Category Archives: digital

Patterson Interrupted

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The woman who captured all the attention

I almost didn’t write this blog post because it really has nothing to do with the digital world. I circled back to this life-lesson incident because our Internet went down and I didn’t have access to the web for research. Maybe this is a sign that the story should be told.

Picture this: A loud-mouthed, self-absorbed fan, constantly interrupting one of the most popular authors in the world during his meet and greet presentation yesterday at Murder on the Beach Bookstore in Delray Beach, Florida.

As I described yesterday, the bookstore was packed. Most loyal fans showed up an hour before James Patterson, author of 260 million books purchased worldwide, gave his talk. Everyone wanted good seats. The rest of the fans squeezed into the aisles like it was the last train home. The air conditioner was at max, but you could already feel the heat rising.

Right on time, Patterson appeared in front of the mic. Before he got a few words out of his mouth, you heard a commotion in the back of the store with one raspy female voice screeching, “I can’t see Patterson. I can’t see Patterson.” The author stopped talking, waiting for a break in the chaos to start again, but the outbursts continued. He made a few jokes like, “I thought I was the speaker?” Those of us in the front laughed, but the voices in the back got louder and louder.

Finally, Patterson couldn’t take it anymore. He stopped everything. He asked, “What is the problem back there?” No one answered him. You heard moans and groans. All of a sudden, some elderly, heavy set woman, squeezed her way through the crowd, stepping on the toes of others, giving a right and left elbow jab to those standing in the way. She was panting heavily, “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,” as she slowly made her way down the aisle until she reached the front.

Instantly, some other older woman got up to offer her a chair. Without hesitation, “panting woman” took the chair and brought it closer to Patterson while she blocked the view of those who thought they had front row seats.

Patterson tried to start again, but the woman kept kvetching. “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.” At one point I expected her to pass out. Patterson tried to be sympathetic, but it was becoming increasingly clear that this was more about her self-absorption than anything else that was going on in the room.

There was no stopping this woman. She interrupted Patterson for the entire hour. She loudly commented on everything he said. The problem was that she was a loyal fan. She recited excerpts from Patterson’s book, clapped like a two-year-old when Patterson announced his next books, and offered to give him pages to read from the book her son was writing as a New York City cop.

If this were any place other than Delray Beach, this intrusive nudnik would have been removed. If it were New York, she would have been a victim in one of Patterson’s books.

But this was Delray. Patterson was tolerant and the crowd was kind. I was flabbergasted.

Patterson on Patterson

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The author who has sold approximately 260 million copies of his books worldwide says the most important thing you can do for your children or grandchildren is to encourage them to read. Eliot and I met up with James Patterson at Murder on the Beach Mystery Bookstore in Delray Beach, FL last night.

Patterson was launching his latest novel, “Private L.A.” The place was packed with fans, way over capacity. “Do what you have to in order get your kids to read,” he said. “If they read, they won’t see things in black and white. They will be able to open themselves up to new opportunities and concepts. They will be better thinkers and live richer lives.”

Patterson has several special initiatives in motion that encourage children of all ages to read. The programs are so strong that he believes he actually saves lives. “We have seen the difference from before and after. Remarkable. The time I devote to the programs is both exhilarating and rewarding.”

Patterson admitted he doesn’t spend a lot of time using digital products. All his books are written by hand. He still likes the feel of a book. There is something magical about visiting a bookstore. He doesn’t want young people to miss out on this adventure.

Patterson said he spoke to Jeff Bezos of Amazon about the absence of bookstores and the impact it will have on future generations. Bezos’s response was interesting. “We’re working on it.”

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Out of My Comfort Zone

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My goal date is June 6, 2014. On that day, I plan to prance into the dress rehearsal dinner for the wedding of my friend’s son wearing a wrap dress by Diane von Furstenberg. For the last 40 years, I have watched one gorgeous gal after another wear that dress with pride, confidence, and moxie. I want that to be me too.

Newsweek 1976

Newsweek 1976

Most recently, actress Amy Adams, wore an original Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress in the movie “American Hustle.” It was the same green and white wrap dress that von Furstenberg wore on the cover of Newsweek in 1976.

Today von Furstenberg is celebrating her 40th year of being a touted fashion designer. This is my 47th year working. What better way for me to celebrate than try to squeeze into a wrap dress?

I want to lose another 10 to 15 pounds in order to give the dress justice. This whole desire came about after I read about the 40th anniversary Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress exhibition at the former May Company department store building on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, now part of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art complex.

I have to say that the online division The New York Times did a fabulous job covering Von Furstenberg’s remarkable career with their use of editorials and a series of videos.

Take a look how newspapers today are using a combination of media to get their point across. I really suggest you read your daily newspapers online. Otherwise, you are missing the full dimension of the way stories are being presented today.

