Aside from the fact that one of my ultimate faves, Neon Indian, put together a mehriffic stinker another great year in music has come and gone. In case you were not paying attention, I put together a list of stuff I really liked. Sorry, Wilco did not make the list and neither did the new Muppets soundtrack even though Man or a Muppet is a brilliant song and the things they do with chickens are pure magic. The 2009 list saw such awesome bands as: . 2010 was also amazing with. Stupid honorable mentions and housekeeping from past years aside, let’s rock 2011. You can cruise to the end of the article if you want to to find a Spotify playlist.

10. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks- Mirror Traffic

This guy is one of the greatest songwriters of our time. Wait, you’ve never heard of Pavement? There’s clever around every corner. Malkmus just sees the world in a deliciously different way that our brains cannot comprehend, but thank GOD we can enjoy. Check out Senator first.

9. Toro Y Moi – Underneath the Pine

Chill and bounce simultaneously. You can’t understand how amazing it is until you try them both together. Also has the distinction of being the most disgusting cover of 2011.

8. Atlas Sound – Parallax

hi fi or lo fi… how about both?

7. Metronomy – English Riviera

Just plain fun. Cranky bass and persistent, snippity drumming makes this one for me.

6. Real Estate – Days

It’s more of the same from them. Their more of the same is amazeballs.

5. Black Lips – Arabia Mountain

These guys are trying to reinvent beach rock and they are doing a damn fine job. I thought someone would pick up Modern Art for an ad this year because it’s so catchy and unique.

4. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for my Halo

According to Wikipedia, his music has been likened to that of Bruce Springsteen[3] His influences include Fleetwood Mac, John Fahey, Bob Dylan and FM Rock generally. I like him anyway.

3. Crystal Stilts – In Love with Oblivion

Remember Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry? Of course you don’t. If you did though, you would recognize that this is who they meant to be. This could have been my top album. The other 2 are that good. It’s backdoor, it’s trashy, it’s droning, it’s fucking incredible. You might hate it. That’s OK. Try it anyway.

2. Built Like Alaska – In Troubled Times

You have never heard of these guys and you may never hear of them anywhere but here. That’s OK. It happened. You are better off. Listen to this one top to bottom for a few days and you will be glad you did.

1. Washed Out – Within and Without

TAKE THAT NEON INDIAN!!! This should have been you.

I picked a song from each album and made a list on Spotify. Here is my 10 Awesome Modern Rock Albums of 2011 on Spotify. Enjoy and commence telling me what I missed in the comments.

I missed the delivery of my iPhone. I should have had it sent to work, but sometimes work deliveries do not go the way I want them to so I figured it would be easier to just have it sent home where my wife would be able to sign for the package. She was out with the kids when it was delivered so I called UPS. They gave me a time between 7:30-8:30PM and said to stop by the depot in Watertown and get my phone. They made it sound like a breeze.

It was a dark and stormy night. I pulled up to the depot and saw approximately 80 people already in line through the monsoon-like downpour. I parked my car around the corner because the street parking was full. I walked up to the giant warehouse with brown delivery trucks and tractor-trailers zipping by and pulling past the gate into the vast garages. The warehouse was corralled by a giant fence with an open gate where trucks pulled in and out of the driveway. Next to the gate is a guard house where civilians and employees can enter the facility. The line began at the guard house and sloppily snaked down the sidewalk.

I got there around 7:45 and the line was not budging. I saw my co-worker Andie near the front and figured she could use some company. None of us knew what was going on or how things would work, we just knew that we had received calls from UPS that told us to be there and that our phones were supposed to be waiting for us (and that it was raining). We started talking about how we thought things might work while a woman behind us who would later become known as Cat Lady chimed in in a slightly British accent. She was short, plump and bespectacled, with grayish, Brillo-y curls and a mousy look. She would become the most annoying person in the world.

A real Boston man emerged from inside the guard house. He explained to us that his name was Joe, that he was the supervisor (the supah’ visah) and that he was going start getting people their phones by address. Because of the extremely high volume of iPhones purchased and the fact that all of them were shipping on this rainy Friday, UPS drivers were working overtime so in spite of the fact that they told us our phones would be there between 7:30 and 8:30, many were still out on trucks. The weather, a thick, New England rain with soupy, cool fog was further aggravating the situation.

Back to Joe. Picture a cross between Dennis Leary and Kevin Bacon. Joe is a leader, a guy who gets things done. He can control a crowd and his combination of brash Boston accent, quick decision-making and sense of humor immediately earned him the respect of the crowd. He started reading off addresses from his clipboard which he held up over his head angled so the rain would slide off the glossy back.

