I just got out of a two-hour interview with Warren Lieberfarb, the departed Warner Home Video president who, by all accounts, is the father of the DVD. A remarkable (and remarkably nice) man, who now is a consultant for Microsoft (contractual and legal issues prevent him from being an executive there, at least for now).
Down the street I stumbled upon one of the best cafes I’ve ever been to — the Coral Tree, a hip, year-old coffeehouse/eatery on San Vicente in the Brentwood section of LA (warning, don’t type Brentwood into your Mapquest route finder or you’ll find yourself transported 400 miles north of here). But I digress. Organic foods (just ordered a panini), coffee drinks, an ethnically mixed crowd of college age students, jobless tech workers, entertainment industry workers, a funky, hip decor, a spacious interior surrounded on two sides by 15-foot vertical windows, and a very cool outdoor patio complete with a comfy couch.
A couple of folks are inside, with their PCs tethered to a wall phone connection, but I’m outside soaking up a beautiful day (sunny and about 68 degrees, I’d guess). I asked about the wifi, and they apologized for not having it. I said, “But you do!” and showed a waiter today’s NYTimes.com. There’s a wifi connection called ctc, which I’m guessing stands for Coral Tree Cafe. The spread of free wifi is just a wonder to behold.
In a few minutes I’m meeting with Ben Feingold, president of Sony Home Entertainment. Later, dining with Jim Griffin of Cherry Hill Digital, the founder of pho. And tonight, driving up to Santa Barbara. Considering I got up at 5:30 to fly to LAX, I suspect I’ll be wiped for the rest of this trip.
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.
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