from New York.  She could have only been from NY but Bloomberg and the movement that "thinks Bloomberg" that shares his ideology and this newest ad campaign instructing us to "Think Bloomberg" is "the Starbucks Nation" where it is "chain foods, chain stores, chains for the indivduals...

This ad campaign is truly Orwellian instructing the view how to think and appears to be just like his mayoral campaign and very difficult to distinguish is this "legalized graffiti"?, work or pleasure, oops, I meant to say is this promoting Bloomberg the mayor or Bloomberg the 2nd income of Mike Bloomberg that brings him billions when the world is mostly have an economic meltdown?

Watch the YouTubes and stay tuned....

I am waiting for a call back from Bloomberg's public relations person.

I want to know how much the ad campaign on the steps at Grand Central station cost and the procedure to make it happen so I can do a very small one too?

Do you think I can afford to do so?

What did Mike pay the advertising firm to come up with "Think Bloomberg" and is it the same firm that worked on his mayoral campaign.

Are the keeping their muscles warm for a presidential campaign?

Will Clayton Patterson have to fight for the right to have his front door the way he wants his front door to look and not uniformed as demanded by our nanny mayor how has the money and connections to put "Think Bloomberg" anywhere he wants including public spaces in Grand Central Station.

Stay tuned!!!!!

Miley Cyrus says Full Circle about Nick Jonas, her ex-boyfriend

The unstoppable Miley Cyrus, who's visibility just plain increased with the Miley Cyrus Lap Dance Video controversy, caused a new smaller-scale bit of news during her concert in Lisbon, Portugal.

Miley says her new song Full Circle is about a Jonas Brother...

"It's about two people. They're always gonna come back together no matter what anyone says, the bad people that try to keep you apart. It's a personal story, surprise, surprise, it's about a Jonas brother," she said, then Miley says, "You didn't hear that."

Here's the video of Miley at the concert, spilling her info:



Nick Jonas, her ex-boyfriend.

No word from Nick Jonas but apparently breaking up from him was so hard she's not over it. According to Justjared, in 2008, Cyrus said

"[Nick and I] became boyfriend and girlfriend the day we met,” he 15-year-old Hannah Montana star shared. “He was on a quest to meet me, and he was like, ‘I think you’re beautiful and I really like you.’ And I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, I like you so much.' Nick and I loved each other. We still do, but we were in love with each other. For two years he was basically my 24 / 7. But it was really hard to keep it from people. We were arguing a lot, and it really wasn’t fun."

Also, Miley and Nick were both two years younger as teens. Now she's 17 and undoubtedly changed a great deal with still a long way to go, but reflecting on what she did and probably thinking about another go at it. She also said the breakup made her go "hardcore" in her look, which may explain the turn toward the sex-based image.

The question is what does her current 22-year-old boyfriend Liam Hemsworth think? My guess is he's already putting her restless feet to sleep.

Charlie Sheen of "Two and A Half Men" off to jail on assault charge

Charlie Sheen 

Charlie Sheen, the famous actor of the CBS TV Show Two and A Half Men and movies like Wall Street and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for the assault of his wife Brooke Muller, according to TMZ.com, which broke the story.

Charlie Sheen was given a choice of straight probation or jail time, but took the later because the probation option was considered "too risky."

With the 30 day sentence, which could be reduced to 17 days for good behavior, there will be no probationary period.

Sheen is to appear in Aspen on Monday of next week to enter a "no contest" plea.

Arrested on Christmas Day

Charlie Sheen was arrested on Christmas morning 2009 in Aspen, Colorado and charged with a class-four felony claim of second-degree assault, a class-five felony charge of menacing and a misdemeanor count of what is called "criminal mischief."

At the time, Sheen and Muller were to get marriage counseling:



Sheen also must complete 36 hours of anger management counseling before Monday and has 10 hours complete as of this writing.

