Congratulations to my friends at Sustainable Harvest International; a non-profit I did some pro-bono work for in the past. They've been picked up by the Associated Press and the news blurbs are propogating around the world as I type this. Their success is a prime example of indirect, or what I call Coat-Tail PR. When clients sign up with a PR firm, for example, they always have visions of sugar-plum placements -- like a feature story on the cover of Time magazine -- dancing in their heads. Of course, this is totally unrealistic. But, if you happen to have a unique angle on a societal trend or current news story, you might get favorable coverage by riding the coat-tails of that larger story. That's what is happening here. The story is about "Voluntourism," which is typically done in under-developed nations with shall-we-say "rustic" conditions. SHI's program is a prime example of the trend, thus they get highlighted in the story. Here's a link to the Boston Globe article. Congrats to Flo and Sarah and the whole crew; keep up the good work!

Stocks On Sale!

Tough week on Wall Street, eh? Bloomberg reports it's the end of the worst week since January 2003. Tuesday's sell off was the single biggest declining day since 9/11. Time to panic? Well, if you're a long-term investor (which, unless you're a day-trader, you really are), then there's only one way to really look at the recent precipitous drop in the major indexes: There's a sale on stocks! Been eyeing AAPL stock while you wait for the iPhone? Pick some up in the mid-80s today, a full 5 bucks off last Monday's prices. Like GOOG but put off by its recent 500 price tag? How 'bout now, at 438? Starting a new retirement account like I am? Now's a great time to start... Everything's on sale!

My brother Todd is a stock analyst, and a very good one at that, providing research and counsel to money managers to some of the best mutual funds and hedge funds around. Following this week's trainwreck, Todd just raised his projections for the major indexes over the next year. Essentially, his take is that this volatility is a good thing, because it's creating opportunities. If there's something I want to buy and the price comes down, whether it's a plasma screen HDTV or a share of stock, sure, I call that an opportunity. Check out Todd's blog and his Google video here.

Super(?) Bowl

Following the scintillating touchdown kickoff return by the sensational Devin Hester, the Coronation of King Peyton (yawn) was surrounded by even more yawn-inducing advertising at this year's Super Bowl. In what is suposed to be Madison Avenue's day to score big points, we were left with questionable calls and fumbles. Don't take my word for it, see the lackluster reviews like this one.

IMO, FedEx submitted the most creative ad for the 2nd year in a row, following up the dinosaur delivery episode with an out-of-this-world sci-fi spot.

But the show was most definitely stolen by a mini-mercial by CBS featuring a David Letterman snuggling on the couch with his arch nemesis, "The Oprah."

Best effort in a losing cause ad goes to K-Fed, for painting himself the pop-sensation-cum-fry-guy.

Interesting metrics posted here. Did you know Neilsen is counting DVR playbacks now? According to Neilsen, the ROI winners were Career Builder for biggest web traffic spike, while Anheuser-Busch won "20 percent of all post-game online discussion."

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the ads this year were the proliferation of "aggregator sites" like YouTube and iFilm that pulled the video onto the web for later viewing. This of course means that viewers don't have to go the company's own web sites to see one ad; they can go to one site to see them all. These aggregator sites present a missed opportunity for marketers, Ad Age opines.

PS Our local Portsmouth product, "It's Hard to Say Goodbye," came late in the game, as is appropriate, and it hit the mark nicely, although it did seem to be rushed a bit in its final edited form, didn't it? Ooop, I see that it was in fact a bit different, according to this story in the P-Herald.

Wow. Talk about a brouhaha! An imbroglio. A cock-up. A tempest in a teapot. Call it what you will, but everybody's buzzing about a guerrilla marketing plan gone awry -- or, perhaps, even better than planned, depending on your perspective. It's now what will be forever known as the Aqua Teen Hunger Farce '07.

See, there's this show on Cartoon Network about a shake, fries, and a meatball. No, seriously, I'm not making that up. I've seen it; it's actually pretty funny. Aqua Teen Hunger Force airs late nights on "Adult Swim" -- a bunch of avant garde cartoons not meant for little kids, basically. Apparently, they're (Turner Broadcasting, owns Cartoon Network) making a movie of the show. In keeping with the off-center theme of the show, not to mention its audience, they hired a guerrilla marketing firm to do some old-fashioned buzz-making for the upcoming film on the streets of major cities. So far, so good, right?

