Media for the Misses

Sometimes it is okay to do nothing

2009-07-28T15:16:00.005-04:00

Last week I began receiving forwards of the YouTube video from a Minnesota couple's unusually creative wedding entrance set to Chris Brown's song, "Forever."

At first I just chalked it up to the fact that I had just gotten married myself and that everyone was assuming I was wedding obsessed. But it just kept coming and eventually the video did the rounds of the TV circuit (my favorite to weigh in was, of course, Anderson Cooper), culminating with the couple's appearance (along with the entire bridal party) recreating their entrance on the Today Show.

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The whole thing was so fast and viral that it made me stop and think a second...hmmm, for someone like Chris Brown who was trying to get past the worst PR nightmare of his career, this is actually an incredibly fortunate phenomenon that took focus away from him while associating his music with a fun, uplifting event. So I did a quick search and found (as I suspected) that "Forever" is now back on iTunes' top ten songs list at #9. What a fortunate turn of events for Brown. The singer had issued a public apology recently, only alluding to his assault on then girlfriend, Rihanna, leaving many critics skeptical about his sincerity.

While I certainly don't condone Brown's actions, I can't help thinking that this is an amazing case example of how savvy PR professionals, by not doing anything, might have a better chance of resurrecting a client's image or at least keeping sales going when negative press threatens to derail their careers, but no, it seems the smart folks at Jive Records (Brown's label) have taken legal action to prevent the YouTube video from continuing to circulate. Really?!

Let's think about this for a second, Jive. Totally cute couple headed to wedded bliss, dancing with their friends to your erstwhile popular artist's tune equals a bad thing? Now I really know why the music industry is tanking.

Try Before You Buy

2009-05-07T16:27:00.005-04:00

It's a month and a half to our wedding day and though we are pretty much done with all the big stuff there are always small details demanding to be done. Fortunately I just finished my spring semester and am not taking summer classes. Unfortunately I need to send in my thesis pitches on Monday, bright and early. Guess what I'll be doing on Saturday.

In the spirit of multitasking, I have arranged to spend Mother's Day with both of my moms (mine and his) as well as his sister "trying out" hair and makeup, brunching and hopefully checking a few more wedding items off the list. I'm lucky that they are all good sports, and strangely seem to like being involved in all the details (really, who wants to trek two hours into the city to look at flowers or linens? Not me!)

Of course, then it hit me - I'm supposed to know how I want to wear my hair. If you know me, you know there is very little to my hairstyle. I wear it down mostly or tie it back if it is getting in my face. I hate my ears so I usually don't wear it up, but I feel like I should do something a little more special this time. A few months back on a whim I also cut some pretty ugly thick bangs that made me look about 300 lbs. They are still growing out, so I have that going for me as well.

A quick google search was very little help since every wedding style I found was a bobby-pinned, over-curled nightmare, but I did find something totally fun and distracting instead. DailyMakeover.com has this great tool where you can upload a picture of yourself and try on different hairstyles, some to hilarious effect. I must have spent an hour changing the length, color, adding highlight and lowlights. You can even try on celebrity do's, but the one thing I don't like about the site is that you have to pay for premium content. I didn't get to see how I'd look in Alexis Bledel hair because she is apparently too cool for me. This is me with Drew Barrymore hair.
Now I have a ton of fun ideas for future cuts and color, but alas I still have no idea what I am going to do at my hair trial on Sunday. Suggestions please? I still want to look like me - just a little more polished.

Tweet Then Retreat?

2009-04-29T11:25:00.005-04:00

We've all done it - signed up for something, tried it a few times, and then promptly moved on to the next thing. Danny over at Digital Dirt would probably agree that this only adds to our online trail, but beyond that, we can also be seriously skewing numbers for social media services like Twitter.

Nielson Online released a report yesterday that said that "currently, more than 60 percent of U.S. Twitter users fail to return the following month, making them 'Twitter Quitters.'" I kind of love that they coined that term, even though it has some serious implications for one of my new favorite social media tools. This is a huge number of people opening accounts and not returning regularly, and even though total number of users are largely unknown (I have seen estimates from 5 million to 19 after the big celebrity showdowns of the last few weeks) the service is still trying to attract marketers and generate revenue, both of which could be seriously compromised if it looks like the lights are on, but nobodies home.

When compared to Facebook and MySpace when they were growing their audiences, Twitter's retention rate numbers look even more woeful:

I am still pretty optimistic though, so don't fret my tweeps - Twitter, in my opinion, is an entirely different animal. While many join to see what its all about, they lose interest when there is no one there to talk to. As more and more people join, those who lost interest will probably give it another go.

As I've mentioned, I joined in order to communicate with a group, and that is what kept me going. Now that friends, colleagues and fun celebrities are in the mix, I am fairly addicted. So no worries, Twitter, they'll come back...they always do.

Social Media and Women

2009-04-28T13:22:00.006-04:00

Chicks Who Click began hosting conferences earlier this year for media and tech-savvy women around the country. Their first conference was held in Boulder, Colorado in January and sounds like it was a pleasant mix of skiing and mingling of the minds.

The organization seems intent on forming a community through social media (hmm, haven't heard that before!) but focuses on empowering women to create, connect and collaborate. They host work shops, have guest speakers and encourage women to network at their events. What a great idea, and a nice way to gain access to attendees and speakers who are already successful in the field, looking to give back or mentor others.

The next event is scheduled for May 15 and 16 in Kansas City, but other upcoming conferences will be held in Dallas, San Jose and Raleigh. Hopefully at some point they will come a little closer to me, but it would be fun to see a new city while attending one of their conferences.

Real Beauty is SO Last Year

2009-04-27T12:52:00.003-04:00

Nobody is perfect, least of all me, but when you build an entire campaign around "freeing women from beauty stereotypes" one year, should you really partner with a television show that celebrates scantily-clad, underage New York society girls the next? Well, Dove seems to be doing just that with their new "Dove Go Fresh presents Gossip Girl: real NYC stories revealed" campaign. For the next four Mondays (including tonight) they will air commercials in-between Gossip Girl show breaks featuring real New York women and their inspiring stories.

Granted, Gossip Girl is popular with women (though I can admit it is ridiculous, I haven't missed an episode), but I just don't know that featuring real women and their successes (a fashion designer, a couture wedding gown designer, a filmmaker and an "It Girl"/style director for Nylon Magazine) will break through to viewers intent on seeing who Chuck Bass beds this week. Plus, the women featured, with the exception of the filmmaker, all work in the fashion industry, which happens to be one of the industries Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty has charged with giving women negative body issues. Interesting choices. How about a teacher, an aid worker or even the head of a (non-fashion) company? Didn't tie into the show as well, I guess.

So my conclusion here is that Dove saw the opportunity to address their target audience, young women, and diluted their positive message an eensy bit in order to sell some deodorant. I mean, these are still inspiring successful women, right? They made it in the cut-throat fashion world, started their own bridal lines, wrote and produced their own films and became style mavens. I am sure the Blair Waldorfs and Serena Van Der Woodsens out there would applaud them. That is, before they decided to crush them for standing in their way.

A Crafty Community

2009-04-26T13:06:00.010-04:00

There are so many online communities cropping up these days that the average person (with a job) will likely have to pick one that is most important to him or her and just participate peripherally elsewhere. I, on the other hand, participate peripherally everywhere, so I wonder how meaningful my interactions really are or what I am missing out on. One thing is for certain, I have been missing out on Etsy.

Etsy is an online marketplace for handmade items where anyone with internet access and a desire to craft can put out a shingle and instantly be in business. Growing up, these were the fun stores to go into because you could always expect something new or different. More often than not these days, craft businesses can't survive against big national chains, so sellers have been retreating to flea markets, craft fairs and swap meets. Now they have a new outlet, with even greater potential for reaching their customers.

Here is a video that gives you a great perspective on what Etsy is all about:

Etsy truly promotes community by creating a place for direct contact and interaction between buyers and sellers. This also allows for collaboration and customization. How often do you want an item, but you just can't find the exact right thing? I guarantee there is an artisan on Etsy that can help you out. There are also blogs, forums and chat features to keep everyone talking and sharing.

Surprisingly, Etsy has also become a new way of passing down crafting techniques from generation to generation. While this practice often occurred within families, it now happens through community, through Etsy's videos (they have how-to's and Virtual Labs on the site, but they also have a dedicated YouTube channel) and where possible, physical Etsy Labs where craftsmen can learn their trades.

If you haven't been there yet, you should definitely check it out. One day, when I have free time once again (sigh) I will definitely be there as well. I used to be a pretty mean knitter.

Mother's Day...don't forget!

2009-04-25T12:14:00.007-04:00

I am usually pretty good when it comes to remembering birthdays and holidays (especially now that I have Outlook, Facebook and my iPhone calendar to remind me) but lately I needn't worry. Retailers, practically screaming these days for my attention, have been making helpful suggestions as to what I can give for every little (Hallmark) holiday from Secretary's to Mother's Days. Now I love my mother, but isn't there a better way for me to show it than spending money I don't have on a gadget she likely doesn't really want?

Case in point: The Flip MinoHD is totally covetable, but not only would my mother lose it because it is so tiny, it has a $229 price tag! The company has partnered with shopping site, ideeli to offer two lucky winners free ones that feature tricked out designs, but the rest of us will have to shell out if we want one. Perhaps if there is a new baby around, this might be justifed as a more affordable way to record those precious first moments?

Equinox has also been sending me emails for the past week or so with the tag line "Mum's the word. Give her the royal treatment with a spa package specially priced for a limited time only." From my previous post about Equinox, you can probably figure out that this is not an inexpensive option either.

Because we're all worried about the economy these days, most of us will be scaling back our gift-giving over the year, and Mother's Day certainly won't be the exception.

According to the National Retail Federation's latest Consumer Intentions and Actions report 83.3% of adults will be shopping for their moms and spending an average of $123.89 (down from a 2007 high of $139.14). The majority will opt for the holiday clichés: flowers, jewelry and greeting cards, to the tune of $4.84 billion. Other perennial favorites include outings, day spa trips, gift certificates and clothing.

Spending less doesn't mean you can't explore other ways to show mom she is special. How about giving her something completely free, like your time? Spend the day with her, cook for her, help her clean the house, perhaps just ask her what her perfect day would be. Even in flush times, mom might appreciate one of these suggestions as opposed to giving her the same perfume year after year.

