The Board, The Black Angels, and The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Interesting day yesterday… I went into it thinking at least the night would be, as I was scheduled to go to a concert, so at least I had that to look forward to. But then I received a nice little surprise about mid-day…
In the conference room a floor above me, the quarterly board meeting was taking place, so everyone was on their best behavior in case they ran into a board member in the hallway or whatever. I had written a couple of slides for the CEO’s presentation, as had a lot of people in the company, but that’s usually the extent of our participation. Just as I was thinking about running out to get some lunch, the COO’s assistant runs by and says that the CEO wanted to see my boss and me right away. I figured it was to clarify something or maybe answer a question.
Turns out, when I got upstairs, I was asked to present in front of the board of directors along with my boss and the COO on one of the marketing programs I had created for the company having to deal with search engine marketing. I was so glad I wore a regular collared shirt in today… a day earlier and I would have been presenting in a Black Crowes t-shirt.
Luckily, it was on the slides that I had written in the first place, so the source material was all in my head, and the questions were pretty simple, so everything went pretty good for a last minute call, but it was a little rattling to say the least… sure, it’s just a room of suits, but it’s a room of suits that signs the checks and that’s the last place you want to step on your tongue!
So, I kind of sailed through the rest of my day… near the end, I presented my project plan for the launch of the next version of the product and it went well, with minor changes, but there always are. I used my slightly extended day to wrap some other things up and clean off my desk before heading to the show with a buddy from work.
We stopped off at Pink’s for some dinner along the way, and not only could we see the smoke from the Griffith Park fire that had been going for most of the day, another building fire went off a couple blocks away in the same direction… the dry heat and the wind were not the firefighters’ friend that day.
The Black Angels opened for BMRC that night at the Wiltern… a nice little surprise. I picked up their CD in case it wasn’t on the service, which is what happened with the opening band for Iggy Pop, Sistahs in the Pit (which I had to order eventually, old school). Little different sound… kind of like Mogui, but with a singer… made for a good CD for the ride home.
BMRC came on soon after and really tore it up. I got to see these guys do an acoustic set in the office studio, but this was full power now and it was very good. They somehow pull off a slightly folky sound while still being very much alternative, kind of like Dylan during his electric days.
On the drive home, I had to head right towards Griffith Park and the fire. By that point, it was back under control after a flare up, but it was obviously still going in spots as the glow of the flames silhouetted the Observatory up on the hill, making it appear like the sun had set behind it at midnight.
It had been warm enough to drive at night with the top down, one of my favorite things in the world to do…usually makes me feel like Jake Gittes in “Chinatown”. Tonight, with a light smoke in the air and my new tunes on the stereo, I felt a little more like Heston in “Omega Man”, traversing the streets of LA looking for vampires… all that after only two beers… either that, or it was the hot dogs…
J.
In the conference room a floor above me, the quarterly board meeting was taking place, so everyone was on their best behavior in case they ran into a board member in the hallway or whatever. I had written a couple of slides for the CEO’s presentation, as had a lot of people in the company, but that’s usually the extent of our participation. Just as I was thinking about running out to get some lunch, the COO’s assistant runs by and says that the CEO wanted to see my boss and me right away. I figured it was to clarify something or maybe answer a question.
Turns out, when I got upstairs, I was asked to present in front of the board of directors along with my boss and the COO on one of the marketing programs I had created for the company having to deal with search engine marketing. I was so glad I wore a regular collared shirt in today… a day earlier and I would have been presenting in a Black Crowes t-shirt.
Luckily, it was on the slides that I had written in the first place, so the source material was all in my head, and the questions were pretty simple, so everything went pretty good for a last minute call, but it was a little rattling to say the least… sure, it’s just a room of suits, but it’s a room of suits that signs the checks and that’s the last place you want to step on your tongue!
So, I kind of sailed through the rest of my day… near the end, I presented my project plan for the launch of the next version of the product and it went well, with minor changes, but there always are. I used my slightly extended day to wrap some other things up and clean off my desk before heading to the show with a buddy from work.
We stopped off at Pink’s for some dinner along the way, and not only could we see the smoke from the Griffith Park fire that had been going for most of the day, another building fire went off a couple blocks away in the same direction… the dry heat and the wind were not the firefighters’ friend that day.
The Black Angels opened for BMRC that night at the Wiltern… a nice little surprise. I picked up their CD in case it wasn’t on the service, which is what happened with the opening band for Iggy Pop, Sistahs in the Pit (which I had to order eventually, old school). Little different sound… kind of like Mogui, but with a singer… made for a good CD for the ride home.
BMRC came on soon after and really tore it up. I got to see these guys do an acoustic set in the office studio, but this was full power now and it was very good. They somehow pull off a slightly folky sound while still being very much alternative, kind of like Dylan during his electric days.
On the drive home, I had to head right towards Griffith Park and the fire. By that point, it was back under control after a flare up, but it was obviously still going in spots as the glow of the flames silhouetted the Observatory up on the hill, making it appear like the sun had set behind it at midnight.
It had been warm enough to drive at night with the top down, one of my favorite things in the world to do…usually makes me feel like Jake Gittes in “Chinatown”. Tonight, with a light smoke in the air and my new tunes on the stereo, I felt a little more like Heston in “Omega Man”, traversing the streets of LA looking for vampires… all that after only two beers… either that, or it was the hot dogs…
J.