Rob’s Birthday Party

February 12, 2012

Saturday evening, Liz and I headed over to Rob and Gretchen’s place to celebrate Rob’s birthday. On arriving, we found the place completely decked out – Valentine’s day decorations aplenty, with a lot of red lighting.

Looking down the hallway towards the kitchen.

Folks gathered near the front of the apartment. For the first half of the evening, most of us gathered near the kitchen area. Over time and as more folks arrived, the front rooms became the place to be.

I got into an interesting discussion with Nadine (who runs a silk screen printing business) about original works, attribution, and the challenges introduced by technology.

Rob shared a few sketches he was working on, for inclusion in an upcoming book: Chicago Stories.

And a preview copy of the book! Inside, it was cool to see a few of his drawings… and a few blank/placeholder pages, where future drawings would be placed.

A shot of the birthday cake. Elton John, eat your heart out.

// Edit: As an aside, looking back on this now, I’m reminded of my conversation with Nadine and am thinking about Clay Shirky’s video on SOPA.

During the evening, as Liz and I were chatting with folks in the living room… Rob stopped by to share the first issue of The Chicagoan, newly resurrected!

L to R it’s Liz, Marci, Jim and Jen. Though they’re around students who are very much plugged into Facebook, Jim and Jen have actively elected to keep their distance from social media. All of us got into some really interesting conversations about technology, social media, and photography.

I also got to talk with Aaron a bit more. I found out more about his role with The Interrupters, and was reminded that it’s airing on PBS/FRONTLINE on February 14th. I also learned that Aaron is currently working on editing a film about Muhammad Ali.

It was a fun night at Rob and Gretchen’s place. They have some incredibly interesting, smart and creative friends… and it was a blast chatting with everyone.