So mom, if you are reading this, let's make a date to hang out. We can do what we do best, which is shopping, eating and gossiping. Of course I know better not to send flowers as well...there is no excuse for depriving a woman of flowers on one of the few days a year she gets them.

Universal Appeal

2009-04-24T22:22:00.001-04:00

Gap acquired Athleta, a womens sport and active apparel brand last fall. While I have been working out a lot more lately, this new line extension probably wouldn't have caught my attention, save for the fact that last week Athleta became the fifth tab in Gaps "universality" website function. If you go to any of the company's websites, Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime and now Athleta, you are brought to their universal site which enables you to shop from any of the stores using one shopping cart and are charged one flat shipping fee.

While Amazon has been integrating sales from multiple sources for some time, it is really more of a go-between for individuals and other ecommerce stores. Gap has done something a little different with its brands, creating a portal that hopefully engages consumers and incentivizes them to shop multiple stores at once to their benefit. Of course it helps that there is audience overlap for these brands, though their styles and price points may differ somewhat. I wonder if the same concept could be applied to the Urban Outfitters brands, Urban, Free People and Anthropologie - my guess is no. Those brands are more life stage-targeted, though some of their items have a similar aesthetic so there would be some customers who shop at more than one of these stores.

Though I recently swore off online shopping in favor of going to the store, I know I can be easily swayed, so a one-stop shop is certainly pretty enticing.

Equal Opportunity Geekdom

2009-04-24T14:19:00.002-04:00

A friend thought it would be funny to send me the link to Wired's Geek Dad blog post called 10 Annoying Habits of a Geeky Spouse. Of course I have a fantastic sense of humor and openly acknowledge that not only am I a bit of a geek (I think I practice geek chic) but I am about to become betrothed to one as well. Still, when I went down the list and saw how we measured up, my inner child, still desirous of being one of the cool kids, died another small death. We are all over this list like its our job or something. Here we go:

1. Punning - Thank goodness this is not us. While I am a fan of Sex and the City (one of the more acceptable, non-geeky shows I've watched) I could never stomach the terrible puns. I prefer to drum up old sayings, idiomatic expressions and obscure words. Nien prefers to opt-out and let me ramble on.

2. Using "frak," or Klingon, or both, instead of regular swear words - This also is a little off the mark, though we did watch every episode of Battlestar Galactica together and have both probably seen many or (more realistically) all Star Trek episodes and movies. I may have used frak jokingly, but never outside my apartment. I can swear like a normal person.

3. Weird or over-the-top ways of celebrating mainstream holidays - Consider us guilty of this one. We love to blow out halloween and are often strategizing mid summer on what we're going to wear. We are also weirdly competitive when it comes to gift-giving. Unless the person tells us it is their favorite or preferred gift we are not satisfied. We even planned out wedding for the summer solstice so our anniversary would be easy to remember.

4. Dissecting movies - Hello? Me? Never! Or should I say ALWAYS. I majored in cinema studies and Nien took some film classes in between computer science and engineering. We are all over this.

5. Wearing obscurely geeky T-shirts to "normal" places - I leave this one entirely to Nien. His favorite is the "I'm a Super Duper Programmer" shirt that I (hope) he recently retired. There are others, but we really don't need to get into it. Oh, except I found this really awesome "T-Qualizer" shirt a few years back that lights up when music is playing. Hmm, wonder why he never wears it?

6. Requiring extra room in the house for geeky things - My cool meter must be rising, because this isn't me either. Nien however, has "projects," multiple computers and toys. I pray for a day when he has an office he can cram it all into.

7. Geeky toys and decorations can be hard to explain to kids - Didn't I just mention toys? There are no kids at this point, but I bet they might question why they can't play with his Christopher Walken King of New York doll or the Leggo Death Star he claims he will have when we make more room. What about the E.T. puzzle we put together and framed? Are we going to have to fight the kiddies for it?

8. Looking up information while a discussion/argument is still in progress - Um, okay, I take issue with this one because, come on, isn't that part of the reason to have an iPhone? Of course, whipping out multiple phones to perform a search is pretty lame, so we should stop doing that.

9. Needing to watch certain TV shows ASAP to avoid spoilers - See aforementioned BSG, but also Lost. What's worse is that we DVR, wait like 10-15 minutes and then begin watching so we can still get through the commercials.

10. Geeky projects that take over the house and whole weekends - Check. This list is a little repetitive, but again we fulfill the requirement.

So there you have, like Geek Dad's Matt Blum and his wife, we also speek fluent geek. The blog, which staff writers seem to take turns writing, is worth checking out, whether you are a parent or not. Recent posts have tackled the SyFy rebranding (someone should be trying to explain that) Tiger Woods' Wii game as well as many more obscure topics that are even too geeky for me. It would be cool to see more Geek Mom posts (they have done a few to be fair) but its understandabke since Wired's readership is much more male skewing.

So, in terms of Nien and I, is there some kind of 12-step program to alleviate all this lameness? We do cool things as well, I swear. Like...hmmm, well, um? Give me a minute to think of something.

Frag Doll Casting Call

2009-04-23T12:26:00.004-04:00

Are there any women out there looking to quit their day jobs to devote more time to playing first-person shooter games?

My gaming skillz are pretty terrible, but there are a ton of female gamers out there that could put their male counterparts to shame. Ubisoft, creator of games like Prince of Persia (which I don't play, but really enjoy watching), the Tom Clancy series and Shaun White Snowboarding put together a competitive team of kick-ass female players in 2004 to challenge the male-dominated perception of the genre. They are called Frag Dolls, and from their site, I gather the genesis of the name seems to be the following:

frag /frag/ n. & v. · n. 1 number of kills. 2 a fragmentation grenade. · v. 1 to eliminate other players in multiplayer shooters (fragging).
rag·doll physics /ragdol fiziks/ n. 1 a program allowing videogame characters to react with realistic body and skeletal physics.

frag·doll /fragdol/ n. 1 a female gamer with the skills to dominate in multiplayer shooters. 2 a lady with the sass to use the laws of physics to her incontestable advantage.

Since they came together the ladies have been taking competitions by storm winning awards and major street cred. Lo and behold, they seem to be looking for a new member, but the deadline is tight - applications have to be in tonight by 11:59 pm. Do you have what it takes? Of course that was a rhetorical question, but secretly I am thinking of two women in particular who could probably tear it up. Kiran? Amy?

Manis, Pedis and Pre-teens

2009-04-22T07:20:00.001-04:00

I remember sitting with my grandmother when I was a little girl looking at faded old family photos of her generation. The thing that occurs to me about the ladies in those pictures now is that they were all pretty normal to "pleasantly plump" but none were overly skinny or obese. Though she was the baby of the family, her brothers and sisters grew up during the Depression, so I doubt they were concerned with body issues at a time when just being able to afford food was the main priority.

So much has changed in the last 100 years; many things for the better, but of course some things for the worse. Women and body perception is one of those changes for the worse. It used to be that girls could at least enjoy being children before being barraged by fashion magazine images of unattainable beauty in their teen years, but recently initiation into the lifelong body unhappiness club is starting at younger and younger ages.

A recent Newsweek article Generation Diva: How o ur obsession with beauty is changing our kids, shed light on the issue. Author Jessica Bennett talks about how girls are getting spa treatments and wearing makeup at a much younger age, egged on by reality TV makeover shows, and frankly, by their own mothers. Women obsessed with remaining young and vital by getting plastic surgery or spa treatments are unknowingly passing on those values to their daughters who want to emulate them.

There have been a few voices trying to help young girls, such as Dove through their Campaign for Real Beauty, but when pro-anorexia groups (pro-ana as they call themselves) are defiantly taking their problems to public forums like Facebook and other teen health sites, you've gotta step back and say whoa there, this is a terrible problem that is not getting any better.

How do we help our girls? Short of finding a way to stop reality TV (um, maybe change the channel?), closing glamour magazines (not entirely impossible with the way pubs have been shuttering) and generally asking celebs to not set impossible standards (yeah right), the most plausible solution seems to be a change in the example mothers set for their daughters. The beauty talk should be right up there with the sex talk if girls are going to spend so much time obsessing about it. Plus, how are these girls getting the money for all of these treatments? I don't see a 10 year-old getting a job to support her spa habit, so mom must be funding the whole operation. Say no! That money could put your kid through college - will she really be a social pariah if her eyebrows aren't waxed?

Facebook Draws the Line at Breastfeeding

2009-04-21T16:53:00.004-04:00

If Facebook's main purpose is to start conversation, then they do a pretty good job by enraging their members who like to bitch about the site to no end. Facebook is endlessly screwing up their relationship with users by betraying their trust through flaps over their privacy agreement, but they first caught flack for implementing Beacon, a marketing tool that posted a user's third-party purchases on his or her information feed.

Then in 2008 they had to go and aggravate a demographic to be feared - Moms. Facebook has a blanket policy against pornography. That being said, they view images of most fully exposed breasts as pornography. Thus, breastfeeding pictures are clearly porn. Moms were definitely not cool with this kind of logic.

While I appreciate that they are trying to keep it clean (and I sure do know a few users that have probably benefited from a little censoring) it seems a little unfair to peg one of the most natural things a human being can do as "obscene content." Apparently the 230,728 members of the group Hey Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene! (Official petition to Facebook) agree that there is nothing wrong with these pictures and they should not be removed. So far they have staged two worlwide nurse-in events for the Mothers International Lactation Campaign (M.I.L.C.), one in December and one in February.

While I know that America can be amazingly puritanical when compared with other countries, public brestfeeding is allowed, though we aren't all comfortable with it. So Facebook is not even holding public lactation to American standards let along the standards of what is acceptable to the international community they serve. Much has been made of the opportunities Facebook's millions of users might provide for marketing and profit. That ain't gonna happen if they keep pissing everyone off.

You think you know me?

2009-04-20T12:20:00.007-04:00

After last class' lecture on privacy I began to think about the type of information we freely post online for the world to see. While I am a little more discreet on Facebook because not all of my friends are people I really know per se, I have been fairly free-wheeling on Twitter since my network is still relatively small there. Of course, anyone can see what I am writing, so I do find myself naturally editing myself a little bit.

Some places that many people probably don't consider personal are their online registries. Many sites nowadays allow you to create lists of things you want so hopefully your family and friends will come and buy them for you. When Amazon added their wishlist function I thought it was going to revolutionize gift-giving, but then after putting a few items on my list I completely forgot about it. This goes for when I am giving gifts as well - it never occurs to me to check out Amazon to find a friend's wishlist. Oh well, another good idea that maybe needs a better awareness campaign? I'm wondering if we will see this feature touted much more during future Amazon purchases, because I notice they now have a "Universal Wishlist" which claims you can add any item from any website. Very interesting.

