"It's wicked cool"

In Maine, the phrase "it's wicked cool" rolls off the tongue, but I don't really expect to see it in the esteemed New York Times. And yet David Pogues's description of the iPhone is strangely apt and seems to extend to the whole darn (newly renamed) company and particularly to Steve Jobs (whether he actually back-dated stock options or not).

I've been trying for two days to think of some profound way to write about the odd buzz in my head as I sat on my couch for two entire hours and watched Steve Jobs perform his annual unveiling. I have watched his performances at Macworld before. They are really quite extraordinary even when the thing he is unveiling is completely expected and rather run-of-the-mill, like an upgraded operating system or something. Jobs has a comfortable mastery of public speaking that is extraordinarily rare. I don't think I've ever seen his level of skill outside of a church. Politicians can't pull off twenty minutes without a teleprompter and without putting me to sleep. I sat and watched this guy talk in a tiny Quicktime box in the corner of my laptop for TWO HOURS. He moved with ease around the stage, played with his new gadget and made phone calls around the room, even filled time with extraordinary grace when his projector remote stopped working and he couldn't advance his slides. If I were still teaching high school, I think I would put together some sort of lesson on giving an oral presentation based on clips of his keynotes. When Jobs trotted out the CEOs (and Chief Yahoo!) of other companies during the keynote, his own skills at an orator were brought into focus. The Cingular CEO was just plain awful: he read from note cards, poorly, throughout his 5 minute appearance, and he had very little to say.

The reward at the end of the keynote was a lovely little performance by John Mayer.

Apple is just plain wicked cool. If that makes me a geek, well, no one will be surprised about that!