MediaPost ran a column I wrote for them today titled "The New Standard In Advertising In A Social Media World". You can check it out here. It's nice to see some of my tuition at Medill going to good use.
Earlier today I announced my latest venture, Buddy Media. You can check out my post on the subject here.
Here is some early coverage of the announcement:
TechCrunch, Howard Lindzon, PaidContent, Mashable, Jason Murphy Show.
One of the benefits of owning your own restaurant is that you can pick what's on the TVs. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that Marc showed the Skins game today on the main projection TV at Hill Country. The DC crew -- plus wives (Kass, Chloe, Kristin), kids (Ava, Myles, Cole, Austin) and parents/grandparents (Epsteins) -- got together to watch the Skins beat the Dolphins.
Hill Country is a great place to watch the game. The BBQ is awesome, as you all know already. There are TVs everywhere (upstairs and downstairs bar and downstairs stage). And Marc makes BBQ wings in the smokers that are out of this world. The ones with sauce are great. The plain ones are even better.
I plan to spend many Sundays and Monday nights there this NFL season. Please join me.
Today is our last day in Turks and Caicos. It's been a great 2 weeks. We've spent awesome and extended time together as a family. And I've been able to recharge, blow off the stink and relax personally.
Most days we grilled out at the house for lunch. Today we decided to go out, and we hit our local lunch favorite, the Tiki Hut. The restaurant is an open-air dive in the Turtle Cove area of the island. Turtle Cove is home to several inns and restaurants (including Shark Bite and Baci, the local italian joint). It's also home to the Players Club, the only casino on the island.
Speaking of the casino, I played poker 3 times. Most of the games at the Players Club are electronic (video poker, slots, video black jack). The owner told me last night that they're adding live table games in the next month -- black jack and craps to start. Right now, there are 3 live-action poker tables (2 were going each night). I won a tournament the first night and ended up winning the other nights I was there.
Most of the players are local to the island -- a combination of restaurant owners (Smokey from Smokeys, being the king of the room), real estate developers, charter boat operaters and day workers. The community in the room is tight -- all the locals know everyone else and by the end of my third night there I knew many of the players as well. The residents were extremely nice and welcoming and were a ton of fun to play with.
The casino takes care of their patrons. They order food each night for players, drinks are free, dealers are friendly, they have full-time security and they have a van to take you home if you need a ride. If you play poker and are in Turks and Caicos, definitely hit the room.
The most interesting person I met was the owner, Rhynie Campbell. 
Rhynie is a big teddy bear (I got 2 hugs from him after winning 2 monster pots). But he's an aggressive, smart and knowledgeable player. He plays professionally part-time. I sat next to him all night. He was nice enough to donate his last $700 to me when he went all in with a pair of 4s and I caught a queen to pair my A-Q. His luck wasn't running last night. But he's a winning player for sure.
Rhynie just cut a 5-year deal to host the World Poker Tour in Turks and Caicos (his casino is too small so they've taken over Club Med for a week in September). I don't know the details of the deal. But it's a great one for the casino and the island of Turks and Caicos. Most New Yorkers haven't heard of the island, even though it's a 2.5 hour direct flight from JFK. So the event, when aired, should put the island and the casino on the map. Rhynie also cut a management deal for the casino with a top management company. So I expect the already great poker room to get better.
Here is a video I took from the Hut. I've enjoyed posting the videos and know that we'll look back fondly in the years to come on these posts. See you in NYC.
Video Narrative: An Evening in Turks and Caicos
I took these videos last evening. I don’t have my Mac (and video editing software) here, so the best I could do was put together this video narrative. Watch, read and enjoy!
We have a grill here. So I’ve been doing most of the cooking. After chicken fajitas, a dance competition broke out. So you think you can dance?
Myles clearly won the indoor competition. Would he extend his lead in the beach portion or would he break down under the pressure of competitive dance?
