Archive for category That's Life
Figaro, Figaro, Figaro
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Music, Technology, That's Life on February 8th, 2010
A Saturday night at Opera Colorado’s performance of The Barber of Seville was helped along by an ingenious iPhone app. Almost any event held at Denver’s Ellie Caulkins Opera House both benefits and suffers from the features of its seats, to wit, the incredibly uncomfortable seats (which could only have been selected because the folding chair manufacturer was out of stock) along with the clever electronic seatback titling system called, appropriately, Figaro. Since few of Denver’s opera fans are either fluent in Italian (or French and German) or have an intimate knowledge of the sung libretto, the English translation provided by the pale blue OLED displays makes the performances much easier to follow. Such translation titling in America’s opera houses was once viewed as hayseed – a reflection of the lack of sophistication of US audiences – but has grown to be adopted by other country bumpkin facilities in Milan, Barcelona, London and Vienna.
Figaro Titling at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House
Suffice it to say that none of row D’s occupants had working Figaro’s to accompany Figaro, creating a less than optimal experience and quite a bit of griping to the helpless ushers during intermission. Having seen Barber staged, albeit close to 20 years earlier, I recalled that Act II has a large amount of sung character narrative that propels the action; in other words, it’s pretty hard to follow what’s going on without some type of libretto. So what to do? In the age of the iPhone could there be an app to bail the casual opera fan out? Indeed there is. A quick search of the App Store revealed that the good folks at Intermundia had an app that contained not only an English/Italian libretto, but an adjustable slider that would allow the text to move at a speed consistent with the performance – brilliant. So while the rest of my row scratched their heads through to the conclusion, I was more able to enjoy the chaos of Rossini’s comedy.
Opera App Saves the Evening
As to the performance? Opera Colorado’s production of one of music’s most beloved comedies turned out to be great fun. Director David Gately has staged this warhorse 30 times before utilizing a broadly comic reading that includes plenty of sight gags, cartoonish versions of the Bartolo and Basilio characters and a silly slow-motion brawl that ends Act I that would make fans of The Matrix proud. Rosina was beautifully sung by Isabel Leonard (remember that name as she may the next great young mezzo-soprano), her debut performance in the role. The opening night “talk back” session held by General Director Greg Carpenter and Director of Artistic Planning Brad Trexell was a welcome chance to gain insight into the production planning and thought process of the company.
A hearty Bravo to the cast – and to the inventiveness and ingenuity of the iPhone app.
Streaming The Splinternet
Posted by Bob Kumagai in That's Life on February 3rd, 2010
The rapid rise of social network tools like Facebook and Twitter present businesses with significant challenges; from the standpoint of understanding the dozens of available platforms and their relative effectiveness to what, if any, direct value these specific tools represent to the basic goals of driving revenue, acquiring new customers, mitigating costs and supporting distribution channels. These popular tools share two themes that are becoming rapidly adopted by millions of users – 1) distribution of content in real-time (The Stream) and 2) the movement toward ever more segmented content for different and exclusive delivery platforms.
As marketers have begun to embrace the potential of utilizing what falls under the big umbrella of “social networks” and budget and staff activities for this new channel, it is becoming evident that the web is evolving toward becoming a more fragmented and challenging place to manage than ever. Fast.
One of the most important aspects of Facebook and Twitter (as well as hundreds of other applications like is the practical actualization of the real time Web. Until very recently, the Web operated on what amounted to a traditional publisher model, albeit on a vastly accelerated origination and distribution schedule. The act of posting to a Facebook wall or tweeting now creates content on the fly – designed for consumption in the moment. Erick Schonfeld wrote of The Stream and how the Web is quickly becoming organized around not just the subject but rather how current that content is.