Outside Lands Festival San Francisco schedule released today

"Outside Lands" the popular festival set for San Francisco's Golden Gate Park August 14th and 15th 2010, just released its schedule today.

The 2010 Outside Lands list features former Grateful Dead members Phil Lesh and Bob Weir of Furthur, The Kings of Leon, The Strokes, My Morning Jacket, Phoenix, Social Distortion, Al Green, Gogol Bordello, Nas and Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, The Levon Helm Band, Cat Power, Empire of The Sun, Wolfmother, Bassnectar, Chromeo, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, The Temper Trap, Pretty Lights, Janelle Monae, Amos Lee, The Devil Makes Three, Tokyo Police Club, Beats Antique, Rebith Brass Band, Wild Beasts, and a host of other bands. Here's the presentation video listing them all:



Tickets for this popular festival of music, food, and wine go on sale Wednesday. Visit SFOutsideLands.com for more information.

Hey Michael Bauer, laptops are OK at The Grove in San Francisco!

This is The Grove in The Marina in 2007!

One of the top-listed posts at SFGate.com is by San Francisco Chronicle Food and Restaurant Critic Michael Bauer, who rightly asks why laptop and cell phone use in restaurants make patrons angry.

Before weighing in on that, this blogger's compelled to point out that the photo used in his post was taken in 2007 at at The Grove on Chestnut Street and Avila Avenue in San Francisco's Marina District.

The Grove is specifically designed for laptop users. I discovered The Grove for myself in that same year of 2007, while attending a screenwriting class in Fort Mason, nearby. The attraction was that the vast majority of patrons were using their laptops for work.

That habit continues today, even as the Grove's recent remodel makes it less favorable to use as a office away from home. That was an awful move, the design change. There are fewer seats for internet work, and more for just lounging. Or it seems this is the case; more seats for Internet work were needed.

While The Grove's owners took steps to charge for use of the wireless service on a time-basis, what they should have done is tied the volume of wireless use to the price of the food order itself: the more food or drinks orders, the longer the wifi time permitted.

What The Grove's owners miss taking advantage of is the culture of people who's occupations depend on Internet use, yet used The Grove as a way of meeting each other. A conversation with a neighbor could lead to use of a new web service or a business partnership.

One example of this is an encounter I had at Oakland's Gaylord's Cafe, which is heavily populated by laptop workers. It turns out one of the patrons knew fellow YouTube Partner Renetto! Here's the video:



I'm personally not familiar with what Bauer's blogging about because I don't use my laptop in places that aren't designed for wifi access and computer use. Moreover, I don't see a lot of people using laptops and cell phones in restaurants where the atmosphere doesn't invite it.

Finally, I have to add that while the San Francisco Bay Area is known for harboring some of the World's most creative people in the World, the East Coast transplants to the Bay Area come from a region known for its high concentration of neurotic people, according to The Boston Globe.

Check the person who's complaining; it's a good chance they're from back East.

Cybercafes.com for Internet Cafes

If you're trying to find a place to work online away from home, check out Cybercafes.com, and avoid the neurotics!

Andrew Koppel: Ted Koppel's son dies after bar-hopping

Andrew D. Koppel with family 

More sad news today: Andrew Koppel, Former ABC News Nightlight Host Ted Koppel's son, died reportedly after a day of drinking.

The New York Post reports that Andrew Koppel, 40, of Rockaway Park, Queens, and a lawyer at the New York Housing Authority, passed away from a day-long drinking binge. The question is just how much did Andrew Koppel drink?

Koppel on Facebook NOT Andrew Dorney Koppel

In the original post, this blogger reported that Andrew H. Koppel had passed on. Thanks to a person who actually knew Andrew D. Koppel, the correct information, and what should be noted on the other blogs that used "Andrew H. Koppel" is that the son of Ted Koppel is Andrew D. Koppel and not Andrew H. Koppel. (Note: photo by Photography by Ilona.)

