We went walking through New York yesterday, which is quite honestly the best part of living here. Watching the Fashion Week come to an end to the Chelsea Market to the High Line, to this little gem.

As we ended the northern-bound walk on the High Line, there’s a tiny amphitheater where the actors are everyday New Yorkers: pedestrians, automobile traffic, bike riders, etc. And we’re all sitting high above them all, watching a sliver of their lives unfold.

Here’s an image, and a short movie, of what we were taking in.

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You’re gonna need a bigger shovel (said in a Brody tone) …

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I’m trying Google Buzz and a few integrations with various other tools here.  Apologies for any duplicate posts in the Twitter/Google/Links sections on the right.  My initial thoughts:

1. There are many hooks – from Picassa to Google Mail to registered websites.  That’s nice, but it also takes a bit to understand why, and if, these need to be hooked together.  That’s what I’m going through now.
2. I like that it bring in Twitter posts.  I can remove the Twitter feed and just have the Google Buzz feed, which would include the Twitter posts.  See “1″, above.

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I recently left a position with a technology firm where I was the head marketing person, along with a few other hats (it’s a small-ish company).  During my time there, I learned a tremendous number of professional and social lessons, both inside and outside of marketing.

The one thing that is sticking out in my mind (at least, right now) is how much goes into protecting a brand – especially one that was built over a number of years and included a lot of really, really hard work.  That’s probably true of a lot of brands, but one built from the ground up is even more special.

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…is Jack’s coffee.  So very good.

I took that right from Jerry Colonna’s most recent post, Board Meetings that Suck.  There’s an entire list of reasons why board meetings (and really, meetings in general) suck, along with a nice list of suggestions to combat the suckiness of these meetings.

The first one in this second list, “Set and KEEP to the agenda”, hit me over the head a few months back.  After doing a few meetings, both virtually and in person, I quickly came to realize that it wasn’t my time that mattered, it was the time of those in the meeting that mattered.  I needed to get my pitch across to these folks in the time allotted, and according to the agenda I set.

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Apple released it’s latest cure for today’s global economic ails, and I want one. Yes, it’s called something else, but I like ApTab better than the alternative.

I was on a conference call, but was madly refreshing the NYTimes Bits blog to get the details.  For someone who has a Mac laptop and an iPhone (hey, that’s me!), I can see the value of the ApTab, especially if you travel for both local and remote events.  10 hours (ish) of battery life?  Yes, pleaae.

My first things I think I like:

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Another early morning, another Economist.com podcast down. In this one, from Harry Mintzberg (“A consistently contrary Canadian academic…”), talks about leaders versus managers.

It certainly is a different and interesting view (I’m planning to listen to it again and give it a bit more thought), and he even pokes holes at the folks heading the MBA Oath (which I support).

Speaking of, there’s nearly 1,800 oath signers. Wow!

A few recent and fun posts to read about the challenges and successes in dealing with email.

• Some Thoughts On Email After Dealing With 500 Emails
• Taming Email Overload