jjj jennifer j johnson

On Hack and Hacking

Hack.

To me, the journalist, it meant a reporter that wasn't really a writer. A few sales short of a fourth estate. That kind of thing.

To me, a media-influenced adolescent trying to lose her ingenue-ity, it meant the girl who flew high in the Charlie perfume ads, but had her wings clipped as an angel. (Try to figure that reference, youngun's.)

Hacked.

It was being ticked off (a la Beetle Bailey's "Sarge"), sweating one's way through a jungle with a machete, or being possessed by the thin perfume girl who later befell a wing-ectomy.

I now would never think of those definitions, first-off.

I have been hacked!

Apologies to those of you subscribing to my RSS feed or searching my post this morning--from either FaceBook or my website (www.JJJslc.com).

What was, I thought, a fairly good recap of a film I saw last night--"Money-Driven Machine," some of my own thoughts re: current health-care situation, and an anecdote (I know, ALWAYS an anecdote with jjj!) is now...

HACKED!

GONE!

ETHER-MACHETE'D!

WING-ECTOMIED!

At first, Sarge'd out, to be sure. I had spent about 2 1/2 hours writing the thing, and liked it. Then I spent time connecting with tech support @ www.TypePad.com (they are ON the motha and are searching things out to find out whatup!). I even checked in with my children, to make sure they weren't messin' with me. I did not TOUCH anything on my blog, to try to help preserve anything the tech-forensics squad would need. (It IS Tuesday night, after all.)

Sarge'd out...

But I went for a wonderful walk, late-night, just-now, wind my friend, cool my companion. And things changed: It is, really, a compliment to be hacked. To be read. To be loved and hated. Indifference is my enemy, and for the hacker to write "false" about my comments? Well, it meant that I meant something.

Being hacked is a compliment.

Just as being asked by the most beautiful girl on a Mexican vacation at Club Med to not go after a certain guy is a compliment.

Just as having some guy in Draper (probably a Republican!) jack my election sign look and feel is... a compliment. (Have you seen his signs? Well, they're green! WIth a big white letter on 'em! I will try to post a pic, sometime.)

Just as having someone plagiarize writing and pass it off as his own is... a compliment.

I meant something.

There’s a fragrance that’s here today, and they call it

Char-lie.

A different fragrance that thinks your way, and they call it

Char-lie.

Kinda fresh, kinda now!

Charlie.

Kinda free, kinda WOW!

Char-lie.

The kind of fragrance that’s gonna stay, and they call it

Char-lie.

NOTE: If, perchance, you subscribed to this morning's blog and HAVE IT--in your "in" or "deleted" or G-forbid, your "junk" box, will you please-oh-please-oh-please FORWARD it to me--jjj@JJJslc.com

GREEN City, SAFE City: Lessons from 'I, Robot' on the Simple Concept of Putting the 'Walk' into 'Sidewalk'

"You are the dumb-est smart person I know."

It's what Will Smith's character, Del Spooner, says to Bridget Moynahan's stoic-hot Dr. Susan Calvin in one of my favorite movies, I, Robot.

I can be a dumbest smart person.

You decide if I am also Calvin's in-your-face response back at Smith: "You are the dumbest dumb person I know."

"Dumb" is not always bad. And dumb, I submit, should, be not be dealt with in a Spooner/Smith m.o.; "dumb" should be dealt with gently, with compassion. Compassion is not dumb or smart. Just good.

Saturday morning, whilst walking Mandy (for those keeping track? Our charge of her was to have first ended July; then October; now? January! Looks like my brother's stay in the UK is in-def-i-nite! Yay for us in continuing to house this hound!)... SAT-URDAY MORNING, whilst walking Mandy, I decided to do more than stroll our area's fetching sidewalks and venture beyond. We started at 11th Avenue and I Street, made our way to A, then veered North, into the semi-wild.

As we were rounding the corner? Saw a thirty-something couple, running up the same hill I was going to be descending. As I embarked on what my WHS XC son calls "The Horse Shoe" portion of the winding route to City Creek Canyon, I thought to myself of the attractive, fit, hip couple with kid--"Living the dream!" and decided to bark that out to them, when I realized I actually knew the trio.

[The couple: Kristin White Berry and Jason Berry, whom I had never met until last month, when they attended a Green Drinks event I hosted, and then, just last week, when I happened upon Vice President Kristin (the only woman with a window office at Sentry Financial). Kristin, running UPHILL and easily conversing, tells me it is good to see me out. (She knows of my recovering, post-campaign status.) Husband Jason, ever pleasant, ever wise, pushed the baby carriage. Good man. Admit to not knowing baby's name. :( ]

I continued along my way, on the "right" side of the "two-laned" street.

WIthin seconds, I met Willamarie Huelskamp and partner Ira Rubinfeld. Having known of her for years, (we both teach Yoga) and of her art renown, and having almost-known him for years longer (we both sweated vigorously and regularly @ Metro Sports Mall), I only recently connected their dots during my campaign, at an event in Park City: We all were attending the Burner-oriented tribute to All Hallows--SummerWeen. It was only then that I knew of my 11th Avenue neighbors being a couple; I saw Ira days later, for the first time in my 16 years in The Ave's, tending to a lawn.

