A quick heads up to California readers (okay, maybe just Bay Area readers), I’ll be speaking at the Community Next conference coming up in a few weeks. Aaron and I are actually kicking the day off (gasp) with our signature Brand Utopia schpeel. The whole concept of the day is around the Present and Future of Online Communities, we think it’s going to be great fun and very useful for others. I was humbled to be invited to speak alongside the other speakers like Jeffrey Kalmikoff of Threadless, James Hong of HotorNot, Guy Kawasaki, Amit Gupta and many, many others. If you’re in the area and want to come, use the code SPEAR to get $45 off the early bird price (there are only 4 early bird tickets remaining, go get em!).
I’m still buzzing about my recent art purchase– a gorgeous Jose Parla watercolor I fell in love with at the Cityscapes exhibit we covered during Art Basel in Miami (recap here). I almost forgot to mention I picked up a copy of his bad-ass coffee table book also entitled Cityscapes. If you have any doubt about the talent of Parla, pick this one up. More than 150 pages of paintings and photography, gorgeously bound book, etc. The paintings really feel like they’re popping off the pages, the textures are incredible. Photographs by David Perez Shadi, Stefan Ruis, Davi Russo and Essays by Manon Slome and Michael Betancourt. $38 from Spoonfed, currently Parla’s exclusive partner. 
