Hugh MacLeod Cartoons drawn on the back of business cards
Hugh MacLeod
I’m Hugh MacLeod. I’m a cartoonist. Occasionally I write books.
gapingvoid is interested in start-up culture, because changing business for the better is what we’re about; that’s what Social Object Factory is about. We live and breathe it; we help everyone from lone entrepreneurs, to mid-sizers, to Fortune 500’s do the same. Check out our work here.
We create art that helps companies kick ass, end of story.
If you want to talk business, then it’s probably best to please contact my business partner, gapingvoid CEO Jason Korman, here. We look forward to working with you. Thanks!
[The Rothko Chapel, photo courtesy of Arch Daily]
Long before I acquired even the faintest interest in modern art, I was down visiting my dad in Houston, hanging out with a college buddy, Andrew. We were both about twenty at the time.
Looking for something to do, Andrew suggested we should go see the Rothko Chapel, and so we did. I had never heard of either Rothko or the chapel before.
When we got there, all I saw were these big, dark, blank canvases, not unlike the monolith in Kubrick’s “2001”.
I didn’t get it, frankly… I walked out, unimpressed. Some big, black rectangles. Any half decent house painter could’ve made those. So what?
But the visit stayed with me, somehow. For reasons I couldn’t explain, for weeks afterwards I couldn’t get the Rothko’s out of my head. The paintings struck a nerve, one that I didn’t even know I had.
Nearly three decades later, I think I now know why. By painting these big, black monster paintings, Rothko was trying to get the viewer to “gape into the void”. He wanted us to contemplate “The Mystery”, the awesomeness (good or bad) that is Creation, that is the Divine, that is the Universe.
[One of my early works, 1987]
Decades later, I realize that all art– the good stuff, anyway– is trying to get us to do the same thing: Understand the immensity of existence, whatever that might mean.
Do you have to be religious to do that? Of course not. No matter what you believe, call it either God or The Void or the Physical Universe or something else altogether, the immensity is still there. What Werner Herzog calls the “Ecstastic Truth” is still there.
And it’ll always be a mystery; your existence in it will also remain a mystery, no matter what the clever folk in the TED videos may tell you.
So I wrote that line down, “All Art Is Religious Art”.
All art is trying to be a conduit… of Ecstatic Truth.
You don’t have to agree with me, but the older I get, the more I believe it myself, the more I want to live like it IS true.
And we are here. And it’s immense. And it’s a mystery. And…
And maybe it applies to stuff other than “Art”? Like maybe some of the stuff you do, to make a living, perhaps?
Maybe what you do for a living is more meaningful than it sounds.
[This is my semi-monthly shameless pimpage of LightsJerky.com, for which I have no stake in, nor do I receive any compensation for it. I just do it “Because I can” etc…]
I’m happy to report that The Lights Jerky Company, based in my hometown of Alpine, Texas, has finally gotten their new website up.
What can I say? It’s the best store-bought jerky I’ve ever had. Locally, it’s really popular. Glenn Short, the owner, sells it in all the bars, convenience stores and supermarkets in the Far West Texas area. He’s a great guy and he really puts his heart and soul into it. And people can tell…
Glenn and I meet up about once a week or so for beers…
All you jerkyheads can order it here in one, three and five pound boxes.
Seriously, Guys, this stuff is the bomb. A global microbrand in the making? I hope so.
[Alpine, Texas. Walking up Hancock Hill earlier this evening. Part of my new training regime etc.]
Anthony Arrigo, my old Kung-Fu buddy from my time in New York is in town for a few days. He’s gotten me back on the wagon. Long story. Watch this space etc.
P.S. Today was seriously the hardest workout I’ve had in years…
[NOTE: This is my semi-monthly “blogvertisement” for Lights Jerky etc.]
I’m happy to report that The Lights Jerky Company, based in my hometown of Alpine, Texas, has finally gotten their new website up.
What can I say? It’s the best store-bought jerky I’ve ever had. Locally, it’s really popular. Glenn Short, the owner, sells it in all the bars, convenience stores and supermarkets in the Far West Texas area. He’s a great guy and he really puts his heart and soul into it. And people can tell…
Glenn and I meet up about once a week or so for beers…
All you jerkyheads can order it here in one, three and five pound boxes.
Seriously, Guys, this stuff is the bomb. A global microbrand in the making? I hope so.
[Disclosure: I’m getting no money for this. I’m just doing it because I like Glenn, I like his jerky and want to see a local business succeed, that’s all.]
I took this photo two nights ago. Route 90, looking East, midway between the small towns of Alpine and Marfa. That’s Cathedral Mountain there on the right, which is about 12 miles South of Alpine.