Well, Saturday morn, I was the dumbest smart neighbor.

As the pair came into view, coming uphill and chatting, Ira's hands gesturing generously, I called out to them, indicating that there surely must be some "big ideas generating over there." (I was, again, on the "right" side of the "two-laned" road.) Ira, somehow, pointed out the allowance of the ped/biking lane, and that I was not in it, inviting me to come to the right side. Willamarie pointed out the painted images on the asphalt, indicating the ped-velo-friendly sphere.

Usually, when I traverse the area, it is late late at night, or early early a.m., or a bridge of both; as such, zero cars or perceptible life forms encounter me down or up. Although I have driven that stretch and encountered others walking/riding to the left and know it to not be drive-able from the other direction, I somehow never interpreted that data to me and my new-found walking habits with this dog-charge. I also don't usually look down.

The dumbest dumb neighbor.

Dealt with in kindness.

On the return walk, back up on 11th Avenue now, in encountering a few squares of dug-up concrete sidewalk and enjoying the yielding earth as opposed to the body-jarring concrete, the dumbest smart neigbor wonders if we couldn't leverage some material other than ped-harsh, resource-intensive (to pour, to maintain) concrete and heat-island-inducing, unattractive asphalt for our sidewalks. Could we "go pervious" for much of our traditional sidewalk space in The Avenues? The idea rings truer yet when I am met with some paving stones serving as routes to and from the curb and sidewalk at the visual threshold of a well-tended home in the mid-Avenues. (I will not "out" the property with an address, for fear of exposing the place to ordinance violation!)

When I embarked on my Summer of 2009 run for Salt Lake City Council, I met with Salt Lake County Mayor and Avenues resident Peter Corroon. His number-one issue? The walkability of The Avenues. Specifically? Redressing the poor shape of many of our sidewalks. I agreed it to be a top priority. But what about leapfrogging this situation with a solution both addressing the current problems of corrections/maintainability and the bigger-picture notions of not just green, but joy--SO very much nicer to walk on surfaces other than harsh concrete.

I understand that yesterday's sidewalks and today's (cities in Alabama have been hosting pervious concrete since 2004) permeable walks host more than pedestrians: Baby carriages (like that yielded with grace by the happenin' White family), wheel chairs, lil' red wagons, wheelbarrows, and the like rely on traverse-ability of those parallel road arteries. But why not look to find surfaces that are not only more foot-friendly, but are inherently more environmental in terms of minimizing heat island-effects as well as water runoff. Why not... go green and put the walk into sidewalk?

I really like the recommendations posted by eco-landscape architects County Landscape and Design out of Santa Barbara, Calif. While some notions may strike as a bit over-the-top, when ingested with a more forward-thinking look at what our increasingly more walk-able, bike-able, dog-able area might look like? A less car-centric, more community-centric neighborhood? Well, take a whirl:

1. ALTERNATIVES TO IMPERMEABLE PAVING: Where paving is required, mandate the use of permeable materials and systems.

2. PERMEABLE STREETS: Repave streets with pervious concrete or other permeable materials. (Florida/deep South, Great Britain, elsewhere)

3. PERMEABLE SIDEWALKS: Use pervious concrete or other permeable material for construction and reconstruction of sidewalks.

4. NATURAL SIDEWALKS: Where practical, use natural materials like decomposed granite or soil paving for sidewalks. The city of Paris, France successfully uses loose and pervious materials extensively in public rights of way. Many communities in the United States and all over the world have no problem with safe, pervious, natural public paths. If decomposed granite paths are good enough for Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens, then why aren’t they good enough for other pedestrian uses?

5. SIDEWALK REDUCTION PROGRAM: Evaluate the necessity for sidewalks, remove existing sidewalks where practical, and minimizing the construction of new sidewalks. Install sidewalks on one side of the street only.

6. ROOT-FRIENDLY PAVING: Trees offer many advantages to residents and the environment. Sidewalks, roads, foundations and other urban infrastructure are detrimental to the root systems and overall health of trees and other plants. Santa Barbara is a Tree City USA, but like all cities it damages its urban forest through unwise paving techniques. Develop a plan for improved methods of caring for tree root zones, including engineered or structural soils beneath city sidewalks and streets, "continuous trench" and "root path trench" methods of rootzone enhancement, and pervious paving techniques.

7. NON-TOXIC SEAL COATING: Develop and mandate the use of pavement maintenance materials that do not leach toxic waste.

The dumbest smart person?

The dumbest dumb person?

Or just a neighbor who cares about a Green City, Smart City, Hip City, Safe City?

I can be called any of the above by Will Smith. The rest of you? Please choose option C or let me know other thoughts. Or, choose option C AND let me know other thoughts.

(The source for the Santa Barbara ideas can be found @ http://www.owendell.com/watershed2.html)

GREEN City Contrasted by A Big Yellow Taxi: SLC's PARKing Day 2009 Opens Up and Illustrates "Open Space" in Downtown

Just yesterday, my very creative boy was showing me his three tape-wrapped fingers--adorned in Spy vs. Spy-like, black, white, and black again.