Koppel was found "unconscious and not breathing in a bedroom" at 180th Street at Audubon Avenue. Koppel had been out with Russell Wimberly, a 32-year-old waiter he met at a bar in Hell's Kitchen just 12-hour before. That's when they allegedly went on what would become for Koppel a fatal drinking binge.

Wimberly said they went hopping from bar to bar. He said Koppel didn't eat; just drank straight whiskey and beer. From personal experience, three glasses of whiskey is too much for this blogger, unless over three hours and with a good steak dinner and three glasses of water. Just reading the accounts of this story, Koppel had a lot more drink than that over a smaller period of time, and no steak dinner.

Ted Koppel loses his only son who was also father to a baby girl. Andrew Koppel has an older sister Andrea and a younger sister Tara.

Bloomberg's legal graffiti vs. Clayton Patterson's by Suzannah B. Troy

Clayton Patterson artist, activist and documentarian of the Lower East Side was sent a threatening notice and fine from the City of New YOrk  telling him  to remove the graffiti on his front door.   He is basically being instructed to paint his door a solid color by the City of New York...Mike Bloomberg, the nanny mayor who is pushing fines like hot cakes. Clayton Patterson  is refusing to do so... 




I warned Clayton that he could get fined, arrested and have a SWAT team of NYPD officers with German Shepherds, helicopters and the mayor could seize his property; seizing property is something that is emblematic of the Bloomberg administration land grabs. I suggested he get a lawyer asap.  Perhaps Ron Kuby, Norman Siegel already working on the Columbia University eminent domain abuse case part 2, David Rankin....get a lawyer Clayton!!!!!  






I called City Hall to find out how I could do an advertisement like Bloomberg on the steps at Grand Central when you exit the subways and I was interrogated by the man that answered the phone and through his lack of information and his questioning of me -- I decided to call Bloomberg News although the ad campaign I call legalize rich man's graffiti was really blurring the line "Bloomberg" was the ad Bloomberg the mayor or Bloomberg News -- the global media outlet and what was it doing exclusively on a rather large public stair way in Grand Central? I was put through to a woman that handles public relations for Bloomberg News who is out today.  I left my name and telephone number.  I told her I was contacting all the major newspapers and would cc: her a copy. I asked her to please call me back and give me the price of this ad campaign that really blurs the line between Mike Bloomberg the mayor, and Bloomberg News since it reads "Bloomberg' Symbology" and not "Bloomberg New's Symbology". I told here I would like to place a message under Bloomberg's so how much would that cost because if I use a spray paint I would assume I would get arrested and go to jail as well as be fined. The message I would want to write is "When Mike Bloomberg says "progress" he means get your moving van.

It should say News, Bloomberg News.... at the very bottom and a small font size it says Bloomberg.com and he is blurring the line between his private empire and his public empire.  Bloomberg really is taking over this city and here is just another example... Below is an interview with Clayton Patterson on the above issue, eminent domain abuse, the loss of free parking, CityTime, Mike Bloomberg's investments in the Cayman Islands, who is he giving free rides to on his private jet plane...he is not forth coming but he wants to track city workers comings and going, etc. Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbD1HWEV7g4 Part 1 link http://www.youtube.com/user/Suzannahartist#p/a/u/1/Y7oQQarpO6U Part 2 link First reported on my blog here.... http://suzannahbtroy.blogspot.com/2010/05/mike-bloombergs-private-empire.html

Al Gore and Tipper Gore separation: Gore pickup lines on Twitter

Al and Tipper Gore

The separation of Al Gore and Tipper Gore has the Internet buzzing. After 40 years of marriage, the famous political pair have announced an amicable split.  Sadness all around.