If you drive down this stretch of road after dark on a clear night, if you look to the South there’s a good chance you’ll see the Marfa Lights in the distance. I’ve seen them many times.
I came out here on vacation, thinking I’d stay two weeks. Two years later and I still haven’t left…
UPDATE: Lloyd Davis, a blogging buddy of mine from my London days, took a train from Austin to LA, after attending SXSW. En route the train stopped in Alpine. He took some photos. Sadly I was out of town that day, but it’s neat to think an old friend from London randomly visiting here…
I’m still in Austin, drinking a beer at the SXSW Blogger Lounge, as the Interactive bit of the show comes to a close. I’ll be driving home to Alpine tomorrow.
To mark the occasion we created nine prints, “The SXSW 2010 Series”. We were showing them at the trade show booth and yeah, they were selling like hot cakes.
[UPDATE: Laura tells me that a total of £300,000 GBP was raised that evening. Hurrah! She also told me that my print was finally auctioned for £1,300 GBP (approx $2100 USD), and was the most heavily bid-on piece of the event! Very cool.]
Laura, who handles PR, Marketing & Sales for Gapingvoid Gallery, is currently in London, visiting family.
Through her efforts, we donated one of my prints, “We Need To Talk” to a lovely cause: “Liver Good Life”. As Laura explained in an email to me:
The“We Need To Talk Talk” print will be auctioned at Christie’s tonight. This is part of an effort to raise money to build a new research centre at King’s College Hospital in London. Professor Giorgina Vergani is the head of the unit and renowned expert in the field of paediatric liver disease, treatment and research. She is an exceptional woman, she has known me since I was 3 years old.
Jazzy de Lisser is seventeen years old and was born with Hepatitis C, she is a patient of Professor Vergani’s, she is the founder of Liver Good Life, she is hoping to raise money for a new research centre at King’s College Hospital. They need £1.8m investment to create this new research centre that will enable King’s Scientists to realise their vision of discovering what triggers certain liver diseases and organ rejection, and pioneer new targeted treatments.
The committee list for this charity is notable — Sir Elton John, Thandie Newton, Rachel Weisz, Giorgio Locatelli, Mario Testino, Trudi Styler, Robbie Coltrane just to name a few…
The charity auction will take place today at Christie’s of London, the famous auction house. It’s a wonderful cause, and I’m delighted that gapingvoid can be a part of it. Kudos to Laura for setting it up. Thanks, Laura, you’re a rock star!
[Click on image to enlarge etc.]
Greetings from Alpine, Texas. I left here two days ago, and flew to New York City from El Paso [a 220 mile drive to the airport], in order to sign the the Ignore Everybody prints.
Yes, it was actually cheaper and easier to fly up there and sign them, than to ship them down here. Go figure.
After a few hours signing them at the printer’s, I rushed off the Island of Manhattan yesterday afternoon, to catch a flight back to El Paso via DFW.
I was in my bed at the hotel in El Paso by midnight. Slept like a log. This morning I went to buy some art supplies in downtown El Paso, had a bit of lunch at Rudy’s, then drove 220 miles back home to Alpine.
A quick visit, to say the least. “Welcome To The Over-Extended Class” etc.
Among my purchases this morning was a big roll of canvas. The plan is to make a series of large, 48“x48” [4 foot-by-4 foot] canvases, i.e. exactly the same height, and one-half the width of desertmanhattan. The wee sketch above should give you an idea what I’m talking about.
I’m thinking of calling these “The Marfa Series”, named after Marfa, the next town over from Alpine, 26 miles away. I drive there and back about three or four times a week; it’s one of my favorite drives in the world. The drive inspired the idea for the the series in a SERIOUSLY big way.
Some will be cranked out in a couple of days. Some will take a lot longer, even a couple of months. I have no idea where this is taking me, other than I think I’ll end up somewhere pretty interesting. Look for them for sale over on the gallery over the next few months or so, or feel free to e-mail me if you’re looking to commission one. Thanks. [Backstory: About Hugh. Twitter. Newsletter. Book. Interview One. Interview Two. EVIL PLANS.Limited Edition Prints. Private Commissions. Cube Grenades.]
In about twelve hours time I head for the airport, heading for SFO for the anual Techcrunch Party. Like I’ve done for the last four years, for the event I designed a signed, limited edition print, pictured above– a play on the “Dream Big” campaign I’m doing here in Alpine, Texas.
Then it’s off to New York, NY the following day to sign prints, including Purple Cow and Create or Die.
Hope to be back home, sleeping in my own bed by Wednesday night.
[NOTE TO SELF: Why is it, that the more internet-enabled the world becomes, the more time we all seem to have to spend on airplanes? Don’t get me started…]
[A cartoon I drew back in the mid-1990’s…] 1. January 18th. El Paso, Texas. 11am.