Now after further thinking, I bet one of these lists is a good way to find out more about what a person is into. That's of course if you know the person's email address or name and they haven't kept it private. Say I was about to go on a job interview, could I find my potential boss' list of gardening books and find a way to weave that topic into the discussion? You know, so she would know we had something in common and would want to work with me. Or what if I went snooping and saw that everything she had "saved to buy herself later" was from the self help section, particularly on the subject of depression. Could I consider it a wishlist cry for help?

While I doubt anything that extreme would come of it, I bet you could make some pretty wrong assumptions about people based on their lists. I just hunted mine down to see what I had thought so worthy of bookmarking back in 2003-05 before I seem to have given up on the whole enterprise. Here's what I found:

Perfecto Presents: Paul Oakenfold - Great Wall

Okay, so you might see this and say, Kim appreciates a good DJ, loves trance and has probably been to a rave or two. Well, maybe in my younger, California days. My buttoned-up preppiness abounds these days, so though this album might give you clues about my past, it certainly doesn't tell you much about my present. Thinking back, I may have even put this aside as a present for Nien. At any rate, this album is not tops on my wishlist right now.

This next one throws me completely:

The Teenage Investor : How to Start Early, Invest Often & Build Wealth
So there I was in January of 2004, browsing on Amazon, and I must have somehow come across this. Using my deductive reasoning, I am going to surmise that since I was working in family programming back then, perhaps we were considering a special on teaching children about finance? That sounds pretty logical to me - please don't think this was for my benefit. While I am no Alan Greenspan (and thank god for that these days) I think I am up to the challenge of learning about investing on a slightly higher level than this.

Now we come to something I probably would like, but am pretty sure I already own:

In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003

On the same day in 2004 when I decided to put aside a book about teens and finance, I guess I did a little shopping for myself as well. So maybe if you knew this you would know that I am all about balancing work and fun? What a good detective you would be if you figured that one out. In this case, I would probably be more inclined to make this purchase, but I know I already did, elsewhere and for less money, so if someone were to get this for me now it would be one of those "Oh, you shouldn't have" moments. I should probably take this out of here.

The last item also makes sense to me and doesn't require a long trail of bread crumbs:

The Disappointment Artist

I had previously read two books by Jonathan Lethem, "Motherless Brooklyn" and "The Fortress of Solitude." It would be fitting for me to want to read another of his books, though I do like to mix it up a bit, so I probably decided to give another author a chance. Reading the Publisher's Weekly blurb makes me realize why I wanted to read this though:

Novelist Lethem's new collection of essays starts with an intriguing, if emotionally distant, consideration of his lifelong relationship with popular culture and develops into a moving memoir that transcends those references altogether.

So I'm going to leave this one in...it will either be a reminder to buy it myself once the grad school seas part and I can enjoy some leisure reading once again, or maybe a good friend will look up my list and buy it for me?

The Women of Tribeca

2009-04-16T15:26:00.006-04:00

While we already know from a prior post that the hair on the back of my neck goes up when women filmmakers are called out for being women, Tribeca Film Festival at least tries to do it in a more serious way, without the silly fashion angle of the NY Times piece that got my feathers all ruffled. Tribeca Films Senior Programmer, Genna Terranova, interviewed some of the female filmmakers featured in this year's festival, asking them about their inspirations, troubles during filming, the challenges/advantages of being a woman filmmaker, what films inspired them and what they look forward to about the festival.

Terranova provides an interesting statistic within the interview:

A recent study (of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University in 2008) said that women comprised only 16 percent of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the 250 top-grossing domestic films.

I would imagine that number might be higher if it was not limited to domestic films, but it is a pretty telling figure nonetheless. It is worth checking out the interview, especially to hear about some of the films playing at this year's festival. I have found in previous years that Tribeca's offerings are so vast that it is next to impossible to see many of the featured films, and since they accept so much, some of the films can be a little hit-or-miss. Still, I enjoy the spirit of the festival, which is why I return again and again.

I'm Hearing Voices

2009-04-14T07:06:00.002-04:00

No, I'm not crazy, I'm just listening to a ton of podcasts lately. From home to the gym, occasionally on the treadmill when the Today Show is more commercial than segment, from gym to the office, from office to home or school - you know, any time I might be tempted to have "thoughts" of my own. Those things have to be curtailed at all cost. As I've mentioned in the past, I spend way more time staring at screens or just plugged in than I am offline. Nature, what's that? Face-to-face conversation? Meh.

So back to the podcasts. I listen to several and I'll rank them in order of how I approach them.

1. Like many others in my social set (at least it seems like it from recent conversations) I listen to "This American Life" and secretly think Ira Glass is dreamy. This is the one I download and consume immediately. It was great when I first started listening because there were so many prior episodes that I could listen to multiple shows in a week, but now that I am all caught up I am on a one-a-week diet that always leaves me wanting more.
What I get out of the podcast: news, quirky takes, poignant stories, humor and outrage for social injustice...also every once in a while Sarah Vowell and David Sedaris show up to read their stories or weigh in. We all need more funny people in our day.

2. Next comes The Moth podcast. For the uninitiated, the Moth is an organization that invites people onstage to tell stories. The only requirement is that they tell their story from memory, using no notes. The results are often funny, and I find myself sporting a goofy grin as I make my way down the street. My favorite was from Mike Birbiglia, who excerpted his off-Broadway show, Sleepwalk With Me. Another reliable character often featured is Jonathan Ames, everyman poet. This guy has some interesting stories. There are some sad stories in the mix as well, which I don't mind because this podcast is basically the closest thing I have to theater these days.
What I get out of the podcast: Occasional story slam throw-down events where one finalist is eventually crowned the victor, shared human experiences and some completely out-of-this world people who don't skimp on the entertainment.

3. I heart Garrison Keillor. I've already revealed myself as a gal who likes a good story, so of course I tune-in to Keillor, the ultimate storyteller, who weaves tales of Lake Wobegon (his fictional home town) in his "A Prairie Home Companion" radio show. The "News From Lake Wobegon" section of the show is what it is used for the podcast.
What I get out of the podcast: The show is filled with interesting characters, silly predicaments and touching moments. It's all good, but to be completely honest, I also have a weird affinity for Keillor's voice, especially the regional dialect. I would hire him to read me the phone book.

4. One of my favorite podcasts is one that desperately needs to step up production, because I want more! The New Yorker offers several podcasts, but the one I most enjoy is the The New Yorker Fiction podcast. Each month fiction editor, Deborah Treisman, invites a well-known author on the show to discuss the author's choice of a story from the magazine's archives. The author reads the story and then discusses the work and its author with Treisman. Pairings have included Jhumpa Lahiri reading William Trevor’s “A Day,” T. Coraghessan Boyle reading Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain” and subsequently Tobias Wolff reading Stephanie Vaughn’s “Dog Heaven.”
What I get out of the podcast: Imagine if your high school English class had been taught by the author's of the short stories you were charged with reading (those of you who actually enjoyed doing the reading like me). Beyond exposure to great work, the authors have wonderful insights into how the stories were crafted. It is also wonderful to hear a writer in awe of another writer's work. Hearing about the author's who influenced them gives me even greater context for their work as well.

5. Then there is The New Yorker Out Loud podcast. I'll admit, with school and work claiming most of my time these days, I don't really get time to sit down with any magazine and read it cover to cover. While by no means a substitute for the articles in the magazine, this podcast gives me a quick rundown of features for the week before delving more deeply into one or two articles with their authors.
What I get out of the podcast: This podcast merely helps me join in on conversation, but it really only gives me a very surface appreciation for what people are discussing. However, in some cases the podcast features the voices of the actual people who were interviewed in the magazine, and hearing their views directly is a different experience than just through the journalist as mouthpiece.

6. NPR: Fresh Air Podcast - Terry Gross's daily magazine show of current issues, interviews and art discussions.
What I get out of the podcast: This show also helps me keep up to date on current issues, though I'll admit I sometimes do not wish to get such a deep dive. Still, one show that focused on Mexican drug cartels was pretty fascinating and really painted a picture for me about a headline I generally breeze by on a quick perusal of CNN.com.

7. President Obama's Weekly Radio Address - This is ABC News' broadcast of the President's weekly address or another event he might be speaking at.
What I get out of the podcast: Obama nation, voice of hope and change. It gives me comfort to check in and know that Obama is on the case, trying to get me job security and a financial future once again.

8. Times Talks Podcast - These can also be hit or miss depending on who is being featured, but it is also nice to save the $25 it usually costs to see these people in-person.
What I get out of the podcast: One-on-one access to luminaries in a variety of fields. More education, which is never a bad thing.

That's it for now, but I'm tempted to add a few others. Class will be ending for the semester in a few weeks and I am taking the summer off, so maybe I can add the Lost podcast or The Onion News. Or maybe I'll read a book.

Reality Weddings: WE Do

2009-04-12T21:58:00.009-04:00

Weddings have become big business as even in a recession brides continue going over the top to plan their one perfect day. However, now instead of their shenanigans amounting to some entertaining family gossip and ending there, the television and film industry has decided to capitalize on the blessed events as well.

Films for the most part have been of the romantic comedy variety in which the hapless heroine must plan the wedding of her dreams for her bad friend or sister, in the case of 27 Dresses, all the while we know that it should really be her day. Often they are terribly formulaic affairs with so little heart that you wonder at how a wedding could be the central plot point.

Of course reality TV, soul-sucking form of "entertainment" that it often is, is even more opportunistic, ready to exploit women's wedding fantasies for ratings. Loving moments and smooth sailing don't really make for popular programming, so instead they serve up drama in the form of cat fights, blown budgets and comparison shows.

WEtv that's Women's Entertainment for anyone who may not have paused long to see the nuptial fest it has become, recognized that no one was really capitalizing on happily ever after so they now offer six different programs on the subject. Their most famous show, Bridezillas, let's you in on the craziness that happens when women invest too much emotion in making their day perfection. I'm sure many of the featured brides will wonder if participating was such a good idea when their children come across their freak outs in the inevitable "best of" show that will air somewhere down the line.

WE also airs Platinum Weddings and Rich Bride, Poor Bride. Do I even have to tell you these shows are all about money? The former shows you just how much money you can blow all at once while the latter shows you what happens when "costs meet expectations."

