Month: October 2009

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You’ve Been Living Like a Little Girl

We were walking past the River Park Square in downtown Spokane this evening and through the windows was a throng of children watching other kids just inside the windows, many of whom were wearing fairy wings and other kinds of costumes in some sort of ceremony. It was packed enough that we decided our entry through the doors on either side of the ceremony would only be distracting; rather than walk through the mall we went around, so we didn’t figure out exactly what was going on.

In one of those completely odd juxtapositions of circumstance, the speakers on the outside of the mall were blasting Arthur Brown’s classic “Fire.”

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Promo

By chance I happened to check in on Erica (The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook) Sadun’s iPhone SDK Google Group yesterday when she was trolling for someone with “modest success or struggles” to round out an online chat about iPhone development and the App Store. I don’t check in on the list every day, but I made a silly remark about having lost the struggle and Erica wrote back to invite me onto the panel.

Sometimes I think that I’m overblown in my own self-promotion — although the sales and downloads of Bedeviled might point that I haven’t actually been doing enough — but I certainly missed this opportunity, because I didn’t even think of mentioning the chat anywhere until the hour was almost over.

Anyway, if you’re interested in hearing what several successful developers (and me!) had to say about the current state of iPhone development, you can find the archive through TUAW: The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

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Just Blast Me

I wasn’t able to go to the MAX show this year — again — but as I mentioned the other day I was making a recorded appearance there via Phillip Kerman’s burgeoning video sarcasm business. Adobe hired him to produce some pieces, including the segue from the MAX Awards to the Sneak Peeks session (part of which was captured in a series of photos by Kendall Whitehouse on Flickr).

I knew this was going to be the case, but it wasn’t until I was flicking through Kendall’s photos that it was really driven home: My voice-over for Phillip’s video was coming out of the speakers on the LA Convention Center stage right after Mark “Luke Skywalker” Hamill had been up there, and I absolutely, completely missed it.

[UPDATE] This is what happens when you only get reports second-hand. Phillip’s piece (and my voice!) weren’t played after Mark Hamill was done. The end of this video shows Hamill and Adobe’s Ted Patrick still on the stage in front of the opening screen of the video, as the lights go down after Patrick introduces the “prepared legal statement.”

 

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AfPak

Barbara snagged us front-row center seats Saturday night.


Ringing on the telephone, pick it up and say

What’s a man to do with all the trouble ’round today?

Heard it takes a worried man to sing a worried song

Sing it now, but Lord, don’t let it all go on too long

Something in the air,

And it’s moving like a southbound train

Sun is going down,

And it seems like I’ll be the same

World keeps spinning ’round, people say there’s debt to pay

I don’t know––too busy with my life from day to day

But whosoever journeys up against that border line

The shadows of an ancient flame burn away in time

Hey,

I was down in Arkansas, working graveyard shift

Moving crates for exportation with a big forklift

Most were crackers, Coca-Cola, shoes and ceiling fans

Two were marked Top Secret, headed for Afghanistan

Something in the air,

And it’s moving like a southbound train

Sun is going down,

And it seems like I’ll be the same

See shadows on the sun, see a coming thundercloud

Nothing will persuade, but all will be allowed

And some will seek their god from a heaven in the sky

Defending their affliction with a holy alibi

Hey,

Ringing on the telephone, pick it up and say

What’s a man to do with all the trouble ’round today?

I’m calling up the president, ask him what he say

No answer, left a message, when he’s back from holiday

Something in the air,

And it’s moving like a southbound train

Sun is going down,

And it seems like I’ll be the same

Now the drums are pounding, hear them blowing on the horn

Two hands are on the hammer, and the fabric has been torn

Dam’s about to burst, floods are all around

No more water, little Sylvie, ’cause I think I’m gonna drown

Yeah,

Ringing on the telephone, pick it up and say

What’s a man to do with all the trouble ’round today?

Heard it takes a worried man to sing a worried song

Sing it now, but Lord, don’t make it all go on too long

All go on too long

Stan Ridgway, “Afghan/Forklift”, Snakebite: Blacktop Ballads & Fugitive Songs