File under, "Damn, why didn't I think of this?"

Crazy squirrel Gary Vaynerchuk and his brother AJ have spawned a new t-shirt search engine: PleaseDress.Me. Pretty much a great idea... They still need some work on the product offering and making sure that it meets their target demographc - this is easily fixed with some licensing agreements with some other companies that have their finger on the pulse. Right now, when I search for something like "cat" I get, like, crazy cat lady shirts full of sleeping fluffy kittens and american flags.

Looks like they are trying to do the sales part themselves rather than an affiliate relationship (purchase on manufacturer's site)... They need to hook up with Torso Pants, Threadless, ThinkGeek, Archie MacPhee....

You can find their search box widget on the right side toward the bottom. Everyone needs a widget, right?

I'm a practice player. I'm not very good at that.

Back to ultimate for a change. Geez, I've been remiss. Too much work crap showing up on the blog and not enough actual crap.

Anyway, as my 12 readers know, I was one of the captains for Mucho Gusto last year, and this year I decided to retire from competitive ultimate and focus on other activities... Like not depleting my bank account with plane tickets, not sprinting when it's 107 degrees, not kvetching about things I can't control.

So, new for 2008, is Practice Heather. PH is slow, uncoordinated, and can't do a stupid weave drill right to save her life... But PH also can't seem to stop coaching and telling people what to do. PH senses a knowledge gap (or at least a teaching communication gap), and can't stand to not fill it.

I think these communications are generally well recieved - I focus them on fundamentals and core competencies rather than on strategy and execution of specific offensive and defensive sets the captains have installed. And I try to target the greener members of the crew and their individual "teachable moments." But I am concerned that I will piss off the veterans (more than I already have by retiring) and stick my foot in it by incorrectly correcting someone who actually doesn't need my peanut gallery commentary.

So as a practice player, the biggest thing I need to practice is shutting my mouth.

Ok, WNBA.... You've got the tiger by the tail...

... so what are you going to do about it???

After the big fracas last week between LA and Detroit, the WNBA has enjoyed an unprecedented level of attention from the media and the public. But even more importantly, the fans have become completely dialed in and engaged in the product, writing pages of vexed commentary, posting blog entries right and left (like this one!), and just generally tossing in the moss. So I ask again, what is the WNBA going to do about it? How can they harness all this terrific energy that the fight/flashpoint has generated and turn it into the marketing juggernaut that it should be??

When the incident first occurred, I turned to the girlfriend, and after a few "Are you freakin' kidding me"s, said, "This could be the greatest thing to ever happen for this league." Why? The poster child of women's hoops, Candace Parker, just showed us that she's a human being (and a young one at that), and reflected back to us all the emotions and the drama that sports represents. These ladies are passionate, and they work hard, and if they perceive disrespect, they let you know.

I don't have a problem with it. I have a problem if we think that just because these players are women that means they have some sort of super-human temper controller that makes them impervious to anger. Just 'cause they're ladies, doesn't mean they aren't players. Speaking from experience, it is nearly impossible not to react to physical contact that is perceived as extra-curricular to the game. I have been there many times - not in a fight - but I have reacted very angrily to hard fouls... I completely understand where both CP and Plenette were coming from.

Back to the original question, how is the WNBA going to keep all these newly engaged audience members from losing interest? For one, they have to break out of the party line. Members of the WNBA have to be able to speak on the subject. I haven't seen a single blog post out of anyone in the league responding to the event, which tells me Donna O. prohibited anyone from speaking about it. That is exactly the wrong idea. In my business, that would be considered bad customer service.

It's the new media age - let the customer (the fan) interact with the brand (the players, staff, etc.) about what the product (the league, the games, the teams) means to them, and how the fracas affected them. Let the brand speak to its own value and let the customer affirm it. I would bet the players share equally divergent viewpoints on whether the dust-up was good or bad for the league - let 'em share with us! The fans will feel like they participate in the development of the brand, and the brand will be stronger for it.

UPDATE: A columnist for the LA Times feels much the same way that I do...

Pandora and the iPhone... The perfect storm.

I am an enormous fan of Pandora. If you aren't familiar with it, it's a site that allows you to "build" a radio station by specifying songs or artists as the "seeds." Once you set the seeds, the Pandora database searches for matching characteristics of the songs/artists you seeded, and then populates the radio station with other music that matches. You can also rate the songs that Pandora plays on your radio station, and the system uses that information to further refine the accuracy of the database's selections to more closely match your taste. You can have lots of stations, depending on your mood, but just like a real radio you can't go backwards and replay, and you don't actually get to choose specific songs to play.

I have been introduced to some terrific artists that I'd never heard of through this service - music that I've gone ahead and bought just from hearing it on Pandora (and, of course, it's really easy to do this at their site - buttons are available that take you straight to iTunes, Amazon, etc.). Best of all, the whole thing is free, and the only ads are visual ones on the webpage, no audio ads like I used to get on the old Spinner (like 10 years ago now).

The only thing more amazing than Pandora is Pandora available somewhere other than your computer, and that day has come: Pandora is available as an application on the new 3G iPhone. I had seen the ads and thought what an amazing option this was; well, apparently everyone agrees as Pandora is the third most popular app download for the new iPhone so far. Details here courtesy of Adweek via my friend Mike at Heartbeat Digital.

Testing out some PopShops action

Marketeering content ahead. Ignore. Or buy some plus-sized clothing from Lane Bryant Catalog. It's up to you. Why the hell is this here? Answer: here.


PopShops™ affiliate stores

The world is full of things I need.

This tune is pretty sweet. UPDATE: You can buy it here .

Guilty Pleasure.

I probably don't even need to introduce or explain this at all... But I think I've always been a solitary man...

I can't wait for my next hot August night.

Hangin' 'em up.

I did it. I pulled the plug on competitive ultimate in my life. Folks are responding in a variety of stunned ways... Mostly because we'd already had our team kickoff meeting and I'd helped lead that meeting as if nothing was going on.

Truthfully, though, even then I was weary of continuing... And as the weeks went on I realized that I didn't have the requisite drive to complete the season in the way I would expect of myself, and that my teammates would have expected of me.

I am ready to do some other things with my time and my money. And the fact that my back is a total mess is not helping. Also not helping is my girlfriend, who really would like to be the number one priority in my life and who would like to not have to guess when I might be available to hang out.

Long story short, it's time. I am disappointed that it's time, which is something I can't explain to folks very well. I don't know how to articulate this complicated state of mind. I wish that I was a super-stud who could push through every obstacle and whose physical limitations can be overcome with additional hard work. But I'm really not that person, not now, not at 37 years old after 15 years of roaming the pitch. I'm ready to accept the me who loves beer and tv, who has to watch her weight, who likes golf and hiking, and who is terrified of sustaining a serious injury. The me who plays ultimate for the people not the game.

Hopefully the people will understand that; the game doesn't care one way or the other.