The first black finger had dark-side superpowers; The archetypal white middle finger, good powers; and the second black index finger had the ability to reverse actions of the first or second finger. To restore.

Those of us spending time from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Friday on Salt Lake City's Main Street by the Boston and Newhouse buildings, were able to enjoy an index-finger like transformation. A transformation that Joni Mitchell would like: A three-hour restoration of some parking stalls to the good part of the phrase--A park!

A tribute to open space (and to the landscape architecture/urban planning industry), PARK(ing) Day is an annual, one-day global event where artists, activists and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into temporary public parks.

Even though I had read about the concept, on FaceBook, seeing it, live, was really quite a different matter. Just looking at the parking space re-done--or, per my son's magic fingers' powers, un-done--really brings home the concept of just what we are missing with so very much pavement around us.

It was refreshing, yesterday--

To just sit--on grass, versus concrete.

To just see--black-eyed susans and tall grasses, versus in-progress construction eyesores.

To just smell--fresh sod being the first arrival to the nose, versus the car-altered air.

To just enjoy a community made new around the change.

I met a still-new FaceBook friend live for the first time, connected more formally with a woman who had attended a Green Drinks party at my house just a few weeks ago, synched with an interesting budding entrepreneur who has worked in some similar circles as I; was introduced to a local artist whose spouse designs and builds the portable adirondack furniture adorning the PARK strip; and met the Salt Lake City landscape architect who  literally put our City on the global map for yesterday's PARK(ing) Day. (Check out http://my.parkingday.org/ for more information on the concept.

Mark Puddy is his name, the Salt Lake City landscape architect working for IBI who, literally, put not just Salt Lake City, but, according to the D-News,the entire Intermountain West on the map with yesterday's PARK strip on Main Street. He is nonchalant about his contribution, minimizing the work required, but noting he has done this for three years in a row.

I like that his last name is "puddy." Makes me wonder what the guy could do with a raw canvas. Or, even better, what he could do with parts of our very un-raw canvas, our concrete jungle.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum
And then they charged all the people twenty-five bucks just to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

She (Joni) and later, they, (Counting Crows), go on to mention the song's title event--the "Big Yellow Taxi" taking a lover away.

Curious to me, how very circular the world is. Within the past two weeks, surrounding not a love life, but a political one, a big yellow taxi was to potentially play a significant role with me. I didn't have to invoke the index finger to restore...


http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705331017/Park-defies-meaning-of-parking-space.html?linkTrack=rss-30

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/content/mobile/705331017/Temporary-minipark-livens-Main-Street-in-SL.html

http://www.deseretnews.com/user/comments/705331017/Temporary-minipark-livens-Main-Street-in-SL.html

Liquid J's: Underneath The Water

Mick and the boys had it right "You Can't Al-ways Get What You W-a-n-t."

And, often you shouldn't.

Evan Twede, a strategic advisor to my campaign, used to play this to me, with regularity. "I never give you exactly what you ask for." He, the creator of the "J" signage which made such a splash.

A funny word choice, "splash," in that Salt Lake Tribune writer Derek P. Jensen wrote "... her sea of signs, failed to yield a wave of votes." (http://www.sltrib.com/ci_13346170?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com)

Twede tried to make me an "It Girl"--the signs, the umbrella, and the "City" platform descriptions-your ideas, made my ideas, made his, made ours. Never "Your Voice," but a more vibrant, truly representative "Our Voice."

Then there's Daisy Johnson.The true genius behind the website--www.JJJslc.com. The day after the election, probably more like the early morning hours if not minutes of the day after, I FaceBooked Daisy, instructing her to take down my site. "I totally got my ass kicked... Hurts. What do you think about SHUTTING THE THING DOWN (hurts me, to see it up) and posting a note like 'Site under RE-CONSTRUCTION!'?"

Like Evan, not one to just give me what I want, Daisy barked back, "NO! and NO!" And, then, back to the water imagery: "Let this be a watermark for the people to hold others to. You rule and did a grand job. Rest now, grieve and spend time with the kids- then it will be all clear what is NEXT. I know you are sad and hurting. Rest."

Writing some blog copy at 4 in the morning might not meet others' definition of rest, but for me? I am at rest. Just not in peace.

Umbrellas. Splashes. Sea. Waves. Watermark.

Watermark...

And then, it comes to me. She comes to me, Annie Lennox. Not just "Here Comes the Rain Again," but the ever more so liquid "Jennifer." (Change up a few of the Eurythmics' colors, if need be.)

Jennifer, with your orange hair

Jennifer, with your green eyes

Jennifer, with your dress of deepest purple

Jennifer, where are you tonight?

Jennifer, where are you tonight?

Underneath the water

Underneath the water

Underneath the water

 

"Politics is theater, it isn't so much about winning. You make a statement. You say, 'I'm here,' to get their attention."--Harvey Milk

Showing up... and Not Just for the Day at the Races

The very best endorsement?

