ESPN3 has been touted as the end all for Soccer fans without access to a TV. Well if you are a Time Warner customer, well no more is that true.
ESPN3 is not providing coverage to Time Warner customers. It sucks cause some of us were watching the world cup from the comfort of our desktop. Now that is gone.
Would ESPN and Time Warner go get a room and resolve this problem and in the mean time let us soccer fans enjoy the worldcup without your childish bickering.
The other night I was driving up the I-710 from Long Beach back to my residence in the valley and I happened to notice something very interesting. Twenty Two (22) 1-800-GET-SLIM/1-800-GET-THIN bill board ads on my drive up the I-710.
Either the I-710 corridor has an inordinate number of overweight obese people, or the company is basing it on the fact that its in an environmental and social justice area and the bill board viewing clients are most likely poor Hispanic residents of Los Angeles County who don’t know any better.
It does seem a bit excessive, since many of the signs are right next to each other. In fact I saw more than one instance where there were more than 2 on either side of the road in the same location. Gone are the days when bill boards had something interesting to inform the passing motorist, today the I-710 corridor seems to inform that you are a fat lazy bastard and you need to get slim by getting the lap band surgery.
I for one don’t condone it for people who are overweight and have failed in every diet to give something like this a chance, but this is Los Angeles folks, the place that started the trend called Size Zero (0). Are we going for the negative numbers now? I think this company is being irresponsible with their ad campaign. I hear their ad’s on the radio, tv and now on two sides of a freeway. Thank god it is not one of those fancy flashing electronic billboards.
This year I once again went to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. I took my lovely friend Vanessa as my date for the 3 days I was there. It was SO much fun. I don think she quite well knew what to expect. Needless to say Vanessa went hog wild!
The highlights of the 2010 CES was the fact that 3D TV’s are getting more standardized than what prototypes we saw last year. Still there is a lot of flux. The active/passive camp is going to fight it out for quite a bit. Samsung had some interesting demonstrations and I think their technology will prevail. Still the CEA group is expecting to raise the sales of new plasma/lcd tvs with 3D technology to continue capturing the market in the coming years.
I also was quite fascinated by the new wireless HDMI and wireless power transfer prototypes. I think they are quite fanciful that the bumbling village idiot will call it black magic!
On the Green Technology side, the stuff was just the same load of usual crap. However I was quite excited to see a T-8 LED fixture. I think that is has a lot of potential in the commercial energy conservation arena. I also found Ultralast with their new Green Power batteries (similar to Sanyo’s Enloop) and I look forward to testing them soon.
This years CES did not seem to have a lot of the prior years players. Not sure if the economy had something to do with it or not. Regardless it was a successful trade show and I look forward to following up with my contacts.
I was fortunate enough to be invited to the LA Auto Show Press Day by Mazda USA for their unveiling of the new Mazda 2. It was a lovely unveiling and I had a great time. However I thought I’d write in on my Press Day Experience.
I’ve been a car nut since ummm.. 1988 or so when Jeremy Clarkson came on to Top Gear and said ‘Powwerrr’ all the while doing donuts. I fell in love with Top Gear. I still consider Jeremy Clarkson, Tiff Needles and Quentin Wilson as the dads who taught me how to buy, drive and power slide cars.
Needless to say 20 or odd so years later, I get my first opportunity to go to a Press Day event at the LA Auto Show. It was quite fun. I think its the ONLY way to see an auto show, with no crowds to fight over other than camera geeks and and press geeks. Its still better since we are much more well behaved.
Press day has its fun things. Jaguar had free alcohol and coffee for the press folks and Mercedes allowed people up close and personal look into the new SLS. Too bad the exotics were missing except for Aston Martin which Galpin Motors brought to the show (didnt see them but I heard later on).
Over all it was a wonderful experience. I totally enjoyed it. I look forward to doing it again if I could again next year.