The judges scored the first round 36 for Myles, 32 for Kass and 21 for Cole. So Kass decided to pull out all stops and showcase her secret moves.
Exasperated, despondent and danced out, Cole gives up and decides to go swimming.
They then play in the sand.
And Myles takes a break to take care of business.
And finally, it’s time for a bath before bed.
This one is an extra from the DVD version.
A few random items to get off my chest from Turks and Caicos:
Saturday came and went. And so did my fantasy football draft. The godfathers were in Cleveland. Matty, Pickles, Santo and I called in. It was my first draft from the beach. Here's my team for the 2007 Cleveland Rocks fantasy football league:
T Romo  |
A | QB |
| R Bush |
A | RB |
| W McGahee | A | RB |
M Clayton   |
A | WR |
| T Owens |
A | WR |
| J Shockey |
A | TE |
| R Gould | A | K |
D Ravens  |
A | DST |
| A Smith |
RS | QB |
D Rhodes  |
RS | RB |
L White  |
RS | RB |
| R Droughns |
RS | RB |
| C Johnson |
RS | WR |
| T Williamson | RS | WR |
In unrelated news, my Gonzales prediction came through.
Lastly, big shout out to Steve and Barbara Pyles. They have saved our trip to Turks and Caicos? How, you may ask? In a total random act of kindness, they gave me a brand new iHome2Go a few months ago. They knew I love music. The device lets me play my iPod in water, on the beach, etc. So we've been rocking out all trip to Phish, Kass' workout mix, my Rock The F*** Out mix, the BEPs, Avril (Myles loves Skater Boi but HATES Girlfriend) and more. Thanks again!
So we're back in NYC. We spent the last week in Vail. We had a really relaxing time. Thanks to my amazing wife who knew I needed a break, I got in 4 rounds of golf. The highlight was a 79 on Wednesday. I went birdie-birdie on hole 13 and 14 of the Country Club of the Rockies course. I hit a 6 iron to within a foot on the gorgeous par 3 over the Eagle River! In addition to some golf, we swam with the kids a bunch, Kass and I saw Bourne Ultimatum (loved it) and worked out most days and we ate a ton, which is typical of a Vail trip. The best meal was probably Splendido in Beaver Creek. (Kass, for the record, would not share her chocoloate souffle with me!).
This week we're catching up on work and hanging in the city. It feels great to be back. I walked around the Upper West Side this afternoon and realized that I actually missed the energy of the city even though we loved the clean air and open space of the mountains.
On Saturday we're heading to Turks and Caicos for 2 weeks. We rented a house on the beach. Though I'll need to work to get a new company I'm starting up and running, the plan is to recharge, spend time together as a family and enjoy the beach. We have several visitors while we're there and plan to enjoy the end of summer (hopefully hurricane free!) in the Caribbean.
We have a few days with an empty bedroom. Let me know if you want to join us! Turks and Caicos is great for the soul.
Myles and I took a little adventure yesterday afternoon. The impetus was to pick up contact sheets and negatives of portraits Renny took of Vivian. But as is the case so often, the adventure spun in a whole new direction.
We headed via subway to Duggals at 23rd and 6th. We were walking on 23rd and ran into Dave Linn and his wife, Jen. Dave is a friend from NU. Great guy. (The strange thing here is that I didn't connect with Dave for the first 17 months that I have lived in NYC but just connected via email last week and then ran into him the following weekend. Strange.) Anyway, he was walking to the Madison Square BBQ Festival across the street. I had forgotton about the festival. Hill Country, Marc Glosserman's amazing tribue to Texas BBQ and music, had a booth.
So Myles and I decided to hit the festival after Duggals. We briefly watched a blues band on the main stage and then walked toward the BBQ pits to see if we could find Marc. On our way, Myles noticed this bright red bird that is pictured above. (I walked right by.) He was mesmerized. He tried to touch it but the owner said it might bite. I incidentally told birdman the same about Myles. The birdman didn't believe me as Myles was wearing his favorite Phish tshirt.
