Oakland's Larry Reid Wrongly Called Cannabis University Graduate

Like his Oakland City Council colleague Councilmember Desley Brooks (District 6 - Central East Oakland), Oakland City Council President Larry Reid (District 7 - East Oakland) also supposedly received a "Diploma of Certified Seedling," last year, and from the Oakland-based institution called UniCann.

Or did he?

The video's title - "Councilmember Larry Reid University of Cannabis graduate" - is just plain wrong. There's no video evidence of Councilmember Reid receiving the kind of diploma Brooks got last year. The video just has Larry expressing his gratitude for the location of the University of Cannabis facility in his District 7. Reid just says "Congratulations. Welcome to Oakland."

Here's the video:



It's no wonder the video's not being pushed via Twitter the way the video with Councilmember Brooks has been (and by members of the local and regional pot growing industry with Twitter accounts at @GroMaster, @M24Cabbage, and @calpotnews) - it's not accurate at all with respect to its title.

I'll bet Larry's going to bust a gut when he sees this.  And he should; they misrepresented him.

Larry Reid almost hates to be on video, or at least he consistently ducks doing a video interview with this blogger, so to see this video - like the Brooks videos, not touched by the general media until this space found them - is a surprise. But it's also a window into why Reid is careful to do videos of any kind - this video was title to by misleading and it is.    The Thinking Pot - the YouTube channel that uploaded the video, should change its title.

Indeed, that wasn't very thoughtful of them.

Charlie Sheen Fired; Will Smith Most Bankable Actor In Hollywood

While Charlie Sheen falls, Will Smith rises.

According to James Ulmer of The Ulmer Scale, a 100-factor list that tracks who's hot and who's not (also called a "bankability score") in the entertainment industry, as of this writing, Will Smith, best known as one part of the rap duo D.J. Jassy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, and for the TV show The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, and movies like Ali, and Independence Day, and Legend, is the most bankable star at the top of The Ulmer Scale.

Meanwhile, Two And A Half Men star Charlie Sheen, who was officially fired by Warner Bros today, is "tanking," according to a phone conversation this blogger had with James Ulmer, the list's creator.

Right now, Ulmer says Sheen, is "not bankable," and explains that Hollywood insurance bonding agencies may not be willing to take a chance on him because of the enormous costs associated with losing a day of shooting on a movie set because of, say, an actor's break to enter drug rehab.

What's The Ulmer Scale?

The scale look at "how risky it is to hire actors to make movies," says Ulmer. According to its website, The Ulmer Scale...

"...scores each actor's bankability by three different budget levels. The first is for "art house" movies costing up to $8 million; the second is for mid-range films in the $8 million-$30 million range; and the third level is for studio movies made for more than $30 million...The results of these surveys are then compiled and ranked by a 100-point index. Each actor is assigned four scores next to his or her name. There is one for each of the three different budget levels of a film (up to 100 points per budget level), as well as a total score adding up the previous three (the highest possible being 300 points). These scores are then assembled into The Ulmer Scale's proprietary A+, A, B+, B, C and D lists -- and the closely-watched "Uppers" and "Downers" lists of the biggest gainers and losers in star power.

Does Twitter Help Sheen?

Will Sheen's social media success help? Sheen's set the record time of reaching 1 million followers on Twitter, and has worked to monetize the medium for himself. "Right now," says Ulmer, "Sheen's toxic." Ulmer can't see that money will come pouring out for the son of Martin Sheen. Plus, Ulmer, who's based in Hollywood, says Charlie's not listening to the people who he's formed relationships with.

Hollywood's Not Happy With Sheen

One of those people is Two And A Half Men creator Chuck Lorre, who cancelled production of the last four episodes of the series after Sheen called him by his real name Chime Levine. Since Lorre's real name is Jewish, the comment was seen by some in the Jewish community as Anti-Semetic. But Sheen claims that since some in his family, including his mother, are Jewish, he wasn't being Anti-Semetic. Still, the damage is done. "Hollywood's very sensitive to Anti-Semetism," Ulmer said, "what Charlie said was something you don't do."

