Frederic Koeppelreports on VinExpo the Internatinal Wine Exposition held for the first time in the United States. Where? Jacob Javitz Center in New York City.
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First Known Cobloggeration. Making Music Over Blogs.
Frank Sinatra did it. Natalie Cole did it with her dad (from archived recordings) and now Scott Andrew LePera and Shannon Cambell have created their own "Duet" (thank you doc) for what might be the first collaborative long-distance music effort inspired by Blogs. I'm calling this cobloggaration. Sure we see a lot of diatribe and discussion with words. But Scott took one of Shannon's raw tracks and started "commenting" on it through the use of overdubs. The result is a fine song with a fascinating history. I'm inspired.
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How Fitting. The Dentist On Halloween.
Well after two hours of poking, scraping, drilling and lockjaw, I'm home. Novocain wears off at lot faster these days. So my jaw is feeling more normal than I remember. My new dentist, Wally, loves me -- or I should say -- my mouth. After the two-hour procedure he says, wow. I could just work on your teeth all day. A rewarding compliment. Not. I must say I have neglected my dental hygiene since my dentist of many years retired a couple years ago. Now Wally has got me on a program. Great.
But dental technology has improved. Good ole Dr. Long, bless his surfing, painting and traveling retirement. But he had more passion for those things in his retirement, than for dentistry. Wally on the other hand has all the latest tools. Big flat panel LCD monitor where he brings up my shining (or not so) ivories 100 times life-size or more. He loves his work. No sooner than his assistant was handing my well-deserved glass of rinse water was Wally pulling up before and after pictures of his work -- ah, rather my teeth! I admire his passion. He's into it. And so am I, for a tune of $$$$? I'll see Wally next week. Subject? Crown talk. More later.
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Keb Mo' - 10.30.02 Cerritos Center For The Performing Arts
Live music. It's such a good thing. Last night I joined friends for an evening with Keb Mo' - a contemporary bluesman who has chalked up a couple Grammy's for his efforts.
But the Cerritos Center For The Performing Arts? . I've lived in Orange County (California) for nearly 20 years. And when I think of Cerritos I think of auto malls and concrete ... | more |
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Wednesday, October 30, 2002
Winding down a bit early today. Time for a little live music. Going to see Keb 'Mo play in Cerritos.
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Dell To Sell Apple iPods
My jaw dropped when I saw this today. If you believe the mass media, Michael Dell and Steve Jobs have been each other's nemesis for years. Will Dell be selling Xserves next? Doubt it. But just goes to show you the channel always changes. I'm suprised Dell didn't just knock off a poor imitation and try to sell them for $199.
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I've made my living for 15 years doing advertising, marketing, branding and communications designed to capture, convey and convince audiences to act. But as a consumer I'm outraged and resentful at blatant commercialism that is slammed down into my brain daily. I understand branding all too well. Associative relationships can work extremely well to influence public opinion, if not purchase habits with proper planning, execution and integration of messages.
But when does it go to far. I remember an excellent ESPN commercial from a year or two ago. And perhaps it will trigger memories given the San Francisco Giants recent failed bid to bring the World Series Trophy to the city by the bay -- shrouded in fog. The ESPN spot talked about Candlestick Park. Yet many years ago when PacBell Park was merely a mayor's dream, overnight the park that had carried the "stick" handle for years suddenly became a moniker for a fledging high-tech networking company: 3Com. 3Com Park. The ESPN spot featured a fan's voice over discussing memories from Candlestick Park. At the end of the spot he says, "To me, it's the stick. It'll always be Candlestick to me."
The first time I saw the faded freeway signs with the bright green-pasted replacements over Candlestick Park, I thought to myself "this is just not right". And keep in mind, I'm not from the Bay Area. As active, political and outspoken as bay area people are, I'm sure the debate raged locally.
But that's a distant memory. They've got PacBell Park and a losing World Series team.
As for advertising messages, nothing is sacred anymore. The big rage at Comdex years ago was who paid to get those nifty urinal filters in all the men?s' rooms. Or when 4 out of 5 cabbies in Vegas seemed to know just a bit too much about the latest network servers demonstrated at the show.
