American Cliche | Scott Parent » Scott

iPhone 4 vs. EVO (NSFW)

Scott — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:51:42 +0000

Seriously, how did I miss this? I nearly spit out my coffee. The rebuttal video is just as funny. Unfortunately, Best Buy didn’t think so and they nearly fired the person that created it – even though he never mentions Best Buy anywhere in the video. It’s too bad companies can’t have a sense of humor once in a while. And for the record, I love my iPhone 4.

Update: While Best Buy didn’t share Brian Maupin’s sense of humor, it appears that Paramount Pictures does. Nicely done Brian!

American Cliche #238

Scott — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:58:16 +0000

I had an amazing day this past Saturday. I spent the afternoon at the beach in Santa Barbara with my friend Manny at the California Wine Festival. The ocean was 40 feet away on one side, and the mountains and palm trees were on the other. Besides the amazing weather, there was great wine, food and conversation. Despite going through a rough patch over the last 9 months, it’s days like that where you appreciate the little things in life. I hope you have one of those days soon.

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On the show:

* BP’s “Static Kill” Really a Way to Hide Oil Flow?
* John Punch on Facebook Etiquette
* Andrew Breitbart Plays the Race Card. Badly.
* Maggots Fall From an Overhead Bin on a U.S. Airways Flight

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American Cliche #237

Scott — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:53:08 +0000

I complained last week because of overcast weather here in Santa Barbara, now I’m paying for those remarks. For the last two days it been 90+ degrees at my house. While I recorded the show there was no ventilation, no fan and no air conditioning. You have to shut everything off so you don’t hear fan noise. I feel like a puddle of sweaty nastiness. OK, I admit it, I’d rather have the overcast weather.

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On the show:

* Discovering Bad Astronaut: Houston: We Have A Drinking Problem

* NBA Fines Cleveland Owner $100k for LeBron Remarks
* Republican Caught Plagiarizing
* Lawmakers Look into “Kate Plus 8″ Work Permits

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The Story of the World’s Largest Record Collection

Scott — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:00:14 +0000

I was watching a roundtable interview over at Zacuto.com with the director of this short film, Sean Dunne. I did a quick search on Vimeo and found this piece called “The Archive.” It’s the story of Paul Mawhinney of Pittsburgh, PA and his collection of almost 3 million records. While I was initially drawn to watch it because of my love of vinyl and music, it was the story of Paul’s current despair that really made an impression.

Watch it and let me know what you think.

American Cliche #236

Scott — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:41:20 +0000

Is anyone else stuck in this post Fourth of July hangover like I am? When I started digging into my to-do list this week it felt insurmountable. Did I get lazier over the course of a three-day weekend? Am I alone in this or are you all feeling this too? What do you do to get over a holiday weekend hangover?

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On the show:

* Just Department Files Lawsuit Against Arizona’s Immigration Law
* Lindsay Lohan Salutes the Court with Message on Middle Finger
* Firewalkers Trying to Beat Their Fears Burn Themselves on Hot Coals. Irony?
* Pittsburgh Zoo Offers Discount “Mullet Day”

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Happy Birthday America

Scott — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 16:35:43 +0000

I talk a lot of shit on my radio show – a lot of it at the expense of this country and some of its people. I believe as an American it is our job – our responsibility- to hold our leaders to a high standard. A lot of brave men and women have fought for this country over the last 200 plus years making sacrifices that we can’t even begin to imagine. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t stop to think about it enough throughout the year. So today, let’s take a moment or two from our BBQ’s and fireworks to honor those that gave so much for our independence.

Happy 4th of July America. Now, let’s hear some rock n’ roll Mr. Vai!

American Cliche #235

Scott — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:40:16 +0000

Sometimes you hit a slow news week. I scoured all my usual sources and nothing really grabbed me for this week’s show. BP continues to F’ up the Gulf, it’s politics as usual in Washington and there may or may not have been Russian spies living among us. Instead, let’s talk about library porn, iPhone reception issues and Allstate’s laziness in making a sales call.

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On the show:

* Latest Lifehouse Release “Smoke & Mirrors for $5.00 at Amazon.
* City Council Plans Library Porn Shame List
* Dating Tips
* iPhone 4 Reception Issues
* Allstate’s Sales Laziness

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Stephen Colbert Blasts BP for Fake Journalism

Scott — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:04:43 +0000

Just when you think BP can’t do anymore to screw their own reputation, you hear something like this. Yep, apparently BP has been sending their own “journalists” to “cover” the event in the Gulf. Unbelievable.