This group comes up with the idea of installing, randomly within the cityscape, what are basically Lite-Brites (you remember Lite-Brite, doncha?) that glow the face of a character from the show. The problem comes in when someone mistakes them for... (gulp)... bombs!

Much chaos and bedlam ensues -- not on the poor unsuspecting public's part -- but rather on the part of the expert anti-terrorism powers that be in our government, from police to Homeland Security.

The whole thing points out so many different issues of the day, it's hard to know where to start.

• There's the generational gap, discussed quite brilliantly in the Globe here by Michael Levenson and Maria Cramer.

• There's the hyper-sensitized nature of the government, but not necessarily the populace, in our post 9-11 world.

• There's the government's ability to crack down on Lite-Brites, but not to respond to hurricanes and tornadoes.

• There's the revival of the old "Banned in Boston" tradition, because this marketing campaign had been going on for several weeks in 9 (count 'em, nine!) other cities without incident. In fact, Boston is now a bit of a laughing stock nationwide: "Stephen Colbert reported that Boston was besieged by what were "clearly the Lite-Brite doodlings of terrorists."

• There's art (these would be defined as a cross-genre public installations and graffiti, I guess) and freedom of expression vs. public decency and safety.

• The artistic aspect of it, my friends at Dynamic Internet www.dyni.net have bailed out the artist behind the creations -- his web site crashed under the weight of the interest surroundnig this story, but James and his crew got them up and running again as you can see athttp://www.zebbler.com/. NOTE: You can watch the 2 dudes actually installing the Lite-Brites on the video posted there -- click "Past Events" and you'll see the link.

Finally, as a long-time afficiando of guerrilla marketing, I applaud Interference Information Network. I'm not sure if Ted Turner considers the cool $2 mil he had to drop on Mayor Menino's lap for the flap to be money well spent, but he should -- a Super Bowl ad* couldn't have garnered him a fifth of this publicity!

*I'll blog the ads soon, don't worry! Stay tuned.

From a PR perspective, Microsoft is really up against it these days. You may have heard, they've got this new operating system coming out -- Vista I guess it's called. Well apparently it's taken 5 some-odd years to put the thing together. They're very proud of it. And yet... umm, how to put this nicely? Nobody cares. Microsoft isn't having any trouble garnering news coverage about it, but story after news story is lukewarm at best. The worst part? XP works just fine, thanks.

So then, Microsoft has to start touting the particular features of the new OS, right? Well, again, unfortunately, it's nothing special. Walt Mossberg says the other thing everybody else is thinking -- it's nice, but it's no Mac.

It is true, nearly all of Microsoft's "good ideas" are stolen from Apple. In The New York Times, reviewer David Pogue wrote, "You get the feeling that Microsoft's managers put Mac OS X on an easel and told the programmers, 'Copy that.'"

Meanwhile, my laid-off dot-com hero OddTodd summed up Vista's PR problem perfectly a few weeks ago:

"So tonight some nerd told me that Microsoft Vista is having problems. Like there's weird security flaws and lots of software doesn't run on it and all that. Is it me or has the Vista launch been like super weird. Like, is Vista actually out? Or out in beta still sorta? I don't know anyone who has it or wants it or even knows why they might want it later. I got nothing against Microsoft but between wacked-whatever Vista, who-cares Soapbox, not-as-good-as-google Live Search, dusted X-Box, only-for-showoff-scrotums Tablet, and the thanks-but-no-thanks Zune... something feels bizarrely off over at Microsoft."

Then there's the whole "buying a Wikipedia editor" thing. And these blogger bribing allegations. I guess if you see a few PR jobs open at Microsoft.com soon, you'll know why!

Local Boy Makes Good!

Doesn't anybody use this tried-and-true headline anymore? A great opportunity to use it was passed on by the local daily the other day when my old pal Dave Cummins was written up.
When he was first getting into modeling and acting, I thought "That's so cool!" But he was starting in his 30s, and I didn't know how he would be received. It was worth a shot, but it was a long shot. He started small, paying his dues as model for local photogs and getting up on-stage with the local thespians. Now he's (gulp) on TV with Susan Lucci on All My Children? And Tina Fey on 30 Rock? I didn't expect him to have the level of success he's achieved, but I knew if anybody could, it would be him! Congrats buddy!

Watch this space for more news on our Alvirne/UNH/Portsmouth local boy making good.

PS When you read the article, yes, he knows AMC has been on the air for a lot longer than 20 years; that was a misquote/misprint. Hey, it happens!