Will Smith and Johnny Depp Rise

Meanwhile, Will Smith, who currently commands about $20 million per film, chugs along. He scores 100 the top of a list that includes Johnny Depp with 95 score, Brad Pitt (88), Tom Hanks (87), George Clooney (86), Will Ferrell (85), Reese Witherspoon (85), Nicholas Cage (84)m Leonardo DiCaprio (81), and Russell Crowe (81).

What About The Women?

If you note, there's only one woman in Ulmer's Top 10 List, Reese Witherspoon, and the reasons given for this by Ulmer himself are eyeopening and unfortunate: "Hollywood is sexist," he says. "It's tough for women. And they're viewed as more bankable in ensemble roles." So that's why you don't see a lot of women action heros in movies, and it may be one reason why it's taken so long to get a movie version of "Wonder Woman" off the ground. Ulmer reports that the recession's made it harder for women to land well-monetized roles.

On his website, Ulmer says:

Women sustained the most wide-ranging losses. Former no. 1 female star Julia Roberts slipped 11 points to 12th place overall with 80 points, moving off the A+ list for the first time in 15 years due largely to her reduced workload in the past two years. However, Roberts still managed to come in second among women after top-seated Reese Witherspoon, who scored 85 points to earn 7thth place among all stars in The Ulmer Scale’s global bankability survey of film industry professionals. Witherspoon is the only woman to make the Hot List’s Top 10 List.

Hollywood's Losing Ground To The Web

While Charlie Sheen may not be bankable in Hollywood, one fact provides a ray of hope for the entertainment legend: Ulmer says that the overall larger number of platforms other than movies have damaged the overall value of Hollywood's actors. "Stars’ scores have shrunk because they must increasingly compete for eyeballs with all kinds of screens beyond the silver one," Ulmer reports on his website.

That may provide some comfort to Charlie Sheen. Now that he's fired from his gig on Two And A Half Men, Sheen will have more desire than ever to succeed online. His success could spell the beginning of the end of Hollywood's dominance in providing paid work for actors.

Stay tuned.

We could have Sheen that coming...

Well, according to Variety it's all over but the coverage as far as Charlie Sheen's time on Two-and-a-Half Men. CBS has reportedly sent Sheen a termination letter today, despite the well-publicized fact that Charlie had another season to go on his contract.

Citing "erratic behavior" CBS has pulled the plug on the star, but isn't saying if a decision has been made about the series itself. Given his recent appearances I'd say very few of us outside the TV industry are surprised, and probably relatively few inside are either - although in pursuit of the bottom line there's naturally some question about how much this publicity might have boosted Sheen's ratings.

If only we could get this much coverage for stories like how Congress is - or isn't - creating jobs, and why it's so important to fund wars that we don't have enough money to properly address poverty, hunger, public education, or the cost of health care.

Political Correspondent Thomas Hayes is a former Congressional Campaign Manager; he's a journalist, photo/videographer, entrepreneur, and communications consultant who contributes regularly on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community, who incidentally thinks Sheen may have gotten carried away and had some challenges distinguishing himself from his successful character - and needs more professional help (even though Sheen didn't ask.)

You can follow Tom as @kabiu on twitter. Tweet

Mike Destefano Of Last Comic Standing Dies

According to TMZ.com, Mike Destefano, one of five finalists on last year's Last Comic Standing, has died. Destefano had what was described as a "massive heart attack." According to his website, Mike had a busy schedule, with four shows coming up over the month of March alone, one he just completed in New Jersey.

Punchline Magazine, which covers the comedian industry, praised Destefano for his "brutally honest approach to stand-up comedy."

It seems that honesty came from a hard life.

Destefano overcame the death of his wife and drug addiction to place himself on a comeback path to stardom.

This video from Punchline and Matthew Gill, does, as they blog, give good feel for what Mike was like:



Mike Destefano. Remember him by watching his videos here.

BASHOF Event Is Tonight; I Won't Be There

Ok. A friend calls me and says that they're attending the Bay Area Sports Hall Of Fame Dinner BASHOF and that I should cover it as media. My friend is always looking out for new opportunities for Zennie62Media.com, and that's much appreciated.  It would be nice to have some video interviews from BASHOF, I thought.

