Newly launched: A Pepsi Blue Weblog.

At the end of this article about Bay Area hikers climbing nine local peaks in nine days was the tantalizing command “try a search on ‘Dinesh Desai’ to reach an amusing page on Desai’s interactions with NPR’s ‘Car Talk’ show.” I couldn’t pass up a chance to be amused by those Car Talk guys. So here is the easy-to-find page (why they didn’t just link it I don’t know) where you can hear the original phone call from Dinesh asking the guys what to expect from keeping three cars in the Death Valley for 12 days in the middle of the summer. And then you can follow along on his nice little hike through Death Valley (with photo captions provided by Click and Clack. I’m not sure they’ve figured out what his wife sees in him).

From the era of the steamship, before jet airplanes eliminated the need for steamer trunks, comes the vintage luggage label. Designed to function as routing labels for hotels and oceanliners, the labels became symbols of wealth and status. Railroads and airlines also issued their own labels. But the advent of jets and faster travel times eliminated the use of trunks and their accompanying labels. Now coveted collectibles, these labels, like any collectible, vary in price according to condition, subject, and aesthetics. Richter & Co is a well-known printer of these little bits of art. How much will my boring bar-coded airport routing tags be worth in the future? (via dollarshort.org)

“Consumers connect Pepsi to blue. That light shade of blue is a Pepsi equity,” so says their Senior VP of Marketing about Diet Pepsi’s new look. Adbusters reported back in 1998 that Pepsi intended to “trademark the particular shade of blue that coats its products around the globe.” That wasn’t the same shade as Diet Pepsi blue, but their marketing project “Project Blue” had a clear goal of distinguishing themselves with a color. Now comes the news that they will be selling an actual blue-colored soft drink with the name Pepsi Blue. The target consumer is 16 year old males. The flavor is like cola mixed with raspberry. The color is reportedly “reminiscent of Windex.” I can tell I’m not in the target market. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola debuted Vanilla Coke in a nice little Connecticut town after finding the local Vanilla Bean Cafe listed on the Internet.

Perhaps as a unique side dish for your next dinner party you would like to serve potatoes carved to resemble Dutch wooden shoes? Or maybe you’d like to serve some seafood in a premade pastry fish shell. NextDayGourmet.com is actually the retail website for US Foodservice, one of the top food service distributers in the US. You’ll find restaurant equipment in addition to foodstuffs like pasta, olives, and carved veggies.

Time has some bits of information about the upcoming Matrix sequels. It notes that Gloria Foster (the kindly Oracle) did finish shooting her scenes for the second film before she passed away. A trailer will be in movie theatres this month. I believe I saw a Star Wars trailer when I saw The Matrix, so perhaps this time it will be the other way around.

Powerpuff Girls: The Movie! July 3rd. (via BrainLog)

London company Shazam has created software that can listen to a song and match it up to one in their database. With the user interface of a mobile phone in front of this application, subscribers can call a special number when they hear a song they like, no matter if it’s in an elevator or on the radio, and be told the name and artist. Details about the tune can also be added to their online account so that users can easily make a purchase. The chief scientist for the music recognition algorithm is Avery Wang, formerly of Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music. The service will be launched in the UK this summer with a price of 50p a call. At the time of the demo for a Guardian article, the database had 300,000 songs and they hope to grow it to 1.6 million by August. Perhaps this is a technology that the music industry can finally get behind. But the privacy issues could be interesting. Combine it with GPS (or just a caller’s cell location) and you have a spy application for the music licensing folks. (via Jish)

Kevin Hoover brings the police logs of Arcata, CA to life with his prose and poetry (sometimes haiku). He is “celebrating the ridiculous.” Some items are too serious to warrant light-hearted exposition, but many incidents in the small town are brought to life with wry observations and a rhyme or two. Read for yourself. (via both sides of Jim Romenesko)

Coming in August, the Schoolhouse Rock Special Edition DVD! That’s right, all the Science Rock, Multiplication Rock, Money Rock, America Rock, and Grammar Rock plus extras on two DVDs. A set of 25 “best of” songs will be released on VHS, selected by your votes, so don’t let this democratic opportunity go to waste. (via NowThis)