Dan Harbison resides in Portland, dreams of Scotland and lives here.

Rock N Roll Haircut

Saturday, March 31, 2007


Jess, Jack and myself went to get haircuts... well, Jess and myself got haircuts, Jack's still got his "high and tight" hair style that hasn't grown out. We rolled to Bishops this morning around 9;15am and there were several people already in line.

If you haven't heard of Bishops, it is a series of 5 barbershops here in Portland with a cool twist. They pride themselves as the "Rock N Roll" Barbershop. When you walk into a Bishops, there is usually cut-out pictures pasted on every inch of the walls. Usually there is eclectic music playing (depending on the barbers choice)... rockabilly, punk, underground hip-hop, alt rock, drum and bass... it's usually all over the map, but good music.

The music isn't the only thing that makes this experience unique. You are usually greeted with the welcome "Welcome to Bishops, can I get you a beer." Yes, they give out the "Champagne of Beers" Miller High-Life for free. And, as most barbershops, the cornerstone of your experience is the barbers themselves.

Each time I've been to a Bishops, I've gotten my haircut by really cool people, (today it was Eric from the band Dead Man's Hand, a local psychobilly band here in Portland) who have great stories (a must for a good barber) and even cooler tats. Now, not all Bishops barbers have tattoos. But a good chunk live the lifestyle. Either they are in bands or are aficionados of music... Bishops lives up to the title of the Rock and Roll Barbershop.

Bishops is a great example of taking a normal concept (a barbershop) and creating a unique experience around that. CNN did a story on them as did KGW. A another good example is Voodoo Doughnut. That's for another blog, but the point is... experience.

I go back to Bishops each time getting a solid haircut at a good price ($19) and feel that I support two things local... a local business and the local music scene. Since a lot of these guys are in bands, anytime we can help support them in their normal jobs, means that they'll be able to continue to pursue creating music.

posted by DanHarbison at 5:13 PM 0 Comments

Roy for ROY Leatherman Tool

Wednesday, March 28, 2007


A couple of months ago we brainstormed to come up with an idea to help promote Brandon Roy for the Rookie of the Year in the NBA. We wanted to send a fun press kit to the voting members of the media. We tossed around several ideas, but one stood out, using a local Portland based company product that embodied Brandon Roy's game. The idea was to send a Brandon Roy Leatherman tool to the members of the media. Leatherman Tools (founded in 1983) are known for their versatility. Brandon's game is very similar. He isn't a one dimensional player. Leading the rookie class in points per game 16.3, assists per game 4.0, and 5th in rebounds per game 4.4, Brandon consistently has filled the boxscore with stats that usually have a number in each of the columns (sometimes 0's for turnovers).

We've been getting some good press about the tool (check out this MP3 from Jim Rome, courtesy of 1080 The FAN) and momentum for Brandon's bid for Rookie Of the Year. It will be a tough case for anyone else to make an argument for the award. Bargnani is sidelined the rest of the season with an appendectomy, Garbajosa has to have surgery on his leg, Rudy Gay isn't on a team that has won more games than Portland AND he doesn't have as good as numbers in any of the categories.

Brandon's stiffest competition might come from his teammate LaMarcus Aldridge. Aldridge has been putting up really good numbers since All-Stars. Especially since Joel Przybilla went down with a knee injury and LaMarcus became the starter.

The Leatherman tool promotion was great to see people here at the Trail Blazers collaborate in making this happen (thanks to Todd Bosma for the originator of the Leatherman tool idea) and for Leatherman to team up with us in creating these one of a kind collectors peices. We did a limited over-run, so you can buy them for $45 in our online store. Seriously, these are going fast. We've sold 1/4 of the inventory in 3 hours. Damn, that's hot.

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posted by DanHarbison at 11:57 AM 0 Comments

Portland Social Media Group Ticket Deal

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Here's a ticket deal for all who come to my blog (as a little thank you)... Get 50% off tickets for the Clippers game (this Saturday 3/31) and the Sonics game (4/14). The yellow seats are pretty good for $25.

Click here to get your ticket deal... now you can't say I never gave you nothin'.

posted by DanHarbison at 6:30 PM 0 Comments

Jack is here!

Monday, March 26, 2007


That's right, a week ago at 5:38pm John Gary Harbison (aka Jack) was born at Good Samaritan Hospital here in Portland. He was born 8lbs and 21 inches. If he waited until his due date (March 28th) he would've been 9+ lbs. He has his own blog here. Plenty of pictures on the blog and some on Picasa.

Also, I will be speaking at the March meeting for the Portland Social Media club. Tim Germer saw me speak at SEMPDX and asked me to speak. Here are details:

March 27th
7pm - 9pm
Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave
Portland, OR 97253
(503) 708-0851

Should be a really cool setting to talk with some of Portland's bright minds in blogs, podcasts, social networks and other social things, like drinking? Does karaoke qualify as social media? We'll talk about why we're using Web 2.0 at the Trail Blazers and how it is working for us. Hope to see you there.