Now at this point, the line is meandering down the street so only a few of us can hear him. Naturally, selfish people are walking up and starting to ask him personal questions. Cat Lady cannot help herself from asking if any of the phones are from Newton. She asks about every 5 addresses. At one point I hear her mutter that she cannot believe her cat is home alone. Poor Mittens! That’s when I told Andie we were calling her Cat Lady. Joe actually begins to answer a few of the questions which delays getting down the list. Enter The Teacher. Teacher takes the list and at the top of her lungs starts reading and checking off addresses as people emerge from the line. Joe takes this opportunity to take a step back and come up with a better plan. Cat Lady and The Teacher have an argument. Cat Lady mumbles more under her breath and begins pacing. Somewhere in Newton, Mittens is enjoying a relaxing evening alone.

So the people who emerge from the line are instructed to line up on the other side of the fence and talk to Other Joe. Other Joe is a bit like Cliff Clavin, but he’s not nearly as sharp. He generally emerges from the warehouse with one box at a time and generally seems to be doing more harm than good in the situation. He’s slow, friendly and inefficient. He has a small flashlight that from time to time he shines on Joe’s list. Joe cracks a glaring smile with a laugh and head shake each time he does. There’s also a ginormous man named Little John who is big, but is not very strong handling too many directions in sequence. Other Joe and Little John are not doing things to boss Joe’s liking so he talks to them about what to do and then grabs a yellow mail crate. He comes back into the crowd and extracts the list from The Teacher’s hand, much to her chagrin. He thanks her, stands on “the golden podium of hope” and explains that he will be the one reading addresses. In between each address, Cat Lady starts to ask if he will read any addresses from her town. After the 5th or 6th time, everyone starts to get annoyed. She proclaims that she cannot bear to be without her poor kitty much longer. I start a small campaign for finding her package first. Each time Joe finishes reading a list, he goes back into the warehouse to create a new list. When he returns and puts his podium down, people get excited. Every time I see a plastic yellow bin from here on out, I am going to start to hope that person has my iPhone. Pavlov’s dog, baby! On the third list, Joe triangulated my house. He read off so many addresses in my neighborhood that I was certain mine would be called. No dice.

If your address is called, go into the line and give your ID to Little John. Victorious people are high-fiving a head shaking, but slightly amused Joe as they blissfully hand their IDs to Little John and Other Joe who go into the warehouse and emerge, with one box each time. They go through the proper carding procedure, but there are times when people are in the guard house with their box and somehow their IDs are still in the warehouse. There was a lot of wacky juggling happening and finally they decided that people did not need to give up their IDs to have a box leave the warehouse, just needed to show it to have them leave the grounds.

At around 8:45, Andie decides she has had enough and that she may come back later. She had been there since 7:00 so I tell her that I’ll post to her Facebook wall when they call her address. Sure enough, they call hers at 9:00, but it turns out it does not matter because it just means they have found your phone, not that it is at the guard post. It starts to rain again so I decide to go into the building.

Now recall that I mentioned that this building is a guard outpost which means there is a security guard and 2 metal detectors inside the hut. It’s designed to fit maybe 5 people comfortably and there are at least 20 people inside. Smell your neighbor! Make a new friend. Now people are piling into the guard tower not only because this is ultimately where they get their phones, but also because it has started raining. That’s when I met Blondie and The Dude. Blondie was the name she called herself. She told me that she saw Channel 4 on the scene and that she was inside trying to stay off camera. The Dude wore a classic Patriots hat with an Italy soccer sweatshirt that went surprisingly well together. He has been in the guard house for a while and has started to, in semi-good nature, disparage the operation. He reminded me of Fitzy. The Dude and Blondie are up against the wall. There is a chair also against the wall. The Dude starts making fun of the security guard who takes the chair back behind the desk. The Dude waits until the security guard sits down and moves the chair back into the line. At this point I think it’s probably wise to start distancing myself from The Dude.
“Don’t make him shoot you bro.” I say.
The Dude says “he doesn’t have a gun.”
Me: “He might have a taser!”
Dude: “I’ve been tased before. It’s not so bad.”
Me: “The good news is that he ordered his taser and was not home. He’s not only a security guard, he’s also in line for his package.”
Blondie: “There should be an app that tells you when your package gets here.”
Me: “There is. The good news is that he doesn’t have his taser now. The bad news is that he will get it with plenty of time to charge it before you ever get your phone Dude.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see security guard crack a smile.
In the meantime Andie has returned with her boyfriend. She tweets me to let me know that Cat Lady finally has her phone, but not before annoying every last person. Andie is concerned because the address on her license is not the same as the one on her package. Somehow someone emerges with her phone and her boyfriend persistently reminds them that they are there and that they could leave with the phone. She gets her phone and everyone cheers. “I can’t believe you got a 4s before me Andie!” I joke. She goes home to try her luck with the activation servers (which have been jammed all day) and to see if she can see us on Channel 4.