I’m headed for Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Drove from Alpine, Texas to El Paso last night. Spent the night in the airport Holiday Inn. Ate dinner at Rudy’s with Loren Feldman, who was in Alpine doing some video work with me. Plane leaves mid-afternoon. 2. Update: January 19th, Sao Paulo, Brazil. 6.30pm. Just got done giving a talk on “Social Objects” to some groovy cats at Citicorp Brazil.
This is my first visit to South America. Sao Paulo is the 4th largest city in the world, I am told. 18 million people or so. Kinda reminds me of a cross between Paris, Miami and LA, if you can imagine that.
Jetlag hasn’t been too bad. Slept a few hours earlier this afternoon. Giving a talk in front of 600 advertising & media types tomorrow. I’ve never been so well looked after on one of my foreign visits, before. 3. Update: January 19th.
Three days ago I signed off on the first “Bluetrain” prints. Loren Feldman was in Alpine at the time and filmed it. He writes about it and posts the video here. Thanks for the kind words, Loren. right back at’cha. 4. Update: January 19th, 11.30 pm. Sao Paulo, Brazil.
I’m back at the hotel. There’s some big party going on, by I opted for an early night instead.
Just got back from dinner with @jeffpaiva and his colleagues i.e the groovy cats who paid to fly me, business-class, out here.
We talked about the usual “where-advertising-meets-social-media” schpiel. To be honest, I don’t have any really huge insights you’ve not already heard before. As always, the hard part is not conceptual; the hard part is execution. You can riff on about “social objects” all you want; but unless you have a real live one you can play with, it’s all just a lot of useless theory.
The Brazilian advertising/marketing scene has the same problem as a lot of countries– a very out-there progressive creative community, juxtaposed against a very conservative business culture. That being said, with the rate that the Brazilian economy is growing, business will have to change, just in order to keep up.
The world has changed, and every year it gets more expensive to keep pretending that it hasn’t. Update: Slightly Later.
One theme that kept on coming up over dinner: One unseen result of electing to take myself out of the marketing/social-media/consultant scene last year in order to concentrate more on my drawing is– it actually seems to have made my advice on the former far more valuable? Why? Because I’m not just ONE MORE consultant looking for a new corporate gig. I’m already busy doing other, unrelated stuff. As I’m fond of saying, the best way to get approval is not to need it.
This got me thinking about the “Hammer” post I wrote a few years ago.
Blogs are like hammers. They are tools for building stuff.
When you talk about building a house with a carpenter, you don’t mind him talking about his hammer for a while. Nobody minds indulging a craftsman, within reason.
“This hammer is great for this,” he’ll gush. “This hammer is great for that…“
So you think yes, hammers are good things, and indeed his hammer looks like a particularly fine example.
But eventually you’re going to interrupt his joyous ode to hammers. After a couple of minutes you’re going to abruptly change the subject:
“Cool. Now let’s talk about the ACTUAL HOUSE you’re going to build for me…“
And if the carpenter is any good, he won’t have any problem with that.
We live in interesting times… 4. Update: January 20th, 10.15am. Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Weird bit of live blogging going on right now. I´m at some Brazilian magazine being interviewed. They´ve asked me to blog something, while they film me on video camera for some TV show. So as I write this, I´m in the magazine office being filmed, with all these media and PR types standing in a circle around me, watching. All kinda surreal, but in a good way… 5. Update: 12.30pm.
Just arrived at Campus Party Brazil. 6,000 people, average age: 21. Vast seas of computer tables everywhere. My talk is at 2pm. My talk is going to be mostly about “Creativity”, with a bit of Social Object Theory and marketing 2.0 schpiel thrown in for good measure. 6. Update: 23rd January. Alpine, Texas.
Got home yesterday after a nine-hour flight Sao Paulo-DFW, then a connecting flight to El Paso. Great to be back in Texas again.
The talk at Party campus went well. That day I also did a ton of interviews for the Brazilian media. In the evening I attended a fabulous geek dinner with some of the Brazilian 2.0 peeps, a regular event they call “Nerds on Beer”.
I came away from Brazil thinking, “Man, there’s a lot of opportunity here.” One part of me is too tired and jet-lagged to think too hard about it. Another part of me sees a very dynamic country of a few hundred million people, with an economy growing at 10% per year. And I have a few ideas about what to do about it.
Thanks, Jeff, for bringing me out there. Hope I can get back there soon. I had a hell of a time.
[This card, which was drawn at the table during dinner, was photographed by the lovely Anne. She wrote about last night’s soiree here.]
I’m in Amsterdam. Not much to report, other to say I’m having a lovely time at Blog08. [This is the card that I gave to Anne.]
