Better than expected

Well I admit it… I was wrong… Yep I missed my mark on the prediction that the AIA show last week would be a disaster. Amazingly it went a ton better than I thought. Now attendance was not great and I heard from many exhibitors that the floor was not kind to them (the show floor was perhaps the most stupid yet- which is saying something), but the big reason I mark this as a success is the fact that the tone of the attendee changed. The average architect in the past was usually detached and arrogant at these gatherings, now they had a focus. They were more friendly and engaging. Maybe being slow and seeing their careers and livelihoods in danger changed them. Who knows maybe this was an aberration and next year in Miami the snooty, distant designers will return. But for 3 days in crazy San Francisco it was not evident.

Elsewhere…

-- The AIA floor was a mess- 3 halls and in 2 buildings… I wonder how many exhibitors were like me and felt the bait and switch with that goofy layout?

-- USGNN did a tremendous job, as always, of covering the event. Props to Megan, Ellen and Drew for a job well done. By the way, Drew was the guy holding the camera… most people (guys especially) probably paid him no mind with Megan and Ellen (talented as always!) around but Drew does a tremendous job and deserves props too.

-- Big part of the show? The push of the BIPV products- and full disclosure… I had one in our booth that was well received (people can and do abuse me for being a “self promoter” but in this case, the BIPV was a big item at the show and there’s no way I can ignore it or the involvement by the company I work for when it was a big part of the show) and I am sure that the others that showed this product probably had some solid interest too. No doubt that this is a line that has the interest of the design community.

-- Bummer of the show? No Starship Enterprise. Damn.

-- Seen on the floor… I stopped by Sage and saw the gang there… had to give them congrats on a tremendous new ad that they have out. They were able to explain “value” in an ad better than anyone had done it previous. Good work!

-- Speaking of ads I did get to meet the brains behind Glassopolis. You may remember them for their fantastic ad from a few months ago… anyway they promised a new and even better ad is coming. Can’t wait. Seriously the Sage ad should win an award for 09, same as the Glassopolis one should’ve gotten for 08.

-- Of course the Walker Texture guys were there and once again dressed to kill. These guys never disappoint and this year at the show they did take on a charity case- see the results below. As always old faves Pilkington (with the fine folks from W&W and TGP) Zeledyne, Guardian and Viracon were in place and always nice to see the folks from all of those places. I know many others were there but unfortunately because of the crappy layout of the show and the traffic at my booth, I never got around the last 2 days. But I did see Jim Benney and Tom Herron from NFRC…. Many people would not expect me to do that… (they actually stopped by my booth first- then I went to there’s) but while I disagree with the actions, I like and respect Jim (just met Tom for the first time.) So no fireworks there sorry…

Other stories…

-- Last week’s lead on “selling your way” out of a crisis really hit some nerves… I got a ton of e-mail on that… most good but a few telling me that I am calling the kettle black… and I responded to those accordingly. Bottom line is that strategy will not work for the long term.. and as someone noted on the comments that in the Office episode, Michael ended up OK, in a way he did not… and that was surely not reality…

-- Get ready… did you notice over the last few days gas prices are on the rise… and Oil is starting to go up too… somehow I have this sick, sick feeling that gas will be heading towards the $4.00 mark again this summer… seriously depressing folks… and by the way I noticed Natural Gas is on the up too… yeesh.

-- Did you see the IRS delayed the implementation of the bogus 30/30 rule to June 1? The thing should be completely abolished but at least I enjoyed the rebuke of the idiots that pushed this through. Still I want explained how this benefits homeowners in Phoenix or Miami? It doesn’t because it’s bogus.

-- LAST but least… April set another traffic record for this site… and for that I must say THANK YOU! I truly appreciate you joining on my weekly therapy sessions!

-- The link chick is back, but I am going to stockpile them for next week…

Instead of a video this week… leftovers from AIA… with pictures… the craziness of San Francisco! I swear that city was surely a new experience for this sheltered country boy. Major thanks to the Cajun Legend JD for the pics!

This guy was NOT an architect… but read that sign- isn’t that what we all deal with everyday?

Amazing what the police force was doing… a bum who did his “business” in the corner and he gets a ticket! Yep I am sure he has the funds to pay for that.

A Dog, with a Cat and a Rat… yep. Amazing eh? And people were giving this guy money... what I am missing here?

And thanks to the guys at Walker Glass, I got an extreme makeover… I wish!! Great suit… sadly if I tried to pull that outfit off in real life it would not be pretty... but I can dream right?

A theory that works...

Ok time for some free advice…. And this would be thanks to a recent episode of The Office where the newly formed Michael Scott Paper Company learned a good lesson. Anyway, in some segments of our industry times are tough. There’s no disputing that. But it is the reaction to those times that is probably making it worse. Basically the key here is simple. You cannot sell yourself out of this malaise. You can lower prices all you want but that won’t help you survive or be in any position to thrive once the worm turns. Smart companies are making the hard decisions based on the fact the sales pie is smaller- instead of dropping numbers for volume they are taking other approaches like cost controls to stave off the effects. If you watched The Office (and that clip is NOT on line dang it) you will see Michael’s accountant explain to him that you can’t have sales without profits…. (he started a new company and undercut his old company everywhere to get business. Then his accountant had to point out to him he was not doing business smartly… ) Seriously it should be required viewing for everyone…

Elsewhere…

-- And remember this blog is ME talking…. Representing my views…

-- Once again the guys from DOE are in the news and once again they are making absolute fools of themselves. I swear that department needs fresh blood so badly it’s not even funny. Here’s the latest.
Quote from Richard Karney DOE:
He also added, "Marc [LaFrance from DOE] and I joke that on the commercial side we should just mandate low-E. The industry tap dances around that."

OK, let’s go to work here…. First off guys its 2009 and not 1990. In 1990, Low E was new and confusing and people had many issues with it. (that’s where he is probably getting his intel) In 2009 Low E is established and good. People understand how to run it. You have certified and preferred fabricator programs. It is legit. So that said, the industry would LOVE Low E being pushed- however the industry does not TRUST YOU. Why? Because neither of you listen to the industry! You listen to people like Garrett Stone (a lawyer) and the NFRC. If you would talk to some of the truly brilliant people in our industry who know Low E (Start with Don McCann at Viracon, Chris Dolan at Guardian, Ted Krantz at PPG, Joel Smith at Arch, Jay Phillips or Doug Zacharias at Oldcastle and I could go on and on and on…) you would understand it better. The fear actually is if you two knuckleheads would get your way, you’d probably hamhand the implementation of this by mandating that everyone must use a certain type of Cardinal Low E (wait did I just say that out loud) and leave all others behind. Or you would muck it up by adding some additional cost (and truly un-needed) program run by your pals at the NFRC.
I guarantee if you actually reached out to the right people and groups you COULD get this done. Instead you’ll keep making flippant remarks and doing nothing to really improve this issue. Put your money where your mouth is guys and I think you’ll be stunned. Come on and join us here in 2009….

-- Is everybody ready for LEED 2009? Does that mean that people will stop using LEED 1.0 now? On LEED, I read a blurb from an architect mad that a company he wanted to use because they were only 30 miles away had to send an expert from 900 miles away to deal with one of his problems… he felt that was a violation of LEED…. So much so that he wanted to throw the company out of the specs. My gosh some people are really bizarre eh?

-- Movie alert… the sequel to Wall Street is coming… complete with Michael Douglass back in the role of Gordon Gekko…. Wall Street was one of the best movies of the 80’s (for me at least) and I’ll be curious to see how they bring it back…. And if Charlie Sheen is in there somewhere too… and don’t forget one of the great lines in that flick… “Greed… for the lack of a better word is good…” ah man the whole movie- fantastic.. hope they don’t screw up its legacy with a bad sequel…

-- In San Fran at AIA… I just got back from the show “floor” though it’s not a floor- its 3 separate buildings! Ugh… I’ll have a post mortem on this debacle when it’s done. I never thought a show floor could be as bad as the San Antonio “kids table” debacle of 2 years ago… but it looks like it has been topped!

-- Last, I know some of you only check this blog out on Thursday and Friday- so a heads up that I had a post on Monday of this week… it concerns a Senator, a drama queen, and decisions that were made at 3AM… check it out below this post.

No links this week… sorry…

Video of the Week

Last week the NFL schedule for 2009 came out and there was a lot of controversy. Jimmy Kimmel has the details here…

Inside the 30/30

Well folks through the last few years of doing this blog, there’s been some amazing issues covered and quite frankly this whole 30/30 debacle is at or near the top. Last week, interest was reignited in this sham when USGNN ran a piece about the sponsor of the legislation and with that more fury and anger raged. If you did not read the piece from Friday you need to… then come back to this spot because I am going to tear it up… here goes…

After reading the article the first reaction is “my gosh I hope that not every decision in DC is made with haste and no intelligence…”

And that all surrounds how this came to be… at the great working time of… 3AM….