The social media channel is not a wide pipe but a bundle of very specific channels acting as conduits for content exchange and user interactivity aligned around communities of common interest, subject matter, context and media type. Josh Bernoff, co-author of “Groundswell” calls it the Splinternet. His recent blog post paints a dire picture of a future where dozens of different devices interact (or don’t) with dozens of different content walled-gardens, i.e., the end of Internet ubiquity where pretty much everyone can see the same thing, regardless of hardware or connection type. Bernoff posits that tools like Facebook keep most of their content behind user logins and passwords, have their own unique formats, ad platforms, standards and applications that serve to keep search engines and users that don’t reside inside of their social ecosystem out. In other words, a sort of Balkanization of the Web where publishers establish their own delivery platforms and can restrict access based upon the type of device or payment scheme. The NY Times plans to introduce a metered access model next year that will restrict access – presumably specific hardware platforms will work with this model in a variety of ways. Perhaps an Android mobile device or the new iPad will grant access through separate subscription deals or as a part of a bundled wireless phone plan. Marketers will no longer be able to develop for and manage for a standardized internet but for specific distribution paths – browser, mobile, iPad, Facebook, etc. Perhaps the notion of a standard and open Internet has always been something of a myth – it’s too simple and ethereal to be real. At any rate, that unicorn is an endangered species.
No Atheists In This Foxhole
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Music, That's Life on January 29th, 2010
Patty Griffin's Downtown Church
Patty Griffin has built a fascinating body of work over the past 15 years. Her music has held the torch for traditional folk, brushed up against punk, and been recorded by some of Country’s biggest stars (The Dixie Chicks and Reba McEntire) although she is almost never played on popular mainstream radio. She may be this country’s finest singer-songwriter, consistently recording thoughtful and original music infused with a wide variety of American musical influences. Among the strongest recent influences in her last several albums has been the gospel and soul music of the American church.
Last year’s gospel collection “Oh Happy Day!” featured Griffin’s duet with the legendary Mavis Staples on “Waiting For My Child To Come Home” and proved to be a harbinger of the musical things to come. Griffin lists The Beatles, Aretha Franklin and the Staple Singers as the primary musical influences of her childhood in a recent NY Times review of the new album. Although she has dipped her toe into gospel music recently, the new release is a full-out cannonball into the deep end of the gospel musical pool. The album is a mix of traditional favorites (“Wade In The Water”, “Move Up”, and the utterly breath-taking “All Creatures of Our God and King”) and originals performed by Griffin and an ensemble of folk and gospel artists that include Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, and Regina McCrary. Produced by Buddy Miller (best known for his association with Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s Grammy winner “Raising Sand”) the music stays true to its roots. Alternately meditative and foot-stomping, Downtown Church is Griffin’s vehicle to exposing the pop and folk audiences to what she believes is an under-represented and misunderstood piece of our musical heritage. Through it all, Griffin’s magnificent voice soothes, shouts, growls, trembles and inspires.
Whether you are in the Christopher Hitchens/Richard Dawkins camp or a regular attendee on Sundays, the music here is pretty transcendental of your philosophical grounding. Art may be inspired by faith or grow from its rejection – either way Griffin delivers a vibrant tribute to this part of America’s musical family tree.
Growing Big Fast
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Parenting, That's Life on January 27th, 2010
There is something shocking about turning around to face your 12 year old and finding that you are looking directly into his eyes – while you are standing up. This happens quite often these days as my gangly son seems to be growing at a rather astonishing rate. A quick glance at the pencil marks on the door frame indicate that he’s grown something like 2 inches in the past 90 days. At that rate he should be as tall as Yao Ming by age 15 – unlikely, yet it seems quite possible. There are other signs of impending young adulthood, e.g., startlingly large feet that outgrow his shoes rapidly, the cracking “man voice” and appearance of peach fuzz on the upper lip. It seems to be happening right in front of me.
His buddy is becoming a Bar Mitzvah this weekend and Sam will be wearing, wait for it, my old suit and pants. He’ll need to cinch-up his belt (a lot) and the jacket could stand to be taken in (also a lot) but the fact is, they come close to fitting. It should be noted that my shoes don’t fit him well as his feet are bigger than my own.
This is both comical and a little bittersweet as my youngest is growing into a young man.
