Everyone goes to Art Basel to see the art. I go to Art Basel to look at the people. There is a reason why Art Basel is in Miami. The people who live or visit Miami are very creative. It’s always a show.
I found this couple outside the tents of Art Miami and Red Dot. The two were total showstoppers.
The tents
I took Jerry Powers by surprise. He is the founder of Ocean Drive magazine.
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I can still remember the voice mail I received from my father 36 years ago. He was terminally ill at the time and I remember thinking that I wanted to keep that audio message forever.
I’m not sure what happened, but I don’t have that voice mail today. I would do anything to hear that particular message again. I knew at the time that would be one of his last messages to me.
There have been countless times that I would have wanted to save certain voicemails. The only way I knew how to do that was to tape the voice mail message on a separate machine. That was fine for the time, but I can’t find the cassettes I used. I really needed something more formal and secure.
Enter Voicemails Forever. The safekeeping process includes one hour of voicemail recording time for just $19.99. You can access your private account anytime by simply dialing in.
In a company press release, David Poloner, founder of Voicemails Forever, claims that “People can now breathe a sigh of relief when existing voice messages (both personal and business) are set free and saved forever, especially before upgrading to a new phone or switching carriers.”
Voicemails Forever protects and stores messages as MP3 files on a secure site. They also can be saved to your computer, tablet, or mobile device for repeated playing.
This is what I call, “Technology for technology.”
I think I finally found a cure for losing my iPhone. A company named Bandolier makes a fashion accessory that is actually a super mini case to hold my iPhone. It’s perfect for me.
My iPhone will now be housed in a snazzy case with a shoulder strap that I will carry around my neck. Goodbye to the days when I just put my iPhone in my handbag, on a restaurant table, or my dresser. I tend to forget where I last placed it. Then I spend a few minutes, in full panic attack mode, frantically looking for it.
I want to avoid those awful moments of thinking that I lost the device that houses all of my information. It’s a terrible, hopeless feeling. Most of the time, my iPhone is in my handbag. It just a big black hole to me.
The new line of shoulder cases also feature two slots to accommodate credit cards and driver’s license. Check out the website. The cases are reasonably priced.
I have stayed at the best hotels in the world, and some of the worst. I think I have seen it all, At least I thought I did until I walked in to our guest room at the Mondrian Hotel, in West Hollywood, earlier today.
There was an object in the room that looked like a mirror but doubled as a TV, It is totally bizarre but I love it, Eliot thinks it’s stupid, He would rather have a larger flat screen TV.
The TV inside the mirror is a Sony 42-inch unit, It took us a while to figure out how the TV got inside the mirror. We discovered that it was the brainchild of Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, the interior designer responsible for the new look at the hotel. It was very clever to take an ordinary TV and turn it into an art piece.
I guess you have to be a lover of contemporary installations to appreciate it, At the very least, it shows great energy and positive thinking.
I have senior friends who are always tired. They walk around yawning and have big dark circles under their eyes. They are a mystery to me. They sleep eight hours a night and they still look like they are ready to nod out.
I think they may be bored. They left fast-paced jobs, spent most of their life multi-tasking, and had rigorous and challenging schedules. Now that they are retired, they have lost all of their energy. I call it post-work blues. It may mean that when you are finally done with a career, or a project for that matter, your body and mind relaxes to a point that exhaustion sets in.
There is an app called Sleep Better, from Runtastic, that claims to help folks achieve a good night’s rest. It simply analyzes sleep. It tracks sleep duration, cycles and efficiency. All you have to do is put your smartphone next to your bed just before you fall asleep. It relies on your phone’s sensors to determine how much you toss and turn.
You can use the app for free or pay $1.99 for more features. One of the bonuses is that it can determine which moon phase gives you the best rest. Laugh all you want. It works.
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Dedicated to my long-time friend, Jennifer Zorek-Pressman, who introduced me to the Bluesmart carry-on suitcase that you can control with an app. You can lock and unlock it, weigh it, track its location, be notified if you are leaving it behind and find out more about your travel habits. You can also charge your phone six times over with a built-in battery.
Thank you Jennifer, this is a real find. It’s a little pricey at $235, but it really does a lot. The Bluesmart carry-on is currently raising money on Indiegogo for development. I will be one of the first to buy this luggage.
Click here if you want a shortcut to see the Indiegogo campaign.
