King Kong Google

You'd think movie trailers of large apes and news of an Untouchables prequel would would warm the cockles of world under the yoke of eminent Google-o-mination. Well, kid, you're totally wrong:

• King Kong trailer online. Yawn.
• Brian DePalma, clearly insane, obviously broke, puts wheels in motion for Untouchables prequel. [Cinematica]
• The TV networks are pathetic. Only ABC says that it will be showing The President's address on Iraq tonight. [Reuters]
• Really? $300 a share? For that price Google should drive me to work, cook me dinner, and make me a good cup of coffee. [Sploid]
• $60/barrel oil. Let's have a hummer dance party!! [Boards]
• This is a pretty fun commercial for Virgin. Then again I find it amusing to see train ads. Trains are hilariously old school. It's funny to see Virgin today since I heard that the Virgin Megastore in Vancouver is closing in September. Cue the irony. If you can't make in the Canadian marketplace, where can you make it? [Canada Newswire]
• Coolhunting reveals that could really use a camo Ikea swivel chair. [Ikea]

Commuting with Woody

If you commute from the burbs to downtown, may I suggest you try listening to some good old fashioned jazz on the iPod. A little Dave Brubeck maybe. Perhaps a little "Star Dust" Louis Armstrong style? Whatever. Now tell me if the commute isn't as hilarious and kind of reminiscent of the start of most Woody Allen movies? Think about it.

Update: Who knew that I would have nice things to say about Mr. Allen, then he'd go and say something entirely stupid. [Drudge]

More: I sould have thought of this. "Woody Allen is a moral cretin". John Podhoretz, "I love the idea that 9/11 is "too small" a subject for him. As compared to what? Some Upper East Side New Yorkers picking lint out of their navels?" [NRO]

Checkpoint Charlie

I'm begining to wonder if summer is really going to ever happen here in Vancouver. Seriously, I had to use a jacket this morning. But I guess there are bigger issues at hand. Such as this.

Really? The Checkpoint Charlie Monument is going to be destroyed on July 4th? The monument features 1,000 crosses and, "Each cross has the name, and in some cases, photo of a victim of Communism murdered attempting to escape East Germany during the Cold War." Is it a race between France and Germany on which nation can be worse? If it is, I think Germany just took the lead back. Bravo, you jerks. [Davids Medienkritik]

Chinese Dragons & Cabernet Dreams

Any Sunday that starts with special reports of China's military prowess and Amnesty International Torture Wine Tastings must be taken with a rather large grain of salt:

• Bill Gertz writing the Washington Times suggests that the Pentagon believes China will be capable of invading Taiwan in the next two years. But what about the Olympics in 2008? ["Chinese Dragon"]
• Warren Bell finds a good cause. Help support victims of torture with cabernet and chocolate. Yes, nothing says support of torture like a fine cabernet reception. [NRO]

Nothing But a Chip and a Blog

Some Saturday's blog link goodness:

• One of our team's producers won the Degree Poker Championship last night. If we thought he was smug before, wow, what are we going to do now that he's won $100,000 and trip to the World Series of Poker. I'm sure Oddjack would have a field day with Liam.
• Viral marketing is totally the new black in the ad world. Everyone is doing it. I have to admit that Verizon's "Bring the Fast" is pretty and Mini's "Counterfeit Mini" has slapping, so that's all good too. I especially enjoy when somebody sends you viral stuff 6-months after it's gone out. [USA Today]
• Now that we have all six Star Wars films, Keith Martin is trying to reinterperat what episode's 4-6 mean now. [Cinematical]
• After the dropped ball on the budget this week by the Conservatives, you read something about Karl Rove's strategy against his Democratic opponents, and you have to ask, where's our Karl Rove damn it? The White House strikes again.
• All this, and the Red Sox are back leading the AL East. [MLB.com]

...back later...

