Bringing Back Correspondence Hour
7 hours ago
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
"I am debuting my new movie “I Am King” for my new fragrance “I Am King” which is available exclusively at Macy’s. This fragrance is dedicated to Barack Obama, Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King and all you men out there who take care of your families and respect and treat yourself like the Kings that we are all. I would like to also announce that this is my audition tape for the next James Bond. There is a black president and it’s time for there to be a black Bond. God Bless."I don't believe the hype... if Mr. Combs were to actually back up his "beliefs," that we were all Kings, and this product is in recognition of Obama, King, and Ali then it would make sense to donate a portion of the profits (at the very least) to their foundations.
I won't comment on the Black James Bond except to say, we do not need a black James Bond, however we do need a black character that is as cool as Bond. It has been a while since Shaft and Axel Foley.
As for P Diddy: NO, NEVER, HELL NO... Not you P. Diddy, not you. You can never be the Black James Bond.
And may I suggest an alternative to the "I am King" fragrance - Sex Panther, available here.
Enough said.
Monday, November 24, 2008
This weeks, Extended Weekend Women is 2 for 1 special, exhibited in two flavors. Introducing Tanya Ballinger and Kitana Baker.
While Kitana has appeared on various TV shows (Wild On E!, Fast Lane, Big Shot and The Man Show)and music videos (Tommy Lee, Mack 10, and Brian McKnight), you probably remember her best as half of the "Miller Lite Catfight Girls":
As for Miss Ballinger, I wasn't able to find out much about her or too many pictures of her. It seems besides showing up at the occasional Red Carpet event, Tanya has disappeared from the lime light. Stuff Magazine's photos may be the last bikini shots she has ever taken... It's unfortunate, she seems to be that the quintessential "All American Beauty".
In 2001, Playboy hired Kitana to work on a TV show for their network called 'Strip Search' and featured her in 'Playboy's College Girls', 'Playboy's Wet & Wild' and 'Playboy's Book of Lingerie' special edition books, as well as their 'Playboy's College Girls' calendar, where she was Miss December. The producers of the show 'Night Calls 411' took an interest in her, and given that she already worked for Playboy — the channel that airs the 'Night Calls' show - signed her on immediately, and she's now appears on the second and fourth Wednesday each month .
In the meantime look for Kitana in Toxic with Percy "Master P" Miller and Dominique Swain and a small role in the Asian comedy White On Rice
And a note to Advertising Execs everywhere, I don't drink beer but if there were more commercials like this, I may change my mind... so simply put:
MORE KITANA AND LESS B.S.!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
This inaugural "Upgrade" post focuses on upgrading from that Coke can spiked with whiskey (that you think no ones knows about as you drive down Main St., USA) , trying your best to stow your fine cigar in tin foil which is all stuffed haphazardly into a plastic 7-11 bag. Real classy, huh? The answer gentlemen should be a resounding, No!
Start-up company, Max Benjamin, targeting the luxury-conscious traveler, introduces a way for you to actually project an image worth emulating. It's their opinion that a mini cigar bar should always be within arm's reach and therefore they have created The Mini Cigar Bar, a deluxe messenger bag that comes equipped with just about everything you need to transport your cigar wares with class.
Just in time for the holidays, The Mini on sale now for $267 and is only available at MaxBenjamin.com
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
My fascination with words, language, and how they are used was developed at a fairly young age. At 8 years old, I remember being nestled up under the covers with a flashlight, reading the Voyages of Hercules in one hand and a dictionary in the other, so I could fully comprehend what I just read. There were many nights that I would just look through the dictionary, pick a page and read definitions of words I never heard. A bit nerdy, uh?.
Even now Mrs. Padrone and I battle it out with our knowledge of words (I will give it to her, she is quite the wordsmith). We have been known to enjoy a good round of scrabble (she has only won twice). And we both tend to toss our lexicon with reckless abandon and affectations rarely used in our normal discourse, especially if we are in a friendly "debate". I once lost $10 to her because I wasn't familiar with "peccadillo". We chave an ongoing battle battle over the proper use of "prescribe" and "subscribe"(look it up, they're interchangeable), and she has been known to use the wrong word (or make up one) if I rush her to make a point. It's kind of cute.
My logophilism extends beyond the excepted connotation of words as defined by scholars, and Webster. Being a child of hip hop, I can't help but to marvel at, and appreciate, how we have systematically changed, chopped, remixed, redefined, and rewritten our language - which in truth reflects our culture on many levels. One I recently heard on the radio is, "Gov'mint":
Goverment or Goverment Name, pronounced: "Gov'mint": someone's actual name recognized by the government, and on official ID. kept secret by most thugs who use their alias, street, hood, nick - name. Ex: "Yo, son - don't be using my government name up in here."  via: UrbanDictionary.com | ||
And No... I would never support the use of Ebonics at any institution of education, because it promotes mediocrity of thought and socio-economic status. Also, as any musician, writer, athlete, artist or scholar knows, "In order become great at your craft, you must first master the fundamentals." Then you break all of the rules you have mastered to create something new, like the late great, Miles Davis.
