A Tale of Time, Place, Persona
By J[The Gambler] Gamble for Football Reporters Online
Donte Stallworth drove drunk and killed a man. Plaxico Burress brought a loaded gun into a strip club and shot himself. They are both top notch receivers and even bigger idiots, so lets talk numbers.
Stallworth was suspended for 1 season, served 30-days of a potential 15-year sentence in a Miami jail, and upon return, was rewarded with a $900,000 contract by the Baltimore Ravens.
Burress rots in a New York prison, already once denied early release, enroute to completing a 2-year prison stint.
Is one crime dumber than the other ? No. Is one crime more egregious than the other. Yes. But in this tale of time, place and persona, the crimes don’t equate with the times. That’s what intrigues me about the two cases. There is nothing legally to suggest that the outcomes should have been that drastically different. Yes, NY gun laws are very strict, but the only celebrities who traditionally get jailed for possessing handguns in NYC, are rappers. You know how dangerous those suburban English majors can be.
On the surface, it appears that one guy got lucky and one guy got shafted. Sort of. But Plaxico never had a shot. [No pun intended] He got caught up in political chess with a billionaire Mayor, whose main platform is promoting an image of being a Pitbull on gun laws and crime.
Seizing the moment, Mayor Bloomberg went on TV and assured the viewing public that Plax would be convicted to the fullest extent of the law and wouldn’t get treated any different because he was a Super Bowl hero and celebrity. [Well if that aint a reason to show some leniency, then I don’t know what the hell happened to the New York I was raised in] With those irreversible words, Bloomberg violated every ethical standard in existence and single-handedly put a nail in Plax’s football coffin. His lawyer wife couldn’t help him. His money couldn’t help him. The Giants couldn’t help him. The mayor wouldn’t.
I can’t help but to think that despite Burress’ fame with the Giants, his reputation as an arrogant player who broke team rules, and felt he was only held accountable on Sundays, helped fuel the backlash of his foolish actions. Bloomberg knew he had Burress dead to rights. Plax became the perfect tool for The Mayor – who was still under fire for extending term limits for himself without a public vote –to use to divert attention and strengthen his vow to rid NYC of illegal concealed weapons carriers.
As soon as Bloomberg spoke out, he sullied any chance Plax had for a fair trial. No late game heroics in this massacre. It is rare that a mayor will offer totally subjective opinion on an open case. He doesn’t even practice this newfound zest with the most hardened mob figures. So it was very odd that he chose to single out an NFL player – who admitted he carried the gun out of fear. It takes a lot for a man to admit that.
But now these players – so similar – sit on opposite ends of the opportunity spectrum. Stallworth has already started rebuilding his career and image with the Ravens. Plaxico is still clad in prison greens, getting locked down to the sound of steel doors clanging and clicking, instead of catching clutch passes for an NFL contender. He is a faceless, nameless number at this point, with no influence and no chance to proactively rebuild his image, talk to kids, his family or mend broken business relationships.
It’s funny, one unnamed Giant, who I spoke with following the Plaxico incident said, “They are treating him like he killed somebody.” No, Stallworth killed somebody. But he is the one back in the league, just a short year later. And truth be told, it was probably much easier to give Stallworth, generally known as a good character “team” guy, a break. Plaxico, in all of his brashness and defiance of team rules, messed around in the wrong town. Partisan politics are hot right now. If you are a celebrity athlete in NYC, especially a minority, and you are caught in a high-profile situation that can be damaging to the city’s rep or used by high-ranking officials for personal political gain, then don’t expect to be treated with kit gloves because you caught a TD in the Super Bowl.
Plaxico’s crime wasn’t egregious. It lacked intelligence. It Borderlined on buffoonery. When he shot himself trying to grab the gun from slipping down the leg inside of his oversized pants, that was classic stupid. It was embarrassing as hell. But it sure as hell wasn’t DUI vehicular manslaughter. It was however an illegal action, committed in the wrong climate. History is strange like that. It’s results often dictated by time, place and persona. It can be forgiving, as it seems to have been to Stallworth. For Plax it will show the tragic fall of a legend.
Time, place and persona means a lot. Not just in the NFL, but in life. This is a classic example. Stallworth murdered a person. Plax murdered the destiny of a Giants dynasty. Never mess with a New Yorkers' football.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Tips to (again!) Avoid A Daylight Saving Death!
[Originally posted at DocGurley.com]
We've had the deflating news that Daylight Saving Time (where we lose an oh-so-painful hour of sleep) doesn't even save energy - in fact it may even increase energy usage. Looks like the savings in energy due to decreased light usage is more than offset by the increase in energy used for air conditioning. Sigh. But here's the most important message to keep in mind as we continue to collectively enact this seasonal madness: Daylight Saving Time has been shown over and over in research studies to cause, each year, a definite, measurable (and significant) increase in the number of deaths. When you think about the misery and futility of Daylight Saving Time, the fact that you could actually die because of it seems just so...so wrong. So why do people die because of Daylight Saving Time? And what can you do, personally, to avoid being involved in a Daylight Saving Death?
Over nine hundred Americans, from the years 1987-1991, are estimated to have died purely because of Daylight Saving Time (DST). Another study, using 1997-8 data, estimated that abolishing Daylight Saving Time would save 171 American pedestrians per year (13% of all pedestrian fatalities in the 5:00-10.00 a.m. and in the 4:00-9:00 p.m. time periods) as well as 195 Americans killed in car collisions per year (3%, during the same time periods). To make matters even more stark, moving DST to an earlier, darker date (March instead of April), as we are this year, is likely to make those numbers go up. Daylight Saving deaths are predominantly due to pedestrians getting killed by cars. People are driving after a smaller chunk of sleep, probably stressed and running late, and, importantly, drivers are not yet accustomed to watching for pedestrians in the dark. Pedestrians are groggy, late, and probably not used to looking out for cars in the dark. Maybe some of the cars even forgot to turn on their headlights. Children, in particular, are vulnerable to Daylight Saving Death--one study showed that, in a small area of northeast England, one child every two years dies because of Daylight Saving Time.
What can you do? First, even if we drive, we'll all be getting out of a car to walk at some point, so these pedestrian tips apply to everyone:
1) Hold that toddler hand tight as you head to daycare Monday. Keep a hand on a backpack strap as you walk your kid to school. Warn older kids of the danger.
2) Wear light, bright clothes--nobody gets to be goth the Monday after DST.
3) Cross the road in the middle of a pack (if you can).
4) Be alert--when it comes to pedestrian vs. vehicle face-offs, the only important law is the law of physics. Watch out for the sleepy, stressed out, no headlights death car!
Tips for drivers, to help avoid pedestrians and other cars:
5) Consider getting up even (know it's painful) earlier. Get a real cup of coffee under your belt if you drink coffee. Leave yourself plenty of time to get where you're going, even with pick ups and drop offs. If there was ever a time to drive defensively, this is it. Leave plenty of space between you and the next car, stay within the speed limit and channel your inner zen.
6) Pretend you're watching out for large, sluggish, humped shapes in the dark that can suddenly dart in front of you. Get your best video-game reflexes tuned up to make sure you're not caught by surprise.
7) Make sure your visibility is the best it can be. This weekend is a great time to really wash that front windshield. Put both the visors up. Made sure your headlights are clear of grime (and turned on!). Consider getting your kids to ride shotgun and help you watch for pedestrians--they love a chance to take charge and shout out information.
8) Hey, if you have the option, next week is the perfect time to take public transport! Just watch out for cars when you're walking.
For everyone--
Start now and use some easy cognitive behavioral therapy tips (proven to be every bit as effective as sleeping pills!) to try to get some extra rest on Sunday night:
1) No caffeine of any kind (no chocolate, tea, coffee, decaffeinated drinks--which still have caffeine) after noon.
2) No alcohol with dinner or later. While alcohol may make you feel "drowsy" in the short run, it actually impairs your natural sleep cycles.
3) No TV, no computer, no "screen" of any kind three or more hours before bed--crack open that great book you never seem to have the time to read!
4) Make sure your bedroom is dark, quiet and cool. If you still can't get to sleep after 45 minutes or so, get up and do something restful (NO TV, no computer, no "screen" of any kind). Rest peacefully until you feel a wave of sleepiness coming and surf that wave back to bed.
Hope to see you all--each and every one of you--after we make the DST shift.
P.S. Extra credit (we recovering premeds believe in extra credit the way some people believe in the Giants: life-changing, powerful, unfortunately erratic). Save even more lives by changing your smoke detector batteries this Daylight Saving Time!
Share in the comments section - do you have tips? Experiences you'd be willing to share? Keep up on the latest health issues in the news by signing up for a Doc Gurley RSS feed by clicking here. Look for future pics and other articles at Doc Gurley - discover the weird, the wacky and the everyday symptoms you want to know about, as well as practical expert tips on staying well. Want to express your inner fan-girl/boy? Become a Doc Gurley fan on Facebook! Want to be on the inside, fast track of health news and tips? Jump on the Twitter bandwagon and follow Doc Gurley! Also check out Doc Gurley's joyhabit and iwellth twitter feeds - so you can get topic-specific fun, effective, affordable tips on how to nurture your joy and grow your wellth this coming year.