Admit it, every once in a while you want to make a phony phone call. I get the urge every time I see an injustice. I recently wanted to call my neighbor in New York and pretend to be a member of the police force.
“Is it true that you just walked your dog and didn’t pick up after him? We just got a call from someone who saw you on the street. You have exactly five minutes to clean up the mess you left, or you will be arrested.”
i would make that call but I don’t want my phone number traced. I loved when we had phone booths so we could make anonymous calls if we had to. Tonight a friend told me about something called the Burner App, a service that provides multiple disposable numbers. Re/code, a tech site, recently profiled the app as well.
Burner is an app that lets people get one or more temporary numbers. The app is free, but you pay for multiple burner phone numbers. It must be very popular because the app ranks big time in the Apple Store. Word has it that you’ll also be able send video and text messages through the Burner app as well.
Now that you know about this app, I bet you come up with many different reasons to try it. Life gets more interesting.
Image: Tech.com
I don’t know why this happened, but I have seen more companies implode due to situations that really have nothing to do with their business model. In the last few days, Uber has found itself in a situation that could literally close the company down.
I will try to detail what has happened but I have also included links to other stories that may tell the story better. See Business Insider.
Like many other companies, Uber has received its share of criticism as the service grew and became available in 45 countries and more than 200 cities worldwide. It is now valued at $18.2 billion.
Most companies grin and bear critiques from journalists, but apparently Uber wanted to fight back. At a recent industry event that included journalists, one of Uber’s senior executives admitted that the company was gathering information to discredit certain writers.
Uber has also been under fire by Sarah Lacy, of PandoDaily, for outrageous sexism woven deeply into the culture of the company. “We’ve seen it in the company’s PR team discrediting female passengers who accuse drivers of attacking them by whispering that they were ‘drunk’ or ‘dressed’ provocatively.”
Lacy and a host of other tech writers are calling for the resignation of CEO Travis Kalanick who has been quoted calling his company “boober” because of all the tail he gets since running it.”
I’m in the thick of things when it comes to social media. I handle a lot of the content that gets posted for clients. Yet it took me by surprise when a music agent recently told me that young artists are just not taken seriously if they don’t have a big following on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. That means record companies, movie studios and casting agents are more concerned about how popular an individual is, than the talent he or she possesses.
Unlike when we were in the prime of our careers, most young adults are expected to have a fan club if they want to get ahead in life. It doesn’t matter what business they are in. Handlers and/or superiors want to know that, if needed, the talent or employee, can send out a tweet and engage personal support.
In our day, we were judged for our capabilities. We would focus on improving our skills. Today, people in the workforce have to worry about improving their talent as well as building a loyal following. I can’t even imagine the pressure for anyone in the job market who needs to prove he or she has the power and impact.
A recruiter friend also told me that those who have a sizable fan club on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, should immediately list it on top of their resumes. Where, once we would describe our “experience,” the show offs post their high ranking numbers. They are immediately perceived as industry personalities.
I know it’s difficult for people of our age to believe that this is the way business is done today. It may be sad, but it’s true.
For years now I have wanted to learn how to make a collage. My cousin Hanna tried teaching me. I got the hang of it, but I still need a qualified instructor leading the way.
I really love living in the virtual world. I don’t feel like racing out to some institution to work on an arts and crafts project. I want to do it in the comfort of my home. When I explained this to an art aficionado the other night, she quickly told me about Craftsy.
Gal to the left, Jayda Knight, told me about Craftsy.
Crafty’s website says
“Our hundreds of classes in quilting, sewing, knitting, cake decorating, art, photography, cooking and many more categories, bring the world’s best instructors to you. Learn at your pace with easy-to-follow HD video lessons you can access on your computer and mobile device anytime, anytime, anywhere, forever. You can even bookmark your favorite techniques to return to as often as you’d like with just a click. Plus, ask your expert instructor questions for all the personalized guidance you need to succeed!”
Craftsy is located in Denver. Entrepreneur magazine just announced a fourth funding round of $50 million for Craftsy bringing the company’s total to $106 million. Five hundred additional courses will reportedly be added next year.
The company is four years old. Craftsy has 5 million (predominately female) users from 180 countries, generating $12 million in revenue in 2012 and $24 million in 2013.
The most important part of Craftsy is that it provides continuous hours of fun.
DigiDame 