South Carolina – Please Try Secession. Again.

South Carolinians… whatcha gonna do with ‘em?! Two prime examples moving along through the Internets are here and here. Someone put a fence around that place. And soon.

H/T to Grift for signage video.

Towery To Dems: Plan That Shotgun Wedding Now!

Here’s Matt Towery of the polling co. InsiderAdvantage explaining why Hillary and Barry need to get it on for the overall, General Election win. IA called it right in PA too. Matt’s video commentary on Matt will crack you up! Dude’s right yet again; he can crow all he wants.

Takeaway? Block any exit poll that wants to friend you on Facebook.

Spring

Iris08

Originally uploaded by SpaceyGracey

My irises are blooming.

High Up On The Summit Of A Life

NIck Lowe (solo acoustic) show at The Variety, Atlanta, GA. April 22, 2008. Precision + Soul = Mastery.

One Night Only! “The Antidote To Political Drudgery”

The Economist is in the ATL. Details here:

As the presidential campaign grinds on, The Economist is launching a new national event series called “The Art of Political Satire”.  The series officially launches next week in Atlanta (April 21):

The Art of Political Satire

Monday, April 21, 2008
Doors: 6:30 PM
Showtime: 7:00 – 8:30 PM
Alliance Theatre
1280 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30309

For this series, we are partnering with the renowned comedy theatre troupe The Second City to create a show that combines engaging political improv and hands-on cartooning featuring The Economist’s political cartoonist Kevin ‘Kal’ Kallaugher.  Positioned as the antidote to political drudgery, the show in Atlanta also features a panel discussion about the ‘art’ of satire with Kal and the creative directors of the Second City.  Hosted by local WABE’s John Lemley, this discussion will focus on the role that satire plays in society- and the ability of the satirist to help people view things from a different perspective.  As an added bonus in Atlanta, Kal will be unveiling a new digital ‘puppet’ of Barack Obama.

A website for the events has been set up here.  The site includes video examples of Second City skits, and includes video about Kal’s history at The Economist and a collection of Kal’s favorite cartoons over the years.  You can also find information about the live events there.

Atlanta: The City That Knows How To Mix Business & Pleasure!

Why I Give To March of Dimes

The Death of PR. The Rise Of The Network.

The days of hiring a PR firm to print you up some super nice cards, letters and other dead-tree products, write-up a whimsical, mostly phoney press release about your event, launch or product… whatever it is you’ve got going on, and then having that PR firm’s interns send it out to “The Media” are over.

Gone, and likely forgotten before long. Having worked in newsrooms through the years, and being on the receiving-end of some lovely and creative media packets and timely press releases, I can’t tell you how quickly the trash cans fill up with all that lovely dead-tree stuff anyway. Pity really.

Rising from the ashes of the demise of traditional PR is something along the line of Net Party. I shot some video at last night’s monthly Atlanta Net Party (hope to post some here soon), met the founder, Jeff, and realized that not only was this a face-to-face networking event with hundreds of lovely, talented people packing the line to get in at Buckhead’s Tongue & Groove, it was a data-dive of a social media mashup. There was something in this event for Kaneva, Concept Hub, Brand Atlanta, and everyone who showed for the yummy free food and $5 martinis.

Of course I Twittered throughout the event, as did Amani Channel. And I woke-up to… not some gorgeous stranger, alas, but seven nine new Twitter followers in my InBox. That stream here:

Crazy person zooming around parking deck in a gorgeous vintage Mercedes. WTF?

Boy does the ATL singles scene sure beat a night of TV. These folk are impossibly gorgeous.  

DJ must be ready to assume duties. The disco ball is now on.   

@jimstroud tearing UP the dance floor! Well kinda.  

Hanging with Amani. Life is always ok that way.

oh for chrissake. Nice guy hands me his card. I try to read a/out my reading glasses. It’s was upside down!   

Anyone at Net Party wanna do shooters with a 40-something soccer mom? Like just one?

There are hundreds of people at @idealist Net Party shindig. A long way from our 7 ATL blogger meetups 3 yrs ago!

at Net Party at Tongue & Groove. Packed! Reminds me of 80′s Limelight meat market scene!

I’ll write-up more about this soon, about how this one event will morph into many exciting new ventures and adventures. Right now, I’ve got to go work on the video! One note about casting the Net Party promotions & sponsorship net even wider… If I owned a luxury car dealership, such as the one just down the street on Piedmont from Tongue & Groove (where last night’s social networking event was held), hint hint Mercedes of Buckhead, I’d have sent a least 2 comely reps. And parked one of my pretty toys right out front too.

One questions though… why in the world would anyone use the word “tongue” in their business enterprise? It’s really not a very attractive word. Feh.

UPDATE: Video of the NetParty event is above, or click here.