So you can imagine when TiVO and Replay invented the time-shifting product of the decade, all of the passionate television groupies shouted with glee. Simply skip or fast forward past the commercials -- in nearly real time -- live. Adbusters, eat your heart out. Well for BMW, Visa, Anheuser-Busch and the other advertisers who pony up anywhere from $50K to $500K for a standard national network spot the thought of its highly desireable target audience simply "zapping" its creative product buried with associative images and messaging is downright horrific. What can they do?
As a creator of such spots and messages I want my product (the message not the product, per se) to be seen, heard and believed. As a consumer let me zap, zip and zoom past anything that reeks of commercialism. Unless I'm doing research for a client, of course.
Fine Living will offer primary sponsorships for all of its programming. This is neither innovation nor creative marketing. It's simply going back to the roots. Radio and then television advertising began with single sponsorships to entire programming. That's how soap operas were born. And that's how network programming got off the ground. Remember Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom? How about the Hallmark Hall of Fame?
Fine Living will also provide sponsors with prime screen real estate for scrolling messages, logos and perhaps blatant product placements. Again, this is nothing new. With the proliferation of video recorders over the last two decades, some major network came up with a novel idea of leaving a small ghosted logo permanently engrained into its programming in the lower right corner of the screen. All the other networks followed suit. It's ubiquitous today. But innovated yesterday. How about the stock-ticker news scroll that has become de-facto for cable and sports news channels over the past couple years. Once again, innovated yesterday, standard today. Fine Living takes many of these innovative standards to its new network. Others will follow.
So while TiVO and Replay may not be the answer to zapping ad messages as the media, advertisers and their agencies search to innovate, if not invade, with new and old methods for reaching their target audience with associations and messages that help build and reinvent new and old brands.
And it's those companies and brands that recognize the constantly evolving media and customer and look to find better ways to establish a meaningful relationship that offers the company and/or its brand a true measurable lifetime value -- and they focus on nurturing that customer -- the value will be there.
In the meantime, I can handle the creative delivery of messages. Afterall, I help create them.
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Here's a story I wrote today that documents the feeling and the fun of taking an early morning bike ride through Newport Beach's back bay nature preserve. Some quick digital snaps, too. I think you'll enjoy it!
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Incognito, David Weinberger is only identified as Mr. Laptop in this article by Kat Bulkley in The Guardian on the proliferation of WiFi (802.11b) networks, blogging and of course -- laptops. If she happened to stumble into one of those T*Mobile equipped Starbucks in Orange County she might find Johnee Bee "flashing" instead of blogging on his laptop.
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Music producer Tom Dowd, who died on Sunday, achieved prominence for making some of the finest recordings for Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers. But he had a hand in the atom bomb, too. Among his innovations were recording to tape when straight to vinyl was the norm, multitrack recording and sonic experimentation. What a legend. Morehere.
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B. F. Skinner. "The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do."
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Did you read about the latest Al Qaeda threat where the US rail system is a likely target? Now you can't fly, ride the train and until this weekend, driving where you might need to stop to fill up your tank with gas you could be a victim of some sort of terrorist attack.
So I start doing some digging. You know some people have had fear of flying phobias for some time. Perhaps the most famous include John Madden. Of course, Erica Jong wrote about it years ago. But aviation was not quite what she was thinking.
So back to the train. There is only one state in the Union (in the 48 contiguous states) that is not served by Amtrak. Only one state! I couldn't believe this. Which one? South Dakota. Why? I don't know. Can anyone tell me? My mother currently resides in South Dakota. She just sold her business and a beautiful piece of property on more than 20 acres in the shadows of Mount Rushmore. So we're going to take the train! Obviously not in South Dakota. But the Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Seattle and onto Vancouver.
The Google Censors.
I can't believe it's happening. My favorite (yours too) search engine is succumbing to the almighty witch hunt of full-of-fears governments or other organizational bodies. Hey. Protect your assets. Your ass, too. I don't know the extent of this, but it's alarming. While we know Al Gore invented the internet and therefore it's a manifestation of American or US ideals. Right? And while we'd like to think these ideals transcend borders, we do understand those companies HQ'd outside our borders may have to adhere - ah, rather obey - the laws that govern business or personal life. Protect your assets.