This Will Blow Your Mind

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You have to try this at home yourself. This is not magic. But it’s pretty darn close.

Everyone has been talking about the Cycloramic ever since its founder, Bruno François, appeared on Shark Tank last week. This is going to be one of the most amazing things you have ever seen. A new app is capable of turning a series of photos into a panoramic photo or video. And the phone can even do it by itself using the iPhone’s vibrate feature which has been specially calibrated by the app to spin the device smoothly around on its own steam. You can then view the photo or video on Cycloramic’s 3D viewer.

You have to watch the videos to better understand this amazing feat.

The Sharks loved the Cycloramic. Mark Cuban gave Cycloramic $500,000 at a $3 million valuation. François was only seeking $90,000.

After researching information about the app, I found out that the episode was filmed over the summer. At that time, Cycloramic had 660,000 downloads and cost $.99 on the App Store. Today, it has more than eight million downloads and costs $2.99, although it is currently offered on special at $1.99. François is also developing a rotating base to allow the app to work on non-iPhone devices.

About 100,000 new downloads took place within an hour of Cycloramic’s debut on Shark Tank. The power of television? No, the power of a great product.

Driving Me Crazy

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Every time we get in our car, I remind Eliot that his job is not just to drive but to watch out for others. I guess you can call me a backseat driver. In my estimation, I have good reason to be a nervous wreck when we go out for a drive. Driver distraction has increased dramatically thanks to texting. I have watched more and more cars weave in and out of lanes. It is so unnerving I beg Eliot to be extra careful.

I am all in favor of requiring automakers to equip new vehicles with technology that lets them warn each other which way they are going. That would be such a great relief for me. I spend all my time navigating and directing. Eliot hates it.

A radio beacon can be placed on each car to continually transmit a vehicle’s position, heading, speed, and other information. All automobiles would receive the same information from other vehicles. The car’s computer would alert the driver to an impending collision.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates vehicle-to-vehicle communications could prevent up to 80 percent of accidents.

I’m all for it.

Timing is Everything, What Else is New?

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Yesterday, I told you about the fate of Egreeting cards. Today, I want to shed light on how the now defunct company Excite@Home paid $780 million for a digital greeting card business, bluemountain.com, when they really could have started one on their own for a tenth of the price.

That’s the story of my former client, Susan Polis Schutz, when Excite@Home came prancing by in 1999 and handed her and her family a whopper check for the digital part of their business that was just a few years old.

Susan and her husband Steve Schutz originally started Blue Mountain Arts in 1970 as a greeting card, poster, and gift book publisher. Twenty-five years later, their son Jared suggested they enter the digital world by offering e-cards. At the time, Blue Mountain was generating around $35 million in printed greeting cards. I am sure you have seen or even bought their cards. Susan was the poet who wrote the flowery words and they were designed with lots of pastel colors. Blue Mountain usually had its own display rack and the cards were sold in a wide variety of stores.

Steve Schutz, who had a doctorate in physics from Princeton, and son Jared worked together to build one of the first e-card sites. It was fortunate that they did. The timing was perfect. As I mentioned before, the family sold the digital division of Blue Mountain Arts in 1999 for $780 million. It wasn’t long after that, in 2001, that Excite@Home went bust and American Greetings grabbed up whatever was left for just $35 million in cash.

Today, Susan is a documentary maker, Steve runs an educational website, and Jared Polis is a United States Representative from Colorado and the first openly gay man elected to Congress as a freshman. The Schutz’s have two other adult children besides Jared.

I met Susan in 2004 and helped her promote Blue Mountain: Turning Dreams Into Reality, the story of how her publishing company, Blue Mountain Arts, and electronic greeting card website bluemountain.com were founded and developed. In the book, she describes some of the experiences she and Steve had from the time they silk-screened their first posters and lived in the back of their pickup-truck camper to when their poetry greeting cards became the number-one-selling card line in America.

I can remember sitting across the table from Susan at one of our meetings thinking about all that money in her bank account. It didn’t change her and her family very much. By the time they had gotten that big check, their print business had already bought them everything they desired.

A lot of the new money has been donated to good causes and helping those they love.

Egreetings Folds

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I was sad to learn that Egreetings is going out of business next week. It was announced on Twitter without any explanation. After so many years in existence, just a little tweet announced its demise. I remember some of the first Egreeting cards I received from friends in the late 90s. I thought they were so progressive using digital cards for all occasions.

Egreetings was one of a number of eCard companies who made a fortune during the first Internet gold rush. Big brands wanted to own Internet businesses and were willing to pay astronomical fees for promising companies.

Egreetings took a different route. It went public in 1999, even though it lost $1.5 million on sales of $22 million over a nine-month period. Egreetings was valued at more than $350 million. While folks were cheering at first. they became disillusioned over time. The business went nowhere fast.

