1. World Cup.  Alright, everyone’s got their vuvuzula stuff out of their system by now right?  I mean, this thing has been underway for a while and the competition is heating up.  There are bad ref calls and whatever.  What I just learned is that the United States wants to host the Cup in the future.  Why?  While the US Team is doing fine and dandy, people don’t really care.  They may pretend to care just like they pretend to like classic films like Casablanca when they haven’t ever really seen it.  I’m more than okay letting the world enjoy their World Cup without America feeling like she has to get all into it.

2. Oil Spill. OMFG, is that shit still going on? You know, when I made my first Facebook post about that, it was already two weeks old. Now it’s more than two MONTHS old. Beaches are getting trashed, lives are being devastated, and it’s become quite the nightmare environmental scenario. Worse, the relief wells are still not due to be complete for over another month and you know, I am not all that confident that’ll fix things either. This situation cannot be minimized. It really is THE most important thing in America right now. It practically screams what’s wrong with our government, our industry, and our energy policy what with all the corruption and inaction across the board.

3. Afghan War. A big time general got kicked out because he said lots of negative things about those in charge in an article published in Rolling Stone. First, Rolling Stone still exists? Secondly, I want to know why we’re still in Afghanistan. It ain’t to fight Al Qeada like was originally planned. They’ve moved on to Pakistan. Is it to fight the Taliban? Is it to fight people that only fight us because we’re there fighting them fighting us? I thought I elected Obama to get us out of these wars. Wait, that brings me to…

4. President Obama. He hasn’t closed down Gitmo. He hasn’t brought home our troops. He hasn’t really done a very good job at bringing our economy back. He kept many of the Bush era policies of warrant-less wiretapping and secret prisons. He’s half-assed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. He’s half-assed nominated liberalish people to the Supreme Court. I’m going to say what many of my liberal friends won’t… he’s not been an effective leader. Yes, I know it’s only been such and such many months. Yes, I know he inherited many problems. But he’s had plenty of time to suck on his own. He completely has bungled the Oil Spill. He continues to not be a good leader in economic policies that reform the way things are done. Handing out cash isn’t a solution. His one big win of Health Care isn’t even really that impressive considering it lacks a Public Option and the implementation of the effects are all way diluted with time. He has squandered a majority in the house and senate and now with mid-term elections looming, under his leadership or lack thereof, there are overwhelming predictions that Republicans (and even more terrifying Tea Party members) are going to be roaring back. Son, I am disappoint.

5. “Later, Skater: On Tour!” Buy your copy for summer reading today. Sales haven’t been great, which is confusing me. I mean, I sold and gave away lots and lots of copies of the original “Later, Skater” The sequel is bigger and better and downloadable for instant gratification for only 5 dollars. FIVE DOLLARS! Get it today to help keep me encouraged about my writing.

I love me some Taco Bell. Recently I’ve been going through a cheesy gordida crunch thing. But with large pizzas at Pizza Hut stuck at 10 dollars, mediums at 5, and the rest of the fast food dollar menus getting larger, one has to worry a bit about the devaluation of food. It’s not healthy. We all know it. And what does it say about economy when you can eat this crap for only 2 dollars?

Is it just me or has this winter been especially brutal? I’m talking, of course, about North America, but you know, feel free to tell me I’m right about your neck of the woods too. A lot of the blame, at least in the media I’m seeing, is that the infamous El Nino has reared his ugly head again in the Pacific. Essentially this just disrupts natural jet stream patterns and sends weather systems all over the place where they ordinarily aren’t typically found. This lets places like Vancouver get no snow, but Pensacola enjoys the white stuff.

But you know, I don’t think it’s just the weather that is giving this winter a particularly nasty bite.

Politics are always vicious, but it seems especially contentious here in the United States with Democrats and Republicans infamously slugging it out, while meanwhile a seemingly pretty large portion of the population wants to throw them both out on a rail. Sometimes, I don’t disagree. But if that puts me in the same category as the Tea Party assclowns or big mouth Glenn Beck, I’d rather not.

And then there is the never ending cycle of the Twenty-Four Hour News Media.

They’re there to always constantly remind us that just when you thought there may be a glimmer of light at the end of this dark, dark winter, you’re wrong. Quick to rattle off facts about unemployment, terrorism, or domestic crimes, there isn’t a shred of good news to be found. And yet they are playfully ribbing on each other and the subjects at hand right before a few messages from their sponsor.

Before Conan o’ Brian was unceremoniously kicked off his quick stint on The Tonight Show, he called us kids and told us to not be cynical. He said that it doesn’t help anything. It was easy for him to say considering while he did just lose his life long dream in the hosting gig, he did get paid a shit ton of money to go away. But that’s just me being cynical.

And just like this winter, I think we’re sooo tired of being cynical. We need to find ways to free ourselves from the constant drumbeat of desolation pounded out not just by politics and the media, but by the actual environment around us. Yes, it’s really hard when it’s 23 degrees and you can’t feel your left testicle, but you know, even when here locally I had about two days of near 60 degree weather, I missed my opportunity to briefly change things up a bit.

Maybe you did too.

Spring will come, so at least the weather will change. But don’t count on the rest of the stuff doing it, unless you demand it. Not only from THEM but from yourself. I haven’t really been hibernating, but I certainly haven’t been out in the world behaving like the person I really am. Merely a dark winter’s shadow. Let’s see if that can’t be altered.

Copenhagen Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards to city hotels warning summit guests not to patronize Danish sex workers during the upcoming conference. Now, the prostitutes have struck back, offering free sex to anyone who produces one of the warnings.

Copenhagen’s city council in conjunction with Lord Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards out to 160 Copenhagen hotels urging COP15 guests and delegates to ‘Be sustainable – don’t buy sex’.

“Dear hotel owner, we would like to urge you not to arrange contacts between hotel guests and prostitutes,” the approach to hotels says.