Had to arrive this morning, the very day of the Primary Election for Salt Lake City Council District 3--

In response to my early-a.m. FaceBook posting--"Jennifer J. Johnson is OFF to a day at the races!... SHOW UP, willya? ;)"

My son was the first to post back to my wall--"I would if I were 18 :D"

 

Besides being thrilled with his use of subjunctive tense? and the clever emoticon?... What an incredibly nice thing to say for this tireless boy who has become so tired, post-campaigning for his mother, that he falls asleep just a few hours after returning home from school-then-XC (cross-country).

This morning, the final morn of the Primary-phase campaigning, I felt like my boy was being given tribute.

"Oh, so you must be 'the mother'?" was the question/comment from the elderly gentleman. 

A bit tired from the one-two punch of early a.m./late p.m. campaign work, I didn't immediately get his point. Then it hit: Spinning umbrellas and pumping signs, not just my oldest boy (16), but my youngest boy (13), also, has, spent time campaigning on the very happening corner of State Street and North Temple; this man had repeat-encountered their campaign vigor! I was the second-choice arrival on the scene!

Last night, while the eldest boy slept, spent after days and days of much-too-much, the youngest boy and I went out, placing "Vote Tuesday!" bumper stickers on the "J" signs in the area. Chilled from the wet, we spent some time warming at home, before he to bed and I back to the grind.

It's nice to have supporters. In addition to those two, I present for your consideration the list that KCPW editor Jeff Robinson rightly referred to as my supporters organized into area of focus. (Listen in @ http://kcpw.org/blog/local-news/2009-09-14/six-candidates-vie-for-votes-in-slc-council-district-3-race/) 

ALL JJJ supporters surely are GREEN, SMART, HIP and SAFE... Viewing them grouped into platform-specific areas, though, is useful to illustrate concepts from my platform and the kinds of issues that reside within each section.

Jenjoy...

On Jentrification and Fractional Real Estate

I have a friend in the Lower Ave's named Gentri.

"Gentri" is not her surname; it is her first name.

Hers is a name as lovely-sounding as musician/yoga teacher Gentri herself is in spirit, deed, talent, and in movement.

To me, the word "gentrification," like musical-yogini Gentri, has always encompassed the "upside" of the word--beauty and vitality. Or, specific to gentrification itself, to the renovating, re-vitalizing, and revving of cities. In my mind that does not necessarily mandate a negative; In fact, policy should be enacted to not mandate a negative.

City Weekly asked me, JJJ, Jennifer J. Johnson for Salt Lake City Council District 3, what the definition of "gentrification" was. I blah-blah-blahed, earnestly energetic, about the "cool" factor of revving cities. Still believe that. Strongly.

In the article, The generic "Webster´s" is listed by author Jesse Fruhwirth as the source for the definition he listed. In actuality, Jesse, the definition you plucked is only one of two def's listed, and the source is not just "Webster's," but, rather, Webster's New World College Dictionary. Let's look at the full entry:

1. To convert (a deteriorated or aging area in a city) into a more affluent middle-class neighborhood, as by remodeling dwellings, resulting in increased property values and in displacement of the poor

2.   To raise to a higher status or condition; improve, uplift, etc.

As the late sage Paul Harvey might say (and often did!), "And, now, for the rest of the story..."

In last week's City Weekly article, "Salt Lake City Council Candidates: Q&A offers insight into the six candidates for District 3" (http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-9039-salt-lake-city-council-candidates.html), Jesse listed the definition for gentrification as only def #1, leaving out def #2--which was my spot-on take.

The reason this is important?

Not to illustrate that candidate JJJ knows her way around a dictionary.

In fact, things really should not be so very inaccessible to the average person... the average citizen... to "the rest of us!"

Example: Nearly two weeks ago? During a "Meet the Candidates" night debate, when I heard the phrase "Compatibility Ordinance," I thought it was something to do with healthy interaction in the bedroom, NOT the rules preserving community structures, ensuring historical "synch," and limiting the creep of McMansions or monster houses. Luckily for me, I was not the lead-out pontificator on that topic, getting to learn the lingo by the time I had to sound off! (BTW, I have written on this topic--McMansions, NOT bedroom compatibility!--for Real Estate Finance magazine, if you wish to see a copy of the heady piece I ghost-wrote for a local entrepreneur, ping me.)

So, again, the reason this is important?

Because in the course of the interview with City Weekly, I talked about my being very pro-affordable housing and for "green accessibility" in both building and living not being just for the rich, but for all citizens, regardless of wealth. "The democratization of green" is how I called it. I specifically mentioned my eco-colleague Soren Simonsen's uber-green, low-income projects, one of which is based in Central City.

Jentrification is the non-stuffy word for what I believe to be a pretty cool idea in terms of revving up cities. Like Majora Carter, it includes the concept of greening ghettos. It also includes what the Salt Lake City Board of Realtors loved when I earned their endorsement: Fractional Real Estate.

Situation: Avenues has problems with--

1. High-end, sprawling homes not selling
2. Absentee landlords not properly, proactively caring for properties or taking care of tenants
3. "Party houses" (btw, I as a homeowner am also a proud Party Houser and am for that, as part of HIP City... just in moderation... and with care and concern for neighbors)

Fact-Assumptions:

1. Home ownership can lead to higher level of commitment and responsibility

2. Current economic situation makes it more difficult than ever for young people or people in transition to be able to qualify for home loans

Idea for Consideration:

There is a great model to transition renters into home owners: Fractional Real Estate, wherein owners purchase shares of homes. This is done all the time in the vacation home segment, and could become a viable concept for some of our neighborhoods here in District 3.