Thursday Night Hot Links

Sauce for the Moules:

• Pretty sure I'm still dreaming about the moules & frites I had at Chambar last night. Seriously it was amazing.
• Check out the new Beck video. It's got pretty cool Mad Magazine fold-ins. Very fun - and a pretty rockn' song to boot. [Boards]
• Is there a housing bubble? My friend Dan and I were debating this last night. [Instapundit]
• "NEOCONS" CAN USE THEIR EVIL POWERS FOR GOOD! - that's how NRO sees it. [LA TIMES]
• Paul Wells gives Stephen Harper a good clean pimp slapping. [Inkless Wells]
• Kelly Clarkson got milk ads. Enough Said. [Why Milk]

Rain Cats & Blogs

It's June in Vancouver and and outside my office window right now it looks like it is November. Rainy, Gray, Gross. I love it.

• Fast Company magazine sells (with Inc.) for $40 million. It sold for $550 million just 5 years ago. The magazine ain't that bad, is it? [Folio]
• Ate at Simply Thai, again, today. Man, life is pretty good. Best. Yellow Curry. Ever.
• Austin Bay is reporting from Iraq and proposing that War Bonds make a comeback. And that might help if the CNN/USA Today poll is to be believed, 6 of 10 are now opposing the war. [Strategy Page]
• Jon Stewart of Canada he is not, but Rick Mercer's new blog (via Paul Wells) has a funny post that ends in the Jasonkenny.org website - which seems to redirect to the Marxist Leninist Communist website. Hilarity and Marxism ensue. Totally fun comrades.
• Are Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes actually bring some sort of insane balance to the force as they suck dry the life that was celebrity journalism? [Slate.com]

Monday Night Dispatches

I recovered, barely, from a full on Father's Day meat coma brought on by comsuming enough roast beef to kill a small woodland creature. Nevertheless I must link:

• One of the designer's at work sent along a vision for his soon to be classic 1980's Cadillac. Most impressive. [The Big Lot]
• Oh, and that same totally smug designer also figures he needs this. The could be the greatest cell phone. EVER [MAKE]
• Chinese blogger slams Microsoft. As they damned well should [Wired]
• Stephen Harper doesn't want the extreme makeover now. Dude, it really doesn't matter anymore. You're never going to 24 Sussex. At least chill out. [Canadian Press]
• I'm sure my father will enjoy the latest Pugeout spot. He's obsessed with these cars since our trip to France. [Tongue-Match via AdJab]
• Saw Batman Begins this evening. In a nutshell: Great music, looked downright realistic (not cartoony, a plus), Mrs. Cruise didn't totally suck, and Gary Oldman's mustache like totally rocked.But seriously, it was pretty great. Except the Batmobile looks like a tank.
• I'd like to post more but my housemate is eating an ungodly combination of deep fried shrimp and pizza at 11:30. At night! It smells gross and he eats with his mouth open. Who does this? I'm out.

What you should be reading on Sunday Morning

Some links to pass the morning:

• Any day that you can start off with reading an excellent essay by Neal Pollack is a pretty fine one. [New York Times]
• More information surfaces with regards to the level of Chinese spying in this country. It isn't good news. Nothing to see up here in Canada. [Newsbeat 1]
• Where's Osama? CIA head Porter Goss has an "excellent idea" where OBL is. The Command Post is inclined to think he is Iran, not Pakistan. [The Command Post]
• 14 reasons not to like Che. [Promethean Antagonist]
• Walter Russel Mead asks, "Should Nukes Bloom in Asia?" [LA Times]

Afternoon Link Snack

Some tasty weekend nuggests with hot mustard sauce:

• Family Guy direct to DVD Movie coming out in September. What the deuce? [Cinematical]
• Just watched the trailer for the new Bill Murry film, Broken Flowers. How delicious.
• BMW goes crazy, ends 10-year agency relationship with Fallon who produced the great BMW Film series. Clearly BMW is insane, unless they get Crispin Porter (already working on BMW Mini campaign) to cowboy up. [David Kiley]
• The Washington Post slams the eeevil Starbucks corporation today suggesting that the company is impoverishing students. David Adesnik gives the sordid tale a "full frontal fisking." [OxBlog]

