March 11th, 2008 Rachel
Regardless of the day, time, meal at hand…the person in charge of taking your order and bringing your food is your best buddy. There’s no exceptions here - being rude to wait staff only gets you a wad of spit in your food…if you don’t believe me, take this example to heart.
On Sunday we met some folks for brunch at a pretty popular Toronto brunch establishment. They don’t take reservations, you’ll have to wait in line…and people do. Slush, snow, rain, wind - doesn’t matter. We’re lined up around the block with phantom tastes of bacon and eggs keeping us warm.
With five people in our party, we weren’t surprised when it took a bit of time for a table to open up. Not a problem - we’re good. Bright and cheery blonde guy (we’ll name him Carl for now) makes his way over with a pile of menus and starts to guide us over to our table…but wait…people are sitting there…uh-oh - this is gonna get awkward.
Carl tries to reason with the Dad and his group of young’uns. We kept our distance, but could get the gist of the conversation enough to deduce that Dad decided the table by the window was better than the table he had previously been seated at. When a lady heading up the table next door of even more kiddies scurried over to support the o-so-not-budging and increasingly indigent Dad, the rest of the situation became clear - Mom and Pop decided carting six kids to a predictably jam packed establishment on the busiest day of the week would be a stellar idea…then got their panties in a bunch when there was a partition between them. THE HORROR.
Our hero, Carl, continued to try to reason with the Dad, but to no avail. He’s not moving and Carl finally sets his jaw and mutters “Well, enjoy your breakfast.” before walking back to us to apologize and let us know it was going to be another couple of minutes while they cleaned up another table for us…the exact table our self important party of four had sullied before trapsing over to what was supposed to be our table.
No big deal…we’re easy going folk and this was so clearly not Carl’s fault.
Soon we’re seated and Carl comes back to take our drink order. We joked about sending Daddy-O a “special” cup of coffee…which got us more than a smirk.
“Don’t worry - it’s being taken care of.”
Outstanding. What else can we uncover…
Our drinks arrive, delivered by…let’s say her name is Cathy…and Adam makes a joke about another wait staff prank, right out of Waiting (great movie - you’ve got to see it). Cathy’s smile and input?
“Yeah…too bad not everyone’s seen that movie.”
So there you go. Why would you mess with these people???
The moral of this story: if you can’t be nice to your server because it’s the freakin’ right thing to do…be nice to your server because it’s good for your health.
Posted in Food, Observations, Weekends | 3 Comments »
March 11th, 2008 Rachel
So, you’re looking for my #1 secret tip for getting your apartment organized and livable after moving across the continent?
Oh, that’s simple. Just know an amazing photographer who happens to be going to a wicked festival in a few weeks and needs volunteers for a quirky video involving couples and couches.
Like I said - simple, right? Your place will be neat and tidy in record time.
In our case, the photographer was Rannie Turingan and the festival was SXSW. Adam, Harley, MJ, our couch and I were thrilled to participate and even more delighted when we saw the final cut. Beautiful job, Rannie.
Photo by Rannie Turingan
I’d show you the video here, but my blog is being spiteful. Instead, go take a look on Vimo.
Posted in Personal, Photos | 2 Comments »
March 5th, 2008 Rachel
I have no words. Just enjoy the visual display of yumminess.
Posted in Cupcakes, Food, Photos | 2 Comments »
March 5th, 2008 Rachel
So, a question that I’ve heard before - where did the tribal nature of music go? People can have a huge variety of music on their iPod and not be judged. Whereas a generation or so back, if you weren’t listening to the “right” music, you were beat up. Okay…but that judgment is still there, it’s just evolved. You can still be judged if your iPod is top forty. You can still be judged for a number of reasons if your music doesn’t conform…it’s just wider and a little bit more elusive if you don’t keep up on things.
If Millenials could program a radio station for themselves…thank you Jodie - they already do (hello Pandora, Hype Machine, Last.fm). Why would they go back to fighting for the chance to request a song during a set hour?
Does the value of music go down as accessibility increases? Come on guys…ticket sales, ticket sales, ticket sales. T-shirts, limited edition live recordings, etc…etc…The music is a calling card for all the other ways to make money as an artist.
Indie music in advertising - depends on the context (IMHO). When I hear a bastardized version of a Jim Noir song in a holiday Target commercial…I want to vomit. The question is…where’s the sell out line? Alan’s right, the line is blurred. Cool + cool = very cool (i.e. Feist in an iPod commercial). I’m surprised they didn’t really touch on TV song placement at all…
How do we make the device work for the customer? Apple does an awesome job listening to consumers, then other companies watch and try to keep up. North America remains far behind the rest of the world when it comes to devices. That’s not going to change, but remains terribly frustrating.
Here’s what disappoints me a little about this panel…not one of the panelists IS a Millennial. Why is that? If you’re talking about Millennials, you should have at least one (if not two) participant(s) be a part of that group…to counter balance discussions about “managing Millennials”. And I’m not just talking about the panel with *all Millennials*…I think we should mix it up a bit. Millennials talking to the experts who know all about Millennials. What a great balance that would be.
Final thoughts from Alan Cross…
Egocasting - people constantly wearing earbuds wherever they go creating a “bubble” - if you only preach to a choir of one and don’t expose yourself to new things…
I’d like to counter that with…
Sometimes you want to ride the subway without having to listen to all the silly conversations going on all around you.
Posted in Millenials 2008, liveblogging | 3 Comments »
