nate update

Stay at this joint at your own risk, but I bet their rooms are cheaper than ever now!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080229/ap_on_re_us/motel_hazardous_material_9

Sometimes little daily things deserve a mention. Like this week, when I upgraded one of our design stations to OS X Leopard and I ran into some speed bumps along the way. (CD burners, Memory Card Readers, Scanners, etc. sometimes don’t support new operating systems for months after it’s released).

I had to contact Wacom (I love my 6×11 tablet) because I had a hell of a time finding the new driver for my tablet to operate under the new OSX. A Wacom representative, Chris, emailed me back on the same day with step-by-step directions and a direct link to the software I needed. Additionally, he left me with direct contact info if I had additional questions, and advice on how to prevent more glitches.

I know you think I’m lying because I didn’t get sent to someone in India that couldn’t read or type in proper English, and because my email was actually read by a human, and that human didn’t instantly delete it or pass it over to 4 other departments.

Hey, it was a little thing that’s really rare. Their rep helped me out of a jam. Everyone has their list of “companies that piss me off” – if you read this blog, you know I do (Vonage, Embarq, SIRIUS, Palm, Microsoft, EPSON, to name a few…).

Wacom scored huge points with me – not that they needed to. A few years ago, I met a guy at Photoshop World here in Vegas while I was eating at the convention food court. He introduced himself and asked about my Wacom experience and picked my brain for a bit about my likes/dislikes. At that point I had 8 or so years under my belt with various tablets. That’s my favorite kind of marketing: hands-dirty, real-world-style marketing. Guess what – it works.

AIGA Las Vegas sponsored an event last night with Michael Osborne, an outstanding designer from the Bay Area. Special thanks to the people and companies that made it happen. It was great to see the awesome work his studio is doing with package design. We do many of the same services for our clients here in LV – and yes, we took lots of notes. Who wouldn’t?

Osborne showed us some killer portfolio work, talked for a bit about his recent MFA experience and his studio’s commercial work, as well as his “Love” series stamps for the US Postal Service. Can you imagine going to a press check for a 2-billion-piece print run? Crazy. (Sometimes we have trouble getting some of my print runs to hit the 1000 piece minimum!)

The part of the night that was truly exceptional was the work of Osborne’s non-profit organization called Joey’s Corner. It really hits on the concept of “What does your design do?” Kudos on making a difference, Mr. Osborne.

In recent weeks, we’ve signed on to produce design for two non-profit organizations, and we continue to supply package design and product photography to just about every casino in Las Vegas. We only hope to gain the respect and recognition that MOD has. Thanks to Mr. Osborne and his team for setting the standard by which we’ll be measuring our work.

This week, we’ll be interviewing several web developers who can join our team on some projects. We are looking for Las Vegas-based database programmers, Flash gurus, email marketers, and people with experience with mobile phone marketing.

If you know someone we should consider, please feel free to contact us.

thanks!

Special thanks to my mole, Julia, in San Francisco for pointing out that some of my work has shown up in a gallery – kinda. I designed this giant outdoor sign of the obscenely huge “Barrick Burger” a few years ago for one of my casino clients in downtown LV. I have some really sick stories about that burger…

What do you think, should I contact the artist and ask for residuals?

Sometimes we forget that photography is a very valid artistic medium. It’s easy to do, when everyone you know has a digital camera. Luckily, some people really do know how to put their camera to good use and create some really great stuff.

The Art of Photography Show is calling for entries. If you’re one of those photographers that produces some awesome art – sign up. Maybe, with a little luck, I’ll see you there.

This is what happens sometimes when Doctors, Dentists and Teachers become Art Directors.

Four leaders of the big beer companies meet for a drink. The president of Budweiser orders a Bud. Miller’s president orders a Millers and the president of Coors orders a Coors. When it is Guinness turn to order he orders a soda. Why didn’t you order a Guinness everyone asks? Nah Guinness replies. If you guys aren’t having a beer neither will I.