But the USA? Aren't we the quintessential example of free speech, freedom of information (did someone say, press?) and well, you get the gist. I own a small business. I don't want people telling me what I can say, what I can print and what I can do. So Google does have a choice, after all. If there choice is to censor. Then do it. But let's honor our customers with disclosure. Don't you think. Let's keep our eyes peeled on this story -- for the sake of clarity.
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Have Sex In This Romanian Village -- locals only, please.. Corneliu Olar, the mayor of Horea, Romania, worried over local birthrates, which as in many places in Eastern Europe have dropped steeply, constructed a lovely, secluded lovers' lane. By Ian Fisher. This is classic. But I wonder... are people really NOT doing the deed? Or, are they just looking for greener grass and movin' on? Great story.
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Can I Burn My DVD Projects On My TiBook?
It looks like soon enough. I shouldn't have to tote my OWC DVD burner in my briefcase whenever I go off on an extensive travel binge. Always thought that my next laptop MUST have this feature. Is Apple listening? Or is Toshiba's effort in vain? Are there really issues of standards impeding this progress? Or is just plain old consumer demands and bill of materials costs?I want to burn on my laptop!. Toshiba on Tuesday plans to unveil its first notebook capable of DVD burning. But an ongoing standards battle and other competition could throw some cold water on its plans. [CNET News.com]
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Monday, October 28, 2002
Regarding ballistic finger printing... my friend Eric points out: "...as I understand it, the cost of the ballistics fingerprinting will be partially paid by ammo and gun companies. The NRA position it that the database could be flawed, since criminals can partially modify the ballistic fingerprinting of the bullets. Acid etching, precision filing and long-term wear can modify the ballistic pattern.
I wonder how many hypes, crackheads and gang-bangers have acid etch and high-tolerance machine equipment in their garages."
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Sunday, October 27, 2002
Angels win it. Sorry Barry. Maybe Disney can now finally shed its holding by finding a buyer at the right price. (disney owns the angels - hence the Anaheim change the last couple years).
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World Series. I live in Southern California. I should be rooting for the Angels. I love game 7 World Series matches. But always been a national league fan. I kinda wish the Twins made it. Minnesota could use the distraction. And for a baseball team that was given its walking papers what better vengeance than getting into the World Series. But that dream faded weeks ago. Go Angels . . . I guess.
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Sunday Morning Pundits. Political Speeches. And Guns.
So, our Sunday morning pundits on the tube will go on and on and on about the sniper(s) and the capture, while the rest of the world news gets shoved under the carpet. Such is life in the media.
Speaking of media. Have you ever fancied yourself a speechwriter? How about a presidential speechwriter? Write a speech for George Double You -- write it right here. It's hilarious.
I'm sure topics of gun control will be raging soon. The White House did a quick about face its position on ballistic fingerprinting. Concept here is information on the gun and bullet casing would be entered into a national database of sorts. Not sure of the cost here, but conceptually it sounds good. What would you expect the NRA to say about it?
And if there were no guns, we wouldn't be discussing this? But then again I'm sure we can dig up statistics of fatal beatings by sticks?
Oh. But wait. Sticks don't kill people. People do. (thanks to Brian Brown).
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Thursday, October 24, 2002
If Paul McCartney Has Anthing To Do With It, His DVD Will Play on Macintosh
On other Apple news, you can run to your favorite Target store and buy an iPod and McCartney's DVD. Further evidence that Apple is running parallel paths with consumer products and its core creative content business and education users in its relentless pursuit of defining the digital lifestyle.
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Have you ever had one of those days where you felt or even looked like this?
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Thanks to my friend Rob for pointing me to the past three days of Gary Trudueu's classic Doonesbury syndicated comic strip. So rather than rant, flame, rave or otherwise fill the page pontifications that would be certainly worth your quick read, today I'll point you to Trudeau's storyline:
Wednesday. Bloggers as rock stars or 15 minute Warhol famers?
You'll notice Trudeau's blogger spends his time blogging on a new iMac.
Meanwhile, I've been busy in conference calls trying to figure out how to do my part to keep corporate wrongdoers from doing wrong...
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Tuesday, October 22, 2002
Fear. Ozzy and the Queen.
