“Monster (Drupal Remix feat. A.Hughes and D.Stagg)” music video released

Last year, A.Hughes and QCait dropped a Drupal remix of Successful by Drake for Schipul’s bi-annual conference SchipulCon in 2010. We were lucky enough to have Dries himself link to the video.

This year, though, A.Hughes teamed up with writing partner D.Stagg (both Schipul employees), taking it up a notch, dropping “Monster (Drupal Remix feat. A.Hughes and D.Stagg)”, complete with video, for DrupalCon 2011.

“Monster (Drupal Remix feat. A.Hughes and D.Stagg)”

“Monster (Drupal Remix feat. A.Hughes and D.Stagg)” from Schipul – The Web Marketing Co. on Vimeo.

Make sure check out the behind-the-scenes photos
Like the track? You can also download “Monster (Drupal Remix)” here.
Video Permalink on Vimeo

Mad love to Brian Potter for the editing and direction.

Lyrics

D.Stagg
CMS is a monster
Blue on ya monitor
site bombin on ya
Now look where Drupal poppin up
As look through ya pocketbook
Site need a new look
try a Drupal sample
Hughes’ll demo an example

Hook
Drupal Drupal gotta lotta users
I’m a need to see a lot sites on this movement
I’m a need to see more Drupal sites watch us prove it
I’m a need to see more Drupal sites watch us prove it

Drupal, Drupal, everybody Drupal (x3)

A.Hughes
took my first site live on Drupal 5
that was ’08 i was trying to survive
got my suit straight and bought 2 ties
the lord blessed me with a gig now we on the rise
html i knew css
dreamweaver jquery and a cms
on my resume and in my cover letter
everyday i’m goin in and i’m getting better
up all night i done learned php
I’m on that on lullabot for a phd
in the Drupal game i’m a do my thang
managing projects on my way to fame
and we don’t see the same i got better views
in different regions doing fields like some soccer shoes
yeah its a.hughes i’ll replace ya name like a token
and you better back up before your site is broken

Hook
Drupal Drupal gotta lotta users
I’m a need to see a lot sites on this movement
I’m a need to see more Drupal sites watch us prove it
I’m a need to see more Drupal sites watch us prove it

Drupal, Drupal, everybody Drupal (x3)

D.Stagg
Drupal Drupal got a lot of users
Gotta build a site that’ll scale like weight losers
Gotta load fast using solr and some views
Gotta look better like Bentleys over land cruisers
Weak CMS sites boy we be trashing them
Call EMS those sites Drupal bashin them
Like Perez Hilton talkin’ trash bout yo fashion
Gotta have a clean back end like kardashian
Source code on LSD all tabbed out
Using css3, I’m a brag about
The Drupal 7 drop, stagg’ll always be about
Killin these sites with some node templates maxxed out
Give me a fresh install and an IDE
Hooked on hooks, modulating like I’m Whitney
Hook_form-alter like I’m doin’ plastic surgery
Takin’ these sites to a level like you never seen

2011-02-01

Making LOVE | Schipul Love Fest

It’s Lovin’ Time! And we’ve kicked off the 2011 Schipul Love Fest with our “Love Letters” Facebook contest.

3 Ways to Win

1. Like the photo and enter to win a $25 Amazon.com gift card

2. Tag the photo with the name of a friend to enter them for a chance to win a picnic for two at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Houston with goodies from Rice Epicurean Markets

3. Leave a comment for a chance to win a $100 dinner at Brennan’s of Houston.

We’ll give the winners a shoutout on our Facebook wall Feb. 13, 2011.

Making LOVE

The coolest part about the making of LOVE, is it’s from the heart. We value our fans, clients and community and enjoy it when we can show you just how much!

Check out the making of LOVE on Flickr and enter the “Love Letters” contest on Facebook for a chance to win one of three heart-warming prizes!

How It Happened

Here’s exactly how it happened (basically). *cue dreamy flashback music*

It was a warm and sunny day in Houston (yesterday). The Schipul COMM team was in their morning meeting when all of a sudden a mini celebration commenced.

S1: Hooray! It’s almost February. Time for Schipul Love Fest (We seriously begin conversations this way. I know.)

S2: What should we do to celebrate…?

S1: Something really cool.

They thought for a moment, but it was early, and little coffee had been consumed, and a meeting was at hand. So they put it aside for later.

“We’ll think of something,” said S2. And with that the Schipulites began their meeting.

Soon before the meeting ended there was a loud gasp and a giddy giggle from S1.

“It would be soooo cute if we got everyone to spell the word ‘love’ on the parking garage roof and take a photo….I don’t know what we’d do with it, but it would be really cute,” she said.

The Schipulites laughed in agreement, and parted ways to begin their busy day.

Later on, she pondered aloud, “That picture would be really cute…and what if we made one of those fast forward videos of us spelling out the letters?!”

