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I’m generally a pretty nostalgic kind of guy, and this actually makes me sad to see. Be glad that you live in other parts of the country and don’t have to wander among the nearly empty isles. All that is left now are the bottom of the barrel books. All the books around the edges are gone, and only the center rows still have books in them. The staff is still trying to be helpful, but I can’t help but think that they can’t really care anymore. I felt like too much of a circling vulture to actually buy anything that day. It is too late to help now anyway. They are gone, but we’ll always have the memories.

I know it’s just a store, but it always seemed like it was my store.

In more interesting news, there are a coupe of important additions to the AllGuinness family of blog products. Both are low in cholesterol, and have non-stick surfaces. What is it I speak of? New blogs by tlcnyc and Oldboy. Tlc is faster out of the block and has already started with a couple of early entries. Oldboy has just arrived in Korea so may need some time to settle in. It is possible he may not be inclined to post at all, but I am happy to provide the option for him.

I’ll keep you informed.

Pay no attention to the man in the lederhosen on Oldboy.

I was wondering if this deal was actually going to come through, but it looks solid now. Periodically there have been reports of stuff like this that have disappeared, but this seems to have traction.

Some people around have been a bit resistant to the idea of this tower, but I think that anything that helps concentrate people more in the downtown, and less in the suburbs is a good thing. Plus, it isn’t destroying any important or interesting buildings. I say go for it. It will be more than twenty stories taller than any other building in Sacramento.

There are a few newish campaigns that I think are especially good.

First up is the new VW Passat commercial. It wouldn’t be all that funny with just trying to say that it is cooler than others because it has less ego, but there is a tag line in the ad that is especially funny. It says “Closed course. Don’t throw megaphones or metaphors out your window. That saves the whole ad. There are other ads from VW that are good as well, and they always put in a pretty strong performance, especially among auto ads, which tend to be lame.

The second up is an especially odd series from Tractor Supply Company. I hadn’t even heard of this company until about a year ago when an earlier series of funny ads came out. This new series features non moving figures and minimalist dialog about farm life. Really bizarre, and cool.

I think my favorite of all current ad campaigns is the Jimmy Dean breakfast series with the sun. So damn funny all the time. My favorite of them all is the “Why?” ad featuring the great line where the sun says, “because I have to be at work early to light and heat the earth.” So funny.

Hell of a lot better than the average television show, and 7.9 times better than any CSI series.

He basically said that they can investigate all they want, but the government won’t find evidence of collusion in price gouging. I believe that. There would be too much drive to get the other companies to work together. He also said, or at least implied, that the oil companies are being used by politicians in this election year, to turn some of the blame away from the politicians themselves.

The best part was at the end. Lauer asked if the company was willing to cut profits to reduce prices at the pump, and Tillerson said that they have a responsibility to their shareholders, and what not. Lauer said, “so that’s a no,” and the CEO said that they are in the the business to make money.

So true.

Who would’ve thunk it?

Discussed on Gigaom.
[/Update]

A while back Pixar broke off talks with Disney about continuing their distribution arrangement amid talk that there was a rift between then Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Pixar head Steve Jobs. Jobs, who also heads Apple computers, thought that Disney wasn’t being fair with the distribution rights and the amount of money it was taking in the deal. He was probably right, but I thought that Disney should have just let the deal fall through and concentrated on making its own computer animation division stronger. Most of the Disney stockholders and board didn’t agree with me, apparently, because Eisner announced his retirement a short time late, and many people looked at this deal as the last in a string of bad decisions he had made. Robert Iger took over at the head of Disney, and almost from the start was again in discussions with Pixar. If he could get a new deal with Pixar, it would surely be a coup for the new CEO.

Talks continued and I expect an announcement shortly that Disney will be buying Pixar. The deal will probably be for 6.9 billion dollars, or so.

Is this the coup I was talking about? Maybe, but I don’t think it was for Iger or Disney.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think that Pixar is a bad thing to own, or that it won’t be alright in the long run, I just have a little problem with the purchase price, and with the possible culture shock of the two coming together.

The real coup is for Steve Jobs. It wasn’t like he was hurting for money, or anything, but this deal should net him something like 3.5 billion, making him the largest individual shareholder in Disney. Additionally, there is some talk that there might be a Disney presidency for him in the future. The presidency issue both excites and worries me.

Jobs is a visionary and a creative type. He may not be an artist, but he sees the way to guide a forward thinking company like Pixar. Same with Apple. He doesn’t invent products (I don’t think), but he has the vision to see them to fruition. The thing I fear is another Ovitz situation.

Disney is a creative company, to be sure, but there culture is so sprawling that the men at the top need to be ready to plow through a bureaucratic like system, as well as take creative lead. If Iger can successfully separate the jobs between the president and the CEO, there will be good, if not, bad. That is all too speculative at this point, however.

If Disney does buy Pixar as expected, and Jobs doesn’t become president, there is still a huge culture gap to deal with. I just hope Disney realizes what they are buying. Pixar isn’t just a name. If you want a name, you couldn’t do much better than Disney anyhow. It certainly isn’t just a pile of computers and software. What Pixar is mostly, is a way of thinking about and doing things. It is a commitment to quality while others are content cranking out sub-par offering like Shreck or the like. They way the stories are developed is much like it was in the old Disney days. If Disney goes through with this deal and tries to change the way Pixar works to fit in, they should just save their money. It would ruin the process at Pixar.

I just wish they bought it five years ago when the purchase price might have been about half. Oh well.