Friday, May 24, 2013

The Business May 29th 2013: The WFMYou Really Wanna Be Here Edition



The Business knows that you are excited about this.  In preparation, we think it is absolutely in order that you all tune your internet radios to WFMU and shake your butt off or laugh your face off, depending on what they are serving up at the moment.  

This week, The Business welcomes Ken Freedman.

Ken Freedman and his only friend Andy Breckman are the hosts of Seven Second Delay on WFMU, the legendary freeform radio station in Jersey City, New Jersey. For the past twenty years, they've picked a "radio stunt" each week, then tried to execute it in just one hour of live airtime. They've chain-translated a Village Voice S&M personal add through 15 languages, then back into English, written the ultimate New York Times "Metropolitan Diary" column entry, then gotten it published, and failed more times than they can count. Every other week, they bring their special potion of anti-comedy trainwrecks to the UCB Theatre.  When they're not on-air, Freedman serves as theStation Manager of WFMU, the longest running and most renowned freeform radio station in the United States.

Oh that’s not all oh no, oh we got Clare O’Kane as well!  Oh yeah!

Clare O’Kane is an actress and comedian who currently lives in Oakland, California. She is a part of Sylvan Productions, a group of weirdos who produce wonderful comedy shows all over the San Francisco Bay Area. Clare has performed in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, as well as a few comedy festivals with fun, fake-sounding names like the Shits and Giggles Comedy Festival and the Too Much Funstival. You can also see her in the indie movie Bloodrape as a bass playing vampire from the nineteen nineties!

It would be foolish to miss this, so get there early cause we sell out.


Bring $5.  A high five is a sufficient tip.

BYOBurrito make sure the meat was listener supported. 

Saturday, May 18, 2013

The Business May 22nd 2013: The Dynamic Duo Edition



THESE GUYS.  Our guests this week are two genuine articles.  

It’s Cory Loykasek and Donnie Divanian! 

Cory Loykasek is an SF based stand-up comedian using laid back rants to take a high-brow look at low-brow issues.  He is a regular on the For The People Comedy Tour and in 2012 performed in SF Sketchfest, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, and Outside Lands.   Is Cory Funny?  A lot of cool people think so.  This one guy, Derrick, he was the JV quarterback at his division III high school, went to prom and everything, thinks Cory is ‘pretty fucking good.”

Donnie Divanian will beat you at tennis and then make you laugh like he didn’t just beat you at tennis. He has performed in SF Sketchfest and the SF Fringe Festival (receiving a best of the Fringe award). He is also in the comedy group We Are Nudes. In 2010 they appeared in the NY times.

Your regulars will be there mmmboping as well, Nato “Issac” Green, Sean “Taylor” Keane and Bucky “Zac” Sinister.  

Bring your $5 and get there early cause we sell out.

BYOBurrito and eat it.  Eat the whole damn thing.

Friday, May 17, 2013

The Structure of Competition: How Hidden Patterns Drive Firm Behaviour

In our behaviour and beliefs, we are influenced by various hidden structures and characteristics of the people surrounding us. Over the past decades, for example, hundreds of studies on social networks and "small worlds" have shown that with whom you have had prior relationships, and how these people relate to each other, influences the information we receive, how much personal power we have, how likely we are to find a job, get promoted, how creative and innovatie we are, and so forth.

This research on social networks basically draws lines between you and the people you know, and lines between those people you know who also know each other; lines between them and other people you don't know at all, etcetera, to reveal very different structures. We call these structures networks with or without "structural holes", with more or less "indirect ties", "network closure", and so on.

Ample research has also revealed that, just like individuals, the same type of structures influence firms in their behaviour and performance. In this case, the lines between different firms - referred to as "social ties" - can be determined by prior alliances between these companies, or shared members of their boards of directors (so-called board interlocks), or some other cooperative tie. Firms may not always realise it, but their strategic choices and success can be heavily infuenced by these social networks.

What a former PhD student of mine - Kai-Yu Hsieh (now an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore) - and I did is similar but also very different from this social network research. We started to draw lines between the different firms in an industry, not based on "social ties" but based on who competes with whom. Some firms in an industry namely compete directly with each other where others don't. For example, in the pharmaceutical industry, a firm making anti-epileptic drugs and cardiovascular drugs would be competing with another firm that makes cardivascular drugs but not with a firm that makes antibiotics medicine. The firm's competitors, however, could also be competing with each other, for instance if both also happened to make cancer drugs. The point is that, drawing lines between the different firms in various industries also revealed remarkably different structures - just like social networks do. And we wanted to find out if organizations, in their behaviour, are also influenced by such competitive structures; which we labeled "the structure of competition".

And the answer is "oh yes".

We deliberately selected two very different industries for which to compute these competitive structures. We analysed whom competes with whom among computer hardware manufacturers in Taiwan. And we computed the exact same structures for pharmaceutical firms in China. The type of strategic behaviour that we chose to analyse through these competitive structures was imitative market entry: how inclined would these firms be, dependent on their structure of competition, to follow each other into new markets? Or might certain type of structures induce them not to imitate each other at all, and in fact stay out of certain markets altogether?

