Cranium

Okay, I said I'd keep the job stuff off my blog, but this one's cool. I just applied for a job at Cranium. I'm the Artist in Residence at my local Starbucks, where Cranium is sold, so it makes karmic sense. Plus I like that their mission has the intention to "enlighten people's lives."

Here's the quote.

"When Richard Tait and Whit Alexander set out to start a company in 1998, they had a distinct mission: create a lifestyle brand fueled by products and services that would lighten and enlighten people's lives. Their goal was to create special moments, memories, and emotional touchstones that people could celebrate at home, at work, and with friends and family-all the while laughing and learning."

What's crazy is that I wrote a short play in 1999 called Spellbinders... about a company that created rituals to celebrate life-transitions. Like, if your friend got promoted, you could go to Spellbinders and buy a ceremony. They would rent the venue, design the ritual, organize catering, and host the evening -- lead the ritual, sing, the whole deal. Theatre meets Teamworx. It was a business I thought I'd be good at, so I invented it and stuck it in a play.

Now here it is again.

It's always interesting to me what ex-Microsofties -- which both these founders are -- do after they leave. The ones who presumably can afford to do anything. They mostly either have babies, or become artists. Even the ones who start businesses do so with a soulful artist flair.

That's how McCarthy Teamworx (now McCarthy Technologies) began. They sat around for a year recuperating from burnout and meeting twice a week to go, "If we could do ANYTHING, what would we most like to do?" Their answer was, "Create a world where everyone is living in Greatness," or Flow, or peak experience, whatever you want to call it. Since people spend most of their time at work, they figured they'd start by making work a peak experience.

Cranium evidently wants to make sure we laugh, and laugh together. That makes Saint Vitus their patron saint, and Thalia their Muse.