E Train Flashback

So there I was on the E train at rush hour. It was wall-to-wall, door to door people. A tall young man, slightly to my right, wearing a green army jacket had stamped his foot. "stomp, stomp, stomp."

He seemed angry. Never a good sign.

Oh Lord, I thought, I only have two stops. Let me get to them.

Somebody said, "one" in a clear definite voice. His prerogative I thought.

And then somebody else said, "one."

What a coincidence.

Then the word, "one" bounced around the car. Different voices, different intonations. Different people. But they were all one. Actually, they were all one–ing.

This wasn't just a subway ride. This was a journey through hell, accompanied by a flash mob. How hip! How tiring. How crowded!

"Actually," I confided to the flash mob woman next to the, as I departed, "the correct answer is two."

Robert Mondavi Brut launch at DBGB

I ventured to the Bowery the other day (specifically to DBGB Kitchen & Bar) as an esteemed member of the press. The occasion was the unveiling to NYC-based press of a new wine from Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi wines. The new Woodbridge entry (actually introduced on 28 April) is Woodbridge Brut Sparkling wine.

“Oh the Bowery, the Bowery, I don’t go there any more,” went a 1892 song. It reflected the one-time, long-time tawdry, carnie atmosphere of one of New York City’s oldest streets. Once, a last stop for derelicts and drunks, the Bowery now is a hipster haven. Hipsters? Derelicts? You be the judge.

One thing is certain. Lots of people go there anymore today. As New York Magazine put it in 2005, “The flophouses survive, but now they’re surrounded by celebrity lounges and multi-million-dollar lofts.” It’s a trendy 24/7 hive these days. The Bowery even has its own Whole Foods Market. (For a probably accurate history of the Bowery, check out its Wikipedia entry.)

DBGB was a perfect setting for the Mondavi Brut launch. I guess we can call the restaurant a gastropub; but it is the downtown outlet for master celebrity chef Daniel Bouloud; and it is informal, comfortable and buzzy. The Woodbridge people selected it, according to a spokesperson, as the place “to pair decadent versions of every day foods with the wine to showcase how easily this sparkling can be integrated as part of a day-to-day lifestyle.”

The presentations worked. The wine has a delightful taste (accompanying press release declares “green apple. bright pear and citrus notes with a toasty finish on the palette” and who am I to argue?) And it did go well with many foods and, oh yes, speaking of delightful;, the Woodbridge Brut is delightfully inexpensive (just under $10 for a 750 ml. bottle).

Ahh, the responsibilities of journalism.

Digital Asset Management -- What A Concept

So there I was a couple of weeks ago at the Henry Stewart Digital Asset Management Conference, a two-day event at the New York Hilton. Quite frankly, I was trolling for stories and information. I like to encounter new and strange (to me) disciplines, subcultures and obscure (to me) corners of the universe. It excites me to know people are thinking about and making lives based on stuff that never would have occurred to me, is foreign to me and has a poetry I can marvel at because it comes from an entirely different way of perceiving the world and vocabulary.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) is buereaucratese for getting a handle on your stuff. When you’re a multinational corporation, a broadcast media company, newspaper or a university, you’ve got lots of stuff to handle — pictures, videos, brochures, training information, and all kinds of text documents.

Over the years, every fiefdom in these organizations had its own bunch of stuff. Items other departments, divisions or kingdoms could use weren’t, often because nobody knew the3se items were around and available . And because of changing personnel and other factors, people didn’t even know that somewhere in the enterprise’s history, a document, photo or video was stored that would solve a current problem.

The aforementioned types of orgqanizations aren’t the only ones using DAM. They simply are most obvious beneficiaries of this techno-salvation . They store and continue to acquire massive amounts digital files; they need to know what they can or can’t use; they need to accelerate workflow, in a landscape of permissions and approvals; they need to protect their brands. Most of all, they’re like the rest of us. They prefer to earn money, save money and not waste money. Aside from new storage capabilities, DAM’s fundamental ingredients are taxonomy (how things are classified) and metadata (essential and descriptive information about the digital file). Armed with an agreed upon vocabulary and metadata that uses that vocabulary, anybody anywhere in the organization can find whist they need, if it exists.

I expect to write more about DAM in the future.