TomKat's and Racetracks

Some saturday morning reading:

• Wow. Can Stephen Harper catch a break? [Halifax Herald]
• "TomKat"? Do we really have to come up with names of these obnoxious power couples? I heard somebody use this at work yesterday and I nearly passed out. [Popwatch]
• I was out for a work related afternoon yesterday that ended up at the racetrack. How fun is that? We only watched 3 races, but I was surprised that there was a horse named Vimy Ridge.
• Cliff May returns from France and declares, "France is a great nation that has been cursed with leaders who would rather France be a Great Power." [The Corner]

The Duke in Japan

Bravo is playing the 1958 film The Barbarian and the Geisha this morning. And for some reason I figured I'd watch. John Wayne plays America's first Consul General in a marvelous looking film shot on location in Japan, but damned if it seems longer than the Lord of the Rings.

The Duke in Japan

Bravo is playing the 1958 film The Barbarian and the Geisha this morning. And for some reason I figured I'd watch. John Wayne plays America's first Consul General in a marvelous looking film shot on location in Japan, but damned if it seems longer than the Lord of the Rings.

Thursday's: Last call on Link Soup

A couple more links before my night ends:

• Really? MacGyver season 2 on DVD. Thank goodness. But really requesting Riptide on DVD? Okay Stephen J. Cannell is a complete genius. Never mind. [TV Squad]
• Worst party ever - and a great lesson why parties + celebrities sometimes don't get any press coverage at despite lavish budgets. As Choire Sicha adds, "Demi Moore, the only A-list star present, who squatted in a dark corner like a tick so glutted on blood she couldn’t even twitch her legs." Ouch [NY Fishbowl]
• More reviews of the new Yankee Stadium. [Curbed]
• Jonah Goldberg uses the news that they may have found the ice-pick used to kill Trotsky has been found. And that there is a band called "Trotsky's Ice-Pick". Commies rock on. [NRO's "The Corner"]
• France might have discovered Eastern Europe. "The link takes you to a Le Figaro piece which says French diplomats have begun to realize (a) Jacques Chirac just spent three years putting a lot of Central European noses out of joint; (b) that matters." Bwhahahahahaaha! [Paul Wells]
• How is it that 23rd largest city in America gets more props for food than say #12 (Indianapolis) or #10 (Detroit)? Well that seems obvious. How Seattest actually wrote a cliff hanger blog post? Another story. Bravo. [Seattlest]
• Terry Gilliam's latest movie finally has a trailer. The Brothers Grimm starring Matt Damon, Heath Ledger and Monica Bellucci. Yeah and Miramax is really pumping it up online. Not. [Moviefone]
• Lebowski Fest tickets go on sale Saturday. How awesome is that? Almost as awesome as the fun lined up: "Unlimited Bowling, Costume, Trivia, Farthest Traveled, and Bowling Contests, Celebrity Appearances, White Russians, Sarsaparillas, and Oat Sodas, Screening of the film, and What-Have-You." Plus They Might Be Giants! [Lebowski Fest]
• Detroit evens NBA Finals. Rumors of their death greatly exaggerated. [ESPN]
• War of the Worlds street campaign takes over Boston Subway station. "Good job, advertisers. Great job MBTA! Bostonist forever-crush Orson Welles is rolling in his grave." [Bostonist]
• French Tacos. Apparently a really, really, really bad idea. The LA Times: "In Paris, they don’t have Mexican food really, just a cuisine they call 'Tex Mex.' On our first day in the city, we passed a restaurant called 'Indiana' that served Tex Mex, which is a bit like calling a French restaurant 'Bulgaria.'" Savages! [Gridskipper]

Tremble at our Power China! Tremble!