Now, Copenhagen prostitutes are up in arms, saying that the council has no business meddling in their affairs. They have now offered free sex to anyone who can produce one of the offending postcards and their COP15 identity card, according to the Web site avisen.dk.

Discrimination

According to the report, the move has been organized by the Sex Workers Interest Group (SIO).

“This is sheer discrimination. Ritt Bjerregaard is abusing her position as Lord Mayor in using her power to prevent us carrying out our perfectly legal job. I don’t understand how she can be allowed to contact people in this way,” SIO Spokeswoman Susanne Møller tells avisen.dk.

Møller adds that it is reprehensible and unfair that Copenhagen politicians have chosen to use the UN Climate Summit as a platform for a hetz against sex workers.

“But they’ve done it and we have to defend ourselves,” Møller says.

(Ed note: Why can’t we have an authorized sex industry here in the United States. I mean, prostitution is going to exist for as long as there are people willing to do it and pay for it. Make it legal, make it like all officiated and stuff, and let’s get it on.)

A publication aimed at filling the void left by Southern Voice has decided on a name that might ring a bell.

GA Voice (pronounce it as you wish, its creators say) is set to debut early next year both online and in print. Gavoice.com will take over its web domain next week, providing updates on the official launch while posting occasional news items.

“We’ve pretty much got the money for the pre-launch expenses,” said Chris Cash, founder of Southern Voice and publisher of the soon-to-debut GA Voice. “We’re in the process now of forming our core team.”

Cash expects GA Voice to debut sometime in early 2010. “You’ll probably see us online before you see the print version,” she said. Former SoVo editor Laura Douglas-Brown has been working with Cash to get GA Voice up and running.

Last week the Lloyd E. Russell Foundation gave the duo $12,000 in matching funds for the new news outlet. Cash said they’re still seeking donations at www.savesovo.com.

Window Media LLC closed SoVo and a handful of other gay publications last month after years of struggling financially. Windows was forced into receivership earlier this year by the Small Business Administration.

A couple that first met in a Black Friday line six years ago, tied the knot Thanksgiving night while in line at Best Buy in Allen Park Michigan.

Edward Burbo and Jennifer Dykstra said “I do” hours before the store was open for Black Friday.

Here’s what the Groom had to say: “Black Friday is something that we’ve done together as a couple for a few years. And we couldn’t afford a big wedding and we thought that we should just try to do something that we would remember…It started off in just a chair and a blanket over my head and has increased every year. Now, we have tents and heaters and it’s always been Best Buy. They seem to have great door-busters, and we have four kids at home, so we have to save as much money as we can. And if means camping out for a couple of days, then that’s what we do.”

Let’s hope Best Buy was able to provide them with Doorbuster deals as they crossed the threshold into the store.

With a simple three-sentence notice taped to the door, the publishers of Southern Voice and David magazine ended two decades of gay media in Atlanta on Monday.

The publications, owned along with several others by Window Media and Unite Media, abruptly closed their doors overnight Sunday, ending a months-long battle with federal receivership that imperiled the gay media company.

Laura Douglas-Brown, the paper’s editor since 2006 and an employee for nearly 13 years, says the closings are a significant loss for her personally and for metro Atlanta’s LGBT population.

“Of course, I’m personally reeling as is all of the staff,” Douglas-Brown said Monday morning. “What is the most tragic and breaking my heart the most is that this publication that so many people for the last 20 years have put in so much hard work and has received so much support from the community, that it has reached this point.”

Douglas-Brown joined a handful of the company’s nearly two-dozen employees at the offices off Briarcliff Road on Monday. Some employees of the company were told of the closure through a text message from a co-worker about 1 a.m. Monday. Others discovered the news through a three-sentence note taped to the front door of the Atlanta office from Myers and longtime Window executive Mike Kitchens.

It is with GREAT regret that we must inform you that effective immediately, the operations of Window Media, LLC and Unite Media, LLC have closed down.

Please return to this office on WEDNESDAY, November 18th, 2009 at 11:00 AM to collect personal belongings and to receive information on your separation stipulations. Please bring boxes and/or containers that will allow you to collect all your personal belongings at one time.

Regretfully,
Steve Myers
Mike Kitchens

The websites to Southern Voice and David, which were online early Monday, were shut down by 8:30 a.m. Visitors to the sites received an “unexpected error” message.

Later Monday, Myers confirmed that the five publications, their websites and the web-only Houston Voice, were closed.

“It is a sad, sad day for Window Media and the gay community. Three major newspaper voices are being quieted now for a period of time, along with David and 411,” Myers said. “Right now, it is out of our hands. I would hope something would continue to go on, but I can’t say for certain. It’s been taken our of hands.”

Myers declined further comment about the company’s financial picture and what contributed to its collapse over the weekend.

“We knew about the receivership, obviously, but we had always been led that the way this would end is with the company being sold. I had no inkling and certainly no sign. We were working on Friday night and we were working on Saturday. We just came off of a tremendous Pride. No one knew or thought that this would happen today. Of course people are reeling, but I trust that Steve and Mike did everything in their power to keep it from coming to this point,” Douglas-Brown said.

Southern Voice opened in 1988 and was acquired by Window Media a decade later. David first published in 1998 and was acquired by Window in 2004. The company also owns the storied Washington Blade, Houston Voice, South Florida Blade and 411 Magazine.

“The thought of them not being around is very sad,” says Ryan Lee, editor of David and senior reporter for Southern Voice. “I’m incredibly appreciative of being part of both Southern Voice and David and truly believed that we offered an affirmation of gay life in Atlanta and won’t be able to do that anymore.”

Lee was told by a co-worker about 6 a.m. Monday and joined former staffers at the office so they wouldn’t arrive to see the sign posted in the window and with the locks changed. Lee, like Douglas-Brown, has worked for the company his entire professional career. He started at Southern Voice as an intern after graduating from Auburn University.