This is my first time being back in Europe, since I left for West Texas in February. Nice being back on this side of the pond, in a trippy kind of way etc.
[Click on image to enlarge etc.]
Monday night I arrived back in Alpine, after one week and 3,200 miles on the road. I went from here in West Texas, to LA, to Berkeley, to Las Vegas, to Flagstaff, to Albuquerque, and back again. I stayed in cheap motels and lived on mostly American diner food and Diet Coke. Here are some random notes on the trip, in no particular order: A. Itinerary. Day One, Monday. Alpine, Texas-Blythe, California. 816 miles. The longest leg of the trip was on this first day, from West Texas to the the Arizona-California border, right on the banks of the Colorado River.
En route I was hoping to meet up with Pam Slim and other Twitters in Phoenix, but got into town too late. It was around 2am before I made it to my hotel.
Southern New Mexico is a stunning place, if you like bleak, tall, red desert, mountain country. I certainly do– when I’m there I feel I could go on driving forever. Day Two, Tuesday. Blythe, California-Hollywood, Los Angeles. 290 miles. Until you get to Palm Springs, I-10 seems little more than a dirt track going through the desert. Little small towns full of rusted-up mobile homes and billboards, offering food, gas and lodgings. Then you get to Palm Springs and the wind farms begin. Hundreds of wind turbines. Thousands. Beautiful and surreal. The the coastal mountains begin and the traffic gets insane, all the way to Los Angeles.
I had no reason to be in LA other than it’s en route to Berkeley. Luckily, one of my oldest friends, Dave Mackenzie is there at the moment, working on a movie. He let me crash at his pad in the Hollywood Hills for the night. Not much to report other than two old buddies catching up, eating dinner, drinking whisky [just like the old days back in Scotland], talking late into the night. Day Three, Wednesday, Hollywood– Berkeley California. 369 miles.
In the morning Dave and I headed for breakfast at The Griddle Cafe on Fairfax. After breakfast we hugged each other in the parking lot, said our goodbyes, Dave headed for a meeting with somebody in “The Industry”, and I headed North.
For such a massive city, Los Angeles is a fairly easy town to escape, once you’re on the freeway [so long as it isn’t rush hour, of course]. After an hour or two of driving through the mountains on I-5, Suddenly you find the mountains coming to an end, and below you is the vast, flat Central Californian plain.
There’s not much to say about it, except it’s vast, it’s flat, and it’s America’s largest produce-growing region. Just imagine mile after mile of huge fields, vineyards, orange groves and small towns. After a few hundred miles of this agri-industrial monotony the hills outside San Francisco begin– all covered with this almost mysterious, mustard-colored grassland. Then, like all big American cities, the highways end and the freeways begin. By this time I am so wired from the driving I don’t notice the traffic all around me. I’m in a trance. The crazy commuters don’t phase me– it’s like they’re not there.
I make it to Berkeley. A small college town in the Bay area– kinda reminds me of Austin. I’m there for a reason I can’t quite talk about. Something to do with business. All very hush-hush. Though I have some good friends across the bay in San Francisco, I don’t look anyone up. Too much to do. I’m only in town one night. I’m on a mission. I’ll see them next time. Day Four, Thursday. Berkeley, California to Las Vegas, Nevada.
I stay one night. In the morning I meet the person I’m in town to see for breakfast at the Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland. Great fried chicken, though I think they could’ve used less rosemary. The breakfast goes well. I happily hit the road, heading for Vegas.
A few hundred miles of re-tracing my drive along the Central Valley. About two thirds back to LA I turn off I-5 at Wasco and head West. Middle of bloody nowhere– enough to give anywhere in West Texas a run for its money. Farming towns, pickup trucks, and little else. Eventually the vast, agricultural plain ends and I’m driving up into the eastern Californian mountains. Spectacular. They too, end eventually and just as sunset kicks in I find myself driving through the Mojave desert. Colors so beautiful I almost want to cry.
I’m on Interstate 15 heading into Vegas from the South. It’s nighttime, it’s pitch black, save for the headlights of other cars. Then suddenly you see Vegas in the distance, a vast ball of colored lights. I find my hotel on the Strip– the MGM Grand, and check in.
Then the blur begins… like all blog conferences. Talk. Networking. Business. Alcohol. I’ve done it all before, many times. We’re professionals. We know the score. Day Five, Friday, Las Vegas.
Blur. Surreal. Vegas. Overwhelming. Day Six, Saturday, Las Vegas.
More blur. More surreal. Meet lots of people at Blogworld. Fun time had by all. Day Seven, Sunday. Las Vegas-Albuquerque, New Mexico. 585 miles.
