Godzilla and His Loose Connection to Azerbaijan: Me

Okay, so where am I?

There's no truth that I was able to secure a plum seat ringside for the Mayweather v. Pacquiao at the MGM this weekend in Las Vegas...yeah, uh, $4,000 for a ticket just to get in is a bit too much.

And, I may or may not be in Azerbaijan looking at a way to make them famous to accompany their riches and somehow wipe away a few of their abuses aimed as journalists and (gulp) media people. 

However, what I can tell you is that I saw Godzilla's head being unveiled in grand style as he was appointed special resident and tourism ambassador for Tokyo's Shinjuku ward. His giant, steaming skull towered 171 feet above ground level at the Toho offices, the studio behind the original 1954 film...only in Japan!

NOTES ON THE SCORECARD:
So while I waited for my meeting to meet with execs about my Media Guy Struggles television pilot and selling it into the Asian market (yes, a Media Guy can still dream...), I cobbled together my top five recent crumbs/stories about media, traveling and advertising.

5. STILL IN THE DARK
Creator David Chase Analyzes The Final Scene Of 'The Sopranos' Shot By Shot
Eight years after it aired, the finale of "The Sopranos" continues to be hotly debated. David Chase explains how he created the excruciating tension of the last scene. What he won't say is what happened at the end.

4. WHERE CAN A GUY GET A TOBLERONE?
The Rise And Fall Of The Hotel Mini-Bar

It’s 2 AM. You’ve just returned to your hotel room after a night carousing on the town. The corner stores have long-since closed, and you’ve been left tipsy, alone, and in need of an after-hours morsel. And then, like some culinary apparition, it beckons you from the corner of the room: the hotel mini-bar.

3. 500 YEARS OF THE NYC SKYLINE
In One Time-Lapse Elevator Ride
The elevators to the observatory atop 1 World Trade Center show an animated time lapse that recreates the development of New York City’s skyline, from the 1500s to today.

2. BEFORE THE BUZZ WAS FED
The Time A Newspaper Stared Down The Country's Largest Advertiser
A little-remembered incident helped establish the notion that news organizations could and should preserve their independence from advertisers.

1. AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER
German Old Spice
Just when you think the Old Spice commercials featuring Expendables star Terry Crews couldn't get any more strange or intense, you read a story in the trades the the spots are being dubbed in German! Talk about intensity. All of that sounds great on paper, until he opens his mouth. It’s almost as if they they didn’t even try to find a voice that sounds like him. Let's go to the video:

Bonus Story...

....and I think it should be noted that I am VERY funny... A new study in Psychology Today says guys who make you laugh are better in bed than guys who don't, Chicago Tribune reports. 

Slow Down

How to slow down your life...right now...just as soon as I see what my Starbucks name is...

In what is definitely solid proof that the Internet (and Starbucks for that matter) is a place of endless possibilities, some brilliant dude or dudette has created a name generator that simulates the experience of having your name name misspelled on a Starbucks drink cup. Here's mine:

And, for kicks, one for my media pal, Stephanie:

Now that we have that squared away, and we are enjoying some java forms, have you ever thought of other ways to embrace the moment? Yeah, I know I am sounding like some seventies guru in a tunic, but the last episodes of Mad Men have me looking in the mirror. I mean after Megan went nuclear on Don with her "aging, sloppy, selfish" rant, I've been itching to write my own $1 million check. But how? Perhaps living in the now is the key. Let me give you an example...

It's finally Friday night, the beginning of a weekend of freedom, which also happens to include your birthday. Your family, friends and spouse all have celebratory plans for you.

You have a rewarding career and a network of beautiful people who want to rejoice in your life. As you walk out to your car to officially kickoff the fun, a giddy thrill washes over you.

Live in the now and you might avoid this look! photo: Justina Mintz/AMC

But as you click the seatbelt into place, rather than sitting in awe of how lucky you are, a list of concerns begin worming their way into your consciousness: “I need gas, but the conveniently located gas station charges more than others … I hope it’s not a surprise party … Maybe I should get the beverages I like before going home … I haven’t been to the gym all  week … Did I pay the electric bill?”

And so it goes.

“I think we’ve all had this experience, which often has us psychically living 30 minutes into the future – no matter how great the present circumstances might be,” says Steve Gilliland, a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame and author of the widely acclaimed “Enjoy The Ride,” for which he is set to publish a follow-up ("Detour, Developing the Mindset to Navigate Life’s Turns”) that will be released in May 2015.

“Are we doomed to this torrent of noise which distracts us from enjoying our life? We don’t have to be.”

Don’t live your life 30 minutes ahead of the present. If you won’t live your life now, in the present, then who will?

An older man came up to me, grabbed my hand, and said he wished he’d heard me speak decades ago,” Gilliland says. “After I asked why, he said that when he was eating lunch on break or dinner with his family, he was always thinking about what he had to do after the meal, which represented his daily life. ‘At the age of 97,’ he said, ‘I’ve officially lived my life 30 minutes ahead’ – 30 minutes ahead of whatever he was doing at the moment.”