Was able to make an appearance at the annual e-Coast birthday e-Brew tonight at the Press Room. (If I didn't show, people would probably assume I was dead!) What I love about the eBrew is that even after 7 years, I still get to see friends I made in those heady days when we started the damn thing in the first place. Now, every January, former co-workers, colleagues, rivals, clients, employers -- friends all -- come together for a beer and a piece of birthday cake. It's a joy to be a part of such a close-knit business community, and it's so gratifying to see that our original vision for the e-Coast -- a networking social hour for like-minded technology professionals -- has survived through thick and thin, and it remains relevant to this day. Raise a pint to us! Cheers, e-Coast!

As a former copy editor, I can tell you, this was inevitable. Inevitable, but sad.

Of course, if the Osama/Obama thing wasn't bad enough, his middle name is Hussein. Oy.

What we've got here is the old PR adages "any publicity is good publicity" vs. "write whatever you want, just make sure you spell my name right." Which will prevail in 2007? Stay tuned. This should be a doozy.

Today's Portsmouth Herald has a piece from Adam Leech on our wi-fi plans for downtown Portsmouth. Clearly wi-fi is a pet subject of Adam's at this point, which is great -- I love when a single reporter sticks with a story the whole way through! Anyway here it is.

A couple of notes on it. First, it is my personal opinion (not necessarily shared by the EDC, Wi-Fi Subcommittee, or the City Council) that the money should not be an obstacle. It's very short money, actually, when one considers the benefit and the potential positive inpact on economic development for the city. Any of dozens of businesses right here in town could easily pony up for the whole thing (making an unique advertising and goodwill coup in the process), but the city should also be able to find the money in their budget, as well. I shudder to think of all the ways our tax dollars are spent/wasted on far less useful stuff! At what figures to be a two bucks per year per citizen, covering the key downtown areas with wireless Internet is a very doable enterprise, IMO.

Secondly, on the usage statistics. I'm currently working on the survey data, i.e., pounding away in Excel Hell. Ginny Griffith will be presenting the data on Jan. 5th, so I'll have the usership breakdowns done by then.

Finally, if anybody can explain the headline of this article ("More Wi-Fi in city? Weight on businesses"), that'd be great, because, uh, I don't get it!

Just taking a quick time-out from all the Christmas and Boxing Day festivities to remind everyone that it's time again for the NH Internet Awards! The award show is always a fun time, great for networking, and the pretty trophies make great paperweights and door-stoppers, too. Just kidding! The awards are open to NH-based designers, regardless of where your client calls HQ, so get your submissions ready fast. Deadline is Jan. 10, 2007. We now return you to your regularly scheduled leftovers, already in progress.

Blogging from the New Library

Perhaps this is the first blog posting from the new Portsmouth Public Library? I'd be honored if it was.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in is that everybody is smiling. There's a magical feel in the air here. It's like the morning after the Red Sox won the World Series. Everybody is walking around dazed and smiling, shaking their heads in disbelief, and saying things like, "I can't believe it finally happened" and "I'm so glad I got to see this before I died!" It's been a long time coming; this Herald editorial gives the you the basic idea.

I parked easily in the lot between the school and the library (wow, what a concept, free and abundant parking!) and I walked in to see... middle-schoolers swarming all over the place like happy little locusts after grasshopper school. I guess 3PM isn't the best time to come to the new library?!

I said hi to Reference Librarian/City Institution Michael Huxtable, got my map (you'll need it, trust me) and took my self-guided tour. It's bright, airy, open... a little sterile (think hospital, hotel, etc.) but very handsome. After meandering around the place, being in awe of the sheer size and available space, I settled in Fiction, just away from the main desk and around the corner from the cafe. From here I can hear the library staff people offering new patrons the choice of library cards in traditional "credit" style or "keychain" style. I believe people who were turned off by the lack of parking and space in the old library will be coming out of the woodwork to become patrons of this library. Indeed, in the time that I've been sitting here, there's been a steady stream of people signing up.

Perhaps the starkest contrast between the old and new libraries is the space on the shelves. When I was a work-study library page at the old building back in the early 90s, I remember stacks bursting at the seams and when I was reshelving books, I was laying books on top of books because they couldn't squeeze into place. Now, it's like going from an old VW Beetle to a Hummer stretch limo -- plenty of head and leg room!