My Fair Wedding is what I like to call the home makeover-style wedding show, where a team of experts come in and put it all together for you. At least they don't let your neighbors plan the day as they do in Trading Spaces.

The last two shows, Amazing Wedding Cakes and Wedding Central, are more about the business of weddings. You see the people behind-the-scenes who help put it all together.

Surprisingly, makeover channel extraordinaire, TLC only has one wedding show, Say Yes to the Dress. Here, prospective brides go dress shopping at New York bridal atelier, Kleinfeld. While some of the women do spend so much more than they should on a dress they will wear once, there are some touching stories about how the staff help those with lower budgets feel special too.

Style Network has Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?, while Lifetime offers Get Married. These shows are also about uber costly nuptials featuring world-renowned planners and celeb events. Aspirational programming indeed.

Each network also offers online companion pieces on their websites from wedding trends, quizzes, relationship advice, dieting advice and a virtual bridal boutique that allows you to build a model of yourself and try on gowns (very cool, TLC). WE has a dedicated bridal page, while the other channels host their content on their show pages.

As a woman planning my wedding, you would think the amazing amount of content out there would be a great resource, but actually I have been avoiding these shows as much as possible, simply because they make me crazy. I probably can't afford half of what they are suggesting and I don't want my wedding to be a circus. Also, as an already indecisive person, I don't need to watch something that will make me second guess my choices even more.

One person whose advice I probably would take is Suze Orman (it must seem like I am working for her at this point, I reference her so much). Last week on Oprah.com a couple asking her for advice about the budget for their wedding got some Suze straight-talk. She told them that with their financial situation, they should elope. While it was probably not what they wanted to hear, it is definitely the most realistic advice for their current situation. While the perfect wedding might seem right out of a fairytale, the real "reality program" should be NOT starting your life together with a mountain of debt from day one. Now that's a show I would watch.

Twitter Me Your Deepest Thoughts

2009-04-08T16:51:00.004-04:00

As I've mentioned in a prior post, I joined Twitter along with the other members of my poker group when we were all attempting the Master Cleanse (don't try this at home) and in need of a support system. Since then, I have been slowly adding contacts - a few current classmates, someone from high school, one coworker who joined and then never came back.

So I had this really tiny little network that was only giving me a few pearls of wisdom a day, and I really wanted more. Enter Twitter celebrities. I went through the list of popular Twitter users, and lo and behold, a whole world opened up to me.

News? Sure I could use some of that. I added CNN, Digg, Kirtsy and Defamer (okay, not so much news, but entertaining nonetheless). Interesting to note, Defamer is the most active, followed closely by Kirtsy...I may hear from CNN and Digg only once a day.

Britney Spears? Check! Of course she hardly ever has anything to say, and I found out soon after I began following her that she doesn't actually do any tweeting herself (kind of like lip-syncing if you ask me).

Then there were those that I would love to hear more from like MSNBC host, Rachel Maddow or Joel McHale from the Soup on E! Maddow occasionally has an opinion to share, but McHale is like a spazz with a microphone saying "Is this thing on?"

Martha Stewart weighs in a few times a day with helpful hints and crisp responses (I so believe it is her, don't try to convince me otherwise), and comedian Michael Ian Black always has something sarcastic, dark and funny to say. These two really maintain their individual voices, and I couldn't ask for more. Way to tweet, guys.

Then I encountered the constant tweeters.

There's Coraline author, Neil Gaiman, who LOVES to tweet. I always knew the guy was a prolific writer, but geez, Neil. He holds contests, links to his blog, talks about projects he is working on (when do you have the time?!) talks about the family.

Only second to Neil is Wil Wheaton. Yes, that's right, I said Wil Wheaton of Star Trek the Next Generation fame. Wil is fairly incessant as well, linking to his blog, talking about the book he is writing, funny things his son says and giving play-by-play for Kings hockey games (really not that interested, Wil, though I appreciate your enthusiasm).

John Hodgman who you may know better as "the PC guy" often asks for help with his book, talks about events he is at, promotes his friends, and on and on. No talk of family or personal life, John? Am I just a tool in your promotion machine?

I tried following Digg founder, Kevin Rose, for a while, but sadly had to drop him. He wrote a lot, but it was always about errands he was running. Big bore.

Twitter completely feeds into my natural voyeuristic tendencies. I love to overhear a juicy conversation, but with Twitter it all comes to me without any work. Love it.

Grave Matters

2009-04-07T17:39:00.004-04:00

An old coworker of mine, Sue Bailey, and her friend, Carmen Flowers, found themselves in the morbid predicament that many of us are likely to find ourselves in as we age; they were attending more and more funerals of friends and loved ones. Sadder still was that these events, rather than being celebrations of the person's life, were instead morose occasions of loss and pain. The women came to the realization that many people do not plan for the inevitable, and that by doing so, and having an idea of what you want your funeral to be you can also relieve some of the burden from those you love.

So the ladies decided to write a book, "Grave Expectations: Planning the End Like There's No Tomorrow," meant to be a discussion starter, planning tool and all-around irreverent approach to the end of life. They mention various options from the practical to the downright ghoulish for what to do with your remains (Verdantic would be pleased to note that they talk about green funerals). Last week Bailey and Flowers appeared on The Today Show in a segment with Meredith Vieira to talk about the book and some of the topics they cover.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

In terms of entertainment, I know this subject might be a bit of a stretch, but I agree with the authors - why not spend at least half as much time planning your funeral as you would in, say, planning your wedding? A lot of the same people will be there, having the same conversation about how bad the food is.

NYU ITP

2009-04-06T10:55:00.003-04:00

It is amazing how something can be right on your wavelength, but under your radar. Though it has been around since 1979, NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program only came to my attention more recently as someone I know was applying. I even graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, which runs the program, so this seems like yet another case of me not paying attention to what is going on around me. What do you expect, as I've probably said before (because I do repeat myself) I was practically raised by TV and only have about a 30 second attention span.

While the author of one of one of my textbooks, Clay Shirky, is also on the faculty of ITP, it is the program's founder, Red Burns, that I want to mention. Professor Burns is the program Chair and teaches art and communications. She began NYU's Alternate Media Center, the predecessor for ITP, in the 1970's where she pioneered projects in two-way television and telecommunications projects for the developmentally disabled. She has been honored with many awards for her work and career.

If her career had a theme, it would be fostering the growth of new technology. She began the AMC for that purpose and expanded upon it by creating ITP, a program "whose mission is to explore the imaginative use of communications technologies — how they might augment, improve, and bring delight and art into people’s lives. Perhaps the best way to describe us is as a Center for the Recently Possible." Doesn't that just give you chills?

When I went with my friend to the program's last showcase, I was blown away by the breadth of projects and talent. There was a Twitter project that mapped out countries where people were tweeting from, an upright piano that allowed you to "play yourself a cocktail" and a window shade that sensed light to determine when to raise and lower itself. There were so many other cool projects as well, and the whole show had a feeling of intrepid experimentation, much like an adult playground.

It is interesting to me that an amazing idea incubator like this could have one of the most uninspiring names around (Interactive Telecommunications Program sounds to me like something that should be offered at ITT Tech) but then again my program, offered through the school of continuing education where you can also pursue Actuarial Science and Landscape Design isn't much better off, so I can sympathize. We communications students should really band together and demand better branding.

Anyway, ITP's spring show is coming up in May, and it is definitely worth checking out.

In "Here Comes Everybody" Clay Shirky mentions an application called Dodgeball that came out of the program. If you register and your friends register you build a social network, which you can expand by meeting your friends' friends. When you tell it where you will be, it will tell you who is around and send you their picture so you can identify them. So cool, but this is the first I am hearing about it, and now I find that it was bought by Google and is now being shut down. Very uncool Google. We could have all signed up and met up at the ITP event, bringing everything full circle.

Girls Want to Play Too

2009-04-04T21:56:00.005-04:00

Nien is always telling me stories about his "work husband" Larry. Most recently, Larry has been griping because his 8 year-old daughter has been begging him for a Nintendo DS. It seems all of her friends have one and she wants one too. It's amazing how while the "bells and whistles" game companies, Xbox and Playstation, have been scratching their heads about reaching a female audience, Nintendo has quietly cornered the market with less advanced, more casual and interactive offerings like their hand-held gaming system, the DS and their Wii console.

If Larry decides to be a cool dad and buy it for her, he could really score some major brownie points if he hooks her up with the latest version, the DSi, which hits shelves tomorrow. With even more interactivity like dual cameras that can distort images, audio recorders that let you change the backing tracks to your games, downloadable games, mp3 storage and the ability to upload content to facebook, this thing clearly doesn't want its users to be able to put it down. I guess if I had one of these things when I was a kid it would have been a preview of my current iPhone addiction.

Though I never bought my own, I do occasionally steal Nien's DS Lite to obsessively play countless games of sudoku. I like the simplicity of it and also appreciate that it isn't trying to be anything more than it is. However, that unit is a totally different animal than this new version, and it is nice that buyers will still have a choice between the two.

I also applaud Nintendo every time I see one of their commercials featuring well-known female celebrities playing with the DS. They've featured Lisa Kudrow, Liv Tyler, Nicole Kidman and here is one with Carrie Underwood, who I personally think is a better choice to reach out to the younger audience, though I love them for trying to pitch to my generation as well.

So will DS continue their quiet, yet aggressive campaign to take down the big boys by stealing market share from Apple as well? I don't know too many 8 year-olds who have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, but then again, I don't know any 8 year-old period, so I clearly don't have the answer to this one.

Pulling My Beak

2009-04-01T11:35:00.005-04:00

While everyone has been debating how Twitter will monetize their business, the conversation has been focused on information aggregation and advertising. Now check out this fishy video that just happens to have popped up on Wired today...April 1. Come on people, I don't believe you for a minute.

Still I do appreciate the humor, and even like the idea of sorting tweets by friends and celebrities. However, who in the their right mind would carry around yet another device, especially one that is basically a tricked-out pager?

Wired guys Danny Dumas and Steven Leckart, I like your style. Just one word of advice - you should have gotten the Twitter folks to post this in the "What's next for Twitter?" section of the site. Amateurs!

Are You Bringing Sexy Back?

