jorge.cortell.net

On May 13th, on my way to a friend’s apartment, we stumbled upon the set of Ben Stiller’s new movie right outside the 125th St. subway exit. They were filming in the middle of the street. What struck me the most was that one of the façades of the building had been completely redone (cast, cement, wood, paint… it looked absolutely real and solid) for the film.

Really? No building façade will do? They had to build a complete new one?

That is exactly what is wrong with the film industry. It’s an industry. Mr. Stiller is a star, and he does not have time to move around. Efficiency over cost. It doesn’t matter how much it costs, it must be done this way, on this day. The contract. The producers. Promotion. Deadlines…

Of course movies end up costing millions of dollars. And they could cost billions if there was such a return.

It’s a formula. An industry. Predictable (or so they like to think and try) returns. Which needs predictable environments. No unions. No imagination. No technology innovations. No criticism. No tendencies. No art. No nothing but block buster after block buster. 

Have you noticed how some “friends” make movie after movie together? Do you think it is because they have “chemistry”?

Then these people meet and splurge and demand that they be “defended” because they “create jobs”. Just like any criminal organization, or political party, or  any other group involved in monetary exchange.

We have to suffer copyright and DRM restrictions on our rights and access to culture so they can create mostly trash and force illegal distribution budling deals. We have to suffer fallacious ads in the subway saying “Film production generates $400 million in tax revenues for NY, with equals to the salary of thousands of firefighters” while they hide the fact that the film industry received $420 million tax “incentives” in New York.

And that is how the industry chokes (itself). Concentrating on money, revenue and return, and demanding “protection”, instead of offering innovation, access and quality.

After a work meeting (and seeing a colorful piano, being fine tuned, in a public space) 

Meeting at Columbia University Biomedical Research Center (@ Mary Woodward Lasker Center) 4sq.com/182ZNCw

— Jorge Cortell (@jorgecortell) June 5, 2013

I took the opportunity to visit Columbia University (it was about time).

The first building I enter is called “The Library at Columbia University”. But, alas, is not a library!

It ceased to be a library in the late 30s, and now happens to be the Administrative Offices. Across the lawn, where students and visitors were chilling out and enjoying the sunny day, I find one of the many libraries:

I’m at Butler Library – Columbia University (New York, NY) 4sq.com/10Z9fPf

— Jorge Cortell (@jorgecortell) June 5, 2013

After touring a few more buildings, I took the red line home. But I know I will be back.

Meaning to go to a Tibetan restaurant which happened to be closed Memorial Day, we ended up in Robataya NY (sister of the great Robatoya Roppongi Hills, Tokyo). Easily one of the finest Japanese restaurants in the city. Cute, fun and delicious.

May 21st (sorry that is taking me so long to write posts, but unlike what this blog seems to convey, I also do work. A lot) I was invited to a Council Of Protocol Executives event India House, New York.

It was a wonderful mix of C-level executives from all kinds of industries (healthcare, advertising, travel, banking…). A great networking opportunity, with delicious food (seafood risotto, truffle and porcini ricotta, fried oysters, choclate covered strawberries…).

The India House itself is a little run down, and not my style. But if you want an uncrowded cozy and cute little bar in the financial district, do not miss their Blue Bar.

(Photo of a Paella cooked by my friend Paul in his new apartment in the UWS, New York)

My friends and family in Valencia have serious doubts that one can eat in the USA as well as in Spain.

Granted, Spain is a foodie’s paradise (by the way, amazing how many of the top 50 restaurants in the world I have had the pleasure to try, the latest one being Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in London thanks to Stephanie). But this little post goes to show that in New York (not exactly “representative of the whole USA”) one can eat wonderfully well without the need to have a table at Eleven Madison Park, Per Se or Le Bernardin.

The availability of fresh food (thank you, Hawaiian Airlines for the awesome fish you bring to Chelsea Market daily) and ingredients from all over the world (Sunrise Mart, next to my office in SoHo is where I get my Japanese dashi, white miso, wakame seaweeds, furikake, mochi, calpico… but there are Korean, Indian, Puerto Rican, and all kinds of markets around) make it very easy to cook anything you or your partner wish and are capable of.

And then, of course, you have an endless take out and delivery service options from hundreds of restaurants (ethnic, vegan, macrobiotic… you name it, we have it and they will deliver it in half an hour or less for free). Even the online groceries services work pretty amazingly well. 

Friday May 17th I took the day to meet some of the interesting tech companies present in New York. There are over 1,200 tech companies in NY (including CodeAcademy, KickStarter, Foursquare, MakerBot, ZocDoc, Guilt, AppNexus, Tumblr, Etsy, KickStarter, Automatic… and mine!), most between the Flat Iron and SoHo areas of Manhattan (Silicon ALley). So I chose a few that, for one reason or another, I was interested in meeting and talk to their founders.