Yes this decision was made and added at 3AM and with no background, no information and no clue. Senator Snowe and her staff should be ashamed of themselves but I am sure they have no time for shame because they are working too hard to pat themselves on the back…. So at 3AM it happened… if I am the person running against Snowe in 2010 one of my ads is about this issue..

Narrator: Voters of Maine… do you really want rash and incoherent decisions made about your state and country at 3AM?.... Well that’s how Olympia Snowe thinks…. She’d rather rush a line into legislation with no idea how it works or what it means, then get the facts…. In fact weeks after her legislation was rushed, there were still many questions that needed answered… Maine and the United States deserve a Senator that will take the time to make sure it all makes sense….

Seriously 3AM? And to make matters worse the Senator’s staff member threw the DOE under the bus stating that criteria needed from them was not published yet. Most of you know I have little to no respect for the DOE… It drives me nuts that a guy like Marc LaFrance allows himself to be mocked by the NFRC (they ignore his every last rant and laugh at him behind his back)and controlled blindly by people like Garrett Stone, but in this case I have to defend the agency. The DOE has worked for YEARS on Energy Star… they have worked with hundreds of people and gotten a program that people can understand… and in one ignorant and clueless swoop the work was shot. You cannot tell me that the moronic staff of the Senator could not of gotten with someone at DOE to make sure that a program like this has logic.

Again you wonder what other issue was at play here… who is in Snowe’s ear? And how dangerous can a person like Snowe be when an irresponsible line like this can just get added willy-nily? What’s to stop her from adding a line in a future legislation that says you can only buy material from companies whose names start with the letter C?

So we have a hasty decision made quickly with no logic. Brilliant.

Bottom line is I think the DOE had the info and the Senator chose to ignore based on advice from “someone” and then played up the excuse that the info did not exist.

Plus if you did not have info from DOE how do you come up with the numbers you did- 30/30… hmmmmmmm THERE IS NO DOUBT SOMEONE INFLUENCED THIS! Yet the people there were too busy sucking up instead of asking questions… We deserve full disclosure!

And yes that brings us to the other frustrating part of the article…. where the slobbering affection shown by the starstruck school boys from the NWDA… my gosh guys there’s 12 year old girls at a Jonas Brothers concert that show more restraint. Let’s review some of the quotes:

As soon as you came out with these numbers, the industry went to work,” said Darryl Huber of BF Rich, who also serves as the NWDA president.

NO WAY really? What a stunner… I thought the industry would stay asleep…. OF COURSE everyone had to go to work… the legislation was ignorant and uninformed. Most window guys had to rearrange how they do things and represent themselves. The others had to go get their materials tested. Dude, the industry did not have a choice. This is not something to be proud of.

Tom Channell of Chelsea Building Products, NWDA second vice president, added that his company has spent a quarter of a million dollars helping companies recertify their products to meet the 30/30 standards.

I am impressed 250K! Yep that is the stimulus at work… make sure you send Senator Snowe a commission. But seriously would love to know how that was spent… sounds like an off the top of my head BS number.

Another Channell quote: “We as a group are pleased this bill passed,” says Channell. “This revitalized a dying industry.”

DYING INDUSTRY… Drama queen alert…. Times are tough but not THAT tough… gee you went from dying to being able to supposedly drop 250k without a blink…. Amazing… thousands of window companies out there and this guy calls it a “dying industry”… a dying industry would be people who make VHS VCR’s… sell Chinese Drywall...

And with the NFRC adding people left and right, I somehow don’t think the industry is “dying”

“And it stimulated jobs,” Huber added.

Seriously… it stimulated jobs? Outside of the NFRC and the labs, can you tell me how many jobs this idiotic provision added? Funny I haven’t seen much on all of those laid off shifts returning…

OK enough of making fun of our little school boys on their fun field trip to DC… wonder if they went to the Monument while they were there!

Let’s now look at the comments from Snowe’s legislative assistant Patrick Woodcock… but be aware this may be some of the most clueless, yet arrogant stuff you have ever read…

The group then asked a variety of questions all relating to how the criteria will be enforced. Other questions include what happens to those consumers who purchased windows from January 1-February 17.
“No one should be able to answer that question,” said Woodcock. “Only the IRS can answer that.”

Wait you create this inane crap and you have no idea on how it will be enforced? What an unreal answer. I’ll you how, the people who bought windows between those dates are screwed… the same as the folks in Miami will be when the only way THEY can get a credit is putting in windows that make NO SENSE for their region.

And this:

“We were concerned with this proposal and we tried to improve it as best we can,” added Woodcock. ” … Tax credits do move companies to make more efficient products.”

Yes tax credits are great.. I thought we all made better products because the NFRC said we had too. Seriously I love how he takes credit for this stuff. You know what would make people make even more efficient products? A program that makes sense not only in your home state of Maine but in the rest of the US too… this country and its window needs are not one size fits all…

Thanks for your time Mr Woodcock, you slayed the tourists that sat at your feet, but the public is not impressed.

Also a quote from my favorites at Keystone Certifications:

“What concerns me the most is that there is no reference to a standard in the legislation,” added Jon Hill of Keystone Certifications.

Yep of course this would concern you…. You should’ve just said: “We already have a great gig with the NFRC, and this should make us a ton of cash too… c’mon by not making this crystal clear, this will cut into our profits!”

Yes that is a rich that the guy from the certification agency is bitching…. Shut up man, you’re making your money.

Last but not least the end of the article featured the DOE trying their best to tread water…

Earlier in the day, Richard Karney, program manager for the Department of Energy’s Energy Star program, spoke before NWDA members regarding Energy Star but also addressed the tax credits.
“It hit me as quickly as it hit you,” said Karney. “We received many inquiries asking, ‘Why can’t you fix it?’” He then joked, “Even I can’t fix it.’”
He said even DOE found out about it at the eleventh hour.
“We had no idea it was coming until 24 hours before it was passed.” He added that DOE was never consulted on the criteria.

Hmmmm.. what was it…. You found out 24 hours before it was passed eh? Interesting…. So in 24 hours you couldn’t or wouldn’t try and talk sense into this? Maybe these guys are just as bad as I think.

And the kicker:

He also brought up a point that many NWDA members asked as well.
“The tax credit doesn’t specify a particular rating. Is it center of glass, etc.”
He says the DOE is asking the IRS for clarification on this matter.

CLUELESS ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And yet another area where it shows this sham in all of its glory… hey lets come up with this legislation but let’s not have any clue what it means, how it works, how it will be measured, how it will be implemented or what effect it will have….

So there ya go… a Senator who obviously has someone whispering in her ear creates a stupid last minute legislation and at the end of the day the IRS will make the call on how it will all work….

Simply brilliant….

What will the AIA show bring?

The annual AIA show is next week and it should be interesting on several levels. The first angle is… Will anyone show up? Basically I am hearing that people are not going and with travel being cut all over, I can see that being the case. It’s not just the architects who are staying home but many industry folks who would walk the show are staying back and booth staffing has been cut as well. Also interesting will be the attitude of the folks who DO attend. When do they see the malaise ending? Will it be 2010 like some think or will it be 2011 like many others are predicting? Last the other interesting angle will be what new products and wrinkles will be out. Healthy companies still do R&D during bad times, and so this should be interesting to see who is working for the future and who is just hanging on.

Elsewhere…

-- Last week’s post had a great comment attached- to save you from scrolling down here it is:

John Lewis was laid off from AAMA. The majority of AAMA's income comes from residential label sales, and we all know how that market is right now. Membership dues are also way down- people are choosing to forgo the meeting expenses and dues in order to keep people employed in their departments. All this translates into reduced income, and like any company they have to balance their books, so layoffs happen.
John is a good guy, but it really burns me up that his title is "New Business Development". NFRC is not in business, it is a pseudo-government agency. It shouldn't be looking for new areas to extract money out of. I swear, it seems just like an extortion racket ran by the mob. Unless you pay the NFRC their "protection" money, they break your legs and prevent you from doing business.

Great comment and thank you to the Anon who left it… his last paragraph was classic and again the whole “Restraint of Trade” angle comes up again. Obviously NFRC is all lawyered up so they have that angle covered, but it sure seems shaky. And its funny about the title, I wonder if the IRS has a “New Business” person.

-- Amazing how Earth Day and Green keep getting bigger and bigger… but don’t you get the feeling its going to backfire? In fact true energy and green people- folks that really live it- have told me of their disdain and dislike for the USGBC. In fact one guy told me I should stop wasting my life on NFRC and go after USGBC. I worry that angle will grow and the good of doing the right things will get lost in the BS and bureaucracy of our universe.