The day starts with the usual “End of Conference” thing. I pack, I check out of my hotel, I hang with Loren and Michelle for a while, till they have to go grab a cab to the airport. I go grab my car and head east out of the city, hoping to make Albuquerque by midnight.
I make it to Albuquerque in good time, i spite of the two-hour traffic jam going over the Hoover Dam. I stop in Flagstaff, Arizona for dinner– a modest fare of Big Mac, fries and coke. I love this part of the world, if I wasn’t so damn busy, if I didn’t have this massive deadline hanging over my head, I would have taken a few more days to check out the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. I’ve been to both before, both spectacular place, but I decide to save them for next time. I almost didn’t.
I make it to my hotel in Albuquerque just after midnight. A nice Best Western, just off the freeway. I’m asleep within minutes of first entering my room. Day Eight, Monday, Albuquerque to Alpine, Texas. 486 miles.
The road between Albuquerque and El Paso isn’t much to talk about. I’ve been on similar drives in Texas, and I prefer them. By this time I’m starting to burn out on the road trip. I make it to Texas and keep on heading on till I reach Alpine. I slept 12 hours that night. B. Random Thoughts.
1. Besides all the geographical splendor this part of the world affords, the best part of a road trip like this, of course, is that is gives you all that time to think. And what di I think about? Short Answer: How the heck am I going to manage all the stuff I’ve currently got going on, AND find the time to draw cartoons. If you know the answer, please tell me.
2. I didn’t go to Vegas for the Blogworld conference. I went for the semi-annual Board of Advisors meeting for b5 Media. I am a board member, so are Stowe Boyd, Doc Searls, Robert Scoble and Renee Blodgett. We all hung out most of Friday with b5’s CEO, Jeremey Wright. Great meeting. My original plan was just to fly up to Vegas for a night or two then fly back, but the lure of the road got the better of me. Sure it added a couple of days to the equation, but hey, you only live once.
3. Being on the road taught me exactly how useful a Blackberry can be, especially one with GPS-enabled Googlemaps. Like the old advertising line says, don’t leave home without it.
4. I like being on the road. If I had to choose a blue-collar job it would be a truck driver. No question. Second choice: Dry wall builder. Third choice: Plumber.
5. Seems I’m well on target to drive 40,000 miles this year. All those trips to Austin, Marfa, Terlingua etc.
6. Part of me just wants to quit everything, live in the desert, and make & sell paintings. I know it’s more than feasible, it would be a gig most “creative” types would kill for, but I suffer from other yet unrealized ambitions.
7. It’s a good life. I think what keeps it good is the spirit of adventure. Hopefully we can hold onto that feeling for as long as we are alive. Otherwise, why bother? Rock on.
[Me wearing my “thug hat” at the very groovy “Marketing without Marketing” panel Dave Parmet put together for SXSW. Details here. Nice to see Tara Hunt et al in such excellent form].
I got back to Alpine, Texas late last night utterly exhausted, but woke up this morning totally feeling like a million dollars, very glad to be back.
Since I left Alpine on February 26th, my travels have taken me to San Francisco, San Jose, Miami, New York, New Jersey, Miami and Austin. Anyone who follows my Twitter feed will know it’s been fun and interesting times.
But now, as they say in Scotland, it’s “Back to old clothes and porridge”. Got a lot of work on my plate. My original plan was to return to England after these travels, but I think I’ll stay in Alpine instead for the next wee while, and finish off this one big writing project that’s been taking up a lot of my brainspace these days.
Alpine has everything I need at the moment. Peace and quiet, a decent cafe and a university library where it’s easy to get a lot of work done. So that’s me for now. Rock on.
[The SXSWi 2008 schwag bag, designed by Yours Truly. Photo courtesy of Laughing Squid.]
Arrived in Austin late last night for the SXSW Interactive Conference. Blogging light for the next couple of days– so is Everybody Else, it seems. It’s only jsut beginning and already it’s going crazy [in a good way].
The way to keep up with it all is to follow people on Twitter. You can follow me here, you can follow the Bloghaus gang here, and there’s a SXSWi central Twitter aggregator over here on Hashtags.
[The Chisos Mountains, down in Big Bend National Park. Click on image to enlarge etc.] [“Shot Tower”, just over the Mexican Border, part of the Sierra Del Carmen. Photo taken from the Texas side of the Rio Grande, in Big Bend. Click on image to enlarge etc.] It’s been a lovely couple of days. I’m still in Alpine, Texas, here till Tuesday, then it’s off to New York City for four nights. Here are some more travel notes, in no particular order.
