Verkamp does have a bit of website now. It's just a posterboard from a content perspective, but better than Kyl's campaign site.

Okay by now I am sure you have heard the concept that the web disrupts markets. But what does it mean? And where will it lead marketing in the future?

Okay forget that, you want to spend an afternoon hanging out enjoying some good wine and discussing whatever you want with bloggers and other folks?

Good.

Lower Lake Mary Picnic Area
June 25 @ 1pm
Must RSVP to geistbear(at)yahoo.com (otherwise how will they know how much wine to send?)

Stormhoek provides the wine, we bring the conversation and a dish to share.

I hope to see you there.

I was reading today's Editorial in the AZ Daily Sun about Verkamp's Senate campaign.

It suggests that "And like Dean, Verkamp can probably count on the Internet to generate buzz and maybe even campaign funds at a faster pace than in the pre-Worldwide Web days."

This might be true if he actually communticated online with say a website, instead of simply just having a place holder. The funny thing is I guess the person who wrote the Editorial didn't have the time to do a quick google search they would have noticed that fact.

I am a bit surprised the campaign did not take advantage that they could have pointed the url to a blogger page just as easily as making this place holder and started talking to people immediately. For free.

I did email Mr. Verkamp's campaign today about my questions, I look forward to a response and seeing how his website develops.

Big Bird in House, yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Sometimes schools, just go a step to far.

When I visited San Francisco little over a week ago I had two missions. One was to relax and enjoy good times with friends I don’t see often enough, people while not blood are in my book family. Then there was the second mission to see as many of the San Francisco area breweries as possible. I think I accomplished both.

We arrived on Friday and immediately I could smell something in the air, beer and it smelled damn tasty. After our crew arrived we had lunch, gathered our necessities and headed off in a cab.

Well one group did, but our group had the cabby from hell. I explained where we were going he replied.

“I dunno where it was.”

'Great' was my immediate thought, the only cabbie who doesn’t know his own city. I tried to explain again and he began to shout

“I don’t know where it is” in heavily accented English.

At this point I pulled out a map and explained roughly how far south he would need to drive us from our Union Square hotel to the area of the brewery. As I explained the location he interrupted once again.

“No No No I know how to get there but don’t know what is there.” He proceeded to explain three more times, shouting.

At this point I nearly told the bastard to pull over and go in search of a less surly cabbie. I was on vacation and I didn’t need this crap, if I had been alone I know I would have done it too. But considering I was there with two friends it seemed too much a hassle to bother them with the cabbie claimed to know how to get there and so we put up with his attitude.

Eventually he dropped us off at Speakeasy Ales and Lagers a nondescript commercial building a long ways from downtown. The place was rather quiet and empty when we arrived, not the most promising sign when your looking for brewers and beer, but it was my plan and tour so I had little choice. I marched up the dock entrance like I knew exactly where it would take me. In a way I sort of did know, I was going into a brewery. I hoped.

I knew we were in the right place when I saw the pallets of two row malt and the Speakeasy eyes gazing at me. Hard guitar licks played on an echoing stereo system and the smell of malt in my nostrils proved I was in the right place.

I had called their phone line and left a message I had five for a tour on that Friday, leaving my number in case they wanted to call back with questions or confirm. I never got a reply I meant to call back and confirm but I got busy and it never happened. I knew the brewery was open on Fridays so we took our chances.

The first person we met was Big Mike, aka the brewer, I liked him immediately. He didn’t have us on the tour list, but there was only another couple for the tour so they had plenty of room for us on the tour. After a few minutes wait he poured us a few pints to keep us entertained while we waited for the start of the tour. Their beers were malty, strong, and the imperials aggressively hop. I was in heaven. They reminded me of Stone beers, but more balanced in construction.

Big Mike lead us on a tour of their facility and I suspect he realized I wasn’t your average drunk visiting the brewery. I asked about hops used, temperature control, malt, yeast and every other question a homebrewer could come up with it. Mike seemed to enjoy the questions because it allowed him to pass along more than the regular “We boil here, we age it here, we bottle it there” tour.

I was impressed by their standards and commitment to excellence, but not at the expense of enjoying life, it is beer after all.

After the tour we returned to the tasting area, where their usual Friday afternoon open house is hosted.

While there I spoke with Chris in Sales, we had a great conversation about California beers, the recent microbrewery industry move to canning, and getting their beers into Flagstaff. Also while their beer is available in seven states, it’s evidently available in Finland. A bar there some how got a supplier to bring it in and they love it. Good for them but I’d hate to pay their prices for a pint. But considering Speakeasy’s beer it’s worth the trouble.

The Beers
My first beer was an Imperial Amber which was big, bold, and hoppy. It didn’t fit my mood of what I wanted to drink, but I knew I could drink it far easier than anyone else in the group so I suffered through it. Okay I didn’t really suffer, it was beer.

