The Predictions
It’s that time of year to find out how out of touch I am with current and future web design trends. The 2006 predictions…
Christmas Shopping for Liberals
If there is such a thing as a “liberal” mall, Chapel Hill’s University Mall would be it. It’s not some sort of village-style, urban galleria “mall.” It’s a traditional mall, surrounded on all sides by parking, with Dillards as a major anchor. But it’s much more compact, with narrower–and fewer–corridors. It’s not designed to confuse you into wandering down an unfamilar path, stumbling into stores along the way. You can probably walk from one side to the other in three minutes. What really distinguishes the U Mall from others, are the shops. Most target affluent, well-educated, citizens of Chapel Hill. And many aren’t chains. For kitchen products you have A Southern Season and Kitchenworks. There is a gallery and a high design home furnishing store. But, it’s not all about luxury here– working folks are represented. Rose’s, a discount Dollar Store-type market. And don’t forget old school drug store Kerr’s. A K & W Cafeteria on the Fordham-facing side of the parking lot is always packed.
I was thinking about how unusual all of this is as I exited A Southern Season, $3 candy bar in hand. Following the sounds of Christmas music in the main atrium, I saw a group of about 10 people sitting in a semi-circle, playing string instruments. There were young kids and older adults. It was so unexpected and nice. As I stepped into the gathered crowd, they began to play “Silent Night, Holy Night.” Quite different from the flirty “Santa Baby” song you hear every Christmas holiday season at the Gap, Banana Republic, etc. One instrument case was fully plastered with liberal and anti-war stickers. Peace on earth, I guess. Scanning the crowd, I noticed most shoppers had a strangely serene look on their face. Where was the typical manic, holiday-fueled frustration seen at so many other malls? Listening to Silent Night, it was almost as if people were not thinking about shopping and instead pondering the reason for the season. Was this possible? I mean, these people appeared to be liberals after all!
CMS Kid
You know you need a content management system. But where to begin? The discovery phase of a CMS project can be overwhelming. Do we need just web content management? Document management? Enterprise content management? What about digital asset management? My CMS bookmarks were out of control, so I’ve compiled them as a blog, with use cases, vendors, and process resources.
The Barbary Coast
Sarah and I went to Wilmywood this past weekend. We visited what has to be one of the best dive bars in America, The Barbary Coast. 
Austin’s Carousel and LaLa’s Little Nuggest have some East Coast competition with this one. The sign on the front door says it all: “We’ve upped our Standards… Up yours.” Unlike many well-known dive bars, the Coast wasn’t a mix of lifers and hipsters–it was more a mix of working class heroes and pirates. Appropriately, a huge Anti-Hero Skateboards stickers is plastered across the beer cooler (which incidentally carries an alarming assortment of craft beers). It was a great place to watch the Cats get destroyed by IU.
Twitter Stream
