Chicago From The Water

   As noted, I made a trip to Chicago last weekend (Thursday - Saturday) for some Rogue Amoeba business. My flight was uneventful save the landing, when we came down hard on one side. Mildly frightening. I then hopped on the El from Midway to the Red line, and then took the Red line out to Howard. If you know Chicago, you can probably guess that this was not right. My directions said "To Howard", which should have been "Toward Howard, get off at Grand". Effectively, I spent an hour and a half going way out of the city, and then coming back. I did get to see Wrigley Field and transfers are only $0.25 within the first 2 hours, which was nice. Anyhow, I finally got to my hotel and plopped down, only to find I had no wireless in my room. After changing my room (again), I was set.

   Thursday night, I had dinner with Brent and Wolf, an old friend and a new one. We had a great time at Italian Village (It's three restaurants in one!), even though we were quarantined in a weird little cave booth. Apparently, that's where they stick the Mac developers. After that, I walked back to my hotel, stopping to see some city workers putting a giant Chicago White Sox cap on the Picasso statue out front of the Daley Center.

   Friday, I woke up an hour early, as I'd neglected to adjust my travel alarm clock off of Eastern time. After I got dressed, I realized my error and fell back asleep. Once I woke up, I actually went to check out the aforementioned Cereality (pronounced See Reality), and it was wonderful. Imagine all the types of cereal, fresh fruit toppings (I avoided the candy), and couches upon which you may rest. Oh, and tack on some free Wifi well you're at it, and you've got some idea of the glory that is Cereality. I'd move in there, but unfortunately, they didn't have a restroom - problematic.

   I packed in a tight schedule for my only full day in Chicago, so after breakfast I was off for my architectural river tour of the city. I'm fairly enamored of impressive city skylines and skyscrapers, and Chicago has both in abundance. I saw some very cool things from the river, included many old warehouses converted to apartments, and some great views of the city. From there, it was on to lunch with the illustrious DrunkenBatman himself. I met him in the gorgeous Millennium Park, featuring the infamous Bean sculpture. and happened to see a cop on a Segway on the way there. In fact, there are actually tours of the city via Segway, which I might have done, had they not been sold out. It's probably for the best, as the $65 price is quite high. Worse, perhaps, is the indignity of wearing a helmet on a Segway.

   After lunch, I went to the Art Institute of Chicago. I saw a fascinating exhibit of Hiroshige's work, and had hoped to see Hokusai's famous The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, which the museum owns. Alas, it's only displayed a few weeks a year. Nonetheless, I saw many interesting pieces, particularly Feliz Gonzalez-Torres's Untitled (Portrait Of Ross In LA). When I left, the scenery planners from the night before acting as Chicago's biggest haberdashers, adorning artwork with Sox caps once more. This time, it was the lions outside the museum, perhaps less blasphemous than altering a Picasso.

   After that, it was back to the hotel to change, and then off to Beef & Brandy (two of my favorite treats) to meet with all the participants of the talk. We grabbed a drink and chatted, before finally walking over to Adler. Bob Frank low-balled a bit on how long it would take, so DrunkenBatman was tweaking out when we finally showed up. But show up we did, and things soon got started.

   I won't go in to too much detail about the talk, because there will be a full video available in the near-future. 10 developers, 150 audience members, and one moderator all got together to have a little chat. We discussed many different topics, took questions from the audience, and had a good time. I was able to speak in depth about DRM as well as user relations. We also discussed some interesting issues related to support, which have prompted me to work to change our own process. It seems like everyone got something out of the talk.

Big Living It Up At Jak's

Finally, there was the after-party at Jak's Tap. Billed as the real reason for all this, it was a great time. I was pretty exhausted from the talk, but I managed to stay until last call. I have to say, having people buy you drinks ain't bad - I need to cash in on my celebrity more often. Macworld SF perhaps? Anyhow, I was able to talk some more with Gus and Brent, do an interview, and chat with some users and a few developers looking for advice on going full-time. After that, I cabbed home with Brent and hit the sack. I woke up the next morning, checked out by hitting about 6 keys on my TV remote, and hopped the El back to the airport. All in all, it was a good trip, if overly condensed.