Fat Twinks, Rage and Dancing Like Black People

You’ve just got to love the searchabilityness of the interwebs. We say it all the time, but NOTHING get’s lost on this thing. Every bobble of information, every bit of conversation, every off handed tag you’ve ever tugged is always there somewhere lurking, ready to pop up on a search engine in all it’s embarrassing glory. It’s kind of like your mom showing up at your office with photos of you as a kid in your Spider Man underoos. Good thing I was a cute kid.

Filed under: Media, Um WTF? , Funny, keywords, Random as a MF'er, search, tags

Spells, media and male feminists: new interviews

So now that Oakland Local’s out of the gate and in the race I’ve been getting back into the swing of reporting after spending most of the year on marketing projects.   It’s amazing how a few months can add dust to your dancing shoes, but I figure I’ll be back to fighting weight and ready to clean off a place on the mantle for a Pulitzer by, um, realistically, next Tuesday.

But in the meantime I’ve been grabbing lots of impromptu interviews (which I’ll get around to posting soon) in addition to more structured dealies.   Lots of talk about art, media, journalism, and the general grappling with the WTF world that we do around these parts.   A lot of the interviews were for Oakland Local but of course my alter ego-The Long Winded Inquisitor-made sure to cover enough ground to be able to chop, screw and parse till my little editor’s heart is content.  I like the idea of a longer book project, but then so does everybody else, so we’ll see how that goes.

For right now just check a couple of edited pieces that I have up now. I’ll be posting more regularly and figuring out what to do with the raw (rawr baby) material.

Filed under: Art, Interviews, Media , Activism, alters, Art, curation, feminism, Interviews, Media, richmond rape, visual art

Coloured is better

Good morning,

Watch this.  It’s hilarious. Don’t think about it too much about it though. Just laugh, and continue with your day.

more about “Coloured is better“, posted with vodpod

Filed under: Marketing, Media, Video , Commercials, humour, italy., Race, Video

1 for the people, 2 for the globe, 3 for the people. Keep it Eco.

Ambessa Contave, one half of Oakland hip hop duo Fiyawata, organizer and green movement mobilizer  giving a shout in favor of climate change regulations.  This Saturday is the International Day of Climate Change Action and eco activists around the world are hosting over 1500 actions in over 125 countries, calling for climate justice at the Copenhagen climate talks from Dec. 7-18.

Filed under: Activism, Art, Media, Music, San Francisco

Why you should care about Net Neutrality

Think about it. Do you want AT&T, Comcast and Verizon controlling your access to the net? Which websites you can visit? How quickly you download porn?   That’s not the America I signed up for.

Do the right thing: support Net Neutrality. Sign the petition and leave a comment in favor of making Net Neutrality a law.

Filed under: Activism, Media, News , At&T, Comcast, justice, Media, Net Neutrality, Save the internet, verizon

Oakland Local: News for the people

Hyperlocal. Citizen journalism.  User generated content. All of these new buzzwords are being thrown around as possible solutions to the current journalism crisis.  All around the country some really brilliant people are producing some really great projects in a collective  effort to save the news business.  Or at least to shape what comes after it’s demise.

We recently threw our hat into this idealistic ring with the hopes that we can better serve the Oakland public and turn some of those buzzwords into tangible next steps and a sustainable journalism model.  This past Monday we launched Oakland Local, a new hyperlocal news site that incorporates traditional journalism with multimedia, user generated content and citizen journalism all in one place.

Filed under: Media, News, Oakland , journalism, Media, new media, Oakland, startups

The problem with the CNN Don Lemon & Nas interview

(Props to The Hood Nerd for his original post.)

CNN, we have a problem.

By now most people have heard of Derrion Albert, the 16 year old Chicago honor student killed in the middle of a gang brawl last week. The incident was caught on video and has sparked all the moral outrage, tears and calls to action such tragedies are known to inspire.

It’s a terrible situation any way you slice it and in situations like these there are always loads of valid questions, anger and finger pointing-merited or otherwise. People are hurt and looking for culprits, some unwavering boogie man to pin the issue on before burning them at the stake.  And it’s here that CNN steps in with the reporting equivalent of a sucker punch, landing a two piece right on the jaw of the hip hop community.

Over the weekend, CNN’s Don Lemon did a story package that included an emotional interview with Albert’s mother, a Q&A with a couple of Chi-town community activists and a sit down with the rapper Nas, who had penned a letter entitled “An Open Letter to Young Warriors” that addresses the violence and calls for young cats to rethink priorities, drop some of the stupid shit and and make more positive choices. All in all not a bad look, and so far it’s the most action taken by anyone from the mainstream urban entertainment community.

Filed under: Activism, Hip Hop, Media

Seize The Moment! Media Training Conference starts today

The Bay’s been bubbling about this conference for the last few weeks and now it’s finally here!

The Seize the Moment Media training is two days of budget conscious (hella cheap) media trainings focused on community and ethnic media (but all are welcome).

There’s a long list of training sessions, including one on using online tools to promote your brand, which, ahem, I’m leading the with most fabulous Sarah Dopp *does a happy little groupie dance*.

But don’t think that just cuz I managed to finagle my way onto the team that’s it’s an event for lightweights.  The trainings are bring together some serious using media muscle with sessions being led by the likes of Susan Mernit, David Cohn, JD Lasica,  Kara Andrade and a lot of other internet famous smart as hell new media types.

Filed under: Media , journalism, Media, multimedia, newspapers, training

First MJ, now Vibe. But Vibe kinda sucked.

Although I’ve gotta say that while I’m sincerely sad about the first, the second is a pure nostaligiac respect based on three things:

1. Vibe was the 1st mag I ever bought a subscription to with my own hard  earned yout’ money (The only thing I had to show after a high school at Taco Hell, save a longstanding and unhealthy obsession with 7 layer burritos).
2. Quincy Jones  has always been, and will continue to be The Fucking Man.  Anybody who can roll with Miles and Sinatra’s gotta command a little respect.
3. Eff what ya heard, Daniel Smith was the best editor of any Hip Hop mag ever. EH-vah.  When I heard she was going to be back at the helm I actually considered subscribing again, for like 3 whole seconds.  Ah well, maybe this means she’ll have time to get back to blogging (her kaleidoscopic  didact rants on entertainment, politics and sports are still an inspiration. )

Filed under: Hip Hop, Media, Music

Tonight in San Francisco-Hybrid Journalism!

The new grassroots journalism

Not so breaking news! The news industry is getting turned on it’s ear. Not so secret tip: No one really knows what to do about it! Over the last couple of years, as longtime newspaper folk have been shown the door en masse, and everyone’s Tweeted and Friended themselves into a public frenzy, a lot of new questions, new challenges and new opportunities have risen from the ashes of all those burned newspapers.

But what does this multimedia real time approach to life mean for the way we report and consume the news? What are the new tools and how are they being used? Find out the insider info from the new news biz at this panel discussion with members of the new and old guard media. Panelest include: Katharine Mieszkowski, Salon.com,Joe Rubin, FRONTLINE/World, Robert Rosenthal, CIR, Kevin Weston, New America Media and Marcus Chan, SF Chronicle and will be moderated by Magnet Media’s Megan Cunningham. 

Filed under: Media , journalism, Media, News, online, San Francisco