• Live more! It’s better than crying before you’re hurt. Don’t put your umbrella up until it rains. Worry restricts your ability to think and act effectively, and it forces you to mortgage fear and anxiety about something that may never occur. Laughter is the opposite. When you laugh, you’re living almost completely in the moment and it’s one of the best feelings you can have.
• No one can ruin your day without your permission. As much as we cannot control in life – our genes, our past and what has led up to today – there is much control we may take upon ourselves. Today, for example, we can understand that life picks on everyone, so when the going gets tough, we don’t have to take it personally. When we do take misfortune personally, we tend to obsess, giving a legacy to something that may make you a day poorer in life.
• Cure your destination disease. Live more for today, less for tomorrow, and never about yesterday. How? You might have to repeatedly remind yourself that yesterday is gone forever, yet we perpetually have to deal with now, so why not live it? And what if tomorrow never occurs? There is a difference between working toward the future, which is inherently enjoyable in light of hope, and living in an unrealistic future that remains perpetually elusive. If tomorrow never comes, would you be satisfied with the way today ended?

“It is not how you start in life and it is not how you finish,” Gilliland says. “The true joy of life is in the trip, so enjoy the ride!”

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 AD OF THE WEEK

A new feature that I am adding is the "Ad of the Week" (or month or whatever) that highlights some of the best work in the world. 

Most of you have seen the iconic Pulp Fiction scene where Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) has a flashback. The scene shows the time when his deceased father's fellow POW Christopher Walken brings Butch his father's watch. You know the watch that was smuggled in with some, er, uh delicate and dedicated hiding. This one is actually a parody of the Apple Watch commercials narrated by Walken. Enjoy.

Summer Dining Series: Heavenly Kosher

The next great dining destination is just down the 101 Freeway, perfectly centered between downtown Los Angeles and Santa Barbara: Oxnard.

Okay, so where am I? 

I am stuck in my Cohiba-soaked loft overlooking the hustle of the City of Angels. Crumpled sheets of typewriter paper building in the trashcan. Another assignment staring me down; one that is notoriously close to deadline with only a few days to come up with the promotion of the century.

When the going gets tough, the tough get away. Earlier in the week a colleague raved on-and-on about the inspiration derived from the secluded white-sand beaches and Victorian style Oxnard, California. Surely my friend jested as she recommended this romantic, young and relaxing place to get the ideas flowing. And yet there I was flowing down the highway with the Pacific Ocean to my left anxious to check-in to my beachfront hotel and hear the water serenade me.

I held a dinner reservation to the Tierra Sur At Herzog Wine Cellars, a highly-rated Zagat restaurant with the kosher wines and meals. When I pulled up to the complex centered in a converted industrial park that you might think was a small distribution center, I was not expecting the finest meal I had ever eaten.

Now let’s get this straight: I am no stranger to fine foods. I have dined at the finest restaurants on the planet—Noma in Copenhagen, Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy and Eleven Madison Park in New York City—all ranked in the top 10 by Time Magazine. But nothing compares once you’ve tasted the chorizo lamb sausage on piadina flat bread with black olives, watercress, cherry tomato salad and zahtar dressing from Tierra Sur.

And that was just the start.

We settled on the rib eye and the salmon.

The debate raged while we sipped our wine and awaited our entrées. I mean we could have ordered the Duo of Duck—a confit duck leg and seared duck breast with fennel-green garlic fritter, sautéed swiss chard and smoked tomato-bean ragout and red wine reduction from their wood burning grill after all. I mean why do we always go with the safe choice? Little did we know until dinner was served!

The salmon was a cauliflower potato tortilla Española, champagne leeks, mille erbe and real saffron that was fresher than any Kodiak bear could catch and paw deliver to you in the wild. And the rib eye? Well the rib eye? You mean the rib eye with a mustard demi, fried Yukon gold potatoes, sous vide abalone mushrooms, kale and roasted pearl onions? The rib eye was the best piece of meat I have ever tasted and maybe, will ever taste. I am forever ruined to the 100,000 places all over the world that offers rib eye on their menu.

The Herzog Wine Cellars Limited Edition Prince Vineyard Petit Sirah was a lovely paring that I won’t soon forget.

For dessert, the Gateu d’Ariel, a flourless chocolate cake, was the easy choice, as was the Herzog Late Harvest Lodi Zinfandel that accompanied it. Back to the venue itself…

A couple hundred words ago, I alluded to the setting from the outside. No one would ever suspect the grandeur inside the Inside the wine cellars has a self-guided tour which gives you an insight on winemaking process with an artistic and historic feel. It’s almost hypnotizing as you take in the aura of the countless barrels of wine waiting to be tapped, bottled and served with fine, mouth-watering bites of every kosher meal you could envision. It felt as if I was in the holy land, tasting organic and earthly treasures, salivating for more.

The meal itself was more than a dinner. It was a magic. While my intention was not really to impress my partner, but it easily did the trick as I received an “A+” for selecting a city that holds the highest culinary class in a fifty mile stretch.

Oxnard might be a small, farm city for some, but its delicious organic agricultural appeal will make this a shy, sexy destination with the finest culinary experience you will ever have.

Tierra Sur At Herzog Wine Cellars
3201 Camino Del Sol
Oxnard, California 93030
805/983-1560

Where to Stay:
Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach - Hotel & Resort
2101 Mandalay Beach Road
Oxnard, CA 93035
805/984-2500

TOP TIP: Ask for a beachfront room (see below). If it is not offered, wait for a weekend where it is available. The secluded white-sand beach is sure to please.

This is the first in a series of dining getaways across the Golden State.