1. Friday my dad and I drove down to Big Bend National Park, a 300-mile round trip. Dad is a geologist, so I got the whole skinny on the place. A stunning place. 800,000 acres. Lots of volcanic activity, it seems. Indeed. Dad tell me that, from a geology standpoint, Big Bend is one of the most interesting places in the country– far more so than say, the Grand Canyon or Monument Valley, which he describes as “geologically straightforward”. The other thing is, Big Bend only gets 300,000 visitors a year, compared to 10million-plus for some of the other big parks. So you do feel totally away from it all.
2. On the way back we stopped at Terlingua Ghost Town, which was a very trippy place, just in the shadow of Big Bend. It’s an old abandoned mining town that has been taken over by lots of people living in trailer homes, old school buses and tents. Some people have taken the abandoned buildings and turned them into bars, art galleries and yes, even a small hotel. But it has this very alternative, tripped-out, end of world feel to it. Any further South and the terrain starts getting pretty hostile pretty darn quickly. Hundreds of square miles with, I kid you not, prickly pear cacti every three feet. They are really nasty and painful cacti, if you ever fall off your horse, though I’m told the fruit is delicious.
3. You want to know how nasty the cacti is down here? Yesterday I bought a hat from Sprigg’s Boot & Saddle, the pace where all the local cowboys buy their gear. Not only do they sell real, working, leather chaps, the owner told me he also makes custom leather breastplates, in case the cowboy falls of his horse. Heck, they even make chaps for horses.
4. I am pleased to report that Alpine, Texas has its own microbrewery. I paid a recent visit there and yep, it’s good stuff. As good as anything I’ve ever had on the West Coast.
5. At the brewery, I started a random conversation with the guy sitting over on the next barstool. Turns out the man was none other than John Armstrong, a prominent local citizen [He’s currently running for District Attorney], and the owner of the winery I mentioned in my last post. So we had a good ol’ talk about the wine business. I think his stuff rocks. Texas wine. Indeed.
6. Last night Dad and I drove 40 miles North to look at the stars at the McDonald Observatory, one of the largest in the country. The highlights for me were seeing the Rings of Saturn and the Orion Nebula through a telescope, plus with the naked eye, an astronomer pointing out to us the Hubble Telescope, moving through Orion– imagine a bright dot of light, 450 miles up, moving across the sky at 25,000 miles an hour. That was actually a very fun night out. Very interesting, groovy and laid back, though at 6,500 feet up, best bring an extra layer of clothing or two.
7. Alpine really isn’t an oil town. Sure, if you go to the Town & Country convenience store at six in the morning, you’ll see a group of about 100 people waiting to be picked up by the oil field work gangs in their pickup trucks, but the fields are more North of here, say, another twenty miles or so. Oil is more a Northern West Texas thing, than a Southern one.
8. I was talking to an old friend of my dad’s, Kay. She’s from around these parts– her dad is a rancher. Kay summed it up pretty well: “Everybody loves living around here. The trouble is, it’s hard to make a living.” Yep. I recently read online that the average income in Alpine is $26,000 per year. I guess with my internet thing going on, I’m not too worried about it. I feel extremely fortunate.
9. La Trattoria still has the world’s best breakfast burritos. Yum. And they get their coffee from Big Bend Coffee Roasters over in Marfa, Texas.
10. About 12 miles due West of Terlingua, there’s an upmarket golf course and spa called Lajitas, built right along the banks of the Rio Grande. One of the holes is actually built on the Mexican side of the border; I guess the local Federales aren’t too fussed about it. I’ve never been, but I hear a lot of stories about it.
11. Part of me wants to buy an Airstream trailer and just go live out in the desert somewhere, in between my paid gigs. Drawing, drinking Shiner Bock and looking at sunsets. I guess we all get these hippie fantasies, at one time or another. Though the desert is an unforgiving place to anything that relies on water for its survival, there’s something about it that makes you feel “very far away from all the bullshit”. Which partly explains why this part of the world appeals to me. Though it may not be the most glamorous, wealthiest or famous place in the world, I haven’t felt the need to switch on my bullshit detector since the day I got here.
12. Though this part of the world went into economic decline after the World War Two [like every other ranching culture in North America], I can already see it coming back, I can already seeing green shoots springing up. Sick and burned out of big-city life, people are starting to move to places like here, more and more. And they’re bringing what they learned in the big city and applying it to a place more suited to their individual needs. Hence the trattoria’s, the microbreweries, the coffee roasters, the art galleries and yes, the internet cartoonists turning up. And the internet and the global microbrand make all this even more viable, even more exciting. Alpine, Texas is no longer in the middle of nowhere; Alpine, Texas is in the middle of EVERYWHERE, if it wants to be. Rock on.
