I’m a huge James Frey fan – I loved both of his books A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard. He’s recently been beaten up for embellishing his story as The Man Who Conned Oprah. Richard Bradley also takes him to task on the always “entertaining and stimulating” Huffington Post. James Frey and the story about his story have been on the Technorati Top 10 List for the past few days, once again demonstrating that all press is good publicity (I’m sure there were plenty of other books bought as a result of all the discussion.)

There’s been some chatter – stimulated by Jeff Jarvis – about the generic advice given on many VC blogs (e.g. “Dear World, Here’s My Top 10 Tips For A Better Startup.”) While I hopefully don’t end up in the lame category, I expect that I produce my share of generic, generally uninspiring content. Yesterday, I received a “Client Alert” from one of the name brand Silicon Valley law firms. I get these all the time from most law firms – they are “marketing activities” from them to show VCs how smart they are and – presumably – to help VCs stay on top of important issues. Ironically, while I expect most of these firms have double checked to make sure they comply with CAN-SPAM, I know that many of them don’t use good UCE hygiene (specifically, I never opted in – they simply put me on the email list since they have my email address in their system somewhere.)

Tom Evslin’s fantastic blook hackoff.com: An Historic Murder Mystery set in the Internet Bubble and Rubble – soon to be available in traditional book form – is now available as a podcast. Subscribing to the podcast is easy and Tom’s done a nice job of providing options via RSS (for the blook and the podcast.) Look for some of your friends (me, Fred Wilson, several others) to guest star as some of your favorite characters (yes – Fred and I will play VCs) in upcoming podcasts.

I speak at a lot of conferences – I’m basically happy to give a speech or sit on a panel if I’m in the town when the conference is happening (I don’t want to have to travel to speak since I travel all the time, but if it’s convenient, I do it), have time, and feel I have something to add on the topic in question. I generally do this for the intrinsic satisfaction of participating and whatever intangible second order effects result (e.g. who the hell knows why I really do this, other than I enjoy it.) Yeah – I’m a panel whore.

From the guys who brought us Candy Bar Sex (Chris Wand and his dad Martin) comes the best Google search I’ll do today. Go to Google. Search for “French military victories”. Hit “I’m Feeling Lucky” Laugh (unless you are French, at which point you should start a petition to boycott Google) Entertainingly, when I do an “I’m Feeling Lucky” on my name, my blog comes up. Maybe I should write a Greasemonkey script that changes the button to “I’m Feeling Ego-Self-Referential.”

Seth Levine has a great post up about the dynamics of exit value in a startup. If you wonder why there are so many relatively quick deals for startups under $50 million but it takes a relatively long time for a deal to reach the point where it can command an exit value of $200 million plus, get a cup of coffee and settle in for a good read.

If you happen to be in Boulder tonight, Metzger Associates is putting on a “New Media Summit” tonight at The City Club (885 Arapahoe) from 4pm to 7pm. It’ll be a panel – moderated by Matt Branaugh (the Boulder Daily Camera Business Editor) and features: Me Doyle Albee: Metzger Associates New Media practice director Howard Kaushansky: founder of Umbria, a company setting new standards for monitoring online consumer intelligence Joe Pezzillo: founder of one of the nation’s first Internet radio stations, GoGaGa.com and former creative director of Apple’s Electronic Media Lab. There are still a few seats left – it’s a limited group so if you are around and interested, contact Julie Ludwig at Metzger by email or call her at 303 786 7000 to RSVP. The cost is $25 and you’ll end up being well fed (and probably entertained.)

Jack Bauer does the voice over for the new Mac / Intel ads. It just dawned on me that The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is simply the reverse of the digits of 24 – that helps me understand my obsession a little better.

I’ve never really gotten into Desperate Housewives (I’m – well – more of a 24 guy). However, I saw a note forwarded to me today from another VC that is definitely a mashup between “Desperate Housewives” and “24”. It could also be subtitled “a note you should not send to VCs.” From: Desperate Entrepreneur (not his real name) Sent: Recently To: A long list of VCs, including a bunch of “dead email addresses” like deals@vcfirm.com Subject: As you know we need our financing today. Thank you for discriminating against me. Good thing I own the copyrights as well. Price is now 1 million per lateral ejection seat.