From Black Sabbath to the star of an HBO reality TV series, Ozzy finally meets his Queen. But fear takes over and he can't remember a thing. Poor guy. I still have yet to see that TV show. Sounds stupid. - thanks to adam for the pointer
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While the skies are gray and summer has long passed, I find myself longing for those Southern California Octobers of yesteryear. At least last year. But when I wake up to an email from a cousin in Minnesota with photo attachments of this year's first snow, I realize all is well in camp Southern California. Woebegone no more. "Where's the sun? I only see rain." -- from Twisted.
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Apple Unpeeled. Great overview on Apple technologies, their impact and some great interviews including interesting comments by Ave Tevaniam on digital rights management, bluetooth and Apple in the enterprise.
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I've had an AOL account since 1990. At the time, CompuServe was the king of online. Al Gore hadn't taken office and his aspirations of inventing the internet were mere dreams -- or visions. Years later AOL has 35 million or so subscribers, including those they acquired when they bought CompuServe.
I've never used my AOL account for email. Never. Yet on the rare occasion when I use AOL -- usually when I'm stuck in some hotel lacking broadband so I'm forced to dial up to "connect" to the internet -- inevitably that charming gent tells me "You've Got Mail". AOL claims to have more access numbers worldwide than any other company. And I believe them. Until I found myself jetlagged in a Budapest hotel room spending hours unsuccessfully trying to connect to the internet via AOL.
"You've Got Mail" and Edwards' voice. It's blazoned into American culture for years. Has Tom Hanks regretted doing that movie? Yet today as many people are excited as afraid when they log on and hear the ubiquitous message. Last time I logged on, I had 112 new messages.
I've also received AOL offers of 1025 free hours, in the mail, at my movie theater, in magazines, banner ads -- virtually everywhere.
To me, I ignore it. But I wonder about those 34,999,999 other AOL subscribers deal with it. Not only has AOL likely sold its subscribers email addresses. It's polluting the landscape with millions and million of discs.
Finally, someone has stepped up to the plate. They want AOL to stop with the disks. And they're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. How? They're planning on pulling up to AOL headquarters with a million disks and dumping them on AOL's doorstep. The irony of all this, I learned of this campaign on CNN - whose parent is AOL. I guess it's one to chalk up to fair, accurate and unbiased reporting for AOL/Time Warner.
In the old days of floppy disks those seeking vengeance would simply erase those AOL disks and use them to transfer or store files. Hmmmm. Floppy disks.
Bowling For Columbine.
It's classic Michael Moore. And I'm still thinking about what to say here on the blog. So stay tuned. Meanwhile, it's worth watching. So go see it! It does entertain.
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Saturday, October 19, 2002
Going Bowling
Michael Moore's new documentary "Bowling For Columbine" has hit alltime box office records for a documentary. Going with two friends Rob Eccles and Ken Hauck who I've known from high school. Tonight. I'm very excited. More about this soon.
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For years I've strongly advised my marketing and consulting clients against the use of stock photography. Advertisers and marketing managers can always find reasons not to shoot new and original photography.
Budget. Where's the value? Too expensive. Not enough time.
You name it. I've heard the excuse. Always on the lookout for examples where stock photography does more harm than good, I've found images clients' have selected in competitor ads, in ads from companies with questionable products and even in political group ads. The damage? Simple or unfortunate association. An image that is repeated becomes part of a company's brand voice. It's how you dress, speak and act.
Today? I'm still reeling in my laughter from the major faux pas by Microsoft, I've now got another example of why never to use stock photography if there's a choice!
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Toss your PC. Move away from the dark side and see the light. That's part of the message from Apple. And apparantly it's working. The Apple "Switch" campaign has extended beyond the "normal folk" to a pro skateborder, surfers and even DJs. Now, we're finding, through Apple's PR efforts or otherwise, people "coming out of the closet." The latest? CNN anchor Renay San Miquel. I know of one other CNN correspondant who is unable to use his Mac to access CNN's intranet including email. Maybe he can make a call to Renay and get this slight problem taken care of.
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To be sure, I'm not a football fan. That is, football as defined by the rest of the "free world" other than the United States. Here, we call it soccer. But I couldn't help but get sucked into an article that popped up on my screen today
about racist behavior, a near riot and questionable law enforcement action at a "football" match in Bratislava between England and Slovakia.