-- If you are not watching 24… shame… and if you are… can you believe the whole Tony Almeida storline? Holy heck….

-- By the way, everyone on the commercial side knows the blogs to visit- but Tara Taffera of sister publication DWM Magazine has a pretty cool blog focused more residentially and its worth a visit. It’s here. One thing she wrote on was the folks from the Iowa window plant that got screwed in the whole “Republic” disaster. Those folks in Iowa got hung out terribly and its tragic. My heart goes out to all of them… and while the BS that happened originally to the folks in Chicago was terrible… to me what happened in Red Oak was a lot worse.

-- Congrats to my friend E on her UNC Tarheels winning it all… great hoops tourney by the way…

Off to the links!

Link chick has gone underground… too busy working on high end cover stories for the magazine world… so these are from me…

-- An awesome article on 12 major brands that could go “bye bye” in the recession… some shockers here folks- worth the read.

-- Want to see where the job losses are in your area… this article lets you do it interactively! Wow, depression, internet style.

-- And this one was actually from the Link Chick but I thought of Arlene Stewart when I read it… it’s the “top 10 Greenwashers” out there right now… Arlene does an awesome presentation on “greenwashing” so somehow either her stuff will make it in there or their stuff will make it in her next piece…

VIDEO of the WEEK

This was a few weeks ago… a dunk that went upside down and to the floor… wow.

The Captain of the Titanic

Short post this week…. Those of you who know me, know why… anyway… a week can’t pass without a NFRC comment, especially when they make news like they did last week. NFRC announced the hiring of John Lewis to a new position to help push the CMA program along. Lewis used to be at AAMA and TRACO so he’s seen the battles and who knows he may have a tiny bit of logic in his head. But regardless this hiring has issues all over it.

First only the NFRC is hiring right now and it figures since thanks to the bogus 30/30 sham and the continuation of the Titanic (CMA) they expect to be rolling in the cash. Remember a lot my argument with NFRC centers around the money and from day 1, this has been an issue of money- don’t ever let anyone from the NFRC tell you different. It’s been documented over and over so I won’t go there again. Anyway the NFRC being a charity probably can’t “make” money (show big profits) so why not hire more people!! (and probably continue to pay consultants like Bipin Shah 6 figures and same for Potomac- plus I may be crazy but they've surely expanded staff quite a bit in the last year or two).

Second this continues to prove this program is a mess and in trouble- a hire like this should’ve went down years ago- with someone intelligent enough to want to understand both sides. Instead we got John Hogan pontificating at the podium at every meeting even though chances are he would not know a high performance piece of glass if it hit him in the face… and same for Marcia Falke and so on.

It’s funny they’d make this move now when it does not matter… John Lewis can reach out all he wants but what we will he really be able to do? Walk people through how they’ll be wasting their money? Show them the time that will be wasted? Explain to them that NFRC is a monopoly? Point out Marc LaFrance sound asleep in the corner? I think they’ll understand that quite well on their own thank you. I’ll be curious if Lewis makes any sort of real effort but in reality there’s nothing he can do this die has been cast- which makes the hiring even more puzzling really.

Last many people commented on why Lewis would leave AAMA for NFRC… that one was be a head scratcher for many but I am sure Lewis had his reasons.
On that note, someone who is intimate with the NFRC debacles sent me this video that sums up the move of John Lewis… classic! Hope you weren’t too hasty John!



A normal traditional post with links and more than just NFRC babble will return to this space next week!

Tons of Stuff

Last week the World Trade Center issue dominated so I had to table several other big topics. Anyway today I hit on a bunch of things still percolating out there and as always they involve some serious frustration. The good thing is the amount of responses I am getting from people out in the industry who share my views. That gives me hope. Anyway let’s take a look at what’s happening…

On the 30/30…

The issue keeps coming up and confusion still abounds. Fact of the matter this shortsighted sham will eventually be adjusted. When a group like the WDMA that usually is against everything that “our” side is for, comes out and expresses its unhappiness, you know this thing is doomed. Here’s the bottom line… when Senator Snowe, or the radicals that helped hornswoggle her into this debacle can prove to me that the climate in Maine is the same year round that it is in Miami, I’ll be on board. That and the fact that years of consensus and work on Energy Star blown to bits is tragic. Funniest part is you go to the Energy Star website and they have to specifically call out that this sham would possibly NOT include all Energy Star windows… pretty pathetic… nice to see that our elected officials are so clueless that they’ll do anything someone tells them, without taking two seconds to properly vet. Also in typical fashion, the NFRC has done nothing to help the window companies adjust to this heinous rule, and have actually hurt these companies because they are now swamped. (Which makes me wonder why said companies cannot sue the NFRC for restraining trade)
Comically if this swamps the NFRC, I cannot wait to see how bad they perform when or if the CMA ever reaches the light of day.

The NFRC White Paper…

And speaking of my all time favorite group….The NFRC published a white paper and the main goal was trying to show that their CMA program has value! 3 pages of horsehockey littered with bullet points and numbering to try and make it look official. The only thing they were missing was graph charts. The classic and typical thing is they make it seem like their program is just there for the taking… you know FREE… when we all know it is not… they are trying to pull a fast one by ignoring the fact that this program will cost the end user significant money (and time)… Bottom line here is they are trying to promote a program that some will say “hey I’d love to use it” but without telling them the whole story… buyer beware. Also the other fact is by doing this paper, they know they are getting little to no traction or acceptance. And once people find out how much this will cost and how time it will take (no matter what they say) people will flee… ABANDON SHIP!!

Solar Farms on a desert makes sense right? Not so fast…

This one is the tops though… everybody and their mother is pushing for Solar these days and on one level a big key of solar success is being able to have the solar farms... and according to a few speeches I have heard if we use the land in the Southwestern portion of the US, we could generate TREMENDOUS amounts of renewable energy. Getting that land was going to be tough and now it was made tougher by none other than California (figures, good ole California!) Senator Dianne Feinstein. The Senator, who usually would promote this stuff, is against putting Solar and Wind in the Mojave Desert and is preparing legislation to stop progress and make that land a national monument!!! Yep leave it to California to have a barren desert as a national monument, maybe that’s where they can place the statues of Tony Rygg and Nelson Pena. So let’s see we’ll protect a land you can’t do anything on instead of using it to create energy… BRILLIANT!
Don’t believe me.. cause its hard to believe isn’t it… here’s the STORY.

So there ya go… frustrated yet? I am not done yet...

Congress… Do as we SAY not as we DO…..

Great story HERE from the LA Times on the fact that Congress has dropped its plans to go carbon neutral in all of its buildings. So let’s see… we’ll stuff all of this crap down your throat but we won’t do it ourselves. Why am I not surprised? These would be the same people who would probably ignore NFRC too (though that's a good decision)

DOE…. Scareeee….

Easily one of the most popular items that appeared in this space recently was the story of the DOE giving 170K to a group that only asked for 130. I heard from people all over… shock, dismay, comedy, frustration, and “it figures” were the type of reactions. But now the bigger thing to watch is how the DOE and the government start to give away money as it regards to “energy”… To me it’s going to be frightening actually. First off some companies get money without even trying because they have big names, then you have all of the sickening cronyism that has basically overtaken the DOE to the point where some folks at the DOE can’t have an original thought without checking with one or another group. So while the administration and the new blood at the top of the DOE push to work on our energy program, color me as one person extremely worried that the money will not go to good use. I hope I am wrong.

World Trade Center

Thank you to all of the posters and E-mailers last week.. good to see people have their passions on demand. As for communist China…. When will the industry that actually cares on this issue (most of us, except a few people that go for the money and pray everynight that it does not come back to haunt them) step up? Will it be through GANA or a gathering of like minded people, but eventually the playing field has to be leveled. Hopefully something will happen soon or do we wait until the Chinese glass story becomes like the drywall issue… because I believe it’s just a matter of time. As for the PPG portion, I stick by my comments and despite the semantic denials the fact remains that PPG licensed people in China to produce their products- you play with that fire….

Video of the week:

Chuck sent this awesome piece in after he read about my complaints of all of the “get out of bankruptcy” commercials on the radio… and man this would be the best program out there! Hillarious stuff... Thanks for the video Chuck!

Pure Insanity

Tons of stuff this week… tons of topics too... but they will all go the backburner so we can talk about the biggest issue out there… USGNN’s tremendous effort on blowing the cover off the Chinese supply of glass to the bottom 20 floors of America’s next great monument the Freedom Tower… aka One World Trade Center…

Pretty sickening eh? If you missed the story on the fact that a huge American landmark will have 20 floors worth of communist Chinese glass, click HERE. (Note the rest of the building is Viracon, so at least they got that right).

Also ABC News in NY did a great piece on it and you can view that HERE.

