3 Things:

1) I'm really not liking the automatic redirect to the new partner site at tom.com. Anyone else in China finding this annoying? Maybe its coz I work off my tiny travel netbook and the stupid tom.com header eats up even more of my limited space. haha or that the site now seems extra slow. On a business stand point though, Go AnD! I'm sure the partnership will be lucrative.

End rant.

2) Met Dikembe Mutombo yesterday. Had a nice long chat with him in the office and didn't know who he was. Slightly ashamed. Such a personable guy though. Maybe next time I'll say something nicer about his career...

3) When the heck is Facebook going to get unblocked in China? I need a VPN.

Wow, how is it summer already?

Times goes by so fast (and even faster when I'm busy it seems) - can't believe its been more than a month since my last post!

So I've actually been really busy the last month or so with a new (and somewhat exciting) business venture in Shanghai that kind of fell in my lap. It's still in initial stages and we're working through a lot of legal/government hurdles so I can't really go into much detail but it involves the intersection of food and tv and shanghai. 3 things I love! It's going to be quite a while before it gets off the ground but it should be a lot of fun and worth sticking around in one place for.

Some other random things:

The two American journalists held in North Korea were recently sentenced to 12 years hard labor. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/world/asia/09north.html?_r=1&hp I hope the international community and North Korea are able to reach an agreement to the benefit of the journalists - the poor girls.

A friend recently launched a great website that I thought I'd share - www.nerdwallet.com

The site objectively compares hundreds of credit cards in terms of reward rates, promos, aprs, etc etc. There's plenty of sites out there that claim to do the same thing, but most directly push a few cards that pay huge affiliate fees and don't update their information very often. This site uses AJAX to scan the issuers for changes and updates daily, which keeps the information fresh and conveniently allows you to keep track of changes at the blog and on twitter. I think it's pretty useful for anyone looking for a new credit card in the US. At least for me, I've had the same cards since forever and never thought to look around for another one. It definitely pays off to look once in a while though coz there's some great reward cards out there there I never knew existed. That and for the people who actually keep a balance on their cards - you can find a bunch of cards with 0 APR promos to switch over and compare rates, etc.  He's still working on aesthetics and website design but the functionality is great so I have high expectations for this new launch!

Since most people on this site are in the industry or at least interested in it - thought I'd post this up. This should be quite an interesting shakeup. For those of you who watch Entourage, Ari Gold is loosely based on Ari Emanuel, the head of Endeavor. Art imitates life fairly well in this case as it seems to do in many...WALLSTREET's Gordon Gecko "persona" is said to be based on my old boss...and its admittedly eerie when the old boss stalks around the office with his suspenders, banker shirt and glossed back hair...can't imagine how odd it would be to work for Ari...poor Loyld.

From Variety:

Pact changes landscape for talent dealmaking

Leaders of WMA and Endeavor took a giant leap into showbiz's future on Monday, approving a merger that promises to change the landscape for the talent representation biz.

The combination of the 111-year-old WMA and 14-year-old Endeavor will create a mega-agency whose assets extend into virtually every aspect of the entertainment and media biz, with annual revenues estimated at $325 million. The tie-up, which is still subject to government approvals, also creates the largest competitor to CAA since that agency solidified its position as Hollywood's dominant tenpercentery more than two decades ago.

Leading WME Entertainment will be WMA chief exec Jim Wiatt as chairman, while Endeavor toppers Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell and WMA prexy Dave Wirtschafter will serve as co-CEOs.

The board of WMA and partners of Endeavor held separate votes on Monday to greenlight the merger. The news was confirmed by WMA and Endeavor in a brief press release. Insiders said the 27 Endeavor partners voted unanimously in favor of the deal. The vote among the 20 WMA board members was said to be 19 to 1.

Deal is expected to close within a few weeks, though it still requires approval from labor officials in California and New York, and it may face an antitrust review by the Justice Dept.

In addition to the challenges that all tenpercenteries are confronting at a time of great change in the entertainment biz, WME's leaders will undoubtedly face a formidable task in achieving harmony between the wildly different cultures and backgrounds of the two agencies.

WME will be governed by a nine-member board of directors that includes five from the WMA camp (Wiatt, Wirtschafter, publishing head Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, music department chief Peter Grosslight and motion picture department head John Fogelman) and four from Endeavor (Emanuel; Whitesell; Rick Rosen, who will run the combined agency's TV department; and Adam Venit).

The merger, for which William Morris and Endeavor had been in on-again, off-again talks for nearly a year, was driven by the fact that each agency has assets the other coveted.