Tremble at the awesome power! I said tremble! Check out the home of a little division of the Defense Department known as "The CSE". Why are we posting about the CSE - the not very secrative Communications Security Establishment? Well they are doing some major security upgrades to the cool looking and modern 1964 Y-shaped Edward Drake Building. [Ottawa Citizen]

I guess putting big boulders, tress, and a $600,000 security fence around the building is raising the agency's profile a bit. Nothing to see here, Chinese spies. Move along.

The Cell vs. Moneyball

Daniel Drezner has a great post based on a Wall Street Journal article that wonders if the business logic of Micheal Lewis' Moneyball don't hold true for the 2005 White Sox. So how are the Sox both best team in baseball and only drawing 23,000 fans a game?

"At the heart of the Sox's troubled wooing of Chicago lies a conundrum worthy of Yogi Berra," writes Erik Ahlberg. "They haven't been good enough to win, and they haven't been bad enough to tap into baseball's romance with hapless losers...."

The other intersting thing to think about is how "The Cell" - baseball's last ballpark built before all the really cool retro ones were built - is really like West Berlin was - An oasis in the middle of diddily squat. [See more at Chicagoist]

Free Country, Stephen Harper Still Fat

Remember this morning's post linking to a story about Chinese spies in Canada? Well the Tories asked about it today in Ottawa and got the most ridiculous answer ever from our esteemed Minister of Foreign Affairs. " We discuss a number of issues relating to the respect for human rights and the right of Canadian citizens to express themselves in the way they want. This is a free country. We will always insist that people are free to do so in this country."

Sweet. Canada is free, spy on us, please! Meanwhile, the Prime Minister and our media went back to the super double awesome breaking story about Stephen Harper's extreme makeover and the potential of him totally overeating on BBQ all summer and coming back to work hideously fat. [The Shotgun]

But seriously. Who wins in a fight "Fat" Stephen Harper or "Regular Sized Grumpy" Stephen Harper? Don't worry about it, neither it would seem are capable of defeating Paul Martin.

Thursday's: Link Soup II

But the hits just keep on coming:

• Bono discovers not everyone as cool as him. Hilarity ensues. [Instapundit.com]
• Don't mess with Christopher Hitchens okay. He's still spreading the news about Iraq's liberation and slamming the set who keep asking where the flowers are. [normblog]
• Meanwhile Austin Bay is back in Iraq and is updating with great stuff including this very nice summation of what's going down big picture wise: "I find that this return visit to Iraq spurs thoughts of America of American will to pursue victory. I don't mean the will of US forces in the field. Wander around with a bunch of Marines for a half hour, spend fifteen minutes with Guardsmen from Idaho, and you will have no doubts about American military capabilities or the troops will to win. But our weakness is back home, on the couch, in front of the tv, on the cable squawk shows, on the editorial page of the New York Times, in the political gotcha games of Washington, DC. It seems America wants to get on with its wonderful Electra-Glide life, that September 10 sense of freedom and security, without finishing the job. The military is fighting, the Iraqi people are fighting, but where is the US political class?" [Austin Bay Blog]
• Thankfully George W. Bush rejected some Congressional nitwits who want to pull U.S. troops out now and go home. They should talk to Austin Bay and Hitchens. [Reuters]
• Most ridiculous flight in history. Flight leaving O'Hare in Chicago and landing at Midway, also in Chicago to watch Cubs-Whitesox game. [Chicagoist]
• Any wine (in a box no less) that promotes itself with Tony Soprano, guns, haiku, and taglines such as, "If you liked our jugs, you'll love our box!" Is all right by me. [Three Thieves]
• Matt Welch has some fun with Max Boot who's latest idea I love - "offer citizenship to anyone, anywhere on the planet, willing to serve a set term in the U.S. military". Oh sure there is all the what's wrong with the Roman Empire stuff, but come on. [Reason's Hit & Run]
• A look at most of the 2008 Presidential field through the prisim/obsession of what they did or didn't do during Vietnam. [Baseball Crank]
• Canadian politics. You stay classy. Did they Prime Minister just tell a joke in Question Period? No, no wait, he told Harper not to get fat. Zing! [Angry in the Great White North]

