Hollywood, Bollywood...All Movie Weekend

Despite Thunderbird's small size, during the trimester things are quite active. However, things change drastically over Thanksgiving break - desolate would be a good way to describe it. Nevertheless, I've kept myself busy to keep my mind off a certain someone. Today I spent a good 6 hours on a shopping expedition to the Fashion Square mall in Scottsdale.

Up first - a quick stop at Marshall's, which features their "Shoe Megashop." They didn't have anything that I liked, in my size anyway. But DK nearly snagged some black Calvin Klein loafers for only 30 bucks! The only problem? They only had one shoe! Although he left his name and phone number with Esteban, the sales rep, I'm positive he won't be receiving a call back. I perused the women's section to see what I could find in size 6.5, and found some Lacoste's, but wasn't convinced that she would like them...

Afterwards, it was off to downtown Scottsdale. People were out and about on Black Friday. I heard some of the Taiwanese were up shopping at 4 am! I really had to hold myself back from buying too much since I'll be in NYC next month. This was quite challenging because my wardrobe is hurting. I also checked the Gap to see what styles they had in size 0, but none of the finishes caught my eye. Maybe next time.

In the evening , I jumped at the chance to see an Indian Bollywood movie - Dhoom 2! To quote my friend Richard from Barbados - this movie had "lots of action!!!" But more importantly, what I loved about the movie was that it incorporated quite a few elements that I find appealing - love, romance, song and dance. The women were extremely beautiful too.
After Thanksgiving dinner, I decided to remenisce about the past couple of weeks. I rented the 2003 remake of "The Italian Job" and I'm glad I did. It reaffirmed several things for me: 1) I'm definitely going to Italy to learn Italian and 2) to always go after what you want. The scenes from Venice were fascinating. Besides seeing the Mini Coopers (both old and new - I loved the white one with sports striping), my favorite part about the movie was the advice the old man provided. In fact, I could relate a lot to the main character, Charlie Croker. He was a quiet leader, a smooth dresser and got the girl of his dreams. At the end of the film, he took his girlfriend's (Stella's, father's advice. In Charlie's words: "...and me? I took John Bridge's advice - I found somebody I want to spend the rest of my life with and I'm going to hold on to her forever." I definitely want to see the original because nothing ever replaces a classic.
Tomorrow should be a charm since it will be the third movie of the weekend. I'm looking forward to the GQ elements that only 007 can bring to the table. I've heard mixed reviews, but I'm certain fashion is one thing this film will not mess up.

La Dolce Vita

Finally! Yes, I finally made it out to a culturally enriching environment last night. My favorite social coordinator thought of the idea and we went to the Postino Winecafe in central Phoenix for dinner.

People say that Thunderbird is an oasis in the desert, but that is being much too generous. The students are fantastic, but when it comes to true intellectual stimulation, ambiance and environment are at the top of my list. And Postino definitely delivered - excellent food (albeit a limited selection). People are often times so anti-cliché. But it was a situation in which "quality is better than quantity." Words to live by?

What made the night unique was the random collection of fellow T-bird students (Andrew, Cara, Milica, Gerhard, Rishab, Megan, Pradnesh, Markus and Rachel) who partook in the occasion. Since the school is small, all of the students know who each other are. However, even at small schools there are always cliques. This night people from different groups came together and share what their plans are for Thanksgiving - Seattle, Burbank, NYC, just to name a few.

This is the 2nd time in four years that I spend Thanksgiving away from Colorado. With all of my upcoming trips, I couldn't justify spending $500 for a quick weekend getaway. No offense to my family, but for $500 bucks I would only whisk away a special somebody, and I think she knows who she is. At least I'll get a chance to ride my scooter with my friend Shane who offered his home to the unfortunate souls who decided to stay behind.

Although I'm a member of the Thunderbird Wine Club, I have my work cut out for me! I still can't rattle off all the different types of wine (red or white) and truly know what the differences are. But since I'm a fan of red wine, I decided to go with one I had never tried before. The first Shiraz I selected ran out. But in typical T-bird fashion, I opted for an international wine as a second choice. It could be argued that I'm biased towards international wine for no apparent reason (possibly based solely on my strong distaste for American beer), but I really enjoy things from far away places (like Hong Kong, maybe?).

