Memorial Day

Enjoy the day off and honor those who have sacrificed their lives for the greater cause.

The Plastic Phase Fades

Yesterday, the city of Los Angeles banned plastic bags. Retailers will phase out the familiar, landfill-ing bags by the end of the year, encouraging consumers to use reusable totes. This is a huge environmental step; LA is not the first city to ban the bags, but it is by far the largest, most consumer-oriented. I guess we'll have to bid farewell to "the most beautiful thing I've ever filmed."

Not All Who Wander Are Rich

Nearly 4 million people are now members of coachsurfing.org — a communal website & hospitality network for people who want to travel on the cheap. CoachSurfing takes the old notion of crashing on a friend's couch and puts it in a global context. Friendly strangers with couches will become your new friends and guides to the culture of your chosen destination. Security measures are taken on the website, and what is emphasized more often than the discount is the great relationships and learning experiences CoachSurfing provides.

Rebranding

How do you change your image? Sometimes it’s changed for you. We’ve all heard the stories of Norma Jean Baker being molded into Marilyn Monroe. Sometimes it’s a little more calculated. Angelina Jolie transformed from Billy Bob loving bad girl to mega mom with some carefully crafted media spots. Sometimes, an opportunity arises. Rudy Giuliani was just a two-timing politician before he led his city through a tragedy.

Those are all people, but what about re-branding or resuscitating the image of a corporation? (Are corporations people? We may never decide.)

One company desperately in need of some re-branding at the moment is Target. The one-stop shopping store with their happy-go-lucky commercials and their cute dog mascot got into a spot of trouble awhile back for backing the political campaign of an anti-gay marriage candidate. Boycotts began, their friendly image was tarnished.

Click to read more ...

Office Space

Never satisfied, always discovering, we humans keep trying to make things better. The humble office space, for example. It's morphed over the years from cubicles to open spaces, from rolling chairs to core balls. Now that we spend more and more time at the office (unlike those vacationing Europeans), we are trying divine new ways to make it both more comfortable and more productive - an interesting balance to strike. Check out some new ideas here.

A Tourist in Your Own City

An advantage of having guests come to visit is the the need to show them the best face of your city. If they're not first-timers, then you can forego all the crowded touristy bits, and discover new sites that are often overlooked - hidden gems, gated gardens, quiet corners. For example, Los Angeles's Greystone Mansion - a public park. The giant stone manor, though you cannot enter, boasts beautiful grounds perfect for photo shoots straight out of Jane Austen. Discover this and more in your own hometown.

Food Recommendation: Part 2

After you come out of the cheesecake food coma, you might be looking for something less caloric - especially since swimsuit season has arrived. But you know what also goes well with summertime and swimsuits? Cocktails. So here's a Marg & Melon drink recipe that satisfies without overstuffing.

Food Recommendation

A certain blog writer recently had a birthday and recommends this delicious Rainbow Cheesecake. It has all the sophisticated air of cheesecake with the fun, childhood colors of Superman ice cream.

Pop Up Art

There are food trucks. There is even a Gap food truck. And now there is a performance art truck. Pop Wagon was created by the Trade City theater group and is available for use by any artist or performance group. The idea is mobile art - to bring art to the people, liking traveling theatre troupes of yore.

Ad-Vantage Point

A couple weeks ago we wrote about the uncharted territory and tenuous business models of the film industry on the internet. Everything seems pretty uncertain.

But one internet industry that seemed like a certain bet was a little social networking site led by that familiar flip-flop-clad Harvard grad.

Perhaps you remember a scene from David Fincher’s The Social Network where Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg discuss the pros and cons and precise timing of introducing advertising on Facebook in order to make a profit.

Well, the time is now, and Facebook is certainly turning a profit. But what about the businesses who are advertising?

Click to read more ...