WMA has a steady cash flow base primed by its lucrative music and touring department, which by itself generates an estimated $80 million annually; the legacy profits from decades of rich TV packaging fees on shows ranging from "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Dick Van Dyke Show" to later hits like "The Cosby Show," "Roseanne" and "Everybody Loves Raymond"; and its strong nonscripted-TV department, which rakes in fees on enduring hits including "Dancing With the Stars," "The Biggest Loser" and "Live With Regis and Kelly."

WMA also has the international presence that Endeavor lacks, with operations in London, Nashville, Miami and Shanghai.

Endeavor brings an aggressive team of agents and the stronger client base among film and TV actors, writers, directors and producers. As one WMA vet observed: "William Morris is cash-rich; Endeavor is client-rich. They need each other."

Endeavor has about 80 agents to more than 300 for WMA. A wave of layoffs on the WMA side is expected as the two companies merge operations over the next few months. By the end of next year, WME is expected to move into a building on Beverly Drive that WMA has been outfitting to its specifications. The new home will come with a heavy pricetag, like CAA's expansive new home in Century City. William Morris significantly padded its coffers with the sale last fall of its longtime headquarters and another BevHills building it owned, while Endeavor leases its current Wilshire Boulevard digs.

The jolt of the WMA-Endeavor merger is sure to unleash a frenzy of client and agent moving and shaking among the town's other tenpercenteries. The fallout began Monday ayem even before the votes were confirmed as WMA's David Lonner, who reps heavyweight multihyphenate J.J. Abrams, confirmed he would not be making the move to the new agency. Endeavor co-founder and partner Tom Strickler also announced his resignation, saying he plans to segue out of the talent rep biz entirely. And WMA's highly successful nonscripted TV chief, Mark Itkin, is said to be in play and possibly bound for CAA after being left off of the WME board.

The last time Wiatt and Emanuel had a professional working relationship was in 1995, when Wiatt was prexy of ICM and Emanuel bolted in the middle of the night -- with client files in tow -- with fellow ICMers Strickler, Rosen and David Greenblatt to form Endeavor.

Fourteen years later, nearly to the day (Endeavor was formed in early April 1995), the duo will be brought back under the same roof as the newly minted WME Entertainment.

Day-to-day operations of WME are expected to be overseen largely by Emanuel and Whitesell, as they have for the past few years together at Endeavor. Emanuel brings a reputation for entrepreneurial ingenuity, and the swagger that helped inspire Ari Gold, the alpha-agent played by Jeremy Piven on HBO's "Entourage," the inside-showbiz comedy that Emanuel helped put together on behalf of his client Mark Wahlberg.

While the combined agency will have a formidable roster and strong balance sheet, the long-term question is whether the new leaders of WME can make the new agency more than the sum of the parts of WMA and Endeavor.

Spurring the merger has been the increasingly difficult dealmaking environment for talent in Hollywood as studios retrench in the film and TV production that has been the bread and butter of tenpercenteries. The hope is that as a bigger entity, WME will have more clout in dealing with the majors.

Television packaging fees are not nearly as lucrative since networks and studios began their own merger frenzy in the mid-1990s. On the film side, the major studios have made first-dollar gross deals for actors an endangered species. Amid the economic downturn, the studios are hammering established quotes for writers, directors and actors. And just like everyone else in media, Hollywood is trying to figure out how to make money with new media.

All of these forces are pushing agencies to become more innovative and entrepreneurial in developing opportunities for their clients. Nowadays, tenpercenters say, the ideal client is one with the potential to become a brand unto himself, excelling in multiple disciplines.

Endeavor's growth has come largely from within -- and by opportunistically recruiting prominent agents from other shops -- during the past decade. But WMA has been down the road of acquisition before.

In 1992, the industry expected big things when WMA paid $25 million to acquire the fast-rising Triad Artists and turned control of the agency over to its head, Arnold Rifkin.

While Rifkin's tenure started off strong, he was unable to sign big movie clients and was ousted when it was discovered that he was angling for the top film job at Columbia Pictures. The Triad merger was a win for WMA, however: Sources said that the deal paid for itself just from the "Roseanne" package fee that went to Triad, and WMA also brought Triad's music division, which remains a revenue powerhouse for the agency.

In 1999, Wiatt provided the next spark when he left ICM to become WMA's prexy and co-CEO. He quickly brought over his longtime lieutenant Wirtschafter and more than 20 other ICM agents including George Freeman, Steve Dontanville and Todd Feldman. Those recruits gave WMA a much-needed infusion of top actor and director clients, but a decade later, few of those agents remain at WMA.

This time around, once the difficult process of melding the two companies' operations and pinkslipping hundreds of agents, assistants and support staff is over, the combined entity overall will be a leaner operation than WMA and Endeavor were as separate entities, insiders said.