S2: OhMyGosh! We could put it on Facebook and ask people to tag their friends to win a prize.

And with that, the LOVE-struck Schipulites began the task of rule checking, prize assembling and cat wrangling for a photo on the parking garage roof.

And then they woke up. And remembered it was Houston. Which means the temperature dropped from a pleasant 68 degrees to a mind-boggling 40-something degrees. With rain (very likely the tears of a Schipulite wounded by Mother Nature).

There was no way they were schlepping up to the parking garage roof in the rain and cold to lie on the ground because that’s nuts and they’ve got their hair to consider! So they brought the Love Fest inside – and magic happened.

Thanks for loving us!

~xo

2010-12-30

SchipulMix December 2010: Tunes from our ears to yours

Our crew LOVES our music, as evidenced by the multitude of office singalongs (particularly those originating from David’s office speakers).

Here are the highlights of what’s been keeping us going throughout the month – tell us your faves in the comments and we might include your track in our January SchipulMix! Happy listening:

Playlist:

Vengeance Is Sleeping (Neko Case)
Xtatic Truth (Crystal Fighters)
Firework (Katy Perry)
Paid in Full (Eric B & Rakim)
Children’s Story (Slick Rick)
And It Stoned Me (Van Morrison)
Yoshimi Battle the Pink Robots Pt. 1 (Flaming Lips)
Janglin (Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros)

Photo thanks to Flickr user a_kep

2010-11-05

You Can Always Go Downtown

When I accepted my job at Schipul back in January, I was scared.

It wasn’t the challenge of the new job, no, it was because I was leaving something, Downtown Houston, that had very much become an important part of my identity.

Downtown has long been one of my favorite places in Houston. Shortly after graduating from college, I started hitting the Flying Saucer. While attending Texas Christian University, I had begun the quest of getting a plate at the original Flying Saucer in Fort Worth, TX. During this time, I got to know Downtown, and learned it was a helluva lot easier to figure out that most people around Houston think.

I was one of the thousands of folks that celebrated the Super Bowl and the MLB All-Star game. Downtown had finally arrived, and I was in the thick of it with people I count today as my best friends.

On Memorial Day weekend in 2005, I moved into the East End, and took a job at Society for the Performing Arts. My education in all things Downtown soared to a new level. I was working and playing Downtown, and even started taking METRO to work. Thus Urban Houstonian was born. I bought a Manhattan Portage messenger bag, subscribed to some Esquire and Texas Monthly magazines (because you need something to read on the bus to work), and started blogging about my adventures.

I was getting off the 36 Kempwood/Lawndale at Dallas and Rusk, and hoofing it the rest of the way to Jones Hall and the SPA offices. It was one of the best times of my entire life. Downtown was my neighborhood, my special place where anything was possible.

But that was all set to end when I took the job at Schipul. My urban commute of 5 miles was going to balloon to 22 miles! Schipul offices are OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY?! I was bracing for the daily grind of relying on I-10 for my daily commute. I-10! The harbinger of traffic death in Houston, Texas.

O – M – G!

Some of my friends joked that I was not going to have to start calling myself Sub-Urban Houstonian. The new job eventually necessitated a move JUST outside the Loop. Yes, the Urban Houstonian now lived outside the Loop. Look for my thoughts on that soon on my blog.

But here’s the thing, I’m still a Downtown guy. I’m a subscriber to the Houston Ballet and Houston Symphony. I volunteer for SPA, and recently got to attend the most amazing performance by MOMIX. In fact, I attend MORE performances now than I did when I was working in the Theater District! And, last night, some fellow Schipulites and I even attended the Houston Downtown Alliance Heart of the City Gala last night at House of Blues.

What I thought I was going to lose, I have gained plus MORE, and I am so grateful to the people and opportunities that have allowed that to happen this Thanksgiving. Through them I’ve learned . . .

Everything’s waiting for you . . . in Downtown.

2010-10-13

We Turned 13 & Kris Got Lost

The Schipulite’s celebrated the 13th anniversary of Schipul!

We appreciate the opportunity to work with wonderful clients who make each year possible.

It was a grand time with great friends, photos and fun. It ended with an office email about a sketchy looking fridge, large print books for Ed, and the million dollar question:

“Oh, and P.S. Has anyone seen Kris lately?”

We’ve posted photos from the party on flickr and facebook.

Check them out, tag your friends, tag yourself, fan the page and send us a shout!

And we found Kris.

An Update on Kris…

Kris Kristofferson was last seen Thursday afternoon, headed to the Schipul 13th Anniversary celebration at Churrascos.

Long story short: he got tipsy and went home with someone…we suspect.

Since then, the scoundrel, has been backseat surfing the cars of certain Schipulites, and getting friendly with house pets….

He sauntered in this morning, and is on party probation until further notice.

