Pandora Meets YouTube

Pandora can be fun for listening to music you already like and learning about music you’ve never heard. My favorite thing to watch on YouTube is music videos/live music performances. Put the two together! You get your own customized streaming music video channels! The way videos are suggested would be based on the same music genome principles Pandora uses and it would have the same thumbs up/down feature. There are many other ways videos could be suggested. For example, video suggestions could be based on era (um, early nineties R&B), music video story line (boy meets girl), site (the beach), director (Michel Gondry, who directed Bjork’s Human Behavior among others), etc. Kinda like a music video genome project.

Okay, someone start working on this one please!

Please invent: Time capsule boutiques

Not too long ago a friend who was moving out of town invited a few friends over for a little going-away brunch. The subject came up about how moving can unearth items that are hard to part with yet have no place in one’s current life. Think letters, mementos and pictures of past loves. Your diary from when you were 14. You get the picture.

But what if there was a lovely time capsule boutique in your town where you could take your precious items and store them in a time capsule, to be opened whenever, and by whomever you choose (your grandchildren!)? Kind of like a safe-box in a bank, but for special sentimental items. I imagine this time capsule boutique would have a romantic, charming aura, like the shop from the movie Chocolat. And they would also sell chocolate, of course.

Genius Brewing

On one of those days where I’d clocked 4+ hours of diligent work at my local Oakland, CA coffee shop, some geniuses must have heard me think, “damn, they should really be charging for rent space here.” Gaylord’s coffee shop in Oakland is a prime example. At any given time the small coffee shop has at least twenty or so regulars on their laptops. Trying to get a table? You may have to wait a few hours.

The geniuses at i/o Ventures have created Summit, a coffee shop on the first floor and a tech incubator on the second floor. According to the SF Chronicle, “Every four months, i/o selects and funds a handful of small tech ventures to the tune of $25,000 each in return for 8 percent of common stock. In addition to the cash, each team gets four months of office space at the Summit, mentoring from Web gurus like Russel Simmons of Yelp, and discounts on all the Pickle & Cheese Plates or White Snow Peony Tea they could possibly need.” They are also looking at creating options where people can pay a $250 membership fee and a $500 monthly fee for a dedicated desk.

Another sign of their genius-they serve BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE.

Read the article in the Atlantic here and the one in the SF Chronicle here.

Good bad ideas: WUPHF!

What is WUPHF? This exchange between Michael & Ryan on The Office explains:

Michael: I sent you a Facebook message yesterday and still haven’t heard anything back!

Ryan: You should have sent a WUPHF.

Michael: A what?

Ryan: When you send a WUPHF, it goes to your home phone, cell phone, email, Facebook, Twitter and home screen, all at the same time.

Watch the video to see a WUPHf in action. Extra points for knowing the words that make up the acronym.

Please invent: The Laundro-Fit

Laundromat photo by MischievousRagDoll

Quick, what are the two things you know you need to do every week that always get pushed to the bottom of the list? The two things that take up time you don’t have, but the ones that give you great satisfaction when crossed off the list?

Laundry and workout time, of course! So let’s combine these two and create a chain of laundro-fits. We can call them Clean-Fit. It’s a laundromat and a pilates/yoga studio. It would offer a modified drop-off service (wash, dry- no fold). Walk in, hand your laundry off to an attendant who will wash and dry your clothes, head to the studio and start your class. Classes start on the hour, and there is equipment to warm up on if you arrive early.

LLOOVVEE!