American "Top Gear"

I'm a huge fan of British Top Gear who watched the American version for the first time today. You're probably expecting me to talk about how terrible it was, but what was disconcerting wasn't that it was terrible. It was disconcerting in a way that seemed familiar and I finally placed it. You know how Disney takes one of its stars and has them do a perfectly acceptable but utterly soulless version of a pop song. That's American Top Gear.

To illustrate what I'm talking about let me point you to Kid's Incorporated. They would do kid-friendly versions of popular songs. Hearing little kids singing about "Steady rockin' all night long" seems like a bad idea, but I'm not a Disney executive. As you can see from the video the execution isn't bad per se. These are talented kids giving a reasonable performance, but it's just quite obvious that it's derivative.



I'm absolutely willing to buy into the argument that it took Clarkson and the gang years to develop their chemistry, but that's just the point. Why are we trying to have 3 other guys develop chemistry under the same guidelines. Like many Top Gear fans, I really don't give a crap about cars, I just like watching 3 excellent performers work their magic. I know it's all staged and I don't care, I like watching them work. Given this, why do I need to see 3 guys try to do the exact same act when they're not good at it yet. Go do something original and build your chemistry.

I find it particularly troubling that they steal snatches of the same lingo that Clarkson uses. "No drama through the straightaway," etc. Sure that may be common driving parlance, but I don't care about cars, so I've only ever heard that on Top Gear so it sounds stolen. Meanwhile he clearly intentionally avoids other turns of phrase which may have made perfect sense and that seems forced as well. It's a no-win situation for the poor presenters.

All of this is a long way of saying I don't think the American Top Gear guys are bad at their job or that the show is terrible. I just think it's an obviously terrible idea. Like those talented Disney kids, they're just put into a no-win situation. I feel kind of bad for the guys trying to make it work.

Wedding Cakes

I love this style of wedding cake. It looks like it's a present waiting to be unwrapped, which has great symbolism. I also am a sucker for both contemporary cakes and unconventional cakes. Nice colors as well.

Photo by: Cherry Pi

Wedding Madness

My friend tells a story about his wedding. His father-in-law (to be at the time), told his fiancee that she could have $100,000 and could spend any portion of it on the wedding. So she could pocket all of it, or spend all of it. She chose to spend it all, which probably isn't uncommon. Of course if you ask her now, she wishes she had saved some of it. Something to think about.

Philanthropy and Social Media

A friend of mine writes about Social Media and Philanthropy. She's been writing about it since long before it was a buzz word, but it's all the rage now. What's unfortunate is that the same problems that often make philanthropy ineffective are absolute poison when it comes to social media.

Philanthropic organizations often have the curse of no clear cut measures of success. They go through the motions because it's what they're "Supposed to do." This approach is a catastrophe in social media. Social media is all about connecting. If you just broadcast you're going nowhere. I suspect a flurry of philanthropies broadcasting stuff on Facebook and Twitter and thinking they have a social media strategy. Good luck with that.