MGS Chat: New England Patriots Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft

New England Patriots Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft speaks at Gillette Stadium on Monday, January 23, 2012.

RKK: For not being here [the podium] in quite a while, I'm showing up a few times [lately]. We're really excited, needless to say. We were trying to think - this year has been dedicated to volunteerism and people who dedicate themselves to their communities. I credit my son, Jonathan, with coming up with this idea of trying to think of those people who help make this country so great, but who don't seek monetary return as the number one thing in their lives, but rather try to serve their community. I personally thought of five areas that I've had experience with and I think most of you have. One being nurses, military personnel, teachers, firemen and policemen. I think they all help to make this country so great and probably are, in my mind, underappreciated and in many cases underpaid. We decided we'd come up with a little program that we're calling ‘Super Bowl for Super People Sweepstakes.' The exact details of that you'll be able to get at Patriots.com. I could start telling you the rules, but I might mess it up. But I think around six o'clock tonight we'll have it. The principal idea is that we have superiors nominating people who they think are most deserving and have done things that are special. We're going to take two people - and this is a New England award, a New England service award. We're going to take two people from each of these five categories - nurses, military personnel, teachers, firemen and policemen - and they will be randomly selected next Friday and they and a guest of theirs will be taken with us to the Super Bowl and they'll represent that part of the community that we've tried to celebrate this whole year. We're really excited about that and we hope that a lot of very deserving people will be nominated and that that will be a very special way for us to cap off our season and keep this spirit of volunteerism and serving our community alive. Thank you.   Thank you all for being here. I'm glad you're here today. I know NBC, I think, is very happy. We have some good markets and we look forward to a wonderful game. We think a great deal of the ownership of the team we're playing. I'll just say something, too. Steve Bisciotti of the Ravens came over to me last night after the game and really was classy in how he spoke to me. We have a great sport and we hope these volunteers who will win this will help make this experience special.  

Q: You've seen this franchise succeed and have some ups and downs. The jubilation you saw in the locker room last night, how do you think this team is built to handle getting back to work?  

RKK: I believe in this team big time. We have a coach who has gone through the learning curve pretty well. It's funny, I was just chatting with Rodney Harrison who was here doing some work with NBC. I was telling him how I had the privilege of having Drew Bledsoe stay at my house the night before the game. He flew in and was one of the honorary captains and then I realized he never played with Drew Bledsoe; Rodney really came in afterwards. What that made me realize and I bring it to Coach [Bill] Belichick and the system we have here that we hopefully have a system and discipline and the best coach in place that will keep people focused. Fortunately, we've had the experience of going to this game before. We have certain disciplines we follow and we'll follow those now. We hope we have the privilege of bringing our fourth championship back to the New England community.  

Q: There are only a dozen players left from the two teams who played in the Super Bowl four years ago. What does that say about both organizations that there can be such a turnover of playersm, but you're both here again with new rosters?


RKK: I think both teams are blessed to have good coaches and good personnel people. I know the Giants have good ownership. But wow, those two games yesterday were unbelievable. Have the ratings come out? I haven't seen but it must have been - we'll have to call the NFL.  

Q: I think the NFC was the third-most watch NFC title game and the Patriots game was the highest rated AFC title game. 


RKK: Yeah. I honestly, I'm surprised, usually I see the data, but I've been sort of inundated today. But it was something and they both went right to the end. Somehow I feel we're going to have a Super Bowl that's going to be in the same category. But how lucky are we to be going to Indianapolis? I hope these 20 people who celebrate the good acts of this region will enjoy the game and hopefully we bring this victory back.  

Q: With how competitive Tom Brady is, do you expect him to be extra motivated to bring home the Lombardi trophy after the losses to the Giants in the Super Bowl and this season?


RKK: He's always motivated, whether he's playing golf or playing football. As we saw yesterday, it's more than Tom Brady; it requires a whole team. I think our team, as a team, played remarkably well: special teams, defense and the offense when they had to. It's more that the quarterback because there are a lot of great quarterbacks who have never even been to the championship game. He's always going to be motivated. I see it firsthand, whether it's at practice or anywhere. Look how he got up there yesterday and spoke about his own performance. He didn't beat against the bush.  

Q: How vivid are your memories of that 2007 Super Bowl?


