Author: <span>david.hamel</span>

Guilty Pleasure Movies

Sometimes you just need to watch something that doesn’t make you think. A movie that just makes you fell good, entertains you or is just silly. These are my go to films that are fun and enjoyable. Fifth Element The Fifth Element stars Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Mila Jovovich, Ian …

Surprise and Delight

“Surprise and delight” is a phrase often tossed around in business meetings. “We need to surprise and delight our customers!” senior managers cry out! “We need to provide them with unexpected rewards and promote customer loyalty!” No. You don’t. You need to solve a problem for your customer. That’s it. …

The Chewed Receipt

I grew up in a border town in the Okanagan valley just North of Washington state called Osoyoos. One big advantage of living in a border town was that you could go down into the US for cheap groceries and gas. We used to wear our old shoes down, buy …

Open Reply to Kingswood Capital Management

When I first became a member of Mountain Equipment Co-op, I was in first year university (30 years ago). Everyone I knew on campus was a member. I joined because I was going to UVIC and that is what you did (it’s a very outdoorsy school), plus they had good …

The business of art

I came across an article in my news feed from artnet.com regarding artist’s contracts and resale royalties. In it it describes how an artist added a clause to the sale of his art that stated royalties were to be paid to a charity if the work was resold. It also …

Another botched restoration

So another “masterpiece” was restored by an amateur and ruined. I wrote about Elias Garcia’s “Ecce Homo” in a previous post. This time a copy of the “The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial” by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was cleaned by a furniture restorer. “Ottomans, chaise, masterpieces, whatever! We do it …

The need to riot

“A riot is the language of the unheard.” ~Martin Luther King America is in the middle of a very painful transition. Growth of any kind is painful. And it isn’t the change itself that causes the pain, but rather the resistance to change. While it is easy and understandable to …

Adrift…

So you ever feel like you were meant to do something but you missed the opportunity. Or that you are too old to achieve something? I am struggling with this feeling right now. I feel like I am too old to do some of things I wish I had done. …