Last Post of 2007:

In reading my last post of 2006 just a few minutes ago, I noticed how battered I seemed this time a year ago, proud I was still standing, but not eager to repeat any part of the previous 12 months. Not one day of it. I had hoped and predicted to 2007 would be a year of "bold aventures, impending opportunities, limitless possibility."

And so it has been. This year I started a company, wrote two book proposals, traveled far and saw much. I deepened relationships with old friends and family and made new ones. I learned about classical music and theater, about what my city and country can and will do to shape its destiny. I ran eight miles without stopping. I fell in love.

I am never sad to see a year go because, if I've done my job living wisely and well, it will have prepared me for the year to come and I have no regrets. But as I write this, after watching an achingly beautiful sunset, my woman across the table from me on her own laptop, I feel just a little bit sad. Because in a decade or so, I will have looked back at 2007 as the year where so much of what now treasure was first born.

But that's for then. Tonight I will spend a quiet night at home enjoying the last bundle of hours of our joint vacation. Next week's for laying out the 2008 game plan, reflecting on new possibilities and second chances. Then it's back to work, a new president, new projects, more ways of looking at our world. A new year.

I believe we are in fact offered this every day if we choose to take advantage of it. New Year's Eve is just the global reminder that such redemption exists, and belongs to each of us.

So goodbye 2007. Thank you for what you have shown me. In return I promise to use it to guide me forward into 2008 and see the bounty of this past year with wisdom, respect and profound gratitude.

Straight on 'till morning....

Books I'm excited about: "Black Artists of Oakland"

Heard about this one on KALW's Artery. Ordered it from Diesel Books and will use it as a guide to explore my neighbor to the east this coming year.

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "Teddy Bear's Picnic"

Teddy Bear's Picnic (2002): "Too little investment in character and story,even for a comedy, makes for too little a movie."

Notes: Based on the Bohemian Grove the story of which is twice as compelling as this fictional version.

My audio prayers have been answered...

So my buddy Dave and I have been trying to come up with a way, for eons, to record the two of us talking on Skype and have it sound, say, slightly better than two idiots talking on Skype. When I looked around, I pretty much heard "yeah, that'd be great, wouldn't it?"

Well my prayers have been answered. My awesome audiophilic friend Sue Mell send me a video tutorial entitled "Skype for Interviews - A How-To," which pretty much gets right to it. It's put together by the good people at The Conversations Network (whose Social Innovation podcast I listen to without fail) and walks you through how to set the whole thing up in plain, conversational English.

I can't wait to try this out. One of my New Year's goals is to start another podcast of conversations with people I admire. This is exactly the tool I need.

ADDENDUM: Sue Mell also pointed me to Association of Independents in Radio, where she found out about the tutorial. AIR is a professional group which represents the interests of and creates opportunities for audio producers across media. 

Sore on Crowdsourcing:

An interesting take on "Crowdsourcing", a word I've probably used too many times, from my friend Tara Hunt.

'Crowdsourcing’ is usually about benefiting one source…the company or individual asking for the advice/ideas. Unless the ’sourcer’ can build something into the process that makes certain it rewards individuals contributing in those ‘crowds’. Open Source communities are actually awesome examples of valuable contributors finding rewards organically - access to better jobs, ability to turn their expertise into consulting gigs, wide influence in the community itself, which will lead to speaking gigs, teaching gigs, writing books, etc.

I’ve been a long opponent to the term ‘Crowdsourcing’ as it invokes the image of an unpaid group of volunteers giving ideas for free while a corporation rakes in endless profits from them. It speaks to the further exploitation and general suckage of customer goodwill. I don’t think it is related to it’s positive cousin, Open Source. Open source is the term used to describe the state of the source code: can you see it? Is it hidden? Outsourcing is a closer relation, describing the act of saving money by hiring employees from low cost labor markets…only ‘Crowdsourcing’ goes one step further and doesn’t pay the labor at all. Sounds like a sweet deal, right?

Crowdsourcing is another short-term way of thinking about how one can benefit from the relationships one has in communities. Over the longterm, any Social Capital one had will be whittled away from exhausting this free-labor force. Beware of catchy buzzwords, because they are usually all razzle dazzle and no substance.

Readability?

It seems measuring the "readability" of this blog results in a "something went wrong" error. What gives ya'll? (via Social Media.biz)

Word of the Day: "Gainsay"

Gainsay (verb): "To deny, dispute or contradict."