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posted by DanHarbison at 10:04 PM 3 Comments

Tourney Time...

Thursday, March 15, 2007



Ok, this is "bar none" my favorite time of year for sports. There are people who love every Saturday and Sunday during fall for Football (ehem, my wife). I do love college football. I love the NFL and all the stress fantasy football brings me. But these next three weeks pumps adrenaline into my system constantly. I just watched Virgina Commonwealth beat Duke. I would never... repeat NEVER watch a Virgina Commonwealth football game.

I am a fan of Colin Cowherd, I remember the days at Entercom, early in the mornings seeing Colin wander the halls during a commercial break with his paper coffee cup asking people if they thought waffles were better than pancakes. Recently on his national radio show on ESPN Radio, he brought up the fact that college football wouldn't benefit from a tournament like college basketball. His argument is a valid one. The tourney makes the regular season in college basketball virtually obsolete. The only time of the year people care about it is during March. Where as college football gets great ratings throughout their regular season.

Where I disagree with him is it isn't the tournament that makes the regular season obsolete, it's the amount of games that makes the regular season obsolete. Most teams first 10 games are against non factor opponents and don't really garner any attention. In college football every game counts towards your quest to the national title or at least a bowl game.

What I like about the tournament situation is, the amount of teams that COULD be in the final four is larger. Of course, at the beginning of every sehttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifason, college football teams could say the same thing (Virgina Commonwealth maybe has a shot at the national title game for football if they win every game). But that isn't the case due to the voting system. Boise State went undefeated, but didn't a shot at the national title shot due to rankings from pollsters.

Do I have a solution. No way. I know that I love this time of year! And will be checking my two bracket entries every 10 minutes. Here are my two entries in case you want to heckle me for picking bad picks. The Brown Shark || The Moldy Hair Clog.

A blog post about March Madness would be complete without some sort of "waste of work time" reference. So here ya go. Also, mind you, I've talked to people at work during march madness that I rarely talk to normally. There is something to be said about building camaraderie.

posted by DanHarbison at 7:09 PM 0 Comments

Solid Ticket Offer for Detroit Pistons

Tuesday, March 6, 2007


Ok, friends, family and people coming to my blog. I was able to get a friends and family discount for people from SEMpdx and of course, friends and family for the Detroit Pistons game on March 14th. We want to sell this game out for when 'Sheed comes back into town. To get this deal that gives you 1/2 off prices in a couple of the price categories, click here.


You will get the following discounts:

Yellow Seats: $24.50 (normally $49 for lower level)

Purple Seats: $12.00 (normally $24)

Red Seats: $10.00 (normally $17)




Top see some views where those seats are, check out the sweet 3-D seating chart that we recently added to trailblazers.com. Click here.


I will be sitting on a panel at SEMpdx tomorrow around 9:15am. Hopefully I'll see you guys there!

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posted by DanHarbison at 6:16 PM 0 Comments

SEMpdx Search Fest '07

Monday, March 5, 2007


On Wednesday I will be speaking on a panel with other Web 2.0 enthusiasts at SEMpdx Search Fest 07. The panel will consist of:
Web 2.0 / RSS
Utilizing RSS Feeds as a Powerful SEO Tool
Doug Hay, Expansion+;
Janet Johnson; SnapNames;
John Anthony Hartman, Feedia;
Dan Harbison, Portland Trail Blazers;

I'm always excited to interact with other people who understand why Web 2.0 is exciting and share ideas on what we're all doing. I also get really excited to brainstorm on where we go from here.

One constant battle I see from Web 2.0 is the amount of crap that gets out in the internet. Now with Web 2.0, everyone has a voice and everyone has the ability to converse. My thought of Web 2.0 is to improve the knowledge that is out there. A collective brain is smarter than a singular one. You can have more rounded knowledge on a larger breadth of topics if you have multiple people who are experts in their own field. Where it breaks down is not having a "crap filter" on comments, or tags. Many times I have gone to someones MySpace page, looked at the first 5 comments and then bailed... instead getting carpal tunnel by wading through 200 comments and scrolling down to the bottom of their page. That is what I consider poor use of Web 2.0. Having all those comments didn't better my knowledge of who that person is, or help me decide if I want to be friends with them. A lot of the time it's for some DJ's party in St. Louis or someone's really bad hip-hop that they made in their mom's basement (DJ SharpTongue I'm looking in your direction...) Editing on Web 2.0 by authors and users is essential. Wikipedia does a great job of doing that. Allowing everyone to contribute, but if it's crap... out it goes.

I will post my presentation about Web 2.0 and what we're doing at the Trail Blazers after the panel on Wednesday. I recommend you check it out if you are interested in SEM. Here is a quick "3 questions" I did with their blog.

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posted by DanHarbison at 5:41 PM 0 Comments