Overall this is a sad issue but not unexpected… what bothered me the most is the fact that WABC reported that the Port Authority has gone to China to monitor the glass and will continue to do so. Ummmm… since when were the taxpayers of NY and the US flush with enough money to support that part of it?

At the end of the day this is no different the Sprint Arena in KC where the mayor of that town blindly ignored the Buy American provision (more on that in a separate post) to allow the Chinese glass. Or the council in Durham, NC that allowed their airport to have all chinese stuff. Amazingly, this is allowed to happen but maybe this job, with the high profile will change it.

I know that USGNN got at least one incredible letter from a fired up industry guy and one of the items he mentioned was it was time to take on the higher levels of government on this one… see if they can scrape the egg off their face. Already the senior senator of NY jumped in…. Regardless this is extremely shameful and you have to wonder who else the Port Authority is allowing to provide material. Simply disgusting…

But there is a sad irony here… and I had several people e-mail me to remind of it… what’s lost in this issue is that PPG’s dealing with China came back to bite them… When I first started this blog I linked to an article called “Sleeping with the Enemy” and it was about PPG doing work with the Chinese. The full piece is HERE, but how about this line:

PPG now actively co-operates with many Chinese glass manufacturers, ranging from contractual arrangements to technology licensing. "We give orders to Chinese companies and then we supply them in the United States or we license our technology to local companies to help them develop better glass," Diggs says.

Yep bet your glad you helped them develop BETTER glass… unreal. Whether or not it’s the same company or not that is supplying this job, by teaching and selling the formulas you opened up yourself for this mess. I am sorry that PPG spent so much time and money and now looks to be burned by this, but years ago that thought did not come into play… and with China also being a part of PPG’s vaunted CFP program when do you think that issue will raise its ugly head?

Oh and don’t worry at this depressing rate I am sure when the White House needs new glass it will probably come from Colombia.

That’s it for now, but something tells me there’s more to come on this….

Buyer Beware... Again

A while back I linked to a story on bad Chinese drywall… since then the story has grown and grown and today as I am sitting in South Florida, the lead story on the news is none other than… Bad Chinese Drywall… A quick Google search and you see major coverage of this story (people are calling it a “Massive” problem) is now taking place… and guess what there is nowhere to go on this.. no one to get retribution from or sue… yep that’s what happens when you deal with these folks. Now people will be going out of business and bankrupt because of this… and I have been warning and warning… now we (those of us who never went cheap and bought in) can sit back and watch as all of you who went that route have to worry that your glass and aluminum is not going to fall apart or fail miserably. Somehow I have a feeling we will see the failures come to us, just a matter of time. Maybe now people who still are tempted by this whole adventure will realize that buying material made in North America is the only way to go. Otherwise you may be the lead story someday in a place other than this blog. (I’ll link to some of the stories below)

Elsewhere…

-- Let’s talk DOE which is becoming a favorite of mine and instead of putting it in the links, I’ll throw it here… the New York Times did a nice piece on the new Secretary of Energy Dr Chu. The man is facing some challenges, and heck he probably has no idea how hamhanded some of the people he inherits really are. Oh and there is an opening for his #2 by the way… anyway the story can be found HERE.

-- Our industry does lack a true “ambassador” though that could go to Washington somewhat unencumbered. You know like an envoy to the middle east like former secretary of states like Warren Christopher and James Baker… If we had a guy/gal that could go to Washington and work our industry without being attached or an a payroll of an “evil” trade group (the “evil” is because that’s how all trade groups are looked at by some of the morons out there). Now I have no idea how we would compensate but to me a perfect candidate would be Jack Deyo… the man would immediately command respect on the hill, he’s a veteran and a business owner and would put us in a much better light. Just an idea but every day I believe we fall further and further behind the special interests…

-- Remember last year at this time all the talk was BIM… BIM.. BIM… whatever happened there? Yes I was solidly on that bandwagon and still do see the advantages but I was clearly wrong about how quickly it would become a significant player at our end of the industry. Thankfully smarter people than me (which adds up to about 2499 actually) at my company made the right call.

-- I was in the car for a ton last Friday and while I love Satellite radio I must say the commercials (on places like ESPN Radio) just kill you. Every ad is for either credit protection, lawyers who will help you with bad credit, bankruptcy, and lawyers who will help you with bankruptcy. I mean you start to think after a while, are the only people who listen to this stuff broke or about to be broke? Or is this just an offshoot of the growing economic storm? Or are these folks the only ones with marketing or ad budgets left? Anyway you slice it… it’s not fun.

-- How’s your brackets doing? I am still alive… but I really have no chance… meanwhile the King of West Virginia, aka Joe Staffileno of Zeledyne is in position to win his poll yet again.. he wins every year and if he wins this year I am officially changing his name to Joey Brackets… much easier to spell…

Off to the links!

Some assorted Chinese Drywall nightmare stories.. and the stories are scary with lots of words like “toxic” and “deadly”… yikes…

-- The LA Chronicle weighs in HERE.
-- ABC News HERE
-- CNN HERE

And I could go on and on and on… but I won’t…

-- Watch out YOUTUBE is cracking down on… Christmas Carols?

-- And a sign of the 2000’s… a mistrial by IPhone… man oh man jury duty nightmares..

Video of the Week:

A guy trying to pole dance… and if that’s not funny enough, his choice of music… the Doobie Brothers… (Don’t get me wrong I love the Doobie’s but not exactly the right music…)

March Madness

It’s March Madness and that really does count for one of the great times of the year. And while the tournament will keep many people’s attention (my picks are below) the other “Madness” that of the shameful 30/30 provision continues to make news daily. This week, AGC jumped into the fray and a local congressperson from their territory pulled some of the covers back on the issue. First off, kudos to the folks at AGC, I know none of them read this blog (because if they did they’d come to BEC) but regardless it’s nice to see the passion! And they are not the only ones, basically I have been hearing from a ton of people who are not “connected” to the company that drove this measure that they will be jumping in as well. Who knows what will happen but it sure is nice that there’s logic in our world.

Elsewhere…

-- Also on the 30/30 last week another website had a story on this and they included a quote from a pretty big window guy. The quote was basically this… that anyone “could” meet this 30/30 provision if they would so choose. Amazing… so my comment back is.. hey… Mr. Window Big Shot, what if the government slipped in a provision that every window had to be 120 x 120. Surely everyone “could” make that too if they choose… you know if they change out equipment, change manufacturing etc and spend tons of tons of money. I also “could” eat my young if I wanted to- but I don’t because it’s stupid. And my kids would probably not taste good. Just a patently ignorant comment that was typically self serving. Anyway the point is anyone “could” do anything but when something is so incredibly wrong like having a bogus and un-thought-out provision “slipped” into a huge bill like this, there’s more reasons on why it’s not being done other than “we can’t”…. See and its crap like this that the DOE looks at and assumes things like the moronic “the industry doesn’t like making Low E” argument.

-- Man can you imagine if I made windows how crazed I’d be? And again its the fact that this country does not have the same climates all over so why in the world would we try and jam the square peg into the round hole?

-- As noted on my previous post the passing of Bill Davidson was a tough one to swallow. No doubt our industry is weaker for it, but the one thing missed in all of this was that Guardian (in my opinion, and many will call me biased) still has by far one of the most talented groups of people working there in our industry. (I’ve written about Brian Craft as one, but they are seriously loaded all over) And it’s because of that fact that Mr. D’s legacy will live on- by hiring and growing good people that will carry on the concepts and culture that he started. Anyway the man will be missed but his lessons will carry on for many many years.

-- OK on to the original March Madness… as most of you know my nickname is “Mush” and that’s because whomever I pick usually plays like mush and loses. So sorry in advance to fans of these teams I am about to tell you about…. I have UConn winning the whole thing beating UNC. Sleeper teams are WVU and VCU…

-- By the way speaking of betting… how about the fall of Las Vegas? Everything there is down across the board pretty dramatically and now news reports are talking about MGM looking to sell properties. Simply amazing as I don’t think anyone expected that joyride to end but it sure looks that way. Still I think eventually that city will right size and they’ll have to live within themselves instead of always trying to be more excessive. Best part is some really, really nice hotel rooms can be had for cheap. That I like.

-- If you did not see Megan Headley’s blog on her trip to Dlubak, please check it out. (it’s here). I’ve known those folks for many years and I thought Megan did a great job of catching the aura there.

Off to the Links…

It’s funny both myself and the “Link Chick” had the same idea this week… let’s try and hit some good news instead of the normal mix of bizarre and depressing…

-- A tremendous story of unselfishness.. classy people thinking of others.

-- A cool story about the USA Baseball team and a soldier. Again more class.

-- A hero who deserves publicity that’s wasted on things like the “OctoMom”… this guy saved a life and went on with his business.