Harvard guy gets his iPhone. Then Birthday Girl’s name is called. She must have told us 20 times that it was her birthday. It was probably her 25th birthday, but on her way out we gave here a “Happy 39th”. I looked at Blondie and told her we were not singing Happy Birthday. Joe starts taking down the addresses of people who are in the guard station and says he’ll personally go look for them. We grab the list and write down our own addresses as Joe is being distracted by people with questions that anyone in the world could have answered. The tortoise-like people in the bunker write their addresses down while setting off the metal detectors approximately every 120 seconds. This provides endless material for The Dude. The guy from 138 Bigelow St was called in the second round. His phone was sitting on the counter. His ID however was lost with Other Joe in the warehouse. Poor guy. He just stood there staring at his phone, making sure no one else took it while they attempted to retrieve his ID.

About 15 minutes after the we write down the list of numbers, Little John comes back into the guard shack and puts down a handful of boxes. I start looking at the addresses and proclaim “OH MY GOD THAT’S MINE!”. I get out my ID (no WAY I’m letting someone take it to the warehouse, I learned from Bigelow who got his phone and ID back just 2 minutes ago.) Little John looks at me and says: “I think I’ll take this one home.” I look at everyone and say “I’m not going to argue with him.” He decides maybe he will let me have my phone, signs me out, grabs the package back from me and laughs, then hands it to me. I tell Blondie it’s been real and tell The Dude not to get tased. I leap out of the door squealing “I’m FREEEEEEEEE”! It’s now 10:45PM.

Thank you UPS for going out of your way and outside your process so a bunch of angry (and in my case, really amused) iPhone zealots and newbies could get their phones.

No question that Yelp’s content network is incredibly robust and that the hive generally does a good job of giving you a decent picture of what you can expect from a business.

But Yelp is not without its problems. In fact, you might actually read an entire review or series of reviews from people word for word and get burned for not doing enough analysis. I call this the “Hamburger Sushi Problem”.

Say you want sushi and that you are a person with a very discerning sushi palette. Well, what if your read reviews about a place that made amazing sushi, got a 4 stars in aggregate and had very positive reviews and stories from most reviewers. You would go there with confidence.

But what happens when it turns out that this place does not live up to your expectations and the sushi, in spite of the descriptions by the people who reviewed the restaurant was in fact terrible.

If you are me, you would dig a little deeper and try and figure out what happened. At this particular restaurant, I discovered that the people who gave the reviews were not at all qualified to review sushi. In fact, all of their other reviews were for hamburgers, burritos and other fast food. This was the fast food lover’s sushi joint. (Most of it was tempura-fied which they failed to even mention)

No question that Yelp has robust content. Here are a few ways that Yelp could help us be even more confident in their reviews from a segmentation perspective.

• Frequency Segment: We need a way to be able to tell if a person has been there more than one time. Checkins may not be reliable enough unless Yelp is willing to pull in Gowalla, foursquare and other checkin systems.
• Cuisine Segment: Segmenting users by the kinds of food they review and love would be extremely helpful. This would tell me how reliable they are in a particular kind of cuisine.
• Influencer Model: The “Whrrl” influencer model would be excellent here. Simply +1-ing a tip or a recommendation can tell people what kind of reviewer this is. You could tell me that people who like sushi like the person’s reviews. I could also tell if this person resonates more with the hamburger or burrito bunch. Not that that’s a bad thing, just that it is true.

What would you do to improve Yelp?

Alternate title: Being Indie Doesn’t Mean You Have to Be a Stupid Business Person

XMU is my third favorite source for indie music behind WOXY (RIP) and NPR. I love the ever-changing music, the Download 15 and the endless interviews with great indie bands. I was listening to an interview with a member of the band Mountain Goats this afternoon. I assume it was John Darnielle promoting their recently released “All Eternals Deck”, which you can get for $5 right now (sorry if the deal expired when you read this) on AMZN. I got ripped off by iTunes. I caught the end of the interview, so if it wasn’t Darnielle, I apologize and will correct the post, but I’m going to refer to the speaker as Darnielle because he is the leader of the band and would probably make the kinds of strong statements that I am going to talk about…

Cliche Tired

Darnielle started disparaging twitter, Facebook and tumblr specifically as mediums to release an album. He was attacking marketing. He talked about how using channels that businesses have discovered is tired. He generalized about how businesses do not understand how to use the mediums, manning their accounts with people who only exist to ask people to buy products. He encouraged artists to considered bolting from the channels simply because businesses are on them and that they are becoming another avenue for advertising. Seriously? Testing into new channels constantly is very indie and smart, but leaving them just because others see the value is cliche indie behavior and it is backwards and it has already been done by the likes of Trent Reznor and Edward Droste of Grizzly Bear, the latter of which was using twitter brilliantly and left suddenly and unexpectedly.

Artists: Darnielle’s behavior is so indie cliche.

And he is dead wrong.

