This is a classic song!!  Around the Way Girl by LL Cool J!

I was on the train yesterday morning traveling to university for my postgrad course and was having my usual cup of Caffe Nero Americano.  On the cup it stated something I hadn’t noticed before – that Caffee Nero has been voted the No.1 coffee house in the UK for the 6th year running!  So beating Starbucks and Costa!  Wow I’m am pleased!!!

See below!

Just a very quick post from me here… Social Media websites such as tripadvisor.com are used by all of us to read about hotels, and what other people who have stayed at them have said.  We also sometimes post our own comments about hotels we’ve stayed at.  The bottom line for brands really is that any post is good – be the review good or bad – whatever the review on tripadvisor.com says about a hotel is a positive thing as it is increasing the awareness of the brand.  The more people talk about the hotel the more people will hear about it!

Of course if you’re managing the brand you want to make sure that people are talking good about your hotel, but generally people have different expectations of what they will get at the various hotels therefore there are always going to be good and bad reviews.

Something new from Google, Google Wave.  Seems like a real exciting bit of software and certainly something that will continue to grow – and with it being open source it will certainly advance!

So to describe what Google Wave is…. “Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.”

You can view the video below too which shows the unveiling and launch of the system.  The only downside currently is that it is on invitation only!  I am still waiting!

Nando’s is an example of a brand and company that has got their offering right. The product is consistent and people know what they are going to get everytime. The portuguese themed restaurant serves great spicy chicken, available as herbed, medium, hot, extra hot, and now extra extra hot!

I was at the Nando’s in Euston, London, last night and it was great, washed down perfectly with a Brahma beer!

Best thing of all is that on my next visit i get a whole chicken for free. That is because of the Nando’s loyalty scheme where you get a stamp for every visit.

Take a look at the Nando’s website – www.nandos.com

Here’s a new video from westcoast RnB singer TQ for a song produced by London’s SMI crew (Streets Made Innovators), called “Don’t Stop”.  It’s up tempo/dance track and works great with TQ’s voice.  The song is going to be on TQ’s upcoming January 2010 album “Kind of Blue”.

A new project by Damon Dash that is due to be released on November 27, is a collaboration between rock group The Black Keys and a whole host of Hip Hop artists including………Mos Def, Jim Jones, Ludacris, Q-Tip, Raekwon, RZA, Billy Danze of M.O.P., Noe Money, Pharoahe Monch, Nicole Wray, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

Here’s the trailer to give you a tast of the project, I’m excited and am really looking forward to it!  There are also a series of webisodes that follows the making of the BlakRoc album that Damon Dash has put together, so I will share some of these shortly too!

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A new George Clooney film, Up in the Air, directed by Jason Reitman is being released through Paramount in cinemas at the end of this year (2009), and is based on a book by Walter Kirn.  The film is a about a businessman who is a frequent traveller, flys and stays a lot in hotels – in fact pretty much all the time.  George Clooney in the film plays a businessman called Ryan Bingham whose ambition is to collect a vast amount of airmiles!  The film features brand positioning with partners American Airlines and upscale hotel brand Hilton Hotels.

You can find more information on the Up in the Air movie on the link below:

http://www.theupintheairmovie.com/

Up in the Air is in cinemas in the US in December and elsewhere from Janaury!

Check out the trailer for Up in the Air…

This is a Glasses Malone track that I’ve listened to a lot over the last few months, it’s a great, summer track.  Positive stuff.

T-Pain does a good job on this song.  Rick Ross is okay, not really sure about Birdman – apart from executive producing Glasses Malone on Cash Money Records.

Glasses Malone certainly has a positive career ahead – he writes for Dr. Dre too!  He could be one of the main westcoast artists over the next few years.

In advance of Andre Agassi’s autobiography book launch, the former tennis star has admitted using Crystal Meth with his assistant back in 1997.  It really does make me wonder how many other sports stars used various drugs.  Agassi was quizzed back over 10 years ago about his use of drugs to which he denied ever doing so, despite testing positive.  How many other did this and got away with it?

Still, I think Andre Agassi is great and one of the most inspirational tennis players ever!

See below for a link to the story on the BBC website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/8329193.stm