There Will Be Accountability, And A Live Stream

The Fresno (California) Bee streamed live via QIK yesterday in Fresno in the immediate aftermath of a high school student shot to death, on campus, by a police officer.

Watching one of the live streams, I’m reminded of how necessary SOME kind of commmentary from some human voice is, periodically, as you stream. Also, you gotta wonder how often The Bee uses words like “newspaper” and “reader” around their news shoppe nowadays.

Viddler Blows Out Your Online Video

Since I just gave you the what-NOT-to-do with your online video scenario (see post below), let me give you the what-TO-do with your online video message too. Rather, I’ll let the Viddler explanation video do the talking for me. Not only are Viddler vids embeddable, you can comment and tag and add ads along the video’s timeline. Hell, you can add video comments along the way, instantly with your web cam. (I just did.) Now how awesome is that?!

from blog.viddler.com posted with vodpod

Don’t Bogart That Video, My AJC Friend.

The AJC is now doing original, online, AJC-branded video packages for their website, such as the one you can’t see here about grits. I like grits. A lot. I like most-things-southern. I like videos. Like to make ‘em. Like to watch ‘em. Like to embed ‘em. Especially on my blogs – and that other wildly popular blog with the thousands of (mostly southern) uniques a day I write for too.

Naturally enough, I’d like to embed the AJC grits video on my blog. Or link to it on TrueGritz. Or put it on the SGR. Or Peach Pundit, but only if it turned-out (through superior reporting of course) that grits were political. In other words… any number of places this one blogger alone could distribute that one video – for them. For free! Just because I like, uh, grits so darn much.

But AJC productions/videos are not embeddable. Oh well. Too bad. Their loss. And lost opportunity. It really does make you want to go bash your head into a wall for the level of frustration they can crank for the blogosphere over there at our hometown news shoppe. For every chance the AJC gets/buys to build their GEORGIA-based community, they take two steps back from it. Hell, it’s like they’re running away at times.

AJC management folk (and you know who you are, and I know you’ll see this because you are Googling your name on the hour or have had your secretary set-up those Google name alerts) lemme give you a piece of unsolicited advice: the people you need to support your online endeavors are no doubt many, including the passive group formerly known as “the reader.” But don’cha think you’d want to be enlisting the assistance and the support of the sort of folk who are operating as online content creators and distributors — in GEORGIA?!

How loud can I yell it? AJC: YOU ARE A GEORGIA BIG MEDIA OUTLET. WHY ARE YOU NOT BUILDING YOUR GEORGIA ONLINE COMMUNITY AMONGST THE VERY PEOPLE WHO ARE OPERATING WITHIN THE GEORGIA ONLINE COMMUNUITY? WE ARE HERE! BUT WHERE ARE YOU?

Sigh… I’m going to go Friend on Facebook that Used Car Guy who’s in charge of Cox newspapers now. Sandy Schwartz, I think he goes by. Give ‘ole Julia Wallace a DM Tweet. Or comment on the AJC’s Director of Culture & Change’s personal blog. See what she’s posted today about that good ‘ole culture ‘n change thang she’s workin’. Heck, for all I know she could have made a rap video by now!

Since these folk running OUR hometown news shoppe are, of course, so connected to the online community (as “online” is where all this “change” is coming from, right?) then of course they personally have been out there online, mucking it up in the blogosphere or wherever. For years now I’d imagine. Surely by now they should be not only using all the cool online toys and tools, new media and news mediums such as personal & indie blogs, Google Groups, Newsvine, YouTube, uStream.tv, Blip.tv,  one of those nifty Nokia 95s, Mahalo, Facebook, Twitter, etc., they should be veritable experts.

Oh wait. Silly me. Reality check needed. On second thought, think I’ll just pour another cup of coffee and mosey on over to CNN dot com.

And The Winner In The Title-Swimsuit Competition Is…

No need to travel to Communist China to meet a gen-u-ine Director of Culture and Change. You can meet the AJC’s personal whatever guru right here next week! Thursday, April 24th breakfast event info here.

Possibly Worst “News” Copy Ever Penned

Fire the editor! Fire the publisher! Fire somebody! Hell, call a fucking exorcist over to Marietta Street at this point. There really should be an award given to this story for the hideous, patronizing writing “style.” From the AJC – apparently now hiring only the most ridiculous writers on the planet. 

Whatcha wanna bet the Used Car Guy they just promoted to run Cox Plantation Newspapers thinks this is, like, Pulitzer kinda material. Pardon me while I hurl as you read over just this portion of the whole monstrosity about something that was never newsworthy in the first place:

Donnelly turns the pages in the photo album to a picture of an African-American boy standing next to her at school back in New Orleans. “He and a white guy and I would fashion ourselves after the Mod Squad,” she says. “We liked to think of ourselves as a little club.”

