Monday, April 22, 2002


Short piece in the Seattle Times today on Amazon's expansions abroad--specifically, Japan. Not bad reading, and Monica Soto is a good writer, but it shows an interesting bias: Amazon still believes it needs to sell itself as "cool", like Starbucks is in Japan, in order to see wide adoption. If that is true there may be trouble ahead: while convenient and fast, Amazon isn't "cool" in that way because it's a private event: Starbucks gets to be hip and cool over there in Japan because people meet each other at it. Amazon browsing always is and always shall be a solitary activity--that's both a strength and weakness.

Splashy feature appeared today in PAGE SIX of the New York Post on the show. That's a big deal here in NYC...I never read the tabloids here before I arrived, but they are insanely addictive once you live in the city, and PAGE SIX is the accepted central clearing house for all gossip. I won't link to it, as the New York Post doesn't archive things properly and it will just vanish, but basically it's information about some suspicious phone calls the theater bookers have been getting from someone trying to buy out multiple weeks of the show, hoping to ensure no one will see it.

Hmmmmmmm...goes the gossipy thinking... Who could possibly have the money and motivation to do that? Could it be...

I won't speculate--I leave that to others, as I'm too busy getting ready to head to the theater for tonight's performance. If anyone has any leads on who would be doing this, please drop me a line.