I’ve been a fan of yours since you were tagged out on first base with the old hidden ball trick. If memory serves me right, it happened to you again a week later.
Despite falling prey to such rookie high jinks, you’ve lead the Southside Hitmen to a World Series victory and several big wins over the dreaded northsiders.
Enter 2008, and both clubs are on top of the heap, with the boys in blue playing out of their heads. So I have some advice, Mr. Guillen: look to the bench.
My favorite memories of our boys beating the Chubbies have nothing to do with AJ or Paulie and even Jermaine. I think of Mike Caruso and Rob Mackowiak – two unassuming players on the fringe, who helped push the beloved Sox to glorious victory.
Speed is on your side against this club – their backstop has only caught 11 guys all year. So go for it. Put Paulie on the DL and get your Owens running, or have your Wise guy intimidate.
One of my friends from SXSW, Andy, had a funny quip when I mentioned that I miss a good rhythm and blues riff (not found with the new bands).
He simply said “that’s because you’re old” in his thick Edinburgh accent.
It’s true, I grew up eons ago on the Southside of Chicago. We regularly saw great blues acts, like Buddy Guy, Ko Ko Taylor and Bo Diddley, at P.J. Flahertys on 95th. My friend Brian Finn worked the door and I never paid a cover, and hardly ever paid for a drink with Patty behind the bar.
In particular, I recall the Bo Diddley show – he was a man amongst men on stage. Pure self-imposed greatness (he hardly got the credit he deserved), even his first hit was titled “Bo Diddley”, followed years later by “Hey Bo Diddley” and “Diddling”.
His music was covered by big acts, like the Beatles and Stones, who were looking to re-invent the Chicago style. And by George Thorogood who brought “Who do you love?” into the mainstream . His notes were used by everyone – Elvis, U2, The Animals, The Clash, The Stooges and dozens more.
I hope Bo found love in life, because his music was an amazing part of mine. I was fortunate to have his talents in “my backyard”, and I think he deserves credit as the father of Rock and Roll
It’s been two days, and overall, SXSWi has been pretty eventful.
Three general themes that I’ve seen so far:
1. Design is alive and well and encompasses more than pretty colors;
2. Good design is all about human experience
2. Social Media is transparent – don’t even think about fake campaigns.
Saturday I went to:
• Design is in the Details – a session by Naz, a friend from Chicago. It was a beginner-level course, but that’s OK.
• Suxors – It’s always fun to critique the social media campaigns that flopped hard.
• Expression Engine – Why not? This blog is on Wordpress, but I thought I’d check out the competition. EE’s back-end looks nice-ish, but that’s about it.
• Blood, Sweat and Fear – We’re always defending our design and these guys were going to give a full house some meaningful tips. Not so much.
Then we hit some parties – Bike Hugger and Avenue A – followed by home. Long lines and a babysitter on the clock helped with that decision.
Sunday we were back at it, ready for more revelations:
• Responsible web design – the guidebook said intermediate, but this was so basic even I understood the code. The description was off base and they used zero samples (but talked about them). BO-ring.
• Lunch at BD Rileys (Irish music to remind me of yesterday’s Southside Irish Parade) and the tradeshow – Kurt rocked the drums.
• Does tomorrow’s world need designers? – apparently someone is arguing that it DOES NOT. I only look back to our forefathers who designed tools and houses and clothes every single day. It’s about living - that can’t be automated.
I’m thankful that they’re offering podcasts on some of the panels I’ve missed. At least the Meebo conversations kept me entertained.
