In Austin at SXSW a few weeks ago, adorable uber-geek and thirty-year-old virgin Chris Pirillo invaded my morning hangover haze to do what turned out to be a really fantastic interview in Who Is Violet Blue? His writeup about me is so flattering, I’m doing the equivalent of a 24-48-hour blush session. Chris is hilarious, and he’s my number one choice for human hangover medicine. Apply Pirillo liberally to affected areas, laugh, and relax. Which is exactly what I did, by way of this wonderful interview. And the weird thing is, the YouTube comments are not 100% evil. It’s a miracle! I think that’s a testament the power of Pirillo’s superlative, no-bullshit, community building skillz. Snip:
(…) You might have seen her in Macheads (and if you haven’t, there’s no time like the present to watch the movie).
She tells it like it is, holding nothing back. She does so in a way that will make you stop and think about things – making you laugh all the way.
Given the subject material at hand (sex!), you’d think that a person would be uncomfortable talking to Violet about it. However, that isn’t the case at all. She may be open and direct, but it is also obvious that she is an amazing communicator – even if I happened to stumble here and there. Okay, so this is something I’m not used to talking about (certainly not on video).
(…) Violet’s career is something she never planned on, though. She carved her path for herself purely by accident. (…read more, chris.pirillo.com)
Great interview. Chris is a great guy.
I remember my first experience with Chris Pirillo; I was in high school and spending the day after Christmas watching a “Call for Help” a-thon on TechTV. He was the first person who convinced me that tabbed browsing was the way to go.
Sure, he had the potential to be a little over-the-top and annoying sometimes, but I think that’s true of all enthusiastic people.
All in all, a great interview.
(A caveat: Someday, I’d like the opportunity to interview you for a feature article. The pitch for it? Not a damn clue.)
Thanks for linking to the video… an interesting one to watch. I hadn’t heard of Chris Pirillo before, so I’ll have to check out his other stuff.
I was really interested to hear about your Le Web experience (and more than a little disturbed). I’ve been growing increasingly concerned about the complete lack of civility in what passes for “discourse” these days. It isn’t even just about sex… there was an over-the-top diatribe I saw on a pretty innocuous article I read about some high energy physics research (seriously). Maybe I’m just looking back at the good old days, but it seems like it has gone way beyond old-fashioned Usenet flaming into total vileness. More and more, I have to think that “John Gabriel’s Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory” (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/) isn’t really a theory so much as a freaking Law of Nature.