David Spade is hysterical.  I’m glad my first meeting didn’t start until 10am today – it gave me time to watch the World’s Dirtiest Film.

If you don’t have a vice, I recommend it. 

My good friend and fellow VC blogger Fred Wilson has a music vice.  His blog mixes his passion (ok – kind word for vice) for music with all the other stuff he thinks about, works on, cares about and loves.  When he first started writing about music I tended to skim the posts – now I read every one of them and learn more about music from them than I do any other way.

For some people it is music, for some people it is wine, and for some people it is – well never mind.  My vice is art.  I grew up with art all around me.  My mom (Cecelia Feld) is an artist and as a kid I was dragged from gallery to museum to gallery.  I acted like you’d expect an 11 year boy to act (mom – where is the soccer ball – I don’t want to go to the stupid gallery) but by the time I got to MIT it had sunk in.  MIT doesn’t really have “minors” (they call them “concentrations” just to be different) – one of my concentrations was in Art History.  I now even enjoy going to Santa Fe for the weekend.

Amy and I love to wander around galleries and museums.  Our pace is the same – we are skimmers (people that move briskly through the museum absorbing everything) rather than people than stand and stare at the art.  We learned a long time ago (from a wise art collector) that you should “buy what you love to look at.”  It’s a simple strategy that has served us well over the past 15 years of evolving from beginning art collectors (I remember the agony we went through when we bought our first $1,000 piece since it was a meaningful percentage of my net worth at the time) to what we are today.

On Saturday, we bought our first Julien Stanczak piece while hanging out with our friends at the Danese Gallery in Chelsea.  It’s called Continuum (1995).

It’s a big boy – 70 inches by 70 inches.  Stanczak is an early practitioner of Op Art and is less well known than artists like Bridget Riley (and therefore much more affordable.)  Op Art is short for “optical art” and is typically a painting that takes advantage of optical illusions.  Standing in front of a piece like Continuum is mind blowing (and can quickly turn you into a zombie.)

In a couple of weeks, I’ll have Continuum hanging in our office in Boulder. Please feel free to stare at it.  If you enjoy the art posts, or want to learn more, follow the Wikipedia links above.  I’ve been pleasantly amazed with the quality and depth of information on Wikipedia around art and art history.  It’s a great (and safe) way to satisfy a vice.

I spent seven years at MIT and managed to pick up two degrees before they kicked me out.  I describe the place using the 10/40/50 rule.  10% of the people there are off the chart brilliant and nothing phases them.  40% of the people are extremely smart, figure out the system, and make it through with moderate but not life threatening scars.  50% of the people are extremely smart, but never figure out the system and their experience at MIT is a "daily assault on their self esteem."  Fortunately, I was in the 40%.

In 2004, Frank Gehry’s amazingly designed Stata Center (home of the MIT Computer Science AI Lab) opened to much fanfare.  It’s as fascinating inside as it is outside. Lots of really interesting people have offices there and wandering around in the place is like living inside a Dr. Seuss book (while looking at it is like staring at a Dr. Seuss world.)

The first time I actually saw the building (in the winter of 2004), my first thought was something like "man – this thing is going to be trouble."  I love architecture (I’m an architect in a parallel universe), but I lived in Boston for 12 years and all I could think about was stuff like "so – what happens when the ice falls off the roof and breaks through a window." 

Apparently that question is currently being addressed.  On 10/31/07, MIT sued Frank Gehry (and Skanska USA – the construction firm) claiming negligence and a breach of contractual obligations.  I’m not big on lawsuits, but I loved Joanne Wilson’s post on it titled M.I.T. and Gehry.  If you’ve ever done a big construction project, I’ll bet you can identify with what Joanne said.

At the same time, I also loved John Maeda’s post on it titled Leaks Are To Be Forgiven.  Maeda’s office is in the I.M. Pei designed Media Lab, the "bathtub building" that was built while I was in school there but that has nicely stood the test of time and is now being expanded by via a design from Fumihiko Maki.

It appears Frank Gehry is having his "MIT 50% experience."

