Turf Wars

Because im a glutton for punishment, sometimes I like to compare real estate here in Austin with that of another area of the country. Below, I am comparing home sale prices in Travis County Tx and those found in Scotland County NC (where my folks live).

Travis County TX: $110,000.................Scotland County NC, $109,000

Travis County TX: $280,000.................Scotland County, NC $278,000

Hmmmmmm

Icono-Clash Of The Titans.

As hard as it was to do, I passed up on an opportunity to attend a taping of the Oprah Winfrew Show at Cesears Palace in Las Vegas. Her guests... Mrs Tina Turner and Cher. The show tapes this saturday and getting there would have been too painfull. Gay men and stay-at-home moms everywhere will be dropping eggs left and right on Tuesday afternoon at 4 when the show airs on Oprah. And I could have been there!

DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The good news is that Cher will be kick-starting her stint at Cesars Palace in May and my friend Mr. Big has already offered me some comp front row tix.

Tango and Ash

Buenos Aires finally shined through the thick smoke and revealed itself to us. A beautiful city that now sits on my favorites list. Days have been filled with cultural tours and insaine bargain shopping and nights kicking off with 11:30pm dinner and socalizing to Electronic Tango into the wee hours of the morning. Argentinians are clearly more formal in their everyday lives, men in suits, ties and newly shined shoes and women dressed to the nines and not afraid of furs and panty hose. The days immortalized by Eva Perons insatiable style dont seem to be too far forgotten. It's nice to see folks still try to present themselves formally, a real nice change from the comfort-class most Americans have adopted.

BA lives up to it's reputation as the "Paris of South America" mainly because it was literally modeled after it. After independance was won in 1816, Argentenian's purposelfully demolished all of the colonial spanish architecture and erected french inspired buildings and gardens all over the city. The widest street in the world whisks you through the city like a modern thoroughfare and if you squint your eyes you'd think you were travelling the Champs Elysees into the heart of Paris.

The almighty dollar goes REAAALLLLY far here. Dinner, cabs, clothing cost next to nothing allowing you to spend more money where it really counts...like maybe the Presidential Suite at the Mariott. Wink. Hurry though, because the masses are just starting to figure this out.

Come to Buenos Aires... Call Marcelo and you'll leave knowing everything you'd ever want to know about the city. Highly recommended.

Digital Divorce

Divorce in the Digital Age... for all to see. Scandalous.

hmmmmm

Food For Thought

I had a late dinner last night at the recently remodeled 'Trio' restaurant at The Four Seasons here in Austin. Twas delish. Some notable items aside from my bone-in beef tenderloin (which was slightly undercooked for a medium rare) :

1. Braised Pork Belly served with a poached-then-deep-fried egg. Deliciously prepared, I didn't even mind the yolk pouring out of the egg when sliced open. It worked.

2. Parmesan Popovers. Melted in your mouth. Gave you that bread feeling without the heavy inside. Perfect for summer and soup. (I'm thinking a chilled cucumber dill gazpacho and Parmesan popovers on the back porch on a lazy summer evening? Served with sun tea and a spicy tomato aspic of course.)

3. White and Red roasted beet salad with a blue cheese vinaigrette. I love me a beet!

........and last but certainly not least, the crowd favorite:

4. Sweet Corn Creme Brulee'. Next time I go I'm just gonna order 5 of these and call it a night. Then I'll just go home and put on my mu-mu and watch Matlock reruns all night.

Dalai Huh?

Am I the only person on earth who couldn't give a rats ass about the Dalai Lama? Evidently he's in the United States riling up the part-time Buddhists over the protests that have been fanning out the Olympic Torch in various cities. Tibet needs to grow some balls if they want to survive in this world. Sending a bald man in who speaks in confusing riddles and bows a lot isn't going to help solve much in my opinion.

My advice to Tibet... Drill for oil. Fast!

A Delicious Solution

HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU?

You: Hey let's go to lunch
Co-Workers: Yeah, Im hungry!
You: Where do Yall want to go
Co-Workers: I don't know, you decide
You: I don't now either, im not good at that
Co-Workers: Whole Foods?
You: Im all stocked up on organic free-range Wheat Germ, Lets go somewhere else
Co-Workers: UGH, lets just eat ramen noodles in the kitchen
You: Damnit!!

NEVER AGAIN IF YOU CLICK HERE!

hmmmm

Pink Doomed

An old standard in Austin politics closes up shop today and I hate to see PinkDome.com go. I have the pleasure of calling it's author a good friend and I know his satirical humor will be sorely missed in the capital and elsewhere around town. I know that his feelings about the Terry Keel/anonymous blogger debacle had something to do with his decision to call it quits, but his insanely busy schedule and real life job are what probably drove that final nail.

Mr. Pinkdome and I have discussed how the blogosphere is changing before our very eyes. What once was a scene filled with early adopters and anonymous authors chit chatting about what mattered to them, is slowly morphing into just another marketing vehicle to be exploited. Conversations will be less organic and more ad driven. Readers will be left with the question "Is this real or am I being marketed to?". On the political front, blogs have always been partisan in some fashion, but now politicos are putting together complicated and often covert social media outreach campaigns designed to "infiltrate" and hijack conversations and networks to influence readers opinions. Clearly this isn't a new tactic, it's happened all along, but it's scaled to ridiculous proportions these days.

The irony here is that I am one of those marketers who exploits social networks for the gain of my clients. My only personal saving grace is that I typically do it for socially aware, advocacy-focused companies who are saving the world (UNICEF) or promoting very serious human rights issues (HRC). Even if I were working for more retail-focused clients, I would recommend the very tactics I lambasted one paragraph up. Clearly my drive for success on behalf of my clients is much stronger than my personal blogging ethics. I am a walking dichotomy.

Nonetheless, looks like the first victim of this new media storm I've helped create has now been eulogized, and I do hate to see him go.