Zoom Zoom. That’s what Mazda say about their cars. I must agree ever since I’ve experienced the new Zoom-Zoom Mazda 2. I was fortunate enough to be invited by Mazda Motors US to be part of the unveiling of the 2011 Mazda 2 at the Los Angeles International Auto Show. The LA Auto Show ran from December 4th to the 13th, but my day was not with the general public. I was invited to the LA Auto Show’s press day which was December 2, 2009.
I’ve never been to a press day and that itself is a story to itself. However this is about the new Mazda 2. As sweet as the car is, the car is only going to be even sweeter when more details come out and when we eventually get to test drive it.
The Mazda 2 is well placed with its other subcompact “C” segment cars. However I think among its rivals it is quite the ravishing hunk. Sure it shares some of its innards with the Ford Fiesta, but its still different enough to say that Mazda has a winner on its hands.
The press day event did not reveal its engine size or interior, however Mazda promised it would reveal those as the days go by. I look forward to it.
I must thank David Harris of Mazda US for inviting me and Lisa Negri for being such a sweet heart even though I arrived a bit late. I also must thank Mazda for providing the sweet Flip Mino HD camera for us to help commemorate the birth of their new child. I must also thank Mazda for the sweeet Zoom Zoom Concentrated drink they had for us. I took one home to keep it in my fridge to remind me of the good times. I also must thank Jenna Britten from Rebel Industries for setting up the sweet luncheon at the ESPN Lounge @ LA Live. I really enjoyed it. I just wish I could remember who else was there. I am sorry if I forgot to thank you.
Living in Los Angeles has its benefits. It is the media capital of the world. Its a trend setter of sorts for mass media, what happens here is followed else where. The downside of living in Los Angeles is that if you listen to any sort of media especially the Radio, you are exposed to the same commercial music that has made the Grammy’s predictable since 1984.
Case and Point: Listen to AMP 97.1 and KIIS 102.7 FM any point of any day and you are bound to run into the same song playing on two stations. When 97.1 went from all talk to music, the press were told that the AMP format was to revolutionize commercial top 40 radio in the Los Angeles market. I am sorry to say those PR Folks, Industry Folks and CEO’s were wrong. It is just another manufactured crap station.
Give me back Adam Carolla & Tom Leykis. Give me back Indie103.1, give me something more than Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, or any of the American Idol Stars. I miss good ole music from creative people. I am not asking for the next Bach or Pagadini. I am asking for the LA market radio station to play more variety of music.
You probably are asking, why all this resentment. You rarely listen to the radio, you have a hard drive filled with music in your car. Yes I do, and I have it because I cant stand the same songs playing over and over again on my midday drive down the 5 to Orange County.
I’ve been a Radio DJ for 3 years. I know what I am talking about. I had a pretty popular on-demand variety show called the “Whatchamacallit Show” on KSSU AM 1580. Yes its a college radio station but it gave me quite a bit of insight into what users want. What LA needs is an Indie Radio Station and a person to fund it without questions and give me and a few more people the reins. I understand its a commercial business, but if you want to save the music, stop playing the same manufactured shit and give some airtime to bands that really have talent and deserve to be heard.
In May 2008 my beloved 2000 Ford Focus LX finally bit the dust. I really did love that car. She never complained once until she reached 120,000 miles. That’s when it slowly started to have problems. Even so at 160,000 miles my beloved focus was a complete trooper. It even made a trip up to central California wine country with a sticking valve.
With her final breath at the Chevron Gas Station on Corner of Tampa & Nordhoff (incidentally the same place where I got into my motorcycle accident a week before) I had to go out there and look for new transportation (remember bike was in the shop).
So in this series, I will dictate on how I went about buying my new car.
So the other day I was on my way to LAX to pickup a relative flying in from the midwest. As I was waiting at the light at the end of the ramp of 105W exiting sepulveda, what did I see….
Airforce One, well its not called Airforce One when the president is not on board but still, the plane was sitting at a remote bay. I had to do a double take on it. I did not have my camera with me but I did manage to snap a hazy picture of the plane with my iPhone.
Just to let you know that is NOT the current Boeing 747 based aircraft but the previous generation. They would not leave the current aircraft to be that accessible.
Interesting things you see when you least expect it.
[Picture taken September 23, 2008]
