Travel

a trip to Phoenix

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Went out last week to Phoenix for my third Phocuswright with goby. goby did well (we won our category and were a finalist for the final competition). As part of my demo, I showed a long weekend in Phoenix. Michelle’s brother lives there and so we decided to spend a long weekend there, and planned it as part of my demo. Before arriving at the show, we stopped at Los Reyes de la Torte (the Kings of the Sandwich), a hole in the wall Mexican spot between the airport and the Westin where we were staying. The “tortas” were roughly the size of a basketball – (apparently the Man vs Food TV show had a run-in with these sandwiches) – intimidated, I decided to go for the King Steak Tacos. Good choice. Conservatively, I’d say these were the best steak tacos I’ve ever had. Seriously.

After the show (if you’re interested in the show you can read more here), we bugged out of our fancy digs at the Westin and moved downscale, to the Hospitality Suites, near Tempe. $50 a night gets you a decent room, free cocktail hour, free breakfast, pool, tennis courts, shuffleboard, and about one hundred Germans in town for the Iron Man competition. Hotel prices are coming down…..! Thursday night we hit up downtown Scottsdale for a run past the art galleries. Lots of fun stuff there, although it was surprisingly uncrowded and a number of the shop spaces were vacant – perhaps the economy (especially the tourist economy) hasn’t completely recovered there. More steak tacos at Blanco’s Tacos & Tequila. Great margaritas and decent food. Not amazing, but decent.

After sleeping late Friday (roughly 12 hours sleep the last three days!), we cruised up to Taliesin West, the Arizona encampment of Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s a pretty amazing place, and he was an amazing guy. I had thought it was a “traditional” house, but apparently for many years the house was open to the elements – the windows were not windows, but open spaces in the building, often covered by canvas but not truly enclosed. It was built entirely by Wright and his students – as the early days were described, it felt much more like a commune, but with architects instead of hippies. They went there every winter, and basically had to set up camp, clean the critters out of the building, and almost start over. It was/is a place deeply focused on their work (Wright held court every day in a wool suit!), but out in the desert of Arizona. The architecture is amazing, and the list of interesting architectural memes invented by Wright was really quite astounding – I had no idea he’d come up with the idea for recessed lighting, integrated pathway lighting, carports, hinged doors, drive-up bank teller windows, and many others. The architectural/sonic design of the Caberet was amazing. The Caberet is an auditorium hewn completely out of rock, half underground. As I sat in the audience, the tour guide stood in the audience and played a music box. 2 feet from me and I could barely hear it. Yet when she went onstage 30 feet away, and put the music box into an alcove designed for a piano, and played the music box, it was 10 times louder. Really amazing sonic design, blasted out of rock and finessed by hand….All in all a really interesting view into a powerful character (sounds like he was a bit of a tyrant), who led the life of the mind until his early nineties (he had dozens of architectural commissions on his drawing board when he died at 91). Well worth a visit.

Friday afternoon we went on to Ponderosa Stables for a one hour horseback ride with Larry Michelle’s brother and his wife Wendy), to the T-Bone steakhouse, for a decent steak dinner. Coming over the ridge on horseback for some amazing views of the Phoenix valley and downtown was very cool. Then a ride back by moonlight to the stables and a ride home. My horse Q is apparently famous, having recently been in a local Powerball commercial as well as apparently having dressed up in medieval garb for a local church’s photoshoot as a knight’s horse (?!). Not entirely sure where that is coming from. Also learned that apparently there is a such a thing as a horse chiropractor, to which a number of the horses have been subjected/treated. Who knew?

Last night Mexican dinner at Frank & Lupe’s in Scottsdale. Fun atmosphere, slightly cool and they had the heat lamps going which was nice. Good margaritas but the food was your basic, decent Mexican, nothing special.

You can see the things we did (and few we didn’t) at: http://www.goby.com/lists/Apres-Phocuswright/3ZV and photos are here.

Books

Crossers, by Philip Caputo

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On a trip to Phoenix recently, I pulled out Crossers from Philip Caputo for an airplane companion. It’s the story of Gil Castle, a 9/11 widower who retreats to the old family ranch in Arizona, near the Mexican border, to recover from the loss of his wife. There he reconnects to his family, to the Seneca he draws consolation from, and finally to himself. Then he stumbles across a Crosser, a Mexican making the crossing from Mexico to a hoped-for better life, and the trouble begins.

Crossers is deeply evocative of a time and place in history, much as Guy Gavriel Kay’s Ysabel does for southern France, or Martin Cruz Smith’s Gorky Park does for post-communist Moscow. Like those novels there is a deep nostalgia for the way things were, as well as a recognition that those times are best not gone back to. The novel does a great job of conveying what it means to be a rancher in Arizona, to love the land, and to be bound to it in a way that money can’t buy.

The book is equal parts No Country for Old Men (comparisons to Cormac McCarthy are inevitable) and CNN news headlines. Most of the atrocities described in the book are factual or near so. The grim realities of those dying attempting to cross the desert and the border, and the horrific violence brought on by the drug trade, combine to produce a level of death and destruction that feels like it belongs to a medieval era in some other country, not 21st century America. The hierarchy of crime in Mexico also feels medieval – drug runners have guns & more money, and so determine who gets to traffics drugs or people along which route. They dominate the coyotes and the engranchadors that run human trafficking of illegal immigrants to the US, much as a feudal lord might direct a lower life form.