Streaming Shakespeare & Tina Fey
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Technology, That's Life on January 14th, 2010
Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful...
While the debacle that is NBC’s programming department trying to pick up the pieces of the Conan/Leno train wreck for months will have some entertainment value, it’s pretty clear that there isn’t much worth watching on that new flat panel. There are, of course, a few notable exceptions: Chuck, 30 Rock, Mad Men… I’m told that Dexter and House are worth watching but I haven’t invested the time to find out. So on the occasional evening when free time and curiosity collide – what to do?
When the last cheap DVD player died I picked up a Blu-ray player that also connected to Netflix. I hadn’t had a subscription with the mail-in DVD giant for years – while the model is great (and really, isn’t anything that stomps Blockbuster into the ground?) I just didn’t plan ahead well enough to have the right movie in hand at the right time. Somehow the $14.99/month unlimited movie subscription turned into a $5/movie ongoing expense. Fast forward 8 years and Netflix is rapidly evolving the mail-in model to a content streaming model, i.e., now there is a growing library of content that can be accessed on an “instant” basis – through a variety of devices made by Blu-ray manufacturers like Samsung and Sony as well as stand-alone Netflix devices. Suffice it to say that I have bought into this hybrid rental/streaming model enough to have given a Roku device and a Netflix subscription as a Christmas gift to my inlaws. (In the interest of full disclosure, I’m only a Netflix subscriber and have no affiliate interest)
The majority of the content is back catalog, but there is a growing number of newer titles, particularly TV series. What this means is that one can sample a few episodes of Dexter, Friday Night Lights, etc., without having to cough-up the freight for a 22 episode season on DVD. It also means that some nuggets from the past can be easily unearthed – Ken Burns’ series on Jazz, Saturday Night Live from the beginning to Tina Fey’s deconstruction of Sarah Palin, the Addams Family, Bogart & Bacall, the original Star Trek, Bergman, Kurosawa; from the ridiculous to the classic the list goes on.
For the past several evenings I’ve indulged my geekness for Shakespeare by watching the four part series “In Search of Shakespeare”, a PBS series that originally aired in 2004. I had never seen it – frankly, I hadn’t heard of it. This series, presented by the delightful Michael Wood, explores the religious turmoil of Elizabethan England, the evolution of the theater and how the country boy born in the same year that Michelangelo died would grow to become the greatest writer in the English language. The ability to browse the online instant catalog, find something like this, sample it and then watch it at the time of my choosing is really compelling. No trip to the store or even the mailbox, no incremental pay-per-view or on-demand fees.
These are exciting times for consumers – the choices of content and media platforms have never been greater. The service described starts at about $125 for a basic Netflix device and $9/month. Now the challenge is to find the time to enjoy the treasure trove of entertainment. Will Ferrell or Rashomon?
Shorts at 3 Degrees?
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Colorado, Parenting, That's Life on December 4th, 2009
December - What Not To Wear
The recent arrival of bitter cold temperatures in Denver has many of us discarding concerns around global warming in favor of nudging the thermostat up and dramatically increasing our carbon footprint. Rising sea levels may be bad for California but freezing in your own home is far more of an immediate climate crisis. Most people tend to dress appropriately for these frigid conditions – indeed those heinous fur-lined Crocs take on an entirely different fashion value in these desperate times. It is not uncommon to see people dressed as though they are competing in the Iditarod, this in spite of the fact that they are sitting on the freeway in the Suburban with the heat cranked-up to 80. This alignment between cold temperatures and climate-appropriate clothing does not appear to apply to the average American teenage boy. Especially mine.
Tom Whittaker wrote yesterday in his witty blog of witnessing some heartless parent in a luxury car practically kicking his son out at the bus stop. The kid was wearing a t-shirt. Temperature in the single digits. This, understandably, struck Tom as an example of lousy parenting. It seemed to me to be par for the course. His post set off a string of comments (I’m guilty too) that reveals that there are two groups of people in the world – 1) those that value and cherish the safety, health and well-being of children and; 2) the parents of teenagers.
