Art has so many possibilities

As I sit here watching Zeus attack fake christmas tree limbs, I continue to stumble upon more and more businesses that are leveraging the boundless talent that exists to create value at cheaper and cheaper costs.

First there was Logoworks. A way for businesses to get a logo options at a fraction of the cost compared to major design/branding firms. Then, yesterday I stumbled on TurnHere.com . Again, low cost video production to help businesses bring video content to the web at low costs - and great quality. Internet and Video = gold. I watched a little diddy video from TurnHere, and to quote them - "all our customer has to worry about is the message they want to convey". I love it. Great idea, great execution. When a major company wants activate a huge idea and get it online pronto, why wait for an agency to talk through the message and produce a clip? Do it fast and upload it to youtube in 3 days - or pop it on a cd for a presentation next week. Awesome.


So I am here sitting and thinking about art. There are hundreds of quality freelance artists across the country looking for projects. I always thought there was a market for college students to sell their art on the Internet. But, consider that there should be a 3rd party outlet to connect artists to interested people. I want an artist to take a family portait and put it to canvas, ala paint. My dad wants an artist to give him some powerpoint templates. You get the idea. If I missing something let me know.


A recent Wall Street Journal (Discount Art:Rising Stars) published on November 25th 2006 sparked my thinking. The article focused on 3 major college art sales that happen this time of the year.
1. California College of Art Holiday Fair - Dec 9th
2. SMFA Boston Art Sale - Dec 6-11
3. Maryland Institute College of Art - Dec 1

To quote the WSJ (article by Jacob Hale Russell and Camille Ricketts)
In today's heated art market, many collectors are looking to all corners of the art world for possible investments, paying tens of thousands of dollars for paintings of newly minted art-school graduates -- or even those still in school. The coming weeks offer a chance to get in on this market at the very low end, as top art schools across the country hold their annual holiday sales featuring inexpensive work by students, mostly under $200. It's occasionally -- though rarely -- possible to make a big find: Ellen Gallagher, whose work is now sold by top dealer Gagosian Gallery and collected by museums nationwide, once sold a work for $1,000 at the School of the Museum of Fine Art's winter sale in Boston.

High quality art on the cheap? The market has to be there. All someone needs to do is provide the channel for college/freelance artists and buyers to connect. Can someone say TZArtFair.com? Would you be a buyer or seller? I want to be the connector.

The christmas surprise ... my mom the eccentric gift wrapper

The ice breaker for an all-day meeting I had today was "tell us about a christmas tradition"...

So, what did I tell about? Being one of 10, you can only imagine the amount of time that my mom had to labor wrapping presents for 10 kids. Unreal. And, there were never presents under the tree or out until Christmas Day. So, every year the Christmas surprise was not what you got for Christmas, but more importantly how were all the gifts wrapped. Let me give you an example. One year my mom went all out - planting one gift in our stocking, and that wrapping was the "keystone" that matched to all your designated presents. Then, other years we encountered presents that were wrapped with a certain color bow...again, the sign. I personally liked the year when we were just handed a huge garbage bag with a note on it with our name. Perfect. Its just like santa dropped off all the presents and said "screw it" the bag will do...(hefty bags should note the task expansion I just gave them).

Anyway, I thought about all the crazy ways I have remembered my mom wrapping the gifts - and you have to raise a glass when you think that she probably had to wrap over 50-60 gifts the night before Christmas. Heavens forbid someone not get at least 4 or 5 gifts!

All I can think about is that my mom should transfer her knowledge to nonprofits that are always looking for tons of gift-wrappers. Watch my mom. She's the steven segal of christmas wrapping.


And, its actually my mom's birthday today. So I wrote a really awful song.

Happy birthday to you,
you live in a zoo, (the weber residence)
you look like a monkey
and you act like one too

For you creatives out there, like the mom, check out Design Sponge - an inspirational blog for the design shady in all of us. The post here is about how to decorate for a "modern christmas".