Choosing an international wine was such a no brainer - the Goats Do Roam (2004), a pinotage, Rhone blend from South Africa.


I thought I could write up a more interesting tale, but I just found this incredibly written little snippet about this wine from www.bellaonline.com:

"Goats Do Roam - A fun wine from South Africa"

A trend in winemaking is "cute" labels and funny names. Goats Do Roam plays upon the famous Côte du Rhône region of France. This friendly red wine is from Fairview Winery in the Paarl Valley of South Africa. The story of the name is told on the back label:

"One afternoon at harvest time, my mischievious son Jason and his friend Justin let the goats out of their tower and sent them for a walkabout amongst the vines. As in the legend of the Yemeni goat herd - whose roaming flock first discovered the joys of coffee beans - they picked out the best and tastiest fruit."

The vintner has blended together grapes that would never be allowed in the Côte du Rhône. Fairview lists the blend as: 33% Pinotage, 22% Shiraz, 13% Grenache, 13% Carignan, 10% Cinsault, 5% Gamay Noir and 4% Mourvèdre.

The result is an easy drinking wine that is best consumed within one or two years. After first tasting this wine a few months ago I purchased two cases. My household is reaching the end of the second case. I am not the only oenophile to proclaim Goats Do Roam´s praises. It was awarded with a silver medal at the 2001 International Wine Challenge. In April 2001 the Wine Advocate awarded it 86 points.

This wine can be enjoyed while sipping and talking with friends, it can also stand up to stronger food choices. This is a blend of grapes and it is fitting that it can be enjoyed with a hearty winter stew. If you are still able to grill, serve this wine with a steak topped with blue cheese or green peppercorn sauce. It also pairs nicely with garlic enhanced pasta dishes.

I wouldn't certainly agree with her surmise. I enjoyed sipping wine and talking with friends. I'm sure I'll be back to enjoy another time at Postino...and the Gelateria next door is quite good. But remember next time, you have to go with pistachio and nutella!

My heart beats for you

...Y yo estoy aquí
Borracho y loco
y mi corazón idiota
siempre brillará
y yo te amaré
te amaré por siempre
nena no te peines en la cama
que los viajantes se van a atrasar...

Sometimes love is a zero-sum game...I guess Tennyson summed it up best in his poem "In Memoriam 27" - It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all...

2nd runner-up

While making it to the Kraft Latin America Challenge finals was a milestone, our team certainly didn't put on the best performance in front of the four Kraft executives. As a result, we finished in third place or as Freddie Carrillo the marketing exec put it, "2nd runner-up," which is a respectable placing.

Personally, it was a great experience in team leadership and project management. However, due to serious time constraints related to school work, i.e., Data Analysis, we really had little time to prepare. At least we still made some money.

Scooter Nation

After mentioning my need to write a story about scooter riders for the Das Tor student newspaper to a friend (for the third time), I got the hint that I sounded merely like a broken record and finally have decided to get the creative juices flowing.

The biggest impetus to write the article is due to the fact that I'm no longer the lone-gun scooter rider at Thunderbird. There have been two recent additions to the "Motor Cycle Parking Only" parking space. That's right, we are officially taking over!

So far we have my Kymco Bet&Win 250cc (the largest of the bunch), Shane's Aprilia Scarabeo (150cc), Doug's Vento Phantom GT5 (50cc) and a Yamaha Zuma (50cc) whose owner remains a mystery at the time of my writing. I may just have to start a scooter riders club on campus. More to come...

Tonsorial conundrum...

If evolution were tangible, I would say that it would possibly bear witness to itself when a person undergoes personal growth. What do I mean by evolution? Well, M-W.com defines evolution as "a process of change in a certain direction." As they say, change is the only constant. And like anything living, hair is no different in that it continues to grow and grow (other than the fact that I believe it's actually "dead").