But it's Andy Borowitz who gets the award for the funniest take on the news. The humorist launched a hashtag called "#GorePickUpLines or "Gore pickup lines" on Twitter. So far the response has been hilarious! Here's a sample:

ruthbourdain "I won't tap offshore oil, but I will tap that ass." #gorepickuplines
1 minute ago via Twitter for iPhone

roboutik "Do you know how much that dress s contributing to global warming? Cuz you're makin me hot!" #gorepickuplines
3 minutes ago via Twitter for Android

over_rated There is an inconvenient growth in my pants. #gorepickuplines
16 minutes ago via TweetDeck

BorowitzReport "Baby, if you want to see how big my hanging chad is, let's go to my place & do a recount." #GorePickupLines #contrived
about 3 hours ago via Echofon

gauravsabnis Wouldn't you rather be having a drink with the inventor of the internet? #gorepickuplines

colsonwhitehead That's just the tip. Like an iceberg broken off by warming, there's another 90% you haven't seen yet. #gorepickuplines

over_rated Why don't you come up to my room and I'll show you the President? #gorepickuplines
34 minutes ago via web

And here's mine:

zennie62 #gorepickuplines If I can get a hostage out of North Korea I can certainly get a moan out of you.
less than 5 seconds ago via web

Well, it's very sad that Al and Tipper Gore are to separate after 40 years of marriage, but look at it this way, they're not getting a divorce!

Stay tuned.

Tipper Gore and Al Gore separate after 40 years of marriage

Al and Tipper Gore's wedding photo

Shocking news: Tipper Gore and her husband former Vice President Al Gore announced Tuesday they've separated after 40 years of marriage.

According to The Associated Press, Tipper Gore and Al Gore said it was "a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration."

Fortunately, there was no affair or sex scandal involved; the Gores said they just grew apart after 40 years of being together. They "carved out separate lives" over time.

What's interesting about those statements is that not all parts of the Gores lives have been separate. Aside from their marriage, the Al Gore website has a prominent link to Tipper Gore's photography. Will the link remain after their separation? Was it really necessary to split? And after 40 years together? A romance that goes all the way back to high school.

Over.

Blogger Rod Dreher has a take I kind of agree with. At Belief.net Rod observes that fame caused the split, saying "it seems that the failure of their marriage could be the cost of being a famous public figure. If Al is on the road here, there and everywhere, he's not at home being a husband."

But where I differ is in the observation that Tipper Gore had her own photography business. She too was busy. But where things may have really went South was the fact that Al Gore continued to be famous for being Al Gore, where Tipper may have wanted to carve a path outside of Al's considerable shadow.

It's a pattern I've seen with wives of elected officials who are themselves smart and ambitious. They seem to want a spotlight equal to that of their mates; why that leads to marital discourse is beyond me, but it's certainly a pattern.

It will be interesting to see how Tipper Gore without Al Gore evolves.

Stay tuned.

Louise Bourgeois Dies by Suzannah B. Troy

Louise Bourgeois died Monday at Beth Israel Hospital here in Manhattan at age 98.

Bourgeois  like her work has endured.   Her sculptures are deeply psychology and clearly conflicted on sexuality, male-female relations, reproduction, issues of safety and spacial relations.   I can understand why she made her "spider" sculptures so large to challenge the viewer's space.  Stieg Larrson focused in on the abuse and victimization of women his fictionalized best seller "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".
It seems perhaps somewhere in Bourgeois's psyche the theme is there but she turns it around and through her work finds feminine power using symbology and space to make art audiences think, often by challenging their space, making them move their gaze upward or by moving around her work rather than the traditional approach of gazing at a portrait at eye level.  Her work has an intense physicality about it, not dainty as she talks about powerfully charged issues but again that is for the over achieving art audience.

She had just completed her newest work and she is survived by two sons and a grandchild.

The New York Times has a well written piece on her passing by Holland Cotter that is worth reading.


I am very tired so I can't do a series of postings on other people in the news but Ted Koppel's son Andrew died  It was a very sad way to die related to going on a bender.

On a happy note, according to The New York Daily News,  Celine Dion is pregnant with twins.  I love her song, "A New Day has Come" on this very topic, about her having her first son...."I was waiting for so long, for a miracle to come.."  Well she has two more miracles on the way.