And you know me... of course I brought in my laptop. I connected to the network right away but needed a password. I'm still not sure how I feel about this -- I think wi-fi networks should be open, for ease of both site hosts and users. Anyway, the front desk person gave me the info (UN - portslib, PW - portslib). We'll have to see if they rotate it. Signal is strong (4 out of 4) and fast (768 Kbps, i.e., DSL speed) -- and according to the log-in welcome page, the networking is still provided by our friends at Single Digits. The whole library is essentially a wi-fi zone, but it seems the best reception will be in the middle of the building (where I sat) by the court yard. (More glass, less steel.)

All in all, the new facility is a triumph. Personally, I've been waiting 20 years for this, and dare I say, it's been worth the wait? Finally, it's a world class library for a city that richly deserves one. And yes, it has that "new library smell." How sweet it is.

Barack. Barock? Barockstar!

[Photo by Marisa. And yes, she got to shake his hand. And yes that was her on MSNBC shaking his hand. And yes she has washed that hand, but she thought about not.]

Today the buzz is about the weather! An unlikely high of mid-60s is expected today, and I find it interesting that the overwhelming attitude is: "This just ain't right." Normally a balmy day in November would we welcomed with fanfare, confetti, and maybe a parade. But after a persistently warm month, today (and tomorrow's) mild temps are greeted more warily. Everybody thinks it's either an "Inconvient Truth" of Global Warming coming home to roost, or a harbinger of a whopper winter full of snow and nor'easters and other unpleasantries. (Hmmm... I wonder what the Old Farmer's Almanac has to say on the subject of "climate change.")

I see in the new NH Business Review (Nov 24-Dec 7) that old friend Katie Paine will keynote the inaugural Breakfast Table event of the Women's Business Center. I've long been a fan of the WBC and their work; my ex-wife even launched a business with their help back in the day. Katie's presentation will be called "Got Blog?" Cost is 37 bucks -- a bargain at twice the price -- and will be held at that new monstrosity downtown they call the Hilton Garden Inn. (Nice to see it's getting used.)

From the opposite page, I see congratulations are in order to state democratic mover/shaker Mike Vlacich on his appointment to director of the state's Economic Development Commission. In fact, Mike, drop me a note sometime, I've got some ideas I want to run by you!

Hmmm... While I agree with Mr. Paul Willax's treatise (page 36) on the sorry state of customer service nowadays, I take exception to his attitude that it's largely a training issue. Give me a break Paul. These "vital front-line employees" of which you speak make barely over minimum wage. They are treated with a modicum of respect at best, or more likely, fungible replacement parts. (I've worked retail; believe me, I know from whence I speak. I like to say I'm "recovering retail" -- it's a 12-step program on rebuilding your self-respect.) Retail clerks have almost no incentive to do anything for the customer beyond give the correct change. Mr. Willax admits "creative compensation" is a necessity, but that's not even enough. The minimum wage needs to be raised -- it hasn't budged since gas was like 99 cents a gallon! Then employeers who want more than fungible parts behind the registers will pay a near-living wage, and the employees will repay them with the customer service we all long for and so seldom receive. Oh, and happy holiday shopping everyone! ;-)

Sitting here at VIP AutoParts on Lafayette Rd. -- the passenger-side rear tire on my VW persistently goes flat, and nobody has free air anymore -- and happened to spot a Wi-Fi Zone sticker in the window! Aside from the 20 bucks gone for the flat-fix, how happy am I?! I wouldn't have even thought to check for wi-fi here. Very impressed! So impressed that I'll give them a shout-out and a link, here. Of course I tried VIP.com first; VIPAuto.com was my second guess. Interesting that the site still uses frames, which is terrible for search engines and bad for some browsers, and it doesn't seem to mention having free wi-fi at their stores anywhere on their site.

And as I sit here, I see on the waiting room TV (tuned into CNBC) that GOOG has topped 500 bucks a share. FIVE HUNDRED. Wow. (Damn, I wish my fantasy portfolio wasn't a fantasy, because I was in on GOOG at 187.) :-p I remember when Google first came out, and I thought to myself, why do we need another search engine when we've got Yahoo? Certainly if Google had failed, the "experts" would have said the same thing in their post-mortems. Entering a market that is already covered and dominated by another is never a great business strategy, but Google didn't listen to conventional wisdom and has now exceeded even their own wild expecations. The elegant simplicity of their site design and their deep-digging search algorithms really set them apart -- it really was a better mouse trap. When you think about it, Google's success follows Apple's in that they both take complex technologies and present the user with the easiest use of those technologies. The click-wheel is to the iPod what the search box is to Google's home page -- plain white and intuitive as all get out.