Fractional Real Estate does not mandate "dividing" or "cutting" up homes. Why do that, when community living is the concept of the home itself? For example, my kewl kid friends on 5th Avenue and F Street (if you have not seen it, they have a veritable shrine to JJJ--with the highest concentration of "J" signs anywhere in the district! Dean Pierose of Cucina--who lives on 5th Avenue--thought the place was my dwelling, when he saw it!)

Starting October 1, these folks are going to rent a home on 13th and J (no, not to move closer to JJJ, just because they want a home with a bit more space). If these folks elect, post-college, to continue to share a place, why not allow them to purchase shares in the home they are soon-to-be-renting and make the transition from tenants to home owners?

It's a win-win: They shift from renter to home-owner status and implied responsibility. And their "landlord"--who has been trying to sell the property for a very long time--can successfully complete the long-term sale stalemate stalling his liquidity. And we neighbors? We get vitality. More of "us" than emptiness in the neighborhoods. After all neighbors, not houses, are what comprise neighborhoods.

Same idea might be able to help solve the fever-pitch of concern I hear from the Lower Avenues (5th Ave and below), where concerns are with absentee landlords not caring for their properties. With fractional real estate opening a potentially excellent pool of available buyers who, otherwise, would not qualify, perhaps we could look at mandating greater care from absentee sorts bringing down these neighborhoods of ours. Just an idea. And my guess? An idea that my friends on 5th Avenue and on J Street circa 1st Avenue would like.  :)

Now, I am going to call Jesse Fruhwirth and ask HIM to define fractional real estate. Or, why don't you, the next time you see him lunching downtown at the Atlantic Cafe or elsewhere?

What would our friends in Philadelphia Think?

Today's City Weekly came out.

Interesting choice of words--"came out"--perhaps, as the six of us candidates vying for votes in the Salt Lake City District 3 City Council Race were asked a series of questions, including what we think of the word "gayborhood." (This question coming on the heels of last week's CW cover story (Gay Activism in Utah: Can the gay community find new reasons to rally?)

See if you can correctly identify which three candidates have been given a "positive recommendation" by Equality Utah!

City Weekly: What do you think of the word “gayborhood”?

Aho: That’s what they call the Marmalade area over there. It’s kind of cute.

Allcott: I don’t use that term or know what it means.

Carroll: We have a successful community, and designating some neighborhood as one way or the other is unfortunate.

Johnson: It makes me smile.

Penfold: It’s an odd name for a neighborhood, but I think it’s trying to reflect it’s a safe place for gay and lesbian people.

Sharifi: I think it has a nice ring to it. It sounds fun. 

 

Hmmn... POST your answers, FB me, or e-mail me!

jjj@JJJslc.com

Jennifer J. Johnson on FaceBook (Jennifer.J.Johnson)

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=jennifer.j.johnson&init=quick#/jennifer.j.johnson?ref=search&sid=1034631921.4153437681..1

 

 

The Princess and The Big Boys

"You're playing with the big boys now.
You're playing with the big boys NOW.
Stop this foolish mission.
Watch a true magician.
Give an exhibition how.
Pick up your silly twig, boy.
You're playing with the big boys NOW!"

Steve Martin and Martin Short's animated characters in The Prince of Egypt are what come to my mind.

This weekend, a prized endorsement I earned, without even soliciting it, was approached within minutes for "me-too" status by another candidate.

Then, yesterday, on the "holiday," I got an out-of-the-blue call, indicating that, apparently, one of my fair-weather colleagues at the former Dahlin Smith White Advertising company is challenging an agency-related statement on my website! (For those reading my post from Sunday, it did turn out to truly be a DSW weekend...) It's interesting because the DSW portion of my experience, while vast and significant, is boiled town to two skinny sentences on my site, and not really bragging about the many other significant contributions I made.

It's really disappointing and hurtful to have an "anony-accusor."

"You're playing with the big boys now!"

Even this false-accusatory experience has had its positive side: Re-tracing that time period, I recall being asked to do something I had never done before. Nor, it seemed, had anyone else (other than the partners and executive committee or "E-Comm") in the agency done before on a big-scale (OR done with much success, OR done and been willing to stick his or her neck out and manage the project). There's all that and the fact that managing the Intel pitch for the agency was a major resource drain, with senior talent spread very thin across multiple, simultaneoulsy-running projects.

The project at hand was to re-name a product and provide branding insight. I jumped at the chance to play a leadership role in the wooing of Intel and to learn new skills.

Invigorated by the opportunity. I started reading through issues of Communication Briefings and AdWeek (back then, hard-copy was chiefly the M.O.: All of the historical issues were jammed into impossibly giant, expasive binders). I collected several methodologies and plunged right into the task, preparing "Strategy Briefs" (the agency's way of "grounding" a team) for the scope of work: Re-naming a product that an Oregon-based branch of Intel (the Intel Personal Computer Enhancement Division) wanted re-worked.

