Neither had I! But I think we should both check him out.

http://jamielidell.com/

This past Friday, June 11, Cindy and I were fortunate to make to the Broken Bells show in Athens, GA. If you don't know this band, you may have heard of the principal members, at least their other bands / projects. James Mercer of the Shins and Dangermouse (aka Brian Burton) of Gnarls Barkley took a year to write and record one of the best records of the year. The show was fantastic and of course the 40 Watt is just an amazing venue. (The same band can play there and in Atlanta, and the 40 Watt show is almost always better.) We had dinner at the Grit and drinks at the Manhattan (two reasons that by themselves justify a trip to Athens) and then made it to the show in time to catch the opening band, The Morning Benders. They were also very good - expect more good things from them.

If you want to check out Broken Bells, you can watch an entire show recorded earlier this year at SXSW in Austin (they played in a parking garage!). The sound is very good. http://www.spinner.com/interface/broken-bells-sxsw-2010. If you only have time for a song or two, you should check out 'The Ghost Inside' and 'The High Road.' But you should watch it all - it's all good, and that's not an exaggeration.

Ok - I know. Be nice and all that. This was a debacle. (Don't you love that word? How do you say it?)

 My lord, what have we come to and where do I get off? Where do they get off?

Best post about this? I'm all for this description of the tribute to Neil Young that was held Saturday night. (What? Did you think yo were doing something interesting by seeing the show on the prime time on Sunday? Yeah. Right.)

 http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2010/01/29/lunch-with-lyor/

Enjoy. And I hope I see you on Wilco's Spring tour. Good lord, I'm almost ashamed that I saw this thing.

I wonder what other online stations people find out there that they like - my faves are Radio Paradise http://www.radioparadise.com as well as LastFm. (On LastFm, you can see what I’ve been listening to by checking out my profile.) Although I really enjoy the variety of music played for you at Radio Paradise, LastFm (and similar services) have their place. By using a ‘Scrobblerizer,’ you can track all the music that you listen to — as long as you listen through software that is able to track and upload your selections. This is quite useful because it enables you to find other similar music that you might enjoy. So both options have their place - I love just sitting back and letting a great radio programmer play music for me, but I also enjoy that I can take advantage of the web and services that suggest new music that I can then listen to and make up my mind about exploring further.

Although we do not have that many people in our IT organization (maybe 40 or so), many of the typical challenges exist. One of the things that I'm most fascinated by is how you need to modify or supplement your typical approaches to managing people and projects to meet the special challenges presented by managing technology and information professionals. Two articles by Jeff Ello do agreat job of summarizing these challenges. Be sure and read his first article, "The unspoken truth about managing geeks" first, and then check out "Opinion: The unspoken truth about why your IT sucks" at http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141609/Opinion. The link to the first article is at the top of the page.

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole issue. I know that in a situation where you have IT pros spread out across the country or the world in multiple offices, there are some very unique challenges to handling not just the management issues but communication as well. I think that one of the things that's particularly important is to have a CIO and IT directors that are good at negotiating the relationship between IT and the local office management. Keeping a focus on the business practices while simultaneously maintaining hands-on technology and information skills seems paramount in order to make sure that both the IT professionals and their local management in positions where communication is clear and open.

It’s a Levi’s commercial. Why get excited about that? Why love it so much? Because. It’s poetry. Not just any poetry, but it’s Walt Whitman. Now go read it! If you haven’t read Leaves of Grass lately (and who among us has?), you owe it to yourself, your life and your soul to do so! http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/logr/log_094.html 

It is the norm where I work to have a big deadline or new contract and immediately assume this means that  everyone will be working into the evening or coming in at least one day on the weekend. I don’t doubt that some of this is warranted and justified; however, why does it just seem to be assumed? Shouldn’t we be able to manage work assuming a regular 40 (or 45) hour week? If not, what does this say about our business or our management itself?

Now, Patrick at ‘MicroISV on a Shoestring’ has written a very detailed discussion of why this type of business logic is not only wrong but actually destructive. Check it out. And remember, work smarter, not longer.

http://www.kalzumeus.com/2009/10/04/work-smarter-not-harder/

I spent quite a few years of my life playing APBA Baseball – a board game that statistically recreates major league baseball. Each season is published as sets of cards that allow you to replay that year’s teams. You can also play with great teams of the past. Because you can play a game in 30 minutes or less, it’s quite exciting and very enjoyable. NY Times just posted this video about the tournament held this year at APBA’s home town of Lancaster, PA. “One, Two, Three Rolls You’re Out” - http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/08/08/sports/baseball/1247463859901/one-two-three-rolls-you-re-out.html?ref=sports

Related story - “APBA Let’s Stat Lovers Be Managers” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/sports/baseball/09apba.html.

Check out this article that has the lyrics and a bit of background of Harry Patch (In Memory Of)”,  http://www.americansongwriter.com/2009/08/radiohead%E2%80%99s-anti-war-eulogy-%E2%80%9Charry-patch-in-memory-of%E2%80%9D/ Then head over to Radiohead’s website at Waste.uk.com and buy the single for 1 British pound (around $1.70 US, I think). Beautiful song with strings – very unlike anything you probably associate with Radiohead. But brilliant and beautiful and appropriate for the occasion. Here’s another article about the song from the BBC’s website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/news/20090805_radiohead.shtml.

I had never heard of this festival before, but it looks beyond cool. It’s definitely the most remote.

http://thequietus.com/articles/02363-traena-the-world-s-most-remote-festival-reviewed

So start saving your pennies for next year – this looks one of those things you must do at some point in your life.