Filed under: Feature | Tags: 2009, California, Castro, Downtown Los Angeles, LA, Los Angeles, Mariachi Square, New York City, NYC, San Francisco, Santa, Santacon, Santarchy, SF, United States, Washington Square Park
SANTACON: DON’T MAKE SANTA MESS YOU UP
Downtown Los Angeles
Photo Credit: Daily Marauder
Over the weekend, the Santas converged, ready to get their drink on. Santacon began in 1994 in San Francisco when a group of 30 Santa’s converged on downtown SF and caused a bit of Kris Kringle mayhem. That spontaneous coordination of Santa fun has progressed into an international phenomenon. Saturday, Santacon dropped in on NYC, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The crowd descended on a Santa-infused pub crawl bringing chaos and fun in its wake. Did you happen to catch the red and white tide? If so, here’s a few pics to catch you up on the fun you missed.
Los Angeles
Mariachi Square, Los Angeles “Sado Masachristmas”
Photo Credit: Daily Marauder
We were in attendance on this one and it was truly an interesting array of creative holiday spirit. Locations were communicated either through traditional means (shouting) or through more digital means (Twitter). As this is a driving town, I was relieved to find that the flask-bearing crowd took the subway from location to location.
And who knew Santa had beef? In this shot, clowns show up to protest Santa’s progression through the streets. And yes, it rains in LA.
La Perla Los Angeles
Photo Credit: Daily Marauder
Here the singing Santas take over the subway. Yup, I didn’t know LA had one either…
New York City
Washington Square Park, NYC
Photo Credit: Sdavisk
San Francisco
Castro, San Francisco
Photo Credit: Jon Bauer
For more information on Santacon coming to a city near you, check out this calendar of events. Happy Holidays from one Santa to another.
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: iPhone, Microsoft Windows, NPD Group, Operating system, San Francisco, Wall Street Journal, Windows 7, Windows Vista
Yesterday in San Francisco, AT&T held a Tech Showcase to show off some of the new innovations they are working on in their labs. One such thing I got a demo of was a way to use your iPhone to search television content simply by using your voice. (Techcrunch11/5)
U.S. unit sales of boxed copies of Windows 7 were 234% higher during the new operating system’s first few days on store shelves than the comparable period two years ago for Windows Vista, according to research firm NPD Group. But one analyst quoted in this report said the Windows 7 effect so far on the PC market as a whole had been “mixed.” The Wall Street Journal (11/6)
Redbox, operator of the $1-a-night DVD kiosks that are controversial among Hollywood studios, is reporting that revenue grew 90% in the third quarter and operating income nearly doubled. The company says it could “easily grow” its current 20,600 kiosks to nearly 60,000. (Iwantmedia11/6, LA Times 11/6)
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Filed under: Feature | Tags: Arts, Citizen Cope, Disc jockey, Herbie Hancock, iTunes, Jelli, MP3, Music, Musical ensemble, Myspace, Pandora, San Francisco, Soul Coughing, Soundgarden
JELLI: ALL REQUEST RADIO
Welcome to Jelli, user-controlled radio. This past week, I had the chance to catch up with Mike Dougherty, CEO of Jelli, at Digital Hollywood to ask him some questions about the site. Incidentally, Mike is not the lead singer of the band Soul Coughing as I had excitedly thought before meeting him. Apparently, I am not the only person to make this mistake.
The Product
Here’s the jist. Log on, start listening, and start voting music up or down based on what you want to listen to you. Others will do the same. The combinations of all of that voting will determine what comes next in the playlist. If you really want to hear that Herbie Hancock track, “rocket” it to the top of the list. If you really can’t stand that Citizen Cope song, “bomb” it out of the playlist. I come from a traditional radio background, and as a DJ for 5 years, I was quite used to the programmed playlist that neither I nor the listener had any control over. The playlist was dictated by a number of rotations coordinated in advance by the radio Program Director, band manager, and artist. In essence, if you requested something, there was pretty much no chance in hell that it was getting on air. This web site flips the switch on the whole radio industry.
The Hotness
Pandora, MySpace Music, iTunes, and pretty much any other online music service you can think of are very one-to-one types of experiences. You pick the music and based on what you are selecting, in certain cases, the service recommends additional music it thinks you will like.
Jelli brings the social aspects of traditional radio back to the forefront allowing users to each play DJ selecting and voting on music as the playlist runs its course. In addition, every Sunday on Live 105 in San Francisco from 10PM – Midnight, what plays on Jelli plays on traditional radio. It should come as no surprise that this is the most highly trafficked time for Jelli.