Betty Brown (R-TX), in response to testimony by the Organization of Chinese Americans spokesperson Ramey Ko over how voter ID legislation may create problems for Asian immigrants because of name transliteration issues.

OK Ms. Brown, whatever makes it easier for YOU. Prime example of how Americans think the world revolves around them. Ah Texas. What a home state to be from.

February 2009 Spain Trip Part 5 - Cadiz

The primary reason we were in Cadiz was to partake in the Carnivale festivities on "Fat Tuesday". It was a good deal of fun but a bit different from what we expected. I was picturing more "masquerade ball" type celebrations a la Venice Carnivale, since Cadiz is supposed to have the largest "most authentic" celebration in Spain...but it was more like a crazy drunken Halloween street party...not that there's anything wrong with that. All in all, Cadiz was basically a resort town on the beach...partying at night, sleeping/beaching during the day. Didn't feel particularly cultural or quintessentially "Spanish" so we didn't take too many pictures. Besides, balancing the camera and plastic liquor cup after a few bottles of wine is quite a daunting task.

Main tourist site(s):

Streets of the Old Town @ Night for Carnivale - The streets of the old town were littered with street vendors, performers and temporary concert stands. Different Carnivale themed lighting designs were installed on each street so the twisty old streets are easily identifiable for tourists and the inebriated. Vendors all over the streets were selling alcoholic beverages at ridiculously low prices (1 euro beers, 3 euro bottles of wine, etc) and handing out plastic cups. Classy. Frat party flashbacks from college.

The Beach - Long stretch of beach that goes on forever. Restaurants and hotels line the beachfront. Felt very much like SoCal or as Stacy suggested "Virginia beach" - which is not nearly as complimentary.

More Nameless Cathedrals - It's Europe, they're everywhere.

Favorite meal(s):

Arte Serrano - Really good food, really good location on the boardwalk, really funny waiter and really cheap bottles of wine. The three of us ended up finishing 3 bottles of wine, 3 gigantic entrees, an appetizer and dessert for the grand total of 60euros. We also managed to eat for 3.5 hours without noticing...which made us quite late for the night's festivities.

Rural Roadside Restaurant - I didn't get a chance to find the name of this restaurant but we stopped here for brunch the morning after going out when we were heading out of Cadiz because honestly, we were all kind of hungover and the rural driving upset the stomach. This was a miraculous find though - the "soggy rice", as it was called on the menu, totally hit the spot. It was like a luxurious seafood congee in a tomato/bell pepper base.

Favorite drink(s)/bar(s):

Street Vendors - "Nuff said. See above.

Manzanilla - We were introduced to this drink by a local Spaniard who described it as "tasting like sake" so we are guaranteed to like it. Interesting. I guess because we were the only 3 asian people in all of Cadiz that night, he can't really be blamed for the broad assumption. It's not exactly a multiethnic city. He was on point though, manzanilla does tastes vaguely like fizzy sake...not entirely unpleasant but it would not be my first choice of drink for sure. Wikipedia says that Manzanzilla "is a variety of fino sherry made around the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. In Spanish, chamomile tea is called "manzanilla", and thus this wine gets the name because the wine's flavour is said to be reminiscent of such tea."

Quirky random happenings:

3 Cups of Chicken Soup - At one of the street alcohol vendors, we saw a sign for "**** valdo - 1euro", which we assumed was some kind of shot. Mystery shot, awesome, our sense of adventure necessitated that we try whatever this 1euro shot was. Funny thing is, when we were given our three tiny cups and took a sip...it was chicken soup! What an odd thing to sell with liquor. Pretty darn tasty surprise at 3am though.

Used a "Portapotty" for the First Time in My Life  - I'm not kidding, I've never used one of these before. In fact, I am crazy about needing clean spacious restroom facilities so I RARELY use the restroom when I'm not at home or in a hotel. Fairly amazing for how much I travel. That said, it's very hard to find a clean restroom in the middle of a giant city wide street festival and impossible to not use the restroom after consuming vast quantities of alcoholic beverages. Alas, I had to brave one of the portapotty's lining the streets for the festival. Fortunately, they weren't as gross as I would have imagined. Unfortunately, Tim being the gentleman that he is, decided to shake my stall vigorously while I was in it to scare the beejeesus out of me. I vow revenge.  

Hitchhiked a Ride Back to the Hotel From a Random Stranger - We couldn't find a taxi back to the hotel zone after all the partying so we accepted a ride from a random stranger who stopped to pick us up on his way home out of pity...luckily this story doesn't end in our murders somewhere in rural Spain and we made it back to the hotel in one piece. What a nice man! 

Goodbye Cadiz! Time for a hot shower and some Advil.