• First I went to Harvest. Had a sandwich and some water while Danny Wen told me how they are a self-funded company (finally someone who is not living out of “raised capital” while diluting their ownership). Interesting and successful, if one-product, company. Nice loft office, piano included. Not “too cool”, not “too cold”.
• Since I had a bit of extra time, I walked to Animoto. Talk about “too cool for school”. Some very nice touches, but, really 6 guitars, 2 keyboards, fussball, XBox… (then again, at our NY office we have ping-pong, basketball, and hammocks; and at our Spain office we have ping-pong, and a PlayStation). I use their very nice service, and their “themed meeting rooms” (particularly MarioLand) are great. But the need to prove goofiness, and indie, and gamify, and storify, and… you get the point. Too much. Forced. Not believable. Trying too hard (the PR story about this guy and his wedding was just unnecessary, absurd and unrelated).
• On my way to the next meeting I had to do a teleconference with Uruguay, and another one with Peru, so I walked again (when will we have cell coverage in the subway?).
• Second Market was next. Nice design for a financial services company. Strange the number of desks and computers without anyone using them. And a surprisingly high number of young Jewish males wearing their kipa working there. I thought it might be interesting but I realized neither the service nor the technology was of too much interest to me.
• Then I went to one I really wanted to see: Artsy (formerly Art.sy, now Artsy.net). The best views of all of the offices I visited. Such amazing views that somebody wrote in FourSquare “If I had those views I would not get any work done” and somebody else replied “I have those views and I don’t get any work done!”. I liked their office, their attitude, and their technology (Open Source). 
• My last stop (actually, I went back to Harvest to ask a question to their tech support director, but his answer is definitely not worth blogging about) was HookLoop, the $500 million Ny bet of Infor on app refresh. Huge company. Really huge. Awesome mentality (eyecandy like I like it). Had a nice conversation with Dan (PR Director) at the CEO’s desk. Found some synergies. Will continue the talk with one of their VPs hopefully next week.

26,605 steps later (according to the app in my phone that tracks my movements), I got back home. Exhausted, but exhilarated. I love Silicon Alley.

On Sunday, after returning to New York from the inaugural cruise, we went to Central Park to spend the afternoon and enjoy Japan Day!

Tents with huge lines to get free Japanese food (udon, okonomiyaki, gyozas, panda chocolate snacks, tea…), activities (calligraphy, kimonos, origami, yoyo-fishing…) and performances (karate, taiko…), all very well organized and full of mostly Japanese people in a very fun and nice event.

There were even so many cosplayers that it reminded me of Jing?bashi or Yoyogi park!!

Tanoshii!! ^_^

All things must come to an end, so today we sadly had to disembark. After a nice breakfast and a last stroll through the ship, we disembarked very fast and easily, and in a few minutes we were back home in Chelsea (after going through the most absurd and disorganized taxi system I have seen in this country).

What’s my verdict? It is an exceptionally nice ship for a mass market, even considering its gigantic size.

For a much more detailed and comprehensive review, go to Stephanie’s Travels.

In exactly a month, the next cruise: Alaska with Regent cruise line (now, that’s going to be awesome!).

Day 2 of our cruise started waking up to the sound of the waves and with a buffet breakfast at Garden Café, which we took in an outside table.

The day was fully packed of activities, and given my terrible memory, I’m sure I would have forgotten some of them by now. But thanks to the fact that the cruise line gave us access to the net (although only for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram), I was able to tweet my activities, and then use the TL to remember them easier.

The morning had all kinds of fun activities waiting for me. While Stephanie had a dance class with the Rockettes, I played some basketball (first time in 18 years, since I was forced to retire from professional basketball due to knee injuries) on deck 16th, then went rock-climbing (the spotter gave me all the necessary gear and told me to go to the hardest course, but… challenge accepted and conquered!) next to the bungee zip line, and ended the afternoon in the videogame arcade playing all kinds of games (finally had a chance to try Guitar Hero!).

We had a late lunch at Shanghai’s Noodle Bar with a couple of travel executives, and visited more parts of the ship, like the spa, the private area (The Haven) and the Studio Lounge.

Then we had an early dinner with show: The Cirque Dreams and Dinner Jungle Fantasy. One of 3 Broadway show on board. What a phenomenal show! Apart from the typical Cirque du Soleil acts (rope acrobatics, etc), the fast changing act, along with the contortionist were truly amazing. And the food was fairly good, actually.

After that we went to The Second City show at Headliners Comedy Club. Tremendously funny (yes, I am “Mainstream Impaired” too ) and witty, they performed an improv session that was indeed very very funny.

While we did go into the Ice Bar (yes, a bar fully made out of ice, in the middle of the Ocean) after the comedy show, it was way too cold to remain there for too long (even with the provided parkas), so we left and went to see Burn the Floor and Slam Allen again, who did amazing versions of Howlin’ Wolf, Ray Charles, and Prince.

The crazy way to end the night was the “Awesome 80′s Dance Party”. I know some of the people on the dance floor were entertainment crew from the ship… but not all of them! And there were many people totally dressed as if it was the dreaded 80′s, including us! (oh, well, when you don’t have a reputation to take care of, it is easy to admit such sins ).

We were invited to board the Norwegian Breakaway inaugural cruise last Friday. A huge (146,600 tones and 1,062 feet for 4,000 passengers and 1,595 crew) and brand new ship.

It was a short inaugural cruise, 100 miles into the Atlantic Ocean, for VIPs (the bankers that financed the construction of the ship, Norwegian Cruise Lines executives, journalists, “star” travel agents… even Mayor Bloomberg). Many well known people aboard: artist Peter Max, who designed the hull and was signing posters, Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian (with his Ocean Blue restaurant as one of the 27 the ship has)… As we went through the very fast and easy boarding procedure at Pier 88, even President Obama flew over the ship in his helicopter!

It was very nice of Norwegian Cruise Lines to also invite 150 New York-area mothers with their kids (today is Mothers Day in the USA) who had been affected by Hurricane Sandy. 

On day 1 (Friday) we toured the ship, and had dinner with an NCL rep. and a few other people (like a former Broadway actor and producer and his partner, who will be starring in Spamalot in New Jersey’s SmilingRhino Theater next June).

After the delicious dinner (polenta, lobster, bread pudding…) at the Savor Restaurant, we had a stage side table to see the Rockettes and “Burn the floor” at the Manhattan Room.

As if that was not enough for a night, we also enjoyed the great performance by Slam Allen Band at the Fat Cats Jazz & Blues Club.

The night finally ended in the Mid-ship State Balcony room, falling to sleep on a very large and comfortable bed, to the very gentle rocking of a sailing ship.