Source: Yesterday's New York Times Crossword Puzzle which I get worse at by the day.

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "Juno"

Juno (2007): "I have a thing for movies that you can watch with the picture turned off because the dialog is so good."

Seen: With my woman on the first official day of our joint vacations.

Gathering of the Brains: Conference on World Affairs 2007:

I've been meaning to go to the Conference on World Affairs, held every April in Boulder, Colorado, since I first read Roger Ebert's writings about it when I was a teenager. Ebert, who has attended the conference 38 years in a row, summed it up thusly..

“Why is this week like lifeblood for me? Once we settle into our life’s careers, most of us charge the line      with our heads down, doing our jobs and trying to get ahead. We become specialists, and develop tunnel vision. I have a tendency, for example,to think the world revolves around movies. Once a year at the Conference, I am forced to think on subjects not of my own choosing. I get to talk to people from other worlds.”

Celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, the CWA is the granddaddy of the get-a-bunch-of-smart-people-in-a-room-and-have-everyone-benefit-conference mold that would later give birth to the Idea Festival and TED.

For me, the Conference on World Affairs seems to perennially fall in that netherworld between recovering from SXSW and gearing up for the San Francisco International Film Festival. But this year, it's coming in early April, a full two weeks after Austin and before SFIFF.

It just may happen this time around.  Look at who's coming already.

Planet Thought for 2008:

Compelled by this last post, I did a little looking into some green business initiatives currently at work.

• TerraCycle: I don't garden but I'm a big fan of TerraCycle, started by two Princeton students in 2001, and whose flagship product is plant food make from worm crap and packaged in used soda bottles. They've since branched out with an array of garden products, a crowd-sourcing materials strategy,  R&D through contests, and a guidebook on Eco-Capitalism. This sounds like the coolest place to work in America.

• TerraPass: I offset my driving, travel and home energy use with TerraPasses. One of my New Year's resolutions for 2008 is to greenify my home as best I can. So I'll be cutting the energy output of my domicile with some of the green products they recommend.

• Blue Egg: Is a green lifestyle site that I haven't quite figured out yet. Sounds interesting though.

• GreenBiz.com is a publication highlighting the green business revolution. I've just subscribed to their rss feed.

Thought of the Day: "Fists in the Air"

"Personally, we've had enough of the boogeyman fright tales, the reports of how bad everything is. With all due respect to those fine muckrackers whose work remains so important: we know already. Let's stop telling their story--the stories of abuse and corruption and injustice--and start writing our own, the stories that carry the pulse of struggle and the quick heartbeat of triumph over adversity. Enough with the hand-wringing. It's time for fists in the air"

--From page 7 of "Building the Green Economy", a lesson we progressives should all take to heart.

Read Recently "Building the Green Economy" by Kevin Danaher, Shannon Bigs, Jason Mark

Title: "Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots"

Authors: Kevin Danaher, Shannon Biggs and Jason Mark

Synopsis: Title says it all. Why the growth of a green economy is cause for celebration. I heard about it on Your Call Radio.

Assessment: This book is a Bay Area publication so, I say with all do self-deprecation, it tends to pound a little to hard on straw houses (do we really need a smackdown of antebellum slavery practices?). But the 99% has exactly the right attitude. More citizens than ever feel empowered to shape their own destinies, that of their families, neighborhoods and world, in a mode that promotes sustainability, understanding and human potential. And it doesn't, as we have spent every moment since the end of World War II thinking, have to be yoked to being angry, bitter and broke. There is a future in making money, doing right by each other and the earth, and living in abundance rather than scarcity. If you can't get inspired by that message, I can't help you. If you can, read this book immediately.

Verdict: If the words "Green Economy" get you all fluttery, get this book now.

On the Filmic Tip...

The Film Arts Foundation of San Francisco has a downloadable PDF of all the film festivals in San Francisco organized by month and by theme (via my friend Britton Jackson).

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "Intolerance"

Intolerance (1916): "A giant, audacious epic is meant to be seen on a giant screen, with an organ playing and your friend ohhhhhing along with you."

Seen: As a program of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

That Book Proposal thing...

Is done. Handed in to agent on Monday. Let all due celebrating commence.

(More Than) One Sentence Movie Reviews: "Talk to Me"

See Talk to Me. You must. A biography of Petey Greene (video, a genius disection of racial stereotypes), an ex-con, turned radio DJ in Washington DC in the 1960s and 1970s. Don Cheadle, well Don Cheadle goes Don Cheadle all over this part. His partner at the radio station, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, make this maybe the best male partnership in movies since Butch and Sundance.