The thing that Darnielle is failing to remember is that not only does everyone in social media have a unique presence, but that everyone has a unique experience. We do not all follow the same people and we do not all see/hear/touch/taste/digest the same messages. Mountain Goats have been on twitter since August 21, 2009. They have spent 590 days amassing followers who are interested in creative random thoughts, interactions and their music. And by the way they have been building trust to the point where OF COURSE they can ask their followers to buy their new CD, which they do in this very tweet:

Success is OK

Being indie does not have to mean being a stupid business person. And thinking about how you are going to monetize your music does not mean you are not indie. All it means is that you do not make compromises with your music, style, ideals to get where you want to go. It does not mean you have to throw everything away. It means you need to have a plan and stick to your guns without whoring yourself out to everyone who would throw a dollar at you. Do not throw something away just because some people you do not like get into it. Reinvent it. Keep leading. Keep doing it better.

Guess what? If you do things right and if you are good, at some point the mainstream finds out about you and starts to like you and starts to buy your stuff. What are you going to do? Give the money back? Of course you will not. You will buy some new clothes and equipment that you have been dreaming about. You will schedule a larger tour, make a new album and you will give some money to causes you care about.

In other words, you will succeed, but you will do it on your terms.

PS: File this post under tough love (and buy the album).
PPS: Mountain Goats +10 epic geek points for MtG reference in their album title!

12 albums I loved this year. If you’re an indie rockapotamus or are looking to expand your collection, check these out. I don’t know if these are the top 12. 2010 was a great year indeed and I did not buy every great album. Apologies to Deer Tick, Gorillaz, Tame Impala, Caribou, Real Estate, Tame Impala and Zola Jesus.

12 – Beach House – Teen Dream

Delicious, chillaxing and a tiny bit haunting. There isn’t a bad song on this one.

11 – The National – High Violet

Just like The National only epic-er. You’ll see what I mean. More of the same in a very good way.

10 – Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

If you’re into Katy Perry and you are looking for one album to step you into indie rock, do not pick this one. This sucker is advanced. The lyrics are brilliant and the style is some kind of cosmic space rock. Best tracks? Vesuvius and Too Much

9 – Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles

8 – The Ruby Suns – Fight Softly

This album is so great in the morning if you need a pick-me-up-blast-of-energy-that-sticks-with-you-all-day. You have never heard of them because they are on Subpop. Subpop is too cool for all of us.

7 – Small Black – New Chain

Neon Indian + Black Rebel Motorcycle Club = Small Black. Not quite consistent enough to be in my top 5, but I thought for several months that this could be number one. If you only hear one song: Photojournalist

6 – Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest

So many flipping bands with Deer themes, this one is one of the best.

5 – LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening

This is impossibly addictive.

4 -Broken Bells – Broken Bells

Disrespected by every indie blog because of the mainstream coverage, this is the Samuel Adams of indie rock. It’s easy on the ears, it isn’t overly challenging and you can listen to it over and over. Brilliant debut. I hope there’s a followup

3 – Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today

lo-fi and chill with a little bit of 80s reminiscence. This one took a while to blow my mind, but it did. Best Tracks? Round and Round and Can’t Feel My Eyes

2 – Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs – Medicine County

Twisted, country-esque indie brilliance. This one took me about 10 listens to master and that’s a very good thing. Best track? Feet Don’t Fail, Escalator. I accidentally discovered this in a record store in Seattle. I bought after I heard one track and I am so glad I did. I’ve never heard anything quite like them.

1 – The Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

I started off the year in a fight with The Arcade Fire over their ridiculously high ticket prices, but ended it feeling like an ass for missing their show and not paying. I got the disc for $3.99 on Amazon and have listened to it more than any other album this year. That is saying alot given how many spins Holly got. Best Songs? The album is like one giant song. It’s a theme album. Some great videos and experiences to too.

When we tell people about Movember, the men’s cancer research charity founded by Adam Garone and a bunch of friends who, over beers, decided to both give back and revive the moustache, we usually hear a couple of standard things:

• I can’t grow a moustache
• My wife won’t let me grow a moustache

Movember is not really not about growing a moustache. The good ones are cherished and so are the bad ones. Movember is about giving and it is about bonding. Movember is a community of people who are passionate about the destruction of cancer. That’s right. Movember is a global community of men and women in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Europe and the United States. Movember is about stories of friends and loved ones who have been affected by this terrible disease, raising awareness, making research possible and celebrating the efforts of those who are involved. But it is not all warm and fuzzy, Movember is also a little competitive.

Graham Nelson told me about Movember. I remember the day he told me informed me that I would have to shave my beard in order to grow a moustache to raise money for cancer research and treatment. It took some convincing. I like my beard. Graham talked about challenging our friends in Austin to raise more money than us and that we could use any means necessary to spread the word. The Movember Digital Challenge was born. Last year Team Boston devastated Team Austin by raising near $25,000 dollars to Austin’s 20,000+. The components of the challenge were events, videos, photos and good old fashioned smack talk!

