Harsh Musings

I have moved!

2008-09-23T06:15:00.001-07:00

to:
www.harshmusings.tumblr.com

and

www.twitter.com/harshjshah

So you wanna beat the market? (prepost)

2008-03-18T09:03:00.000-07:00

Jim Cramer on Bear Stearns.

the view from KKR New York.

2008-03-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

from fred wilson's flickr.

Does paying teachers $125K plus (25K) bonus make a difference?

2008-03-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

I just caught this article on NYTimes.com. It is the most emailed article at the NYTimes website at the moment.

To summarize it: A new charter school is opening in NYC and is trying to address a question that has always plagued my mind. To give some context to my thoughts on the topic, let me explain.

At UCLA when I ask some of my friends what they are interested in pursuing as a career, they generally respond with a typical white-collar career.
"I'm thinking about law school."
"I've already started studying for the MCATs."
"BCG looks like a pretty sweet gig."

One in every five adds this at the end of their response: "...but teaching is my backup."
When I ask them to elaborate, they sometimes confess to me that teaching is something they have always been interested in, but the compensation won't support the lifestyle they have in mind.

A quote comes to mind. This one is from the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet.
" A few months ago I was talking to another MBA student, a very talented man, about 30 years old from a great school with a great resume. I asked him what he wanted to do for his career, and he replied that he wanted to go into a particular field, but thought he should work for McKinsey for a few years first to add to his resume. To me that's like saving sex for your old age. It makes no sense."

Enter "The Equity Project." TEP is a new charter school system in NYC that is going to pay teachers a $125K Base + potential $25K Bonus salary. The idea behind it is that teaching is what makes the greatest difference in measurable success for schools. It will begin with 480 students that have come from low-income backgrounds. The school will initially rollout with 5th-8th grade. All students will take Latin and Music. TEP has supposedly been overwhelmed with applications to become a teacher at the school. There are very rigorous established guidelines set for applicants. One is 90%+ percentile score on a standardized test like the LSAT or GRE. Finally, the principal starts with a salary of $90K.

TEP is the brainchild of Zeke Vanderhoek. Zeke spent three years with Teach for America after graduating from Yale. To supplement his income he started Manhattan GMAT. The test prep group that pays its instructors $100/HR. Supposedly the highest GMAT instructor pay in the industry.

Maybe my fellow students will think twice the next time the thought of becoming a teacher occurs to them. I'm very excited to see what happens with TEP.

The project has the potential to disrupt the education market, and revolutionize the teaching profession. And it is social entrepreneurs like Zeke that can make it happen.

Time Stops @ Grand Central Station, NYC

2008-02-02T08:40:00.000-08:00

A flash mob of people head to Grand Central to pull off a great stunt.

A PE White Knight for Yahoo?

2008-02-01T17:42:00.000-08:00

It seems pretty doubtful that PE firms would consider a buyout in this debt market. As the Prez of THLee said "In 2009 I will tell my LPs that we did no deals last year, and they will applaud."

MSFT has very deep pockets.

----------------
Now playing: Antonio Carlos Jobim - Amor Em Paz
via FoxyTunes

The $44.6 BN Elephant in the room.

2008-02-01T16:42:00.001-08:00

MSFT/YHOO

Deal should go through. Neither can afford not to do it.
Does it matter? Is Google already too dominant?
What will the new name be?
Where will the new synergies come from?

2008-02-01T16:38:00.000-08:00

Obama 2008. Feb 5th. Let's do this.

2007-12-12T17:08:00.000-08:00

In a previous what's hot/what's not post, I mentioned Merlot on the "what's not" list.

I was wrong. Saint Emilion, in Bordeaux had a fantastic 2005. Grab the vintage from the region while you can.

I'll explain more about this when I get back from my Central America-20-day-backpacking-trip.

2007-12-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite commercials from this year.

2007-12-12T06:08:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling a little bit old school/nostalgic/hiphoppy 5 hours before I take my 2nd of 3 finals this quarter...

update

2007-12-01T11:02:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know I am bad at updating.

