Rod Lazar

[Mark Prince]

[ split from: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=2096 ]

BTW, just since it was mentioned, this Rod Lazar thing. Whoever did it, you should be ashamed of yourself. It's not funny, and it is one of the reasons why this specialty coffee industry / disfunctional family is so disfunctional. These childish antics are destructive, and destructive way beyond the perhaps limited scope of the kind of parody you (the person who created it) think is funny.

You may take issue with Miguel's attempts to take specialty coffee in a certain direction, and that's fine. Have the balls to debate it openly and honestly. But take your little schoolyard prank back to gradeschool, where it belongs.

My $0.02.

Mark
PS. Here's the "registrant"
Registrant:
Rod Lazar EFC
2015 Chestnut
San Francisco, CA 94608
US
4156682341


Domain Name: RODLAZAR.COM

Administrative Contact:
Lazar, Rod Rod@RodLazar.Com
2015 Chestnut
San Francisco, CA 94608
US
4156682341


Technical Contact:
Lazar, Rod Rod@RodLazar.Com
2015 Chestnut
San Francisco, CA 94608
US
4156682341

[Kyle Glanville]

the rod lazar site is actually pretty funny - i particularly enjoy the coffee and cologne pairings

[DarrinDaniel]

i agree, pretty funny...and we all need to be able to laugh at ourselves no matter how dysfunctional we are.

[Mark Prince]

Re Rod Lazar. I'm very serious. It's all very funny... until you're the person who's being attacked and made fun of.

It's childish, schoolyard bullying IMO. And I'm embarrassed for the industry that it exists. It'd be one thing if Miguel was in on the joke. So is Miguel in on the joke? Is he aware of who did this? Did the person who made this parody site contact Miguel and say "hey, no offense, but I thought it would be funny to do this, what do you think?"

This isn't a case of "we need to be able to laugh at ourselves". It's a case of people pointing fingers at a colleague in the business and laughing at them. That's malicious and ill intent at its worst, and childish, grade school bullying at the very least. Whoever did it should pull it immediately, IMO. I'm 95% sure they're reading this.

What's next? The Asian poor practices business owner cum board member stereotype parody website? The stuffy Brit with the high words talking, "thinks he's Prince Charles" and how to win a barista comp in five easy insider steps parody website? The "I'm too cool for school" tattoo'ed barista talkin' smack while showing I don't have a basic grasp of the English language but I can win a major competition parody website?

I'm betting it would feel pretty different if ***you*** were the subject of this parody.

Mark
PS - added this: a coffeed board member just pm' ed me and implied I am only coming to Miguel's defence because he believes Miguel sends me free coffee and there's sheenanigans involved. I can assure him and anyone who thinks this that this is not the case. I've actually been trying to call Miguel for a few days now to assess his feelings on this matter (no luck yet), and the last time I got coffee from Miguel was a sample of the parodied coffee, and prior to that, two or three years ago.

Regardless, if any of the above hypothetical parodies happened, or happened to anyone else prominent in this industry or trying to do something different were to happen, I would be up in arms about those situations too.

In fact, it's already happened. a parody site for a fellow who has a less than perfect grasp of English went online a few years ago - a fellow who posts regularly on CoffeeGeek. Many laughed about it and the "isms" that the anonymous website builder gleefully made fun of. And I was quite vocal back then about my disgust for that kind of behaviour.

But I suppose, mr' PM'er, I get freebie coffee from Pstam too.

PPS - I've now been able to speak to Miguel about this. It's obviously not a nice thing to have happen to oneself, but Miguel's a helluva lot more gracious about it than I would be (or have demonstrated). He's a good guy.

[Jeff Taylor]

Ric and Mark,

RIGHT ON!

And staying with off topic...

and we all need to be able to laugh at ourselves no matter how dysfunctional we are.

I agree with laughing at ourselves and we are certainly dysfunctional. But it appears RodLazzar is mocking someone personally. There's a difference.

Back in 93, when I opened our first cafe, I was laughed at for selling Cafe Lattes for - GASP -$2.50 a cup. Scary isn't it! But no one laughs anymore and it sells for a lot more than that as you all know. When we introduced a strange little machine called a Clover to the public in Topeka, Kansas, and said we were selling 8oz. & 12oz. cups of coffee for $4 and $5 per cup because the coffees were Exclusive, Rare or Exceptional, people roared with laughter. Now, they buy the coffees daily and even pay more than that at times.

I give Miguel credit for trying to do something different with http://www.rmiguelcoffee.com/. Whether it works or not as a business, none of us really know.

He took a chance, just like many of us in this industry who were mocked before him.

I know SM's took a few jabs behind the scenes in the early days. Who knew there were a Gazillion home roasters just waiting to pay top dollar for green coffee. We all now wish we would have thought of that. Great job Tom, but I'm sure you are aware there was doubt in the coffee community in the early days. "selling green coffee by the 1/2lb and ONLINE? Really? You know people were laughing there ass's off.

Maybe RodLazzar's (http://www.rmiguelcoffee.com/ inspiration was a little over the top, I don't think that means we should mock publicly. Miguel does buy great coffees. He's the one that actually first bid Esmeralda over $100. He just didn't win the auction. Give him credit for pushing it to that limit. How much different would this whole conversation be if he had won that auction in 2007 and didn't share it with anyone? ONly the exclusive list of customers that sign up on his site http://www.rmiguelcoffee.com/.