While terrorists couldn’t seem to bring down Jack Bauer, the writer’s strike seems to have nailed him.  Oh well – at least there’s a back to the future version of 24 titled 24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot that demonstrates an excellent use of AOL 3.0.

Even though I thought Season 6 of 24 was a dud, I am still devastated by the news that 24 is on hold this season due to the writers strike.  I guess Kiefer Sutherland can go do his jail time now.

I’m usually an excruciatingly happy person.  I’m a little cranky this morning because I have a cold and didn’t get a good night sleep the last two nights, but I’ll get over it.  Oh – and even though I’m cranky, I’m still happy.

Ted Leonsis just gave the morning keynote at the New New Internet Conference.  I first met Ted in 1990 at the first Birthing of Giants event that I participated in.  Ironically, five minutes ago, I bumped into Verne Harnish – the creator of Birthing of Giants and the founder of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization (that co-sponsors Birthing of Giants.)  Since I’m now way off the rails on the actual content of this post, I thought I’d mention that Verne was the only guy I knew in Boulder when Amy and I moved there in 1995 – and Verne split for the east coast a few months later leaving us completely alone in our new mountain hideaway.

Back to the post.  In Ted’s keynote, he stated that he’s been a 25 year student in the pursuit of happiness.   He asserted that deep scientific research (not cited) has uncovered five key things that generate happiness in humans.

• Relationships
• Community
• Self expression
• Giving back
• Pursue a higher calling

Interesting to ponder.  He also mentioned that AOL’s peak market cap was around $200b and Google is now closing in on $160b.  Also interesting to ponder.

For the guy (or gal) that has an extensive collection of black t-shirts with all kinds of logos and band pictures on them comes – the Wi-Fi Detector Shirt.  In addition to taking your wardrobe to a new nerdy level, you can perform a public service by helping everyone near you know whether or not Wi-Fi is available  (Thanks Mark.)

I get loads of questions throughout every day.  I try to be responsive to all of them – it’s just the way I am.  I have a saying which is “you can’t send me too much email” – for whatever reason I’ve figured out how to process it all quickly each day (zero inbox strategy.)

One of my capabilities is to know when I’m clueless.  Most VCs (and many entrepreneurs) have a hard time admitting they are clueless about something.  It’s a natural reaction of a smart, hard driving person who is constantly analyzing data and making decisions to have an opinion about everything, especially when asked politely by someone for advice.

I got an email from a friend with a set of specific questions in it this morning.  I read it, sat for a minute, and then read it again.  I thought for another few seconds and then sent the following note to him.

Ok – now you’ve entered into the “Brad is completely clueless zone.”  I don’t even have any opinion here – whatever I would say would be wrong.

Know when you are clueless.  It will save you – and your friends – a lot of time.

The best thing I read in the paper (or on the Internet, or in my email, or on the side of a building) today was I Am an Op-Ed Columnist (And So Can You!).  I rarely watch The Colbert Report (or The Daily Show) – I have enough friends that email me links to the funny bits. 

There were so many “best lines” that it’s hard to pick one.  Seth’s was (when Colbert was referring to a potentially new entrant in the 2008, or 2012, or 2016 election):

“Well, suddenly an option is looming on the horizon. And I don’t mean Al Gore (though he’s a world-class loomer). First of all, I don’t think Nobel Prizes should go to people I was seated next to at the Emmys. Second, winning the Nobel Prize does not automatically qualify you to be commander in chief. I think George Bush has proved definitively that to be president, you don’t need to care about science, literature or peace.”

Mine was:

“Our nation is at a Fork in the Road. Some say we should go Left; some say go Right. I say, “Doesn’t this thing have a reverse gear?” Let’s back this country up to a time before there were forks in the road — or even roads. Or forks, for that matter. I want to return to a simpler America where we ate our meat off the end of a sharpened stick.”

Or maybe:

“And Fred Thompson. In my opinion “Law & Order” never sufficiently explained why the Manhattan D.A. had an accent like an Appalachian catfish wrestler.”

Well – whatever.  The whole damn thing is hysterical.