[View of Apline, Texas from my dad’s porch. Twin Peaks mountain in the background. Click on image to enlarge etc.] [UPDATE: It seems my cellphone doesn’t get coverage in West Texas. Please e-mail me if you’re trying to get in touch. Thanks.]
I’m writing this from Alpine, Texas, where my dad lives. Hanging here for the next week or two. Hardcore West Texas, Brewster County. Miles away from anywhere, just how I like it [Movies like “Giant”, “There Will Be Blood”, “Dancer, Texas” and “No Country For Old Men” were all filmed ’round here… not to mention, the famous Marfa Lights.]. Blogging light for the next while. Off to NYNY after this. Rock on.
–Take a deep dive into the real world product and deployment experience and guidance about the Microsoft Office System products and technologies since Office 2007 came to market.
–Expand your thinking by learning about Office Business Applications and how Office as an application development platform is revolutionizing the software development landscape.
–Learn key software architecture patterns for designing and building Office Business Applications.
I’ve been commissioned by Microsoft to basically walk around the place, talk to people, and draw cartoons. The doodling equivalent to Gonzo Journalism, I guess you could say.
From a personal standpoint, I like hanging with the Microsoft people. Because [A] they’ve got so much going on all the time and [B] they’re very, very smart people, there’s a lot for me to learn. I’ve already done the “Art” thing in spades. I like the totally contrasting, somewhat naive foray into tech.
There are rumors I might get to meet Bill Gates. That would be interesting.
Then I’m off to Texas for a week or two to visit my father, who I’ve not seen for a while. Then I’m in Las Vegas for Mix ’08 in early March.
I’m really looking forward to being back on the road again, after a month or two off in Cumbria.
I seem to have two sides of my personality. One is the hyper-social side, where I get on a plane and meet and talk with lots of people, again and again.… then I burn out and head back to Cumbria, and play recluse for a while, and recharge my batteries.
James Joyce once said that a writer needs three things– Silence, Exile, and Cunning. I suppose my Cumbrian-Globetrotting mix is my way of achieving exactly that. Rock on.
[Wastwater, probably Cumbria’s prettiest spot. Photo courtesy of avtost @ Flikr.]
I’m up in Cumbria [England’s most unpopulated and most scenic county, the last county on the West Coast before hitting the Scottish border], taking a break from the big city.
I got back from San Francisco two days ago feeling exhausted. Not unhappy by any means, just a bit worn out. I just felt the need to decompress, so I bought a train ticket.
My initial plan is to stay here a few days, though I might stay longer. Hoping to get some reading and drawing done. Perhaps get a little fellwalking in.
I never take long vacations. Maybe I’m dong it now. We shall see.
[I’m staying at Warwick Hall, where English Cut has its offices.]
Dinner will be held at Osha Thai Restaurant [149 2nd St., between Mission & Howard] from 7:30 – 9:30pm on Tuesday 10/30.
Ticket Cost covers food only. Drinks will be sold at the bar, CASH ONLY.
Buffet Style Dinner Menu Includes: Appetizers:
Vegetarian Crispy Rolls
Duck Rolls
Thai Somosas
Dressed Prawns Entrees:
Volcanic Beef
Beef Panang Curry
Tofu Vegetarian Combination
Spicy Prawns
Thai Spicy Pan Fried Noodles Chicken
Everybody pays $37.00 in advance [at the Acteva link] to cover the food, then it’s a cash bar. Pretty standard stuff. It should be a fun evening. I’m inviting all my friends who are in town. Rock on.
[Update: Oren blogged the event as well.]
Writing this at Charlottesville airport, en route to San Francisco.
I had a most excellent time in Charlottesville. One highlight of the trip was getting to hang with Google’s Avinash Kaushik.
Not really sure what I’m doing in SF during the next couple of days. Probably spend it banged up in my hotel room, trying to get some work done. Note to my SF peeps: There is a geek dinner on Tuesday the 30th, that me and Oren Michels are hosting. It’ll be at one of the Osha Thai restaurants, around 7.30pm. Just waiting to get final details from Oren in the next day or so.
My plane’s beginning to board. See you on the other side.
Tomorrow I’m catching a flight to Charlottesville, where on Tuesday I’ll be speaking at a conference on Online Marketing at the Darden School of Business, at the University of Virginia. Details here. Hope you can make it.
Wednesday I’m in San Francisco for a week. Got a speaking gig in San Jose.
I’ve just started working on a new Web 2.0 startup. So it looks like I might be in Silicon Valley more often. Fingers crossed. As per usual, my US phone number as of tomorrow [Monday p.m.] is [646] 704 4509. See ya there!
[UPDATE, Monday Morning:] At Gatwick airport [horrendously crowded and full of screaming kids, Woo-hoo] about to go board the plane.
