turn off your tv – you are being remotely controlled

News flash. Your TV is a remote control device. The irony of that statement struck me the first time I watched Putney Swope – you know, that movie I told you about last week?

While we sit in our homes using that little handheld clicker to control the television, advertisers in far away places are sitting around their boardrooms making decisions that they hope will allow them to influence and control our thought patterns, emotional responses, behaviors and actions.

Of course, this isn’t really a newsflash at all, is it? We know that advertisements and all sorts of subliminal messages are being streamed over the tube for the sole purpose of influencing us to buy something that’s for sale. But does that render us completely helpless? Is there no way for us to regain control of our TVs or our minds?

I suppose you could eliminate TV from your life altogether. Several of my friends don’t own a TV or watch one regularly. But for many, total TV elimination is impractical. And despite all of the crazy stuff happening on TV these days, it’s still a primary source for news, local information, and quality educational content.

So if we can’t get rid of our TVs, how can we at least be more mindful of how, when, and where we watch in order to limit television’s influence over our thoughts and behavior? I started thinking about it and jotting down some ideas, and before I knew it, I had a pretty decent list of tips for more responsible TV viewing. Instead of bombarding you with them all in one huge post, I thought I’d spread them out over a series of posts entitled “How to Watch Television”. It’s not like you have time to read them in one sitting anyway, right? Your favorite TV show is about to come on. .

Here’s my first tip for making sure you don’t over-feed the idiot box.

How to Watch Television – Tip #1

Don’t watch TV immediately upon waking or just before going to bed.

These are times when the mind is at its most impressionable state. The line between the subconscious and conscious is blurred during sleep, so in those times of transition into and out of the sleeping state, your mind is more open to suggestion in the form of images, sounds, etc.  Just watch the movie Inception, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

If for some reason you must watch TV during those times – be mindful of the programming you select. Choose nature or educational programs over news, politics, or dramatic programming. While there are still advertisements sandwiched into the program breaks, the programs themselves tend to be more neutral. Another good option is to watch programming in another language. This can be a sort of ‘passive exercise’ for your brain. Even better, instead of watching TV when you transition from sleeping to waking,  limit your TV time to when you transition from work to home.

cheers,

k

photo: kicking television, by dhammza

photo: by the warm glow of the television, by Heather Durdil

how to lose like a winner

A couple of weekends ago, I got invited to watch a friend’s daughter compete in the National American Miss pageant. I’ve known this young lady since she was a toddler, and over the years I’ve watched her blossom into an awesome little woman. She’s bright, energetic, savvy, and beautiful to boot. You know, one of those kids that makes you feel confident about what the next generation will be able to do with their infinite potential. So I was thrilled to join her parents in the audience to hoot and holler like a madwoman whenever she appeared on the stage.

That night, we watched all the contestants do their opening numbers and have their individual moments in the spotlight. We also watched watch as girl after girl got picked for various and sundry titles – Miss Congeniality, Most Likely to be a Top Model, Most Likely to End Up as a Trophy Wife and Get One Helluva Divorce Settlement when the Dog of a Husband Gets Caught Cheating (or something like that). Even with all her charm, poise, and intelligence, our girl didn’t get a single trophy or accolade, and she didn’t even get to move on to the next round of competition. Needless to say, we were crushed. She, of course, was even more crushed. After she’d changed back into her street clothes, she joined us to head to the car. She held up pretty well for a few moments, then the tears came. “It isn’t fair,” she cried. “They weren’t as good as me!” she protested. And we agreed, clucking over her and consoling her like dutiful supporters. There wasn’t any use in trying to rationalize the outcome of the pageant to her. Even if there had been a rational explanation, it likely wouldn’t have made a dent on her emotional state. So, I thought that the words her mother offered her were the best that could be said at that moment. She simply told her daughter, “Baby, it wasn’t your time.”

No doubt, losing sucks. Hard. Especially when it’s something you’ve worked hard to get, or something you feel like you’re naturally more qualified to have. So when you don’t land that job, or you get passed over by that girl or guy you had your heart set on, or someone else snags that grand opportunity that you know was meant for you, it makes you want to scream at the top of your lungs, “It’s not fair! They weren’t as good as me!” It’s irritating as hell to see the lesser-qualified get your moment in the spotlight, with the crowd cheering and the fair maiden planting a wreath of laurel leaves on their unworthy head. When it happens more than once, you may stop screaming outwardly and start whispering inwardly to yourself: “Maybe I’m not good enough. Maybe I don’t know what I’m doing. Maybe no one will ever want me.” Even the most confident and self-assured person has their moments of uncertainty when met with a consistent stream of losses.

I thought back to one of the girls in the pageant who had advanced to the next round that evening. It was her fifth year in the competition, and she’d never made it beyond the first round before. Yet she kept showing up every year. Kept donning the glitzy gown, kept flashing the perfect camera-ready smile, and kept being sent home with nothing to show for her efforts. I wondered what she must have felt like after two years of not winning. After year three? I wondered how she even mustered up the energy and optimism it took to come back for one more chance at winning, though she was a repeat loser. By the colloquial definition, this girl was insane. She kept doing the same thing and expecting a different result. But eventually, after five long years, she did get a different result.