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American Cliche #234 – 5 Year Anniversary

Scott — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 20:54:10 +0000

This month I’m celebrating the 5 year anniversary of doing American Cliche. The show has changed a little bit over that time, but at its core it really is the same – a goofy dude talking about news stories that interest him and his personal journey through life. I’m sort of shocked that you have all stuck around so long. Thank you for your support.

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On the show:

* Great NH Band: Soundtrack to Monday
* General McChrystal Screws the Pooch
* USA World Cup Fever
* 40 Human Heads Found By Southwest Airlines Employees
* The Loss of a Listener

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The Future of Publishing: Reverse Our Thinking

Scott — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:00:48 +0000

My friend Jeff sent this link to me this past week and I was blown away. It’s an incredibly clever way to illustrate that sometimes the answers we seek are right in front of us, we just need to adjust, and in some cases reverse, our thought process

Twylah Makes Twitter More Relevant

Scott — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:01:22 +0000

I talk to a lot of non-tech people about Twitter. Most of the time the general consensus is that they don’t get it. Why do they want to read about someone getting coffee or eating a sandwich? Well, I personally do like to read those types of details in a Twitter feed, but I understand that it’s not appealing to everyone. A new Twitter client called Twylah can help cut through that clutter.

Let’s say you follow your favorite baseball player on Twitter and you’d only want to read about his tweets relating to baseball – Twylah will help you do that by sorting a any Twitter profile by most-tweeted keywords. Cool right?

Maybe you want to create a mini-blog out of your Twitter stream – you can do that too. In fact, I can use my Twylah page to mix in blog posts longer than 140 characters with my existing Twitter updates. Register yourself a domain name and point it to your Twylah page and BOOM – you’ve got yourself a blog.

I recently interviewed Twylah founder Eric Kim for Relevantly Speaking. I think you guys will find this interesting.

Corporate Twitter Spam

Scott — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:00:22 +0000

I talk to companies everyday about the way to use a channel like Twitter the right way to engage and market to consumers. There are many clients doing it right including CPK, Zappos, Comcast and Citrix Online.

Then I see spam like this:

In none of my recent tweets have I talked about home ownership or solar panels. So why single me out with an “@” message that tries to sell me solar panels for my home? I often counsel clients on listening tools they can use to make sure they are part of relevant conversations that are happening on Twitter about their industry or their brand. When done correctly and with genuine intent, it can often lead to a sale – or even better – a long term relationship.

In this particular case Mr. Lester Sheets not only wasted his time by blindly Twitter spamming me, he did actual damage to his brand by harassing me in a very public way with an unwanted tweet. First off, even when I am in the market for solar panels this incident ensures I will never buy from him. Second, I immediately unfollowed him therefore severing any chance he had to build a relationship and market to me in the future.

Social media marketing is a lot like a cocktail party. You wouldn’t walk up to a group of people, interrupt their conversation and start handing out business cards, would you? No, instead, you’d walk up, smile and probably listen for a few minutes to hear what the conversation was about. Then, where appropriate, you’d add a comment or share a common experience that adds value to the group. Maybe after 10 or 15 minutes someone might say to you “hey, what is it that you do?” At that point you can elaborate and if they’re in the market for what you’re offering you have a reasonable chance at building a business relationship. That’s because you took the time to listen and add value before you shared details about yourself. It should be the same mindset on Twitter.

That said, I have a question for @SilverJingles: How often has you vomiting into someone else’s Twitter stream actually brought you a customer?

American Cliche #233

Scott — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:53:27 +0000

What do you get when you mashup BP, Joran van der Sloot, John McCain and Snooki powered by a soundtrack of Against Me! and Steelheart? Well, you get this week’s show of course.

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On the show:

* Joran van der Sloot Tries to Recant Confession
* John McCain Tweets Snookie of Jersey Shore. Yep, It’s True
* Obama Labeled as “anti-British” Over BP Criticism

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Rao’s Marinara Sauce – Holy Sh*t!

Scott — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 03:03:39 +0000

Those that know me understand my passion for food. A good meal is one of my favorite things on this Earth. In addition to traveling and dining at some of the most amazing restaurants in the country, I also like to cook for myself at home. Usually I’m a “make-it-from-scratch” kind of guy, but sometimes I take a shortcut or two.