“It is more surprising than it would have been earlier in the year. Shortly after I became editor [in January 2009], right around that time, the financial struggles had started pressing down and it was a big concern. During the summer, things seemed to turn around – ad pages were up, paychecks were going back to a consistent schedule. So it makes it a little more surprising,” Lee said.

John Nail, the longtime production manager for Southern Voice and David, said he realized the publications might one day close, but held out hope they would continue publishing through this year.

“I have been kind of steeling myself up for this day,” Nail said Monday. “But I thought we could hold out until next year. Things appeared to have been turning around. Ad sales were picking up a little bit. Our Pride issue was down from previous years, but it was better than I expected. That we just get this bomb dropped – there was no inclination this was coming up. Other media have been writing Window Media’s obituary for over a year and we held out longer than anyone predicted.”

Nail worked for the company twice for a total of nearly seven years. But as a graphics artist, he faces both the loss of a job and a profession in an industry that continues to change and downsize.

“It’s not just losing this particular job, but sort of feeling as if I’ve lost my entire livelihood as far as my career choice. It’s not like I can just go to another paper. I’m having to consider a completely new line of work in my 40s,” Nail said.

Nail said he and other co-workers, despite their bracing for the possible shutdown of the company, were surprised to learn of it through a note taped to the office door and media reports.

“I thought we would get some warning that things are breaking down. I am disappointed in the fact that we didn’t get a personal notice, a phone call,” Nail said. “For so many people that worked there, it was more than just a job. It was a calling. We were the gay voice of Atlanta. To just see that disappear—as much as I have been mentally preparing for it for many months, now the day has arrived. Like any death, I am going through all of the various stages. I think I’m alternating between shock, grieving and anger.”

The company struggled with paying freelancers and those financial difficulties later impacted its fulltime employees. Earlier this year, paychecks were often delayed a week or more and payments were staggered among employees, Lee said.

The publications suffered from a steep decline in advertising that impacted the newspaper industry as well as the fallout from a federal receivership. The company lost its CEO in early July among speculation he was forced out by the Small Business Administration.

In April, the paper’s publisher left after a few months on the job in a revolving door that had brought four publishers in about two years. The executive that hired that publisher in 2008 later quit the company, too, but only after folding its national gay glossy Genre.

News broke in February that the company had been in federal receivership since August 2008. The New York-based investment company that owned a majority stake in the publishers of all five gay publications, Avalon Equity Fund, was sued by the SBA, which had the option of selling the media assets as it dissolved the company.

Southern Voice and David join other casualties among Atlanta’s LGBT media offerings. Labrys, a five-year-old Atlanta-based publication for lesbians, ended its monthly print edition earlier this year and shifted to a redesigned website.

“The two company presidents, Steve and Mike, I don’t begrudge them at all in this situation. I know it was a difficult choice for them. I know they did everything humanly possible to keep those operations up. They inherited a situation that was beyond repair,” Lee said.

I’ve come down with something very strongly and quickly as of yesterday evening around five. I don’t know what it is, but it feels different than what ailed me post-con. Fever. Sinus issues. The aches could be from doing the truck on Tuesday as usual or it could be a symptom.

Too bad Dr. House isn’t practicing medicine anymore. Sorry for that slight spoiler alert, but we’re two episodes into the new season and sometimes you need to be shocked into remembering to watch again, right?

I hate feeling sick.
Worse, I hate that I don’t have Health Care.
I mean, it’s been this huge ass national debate — read: Yelling tennis match — for the last eleventy months it seems. I’m one of the uninsured!

It all happened when my Pizza Hut got bought out by a franchise and dumped every.single.last.one.of.my.benefits. No 401k. No vacation. No health care. No accident free rewards program. Jack shit.

Get another job, you may say?
Um, I should fucking lucky I HAVE a job right now.
But how long can I continue saying that if I have to occasionally call in sick? And by occasionally, I mean two full days and two half days in September.

I’m actually pretty confident my job is secure since when I am there I’m the best there is. I’ve only moderately complained that the work load has increased by about 100% due to the cutting of the second daytime driver AND cook.

Yeah, we run a restaurant with just a manager and a driver. Isn’t that fucking insane?

And that kind of leads me to wondering, maybe that’s what has got me sick. Sure, DragonCon and the 40,000+ weirdos that attend probably had something to do with it. And my sister and her Kid Rock Look Alike Boyfriend have three dogs and I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to at least the big brown one.

But I quit smoking over 6 months ago. I eat more healthy than ever before with lots of veggies and water and all that.

So maybe it’s the stress.
Oh and the fact that I don’t have health care.

Why not buy some on my own, you say?
Have you seen the terrible economy? I couldn’t really afford health care on my own over a year ago when things were half-assedly decent. An extra 120 dollars a month now is really hard to find. Especially reliably every single month.

But you know what?
I’m not going to let this get me down?
No sir!
Not even when the Republicans are bickering about how we can’t afford any heathcare bills like the ones perposed.
Not even when the Democrats want to fine people for not having healthcare. (Um, gee, if I had the money, wouldn’t I buy it?)

I will feel better.
I will go to Alchemy this weekend with DJ Kaze and conspire to write my 4th Novel.
And maybe just maybe things will start to improve all around me due to some of my positive energy at work and in my own personal economy.

Oh, yeah, and I turn 31 years old next Friday. Holy shit.

AS anyone who has seen the box-office phenomenon “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” surely noticed, the movie’s main characters have grown up. And so has its audience: many of those who are streaming to theaters are in their 20s.

The sixth film in the series was released almost a dozen years after the book that started it all: “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

The generation that ignited Pottermania as preadolescent readers is approaching college graduation or entering the workplace, and they have kept alive this flame of their early adolescence.