We've had the deflating news that Daylight Saving Time (where we lose an oh-so-painful hour of sleep) doesn't even save energy - in fact it may even increase energy usage. Looks like the savings in energy due to decreased light usage is more than offset by the increase in energy used for air conditioning. Sigh. But here's the most important message to keep in mind as we continue to collectively enact this seasonal madness: Daylight Saving Time has been shown over and over in research studies to cause, each year, a definite, measurable (and significant) increase in the number of deaths. When you think about the misery and futility of Daylight Saving Time, the fact that you could actually die because of it seems just so...so wrong. So why do people die because of Daylight Saving Time? And what can you do, personally, to avoid being involved in a Daylight Saving Death?
Over nine hundred Americans, from the years 1987-1991, are estimated to have died purely because of Daylight Saving Time (DST). Another study, using 1997-8 data, estimated that abolishing Daylight Saving Time would save 171 American pedestrians per year (13% of all pedestrian fatalities in the 5:00-10.00 a.m. and in the 4:00-9:00 p.m. time periods) as well as 195 Americans killed in car collisions per year (3%, during the same time periods). To make matters even more stark, moving DST to an earlier, darker date (March instead of April), as we are this year, is likely to make those numbers go up. Daylight Saving deaths are predominantly due to pedestrians getting killed by cars. People are driving after a smaller chunk of sleep, probably stressed and running late, and, importantly, drivers are not yet accustomed to watching for pedestrians in the dark. Pedestrians are groggy, late, and probably not used to looking out for cars in the dark. Maybe some of the cars even forgot to turn on their headlights. Children, in particular, are vulnerable to Daylight Saving Death--one study showed that, in a small area of northeast England, one child every two years dies because of Daylight Saving Time.
What can you do? First, even if we drive, we'll all be getting out of a car to walk at some point, so these pedestrian tips apply to everyone:
1) Hold that toddler hand tight as you head to daycare Monday. Keep a hand on a backpack strap as you walk your kid to school. Warn older kids of the danger.
2) Wear light, bright clothes--nobody gets to be goth the Monday after DST.
3) Cross the road in the middle of a pack (if you can).
4) Be alert--when it comes to pedestrian vs. vehicle face-offs, the only important law is the law of physics. Watch out for the sleepy, stressed out, no headlights death car!
Tips for drivers, to help avoid pedestrians and other cars:
5) Consider getting up even (know it's painful) earlier. Get a real cup of coffee under your belt if you drink coffee. Leave yourself plenty of time to get where you're going, even with pick ups and drop offs. If there was ever a time to drive defensively, this is it. Leave plenty of space between you and the next car, stay within the speed limit and channel your inner zen.
6) Pretend you're watching out for large, sluggish, humped shapes in the dark that can suddenly dart in front of you. Get your best video-game reflexes tuned up to make sure you're not caught by surprise.
7) Make sure your visibility is the best it can be. This weekend is a great time to really wash that front windshield. Put both the visors up. Made sure your headlights are clear of grime (and turned on!). Consider getting your kids to ride shotgun and help you watch for pedestrians--they love a chance to take charge and shout out information.
8) Hey, if you have the option, next week is the perfect time to take public transport! Just watch out for cars when you're walking.
For everyone--
Start now and use some easy cognitive behavioral therapy tips (proven to be every bit as effective as sleeping pills!) to try to get some extra rest on Sunday night:
1) No caffeine of any kind (no chocolate, tea, coffee, decaffeinated drinks--which still have caffeine) after noon.
2) No alcohol with dinner or later. While alcohol may make you feel "drowsy" in the short run, it actually impairs your natural sleep cycles.
3) No TV, no computer, no "screen" of any kind three or more hours before bed--crack open that great book you never seem to have the time to read!
4) Make sure your bedroom is dark, quiet and cool. If you still can't get to sleep after 45 minutes or so, get up and do something restful (NO TV, no computer, no "screen" of any kind). Rest peacefully until you feel a wave of sleepiness coming and surf that wave back to bed.
Hope to see you all--each and every one of you--after we make the DST shift.
P.S. Extra credit (we recovering premeds believe in extra credit the way some people believe in the Giants: life-changing, powerful, unfortunately erratic). Save even more lives by changing your smoke detector batteries this Daylight Saving Time!
Share in the comments section - do you have tips? Experiences you'd be willing to share? Keep up on the latest health issues in the news by signing up for a Doc Gurley RSS feed by clicking here. Look for future pics and other articles at Doc Gurley - discover the weird, the wacky and the everyday symptoms you want to know about, as well as practical expert tips on staying well. Want to express your inner fan-girl/boy? Become a Doc Gurley fan on Facebook! Want to be on the inside, fast track of health news and tips? Jump on the Twitter bandwagon and follow Doc Gurley! Also check out Doc Gurley's joyhabit and iwellth twitter feeds - so you can get topic-specific fun, effective, affordable tips on how to nurture your joy and grow your wellth this coming year.
Howard Stern's racist slam of Gabourey Sidibe: Zennie on Spider Jones Show
Howard Stern's racist slam of Gabourey Sidibe is the focus of Zennie Abraham's (Zennie62) guest apperance on The Spider Jones Show today, Sunday March 14th, 2010 Daylight Saving Time Day, at 4 PM to 6 PM Eastern, 1 PM to 3 PM Pacific Time at CFRB Newstalk 1010. You can listen live here: http://www.newstalk1010.com/.
Last week, this blogger took on Howard Stern's racist slam of Academy Award-nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe. Here's a recap of that blog post:
I wrote this...
The Spider Jones show is based in Toronto, Canada, according to his website,...
And now I'm part of that list.
Cool.
Last week, this blogger took on Howard Stern's racist slam of Academy Award-nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe. Here's a recap of that blog post:
I wrote this...
There's no doubt that Howard Stern earns his salary by making outrageous statements. But Howard Stern's slam of Gabourey Sidibe from Precious shows Stern's stupidity. On Monday, on The Howard Stern Show, said this:
"There's the most enormous, fat black chick I've ever seen. She is enormous. Everyone's pretending she's a part of show business and she's never going to be in another movie"
Now it can be said that Howard Stern's the dumbest man on the planet. First, Howard Stern's comment was made in the context of Gabourey Sidibe already having starred in a movie, that being Precious.
Second, because Howard was so busy being prejudiced against fat women, especially "fat black chicks", he turned his brain off and forgot that the role for Gabourey was already created and she played in an independent film that became a major motion picture, and won a ton of awards.
But Howard was so intent on being nasty, all of that escaped him. Howard Stern proved people who discriminate are not smart, they're stupid.
What's really awful about Stern's blast is that no one accuses him of "playing the race card" in using the term "fat black chick"; but there are those, particularly White Supremacists, who would say this blogger's playing the race card in accusing Stern of being racist.
Howard Stern was being racist. And while what Stern said's not a racial ephethet, the use of the term is what's disturbing.
The Spider Jones show is based in Toronto, Canada, according to his website,...
Spider has interviewed such notables as Muhammad Ali, Mark Wahlberg, Jesse Jackson, LL Cool J, Ron Howard, Scott Grimes, Doug Gilmour, Cito Gaston, Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones, Kris Kristofferson, James Brown, Guy Lafleur, Carlos Delgado, Jim Brown and countless others.
And now I'm part of that list.
Cool.
What time is it? Current Daylight Saving Time is 7 AM PST / 10 AM EST
It's Daylight Saving Time 2010, and if the time change for Spring 2010 caught you off guard, you're not alone.
America has turned to The Internet to try and figure out what time it is. Right now, as of Sunday, March 14th, the current time is 7 AM PST / 10 AM EST, which is Eastern Time, or the time in New York City versus Los Angeles in the western, or Pacific Time Zone.
The old rule is "Spring forward one hour; fall back on hour." The Atomic Clock, or The Official U.S. Clock, is at http://www.time.gov.
Why do we have Daylight Saving Time? According to About.com...
Which also means that it can really screw with International Time relationships, since it's not a World wide practice. The European Union practices it, but not all of the World.
More soon.
America has turned to The Internet to try and figure out what time it is. Right now, as of Sunday, March 14th, the current time is 7 AM PST / 10 AM EST, which is Eastern Time, or the time in New York City versus Los Angeles in the western, or Pacific Time Zone.
The old rule is "Spring forward one hour; fall back on hour." The Atomic Clock, or The Official U.S. Clock, is at http://www.time.gov.
Why do we have Daylight Saving Time? According to About.com...
Daylight Saving Time was instituted in the United States during World War I in order to save energy for war production by taking advantage of the later hours of daylight between April and October. During World War II the federal government again required the states to observe the time change. Between the wars and after World War II, states and communities chose whether or not to observe Daylight Saving Time. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which standardized the length of Daylight Saving Time.
Which also means that it can really screw with International Time relationships, since it's not a World wide practice. The European Union practices it, but not all of the World.
More soon.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Korean man marries pillow; pillow can't say no
Related searches: Guy Marries Pillow, Korean Man Marries Pillow, Korean Man Pillow, Korean Marries Pillow, Korean Pillow, Lee Jin-Gyu, Man Marries a Pillow, Man Marries Pillow
According to the Metro UK, a 28-year old Korean man, Lee Jin-gyu, married a pillow he's become, er, attached to. Reportedly, he takes the pillow "everywhere", from the park to restaurants, where he makes sure "she" has her own seat.