Not that violence and fan uprisings are new to football. What struck me about this story was the report that Slovakian fans' made racial remarks (read: making monkey sounds) toward some of the English players. I realize that in a perfect world there would be no prejudice, discrimination or other more severe violations of human rights based on race or anything for that matter. Find me that perfect world and I'll blog on about something else.
What got me in this article, quite simply, is Slovakia. To me Slovakia seems to be the Eastern Europe hotbed of discrimination. And I'm not the only one who believes that the Slovakian government condones, if not promotes, racism and minority prejudice through its laws and legislative tendencies.
While traveling through Hungary this summer I met a Hungarian girl from a small town in Slovakia who recently moved to the big city of Budapest. I made the mistake when introducing her to some newfound friends of calling her Slovakian. Not the right thing to do, Allan.
Well, she quickly corrected me and attacked American's as not understanding that borders and countries don't always dictate nor define citizenship. As an American I simply couldn't understand that passports relate to citizenship and heritage. She had a Slovakian passport. But she is Hungarian . And she shared her life as a Hungarian inside and outside "Hungary".
There are nearly 600,000 ethnic Hungarians, or Magyars, who make their homes in settlements along the southern border of Slovakia. They represent about 10% of the Slovak Republic's population. As such, they represent the single largest ethnic minority in the country. But perhaps most interesting is that they are what's left of the Hungarians who politically and culturally dominated the region that's Slovakia today for about 1000 years (most recently as the Austro-Hungarian Empire) until 1919, when Czechoslovakia was created.
Fast forward to the years after the 1989 "Velvet Revolution",when Czechoslovakia wrestled itself from the grip of the Soviets. It's then that the Slovaks began their deliberate control over "their region". On January 1 1993, Czech influence over Slovakia was eliminated when Czechoslovakia formally divided into Slovakia and the Czech Republic -- the "Velvet Divorce". And over the years, a nationalist Slovakia sentiment has grown and continues to fuel anti-Hungarian sentiment in the region.
Remember my comment that discrimination is legislated and enforced by law? You don't have to dig too deep to unearth evidence of the propagation and provocation of anti-Hungarian sentiment in Slovakia. Let's touch the surface of some bizarre Slovakian laws. For example, one prohibits the use of the Hungarian language in all official venues. Another prohibits education in the Hungarian language. Another restricts the use of Hungarian (family) names. And for years there have been bi-lingual traffic and other signage in areas with large ethnic Hungarian http://www.prio.no/html/osce-hungary.htm populations, but over the last several years legislation has called for the replacement of these with single Slovakian language signs.
And that young girl I met in Budapest? She studies, works and continues to shoulder years of resentment, feelings of inferiority and cultural repression. Perhaps like many people in that region she's a perfect example of Karoly Nagy. And as such, perhaps this explains her determination to land a job in Human Resources -- in a country where, she admits, business doesn't value nor typically hire people in such positions. Alternatively, while she may be discriminated in her hometown in Slovakia, she still needs the support of Hungary whose policies for ethnic Hungarians living outside its borders continue to evolve.
How about those Slovakian football fans throwing racial epithets and sounds at black and other English football players? How will they plead to Uefa, European football's governing body, from invoking sanctions or other corrective action such as a ban on Slovak fans traveling to the return fixture in England in June, fines or forcing Slovakia to play their next qualifying match for the championship in Portugal in two years time behind closed doors. Perhaps they can simply claim cultural and social norms as rationale for their actions.
I don't claim to be an expert in Hungarian or Slovakian history, but come on! These people have lived here for more than 1,000 years. They have a right to speak their native language. And laws that attempt to force cultural and social reform at the expense of human rights are just ludicrous.
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Friday, October 11, 2002
It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.
Aristotle, Politics
So our president is a bit upset that a certain "world" leader took, or try to take, a "pot" shot at his father. He's a bit frosted about this. And he's dragging the masses and creating agendas designed to divert (think Houdini) attention to what the man "behind the curtain" is really up to? And what does it take to satisfy. Who's got an incurable desire to be satiated? And what does it take?
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Tuesday, October 8, 2002
Media Frenzy. Define A Terrorist?
