Geography still matters and so does a little peace and quiet

As someone who majored in geography and cares greatly about "place," I'm always heartened to see that even in a wireless world, location still matters for business as much as it does for homebuyers. Seems Starbucks is considering moving its content division from Seattle to LA to be closer to Hollywood and the music industry. Funny, I always thought Starbucks' content was coffee. (via PaidContent)

On a related note, Om Malik takes Starbucks to task for focusing too much on piping its audible content into its shops in an effort to boost CD sales and not enough on the content of the piping hot variety that's at its core. He says turning on the music is turning off mobile workers and anyone who wants to have a conversation.

On a related related note, we visited the Westin Diplomat while in South Florida last week. It was down the beach and well up the food chain from the place we were staying, but we wanted to check it out. Beautiful lobby, nice bar. And an oceanfront pool (above) that would be a lovely place to relax were it not for the Duran Duran blasting over the sound system. That's a deal breaker for me. I don't want to listen to someone else's music. Let 'em bring their iPods poolside. Let silence or just the gentle sound of kids splashing and giggling be an option.