Some topics that I will cover after I get back from Winter Break:

wine

the globalization of wine
old world wine versus new world wine
wine consultant Michael Rolland.

turning 21

my birthday
the drinking law

travels.

thoughts on guatemala + belize

In the mean time please enjoy a band that I am digging heavily "Sea Wolf."

SeeqPod Music beta - Playable Search

cheers
harsh

Scrambling for a Halloween costume?

2007-10-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

credit: www.techcrunch.com

what's hot / what's not

2007-10-28T17:56:00.000-07:00

what's hot:

The new Dali exhibition at LACMA. Who wants to go to Live Jazz Fridays?
The 3.99 Store in Westwood. (On Westwood Blvd)
Pinot Noir.

what's not:

Karl Dorrell - UCLA Football Coach.
The unbearable heat in SoCal this week.
Merlot.

wishes and Facebook.

2007-10-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

I wish the washer and dryer in my complex took debit cards.

______________________________________________________

The Economist has a relatively critical article on Facebook this week.

"But unlike other networks, social networks lose value once they go beyond a certain size. “The value of a social network is defined not only by who's on it, but by who's excluded,” says Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley forecaster. Despite their name, therefore, they do not benefit from the network effect. Already, social networks such as “aSmallWorld”, an exclusive site for the rich and famous, are proliferating. Such networks recognise that people want to hobnob with a chosen few, not to be spammed by random friend-requests.

This suggests that the future of social networking will not be one big social graph but instead myriad small communities on the internet to replicate the millions that exist offline. No single company, therefore, can capture the social graph. Ning, a fast-growing company with offices directly across the street from Facebook in Palo Alto, is built around this idea. It lets users build their own social networks for each circle of friends."

Food for thought.

wow.

2007-10-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

I caught this in the Journal earlier this summer. A conversation with my roommate reminded of me of this article, and I decided that I had to share it with ya'll.

_________________________

Is This Man Cheating on His Wife?

Alexandra Alter on the toll one man's virtual marriage is taking on his real one and what researchers are discovering about the surprising power of synthetic identity.

By ALEXANDRA ALTER
August 10, 2007; Page W1

On a scorching July afternoon, as the temperature creeps toward 118 degrees in a quiet suburb east of Phoenix, Ric Hoogestraat sits at his computer with the blinds drawn, smoking a cigarette. While his wife, Sue, watches television in the living room, Mr. Hoogestraat chats online with what appears on the screen to be a tall, slim redhead.

He's never met the woman outside of the computer world of Second Life, a well-chronicled digital fantasyland with more than eight million registered "residents" who get jobs, attend concerts and date other users. He's never so much as spoken to her on the telephone. But their relationship has taken on curiously real dimensions. They own two dogs, pay a mortgage together and spend hours shopping at the mall and taking long motorcycle rides. This May, when Mr. Hoogestraat, 53, needed real-life surgery, the redhead cheered him up with a private island that cost her $120,000 in the virtual world's currency, or about $480 in real-world dollars. Their bond is so strong that three months ago, Mr. Hoogestraat asked Janet Spielman, the 38-year-old Canadian woman who controls the redhead, to become his virtual wife.

Ric Hoogestraat's avatar, Dutch Hoorenbeek

The woman he's legally wed to is not amused. "It's really devastating," says Sue Hoogestraat, 58, an export agent for a shipping company, who has been married to Mr. Hoogestraat for seven months. "You try to talk to someone or bring them a drink, and they'll be having sex with a cartoon."

[CONTINUES HERE: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118670164592393622.html]

hectic oakland music

2007-10-16T19:58:00.001-07:00

enjoy.

back back back

2007-10-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

I got back from my backpacking trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji and was expected to hit the ground running with school. More on the trip later.

First things first. Someone needs to give Ryan Gosling his second Oscar nomination for Lars and the Real Girl. His performance was characterized by understated, subtle genius. This was better than his Half-Nelson performance. Go watch it.

Second. I am very excited for Radiohead's new album - In Rainbows. I am also very interested in seeing how the band's "Pay-as-much-as-you-want-to" works out.

