Umbrellas Everywhere: Fun or Profit?

I had an interesting thought that could be used two ways. It rained here in Los Angeles and it gave me the chance to do something I love. I walked up and down Melrose with my umbrella and offered it to people who were without one. They were very grateful and surprised that someone would help them like that here in LA. Doing this I thought of the public improv group called Improv Everywhere, wherein they create events in public areas, you know, stores, subways, malls. They are a very funny and create memorable scenes during unmemorable moments of life. I had the idea that they should all go out when it rains and do the same thing, but in a more crowded area. I picture dozens of people all wearing the same outfit, walking around offering their umbrellas. Then, I had the more cynical and some would say shrewd idea to turn this into a marketing ploy. The umbrella careers become walking billboards so to speak with ads on them and even turning the umbrella into a sort of billboard. Maybe for a coffee company, they paint the umbrella to look like a coffee cup turned upside down and the people underneath are in it. Think what kind of free publicity they would get if one day 20 large coffee cup looking umbrellas in the rain were walking around with people under them. It would be funny and the company would be seen nicely as helping strangers in the rain. It needs some fleshing out, but there's something there. PS: As I write this I'm also watching Rear Window with James Stewart and Grace Kelly. They are just talking about what makes art and ideas and Grace said there has to be an element of surprise. I agree.

Dead Christmas Trees - Waste In Wait

It's now January 5th and in my neighborhood there are dozens of dying Christmas trees just sitting on curbs, sidewalks and in gutters. People must think some fanciful truck takes them all away to some tree heaven and there they get to live a second life free from ornaments and tinsel. Well, that may be an exaggeration but the point is, I think people take their trees and the city's responsibility for the old ones for granted. This is my idea.

When you purchase your Christmas tree, the city, state or municipality adds a deposit fee of say $5-10 that is redeemable when you turn your tree back in after the holidays. Same way we treat bottles in California. The city could set up short-run tree recycling depots around heavy use areas so people could drive up and drop-off and get their money back. I believe this would a) Encourage people to turn their tree back in instead of littering them on the streets. b) Provide jobs for people to process the trees at the depots. c) Keep the streets free of dead trees because if someone were lazy enough to put their tree on the curb, most likely it would be collected by someone who would take it in for the deposit return. Now, you are probably thinking, but Josh, won't people just chop down trees in the forest and try to turn those in for money? Well, some might, those nitwits. To combat that, each tree purchased from a legal tree dealer would have a serialized tag with a barcode on it and when dropped off, would be scanned and authorized. Same way triathletes used to wear numbers with the barcodes on the bottom and they'd be scanned when they passed the finish line.

Oh, and here's another good thing to come out of this idea. The trees could then be ground up and used for mulch to help fertilize the schools and parks in the areas where the trees were turned in. Ah, but Josh you say, what about those ugly white flocked trees? They can't be recycled because of their hazardous ingredients. Hush up I say, something has to end up in a landfill.