A nod to Google & cleverness
Haven’t seen it much in all the Monday morning dissection of the Super Bowl ads, but this, IMHO, is the best commercial by far courtesy of Google:
Temple Grandin
Oh God. Temple Grandin on HBO. Moved to tears.
Sharing the wealth
This headline on the Drudge Report catches my eye …
VIDEO SHOCK: Katie Couric frolics in Haute Couture and diamonds as CBSNEWS cuts staff…
… and leads to this perfectly lovely interview in Harper’s Bazaar: Katie Couric’s Prime Time
Hmmmm, Drudge, that headline’s a little — dare I say? — socialist in thinking.
Noteworthy customer service
When a friend told me about the stellar customer service at the hotel on his recent trip to Abu Dhabi and I thought about my own experience at the W Hotel earlier this week, it got me thinking about why patrons aren’t treated markedly better all the time. Low expectations?
Combine that with a memorable post Stanley Fish did in The New York Times a few months ago and Oprah’s preview of the upcoming CBS show called Undercover Boss, and well, another Game Plan was born: Raising Our Customer Service Expectations.
Ten9Eight counts down to Super Bowl Sunday
Regular readers of this space will recall a Game Plan column I wrote back in November about director Mary Mazzio’s film called Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon. Now’s your chance to see it, as it’s airing on BET on Super Bowl Sunday at noon as well as the following evening at 8.
It’s worth seeing, as it showcases possibility and the drive of students who might not otherwise get an opportunity to realize their own potential. They compete in a national business plan competition and the journey to get there is stirring. If you don’t believe me (and why wouldn’t you?), check out what others have said: ”inspiring… should be compulsory viewing in high schools around the country” (Lael Lowenstein, Variety), “very well made” (Mike Hale, The New York Times), “important” (Marshall Fine, Huffington Post), “gripping” (Nancy Colasurdo, FoxBusiness.com), “balanced with a raw truth telling” (Daryle Lockhart, The Black Box Office), “uplifting” (Siobhan O’Connor, GOOD Magazine), and “simply marvelous” (Curt Schleier, Film Soundoff).
No spin zone
I think my favorite part of Bill O’Reilly’s interview with Jon Stewart was when O’Reilly asked him if when he’s delivering his material he’s aware that his audience is “stoned slackers who love Obama.”
Wow. First time I’ve been called that …
‘Offensive’ Super Bowl ads
I don’t find the Tim Tebow ad all that controversial and the ManCrunch commercial isn’t close to shocking. Focus on the Family has done far worse and, with guys like Ted Olson and Jerry Sanders fighting the Prop 8 fight, there’s real reason to believe gay Americans are closer to getting their civil rights.
It’s all in today’s Game Plan on the Super Bowl flap: ‘Offensive’ is in the Eye of the Beholder.
Media on life coaching
An interesting Newsweek piece about life coaching, made all the more interesting by the comments on the bottom:
Devouring ‘The Glass Castle’
Somehow I knew that when I got sucked in by the first line of Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, just this morning to the point where I blogged about it (see two entries below this one), I wouldn’t be sleeping again until it was finished.
Voila.
I don’t even know what to say about this book that hasn’t already been said. It completely lives up to the hype. It’s incredible, a combination of a mind-blowing story and a compelling voice. How Jeannette Walls overcame her life circumstances is beyond my comprehension.
As a writer, I must say I appreciated the choice of opening the book in New York, because had I not known it was going to end up there I might have had to put it down. Page after page I couldn’t believe what I was reading. It was overwhelming, really, and I wasn’t even living it.
I can’t recall the last time I read a book in a day. That speaks for itself.
Making peace with the boob tube
Anyone who knows me knows I love to watch TV, but don’t always feel great about it. A guilty pleasure, and all that. A few weeks ago, when Cablevision and Scripps (Food Network and HGTV) were in a contract stalemate, I wrote about how it was a sign to watch TV less.
Well, this week the common cold took me down a few notches in energy and it’s been a TV extravaganza over here — NFL playoffs, Big Love, Yes Man, Rosie O’Donnell on Oprah, What Not To Wear, MTV’s The Buried Life.
That’s why today’s Game Plan is all about Making Peace With the Boob Tube.