Third. If you love Wes Anderson, then go watch Darjeeling Limited. You won't be disappointed.

Time to short the S&P?

2007-08-23T00:03:00.000-07:00

last weekend in three pictures

2007-08-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

Ever feel like you're not doing enough?

2007-08-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

Senator Bill Bradley's bio blurb:

Senator William W. Bradley is a Managing Director of Allen & Company LLC. From 2001-2004, he acted as chief outside advisor to McKinsey & Company’s nonprofit practice. He was a Senior Advisor and Vice Chairman of the International Council of JP Morgan & Co., Inc. from 1997-1999. During that time, he also worked as an essayist for CBS evening news, a visiting professor at Stanford University, Notre Dame University and the University of Maryland. Senator Bradley served in the U.S. Senate from 1979 – 1997 representing the state of New Jersey. In 2000, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Prior to serving in the Senate, he was an Olympic gold medalist in 1964 and a professional basketball player with the New York Knicks from 1967 – 1977 during which time they won 2 NBA championships. Senator Bradley holds a BA degree in American History from Princeton University and an MA degree from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He has authored six books on American politics, culture and economy, including the recently published, “The New American Story”.

Sentence of the week: On Tom Perkins' (of KPCB) Yacht

2007-08-09T07:45:00.000-07:00

"But three towering 192-foot masts - unsupported by the usual fore and aft stays and shrouds on the sides - would scare the Top-Siders off even Columbus or Magellan."

http://www.wired.com/culture/design/magazine/15-07/ff_boat

cheese

2007-08-01T21:56:00.000-07:00

So my blog reader, of course, you are a wine connoisseur. You know the difference between a '97 and a '99 California Cabernet Sauvignon, and what kind of dessert to pairs up well with a iced-up Riesling. But maybe you are just starting to enjoy cheese. For your benefit (and mine - so that I can learn more about cheese) here is the proper way of tasting cheese:

When tasting cheeses, consider these guidelines:

Let the cheese warm to room temperature so that its aromas and flavors are at their maximum levels.
Taste milder cheeses first and progress to the stronger flavored ones, leaving blue cheeses till near the end and tasting "stinky" cheeses last.
Taste each cheese at its center first and then work your way to the outside where the cheese is most aged and stronger in flavor.
Taste the rind/skin last.
Taste starting from the tip of your tongue working towards the back of your mouth. This takes advantage of all of the taste receptors in your mouth and brings the cheese in contact with of all of the sense areas: sweet, salty, acidic, bitter, etc.
Take note of these characteristics when you taste:

texture — smooth, grainy, crunchy, etc.
density/weight — how compact the cheese feels in your mouth.
intensity — how flavorful is the cheese.
acidity — tartness, lemony.
duration/finish — how long each of the characteristics last.
fruit — fresh dairy tones, sweetness.
saltiness.
flavors — earthy, nutty, roasty, toasted, musty, mushroomy, meaty , etc.

Aroma - don't be shy about smelling the cheese just as you would wine.

- Great American Cheese

___________________

I do miss the fresh Dutch Gouda cheese that I frequently bought when I was living/studying abroad in the Netherlands. Trader Joes satisfies me for now.

economist on PE

2007-07-11T01:53:00.001-07:00

The Economist has a very well written article on private equity this week.

starbucks

2007-07-11T01:24:00.000-07:00

A friend and I were chatting about Starbucks while having some coffee. Here's something I tossed together. I used Yahoo for some of the financial info. This is based on Q1 TTM. The latte part is mine and generalizes to use the same NI margin.

$624K per store annually. Is that higher or lower than you would have guessed?

SBUX earns $.29 on a $4 latte. I would have guessed a much higher number.

Here's another way to look at it:

NY Times Op-Ed on Iraq, Fillmore Jazz Festival, chair, Rodin Sculpture Garden, Turkish Morning

2007-07-10T06:38:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, the Times published an op-ed on "The Road Home" (registration required) from Iraq.

Blurb: "It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit."

It is an enjoyable read and skims over the different issues that must be considered in an organized exit strategy.