Take a Second to Think

I was set post tonight about business or stocks or the troubles we face as young, hungry professionals when I was stopped in my tracks by the TV as I was on my way to the shower. I had just finished watching Syracuse play Oklahoma State on ESPN. They were between games and they were showing the speech given by Jimmy Valvano at the 1993 ESPY awards after receiving the Authur Ashe award. I must say that is one of only two speeches that will make me stop whatever it is I am doing and watch the entire thing (the second being Lou Gerhig's "I am the luckiest man" speech). I question any person with a soul not to shed a tear or two by the conclusion of that speech. The man needed assistance to get to the microphone and needed assistance to get down from the microphone (helped by Duke's Coach K by the way), but what happened in between the two was one of the most passionate, inspired speeches ever. He talked of having passion for every day. I think that is something all of us do not do enough of. Jimmy V said every single day we need to Laugh and we need to cry, to experience all that life has to offer. I encourage all who read this to look up the speech, I am sure it is on Youtube somewhere, and really listen. We have politicians all over the world think they are instilling positive ideals with speeches about pride and dominance but for my money, this is what ideals are there for.

Sector Rotations

Tech has led the bull rally since this summer and is probably in its last days of leading. Time to find the next leading sectors. We can get a clue as to which ones those might be from last week's action. Gold stocks and oil stocks did well last week as you can see from the portfolio below. AUY is up 25% since adding it to the portfolio, and the oil services stocks are up 4, 8, and 9%. I still think these are good sector to be in for the next few months and just imagine where AUY might go if Gold prices move up significantly.

Healthcare

Another area which may be seeing more money coming into the sector is Healthcare. After monday's big downturn, both WLP and UNH (both are HMO companies) made big moves upward. Healthcare may be a good place where people seek shelter should the market go south a little bit, but even without that, the sector has lagged a little toward the end of this rally so it has a little catching up to do. Normally a nice safe way to play this sector might be the Healthcare ETF (XLV), but I wouldn't recomend it since its largest component is Pfizer at 14%, and Pfizer got hammered yesterday for >10% after the dropping a drug from their already weak pipeline. If I bought the XLV, I'd short an equivelent amount of PFE or maybe even a little more than that.

For exposure to the sector I like Wellpoint Health Networks (WLP) and UnitedHealth Group (UNH) probably the best mostly because the nature of the insurance business makes it highly profitable. Also they both made big moves last week. UNH still has some smoke to clear from options backdating and management changes, but since the backdating problems were made public they've done nothing but make/beat their quarters and continue to grow earnings while the stock has done nothing (I know this, cause I've held it since last spring). I'll add UNH to the portfolio under $50 and look to avg down on pull backs and add to every 3 weeks buying in qtrs as was last weeks plan. Same goes for WLP under $76.5

Other names I like from the XLV ETF are Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck and Company (MRK), and Amgen (AMGN). I'll add some of each of these to the portfolio as well.

The plan from last week wasn't bad, but I should have bought 1/4 of each to get immediate exposure to them, as most have since bounced back. If my limit orders aren't filled for the portfolio by thursday, I'll buy some of GOOG, GS, MA, and NYX on friday and then look to avg down over time.

Here's a look at the porfolio. It's only gold and oil, but up 1% despite being over 85% cash still.

Enjoy,
MC

Dads are almost always smarter or, My dad's latest point of view on government

My dad calls me up last night and walks me through this revolutionary idea he has regarding a constitutional right that maintains people should be treated equally regardless of income. For example, why should Miami University students (NOT RESIDENTS) have the right to vote on tax levies in the town when they will have no responsibility for paying for it. It seems for every little idea I always have, my dad also has the 10x bigger idea. But, that's why he's the mann.

I trust the mann can put the idea into a concise blog this week that explains his position. I agree with him. Citizens that do not pay taxes should not have the right to vote on propositions/laws/levies that in some way affect the level of taxes collected...if they do not contribute, of what value is their opinion? Now, sales taxes are another thing - since everyone is equal when it comes to sales tax. Exception.

Look forward to The Mann's contribution later this week.