So, on the encouragement of my friend, I sent an email to two people: Tom Martz the BASHOF President and his PR person, who was nice enough to get back to me about the press conference. So I planned to go over at 4 PM for the press conference. I didn't expect dinner, otherwise I guess she would have said so. But then, not having attended a BASHOF before, I didn't know.

So then I get this call out-of-the-blue from Martz. And since I didn't expect the call I asked who it was and instead of saying who he was Tom says "Who I am? Who are you? You contacted me!"

Since I had not called anyone at that number, I was confused. Then he said "It's Tom from BASHOF. We have NO SEATS AT THE DINNER." Dude was yelling at me!

Yeah.  Yelling.

So I calmly explained that I emailed to cover the event as press. Tom said the press conference was at 4; I said yeah, that's where I'm going to be.

But then he ranted again, "But there's NO SEATING AT THE DINNER. Why don't you check back with us NEXT YEAR earlier!

I don't like circuitous conversation and I sure as hell don't like being yelled at for nothing. I'm not some kid, and if so, that would be child abuse anyway. So I told him to stop being nasty. Tom said "I wasn't being nasty," and hangs up on me.

So, I sent an email stating that I wasn't coming. I'm happy BASHOF has so much press that Tom feels it's just fine to be mean to me. But it's not. I don't care who the person is, I will not put up with disrespectful treatment for one second. I don't treat people that way, so I'm not going to tolerate it when I'm treated that way.  Same goes for anyone who talks to a friend of mine in a disrespectful way in my presence. Don't do it.

And my constant message is that you can't just treat people any kind of way you want in a New Media environment.  You have to be nice.

If I were a name Tom knew, you know damn well he'd not have talked to me like that. Well, now he does know my name, but it's too late. The damage is done.

Good luck tonight BASHOF. I won't be there.  I'm not giving good media content to someone who talks to me like that for no reason at all, then won't apologize to me.

Forget it.  

Talk About The Academy Awards And Social Media

The Academy Awards ratings problems and the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences foray into social media were the central points of discussion on Friday's Tonya Hall Radio Show.

The guest was none other than yours truly, Zennie Abraham of Zennie62Media.com and Sports Business Simulations. Tonya basically let me talk for an hour; just kidding. It was a good "back-and-forth," but I think I could have used one more hour of conversation.

There's a lot to talk about on the Academy Awards and social media, but for Tonya's show, I essentially expanded on what I blogged here: Zennie on Improving The Oscars.

Here's the show:

The Tonya Hall Show - March 4, 2011

Friend of the show and well-known blogger Zennie Abraham

takes a look back at the 2011 Oscars with Tonya.

At any rate, The Tonya Hall Radio Show is broadcast out of Colorado Springs, Colorado and is on 1300 AM, The Sports Animal. This is something like the fifth or sixth time I've been on her show as a guest.

The Tonya Hall Show focuses on "The power of social media," and has some really great and interesting guests. Last week, for example, Tonya had as guests Kodak Chief Blogger Jenny Cisney, Alex Roach from Facebook, and Sean Percival of MySpace.  Check it out!

99er, Tier 5, UI Extension, HR589 News and Views from The Blogosphere

The following is a montage of 99er, Tier 5, UI Extension, HR589 News and Views from The Blogosphere.

From thephillyBurbs.com article today: This 99er says her number's up discusses Gerry DePietro who appeared on the "The Ed Show" on MSNBC and told the host that the Great Recession and long-term unemployment have devastated her standard of living.

The article goes on:

The plight of the long-term unemployed deteriorates.

Most of the 99ers are 55 and older, and it is estimated that there are more than 5 million of them.

According to a recent Gallup survey, the long-term unemployed report that they experience "worry, sadness, stress, anger and diagnoses of depression."

"I just talked to somebody (last week) who said they were considering ending their life" because they could not find work, DePietro said.

Now she is a member of the American 99ers Union, which lobbied for yet another extension of unemployment benefits through House Resolution 589. The bill died Feb. 17 but has been resubmitted.

From the Trenches WorldReport.com, as always some great and colorful commentary in: 99ers Supporters of HR 589 How will History Judge Americans of Today?