So how exactly do you distinguish the insane person from the winner-to-be?

“Sometimes losing is a wake-up call in disguise, a universal conspiracy that’s letting you know that you’re chasing the wrong dream…”

Winners recognize that there may not be any logic to the fact that they lost, but they take the loss as an opportunity for assessment.  A time to prepare themselves for the win that will inevitably come. After a loss, winners ask themselves the following questions:

Am I losing because I’m playing the wrong game?

If you’re going after something that doesn’t align with your purpose or your true values, why would you want to win? Sometimes losing is a wake-up call in disguise, a universal conspiracy that’s letting you know that you’re chasing the wrong dream, and you need to set your eyes on a different, more fitting prize. If you feel certain that what you’re after does align with your purpose, it’s much easier to deal with temporary losses on the way to your goal.

Am I losing because I’m not yet prepared to win?

If you were to get that job, land that cutie pie, or be granted that opportunity, are you currently prepared to make the most of it? Do you have the skills to maintain the thing you’ve won after you’ve won it? You’ve heard the stories of lottery winners who are penniless only a few years after their big win, because they had no money management skills. It’s almost impossible to believe, but it happens all the time – and not just with the lottery. Winners take time after a loss to continue to hone their skills. They visualize what they’ll need to do after the win to make sure they’re ready to perform when it happens. Winners know that a gift given to the ill-prepared can easily become a curse.

Am I losing because it just isn’t my time?

So you know for sure that you’re after the right thing. And you know that you’re well-prepared to maintain that thing after you’ve won it. So what gives? Why do you keep losing? Well baby, maybe it just isn’t your time. While you’re fuming about how unfair it all is, maybe there’s someone else out there who had just as much right to the ‘big win’ as you did. They may have waited longer or worked harder, or maybe it was simply ‘their time’. Maybe you’re like that year-five winner, and you’ll have to lose many times before you win. Just remember to re-assess, re-equip, and reapply yourself… even if everyone else thinks you’re insane.

As it turns out, our girl made it through the pageant ordeal without too much emotional or ego damage. After a post-pageant dinner out, she was mostly back to normal. The following week, she got an unexpected phone call. It came from a talent scout who’d seen her at the pageant and wanted to know if she was available for other opportunities.

So let that be a lesson to all you losers out there. The next time you lose, go ahead and have a good cry, check to make sure the makeup is still ok, then treat yourself to something tasty.

And know this… your day is coming. Maybe even sooner than you think.

cheers,

k

photo: total loser by bamzin

photo: …and the winner is by notsogoodphotography

Left Unsaid: film series explores the blurred reality between our online and offline selves

With everyone being so engaged in social media these days, it’s often hard to separate the online persona from the offline human. There is a line that is blurred – sometimes intentionally, sometimes not – when we start posting snippets of our personal lives all over the interwebs for the whole world to see. Through 140-character brain farts, status updates, microblogs, and snapshot images we develop composite pictures that may or may not reflect the totality of the individuals who publish them. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other social media applications have allowed us to expose more of ourselves to each other, but the core of who we are – what moves us, makes us happy, angry, sad, likeable or detestable – can still only be truly grasped by direct interaction. For this very reason, some people have chosen to opt out of the online world altogether, refusing to allow the line to be blurred because they realize that it’s important to maintain the humanness of connections.

Filmmaker Nelson George (who also produced Chris Rock’s ‘Good Hair’) has created a collection of very brief video vignettes that explores many of the social concerns of merging online conversations with offline reality. George’s series, Left Unsaid, chronicles several intimate interactions among a group of eclectic female creatives who’ve been invited to a meet-and-greet in a Brooklyn brownstone one sunny Sunday afternoon.  

The series is divided into 19 chapters, each of which focuses on one or more pseudo-fictional characters. I call them pseudo-fictional because it seems as if the characters themselves have been modeled after the women who are playing them. One particularly poignant interaction occurs between Belinda – a dancer and single mother, and Bethlehem – a freelance writer who pays the bills by writing for a tween-oriented celebrity gossip blog. In the chapter, titled “Phat Booty”, Belinda finds out that her pre-teen daughter is actively engaged on the site that Bethlehem writes for. Have a look at the video for yourself.  Check out the entire Left Unsaid series by visiting: http://www.leftunsaidseries.com. I’d recommend starting from the first chapter – I didn’t at first and almost wrote the series off because I didn’t have the proper context.

Also – keep your eyes peeled for Chyna Layne – the girl who played the Jamaican smack-talking sista Rhonda in Precious.

(as seen on Black Web 2.0)

cheers,

k

the machine is us/ing us

I still have a hard time explaining the concept of Web 2.0 to folks. Which is why I really dig this video by Dr. Michael Wesch of Kansas State University’s Digital Ethnography project.

Take a look:

cheers,

k

what do you get when you take the ‘art’ out of cartoonery?

