So once again I've got a kind of crazy week and don't know that I have anything especially exciting to say, so it's going to be another link post. This week I'm off to speak at Promo Live in Chicago on a panel called "Social Media: Evolution to Execution". Herb Sawyer put it together and on the panel with me are David Armano and Rohit Bhargava, both of whom I've met before and have a lot of respect for, so it should be exciting. Sometime later this week I will try to post my slides as I'll be giving a little 10 minute intro to my state of mind . . .
Now onto some randomness . . .
- The PSFK LA Conference is today. It looks great (just as New York was). If you happen to be in LA, reading this today and can make it over, it looks like there are still some tickets available.
- Speaking of conferences, I'll be heading out to San Francisco for the Influx Ideas Conference on October 19th. The Influx crew was kind enough to hook up a blogger ticket for me and it should be a great time. Beyond speakers from all over the place there's going to be a section of the day devoted to five minute presentations from audience members. Plus Gareth and I will be there, so it must be fun, right? You can buy tickets here. (Also, I plan to stay a few extra days, so if you're around San Fran I'd love to meet up.)
- Okay, this cracked me up. The Onion reports that Pitchfork Gives Music a 6.8. Money line: "In the end, though music can be brilliant at times, the whole medium comes off as derivative of Pavement." So good . . . (As a side note, here's my favorite Pitchfork review ever.)
- Speaking of music, I love the song Foundations by Kate Nash.
- I love brunch. It's the best meal in the universe. I won't go into why right now, but here is New York Magazine's picks for the Best Sunday Brunches.
- They've banned smoking in London, just as they've done in other major cities and Seamus McCauley has some insights into what it means from an economics perspective: "So it turns out that banning smoking in pubs has not so much encouraged smokers to quit but instead provided them with a decisive competitive reproductive advantage if they keep puffing away. Drinking outside South London Pacific on Saturday night I came across this amusing demonstration of the law of unintended consequences: smirting, which is of course the practice of flirting while popping outside for a cigarette."
- My friend Michael Surtees has the story of how he ended up in NYC told in Unlimited Magazine. Read the whole article, but here's the shorthand: Michael mentioned on his blog he was coming to NYC and asked for recommendations of things to do. I suggested he buy City Secrets (the best NYC guidebook on the planet -- even for those who live here). We started chatting, he mentioned he was coming down to interview, I said he should come in and check out Renegade and a few weeks later he was driving a Uhaul with all his stuff from Canada.
- As a side note, I have been thinking about starting a site specifically to catalog those success stories. What do you all think?
- Loved this evolution of icons graphic. It shows buttons from Yahoo!, Adobe and Apple from 1996 to now.
- Daring Fireball on why Apple's ringtone move is a bit boneheaded (and why ringtones generally are bullshit).
- Finally, a great article that attempts to answer what Google is thinking about with all this 700mhz wireless spectrum stuff.
Okay, that's it. I'm off to Chicago this afternoon and then Jacksonville tomorrow evening. Will be back Friday in time for likemind, hopefully I'll see some of you there (or at least in pictures from the other 40+ locations around the world).