Advanced Storytelling

I went to a really fascinating presentation last Friday by the Beehive Design Collective . I was a little wary at first that it would be an all white, Latin American studies crowd, especially since in the ten minutes preceding the presentation I had to listen to some teenage self-described anarchists debate for ten minutes over whether police are just workers following orders, or if force against them is justified because they are the enforcement arm of the fascist state. I’m sorry: you do not qualify as an anarchist if you’re enrolled in a four-year liberal arts college. Luckily, the words ‘proletariat’ or ‘bourgeoisie’ did not make an appearance, otherwise I would have had to leave. But I digress. The Beehive describes their ‘visual lectures’ as giant comic book posters, but that doesn’t do them justice. Imagine the picture left blown up to about 6 feet wide by probably 25 feet tall, spanning 500 years, and you’ve got a rough idea. The symbolism and detail in their work reminded me o

"Blogging is just the tip of the Cluetrain iceberg. And it wasn't the tip that sunk the Titanic."

Author Michael Pollen had an excellent article in yesterday's New York Times Magazine, on why we should all be paying attention to the Farm Bill being reauthorized by Congress this year. Basically, he wrote the introduction to my thesis much more eloquently than I did. The whole article is worth reading, but these two paragraphs sum up the issue well: And then there are the eaters, people like you and me, increasingly concerned, if not restive, about the quality of the food on offer in America. A grass-roots social movement is gathering around food issues today, and while it is still somewhat inchoate, the manifestations are everywhere: in local efforts to get vending machines out of the schools and to improve school lunch; in local campaigns to fight feedlots and to force food companies to better the lives of animals in agriculture; in the spectacular growth of the market for organic food and the revival of local food systems. In great and growing numbers, people are voting with

I’ve just finished reading Capitalism 3.0 (PDF), by Peter Barnes , founder of Working Assets . It’s a quick, easy read for anyone interested in anything from media reform to wilderness protection to fighting poverty. Barnes is arguing for a way to moderate capitalism’s distorting effect on democracy. Instead of calling for more regulation (since those, as we’ve all seen with current media, environmental, and economic regulations are too often watered down by corporate influence) Barnes envisions is an economic model that balances the corporate market with the common wealth: Much of what we label private wealth is taken from, or co-produced with, the commons. However, these takings from the commons are far from equal. To put it bluntly, the rich are rich because (through corporations) they get the lion’s share of common wealth; the poor are poor because they get very little. He describes a shift from the “shortage” capitalism of the 18th and 19th centuries, to the “surplus” capitalism w

I've been given the chance to write for Provisions Library 's blog Signalfire, on agriculture and food issues, my other passion in addition to framing. I thought for awhile I'd cross-post here as well. Provisions is a social change activism resource library located in DC. First post: Spring will have sprung any moment now, and with that the opening of local farmers markets. In addition to Eastern Market, Fresh Farm runs a number of markets around the city, and the Twin Springs Fruit Farm of Pennsylvania has stands at a number of markets in Bethesda, DC and Arlington. Wherever you live, Local Harvest keeps an extensive directory of farmers markets, local farms, and CSAs across the country.

If you are a single man between the ages of 25-35 living in the DC area, and you identify with what Henry Rollins is talking about in this clip, call me. Tattoos not required.

I really have nothing to say about Virgina Tech- many are already saying it more eloquently than I, and in the end, it's something you really can't put into words. There was an interesting article in the Post today called "Students Make Connections at a Time of Total Disconnect" about how during all the chaos yesterday, students were able to keep in touch by IM and cellphone and Facebook. So many other stories about that generation and digital media are negative- how they/we don't know how to write in full sentences, how we're IM-ing instead of paying attention in class, how we're disconnected from community. But we're not-we're just connected differently. Like right now, as I write this, I'm simultaneously IM-ing a friend trying to make a major life decision, someone who I haven't seen in months and lives hundreds of miles away. But she reached out, and hey, once that IM pings, you've got to connect...

Big Green Purse gets some awesome press from my favorite newspaper. My press-release-writing skills get some recognition. If and when you hear about this site on the radio, I'll take all the credit. Ha.

I just invented that saying after an afternoon of researching research methods (speaking of meta) via the web. I clicked through so many sites and downloaded so many documents I got completely lost.

...since my post last week about the anti-Rove protest on campus. A bit of an identity crisis. Here I am, someone who has had major life-altering experiences (drug-free, thank you) at a May Day protest years ago, putting down activists I agree with. Have I become cold and heartless? Well, no. I realized early on that protests and radical actions were not my thing. But they work for some people, and I was assigned an article for a class that reminded me that even if they don't directly affect change, radical actions do have reasons: Activist organizations use disruptive image events, which are highly charged protests that involve visuals such as people being buried up to their necks in roads and grandparents chaining themselves to trees (DeLuca, 1999). Such events rarely put an immediate stop to the things activist organizations protest; however, according to a Greenpeace campaigner, success is judged by the protestors’ abilities to reduce complex issues to symbols that disrupt pe

Admittedly, not my best frame, but I haven't been sleeping lately. I have, however, been a creative genius lately. Unfortunately, this creative genius has all come at 3 am and consists of a marketing campaign for Tanquery Gin (no, I have not been drinking), a public relations initiative for Facebook, and not my homework. Okay, not exactly true. Some of this extra brainpower has been useful for the client proposal I'm working on. Problem is, a proposal isn't supposed to be a campaign. Part of the assignment is to know how much to give away, and how much to hold back, so that you don't risk losing the client AND your ideas to another firm. On the bright side, I might be heading towards a stellar career in my chosen field, if I can move halfway around the world so that my ideas come during the business day. What, you don't think that will work? Honestly, as much as the whole insomnia thing sucks, I am kind of reassured about my abilities. Nothing brings on self-doubt l

I love the idea of gay families crashing the White House Easter Egg Hunt. I also love alternatives to mainstream anything. But this ? I don't know if I can get on board with kids hunting for fake cluster bombs, just to make a 'statement'. It's like giving your kid coal for Christmas because the President's been a bad boy this year. The organizer says this is primarily supposed to be funny, but if I were a kid, finding an Easter egg with no candy and the theoretical ability to kill me, I wouldn't be laughing. I'd probably end up scared of rabbits for the rest of my life, too. However, I do find some of the other aspects of this event laugh-out-loud awesome: The event, which runs from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m., the same hours as the White House Easter Egg Roll, will include a search for weapons of mass destruction for the adults. "They'll all come back looking confused five minutes later, saying they couldn't find anything," Hennessey said. Anothe

I was at a dinner party tonight where I talked to a Washington Post reporter who told me that the Post gathered all its employees together to tell them that its going to be placing more of its resources in its online edition. Which, really, should come as no surprise to anyone who has payed any attention to the media landscape in the last five years. But hey, it's a scoop. Also, they're planning to eventually offer the online content formatted like the paper edition, meaning you'll be able to 'page through' the paper like you would a traditional newspaper. The younger people in the room didn't find this as exciting as the older generation, seeing as we're already used to 'browsing' hypertext.