The pillow is called a 'dakimakura', or a Japanese large, huggable, pillow.
But the question is, has anyone, his parents, someone, tried to talk Lee Jin-gyu out of this "wedding?" Did he take out life insurance in case the pillow meets an untimely fate with a sewing pin? If Lee Jin-gyu wants to have sex, can the pillow say "Not now. I've got a headache?"
And the most important question: Did the pillow say "I do?" No word from the Metro UK.
According to the Metro UK, a 28-year old Korean man, Lee Jin-gyu, married a pillow he's become, er, attached to. Reportedly, he takes the pillow "everywhere", from the park to restaurants, where he makes sure "she" has her own seat.
The pillow is called a 'dakimakura', or a Japanese large, huggable, pillow.
But the question is, has anyone, his parents, someone, tried to talk Lee Jin-gyu out of this "wedding?" Did he take out life insurance in case the pillow meets an untimely fate with a sewing pin? If Lee Jin-gyu wants to have sex, can the pillow say "Not now. I've got a headache?"
And the most important question: Did the pillow say "I do?" No word from the Metro UK.
New York Times' Arthur Sulzberger Jr. takes huge raise; laid off staff
The New York Times laid off 100 people and cut pay for most employees last year for a nine-month period. All employees except two: Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Chief Executive Janet L. Robinson. According to The Wall Street Journal, both Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Janet L. Robinson got huge increases. Janet L. Robinson's overall pay jumped 32 percent to 6.3 million; Arthur Sulzberger Jr.'s pay rose to $6 million, double the $3 million of a year before.
What's alarming is Sulzberger and Robinson took these raises while asking their employees to suffer pay cuts and job losses. In May of 2009, Vanity Fair's Mark Bowden wrote that a "doomsday clock" was ticking for newspapers, and Sulzberger was "struggling to keep his family's prized asset alive." Yeah, he's really working hard to do that, huh?
What Sulzberger and Robinson should have done is put those raises back into The New York Times and maintained as much of their staff intact as possible, pay levels and all.
Sulzberger has cried about the New York Times' problems to anyone who would listen. He's given speeches on the impact of the Internet and Google, in particular, on the news industry, as he did at last year's Webby Awards in this video:
But when it comes time to show that he's trying to save the NY Times, he works to make sure he gets as much money as he can.
It's not too late for Sulzberger and Robinson to reverse their fiscal course and help the people of The New York Times. Let's see if they do the right thing. Otherwise, if newspaper owners and managers like Sulzberger and Robinson are going to be greedy, why should the Federal Government bail them out?
Stay tuned.
What's alarming is Sulzberger and Robinson took these raises while asking their employees to suffer pay cuts and job losses. In May of 2009, Vanity Fair's Mark Bowden wrote that a "doomsday clock" was ticking for newspapers, and Sulzberger was "struggling to keep his family's prized asset alive." Yeah, he's really working hard to do that, huh?
What Sulzberger and Robinson should have done is put those raises back into The New York Times and maintained as much of their staff intact as possible, pay levels and all.
Sulzberger has cried about the New York Times' problems to anyone who would listen. He's given speeches on the impact of the Internet and Google, in particular, on the news industry, as he did at last year's Webby Awards in this video:
But when it comes time to show that he's trying to save the NY Times, he works to make sure he gets as much money as he can.
It's not too late for Sulzberger and Robinson to reverse their fiscal course and help the people of The New York Times. Let's see if they do the right thing. Otherwise, if newspaper owners and managers like Sulzberger and Robinson are going to be greedy, why should the Federal Government bail them out?
Stay tuned.
Twitter location-sharing is on; be careful how you tweet
After fits-and-starts of being on, then off, Twitter location-sharing is on. Now, you include location information in a tweet. All you have to do, assuming you have a Twitter account, is go to "settings", scroll down, and click on "Add a location to your tweets."
While this feature is great and welcome to all who want to be found, it can be dangerous for those who may be away from home. Someone with an awful heart can essentially "cyber case" a person using Twitter to determine when to try and break in to their home. Or worse.
As the Twitter blog explains, the location-sharing feature is great to inform people of where something's occurring, but the problem is the tweeter has to be in the area where that something's happening.
While I initially was excited about this new Twitter feature, it has the perfect distinction of being a tool that can be used for better or worse.
Stay tuned.
While this feature is great and welcome to all who want to be found, it can be dangerous for those who may be away from home. Someone with an awful heart can essentially "cyber case" a person using Twitter to determine when to try and break in to their home. Or worse.
As the Twitter blog explains, the location-sharing feature is great to inform people of where something's occurring, but the problem is the tweeter has to be in the area where that something's happening.
While I initially was excited about this new Twitter feature, it has the perfect distinction of being a tool that can be used for better or worse.
Stay tuned.
Lady Gaga and Beyonce The Telephone's new make-up soda can look
In the music video for Lady Gaga and Beyonce's The Telephone, Lady Gaga wears a an "up-do" that consists of soda cans while in prison.
In this video by serenaverbon on YouTube, Serena and her cousin Robin show how to create the look, and in the process have built the foundation for the propagation of a new Lady Gaga-endorsed fashion trend.
On her Twitter page, Lady Gaga gave the video the official Gaga cyber thumbs-up with this tweet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8_hrDQyBTo "Soda-do, How to." GENIUS little fashion monsters.
about 17 hours ago via web
Jasmin Malik Chua at Ecouterre was the first online to point to the style and wrote "If Lady Gaga has a passion for trashion, she’s managed to keep it on the down-low." Until now. The prison-inspired look seems right for these economically challenged times and could morph into a form of protest against an economy that's slow to produce jobs.
The "Make-up Soda Can Look" could serve as a perfect statement mocking governments like the State of California that spend more money on prisons than for education. If California's becoming a police state, the "Make-up Soda Can Look" might well become the fashion statement that reflects it.
Unless you doubt Lady Gaga's ability to influence fashion trends, just look at this video-blog I created after I passed by the crowd at Lady Gaga's San Francisco concert last December:
In the video-blog many of Lady Gaga's fans were obviously inspired by Lady Gaga in their dress. But while that was for a Lady Gaga concert, my bet is the "Make-up Soda Can Look" will find its way into everyday society.
Stay tuned.
Lady Gaga and Beyonce - music video The Telephone lyrics
Lady Gaga and Beyonce shine in their music video The Telephone Here are the lyrics for The Telephone, and they reveal a set of lines that college girls will be repeating to each other. At least that's the prediction in this space.
The numbers connected with the music video on YouTube are sick at over 7 million views in three days, and climbing. And while YouTube has given The Telephone great visibility, that alone can't explain the staggering view count. Lady Gaga and Beyonce have hit the zeitgeist perfectly and everyone from entertainers to marketers should pay attention to this. Here are the lyrics for The Telephone:
[Lady Gaga]
Hello, hello, baby
You called, I can't hear a thing.
I have got no service
in the club, you say, say
Wha-Wha-What did you say, huh?
You're breaking up on me
Sorry, I cannot hear you,
I'm kinda busy.
K-kinda busy
K-kinda busy
Sorry, I cannot hear you, I'm kinda busy.
Just a second,
It's my favorite song they're gonna play
And I cannot text you with
A drink in my hand, eh?
You shoulda made some plans with me,
You knew that I was free.
And now you won't stop calling me;
I'm kinda busy.
Stop callin', stop callin',
I don't wanna think anymore!
I left my head and my heart on the dance floor.
Stop callin'', stop callin,
I don't wanna talk anymore!
I left my head and my heart on the dance floor.
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh
Stop telephonin' me!
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh
I'm busy!
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh
Stop telephonin' me!
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh
Can call all you want,
but there's no one home,
and you're not gonna reach my telephone!
Cuz I'm out in the club,
and I'm sippin that bubb,
and you're not gonna reach my telephone!
Call when you want,
but there's no one home,
and you're not gonna reach my telephone!
Out in the club,
and I'm sippin' that bubb,
and you're not gonna reach my telephone!
[Beyonce]
Boy, the way you blowin' up my phone
won't make me leave no faster.
Put my coat on faster,
leave my girls no faster.
I shoulda left my phone at home,
cuz this is a disaster!
Callin' like a collector -
sorry, I cannot answer!
Not that I don't like you,
I'm just at a party.
And I am sick and tired
of my phone r-ringing.
Sometimes I feel like
I live in Grand Central Station.
Tonight I'm not takin no calls,
cause I'll be dancin.
Cause I'll be dancin
Cause I'll be dancin
Tonight I'm not takin no calls, cause I'll be dancin!
Stop callin', stop callin',
I don't wanna think anymore!
I got my head and my heart on the dance floor.
Stop callin', stop callin',
I don't wanna talk anymore!
I got my head and my heart on the dance floor.
Stop callin', stop callin',
I don't wanna think anymore!
I got my head and my heart on the dance floor.
Stop callin', stop callin',
I don't wanna talk anymore!
I got my head and my heart on the dance floor.
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh
Stop telephonin' me
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh
I'm busy!
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh
Stop telephonin' me!
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh
Can call all you want,
but there's no one home,
and you're not gonna reach my telephone!
Cuz I'm out in the club,
and I'm sippin' that bubb,
and you're not gonna reach my telephone!
Call when you want,
but there's no one home,
and you're not gonna reach my telephone!