Remarkably, in these very different industries the exact same types of competitive structures led to the exact same types of strategic behaviour. And the influence of the structure of competition was substantial: firms could display completely opposite behaviour when facing different structures (flipping from a strong inclination to imitate to an inclination to do the opposite of others).

We interviewed people in these industries to find out why these structures were influencing their behaviour so heavily. The first thing we found out was that, in spite of their strong influence, managers were not aware of the different type of structures. But they were aware of their influence. Our interviews suggested that operating within a particular structure seemed to leave a particular "imprinting effect" on a firm, making it more or less aggressive in its market behaviour and towards its competitors.

In this study, we analyzed the strong influence of these hidden structures of competition on firm's imitative market entry behaviour, but it seems likely that - just as in the case of social networks - they might heavily influence a whole range of other strategic variables and behaviours. Hence, we see our research - due to appear in the academic journal Organization Science - as just a first step to uncovering the hidden influence of the structure of competition on economic life.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Chevron Summer Dress

I am chomping at the bit to start working on some summer clothes for the kids. I have permission and promises from E that he will wear what I make for him...I just have to run my ideas by him first:o) Thankfully, it's a lot easier to please S.R. As long as it's girly and comfortable, she's all in!
I got really lucky the other day while in Hobby Lobby. They NEVER, and I mean NEVER have regular chevron in stock. They usually have a few duck cloth selections, but the apparel chevron is always sold out.
It was a sign...a sign that it was my chance to make a cute dress for S.R.
And here it is. A sweet little apron dress with a ruffled bodice. She loves it, and that makes me smile.
The back is gathered and the straps button on the inside of the dress. I had so much fun creating this dress, and I am ready to start working on some more!! Time for a fabric run!!


Monday, May 13, 2013

The Business May 15th, 2013: The “HOBO YOU DIDN’T” Edition



We got our bindles tied to our sticks and we are ready for some rail splitting action!  This week’s guests are finer than a pot of Mulligan stew served by a hot lil bo-ette biscuit shooter.


We are tickled to welcome Jeff Seal, Crowned the Hobo Clown King in '86, '87 and '89.  He is an accomplished comic and clown, and a real delight.  


We are also pleased to have the ferociously funny Casey Ley!


Casey's comedy has been seen in festivals such as SFSketchfest, Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, OR and the Moontower Comedy Festival in Austin, TX. He is the host and creator of the popular monthly stand-up show "This Feels Wrong" and a weekly comedy game show called "Mayhem Trivia." He's been featured on NPR and was voted the Bay Area's best comic by readers of SF Weekly in 2012


Also, a San Francisco favorite who has appeared on Last Comic Standing, The Late Late Show and in SF Sketchfest, Michael Meehan!


Michael is a self-taught comic, painter and sculptor. His art is forged from salvaged materials and a sense of the absurd.


Plus all your regulars, Bucky “Bindlesticks” Sinister, Nato “Paint Your Wagon” Green, Sean “Stack of Bones” Keane and Caitlin “Gandy Stiff” Gill.  


Grab $5 from your poke and get there early, we sell out!




BYOBurrito for your bazoo. 

Sunday, May 5, 2013

The Business May 8th, 2013: The Imaginary Edition



“To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything- plus RADIO!” Albert Einstein (and The Business).

This week, The Business makes believe with the Imaginary Radio team, Drennon Davis and Nick Stargu!

From his elaborate characters and sketches, to his provocative songs and animation, Drennon has made a name for himself as one of the most innovative minds in today’s comedy scene. His live performances of the Imaginary Radio Program combine live music and beat-boxing with one-man sketches into a show that the Los Angeles Comedy Bureau writes "not only lives up to its name, but exceeds expectation in what you could possibly think it is."
 
Nick Stargu is DJ REAL, a San Francisco-based alternative musical comedy act. Performing all original songs, complete with costume changes, bad dance moves, and interactive multimedia, DJ REAL’s live act has been likened to the Talking Heads, The Residents, and Steve Martin. With a wide range of influences, DJ REAL’s songs vary from hip-hop, to folk, to the bizarre.


They are not to be missed.  NEVER MISS THE BUSINESS.

Be early. We sell out.

Your regulars will also be there, “Make Believe” Sinister, Sean “Dreame” and Caitlin “You can’t tell me I can’t fly now get out of my way I’m jumping!” Gill.

$5.  Always cheaper than Iron Man and always in 3D.

BYOBurrito- your imagination needs brain food. 


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Pillows-Chevron, Stripes, and More!


Hello, hello, hello! I have been on a crazy spring cleaning spree these past few weeks! I have been organizing EVERYTHING in my house. One of the most exciting things for me is my newly organized craft room. I can't wait to share with you all the transformation. I still have a few finishing touches, and then I'll be ready for the reveal. So to hold you over until then, here are some pillows I whipped up for my monogramming friend
 Don't you love the color combo? And don't these pillows just scream "keep me on this bed with this awesome duvet cover?!?"
Sadly, they must go to their intended home;o)
I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!