Half Moon Bay Summer Retreat

Have a stack of files on my desk taller than a golf club. How do I know this? Because there's a golf club (not mine of course) next to my desk. Our derivatives group has been scrambling to prepare for next week's audit by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the federal bank regulator, and it's been an ongoing battle with paper these past few days. The paper is winning at the moment. What can I say? I love audits like the plague. Thankfully, we received our long anticipated invitations to the Financial Derivatives Group Summer Retreat at the Ritz-Carlton Resort & Spa at Half Moon Bay in September. Woohoo! A luxury hotel stay and great food, all at Wells Fargo's expense. Almost makes up for the audit. Last year's event was awesome. A catered outdoor dinner of fresh lobster, prime rib, and wine aplenty, out near the 18th green with the Pacific Ocean cresting beneath us as we mingled atop the high cliffs. We even had a brief impromptu conversation with Frankie Andreu, Lance Armstrong's former captain on the US Postal Service cycling team and currently an Outdoor Life Network reporter covering the Tour de France. The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay rocks.

Sullivan Sisters Summer Shindig

Received an invite from the Sullivan sisters to a large gathering they are organizing this week at the Red Room and Le Colonial to celebrate the 18th birthday of the Olsen twins. They are too funny. Given the roster of invitees, it should be a real spectacle. Ken and Michelle are always good for some laughs.

The Stanford Theatre

Received the summer film schedule for the Stanford Theatre in the mail yesterday. Usually not keen about anything with "Stanford" in its name, let alone anything located in the heart of University Avenue in Shallow Alto, this old fashioned movie house is one notable exception. Founded back in the 1920's and restored not too long ago by David Packard, Jr. (son of the Hewlett-Packard founder), the theater epitomizes the plush, opulent cinemas that became the cultural centers of most American towns during the glory days of movie watching. Yes, the seats are red mohair, the authentic Wurlitzer plays before every showing, and the heavy curtain rises at the start of the film. Very cool. As a tribute to former President Ronald Reagan, the Stanford Theatre is including screenings of ten of his previous films, including Bedtime for Bonzo, on its summer roster. Personally, I'm looking forward to the screenings of Roman Holiday, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and Jason and the Argonauts. They are also screening Picnic, the William Holden/Kim Novak film from the 1950's, best known for having been used by one clever theater operator to sell more beverages in his concession stand. The phrase "Drink Coke" was spliced into various frames creating a repeated subliminal message. Apparently, sales of soda shot through the roof. Given Packard's affiliations with the theater and his alma mater, I wouldn't be surprised if the same techniques were used for the messages "Buy H-P" or "Go Stanford, Beat Cal".

Major Deal in the Offing for Oracle?

The much-publicized civil antitrust case filed by the Justice Department against Oracle in its bid to takeover rival Peoplesoft came to a close recently in a San Francisco federal courtroom. A decision is expected in the next few weeks. The trial has had its newsworthy moments including the revelation that Microsoft had been secretly negotiating with SAP for entry into the same market space, a revelation that sent ripples through the global equities markets. And to add drama to the proceedings, the courtroom battle included a backdrop of personal feuding (Craig Conway, founder and CEO of Peoplesoft, was once a direct report to Larry Ellison at Oracle) and intense regional competition (the City of Pleasanton and its 8,000+ Peoplesoft employees versus the City of Redwood City and its 30,000+ Oracle employees and hordes of partner companies). The case has also been noteworthy for another reason, corporate weblogging. Gary Reback, legal counsel at Peoplesoft and a very well-known lawyer in Silicon Valley, has been sitting in on the trial and has been blogging about the case to Peoplesoft's employees and investors (link here). This is one of the first known cases of a corporation using (and sponsoring) weblogging to further its interests. God help us. Weblog as PR and marketing tool? This morning, Oracle announced the hiring of Harold You as Chief Financial Officer, succeeding Jeff Henley, who served in that role for more than thirteen years and was recently promoted to Chairman of the Board. Interesting development, not just because You is Korean-American, but because his primary expertise is in investment banking, having served in senior corporate finance positions at Morgan Stanley, Salomon, and Lehman. His most recent position was as CFO of Accenture (Andersen Consulting), but it's his i-banking experience that Ellison is probably tapping now that the government's antitrust case is over. Whether that means a renewed deal for Peoplesoft or bids for other takeover candidates has yet to be seen. But it's clearly no accident Ellison hired a former i-banker as financial right-hand man the week after the end of the antitrust trial.

Would You Like Kimchi or Chutney With That Burger?

Viewed the trailer for the film, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, a new comedy set to release in a couple of weeks (link here). It was so off-the-top absurd that I did a double-take. A twenty-something Korean-American (John Cho) and Indian-American (Kal Penn) tandem, after having partaken of some "brownies" (nudge nudge, wink wink), set out onto the New Jersey roads in search of "the perfect meal", i.e., White Castle Burgers. From the premise of the movie, it sounded more like the writer, director, and producer were the ones sampling the brownies. In the spirit of the American Pie series (in which Cho was a notable cast member), the duo get themselves into a slew of ridiculous predicaments. Kumar (Penn) is the Bing Crosby on this particular road trip while Harold (Cho) plays the Bob Hope foil. There's a number of cameo appearances including one by Neil Patrick-Harris, aka "Doogie Howser, M.D.", the very first "weblogger" of our generation. Funny the film used the term, "the perfect meal". I remember first hearing it while taking the CalTrain from Santa Clara back to Burlingame last fall. A half-inebriated Stanford student was screaming into his cellphone, apparently to his buddy who was flying in from the East Coast, "Yeh, dude, we are so on for 'the perfect meal'. Soon as you hop off the plane, dude, we are there." Took another ten minutes and five "dudes" to realize what he meant by "the perfect meal". One In-and-Out Double Decker with fries and shake followed up by a half dozen Krispy Kreme glazed donuts and coffee. Apparently, "the perfect meal" is code for a high calorie, artery-clogging fast food binge-fest appropriately following an appetite-inducing session of "brownie" smoking. Lovely. Reefer notwithstanding, I'm looking forward to seeing the movie. The trailers are hilarious.

Great Ad

Love watching the latest Nike commercial with Lance Armstrong cycling through various American landscapes (link here). Even more so because the last segment of the ad was filmed directly in front of my office building in the San Francisco Financial District. Lance rides down Kearny Street as the camera pans in parallel one street below on Montgomery Street. The signs for Palio and Henry's, both eateries around the corner from my building on Sacramento Street, are clearly visible. Very cool.