RKK: I've never been able to watch it. Last night, you saw a kick being missed at the end of the game. But that kick would have tied the game and then put it into overtime, which is amazing. I do remember the end of the game, a ball going through our cornerback's hands that if he had caught that ball and it hadn't gone through his hands, we would have been able to take a knee and we would have won the game. And, you know, that Eli [Manning] doing a great job escaping from that pile of guys that we had on him, and whether the whistle blows and the great catch and all these things. In the end, there are a lot of little things. That was a great game, that was a great team and we're looking forward to having the privilege of going to Indianapolis. Thank you very much.

Lost and Found at the Sundance Film Festival

I have to get to the Sundance Film Festival red carpet in Park City, Utah for the screening of "Ethel," a documentary about the 83-year-old political matriarch Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy. Word has it that Taylor Swift will be there and we all know that the chance to interview her is on my leap list (more on "leap lists" later).

The stars of Lay the Favorite - Bruce Willis, Corbin Bernson, Rebecca Hall, Laura  Prepon and Joshua  Jackson.

For me, the best way to travel to here is to walk. It’s not a good idea to go on interview row stressed out after slaloming through insane Utah drivers. In my humble opinion, Utahonians are among the nation’s worst drivers. It’s not that they don’t know how to drive. It’s just that they ignore the rules of the road; perhaps preoccupied with the gorgeous mountains. I once saw a guy do a u-turn on the main drag – yes they still call it the “main drag” in smaller towns there -- to snag a parking spot. The fact that an park ranger was in high pursuit of a sapling poacher was careening down the street didn’t seem to deter him.

The last place you want to have a heart attack is in Park City, Utah.

Since the weather’s suddenly turned cool, 16 degrees at last check, I put on my black Hugo Boss to complement my jeans and black shoes, grab the phone number for the media driver service and head down to the lobby. The card they gave me in my media pack said the car would arrive in 10 minutes or less and true to their written word, they arrived in nine minutes. As I pile in the back of the car, I’m starting to fumbled with my camera to make sure the lens is clean and there’s enough room on the memory are. Yeah, I know…this is something that I should have done last night. As I’m doing so I see a pair of glasses sitting on top of a copy of the Economist. Next to it is a pile of chocolate chip cookies inside a Tupperware.

“Someone forgot their treats,” I say to the driver.

“Those were here when I started today,” he says. “Can you believe someone forgot all that?”

The Armani glasses were too expensive to take, but the driver insisted to crack open the Tupperware and “get energized” with the decadent-looking cookies. Now I’m nervous, because all of the chit-chat is putting me behind schedule. I have to get to the line on time on lose my spot. With the exception of a couple of cookies, I leave the lonely looking effects behind as we arrive in the nick of time. But as I settle down at my taped off spot, I can’t help but wonder, why did this person leave those things behind? What’s the story here?

And so my mind wandered as the stars make their way down the red carpet. Question after question – star after star.

…Sigourney Weaver…Lake Bell…Kate Bosworth…

Sigourney Weaver on the Sundance Red Carpet

Was he talking on his cell phone or playing Words With Friends on his iPhone? You know recently I read somewhere that all the texting, web surfing and smart phoning we do is wrecking our attention spans. (Huh? What were you saying?

…Jacqueline Siegel…Emma Roberts…Quincy Jones…

Did he get laid off work and set up an “office” at Starbucks like I did when I was writing my first screenplay?

What about the cookies? (Man, these are so good!) Were they for a co-worker’s birthday party? Or maybe a suck-up gift for his boss?

…Rebecca Hall…Bruce Willis…Joshua Jackson…Laura Prepon…Corbin Bernsen

All good questions, however, I’m putting my money on affairs of the heart. This guy probably got into a fight with his high maintenance significant other and just forgot where he was. Yes, my mind was all over the place. After all, the red carpet can maim the mind and soul. But now the only story that worries me is the one I will never know.

…Rory and Ethel Kennedy and girl I was stalking, Taylor Swift…

Rory Kennedy (L) with Taylor Swift (R)

Taylor Swiff

The light goes on and I start talking into my mike, trying to get a sound bite for my assignment. I ponder why Taylor Swift was out en force walking the red carpet arm-in-arm with Mrs. Kennedy as if she were part of American Camelot.

Here’s another story I will never know, because the elusive Ms. Swift declined all interview requests to explain her curiosity in HBO’s upcoming documentary.

At least I had my cookies and some nice pictures…

UPDATE: 26 August 2012

Now we now why Ms. Swift did not do interviews and was on the Kennedy Red Carpet! Read the link...