The Lameness
I would much rather listen to music that I and a few of my friends are selecting rather than listening with the main group. I don’t really need to hear that Soundgarden song once an hour and I know my friends would never subject me to that. Also, giving new users more power seems to be a must. On my first try to the service, a track that I had rocketed to the top was quickly bombed by another user and removed from the playlist. Sad face. Dougherty claims that this may be on the horizon.
What Comes Next
Jelli will be nationally syndicated allowing any radio station to follow the Live 105 lead and empower listeners on their airwaves. In addition, 5 stations in Australia will also begin carrying Jelli as of November. Live DJs? Also on the way. Also, users will eventually be enticed with incentives for their participation in the site.
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- Jelli’s crowd-sourced radio opens up to the U.S., Australia (news.cnet.com)
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Filed under: Feature | Tags: 9th Street Espresso, Blue Bottle Coffee, Brooklyn, California, COFFEE, Gimme Coffee, Hollywood Los Angeles California, Ideo, Intelligentsia, New York, New Yorker, Ost, Ritual Coffee Roasters, San Francisco, United States
GOT LATTE ART? THESE GUYS DO
Photo & Pour Credit: Chris Alameda (Intelligentsia/Venice, CA)
A couple of nights ago, after a long digi-action-packed day at Digital Hollywood, I rolled up at my friend Sirin’s house for some yummie dinner. I was shocked and delightfully surprised to find Pro-Pourer Christopher Alameda from Intelligentsia in the house. As a former New Yorker, I expect over-cooked pasta or grilled cheese when invited over for dinner. As we all know, New Yorkers hardly use their stoves. OK…you know I’m talking about the ‘hattan. Anyways, the first thing that threw me for a loop was the rack of lamb simmering away in the oven. The second, was the fact that I knew incredible coffee was to be coming my way post- dinner.
But, let me back up for a second. Over the past year, I have slowly become more and more passionate about my coffee brew experience. It started when I visited Ritual in San Francisco and sought out the Clover machine experience. All I knew about the Clover was was that it was developed by a guy from Ideo, but then again, that’s all I needed to know really.
Ritual/San Francisco, CA
Later, I also took a visit to Blue Bottle Coffee, also in San Francisco, and checked out the filter drip method of serving coffee.
Blue Bottle Coffee/San Francisco, CA
Back home in NYC, I settled in with some local coffee favorites, including by far my #1, Gimme Coffee in Brooklyn. On any given week day or night, you would have found me computer-deep at Gimme Coffee with latte in hand while I was living in New York (I’ve since moved to LA). My obsession with Gimme was dual purpose really. I loved their coffee…and I wanted to become the mayor on Foursquare. (All those who claim on 4Square that I cheated in my quest to become mayor can suck it cry babies.)
Gimme Coffee/Brooklyn, NY
It is here that I first started paying attention to this concept of latte art. To define it, steamed milk is poured into a shot of espresso to create the resulting design. At first, I thought the foamy shapes on top of my favorite espresso brew were mere flirtations from my barista. That ended when I realized that my barista gave many patrons the frothy foam heart. Traitor… I soon began to rate my barista’s ability to deliver on something impressive from rosettas to things even more impressive. Speaking of which, not to call out my former local shop, but when you half ass it Ninth Street Espresso, I judged. You still make a mean cup of coffee tho.
It’s not until I had a long conversation with Chris and Katie from Intelligentsia in LA, that I realized this coffee latte art was more serious than I had originally considered.
To demonstrate this, there art a number of barista championships around the world from the World Latte Championship to the World Barista Championship.
Photo Credit: Anders Madsen
Candidate art for the World Latte Art Championship poured by an employee from the Dromedar coffee bar
Photo Credit: Coffee Geek
The Butterfly Two-Handed Pour by Sammy from Artigiano
If you need further convincing on the seriousness of the art or the competition, take a look at a video of Stephen Morrissey, The 2008 World Barista Champion.
So, if you dare, go get your latte art on. But please, don’t try it using that sad little Krups machine you have at home.
Marauder Coffee Favorites by City
(Each complete with free in-house Wi-Fi)
Photo & Pour Credit: Christopher Alameda
Intelligentsia (Which I am incidentally also the mayor of on Foursquare for the Venice location)
New York
Photo Credit: Premshree Pillai
Gimme Coffee
Several Locations (Brooklyn is by far my fav)
I like mine in two paws at once. And Gimme, if you ever want to take your special coffee hotness out of NY, email me.