Indie rock bands have sprung up inspired by their obsession, with names like Harry and the Potters, the Half Bloods, and Voldie and the Wiz Kidz, playing songs inspired by Potter lore.

Last fall, teams from Princeton, Vassar, Boston University and a dozen other schools competed in the Quidditch World Cup, in which students play a real-life version of the soccer-like contact sport featured in the books and films. (They can’t fly, but still compete with brooms between their legs.)

The continuing pull of all things Potter is a testament to the franchise’s enduring sway. But it also seems like something else: the advent of Generation Y nostalgia.

(more at the NYTimes website)

WASHINGTON — Building on populist anger against U.S. financial institutions, President Barack Obama on Thursday called for new federal rules to crack down on credit card companies that jack up interest rates and otherwise take advantage of unwary consumers.

“There has to be strong and reliable protections for consumers, protections that ban unfair rate increases and forbid abusive fees and penalties,” Obama said after a White House meeting with credit card company executives. “The days of any-time, any-reason rate hikes and late-fee traps have to end.”

The White House move, which faces strong opposition from leaders and lobbyists in the financial services industry, builds on efforts in Congress to shield consumers from higher and often unexpected costs at a time when families around the country are feeling a financial squeeze — and are lashing out against the banks and other institutions seen as contributing to the economic meltdown.

As early as next week, House Democrats expect to act on a bill that would make it harder for the industry to impose new fees and rates on card holders and also require clearer disclosure of the costs and risks for users. The bill would codify and expedite rules already proposed by the Federal Reserve Board, but those would not be implemented until 2010.

(more)

The lousy economy is taking a bite out of even the venerable Girl Scout cookie.

Higher prices for flour, oil and cocoa will mean smaller Samoas and thinner boxes of Thin Mints for many cookie consumers this year. Tighter household budgets, meanwhile, are threatening to put a pinch on sales, even for the sweetest of Scouts.

“Oh, I am so prayerful that we will” meet our goals, said Anita Walton, product sales manager for the 40,000-member Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, which typically sells 3 million to 3.5 million boxes a year.

After a month of door-to-door sales, Atlanta-area Girl Scouts turn in their sales tallies this week.

Fears about deadly peanut butter also are threatening sales, even though the Girl Scouts say none of their peanut butter cookies contain paste from the Georgia plant at the center of a nationwide salmonella outbreak.

Regardless of how sales end up, buyers might notice they’re getting a little less for their $3.50 per box when they get their goodies in a couple of months.

Samoas and Tagalongs, for instance, are slightly smaller this year.

Boxes of Thin Mints, Do-si-dos and Trefoils are smaller by an ounce in some markets — the equivalent of two fewer Thin Mints per box — but because Georgia troops use a different baker, Georgians will get just as many Thin Mints as they did last year, according to Walton.

Michelle Tompkins, national spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts, said flour prices at the organization’s two bakers are up 30 percent. Transportation costs are up just as much. Cocoa prices, she said, rose 20 percent or more.

In Atlanta, Girl Scouts are appealing to consumers’ charitable sides to support sales this year. Scouts are asking consumers to buy a few extra boxes to donate to local food banks and shelters, Walton said.

“We know some of our areas have been hard hit with layoffs and business closings,” she said. “But even if people are cutting back … we ask that they think about those donations.”

(Ed note: Are they still made from real girl scouts?)

*** House defeats a bill to delay the digital TV switchover, 258-168. This means that about 5.7% of the population who still use rabbit ears to get TV will be left in the dark because they sat on their fat asses eating Doritos for months and months instead of going out and getting a goddamn new television. Hurrah!!

*** Yet another stimulus bill is winding its way through the Congress. The last 700 BILLION DOLLARS has apparently already been pissed away by the banking industry. Now, with a new President, we got a bill stacked up to nearly 900 BILLION DOLLARS. It’s stuffed with a lot of projects for states like infrastructure and the like, but exactly where is all of this money coming from? Oh, that’s right, the taxpayers current and in generations to come. Somehow, I don’t think we’ll feel very stimulated following the assured passage of this bill.

*** People in India are protesting the hit film Slumdog Millionaire because they say it shows their people in a negative light. Destroying cinemas that are playing the motion picture, they’re obviously not really that concerned about being viewed in a negative light. Slumdog Millionaire is highly considered the front runner for Best Picture in next month’s Academy Awards.

*** Starbucks is going to cut more jobs. Sales are down for the premium coffee shop, but perhaps not for the reason why you’d think. It’s not that Americans are now unwilling to pay so much for a specialty coffee, it’s just that they realized en mass they don’t really look that cool hanging out there listening to lifeless jazz music anymore.

*** You May Not Have Mail: Like many companies, even the US Postal Service is having problems in this economy. Faced with a huge deficit from last year totaling about 3 billion, they’re considering cutting back service to 5 days a week rather than 6. Considering the only thing I ever get in the mail is junk mail, they could cut it down to like once a week if you ask me.

*** Refund? We don’t have your stinking refund! California is broke. I mean, the State of California is broke. So broke, in fact, that if you live in the state and are looking for a tax refund check, you may be waiting for a while. The government there has been running on fumes for the past fourteen months. Where has Arnold been? Mars?

Shane Co. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying the business suffered a disappointing holiday season.

The Colorado-based company is known for the distinctive radio ads and the tagline “Now, you have a friend in the diamond business,” delivered in a nasal monotone by CEO Tom Shane.

The company filed paperwork Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Denver and asked to be able to continue paying its 542 employees in stores in 14 states, including two stores in Colorado. The court filings show the company has between $100 million to $500 million in estimated assets and liabilities.

“The severity of this past holiday season dramatically impacted existing liquidity requiring the Company to seek this bankruptcy protection,” Shane said in a written statement. “I am confident that this action will guarantee that our customers will continue to enjoy the top-notch service, expansive selection, and unbeatable prices that they have enjoyed since the days of my grandfather.”