Cuz I'm out in the club,
and I'm sippin' that bubb,
and you're not gonna reach my telephone!
My telephone!
M-m-my telephone!
Cuz I'm out in the club,
and I'm sippin' that bubb,
and you're not gonna reach my telephone!
My telephone!
M-m-my telephone!
Cuz I'm out in the club,
and I'm sippin that bubb,
and you're not gonna reach my telephone!
We're sorry the number you have reached is not in service at this time.
Please check the number, or try your call again.
Tiger Woods hires ex-GOP aide Ari Fleischer; plans return to Golf
Accelerating his timetable, Tiger Woods has hired ex-GOP aide Ari Fleischer to help with his plans to return to Golf.
The World's Greatest Golfer hired the former press secretary to George W. Bush to help him recast his image according to ESPN.
The speculation in many corners is that Tiger Woods is going to play in the Tavistock Cup or the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and that his eventual objective is the 2010 Masters.
Tiger Woods image of the rock-solid family man was wrecked by the public revelation of numerous affairs with as many as 12 different women from Rachel Uchitel to Jamie Jungers. Tiger Woods admitted himself to a sex-addiction clinic in Mississippi and was just recently released from his treatment program.
While the idea that one can be addicted to sex is questionable, the fact that Tiger Woods went to get help rubber stamps the idea. The real problem was Woods wasn't be faithful to his wife Elin Nordegren. If Woods wasn't married to her, no one would accuse him of being addicted to sex as opposed to just a partying playboy.
The real story may be that Tiger Woods was trying to escape what may be a controlling relationship with his wife without losing her. Reports that Florida medical assistance workers did think Elin beat the crap out of him Thanksgiving night are surfacing. It's not that Woods didn't ask for it, but perhaps the real story was he was always trying to escape Elin's control and maintain his relationship to hold his image.
Whatever the case, all of that seems to be in the past. Let's hope so.
The World's Greatest Golfer hired the former press secretary to George W. Bush to help him recast his image according to ESPN.
The speculation in many corners is that Tiger Woods is going to play in the Tavistock Cup or the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and that his eventual objective is the 2010 Masters.
Tiger Woods image of the rock-solid family man was wrecked by the public revelation of numerous affairs with as many as 12 different women from Rachel Uchitel to Jamie Jungers. Tiger Woods admitted himself to a sex-addiction clinic in Mississippi and was just recently released from his treatment program.
While the idea that one can be addicted to sex is questionable, the fact that Tiger Woods went to get help rubber stamps the idea. The real problem was Woods wasn't be faithful to his wife Elin Nordegren. If Woods wasn't married to her, no one would accuse him of being addicted to sex as opposed to just a partying playboy.
The real story may be that Tiger Woods was trying to escape what may be a controlling relationship with his wife without losing her. Reports that Florida medical assistance workers did think Elin beat the crap out of him Thanksgiving night are surfacing. It's not that Woods didn't ask for it, but perhaps the real story was he was always trying to escape Elin's control and maintain his relationship to hold his image.
Whatever the case, all of that seems to be in the past. Let's hope so.
Lady Gaga and Beyonce in music video The Telephone
Lady Gaga and Beyonce rock in the new music video The Telephone. Created very much like a movie, the new video has been seen over 7 million times on YouTube already in just three days. It stars Lady Gaga as the new entry in a woman's prison full of female hardbodies who play rough.
Beyonce plays her friend who gets her out of jail and together they go to settle a score with the patrons in a restaurant by poisoning them.
The music video's story is very much in the style and theme of the movie Thelma and Louise. In that 1991 movie, Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis play the female version of Bonnie and Clyde. It's also a very sexually charged music video, but without obvious sex. Everything from the dress to the name of their truck "Pussy Wagon" points to sex.
Lady Gaga and Beyonce in the music video The Telephone prove that above all, sex sells.
Stay tuned.
Friday, March 12, 2010
What do you get out of SXSW other than Mark Cuban?
Related searches: Mark Cuban, SXSW, tech conference, austin, texas, sxsw panel
SXSW is the giant music, film, and "interactive" conference going on now in Austin, Texas. This blogger is not there, and has a question: What do you get out of SXSW?
In general, the high tech conferences all sport the same format and are becoming just one, big, plain bore. Pick the event, the format is the same: some panel or person talking to an audience, as of that person is the lone expert on a something. And at Web 2.0, they're all placed on a pedestal. The main problem with these sleep-fests is that someone in the audience at times has a better grasp of what the presenter's talking about than the presenter does.
At SXSW, regardless of the session, the "panel / audience" format's the same. Instead of the "Mark Cuban is God at the stage" approach, why not something that involves the people in the room? SWSX-goers could be asked to bring their laptops and go to a specific webpage to do something, to feedback. How about taking it a step beyond that and asking them to post their video comments and questions on a page for display to the group?
Note that the idea is open-ended. You can pour any subject into it and create an "interaction forum" that is more rewarding than sitting on your butt listening to someone drone on and on, or for that matter, watching Mark Cuban get into a snarky argument with Aver Ronen at SXSW.
Why do you go, or don't go, to SXSW. Take the poll:
More surveys on pollsb.com
SXSW is the giant music, film, and "interactive" conference going on now in Austin, Texas. This blogger is not there, and has a question: What do you get out of SXSW?
In general, the high tech conferences all sport the same format and are becoming just one, big, plain bore. Pick the event, the format is the same: some panel or person talking to an audience, as of that person is the lone expert on a something. And at Web 2.0, they're all placed on a pedestal. The main problem with these sleep-fests is that someone in the audience at times has a better grasp of what the presenter's talking about than the presenter does.
 |
| Is this what Mark Cuban gets out of SXSW? |
Note that the idea is open-ended. You can pour any subject into it and create an "interaction forum" that is more rewarding than sitting on your butt listening to someone drone on and on, or for that matter, watching Mark Cuban get into a snarky argument with Aver Ronen at SXSW.
Why do you go, or don't go, to SXSW. Take the poll:
More surveys on pollsb.com
Oakland Teachers | East Bay Express wrong about teacher pay issue
As the news that the Oakland, California teacher's union's planned one-day walkout was moved to April 22nd from March 24th, this blogger ran across a paragraph in the East Bay Express that has information that was incorrect. In "Some Hard Truths About Oakland Teachers", Robert Gammon wrote:
Gammon's wrong and he should look at Section 33678 Subdivision (B) of the California Health and Safety Code. The common misconception about California Redevelopment Law and Tax Increment Revenue, is that redevelopment revenue can't be used to provide services in city like Oakland. Redevelopment revenue can be used to augment teacher's salaries for schools within a redevelopment area if the redevelopment plan for that area was amended to do so.
So, the Oakland Redevelopment Agency could provide a grant to the Oakland Unified School District to be used for targeted schools within the 6,000-acre Coliseum Redevelopment Area, the largest project area in the state of California.
And a recent Court of Appeals decision could result in more money being passed through from redevelopment agencies to school districts, but the main point here is that, should it elect to do so, the Oakland Redevelopment Agency could work with the Oakland Unified School District to have higher teacher salaries in East Oakland, if only to reflect the additional problems teachers face in of working in a high-crime area.
Has Oakland used this provision in California Redevelopment Law before? Yes. In fact, former Oakland City Manager Henry Gardner informed me that the City of Oakland's redevelopment agency used it to form a program with the Oakland Police to remove crack houses in East Oakland.
Gardner and I had that conversation in 1997 when I was the Economic Advisor to then-Mayor Elihu Harris. During that time I was lobbying for the adoption of an idea I created called "Redevelopment Project Area Phasing."
Stay tuned.
...the City of Oakland has nothing to do with teacher salaries. Teachers are employees of the Oakland Unified School District, which is a completely separate legal entity that gets its funding from the state, not the city. So the city has no say in how much teachers make. And thus comparing teacher salaries to cops' salaries, as some commenters want to do, is ridiculous, because they're paid by different entities.
So, the Oakland Redevelopment Agency could provide a grant to the Oakland Unified School District to be used for targeted schools within the 6,000-acre Coliseum Redevelopment Area, the largest project area in the state of California.
And a recent Court of Appeals decision could result in more money being passed through from redevelopment agencies to school districts, but the main point here is that, should it elect to do so, the Oakland Redevelopment Agency could work with the Oakland Unified School District to have higher teacher salaries in East Oakland, if only to reflect the additional problems teachers face in of working in a high-crime area.
Has Oakland used this provision in California Redevelopment Law before? Yes. In fact, former Oakland City Manager Henry Gardner informed me that the City of Oakland's redevelopment agency used it to form a program with the Oakland Police to remove crack houses in East Oakland.
Gardner and I had that conversation in 1997 when I was the Economic Advisor to then-Mayor Elihu Harris. During that time I was lobbying for the adoption of an idea I created called "Redevelopment Project Area Phasing."
Stay tuned.
Pac-10 Tournament - Cal vs. UCLA, Washington v. Stanford
The University of California Men's Basketball Team advances to play the hated UCLA Bruins tonight at 6:30 PM. Yesterday, Cal made easy work of Oregon, 90 to 76, as Senior guard and Pac-10 player of the year Jerome Randle scored 22 points in the first half. UCLA beat Arizona 75-69.