It boggles me. Some psycho with a deer rifle is taking pop shots at innocent citizens in the suburbs around our nation's capital. It's all over the news. People are genuinely afraid, concerned for their lives and those of their loved ones. But what do the papers, TV and net call the culprit? A sniper. Let's be clear and clarify things here. This guy/girl is engaging in perhaps the most direct act of terrorism since 9/11. More people have died at the hands of this terrorist than did the hands of the Anthrax bio-terrorists who succumbed us to vulnerability the last time our nation was struck by an unknown enemy in mass. And this time refraining from opening your mail just won't help. Just about the only haven of safety is in bed with the door locked. Yet the media is hell bent on calling the person responsible a mere sniper? Wake up. This is terrorism. And white, black, brown or yellow. American, Afghan, Hungarian Italian, Frenchman, Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Jew. This is terror. Here, there or anywhere? This is terrifying.
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Monday, October 7, 2002
Copyright and Content Wars. And The Race Is On
And is it pride of ownership or freedom to own coming up the back stretch? It has been the topic du jour on more Blogs than I can count for many jours. Newsweek: Glitterati vs. Geeks. Steven Levy. Now Lessig has his chance to shift the momentum by overturning the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. The most recent of 11 extensions of copyright terms, it stretches exclusive control of a work from 50 to 70 years after the creator's death. [Tomalak's Realm]
It's Your Wine. Feel Free To Take It Home
Hey while we're battling and racing, it's important to note that not only freedom of content etc. throws opining Bloggers and Silicon Sifters into page after page of debate, discussion , diatribing and polyblogging. Let's not forget our freedom of access. Juice. Good juice. Commerce. Plain ole commerce "e" or otherwise. Did you know that 28 states in the USA make it a crime to ship and/or receive wine to your home? It's been a sense of frustration for small boutique wineries in California, Washington, Oregon and elsewhere in the country. An organization of wineries and wine industry professionals was formed many years ago to lobby and battle these insane laws. In California the Wine Institute also represents wineries on this issue among others. But we finally may have reliefe and a very ironic sort of way. All due to stricter airline security. Read on.
U.S. House and Senate Approve Limited Direct Wine Shipments. The U.S. House and Senate included a provision in the Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act which allows wine, purchased while visiting a winery, to be shipped to another state, provided the purchaser in accordance with state law, could carry the wine into the state to which the wine is shipped. [TiZ WineBiZ]
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Old rockers inevitably end up exploring or returning to the roots of music and as such the Americana "movement" continues to grow. On Tuesday Mark Knopfler's third solo effort was released. Titled The Ragpickers Dream, Mark continues to explore songwriting and guitar wizadry inspired by his work with Chet Atkins and The Notting Hillbillies.
Brothers.
It's interesting to note that Dire Straits was founded by Mark and his older brother David. But after three albums, David left the band to pursure his own creative endeavors, while Dire Straits went on to much greater success without him. But who grabbed the domain "knopfler.com"? And who is a successful dot-com tycoon? David started the UK Mac news website MacLink So Mark's new CD is out and David's CD has been released to most of the world except the United States; but we should see it in stores and online sometime in November. A Mac fanatic, David's site has quite a number of computer based links, in addition to his creative expressions in art and music. Mark, on the other hand is self-described as lazy and a TV addict -- especially sports.
Big Business
Well my old company (the one I co-founded) and current nemesis -- its preferred investors -- are up to funny business as they've decided to use their preferential and voting rights to make a deal that would allow them to control 90% of the company while diluting the original founders to the point of making their shares worthless. It's dirty pool. Big business. And perhaps perfectly legal. So is taking candy from a baby, though. This story has yet to end.
Jaguar
It's been more than a week on OS X 10.2 and fully committed as a .Mac subscriber, I'm excited about most of the improvements. And I'm fully operational using the public beta of iSync and have moved off of Entourage to Mail.app, iCal and Mac OS X's Address Book. Though I think iChat's text entry area is much to small, I'm having authentication problems and overall the Mail.app while very nice to look at, it's tough getting used to some of its deficiencies such as moving forward and backward through message lists without going back to the mailbox, moving a nested mailbox to a non-nested mailbox is awkard and clumsy. And adding invitees to iCal is not intuitive. But it's publishing and subscription capabilities are amazing. This whole integration will only get better.
The widely reported outages and service deficiencies and overall controversy of the .Mac service surely makes one wonder if Apple's dip into the world of -- wait didn't we used to call this business model ASP -- what happened to ASP's? -- will be successful
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