Hard Rock Logos - Design and History
 | The Hard Rock Cafe is a popular restaurant chain in the United States and now across the world. The original Hard Rock cafe was started in London back in 1971 by two Americans. They wanted to open up a restaurant that served American food. They began to cover the restaurant with Rock memorabilia in 1979. The opened their first US restaurant in Los Angeles in 1982. |
Hard Rock has a number of different logos for each of their other businesses. The logos for each of the business lines is really a derivative of the base logo. The logo itself is pretty simple. Its the text "Hard Rock" engraved on top of a circle. There are some interesting theories on how the Hard Rock name itself came about.
- It was the name of the caf̩ depicted on The Doors۪ album Morrison Hotel.
- It was part of founder Isaac Tigrett€™s favorite parable: €œWe are all born into this world with a big boulder on our shoulder. Every day we chip at it until, at the end of our lives, all that is left is a small hard rock that makes up you!€
- A similar name, Bedrock Café, appeared on one of Tigrett€™s favorite cartoons€”The Flintstones.
Logo Trivia
 | As you have probably figured out already, I do have an interest in logos and their history. I have learnt so much about these companies that I thought I would share of interesting trivia about these logos. |
- Did you know that the Nike Logo was designed for about $35 only. Its ironic that the price of the shoes is more than cost of the logo.
- Have you seen the arrow in the Fedex Logo? This is not a trick question. If you do not see the arrow in the logo on your left, click on the link to figure out how you can see the arrow.
- The 4 rings in the Audi logo have nothing to do with the Olympics. They represent the union of 4 car manufacturing companies that came together to form Audi.
- There are 22 stars in the Paramount Pictures logo.
- The player in the NBA logo is a former NBA player, Jerry West.
If you have any more trivia, please add it using the comments links below. I will update this article periodically.
San Francisco Indian Consulate Experience
The Indian Consulates and government organizations in general are a pain to deal with. The processes are too slow and one never knows what is going on till the finished product comes out of the process. I was pleasantly surprised with my experience with the SFO Indian Consulate over the past year. I had a baby boy last year and we wanted to visit India with him so I had to apply for a PIO (Persons of India Origin) card for him. I sent the forms and all the paperwork and the PIO card arrived in less thatn 2 weeks. The original timeline was much longer.
A couple of weeks ago, I had applied for a new passport for my wife and I decided to check ths status of the application. I had two options
- Via Phone - Call between 2 and 4 everyday or
- Via Email - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
I decided to send an email expecting a response in 3-4 days but was surprised to get a response in about 10 minutes. I thought it must be an auto-response. When I opened the email, all the details were listed. Kudos to the consulate for improving their services. I had a bad time when I went there personally a few years ago. Hopefully that aspect has also changed. Two Thumbs up for the SFO Indian Consulate. !!
If you have anything to share, please leave a comment.
79th Annual Academy Awards
 | The 79th Annual Academy Awards were held here in Los Angeles last night. The "Oscars" are one of the biggest events anywhere in the world and when it happens in your town, there is a certain added excitement. I guess most of my excitement disappeared when I heard that Ellen Degeneres was the host. Is it just me or are there others that don't find her so funny. Bring back Chris Rock anyday. I guess some of the interest came back when I saw that Deepa Mehta's water was on of the films nominated in the Foreign Language Film category. Unfortunately it did not win the award and I was a tad disappointed. Its probably a bit ironic that India being the largest movie churner has never won an Academy Award. I guess Rajanikanth flinging a cigarette in the air, lighting in the air with a gun and dropping it in his mouth or Govinda gyrating his hips (Main to raste pe jaa rahaa tha) is not award winning material. What does the academy know, right? |
Dinesh.com Upgrade
Dinesh.com is currently being upgraded from Mambo to Joomla. With Joomla clearly becoming the more dominant version of the CMS, it was time for me to upgrade to Joomla. Most of the site should be back to normal and all the content and functionality should be available. I am still working on some aspects of the site. Please let me know if you encounter any problems. At the end of the upgrade, there will be a few new features added to the site.
Thank you for your patience during the upgrade.
Ferrari Los Angeles
 | I guess I should not have been too surprised to find out that the term "Ferrari Los Angeles" was the third most searched term with the word Ferrari in it. With the money that people have in LA, its hard not to think that Ferrari's are popular here. Having lived in Los Angeles for the last couple of years, you spot Ferrari's drive by or parked on the street every so often. One of my most memorable days was when I saw three Ferrari's drive by within a span of 2 minutes. It had to be on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills of course. I happened to be "window shopping" there and I use the term window shopping very loosely here. :-) |
I happened to be standing outside the Bijan store and there was a Ferrari parked there. Just as I was admiring that car, another red one drove by right in front of me. Just as I was turning my head back, another one drove by. I don't think I will ever be rich enough to buy a Ferrari unless Ferrari starts mass manufacturing. I think I will be grateful if I get to sit in one of them,. Click on the read more link below to find some Ferrari show rooms in the Los Angeles area.