The company listed about 6,000 creditors. Its largest creditor was listed as New-York based Dison Gems Inc., with about $4.7 million, with the 20 largest unsecured claims totaling $26.2 million, according to court documents.

Listen to Tom Shane’s commercial announcement.

As you walk down the soda aisle at the grocery store, you are about to see a new look for Pepsi.

In fact, the change could be so dramatic a few people might not realize at first glance that it’s Pepsi. The company is prepared for some confusion, said Frank Cooper, Pepsi-Cola North America vice president of portfolio brands, which includes the company’s core carbonated soft drinks.

“In the initial phases, and we’re just in the seeding phase, I think there will be people who actually will not know it’s Pepsi,” Cooper said. “And that’s okay. But I think there will be a small group of people who will be on the inside of it and who can start the conversation on their own terms.”

As U.S. consumers continue to move away from carbonated soft drinks, PepsiCo, a Purchase, N.Y.,-based snack foods and beverage giant, is placing a huge bet on a sweeping and somewhat cryptic brand makeover. The company has said it plans to spend $1.2 billion over the next three years to reinvigorate carbonated soft drinks.

It won’t be easy. Both Pepsi and Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. are working to increase sales in a shrinking U.S. soda market. U.S. sales volume for carbonated soft drinks has declined for the past three years and is on track to fall again in 2008, according to figures from Beverage Digest.

After assessing the market, Pepsi decided dramatic action was needed, Cooper said.

“We decided, ‘Hey, now is the time to make that fundamental shift,’” he said. “If we’re going to capture the imagination of the consumer again, let’s rethink at a fundamental level the relationship between our brand and the consumer.”

The most visible change initially includes new logos and packages for PepsiCo beverages. The round red, white and blue Pepsi logo has evolved over the years from a bottle-cap design that Pepsi adopted as its official logo in 1962. It was last changed in 2002, when Pepsi started using a dynamic three-dimensional globe split by a white wave.

The new Pepsi brand emblem takes a minimalist approach. It remains a red, white and blue circle, but the wave is gone. It has been replaced by a diagonal white slit intended to represent a “smile.” The word “Pepsi” is included in lowercase letters.

Other major PepsiCo brands also are getting a new look. Sierra Mist, Pepsi’s lemon-lime flavored soft drink, has been given a blurry label, as though the name is emerging from a forest.

The company has not officially released the new Mountain Dew logo, but images are surfacing on the Internet that show “Mtn Dew” lettering set on a computerized topographical map of mountain peaks. PepsiCo’s sports drink brand, Gatorade, will be emblazoned with a big letter “G.”

The new packages for the core soft-drink brands have started showing up in some stores and should replace the old cans and bottles on most store shelves by early next year. They’re already stirring up heated debate on the Web, which has been a large part of the initial launch.

The logos have elicited a strong reaction in the graphic design community, said Armin Vit, a principal with Brooklyn, N.Y., design firm UnderConsideration LLC. The company runs a blog, underconsideration.com/brandnew, about corporate and brand identity work.

A posting about the Pepsi logo drew 400 responses, more than any other posting since the blog was started in 2006. Few responders were kind in their assessment. One referred to the logos as “brand butchering.”

“I think 90 percent of the people just didn’t like it,” Vit said.

Pepsi is known for making changes in design, Vit said. While Coca-Cola has tweaked design over the years, the company is known for a classic cursive script logo and contour bottle, he said.

The new Pepsi logo, though, is confusing, Vit said. The logo changes depending on the product. It starts with a grin for Diet Pepsi and becomes a broad gap representing laughter for Pepsi Max.

“What are they supposed to mean?” Vit asked. “Is the Pepsi Max supposed to make me happiest? It was a little bit too convoluted.”

Arnell Group, a New York design firm that has worked with Donna Karan, McDonald’s and Tommy Hilfiger, came up with the new logos. Replacing the Pepsi wave with the Pepsi smile gives life to the logo, said Cooper, the Pepsi-Cola vice president.

“The work Arnell did on the design is right and on-point for us,” Cooper said. “The logo itself is dynamic. It has depth. It has a certain energy to it. When you move from that wave to a smile, a certain humanity comes from that.”

The logos, though, are just one part of the effort to reconnect with consumers, Cooper said. Instead of a big media splash, Pepsi has started its marketing effort at the grassroots level, he said.

The new campaign borrows heavily from what Mountain Dew has done for years, Cooper said. Mountain Dew targets core consumers with messages tied to extreme sports, video gaming and alternative music and art.

For the new Pepsi campaign, Pepsi has identified local “influencers” — artists, chefs, community organizers and event planners — in cities across the United States, Cooper said.

Working with these influencers, products are starting to show up at intimate events, he said. It could be a concert at an old warehouse or an art exhibition for charity, Cooper said.

For the Pepsi brand, the company wants to set a tone of “optimism and youth,” he said. “It’s not about age,” Cooper said. “It’s about a mind-set, a way of approaching the world.”

And if you’re not one of the local influencers, don’t worry. Pepsi will reach you, too. “Trust me, we will make it clear as we move along,” Cooper said.

Pepsi has not said whether it will use a Super Bowl ad to unveil the logos, but it does have plans for mainstream media, he said.

“For us, the TV piece is critically important because of the reach,” Cooper said. “We’re definitely going down that path. But it’s not the place we’re starting from in terms of how we’re thinking of engaging the consumer.”

ALBANY – Gov. Paterson released a $121 billion slash-and-burn budget Tuesday morning that slams New Yorkers with 88 new fees and taxes – even on their iPods.

Calling the budget the “greatest economic and fiscal challenge of our lifetimes,” Paterson acknowledged his spending plan cuts deep.

But he said the pain must be shared to deal with the fallout from the Wall Street collapse.