2009-03-30T18:30:00.001-04:00

Every company needs to think carefully about what kind of a social media presence their brand should have, and perhaps it makes sense to dip a toe in the water to test it out before diving right in. From what I can tell, the lingerie line Agent Provocateur maybe should have planned a little longer before announcing their intentions to jump into the blogosphere, Twitter and Facebook, just in time for a very sexy Valentine's Day campaign. Warning: it is pretty racy.

My problem isn't with their choice of vehicles; from what I can see, they hired the right voice to create a sexy yet approachable online personality. My problem is their apparent radio-silence after their campaign ended. Repeatedly I have tried to access their blog, HelloAgentProvocateur.com, but each time I get a 403 Forbidden Error. Perhaps the site has come down. There are several Facebook pages dedicated to AP, but none is particularly informative or seems to necessarily be sponsored by the company. On Twitter, the last tweet from MsProvocateur is dated February 26. From a vague tweet earlier in the day, it seems like she has been sent on some kind of "research" trip:

so exciting! because of your comments APs sending me around the world to research sex! hot but ill miss u guys! will u miss me?10:34 AM Feb 26th from web

So apparently wherever they sent her does not have internet access. Frankly, now that it has been so long, I am a little worried for her safety. What if some indigenous tribe took offense at her lingerie?

All joking aside, once you start a discussion, you can't just walk away in the middle of it. AP took the time to announce their endeavor to the world and got some PR out of it. There are thousands of fans on the Facebook pages and a little over a thousand followers on Twitter. There is no way of telling what traffic on the blog was like.

Looking at StrawberryFrog, the agency AP hired to launch their foray into social media, they seem like a good choice as they describe their philosophy like this:

We create Cultural Movements for clients who think big.
StrawberryFrog is an independent Cultural Movement agency that helps our clients lead in the new world. We have strong partnerships with some of the best known brands in the world. Today, consumers don't just want to buy brands, they want to BUY IN to what a brand believes in. In this new age, we create Cultural Movement strategies for our clients. This is our DNA, our competitive edge. In a fragmented media world, a Cultural Movement gives our client's incredible momentum.

So where did it all go wrong? How could AP think it was a good idea to end their Cultural Movement before I even heard about it? Movement to me implies something ongoing or revolutionary, not just a Valentine's Day stunt.

Tweet Revenge

2009-03-27T18:32:00.001-04:00

In this wired world of ours, it is amazing how freely we give our information. As my friend Danny over at Digital Dirt can attest, once you put it out there it is pretty hard to take it back. Yet practically on a daily basis I see people posting up on Facebook how much they hate their jobs, how bored they are or even worse, what they are spending their time doing while they are clearly writing from the office. While I have never dissed my job on a social network I am certainly guilty of posting during working hours as well. But at least I try to keep it to a minimum, only putting up vitally important things like weekend plans...so, um, what was my point?

Oh yeah, so back to lamenting your job to the masses - people, if that random girl you vaguely remember who sat next to you in Algebra I (oh so many years ago) can see your post about how you wish you could tell your boss exactly what he can do with his TPS reports, then guess what? Your boss can probably see it too. Awkward.

And if not your boss, then how about your HR department? What do you think all of those people are doing now that the recession has caused so many companies to implement hiring freezes? They are looking for fat to trim, so don't be the bacon!

Clearly, I am no expert. I mean, I joined Twitter along with the other members of my poker group last December so we could keep tabs on each other during a trial run at the Master Cleanse. If you are familiar with it, I am sure you can imagine the lovely posts we were sending out into the Twitterverse about "salt water bathing." I don't think it even occurred to me at that point that other acquaintances might be on as well.

Perhaps "theconnor" another Twitter user thought the same thing when he sent out the following tweet:

Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.

I read about this on Switched.com, and as much as I love schadenfreude (and by the way I overheard some high-schoolers use that word last weekend and I was utterly amazed, but then skeptical that they might have learned about it from "Avenue Q") I felt bad for the person who, of course, got a response from a Cisco employee. This is nothing new, of course. There are countless other stories of people losing jobs, relationships and even court cases from foolish posts. Let's try harder to keep a few things to ourselves, shall we?

I for one just want to say how much I love my job and the people I work with...for no particular reason, I just like to say it.

Fentertainment

2009-03-25T14:31:00.004-04:00

Oh female empowerment, why must we label? Don't get me wrong, I am all for women succeeding in the entertainment industry. I myself am a woman who would like to succeed in the entertainment industry. But every time I see women called out for their achievements as women, I get a little queasy feeling. I mean, if we are so successful in the first place then why do we have to make such a big deal about the distinction? I never hear people say, "That movie was great...and it was written by a man!" As silly as that sounds, no one seems to blink twice about saying the same thing about women. I know I am being holier than thou, but I just hate the double standard.

What got my mind wandering down this path was an article my amazing friend, Jessica, sent my way. It was about the new self-proclaimed "Fempire" of female Hollywood screenwriters featured in the New York Times Fashion and Style section (interesting choice) last week called "Hollywood's New Power Posse." My love of alliteration aside, that title alone got my tummy a-girgling.

The piece about the friendship of four successful writers, Diablo Cody (Juno), Lorene Scafaria (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist), Dana Fox (What Happens in Vegas) and Liz Meriwether, a transitioning playwright, paints the women as insecure, giggling pre-teens, especially when the author adds elements like "They all have dogs!" (I admit I added the exclamation point to that quote, but still) and "But these women also work hard: Ms. Cody, Ms. Fox and Ms. Scafaria can command seven figures to write a movie that makes it into theaters with big stars." Big stars? You don't say!

I realize I am being super sensitive and a little snarky here as well, especially since the article was clearly supposed to be written from a fashion/lifestyle angle, but why was it even written that way in the first place? And who even knows if these women want to be taken that seriously, especially since they are all comedy writers. Still, male writers like Judd Apatow are lauded for their work, however silly it may be, not by what they borrowed from their girlfriend to wear on the red carpet.

Almost as good as the Kindle...

2009-03-20T11:06:00.007-04:00

For those of us who like to try out new recipes only to print them out and lose them to the abyss of our apartments, there is now a new gadget that stores them all for easy reference, the Demy digital recipe reader. If you know me by now, you know I want one.

All you need is a Demi and a keyingredient.com account and you are ready to go. The Demi also is a timer, a measurement converter, offers suggestions for ingredient substitutions and knows what your favorite dishes are. If it did the dishes, it would be perfect.

Kirtsy? Sure, I can Digg it

2009-03-20T11:04:00.014-04:00

My friend and fellow blogger, Matt, kindly introduced me to Kirtsy, another social voting site with a decidedly new twist: its target is a female audience. For many reasons, this is a great idea, but the main draw to me is that it may help women who might never have joined the conversation on Digg, StumbleUpon or Reddit (admittedly, I have never voted on these sites, though I do check them out occasionally - I do have a del.icio.us account, but don't really use it much either).

Posts on Kirtsy are decidely more girly fun than geeky fun. They may tend more towards crafts for Easter, off-the-wall wedding venues and lip balm, but you can still find articles about job-hunting, sports and current news as well. The color scheme is similar to Digg, but the layout is more vertical. One big difference between the two sites is that Kirtsy uses editors while Digg let's its users decide what they want to see most. I can really find topics I'm interested in on both sites, but Kirtsy does tend to be a little more like a gabfest among girlfriends than a serious news aggregator. Hey, not necessarily a bad thing though.

The site, originally called Sk*rt, got its start when three female bloggers decided to get together in 2007 and create something that was interesting to them. They found success early on, but met with some legal troubles over their name. So they quickly held a contest and relaunched as Kirtsy. Thankfully, most of the sites that were linking to them followed along.

Kirtsy is definitely a great site that I will be adding to my mix.

Priority #1: Save Money

2009-03-20T11:04:00.009-04:00

In these difficult economic times, we ladies need all the financial help we can get. As trusted financial advisors like Jim Kramer get taken down a peg by people who are upset by their misguided advice, there are still a few people who are rolling with the times and tweaking their core strategies to better serve the immediate situation.

I have been a fan of personal finance guru, Suze Orman, and her spunky attitude since I first read her book, "Young, Fabulous & Broke." Though her advice has never been earth-shattering (ie. pay off your credit card debt and then save 8 month's salary before even thinking about investing) I appreciate how she keeps it simple, since I for one am no financial genius. She also has spoken directly to women with her book, "Women and Money." Plus, I admire the way she manages her brand, utilizing codes within her books to drive traffic to her website so users can gain access to planning tools and updated information. Once there, she can advertise her show and other appearances, sell financial products and promote her new book or the Save Yourself account she started with Ameritrade.

I had the chance to hear her speak at an event today where she was promoting her new book, "Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan." She was funny, inciteful and everything you want to be to sell a book, but she left me with a lot of things to think about as well. She kept stressing that times have changed, and we all need to modify our plans based on what we have now, not what we used to have. She advised to focus first on savings and paying the minimums on credit card debt, which is a huge seachange from her prior advice. With the uncertain job climate and changes within the lending industy, she felt that an emergency fund was the most important thing to focus on right now.

Now her folksy, perma-tanned personality is certainly larger than life, and it is understandable that SNL likes to poke fun at her (I think she called at least 3 people in the audience "girlfriend" or "boyfriend" at some point) but as I said before, at the core her message is very basic and straightforward. She wants to tell people about the benefits of a Roth IRA. She is concerned about people not having wills and trusts. Amazingly, she even thinks this current climate might be the best thing that could have happened for someone my age, because it means that now that crazy real estate prices have come down I might actually be able to afford a home some day, and also that the money I am contributing to my 401k at these historically low rates will amount to much larger sums by the time I retire. Boy did I love it when she put it that way! Woohoo financial collapse...well, not quite.

Wedding Woes

2009-03-17T13:10:00.007-04:00

I mentioned in a much earlier post that I am engaged to a guy I consider to be a tech genius. While I am often in awe of what he can accomplish, I also have to deal with talking him down during encounters with "poor design." We had one of these moody scenes last night.

Wedding planning can be a daunting task, and a girl needs all the help she can get. As I've been trying to get it together, I've relied on several websites to:

1. Point me in the right direction for vendors and ideas

2. Organize my information in one place

3. Keep me from crying hysterically because I am by no means an event planner

For general research I looked to TheKnot.com and WeddingChannel.com. I also designed a very basic website on WeddingChannel and I manage my budget there as well. Of course friends and acquaintances all weighed in with advice which was very useful as well.