San Francisco
Photo Credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid
Ritual Coffee Roasters
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Google, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco, Search Engines, Searching, Twitter, Virgin America, YouTube
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
A concert by U2 at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California on Sunday will be streamed live on YouTube. The stream will be accessible in 16 countries. The Google-owned video site says that the concert will be archived and available for later viewing, with overlay advertising. (LA Times 10/20)
Click below for U2’s YouTube channel.
I’m still not sure if the Twitter stream is the right place to be for advertising, but with the way the company set out to make it easy for developers to build upon their platform with open APIs, it’s no wonder so many ad networks have sprung up since it got started. Its massive growth and the fact that the San Francisco startup is a media and celebrity darling probably helped in that regard, too. (Techcrunch10/20)
Google is going to make a lot of frequent flyers, and Virgin America, happy this holiday season. As a gift to people who fly on Virgin America’s WiFi-equipped planes, Google will be footing the bill
for everybody on board between November 10, 2009, and January 15, 2010. (Techcrunch10/20)
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Filed under: Feature | Tags: AIDS, California, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Office Space, Real Housewives, San Francisco, United States
DAILY MARAUDER GOES AWOL
Photo Credit: Thomas Hawke
Hey there loyal Marauderists,
Daily Marauder will be on hiatus from tomorrow until September. Being that this is such a large swath of time, I thought it would be worth mentioning a few reasons why we are going dark for so long. Take a deep breathe and deal with the abandonment issues. The purpose of this hiatus is to re-brand the site, re-define the user experience, and add what the movie Office Space refers to as a little bit more flair.
Daily Marauder has been a passion project of mine for the past 3 years. My mission for this site has always been to learn while assessing the digital landscape and speaking to companies about their strategies in this space. This, is still my mission. However, to continue to progress while maintaining some sense of sanity, I need some time to breathe, to re-create, and hopefully to produce a product you like even better than the one before it. During this hiatus, I will be doing a few things:
1) Beginning this Sunday, I and 2,000 other riders, will be biking from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the AIDS Lifecycle in support of the AIDS Foundation. If you would like to donate to the AIDS Foundation, click here. If you are interested in the journey, click on the image below or head to either of two places: www.twitter.com/dailymarauder or www.sftolaonbike.com
2) Re-brand and re-define: In the month of June, I plan to redefine my user flow and redesign the site to support that flow. The intention is to create a site which flows a bit easier and provides a more seamless user experience. More yay! and less nay. In addition, I will be consolidating my e-mail lists. You may receive an opt-in message during that time. I hope you decide to stick with us and continue to get your digital/TV/tech news on with us.
Till then. Try not to run me over on the road and I’ll catch you on the flipside of a few more Real Housewives of NJ episodes,
Marauder
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Filed under: Feature, TECHNOLOGY | Tags: AIDS Lifecycle, Cadence Cycle, Computraining, Cycling, iPhone, LA, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco
COMPUTRAINING: BIKE RACING ON A COMPUTER SCREEN
Like Oprah, I have my list of favorite things. Apart from the obligatory items like pedicures and Twizzlers, my bike and my computer are at the top of my list. Especially now, as I train for the AIDS Lifecycle ride from San Francisco to LA, cycling has become the main focus of my weekend diet. So, after biking 55 miles to Piermont in the morning, I met up with Ray and Martha at Cadence Cycle in NYC to try out a free computraining class.
Step 1
Put your bike on a trainer and hook it into a computer which automatically changes the resistance according to the selected course.
Step 2
Calibrate the bike and stare down your surrounding competition.
Step 3
The names and weights of all bikers are loaded into the computer. In the screen above, the elevation is at the top of the screen and the columns at the bottom indicate each biker.
Step 4
Start peddling furiously and talking smack to surrounding bikers.
Along the course, a green line (towards the top of the screen in the image above) indicates a decline in elevation from the current elevation. A red line indicates an increase. It’s not quite like an outdoor riding looking at a hill as the change in elevation could be a big increase/decrease or slight. The image above was taken from my iPhone. The much better, brighter picture at the top is a stock photo.
Of course, I get seated next to Ray, ultramarathoner on my left, and overly-intense cycling dude on my right. Regardless, it was a nice experience to spin using my own bike. The added competition pushed me to a mph must faster than a traditional spin class. I also enjoyed knowing that everyone was at the same resistance. There’s always that person in every spin class who is told to turn it up ‘one full turn’ and makes a fake-out hand movement and then spins like a nut job. You know who you are.
If you want to take a class, the first two are free. $25 per class moving forward. Click here for more info either on the Philadelphia or NYC location.
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