Photo supreme courtesy of Jason Early of Gruntmonkey out of Chicago. Follow him on Tiwtter at: @jason_early. Do it!

GOT UP EARLY AND SHOT DOWNSTAIRS INTO THE ACTION: Chip Kidd came on at 9 in the AM, and we were but 10 rows back, front and center. A wild talk, in the biggest room in the whole complex. Big fan of the Chip Kidd! Great meeting you, buddy!

Then I hightailed it over to the Neenah Paper booth to sign 100 of my Boston posters. At a table and everything! So I’m sitting there, numbering those first 100, and I look up…and at the door is a GNAWING HORDE OF WILD DESIGNERS! Like, cops and shit holding them back! And at high noon, the gates open and a split second later, I’m surrounded by what seemed to be 1000 people! Wow! (See above for undeniable proof.)

Check out Leigh! Standing there keeping those beasts at bay. She’s the head of DDC Security, our Nurturing Dept., Get Outside And Move Div. and other subsidiary interests.

I did a little crowd control and then we got down to business. Signed and handed out 100 of our “Wicked Boston” posters, shook hands and shot the shit. Thank you to everyone who showed up! My apologies to those who missed out on one. I feel bad about that. Come to the show tomorrow, as I’ve got a stash I’ll be selling at our viciously-stocked DDC merch table! Thank you, Neenah Jamie!

Got to see Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio’s presentation, too. Super fun, transparent and interesting. Love what those guys do. Mikey Burton and I shot the shit, maybe a little too much, prompting a big, meaty “SHHHHH!” from some conference attendee in front of us. Sorry, bud.

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BIG NIGHT OUT: And as soon as I got out of the HOW deal, I hightailed it downstairs, grabbed Leigh and off we went down to Rhode Island. Going AWOL! Grabbed our rental car and we zipped down to the Twin River casino in Lincoln, RI for none other than Don Rickles! Big night out! We planned this night like six months ago.

An interesting night. Rolling to the casino, we dropped the rig off with the valet guys and got inside. Lots of golden oldies in line with us. I think we might’ve been the youngest people at the show. Maybe not. Anyhoo, some crooner came on before Don, and then the band kicked in, and out shuffled little Don Rickles, and holy shit, it was so cool.

At 86, the guy’s up there and it shows, but he’s still got that instantaneous reaction time of his. Shocking and heartwarming at the same time, Mr. Rickles brought the house down. The place was going apeshit. Like, 4000 people or something? We popped for tickets about 15 rows back from the stage. Could see him pretty well. Incredible. Thank you, Mr. Rickles. Thank you.

And as an added jolt, Regis and Joy were in the crowd but 10 people from us. They stood up and waved to the crowd and let people gawk at them and shit. Pretty cool. Big night out.

Don Rickles Highway.

Don Rickles parking lot.

Mr. Warmth, himself! The crowd = Going completely apeshit for the guy.