after_alex

Truly, we have much to be thankful for. God bless this land of plenty.

Thanksgiving: So much food, so little time…

I can’t help it, but my life intersects with Starbucks way too often. I confess, I’m an addict to Starbucks..not it’s coffee…but it’s environment. Tables, chairs, cleanliness, and convenience. And I have a sensitive confession: I’ve turned into the annoying Starbucks-business-nomad.

You know what I’m talking about. The guy that just so happens to be there every time you go to Starbucks just to read a nice book. He’s the guy forging power-deals on his cell phone, while he simultaneously e-mails his colleagues and trades NASDAQ shares using his laptop. Right. AND he’s got his Blackberry. Unbelievable. He’s got so much stuff whipped out, like he’s taken over a piece of real estate inside the Starbucks store as his temporary office. Hell, why doesn’t he have a fax machine hooked up yet? And would he shut up already about his qualified buyer and the shipment coming in from Hong Kong? Who the hell cares?

So yes, I confess. As much as I hate it, I’ve turned into the cell-phone mangling, laptop wheeling, space encroaching, very annoying guy who takes over Starbucks as if it were his own office. But what the hell am I supposed to do when it’s 2:30 pm, I’m stuck in San Francisco, have a conference call in 10 minutes, and can’t get back to Palo Alto in time? THINK QUICK: find a Starbucks, whip out the laptop AND the cell phone, and start taking over the cafe. The key that makes it all work? My company SAP has a deal with IPass to get me [free] access to hotspots at all the Starbucks in the world. Well…to me it’s free, but apparently to SAP it’s not. But what’s the outcome? I become a more productive worker, while other people get pissed off. Yes, I was in their shoes once, but to hell with it. This is what capitalism is: the takeover of public space by private parties. Take it or leave it. I’ve chosen to take it….hey, at least Starbucks serves Fair Trade Certified coffee (or so they say).

These days everyone’s talking about Vietnam’s economic boom. Just like China’s…but is it true progress? Things have been moving very quickly, as events lead up to the APEC conference, the US has finally gotten buddy-buddy with its long-time enemy of years ago. Efforts in normalization in trade and diplomatic relations between the two countries has allowed the US to take Vietnam off its “most-wanted” list of religious offenders, while 3 Vietnamese-Americans have been been granted release from Ho Chi Minh City (after being sentenced to prison for “terrorism,” post-term).

So what’s going on here? Long-time enemies become allies? Even Russia’s getting up in the mix. Bush, Putin, and the Vietnamese Communists all in one room…as friends. It’s all a switch in geo-politics, I say. The new Pacific agenda for the US requires a careful check on China’s growth, while diversifying America’s reliance from its products to manufacturers in the region. In this new Pacific order, Russia and the US again are no longer enemies, but are long-lost bedfellows against the backdrop of the waltz with Beijing.

WTO, APEC, stock markets, religion, dissidents, property rights….these are the new playing cards of the new Asian Pacific game.

That’s the question bothering me these days. Call me trite, but yesterday’s concert just left me guessing. (More than Congressman Foley or even Pastor Haggard).

Were they just playing to the San Francisco crowd? Or are they REALLY GAY?

Pet Shop Boys: Cool concert…but just soooo “flamboyant”
What else can I say?

Apparently Neil Tennant, the singer of the group, came out a while ago. But that leaves me guessing about the keyboardist Chris Lowe. What’s his status? Still guessing…

As for the show…I was hoping for more. The criticisms about the “lack of showmanship” are true. They had to hire 2 dancers and 2 singers just to fill in the space on stage. And somehow it still felt empty. I don’t know. As for the performance itself – it was pretty corny. Lots of gay innuendos, and that…combined with utter corniness and “flamboyance” just about pushed me over to thinking that Pet Shop Boys are poster boys for Sodom and Gomorrah. Or at least their T-Shirt selling outside was messaging “Sodom and Gomorrah.” Can’t complain tho, they got some good tunes, and got the crowd standing on their feet like it was 1984 again. Hell, I almost felt like a baby again. 1984, ah those were the days…when’s Tears for Fears coming around?