In the video below, UCLA coach Ben Howland and senior guard Michael Roll talk after the Arizona win about playing Cal tonight. Michael Roll says "We're going to do everything we can to win."
Everything? Like what? Throw elbows? Knee someone?
All this blogger can say is "GO BEARS" Meanwhile, Washington plays Stanford at 8:40 PM PST. Washington beat Oregon State 59 to 52 Wednesday. Stanford shocked second-seeded Arizona State 70 to 61. Arizona State swept the Cardinal during the regular season.
Stay tuned.
In the video below, UCLA coach Ben Howland and senior guard Michael Roll talk after the Arizona win about playing Cal tonight. Michael Roll says "We're going to do everything we can to win."
Everything? Like what? Throw elbows? Knee someone?
All this blogger can say is "GO BEARS" Meanwhile, Washington plays Stanford at 8:40 PM PST. Washington beat Oregon State 59 to 52 Wednesday. Stanford shocked second-seeded Arizona State 70 to 61. Arizona State swept the Cardinal during the regular season.
Stay tuned.
Lebron James to return Friday; is Shaquille O'Neal making a difference?
Lebron James is set to return to The Cleveland Caveliers today, Friday. The NBA star some call Superman was out with an ankle injury for two games and was relegated to cheering his team on from the bench.
If Lebron James's is on steroids, they sure didn't help him from an injury. Personally, the talk that James is on steriods, is really awful. The real conversation should be about Shaquille O'Neal.
is Shaq making a difference?
When Shaquille O'Neal was traded to the Cleveland Caveliers, the move was hailed in this space as the one that could bring a ring to Lebron James and Cleveland.
Now, Shaq's out for almost two months because he had surgery on his injured right thumb Monday. It was hit when The Boston Celtics Glen Davis blocked Shaq's shot on February 25th.
But before that point, Shaq averaged 12 points and 6.7 rebounds in 53 games according to ESPN. It's not far off, really just a small amount, below his career averages. For a person who's played for 17 years, Shaquille O'Neal's size and shot techniques still make him a formidable player. He gives Cavs coach Mike Brown the ability to work in a big lineup, and provides a much needed enforcer...when he's healthy. The Cavs record is 50 and 15 as of this writing.
Shaquille O'Neal told Cavs GM Danny Ferry that he would be back in time for the playoffs. If he's ready, Mike Brown should have Shaq play longer than his 23 minute average. Coach Brown's not getting enough out of a Shaq who's fully into the tempo of the game.
If Lebron James's is on steroids, they sure didn't help him from an injury. Personally, the talk that James is on steriods, is really awful. The real conversation should be about Shaquille O'Neal.
is Shaq making a difference?
When Shaquille O'Neal was traded to the Cleveland Caveliers, the move was hailed in this space as the one that could bring a ring to Lebron James and Cleveland.
Now, Shaq's out for almost two months because he had surgery on his injured right thumb Monday. It was hit when The Boston Celtics Glen Davis blocked Shaq's shot on February 25th.
But before that point, Shaq averaged 12 points and 6.7 rebounds in 53 games according to ESPN. It's not far off, really just a small amount, below his career averages. For a person who's played for 17 years, Shaquille O'Neal's size and shot techniques still make him a formidable player. He gives Cavs coach Mike Brown the ability to work in a big lineup, and provides a much needed enforcer...when he's healthy. The Cavs record is 50 and 15 as of this writing.
Shaquille O'Neal told Cavs GM Danny Ferry that he would be back in time for the playoffs. If he's ready, Mike Brown should have Shaq play longer than his 23 minute average. Coach Brown's not getting enough out of a Shaq who's fully into the tempo of the game.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Merlin Olsen died of cancer at 69 - NFL and NBC star
Olsen sued NBC Studios, NBC Universal, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Sherwin Williams, Lennox Industries and other companies, according to TMZ.com.
Merlin Olsen is the model for success in the transition from football to regular life. He became a great actor, starring on Little House on The Prairie and Father Murphy. And of course, he was a terrific NBC football analyst.
When this blogger thinks of Merlin Olsen, the word "smooth" comes to mind. In his speech and movement. A quite giant who I met after the 1993 Cal and Stanford Big Game, when his son Nate Olson played for Bill Walsh at Stanford.
Merlin Olsen played defensive end as part of the Los Angeles Rams "Fearsome Foursome" of Rosey Greier, Deacon Jones, and Lamar Lundy in their 4-3 defense.
Jason Ritter and Marianna Palka talk about Good Dick The Film
Jason Ritter and Marianna Palka, the co-creators of Morning Knight, Inc., were at the Night of 100 Stars Oscar Party on Oscar Sunday. Jason Ritter, the son of John Ritter, opened the video talking about his role in an NBC pilot called The Event.
But Ritter and Palka were also interested in pushing attention toward their 2008 film called Good Dick. The website's synopsis of the movie is here:
Good Dick is a modern fairy tale about a troubled, reclusive young woman and the persistent video clerk who draws her out of her claustrophobic world by starting up a unique courtship with her. As they become closer, her sexual antipathy is met with his unflinching optimism, until finally her aggressive defenses overwhelm them both and the relationship bursts apart. Profoundly affected by his presence in her life, she finds that she has the courage to face her past.
Good Dick was a 2008 Sundance Film Festival Award Winner that is independently distributed as of this writing on DVD. The film's written and directed by Marianna Palka and from the looks of this trailer...
Is an entertaining film.
Because of the "assembly line" of celebrities, there wasn't enough time to get more in depth about the movie itself. But more on it later; visit the website Good Dick The Film.
Stay tuned.
Days of Our Lives David Leisure talks about fame - after The Oscars
At the Night of 100 Stars Oscar Gala last Sunday at The Beverly Hills Hotel, actor, comedian, and Days of Our Lives star David Leisure talked about fame. Or when he knew he was famous. It was connected with his iconic role as "Joe Isuzu" 25 years ago. Then, the snarky spokesperson for The Isuzu brand started to be recognized by "people he didn't know" and after a while it got "creepy". But he's used to it all now.
David Leisure played Charley Dietz in the series Empty Nest to 1995 and today he's "D.A. Woods" on the long-running soap opera Days of Our Lives. I later ran into him at the Beverly Hills Polo Lounge just before the whole Alec Baldwin episode unfolded.
Stay tuned.
Corey Haim had enlarged heart and water in his lungs
The LA County Corner's Office (who's had a very busy last three months with the deaths of Brittany Murphy, Casey Johnson, and now Corey Haim), reports that Actor Corey Haim had "pulmonary congestion, an enlarged heart and water in his lungs" as reported by TMZ.com.
But with that, the LA County Corner's Office has not determined that was the cause of Corey Haim's death. Several prescription medications were found in Corey Haim's apartment, including Valium, Vicodin and Soma.
RadarOnline reports that Corey Haim's mother said Haim was helping her on her battle against breast cancer.
That battle's all too familiar to me. My Mom battled breast cancer and was declared cancer-free April 17th, 2005. She takes a drug called Femara that has really worked wonders.
Stay tuned.
But with that, the LA County Corner's Office has not determined that was the cause of Corey Haim's death. Several prescription medications were found in Corey Haim's apartment, including Valium, Vicodin and Soma.
RadarOnline reports that Corey Haim's mother said Haim was helping her on her battle against breast cancer.
That battle's all too familiar to me. My Mom battled breast cancer and was declared cancer-free April 17th, 2005. She takes a drug called Femara that has really worked wonders.
Stay tuned.
Amanda Knox cleared by Mario Alessi confession - CBS News
According to CBS Online via YouTube, Amanda Knox, who's currently serving time in an Italian prison for the alleged murder of Meredith Kercher, did not kill Meredith Kercher.
Amanda Knox, the former University of Washington student and her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito were said to have worked with Rudy Hermann Guede to kill Meredith Kercher in a sex-play gone wrong. But this video taped confession by Guede's prison-mate Mario Alessi clears Amanda Knox of any wrong-doing:
In the video, Alessi says that Guede told him that he and a friend of Guede's went to Meredith Kercher's house that night. They had met a few days earlier in a club; they went to Meredith Kercher's house but "it was not planned." She was surprised to see them, but invited them into the house.
Rudy himself had asked if she wanted to have a threesome, which she did not want to do. Rudy went to the bathroom for about 15 minutes, then came back and found a "completely different scenario." He found the girl with her back on the ground and the guy holding her in his arms. They then went into a kind of dry humping threesome that Alessi describes in detail in the video.
The guy, unnamed, took out a pocket knife and basically killed her with it, according to Alessi. It started as an accidental stabbing that Rudy wanted to heel, but "the guy" wanted to "finish the prostitute off" according to the video. He did so and then left. Rudy stayed behind, but eventually exited the house as well.
Rudy Guede wrote a letter saying that Mario Alessi's claims were not true. But since Alessi's claims would work against him and Alessi was his prison mate, Alessi's claims ring true.
Amanda Knox was nowhere to be seen when Meredith Kercher was murdered.
Stay tuned.
Amanda Knox, the former University of Washington student and her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito were said to have worked with Rudy Hermann Guede to kill Meredith Kercher in a sex-play gone wrong. But this video taped confession by Guede's prison-mate Mario Alessi clears Amanda Knox of any wrong-doing:
In the video, Alessi says that Guede told him that he and a friend of Guede's went to Meredith Kercher's house that night. They had met a few days earlier in a club; they went to Meredith Kercher's house but "it was not planned." She was surprised to see them, but invited them into the house.