Why am I rambling on about "personal" growth? Well, in my International Political Economy (IPE) as well as International Economics classes, fashion was mentioned - on the same day! What's the probability of that? The sad thing is I could probably figure it out. In IPE, the professor mentioned that as a newly minted MBA in '82 he paid $175 for a (male) fashion service that took a lock of his hair and photo in order to determine the best color combinations and fashion sense to suit him based on his presentation style. The professor continued that the analysis even got to the nitty-gritty, including how far apart the pinstripe wales should be set, the amount of cuff a shirt should show under a jacket sleeve and even how many eyelets on his shoes should be peeking out under his pant cuff! Unfortunately, I believe old-age has set in and he didn't adhere to many of the suggestions, despite the costly assessment.


Well, the time comes to once again do something with my mop. Yes, yes, I know...one might be surprised that a fashion-oriented person such as myself actually doesn't do the best with maintaining his tonsorial duties. However, I find that I'm much too busy to keep up with the demands of the twice-monthly chore. Besides, I like to be creative with my hair (while I still have the chance!).

As usual, I tend to borrow generously from the pages of GQ magazine. The last haircut I went for was stolen straight from a Hugo Boss model (Sept. 2006 edition) . Despite my best attempts to explain how I wanted his look translated to my head, the stylist seemed to disappoint, as do most stylists. For some reason, many of them aren't very receptive to my taking color photos of the 'do that I want. Anyway, next on deck will be my most creative style since I went for the "faux-hawk" to pledge my unity to the World Cup this past summer.

Who knows, maybe after my module abroad to Prague, Czech Republic next semester I'll go for an even wilder style. For now, D&G will just have to "do."

Rumble in the Desert

Just got my new Leo Vince exhaust pipe from Italy installed today. From the Leo Vince website:

"LeoVince USA is a division of Sito Gruppo Industriale based in Monticello d'Alba, Italy. Sito is the largest exhaust manufacturer in Europe and brings 50 years of passion and experience to their complete product line (e.g., "Scoot" for scooters). Pietro Mollo founded Sito Gruppo, the parent company of LeoVince USA, in 1954 when he set up a workshop in nearby Turin to manufacture his first exhaust. The current factory (now in Monticello d'Alba) encompasses almost 200,000 square feet and employs over 120 skilled technicians and support staff. Since those humble beginnings, Sito has expanded sales and distribution around the world under the guidance of Gianni, Pietro's son. Today Sito and the LeoVince brand utilize the most modern technologies and manufacturing processes but all products still possess the unique hands-on craftsmanship that LeoVince is famous for. "

I still have to wait to break in the exhaust pipe, which means I'm not supposed to take it above 65 mph until I run through two tanks of gas. But already I can sense the improved acceleration and can't wait to see where it goes once I go full throttle. The pipe gives off a good rumble, not too loud, but let's you know who's boss.

Ding, Ding...Round 2...Go Get 'em Champ!

After battling the sniffles with incessant shots of Airborne and Tylenol cold and sinus, I was feeling pretty lousy. Then, just like the song lyrics from the song "What A Difference A Day Makes"

...What a difference a day makes
Twenty-four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain...

I received the best booster-upper possible - a call back from Target Corporation! That's right...I'm sure most people in my public speaking and presentation class would be shocked after such a lackluster performance on Tuesday. But call back they did, and after my first ever case interview!

The question? "Should Target expand into Canada? Tell me how you would make your decision." I had done a little bit of prep, but fortunately I was able to draw upon the research and work I did for the Kraft challenge. I used more of a macroenvironmental framework as opposed to a microenvironmental focus, but apparently it worked. Also, I did a very thorough review of Target's key facts and figures from Hoover's.com.

The voicemail was fantastic though. Went something like this:

"Hi, I'm calling from Target corporate in Minneapolis on behalf of the mba recruitment team.
Congratulations! Jose said wonderful things about you after interview at NSHMBA. I would like to extend an invitation for final round interview at HQ in Minneapolis on 12/1. I have the VP's blocked for that day and they would like to meet with you prior to making any hiring decisions."

Now, I need to really pay attention in Strategy class and continue to challenge the professor...