Video of the week:

From my friend Angela… a great stand up performer on the ills of flying… and watching this I know many of you feel the same way.. in fact I thought of Bob Lang since he and I had a nice long talk at Glassweek about the pure misery that is flying…

A very sad night

Folks...

Sad news... According the several media reports, William Davidson, owner of Guardian Industries has passed away at the age of 85. (or 86 depending on the media source- I've seen both tonight)

Truly a monumental loss in so many ways- and not only in the glass industry. He was also a very charitable person who donated millions to many efforts around the globe. In addition he was the owner of the Detroit Pistons and Palace of Auburn Hills.

But for most that read this blog, his efforts from the glass side is all that counts and his legend and accomplishments will never be matched.

Just tough news to swallow overall. My condolences and thoughts go out to his family and all of the folks at Guardian. He was admired like you would not believe there and I really feel for all of those folks and their loss.

More info on this is forthcoming I am sure and I expect USGNN to have plenty of info when the week starts.

30/30 Vision

OK so the big news has been the shenanigans on the whole 30/30 issue. Now for me, the first time I heard 30/30 I thought it was a baseball term. Turns out the 30/30 was a sneakily put provision that made its way into the stimulus bill calling for residential windows to have less than a .30 U Factor and .30 Solar Heat Gain. If people “comply” with this, they can get up to a $1500 tax incentive or rebate. The problem is that years of work and organization on Energy Star for residential may have went up in smoke by doing a provision like this. See as you may be aware the weather and Low E and window needs are a weeeee bit different in many parts of our country- so doing a “once size fits all” makes no sense. There’s been lots of speculation on who was behind it (possibly a female Senator from the upper Northeast) and why and right now supposedly the DOE is saying they knew nothing of it. Believe what you want but I think this issue is not over and the shame is that someone maliciously got this thing in there and obviously made whichever sponsoring Senator look like an idiot since it simply does not make sense. By the way, Guardian has a great breakdown of what this thing is on their website and you can find it HERE.

Elsewhere…

-- I love the DOE… well not really…. And aside from the above (which I have a hard time believing that a Senator would just willy-nilly put this provision in WITHOUT discussing with the “so called” experts- then again we don’t have a lot of great Senators these days so this could’ve happened) the other issue was something I ran into this week. I met a person who went to the DOE for a grant… they asked for $130,000…. And the DOE gave them….. $170,000! Yep gotta love that department folks… they blindly support one of the most unbalanced and unfair groups ever created (NFRC) and they give out money like drunken sailors. I swear I was born with the wrong genes.

-- I loved the USGNN story on the slowing of the communist Chinese imports… and not because I was in it. The story itself is great and its proof that people are catching on… hey buy at your own risk… now the focus needs to be on the material coming into this country from Colombia. A lot of the same rules and hazards apply so beware…

-- Do you sometimes get depressed when reading or watching the news anymore? Man I know we have lived through a few of these times, but doesn’t this one seem more severe? Or is it just me… and the media that makes it seem worse? Then again I was not driving in the 1970’s when gas lines stretched around the block…

-- Don’t forget about GANA’s education and technical conference coming up in April. For your tech guys and project managers it really is a strong event. Check out the details on glasswebsite.com.

-- I feel bad for the good people that live in California… not only do you get the honor of having two NFRC Board members from the CEC (ooooooh sorry – just one and one … ahem… ‘consultant’) but your also stuck with the “Octomom”…. That whole story makes me ill and now that she has now moved into a 500K house thanks to “contributors” and will have nanny’s at the willing, I am furious… So she went from food stamps to a ½ mil house? Yep the taxpayers of California you get the honor of paying for that nightmare for a long time. Who’s gonna pay that hospital bill? Somehow I think its gonna be you… but that makes sense in a way… as a state you wanted the NFRC CMA and that makes no sense so why not pay off the Octomom….

-- Yes even I can somehow connect two things as far apart as the Octomom and the NFRC… crazy eh?

To the LINKS we go…

The awesome as always “Link Chick” is back this week… evidently instead of being the diplomat to Cuba she’s now going to work the Global Warming angle after having 8 inches of snow one day and 81 degrees the next…

-- Tempered Glass strikes back! Well not exactly… a backboard explodes after a pregame dunk and there’s long lasting consequences…

-- Like noting of bad news above… how’s this.. Sesame Street now laying off… yeesh.

-- A cool building with glass like a crossword puzzle… neat stuff….

Video of the week:

I got this from a few people… THANK YOU… for the 50th birthday of the Barbie doll… it’s been updated for today’s times… classic stuff!

That was a fun week...

Recapping and catching up... Saturday style...

NFRC ended its meetings and the "Awning" controversy swirled... best part is that they made the comment that the Awning folks will get what they want but they (the awning guys) will pay for it... which brings up...

1. Why sponsor an NFRC meeting- let alone two? What benefit is there? Are they hoping that when Jeff Baker needs a new Awning he'll use a member? I have never seen a more worthless call.
2. Obviously the rest of us are in the wrong business if the Awning guys can sponsor a meeting and foot the bill for the research needed... obviously that is a group flush with disposable income.

Anyway the whole thing still smells and will continue to do so...

Also the DOE twins of Karney and LaFrance had their moments in the sun...

I am sure LaFrance once again sounded like the teacher from "Peanuts" as he talked and everyone summarily ignored. "wonka wonk wonk wonka"

Meanwhile Karney played to the crowd with a wild comment that was listed on the NFRC blog saying along the lines of make sure if you are fighting, discussing, dealing with the shameful 30/30 issue to make sure that NFRC numbers are used.... OH THANK YOU.. What a freakin shill. (Now note I was not there and so I am using the NFRC Blog as the source- you don't think that they would put words in Karney's mouth would you????)

It's really pathetic that these two guys from DOE have done nothing for the taxpayers that pay their salaries. They pander to the NFRC and in some cases repeat the NFRC lines verbatim. I really hope that eventually that the new regime at DOE moves these two somewhere else (since being bureaucrats they can't get fired) and bring in some fresh and unbiased blood. It really would make a difference.

And it's guys like LaFrance and Karney who play the wrongful perception that manufacturers and fabricators hate running low e... yep could not be further from the truth guys... we hate organizations who make money off our hard work because people like you take a blind approach to it.

Then again as someone said previous- "what happens if the new guys are worse" and my answer has always been... "its impossible to be worse..."

I mean could a new guy have a meeting under the heading of "Building Envelope" and not invite GANA, IGMA, Viracon, Oldcastle, Kawneer, Arch and so on like the teacher from Peanuts Marc LaFrance did? "wonka wonk wonk wonka" Yes a meeting like that happened but don't worry TRACO was there so we're all safe!! I can only imagine what was discussed and how clueless everyone was.

Anyway the 30/30 is something we'll cover more later this week when readership is its highest and not just the NFRC junkies.

Wow the therapy of writing this is just so good...

And commercial is still better than residential...

A quiet week on the commercial front… while the residential guys deal with the illogical (and quite frankly shameful) 30/30 provision that was sneakily slipped into the stimulus, the commercial side just continues to truck along working against the waves of an economy that gets tougher every day. A lot of people have the money that was in stimulus for construction spent, but I think anyone who has worked in this industry knows that there is no such thing as “shovel ready”… so even with some green lights and with projects moving forward it is still going to be a rocky road. Amazing even more if you consider we went from a glass shortage last summer and fall to a slower go now.

Elsewhere….

-- The NFRC meetings are still going on and that whole sponsorship thing won’t die. I heard from so many people who saw it to be so wrong for the NFRC to accept sponsorship from a group in the position to gain from an NFRC board decision. Just shows that no matter how much people like Joe Hayden try to play off how much integrity they have, this shows they have none. And quite frankly I say that about every board member now- just another filthy move but expected really because this is classic NFRC.

-- Yes I am mad because the awning people outsmarted me. If only we offered to sponsor meetings in the past the CMA would look so different!! Heck it may have even had a chance to work! Bottom line isn’t this payola?

-- And please check the comment on the post below this… looks like the LABS strike again beating now on the residential guys. Out of control. And believe me the residential guys not only have a miserable economy to deal with but they also have to deal with the BS like 30/30.

-- Last note on this, according the NFRC blog, Rich Karney of DOE talked about how the bogus (my term, not his) 30/30 provision will “influence” Energy Star… hmm so that means all the work, all the resources that went into Energy Star will be wasted because of this illogical rule? You know how we have the same climate in Maine that we have in Miami…. (sarcasm alert!) Well if the 30/30 stands that statement will somehow be true… only at the DOE and NFRC… amazing.

-- Technoform and Raj Goyal. Wow tremendous pairing. Good company and a great guy.