Bush's approval rating is somewhere in the high 20s. Maybe it might be time for an exit strategy, not because of the lack of popularity of the president, but because it just makes sense.

We are caught in sectarian conflict. To understand more about the sectarian conflict see this Salon.com interview. It's an interview with Evan Kohlmann, an archivist who covers the insurgency.

Here are some snippets.

Every day you look at Iraq through the lens of insurgent videos and Internet postings. What do you see?

A picture of fundamentalism. Shiite fundamentalism clashing with Sunni fundamentalism clashing with American fundamentalism. We have tried imposing things upon Iraq that are totally foreign to it. Now each side is unwilling to acknowledge the right of the other to have a voice in what's going on. It's a disaster.

What drives people to join the insurgency?

I've called up families of fighters and when I ask that question, the response is always the same: Wouldn't you? They are extremely upset about what's going on in Iraq. Some of them have a burning hatred for the U.S. They see the U.S. as imposing its will on their countries. Some of them have a burning desire to be a missionary and martyr for Islam. You have people who have broken out of prison and gone to fight in Iraq. It's now a vacuum sucking in every disaffected voice in the region.

What happened to the U.S. message of democracy?

It totally failed. The idea of Western-style democracy in Iraq doesn't appeal to anyone. It was our own myth. We thought that if we get rid of Saddam Hussein, people would come together and celebrate and democracy would reign throughout the Middle East. The people who thought that up are people who think Iraq is like Texas. Iraq is not Texas. To Iraqis, tribal affiliations, religion and family mean a lot more than saying, "I'm from Iraq." You know we're doing a bad job of communicating our own message when we're losing the propaganda war to people who cut other people's heads off on camera. Think about it: People in one of the most Westernized countries in the Middle East would rather trust al-Qaida than the United States. That's a terrible sign of things to come.

________________________________________________________________

here's a clip from the fillmore jazz festival:

Weatherwise, it was a perfect (slightly windy) day in SF to just sit on the street and chill out with some jazz.
___________________________________________

check out this chair @ the DeYoung museum in SF.

___________________________________________

Rodin's sculpture garden at Stanford rocks.

__________________________________________

a morning view from my hostel in istanbul:

mckinsey on SaaS

2007-07-06T00:36:00.000-07:00

I caught this earlier today.

McKinsey Quarterly on the rise of Software as a Service. (Registration required)

enjoy.

ps. ratatouille is awesome. pixar does it again. go see it. :)

feist, french, SF moma, The Imaginary Invalid, NYC moma, new yorker cartoon contest, iphone

2007-07-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

Feist

Last Tuesday I caught Feist at the Fillmore in San Francisco. The legendary Fillmore is a great venue. I highly recommend catching a show there. The Doors have performed there. Parking is difficult to find around the venue, but it's worth the pain.

Feist gave an amazing performance. With such a sultry/complex/echo-y voice, it was great seeing her live. Her music gives me a warm feeling when I listen to it. Maybe you can identify with it as well? Some of her music is danceable, while some of it is the kind that you must sit down and listen to. Feist's newest album "The Reminder" has received good reviews across the board, and it's one of my favorite for 2007. She even played some new stuff that she's been working on. One of the best parts of seeing artists live is that they play new creations that they've been working on.

Here's a mix of old and new songs from her:

french

I am determined to become conversational in French by the end of the summer (before I take off for Australia). Last week I started Pimsleur's French lessons. Teaching yourself a language is not easy, but Pimsleur definitely makes it easier. Originally I was using the Rosetta Stone program, but I found that it's method of graphically associating the language with text would work well for young children. Instead I turned to Pimsleur which seemed to have rave reviews.
It has certainly lived up to its hype. It is audio only though. Which means that I am quite incapable of writing it, as French is not the easiest phonetic based alphabet to use for a novice.

Je'compain aparle'francais?

It's just so easy to toss on the audio lessons while driving to work.

SF MOMA
I spent some time at the MOMA in San Francisco yesterday. The museum has a good collection.

One of the main features right now covers the sculptures of Matisse. Personally, I enjoy Matisse's paintings more than his sculptures. The museum did have one Rodin along with the Matisse sculptures. Rodin stands as my favorite sculptor.