For some inexplicable reason, I decided to input my guest list on another site, WeddingWire.com. I think a friend may have recommended it to me, but my memory fails on this one. All I can say is that their guest tool is lacking in a few areas, and Nien made sure to point out each and every one to me last night as we tried to figure out how many invitations we have to order.

First of all, we could see total number of attendees, but not total number of parties. This was our major source of contention. I said, "Don't worry about it, I'll just go through and count." Let's just say Nien wasn't having it. He was also flummoxed because one person was listed as "no response" for both the bridal shower and rehearsal dinner. Since we haven't invited anyone to either yet, that was a little irregular and he was determined to get to the bottom of it. Trying to find individual responses to each event was a nightmare because the reports that we were able to generate wouldn't isolate the events, so a person's name appeared 3 times, once for each one. He fiddled around with it unhappily a bit longer, and we finally decided to call it a day with WeddingWire. Going forward, we'll download the master list to an Excel file and deal with it that way.

It just goes to show you that you can have a great idea capable of streamlining processes, but if you don't think about how people will use that tool you can completely miss the mark. I see now that WeddingChannel also has a guest management tool. Dare I incur further engineer snobbery by migrating the info there?

Kindle Update

2009-03-15T22:05:00.005-04:00

Last weekend I headed up to Maine to visit with friends and hit the slopes. I had been looking forward to getting in touch with nature, but was a little nervous because I knew I was bound to have no service on my iPhone. I dreaded the inevitable separation anxiety, but figured it was probably for the best. I'm sure by my prior dependence-heavy posts you will agree I needed a little time away from the ol' girl.

Still, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had service for most of the 8-hour (yes, god help me) car ride, and pretty much over the moon when a bored search of the app store bore the most incredible fruit. Just when I thought the iPhone couldn't possibly get any better, it gave me Kindle, or at least a pretty acceptable approximation of it. If you recall, I was practically drooling over the Kindle in a prior post, but lamenting the high price tag.

The Amazon app allowed me the same access to digital books that the covetable Kindle does, and though the screen is probably brighter, definitely smaller and sometimes a bit reflective, there I was, clicking to purchase David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed in Flames. And thanks to Amazon's Whispersync technology (no idea what that is, but it sounds completely cool) I was reading it about two seconds later.

The text appears large enough that I do not squint at the screen, and turning pages with the swipe of a finger is pretty darn easy. It also remembers the page where I left off so I can pick it right up again, no problem. As I mentioned, it is a little brighter than my ideal, but I can certainly make it work, especially when it allows me to have any book I want at my fingertips at a moment's notice.

So once again, yay iPhone, and also yay free wifi once we got to our condo. Though my phone service was a little spotty, leaving me to check my messages up on the lifts, I was never once without Facebook, Gmail or Twitter updates. Sorry nature!

Buggy Backward Bebo

2009-03-11T16:14:00.007-04:00

All of my social networking in one place? Yes please! Having to deal with AOL to do it? No thank you.

From my experience with Real Simple a few posts back, I learned that women sure are into organizing. Even I occasionally get the bug, so when I recently read that AOL had launched their Lifestream information aggregation tool by way of their Bebo social networking site, I was definitely intrigued. In a nutshell, this service takes all your updates, pictures, emails, etc. from sites like Flickr, Facebook, Gmail, AIM, Del.icio.us and Twitter and (in theory) lets you view them all on one handy-dandy dashboard. Cool idea - if it actually works.

I created my Bebo account using my old, clunky, no longer in use AIM handle and found (surprise, surprise) that none of my old AIM contacts were using Bebo. I would have to import contacts from other avenues like my Gmail address book. I wasn't about to drag others into this thing before I knew what I was dealing with.

After an oversimplified sign-in to add my major social networks, I found that the only feed I was seeing within my Lifestream, sad little existence that it was, were my tweets. Aggregator indeed. Facebook was completely MIA. I even tried updating my status there to see if anything showed up, but that didn't work. Now of course, something probably went wrong with my initial sign-up, but an exaustive, time-consuming search of the site left me with no idea how I could fix it.

At any rate, this is what it is supposed to look like:

So I was left with a fairly empty profile page needing to be built from scratch. There were all kinds of tools and apps available to build that page, but why should I be reinventing the wheel when I already have other social networks that fill my needs? I think my biggest reluctance to embrace Bebo is from my perception of AOL. I left AOL years and years ago, never looking back. They would have to do something major to win me over, and sadly for them, this isn't it.

Want to shop online? Password please.

2009-03-10T16:43:00.004-04:00

Nowadays practically every clothing company has a web presence. While many offer online exclusives to entice impulse sales, their inventory is more often the same as their brick and mortar stores. Sure, many companies do a good job of duplicating their in-store experience on the web by using their logos and creative as well as other added-value features like blogs, music and social networking. However, some newer companies have popped up to capitalize on the more experiential aspects of online shopping, bringing the "joy of the hunt" that many of us experience in stores to the web.

Invitation-only sites like Gilt Groupe and RueLaLa make shoppers feel like the ultimate insider - you have to be invited by a member to get in. Once inside, the sites offer sales on luxury brands like Badgley Mischka, Tory Burch and Valentino. While these items are on sale, their sticker prices can still be pretty high. Plus, much like two women pulling on each sleeve of a sweater at a sample sale, you still have to get items into your cart before they are snapped up. Women often go to a sale and add as much as they can to their cart and then make their decisions about whether or not to purchase. Often an item will seem sold-out, but you can stalk it until it briefly appears or get notified if someone decides not to purchase. Vicious, but thrilling!

Then there is ideeli, another invitation-only site that allows basic 2nd row membership or a more exclusive 1st row offering that you have to pay to join. For $6.99 a month you get to shop sales an hour early as well as access even more exclusive events. Who knows if there are more options for the 1st rowers, but I haven't seen anything worth pulling the trigger on here.

For those seriously into fashion, who want to pull out new designer labels without piling on the credit card debt, there are sites like Bag Borrow or Steal that allow you to rent couture bags for a monthly fee...again there are tiers of membership that allow access to different levels of bags. One of the memberships is $400+ per month! It amazes me that someone would pay this, but clearly my hardly-ever-change-my-purse mentality takes me out of the target audience.

The list goes on when it comes to private shopping sites:

I've barely scratched the surface on this list, but still it is hard to resist the allure of a sale, even when the sale price is still way out of my range. It is human nature to look for a deal, and these fashion sites feed into our need to outwit "the man." What's more, we also get to give in to our most primal urges where we feel validated when we can proudly say, "I got that hammered silk wrap front gown! I rule!"

Too Much of a Good Thing

2009-03-05T15:00:00.012-05:00

While I was saddened to hear of the shuttering of Conde Nast's Domino back in January, I knew I was partly to blame. While I admired the DIY shelter magazine, I had pledged my subscription years before to Rea l Simple, only reading Domino for free when killing time over coffee at Barnes & Noble.

Still, I had cause to regret my lack of loyalty once again when I decided to check out Real Simple's newly re designed website. Real Simple has always had a function over form approach to their online experience, looking more like an overstuffed closet filled with buried treasures. In short, it was a pain to search for anything, but there was "gold in them thar hills." I'm pretty sure my number one go-to recipe, tuna noodle casserole (don't judge - sometimes I sub in salmon and gruyere to make it fancy) came from the site.

Yet, the new site looks a little sparse. When compared with the vibrant look of Domino (I'll provide the link, but no doubt the site will be down very soon) it just doesn't speak to me. Sure, they have added a section of how-to videos which is very helpful, but the site itself doesn't really read like the magazine, drawing me from topic to topic like Domino's does. I've put screen grabs of their front pages for you to judge for yourself.

For the sheer amount of information that's available, Real Simple can't be beat, but couldn't they at least make the experience more pleasant? Oh, and now that Domino is done for, why not incorporate/shamelessly steal their style? They could also take tips from the queen of Omnimedia, Martha Stewart. MarthaStewart.com, though also packed to the gills with information, still remembers to add a little color here and there.

That's about all I have to say on this topic, but now for your enjoyment, I give you "How-To: Slice & Dice an Avocado." It's absolutely riveting.

Moving Beyond the TV, Part 2

2009-03-02T15:36:00.002-05:00

Here is the second half of my interview with Kirstin Knezevich...

Are you excited about any particular emerging technology?

I think mobile is going to be a big opportunity for media companies as usage grows and mobile phones are becoming smarter. Though I am kind of old school and don’t have an iPhone, I still feel that as the quality of the video becomes better more people will engage with it on mobile devices.

So, even though it wasn’t the career you originally imagined for yourself, are you happy working in the digital space?

There are a lot of interesting things about it – content is moving online and people are experimenting in the space. Content is taking on a whole new meaning – TV, mobile device, internet, etc.). Digital is an interesting area that is really the place to be. It is hard to know every little thing going on in new media, and there is always something new coming up. Gen Y particularly is so engaged in so many places (online, texting, etc.) – it is amazing. I think I’ll probably end up staying within the industry.

Do you ever worry about all the noise?

I think that is the biggest challenge in the space. How do you get people’s attention? We are fortunate that we have a really strong brand. It would be much harder with a new brand. But once you have people’s attention how do you keep it? How do you keep them coming back for deeper engagement? Specifically trying to challenge that generation [Y] is hard across the board.

What is the coolest thing about your job?

Working with new partners. I have mostly worked with internal stakeholders, affiliates or ad agencies. Now I am working with new partners that are excited about our content being on their platforms as well. They are always asking what kind of content is coming down the pipe and are interested in promoting it. Working on the content side, it is now interesting to see how things work on the platform side. I’m also learning so much about what they are trying to do.

Any technology or company that you’d like to learn more about?

I love anything Apple related. I think they are so interesting as a company and so forward-thinking. There are a million small companies that are emerging that would also be great to learn more about, but it is so hard to keep up with them all. I’m also interested in seeing how Facebook meets the challenge of monetizing their product. Oh, and I can’t wait to see what the “next Facebook” will be.

Any last thoughts?

I think the danger that a lot of companies face is that they sit down and say, “So what is our Facebook strategy?” or “What is our MySpace or Twitter strategy?” when they really should be saying “What is our brand strategy?” It really is the most important element, and a lot of brands are missing it in trying to compete in so many spaces.

Moving Beyond the TV, Part 1

2009-03-02T15:02:00.011-05:00

I had the pleasure of interviewing Kirstin Knezevich, a manager in branded digital platforms at the premium cable channel where I work. Kirstin, a California native, graduated from USC where she focused on business marketing. Intending to work in advertising and print, she found her way to new media when she first came to our company, starting first with its On Demand offering. She then branched out to brand strategy before moving to her current role.

