After 8 months of waiting U2 made it to Auckland and I was lucky to be there.
As I have mentioned one of my big regrets is not seeing U2 on the Zoo TV tour. For me it was an event that was a distillate of the zeitgeist of the time - it was something that reflected my growing understanding of the world around me and the malleability of media and it’s message. It was one of those coincidental moments that I am sad I didn’t take advantage of.
Did Friday night make up for that? I don’t really know, but it was good. It was very, very good and I am very pleased to have seen U2 play live. The music was exciting and delightful - spanning most of their catalog. The band seemed genuinely grateful to be there - going to some effort to craft the experience, with words and images, so that it was an NZ experience. They small things maybe - but things that transformed what could’ve been a very generic event into one where you were glad you had held onto the tickets. It was also a real pleasure to see Kanye West live.
The scale of things really inspired me… the size of the crowd, somewhere between 20-40,000 cellphones turning on in the dark (a breath-taking sight) and the balloons floating across the crowd like a froth. All because of four Irish guys - at a conceptual level it was a first hand experience that showed a lot is possible if you set your mind to it.
There are certain types of disappointment that cause an intake of breath - the cognitive dissonance so jarring you can’t think straight. My Hilton experience was one of those… I kinda sat on the edge of the bed and my teeth jangled. Not only had I been ripped off… I had been Taken.
U2 played in Auckland over the weekend. Seeing as I was up there with the Missus I figured it would be nice to spend a little more cash and experience how the other side live. Good U2 tickets and a swanky hotel… should make for a nice weekend. I got two out of three…
It turns out that the other side are suckers. In comparison to the other hotel rooms in Auckland you’re looking at paying a good set of multiples for a Hilton room. I know that that at a certain point a hotel room is a hotel room… but I also know that it is the type of experience where you can put a smile on the face of your customer face. It’s the type of experience that is a rich seam of “wow!” moments… but the Hilton guys are just shipping gravel. You don’t get a better room, you don’t get better fittings, you still get nickel-and-dimed to death (laughably so in some cases) and you don’t walk out feeling like you’ve had an even vaguely better experience. There isn’t a single part of the Hilton experience where you go “oh! I get it!”
Now I get branding and I know how the bait’n’switch works, but it has been a really really long time since I have experienced such a distance between the sell and the reality. I’ve sold and I’ve delivered in my life - I know the rules of engagement. I wasn’t looking for anything spectacular - I was simply looking for something, a single magical “I get it” moment, it wasn’t there.
I know that in the scope of life it’s a pretty meaningless thing to write about. But I haven’t had an experience like that in a long time. Hi, I’m Dave and I was a schmuck that got taken by Hilton (LOL… yes I know - but going there, well, that’s too easy).
Two butchers play an unusual game of chess out of a board made with steaks sliced into squares. The steak is cut into 2″ by 2″ pieces, with 64 pieces cut total, 32 of them kissed by a frying pan and hence enhanced in color.
After waiting for weeks my CD order FINALLY came through:
Popular music is dominated by hip-hop music and a lot of it is complete dross. In this environment it is very difficult to experience the combination of factors that makes hip-hop great. Well, finally, the wait is over… Mr Fiasco is here.
Lupe Fiasco combines magical lyrics, fabulous music and a rat-tat-tat delivery to tell stories. Stories of the street and stories of society. Exactly the sort of soul that makes good hip-hop so compelling.
I was hooked a while back when I heard a demo of “Kick, Push” and so I was really hanging out for this album. My biggest fear, alleviated a little by the second single “Daydreamin’”, was that the track was the single light. Thankfully thats not the case… the whole album is beautiful.
Listening to: Compliments (Shibuyaka Remix By Nick Zinner) - Bloc Party
A few months back I was peripherally involved in a conversation about out sourcing support. I basically said that I thought that, in this context, it was a dumb idea - the company would miss out on useful intangible information about their customers and the customers would come off second best. This was based on personal experience and on a recent set of experiences that the Missus had at her previous job.
Most companies don’t outsource things they need to win a customer, but they have no problem outsourcing things the customer needs to use the product. Technical support. Training. Customer support. Most companies keep sales in-house but then have someone with no passion for the company’s products–help the customer actually use the thing.
Engaging and maintaining a customer in a long term relationship needs to start in-house.
Pink Tentacle has a collection of photos of these trucks (and links to other galleries). All the neon makes them look a little surreal… like they are computer generated:
This is charming… the mass storage stone by Studio Leung. I love the idea of embedding computers into natural objects and this is a great example:
A portable 4 GB hard drive that fits into your pocket, and has similar qualities to a stone - textured and slightly cold to touch 53 x 40 x 25 mm - synthetic resin