Ejiofor you may recognize from Children of Men or Dirty, Pretty Things or Kinky Boots. But probably not. He's probably the most underrated actor this side of Oliver Platt.

I loved this movie. Funny, smart, sad, with an incredible soundtrack. Wanted to watch it again the minute it was done.

See it see it see it.

Strike Wisdom:

Rob Long continues to be the smartest voice I've heard about the Hollywood writer's strike. His latest commentary on KCRW's Martini Shot takes a look at relationships between the various entertainment union and concludes that, at some stage of production, one union is benefiting at the expense of another.

Please read this.  It's genius.

I remember a few years ago, during the last contract negotiation, one of the big umbrella issues was something called "respect." The Writers Guild –- correctly, in my view –- wanted to do away with something called the Possessory Credit –- you know, the thing directors get -– "A film by..." as if they wrote it, too. "A film by Rob Reiner," for instance, when Rob Reiner didn't write the script. We wanted to get rid of that. "A film by" should only apply to a person who both wrote and directed a movie. And we wanted some other "respect" stuff, too: we wanted to be included in press junkets and allowed set visits and get to walk on the red carpet.

The possessory credit, though, was really up to the Directors Guild. And the Directors Guild said, essentially, forget it. You want to talk about how little respect the writers get in the feature world? Fine. But then let's talk about how little respect directors get in the television world, where it's routine to talk of them as "traffic cops," and to deny them their first cut, among other things.

It's hard to get something done in this business. By the time the film is loaded -– or, in many cases, the hard drive is booted (a lot of talented camera guys are out of work in this digital age; did we march for them?) -– everyone is so exhausted and worn out from just getting something going that they barely have energy to make the thing itself. So when we are actually doing something, actually filming something, actually doing the thing we all came here to do, rather than having meetings and pitch sessions and budget calls and story arguments about it, we tend to cut corners. Human corners.

So we should be careful –- all of us, writers who now claim membership in a labor movement; studio heads who have the temerity to call someone else greedy; all of us -– with the name calling and the posturing. Because this strike is going to be over, someday. And when it is, will everything go back to business as usual?

Hope not.

I hope I can meet Mr. Long someday. He's my new hero.

Rev. Billy at SXSW 2007

Reverend Billy exorcising a Starbucks in in Austin during SXSW 2007. I can't believe I missed this.

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "What Would Jesus Buy?"

What Would Jesus Buy? (2007): "What we buy and how we shop should require as much careful thought as what values we chose to teach our children."

Notes: Documentary about Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. Hilariously funny, smart and thoughtful. A great great film (seen with my awesome movie buddy Carla).

New Book Proposal: Rounding the turn...

I finished a huge chunk of my new book proposal today. I have no idea how good it is but I don't care. For the first time in weeks, I can feel I will finish this thing. And that feels great.

That is all.

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "The Nanny Diaries"

The Nanny Diaries (2007): "A charming romantic copy starring Scarlet Johansson and the Citicorp red umbrella logo."

Thought of the Day: "The Startling Life"

"To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else."

--Emily Dickinson (via The Writer's Almanac)

Big Waves:

Video of waves at The Mavericks, about 25 miles south of San Francisco, the Mount Everest of American surfing. Makes my hair twirl just to watch it (via SF Gate). 

Book Review: "How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read"

San Francisco Chronicle

State of The Book Industry Address(es):

If where the book industry is headed interests you (and really, who isn't as dweebily into this sort of thing as I), please consult the Nov. 23 episode of On The Media which is an excellent summary of where we're at. Then chase it down with Junot Diaz's interview on KCRW's Bookworm where he said this which made me want to stand up and cheer.

All I need to know about the writer's strike...

The single best assessment I've seen of the current writer's strike is Rob Long's weekly commentary on KCRW, Martini Shot. He had this to say a few weeks ago.

The truth is, the web -- that thing that brings us email and MySpace and cats playing the piano on YouTube -- has a kind of WalMart effect on the entertainment choices offered to the audience: there's a lot more to choose from, most of it's pretty awful, and all of it is going to be a lot cheaper. When you combine the digitization of content with unlimited bandwidth, what you get is a cheaper, more efficient system. And Brentwood was not built on cheap, or efficient. This town -- and all of us who work here -- all of us, writers, agents, actors, lawyers, studio executives, all of us here in the second grade classroom called Hollywood -- have a stake in preserving this great big slushy inefficient mess of a system, that makes pilots that never get aired, buys scripts that never get produced, makes movies that no one sees, produces series that get cancelled.

