this is sippey.com

I think Charlie Schick has Twittered about this, but as I get more and more SMS traffic, it would be great if my phone supported multiple vibrate patterns, a la ringtones.  (I always have my phone on vibrate, because in I have an impossible time actually hearing my phone ring.  Either I’m getting older (speak up, sonny) or I’m deliberately ignoring incoming calls.)

Here’s what I want.

• Bzzt == twitter or other automated SMS.
• Bzzt bzzt == SMS from an actual human.
• Bzzt bzzt bzzt == phone call.
• Special pattern of bzzt’s == phone call from someone special

Couldn’t be that hard, could it?

Lee Gomes, in his “Portals” column in the WSJ, covers the “sanitized” blogging that’s happening on the presidential sites.  Campaign blogs are nothing new, of course, but I think Gomes touches on what could end up being the meta-theme of politics on the web for ‘08:  effective cross-channel marketing that leverages the web for what it’s good for.

These couple of paragraphs caught my attention…

As candidates deal with the Web, they will start to learn that many Web users have an extremely high opinion of themselves and the online lifestyle they are now leading. Last week, Joe Biden responded via a Webcam to a question posed to him via YouTube. The response was called “a milestone in presidential politics” by one blogger, as though it marked the first time a candidate had ever been asked a question by a citizen.

Then again, Sen. Biden’s answer was one minute and 47 seconds long, which is the length of the average long report on a nightly newscast. The question involved the sorts of sacrifices Americans should be called on to make. The answer from the senator mentioned energy conservation and the war in Iraq. Being able to watch a candidate talk about an issue for a whole two minutes unfortunately has been a luxury in the U.S., though the Internet is in the process of changing that.

The soundbite goes to TV, the spin goes to print, the “conversation” goes to talk radio, the in-depth stuff goes to the web…but obviously not on the front page.  Front page blogs will almost by definition be sanitized; that’s where the message of the day (and the enthusiastic reaction of the crowd) gets delivered. But the web gives candidates the ability to go deeper with voters, even if our expectations have been degraded to such a point where 1 min 47 seconds is considered “deeper.”

So if this is really is all about cross-channel marketing and consumer engagement, then here’s a thought experiment: abc.com/lost is to hansofoundation.org as barackobama.com is to ****.

The high / low culture conversation continues with two recently interesting bits of media.  First, if you haven’t been directed there already, the WashPo piece on hiring Joshua Bell to play in the Metro is an incredible read.

He was, in short, art without a frame. Which, it turns out, may have a lot to do with what happened – or, more precisely, what didn’t happen – on January 12.

From art without a frame to art with a massive frame, Peter Gelb, the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in NY was on Charlie Rose this past Friday night.  He talked about the direction of the Met, the simulcasts they’re doing into movie theaters around the world, and the demographics of the opera crowd.  (To very roughly summarize, five years ago the average age of the Met opera goer was 60.  It’s now 65.  Gelb clearly has his work cut out for him.)  You can watch the interview on Google Video; it’s segment three so you’ll have to fast forward a bit.  If you’re at all interested in the arts business, it’s worth the time.

Sol LeWitt died yesterday at the age of 78.  From Michael Kimmelman’s obit at the Times:

His work — sculptures of white cubes, or drawings of geometric patterns, or splashes of paint like Rorschach patterns — tested a viewer’s psychological and visual flexibility. See a line. See that it can be straight, thin, broken, curved, soft, angled or thick. Enjoy the differences. The test was not hard to pass if your eyes and mind were open, which was the message of Mr. LeWitt’s art.

LeWitt, probably more than anyone else, changed the way I thought about art.  A spit bite aquatint of his from Crown Point Press was a gift from my wife back when we first started dating; it’s one of the most cherished things in our home.

Is this a phrase the kids are using?

Via Serious Eats, this Kerry Miller Business Week piece on San Francisco’s Amazing Food Wine Company’s new wine brand, “Wine That Loves,” which labels bottles by the food they should be paired with.  Think “Wine That Loves Pasta with Tomato Sauce.”

A little Googling turned up a great post on Wine That Loves at Brand Autopsy, with this comment from Paul Williams of Idea Sandbox:

What’s ballsy is that Amazing Food Wine is willing to let these particular wines stand for only one thing (pizza for one, chicken for the other). Most marketers would want to put the 20-items that their product pairs with… “Geez, aren’t we leaving money on the table if people only buy the ‘pizza wine?’ when they have pizza?”

Would love to hear what our friends down at Vintage Berkeley think of this…

But Anil and I had fun doing the “ten years of blogging” interview thing over on the Six Apart News blog.  (He’s doing a series of these posts – check out the ones already up on Dave Winer and Leslie Harpold. I’m in good company.)

Kudos to Paul Ford for the absolutely astounding revamp of Harpers.org.