Here, there, and everywhere....

Tying up loose ends and cleaning off the desk once again with short and assorted subjects…

-- Big news to the industry last week when I heard that marketing superstar Christine Shaffer was leaving Viracon to go to Apogee sister company Tru Vue. Very happy for Christine and the folks at Tru Vue pulled a coup (sorry for the cheesy rhyme, too easy) Its tough news for our side of the industry as no doubt Christine was a shining light, but at least she’ll be close by.

-- Christine was listed on this blog back in 2007 as one of the superstars of the industry and it was fun to go back and re-read that. The others in that inaugural class are all still plugging along at high levels. Greg Carney now on his own as a world class consultant, Brian Craft still not reading my blog, but doing great for Guardian, Mike Gainey, still a force at Azon, and Julie Schimmelpenningh at Solutia and always on the top of everyone’s list. Only Scott Surma is missing from our industry now but he still kicking tail and taking names and I believe he still follows the drama here when he has time.

-- Hated missing Neocon yet again last week, but heard tons of buzz from my architectural friends about it. Congrats to the fine folks at General Glass, evidently they made a tremendous impression on the show goers because I heard about them specifically from one of the premier interior Architects in the U.S. Also heard positives on the gang from Walker (and their “Dance Fever” floor) and Guardian’s big splash, but judging from the action GGI took the cake I guess. And to think my brother wasn’t even there either to take it all in!

-- Went out for a run on Saturday and the first song shuffled to my Ipod was “Eye of the Tiger” followed by “The Good Life” … wondering if that can be some sort of omen… the run ended with the classic Aerosmith tune “Dream On” hmmmm….

-- Congrats to the Bruin fans out there and my condolences to the fine Canuck fans (the non rioting ones) on their loss. The Bruins were so good they were able to get past my prediction skills.

-- Speaking of the riots, did you see that the shops damaged by the riots can’t put the losses to their property insurance? Evidently this would fall under something else and they would need actual “riot” insurance. It’s amazing; do insurance people ever pay anything out?

-- Getting excited for GlassBuild America and I am not alone. More than 40 first time exhibitors have joined in so far… with I know for a fact a few more still to come. The timing is right for show this year, and the people that want to get ahead of their competition will be there. I plan on having much more coverage on this as it creeps closer because it will be the place to be.

-- And finally this week, as most people who followed the situation expected I am no longer employed. It is what it is. At the end of the day it was a pleasure and honor to work with some unbelievable people over the last 10 months and I am sorry we didn’t get to finish what we started. I am thinking and praying for all of them. As for me going forward, we’ll see, I am getting excited over some possibilities and as soon as there’s something to report, I’ll bring it. Until then I’ll be plugging along working on the manuscript for Groundhog Day 2.

LINKS of the WEEK

-- Interesting piece on the inner workings of AOL from a former writer there.

-- Have you played the game Angry Birds yet? I do and so do a ton of others, a million more every day!

-- A very cool piece on the origin of the Nike logo also known as “the swoosh”

VIDEO of the WEEK

Older video but really wild to watch, toddler at zoo, with Lions and the Lion wants to eat it! Thank goodness for the glass! It is really wild to watch…