So what exactly are branded digital platforms?

My group is charged with getting the brand out on various platforms, trying to reach non-subscribers and engage people making them more familiar with the brand. We differ from program promotions in that we aren’t advertising premieres or selling full length shows (though we will release full length shows occasionally if it makes sense as a sampling strategy). Instead, the platforms leverage clips from shows, buzz segments and other extra content.

What do you work on primarily?

I have been working specifically on creating a hub on MySpace which recently launched.

Tell me more about the other areas that your group focuses on.

My team is divided into three areas: internet video (You Tube, podcast and other potential opportunities), social networking (MySpace, Facebook and other partners) and mobile. Social networking is my area, and I find it to be such an interesting way to communicate with fans and subscribers in a relatively inexpensive way. It is a vehicle that everyone is playing with and one that will help us to get the brand out.

Do you use social networking sites?

I have both Facebook and MySpace personal pages, but prefer Facebook because of its template structure. It is a more organized way of communicating with people. They are also great about opening up the applications and making them adaptable to your needs.

MySpace is still a force in music especially, but You Tube is also huge for video and iTunes is a driver for entertainment – people are getting content now from lots of places. MySpace is more for entertainment and Facebook is for connecting with friends.

What do you think about brands on these platforms?

Brands are doing well on Facebook, but no one has really hit it out of the park, and it is very hard to measure success in social networking. The question I hear at every conference I go to is, “How do you measure ROI in social media?” You can say that a page has 100,000 friends or a video had this many views, but if it is really just brand engagement, I don’t know if you can measure it in any monetary way. You can get a sense of success from word-of-mouth; there was quite a bit of buzz on one of my brand strategy campaigns. Still, there is no real way to relate dollars spent to word-of-mouth.

Do you Twitter?

I signed up for a Twitter account, but don’t really use it.

Do you think our company should be on Twitter?

As it is right now, brands are using it more as a customer service tool. Twitter blurs the lines between marketing and PR. It would be great for a production blog or as a tool for a huge star to engage the audience. With every platform we have to evaluate what makes sense for the brand.

More to come...

Size Matters

2009-03-01T22:10:00.005-05:00

And of course, by size I am referring to number of hits. Get your minds out of the gutter people.

A recent discussion on the message board for my class has centered on how to monitor blog traffic on the Blogger platform. From what I've been reading, a good way of tracking is through Google Analytics, which discreetly monitors your site's traffic (including time spent on the site) without listing page views on the site itself. Let's face it, though we feel like the stars of our blogosphere, for us beginning bloggers this number can be a little embarrassing.

I've just signed up, so I will report back if this tool actually works. It seems like it is geared more towards e-commerce. Hmm, now if I could only monetize my blog...

Dreaming big about blog hits led me to wonder about other successful female bloggers. While perusing NorthxEast.com, a site with many useful blogging tips, I came across their ranking of the Fifty Most Influential Female Bloggers. While beating out Ariana Huffington for the top spot, the founders of BlogHer.com, an online community for female bloggers has engaged their audience giving them another place to promote themselves and share ideas. What a great concept that I will certainly be reading more about.

Dumbing Down By Wiring Up

2009-02-25T12:07:00.009-05:00

It was inevitable that someone would make the connection sooner or later - too much multitasking is making us stupid. So suggests Robert Roy Britt in his article "Is the Internet Warping Our Brains?" While this is certainly fodder for my classmate over at (Dis)Engaged to tackle, since it applies directly to my struggling little brain (and those of other wired women) I am going to take it on as well.

A few interesting stats to throw your way (compiled from marketingcharts.com):

Overall, women (56.2%) on Facebook in the US outnumber men in every age group. This number is up from 54.3% late last year.
The percentage of younger generations downloading podcasts has nearly doubled since 2006.
While men continue to watch video on mobile phones more than women, women continue to watch video on the internet and television more than men.
More than half of US adults text, blog, or otherwise use social media
The internet activities engaged in by the greatest number of adults are use of e-mail (74.2%), obtaining news (46%) and paying bills online (39.6%).

With growing connectivity and participation we may be able to come together more, but conversely we may find our attention spans shrinking due to media overload. I've had this sneaking suspicion for a while now. More recently in conversations I find myself doing what I call a "reboot" from time to time. Someone will be talking to me, I tune out and go into "sleep mode" for a second, and then I quickly jolt back and have to pick up the threads. This is a little scary, and though I've been attributing it to the stress of a full time job, 3 classes, wedding planning and (when time permits) the rest of life, I fear that the many hours I spend online, watching TV and checking my iPhone (we used to all have the need for a "third space" now many of us have a "third screen") are causing serious brain damage.

Nicholas Carr expressed his concern more eloquently in his article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" in The Atlantic this past summer. He says,

Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

That is precisely how I feel when I try to read books for school lately. Carr goes on to say that his exposure to the Internet and New Media are the cause of his disconnect, and that Google's desire to influence the way we consume so they can collect our data plays a big part in changing the way our brains function.

Since my laptop has done me the favor of melting down over the weekend, it will be easier for me to go home tonight and not jump right back online. I will fight the urge to turn on the TV, put my phone in its charger and sit on my couch taking in the eerie calm of the real world - that is, if I still can remember what that is.

Moms on Facebook

2009-02-24T16:25:00.007-05:00

(sung to the tune of Duran Duran's "Girls On Film")

See them uploading albums of their kids all through the night
Making friends with their children's friends might not always be so right
But finding old connections really takes them back
Especially after a maternity leave, it can get their job search on track
And I sense as she keeps poking me that everything is fine

Moms on Facebook
Moms on Facebook
Moms on Facebook
Moms on Facebook

Tons of apps all over her page as she's connecting
As she keeps posting old awkward pictures of me I despise
She's gotta come up for air once she joins six degrees of Jewish separation
And she wonders how she ever signed up for so many random groups

Moms on Facebook (every five minutes)
Moms on Facebook
Moms on Facebook (yes, I got your picture)
Moms on Facebook

Send another smiling baby picture you just made a new friend
Please don't send me another snow globe again!
One more look at your news feed for the last status updates of the night,
I'm tapping my foot, getting annoyed, trying to hold tight
Your AOL finally says "Goodbye" and we're off like a shooting star

Moms on Facebook (she's not an old lady)
Moms on Facebook
Moms on Facebook (back on two minutes later)
Moms on Facebook
Moms on Facebook (she's got more friends than I do)
Moms on Facebook
Moms on Facebook (IM with you later)
Moms on Facebook
Moms on Facebook (please take down that picture)
Moms on Facebook

This Is a Gym...Really?

2009-02-20T13:37:00.003-05:00

No one would ever call me an athlete, but I recognized in my early 20's that going to the gym had to become a part of my life in order to keep the spread of my ass in check. Sadder still, now that I'm in my 30's I have to go a lot more. Sure I could probably cut back on the alcohol, but did I mention that I am in my 30's? I NEED to drink.

Since I must workout I decided that I could at least do it in a pleasant atmosphere, so I joined Equinox a few years ago. Their clubs are always clean, the equipment works and I'm not afraid to use their showers. This was not always the case when I belonged to New York Sports Club.

One of the locations I frequented most often was the club at Amsterdam and 76th street closest to my apartment. That location closed in 2007 for renovations, so I switched over to Columbus Circle, one of the newer and more crowded locations. I waited patiently for the Amsterdam club to reopen, and it finally did on February 12. Last weekend I checked it out and was really annoyed at what it had become.

I heard women griping as soon as I entered the locker room. It sounded like lame theatrics so I didn't pay it too much attention, but I quickly noticed that the lockers were electronic so you couldn't use your own lock - the cause for all the commotion. Personally, I thought the system was kind of cool, but I could see how Equinox hadn't really thought through their target audience when I realized that the women standing around were mostly older (I know I am going to sound really ageist here, but older women DO have more of a learning curve when it comes to technology, just as older men do). Also, without the ability to use your own lock, all the lockers looked the same, which probably made it harder for people to distinguish their lockers.

I stowed my stuff and headed out to the gym...what there was of a gym anyway. The sprawling three floor complex had only one floor devoted to gym equipment and a few classrooms. The rest of the place was all about lounging, with couches and coffee table books scattered around. It was a decorators dream of amazing fabrics, fixtures and other design elements, yet hardly a gym in sight.

Never mind, I headed for a treadmill and did my thing because I WAS THERE TO WORK OUT. The one innovation I thought I'd like in this club was the treadmill, because it had an integrated entertainment center built into the console. However, the design make it hard to change channels on the TV as I was running and the screen was impossibly small. I walked around after my run and was dismayed by how little equipment there was compared to aesthetic touches, and I got angry as I pictured articles in architecture or spa magazines featuring the location.

Granted, Equinox has always been more of a boutique gym than say a NYSC or a Gold's, but this location took the concept too far. I don't want there to be more couches than weight benches at my gym. I want a hook in the shower to hang my towel on, even if it interferes with the feng shui. If I get a chance to steam, please don't make me do it in a room that has an entirely clear glass wall that puts my big ass on display to the rest of the locker room. You don't want that as much as I don't want that!

Gearing Up for the Oscars

2009-02-17T17:50:00.017-05:00

To me, the Academy Awards Ceremony is like the Super Bowl for women. There are always incredible "plays" like amazing dresses and heart-wrenching acceptance speeches. There is the question of whether one "team" will begin to sweep early on or if the battle will be more of a back-and-forth between the rivals. And as if my home team had lost, I despair when the film I am championing doesn't take home Oscar gold.

My version of fantasy football is filling out my Oscar ballot. I take it just as seriously, doing tons of research on the nominees before the big day. When it comes to movies, I play to win. So this year, as I do every February, I have sat in many a darkened theater forming my opinions. It is hard to see all the nominees but I do my best, and this time I managed to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, Revolutionary Road, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Wall-E, Man on Wire, Trouble the Water, The Witness and Wanted. Of course, any one filling out their ballot while reading this will notice a few gaping holes in my screening list. I am still hoping to see Milk and The Wrestler by Sunday, but I'll have to turn in my work picks by Friday.

A lot of strategy goes into choosing the winners; there are always some political choices or "career" wins. To wrap my head around it all I turn to the web.