I ended up giving brainstorming homework to my assembled team, which even included two of the partners of the agency--The "S" and The "W" (ak.a. Darrell Smith and Jon White), as well as numerous other, more senior members of the agency.

It was a stretch.

I enjoyed the stretch (a pre-cursor to the yogic JJJ?).

I conducted a total of five meetings, guiding, then assembling, input, demanding credibility from a crew with multiple priorities, and landing some great final name suggestions. (Well... maybe not that great... after all, I really cannot recall ANY of the names--except the roguish, joking ones!... Then again, it has been almost 20 years... What is the name of the company we are talking about, again?)

Almost 20 years since those days in our enviably swank 4 Triad Center quarters. It was there that we slogged it out, coming up with ideas ready to present in our heady attempt to become, as a Salt Lake City-based advertising company, the land-locked agency to best not only old-boy Silicon Valley advertising agencies (the DSW partners called them advertising "love gods,"), but the very agency to handle Nike's work.

The day came when we were to head to Oregon. (Eugene, Oregon, I believe.) That was where Intel PCED was located. An emboldened, savvy group, proud of its intrapreneurial nature as contrasted with the Intel mothership in Santa Clara, Calif., PCED viwed itself as Mac; Intel Corporate Marketing and Corporate HQ as PC.

Mac was not in love with DSW.

I found this out during the lunch break of our all-day meeting with Intel PCED.

Apologies for the setting, but it's necessary for this story: I was in a bathroom stall, when suddenly, a buzz of chatter between two women signaled that the main-entry door to the bathroom had swung open: "Can you be-lieve the creative?" was the one's comment/question. I have no idea what the other woman (Intel PCED Veep Kirby Dyess, who went on to be a big-league VC), said, nor do I recall any more of the conversation that the two were having about a "spec" ad the agency proposed.

What I do recall oh-so-very well, is the look on their faces, when they saw me--a member of the Salt Lake City-based agency that was wooing not just their division but the bigger Intel--emerge from my silent stall, smiling, knowing. I washed my hands. Mac was sheepish.

I also recall that DSW won over all of Intel, creating advertising history in unabashedly thieving one of Silicon Valley's most coveted accounts from the home team and besting the Portland-hailing Wieden Kennedy agency of Nike marketing lore. The "little agency that could," DSW, the Mac + PC agency for the company branding the chip inside one's computer, went on to create the one of the best branding campaigns in the history of the world: "Intel Inside." DSW, in one year, had ads for not just Intel, but also for Iomega, in the ultimate advertising showcase: The SuperBowl. "Can you be-lieve that creative?"

As Director of Industry Relations for the agency, I would go on to pitch, then see the results of the efforts as DSW was named Marketing Computers' "Agency of the Year," but, at this point in the 18-month pitch, chalking up the agency's efforts on just one of seven tasks, the thought of winning the account was a distant, if not glum, glimmer.

The rest of the meeting? Power-pointed and strategi-typical, it went without fireworks, and I without much sitting at points in the meeting. (Tamed in their offense, I kind of wondered if the two PCED women tempered themselves, due to the curious bathroom interaction.) On the way home, I shared the story with the partners of DSW, the team lead, and who knows who else. Again, nearly twenty years ago...

Boarding the Lear to head for home, I recalled how silly I had felt that morning.

Being very used to commercial day trips on Delta Airlines to/from San Jose, this was my first trip on a "Lear;" My concept of the "Lear Jet" was akin to a flight scene from a James Bond movie--where folks walk around, pour cocktails, and even--if they are men, get into well-orchestrated sky-fights. The reality? The craft had more the feel of a Cessna 172 "crop-duster" that my rec-flying father used to captain; the kind of plane where your knees are close to your chest and your ears are close to exploding from the irritating sound.

The sound, somewhere out in the future, could still be heard, through that dull knock-tickling against the eardrums--

"You’re playing with the big boys now.

You’re playing with the big boys now."

 

 

The Lady (in The) Marmalade

Marmalade.

An immediate feel-good sound, if not other-sensory recall, to the neighborhood.

Having lived on Main Street, in The Kensington Apartments across from the <sob> former Deseret Gym, 22 years ago, and having strongly considered purchasing what was then "our" first home for $54K in South Marmalade 20 years ago (Liberty Park area won out), I felt I knew the spot.

I have spent much of this weekend at The Marmalade. It is, as they say, not your father's Marmalade.

Today's marmalade? Not only vibrant in terms of real estate (I hear numerous tales of gentrification throughout the area), but in terms of diversity. There were times this weekend, when I felt like I was in a really big city--meaning here, the good, enviable parts of a big city.

Theodore Dan Focke V, or Dan, hails from a family line of separatists who broke off from Massachusetts to form Rhode Island. Hailing from Olympia, Wash., the guy started playing in bands at age 12 and is family friends with the Cobain legacy and many more garage types. Choosing The Marmalade when he came to Utah two years ago to work on an archaeology project for an environmental consulting company, Dan depicts the diversity of the area: "To the East, I have neighbors from East India, to the West, I have neighbors from Italy." On the corner? An Asian retailer. And across the street? Even some of those would-be protected class of blonde-haired, blue-eyed neighbors.