-- Still feel awful for the folks at former Echo Window. While the Republic Window folks have “cult figure” status thanks to their sit in, the poor folks in Red Oak, Iowa have really gotten the ziggy. Sold by TRACO to “Echo” and then bam plant closed and jobs lost. It really sucks and I hope all of those folks can bounce back, they were truly pawns in a bigger game.

-- Did anyone watch 24 this week? Gosh I hope the real FBI and the real White House are not as pathetic as they are shown on TV. Up and down episode that is for sure, but Jack Bauer rules no matter what happens.

-- Is Winter over yet? Tuesday morning, 7 degrees outside my house and hearing about snow in the Carolinas and frost in Georgia… not to mention the massive snow in the Northeast. This has simply been a BRUTAL winter.

BOOK OF THE WEEK!
The GANA Sealant Manual…. And no I am not on the GANA Board anymore, but I am still a huge fan and this is an incredible publication. In this day and age you want to have as much knowledge as you can, and this manual brings it. Many people volunteered and worked their tails off to produce a top notch manual, so go to the GANA website- click here – and order up. You won’t be sorry.

Off to the LINK… yes LINK
Only one link this week because quite frankly there is nothing to top this…. A lady called 911… three times… because…. Her local McDonald’s was out of Chicken McNuggets. You can’t make this stuff up. Now I love food… love it a lot… but this is epic.

VIDEO of the WEEK!

Another favorite of mine is Family Guy and they just announced they’ll be doing a sequel to the Star Wars Blue Harvest piece… Return of the Jedi is coming and will be awesome I am sure. To get you fired up for it- a clip from Stewie in Blue Harvest…

Yep that makes sense!

In the comments from yesterday's post when I asked why in the world the awning people would sponsor an NFRC event.... the answer was posted and here it is:

Awnings are up for a very large request for funds in the research and technology committee.

Wow... and even though the NFRC made sure to note that they were not a guarantee for approval, methinks that the sponsorship locked it in. Damn if only I knew that a sponsorship was my way to get the board to think my way, I woulda done it years ago!!!

See we all blew it and the Awnings guys figured out! All of those 42-9 votes overturned by the board would now be accepted because we were putting cash in...

Am I crazy or is this not a GIGANTIC conflict of interest? Then again when your former President and long time board member makes 72% of her income from NFRC related activities, the term "conflict of interest" simply does not exist in the NFRC world. (along with terms like "logic", "transparency" etc...)

Best part of the NFRC blog today was the quick blurb on the CMA lesson that was given to the guys at New World West... something tells me everyone who knows those guys got a HUGE chuckle/anger pain out of that...

Better than Tylenol PM

My gosh judging from the NFRC blog site, the start of the meetings got off to a booooooring start. I mean if the quick synopsis of the meetings are boring can you imagine how bad it has to be there in person?

Ahhhh but then again not many people ARE THERE in person... yes 100 people attended but then you take away the 11 NFRC staff members, the lawyer, the 6 figure PR guy, the board members and BAM you probably have like 10 attendees... CONGRATS!

Among those NOT listed on the pre registration was Nelson Pena... he of the California Energy Commission (CEC). Maybe he'll show up later or maybe the state finally is realizing that its wasted way too much money over the years...

And speaking of California... you have to love the pathetic shenanigans of the NFRC when it comes to the Admiral Tony Rygg. He is listed as an "Independent Consultant" on the letterhead but everywhere else he is CEC. They do that because any normal logical person would be outraged that a board like this would have 2 people from the same group on it... then again did at matter, at one time Cardinal had 3 people- but at least they used different names.

I wonder if everyone there still has to run their ideas by Jeff Baker? Comical that guy has so much power and sway...

AH and they found a SUCKER... yes some group called the Professional Awning Manufacturers Association is now a sponsor! Well I have a word for that groups 326 members... TIME TO AUDIT! Obviously this group has way too much money. And really what will they get out of this? Somethings just baffle the mind. But here's me betting that someone at this Awning group is related to someone connected at NFRC... and they owe a favor... because there is no way this makes sense otherwise.

Last Joe Hayden did his annual "Tell me what we can do for you but we'll only listen and promote the stuff that makes sense for us" plea. Remember the meeting last November where Hayden asked the same (wow way to be creative! that must an idea from the 6 figure PR firm!) and the first thing written on the board was:

BOARD ACTION OVERRIDING MEMBER CONSENSUS

Oh I am sure they took that one serious... yeah sure.

Well we will see if anything else comes out of it. I do enjoy following the meeting via their blog since it saves money and valuable time (for which they could care less about) However the best part is after I watch a spine tingling episode of 24 tonight, I saved the review of the keynote speech to read before bed... that baby will knock me out cold!

Thank you!

Well folks time to say THANKS! As the February totals are in and it was the 2nd biggest month of visits and hits in the history of the site!! Obviously the coverage of Glassweek and BEC drove it and I am glad so many people followed along on here.
Now sadly we have the NFRC meetings which usually drives my viewers away in droves!

Anyway thank you to everyone who stops by and moreso everyone who has this site bookmarked or hooked into things like Google reader. I appreciate you taking the few minutes out of your week to check out what's happening here!

Thanks again!!

Could this be an Oscar worthy film?

The on-going saga of the Republic/Echo Windows adventure continued this week when it was announced that Echo was closing down. The news came as a major shock since it’s pretty rare for a business to be bought and closed so quickly. Echo came about just a few months ago and supposedly had some work in house. So who knows what went down… The bottom line is that this story… from the plant takeover and all of the other fixings was pretty interesting and probably not even close to being told in its entirety. I guess we’ll have to wait for the movie of the week for that one…

Elsewhere…

-- Next week the NFRC meetings… yee ha. I guess we’ll see if any company is "special" enough to sponsor that event. And speaking of NFRC they sent out the propaganda newsletter recently and it had once again classic unintentional comedy throughout. But the unfunny and galling item was the fact that NFRC is looking for a firm to “promote participation in the CMA program”…. Unreal. So let’s see… let’s bring upon the public a wasteful and unasked for (and un-needed) program and then let’s then hire someone to promote it because quite frankly no one wants it in the first place. BRILLIANT! So yes more money will be spent to promote the Titanic and that means more costs to the people who will be forced to use this program. I still think the Titanic will sink, if only because bad logic and planning just can’t survive no matter how many clueless people from DOE support it.

-- Saw the blurb on Sage getting a 20 million dollar investment via USGNN. Congrats to them… a great company with a great product- those investors made the right call that is for sure.

-- After my Glassweek columns I was sent an e mail asking why I did not mention Arch or any Arch people. (and no it was not sent by an Arch person!). Well as I replied to the person I write this piece as a independent guy- not an Arch guy. The reply back was telling “then that’s all the more reason you SHOULD mention Arch people etc…” And with that I was speechless. I guess it’s because the people I work with know how much I respect them and appreciate them- because I tell that to their face. They get to suffer with me daily while the rest of you just suffer once a week! Anyway I am proud and honored to work along side some of the best people in our industry and my not mentioning of them should not be taken as lack of appreciation.

-- If you are not watching the videos and newscasts from USGNN you really are missing out. Megan Headley and Drew Vass are doing some real tremendous work. As a former producer, I am jealous of all of the bells and whistles Drew has at his fingertips. Good stuff and worth your time.

-- Now that Glassweek is over the next big events are the Glass Fab and Educational conference in Cincy in April, then AIA in San Fran. Along the way there’s also a BIPV conference in San Diego too. Outside of that though it looks to be pretty quiet nationally… and this is fine by me. I think time being spent focusing on our cores is the only play right now.

-- Guilty Pleasure alert- If you have Sirius XM radio… on Sunday’s on channel 8.. they play old America’s Top 40’s with Casey Kasem… and it’s the exact show from some random weekend in the 80’s. This past Sunday I heard a show from 1980 and it was awesome.. the long distance dedication and the wild mix of music… (#18 was Pink Floyd… #17 was the Spinners….) Driving around and running errands made so much more enjoyable. Dang just writing that paragraph made me feel old.

Off the the LINKS!

-- The Link Chick had the week off last week thanks to BEC but now she is back to normal. Plus amazingly I even found a few links too… so here is a great potpourri of links sponsored by …… whomever sponsors the NFRC meeting because they have money to burn…

-- A blog post on the world’s “dumbest” LEED buildings. Some of these are legit- others not so much.

-- Speaking of Green… the Wall Street Journal had a great piece on the fact that Green jobs may not be the be-all, end-all that so many people think they will be. Great read here.

-- I don’t know if this is true or not but “Solar Powered” batteries? Like the ones you put in your remote? If this is true…. Wow…

-- Awesome story on sportsmanship…. Especially in light of the 100-0 diasater- this was cool

Was the coverage of the stimulus done correctly? Interesting piece breaking down the TV coverage!

Funny Joke/Story of the week:
From Stu (Thanks!!)

