One of the nicest things about living in New England is the beauty of its landscape - exquisite shorelines and less crowded residential communities inland - something many of us are unaccustomed to having lived in more populated areas.
And although there may not be any 24-hour Diners and very few all-night Supermarkets, what we heard earlier this afternoon in the air of these woods, what we were able to smell in that same air - and then what we saw (in this video below) just before heading back - well, the only word that comes to mind is, nice.
Few things in life beat those childhood memories of playing in woods like this, especially that wonderful smell of the soil just after a fresh rain. Really nice . . . peaceful nice.
I guess when push comes to shove, I really do love living in New England.
Still recovering from an amazingly eventful day yesterday at the Grand Opening of Apple's now largest store in America on Boylston Street in Boston, we noticed that some of our visitors to [: neon :] were being directed to a not-so-updated update page of ours - and hence were not getting to see these videos.
So, we decided to post them anew, immediately below.
Enjoy.
UPDATE2: Here's the first video we've been able to post-production edit. Stand-by for possibly one maybe two more.
It took a while, but we've finally combined the three longest/largest video files we took for the afternoon in the video immediately below and these are the most energized. You'll see the employees doing their own rally on the spiral staircase and then running out of the store, in formation, onto the sidewalk, across Boylston and down Fairfield, high-fiving the customers waiting to get in, only to eventually re-enter the store through the back entrance. Then you'll see the first customers on line be let into the store in groups of about twenty, each cheering, arms raised and actually running into the store. You decide how cool or how hokey this customer and employee Pep Rally really was in the end, but one thing you cannot question is the spirit and absolute attention to detail Apple is known to have.
Anyway, major kudos to the good people at Apple P.R., all consummate professionals and despite the crowds and the pressure, couldn't have been nicer to us. And lastly, a special shout to Ms. "Burberry" with Chanel glasses and a Gucci handbag from Apple corporate. Thank you for your compliments about what we wrote in [: neon :], it was a pleasure meeting you as well. Your company puts on quite a show. Quite a show.
UPDATE2: Here's the first video we've been able to post-production edit. Stand-by for possibly one maybe two more.
It took a while, but we've finally combined the three longest/largest video files we took for the afternoon in the video immediately below and these are the most energized. You'll see the employees doing their own rally on the spiral staircase and then running out of the store, in formation, onto the sidewalk, across Boylston and down Fairfield, high-fiving the customers waiting to get in, only to eventually re-enter the store through the back entrance. Then you'll see the first customers on line be let into the store in groups of about twenty, each cheering, arms raised and actually running into the store. You decide how cool or how hokey this customer and employee Pep Rally really was in the end, but one thing you cannot question is the spirit and absolute attention to detail Apple is known to have.
Anyway, major kudos to the good people at Apple P.R., all consummate professionals and despite the crowds and the pressure, couldn't have been nicer to us. And lastly, a special shout to Ms. "Burberry" with Chanel glasses and a Gucci handbag from Apple corporate. Thank you for your compliments about what we wrote in [: neon :], it was a pleasure meeting you as well. Your company puts on quite a show. Quite a show.
UPDATE: We have video of the entire event and much morehere.
Just managed to get out of the crowd to post this audio, since I won't be able to post the multiple videos until later tonight. Have some terrific shots.
Unbelievable is all I can say. What an experience, what an incredible Public Relations team they have.
UPDATE: Well, TalkShoe just surprised me and made the audio file size more than 3 Gigs, yikes, so forget it, I won't have time to break it up and post it right now. Instead, go to this link, Apple Boylston Grand Opening - 05-15-08 and give a listen.
UPDATE: We have video of the entire event and much more here.
UPDATE: 05/15/08 - 02:58 - Just about ready to leave but we wanted to test something first. Yesterday, we subscribed to TalkShoe for LIVE audio shows to post here, so today I thought, if we can't be absolutely certain whether we can do a LIVE streaming video feed from the new store, maybe we can at least schedule a LIVE radio feed via TalkShoe and through my cellular phone from the site. So the LIVE audio feed is set to begin @ 5:30 p.m. Eastern and will go for up to 2 hours. To join in the conversation LIVE, just dial (724) 444-7444 no earlier than 5:25 p.m. and then when prompted, enter the show code 19595, or just log-on to http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/19595. Hope it works. We'll give it our best shot.
It's beautiful, isn't it? This is the pic Apple now has on their site. Can't really tell if it's an actual shot or a CAD-style rendering.
Wow, can't wait to see it - although planning on going to the Grand Opening of Apple's newest store tonight may not be as easy as it sounds for us - or anyone. Been hearing on the local news that "thousands" are expected to be lined up for the 6:00 p.m. door opening, which means that a casual stroll to the Starbucks a few doors away may be darn near impossible.
Crowd control.
Boston's finest everywhere. (Love those guys).
Traffic snarls. (God bless the MBTA).
Barricades?
