The Big Payback

I was listening to James Brown’s Big Pay Back on my IPod on the way back from Bean Town. One ear on my head phones is broke, so I can only get stereo left, which happens to be where most studio engineers mix the lead vocal. This enables me to hear the singer better on most tracks because there is less instrumentation.

In this rap, James Brown is mad because someone stole his girlfriend. I have been listening to this for years and I have just uncovered a classic line that The Godfather mumbles under his breath. Alluding to the payback, JB says “I don’t know Karate but I know Ka-razor”.

A little street justice on Christmas Eve Eve!!

Happy/Merry

From DC To Boston, A Hyper Local Retrospective

Well, this week I laid it all out on the field!!  Fate had me traveling up and down the east coast to our front linesmen of US cities.

Monday was DC, at the famous Willard hotel, to discuss a possible DPO with a former classmate at GW, turned investment banker extraordinaire.  Foggy Bottom bristled with holiday activity as we dined next to White House intellectual property czar, Victoria Espinel (she looked important, so I asked the waiter…).  I’m pretty sure I should have one of those “czar” assignments by the way, it seems like my kind of gig.

Tuesday was in Gotham City for a morning pow wow with Morgans Hotel Group, lunch with Normandy Real Estate Partners concerning said pow wow, and off for an afternoon espresso with celebrity promoters, The Sky Group, to discuss what’s who and why that’s important.  OK, I did sneak over to the Friars Club for a holiday cocktail with “The Dog, Jr”. to discuss a NYC F&B opportunity, but I consider that research and development.

Wednesday was slated for the City of Brotherly Love, but my road to Philly was paved through the city of broken wallets, Atlantic City.   My assignment at it’s Chelsea hotel is a challenge that I take to heart, predominately because of the great people who work there and how unfairly AC is treated in the press.  So, what’s who in AC is controlled by 7, dynamic, Philadelphia influencers and it was my task Wednesday night to appeal to their sense of conquest and finances and join me in my mission to put the Chelsea at the top of everybody’s “have to do list”.  The strategy was to grab the corner table at the Sofitel on 17th, order a classy array of imported cheeses and Blue Point oysters and be a bit of an impresario myself.  As I definitely should have known by this stage in my career, the Influencers were late, as they are supposed to be, and I ended up eating all of the presentation plate with our Assistant GM, Thomas Von Muenster.  We were damn near in a food coma by the time of their arrival!  And, the cheese / oyster binge combo is not one you just shake off!!   I think it worked to our advantage though, because the 1000 yard prison stare I adorned was perceived as intensity with a bit of aloofness, perfect for these guys.  Everyone was on board.

Thursday was a $9 flight from AC International to Logan; believe it, Spirit Air.  As I landed, I was preparing for a budget review with Pyramid Hotel Group on the Bokx 109 Indigo hotel in Newton, MA.  We had just launched our new “Vitadigi” driven web site www.newtonbokx.com that aggregates the current, important, social media platforms and puts them to work marketing the hotel.  I was dealing with seemingly a slight issue because one of the placeholder event promotions on the site: “Fire Pit Follies” was inadvertently subscribed to by a guest that was granted access by mistake prior to launch.  To complicate matters, the guest had “Liked” the promotion on her Facebook page and a bunch of her 300 friends were also going online and signing up- I really hammed up the promotion too, promising an upscale singles party, mingling with exotic winter cocktails and homemade hors devours by the roaring outdoor fire.  The good news was that the site worked exactly as designed.  The bad news was that it was 4 degrees outside, the fire pits had been winterized and were covered, we had no special cocktail or bites menu, and the only single guys on hand were the kitchen staff and they were not going anywhere near the party.  Needless to say, our budget meeting was like an emergency Security Council briefing on North Korea troop movement.  But, as we battled on numbers, our professional operations staff leaped into action.  As we discussed market penetration and top line growth in excess of comp set, our building engineer was piecing the fire pits back together, nearly freezing solid in the process.  As we debated the merits of flow through profitability in Q3, Chef Jarrod was customizing the Fire Pit Follies special, small plates menu.  When we came nose to nose on G&A expense increases, the “Apple Warmer” was being born.  When I finally found out that the guests in attendance where a team of top level female triathletes (at 5’10 I was the runt of the litter- ok, 5″9 and 3/4’s), you could imagine my relief when, by chance, a bunch of BC’s men’s crew swung by to watch the end of  Thursday Night Football.  Sometimes you are on the side of the angels.

I came home Friday to my own hamlet along the Jersey shore and hoped everybody else fared well this week.  I am privileged to be the protagonist in this hyper local retrospective.  Be it Philly, NYC, AC, DC, or the guys from BC, I know its tough out there, stay strong!

JB

Governor Christie May Save The Republic

Before you put this under the “angry white guy” category, my inference here is not political, rather, quite the opposite.  Governor Christie’s friendship with the dynamic Mayor of Newark, Corey Booker, should be heralded as the new “New Deal”.  A political compact, if you will,  to bring the fringes of our country back to the practical center, where it belongs.  At a time where extremism rules the day, everywhere, and one’s personal tenets get expeditiously elevated to war cries , the discourse between competing deity tears at the fabric of our republic, as it truthfully always has.  History though,  has always delivered honest men, and knighted them in the pursuit of justice and pragmatism.  Where are these men now?  My point is right under our nose in the Garden State.  God Bless this pairing…

Check out the link http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/10/20/garden_state_gov_is_gop_rising_star.html

What was I doing at Wharton?