The friendship started in fifth or sixth grade. And Donnelly sees it as evidence that children have the right instincts.

Truth is, many paths to the future start with the past. Donnelly thought she’d left that Princeton dorm room for good. Then those long fingers from the campaign trail waved her back inside. At first, she saw only herself and two roommates.

Now she sees her children and Obama’s children waking up in those beds, in a room with no barriers.

Dine-Out For ATL Tornado Relief

Tonight’s a great night to get out of the kitchen and into a resaturant. Numerous ATL restaurants, most in the areas that were hit the hardest by the recent downtown tornado, are hosting Dine-Out For Tornado Relief tonight. 15% of your tab will go to the Cabbagetown Initiative Disaster Relief Fund. All the details and participating restaurants are here.

ATL bloggers will be eating BBQ for torrnado relief, FYI.

Cox Plantations’ Used Car Guy To Run Newspapers

Journalism just not fueling the corporate mission? Try the dude who runs your used car division! They’re lucky on the Plantatation to have such amazing, uh, spare parts lying around.

Here’s the genuine, hardly-driven, internal Cox memo announcing the ousting of Jay Smith from Cox Newspapers in favor of Sandy Schwartz from their AutoTrader division. Vroom on, Cox, vroom on:

From: ! Hayes, Jimmy (CEI-Atlanta)

Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 8:05 AM

Subject: Important Organizational Announcement

Importance: High

After 37 years of distinguished service with Cox Newspapers, Jay Smith has announced his decision to retire on May 1. Succeeding Jay will be Sandy Schwartz who will become president of Cox Newspapers while retaining his current position as president of Cox Auto Trader. Over the next few months, Jay will work closely with Sandy and with Brian Cooper, executive vice president of Cox Newspapers, to ensure a smooth transition. Jay has done a tremendous job of leading Cox Newspapers aggressively through a number of transformations to respond to a rapidly evolving media environment, and Cox is grateful for his talent, courage, leadership and dedication. In 1971, he joined Cox as a reporter for the Dayton Daily News , where he also worked as assistant city editor, assistant managing editor, business manager and eventually, publisher. He spent seven years as publisher of the Atlanta newspapers, and also headed the Austin American-Statesman. In 1994 he was named president of Cox Newspapers. Jay leaves behind an impressive tradition of excellence in newspaper publishing and is past chairman of the board for the Newspaper Association of America. He also serves as a board member of the Associated Press. As the newspaper landscape continues to shift rapidly, Sandy is uniquely positioned to meet the challenge head on as our business evolves. Eighteen of Sandy’s 23 years with the company have been with Cox Newspapers. He joined Cox in 1985 as a features editor of the Tribune Newspapers in Mesa, Arizona and rose through the ranks to become editor and was later named president and publisher in 1995. He then served as vice president and general manager at both The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Austin-American Statesman, and later as executive vice president of Cox Newspapers. Since 2003, he has complemented his print journalism background with significant digital media experience, first serving as vice president of business development for Cox Enterprises, from 2003-2006, and then moving to his current role, leading AutoTrader.com, AutoTrader Publishing, and Auto Mart. While we are ever appreciative of Jay’s years of service and the unparalleled standard he has set for the industry, Sandy’s experience and success at Cox during times of unprecedented change make him a natural fit to ensure that Cox Newspapers continues to deliver the quality content to readers when, where, and how they want it. Our company is graced with many who share a commitment to the Cox Values, our employees, audiences, shareholders and the communities we serve – and you would be pressed to find better examples of leaders than Jay and Sandy. I know you will join me in wishing Jay all the best on his retirement, which I know will be filled with friends, family and his first grandchild this summer. Please join me too in congratulating Sandy and in giving him your full support on his new responsibilities. 

 

 

 

Sex 2.0 – The Conference

Sex 2.0, organized by Atlanta’s Amber Rhea, of Being Amber Rhea, is Saturday April 12. In Tucker, GA. Audacia Ray is the keynoter.

Sex 2.0 will focus on the intersection of social media, feminism, and sexuality. How is social media enabling people to learn, grow, and connect sexually? How is sexual expression tied to social activism? Does the concept of transparency online offer new opportunities or present new roadblocks — or both? These questions, and many more, will be addressed within a safe, welcoming, sex-positive space.

Respecting the confidentiality and protecting the identities of participants who wish to maintain a degree of anonymity will be a top priority at Sex 2.0.

Details and (mandatory) registration here.

Blog To The Death

Blogging – only the strong survive. From today’s NYT:

They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece — not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: home.

A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.

Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly.

Full story here.

At What Point Do Social Networks Become Valuable?

An odd thing happened while online (and doing laundry) this morning. First, just like a lover you can’t quit, after swearing, as Leonard Witt did too about panel discussions and papers, that I’d never read yet another article about the death of the dead-tree news industry (newspapers), I of course read a remarkable one; it really was different, I swear!