Marc was not at the Hill Country stand. He was a few blocks away at the restaurant. So Myles and I walked to the restaurant. We walked in. I told Myles this was Marc's place. His reaction? "Are they going to have video games." Marc and Michael G were there getting ready for night #2 (opening night was a huge success and Kass and I went back Saturday night and it was packed. We hung out with Marc and Kristen, their families and friends. Great band. David Byrne, former head man of Talking Heads, showed up at around 10:30 pm, which was super cool. David runs a great blog that can be found here).
Anyway, this is why I love living in NYC. Spending time with Kass and the kids. Running into friends on the street every day. BBQ. Random bands I have never heard of but rock. Wandering knowing its the adventure that matters and not where we're going. Meeting random people, and birds, with the added danger that they may just bite (or eat) my kids.
Walking home from park with Mama Kass.
Got the new Blackberry Curve today. Love it. RIMM nailed it. This will be a MAJOR consumer hit. This is the first mobile post from the Curve.
Cirque du Solazerow. Coming. Summer 2008.
The great thing about c-sections is head shape of the baby (and seeing your wife's innards on the operating table). No cone head. Just perfect little round noggin. (That's a freckle, not an earing. Once again, freckle, no earing. Not that there's anything wrong with that.) The downside of delivering c-sectually? Oozing blood, sore wife. And remember, happy wife, happy life. Cranky wife, hide the steak knife. C-sectioned wife, no life (for a few weeks, at least). Now, a c-section haiku.
Cut my wife open.
Baby comes out with round head.
Daddy passes out.
These indeed are scary times. Here are the pictures to prove it. And yes, Kass and I actually spent a night on the town wearing these costumes.
The great photo purge of 2006 is complete. I have downloaded all pictures since February 2006 from my digital camera and posted the appropriate ones to the site. New galleries include the following:
Ton of events this past week. Please excuse the smorgasbord post.
Kass and I spent the weekend in New York celebrating our anniversary. Given the rocky history of marriage in today's society in general (and both our families in particular), we're thankful for each year we have together. We also have promised to spend our anniversary day together no matter what day of the week Oct. 23 happens to fall on. The weather was dreary, but the food and fun was plentiful. We spent Friday night with Julie and Sharie. On Saturday night we met up with Marc, Renny, Erica and Kristin.
This past Friday we attended the Harbor School Halloween parade. The kids were really cute. They all made their own costumes (Myles' class made cats). Grammy Sheila, Nan Nan Nancy and Grandma Tina joined Kass, Leslie and me to watch Myles, Anabel and the rest of the kids strut their stuff.
Saturday. 11:30 a.m. The 4th Annual Lazerow Halloween Bash. Kass went overboard once again. The decorations were amazing. The house was filled with spiders large and small, bats, balloons, pumpkins and more. She also made her now famous chili. Amazing. I grilled all beef kosher dogs. Andrew shocked everyone with his costume. Best grandparent costume went to Nan Nan and Pops. Food was so good that John returned for dinner for another chili dog and to watch Northwestern lose to Michigan.
Jennifer Hughes paid us a visit earlier this month. She's amazingly talented. Jennifer is great with the camera and even better with kids. She was once again able to capture both Myles and Cole's personalities (at least those personality traits we find most appealing!). To access the pictures from our shoot, please click here and use the event code "Lazerow". You can purchase any pictures you like directly from the web site. If you ever need a professional photographer for your kids, a wedding, a birthday, whatever, give Jennifer a call. She's phenomenal.
Of the many perks that come with being married to Kass, being the recipient of the most incredible events is pretty high up there. Kass threw an amazing brunch for me Sunday, complete with omlette bar, mimosas, lox, bagels, waffles and more. The kids had a great time. Everyone left fat and happy. Yum. Thanks Kass for a great party! I am the luckiest man in the world. Full gallery can be found here.
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