Thursday's: Link Soup

There sure was a lot of great stuff to think about today:

• John McCain in 2008? Jeb Bush as his running mate? Full Bush endorsement? I'm still shilling for Fred Thompson, but seriously I don't care how much people love Hilary, that could be a out of the parker. [Political Wire]
• Amazon, getting into the content biz? Having a concert on the old Amazon.com homepage later this summer. Jeff Jarvis with some help is calling this "watching Amazon." [BuzzMachine]
• Wonkette points out the absurdity of a romantic comedy about debt relief. And more funny, about the Council on Foreign Relation's after party where "Fareed Zakaria and Jeff Greenfield will lead a discussion on it. Seriously." [Wonkette]
• Why is Tom Hanks shelling out cash to produce the Deep Throat movie based on Felt's life? Seriously Tom. Space movies, yes. World War II, yes. Deep Throat, no? [Variety]
• One of the most impressive places I've ever been is the USS Arizona memorial. It's deterorating, but still sacred ground. [AP]
• Big ups for Steve McQueen and demands for his death cult a la Hendrix. And really, a 2-disc Bullitt special edition DVD. Sign me up. [Slate]

New Era for Yankees

So Mr. Stienbrenner wants to build a new $800 million Yankee stadium. It really all comes down to coming to grips with this kind of thing. "Construction of the ballpark will mean the end of major league baseball at Yankee Stadium," wrote Richard Sandomir in the New York Times. "[W]here Mickey Mantle roamed center field, Don Larsen pitched the only World Series perfect game, popes visited and Joe Louis beat Billy Conn. " Everyone seems to like it. I'm not sure yet.

More:

King George of Yankeetown Unveils His New Stadium [Gothamist]
Yankee Stadium: The Results [Gawker]
You take the good, you take the bad [Gawker]
Yankee Stadium II [BaseballMusings]

Morning links

Always a bright day in Canada. Where the days are long, the spies are from China, and the ruling government steals campaign ideas from Nixon:

• 1,000 Chinese spies are in operating in Canada. Seriously, I thought everyone loved Canada. [CBC.ca]
• I totally heart the Liberals gearing up to use political slogans from the Nixon campaigns. That totally rules. [Bourque]

Extreme Makeover

Tory Leader Edition Totally awesome.

Bring Back Bell?

I still haven't seen a ballgame this season. I go to Boston and the Sox are in Seattle. I go to San Fran and the Giants are out of town. Reading about the third baseman woes of the Seattle Mariners makes me want to go see a game. But really, David Bell getting shout outs?

Yeah those third baggers who have taken the field since Bell's departure in 2001 haven't been any good, but any wish for a return of the Bell (.264, 3Hr's, 21 RBI's) is absolutely insane. [Seattlest.com]

Tuesday Grab Bag of Links

Here's what grabbed my eyes today:

• So Crispin Porter + Bogusky have taken on a mission impossible and are reviving the classic Coke "Hilltop" campaign. Get this, it is going to be "Chilltop" and aimed at hip-hop audiences."I'd like to teach the world to chill"? Ryan Underwood of FC NOW adds, "Am I missing something?" [Fast Company Blog via Adrants]
• Pretty funny Orange commercial with Ewan McGregor pitching poverty to shallow film execs. "Fire up the jumbo jet, we're gonna make poverty history. We're going to blow poverty away." [Boards]
• Fairly cool HP ad "Francois 2" [Boards]
• Who knew there was not a 7-Eleven in Manhattan. It's on the way. Freedom wins, yet again. [Gawker]
• Somebody at work thought passing around a link like this one would be happily received in our design studio. My response was met with silence. "Let's maybe keep our moon bat crackpot ideas about 9/11 to ourselves. We aren't all peace loving hippies in this department. Thanks." Go back to Russia.
• Oxblog does a nice analysis of Henry Kissinger's latest article towing the realist line. "I thought that realists were supposed to be tough. I thought that realists placed an emphasis on power. Instead, Kissinger wants us to believe that foreign policy is about multicultural self-esteem."[Oxblog.com]
• Damian Penny finds a Forbes piece that thinks that the Buick automobile brand is headed for the ash heap of history and offers his solution.