Also across the street? A quintessential apartment building on its way to, surely, becoming a condominium complex. Architect Harvey Boyd has presented a beautiful peach-colored apartment complex with lovely, well-maintained xeriscaping, and... GET THIS... a community garden for the tenants. Inspiring. I feel the zen of Boyd's welcoming trellis, signaling the entry to the building. Just about the only thing I give pause to is a 4' x 3' tree stump in the parkstrip of the property, a reminder of what surely was, at one time, a beautiful tree.

John is the first tenant I meet. Within seconds of his opening the door, he tells me he is gay and that gay rights are important to him. I tell him they are important to me, too, letting him know that my husband, the father of my chidren, is gay, and of my speaking involvement at the recent Kiss-In (the one held on Library Square--http://tinyurl.com/jjjHIPCity Make sure to watch from 2:36 on!)

The whole posture changes.

Ease comes on the face, and we talk.

We talk long and wonderful. 

John praises his enlightened landlord, noting that, right off, he asked Boyd if the building were gay-friendly. Getting the green light, he has enjoyed the complex ever since. A paralegal, John was one of the early volunteers of the Utah AIDS Foundation. He actually remembers the award-winning (won the highest honor, a "Gold" Addy from the Utah Advertising Federation) marketing piece that my Dahlin Smith White colleague Jeff Olsen and I created--"Soirées À La Card" to promote a series of Utah AIDS Foundation fund raisers.

A play on the concept of ordering "à la carte," Jeff and I, for DSW's client, The Utah AIDS Foundation, created mini "à la card" postcards, portraying several individual fund-raising events sponsored by community supporters. Although John did not attend the soirée that I hosted--along with my ex Scott Carter and the long-split couple of John Thomas and Muffy Mead (now Muffy Ferro)--he remembered it! "Haiku Barbeque" was our themed event. We hosted 75 folks to an evening of sushi, yakitori, sake, and, my favorite--Karaoke! That Scott could sure cook! And, being a returned missionary from Japan? Well, he was lead chef, we--even the accomplished gourmet Muffy--were all sous!

DSW must have been in the air that day, because earlier, I knocked on doors that opened to a few former colleagues. (Q Editor Michael Aaron, who lives in The Marmalade, apparently is also a former DSW-er, but I really hardly know him now, and did not know of his DSW association at all, until illuminated by FaceBook last week!)

I immediately recognize Steve Cardon, eyes still bluer than ever, maybe more so, as set off by life's wisdom markers. A long-time cyclist and motorcyclist, Marmalade is his perfect neighborhood. (I have seen more motorcycles in The Marmalade than any other neighborhood in town!) Literally a block later, I spoke with Dennis. He did not become the Dennis Millard that I worked with in the high-flying ad agency until about 15 minutes into our discussion of the neighborhood, when I recognized him, then, quickly, with the prompting, he, me.

Dennis, while pleased with the continuing improvement in the neighborhood, continues to be concerned regarding safety and neighborhood preservation. Dennis is an interesting depiction of the state of our economy. Like me, he used to work at the swank DSW office in Triad Center (he as a graphic artist and creative director). Then, also like me, he had a healthy free-lance clientele. Today? He has shifted entirely to his fine art craft, doing extremely well selling to markets like West Palm Beach, Scottsdale, and Palm Springs. (Check Dennis out at www.dennismillard.com.) Having done well himself, Dennis takes a very free-market view of art and seems very bearish on government spending in the space. His son actually managed the campaign of current Salt Lake City Councilman Eric Jergensen, whose position I now seek.

While not exactly a DSW connection, Reece's wife works at Triad, hails from San Francisco (where DSW had a satellite office and a significant Bay Area high-tech clientele), and has a father-in-law who now works for Novell (where I cut my teeth in the high-tech space). An apartment-dwelling Marmalade family with a one-month-old (Lola!), theirs is a happy life, but one concerned about zoning changes to mixed-use in neighborhoods.

Anna, totally new to the area (just bought her home two weeks ago), is an interior designer looking to launch her business in The Marmalade. I tell her it seems to be a great audience for such an endeavor, and we talk--about entrepreneurship, about women in business, about Marmalade, and about GLASS! I tell her about my campaigns GREEN City GLASS Recycling Day, Sunday, Sept. 13, and some synergy happens: She is actually potentially interested in harvesting some of that glass, for various creative projects.

THIS is the kind of thing that can happen with neighborhood connectedness: Win-win, sustainable solutions. Why transport ANY glass to Denver (as is now happening through Salt Lake City Recycling), if we can find more in-area solutions than benefit citizens and businesses? Avenues business Momentum Recycling is already doing this, to a great extent--forming partnerships to recycle glass to be used in Terrazzo flooring and in Owens Corning fiberglass--as you can see through our GREEN City GLASS Recycling Day videos:

http://tinyurl.com/GreenCitySHORT

http://tinyurl.com/GreenCityLONGER

 

A home I encountered in The Marmalade was so very inviting that I was supremely interested in seeing the inside and in meeting the owners. The walkways? Instead of hardscape concrete, were woodchips! The front, tall-shrub-bordered garden and sitting area had a water feature recycling green-shaded water! Rosebushes and tall trees--one even with a rope-swing--adorned what might, otherwise, seem like a vacant parkstrip area. Minimal grass. Extensive smart design. A veritable forest, with a crabapple archway leading to the front door.