Interleaved with the current day story line are interleaved tales of Gil’s grandfather Ben from the turn of the century border – a time when men pretty much enforced their own law, and lived by a code that often coincided with the law (but often did not). Ben dominates the novel – a self-reliant cowboy who participates in Mexican revolutions, sheriffs on the American side, and constantly battles his inner demons and shifts between good and bad. I found the descriptions of that era, and it’s characters, as (or more) compelling than the modern story line. A quick snippet:

“Tibbets looked the part. Handlebar mustache, cat’s whiskers at the corner of his eyes, two pearl-handled Colt revolvers, and the air of someone who could summon up reserves of unpleasantness if the situation required it.”

Crossers is a powerful novel. If you have any interest in the reality of life on our southern border, read it. Whatever your perspective on the solution for that problem, Crossers will give you something to think about.

Goby, Music

Boston music this weekend

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(cross posted from the goby blog)

Some good stuff this weekend. Yours truly is going to hit up Eddie from Ohio, playing at the Somerville Theater. They play a great rock/folk mix. Nobody as small as lead singer Julie should have a voice as big as she does, she can fill a stadium without a mike. Great tunes, great lyrics, good fun.

You can Experience Hendrix at the Orpheum, Sunday at 8PM. A pretty astounding lineup will be there. According to the Experience Hendrix site, the lineup features “Billy Cox of The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band Of Gypsys, Steve Vai, Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Eric Johnson, Brad Whitford of Aerosmith, Living Colour, Chris Layton of Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, Ernie Isley, Mato Nanji of Indigenous, Susan Tedeschi, and The Slide Brothers”. Holy cow. That’s a lineup.

If you are into modern classical music, or things experimental, Kronos Quartet will be playing at Northeastern. If you think you know what a classical string quartet sounds like and it’s boring, you’re wrong. These guys are amazing.

For some happy-sounding ska, kind of in the vein of Pepper, then check out Bedouin Sound Clash at the Middle East in Cambridge. Musician and DJ Bonobo will be the Paradise on Sunday night, turning out some tasty club music.

Please drive safely, and as always, information on all this and more can be found at boston music this weekend.

Goby, Startups

When to hire a designer (hint: now!)

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I’ve been to a few startup events recently, in particular the Future M Startup Bootcamp and NEVCA office hours at Venture Cafe. Thanks in particular to Venture Cafe for hosting the event – it was a great time and lots of good discussion.

A subject came up repeatedly at both events that I think is worth commenting on. The question is, “When should I hire a designer to work on my application/startup”?

Especially for consumer web companies, my answer is, “you should have already hired one”. A strong designer should be one of the first people you hire into a company, for a few reasons. We did this at goby and the company would not be the same if we had not. But before we go into the reasons, let’s talk about what I mean by a designer.

The word “designer” can mean a lot of different things to different people. There are graphic designers, web designers, product designers, and a number of other variations in skill-sets and perspectives. Product design is not about having a cute logo (although that helps). It’s not about having good fonts & colors (although this is a good idea and harder than it looks). It’s not about having a clean and elegant user interface (although that’s becoming an expectation if not a requirement in today’s consumer web environment). It’s fundamentally about understanding your customer – a good designer is always thinking about who your user is, why they’re coming to your site, what they think they are seeing when they see your site for the first time, what your information architecture is, and how they are going to react to all of it. They will also be well versed in what’s going in the outside world, what trends exist in design, and why those trends are happening. They’ll also be out talking to customers, getting feedback, and incorporating that into their designs.

Expectations are insanely high in the consumer web. People make instant, instinctive judgments about the value and trustworthiness of your site. This isn’t just about good graphics, it is deeper than that. And if you don’t get it right, you’ll struggle to find and keep visitors.

Ideally, you would find someone who can also do web/graphic design and wireframes as well, but if all you want is a nicer looking site, you can find a contractor to help with that on an as-needed basis. But this misses the point. There’s a natural tendency for product developers & engineers to design the product (and they should be intimately involved of course!), but there is deep benefit in having someone who is outside the coding process thinking about users from their perspective, and without being too tied to the engineering process.

Goby, Startups

goby announces new funding!

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(cross-posted to the goby blog)

It has been an amazing year for us. A year ago nobody had heard of goby. Today, half a million people a month use our service, in the process finding great new experiences to enrich their lives. That’s what it’s all about. We love it when you’re out there doing fun things you never would have found without goby (and we love hearing about the adventures!).

Today’s another big milestone for us. We are very pleased to announce that we’ve received additional funding from our partners Kepha Partners and Flybridge Capital Partners. We’re grateful for the trust and counsel they have given us, and excited about the opportunity that is ahead of us.

We have lots of great things left to build for you, lots of exciting ideas on the drawing board that have yet to be realized, and are looking forward to bringing them to you in the coming months and years.

the goby team

PS: Details here – http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20101021005636/en/goby-Secures-2.5-Million-Extension-Series-Funding

Books, Startups, Travel, Search, Music