DIGRESSIONS

Earlier I mentioned a "leap list." That's because this terrifying new season of the Bachelor got this phrase into my head. For those of you who don't watch my favorite gossip show, a leap list is a list of things one wants to do before a big milestone in their life.

Above, Bachelor Ben walks with three women who could be his fiancé very soon on a day where the producer convinced the San Francisco to close an entire street and cover it in fake snow. Of course, for some reason everyone skied half naked. I mean, that happens every day in California, right? Just another reason to tune in every Monday night on ABC: near nude skiing and cool phrases like leap lists.

World Portraits: The Dolphin Whisperer

Dubai, UAE - Relaxing at the Palm Atlantis, I noticed something rather uplifting moment: a woman with toothy, radiant smile talking to a dolphin. The conversation lasted for minutes and the dolphin seemed to be genuinely interacting with her. Apparently the lady, aka The Dolphin Whisperer, is kind of a big deal where she's from. Chinese film star Jingchu Zhang is staying at the Atlantis while filming the action movie Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains. I hope it has subtitles.

Travel & Adventure Show: Skepticism Eliminated

Okay, so where am I?

No, not underground writing my latest screenplay or those two book projects that are nearing deadline. Believe it or not, the 2012 L.A. Travel and Adventure Show called to me like the North Star in the dead of night.

I know. I know. I was skeptical too. But off to Long Beach I went. No traffic on a weekend morning made for a soothing overcast winter's drive.

The Fuji exhibit feature the traditional dance of the meke.

Upon my arrival at the show, I pick up my media credentials and the place is packed. Who would have guessed it? In my first thirty seconds on the trade show floor, this excited, attractive girl glides over speaking a million miles and over. At 20 or 21 years old, she wasn’t quite whom I had expected to meet here. She was desperate to find Andrew Zimmern. You know him, he’s the Travel Channel host of Bizarre Foods. I mean she’s in a hurry but she says she forgot her show guide at the scuba dive pool and was now very lost—shades of The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

“Scuba Dive Pool? Are you kidding me? Are you pulling my leg?,” I questioned her, to which she says coyly: "Show me to Andrew’s presentation and I'll show you to the Scuba Dive Pool."

For obvious reasons, I’m excited myself as the conversation escalates to the pace of her fast walking. The entire time, however, she’s gushing about Andrew Zimmern. My mind raced with inquisitive thoughts. Is she a true foodie? Or a Zimmern groupie/stalker? What in her rather large Louis Vuitton duffle? All I know is that it’s urgent she get there on time to see him and get her book signed.

When we get theater where he is speaking, it’s packed. Standing room only with hundreds there. As I begin to excuse myself, she asks where I’m going to which I reply that I don’t want to stand for an hour listening to bizarre food talk.

Her reply?

"Wait a minute!" From out of nowhere she pulls out two collapsible seats from her Louis Vuitton and whisks us near the front of the stage.

We sit down and she pours me a homemade cardamom coffee from her thermos and the conversation continues about how she can’t get enough of Andrew Zimmern and how he’s amazing and she waits every year to go to this show in order to plan her vacation for the following year.

The Scuba Dive Pool sponsored by www.beAdiver.com was home to an 18,000 gallon  heated dive pool where you could learn the basics of diving.

Again I think to myself, “Are you kidding me? A travel show to plan a vacation? Isn’t that why they invented the Internet? (Yeah I know they invented the Internet for THAT. I mean besides THAT?) What about all the travel shows on Discovery, Nat Geo and the Food Network? What about Travel+Leisure magazine? Aren’t they the experts?”

As I begin to ask her if I was indeed being tricked, she blurted out a huge “SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! He’s coming.”

From there I was on my own.

She was riveted to every word he said. And you know what? He was pretty damned interesting. Along the way I learned a few of his hot spots for traveling foodies, including:

• Aleppo, Syria: “This former Spice Route capitol was the world’s greatest food city a thousand years ago and is still one today. Paved with ancient pathways, it’s perfect blend of Middle East and North Africa.”
• Barcelona, Spain: “Barcelona offers a remarkable depth and breadth of eateries. The best in Spanish cuisine is well represented here.”
• Montreal, Quebec: “It’s a city with more culinary balls than any other on earth. Classic eats, street fare, indulgent, boozy, chef-driven, extreme cuisine.”
• Taipei, China: “I love Chinese cuisine, maybe above all else. The night market in Taipei offers what is perhaps the best street eats on the planet narrowly beating out Penang’s New Lane and Singapore’s hawker stalls.”
• Venice, Italy: “It’s the perfect walking city, dark and brooding at night, hidden and mysterious, and the food is once again on par with the town itself.”