The budget will cost the city an estimated $650 million in aid.

But it’s the $4 billion in new fees and taxes that are sure to aggravate everyday New Yorkers, who would be paying more for a host of services:

* An “iPod tax” that charges state and local sales tax for “digitally delivered entertainment services” – in other words, that new Beyonce song you download.
* State sales tax at movie theaters, sporting events, taxis, buses, limousines and cable and satellite TV and radio.
* Costlier driving with the repeal of the 8-cents-per-gallon sales tax cap on motor and diesel motor fuel, plus and increase in the auto rental tax.
* Tuition increases at SUNY and CUNY, $620 and $600 a year respectively.
* A 50 cent tax on cigars. The current tax is equal to 37% of the wholesale price, or 34 cents a cigar.
* No more sales tax break on clothes and shoes worth $110 or less, except during two weeks a year.
* Higher taxes on wine, beer and flavored malt beverages. He would also impose an 18% tax on non-nutritional drinks like soda.
* The rich would pay more for luxury items through an additional 5% tax imposed on cars costing more than $60,000, aircraft costing more than $500,000, yachts costing at least $200,000 and jewelry and furs costing in excess of $20,000.
* In addition, a host of a fees, including those related to motor vehicle licensing and registration, parks and auto insurance, would go up, as would various state-imposed fines.

Even with the cuts, the 2009-10 budget would increase a little more than 1%, the smallest hike since 1996-97.

Paterson said the state is facing a $51 billion shortfall over the next four years at a time when tax revenues are expected to drop 6.6% next year.

“This executive budget begins the difficult process of fundamentally reevaluating both how we manage our government and what the state can afford to spend in a time of plummeting revenues,” Paterson wrote in a budget letter.

Paterson is asking lawmakers to pass a $1.7 billion plan by Feb. 1 to reduce the current year’s budget deficit.

He then laid out a separate $121 billion spending plan for the 2009-10 fiscal year that begins April 1. He is asking the Legislature to adopt the new budget a month early.

Confusion surrounds my work place as I was told today that we were becoming a franchise later this month. The details are pretty sketchy right now and rather conflicting as well.

I was told my health insurance was over, but when I called Cigna, they said the new company would roll it over to something pretty much exactly the same. I decided to cancel my insurance anyway. They’ll have an enrollment period in January so I can decide what’s up then.

I’m told any vacation hours would be paid off via regular check soon. I don’t have any vacation hours I don’t think. Not unless they count partial credits from October to now which I doubt.

I’m fairly sure things like my Accident Free Hours are toast as they likely won’t have that kind of program.

I don’t know if they’re just laying us all off and then rehiring us or just keeping us all on and at our pay rates and everything. Do I lose my seniority? How affected is my day to day job going to be?

And then there is the 401k that’s become too small to roll over to a traditional IRA thanks to the downturn in the global economy. I know for sure I don’t want to accept a payout and lose half of it to taxes and penalties.

Looks like uncertain times are coming very close to home now.

CANBERRA (Reuters) – An Australian holiday resort will hold a month-long, nude “anything goes” party to combat an expected economic downturn, media reports said on Thursday.

“Tough economic times call for stiff measures,” Tony Fox, the owner of the White Cockatoo resort in Mossman, in tropical Queensland state, told the Courier-Mail newspaper.

“It will be a hedonism resort, where anything goes for a month. It doesn’t take rocket science to work out what it means,” Fox said, naming March as the risque party month.

The controversial “clothes optional” resort made headlines three years ago when police were called to end partner-swapping parties after a swathe of public complaints.

“You’ve got to wonder what sort of people go and why. Where is the moral code of behavior and how do you stop jealousies and fights?” Cairns Catholic Bishop James Foley said after Fox’s announcement.

But local regional Mayor Val Schier said she was not opposed to the event as long as no laws were broken.

“People in tropical north Queensland are extraordinarily creative,” Schier said. “It is tough economic times and as long as it is with consenting adults, then there is no problem.”

Australia’s tourism in industry is being hit hard by global economic turmoil with official figures showing a 7.6 percent decline in overseas visitors in September.

Industry leaders expect holiday bookings may drop by up to a third in early 2009 and are planning a new international advertising campaign to coincide with the movie “Australia” starring Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman.

Fox said his resort was almost fully booked for the month-long rainforest party.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street stormed back after its worst week ever and staged the biggest single-day stock rally since the Great Depression on Monday, catapulting the Dow Jones industrials to a 936-point gain and finally offering relief from eight consecutive days of stock market carnage.

While no one was saying the worst was over for the staggering financial system or troubled economy, buyers returned to the stock market with gusto, with some saying stocks had been driven down to fire-sale prices.

The surge came as executives from leading banks were summoned by the Bush administration to Washington to work out a plan to get loans, the lifeblood of the economy, moving again. And it followed signals that European governments would put nearly $2 trillion on the line to protect their own banks.

The Dow gained more than 11 percent, its biggest one-day rally since 1933, and by points it shattered the previous record for a one-day gain of 499, during during the waning days of the technology boom in 2000.

“My screen is completely green, and I love that,” said John Lynch, chief market analyst for Evergreen Investments in Charlotte, N.C. “But I’m not doing any backflips yet. We still have many challenges up ahead.”

Stocks opened sharply higher and never looked back. The Dow was up more than 400 points in the opening minutes of trading, and by lunch hour had crossed back through the same 9,000 level it crashed below last week.

The rally intensified in the final hour of trading. In the moments before the closing bell rang, boisterous traders sounded horns on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and raucous applause broke out.

“I would say this is closer to the bottom. I can’t say this is the bottom,” said Bill Schultz, chief investment officer at McQueen, Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pa. “I think it’s more relief, the rally today.”

WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican presidential candidate John McCain is proposing a $300 billion program for the federal government to buy up bad home mortgages and allow homeowners to keep their houses.