The exhibition that I enjoyed the most was that of the Hungarian photographer Martin Munkacsi. It celebrates the "dynamism of modern life." If you are in San Francisco and a fan of photography, please do check it out. His shots include pictures from his travels all over the world. There are a series of shots taken on German beaches that are fun to browse through.

Imaginary Invalid

I caught Moliere's Imaginary Invalid yesterday at the American Conservatory Theater last night. The theater has student rush tickets for half-off. We got $50 seats for $25!

The play was very funny, but it had a much greater emphasis on slapstick than Tartuffe. I still enjoyed it.

NYC MOMA

has a cool exhibition going on by Dan Perjovschi, the Romanian artist. The exhibition, called "What happened to us?" features drawings on a wall. Perjovschi uses simple drawings to communicate complex ideas.

You can see some here. It's fascinating!

new yorker cartoon contest

every week the new yorker has a cartoon contest. It gives readers a chance to submit a caption of 25 words or less for a cartoon. They are are generally hilarious with a somewhat dry sense of humor. Here is a recent winner.

Winning Caption:
“Don't tell Noah about the vasectomy.”
David Kempler
Island Park, N.Y.

Too funny.

iphone on conan

oceans 13, google maps, apple, music mix, obama

2007-06-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

oceans 13 - I caught oceans 13 a couple days ago. The film was better than the second, but not better than the first. Although the movie has an all star cast, the quality of the plot is mediocre. The exchanges between Pitt and Clooney are very witty. It's fun watching the team as they work on the caper together, but the movie is easily forgettable.

What bothers me about the plot is that it contains a deus ex machina. The deus ex machina was not as improbable as the d.e.m. in oceans 12, but it still took away from an ending that had the potential to be the last part of a well-scripted screenplay. Deus ex machinas in caper films are utterly unsatisfying.

rating: 3.5/5

google maps - I use Google Maps daily. It's a great web-application that allows me to figure out where the closest Starbucks is, get directions instantly, and figure out what a place looks like before I get there (with Street View).

For some unknown reason I have an affinity for navigation tools/software. I used to have a PDA with a Bluetooth GPS receiver in my car, but after I installed Google Maps on my Blackberry the PDA lost its functionality. When traveling/backpacking, I frequently rely on paper maps, and always wish I had access to Google Maps.

I integrated Google myMaps into my last post. The fact that I can use it to plan out itineraries is groundbreaking for me. Here are some thoughts on features that I wish MyMaps had:

The ability for other Google users that I approve of to tag up my map with notes/comments. When I am traveling to a region that I am not familiar with, I generally consult people that grew up in the region or people with prior travel experience in the area. It would be much easier for me to send a link to this "expert" and allow them to make comments on my planned route.
Distance-measurer when myMapping. When you create your own map on Google Maps, you can draw lines on the maps, but the distance of the length of those lines is not given. This would really help when trying to estimate distances.
The maps should be blogging friendly. It was took some searching around to figure out how to embed the map. I am sure that there are plenty of users of MyMaps that would love to embed a map they have created into their blogs, but lack the ability to know-how.

I think the product has an incredible amount of unrealized potential with the tech-savvy backpacking community. Recently I booked a flight and the reservation system on the airline's website showed the flight's path on a map built using Google Maps. Also, Jet Blue recently announced that they are going to provide in-flight tracking using a Google Maps mash up. Every airline should do something like this! I believe that Google Maps has the ability to increase one's knowledge of geography, and I would love to see how children interact with it.

I'm excited to see what Google does with it.

apple
Steven Jobs is incredibly smart.

Apple is a great company that always seems to nail the UI thing; which as Bijan Sabet points out is something that is not easy.

The company recently sold it's 100 millionth iPod. This means that at an average cost of $200, the iPod has contributed an average of $4 BN in revenue per year for the past 5 years.

It's sales in personal computers seems to be growing but it is still at a flat or slow-growth 3-4% market share.