Tonight I made pasta with Rao’s Homeade Marinara Sauce. It was one of the best pasta dishes I’ve had in a long time. Here’s what I did:

First, I pan-fried an Italian sausage until it was brown. Then I cut it into bit-sized pieces and set it aside. Next, I chopped some red bell peppers and onions and sauteed them in the same pan I had cooked the sausage with a bit of olive oil. When they were just about cooked I added some finely sliced garlic and the sausage I cooked earlier. After browning the garlic and cooking the sausage through, I added the Rao’s Marinara Sauce. I simmered it on low heat for about 10 minutes and served it with bucatini pasta.

For those unaware, Rao’s is a legendary Italian restaurant in Harlem. It’s nearly impossible to get a table. Ever. They’ve since opened another location in Las Vegas at Caesar’s Palace that replicates the New York location almost identically. They’ve become such legend among foodies, they’ve started offering jarred sauce at retail outlets across the country.

Rao’s sauce consists of pretty simple ingredients. It contains only Imported tomatos, olive oil, onions, salt, garlic, basil, black pepper and oregano. This is truly one of the cases where the end-result is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

This is an admittedly unusual entry on my blog. Even though I obsess about food daily, I never write about it here. I am not in any way affiliated with Rao’s and I don’t receive any compensation for writing about their sauce, but this meal was so good I felt compelled to share it with you in the hopes that you might try it.

The sauce is available at most major grocery chains – at least here in Santa Barbara. At $7.00 per jar, it’s not cheap, but you could easily feed 4-6 adults on a single jar of sauce – that’s pretty reasonable.

If any of you actually try the sauce, I’d love to know what you think. Am I smoking crack or is it really that good? For those interested, I paired it with a 2007 Estate Pinot Noir from Melville Winery.

American Cliche #232

Scott — Wed, 26 May 2010 18:53:52 +0000

This week we’re contemplating how incompetent BP really is as well as dissecting the finales of Lost and Celebrity Apprentice. Were they satisfying to you?

Here the rest:

* Pac-Man Eats Up Work Time
* Ellen DeGeneres Starts Record Label
* “Life” Feedback from David S.

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Is Social Media a Fad?

Scott — Tue, 25 May 2010 03:57:02 +0000

This is a redux of a video that was put out awhile back. For those of you that are skeptical of social media and it’s impact, take a look.

Will the “Lost” Finale Payoff?

Scott — Sun, 23 May 2010 23:42:45 +0000

The series finale for “Lost” is just a few hours away. Lots of people are treating it like the Superbowl or the Oscars, but will it really have a satisfying payoff? My money is on “no,” but we’ll know soon.

American Cliche #231

Scott — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:05:17 +0000

I had a really good time taping this episode. I’m not sure why – I’m running on 4 hours sleep and I have an overwhelming to-do list. Something just felt good about turning up Slash and Poison and rocking out. I hope you guys dig it.

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On the show:

* Settling Into My New Place
* Crazy Garage Sale People
* Waitress Fired Over Facebook Post
* Naples Pizzarias Using Coffin Wood?
* Death Metal Teacher Fired

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CNN Talks Social Media and iReporting

Scott — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:44:24 +0000

I don’t often mix my two worlds, but I thought this piece I produced for MediaTrust’s Relevantly Speaking video series was pretty awesome. A couple months back in New York I got a chance to interview CNN’s SEO Coordinator, Topher Kohan. For those that don’t know, “SEO” stands for Search Engine Optimization. Topher’s job at CNN is to make sure that search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing can find their news stories and other content accurately when people search for them. In addition to the SEO stuff, we talked about CNN’s fabulously successful iReport program as well as the impact that social media is having on how CNN reports news.

Quicktime Version

“House” Season Finale Shot on Canon 5D

Scott — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:49:20 +0000

Last night was huge step in the democratization of media. The FOX show “House” aired it’s season finale which happened to be shot on the Canon 5D Mark II DSLR camera.

Why is this such big news? Well, that camera retails for under $2700. Normally House is shot on film with cameras and lenses that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Last night’s episode proved that the cost of equipment is no longer a barrier to entry on making broadcast-ready television.

I bought the Canon 5D in December of 2008. I had never owned a DSLR, but had seen the video that people like Vincent LaForet were getting out of these cameras and I had to try it. I ended up selling that camera and getting the Canon 7D about 8 months later. That camera was almost $1000 less and had more functionality at the time than the 5D. Canon has since remedied that with a firmware upgrade. Now there is a new camera called the T2i that costs $800 that has almost all the functionality of the 5D and 7D. That means there is no barrier to entry. For the price of a home video camera, you can now own the proper tools to help you shoot a film or make a television program.