I feel like we're all hanging out in the hardware store on Main Street, bickering, while they're building the SuperWalMart out where the interstate meets the state highway. To the writers -- to my colleague -- I say, the web is going to force us to radically alter our expectations about residuals. We will probably end up getting less. That's what market efficiencies do. Let's figure out how to adjust to that.

To the studios, I say make a deal. Swallow it, and make a deal. You may think you can kill the WGA, and you probably can, but it'll be the first part of a murder-suicide pact, and if you don't believe me, call up somebody in the record business. If you can find one. The web's been visiting with them, too. Those kids on YouTube and Facebook aren't going to make you rich; your box office is dwindling; your ratings are dropping; Guitar Hero is not fattening Sumner Redstone's wallet.

We're all in the second grade together.  Let's stop throwing up on each other.

That's pretty damn smart.

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "Bee Movie"

Bee Movie (2007): "It was lovely to realize that Jerry Seinfeld is funnier as a cartoon insect than he ever was as a sitcom star."

Thought of the Day: "On the Power of Books"

"How do these little black spider legs on pages hold so much power?"

--Italo Calvino

My Cousin the Artist:

I'm super proud of my cousin Jud Smith, a sculptor who has his first solo show at the respected Quicksilver Mine Co. Galley, about an hour north of San Francisco. Jud works in concrete and steel. I liken his work to wreckage dug from Pompeii, if Vesuvius erupted in 2415.

The show runs until the end of the year. See it if you can.

Gleanings: Zine X, Gen Y, Sports Z

Looking to get to sometime soon...

• Two thoughtful pieces on how the business world is adjusting the Millennial Generation and its entrance into the workforce (via Micropersuasion).

• Village Voice piece on how rappers will relate to their fans when they hit 30. Or 40.

• LA Times roundup of books on zines and chapbooks (via Ed Rants).

• London Review of Books essay on the gangster movie.

• Bizarre sports gifts that may be worth avoiding. or running towards at the speed of sound.

R.I.P Evel Knievel:

I have no idea how I missed it but I just read that Evel Knievel, perhaps the only motorcycle stuntman you've ever heard of, died at the end of last month. He was 69 and had been ill from diabetes and an incurable lung disease.

In the 60s and 70s, Knievel became an American folk hero by staging elaborate daredevil stunts on his motorcycle. Rising to fame from a jump over the fountains at Ceaser's Palace in Las Vegas in 1969 (video above), he launched his motorcycle over canyons, trucks and flaming school buses. He quit jumping in 1980 on doctor's orders that nothing was left in his body except "scar tissue and surgical steel."

What I like best about the Evel Knievel legend is its "only in America" quality--a post-war poor kid, gone daredevil in the Space Age gone conservative businessman in the Reagan Era, all done in a stars and stripes jumpsuit. Knievel reinvented himself from petty Montana hoodlum (including a name change. He was born Robert Knievel) into celebrity via an activity most onlookers considered a novelty not entertainment. He became famous by owning a category and being the only recognizable face in it. Without him, there'd be no Richard Simmons, no Jimmy Buffet, no Weird Al, no a hundred other famous people who are famous by being the the only one's of their kind. If that kind of willed individual acclaim ain't American, then I'm moving to Mozambique on Thursday (via Smith Magazine).

 

Congratulations MJ and Jason!

I was honored to be there.

Access in the Air:

You may have heard that, beginning next year, several airlines, including United, Jet Blue and Virgin America, will begin rolling out internet access in the air. Which is a neat development for the most part, even though it will inevitably lead to more "why didn't answer my email over Dubuque?" always-at-work expectations and a run on laptop batteries since, I can almost promise you, airlines will not be including more power ports with this service (more power = more electricity = more fuel which is butt expensive right now.)

Will it cost money? Probably. But before too long, a second armrest will cost you money so may as well man up about it now. You've probably also heard that we now fly in about as much luxury as our luggage.

I am not unreasonable in this respect. I do not demand a foot massage as a standard perk on a $200 ticket. But we are way way overdue in establishing certain basic standards of comfort for coach class travelers. Up until very recently, airline passenger advocacy has focused almost exclusively on prices and scheduling. The 11 points on the proposed Passenger's Bill of Rights includes almost no mention of inflight comfort except regarding delays and travelers with disabilities.

