Under the Big W

I went to Atlanta for a couple of days for the Zapplication conference. Zapplication is the online application service that most of the better arts festivals use to manage their application and jurying processes. It's like any conference, with fun times with colleagues, questionable food, and a few days of staying up too late and drinking too much. As is par for the course, the conference sessions range from fascinating to those that make you think pounding nails into your head would be a better use of your time.

The conference hotel was the W in Midtown. It started out as something else (a Holiday Inn or a Sheraton, perhaps) but has been re-fabbed as Starwood's hip brand. And it was so hip that I had a hard time figuring out where the light switches were, how to use to television, or even how to phone the front desk. The button on the phone doesn't say Front Desk. That would be too low concept. Instead it says Wherever/Whenever. This was completely lost on me. To which, Mr. High Concept designer would undoubtedly say "Whatever".