After the presentation I wasn’t about to wait around for the guy who stole the girl I never had, so I walked the show—and what a glorious walk it was.

Amongst 400 exhibitors, I got a closer look at local and international destinations, familiar favorites and some under-the-radar escapes that are still somewhat crowd free even in high season. Take the Falklands.

For nature and wildlife lovers, the Falklands are the place.

With a life-sized portrait of penguins as the backdrop to the exhibit area, I was able to have a lovely conversation with Kylie, their marketing rep, who was happy to gush about the South Atlantic archipelago of 700 plus islands. Prior to the show, the only thing I knew about them was that it was the flashpoint of the 1982 war where Britain decided to prove to the world they could still fight like a world power. What I discovered was that the Falklands feature raw and unblemished nature with 227 species of birds, whales, dolphins, elephant seals and sea lions roaming the air, land and ocean.  And, if you’re a fan of royalty, Prince William is going there in February as part of his duties as a search and rescue pilot with the Royal Air Force. $2900 for an eight-day trip started to sound pretty good by the end of the conversation. Pretty, pretty good.

And as much as I wanted to see Samantha Brown [of the Travel Channel’s Passport show] wax poetic about stellar destinations, I was glued to the Global Beats Stage. There I found dancers from Indonesia, Guam, Taiwan, Spain, China and Malaysia, not to mention some belly dancing and a mesmerizing performance by Vedat. [Click below to see him comically explain Turkish love songs.]

As the day came to an end at 5:00 P.M., I caught a glimpse of my old new friend leaving the convention center, signed book in hand acting as if she won the lottery. It was then when I answered my own question from earlier. Where else could I experience the flavors of Berlin, Taiwan, Hawaii, Fiji, Ethiopia and hundreds of other destinations, climb a rock wall, gather in an Andrew Zimmern presentation, ride a zip line and scuba dive all in a single afternoon?

Only at the L.A. Travel & Adventure Show…

Epilogue

If you missed the show, the same folks who organized this one have three more in the next two months: the Chicago Travel & Adventure Show, January 28-29 at the Stephens Convention Center; the Bay Area Travel & Adventure Show , February 18-19 at the Santa Clara Convention Center; and the Washington D.C. Travel & Adventure Show, March 17-18 at the Washington Convention Center. Click here if you want to know more.

MGS Chat: Sir Tom Jones

He’s not unusual. In fact, for a man who saw Elvis eating deviled eggs on an exercise bike, he’s surprisingly normal. Sir Tom Jones talks exclusively to the Media Guy.

The snake hips have gone, but the charm is all intact. Celebrated lothario, knight of the realm, Hollywood Walk of Famer... He’s clocked up more Vegas appearances than Sinatra, talked fitness tips with Elvis and been the target of untold items of flying underwear. Why, then, does it feel like I’m chatting with some jovial old timer in a pub at the back end of Cardiff?


Media Guy: A friend’s father, also from Pontypridd, remembers you as a bit of a rocker. Any truth in that?

Sir Tom Jones captivated the Beyrouth Forum crowd.

Tom Jones: Oh, yeah! We were listening to rock ’n’ roll music; Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, Fats Domino, Little Richard. That was the kind of music I was doing in the pubs and the clubs.

MG: Did you see that the BBC published your old employment records recently? One entry reads, ‘He has been talking about “going professional” since April but he is still signing the UR [unemployment register] and not autograph books.’

TJ: Yeah! [Laughs] I didn’t know they were writing all that s**t down! They were offering me shift work and I said I’d rather not have it because I was singing in the clubs and trying to get a record contract. They were very good, though. I was signing on twice a week and doing gigs at night.

MG: Did ‘It’s Not Unusual’ suggest itself to you as an immediate hit?

TJ: My manager, Gordon Mills, was writing songs for Leeds Music, and I would record a lot of the demos to make some extra cash. One day he came to me and said, ‘I’ve got this song that I’m writing, and if we get a good demo we can present it to Sandie Shaw.’ He sang it to me in the car as we were going to the recording studio and I thought ‘Yeah, I get that’. I said, ‘Gordon, I have to have this song.’ And he said, ‘Nah, it’s a pop song.’ I said, ‘I’m telling you, this sounds like a hit song to me.’ Thank God it was Sandie they gave the song to because she said, ‘Whoever’s singing this demo – it’s his song. I wouldn’t be able to sing it like that.’ So that was it. That was the beginning of it for me.