From there I moved over to their Bootlegger Black Lager which I had sampled earlier and found to be excellent, well balanced and no esters, exactly like you want a Black Lager to be. I intended to find a Black Czech lager I had discovered a few years ago while in San Francisco, but this was the best I could do. That said I wasn’t in the least disappointed.

Last of the beers I have distinct memory was the Old Godfather Barley Wine-Style Ale , while not aggressively strong at 10.2%, it’s a deadly beast. It’s smooth and as balanced as any pale ale I have ever had. It was far too drinkable for something that strong. I wish I bought a growler full of it. In the end I did buy a growler, just because of their distinctive style, but having it filled with their Bootlegger Black Lager made it no trouble at all. Having to use later for my homebrews is only icing on the cake.

A short while later we piled into a cab to our next stop, 21st Amendment. (Part 2)

When I was in California I got a call and discovered this humble site got a brief mention in the side column of an Arizona Republic story on blogging and politics. Worth the read and if you happen to arrive because of the story welcome. Bear Droppings is a quirky look at technology, politics, and whatever strikes my fancy. Most of the political posts tend to be internet related or local Arizona issues. The name comes from the fact it was once hosted on the backend of bears.org and I haven't found anything better. In recently getting broadband at home expect posting to increase over past the irregular nature.

That is my first thought when I read that XM Radio is being sued by the music industry. The suit is another dying gasp from a dinosaur industry.

Did the Recording Industry sue the manufacturer of the Boombox (radio) I had in the 80s that had a tape deck and recorded off the radio, nope. Of course not, it clearly fell in the bounds of fair use. But in this move it’s obvious how desperate the industry has gotten when they will sue a licensed customer over the same feature.

I have much respect for XM for standing up to this racketeering effort. I had been thinking about getting a satellite radio system for sometime. XM Radio making this stand for customer rights and fair use means when I buy a system, it will be without doubt XM.

Seth Godin, marketing Guru, invented a phrase of some brands being a purple cow. This video took by Gizmodo of the opening of a New Apple store in New York City is a perfect example. In the end it’s a computer store, granted a 24/7 one, but just a store.

Yet as a brand it inspires and is so popular that people will stand in long lines to attend the opening. If you watch the Gizmodo video you see Hollywood stars in attendance, it becomes something that by passes a simple corporate opening and becomes a social event.

I'd say that's the definition of a successful brand.

Right now Jim Pederson's television ad campaign indicates he wants to be "our Senator". Splendid idea I thought, if he wants to be ours I got to wondering exactly where he would stand on some important issues the internet is facing these days. Net neutrality, fair use, and broadband roll out for rural areas seemed a good place to start. This doesn't just go out to Mr. Pederson, I have been a bit busy but Senator Kyl and any other candidates with a website will get these same questions. It may not be Utah, but perhaps we can bring a bit of the net to this campaign as well.

My Questions -
How do you stand on the issue of Net Neutrality?

What is your position on consumer 'fair use' rights and DMCA reform?

As the economy is moving into more digital future broadband becomes a necessary tool for economic development. What role do you think the Federal government can assist in to help rural rollout of high speed internet service?

So far it's been two weeks since I emailed Pederson's campaign without so much as an automatic response. But they may be still formulating their policy, I'll post updates as I receive responses.

Why does this remind me of DC reelecting Marion Barry Mayor in DC, you can feel bad about good people in bad places, but when they make poor choices what can you do? A sad day for New Orleans and those who hoped for it's future.

In a former life, a lot of my work day revolved around web education programs. In today’s language I suppose it was a prepodcast, but they were talks conducted on a regular basis on various technology topics. The difference between podcasts and our programs was that we didn’t have RSS feeds and only limited archive ability, mostly the powerpoints. About 4 years ago we would use software to push the programs through a browser interface. We used this in tandem with a phone conference system. Nothing amazing but it worked. A short time later the company that provided the free service started charging so we took a backstep and email the powerpoint to participants, mostly because of bandwidth costs back then.

So today I listened to one of my old company’s current presentation. I was looking forward because it had been three years since I had worked on these programs and was interested with podcasting’s growth and dropping bandwidth costs to see if they had moved forward into a more technically sophisticated delivery. I can’t say I was surprised though, three years later that they are using the exact same delivery method. It was very weird to hear my old boss do his standard program introduction, but not be sitting next to him in an office during the program.

That said things have gotten much easier on the technology end, with my laptop there is no reason I couldn’t start a podcast. I am talking with a local non-profit I volunteer at about starting an educational podcasting series and they are interested. A good friend is about to leave town and we have been discussing starting one to discuss beer. Okay it’s more of an excuse to drink beer and hang out with distant friends, but why not. Who knows it may all come full circle and end up making a living producing programs again, but this time me getting to live in Flagstaff while I do it.

As evidenced here.