Tuesday, February 21, 2006

I heart MySpace! I heart The Charles Shaw Project!

Reasons to love MySpace:

  • the interface is so old-school crappy DOS-esque and yet you can do all this crazy stuff to your site to make it look totally unique. I've opted for the old-school crappy DOS-esque version.
  • there are tons and tons of random groups to join including a group all about Trader Joe's. So of course I joined!
  • the main thing about MySpace is spreading the love for unsigned artists that you would otherwise have to hear about from your indie-music-snob friend... and maybe not everyone has a music snob friend... my latest find is a band that takes its name from a Trader Joe's product I think because they were drinking it while they wrote the songs... here they are take a listen...



Add them as your friend, spread the love, isn't that graphic awesome??

Viva La TJvolution!

3 comments:

Kartik said...

I am rocking out to The Charles Shaw Project as I write this. I don't know why they classify themselves as,
"Acoustic / Folk / Experimental" because really they are just alternative, IMHO. The other day I saw somebody write IMNSHO (in my not so humble opinion) which is pretty obnoxious to write in an e-mail, especially if you are not kidding.

But is it true that you can only get Charles Shaw at TJs? Somebody told me that a week ago and I guess I was under the impression that TJs just made it famous. Has TJs worked an exclusive deal with Charles Shaw? Can I go to the winery and get free samples? Is it always just $2? Is Two Buck Chuck even supposed to be good any more, or was it just like one year it was really good? The breadth of my TJs knowledge needs just increased 7-fold.

Unknown said...

Kartik: All Internet acronyms are obnoxious, especially LOL.

To answer you Charles Shaw questions I found this very informative article on brand sense:
Charles Shaw article on brandchannel.com

I like the article so much I'm thinking about posting it on my blog. Isn't that originally why blogs were started, people would post articles that they read on the web and then comment on them?

But in case you don't feel like reading the article, Charles Shaw is apparently exclusive to TJs, TJs did make it famous, there is no Charles Shaw winery (a big company owns the brand), it is $2 on the west coast and $3 on the east coast, and I have no idea if the cult still exists on two-buck chuck, but I did see a woman buying a case of it the other day.

And the best? Charles Shaw apparently went to Stanford Business School. Don't you love how Stanford grads always find a way to make a connection, however small?

I have to throw this out there, this is the extent of the posting on two-buck chuck, because I've tried it and I don't really like it. Granted I don't really like wine, so don't take my word for it at all.

Kartik said...

Thanks for the excellent research. I am now a Shaw expert.

I do have to say though (since Stanford is my favoritest school ever) that you failed to mention this about our favorite Stanford MBA grad:

"Charles Shaw, an investment banker with a passion for wine, came to Napa in the 1980s hoping to sell Beaujolais under his own name. It didn't happen. He left, and Bronco Wine, under CEO (and California wine tyrant) Fred Franzia (you might recognize his name from boxed wine) bought the brand name."

I have no idea how Mr. Shaw was as an investment banker, but apparently he is not so hot in the wine business.

I do love how the east coast gets raped on prices, too. How are the fresh fruit supplies at TJs on the east coast? I guess TJs doesn't have a ton of fresh fruit in general, but perhaps you can make that the subject of a future post to ihearttjs.

You might be totally right about blogs originally being invented to post articles and then comment on them, but I don't think I have ever heard that. I think the "articles" are supposed to be written by the blogger, not by a third-party.