[All characters and events in this posting --even those based on real people-- are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated ... poorly. The following post contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone. Particularly Canadians with funny hats.]
Enthusiasm is back. In spades! The last several years I've noticed a lag in industry morale at shows for all the obvious reasons. But, last week in L.A., it was rather remarkable. Fresh enthusiasm and ideas. High hopes based on real new data coming in. Could the worst of this great recession be past and those in our community are feeling a bit renewed? You betcha! I did more new business of substance at this show than all of the ones in the past 2 years combined, and heard much the same from most everyone I spoke with.
Credit where credit is due, Alec and Mo pulled a really big bunny out of their hat on this one. The venue was fabulous and perfect for the occasion, the seminars and demos were well balanced and relevant and the awards show was Tres chic. Good job guys. You just brought the bar back up to where it should be for these events.
And then, today was like a Courier and Ives Christmas card when I read the industry news! In one corner of a new but different tube litigation sits Allison Vivas at Pink Visual. Our industry's girl next door! Mainstream's media darling! Conan O'Brian's future boss! The essence of business acumine combined with a wholesome 100% American Girl gleam in her eye (and a group of Pink Visual's Viacom-seasoned attorneys riding shotgun with real shotguns). In the opposing corner, at the sharp end of Pink Visual's sword of Damocles at their nefarious throats, some foreign filthy rich tube-spewing Canadians with vaguely middle eastern sounding names (certainly not American!) with a big bank account (now seized) in Georgia of all places. Georgia? WTF? Isn't there a large pilot training school in Fulton County? Hmmmm..... Shades of "you know what" may come to mind for any NYC Federal judge that has lived there for the past, say, 9 years. Need a refresher course on how easy this goes? Watch "Canadian Bacon" 90's flic. It says it all as how easy it is for Americans to vilify the upstairs neighbors for quick government change at home.
If this was reality TV, you KNOW who is getting thrown off the island at the end of Episode I in our current xenophobic good old America. This one promises to be a real turkey shoot.
Gassing up the Buick now to drive the wife and dogs down to NYC to watch this blood letting in person, which, if goes as it might, will set a new industry standard for the very existence, or at least crippling legal requirements, for Tubes. As the kids are now saying when choosing a fight, "pick your hill". I suspect that Pink Visual has chosen their hill wisely. Go get 'em!
Colin at Wasteland.com