Speaking of my other favorite stock, AAPL is hitting highs this morning on news that they are working on an "iPhone." Is there any doubt that if anybody can integrate a cell phone with a digital music player, it's Apple?

Thanks to Michael Gurau of CEI Community Ventures in Portland for quoting me in his regular column in Interface Tech News. His piece, "Worth the Investment: PR should be part of every budget," makes a compelling argument for the value of PR to start-ups vs. advertising and other marketing tools. CEI Community Ventures itself is a very interesting organization, a $10m venture capital company targeting small, early-stage businesses in the "under-served" areas of rural New England. Very cool.

This is the time of year that the buzz around town becomes political. Candidates run ads on TV and on the radio, and most of them are obnoxious in their zeal to appeal. But especially in a midterm election, most candidates are relatively unknown; it's an exercise in... let's call it "lightning branding." They're trying to both get name recognition and associate themselves with moms, baseball, apple pies, or some other universally attractive issue. And they've got like, a few weeks, maybe a month, where people are paying attention.

Since politics is the birthplace of "spin," I always find it interesting to see how the candidates position themselves, what they choose to highlight, whether they go negative on the other candidate, etc. I even think it's fascinating to see which colors they use on their signs. Red, white, and blue are obvious; I tend to respect those candidates who use other color combinations or are otherwise graphically creative. In NH, I like the guy who had his name printed on billboards that look like big license plates. And on Rt. 236 in Maine, a local candidate's name is so long, it's impossible to fit it on a billboard. So they broke up the name into like 5 signs, each with 3 letters of the name, then placed the signs along the road in succession at 10 foot intervals. Very clever!

The most obnoxious TV ads seem to be in Massachusetts, where the Deval Patrick candidacy has polarized the constituency. Patrick reminds me of Howard Dean a little -- he's the "different" candidate everyone seems to be buzzing about, one way or the other. He has a very good chance to be the Bay State's first black governor, but does his voice sound like cartoon character, or is it just me? One pro-democrat ad (probably by teacher's lobby?) I thought was particularly effective explained that apparently the commonwealth is now 41st in the country in school spending, behind (gulp) Alabama and (double gulp) Mississippi?! Yow. For all you Mass voters who thought they could safely elect "moderate" republican governors and expect to keep your core democratic values in tact, this is your wake-up call.

Speaking of schools, my daughter is in 4th grade and her teacher is big on civics and government, so they held mock elections the other day in school. Unfortunately, she said she wanted to vote but didn't know any of the candidates. Isn't this what almost everybody says when they don't vote? Isn't there some way around this, like, maybe at the polls there could be a standardized one-page sheet with their positions listed out? Or how about an independent consultant who sits there and asks you questions to determine who you probably should be supporting? I mean, for regular people, i.e., non-policitical-junkies, working a job or two, raising kids, doing laundry, raking leaves, it isn't hard to see how they don't have the time or inclination to learn about the candidates before election day. Then the day comes, and they know they SHOULD vote, but they don't know much if anything about the candidates. It's like sending them into Sears to buy a new fridge -- but there's no salespeople to help, there's no pricing, no features listed anywhere, they're all white and square -- then cricitizing them for not buying one! There's gotta be another way.

In any event, Tuesday could be a very big day. I am VERY excited about the potential for a referendum on the failures of Bush and the corruption of his cronies in congress. I'm heartily endorsing a straight democratic ticket here in NH, and not just for the sake of change -- I've had the pleasure of meeting people like Carol Shea Porter, Jackie Cilley, John Lynch, and I am as impressed with their character as I am confident in their abilities. Please join me in voting a straight ticket on Nov. 7.

