A number of the Toronto tech gang who went down to South by Southwest — often referred to in its shortened form, SxSW — have come down with a flu-like bug. The combination of flying and being at an event attended by thousands of people packed into close quarters, either in conference sessions or bars, makes for the perfect germ and virus exchange.
I’ve managed to avoid the bug — which Alex Hillman cleverly dubbed SxSARS — through a combination of hand-washing at near OCD frequencies and regular doses of Cold-fX supplement, which is readily available at drugstores in Canada. The active ingredient in Cold-fX is an extract made from North American Ginseng, and both personal experience and a number of studies, including this one from the Canadian Medical Association Journal, seem to back Cold-fX’s claim of immune-boosting properties.
If you’re flying to a conference, I strongly recommend using Cold-fX backed by a hand-washing regime!
(I have no connection with Cold-fX, nor do I own stock in its parent company. I’m just a satisfied customer.)
Image from Chris’ Invincible Super-Blog Click the image to see it on its original page.
Back in the mid- to late nineties, one track you couldn’t avoid on alt-rock radio was Pulp’sCommon People (from their excellent album, Different Class), a song that pokes fun at the genteel faux-poverty of kids from rich families at art school.
In the lyrics, the “narrator” tells the story of a rich Greek sculpture student at St. Martin’s college who wants to do a little lifestyle tourism amongst the British working class. The song is purportedly based on a real-life female acquaintance of Pulp’s lead vocalist Jarvis Cocker, who had a rich Greek female acquaintance at an art school named St. Martin’s who said that she wanted to “live like common people.” Cocker embellished the story in the chorus’ lyrics, adding “I want to sleep with common people like you.” According to Wikipedia, The BBC went so far as to try and locate the real-life rich art student who inspired the song without success.
Image from Chris’ Invincible Super-Blog Click the image to see it on its original page.
There are (ahem) commonalities shared by Common People and the situation in Archie comics between rich girl Veronica Lodge and the very middle-class Archie Andrews. There are probably thousands of Archie storylines that are based on Archie not having enough money take Veronica on the type of date to which she has become accustomed. Some clever Photoshopper noticed the Common People/Archie connection, took the Common People lyrics, mashed them up with panels from Archie comics, and the result is over at Chris’ Invincible Super-Blog: Archie in…A Different Class!
Image from Chris’ Invincible Super-Blog Click the image to see it on its original page.
The photo below could be the greatest movie scene re-enactment ever: it’s a re-enactment of the “Spider-Man stops the runaway train” scene in Spider-Man 2:
On our final night in Austin, the b5media crew had a barbecue at the b5 ranch with food supplied by The Salt Lick, widely regarded as one of the best barbecue places in the area. Here’s what their van brought us:
Pork ribs
Beef brisket
kielbasa
coleslaw
beans
potatoes
peach cobbler
blackberry cobbler
pickles
loads and loads of barbecue sauce
Darcie: What do you mean my margaritas are poisonously strong?
For drinks, we had a keg of beer on ice and Darcie’s poisonously strong margaritas, and Darren added to the dessert offerings with Tim Tams he brought all the way from Australia. Dinner was followed by a giant bonfire and some roughhousing around the pool (three victims claimed).
A number of the Toronto tech gang who went down to South by Southwest — often referred to in its shortened form, SxSW — have come down with a flu-like bug. The combination of flying and being at an event attended by thousands of people packed into close quarters, either in conference sessions or bars, makes for the perfect germ and virus exchange.