The author focused on the writer – and the importance of branding the writer, with a focus on the writer/reporter’s “leadership” roles and responsibility… in the online environment at least. Here’s a glimpse from the catchy titled, It’s Time For The Newspaper Industry To Die:

Newspapers employ some of the best writers in their communities. They ought to be treating those writers as the valuable assets they are, and providing them the same level of credit on their stories that top bloggers take on their posts. Where are the mugshots, the links to biographies and to other stories written by the same author? That information isn’t there just to stroke a writer’s ego; it should be there to help establish that writer’s credibility with a potentially global online audience.

While reading this article about shifting roles and focus, I simultaneously received, via email, the first-ever promo from a cameraman - one who has been working in the broadcast news industry for over 30 years. His quick note touted an excellent series that he’d been DP on: profiles about an extraordinary person. I doubt I would have ever watched the series on Big TV though, had he not taken the time to email me and tell me about it, and his work shooting the series. (It will air April 9th. You can preview here.)

Yet just now, April 5, 2008, was when this one network cameraman chose to tap into his vast personal network to illuminate his work in an industry where he’s considered at the very top of the profession. Maybe he never realized just how vast his social network was? More likely though… he never realized how valuable it was!

Likely no one in the network’s news management ever thought to consider it valuable, either. That this one cameraman, out of droves of support & ENG types, each fully equipped with unique, valuable social networks, was sitting right under their noses. (Moreorless the same premise that makes me say I’d never hire someone who wasn’t blogging, but let’s stay on-topic here.)

Consider too that this cameraman had been layed-off by his network two years ago! Who needs 30 years experience in the TV industry? Get ‘em off the books. Fast! He is now out on his own, trying to earn a living on his own while doing what he’s done all his life. And still working for the ‘net that layed him off.  Go figure that. (He’s still in the union too. I wonder if he had to get permission from a shop steward to email the promo around?! But let’s, again, stay on topic.)

Once the blanket of job security, and with it a sometimes dogged complacency, is taken away from people, it’s amazing how fast they begin to reach out to shore-up and build-out their personal social networks. Indeed, you could argue that their very survival is now utterly dependent on doing just that. Or woe to the person who fails to do so. Their employment prospects will be just that much less.

I seriously doubt newspaper management has ever  been “hungry” enough to look for value in social network leadership. Broadcast news management either. I say lay-off a few more upper management types. Let ‘em develop and grow and troll their own social networks for a while. Only then will we begin to see more of what the author of “It’s TIme For The Newspaper Industry To Die” wrote about begin to happen.

And maybe in a couple of years, that clued-in cameraman will hire THEM back!

 

When Yankees Come To Call

Jeff Pulver is quite the gentleman. He flew all the way to Atlanta, on his way to Tel Aviv, to host a social media tagging breakfast for us Atlanta folk. When his guests arrived at the charming Anthony’s restaurant on Piedmont, they were handed a baggie full of social media tagging tools – little labels you could write something on, then stick on yourself and others as you got to know something about them.

The baggies turned out to be multi-functional as I placed business cards I gathered throughout the meeting into mine. But when I had a Southern Lady Accessory Malfunction (my pearls suddenly gave up the ghost in mid-chat with some telco person; hate when that happens), I simply gathered them up off the floor and put them in the same baggie for safekeeping.

Social media – it’s as versatile as you want it to be! Although I suspect that if you scratch the surface on 40% of the people intrigued by social media you will find the latent cameraperson/documentarian. Jeff’s live-streamed video here and here.

Hillbilly Music Fest For Tornado Relief

From James Kelly of Slim Chance and The Convicts:

On Friday April 4, Dave Weil (from the Blacktop Rockets) and Slim Chance (from the Convicts) are co-hosting a 75th Birthday Tribute to Willie Nelson at the world famous Star Bar in Atlanta, and we would be honored if you would attend this big event. The show has been deemed a benefit for the Cabbagetown Tornado Relief Fund which is handled through the Cabbagetown Initiative, (address below). Many of Atlanta’s local musicians live in Cabbagetown, and some were hit pretty hard by the storm. This show is both a celebration of the great songs of Country music icon Willie Nelson, and to help out the victims of the recent tornado.

Participating in this celebration will be members of the legendary Redneck Underground, featuring Slim Chance & the Convicts, the Blacktop Rockets, Jon Byrd, Caroline Engel, National Grain, the Downer Brothers, and many other surprise guests.

Here is a link to an AJC story:
Willie Nelson tribute to aid Cabbagetown relief efforts | AccessAtlanta
Admission: $8.
Start Time: 10PM.
Location: Star Bar, 437 Moreland Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30307. 404-681-9018.
www. starbar.net