The MC web crew is active at Chicago’s Side Project theater company — in fact, programmer Dan Granata is their managing director. As you can see, they have a lot going on — and their site features audio and video previews and podcasts of upcoming shows. Check it out. Tell ‘em we sent ya.

I’ll admit it, I’m not a big fan of regular meetings. I generally think they’re 1.) not that productive, 2.) don’t really lead to actionable items to get more things done, and 3.) likely to become a void for weird energy rife with confusion and a lack of direction. Not to mention a great excuse for mid-day group therapy. They seem to be urgent, but really don’t seem that important. That said, though, what I am a big fan of is the lunch or breakfast “catch-up” strategy big picture meeting. These are where you have time to eat, chat, catch-up, and think of things you’d normally only think of if you were flying on a plane. Like, hey — here’s a new business idea and we could do X and make Y happen. I happen to love those and think they’re a blast. But the trick with those types of meetings is that they’re important, but not urgent — and other things tend to tempt one to “push” the meeting to sometime later on. Things always come up and get in the way, but I’m in this phase lately of Hey, if I’m putting a meeting in the calendar, I’m gonna make it to that meeting. Unless I’m in the hospital for a sprained wrist. In any given week, I try to have at least 4-5 “meal-centric-meetings” with Whoever It May Be. Working on all of the stuff for this company, along with other things in the comedy community keeps the social time to a minimum — and the so-called “business meetings” really turn into functional and fun-filled social calls. And the internal “hour-long” clock always kicks-in and sets everyone afoot onto the next thing. So, to sum-up: fan of the right kinds of meetings with the right kind of loose agenda. Work meetings in conference rooms should be reserved for discussions that would take longer if typed on endless email threads. Work meetings in restaurants should be reserved for hanging out — because that’s where the real work takes place.

Coming soon! The new book by the founders of 37signals. Enjoy the trailer!

Kudos to Healthy Choice for dropping a ton of money on a new series of ads directed by Christopher Guest and featuring some of the best improvisational comedians in the business. How often is it that you see an ad on television, watch it again, and then actually go to YouTube to watch the other ones? And then take the time to post it on a blog and direct even more people to that blog from the Inter-garden’s various forms of media? Hopefully that says it all. And whatever the ad agency or writers or Christopher Guest said to Healthy Choice to give them comedic reign, it worked. Here’s one of ‘em for your viewing pleasure:

Last week, the Senate voted 70-30 to approve Ben Bernanke for another four years as Chair of the Federal Reserve. In this episode of the podcast, I interviewed PERL mortgage adviser Barry Schwartz about Ben Bernanke and his role as Fed Chair. Enjoy! For more podcasts, visit the PERL archives.

PERL Podcast 49 / Ben Bernanke