I was disappointed to not meet the tenants, but quickly moved on. JJJ never rests, these days.

When nightfall more than fell, and I had made my last visits, planted my remaining signs, and headed back to my car, it warmed the cockles of this here heart to see blue holiday lights illuminating the archway, man-made with nature-made perfection.

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Walkin' (and Ridin' and Slaloming) on more than sunshine...

Katrina and The Waves had it right.

Walking feels good.

So does riding a bike.

And, God willing, so does skate-, long- or some other kind of boarding hipper than my fragile little mind can comprehend.

Gordon, who lives in District 3's Canyon Rim, had his car "blow up" a year ago. (A quick, irrational flash to images of Myth Busters'Adam and Jamie being behind all this.) Car kaput, he now walks to work, uses TRAX, and occasionally borrows a friend's car on the weekends.

Warren, also on foot, listens to my campaign, really liking the part about economic development. He then says he works in economic development, too. "For Salt Lake City? For USTAR? For whom?" I ask. Grinning and eyes like Santa Claus, he says, "For that institution over there" (pointing to the LDS Church Office Building!).

Those are people I met at the intersection of State and North Temple/2nd Avenue. A few days prior, while working The Ave's, I chatted up Craig. Craig walks to his high-tech job everyday from 5th Avenue: An 80-minute, round-trip commitment that, on the backside, is quite often followed by more work--a seven-year home renovation still in progress. On the working front, he notes one of The Avenues' own "celebrity cycle-commuters"--Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, whom he says he just spotted within the week.

Angelika and Gernot are among the funniest, wittiest folks I have met on the campaign trail to winning the Salt Lake City District 3 City Council seat. Both are German. Both are very ped- and velo-friendly. Unlike what you may think, the two did not meet in Germany, but had to travel 5,000+ miles (8,000+ km for smart folks) to find each other in Utah. I ask if they engaged a Germans-only dating service, then, later wonder if they connected through a Non-Car-Driving Meetup, but, no--theirs is one of those uber-romantic, gazing-across-the-room scenarios.

Sigh...

Angelika is celebrating her 25th year here in SLC, with Gernot, the guy, appropriately, a few years behind. "We have arranged our lives to where we don't use cars," he notes. Gernot, who works at The U, rides his bike in summer and walks in winter.

Pan back to the corner of State and North Temple/2nd Avenue...

I am surprised to encounter my neighbor Matt, who hails from the Upper Avenues (just a few blocks, as the crow flies, from the former Karl Malone McMansion). Matt, unbeknownst to me, apparently rides his bike to work. (His long-term business, PetStop Veterinary Service, is located at 44 North 800 West.) Having ridden most of that upward climb by both tandem and solo, I now have added respect for the man's near-daily climb.

Craig? Immediate respect. Craig bikes into downtown from Bountiful. "It's only 11 miles!" he says, cheerily.

Only 11 miles... Craig, the slacker that he is, does admit that there are times when he uses FrontRunner. I feel less self-conscious instantly.

Cool interactions with eco-guys on bikes. Gavin spins my way from The Ave's. He works for Round River Conservation Strategies, a group that is dedicated to devising strategies to preserve wild spaces  http://www.roundriver.org/. He hangs a remarkably long time with me, talking issues and telling me about Round River.

Also generous with time and interest is cyclist David. We converse for a very long while, and only as he is leaving does the name of his employer drop: SUWA. I enjoy visiting the SUWA-site to see his smiling face, with the other, inspired, eco-passionate crew @ http://www.suwa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_staff. I want him on-board with Team JJJ.

I also want on-board a guy I have long-admired from afar: The businessman-unicyclist (I fancy him to be an attorney) whom I see "uni" down B Street with, as they say, the greatest of ease. I only know two people who uni: Miles, an Upper Aves-residing friend of my 16-YO son, Jamison, and Nick, an 18-YO guy from out-of-neighborhood. The businessman Uni-guy? He is probably 50-something. Quite a different demographic than the Generation-Whatevers. Riding a unicycle in a business suit? I want him on-board with Team JJJ.

On board...

Literally, now, on board.

As I am readying to pack it up for the morning, I see, from the top of State Street, a lone boarder ease his way down the hill. Cars remarkably elsewhere, the run is a beautiful slalom. I give him the thumbs-up at the bottom. Me, he gives a stare. His look is reminiscent of Mick Hucknall, lead of "80's band "Simply Red." He glides across the street, at the crosswalk, turning to look back and make some friendly eye contact--not too much outward show of appreciation; just enough.

"I used to think maybe you loved me--

Now baby I'm sure

And I just can't wait till the day

When you knock on my door."

Unlike Gernot and Angelika's "come hither" at a coffee shop, we are not going to have a bike luring us out, or a pair of Dr. Seuss's "Pale Green Pants with no one in 'em" encouraging us to go out for a walk, or a board wag its backside and beg for a trip out-of-doors.

But, just listening to that joyous Katrina... "Don't it feel good?"