As a participant last year, I felt the need to step up my own involvement in the organization. I recently appointed myself Digital Challenge “Chief of Global Team Expansion”, a promotion from my last week’s title, VP Director of Expansion. The beauty of Movember is that people feel passionate about the cause. It’s easy to do. It’s rewarding. It’s impactful and yes, it’s fun. You can pretty much decide to just do stuff and it happens.

I am happy to announce the 2010 Movember Digital Challenge to kick off on October 31, 2010 with the annual “shaving of the facial hair”. Is it a #MoUp? Nope. Its a #MoDown [I want to remind all participants that a beard is not a moustache. Shave down to nothing and no "connecting" for the month of November.]

Teams from across the globe will be competing for the title of Grand Champion. The idea is to use any legal, means necessary to raise money for the cause. This means holding events, creating content via twitter, youtube, facebook… hell even dribbble – whatever it takes. This year’s Movember site will have a Digital Challenge leaderboard which will show team progress as well as individual leaders.

Teams captains are being named now and can be found on the official Digital Challenge Movember Team Captains list.

Last year teams made videos, created flickr albums, got corporate sponsors, had events and even made calendars. There was trashed talking alsoside camaraderie. There was showmanship, particularly when David Armano and Team Austin leapfrogged Team Boston with a generous donation from The Art of Shaving. This year people have been promising to go bigger. Last year we started planning in late September. This year? Well as of today, it’s still April.

Here is the official list of team captains as of now. Talk to them about joining their team. The official team site is not open yet, so we are suggestion that team captains keep a list (perhaps an email newsletter, twitter list or a Facebook group) of people who are interested in joining. More details about the challenge will be released as they arise.

The Original 2
Team Austin : #TeamAUS : Aaron Strout
Team Boston : #TeamBOS : Graham Nelson

Expansion Teams
Team Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill : #TeamRDU : Gregory Ng
Team Toronto: #TeamTOR : Sean Moffitt
Team New York City : #TeamNYC : Lisa Kolodny
Team Charleston : #TeamCHS : Chad Norman*
Team Salt Lake City : #TeamSLC : DJ Waldow
Team Seattle : #TeamSEA: Damon Cortesi*

* = mostly committed

TBD:
United States
Team San Francisco : #TeamSFO
Team Denver: #TeamDEN
Team Chicago: #TeamORD
Your City

Global
Team Melbourne: #TeamMEL
Team Sydney : #TeamSYD
Team Dublin : #TeamDUB
Team London : #TeamLHR
Team Aukland : #TeamAKL
Your City

TeamBOS News

#TeamBOS (This year we are shortening and standardizing the hashtags) has already had several major developments: Jim Storer has named himself Director of Recruiting. Derek Peplau on the very same day told Jim that he would be sharing the job! Karen “Pumpkin Spice” Costa aka. VanillaBean45 appointed herself Director of Corporate Relationships.

SXSW confirmed what everyone knew. In the game of location based social networking, there are two giants: Gowalla and Foursquare. Each of them has ridiculously smart, dynamic, mop-haired founders: Josh Williams and Dennis Crowley respectively. Brightkite, the network that allows users to share photos by location, was barely talked about at SXSW unless it was preceded by “What the heck happened to…” Whrrl wasn’t mentioned much either, but it has some very interesting features including a touch of context.

Similar Problems Managing the Funnel

Josh Williams told me that Gowalla is not focused on monetization yet. They have so many ideas for what they want to do with the product that they are focusing all of their resources on building something that is feature rich and usable. Talk to anyone and they will tell you that Gowalla’s user interface is beautiful and elegant. But the next sentence usually is “it really needs search.” Gowalla wanted to try to stay pure and leave it up to the GPS to find every location. Unfortunately, to no fault of Gowalla’s, the GPS on iPhone and Android are not quite there yet. I tweeted a question about the addition of search and the Gowalla team responded by telling me that it will most likely be in version 2.1.

Crowley’s NYU thesis was on Location Based Social Networking. Dodgeball, his first iteration of FourSquare that he eventually sold to Google, was only “10 of 100 pages.” When Google shut down Dodgeball, they decided that the other 90 pages were worth investing time in. The big downfall of Dodgeball was that it did not have the benefit of services like twitter and Facebook. It was all SMS based. Also, there was no real reason to keep checking in. The post checkin experience did not exist in Dodgeball. As Crowley says, seeing what happens after checkin is the “one armed bandit”. It is what keeps people coming back.

Dennis Crowley told an audience at the Pepsi Podcast Playground that Foursquare has no business development people and that everything they have done to date is opportunistic. He later told the Ad Club of Boston that their funnel is essentially overflowing and that they have more incoming emails than they can keep track of. This is the opposite problem of most businesses, but a big problem nonetheless. No organization wants a reputation for being hard to work with.