McCain said: “Until we stabilize home values in America, we’re never going to start turning around and creating jobs and fixing our economy and we’ve got to get some trust and confidence back to America.”

In an unusual step, McCain announced the plan during Tuesday’s debate. He said that as president he would direct the federal government to purchase mortgages directly from homeowners and mortgage providers. The loans would be replaced with fixed-rate mortgages, ostensibly at a loss to the government.

“Is it expensive? Yes,” McCain said.

There’s a heck of a lot of economic and political news swirling around there today. Normally I’d post at least the short short versions of it. But honestly, I can’t do it today.

Instead, I invite you to go over to shotalicious.org and enjoy the latest post. Go ahead, unzip your pants and be you boy or girl, just forget about what’s going on in the world and pleasure yourself.

Because let’s be honest, no matter how bad things get, at least you can do that.

>>> Dow closes down over 450 points.

>>> AIG’s bail out causes controversy in Congress, doesn’t allay fears on Wall Street.

>>> WaMu searching for a suitor.

>>> Wachovia also a mess.

>>> Morgan Stanley also suggests that it won’t survive without help.

>>> FDIC drops below mandated target level, meaning it’ll have to be bailed out too.

Ironically I made 84 dollars in tips on Monday. It helped pay some bills, but since times have been tough almost every other day I do wonder how I’ll be able to get to this years Anime Weekend Atlanta. I wished they’d move the damn thing further away from the far superior DragonCon.

All hell continued to break loose in the United State’s financial markets. More investment banks failed (Lehman Brothers). Others were quickly married to other banks (Bank of America / Merrill Lynch). Oh, and still others are teetering on the edge of failing as well (AIG, WaMu, Wachovia.)

The Dow dropped over 500 points.

The Fed pumped in another 70 Billion. Not that that money actually exists in any real sense of the word.

Pretty much devastation every where you look. But hey, McCain says the fundamentals of the economy are strong. ORLY?

Meanwhile, oil prices continue to go down, not that it will help much at the pumps. Refining capacity continued to be at a declined pace due to the fallout destruction from Hurricane Ike. The price at the pump in much of the Southeast is well above the highest rates in history.

Speaking of Ike. There are around 37,000 people in Galveston that are overcrowding shelters that are low on food and water and other resources. While many are to blame for not heeding the evacuations in the first place, it does beg the question were any lessons learned from Katrina?

At this rate we won’t need the colliders in France to create black holes in late October to ruin everything.

LOS ANGELES – California state lawmakers are considering an unusual idea to solve the state’s huge budget shortfall: Tax pornography.

The idea was proposed by a state assemblyman, and would impose a 25 percent tax on the production and sales of pornographic videos — the vast majority of which are made in southern California.

It is unknown, however, how seriously lawmakers will take the idea or how the porn business would deal with the new tax. It is likely, though, that porm-makers would simply pass the cost along to consumers by making pornographic materials more expensive.

However, many economists believe that pornography is an industry with inelastic demand — meaning market conditions typically don’t affect consumers’ desire for the product. In other words, it is believed that most porn consumers would continue to buy regardless of how much it cost.

A potential economic downside to the tax proposal is that porn producers could leave California to manufacture and distribute videos in other states that don’t impose the tax.

NEW YORK (AP) — Gas and oil prices pushed further into record high territory Tuesday, with retail gas reaching a national average of $3.51 for the first time and crude nearing $120 as the dollar fell to a new low against the euro.

At the pump, the national average price of a gallon of regular gas rose 0.8 cent Tuesday to $3.511, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices for diesel — used to transport most food, industrial and commercial goods — also rose overnight to a new record of $4.204 a gallon.

Gas prices are nearly 66 cents higher than last year, when they peaked at a then-record of $3.23 in late May, and have prompted many analysts to raise their estimates of where gas is going to go.

“I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that we could get to $4,” said Antoine Halff, an analyst at Newedge USA LLC.

Other analysts are less certain. Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at the Oil Price Information Service, thinks gas prices will rise only another 10 cents to 20 cents nationally. That would mean they would peak near $4.15 a gallon in California, where prices are typically highest, and around $3.50 in New Jersey, where they’re typically lowest.

Gas prices are rising for many reasons, including oil’s record run. Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose to a new trading record of $119.90 before retreating to settle up $1.89 at a record $119.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract expired after the Nymex closed, which contributed to its spike higher as investors scrambled to square bets. June crude futures, which now become the focus of trading, rose $1.44 to settle at $118.07 a barrel, nearly $2 shy of the $120 level.

On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers attempted to escalate scrutiny of oil and gas companies.

“People deserve a more scrupulous cop on the beat in these markets,” said Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., who along with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., called for the Justice Department to investigate possible market manipulation.

Meantime, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., praised the Bush administration’s proposal to increase the average fuel economy for new cars and trucks to 31.6 miles per gallon by 2015.

Soaring gasoline prices show “that we have to move much more aggressively toward improving fuel efficiency and help bring relief to American consumers,” she said in a statement.

Many investors see commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation and a falling dollar. Also, a weaker greenback makes oil cheaper for investors overseas.

The dollar fell Tuesday after the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes dropped in March while the median home price declined, raising prospects that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates further this year to try to shore up the ailing economy. Fed interest rate cuts tend to further weaken the dollar.

Oil also rose on concerns about supply constraints overseas. A Royal Dutch Shell PLC joint venture declared what’s known as force majeure on April and May oil delivery contracts from a 400,000-barrel-a-day Nigerian oil field due to a pipeline attack last week. The move protects the company from litigation if it fails to deliver on contractual obligations to buyers.

In Mexico, oil production slipped 7.8 percent in the first quarter to 2.91 million barrels a day as output at the country’s oil fields waned, state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos said. In Scotland, workers at Ineos PLC’s 196,000 barrel-a-day Grangemouth refinery and petrochemical plant threatened to strike over changes to an employee pension plan.