Welcome back Kris, and a BIG BIG thank you to our clients for another great year!

2010-09-012014-11-02

Happy 13th birthday, Schipul!!

Today marks the 13th anniversary of our fearless leader Ed Schipul taking the dive into entrepreneurial world with Schipul – The Web Marketing Company.

It’s been an adventure – from Web design to search engine marketing to software products to Social Media… ups and downs, laughter and tears, Flash and HTML5, conferences and webinars. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

But by far our biggest gift has been the Schipul tribe that we have been surrounded by over the years.

Our clients mean everything to us, they challenge us to grow and push us to innovate and stay smart. We love interacting, visiting and partnering with them. Such a blessing, every one.

Our friends and community keep us quirky and creative – hosting great events, sharing and training with us and being there for us through thick and thin.

And finally, our employees bring everything together for us on a daily basis. Their hard work, constant personal development and passion for serving our tribe is the difference between trudging into the office for another blah work day and truly loving the work that we are privileged to do.

Happy birthday Schipul — and congratulations to all! We wouldn’t be here without you.

Photo thanks to Flickr user brunkforbraun

2010-08-252014-11-02

Theaterus Interruptus

I started working in Houston’s Theater District at Society for the Performing Arts before Facebook was well, Facebook and the introduction of the iPhone. Android was still just a dream of the Open Handset Alliance. Being the early adopter that I am, I began testing the waters of Facebook and Twitter, trying to figure out how all this crazy stuff worked. All the while, my mind kept spinning around the question, ‘How could these emerging methods of connection and communication be integrated into the Theater District experience?’

As with many organizations during this time, the answers have not been easy to come by. The main conflict is the ages of the respective audiences. The group actively using social media on the internet and their phones is considerably younger than the audiences taking in performances at Jones Hall and the Wortham. The great fear for some patrons is the degradation of the theater experience like we have seen in our movie theaters. Others find the behavior of these tech happy people abhorrent, and too unsophisticated for the filigreed temples of the arts. Honestly? They’re right. Going to a performance is an experience between you and the artists. It is an intimate relationship that sometimes requires the full attention of the patron.

Imagine yourself locked in a passionate embrace of your significant other. They are holding you in their arms tightly, stroking your hair, nibbling at your ear. When, all of a sudden, he or she pulls out their phone to send a tweet. That moment is, as they say, spent. Now, with that same scenario, imagine if a stranger interrupted this moment to post your picture on Facebook? We’ll call this phenomenon Theaterus Interruptus.

This is not behavior anyone here at Schipul would be likely to encourage, however, we also see the strong need for a conversation about the use of social media and mobile phones within the construct of a night at the theater. In the coming weeks, I want to open up a dialog with arts patrons and enthusiasts about the use of social media in our performance spaces. I will introduce you to different sites and apps that I feel have great potential, and hopefully develop a set of rules we all can follow to help expand our enjoyment of the theater-going experience.

2010-08-09

Special Delivery! A Corpse Flower for our Friends at CultureMap

I had the privilege this morning of dropping off a real live baby Corpse Flower to our friends at CultureMap as a congrats for their hilarious @CorpzFlowrLois Twitter account (which generated considerable buzz for the Houston Museum of Natural Science’s Corpse Flower Lois last month).

Raising a Corpse Flower is not an easy job – according to the HMNS blog, Corpse Flowers only bloom once they are 7 years old. Luckily, our fledgling came with instructions such as temperature, amount of sunlight, etc.

Congrats to the new proud parents!

More Corpse Flower delivery photos on Facebook

What is that?

Special Delivery!

Baby corpse flower, enjoying her new home.

Steven Thomson, Lois’s personal ghost writer with the new addition

PS – I’m adding Corpse Flower delivery to my resume under “special skills.”

Check out the delivery of the corpse flower!

2010-08-05

To Sakowitz We Go…With Kris Kristofferson

The Schipuites (just Ed, really) recently bid on a puppet from The Bloggess on Ebay.

His name is Kristopher Kristofferson. He is weird. He is furry. But we love him (?) and needed him cleaned…and to stop shedding. So we took him to the only place we could think of: Sakowitz Furs, baby!

Empirical evidence suggests that when you walk into a top-of-the-line establishment with a disheveled hand puppet, a three-step reaction process is inevitable:

Step 1: Confusion

Step 2: Acceptance

Step 3: Excitement

The Sakowitz staff was amazingly accommodating!

As they said, “it’s a hand puppet, so it needs to be hand cleaned.” When you really think about it (which you probably shouldn’t) it’s great to know that a friendly, professional staff is available to help care for your beloved fur puppets. This will undoubtedly help all of you sleep better at night. Check out more reactions from the Sakowitz staff and innocent bystanders on Flickr and Facebook.

*No bunnies were harmed during this visit…or the making of this blog post.