Peering out into the dubious gaze of Wharton’s finest real estate minds, I couldn’t help but think, “what am I doing here?”.  I am not an academic, as evidenced by the grammar in this Nobel piece.  As a matter of fact, my best days at GW were spent at The Exchange on G street, nothing to do with finance I assure you!  Yes, it would be fun to espouse a sense of realism into these young hearts and minds, but what did they do to deserve it?  How did their luck in the cognitive gene lottery get on a crash course trajectory with my fate full of street vernacular?  This was clearly David and Goliath, but as much as I wanted to be the skinny kid with the rock, I felt my arms getting longer.  Should I tell them where I really was last night, trying to source equity for someone else’s nightmare in the darkest bowels of Gotham?  And, was that a reflection on me or this hideous time and place we call “Change”.  If not, what was I really bringing to this mental Zumba class, anyway- how much are these kids paying?  Saltzman suggested that I start with my name; damn you, protocol!  In the end there was applause.  Next week’s class: my theory on theories…

Proposed Ground Zero Mosque Is A Good Hotel Site

Too bad hotel financing is in short supply because I know our brothers and sisters in the hospitality industry would ride in on a white luggage cart and solve this mess at Ground Zero.  I have a different bent on the issue:  I believe government needs to get out of the property rights business and, with this said, the land owner should be able to sell / convert his building to whoever or whatever use he chooses, within the confines of existing zoning, provided a well thought out master plan.  Sure, I’m mad as hell at the possible negative intentions of the developers; a kinder gentler me would like to believe in a place of interfaith healing.  But I want to approve the site for the use, preserving our non Sharia, American freedoms, and allow the due process that is our tradition to give voice to the voting public.  Let the good people of New York decide the final outcome; those developer agreements in Manhattan are a bitch!!  Hey, like I said, it’s a pretty good hotel site.

A Call To Arms On The AC Expressway

The following is an excerpt from a proposal I wrote today to solicit help from one of the countries great civic implementers in the rebirth of Atlantic City. I put it under the banner of Ideation to set the mood of the proposal. Not sure if it was read or not, but I liked it:

“Only music can save Atlantic City. A symphony of intensity need echo through its historic halls, crooned by an army of talented artisans, to harness the movement that is its just due.

xxxx and BEZZONE are the concert that will house the sounds of progress and the time signature that will set the tempo required to make change. Our alliance will write the grand score, as we draw from a half-century of collective experience, to create the overture of deafening success”

Too dramatic? Passion is our torches and pitchforks!

If Steve Wynn is scared…

Loyal blog followers, I am in the hospitality business.  The smartest guy in our business is a gentleman by the name of Steve Wynn.  Although I remain independent in my political views (I vote for the character of the candidate, if you can find any these days…), it is a bit unnerving to hear what Mr. Wynn thinks.  Be careful, this is not a feel good moment!

http://www.infowars.com/steve-wynn-takes-on-washington/

Be strong!!

The Wisper Of A Morristown Talk Show

Ambition fills the halls of the digital Morristown shopping experience known as Washington’s Walk.  The seeds of an orchestrated marketing effort where the “Anchors of the Green” use their weighted influence to help each other and their smaller, less funded retail brethren, have been firmly planted and showing signs of life.  The caretakers of this process cautiously inform you that they are armed and dangerous.  Armed in the sense that they have many tools to hoe this fertile earth, and one of them- is entertainment- mainly-  a talk show.  “I have a lot to say”, I said; to whom we are not exactly sure.  You see, it is dangerous to put oneself out there on an idea that may prove ugly.  So, if you see me walking around Morristown with a camera crew and a microphone, don your flats and get out of Dodge or, put on some lip gloss and wave me down like the Good Humor man in August.  Who knows, you may be my co-host.

The Futilty In Numbers, Unless You’re Talking People

British Petroleum is pumping 50,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico for about 3 months now, roughly 4.5 million gallons (that’s a lot of trips to Morristown) and let’s be honest, the ocean doesn’t even notice.  Clearly, the worst man made oil catastrophe of all time, and I’m swimming off the coast in Atlantic City thinking, this is the cleanest this water has looked in years.  There is futility in numbers.  Frankly, I’m more concerned about BP’s relationship with Libya over the release of the Lockerbie bomber for drilling rights.  Don’t get me wrong, my heart goes out to the families affected by this tragedy, but I know that the American sentiment will force a full economic reimbursement to these good people, and, from the pressure in this geiser, it looks like BP will have plenty of dollars to repatriate.  Heck, gas prices might even plummet.

I relate this to our Vitadigi efforts where we are driving consumers to real estate in places like the Morristown Green, Rittenhouse Square, Boston Commons, Newark and Atlantic City.  Here, a drop in the bucket of excitement can create a tipping point of interest and the few right people can create a maelstrom buzz and drive real business.  Here, numbers are not futile, they’re achievable.

Give Me Liberty And A Little Van Morrison

It was Patrick Henry that called for Liberty about a year before the ratification of the Declaration of Independence, known  thereafter as THE US national holiday.  And, there are few gigs that the band and I take more seriously (Sharp’s charity events excluded).  Every year, roughly 5000 neighbors converge on the now outdated Freehold Raceway, to eat hot dogs, drink Budweiser and listen to our band prior to a rather impressive fireworks display, courtesy of the town’s influencers.  What an honor to interact with New Jersey faithful on such a patriotic day.

Happy Independence Day!!