Those in group #2 most likely were members of group #1 until their children hit the brick wall that is adolescence. As a card-carrying member of group #2, I have grown weary of the daily battles surrounding what my kids wear (or don’t), what they eat (or won’t), as well as what they say (or should). I am no longer aghast at my son’s choice of shorts, t-shirt and pool slides for arctic conditions that would have made Sir Ernest Shackleton run for the closest REI store. This morning, a balmy 6 degrees, I received a fittingly icy stare in response to my suggestion that some type of coat might be helpful. Like most group #2 members, each loving and well-intentioned kernal of parental guidance (aka control) is met with the rolled-eyes that signal how fatiguing it is to have been cursed with parents that are so annoying. (Someone once said that his daughter’s eye rolls were so dramatic that he could hear them roll. I can attest to the truth in this).
This is the karma payback that I get for taking my then recalcitrant 4 year old to preschool wearing only his pajama bottoms. The parenting class said, “children must be allowed to make their own choices and learn that those choices have consequences”. So when, for the umpteenth time, he refused to get dressed for preschool, it seemed perfectly fitting to march him out to the car, through the snow, for the ride to school. As we drove the mile to preschool I could barely hear my son screaming at me – what with the A/C blowing full-blast and the windows rolled down! I assured him that I understood that he was cold but to not worry because I had chosen to wear a coat and shoes, so was really warm. He looked like a hypothermia survivor of an Everest expedition gone bad, albeit one that was equipped with cowboy pajamas instead of Gore-Tex. The result was not a well-deserved visit from Child Protective Services but a kid that no longer required any encouragement to dress appropriately for winter weather. “Lesson learned!” I gloated and it worked for another few years. But slowly, the defiance grew over time until today I am resigned to being one of “those parents” that group #1 looks at as if my kids should be placed into foster care until I learn some parenting skills.
As you pass the bus stop this winter, know that the middle school kids that are dressed more for the beach than for the arctic cold, actually do have parents that have helped them survive to this point. They’ve just given up on this particular battle.
Facebook Eating Its Young?
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Technology, That's Life on November 16th, 2009
Grandma Wants to Friend You
Everyone has experienced it – the day that what was cool became decidedly not. I remember the day that my mom walked down the basement stairs into the superfund site that was my room and declared that she “really liked that new Pink Floyd guy’s music”. Needless to say, “Dark Side of the Moon” and “The Wall” were not going to be played much until I moved out of the house. While it is possible that my mother was strategically out-maneuvering me, i.e., pretending to like something in order to guarantee that she would never have to hear it again, she was a trained musician and could recognize interesting new trends. After all, she listened to Miles Davis and Ravi Shankar as well as Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.
This brings us to the current conundrum of today’s Gen Y and Gen Z Facebook users. In the brief few years of its existence, Facebook has grown from being the exclusive province of college-age online users to the world-wide social network phenomenon of today. If the site’s self-reported numbers are to be believed, well over 300 million people use the tool and something close to half of them log into the site in any given month. The fastest growth over the past year has been among adults over age 35 with the biggest proportional increase among those over 55. This means that the nightmare scenario of having your grandmother or your mother-in-law (I know this to be true) friend you has come true. My own daughter is still perturbed that her parents want to use Facebook – no doubt to stalk her every movement…
Now comes some interesting data that indicates that younger users may be beginning to abandon Facebook. Mediaweek reports that some advertisers are evaluating how this may require changes in their social media advertising plans. According to comScore, the average number of minutes spent online at the site by people 18-24 fell for the third consecutive month in September compared to the same period a year ago. In July, Facebook usage fell 3 percent, in August 13 percent and September 16 percent. Could be that the drop reflects mobile device users that are not counted, could be that as the fall arrived younger users began to focus more on school (Ha!) or it may reflect the eternal struggle of the young to keep their elders at arm’s length.
When you start getting friended by your grandmother, I think that’s when it starts to lose its cool – Huw Griffiths, EVP, Interpublic Group’s Universal McCann.