When I started the American Cliche radio show back in June of 2005, I talked often about the democratization of media. The internet has allowed us to each have a voice and be able to tell whatever story we want. Since I started this show AC has been listened to almost 5 and a half million times. I think that’s pretty powerful.

AC’s success proves that we have the power to take the power away from radio, but television and film has been a tougher nut to crack. Shooting an entire episode of House on a sub-$3000 DSLR camera brought us much closer. If you have a great story and the talent to back it up, there are no excuses anymore. Get out there and do it.

SNL Confirms My Theory

Scott — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:20:22 +0000

Last week I posted an update to Facebook and Twitter that read:

“Anyone get the sense that BP is throwing darts at a dartboard of ideas at this point & going “what the hell, let’s try it.”

This weekend SNL confirmed my theory with their cold open.

Bill Maher on Arizona’s Illegal Immigration law

Scott — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:24:26 +0000

I watched this episode of “Real Time With BIll Maher” when it aired and I have been looking for a clip of it online. Bill Maher sums up exactly how I feel about the Arizona Immigration Law. It’s misguided and seems to be picking on those that are most defenseless. Recent polls show that most Americans support this type of law, but I think their anger is aimed at the wrong people.

Making the Most of a Captive Targeted Audience

Scott — Wed, 12 May 2010 23:46:46 +0000

I’m in San Jose today to produce a video production for a Fortune 500 company. They are dipping their toe in the waters of videocasting and I was called to help. It’s a huge opportunity and I’m really excited to be a part of it. I don’t mean to be all mysterio about who it is, but I’m not sure if I’m able to talk about it yet.

Anyhoo, I’m staying at a Larkspur Hotel Property. Apparently they own 23 hotels and 6 restaurants all over California, Washington and Oregon (fun facts I got from their Twitter profile). I was told at check-in that the wi-fi was complimentary using the code that they gave me. I got to my room, signed in and instead of being redirected to the usual corporate site, I was taken to the Larkspur Twitter page.

Nicely played Larkspur Marketing peeps. Instead of doing the obvious and taking me to a page they knew I’d quickly navigate away from (the corporate site), they provided me with an opportunity for engagement. I immediately followed on Twitter. That means that long after my one night stay is over they’ll be able to continue a dialogue with me about their properties.

Would this work at a hotel in Boise? Probably not, but we’re in the heart of Silicon Valley. The hotel that I’m at is crawling with tech people. The odds that many of them use Twitter is pretty strong.

I talk a lot about the things that companies do wrong on this blog, so I occasionally like to point out when I think someone’s done something cool.

Twitter Monday Meltdown

Scott — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:32:52 +0000

It seems that Twitter is having a bit of a problem counting followers and following across many accounts today. As of 10:15 AM PT, I noticed that my account had zero “followers” and “following.” First, I thought it was a glitch in my account, then I checked my many of my friends accounts and they all had zeros as well. Even cyber-celebs @kevinrose and @scobleizer weren’t immune.

As a true sign of the impending apocolypse, even Ashton Kutcher’s account, @aplusk was doomed.

I’m sure Twitter is in the process of resolving this, but Twitter-holics everywhere have got to be squirming in their chairs right now at the thought of, gasp, ZERO followers!

This got me thinking about a larger problem. Should we be putting such a huge amount of our corporate and personal branding in the hands of a third-party? I am absolutely convinced that Twitter is going to be able to restore the temporarily missing data, but what if they couldn’t? Companies now invest hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, in using Twitter as a marketing tool. Individuals spend hours and hours each week (or day) curating their Twitter profile. What if all that time and effort was for nothing? Could it be wiped out overnight? Should it make us think differently about where we build our brand online?

Something to think about for sure.

American Cliche #230

Scott — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:58:25 +0000

After a six week hiatus, I’m back this week with a brand spankin’ new episode of the radio show. Did you miss me? Today I’m talking about some of the major headlines that have been dominating the news in recent weeks as well as some life changes that I’m working through.

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Here’s the breakdown:

* Gulf Oil Spill – is This a Wakeup Call?
* Dissecting the Arizona Immigration Law
* Jeff S. Rocks a Mashup Called “Punking Parent”
* “Teachu Alesson” Comments on “What Would Lloyd Dobler Do?”
* Donations: Linda H., Sean P., Mark N., Jonathan K., Hyung-joon A. and Michael H.

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