Nationals Fever

Was moving the Expos to Washington a good idea. ESPN's Daily Quickie suggest, um, yes: "Meanwhile, the Nats passed the 1 million mark in attendance yesterday, setting a new club record. (And it's only June 13!)" Is there room on the bandwagon?

Glory of the Huffington Post

Damian Penny reads the Huffington Post so we don't have to. Thanks! And I too was hoping for more Gwyneth Paltrow posts. Is she really a Neo-Con in disguise? 'Cause that would be totally fun.

Deep-fried Numbskulls

It's almost as if vast pockets of the world want to bring nations like America and Australia closer together in a vast empire. Tim Blair reports on two hilarious articles one Blair sums as saying, "Australia is a crowded land with skanky beaches and sunless skies, populated by ugly chicks and tormented hateful idiots who crave opportunities denied them."

Then the coup de grace from Lucy Ellmann in The Guardian: American sentimentality may once have seemed endearing, but now we know it’s just another instrument of evil. Every aspect of American culture has begun to stink of the grave. The pizzas and hamburgers: this is how world tyrants fuel themselves. The cars, the drugs, the music, the TV: this is how they distract themselves from their crimes. But how can they still think they’re right about anything? Their children are deep-fried, drug-soaked numbskulls, the adults hapless lemmings in their SUVs, heading straight into the back-end of the American dream. Where is the guilt - and where the apology?

Honestly, how do you write that with a straight face? I smell a couple of deep-fried numbskulls all right...

I heart Huckabee?

Could a man named Huckabee actually become president? Stay tuned. I'm still hoping for Fred Thompson personally. Although campaign-to-movie tie ins for Huckabee are pretty exceptional.

Going Fishin'

As Quint from Jaws would say, "You go in the cage, cage goes in the water, you go in the water. Shark's in the water, our shark." All hell is breaking loose in the Conservative party according to Bourque. Awesome. Chum in the water.

Dr. Evil and Number Two Alive & Well in China

Absolute must read Mark Steyn brilliance today in the Telegraph. [Who can stop the rise and rise of China? The communists, of course]

Here's a delightful taste: "Mao, though he gets a better press than Hitler and Stalin, was the biggest mass murderer of all time, with a body count ten times' higher than the Nazis (as Jung Chang's new biography reminds us). The standard line of Sinologists is that, while still perfunct-orily genuflecting to his embalmed corpse in Tiananmen Square, his successors have moved on - just as, in Austin Powers, while Dr Evil is in suspended animation, his Number Two diversifies the consortium's core business away from evildoing and reorients it toward a portfolio of investments including a chain of premium coffee stores. But Maoists with stock options are still Maoists."

More: And Roger L. Simon has more info on how Billy Gates is sucking up to the commies in China. Well then. I guess my vision to get a Mac when my laptop is sent out to pasture in the next year or so is now totally on.

Not ready for primetime players

The Edmonton Sun guts the Conservative party like a fish, "Indeed, we never thought we'd see ourselves saying this, but boy, are we ever glad there's not a federal election going on right now.
Because if the Conservatives had managed to defeat the Liberals on a non-confidence motion last month, the Grits would probably now be comfortably on their way to a big majority government."

Wow, that is about as bad as how badly Mike Tyson got beat by McBride last night.

Bloc Party Video

Check out Bloc Party's new video. Only good can come from animation music videos, non?

Drop him like it's hot

"Does threatening to deport a member of Parliament whom the Liberals have failed to buy not reflect more the politics of a banana republic than a modern democracy like Canada?"