But I'm not sure I understand what Apple's core business is. Will iPods be trendy forever? And what would happen if visionary Steve Jobs ever left (although it is very unlikely)? I do not feel like the company is self-sustaining without Jobs, unlike the self-sustaining empire that Bill Gates built. There is a lot of buzz about the iPhone, but it is fairly expensive for the average consumer. I think the firm is going to experience an incredible amount of growth over the next 3 - 5 years, but I'm very curious to know where it will be in 20 years.

That being said, I have faith in the innovative genius that is Apple.

music
here are some songs that have been playing on my ipod.

obama

The Economist has a great article on Barack Obama this week.

enjoy

Australia/NZ/Fiji 2007: Itinerary

2007-06-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

I just figured out how to embed Google Maps into the blog. Very exciting!

In September, Ross Miller and I are planning to backpack through Australia/NZ/Fiji for a month. Here is our itinerary so far. We found a cheap flight from LAX to Cairns for $630 and jumped on it! We have not purchased our flight from NZ to LAX, but we found one that stops over in Fiji. Ross and I are currently toying with the idea of staying two nights in Fiji.

movies

2007-06-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

Movies that I'm itching to see:

Eagle vs Shark

Knocked Up

funny + wine

2007-06-01T23:10:00.000-07:00

Funny:
(Stolen from Peter Vu's blog)

Here's a prime example of "Men Are >From Mars, Women Are From Venus"

offered by an English professor from the University of Colorado for an
actual class assignment:

The professor told his class one day: "Today we will experiment with a
new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person
will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right.
As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a
short story. You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send
another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then
add another paragraph to the story and send it back, also sending
another copy to me. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and
so on back-and-forth.

Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep
the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of
the e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the
e-mail. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."

The following was actually turned in by two of his English students:

Rebecca and Gary.

THE STORY: (first paragraph by Rebecca)

At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The
chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home,
now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times,
that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep
her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she
thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So
chamomile was out of the question.

(second paragraph! by Gary)

Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron
now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about
than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with
whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. " A.S. Harris to
Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. " Polar
orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he
could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and
blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent
him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

(Rebecca)

He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt
one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who
had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its
pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4.
"Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel",
Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously
excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her
youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no
newspaper to read, no television to distract her from her sense of
innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose
one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.

(Gary)

Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live.
Thousands of miles above the city, the Anudrian mothership launched
the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dimwitted wimpy
peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty
through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the
hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race.
Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anudrian ships
were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the
entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their
diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere
unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine
headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the
inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid Laurie.

(Rebecca)

This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My
writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.

(Gary)

Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a self-centered tedious neurotic
whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. " Oh,
shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F--KING
TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do? I'm such an air headed bimbo who reads
too many Danielle Steele novels!"

(Rebecca)

As*h@le.

(Gary)

B*tch!

(Rebecca)

F**K YOU - YOU NEANDERTHAL!!

(Gary)

In your dreams, Ho. Go drink some tea.

(TEACHER)

A+ - I really liked this one.

Wine
2. At UCLA I am a member of the Purple Tongue Society. PTS is the wine club at UCLA. We meet biweekly for tastings. At our last tasting we tested out a handful of Zinfandels. The one I enjoyed the most was "7 Deadly Zins."

The Facts:
Wine Type: Zinfandel
Varietals: 100% Zinfandel
Alcohol: 14.8%
Price: $13-15 per bottle
Story: The grapes to make the wine come from 7 growers in Lodi, California (which Wikipedia calls the Zin capital of the world). The growers contribute their best grapes from vines that are 50 years old.

Thoughts:
This was a great full-bodied Zin. You can taste spices and fruits. It also had a reasonable amount of tannin; but relatively less than the other Zins we tasted. It was also considerably quaffable (which means you can drink it by itself, without a meal). The finish was easy. It makes for a nice inexpensive table wine.

Baghdad + Voxtrot

2007-05-30T00:48:00.000-07:00

current affairs

In case you missed the front page of the New York Times, this picturesque picture was on it. It was a bit of a hassle tracking it down online. I finally found it at the AP.org site. The caption reads:

"Seeking Shelter Where He Can Find It
An Iraqi boy hid behind a US soldier yesterday amid gunfire after a car bomb in Central Baghdad killed 24 people."