Rudy himself had asked if she wanted to have a threesome, which she did not want to do. Rudy went to the bathroom for about 15 minutes, then came back and found a "completely different scenario." He found the girl with her back on the ground and the guy holding her in his arms. They then went into a kind of dry humping threesome that Alessi describes in detail in the video.
The guy, unnamed, took out a pocket knife and basically killed her with it, according to Alessi. It started as an accidental stabbing that Rudy wanted to heel, but "the guy" wanted to "finish the prostitute off" according to the video. He did so and then left. Rudy stayed behind, but eventually exited the house as well.
Rudy Guede wrote a letter saying that Mario Alessi's claims were not true. But since Alessi's claims would work against him and Alessi was his prison mate, Alessi's claims ring true.
Amanda Knox was nowhere to be seen when Meredith Kercher was murdered.
Stay tuned.
Chevron Ecuador issue: Chevron wins court victory against Ecuador
In the ongoing court battle between Chevron and the Country of Ecuador, Chevron won a court victory against Ecuador today. According to Reuters, A U.S. District Court Judge in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, granted Chevron the right to pursue an order to have via Ecuador to complete environmental cleanup work it and the state-run Petroecuador Oil Company were to have done when it took over oil production from Chevron-Texaco in 1992. Chevron will seek to have this done under the "U.S. - Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty."
In a statement sent to this blogger, Chevron said...
The court ruling has huge implications for Ecuador's oil production strategy. First, Ecuador has pursued a course of oil nationalization since 1990, but during that time has failed to make timely improvements in oil production facilities or adequately clean up oil spills. There have been over 100 oil spills in the Amazon Delta region since 1992.
Ecuador has embarked on a systemic removal of American oil companies. The most recent major example being Occidental Petroleum in 2007, where Ecuador literally kicked out Occidental from its property siting a breach of contract. Ecuadorians then had fist fights over the left over luxury cars.
When Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa came to power in January of 2007, he had pressures from two sides. First, Ecuador's environmental activists wanted more attention to cleanup of the Amazon, but state officials wanted to continue the nationalization of petroleum production. Correa crafted the perfect head-fake strategy: ask for money from oil companies to clean up the impacted areas of Ecuador, but continue and expand state oil production. Causing Chevron to pay billions for a cleanup project it was only partially responsible for was part of the strategy. The U.S. Court's decision has wrecked that approach.
Much of the opposition to Correa from activists has been muted by Ecuador's horrible treatment of the press. Teleamazonas, a TV station that reported that a natural gas exploitation on Puna Island could cause the suspension of fishing for up to six months, was shut down in December of 2009 for three days, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists. In 2008, a local journalist working to point to corruption in the judicial system was jailed for 10-months.
Ecuador has worked to keep quiet its mishandling of oil production and the resultant environmental damage, while encouraging the media and using the courts to force American and foreign oil companies to pay for the oil-related mess Ecuador caused, and fooling American activists groups into helping Ecuador's government nationalize its oil production. Today's ruling will have a major impact in altering that course of behavior.
Stay tuned.
In a statement sent to this blogger, Chevron said...
Chevron is pleased that the Bilateral Investment Treaty arbitration can proceed. Chevron is seeking to hold Ecuador and its government owned oil company, PetroEcuador, to the promise they made to complete the environmental cleanup of the Amazon. Texaco Petroleum did its share of the cleanup as promised, and PetroEcuador now needs to own up to its promises and address the environmental problems wrongly being blamed on Chevron. Only the international arbitration panel can bring Ecuador to the table and compel PetroEcuador to do the right thing and clean up its oil fields. With today's decision, we are one step closer to making that a reality
The court ruling has huge implications for Ecuador's oil production strategy. First, Ecuador has pursued a course of oil nationalization since 1990, but during that time has failed to make timely improvements in oil production facilities or adequately clean up oil spills. There have been over 100 oil spills in the Amazon Delta region since 1992.
Ecuador has embarked on a systemic removal of American oil companies. The most recent major example being Occidental Petroleum in 2007, where Ecuador literally kicked out Occidental from its property siting a breach of contract. Ecuadorians then had fist fights over the left over luxury cars.
When Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa came to power in January of 2007, he had pressures from two sides. First, Ecuador's environmental activists wanted more attention to cleanup of the Amazon, but state officials wanted to continue the nationalization of petroleum production. Correa crafted the perfect head-fake strategy: ask for money from oil companies to clean up the impacted areas of Ecuador, but continue and expand state oil production. Causing Chevron to pay billions for a cleanup project it was only partially responsible for was part of the strategy. The U.S. Court's decision has wrecked that approach.
Much of the opposition to Correa from activists has been muted by Ecuador's horrible treatment of the press. Teleamazonas, a TV station that reported that a natural gas exploitation on Puna Island could cause the suspension of fishing for up to six months, was shut down in December of 2009 for three days, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists. In 2008, a local journalist working to point to corruption in the judicial system was jailed for 10-months.
Ecuador has worked to keep quiet its mishandling of oil production and the resultant environmental damage, while encouraging the media and using the courts to force American and foreign oil companies to pay for the oil-related mess Ecuador caused, and fooling American activists groups into helping Ecuador's government nationalize its oil production. Today's ruling will have a major impact in altering that course of behavior.
Stay tuned.
Conan O'Brien tour: American Express is the sponsor?
Conan O'Brien is back with a tour sponsored by American Express: Atlanta, San Francisco, Spokane on the list. The tour Conan O'Brien "The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour" will cover 30 cities in all, starting with Eugene, Oregon on April 12th and ending in Atlanta on June 14th at The Fox Theater. On Twitter, Conan tweeted:
What's interesting to this blogger is American Express, which has financially squeezed its credit card customers (like this blogger) and caused them to give up their Gold Cards because of their practices, and has taken Federal Government bailout money and improved its fiscal position, is the sponsor. Is this supposed to make me reconsider American Express?
Apparently, American Express is healthy enough to get back in the event sponsorship game. Hopefully, it's treating its customers much better than in 2008. If I were Conan O'Brien, I'd have pursued another sponsor. Why not an airline like United Airlines?
At any rate, here's the full list of Conan O'Brien tour dates according to the Kansas City Star:
4/12/10 Eugene, OR Hult Center for the Performing Arts
4/13/10 Vancouver, BC, Canada Orpheum Theatre
4/16/10 Spokane, WA INB Performing Arts Center
4/17/10 Enoch, AB, Canada River Cree Resort & Casino
4/18/10 Seattle, WA Seattle Center – Marion Oliver McCaw Hall
4/22/10 San Francisco, CA Nob Hill Masonic Center
4/24/10 Universal City, CA Gibson Amphitheater
4/29/10 San Diego, CA San Diego Civic Theatre
4/30/10 Phoenix, AZ Dodge Theatre
5/1/10 Las Vegas, NV The Pearl Concert Theatre @ The Palms
5/4/10 Reno, NV Grand Sierra Resort & Casino
5/5/10 San Jose, Ca San Jose State University Events Center
5/6/10 Sacramento, CA Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
5/9/10 Boulder, CO Mackey Auditorium
5/10/10 Denver, CO Ellie Caulkins Opera House
5/13/10 Dallas, TX McFarlin Memorial Auditorium- SMU Campus
5/14/10 Austin, TX Austin Music Hall
5/15/10 Tulsa, OK Brady Theater
5/16/10 Kansas City, MO Midland Theatre
5/18/10 Minneapolis, MN Orpheum Theatre
5/19/10 Chicago, IL Chicago Theatre
5/22/10 Toronto, ON, Canada Massey Hall
5/30/10 Atlantic City, NJ Borgata Spa & Resort – Event Center
6/1/10 New York, NY Radio City Music Hall
6/4/10 Boston, MA Wang Theater
6/6/10 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena
6/7/10 Upper Darby, PA Tower Theatre
6/8/10 Washington, DC Constitution Hall
6/11/10 Manchester, TN Bonnaroo Music Festival
6/14/10 Atlanta, GA Fox Theatre
Stay tuned.
Hey Internet: I'm headed to your town on a half-assed comedy & music tour. Go to http://TeamCoco.com for tix. I repeat: It's half-assed.
What's interesting to this blogger is American Express, which has financially squeezed its credit card customers (like this blogger) and caused them to give up their Gold Cards because of their practices, and has taken Federal Government bailout money and improved its fiscal position, is the sponsor. Is this supposed to make me reconsider American Express?
Apparently, American Express is healthy enough to get back in the event sponsorship game. Hopefully, it's treating its customers much better than in 2008. If I were Conan O'Brien, I'd have pursued another sponsor. Why not an airline like United Airlines?