The app has evolved and the experience at SXSW was based on rewarding people with SXSW specific badges based on going to combinations of places. For instance I got a Piggy (actual name) for hitting up a bunch of awesome BBQ joints. This may be because Foursquare was forthcoming with their roadmap saying that they are actively working on context based pushes, no small undertaking. What is that? Let’s say they know you like BBQ and that you go every Tuesday. If you happen to be in the area of the Salt Lick, Stubbs or Ironworks at that time FourSquare will ping you and let you know that you’re in the vicinity of a place you might like. As Crowley says “Foursquare will let you know it’s time for fun.” They are also working on experiences that benefit loyalists who are not necessarily the mayor.

Flash back to SXSW

When I talked to Williams, I jabbed him by saying that SXSW was the ultimate battleground for Location Based Social Networking. He joked with me (a little) and said “Oh. You’re here to perpetuate that?” There was a soft confidence in his voice and a smile as I explained to him that I was just really curious to see how it all plays out. Williams knew that he had big plans. Gowalla had many giveaways and special items that you could find randomly by checking in. They gave away VIP badges via the app. They gave everyone a virtual Livestrong bracelet [which I forgot to drop at Lance Armstrong's bike shop when I was in his conference room. Damn!]. There were also random items that could be redeemed at local businesses, like a free taco and One Taco. I was given one by a kind soul that I later dropped at Guero’s just for the irony. But that’s the beauty of items in Gowalla. Unlike FourSquare, you can leave items for friends or you can arrange to meet at a spot so you can give them an item.

Checkins Not Guns

Crowley told the Ad Club that there is no Location Based Networking war. “We aren’t looking to squash anyone. We’re all looking for our place in this eco-system. It’s not a winner-take-all.” He told me that FourSquare is focused only on their upcoming scaling challenges. They are very close to (and maybe surpassed by the time you are reading this) 1 million users and they got there faster than both Facebook and Twitter. Crowley says that photos are on the table, but that being bulletproof and scaling is their top priority. “We’re going to hit 1 Million users I said ‘That’s great!’” said Crowley “My engineers said ‘That’s terrible!’”. Having the fastest application that works is more important to Crowley than elegant front ends and additional features right now. “Gowalla and Whrrl has pictures, but they also do not have near the user base that we do.” he said. Basically they have the luxury of being able to scale while watching the other products to see what is working before they implement.

The two CEOs are drastically different. If you liken them to SXSW bands, Josh Williams is more Broken Bells and Crowley? How about Japandroids. They do both say that they aren’t worried about the other one, that they have their own agendas and that there isn’t really a battle for LBS supremacy. I hope that does not give someone else with killer instinct the opportunity to come in and squash them both.

Photos by the Ad Club.

Ashvin Kumar, CEO of Blippy says that he created Blippy because people love to share. Kumar says that he would share more often but he admitted he is flat-out lazy and that active sharing does not suit his personality.

Active vs. Passive Sharing

Active sharing requires the user to make a decision to share. They must physically open an application and check in to a location, set a status, upload a picture etc. This leaves holes in the overall experience, but also allows people to protect moments that they do not want to share like the trip Forbidden Fruit or visiting grandma’s house. Active sharing takes time and effort and, some might say “thankfully”, leaves holes in the story.Passive sharing happens on an event. In the example of Blippy, whenever you make a purchase on iTunes, eBay or even with your credit card, the purchase is shared. Graham Nelson revealed today that he bought the BMW of strollers for @twinliving via Blippy.

Graham won an auction and Blippy let us all know. He did not have to go to twitter, login and type HEEEY!!! LOOK WHAT I WON! Blippy took care of everything. It is fun to see what people are spending and it would be cool if this sort of technology could be integrated into sales automation tools, marketing automation tools and expense forms. Blippy-type technology could also be extended to things like medical records, web activity, blog activity, library checkouts and checkins and even your email. It could also be hooked up to devices that people use.

For instance an exercise bike could share the number of miles a person rides, time spent on the machine, calories burned or changes in their heart rate. A person’s vehicle could share speeds, fluid levels, oil change reminders etc. What about security cameras or web cams?There are all sorts of cool ways to mash this data up, but I think that’s a separate post. What about looking at macro level passive streams?

Michelle Feldman shares information on a recent run

Micro vs. Macro

Micro or personal streams are really interesting, but what about looking at activity streams from a public or macro perspective? That is when things start to really get interesting. What if public transportation activity streams were freely available? In Boston, they are. The MBTA decided to make bus, subway and commuter rail whereabouts data public when they became mired in trying to figure out how to economically produce installations, phone numbers or applications.

The result is a series of applications that make it possible for people to track problems with public transportation. So one forward thinking (or desperate) government organization is leading the way for passive sharing of macro level activity. And in reality this is late. Public transportation in the US is largely government owned and supported by tax dollars so it makes sense to have the data readily available, right?