Having already downed a few power drinks, she turned around, faced him, looked him straight in the eye and said, 'Listen here good looking, I screw anybody, any time, anywhere, your place, my place, in the car, front door, back door, on the ground, standing up, sitting down, naked or with clothes on, dirty, clean . . . it doesn't matter to me. I've been doing it ever since I got out of college and I just love it.' Eyes now wide with interest, he responded,'No kidding. I'm a lawyer too. What firm are you with?

And most of you know my feelings on lawyers… I love this story!

Video of the week:

Thanks to Zone for this one… those Baby E Trade commercials have been popular- now check out the outtakes. Great stuff especially on the economy.

BEC Wrap

BEC 2009 is in the books and I really believe the show was everything that it was promoted to be. The networking was top notch. Just look around the room and you saw business in motion. The education and information delivered as well. All in all it was a tremendous experience and if you chose not to come you really missed out. As I told the attendees at the start of the show- I really believe that the smartest companies in the industry were in the audience because they were the ones to recognize the value. And in a tough economy people that take the time to work the angles, network and educate will be the ones that win in the end.

More BEC recap..

-- Good parts were: The hotel from the point of ease of getting to your room without having to take a cab… the scenery.. . Especially if you were a guy… the speakers… Dick Vermeil delivered an excellent keynote speech. He also was also classy enough to hang around and take pictures and give autographs. Russ Huffer of Apogee gave a presentation that everyone raved about afterwards… Henry Taylor continued to be the “King of LEED” with his timely update, while Julie Schimmelpennigh educated the crowd on some very cool new window technology and also got people clapping in some sort of rhythm. Also the presentation by Culp and Carney gave people more insight to what could be nightmarish times ahead. Last, as USGNN covered Russ Ebeid’s speech was deep and insightful and created a buzz that will be felt for quite a while.

Other BEC/GANA thoughts…

-- Brad Austin of Viracon deserves props for his leadership at the head of GANA in 2008. He did a tremendous job positioning the group and keeping good things on track. I fully expect his successor, Mike Ondrus of Glasstech to carry it on and forward.

-- Megan and Drew from USGNN were everywhere. I do think it is just a matter of time before Drew gets his satellite uplink and we’re doing live shots from these events….

-- Next GANA Event is April with the Glass Fabrication and Educational conference. Again a good one if you want to learn and network.

-- A huge thanks to GANA staff… Brian Pittman- the AV Mastermind, was in his glory at 5AM on Monday morning as 8 worker bees took direction from him as he set up the video and audio. Ashley Charest who somehow keeps everything organized and flowing despite attempts from certain people (ummm wonder who that is) to throw her off. Sara Neiswanger was hustling all over directing people to the right places…. Urmilla and Greg were those calm beacons that always greeted me with a smile, and Bill Yanek now through 2 BEC’s, he’s old hat- plus he delivered an eye opening piece on GANA and energy. In fact any presentation that shows a picture of Jack Lambert is awesome in my book. Last Thanks goes to Carol Land. She always takes care of me and does all she can for the other 500+ people. I just love having her on my side!

Now to the “Page 6” portion…

-- Man it was great to see the folks I saw…. Got to talk briefly with Ron McCann of Viracon and told him all I have to do is mention is name and BAM I get like 1000 extra hits. Also Alice Dickerson of Vitro America introduced herself to me, she mentioned she reads some of these blogs and considering my past I can understand why its only “some”…. The crew from Technoform were there en masse but I had a moment of missing my main man Milind! Speaking of missing, Jim Stathopoulos from Ajay was supposed to be in but had something come up… your presence was missed no doubt! And Bruce Mikels of BDM also missed because he would rather go to the Glass show in Atlanta (commence abuse) Caught up with John Dwyer of Syracuse Glass, John was one of those guys who led GANA to this spot with his past involvements….without his efforts we don't have what we have.... Always nice to see Mike Rupert of PPG, now the crew there can flip from abusing Kevin Brooks about his appearance on this blog to Mike. Seeing Chris Knitter of Central Pacific Glass is awesome… I appreciate so much that Chris and his company support BEC every year like they do. .. Brian Craft of Guardian has always been one of my guys and now he added a pretty cool goatee to his look… I think he could double as a spy in Bond flick…. At the airport it was like a BEC after party… amazing to see all of the players still milling about. I ended up on a plane with Joe Staffileno of Zeledyne (AKA the King of West Virginia) along with Mike Krasula and Rachel Hepner of Pilkington NA. Actually had the supreme honor of sitting next to Rachel and watched in utter amazement as she figured out some complex puzzle in like 30 seconds… look for her on the game show circuit- girl has skillz.

-- I will probably do a “normal” blog post later in the week depending on how the digging out of my life goes after 6 days in Vegas.

-- Anyway I would like to thank everyone who attended and everyone who took the time to visit with me and catch up. It truly was enjoyable. And a special thanks to everyone who’s following along on the blog and end up taking heat from their co-workers because of my mentions. (I think Jay Phillips was hid from me on purpose for that reason… I mean I saw him for a split second and then BAM he was gone.) I really appreciate it.

-- Last the BEC is a fantastic event and GANA a great group and only good things are coming. Henry Taylor of Kawneer takes over and will do a fantastic job and I look forward to sitting in the crowd and rooting him on!

VIDEO:

At the start of Russ Ebeid's presentation he showed an awesome video and many people wanted it for themselves... well here you go... very cool video!!

Glassweek Update

Well we are halfway through Glassweek and speeding towards BEC… some quick thoughts…

-- The first ever Energy Committee meeting, highlighted by a talk from Cheryl Kennedy of NREL and Tex Wilkins from DOE was fantastic. A packed room held on to every word those two said. Possibly the only scary thing was I think both made Solar sound very “easy” to get into- which quite frankly it is not. It may seem so, but I think people will find the barriers are not as achievable as it looks. Still a super turnout.

-- The attitude here overall has been solid- very little doomsday and mostly people trying to ride this storm out. That is a good sign since panic is obviously not the best approach for anyone.

-- By the way GANA has a very cool website for Energy news… you can access it HERE.

-- And speaking of GANA, once again the work by folks like Brian Pittman, Ashley Charest and Carol Land has been tremendous. Good people who deserve props.

-- In case you were wondering… the Walker Glass fashion plates did not disappoint. I came here for 6 days all packed in a carry on. They came for 2 nights and packed a suitcase each that could house a small family. I guess style has its pains eh?

Now time for who I saw…. Like Page 6 for the glass industry….

-- I got to see Ren Bartoe dressed to the nines for the formal dinner… but even with that he sported a gold tie in honor of the Super Bowl champs… saw Mike Nicklas and some other guy from Berkowitz. It’s tough on poor Mike that he has to do all the talking for that group. He needs to have that other fellow come out of his shell…. Got to hang out with Joe Erb from Edgetech during the Energy meetings… he suffered through all of my whines and moans as the Solar Panel made getting into solar sound as easy as buying a cup of coffee…. Speaking of solar I got to talk to Kevin Brooks of PPG… he is their market development person for that stuff and they really have the right guy there… good man and he’ll have some serious success at getting PPG deep into that market… had the pleasure of talking to one of my favorite people. Dr. Helen Sanders of Sage. As everyone knows Sage is a big time favorite product of mine (I really believe it will be a dominant force out there) and so it’s always great to chat with Helen. Though I was bummed that her compatriot Maure Creager did not make the trip… Always great to see Henry Gorry from Guardian.. he is truly a CLASS guy.... Margaret Webb of IGMA was here and it’s amazing how many meetings that she has to attend- especially recently… I have to wonder if she can remember what city she is in sometimes with all the travel… Nils Petermann of the Alliance to Save Energy(and NFRC Board member) was in attendance… I have always found Nils to be friendly, thoughtful and intelligent and this time was no different… which makes me wonder- he along with a couple of other NFRC board members are like that (Kerry Haglund comes to mind in the same vein) yet somehow that Board makes the most illogical calls… I guess somehow they all follow people like Jeff Baker… shame.

-- Last a major thanks to the Vockler family and ICD (and for those of you who somehow don’t know ICD IS OPACI-COAT Spandrel among other great products. They took me (probably as a charitable donation thing- they get a tax break for it under the new stimulus plan) to the Elton John show at Caesars Palace. Simply incredible… Elton still has it… but the videos he plays while he sings are so bizarre that the word “bizarre” is just not strong enough. Still a great show- despite the stunning omission of “Crocodile Rock” from the playlist. Thank you Larry, Trish and Kris- I am grateful.

-- BEC gets going with an 8AM Sunday Technical meeting- then the cocktail party later that night, then the fun goes all day Monday and Tuesday… should be an interesting time.

