I've been meaning to post something here, but it's been tough to know where to start. The past two weeks have probably been some of the most tumultuous of my entire life. Two weeks ago I was full of optimism and excitement over my new startup (RCRD LBL), my new role at Engadget (editorial director), and my upcoming trip to the West Coast to visit friends and family, do some wedding planning, and go to FOO Camp. Obviously things took a drastic turn for the worse, but I'm doing my best to deal with everything and just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has called or emailed with their support and condolences. It's been amazing to hear from so many people, and it's made getting through this a lot easier.
RCRD LBL
Well, I definitely wasn't expecting to be writing this post today, but I know better than most that you can't really control when the news about something is going to get out. So, yes, the New York Post got the scoop on this new record label I'm working on. They got a few things wrong, though. For starters, contrary to what they reported, we do actually already have a bunch of bands signed up, we just aren't announcing them until we launch. We're not in stealth mode or any of that nonsense, but the simple truth is that the site isn't going to be ready for a few months and so I'm probably not going to say much about it until we're closer to launch. That said, if you're a sponsor interested in getting involved, drop me a line. I'd love to tell you all about RCRD LBL. P.S. - Thank to everyone who emailed, called, or IM'd today!
Why I have a picture of Jennifer Love Hewitt on my blog
Well, I finally made the pages of Life & Style magazine. Though not for anything good like wrecking a Ferrari Enzo, they just called me up for a quote about camcorders. Incidentally, I didn't say, "Prices have really dropped on quality models that last for years." (That'd be kinda dumb since most gadgets these days seem to have a half-life of about three minutes.) What I actually said was, "Prices have really dropped on quality models these last few years." The whole thing has really shaken my confidence in the infallibilty of gossip mags.
Brian Alvey leaves WIN
Man, now Brian too! Brian pinged me earlier today to let me know that he was hanging it up here at WIN, officially marking the end of our three-and-a-half year partnership. Working with Brian has been amazing experience, Brian has the most intense work ethic of anyone I've ever met and single-handedly built and developed Blogsmith into a world-class content management system. I know he's involved with ComicMix now, but if anyone deserves some time off, it's Brian. Hard to believe I'm the last one left...
Time for a podcast player unconference?
I know it's been a while since I talked about this, but I was just thinking the other day about Dave Winer's panel at Mix07 about creating the perfect podcast player and thought: Why don't we do a unconference about this? We saw so much interest and excitement about the prospect of building one, it'd be awesome to get a bunch of smart, creative people all in the same place at the same time to talk about it. I could see UI experts interacting with hardware engineers, software gurus chatting with podcasters about what features they'd want for producing podcasts, gadget enthusiasts (like me) talking about what works and what doesn't about the current players that are out there, etc. I have no idea whether it'd get us any closer to getting one built, but it's hard to imagine that SOMETHING positive wouldn't come out of so many motivated people coming together with a common goal in mind. Dave, you up for it? I'll be back in San Francisco next month, I'm sure we could throw something together.