Given that, how about public office spending as a stream? I would follow everyone from selectmen to senators to get an understanding for how they are spending our tax dollars. Political campaign spending would be fascinating. I could see it either becoming more discretionary or even more lavish as candidates would be exposing their moves to the public [including paying teams to analyze the others' data.]

How about payroll? Public payroll for teachers, public officials, police, firefighters and the like would be another interesting stream that would let us know if public people are being properly compensated and if they are getting raises.

What are some useful passive streams that you would like to see?
energy consumption? Maybe taxi and airplane whereabouts? Let’s get a discussion going.

The Chinese Spring Festival (Chun Jie 春节), what we call Chinese New Year, is currently in progress. This is the biggest holiday in China and has many awesome traditions. One of these is the Lion Dance.

Often mistaken for Dragons, the Lions will be in Chinatown this Sunday, February 13, 2011. The Southern style lion dance is a ritual to scare away evil spirits and bring good luck and fortune to a shop. The local Kung Fu troops will be parading through Chinatown from ~10AM-5:00PM.

So how do you enjoy the event without having any idea what it is about?

Don’t Just Stand There

This isn’t a typical parade. You can actually follow the action from shop to shop and there will be plenty of gong fu troops with (usually) 2 lions, a buddha, firecrackers and a drum. Shopkeepers place a bowl full or lettuce, oranges and red envelopes in front of the shop. The Lions come to the shop, jump on the bowl, eat the lettuce, throw the oranges and grab the envelopes. Then they go into the shops and restaurants to scare away the evil spirits. When they leave, the shopkeeper tosses firecrackers at them to scare them off.

The Lion dances can be a little intense with the firecrackers, so keep the kids close. They like the colorful costumes and enjoy the dance, but sometimes the bangs can be a little much. If they get scared, then go to a restaurant or bakery.

Plan to Eat

Come early to Hei La Moon, Chao Chow City, Emperor’s Garden or China Pearl to have dumplings, buns and tea. This is called dim sum. Har Gao / Xia Jiao is a shrimp dumpling. Shu Mai is a pork dumpling. The sticky rice in lotus leaf is delicious and has meat and other delights inside. Ask for pork buns or “nai wong bao”, which is a delicious custard bun. They’ll be surprised you even know about this one. My kids love it.

Remember, the lions come into the restaurants so have your camera ready.

If Dim Sum is not your style or you come later in the day, Vinh Sun has extremely delicious Hong Kong style food with roast pork that melts in your mouth. They also have dishes served in sizzling hot clay pots that are winners. It’s better to get a group together when you go for Chinese food. Dishes are meant to be shared. Shabu Zen’s cook-as-you-eat hot pot is a unique and delicious experience. They have 2 locations. One is in Allston, one in Chinatown. It’s kind of like Japanese Tapas. Hei La Moon’s “feasts” are authentic and incredible. Ask for the Chinese menu. They have seafood and non-seafood feasts for 4, 8, 12 – more.

Hit the Bakery

My favorite is Hing Shing. I love their custard buns, cookies and coconut bars. The cookies are also delicious and the prices are insanely low. Other people swear by Ho Yuen and Eldo Cake House. There are plenty of bakeries in Chinatown to enjoy and no one, except maybe the owners, would fault you for going to more than one!

Follow the Action

When you are not eating, follow the action around. Throw a kid on your shoulders and follow a gong fu troop. It’s a great way to get to know Chinatown. Pop into the shops, talk to the people, grab a bubble tea, a snack, or menu for next time.

Chinese Lesson 中文

Try these out when you’re in Chinatown

新年快乐 : Xin1 Nian2 Kuai4 Le4 /Shin Nee-en Kwai Luh/ This means “Happy New Year”
恭喜发菜：Gong1 Xi3 Fa1 Cai2 / Gong She Fa Tsai / This also means “Happy New Year” but literally means “Congratulations on your Riches”

Happy Year of the Golden Tiger! Hope to see you there.

This year’s Boston Wine Expo was not at all what I was expecting. Never having been to one, I figured it would be a pleasant affair where well mannered folks waited patiently to taste and discuss their favorite expensive grape juices*. Instead it was ravenous wine fans pushing their way past others to get every last drop of wine and every last piece of stinky cheese possible. I also expected to be able to taste more than 4 or 5 varietals. Most booths had Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and and sometimes a blend of the aforementioned. There was not a map of the booths and the wines and the wine vendors themselves were horrible marketers. No flags, just nearly invisible-through-the-crowd signs to mark their tables.

Needless to say, I was a little disappointed with my first wine tasting, but I knew that Gary Vaynerchuk could change my mind. It is no secret that I am a big fan of the Thunder Show, Vaynermedia and #CRUSHIT. I’ve seen Gary speak a half a dozen times and he usually brings something interesting to the table. I have seen 100s of episodes of Wine Library TV, but this was the first time I had a chance to drink wine with him as his “Expland Your Palate” session.