Managing Communication Differences
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Business, Technology, That's Life on November 4th, 2009
Texting - Multitasking or Distraction
An ongoing discussion in both the workplace and the home is whether the persistent usage of social communications tools represents an efficiency gain or a distraction. Jeffrey Zaslow writes in today’s Wall Street Journal of the conundrum that businesses, schools and homes find themselves in – are younger workers and students able to accomplish tasks and incorporate and retain new information more or less effectively while they are awash in the continuous waves of text messages, Facebook posts and tweets? It’s safe to say that this is something of a generational difference with teachers and school assistant principals in agreement with most managers of “a certain age” that the non-stop digital social networking represents a lack of focus (at best) and a titanic time suck (most likely).
A great many workers under the age of 30 (i.e., those that have emerged from their teens and college years never knowing that information existed in a world without Google or Wikipedia) not only believe that they are able to effectively multitask but that, in fact, they are more efficient and waste less time than their, ahem, more mature colleagues on such wastes of time as holding meetings or making phone calls. All of us have had to endure our own Michael Scott-like managers at some point in our careers and understand that a significant proportion of meetings accomplish little more than what the average Facebook post does – at least with regard to how everyone’s weekend/game/vacation/kids are doing. Granting that, there is value and a craft to engaging directly with another human being in a non-digital communications channel. While many points of fact can be effectively shared via a text or IM, the nuances of context and agreement, understanding and alignment, are not so easily whittled down to 140 characters or less. Success in school and in business often is driven by strong interpersonal skills and the capacity to understand a colleague’s thoughts, beliefs and motivations.
In most workplaces and schools (as in most homes), trying to deny the utility and ubiquity of modern digital communication tools becomes its own waste of time. Obsessively checking Facebook or texting during classes or meetings is not going to work for any business or school. The challenge will be in setting standards for appropriate usage and in gathering factual data that shows if those Gen Y workers really are as efficient as their more seasoned colleagues believe themselves to be or are a distracted set of hyper-socializers that accrue vast quantities of information that is trivial from relationships that are shallow. For both business executives and school administrators (as well as parents) it is vitally important to become conversant and familiar with these social tools – not doing so makes managing them impossible.
Pepsi’s Amp App Apoplexy
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Business, That's Life on October 15th, 2009
Amp Up
The marketing and advertising world is running around with its hair on fire in response to a new and tasteless iPhone app. To paraphrase Casablanca’s Captain Renault – “I’m shocked, shocked to find that sophomoric sexism is going on in advertising!” Continuing in the fine tradition established by countless beer, cigarette and fashion advertisers, Pepsi released an app called “Amp Up Before You Score”. The idea, that must have been cooked-up sometime between lunch recess and 8th grade algebra class, is to provide helpful hints to the average energy drink consumer on how to “score” with women. Upon selecting “Married” you’ll find this valuable set of tips – “Be careful with this one. The married woman could bring both pleasure and peril. But tread lightly, because a shotgun-bearing husband may not be far behind.” Providing timeless (and no doubt effective) pick-up lines like “Do you have a lot of divorced friends?” and “Do you believe an open relationship can work?” Where was this app when I needed it?
Heaven knows that after downing a few of these caffeine and sugar-laden energy beverages a guy could use a few helpful tips on what to say to the wide variety (24 types, including the “sorority girl”, “tree hugger”, and “rebound girl”) of women that are anxious to hook-up with an Amp swigging winner. Even better is that the app allows you to report your success on Facebook and Twitter – sweet use of the API, dude!
The folks at Pepsi are probably scratching their heads over whether all of the publicity and web searches for “Amp” is an enormous public relations fiasco or one of the best examples of the old adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Whether we’re talking selling drinks, food or sports, sex has always been the easy and effective path to the wallets of the average American male. The surprise isn’t that sex continues to sell all types of products – it’s more the abject stupidity of whoever gave this bit of crassness the green light. Not surprising, just not very inspired marketing.