be quiet
the weather's on the night news


Carol Lee Chase, Luster, 2001

* Does new ownership make PBR a less desirable beer? excerpt:

When companies change ownership or direction resulting in the departure of executives, it's not uncommon for there to be some raw emotion or hard feelings. But lashing out publicly against a former employer is rare.

"They know that negative comments will harm them as much as the company,'' said Richard Coughlan, senior associate dean for graduate business programs and professor of management at University of Richmond's Robins School of Business.

Coughlan said it's even more unusual to see more than two dozen executives abandon a company about the same time. But former employees at Pabst say this isn't just about beer. They saw themselves as the protectors of the people who loved their brands, even though 99 percent of Pabst's brands are brewed by Miller Brewing Co. They fear the spirit of the brands will be destroyed under its new owners.

"My job was to protect consumers from the stupid crap that old guys with gray hair come up with," said Clarke. "The brand is the people who drink it. And we treated it well. We were the stewards of it. We did a good job. We tried to keep from selling it out."

In effect, the Metropoulos family proposes a major shift in marketing. The family, whose $250 million bid for the company topped more than a dozen contenders, including a group headed by Kotecki, announced in May that they're moving Pabst's headquarters to Los Angeles. They said they plan to bring glamour and celebrity sponsorships to such Pabst brands as Old Milwaukee, Schlitz and Lone Star.

* Awesome People Hanging Out Together

* The Fugs Couldn't Get High dedicated to the lesbian dwarfs of San Francisco and their tomato orgies.

* "If a voice is just too nice, without an edge, it kinda all flows by. You forget it. You don't listen to the lyrics." -- Stephen Malkmus