We were situated in a conference room at the World Trade Center each with a scoresheet and 8 numbered wines, 1 rose, 3 whites and 4 reds. Gary starts off by greeting us, giving us the Reader’s Digest version of his spiel and then starts to teach us how to taste wine the GaryVee way.

The boomer couple sitting next to me has never heard of Gary. They just bought the tickets because they thought the talk sounded interesting. They are in for a treat. The guy was Austrian. He loaned me a pen. “Schneidermike, you didn’t come prepared? Where’s your iPhone pen?” says Gary. I look sheepishly at my iPhone and Zi8.

After taunting Patriots (and a few Colts fans) he starts off with the aroma. “First, let’s start with the sniffy-sniff. I want you to get your nose as far into the glass as possible.” He urges us all to sniff first, before we swirl the wine. He wants us to experience the wine before and after. He gives me some stink eye for swirling my glass before sniffing. I learn and do not make the same mistake again. “Schneidermike, you wine noob. We have to get you up to speed.” he says. When swirling, you really need to beat the wine up. Swirl it like you mean it. Tasting? That’s “giving it a whirl.”

Pierre Sparr Cremant d’Alsace Brut Rose

Aroma according to me: mountain snowy ai, apple, sharp cheddar
Taste: The taste is strong. It’s a crisp, apple-like flavor.
Color: Rose
Score: Meh
It’s a bubbly. I would drink it again, but I would not ask for it.
Price: $12/bottle

Santorini Assyritko

Aroma according to me: white pepper, burning plastic (Gary says rubber tire), cilantro
Color: White
Taste: The taste is of vinegar and reminded me of paint thinner.
Score: Meh / Gary liked this one.
Price: $12-$15

Domaine Lafond Lirac Blanc

Color: White
Aroma: cleaner, Mr. Clean, greens, I got some kind of tropical fruit (Gary said it was starfruit).
Taste: Pear, vanilla, pepper giving way to a bitterness.
Score: Like
Gary says if you’re tried a Lirac, you’re a wine geek. If you’re tried a Lirac Blanc, you are one of a niche of uber wine geeks.
Price: $17

Vinoptima 2003 Gewurztraminer

Color: White? Golden notes.
Aroma: Big fruit aroma, pear
Taste: This sucker was pure pineapple with a white pepper finish.
Score: Like/Love
This was my favorite wine. Gary says it is great with stinky cheese. It was the New Zealand wine of the year at one point.
Price: $50

Fat Barrel Pinotage

Color: Red
Aroma: very faint, hard to pick up much on the nose.
Taste: Lot of tastes: cigar, tobacco, jerky, bacon, chipotle pepper, smoke, monterey jack cheese
Gary said this was a meh. He felt it was missing its soul. A woman said that most people say that it’s a mistake to pair chocolate with Pinitage. Gary said he would try it, particularly since his episode in Montreal where a woman gave him bacon muffins. He ate 4. Sounded like the taste was really intriguing moreso than an actual he lusted for bacon muffins.
Score: Like

Bedell Cellars First Crush Red

Color: Red
Aroma: bread, yeast
Taste: charcoal, smoke, persimmon
Score: Hate
I did not like this wine. It was extraordinarily bitter. It sucked the moisture out of my mouth and soured my puss. This is a 72% Merlot / Cab Franc blend. It’s from Long Island. I think someone must have put some of the Hudson in this wine.
Price: $15, but I would not pay $5. I think Gary liked this one.

Clos de Gamot Cahors

Color: Red
Aroma: I forget
Taste: Chocolate, smoke, metal, iron, Gary said hay/barnyard/earth, moss. I also got a fishiness. Gary asked if anyone else got the fishiness. 2 others raised their hands. he attributed it to the saltiness and minerality of the wine. He told me I should try some Alsatian White wines if I like this one. I’ve just learned that some Gerwuztraminers fall into this category so I am stoked!
Score: Meh/Like

Follies Touriga Nacional

Color: Red
Aroma: Wood / Oak
Taste: OAK OAK OAK, acai berry, big wood flavor, cloves
Score: Like, 2nd favorite
Gary was excited that the crowd liked this wine because, not only is it from Portugal–> the price is around
Price: $9

After the Follies Touriga Nacional, a woman in the crowd swore she would only drink French oak and that she did not like the wine because she thought it was American oak. Gary corrected her and told her it was Hungarian oak which she also did not like. She swore up and down that she was tuned for particular type of oak. He swore up and down that he could trick her palate – to the point where he was willing to “bet the house” against her and told her that she had to come and be on the Thunder Show. He said that either way, they would both win because if she was right, they’d go on Good Morning America. If not, at least she would get to be on the show.

All-in-all, not only was a it a great time, I got some great homework. I am off to Marty’s to explore Alsace.