Irresistable

Tonight's Grammy award show featured a slew of rap and R&B artists from Atlanta. Ludacris, Pharell, T.I. were all nominated. My favorite Atlanta artists, Gnarls Barkley, were also present. Dressed up like flight attendents they performed a hilarious verison of Crazy. This was almost as colorful than Outkast's Hey Ya, another Atlanta act from a previous year.

Heineken was sponsoring the award show. Even they had jumped on the Atlanta bandwagon by making a commercial with Lil' John and super producer Jermaine Dupri. I could not find it on the web. However, I did find the Heineken Light ad featuring Snoop Dogg. From New York.

Anna Nicole Smith

This is probably the first picture I ever saw of Anna Nicole Smith. In 1993, her photo appeared on H&M billboard ads in bus stops all over Amsterdam. Not for very long. People were breaking the backlit ad frames and ripped the posters out. I wished I had one.

Yesterday, she died. The news networks went bezerk. Her red carpet scenes kept looping across the tv screens. I picked up the news in our Dallas office. The local tv stations in Dallas sent crews 85 miles south to Mexia, TX, where Anna Nicole grew up to ask the locals about their feelings.

If they had stopped me, I would have asked them to show one of those 1993 H&M ads from Amsterdam.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force is da bomb

A marketing campaign by Cartoon Network caused a lot of commotion this week. During the last two or three weeks, the TV network placed magnetic lights showing cartoon characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco and Philadelphia. This photo by Todd Vanderlin shows an electronic device hanging beneath an overpass in Boston on Monday.

On Tuesday Bostonians flipped, calling in bomb squads, shutting down the "T", closing roads and basically paralyzing downtown Boston. Soon it became clear that this was nothing but a guerrilla marketing hoax. Boston Mayor, Thomas Minino, was not amused, saying "it is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme." Mike Chertoff of the Department of Homeland Security congratulated Boston with the alert response, while it really had been the other nine cities that had kept their cool.

We'll probably see more of this. In one sweeping and inexpensive maneuver, Aqua Teen Hunger Force jumped to the top of search engines, blogs and received coverage from just about every major media source. Compared to the estimated $2.6 million it will cost for thirty seconds of publicity during Sunday's Super Bowl, this phony bomb scare certainly got a lot more bang for the buck.

Corteo

For the last six weeks, the Cirque du Soleil has set up camp in Atlanta. Their signature blue and yellow grand chapiteau circus tent was built right next to Atlantic Station in midtown.

The show on display was Corteo. It has been touring for two years in North America, and will continue traveling around the world for the next eight years. It's unbelievable how big the Cirque du Soleil has grown. They now have six traveling circuses in America, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia. In addition there are seven permanent circuses: one in Orlando, one in New York and five in Las Vegas. Especially the ones in Las Vegas experiment with different approaches. "Help" is a Beatles-themed circus with re-mastered Dolby 5:1 tunes from the Beatles. Zumanity is an adult-only erotic circus.

In contrast, in Corteo the Cirque is going back to their roots. It is an Italian commedia dell'Arte inspired circus. We all enjoyed the show, the music and the artists.

State of the Union

Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, members of Congress, distinguished citizens and fellow citizens: Every year, by law and by custom, we meet here to consider the state of the union. This year, we gather in this chamber deeply aware of the aging of this administration. It is for this reason, I asked Gregory to lend me his presidential portait made in 2005. It will remind us of the fountains of youth, forever renewing the strength of our country.

May Greg continue to bless the United States of America.

Trader Joe's

The buzz started months before the opening of the first store in Atlanta. Trader Joe's is coming to town. There was a lot of guessing which locations would be picked. It turned out the first store opened not far from where we live.

Trade Joe's is a different kind of grocery store. It is an organic discount store, an alternative Aldi. That's not just a coincidence: Aldi actually owns Trader Joe's. Nearly everything is private label, but unlike Aldi's most Trader Joe's products are organic. The stores are designed in a funky Hawaiian style, price tags are handwritten and feature product information and little drawings. This is all done by local artists.

Trader Joe's has a cult following, unlike any other grocery stores. There are even independent blogs dedicated to Trader Joe's. But Trader Joe's is most famous for Two Buck Chuck: its $2 bottles of wine.

In Volendam

We're in Holland for a vacation. It's the first time in 10 years I am spending Christmas and the new year's celebrations in the Netherlands. This picture is evidence that I am really experiencing Holland like a tourist this time. For the first time, actually.

After having spent Christmas with my mother, we drove to Volendam to experience an overdose of Dutch iconic symbols like wooden shoes, tulips, cheese, and paling pop music. We loved it.