I’m about to go catch a plane to Berlin. Hanging out with David Brain and the groovy cats at Edelman. Should be a fun weekend. See you on the other side…
[WEST COAST UPDATE:] I’m speaking at the Business of Software conference at 2.30 on the 30th of October, at the San Jose Marriot. Other speakers include Joel Spolsky, Rick Chapman, Dan Nunan, Jennifer Aaker, Tim Lister, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Eric Sink, Guy Kawasaki [who I’m REALLY looking forward to meeting in person, finally], Bill Buxton, Alberto Savoia, and Matt Mason. There’s a 22% discount if you sign up before October 20th. Hope to see you there.
In the evening I’m hoping to get together some sort of geek dinner in San Francisco. Talking to Oren Michels about it. Loic Lemeur, who I organized my last SF geek dinner with, is sadly out of town on that day.
Other cities on my trip: NYNY, Charlotteville and Miami. Hope we can all hook up!
[Good party. Impressive backdrop.]
Just got back from a massive Microsoft party at the the Musee de l’Homme.
I have to get up early tomorrow. Big day at Imagination 07. Steve Ballmer is giving the keynote.
This conference is built around the folk who think of Microsoft in terms of “media”, as opposed to software. Which, as a former advertising hack, I find interesting.
A line I have used many times before, I found myself using quite a lot today: “Google is just one algorithm away from Oblivion.“
I handed out A LOT of Blue Monster business cards at the event. Though not everybody there had heard of the Blue Monster, it seemed the people who did were really enthused and passionate about it.
The more I get into this conversation, the more I’m starting to think that somehow I managed stumble upon this cultural fault line inside Microsoft, about what the company actually means to people, and where “the conversation” should be heading. One Microsoftee confided in me, “Our products are fine. Our marketing is the weak link, though.“
I would agree. Which is why I’m fond of saying, the future of Microsoft lies squarely in how they talk to people. That’s me thinking as a marketer, a “culturalist”, not as a techie. i.e. If “markets are conversations”, then yeah, how you talk to people is the DNA of marketing.
N.B. Unlike some of the stuff going on in Redmond, none of this is rocket science. Which may explain why Redmond seems to have so much trouble grasping this.
[Gloomy autumn day in Paris]
You always tell yourself that when you get to Paris, you’ll spend the first full day there checking out the Louvre. Instead you end up holed up in your hotel room, surfing Facebook. Plus ca change…
I have my first keynote speaking gig in San Francisco, August 1st-3rd, at Real Estate Connect ’07.
So, what should a blogging cartoonist say to a room full of real estate folk? I have a few ideas. I don’t have much experience in real estate, but experience has told me that with Web 2.0, so long as what your offering is of value, the business itself matters less, what matters more is the heart and soul of the practitioner. As I’m fond of saying, if a Savile Row tailor can do it, what’s your excuse? Hey, Manhattan Loft Guy seems to be doing alright with it. Or how about Curbed, or Brooklyn’s very own Brownstoner.com? What about you?
I see Microsoft is a “platinum sponsor” there. Maybe we should arrange something fun? A geek dinner or something? Guys? Drop me an e-mail if you feel inspired etc.
I’m also going to try to make it to San Francisco for June 20th. Deb Schultz has kindly asked me to speak at Supernova. I’m still working on my schedule for this one, though it looks more than likely that I’ll be there. And I hear Doc Searls will be in the audience as well. Rock on.
While I’m there the plan is to swing up to Seattle for a few days to visit the groovy cats at Microsoft, of course. There’s so much I want to do with them at the moment, it’s making my head spin.
Since I got back to London from the States just under two weeks ago I’ve been feeling kind of stressed. While all this wonderful Blue MonsterHughtrain cartooning stuff is going ahead at an ever-increasing pace, I still have a little South African winery to think about. That is, after all, what mainly pays the bills. And things are pretty busy for us there, too– when I started working for Stormhoek two years ago, they were shipping 50,000 cases a year. This year we’re looking at shipping around 280,000. I think we can get it up to a million cases per annum by 2010 or so, if we play our cards right.
No rest for the wicked, as they say…
I’m flying out to San Francisco next week on Tuesday, the 1st of May. Staying there one night, then I’m off to Seattle to hang with the groovy cats at Microsoft for the remainder of the week. Flying back home to London on the 6th.
I’ve never been to San Francisco before, believe it or not. Or Seattle.
When I’m there I’m hoping to spend some time with Robert Scoble and some folk at Podtech, his employer. If Robert can help me get it organized I’d love to do a geek dinner that night, though I don’t know how feasible that is. What sayest Maryam?
[UPDATE:] If you plan on coming, add your name to the wiki here.
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I’m still in Austin, drinking a beer at the 
