Author: jbenton

The new location of Dallas’ best restaurant, the La Duni Baking Studio, opens today. Should you ever, you know, ever need to eat or something.

You know, with all the hubbub about the Olsen twins of late (their crappy movie, their turning 18), a few business pubs have written about the marketing challenge the twins face as they try to shift their fan base from 8-year-olds to adults. One of the biggest problems: Getting people to differentiate between them, since people have thought of them as a unified MaryKateandAshley unit for so long. Much was made of the fact that, in their movie, one of them was supposed to be the “wild,” irreponsible one and the other was supposed to be practical and collected. (Which was which? Hell if I know.)
So then it comes out that Mary Kate is anorexic and canceling some public events to seek treatment. And the first thing I think of is: I wonder if this is part of her people’s attempts to differentiate the two of them. Instead of MaryKateandAshley, people will now think of “Mary Kate, the anorexic one” and “Ashley, the…other one.”
And hell, maybe they’ve got some new identity baking for Ashley. “Ashley, the one who only dates Latino men.” “Ashley, the one with an interest in Moroccan food.” “Ashley, the one with psoriasis.”
The fact that my mind went immediately to such cynical thoughts means I am a very bad person.
In related news, bad person and Friend of Crabwalk.com Jane is selling these eminently tasteful t-shirts.

An interesting piece on how the newest team in the NBA, the Charlotte Bobcats, selected their team name and built their brand.
The most disturbing part of the article comes when writer Darren Rovell discusses why focus groups liked one of the other naming options the team considered, the Charlotte Flight:
Another favorite on the list was the Charlotte Flight. When asked about the sources of local pride, interview participants often mentioned the Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
So let me get this straight: One of the biggest sources of local pride in Charlotte is the airport? If you ask residents what’s so great about Charlotte, they actually respond: “We’ve got a nice airport — it makes it so easy to leave”?
How pathetic must a city be if the highlight of a trip there is picking up your bags at the luggage carousel?

The lineup for the Austin City Limits Festival looks downright insane. Among the many bands of interest: Broken Social Scene, Calexico, My Morning Jacket, the Pixies, the Roots, Sloan, Spoon, and Wilco.

Another early end for ChandaWatch: Chanda loses in the first round, 7-6, 6-3. She started out up 5-0 in the first, but (I presume) those knee problems kicked in. At least the writeup is a very nice pro-Chanda piece:
Rubin is one of those players who seems to have been around for decades, and indeed it is 14 years since she made her Grand Slam debut at the US Open, at the age of 14. Much of her career seems to have been a tussle with injury, and her ranking has see-sawed correspondingly. Yet she managed to finish 2003 on a career-high year-end ranking of number nine at the grand age of 28, which makes her, Martina Navratilova aside, of course quite an old lady around the lawns of SW19. Today she was giving away the best part of nine years to her French opponent.
Moreover, Rubin is certainly one of the most lauded players in the game, having won no end of gongs and prizes for being a jolly worthy person. She has been named the Player Who Makes A Difference, won an Arthur Ashe Leadership Award and an Outstanding Celebrity Award, been pronounced one of America’s Most Caring Athletes, and even had her face on a stamp issued by the US Postal Service in 1996, which makes her something akin to royalty. Certainly tennis royalty, in any case.

Texas to set up WiFi at rest stops. It’s sad that I’m as much of a geek as I am, but this will probably mean I’ll stop once or twice on the drive to Austin or Houston or Shreveport.
Those interested in Cajun issues may want to check the comments of this post, where Reese Fuller and I are having a discussion on the future of Cajun identity. This crabwalk.com post will no doubt some day form the backbone of an anthropology dissertation.
Saw The Decemberists and The Long Winters last night. Much rock joy was had, particularly when Crutchy McGee strapped on a big marching-band-style bass drum and started wandering the audience in a black Rasputin beard.

God hates soccer.

Quick question for you domain-registration junkies: There’s a domain I really, really want. For the purposes of this post, let’s call it Acme.com.
For the last 10 years, it’s been owned by a company called Acme Corp. It made sense for them to own it. But about five years ago, Acme Corp. changed its name and brand to something new. Since then, Acme.com has just been a placeholder page, with a few lines saying “Acme Corp. is now Blahblah Corp. Visit our new web site at Blahblah.com.”
Did I mention I really want to own this Acme.com?
So today, on a whim, I go to Acme.com. There’s nothing there. Not a 404 error — just IE’s standard “We can’t find www.acme.com” error, the one it throws off when you go to an unregistered domain.
So I ran a quick whois to see what’s up. Turns out that Acme Corp. — on purpose or by mistake — has let Acme.com expire. It expired on June 3.
I immediately try to register it. But alas, my registrar (Dotster) tells me the domain name is taken! I try another couple registrars, and they tell me the same thing — it’s taken. But the whois entry (verified at several whois servers) clearly says Acme Corp.’s claim on the domain has expired, and the site is clearly gone.
What can I do? Is there some sort of rule on a window of time after a domain expires when someone can renew? Do I need to jump through any special hoops to get this domain? Help me out, people, I’m dying over here! I need this domain!
Anyone who can help me get this domain gets $20 and a six-pack of beer.

The return of ChandaWatch! Chanda Rubin — professional tennis star and one-time high school classmate of your proprietor — is getting ready to start another run at Wimbledon. You may remember from recent ChandaWatches that Our Hero is having knee problems, which has dropped her down to the 17th seed — the lowest she’s faced in a major in recent years. But she’s fared well on grass in the past (winning Wimbledon in juniors, winning the Eastbourne tuneup the last two years), so there’s hope as long as her various hinges remain operational.
Anyway, she’ll face Francophile Marion Bartoli in the first, with Maria Elena Camerin and Ai Sugiyama likely to follow. If the knee is holding up, she can beat the higher-seeded Ai, no problem. Then would come Dementieva and probably some trouble.

Hey, children of the ’80s! Did you while away childhood hours watching You Can’t Do That On Television, Canada’s greatest export south of the 49th parallel? Did you ever, even once, in elementary school giggle when someone said “I don’t know” because your youthful imagination pictured a bucket of green slime pouring down on his/her head?
Well, if you’re still living in the first Reagan administration — and after this month’s hagiography, who isn’t? — SlimeCon 2004 is for you! Yes, you can finally (a) have an excuse to fly to scenic Ottawa, (b) see what comedic genius Les Lye looks like with white hair, or (c) ask Christine “Moose” McGlade what her motivation was in some random 1983 episode.
Hey, I loved YCDTOTV as much as the next kid. But it’s been 20 years. Perhaps it might be time for some people to move on. Check out this clip of the “best” of SlimeCon 2002. Gotta love the awkward intros of past cast members, particularly the guy who you can tell is thinking: “I wonder if anyone will notice I’ve gotten enormous in the last 25 years.”