"When It All Goes Down"

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I think I mentioned a few months back that my Long Island friends and I have a little running joke. When we want to buy outdoor sports stuff, we justify it by saying it will come in handy "when it all goes down" - a reference to the next big terrorist attack. For instance, if you wanted to buy a new hunting rifle and your girlfriend asks you "Why would you want to spend money on that?" you would answer "It might come in handy when it all goes down."

This is sort of a running joke, but lately, it's become halfway serious. Craig just bought a 31' camper, ostensibly to take the family on camping vacations, but it also could come in handy when it all goes down. I wonder if I could use this excuse to get permission to dig a bomb shelter in my back yard...

The Internet Needs Bounty Hunters

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boba_fett.gif

Fifty-seven freaking "Casino Zeal" spams today. That's right, I said 57. Each one was from a different spoofed e-mail address.

This is why we need bounty hunters like Boba Fett that will hunt down spammers and annhiliate their mail servers with a well-placed backpack-launched rocket or a laser blast or something. This would be a great business idea. BobaFettSpamHunter.com could offer a service where for a $1,000 fee (plus expenses), some crazy guy in a Boba Fett costume would hunt down the spammer of your choice and blow up his mail server with a rocket launcher. You'd get a free .MPG of the look on the spammer's face as Boba Fett saunters into his parents' garage and blasts the living shit out of his spam operation. Or maybe a movie of Boba Fett running up to his door, lighting a paper bag full of dog doo on his doorstep, ringing the doorbell and running away.

Okay, so I'm fantasizing. Can you blame me?




Blogger Lunches

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On Tuesday, I had lunch with Nick Denton of Gawker Media. Underscore is in a rather large pitch right now for a major piece of business, and Nick submitted a proposal for our prototypical plan last week. I invited him out to lunch because I wanted to get his take on where the whole advertising on blogs thing is going.

Nick is a hell of a nice guy. I get the sense that he's going to kick ass with his company. He's concentrating on a tough-to-reach demographic in which traditional media consumption is way down and terribly fragmented. And he's addressing this demographic with brands that definitely have legs. Within the first few minutes of talking to him, you can tell that he has a much different approach to online marketing than others in the category. To Nick, it's about doing something meaningful and integrated - not simply plopping banners up on one of his websites. It was a great lunch.

On Wednesday, I had lunch with Steve Rubel of Micropersuasion and CooperKatz fame. Speaking of fame, Steve is a bit surprised at how some of his comments have taken off through the blogosphere and have been picked up by traditional media outlets. He also expressed a bit of amazement that someone who hasn't been blogging for very long could end up on NPR, talking about blogs. Personally, I think Steve is a pivotal figure - he's doing exactly the right thing at exactly the right time. He's talking about how the PR business is being affected by the blogging movement, and he gets it.

In a new medium heavy with thought leaders and "influentials," Steve is taking a long, hard look at how blogging is changing the his own business. I think a lot of folks in the PR business would be well served to follow his example. And I think it's cool that CooperKatz has given Steve clearance from the tower to blog. It's a smart move. As blogging gets bigger and businesses need to figure out how to understand blogs, how they work and how ideas are carried through the blogosphere, CooperKatz will have this expertise in house and they'll benefit from it.

Steve and I had a great conversation that lasted well past the point where our waitress cleared our plates. I'm glad I was able to meet him face to face.