MG: And you’ve sung it every night of your life ever since...

TJ: Exactly! That one is always in. No doubt.

MG: Don’t you get tired of it?

TJ: No. I really like the song, and it’s a test. It’s not easy to sing. You can’t just glide through it; you’ve got to sing it because of the range of the thing. Same with ‘Delilah’. I like doing them to prove that I still can.

MG: Do you remember those early Vegas days very clearly?


TJ: Well, I went to have a look at it in ’65, when I first went to America. I saw Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin... In London we had a club called ‘Talk of the Town’ and it was like there were six Talk of the Towns here in one town! They offered me a contract in ’68, and I’ve played there every year since. I don’t think Frank Sinatra even played there that long.

MG: And that’s where you met Elvis?

The Media Guy and Tom Jones at the fabulous
InterContinental Phoenicia Beirut Hotel.

TJ: No, I met him in Hollywood at Paramount Studios in 1965, and he came to see me in Vegas in ’68 to see what I was all about. He wanted to make a comeback; he wanted to play Vegas. So he came and watched me work, and he said it gave him confidence.

MG: Did you ever see Elvis turn down a cheeseburger?

TJ: Er, no. He used to like a pizza as well. He used to keep the pizza under his bed.

MG: Did he have a favorite topping?

TJ: I don’t know. But we’d be up late, singing gospel songs, and he’d say, ‘Do you like pizza?’ He had it under the bed, just in case, but he used to laugh about it. He wasn’t a secret eater. When he started getting a gut on him, I remember he had this exercise bike in the suite. This bike was an electric bike that would move by itself. He used to sit there eating deviled eggs and laughing. He was having fun with it, but it backfired on him in the end.

MG: Do you ever worry that you might be remembered as a walking knicker magnet?

TJ: I wouldn’t like that. If they want to talk about it, you can’t stop that really because it happened. I would like to think the reason that it did happen is because of my voice; because the songs I was singing were getting people excited. Over the years my shows have been reviewed not on how good I’m singing, but by how many pairs of underwear are up there. It’s immaterial, really. What I’m putting out – that’s the main question.

World Portraits: Soaring

Arabian Peninsula—Rare in many parts of the world, three eagle species, the Greater Spotted Eagle, Imperial Eagle, and Lesser Kestrel, spend winters and early spring throughout the Arabian Peninsula in search of prime areas to mate and lay their few eggs (only one to three per mating season).

World Travels: Snapshots of Forgotten Places

The Middle East is marked by incredible diversity and indelible images. One extended visit erases the misconceptions and opens an entire new world filled with laughing people and overwhelming hospitality. Sights, unseen outside of the region, jump with historical significance and endless stories. Here are just a few.

Isfahan, Iran…The cool blue tiles of Isfahan's buildings mix with the city's majestic bridges, beautiful gardens and immense bazaar.

 

Sinai Desert, Egypt…Since the beginning of time, it seems the Bedouin men of the Sinai were never done drinking tea or coffee. Legend has it that any man who broke a coffee cup would be obliged to buy or make two new ones for the mess. This pact produced jokes at the expense of anyone so unfortunate as to break one. In the process the bonds of friendship were formed.

Essaouira, Morocco…The gateway of Essaouira transports you to a land Essaouira is celebrated for its cabinetmaking and lemonwood carvings. Common to the city is thuja. The arborvitae, or tree of life, is said to inspire artists from around the world.

Cappadocia, Turkey…Nature’s powers are alive in the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia. The moonlike landscapes are formed by the continual erosion of the volcanic landscape by the wind and rain. Many say that if you leave Cappadocia without visiting here, your entire journey would be a waste.

Gabes, Tunisia…Accessible only by channeling across by boat, Gabes—a maritime oasis with over 300,000 palm trees—is a mesmerizing dream in the mist of the arid Tunisian countryside.

Petra, Jordan…"No hurry, no worry!" says the Jordanian fruit salesman as he provides refreshment near the famed stone city.

Doha, Qatar…Olivier Rochus of Belgium (in blue) dashes to make a return to Davide Sanguinetti of Italy at the Qatar Mobile Open.

Originally published in ALO magazine (www.alomagazine.com) by The Media Guy (that's me!, Michael Lloyd).