I digress form my main topic only to demonstrate that I truly appreciate words, their meanings, their ability to convey images and provoke thought. But it seems Web 2.0's startup companies have neglected to master the fundamentals. Myspace and Facebook are obvious... it's "my space" and a book that shows faces, respectively. But do the following names NOT sound like gibberish, gobbledygook, and baby babble:
Smule, Xnobi, Ocarina, Bajca, Boxee,Jinni, Fring, Infoaxe, Plista, Zenbe, Zoozbeat, Twingr, Zynga, Happenr, Judaka
I understand that the competition and cost for domain names occasionally make it more feasible to come up with something original and cool sounding rather than pay huge fees for a moniker some one else has already "copped". I also get that Twitter "tweets" what you are going to be doing at 3pm to all your friends. And it's not a far jump from the twitching one experiences from "Crackberry" withdrawal... or waiting for that next important call, text, or email (ahem Mrs. P). But these company names are an assault on (and insult to) the English language. Not to mention, the branding nightmare most of them must create.
Obviously, I am not a marketing genius. But isn't it common sense to have a name that conjures up an image somewhee in the realm of what your company does, produces, or at least mentions the names of the people that own the company? The names above conjure images of various items that have nothing to do with: Snacks (Twingr), Lord of The Rings character(Bajca), Diseases (Plista... yuck!) - or quite frankly just some made up bullshit. No offense to the companies, I am sure they do, whatever they do, very well. It's worth noting too, that most of the companies aforementioned were taken from the past weeks posts over at Techcrunch.com... and they all were getting enormous amounts of money (re: millions!) to do... what they do. Maybe I should come up with a silly gibberish name and pitch it to raise millions in capital to fund another social network or app that we don't really need. Better yet maybe I should just start buying up any words I hear toddlers speak and sell the domain's to the highest bidder. Unfortunately, I may have already been beat to the punch.
Look, I enjoy words whether they're used counter-culturally, connotatively, contemplatively, or counter-intuitively... their use is relevant depending on how, when, and by whom they are used. But this trend of silly sounding names for social networks and apps really must cease. It's not cute, funny, or clever. Just like the recent trend in television commercials that don't show the product they're advertising, but splash the brand name at the end of it so that we know a name (in most case we still have no clue what they are selling), it's utter nonsense...but that's a topic for another post!
Obviously, I am not a marketing genius. But isn't it common sense to have a name that conjures up an image somewhee in the realm of what your company does, produces, or at least mentions the names of the people that own the company? The names above conjure images of various items that have nothing to do with: Snacks (Twingr), Lord of The Rings character(Bajca), Diseases (Plista... yuck!) - or quite frankly just some made up bullshit. No offense to the companies, I am sure they do, whatever they do, very well. It's worth noting too, that most of the companies aforementioned were taken from the past weeks posts over at Techcrunch.com... and they all were getting enormous amounts of money (re: millions!) to do... what they do. Maybe I should come up with a silly gibberish name and pitch it to raise millions in capital to fund another social network or app that we don't really need. Better yet maybe I should just start buying up any words I hear toddlers speak and sell the domain's to the highest bidder. Unfortunately, I may have already been beat to the punch.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
German startup, Cellity has unveiled Addressbook 2.0, for mobile phones, now available in a private beta. The application will allow those who still use a basic cell phone to aggregate data from across their emails, social networks, and standard address books into a single intuitive application, bringing the functionality of a smartphone to an estimated 650 more basic phones that support the Java platform, a significant marketshare not covered by the likes of the Iphone.
To get started, users import their friend lists from social networks including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, as well as from email clients like Outlook. The service will automatically detect when a friend is found on multiple social networks and aggregate their data under a single profile without creating duplicates. Also since address books generated using social networks can grow very large very quickly, the site offers an online control panel to manage contacts. Users can create a database consisting of thousands of entries to be stored in the cloud, picking out the few dozen that they use most regularly to be stored on the phone (they can access the full list from their phones if they ever need it). The online panel also allows includes the same features of the mobile app, allowing users to place cheap calls (currently just over their own network), send text messages, and update social network statuses.
From the screen shots, Addressbook 2.0's design is very polished,and hopefully they will live up to their potential, especially if they maintain their focus on traditional address book functionality as opposed to attempting to mobilize social networking, where plenty of competitors exist.via Techcrunch
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