The resentment against the corporate elite is however growing exponentially, day by day, in its scope and intensity, but they have our people so entranced with pursuing the debt currency in an effort to just survive to the next day, that taking on more in the form of protest or revolution seems to be just too much. Their plan is working perfectly.

We cannot wait until our children are lying in the streets with their stomachs swollen and flies lighting on their open eyes, like the German people did in the Weimar Republic. Our enemies are using the same techniques to destroy us as they did on the German people in the 1930s. Once they have starved us down to apathy and desperation they believe we will gladly accept their one world government and our slavery as compensation for a little nutrition.

99ers we have to stop chasing butterflies and start getting down to brass tacks. This means we have to start arming and training for a revolution that is becoming more inevitable with each passing day. We must steel ourselves to the idea of giving our lives if necessary for the restitution of our beloved Constitution and Republic.

And their article from yesterday: 99ers HR 589 Supporters We Must Take the Lead

“If the mainstream propaganda was true news and the truth was reported as to what is really going on in this country, three quarters of the population would run and hide, while the other quarter would attack Washington DC.

If we 99ers want to get anywhere we have got to break the news blackout that has removed us from the thoughts of everyone but ourselves. If a quarter of the 99ers would just come to a site like From the Trenches and vent their rage every day all day long, our enemies, the elitists in power, would see that we are no longer on our knees begging them for salvation, but rather that we are accumulating in a single place plotting strategies for their demise while getting one another worked up into a frenzy.”

Unemployed but Organized for the 21st Century put it this way:

It's March and March, 2011 has a uniquely perplexing, frustrating sad anniversary. 99ers will begin to celebrate their 1st full year of being a 99er. 52 weeks without unemployment benefits; nearly 3 years without full time employment. Folks out of work due to the offshoring of jobs; over 3.4 million manufacturing jobs lost in the 1st decade of this century. People unemployed through no fault of their own with little hope for reemployment any time soon.

There has been almost no help for 99ers in the last year. A couple of failed attempts at adding some weeks of unemployment insurance, the last being H.R.6556 which is now reincarnated as H.R.589. If H.R.6556 didn't get through the 111th Congress, I don't see how H.R.589 is passed in the 112th Congress. A bill to establish incentives for creating American jobs and penalizing offshoring couldn't overcome a GOP Senate filibuster in the 111th Congress (I'm shocked, shocked I tell you to find gambling in this establishment). So what should a 99er do? Find a way to carry on.

But by far the most unbelievably ironic drivel came from The World New Vine from their article last week - H.R. 589 Extended Unemployment Benefits for 99ers Lacks Republican Support when they opined:

With the nation’s attention focused on preserving the rights of those working Americans at this time, the long-term unemployed are simply out of luck, and out of benefits. With the Republican Majority in the House pushing to cut social programs such as, Women and Infant Children’s Program (WIC), food stamp programs, and other funding to state level welfare programs, the long-term unemployed are now witnessing what masses in other third-world countries have been for years, the lack of caring by upper-class society.

Unfortunately, for the many, a few groups and individuals entered into the quest for assistance for long-term unemployed American workers looking to profiteer and self-promote their own actions. These small time profiteers claimed legal knowledge along with political connections, did nothing more than mislead, misguide, and alienate the masses from Congress. Attempts of coercion and extortion by these groups included actions such as, sending photo’s of persons threatening suicide to congressional members, and backing actions with heavy talk. Again, as unfortunate as the situation is, the actions of the few were not only misguided but illegal as well.

These individuals led a group of people suffering down a road that led to nothing more than a dead-end. Some of these individuals cannot even present themselves in person to lawmakers as they are perceived as a threat. One can only ask themselves why, anyone would enter into a humanitarian cause seeking aid and comfort for the masses when in fact, were simply attempting to make a buck from a horrible situation.

EXCUSE ME BUT.... Wasn’t it the owner of that publication WorldNewsVine, Mr Grone himself who manipulated the long term unemployed into paying for his luxury Washington DC petition delivery “get away” last June that was a complete and total BUST? Talk about the POT calling the Kettle BLACK!