Walmart Dictating New Technology Dictating Entertainment Dictating Life

Apologies in advance for a post sounding educational and almost completely devoted to the way big retail companies work. Sounds boring but when your line of work is some way related, you always have some sort of passion with how these big corporations run their game...

Anyway, about frickin' time... this mofo is blogging two months later and after drinking some Olde E.

Memes to catch up on...

Instructions: List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal/blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.

7 songs is too hard, I could go on and on but will keep it to seven and might as well include the videos (I can only write so much about these songs, might as well hear them!) via YouTube before they get slapped with some copyright ingfringement crap. Most of this is stuff that lingered well beyond summer:

Over My Head (Cable Car) by The Fray:

I know, played out, but this is probably the best upbeat but mopey afternoon freeway driving songs since "Brick" from Ben Folds Five.

Don't Save Us From The Flames by M83:

...dedicated to everyone that ever felt like an outcast. Cool indie synth electronica... Look out for the dog in the wheel chair and the special effects at the end that make Slimer from Ghostbuster look 1999ish. Most likely if you get to the end of this you'll say "WTF did I just watch?!"... Cool low budget work makes me like it even more. Well shot and cool story told.

Sexy Love by Ne-yo:

Yes another played out summer song but Ne-yo reminds me of R&B 15 years ago when I still enjoyed every bit of it.

Steppin' Out by Kaskade:

Old track but I played this all summer after meeting him at Levende Lounge in San Francisco. Kaskade (pronounced Kaskadee) is from the Bay Area but appears to be more popular overseas... probably the best chorus I've ever heard on a house song... Forget the video, I know its weird, the cool chorus starts at the 1:40 mark in case you're weirded out early on...

Hand On Your Heart by Jose Gonzalez:

This is actually a cover of a poppy Kylie Minogue song. Jose Gonzalez makes this sound 100 times better and makes the lyrics more meaningful... The real video, inspired by Japanese art and no longer available on YouTube is here. His CDs are worth checking out...

Fire Eyed Boy by Broken Social Scene:

Taken from the Letterman show... you can actually see how awesome this band is during this performance instead of watching their regular videos. How often do you see two drummers on stage at the same time backing about six guitars? Any fans of Canadian bands Metric, Stars, Feist, KC Accidental, the list goes on and on...? They all came together to create this band, about 17 memebers total. Easily one of my favorite bands right now and probably the best thing to come out of Canada since... umm... probably the best thing to come out of Canada.

Kissing by Bliss:

This video is a chopped down version of the song I love. You need this... medicine for the nocturnal. The guitars add that extra something here. Enjoy!


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It's amazing how much has changed in the ways we get our entertainment. Just a few years ago, I would head over to the local Tower Records every Tuesday after work to get my new DVD and CD fix. I rarely buy CDs now since I (ahem!) legally download most of my stuff, but I still buy a ton of DVDs, maybe for now. I was sad to find out last week that after filing for Chapter 11 for the second time last August and being put up for sale, the bid for Tower Records fell into the hands of a liquidator who plans to sell off all remaining inventory at clearance prices and close all the stores. Part of the beauty of Tower Records was just the browsing experience and being able to grab all the foreign and Criterion released DVDs or those hard to find indie CDs unavailable elsewhere. One of the first major media retailers to bite it and an icon of the dying CD buying generation.

MP3 downloads played a big part of laying the smack down on Tower, but big box retailers like Walmart that sell dirt cheap CDs and DVDs are probably more of the cause of Tower's death. Walmart sells their CDs and DVDs as loss leaders, meaning they lose money at the price they sell them, but are sure to make a profit on the other things you buy. While everything at Walmart seems cheap, it is only because they have huge purchasing power from manufacturers over their competitors. Basically they have enough power to bully manufacturers to lower their cost of goods or threaten to not carry their product at all. With a strong 30% market share of all consumer goods, most manufacturers would rather lower their selling cost to Walmart than not have them carry their product at all, but this is how companies like Rubbermaid crashed in the 90s when they couldn't budge any lower in price to meet Walmart's demands. I will buy most of my DVDs from Walmart but nothing else so they can take a loss in profit from me. You can't download toilet paper but you don't have to buy it at Walmart. I am officially done with Walmart. Why buy from a multi-billion dollar revenue generating corporation that mass produces their electronics in sweat shops, doesn't pay overtime and advises their employees to seek government help for medical aid instead of offering affordable benefits, has a lot of strangle power in making a manufacturer breathe or choke, and causes the closure of neighborhood mom and pop shops? (Support you local mom and pop shops and grocery stores. I don't mind paying a little more to support the grocery stores in my community.)

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One project that I have been working on for the past weeks is ripping all my CDs to my hard drive. 50 gigs and 8000 tracks later, I still have about 100 CDs left. I don't have any plans of getting rid of my CDs but having all my music in one place and at the push of a button is so convenient and it helps me rediscover my music library. (Anyone remember the song "Slow Love" from Doc Box and B Fresh from the early 90s? I totally forgot about it until I realized that I own the damn song on a CD. Some 6th grade shit right there.) I bought a Intel Mac Mini a few months ago so I can boot both Windoze (bleh! blah! blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!) and OSX and take care of some work from home, but it actually has become more of my entertainment hub. Hooked up to my TV and stereo receiver, Apple's Front Row is awesome. Apple really has the potential to change how we get our entertainment and information. I don't have much time to watch TV, catch up on news, but I get it all when I have the chance from Apple. I get my news from automatic daily downloads of podcasts from national news to sports from the iTunes store, and the only show that I care to watch is The Office which I always miss but can download the following day for 2 bucks. How convenient for a lazy ass like myself after a day at work. Imagine if all you watch is one show each week, that's $8 a month versus a $100 cable bill for hundreds of channels you probably don't watch and advertisements you probably don't want to see. I'm not ready for that yet but it's pretty smart. Apple also started selling movie downloads at costs lower than DVDs. So far the resolution is about the same if not better than regular TV broadcasts, but once these are delivered in hi-def, I'll be all over it. So far they only have about 100 movies available coming from Disney and its affiliates (but one year ago when they started to offer TV shows, they only had like 2 networks and 6 shows on board... one year later almost everything is available). Other studios are ready to get on board, but...

