Syracurse!
View from my window.
My stressed out hotel room just yelled at me. It told me to take my blood pressure medication, relax, lie down, turn on the TV and quit being neurotic. I yelled back, “Shut up! I happen to be free from all my the distractions at home, if you haven’t noticed!” —no kids, nothing to shovel, no classes to teach, no students to advise, no committee meeting to sleep in, no design favors to get done— so I can work on all of MY projects from the quiet solitude of my color-coordinated hotel room. “Don’t you see? I have TIME now!”
Great, I’m talking to walls.
I haven’t even been here for 12 hours and the place is a wreck of coffee cups, papers, books and … projects.
Over the next few days, during downtime from judging the SND design competition, I plan to do the following: get through two Maya 3D software tutorials; edit two video interviews I shot of colleagues who do information graphics; scour my 15 pages of notes on “How to Form a Professional Association” for the information graphics association I’m putting together; make a bunch of calls regarding a small information graphics workshop I plan to have at Michigan State University in May; and get a freelance project done for the magazine Foreign Affairs.
Oh, AND I also love to write about myself ad nauseam, so my blog beckons, which is what, I guess, has won out here.
Besides, I’m hotel-bound when not working on official business. It’s been snowing in Syracuse forever. Still is. I landed last night in a snow-driven crosswind that bucked the aircraft like a raging bull. Out for pizza across from my hotel last night I was forced to retreat to the relative comfort of a phone booth after blowing, blinding snow shot up my sleeves, down my collar, in my ears and up my nose.
I’m one of the judges at the SND design competition, my first time ever. Really fun crowd. Nice people. Judging is serious. “Wear good shoes. This ain’t a nine-to-fiver.”
But, if the bar scene last night is any indication, I may just follow my room’s advice and chill with new and old friends. Brazil, Spain, Sweden, Britain, they’re all here.
But now, it’s pancakes time!
February 16th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Karl,
Loved your series on The National. You may recall, that my Skybox graphic on the U.S. Open (Medinah I think) was in the final edition. I don’t recall how many SND awards The National garnered during its short run, but another of my Skybox graphics (Something on bowling) won a bronze one year. Another one on the Nabisco Championships won an AE and that you did on the Kentucky Derby featured one of my illustrations and also won an AE. I seem to remember that Massie and McConnell also had some SND winners. At any rate, you might add a chapter to your series on the National’s design and graphics awards. I guess the graphic page started out as Sneak Preview, then changed to Skybox, or was it the other way around? And while I’m at it, thanks again to you and Don for including me as part of The National, it’s the best job I’ve ever had. I still pull out my National “team jacket” to wear in memory of all the great folks there, and an idea that was, just slightly, behind its time.
Chow bela,
-Bill Pitzer