Two mornings ago, I was driving to work listening to ESPN radio and Colin Cowherd’s morning show. He’s kind of a boisterous personality, which probably appeals to loads and loads of New Yawkers and Bawston fans, as well as people that taunt you in the gym. Not much else.

Cowherd has never really clicked with me, as I’m a Tony Kornheiser fan (Cowherd replaced Kornheiser a while back), and also I’m somewhat of a sports traditionalist. What that means is, I believe in (and despise) the East Coast bias in sports. I also feel that ESPN has rotted from it’s roots, and for the life of me, I cannot understand how Chris Berman sleeps at night – knowing that he helped build this twisted paparazzi-esque empire. Now, Disney owns most of it and they should be considered more of an Entertainment Network than a Sports Programmer (hence the initials, for those of you not in the know).

Anyway – on to the disgusting part. Cowherd and ESPN have been taking a lot of heat for not giving the NY Giants more media time for winning the Super Bowl, and instead, opting to continue shoveling us steaming heaps of Tom Brady and New England Patriots “stories.” Here’s Cowherd’s rant, as best as I recall it: “I don’t want to be a garage band, I want to be U2! I want as many listeners as I can get! I have advertisers and board members to please! The New York Giants are a regional team, and they don’t hold a candle to national teams like the Dallas Cowboys, the Green Bay Packers, etc. therefore, they won’t get time on my show!” … he ranted for another few minutes then I changed the channel to something punk rock to vent my steaming mood from this jackass.

Here’s the thing I wish I could say to Mr. Cowherd: Go work for Fox News, you ass. Millions of people watched the Super Bowl (97.5 Million or so) – and – according to several surveys, most people were cheering AGAINST New England! (see pg 52 of the 2/11 ESPN Mag) Why? Because of people like you and your network constructing fluff pieces and gossip and then telling people it’s news (and newsworthy). You claim that most teams, and therefore most fans, are irrelevant. In fact, you used the term “irrelevant” repeatedly in your rant aimed at New York supporters on Tuesday morning. Is that really what ESPN thinks about non-Patriot fans? Or how about small market teams? I’m sure there is a disclaimer aired at some point during Cowherd’s show, claiming that “the opinions expressed on this show are not necessarily the views of ESPN.” This jerk is the reason ESPN’s lawyers have to say that.

What became clear to me (and I don’t know what took so long) is that ESPN is actually an Entertainment Network that happens to run Sports Programming. In the last 5 or 10 years, I’ve seen the E eat the S and the P. It’s about the profits. There is no neutrality. Maybe there never was. They push and pull for – exclusively – the popular team of the day. Ratings above all.
I’m pretty sure that the fore-fathers of ESPN like Tom Mees and Dan Patrick didn’t steer the news. Charlie Steiner and Keith Olbermann didn’t either, I bet. Bob Ley was cool and collected.

The message ESPN sends is this: “Attention Young Urban Athlete – make headlines first, play the game second. Winning means nothing if you’re not newsworthy and don’t have a shoe deal. Do the touchdown dance. Charge the mound. As long as you’re on camera, you’re a success.”

It should be noted that I love the Feb. 11 cover of ESPN the Magazine – “SPECIAL ISSUE: The Fans Take Over!” What a week to put out your first ever issue about the fans. I’m not buying the idea that any of it’s about the fans.

I don’t keep track of the drama from Microsoft much. I’m a Mac user, and everyone knows it. I’m not going to use this blog as a – wait – yeah I am! What has Microsoft done for me? Not much.

Windows Vista is widely regarded as a steaming pile, and 75,000 people signed a petition and sent it to Microsoft pleading with them to continue development of Windows XP, because Vista sucks so badly, one can only assume. Well, Microsoft – being the people friendly monolith that they are – has issued a response to the petition.

Here’s the link to the story I read on Slashdot about the petition.