...but feeling threatened that Apple will take over movies like they did with music downloads, Walmart has threatened to stop carrying DVDs if film studios sign with Apple and make their movies available for download through the iTunes store. This has made some studios back away from Apple's springboard instead of quickly diving into the idea. Huge bluff, 40% of DVD sales come out of Walmart, and as a loss leader this is still successful in luring customers in. It is unlikely that Walmart will stop dishing out their bait, and it is even more unlikely that movie downloads will take off as fast as music did given that not everyone has the internet speeds to support it and the fact that the average Joe is not technologically sound or equipped to make the change away from the conventional way that movies are delivered. DVDs will still be around for a couple of years. Walmart is just putting up the early strategy to bully for lower prices again. Deal with it Walmart, the technology is there and will happen. Sink or swim bitches. Capitalists are always positively for a free market up until the day it works against their advantage. Okay, enough about Walmart...

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To take you away from the craziness of a consuming society:

Summer is long gone. My blog missed most of the sunny season while others blogged about "how I spent my summer vacation". I won't write about that but I will recommend a route to drive if the weather is still warm and you want to rediscover Northern California. An old friend from college was out here during the summer for work and after exhausting all the regular resources, the whole idea of what else to see in Northern Cali can be stumping, but this is a great drive and stop route that you can do in one day and something that takes you away from the everyday consumer Starbuck's-like-hype that is California...

Start early at the every tourist-must-do Golden Gate. You can easily kill an hour there taking pictures and walking along the bridge. Just a short drive away is Sausalito with one of my favorite downtown areas filled with art galleries, beach front performers and places for brunch. After this cool stop, hop back onto the southbound 280 freeway to Highway 1 in Daly City where most likely the fog will be thick. Once you're out of the fog and in Pacifica, Highway 1 becomes one of the most beautiful coastal roads. Here you will find what everyone calls "the most beautiful taco stand". Actually it's a Taco Bell on the beach. Not a fan of bastardized burritos but I think this Taco Bell is pretty cool:



Further south along the coast is Half Moon Bay where you can find Maverick's, a surfing beach where waves commonly crest at 25 feet and top out at 50. Also in Half Moon Bay for kids is the Arata Pumpkin Farm which has this cool straw maze labrynth you can get lost in. Continuing down Highway 1 from here you can reach Santa Cruz in about an hour, but this is before going through Big Basin Redwoods State Park... the dozens of kite flyers on the beaches of Pescadero... Pigeon Point Lighthouse... Once at Santa Cruz its all walking along the boardwalk and beach. You don't have to pump quarters into the arcade games and rides, just enjoy a Cali beach at its best...

From Santa Cruz is the most crucial part of the drive. If you have the time you can continue down Highway 1 and enjoy more of the coastal scenic route along Big Sur and over Bixby Bridge, just make sure you head back north and hop onto Highway 17 well before sunset. From 17, get on to Summit Road to Bear Creek Road leading to Route 35 better known as Skyline Boulevard: a winding mountain road and supposedly the only place where at times you can see the Pacific and the Bay Area at the same time. Scenic points are everywhere; One even gives you full view of San Jose to San Francisco and across the Bay as long as the sky is clear.

If your timing is right, the fog hasn't set, and you've made it to the Palo Alto area, you will see a great sunset from above the clouds:


(This is one of my favorite places to drive, it takes you away from Silicon Valley and if you feel like pushing the limits of your car, this is the place. Drive here on a Sunday and have brunch at Alice's at the junction of Skyline and 84. This junction is pretty cool, its a true old town crossroads with old but functional gas pumps in one corner and an old wooden convenience store and deli at the other.)

Eventually, after the sun sets, you'll hit Highway 92. Take it east bound over the San Mateo Bridge for a 5 minute moonlit drive over the San Francisco Bay. Once over the bridge exit 92 at the north bound 880 junction and head to Berkley and if you've made reservations and are on time, have dinner at Chez Panisse. Run by Alice Waters, this is a cool place to eat since her philosophy of cooking is that everything is organically and locally grown and in season. No permanent menu, a single unique three course menu each night for one price with reservations for only two scheduled seatings: its like going to a concert of food.

This is the drive. Try it if you live in Northern Cali, open your sunroof and pop in your favorite CD. This was lucky spontaneity at play but it worked. It made me appreciate and rediscover the place where I live.

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I haven't done this, but if you live in the Bay Area and are as big of a fan of the movie Harold & Maude as I am, check out the shooting locations here and turn this into a day drive. Should be interesting to any fan if you feel like reliving the movie.

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Everyone NEEDS to check out The Science of Sleep by Michel Gondry! Being a big fan of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and all his music videos, I had to check out Gondry's new film when it was out in San Francisco. Rho and J seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. Easily one of the best movies I've seen this year... easily one of my favorites. Check it out.

Double the pleasure: I'm definitely buying this at a loss leading price and ripping off Walmart once its released on DVD.

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