I do have some ideas as to how to bypass the crowds, but one thing is certain now, we will not be able to LIVE feed any kind of video as we have no air cards to deploy. I know, dumb mistake. But I also have an audio idea that just might work, but I'll be scrambling this afternoon to see if it does.
Anyway, we'll head out around 3 or 3:30 this afternoon to begin our trek on the T. The goal is to be there no later than around 4 to get a good enough position to take some pics. However and from experience, my guess is that they'll have a designated area in front of the store's entrance for the media (sometimes referred to as a press pen), and if so, any hopes of staying up front may be dimmed since we've been unable to secure any credentials in such a short window between announcement and day of.
So, we'll do our part and keep you posted throughout the day with LIVE blogging, and if you drop in to [: neon :] every chance you get to see what's up, then we can share the excitement.
First let me say that we've never had to endure even a lick of bad attitude from any AT&T store employees for the more than ten years we've been with them, that is, until we moved to Boston a few years ago.
And I've spent the past three hours writing the details of having to put up with this until I saw that it was almost 3:00 a.m. and I said forget it, I need the old beauty sleep.
But let me just say that what was so offensive tonight was that we were intending to spend over a grand to buy two brand new Blackberry 9000s, and they just didn't . . . care. We don't care whether you buy or not seemed to be the prevailing 'tude, a stunningly incomprehensible approach to doing business, but especially so in tough economic times.
Nevertheless, we'll try to buy this phone with AT&T one more time, this weekend, by going to Metro West and Cambridge. In the meantime, if any of you guys have a buddy, a relative or just an acquaintance who works for an AT&T cellular store somewhere around Boston that you would personally recommend and can sell 617 or 781 area codes, feel free to contact us at iwatchneonATgmail.com.
UPDATE: We have video of the entire event and much more here.
Experimenting at the moment, having just registered [:neon:] with Talkshoe and created a podcast where I provide a very brief (2'04) update on the Apple store opening in Boston tomorrow night.
BTW and FYI, since we recorded the audio you'll hear below, the traditional television types here in Boston have been all over the story and filmed tours of the new Apple store for the 6 o'clock news and I gotta tell 'ya that it looks both enormous (floor space) and glass and chrome modern exquisite (design).
Anyway, here's the audio I did through Talkshoe, let's see if it adds anything to our multimedia mix, eh?
Today, May 14th, is the 10th Anniversary of the passing of Frank Sinatra, though many sources list it as May 15th. The Sinatra family website, however, says that it was May 14th, so May 14th it is.
Anyway, in tribute to his memory and in appreciation of his legendary contributions to jazz and The Great American Songbook, we play this signature song - accompanied by a photo history of a few stages in his life.
UPDATE: We have video of the entire event and much more here.
UPDATE: 05/13/08 )5:21 p.m. - Have been trying to edit the damn AVI that's my DV camera's default but I'm not that skilled yet in cuts and transitions using iMovie, so here goes. It's only :32 seconds, folks, but at least I kept my promise. And some of you have been asking about the facade, uh, of course you're looking @ wood paneling, but between those panels you can see a little more. Not much more, but enough to say wow, can't wait 'til Thursday. BTW, click on the time line of the video and you can post a comment that then goes directly onto the video. I already put three comments (seen as white dots) on there to point out where some special editing effects were, you know, in case you missed them? ;-) Running your mouse over a white dot, whether the video is playing or not, reveals the comment posted.
REVIEW
Last night, Mrs. Head Geek and I were walking past the new Apple store on Boylston Street in Boston, admiring its very architectually cool beautiful facade. Even at that nighttime hour of about 10 p.m., it was a stunning building for this geek to gawk @.
(BTW, I'm not at a computer that can upload the videos or pics that I took last night, so I'll add them to this post later this afternoon).
I'd received somewhat advance notice of Apple's newest store's official opening by email @ 9:04 yesterday morning, and here's what it said:
Make way for the newest Apple Store in Boston. Enjoy three floors of all things Apple, including an entire floor dedicated to personal training, free workshops, hands-on technical support, and more.
Well, considering that Mrs. Head Geek and I are now confirmed Mac enthusiasts - having unwillingly put up for too many years with Microsoft's (and Dell's and HP's and Sony's) seemingly intentional desires to piss-off their respectively loyal customer bases - we are very excited about this new addition to our newly adopted home, this beautiful city called Boston.
But as I'm writing this post, I'm thinking, why not LIVE blog from the opening with still pictures of the event as it's happening and then poof, I think, why not try to do a LIVE video feed directly from the new store and then have it available as well right here on [: neon :]!
I already know that Apple is incredibly strict on shooting anything inside their stores without substantial permission - and in fairness, it's usually that way with every retailer - but maybe we can capture the flavor of it from outside the building anyway.
Can't promise a thing, including whether it will actually be LIVE streamed or recorded LIVE, and maybe we should have just tried to surprise you, but, what the heck, Head Geek's a geek and as such, devotion to technology events should be expected.
Anyway, stand by for the pics and possible vids from last night's shoot.
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