That was the question Conservative MP Jason Kenney asked trying to put the spin on investigations on fellow MP Gurmant Grewel. I'll admit, it seems a wee bit unfair for the Liberals to play this much hardball after Grewel sat down and tried to negotiate crossing the floor to the Liberals. But seriously, the guy is quite clearly a total sleaze bag, and Harper should have dropped him faster than they dropped Trista on Dancing with the Stars. But he didn't.

Now everyone hates Harper. Seriously, more people dislike Harper than Martin. How is that even possible?

Overhead Camera Shots Totally Rule

It's official, after seeing Ron Howard's Cinderella Man last night, my favorite camera shot of all time in film has to be the overhead shot. I'm not sure that's even the right technical term for it, but man they rule and this film has a bunch of nice ones. Great movie.

Lileks on Star Wars Episode III

"Not enough Wookies. And I don’t see them as the kind of guys who’d use a bowcaster, frankly; they seem more like shotgun types. You would not want to fight an army of a pissed off Wookies with shotguns. I bet they drink, too. They’re probably always drunk all the time, which is why their language seems so incoherent; for all we know they’re not saying anything at all, just yelling. Because they’re all hammered." [Lileks.com]

Stop in the name of Love - by The Supremes

Wow. I never imagined that I'd be posting about how much I heart the Supreme Court of Canada on this block. But yesterday's pimp slap - er, Supreme Court ruling - on how our limited choices of health care (the lack of alternatives) cause patients to die as a result of waiting lists for public health care. Ouch.

Colby Cosh notes, "It goes without saying that this is the most earth-shattering moment in Canadian jurisprudence since the Morgentaler ruling of January 28, 1988. The self-appointed custodians of single-tier care are all but panicking in the streets like wounded elephants."

Is the door finally open to rip the guts out of our blessed heath care tyranny? Is the Supreme court back to doing the job they are supposed to? Let's hope so.

World Trade Center Mess

Jeff Jarvis is all over the news surrounding what he describes as, "the construction of a Why They Hate Us Pavillion, a Selective Sin Center at the World Trade Center." Read the both posts as they say.

So many things to Blog, so little time

But where to start? How about a collection of posts about things I'm kind of reading today:

• Podcasts. Are they really going to be the future? Watch Jason Calacanis do a video Podcast from 30,000 feet and get the sense why this can't be happening. That's 15 minutes I'll never get back. [Jason Calacanis Weblog]
• Adrants give the thumbs down to OMD's Edge street campaign for HBO's "Entourage". A little too Martha. Sure sounds like LIME PR's campaign was much cooler. Who doesn't like free drinks.
• Still enjoying - three days on - the propaganda campaign featured in the Baltimore-DC commuter train stations. Soviet propaganda art making a comeback. [UnBeige]
• We did up a really cool invite for a media event in L.A. (at the Friar's Club) last week - you could literally kill somebody with how thick it is - and I still haven't gotten over the lounge lizard act Johnny Fayva. Can you say 'high kick?' As one of our designer's GMac noted, "His g-string says party, but the socks scream all business." [http://www.johnnyfayva.com/].
• I'm impressed that we are approaching Canada Day and our wine club is on the verge of hosting our 2nd annual Canada Day Wine Party in honor of Pierre Elliot Trudeau and the CBC. We even have graphics. In both languages.
• Very much enjoying Gawker's newest blog Oddjack. It is typically Gawkeresque and really poking fun at the ridiculousness of poker players. Finally. And while we are on the topic of work related things, some oldie, but goodie ads we've worked on made their way to Ad Jab via the latest issue of Fast Company. [Adjab.com]

Leaving SFO

Well, my three days in San Fran are over. I didn't have much time to see the city being preoccupied with OMMA, but did manage to squeeze in some essentials - Fisherman's Wharf, a cable car ride (seriously, how can hanging out of transit be legal. Really?), and the Washbag.

On another note, I was surprised how just how similar the architecture in SF is to Vancouver. And I thought we were the only ones concentrating on really generic west coast style condo living. What a disappointment.