OK, the rumor that Coldplay would play the WWDC bash tonight was off. Instead it was Barenaked Ladies, which as far as I'm concerned was even better. Ever since the iTunes music store started taking off, the bands at WWDC have been better known. In recent years we've had the Wallflowers, BT, and Ozomatli.
The band made a great match to the crowd, not just because they're talented and funny but also because they're dedicated Mac-heads playing to a crowd of the same. Not many bands would crack jokes about Apple-related stuff ranging from the Newton to Mac OS X 10.6, and not many crowds would respond so well to that kind of thing. Long, bizarre stories about the questionable content of semi-celebrity iTunes playlists? Check, and just the kind of thing the crowd would love.
For some reason EDGE data was severely off its game in the park where the bash was held, so my pictures were not quite so live as I would have hoped. I'm surprised there's anywhere in San Francisco not completely blanketed with wireless data coverage. At home it wouldn't have surprised me, but here? Next people will be telling me there aren't really hills in this city.
It was a musical day, as earlier one of the technical sessions featured James Dempsey continuing his tradition of geeky song performances. And I mean that in the best possible way-- the songs aren't on the schedule, but word gets around, and a good portion of the audience at this session was there solely to see Dempsey. This year's song was the Latin-inspired "Designated Initializer". If you write Mac software you'll know what the title refers to, and if you don't, it'd take too long to explain here.
I recorded a bootleg copy of Dempsey's song with Chris Liscio's excellent TapeDeck app. But I didn't have a microphone, and the built-in mic on the MacBook Pro doesn't exactly live up to the "pro" designation. If I can get the recording cleaned up enough I'll be posting it here.
Tomorrow's the last day of WWDC. It's not quite a full day, ending at 3:15, but there are some good sessions on the schedule. Keep an eye on Flickr for updates as they happen.
Sat, 06/14/2008 - 12:23
Ugh! This is now the thing I am most frustrated about missing at WWDC!
BNL played some private concerts for RIM employees in the past. I was only lucky enough to catch one of them, and I thoroughly enjoyed their set—great performers on many fronts, as you alluded to in the post (funny AND talented).
Glad to hear they're still as awesome as ever. Keeping Canada proud. ;)
Also glad to hear TapeDeck was responsible for catching Dempsey's song for those of us that didn't make it out.
Post new comment