While gas prices are following oil futures higher, they’re also rising because supplies are falling. Refiners are in the process of switching over from making winter grade gasoline to the more-expensive, less-polluting, form of the fuel they’re required to sell in summer. That’s pushing supplies down as producers try to sell off all of their winter gas.

Gasoline supplies are also being hurt by low profit margins. Refiners have to buy the crude they turn into fuel, but falling demand for gasoline has hurt their ability to raise gas prices as much as they would like. While the average profit margin on gasoline hovers above $10, analysts say margins have gone negative in some parts of the country in recent weeks. In those cases, refiners were actually losing money on every gallon of gas they made. Many refiners have reacting by producing less gas.

“Very high crude prices can constrain gasoline supplies as it hurts the margins,” Halff said.

In other Nymex trading Tuesday, May gasoline futures rose 3.73 cents to settle at $3.0164 a gallon after earlier rising to a trading record of $3.025, while May heating oil futures rose 0.55 cent to settle at $3.3169 a gallon after earlier rising to their own trading record of $3.35. May natural gas futures fell 12.6 cents to settle at $10.607 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, June Brent crude rose $1.52 to settle at $115.95 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Republican Sen. John McCain on Tuesday called for a summer-long suspension of the federal gasoline tax and several tax cuts as the likely presidential nominee sought to stem the public’s pain from a troubled economy.

Timed for the day millions of Americans filed their tax returns, McCain offered some immediate steps as well as long-term proposals in a broad economic speech. The nation’s financial woes have replaced the Iraq war as the top concern for voters, and McCain, who has said economics is not his strongest suit, felt compelled to address the problems as he looks ahead to the November general election.

“In so many ways, we need to make a clean break from the worst excesses of both political parties,” McCain told an audience at Carnegie Mellon University. “Somewhere along the way, too many Republicans in Congress became indistinguishable from the big-spending Democrats they used to oppose.”

To help people weather the downturn immediately, McCain urged Congress to institute a “gas-tax holiday” by suspending the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. By some estimates, the government would lose about $10 billion in revenue. He also renewed his call for the United States to stop adding to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and thus lessen to some extent the worldwide demand for oil.

Combined, he said, the two proposals would reduce gas prices, which would have a trickle-down effect, and “help to spread relief across the American economy.”

Aides said McCain’s Senate staff was drafting a bill on the proposal. It’s likely to face strong opposition not only from Congress but the states. The federal gasoline tax helps pay for highway projects in nearly every town through a dedicated trust fund. In the past, such proposals for gas tax holidays have not fared well as lawmakers and state and local officials prefer not to see changes in their revenue source.

Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc. and Chick’s Sporting Goods, a privately held corporation, have entered into a definitive stock purchase agreement whereby Dick’s will acquire Chick’s Sporting Goods. Under the terms of the agreement, Dick’s has agreed to pay approximately $40 million in cash for the outstanding equity of Chick’s. Including the assumption of approximately $31 million of indebtedness, the transaction values Chick’s at approximately $71 million, and will be financed using Dick’s existing credit facility. Chick’s shareholders have the opportunity to earn up to $5 million in additional consideration, upon satisfaction by Chick’s of certain specified performance criteria through June, 2008.

Completion of the transaction is contingent upon various customary conditions. The transaction is anticipated to be completed on or before December 31, 2007.

Chick’s currently operates 15 specialty sporting goods stores in Southern California averaging ~50,000 square feet, and generated over $120 million in sales during the year ended June 30, 2007. Two additional store leases have been signed and those stores will open as Dick’s stores in 2008 and 2009.

WASHINGTON – Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It’s expanding by about $1.4 billion a day — or nearly $1 million a minute.

What’s that mean to you?

It means almost $30,000 in debt for each man, woman, child and infant in the United States.

Even if you’ve escaped the recent housing and credit crunches and are coping with rising fuel prices, you may still be headed for economic misery, along with the rest of the country. That’s because the government is fast straining resources needed to meet interest payments on the national debt, which stands at a mind-numbing $9.13 trillion.

And like homeowners who took out adjustable-rate mortgages, the government faces the prospect of seeing this debt — now at relatively low interest rates — rolling over to higher rates, multiplying the financial pain.

So long as somebody is willing to keep loaning the U.S. government money, the debt is largely out of sight, out of mind.

But the interest payments keep compounding, and could in time squeeze out most other government spending — leading to sharply higher taxes or a cut in basic services like Social Security and other government benefit programs. Or all of the above.

A major economic slowdown, as some economists suggest may be looming, could hasten the day of reckoning.

The national debt — the total accumulation of annual budget deficits — is up from $5.7 trillion when President Bush took office in January 2001 and it will top $10 trillion sometime right before or right after he leaves in January 2009.

That’s $10,000,000,000,000.00, or one digit more than an odometer-style “national debt clock” near New York’s Times Square can handle. When the privately owned automated clock was activated in 1989, the national debt was $2.7 trillion.

It only gets worse.

Delta Air Lines’ newly issued shares fell in their first day of trading Thursday, but the carrier celebrated the event as a culmination of its successful bankruptcy reorganization.

CEO Gerald Grinstein placed one of the first orders as the carrier’s post-bankruptcy stock began trading Thursday morning — 1,000 shares.

Delta’s new shares, trading under the old symbol DAL, opened at an assigned value of $21.75. They slipped $1.03 to $20.72 by the end of regular trading.

At least one transportation analyst warned the stock was overvalued, based on recent industry trends and rival carriers’ stock prices.

Delta officials remotely rang the New York Stock Exchange opening bell from the Atlanta airport, as a crowd of workers cheered and rang cowbells. Officials then flew to New York and later rang the closing bell at the exchange.