Advanced Storytelling

I read diaries like this and their comments on DailyKos, and it gets frustrating. It's another post among many, trying to articulate, for once and for all, The Democratic Values. As if someday soon, we'll suddenly have the right wording (the clouds will part, the sun will shine, and angels will sing), and our elected officials will start talking perfectly articulated values. We HAVE values and vision-stop trying to get it perfect and start talking. Somewhere out there, Frank Luntz (KUMQUAAAAATTTTT!) is laughing. Every time we write or complain about not having a message, one of his right-wing pundit gets his (or her) wings. Don't get me wrong: this work is important- I'm dedicating my life to it- but the more time we spend brainstorming new lists of values over and over, instead of getting out there, the more time he has to just sit back and relax. Everytime someone can point to a diary like this and say, "see, even the Democrats don't think they have anythin

This article, Two Views of the Same News Find Opposite Biases , by Shankar Vedantam was in the Washington Post Online this week. I'm often frustrated by the constant complaining about the "liberal" or "conservative" media. For the record, I think that media consolidation can only harm, that mainstream media is biased, not so much to the left or right (except for, of course, Fox News), but toward the status quo, and that mainstream media depends too much on an episodic, rather than systematic, frame for the stories it cover. But that's not the point of this post. I'm not the first , nor will I be the last to rant about these issues on the web. This article described a study that showed that partisans on either side of an issue, when shown the exact same media clips, each find bias in favor of the other side. Kind of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation they call the "hostile media effect." The most interesting part

Anyone who knows me, knows I am practically addicted to editorial cartoons. On the left is a link to Cagle's Daily Cartoon Index , which I check at least a few times a week. One of my favorite cartoons featured there is Jen Sorensen's Slowpoke Comics . She rocks. I mean, what strategic communications geek wouldn't a cartoon titled "Framing Funnies?" Or one that takes on Grover Nordquist, and has inspired me to yell "Kumquat!" at the televion whenever I sense his influence? And shows the power of words through pictures? Really funny pictures? Sigh. I only hope to have this much influence in the future.

A selection from pages 201-204, which seemed particularly important to my 'mission': What concerns me in this chapter, however, are tricky audience situations and, in this case, I am thinking about the many times when you are trying to persuade someone in a straightforward way but actually you are wasting your time... If your readers have a stake in what you are arguing against, you cannot talk straightforward persuasion as your goal. You must resist your impulse to change their beliefs. You have to set your sights much lower. The best you can hope for--and it is hoping for a great deal--is to get your readers to understand your point of view even while not changing theirs in the slightest. If you can get readers actually to entertain to experience your position for just a moment, you have done a wonder, and your best chance of getting them to do so is not by asking them to believe or adopt your point at all. In short, stop trying to persuade the enemy and settle for planting

I came across this feature by Crocker Stephenson in the July 4th edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It's the second of two parts on woman named Rhea Estelle Lathan Stephenson writes: "She was a drug addict. A high school dropout. Her son and daughter lived with their fathers' families. She was banned from any contact with her daughter. She had been convicted of forging checks. She was divorced and had alienated her family. She slept with men for drugs and money....Near the end of that year, Rhea was caught stealing from her employer, a downtown hotel. She was given a choice: Go to jail, or enroll in a residential treatment program through an agency now called Wisconsin Community Services." Now if you guessed this was yet another dramatic life-turnaround story, you'd be right. What caught my eye were the last lines of the article: "Rhea Estelle Lathan, PhD, will begin teaching this summer at Michigan State University, where she will be a tenure-tracke

1. She holds your purse while you stand on the table to get a better view of Andrew Bird. 2. She gives you her shawl to wear, because it really is "cooler by the lake." 3. She says, "They're good. I like them" right after Wilco does a song full of feedback you thought would bother her. 4. She calls Jeff Tweedy "Dylan-esque," which makes you smile. 5. She buys you tiramisu. She buys herself tiramisu. 6. She points out that she is not the oldest person at the Flogging Molly stage. 7. She dances to Mike Doughty, even though she doesn't have to. 8. Dude, I have a mom that likes Wilco, Andrew Bird, and Mike Doughty. How cool is that? My sister had to work, Beth had a kickball game, my cousin Flannery didn't return my phone call, Peter is out of town (out of the country?), so I asked my mom if she would go to Summerfest wth me. I may punk out of most things, but had I given the chance to see a bunch of really good bands FOR FREE, I would have had to

Sarah, these aren't the fireworks. I had wanted to get a picture of a cherubic little girl in a patriotic t-shirt holding a sparkler, but this is the closest thing I got. The batteries in my camera died before they started. We biked down to the lake with half a million of our neighbors, finding a spot right next to a group who had their generator powering a giant stereo system blaring The Who. I'd been in a bad mood all day, what with relatives staying with us, and I'm not a fan of crowds. So I plugged in my iPod and zoned out to Bach's Cello Suites (Side note to Elaine: it's been six months since New Years'! Indeed, Best Year Ever.) while waiting for the fireworks to start. Always works. My dad, to pass the time, decided to do some push-ups. Actually, my 17-year-old cousin decided to do some push-ups, and my dad followed suit. I used the last of my camera batteries to take this picture of him and a very eager soldier just out of basic training who jumped in to