That Red Hot Chili Peppers song, "Give it Away," says "why everybody wanna keep it like a Kaiser? Give it away, give it away, give it away now." He's sure not talking about business strategy, but it's good advice nonetheless. Consider Breaking New Grounds, my favorite coffee shop lo these many years. I'm sitting here using our free eCoast wi-fi and sipping Kona Extra Fancy coffee. For those of you without a personal barista on staff, Kona hails from the fertile ashen slopes of Hawaii, is as smooth as it is complex, and oh yah, costs you a tidy $29.95 per pound. Now, they almost never brew Kona for individual sale -- it's a once in a blue moon thing, maybe twice a year. I was trying to decide between french roast and house blend when I noticed Kona on today's fresh-brews menu. "Hold the phone! It's a Kona Day!" Here's the genius bit -- they don't charge anything extra for the cup o' Kona. I have my own mug, so they charged me the regular medium price of $1.60. So this Rolls-Royce of coffees instantly becomes available to the common man! Now, I've already told another Kona-crazy friend about this red-letter day, she'll probably tell somebody else, and of course I'll be reminded to buy a pound as a Christmas present (and one for myself!). BNG (as we regulars like to call it) gets a little buzz of people talking, gives a little something back to its customers by offering a special product at regular price, but more importantly, it solidifies its reputation as the place to go for the best coffee in town. That's good marketing. [Slurrrrrp!] And damn good coffee.

Portsmouth Wi-Fi Planning Meeting

We met on Tuesday at City Hall. Here are some random notes/musings from the meeting.

This year's usership numbers are looking exceptionally strong. I'll report on them once we've had a chance to de-dupe and verify the numbers, but we're looking at another year of serious if not exponential growth, which certainly seems to validate our efforts.

We've now got a plan for how and where to install a mesh network with a handful of access points that would cover the key downtown areas. We're looking at phased implementation in that we need to install the "head" of the network first; that's the most difficult and expensive part of the process. Then, like hangman, we can add arms and legs to expand the wi-fi reach around town.

So the technical part is fleshing out nicely. As for the funding and "model," it looks like it'll be a hydrid of a few different ones. It appears there will be private sponsorship opportunities, perhaps as modest as $2500 (or the cost of one color print ad in a magazine, for example). These will fund our initial rollout. Our goal is to get the head in place about the same time that the kiosk hotspot shuts down for the winter. More details of course will be released when this becomes more official.

If Boston is "The Hub," then is Portsmouth a spoke in the wheel? Portsmouth certainly seemed at the center of things over the weekend as two significant cultural events converged on downtown, and I was happy to participate in both of them.

Portsmouth Criterium
Speaking of spokes, wheels were turning fast (exclusive video footage!) (warning - big file!) on Saturday. My troupe and I rode our bikes downtown, partly for some much-needed exercise and partly in homage to Criterium that we were going to attend. The event organizers hit a homerun by instituting a kids race -- they had 45 kids last year and anticipated 120 kids this year, but at the predetermined registration closing time, there was still a long line of hopeful youngsters. They ended up running double heats for all three age groups just to accommodate them all! The helmet fitting/adjustment booth and bicycle saftey check, both staffed by volunteers, was a really nice touch. In fact, my old friend Billy from Exeter Cycles filled my tires as well as my daughter's. Thanks Billy! Our 10-12 year olds loved that they could do the same lap that the pros did.

Anyway, the day was a smashing success from a spectator standpoint. As for the business side, I was pleased to see in this Portsmouth Herald article that only a few downtown shop owners were lamenting the closed streets, lack of parking, and distracted crowds. Some businesses may indeed suffer a one-day hit on Market Square Day and other annual events, but I've always thought this is short-sighted, and this year, it's great to see that they were the exception as more businesses reported more cash in their registers than on an average weekend day.

Indeed, after the women's race, we grabbed grub at Gilly's and Popovers and BagelWorks (different strokes for different spokes?), and between the start of the semi-pro mens and the finish of the pro mens race, we ate and drank at the Coat of Arms. This all on a day when we wouldn't have otherwise been downtown. I recall there was resistance to another event that closed downtown when the Crit idea was first floated a few years back; perhaps the naysaying business-owners spoke too soon?

Telluride by the Sea
Then in the evening, we attended the showing of The US vs John Lennon at The Music Hall. It'll be coming to mainstream theaters, but part of the experience was the crowd at the Music Hall. People were hissing (who hisses anymore?!) at G. Gordon Liddy, J. Edgar Hoover, and Richard Nixon and singing along (pretty well, thanks to good acoustics) to "Give Peace a Chance." You might say it was WILD, man.


The documentary itself, from a film-making perspective, was excellent. But I was blown away by the content, i.e., what it was like in the late 60s and early 70s. My first and overarching reaction was -- with the FBI involved in illegal wiretapping; the administration stubbornly remaining embroilled in an unpopular, pointless, and unwinnable war, and the encumbent president winning re-election despite his questionable character and performance in office -- ummm, what year IS this anyway?! The more things change, the more they stay the same, apparently.