[DarrinDaniel]

Jeff

Your point is well taken, but (counting myself) there are those who did NOT know at the moment that it was mocking a real person's business until it was pointed out my Mark Prince (and now yourself), which seems to actually be making it worse, not better, for the REAL person/business. My interpretation was that it was making fun of ALL of us that are tasters, cuppers and buyers. How could my enjoying the web site be malicious when I had no idea. I do not think I am alone on this one either...whoever made the site may have wanted to make fun of the real person/business and that is his or her karma, but i do not have to feel bad or that it ain't PC for thinking something is funny. How many people in THIS industry have constantly made fun of or mocked Starbucks and I do not see anyone coming to Howard's defense. I think ya'll need to give it a rest! "Friends don't let Friends drink Starbucks!" blah, blah, blah...i am sick of this thread and done posting on this subject.

[Jeff Taylor]

I certainly did NOT mean that as a personal attack on you, or anyone else, in any way shape or form. My apologies if it came out that way.

I was honestly trying to defend Miguel for having the guts to do something different. Sorry if I offended dude.

I'm off for a good long rest on this topic! Good Idea.

[Ryan Willbur]

Whatever happened to mockery is the greatest form of flattery?

I applaud what Miguel has done with the website, and from a business stand point, I think it's one of the brightest endeavors he's gotten himself into... It's just so extreme compared to what we see from the rest of us represented here, that is begs to be harassed a bit.

Mark, calm down. I don't think anyone is here to critique the man... if anything, the website simply stands to mock the concept.

I guess this means none of you would appreciate the Fake Doug Zell blog I was about to start...

[Keith]

the doug zell blog isnt a fake?

Im with Darrin, I wouldnt have know that the site was a satire of Miguel unless it was pointed out to me, and I have been to Miguels site and checked it out several times.

[Mark Prince]

The Rod site's content has been changed in the past few days.

Mark

[Keith]

gee, now im starting to think you are promoting the site...I would have never gone back and looked if you had not mentioned it again.

Now I guess they are jabbing at Blue Bottle.

What were the similarities between Miguels site and Rod Lazar? Now that I think about it I think the only similarities were a sharp dressed guy and the fact that it was invitation only...all the rest of the jokes could have been on anybody, even you Mark.

Its Funny....and its okay to laugh even when the jokes on you.

[Mark Prince]

ts Funny....and its okay to laugh even when the jokes on you.

I guess that would be true, if Miguel was laughing. He wasn't. I could tell from his voice the parody hurt. Have you called him to discuss?

Before the content was changed, it was much more of a direct stab at his RMiguel efforts.

Mark

[Keith]

I guess I didnt see the site before it changed. I do think a general satirical site that pokes fun at us all is funny, but if it singles out one of us then that may cross the line.

[Christopher Schooley]

Groan.
From what I understand representatives for Rod Lazar have personally contacted Miguel to assure him of no venomous intent behind Rod Lazar Enterprises.
I know and respect Miguel. The invite thing strikes me personally as a little silly but power to him if he can pull it off.
I was a little sore at Rod for a minute for his cologne and coffee pairings which are directly inspired by something mildly ridiculous that I said in Rod's presence a while back. I'm over it though and am now working on a color coded coffee service venture that is going to revolutionize the way people are led to percieve their coffee.

[phaelon56]

I'm over it though and am now working on a color coded coffee service venture that is going to revolutionize the way people are led to percieve their coffee.

Will it be sort of a Garanimals for coffee?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garanimals

[sweetmarias]

Wow, this rod lazar has it's own thread! I am not offended since there is definitely just a wee bit of rod lazar in me ... rod is the first person to put coffee and euro-leather together for sure. I think victor allen was one of the pioneers of the "in-your-face" web sites --- if you remember he had this little jiggling animated victor allen head in the corner of the frame, and that was like 8 years ago. awesome. ...Chris Schooley - you are definitely being mocked right in your face, with this coffee vs. cologne thing, I think you should call a lawyer immediately. Now you know how all the metal bands felt when they saw Spinal Tap, the most disgusting and insulting film ever for true, serious NWOBHM 'ers. Anyway, rod's gonna be stoked - his own thread on coffeed! We never had our own thread - aw poops ... By the way, a search turned up Rod's TV Guide web forum with ZERO posts in it. What's with that? IMDB has no image either! Damn ... Granimals, mmm.

[Christopher Schooley]

Oh crap, my face!

Will it be sort of a Garanimals for coffee?

I thought about animal (leopard and Red Panda) prints for a while but it made the coffee seem a little pacaderm-y oddly enough. I do agree that if any patterns are used that they should be recurrent in nature, otherwise you would be suggesting synthetic nuances (which is the name of my new Devo/Iron Maiden mash-up cover band). I will start with bold solid colors and see how the lab mice react.

[phaelon56]

I was think about Coffanimals bracelets for indecisive retail customers. They can purchase a small set in multiple colors - each of which represents the drink they'll get when they're wearing that bracelet and come into your cafe. No more painful decisions to make about what to order and the barista can just scan the wrists in line to start setting up orders.

[JavaJ]

FWIW, when I saw the sight, I interpreted it as stab at all of us. And I laughed. And then I called the guy a jerk.