4/12/10 Eugene, OR Hult Center for the Performing Arts
4/13/10 Vancouver, BC, Canada Orpheum Theatre
4/16/10 Spokane, WA INB Performing Arts Center
4/17/10 Enoch, AB, Canada River Cree Resort & Casino
4/18/10 Seattle, WA Seattle Center – Marion Oliver McCaw Hall
4/22/10 San Francisco, CA Nob Hill Masonic Center
4/24/10 Universal City, CA Gibson Amphitheater
4/29/10 San Diego, CA San Diego Civic Theatre
4/30/10 Phoenix, AZ Dodge Theatre
5/1/10 Las Vegas, NV The Pearl Concert Theatre @ The Palms
5/4/10 Reno, NV Grand Sierra Resort & Casino
5/5/10 San Jose, Ca San Jose State University Events Center
5/6/10 Sacramento, CA Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
5/9/10 Boulder, CO Mackey Auditorium
5/10/10 Denver, CO Ellie Caulkins Opera House
5/13/10 Dallas, TX McFarlin Memorial Auditorium- SMU Campus
5/14/10 Austin, TX Austin Music Hall
5/15/10 Tulsa, OK Brady Theater
5/16/10 Kansas City, MO Midland Theatre
5/18/10 Minneapolis, MN Orpheum Theatre
5/19/10 Chicago, IL Chicago Theatre
5/22/10 Toronto, ON, Canada Massey Hall
5/30/10 Atlantic City, NJ Borgata Spa & Resort – Event Center
6/1/10 New York, NY Radio City Music Hall
6/4/10 Boston, MA Wang Theater
6/6/10 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena
6/7/10 Upper Darby, PA Tower Theatre
6/8/10 Washington, DC Constitution Hall
6/11/10 Manchester, TN Bonnaroo Music Festival
6/14/10 Atlanta, GA Fox Theatre
Stay tuned.
The Richest person in the world: Carlos Slim Helu
Mr. Helu, whom the Christian Science Monitor weirdly described as "the portly cigar-smoker", is the first man from a developing country to become Richest Man In The World. That's another way of saying Carlos Slim Helu is the first person of color to top the Forbes billionaire list.
How Carlos Slim Helu got there is by purchasing a controlling interest in Telmex in 1990, along with a group of investors, and used that to leverage the buying of as many telecom companies in Mexico and Latin America as possible. Now, his family owns 90 percent of Mexico's telephone lines and 80 percent of its cellphone. He's used that to finance his business operations around the World.
Carlos Slim Helu owns almost 7 percent of The New York Times and in 2009 gave the Times Company a $250 million loan. He's reportedly happy with his stake in the company and has no plans to increase it.
Stay tuned for updates.
Seattle P.I. has Zennie Abraham, but formatting not his fault
On March 18th The Seattle P.I., the website that was once connected to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, turns one year old.
This month of March, and to the total surprise of this blogger, his work turned up on the "City Brights section" of Seattle P.I.
It's great to at the Seattle P.I. (as it gives me a reason to focus on a city I love, Seattle) and at SFGate.com , and at Examiner.com, and at Zennie62.com, and the 100 blog network we have there, and on Youtube.com , Blip.tv, and five other video sites, and about 30 social networks and bookmarking sites and on CoLoursTV.
The one problem is the Seattle P.I. appears to be using the Zennie62 RSS feed but not formatting the result. Thus, the blog posts come out without paragraph breaks, leaving one long "go" of words all mushed together. The damage is done when it reads "posted by Zennie Abraham" - it wasn't posted by Zennie Abraham.
He's me, as you know.
Thanks, Seattle P.I.; please fix my blog posts!
Stay tuned.
This month of March, and to the total surprise of this blogger, his work turned up on the "City Brights section" of Seattle P.I.
It's great to at the Seattle P.I. (as it gives me a reason to focus on a city I love, Seattle) and at SFGate.com , and at Examiner.com, and at Zennie62.com, and the 100 blog network we have there, and on Youtube.com , Blip.tv, and five other video sites, and about 30 social networks and bookmarking sites and on CoLoursTV.
The one problem is the Seattle P.I. appears to be using the Zennie62 RSS feed but not formatting the result. Thus, the blog posts come out without paragraph breaks, leaving one long "go" of words all mushed together. The damage is done when it reads "posted by Zennie Abraham" - it wasn't posted by Zennie Abraham.
He's me, as you know.
Thanks, Seattle P.I.; please fix my blog posts!
Stay tuned.
Gabourey Sidibe lands movie role, proves Howard Stern wrong
 |
| Gabourey Sidibe in Yelling To The Sky |
Gabourey Sidibe is in a movie called Yelling To The Sky.
Written and directed by Victoria Mahoney, the description of Yelling To The Sky is this: "In a depraved New York neighborhood, the youngest of three mixed-race sisters named Sweetness O’Hara, spends the better part of being seventeen navigating an identity between the known: a violent life of crime, and the unknown: a life of purpose and meaning."
You can become a fan of the movie at Facebook here: Yelling to The Sky.
To recap, on The Howard Stern Show, Howard Stern ranted that Actress Gabourey Sidibe, who played the lead role in the award-winning movie Precious, and was a Best Actress Nominee for an Oscar at the 2010 Academy Awards, would never get another movie role. Howard Stern referred to Gabourey Sidibe as a "fat black chick" causing this blogger to ask what he skin color has to do with anything?
Again, to make sure the message is sent, Howard Stern was being racist. Period. End of story. Racism is a mental illness. It is the putting down - the rejecting - of a person because of the color of their skin. Howard Stern talked as if being black was something that made Gabourey Sidibe unattractive in his eyes. That's John Mayer-level racism. Racists are not known for thinking; if Howard Stern were thinking he would have never made the statement he did on his show.
Instead, Stern stuck his foot in his mouth.
Now Howard may say, "Oh, c'mom. That's a small independent film." So was Precious.
Stay tuned.
Forbes Rich List has Bill Gates at #2 and Mexican mogul Carlos Slim #1
The 2010 Forbes Rich List is out and for the first time in 15 years, an American is not in the top spot of the top 10. Microsoft co-founder and former-Chairman Bill Gates (or William Gates III) is not number one and neither is Warren Buffett. This year, Bill Gates, the 2009 leader, was replaced by Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim.
On ABC's Nightline Wednesday, much was made of the fact that fewer Americans were in the top-10; in 2005 five of the ten on the list were American. But this should come as no surprise considering the last 30-years of American assistance in the development of the multinational economy. Three decades of "outsourcing" of jobs - sending American jobs to countries like Mexico and India - has created the wealth base in those countries that allows the purchase of goods and services produced by the people who runs the businesses that caused them to reach the Forbes Rich List.
Over the last three decades, America has lost over $976 billion in job-generated wealth; over $400 billion of that in just the last eight years. The reason is America never installed a really coordinated industrial policy to improve and maintain key export industries.
In the case of telecommunications, which is Carlos Slim's area, America was the call center for the World in the 1980s; today call centers are primarily in India, Mexico, Canada, and Asia and over the years those countries have subsidized the growth of the telecom industry.
In the case of France's Bernard Arnault, who's number 7 on the list, French government subsidies helped him acquire a textile company Boussac, which owns Christian Dior. Arnault sold off all assets, save for the luxury Christian Dior brand and the Le Bon Marché department store. The Arnault family only used $15 million of its own money according to Wikipedia.
And the Forbes Rich List Top 10 may one day have no Americans on it; right now there are only three: Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Warren Buffett.
Stay tuned.
On ABC's Nightline Wednesday, much was made of the fact that fewer Americans were in the top-10; in 2005 five of the ten on the list were American. But this should come as no surprise considering the last 30-years of American assistance in the development of the multinational economy. Three decades of "outsourcing" of jobs - sending American jobs to countries like Mexico and India - has created the wealth base in those countries that allows the purchase of goods and services produced by the people who runs the businesses that caused them to reach the Forbes Rich List.
Over the last three decades, America has lost over $976 billion in job-generated wealth; over $400 billion of that in just the last eight years. The reason is America never installed a really coordinated industrial policy to improve and maintain key export industries.
In the case of telecommunications, which is Carlos Slim's area, America was the call center for the World in the 1980s; today call centers are primarily in India, Mexico, Canada, and Asia and over the years those countries have subsidized the growth of the telecom industry.
In the case of France's Bernard Arnault, who's number 7 on the list, French government subsidies helped him acquire a textile company Boussac, which owns Christian Dior. Arnault sold off all assets, save for the luxury Christian Dior brand and the Le Bon Marché department store. The Arnault family only used $15 million of its own money according to Wikipedia.
And the Forbes Rich List Top 10 may one day have no Americans on it; right now there are only three: Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Warren Buffett.
Stay tuned.
Top 10 Social Networking Things to Do by Zennie Abraham
This Top 10 Social Networking Things to Do blog post is an update of an older post from 2009. It contains some refinements in an approach that's worked very well for this blogger.
My friends come to me for advice in this area all the time, so I created this "Top 10" list of actions to take in using social networks to get yourself noticed online. (I'm going to add to this later, with more detail but watch the video for more background.)
The objective here is not just to get yourself noticed, but to also protect your identity. By being everywhere, and with the same name and photo, you create your "look" such that it's harder for anyone else to not only pretend to be you, but to alter your online persona. In other words, by having your name already online, it guards against and overwhelms any other view of you that's posted online. To do this, you have to be on as many platforms as possible.
Top 10 Social Networking Things to Do
1.Figure out your name. (I’m Zennie Abraham, Zenophon Abraham and Zennie62)
2.What do you want to get out of this? (Business? pleasure? Information?
If you’re in the business of pleasure that’s another story.)
3.Figure out your title: CEO? Producer? Party Animal?