All Stars and More

As I sit on the plane headed to Vegas for Glassweek and BEC it dawns on me that this event is more like an All Star game then an industry gathering. When I review the attendance list and I see some of the names I am simply blown away that the talent in the room is the best there is. Looking at the names you have your industry “Superstars” (as I called them back a few years back) like Julie Schimmelpenningh, Greg Carney, Mike Gainey, Christine Shaffer and Scott Surma. Then you have the folks that kick butt day in and day out like Jay Phillips, Garret Henson, Tom Culp, Kris Vockler, Matt Sampsel, Chris McMahon and so on. Plus you have the best glazing contractors in the country represented. People like Walters & Wolf, Trainor. Harmon, Ajay, Chicago Heights, United Glass and Panel, DM Products, Admiral, CGI and the list goes on and on and on. And while we’re at it, no meeting would be complete without the Haber’s and W&W. In addition there’s the people and companies I’ve never met that I am hoping to say hi to like the folks from APG, Glass Systems, and Cheviot. And finally to top it off you get the rock star quotient covered too with the appearance and speech by Guardian’s Russ Ebeid. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on. Heck I may even ask for autographs this year! (That is of course from the people who DON’T have restraining orders against me….which at this point are most of the people listed above.)

Elsewhere…

-- Obviously the tone at Glassweek and BEC should be pretty interesting. Is it as bad in our industry as it seems it is in the “real world”? Should make for some fun discussions between customers and suppliers.

-- The technical schedules of course are full and that’s where the serious work gets done. This is what makes Glassweek great and GANA unique.

-- Oh and the Walker Glass guys will be here and the joy in that is seeing their outfits. No one, and I mean no one can do fashion like Danik, Marc and Rocco. Aside from making some awesome glass, these guys can really dress. Someday I need to go to Montreal and go shopping with them- it would be like “Extreme Makeover” glass edition.

-- The latest issue of USGlass has another tremendous Deb Levy interview this time with Leon Silverstein. Deb has really taken these interviews to a tremendous level and each one is better than the last. I can’t wait to see who she has lined up next.

-- And in that interview, Leon made a comment on the NFRC and I believe that many people will get a huge kick out of it. Basically the comment was that Arch as a company would have no issues with the NFRC or their plans but we know it’s bad for our customers and the industry. That’s been the fight all along. I have always said that I welcome a full system calculation plan but the NFRC attempt lacks so much logic it’s painful and really that’s why I believe it will be DOA. The current economic crisis will only accelerate the sinking of this ship and I believe in the end all of us who fought will be proven correct.

-- USGNN had an update on the awful and bogus lawsuits that are happening right now with the float guys. And once again I have to clarify that the Perilstein Glass that is listed has nothing to do with me, my brother, sister or family. It sucks that we have the same last name because this whole shenanigan makes me ill actually.

-- Last I’ll try and post more while I am out here to get a flavor for what is happening. Friday is the first ever GANA Energy committee meeting and there’s also a pretty solid panel involved in that too. It should be very interesting. Stanley Yee, (another one of those industry stars) is heading up this committee so I can pretty much guarantee some very good insight to be forthcoming.

Off to the Links!

So I know many of you are breathlessly following the adventures of the “Link Chick”- she is still weighing the offer to do the Cuba thing but she has still found time to send in some of the coolest and interesting links out on the web today. I think the “Link Chick” should take the Cuba gig as this blog gets hits every week from Finland, Germany, Israel, China (yikes), Japan, UAE, and England so I would love to add Cuba to that list!

-- Could your marriage survive a year of total, brutal honesty? Hmmmm.

-- A forgotten subway from 1844 under Brooklyn. Interesting story and somehow I bet Jim Fairley has been in this or around it.

-- Heads up, your Girl Scout cookies contain less cookies then in the past… oh man that’s actually good news, won’t feel as bad when you finish off a box real quick!

Quick Saturday Post

2 quick items...

1. The Stimulus plan... evidently, according to Bloomberg, one of the items taken out of the stimulus plan was the following:

The Senate agreement pared from the bill $20 billion for school construction, $2 billion to expand broadband access in rural areas, $3.5 billion to make federal buildings more energy efficient and $200 million for NASA.

Yes you have to love it... so while there can be TONS of things removed porkwise from this bill, one of the things is energy efficiency? Wow... they must've asked Marc LaFrance for his opinion and he probably is still waiting for a call back from Garrett Stone to give it. (Sorry- insider reference).
Seriously this one is comical... personally I think they should make sure if they are giving any money or support to the NFRC that needs to go bye bye.

But on the flip side- I would've loved to have see how the energy efficiencies were going to take place. Were they going to add Solar Panels, Electrochomic Glazing and high performance Low E? If thats the case then it really is a huge loss. But the comedy of it is the total lack of care for energy efficiency- all the way at the top.

2. California is now so broke that state agencies are cutting work hours. Add this to the delay in refunds and the state is hurting for cash flow bad. So hopefully the Gov will start slashing at the CEC- especially when he see's how much of California's resources have been squandered by chasing illogical NFRC style programs.

Being stimulated to buy American

Obviously the top story this week should be that great Steeler win in the Super Bowl, but I’ll cover that below. For all of us the big story is the on-going debate on the “Stimulus” and the parts and pieces that make it up. One part that is starting get some play was a “Buy American” provision that pretty much sounds exactly like the Buy American act that is currently on the books. Except this one brings a little more teeth to the proceedings. Unfortunately the EU did not like it very much and as of early Wednesday, President Obama was backtracking some. But the bottom line is some sort of protection needs to be built in, promoted and ENFORCED. The communist Chinese and now more intensely the Colombians are dumping material in this country when quite frankly many people need all of the business they can get. And yes I know I am being ultra protectionist here, but when it comes to glass and glazing there is nothing more galling than seeing a public building (like an airport) that features material that could’ve been manufactured and fabricated here in the US. Add to it that in 90% of the situations the traditional glazier gets cut out too and you have the recipe for disaster. So in between all of the fights on where this stimulus ends, here’s hoping that the Buy American angles are not just forgotten.

Elsewhere…

-- Speaking of the Stimulus- click here for a list of some of the “Wishes” that state and local folks want… some are verrrrrry ugly.

-- Super Bowl XLIII was fantastic and as a Steeler fan it was over the top. Somewhere my fellow Steeler fans like Ren Bartoe and Bob Lang must be in major celebratory mode. Now unlike the Seahawks from a few years ago who had fans (most notably Jerry Razwick) is anyone really a fan of the Cardinals? Anyone out there crushed by their loss? I have a feeling not.

-- The commercials by the way for the game were the worst I have ever seen. Between people trying to cut budgets and trying to be as “PC” as possible, the commercials are the biggest waste of time and money around. Aside from the Dorito’s pieces (which were written by non commercial writers by the way) the rest of the lot was terrible.

-- Did you catch the Atlantic Arena glass debacle story from USGNN earlier in the week? Evidently bullet resistant glass for a structure that large does not come cheap. It’s funny that they are more worried about the drive by’s than a possible bomb. Very rare trade off there that’s for sure.

-- I have written a few times on the following including a piece for USGlass on the scam of “magazines” calling and offering to write a “free” article about your company. The catch is that someone- either you or your customers or suppliers will have to “sponsor” it. So it’s not free. Plus these magazine do not appear anywhere- you won’t find them on a newsstand or on line- they are pretty much custom made for the suckers that fall for this scam. They have names like “Green Building News and Views” or “Executive Excellence” and it amazes me that literally everyday I get a call from either a customer of ours who got hooked on one of these or from the fake magazine themselves. Today’s call the gal told me that since 80% of companies have a rule against supplying their customers names or suppliers names (80% - boy the other 20% are dumber than sticks) that we could just “sponsor” the article ourselves! Wow isn’t that precious! Seriously folks this falls into the “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” category… and if you want pub… do it the right and old fashioned way- call up a legit magazine (like USGlass as an example) and work a deal with them.
Like the above story the scams come in all shapes and sizes- its just a shame that some people just want to steal- instead of earn.

Off to the LINKS!

The link chick has hammered me with some great ones again… I guess she has time before she starts her gig in Cuba. By the way, I heard the first thing she wants to bring to Cuba is some sort of game night dating plan… go Link Chick Go!

-- Another story on a plane that just sits on the frozen runway… how in the world have not figured this issue out yet? Every year it happens multiple times… why?

-- In China the financial crisis is driving some people to… jokes?

-- Long and odd piece on 2009 being the “Year of Panic” and just think if this guy had ever heard of the NFRC...

-- Best for last... a tremendous piece on an athlete who lost her memory during an accident but yet still soldiers on.

Video of the week:

Got to be the best commercial of the Super Bowl… shame that the competition was only between 2 spots… c’mon Hollywood let’s get creative eh! Regardless I got a kick out of this piece!