It is time for Point #12, which I'm calling the Provide what you Promise Provision. Simple, basic and I believe, irrefutable.

12. Every airline flight guarantees that the passengers seat, service unit and onboard facilities including lavatories and inflight entertainment are in proper working order.

Which only means that the price of a airline ticket includes a seat that reclines, a seat cushion that doesn't stab you in the butt, headset jack that functions, a toilet that flushes and inflight entertainment with picture and sound.

It is a travesty that this needs to be spelled out, as I needed to clarify that I am entitled to a fork and napkin when dining out. But that seems to be what it has come to. Hooray to JetBlue and Virgin America for making humane treatment of passengers part of their brand and corporate initiative. For the rest of you, if can't live up to a few basic expectations of your business, then I suggest you find a new one.   

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "Preserve Me a Seat"

Preserve Me a Seat (2005): "The Old Fashioned movie house, as a talisman of another, must somehow justify its existence beyond nostalgia and memory."

Notes: This lovely little documentary is about the old fashioned movie house and its gradual extinction across the American landscape. I read about it on Cinema Treasures devoted to such things.

Perhaps you were lucky enough to grow up in a community with an old fashioned movie palace as I was. To me these places are holy ground, where the movies grow up and planted themselves in our shared consciousness.

So few are left but the places I've lived have been fortunate enough to maintain theirs. I consider myself very lucky in this regard.

Thought of the Day: "Circumstance"

"The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."

--George Bernard Shaw

Word(s) of the Day: "Bread and Circuses"

Bread and Circuses (noun): "Shallow, palliative, feel-good policies aimed at pacifying an electorate in lieu of substantive reform."

Note: You hear this phrase a lot around San Francisco. I can't believe I never knew what it meant. Or looked it up.

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "Miracle on 34th St."

Miracle on 34th St. (1947): "Belief in the goodness of others is a sign of courage, not fear."

Seen: As part of Smokler's Sunday Cinema's holiday addition.

56 Geeks:

So which of the 56 Geeks are you? And please don't say "I'm not a geek", because if you're reading my this here blo, you probably didn't sit on the homecoming court.

I didn't have the patience to click through all of them but I'm labeling myself Book Geek.

Unless you have a better suggestion. You can buy the whole thing in poster form also (via Laughing Squid).

Friends on TV:

Seems to be a video kinda day. My friend Victoria Zackheim and Elizabeth Rosner just wrote in to tell me of their appearance on ABC 7 here in San Francisco. They're plugging Victoria's new book "For Keeps: Women Tell the Truth about Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance".

Victoria's an old friend so I've been razzing her about editing an anthology that I can actually contribute to. So, G-d willing and the creek don't rise, her next anthology will be "Bratty Gen X Writers and their wiser Boomer Friends: A study in shared wisdom and Atari 2600 Mastery."

 

Matt Nathanson Videoified:

My main man Matt Nathanson has a new video out called "Car Crash" that is in contention for some contest over at MTVU.
I do not exaggerate when I say Matt is simply the best guy-with-a-guitar singer working in America today. Scott Andrew runs a close second. John Meyer can find a hot pepper jelly to go with that milquetoast action he's working.

Don't take my word for it. Watch the video then vote.

A Great Day for Journalism:

Joan Didion and Calvin Trillin were both born on this day. (via The Writer's Almanac)

Macabees, Beeyatches!

My main squeeze sent me this Channukah video. Hilarious stuff.

Happy Channukah ya'll.

One Sentence Movie Reviews: The TV Set

The TV Set (2006): "Movies about projects should not have projects more interesting than the characters working on the project."

Stand in the place where you are...

ABC News: The answer to excess weight may be not more exercise but more standing up. Researchers are noting that our key fat burning muscles are in our legs and back and that "standing up and puttering" may be just as important as hitting a 5 PM kick boxing class.

I'm seeing a series of standing seminars, each of us in thick shoes which phone books balanced on our heads.

There's gold here. Eh? Who's with me (via Cody Fielding)?

Author take note:

My friend, the awesome science fiction writer Kelley Eskridge, has redeisgned her author site and the results are superb. Crisp, clear, intuitive and representative of her work.

Fellow authors, take note. This is how it's supposed to be done.

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "American Gangster"

American Gangster (2007): "The American Dream does not distinguish between honest work and ill-gotten gains."

Seen: At the incomperable Grand Lake Theater on a beautiful Friday afternoon.