Let us never forget to pay our respects to the foreign correspondents and photographers that put their lives on the line to capture stories and images to paint a portrait of the harsh realities (no pun intended) of war. For more see: Graham Greene's The Quiet American. Veteran journalists gave the book to virgin foreign correspondents as the neophytes arrived in Vietnam to cover the war.

music

2. On a much higher note I just got back from rocking out to Voxtrot at the El Rey. Today morning I woke up and did a search on Craigslist to find someone selling tickets to the show at $10 a piece. The tickets normally go for $15 + $5 ticketmaster charges. It was a steal for 1o bucks.
The venue is nice, and Voxtrot kicked ass live. I am always pleased when a band's live performance matches the recording I have been listening to. The band has an indie-pop, pseudo-Strokes, pseudo-Beatles feel to it. They recently released their first album, self titled.
Here are three from the band.

next: wine + humor?

Today's thoughts

2007-05-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

sigh.

business

Coca-Cola paying almost 12x revenue for "Energy Brands." Energy Brands is the maker of Vitaminwater. KO payed $4.1 BN for the company, about $1 BN more than what most analysts expected KO to shell out. For the UCLA Advertising and Marketing Team (AdTeam) this year we worked on a campaign for Coke. Our primary research reflected the fact that the company continues to lose market share to noncarbonated beverages. Coke wanted us to come up with a comprehensive marketing and advertising campaign for their "Classic Coke" brand. The marketing report they attached to our campaign objectives basically spelled out their decline in popularity due to brands like Vitaminwater. Andrew Ross Sorkin of NYTimes' Deal Journal reports that Coke's current market share in noncarbonated drinks is 23% versus Pepsi-Co's 50%. This deal fills that void in Coke's product portfolio. Glaceu's founder+CEO claims "triple-digit" growth this year in volume. WSJ touches on the fact that Coke's growth in volume was 3.9% last year. As long as healthy stays sexy, Energy Brands should be a strong addition to Coke's portfolio.

travel
Matt and I were chatting earlier today about heading to Utah for a couple days in January 2008 for the Sundance Film Festival. It's 700 miles each way. It could be fun if we get a couple people together for a mini-roadtrip to catch some indie and foreign flicks. The Festival goes from about January 18th to January 28th. Anyone interested?

current affairs
BBC News reports that Bush is set to make a speech tomorrow morning in regards to toughening sanctions on Sudan. I hope the President carries through here. The US and its partner, Britain, want to take an attempt at "punishing Khartoum over the ongoing violence, singling out President Omar al-Bashir." The two nations want to do it through the UN SC. You can almost hear the veto of China ringing in, before the resolution is even brought forward to the council. China buys over half of Sudan's oil, and supplies Sudan with arms. To see what you can do --> www.savedarfur.org

ps. Vicky points out that the noteworthy word of the day is "bon vivant" - (noun) a person with refined and sociable tastes.

Introduction + Lupe Fiasco + Jill Scott

2007-05-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

Hi. My name is Harsh Shah. I'm a junior at UCLA. I just built this blog for my random musings on film, music, current events, wine, business, technology, and travel.

I just got back from my first day at UCLA's jazz/reggae festival. The festival is split into two days. Today was "Jam Day" and tomorrow is "Reggae Day." Headliners for the day included Lupe Fiasco and Jill Scott. The festival started at 11AM and ended at 7PM. I volunteered and helped to set up the festival from 7AM to 12PM.

Reggae Day's headliner is Luciano.

Lupe Fiasco was phenomenal live. He's not exactly underground, but his rap nevertheless does have a degree of social consciousness to it. His debut album, "Food and Liquor," received some well-deserved praise last year. Fiasco's performance was filled with dynamic energy; the kind of energy that makes you feel alive. It was almost reminiscent of the free fall from my sky dive.

My favorite song from Fiasco's album, "Hurt me Soul" is below.

Jill Scott also gave a great performance. Liz and I both felt that Jill Scott has an amazing voice.