Archive for November, 2006
POC 9 - CrapMonkey Podcast - Pieces of Crap #9
November 29, 2006 12:13 am
In this fairly lengthy Piece of Crap, my friends and I take to brewing some beer. We went up to Cellar Home Brew and bought all the equipment needed to start brewing our own beer. In addition to the gear, we picked up the necessary ingredients to whip up a porter (which we dubbed Schrodinger’s Porter - give us a break, we’d had a few beers by then). After getting all the gear home, stocking up the fridge with Dechutes, and downloading a few how-to articles from the Internet; Matt, Mr. Mark and I step into the wonderdul world of home brew. Images are available on my Flickr page.
POC 9 - CrapMonkey Podcast - Pieces of Crap #9 [18:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadNoMa Puts Its Gangrene Where Its Mouth Is
November 24, 2006 6:08 pm
The NoMa condos in Ballard aren’t selling quite like the hotcakes I had orignally imagined. Perhaps it has something to do with the name they chose. According to the Encarta Dictionary, noma is defined as “severe inflammation with gangrene: a severe gangrenous inflammation of the mouth or genitals, usually occurring in children who are malnourished or otherwise debilitated.” Makes you want to move right in, doesn’t it? While we’re on the topic, the National Organization of Minority Architects may also want to consider a name change. I’ll admit, perhaps I’m just bitter that the Ballard Eagles Club (in whom’s banquet room we held our wedding reception), was knocked down to build the condos… but then again, it is a pretty horrible name.
Dentyne Brushes On the Sleaze
11:16 am
While using a restroom in a local pub, I came across Dentyne’s new advertising campaign. Apparently, the old “brush your breath with Dentyne” slogan needed to be tailored to the drunk and ready to score demographic. These pamphlets first caught my eye because the red book below was being distributed in the men’s room. Likewise, as I stood over the urinal reading the pamphlet title I constructed it in my mind as “Dentyne’s Quickie Guide to Hunting for Men.” Needless to say, I found its placement in a men’s room to be an interesting marketing choice. In flipping through the book, I put together that, indeed, the book was meant to be read as “Dentyne’s Quickie Guide to Hunting. For Men.” Incidently, Dentyne’s marketing team must have received this feedback already, because the campaign on the website reads “Dentyne’s Hunting Tools for Men.”
Having the mystery of the title solved, I flipped through the book to see what tips Dentyne had to offer. That’s when the advertising campaign took a turn for the worse. The guide outlined the types of women I’d find in the female ’species’ (see top banner for images). Likewise, Wendy confirmed that there was a pamphlet for women in the ladies room that followed the same format (see bottom banner). Apparently, the species we are hunting in the dating scene are predominantly white (possibly entirely white - there might be an asian, and possibly a hispanic person if you are being generous in your interpretation of the artistry). One thing is certain, there are no black members of Dentyne’s eligable dating scene.
At the end of the day though, it is packed with useful tips. For example, ladies should “always bring a less attractive friend… so you won’t be upstaged.” Men, “if you get shot down, move on to one of her friends” (be warned, if following the guide, she will likely be less attractive). Likewise, the website supplements the guides nicely with information such as: how to speak like a guy (PDFs about sports, action movies, finance and do it yourself projects), fake business cards, fake back stories of your life, photos to put in your wallet that the opposite sex will think cool (women: motorcycles, dogs and cars / men: puppies, poor african tribes, old people), and much, much more!
To be fair to Dentyne, I am not in their target demographic. Being happily married, I am fortunate to be out of the dating scene and not in need of a handy guide such as this. However, there was a time when Dentyne’s primary purpose was to “brush your breath,” now they just make you feel like washing your hands.
CMP-11-21-2006: CrapMonkey Podcast Episode 111
November 22, 2006 12:37 amIt’s almost turkey-day and I’m certainly ready for a break. Tonight I have some audio clips from a fun afternoon at the Village Pub in Magnolia watching the Applecup. Unfortunately, the Cougars weren’t able to pull off a win against the Huskies. Next year I guess. I also have a restroom review from the Skylark in West Seattle.
The website of the day is openDNS.com and the song of the day is College Daze by The Clintons. We close the show with On the Radio by Gary Reynolds and the Brides of Obscurity.
CMP-11-21-2006: CrapMonkey Podcast Episode 111 [25:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadSeattle Podcasting Network Visits Fisher
November 8, 2006 10:52 pm
The Seattle Podcasting Network and Meetup had the opportunity to visit Fisher Communications this week. The event was on November 7th (election night), so the news room was buzzing with activity. Our tour, lead by Don LaCombe and Stuart Hitchner, was very interesting given that we were able to see a lot of the election night coverage from behind the scenes. We spent about twenty minutes in the production control room during the evening news watching the talented KOMO team put together a show packed with election and flood coverage. Then we rolled into the Northwest Afternoon Studio, followed by the insert studios at Fisher Pathways. After that, it was on to the Heleport. The group was able to check out the helicopter and walk around it on the catwalk suspended six stories above the Plaza. On a side note, located in the shadow of the Space Needle, the Fisher Plaza Heleport offers a tremendous view of the city! When we came in off of the roof, we went down and visited the news room; which was buzzing with activity as the election results were coming in. Finally, we ended the tour with a brief stop in the news Studio, where we tried out the anchor desk and took advantage of a photo opportunity with Dan Lewis and Kathy Goertzen. Thanks to the great folks at Fisher for the experience!
CMP-11-02-2006: CrapMonkey Podcast Episode 110
November 2, 2006 11:46 pm
Can you believe it’s already November? Tonight we chat about all the things that are rolling out of Microsoft. Internet Explorer 7 has launched and is available for free download, as is Windows Media Player 11. Zune will be launching in mid-November. There are also some events coming up in Seattle that you might want to hit like the SnowCap Party at Pyramid Alehouse on the 10th and 11th, as well as the Winter Beer Festival being hosted at Hales on December 2nd. You also might be interested in the Georgetown Pinewood Derby. Tenacious D fans may also like to know that they will be starring in a new movie called The Pick of Destiny, which opens November 22nd.
The song of the day is Pondering the Unponderable by John Francis and the website of the day is Soapbox. We close the show with a tidbit of audio from the Day of the Dead festival at La Carta De Oaxaca in Ballard.
CMP-11-02-2006: CrapMonkey Podcast Episode 110 [18:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