…apparently, you get this mess here:

Find more videos like this on HOLLYHOODHDTV.COM

According to the AJC’s Radio and TV Talk Blog, T-Pain has decided to add Executive Producer to his list of dubious accolades. The acclaimed autotuner is the force behind a one-hour animated special entitled, The Return of Freaknik, that is scheduled to air on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim sometime in March.

If you’re a viewer of Adult Swim programming like The Boondocks, Family Guy, and Robot Chicken, then you already know that the cartoons featured in the segment are truly for adult audiences only, and are known for their controversial, provocative and overtly satirical subject matter. But no matter how offensive and in-your-face those ‘toons are, there’s the sense that the humor and outlandishness in them are being used to poke fun at and denounce certain stereotypes. If the trailer of Freaknik is any indicator to what the full feature holds in store, I wouldn’t hold my breath while looking for any redeeming qualities.

Other sources say that the cartoon will also feature the voices of Rick Ross,  Li’l Wayne (voicing a character named Jesus – no relation.), and T-Pain himself as the Ghost of Spring Break, the Spirit of Freaknik.

Somebody hand me a crucifix and some holy water.

cheers,

k

what’s twitter and why you should (or shouldn’t) bother

Imagine this. You arrive at a bustling, networking event and casually walk into the center of the very large, very crowded room. All around you, groups of varying sizes are engaged in lively conversation. From where you stand, you can catch snippets of every discussion, and a little smidgen of what each person is saying. That guy over in the corner is the promoter for that hot new nightclub downtown, and he’s offering all of his group free admission this Friday. The young lady a few feet away from him is happily sharing small business marketing advice and is giving a referral to a friend of hers who provides half-off discounts to the best restaurants in the city. The guy standing next to her isn’t saying as much as everyone else, but when he does, it’s the wittiest / funniest thing you’ve ever heard! And the woman on the far side of the room looks like Erykah Badu. No, wait…she IS Erykah Badu! As you stand there and listen some more, hundreds of other useful tidbits buzz by your ears. It’s hard to keep up with them all and you’re worried that you’ll never have enough time to meet and connect with all of the cool, funny, interesting, and helpful people in front of you. Plus, you’ve got valuable information and witty repartee of your own to share… but how are you ever going to be able to engage with everyone?

Just then, Rod Serling magically appears at your side, and says, “There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call ‘The Twitter Zone’. ”

Suddenly, the room goes dead silent. Everything begins moving in slow motion. When the next person opens their mouth to speak, you see their words appear written in a little bubble over their head with a time and date stamp on the end of it. You – and everyone else in the room – can go around and literally cherry-pick out of the air those bits of conversation that are interesting to you and put them in your book of acquaintances. Every time you open your book, you’ll have a growing history of everything those people said since you picked them. Those you don’t pick, won’t show up in the book. And because of the time / date stamp, you can see how long ago the words were said. Likewise, anyone who’s put your name in their book, will be able to see everything you’ve said. “Wow” you think to yourself, “This is pretty friggin’ amazing!” “No,” says Rod Serling, “This. Is Twitter.”

Read more

it’s gold!

Without a doubt my favorite Superbowl commerical this year:

 

 

cheers,

k

what a difference a day makes

It was only a few days ago, but already I can barely remember the cold January morning air. I remember being cold, of course – freezing cold. But that feeling pales in comparison to the memory of the warm glow of anticipation that served as my alarm clock on Obama’s inauguration day, and continued to grow as we made our way onto the streets of Washington, D.C.

The weather forecast predicted that the thermometer would only make it up to about 30 degrees, but the wind chill would make it feel more like 20. Certainly not the kind of weather this Georgia girl is used to hangin’ out in for long periods of time. But I was well prepared. My inauguration day outfit consisted of: long johns (top and bottom), another undershirt for extra insulation, and 2 pairs of socks topped off with a turtleneck sweater and sturdy jeans, and appropriately accessorized with 2 scarves, a pair of gloves and a hat big enough to cover my forehead and ears. It’s a wonder I didn’t pass out from heat exhaustion before I made it outdoors.

At 7:30am, we joined the steadily growing stream of people making their way toward the National Mall. Gloved hands clutched cups of steaming hot coffee or miniature US flags, and faces shone with bright smiles and expectant eyes. The early morning sunlight glinted off of buttons that bore numerous artistic interpretations of the face and name we had all come here for – Obama. Hundreds more renderings of the icon on all manner of keepsake items were on display from vendors already hawking their wares, and other still setting up their booths.

“Getcha Obama t-shirts heeeere! Inauguration t-shirts, folks! One for ten, two for fifteeeeeeen!”
“Lifetime calendars! Lifetime Obama calendars!”
“Inauguration bumper stickers!! I was there, where were you?!!”

One t-shirt design in particular caught my eye as we neared the intersection of 17th and K Streets. On it, MLK lay sleeping, his head resting peacefully on an open Bible. In the dream scene depicted above his head, was a tall, proudly smiling Barack Obama.

Read more

Next Page »