Up (and down) my street...

As the weather was so nice at the weekend, I took a walk to the river to sit on the pier and watch the sun go down. It seemed like a good time to take some pictures (I always have family asking about where I live in the city).

It really was so pleasant. And I've really come to love this part of the city. I mean the upper west side was great. But the village has... er... character! Actually, let's call that characters :-)

I live very close to the river, so if you look to the bottom of the street you can just see it in this pic.

And this is a shot with my back to the river looking up my street.

I like to walk along the pier. I'm so lucky (there are two piers, actually) as it's only a few hundred yards away. On Sunday afternoon, the place is very busy with people just sitting around talking and, snacking and drinking (don't let the police see you!!!). Oh, and some people are running around in shorts trying to lose weight, or something :-)

At the end of the pier I have these great views of New Jersey. I don't know New Jersey at all. Not a bit. But it sure looks nice in the sunset in this shot.

And looking back in the opposite direction, my street sure looks nice from here too!

At the weekend, I love to walk along Bleecker Street into the village. When I was a kid I remember a song that Simon and Garfunkel used to sing called Bleecker Street (I think they used to live there). I never imagined then I'd ever live so close to it! I love this kind of Doo-Wop/Soul band who sing lots of classics right there on the street at weekends.

God bless my dear friend and colleague (the very talented New York artist) Julian Lesser for suggesting I should live here!

Rand Fishkin: Industry mastermind!

There was a lot of excitement around our office last Thursday. I happened to mention that industry superstar Rand Fishkin was popping in for lunch with his scrumptious wife, Geraldine.

Were it not that I'm a totally fair gentleman, I may have considered selling tickets for a seat in the board room ;-)

Rand unveiled his newest tool, Linkscape, at SMX, East and what a seriously fun tool this is! Now Google won't let me drop in and mess around with their connectivity server... But Rand will! So, I'm really excited about the opportunities to do some serious link analysis and research for the upcoming tome.

So, Rand is a serious technology guy... But he can't help himself when he sees a whiteboard. I think maybe crayons played a big part in his life. Because you have no idea how quickly he picked up the marker pens in the boardroom and started to explain Andre Broder's bow tie theory to the assembled group.

What I thought was a bit of a mystery, was the, hangman from the scrotum, little graphic, he doodled for us :-)

Anyway, after a swift visit, half a sandwich for Rand and half a lettuce leaf for Geraldine, they swooped up to the top of the building. And no doubt, after their Sleepless in Seattle moment at the top of the Empire State Building... they swooped into the nearest bar a for much needed hair of the dog.

Rand, thanks so much for dropping by. Great to see you. And Geraldine, you simply light up any room. I hope you and Rand are very happy together, forever.

SMX East, New York City!

October 6 - 8 Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman roll into town with the all star SMX conference and expo. Woohoo!

And for this show, instead of having to travel three thousand miles, I have to travel... three!

This is the inaugural show, so be there... or... suck!

Seriously it looks like a fab line up And I'll be teaming up with my pals Todd Friesen, Bruce Clay, Jill Whalen and for the first time, also with Rae 'Sugerrae' Hoffman. And I'm taking bets she'll have used the eff word at least three times in the first five minutes of the session :-)

So what you waiting for? Register now!

And I'll see you there.