4.Develop an email list. Remember, email is still a form of social networking.
5.Find a photo you’re proud of and nothing with you wearing a gorilla suit. (It does work for some but I don’t recommend it.)
6.Business?
a.Join Linkedin
b.Join Ryze (Great small business membership base in the Bay Area.)
c.Join Plaxo
d.Join Facebook and turn off the relationship notifications. (We don't need
know that you're dating Sven Nordgarden.
e. Join H5
f. Join Foursquare.com
g. Join YouTube.com
7.Pleasure?
a.Join MySpace
b.Join Facebook
c.Join FriendFeed
d. Join Brightkite.com
e. Join Foursquare.com
f. Join YouTube.com
8.Information?
a.Join FriendFeed
b.Join Facebook
c.Join Technorati (I recommend creating a blog and then posting it as your website of choice in their system.)
d. If sports-related, join MakeitPro.com
e. Join Brightkite.com
f. Join Foursquare.com
g. Join YouTube.com
Now some of you may find the inclusion of YouTube confusing, but it's a social network, not just a video distribution site. Moreover, it's a powerful identify-protection tool for this purpose, so long as you use your name and don't call yourself "Ardvark".
9.Set up a blog – put your resume in it without your phone number. That’s your free website. I prefer Blogger.com. It’s free. Make the blog title your name. Why? To mark your place with your name on cyberspace. Link to it from your social network profile. The point is to begin to protect your name and identity by having something out there you made about you, not someone else.
10.Use your email signature as the place for your links to your Linkedin Page and Blog page. (Now you have two places pointing at your blog page, which helps with SEO and to have others see your resume.)
A word on Twitter.
Twitter is not a social network, it's a communications system and you need to have something to say to use it. It's volume-based; the more you post the more valued your account because people will follow you looking for interesting posts, or what are called "tweets". I think of Twitter as an accessory to a social network not a replacement for one.
Twitter is very misunderstood by people in business. To continue my current favorite organization to pick on, just because it needs to improve, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) does not have a Twitter account. How could a Twitter account - and a blog - benefit AMPAS? I'll demonstrated via this scenario:
The Academy makes a mistake and leaves out Farrah Fawcett from its Memorial Tribute portion of the 2010 Oscars. To deal with the negative press it does the following:
1) Issues an apology on the AMPAS blog, which because it's connected to the AMPAS Twitter account, also goes out to AMPAS Twitter followers, and because the AMPAS Twitter account is connected to AMPAS on Facebook, it's posted to Facebook too.
2) AMPAS issues a press release based on the blog contents.
3) AMPAS asks its Twitter followers (hopefully over 1 million) to retweet the initial message.
4) AMPAS then makes a video-embeded blog post that's a "Tribute to Farrah Fawcett" and then does one blog post for each of the other actors that were missing. That too goes out via Twitter, one for each performer, and it goes to Facebook.
What will happen is each AMPAS blog post link is heightened by the click rates that will happen from being part of a tweet. That will raise the blog post pages in a search for "Farrah Fawcett and Academy" and thus more people will see the AMPAS apology and the online tribute.
End result: message is efficiently sent and the online tracks are seeded with tributes so that as the issue dies down, a track record that the Academy did something is in place.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Oscars: Alec Baldwin at The Polo Lounge; Stephen Fry was there!
Just a follow-up to the blog post "The Oscars: Alec Baldwin at The Polo Lounge, The Beverly Hills Hotel's power outages." In it, this blogger reported on his brunch at The Polo Lounge..
Well Stephen Fry was kind enough to send a message that it was indeed, him. He was with the British composer Leslie Bricusse and his wife and...Mr. Kirk Douglas was in the corner.
My view was obstructed by another group at a table more in the foreground from Mr. Fry and such that I missed Mr. Douglas. Moreover, I was consumed in The Sunday New York Times' article on the growing Internet culture in New York. Ignorance is bliss.
What's Stephen Fry up to? That wasn't the focus of our Twitter messaging, but Mr. Fry does have a rather interesting social network at The New Adventures of Stephen Fry, and of course he recently finished his 50-state tour of America.
Even more recently, Fry was a special guest at the introduction of the Apple iPad.
With all that, the title "Actor and Presenter" is too limiting for Stephen Fry; renaissance man is more appropriate.
Stay tuned.
Just about five minutes after I was seated at a prime table for seeing people or just being left alone, I saw a great pair of athletic female legs in a killer backless black dress walk elegantly but briskly by me, followed by a man in a dark grey suit with an upright walk and very tightly combed and moused hair. The man turned out to be the legendary actor and author George Hamilton, who I'm told is a regular at The Polo Lounge.
Then Hamilton and his lovely, leggy blonde female companion were seated at a round booth already occupied by a man who looked very much like Stephen Fry, who was also with a female companion. I'd never seen Fry in person before. It just so happens that Fry and I follow each other on Twitter, so I messaged him to confirm this. An update soon, assuming he answers back.
Well Stephen Fry was kind enough to send a message that it was indeed, him. He was with the British composer Leslie Bricusse and his wife and...Mr. Kirk Douglas was in the corner.
 |
| Stephen Fry at The Apple iPad Introduction |
My view was obstructed by another group at a table more in the foreground from Mr. Fry and such that I missed Mr. Douglas. Moreover, I was consumed in The Sunday New York Times' article on the growing Internet culture in New York. Ignorance is bliss.
What's Stephen Fry up to? That wasn't the focus of our Twitter messaging, but Mr. Fry does have a rather interesting social network at The New Adventures of Stephen Fry, and of course he recently finished his 50-state tour of America.
Even more recently, Fry was a special guest at the introduction of the Apple iPad.
With all that, the title "Actor and Presenter" is too limiting for Stephen Fry; renaissance man is more appropriate.
Stay tuned.
Stephen Collins from Star Trek TMP talks Star Trek and The Hurt Locker
Hard core Star Trek fans like this blogger will certainly remember the first Star Trek Movie. Called Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Produced by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, it was released in 1979 and directed by the legendary Robert Wise. It starred Stephen Collins who played Star Fleet Officer Captain Willard Decker, who was set to command the new U.S.S. Enterprise, until Captain James T. Kirk, who was raised to the rank of Admiral, decided he wanted more than his five year mission.
Here's a clip from Star Trek TMP:
31 years later (!) I met Stephen Collins at The Night of 100 Stars Oscar Gala and he was tickled that of all his roles and work, someone remembered that he played Willard Decker. I asked him what he thought of J.J. Abrams' version of Star Trek, which was released 30 years later. "I loved it. This is weird, but I'm not really a Star Trek afficianado, and so I haven't seen a lot of the movies. But the new one, I think is just a terrific movie in every way. It's just a good movie on its own right. You don't have to have ever seen Star Trek to love (this one). I think Chris Pine is a huge find. J.J. Abrams just did an incredible job.
Stephen Collins is an Acedemy Member and shared with me that the email writing micro-campaign that The Hurt Locker Producer Nicolas Chartier launched didn't make a difference to him as a voter and doubted that it made a difference to many of the Academy voters. He was right. The Hurt Locker scored The Best Picture Oscar at the 2010 Academy Awards.
Corey Haim - Corey Feldman issues a statement on Haim's death
Actor Corey Feldman and Corey Haim were good friends over the years and were together as recently as February 18th, according to TMZ.com. Corey Feldman issued this statement on his blog The Feldman Journal:
Corey Haim died of an alleged drug overdose Wednesday morning. It took 20 minutes for the ambulance to arrive and by the time it did, it was "too late" according to Haim's agent, Mark Heaslip through TMZ.com.
Reportedly, Haim had a fever and had trouble breathing. He reports that Haim was at his mother, Judy Haim's home. At some point, she fell asleep then woke up around midnight. Corey Haim was standing over her and then reportedly collapsed.
RadarOnline.com reports that Corey Feldman's estranged wife Susie Feldman said he's pretty torn up and he’s at home and it’s really sad. It's the second close friend he's lost in eight months or something like that."
R.I.P. COREY IAN HAIM 1971-2009
I was awakened at 8:30 this morning by my brother and sister knocking on my bedroom door. They informed me of the loss of my brother Corey Haim. My eyes weren’t even open all the way when the tears started streaming down my face. I am so sorry for Corey, his mother Judy, his family, my family, all of our fans, and of course my son who I will have to find a way to explain this to when he gets home from school. This is a tragic loss of a wonderful,beautiful,tormented soul, who will always be my brother,family, and best friend. We must all take this as a lesson in how we treat the people we share this world with while they are still here to make a difference. Please respect our families as we struggle and grieve through this difficult time. I hope the art Corey has left behind will be remembered as the passion of that for which he truly lived. ~ Corey
Corey Haim died of an alleged drug overdose Wednesday morning. It took 20 minutes for the ambulance to arrive and by the time it did, it was "too late" according to Haim's agent, Mark Heaslip through TMZ.com.
Reportedly, Haim had a fever and had trouble breathing. He reports that Haim was at his mother, Judy Haim's home. At some point, she fell asleep then woke up around midnight. Corey Haim was standing over her and then reportedly collapsed.
RadarOnline.com reports that Corey Feldman's estranged wife Susie Feldman said he's pretty torn up and he’s at home and it’s really sad. It's the second close friend he's lost in eight months or something like that."
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