In February 2001, American Greetings bought Egreetings for what they thought was a great deal at $28 million. This year American Greetings generated $1.8 billion in sales and a $50 million profit.

Guess what? Most of that money came from paper cards. To learn more about the financial transaction that took place, read what the tech site Re/code had to say about the matter.

Tomorrow, I will tell you about Blue Mountain Arts. They became my client after they got a check for $780 million for their young digital business.

Repeating Email Alerts Out Loud Can Cause Painful Reactions

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Philip Seymour Hoffman

So there I was shopping for one-of-a-kind, clip-on earrings in Pomegranate, an upscale, edgy boutique in La Jolla Village, CA, when I heard my iPhone chirp. That meant I had received an email alert. I usually don’t rush to check news flashes, especially when I am picking out accessories to wear.

Something made me do it this time. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The CNN alert said “Philip Seymour Hoffman Found Dead.” Then without thinking, I repeated what I had read out loud. “No!” yelled a very attractive, silver-haired woman in her late 60s who was just a few feet away from me. “That can’t be. I am friendly with his mother. I just spoke to her. I live right near her in Rochester.”

I felt so awful. My outburst had thrown this woman into a frenzy. I watched her drop the clothes she picked out to buy and reach inside her handbag for her cell. She quickly walked out of the store.

Everything seemed so surreal. I was the reason why someone else was in pain. I didn’t mean it but still felt like I did it on purpose because I wanted to share the horror of what I read.

I think a lot about email alerts because I get so many: CNN, AP, USA Today, Huffington Post, NY Times, WSJ, People, Twitter. I voluntarily sign up for all of them. When something happens in the world, they all go into action. The problem with email alerts is that they get flashed so fast you can barely read them. It is impossible to retrieve an alert because most of the time the site that sent it doesn’t even have it posted. This drives me crazy.

I looked outside of the store for the woman, but she was nowhere in sight. I walked back in to finish up the transaction I had started to purchase three pairs of earrings. There I had been joyfully buying jewelry when something tragic had just occurred. I started to feel very strange.

We just don’t know what is going to happen from one minute to the next. Scary, isn’t it?

Hope This Isn’t My Third Strike

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Something went wrong with my DigiDame email blasts for the last two nights. I am checking to see if I screwed up some setting. Anyway, I hope this works. Do let me know. And be sure to always check http://www.digidame.com if the email connection doesn’t work.

Until I am sure this works, here are some of my favorite digital signs.

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By the way, I miss my mother more and more each day. So much of what she told me has really come true. Rats!

The Death of the Shopping Mall

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If you want to visit a ghost town, take a trip to your local shopping mall. I knew retail was in trouble, but I really didn’t understand the severity of the situation. On a recent trip to Las Vegas, I stopped by the Fashion Show Mall on the strip. It was early Saturday night. This place is usually packed because it combines traditional boutiques plus the gaudy ones that Vegas is so well known for. It was really empty. Maybe I saw 15 people on each level. I thought it was unusual but didn’t focus on it.

Then I learned that approximately 15% of all U.S. malls will fail or be converted into non-retail space within the next 10 years. Green Street Advisors, a real estate and REIT analytics firm, just released that figure. It will probably get worse. Green Street Advisors thought that only 10 per cent of malls would fail less than two years ago.

The report never revealed the reason why shopping malls are doing so poorly, but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. The economy coupled with the increase of people shopping online is killing the mall experience. It had to happen eventually. Rich or poor, Americans are looking for the best online deals. Even my friends over the age of 60, who wouldn’t use a computer a few years ago, now spend hours online looking for the best values

The biggest insult to retailers today is something called “show-rooming.” I am pretty sure I explained this to you before, but it is worth going over again. Today, more and more Americans will visit a store just to see and touch a product they are interested in. Once they’ve decided what they want, they go back to their computers to find the best possible price from a variety of discount e-commerce sites. Retailers hate this with a passion. They threaten manufacturers that if they sell to online discounters, they will not carry their brand. Some retailers insist on custom made models so customers can’t shop around. This is too costly for all sorts of manufacturers, so everyone continues to suffer.

I remember when going to a shopping mall was my big Saturday night out. This was long before the Internet. We would visit the Roosevelt Shopping Mall in Garden City, Long Island with great anticipation for what new stuff we would find. We spent hours there. It was our social life.

There are about 1,000 malls in the U.S. They say the lower-end ones are doing worse. Anchor stores like JCPenney, Macy’s, and Sears have all recently announced closures and layoffs. JCPenney is closing 33 stores, Macy’s is closing five, and Sears is closing its flagship in Chicago. Mall owners are going after movie theaters, restaurants, and discount retailers like TJ Maxx, Ross Stores, and Marshalls to take up the slack. Green Street Advisors think that community colleges, business offices, and health care facilities will take over the vast properties.

No one knows for sure. But if it eliminates all these random shooting sprees, I’m all for the change.