The iPad or the Gospel, According to Apple

The iPad is out and the verdict is in. Congratulations, Apple. You’ve produced a brand new whtatchamacallit. And ain’t It a beauty?
Like most of the world, I haven't had a chance to smudge one of these things with my fingerprints. So in true pundit tradition, I can comment freely. There are a number of questions worth asking.
What's it really for?
It seems to be a place to keep all your media in one cool, shiny basket. Descriptions suggest that it's a stay-at-home or perhaps pack this instead of your laptop device. We know that it's particularly good for visual things, such as photographs and YouTube downloads. We know it is hard to look at in direct sunlight despite its e-reader apps for books newspapers and magazines. We know that publishers are starting to line up to partner with Apple. (Perhaps there's more to launching the iPad on Easter than we thought.)
Will it be a Kindle killer or netbook killer or chiller theater killer?
In the words of Faust, go know. It depends upon what the market, you know consumers, the public, people really want in a media device. Those who recall the videotape wars might also remember Betamax turned out to be superior to VHS. A lot of good it did Sony. It seems the public preferred VHS because it consistently offered more recording and viewing time than Betamax. Speaking of VCRs, the public also prefer to rent rather than buy videos, despite some very strong arm tactics by the movie studios. So what traits will the public want in a media tablet? We won't know until they actually begin experiencing the ipad.
Will it be a skyrocket or a dud?
This is the old we love a success and hate a loser question. Beats the heck out of me. I'm guessing it will go to something not only cool and useful but I suspect the e-reader part will assume minor consequence of all the way. So, will it be Godfather 2 or Godfather 3? It may have all the right ingredients but do they thrill or do they smell? The answer lies not in the Gospel, according to Apple; but in the privacy of your own homes.

The Year of Living Haphazardly

Writers are expected to know things these days. It's unfortunate; but that's the way it is. This is just hunky-dory for specialists. But I’m a generalist. My specialty is ignorance -- -abundant ignorance- the finely honed ability to not know stuff. This is linked to a delightful, crazed fear of not wanting to be found out. I interview my sources so exquisitely that even I understand what they’re talking about. And, of course, then I have to express these newly-found nuggets with some degree of clarity.
Life, at its purest, has been one long string of "no kiddings” and "whatdoyaknows" and "oh shinys".
Now that publishing is in ruins, I'm thinking, golly gee this would be a fine time to write a book. I don’t have to fuss, fret or sweat about the perfect subject to pursue. I’m the serendipity guy, I know the idea will come when it will come — which means a good book idea is just like death and life's other surprises.
One genre that attracts writers who are avowed know-nothings is the "year of" category. The best known example probably is Julie and Julia , the story of one woman's determination to cook all the recipes in Julia child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year and how this quest changed her (Julie’s) life. There's also The Year Of Living Biblically and The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (a/k/a the year of reading Encyclopedia Britannica).
I like the ignorance part . . .very much; and the blog part. But sniffing around one little corner of arcana for a year feels like a journey through one’s own digestive system, using the exit as a starting point. But enough about publishing
There actually was a chance that I could do "My Life As Citibank." It seems that through some expert bit of data mining Zoom info concluded that my name addres. . phone . and fax numbers belonged to Citibank. I had been getting some strange hangups from odd sources. But I didn't really know why until a call came from a collection agency. The very name of this company on my caller ID freaked me out. But no.. The fellow on the other end of the phone was looking for someone in a suit. For a while I had to turn down some attractive business propositions, a few loan requests, and explain to someone else that no I wasn't the IT department. I alsowas able to bask in the description that follows:

Company Profile: Citibank Ltd
Website: www.citibank.com. Phone: (212) 751-6680. Fax: (603) 720-8453 ... Citibank is the world's biggest provider of private banking, and specializes in ...
www.zoominfo.com/Search/CompanyDetail.aspx?...cs..

.

Mildly annoying? Yes! But frankly this episode, although not quite over, offered little in the way of inconvenience. There were a few more hangups and an occasion or two where I administered disappointment counseling. Otherwise, nothing rose to the level of Julie and Julia. So there is no "year of" juicy subject matter for me. There's just this little matter of my living my life.

I am embarking on "The Year Of Living Haphazardly."
The good news is there’s no book potential in it whatsoever.
It will cover the people, events, ephemera, notions, trends, activities and assorted whatnots I encounter in the course of my writing life. As such, it will be a kind of laboratory. Or maybe not.