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VIDEO: Sledding in NYC - Dec. 2009

Is there anything better?

VIDEO: July 4, 2009 in NYC

I've been a little busy and have fallen behind on my summer videos. Enjoy!

VIDEO: What is it like to take 2 kids to Bonnaroo?

COLUMN: New Standard In Advertising In A Social World

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.

Buddy Media Launches!!!!

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.

Redskins at Hill Country

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.

Video: Tiki Hut (and the Casino)

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

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.

Housecleaning from Turks and Caicos

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!

Back in NYC

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.