The LA Times "Gold Derby" online column has often been the first stop in my research. Author Tom O"Neill compiles stories, expert predictions and odds on the winners. This year, Tom has joined the digital revolution. You can get Gold Derby on Twitter. Join the Gold Derby Group at Facebook. Become friends with Tom O'Neil on Facebook. Get Gold Derby RSS feed via Facebook. RSS Feedburner or RSS Atom.

The Academy Awards website is also good to peruse for information about the telecast and local screening events, but I go there mainly to check out the message boards to see what people are saying. I also go to sites like The Oscar Guy, IMDB, You Tube (searching for those pesky shorts), and Oscar Frenzy.

This year, my two new favorite platforms/best friends have been Netflix on Xbox 360 and iTunes. Through Netflix I watched many of the documentary nominees that were harder to find, as well as The Visitor, a sweet little film that I highly recommend. iTunes allowed me to download many of the short films. Though in past years I have gone to the IFC Center or MOMA to view the short programs, being able to download them to my iPhone has made catching them infinitely easier.

There are also tons of odds predictors if you want to get right down to it (but isn't this art?) and one of the newest ones I've come across is a sports betting site Bet Us. Seems like you might even be able to wager real money here, but online gambling is where I draw the line.

When I think back to my childhood Oscar viewing, I shake my head at how utterly handicapped I was in predicting the winners. Now with all the digital help, my picks get a little bit closer every year, and in the end, isn't that better than actually winning the award? Okay, maybe not.

Anatomy of a Media Meltdown - "Are you not entertained?"

2009-02-15T23:05:00.005-05:00

On the February 11 Late Show with David Letterman Joaquin Phoenix appeared to promote his new film Two Lovers. Who knows if it is a good film or not, but it certainly wasn't what had people buzzing the next day.

The mostly quiet and often incoherent Phoenix appeared to either be on something or simply committing career suicide. Others have speculated that was all part of some elaborate hoax. At any rate, feel free to weigh in.

While an entertaining tidbit to break up my day, I was more interested in how the event was spreading virally. I had not seen the clip the night it aired, but the next day I received an email and an IM from two friends sending me the link to the clip on You Tube. Another friend had posted it on Facebook. I checked into my Twitter feed and saw a tweet from Defamer about it. Later in the week as I perused CNN.com I saw Anderson Cooper had weighed in and was showing a remixed version of the segment. I finished my week discussing it with my coworkers and we ended up watching it again. They even parodied it on the February 14 Saturday Night Live.

Though there were certainly bigger, more important news stories last week, it amazed me how many times that one interview kept coming up. Which seriously made me doubt the randomness of the event. I haven't heard much about the film that Phoenix was supposedly plugging. I also hadn't seen the actor's newly disheveled appearance, though I had heard he was retiring from acting to pursue his "music." Whether a calculated move or unplanned meltdown, the generated buzz was astounding. Celebrities have always been under the microscope, but now that everyone is so plugged in the scrutiny is overwhelming. Marketers and celebrity "brands" alike need to be aware that they can harness this kind of attention or have their image carried away by it.

UnKindle My Heart

2009-02-12T15:45:00.006-05:00

I am what you might call a "reader." I put it in quotes, because I know to some it is a dirty word. While I read all kinds of digital musings all day long at work, that is not what I call real reading. Real reading is analog - curled up on a couch, lounging in bed or piled into a favorite chair, holding a real live book in your hands, flipping the pages and digesting as many words as possible. On-the-go reading of actual books is also acceptable, but I find it more distracting, especially when I am so wedged into a subway car that I can only open my book at a 45 degree angle.

However, I am also a New Yorker with limited apartment space and my book shelves have been seriously sagging lately. I try to get rid of books I know I won't read again, but I really like being able to refer back to my collection or pass a favorite book on to a friend. I could simply start getting my books from a library, but strangely enough I actually want to pay for books for the same reason I like to pay for my music - I want the people who create them to stick around and keep entertaining me. I'm not so self-righteous that I would turn down a freebie, but I still like to do my part.

Last year I caught wind of the Amazon Kindle, a digital book reader that has been so in-demand that very few people got it under their Christmas tree this past December. Of course, that was mostly because Amazon was gearing up to release the Kindle 2. If you've been to Amazon any time this week you've no doubt seen it.

While I relish my analog experience, I can see the benefit of a gadget like the Kindle. Unlike other small screen experiences, the screen is not glossy, so it is easy to read the words, which are also bigger. It really tries to mimic the book experience. I know this because whenever I come across someone reading from one on the subway my head is practically perched on their shoulder.

It can hold my entire library! Instead of writing down endless lists of books I want to read I can download them instantly! If those two features weren't reason enough, the device can also carry your documents, deliver your newspaper subscription, read out loud to you, bookmark, annotate and make your coffee in the morning. Just kidding on that last one, but come on, how far off from that is it really?

I'll admit that I really want to buy it and love it and make it my own and read to IT. But am I really Jay Gatsby looking out across the water at the beckoning green light? Do I really need a $359 book reader? My sensible side says no...at least for now. Sigh.

"I am a weapon of massive consumption,

2009-02-10T16:25:00.000-05:00

...It's not my fault, it's how I'm programmed to function." So says Lily Allen in her new song "The Fear" which I am listening to as it streams on her MySpace page. The song, an ode to crazed consumerism, seems timely for the mess we're all caught up in at the moment, though it has a cheery pop quality that is kind of disturbing for the subject.

The Fear video

Allen just released her second album "It's Not Me, It's You" yesterday. Since I was keen on her first album a few years back (you may remember the equally cheerful song "Smile" about relishing the pain of a lover who jilted her), I am sampling the new album from her site's player. Allen virtually made her career thanks to MySpace, developing her following, allowing listeners to sample her music and publicizing her tour dates.

The current experience is a little frustrating because there are frequent interruptions as Domino's ads appear and have to be clicked away before a song will continue - major annoyance. Still, I can't help but admire how the singer has harnessed the power of her social network to get her message out. She is even performing 3 free "secret" MySpace sponsored concerts. The first one is tonight at Bowery Ballroom in New York.

Music seems to be the only area where MySpace has been able to continually beat it's eager little sibling, Facebook. I wonder how much longer that will be the case as sites like iLike are building an audience separately and within Facebook - will it trump MySpace? Though I have never been a serious MySpace user, to me iLike is a better version of the artist's "megaphone," broadcasting every little detail about their goings-on to fans. The experience is much more organized and customizable, though graphically inferior. Still artists have been loyally creating elaborate pages on MySpace for years, some even cooler than their own dedicated websites.

Today's fickle music fans are demanding more of their favorite artists, and thanks to technology, can find ways to get their music free. So the musician-consumer relationship has really been turned on its head. Musicians have to be more creative in their marketing, using all the available resources to catch the audience's fleeting attention and harness it into iTunes or Amazon song sales, or even concert tickets. Free underground shows are not only great for publicity (for both Lily Allen and MySpace) but a necessity to show fans that you love and appreciate them as much as they are into you.

The next logical step? Personal emails ala Barack Obama. I can't wait until I get that email from Beck telling me he hopes I liked the new album or asking me to come out for his concert when he is in my hometown. Depending on how it's done, it could be awesome.

I Won't Be A Hater If You Just Give Me What I Want

2009-02-08T17:58:00.000-05:00

My fiance, Nien, was one of the first people in line when the iPhone first came out. He is incredibly tech-savvy and a computer programmer to boot, so I understood why he would be willing to fork over that kind of money. There was nothing about this new gadget that appealed to me though.

I remember getting so annoyed as Blackberry's and iPhones started cropping up and I started having to have a new sort of conversation - one directed to someone's bent head, as they more often than not missed whatever point I was trying to make. I thought it was so rude the way people were always glued to their little screens, typing away. In some cases it was even potentially dangerous. I remember one day stopping at a crosswalk and finding myself shouting desperately at a woman so busy walking and typing that she had a near miss with an oncoming bus.

So of course you can see where this is going...I just purchased an iPhone. Even though I always said phones were for talking, I found that people were texting me more and more, and my "talking phone" was not equipped for it. Hypocrite that I am, I looked at the model of my current phone that had a keyboard, turned up my nose at it and immediately came over to the "i" side. It was for the ease of texting, I said, but secretly I wanted that sleek exterior as well as the knowledge that I had beaten Nien to the 3G model.

I immediately loved it and became one of those obnoxious bent head people. On a visit to my father in Florida, I dimly remember nodding my assent to him when he asked me how my wedding planning was going. He must have thought he was spending time with a zombie - sorry Dad! I was downloading apps like a madwoman, and a week in, I had found my dream app.

Lose It! is every dieting stress-cases' fantasy...it takes into account your current weight and maps out a caloric strategy to reaching your goal weight. It suggests a daily calorie guide for losing 1-2 pounds a week, giving you a goal date. The calorie count seems a little low, but if you add in exercise you increase the amount of calories you can eat in a day. I really like this aspect of the program because so often people think that you can either exercise OR eat sensibly, but Lose It! really shows you that you should do both.

The best part about it is that you can look up almost any food, and if the food you are looking for isn't in there you can create a custom entry. It also saves your prior entries so you can quickly drop them in, as well as whole meals, which is great for someone like me who eats practically the same breakfast every morning. Here are a few screen shots so you can see what I am talking about:

While I am far from the crazy Bridezillas I've heard of lately (I hope), I still want to look good for my wedding. Lose It!, if anything, is making me feel like I have a plan. We'll see if it actually works (or I stick to it).

So I am officially a convert and am really trying to curb the number of times I look at my iPhone each day. Please feel free to snap your fingers in front of my face next time I see you if I am showing you the top of my head. I would do it to you.

Paint It Pink and Put a Bow On It

2009-02-06T16:42:00.000-05:00

As I was trying to come up with a name for my blog, I found myself turning to cutesy phrases like herPod, femmetech and Ladytainment...all equally cringe-worthy. I had to take a step back and think about what I was trying to do.

Ideally, I would like this blog to be about the way women consume entertainment and technology, however, in my very first interaction with the subject, I found myself doing what I think a lot of marketers do when it comes to tech products - thinking that if they make it pretty we will buy it.

Now, I want to make it clear that I am not going to get all crazy feminist here. I am just as guilty as the next gal for buying something I thought was cute or flirty. However, I do find it very interesting that company's like Sony are focusing their energy on women like me, trying to beautify their products so that I will crave them as I would crave the latest purse or shoes.

The female tech market has amazing potential, and companies have seized on this audience in the last few years. Also, as new platforms emerge, designers are finding ways to pique our interests and get us involved, even to the point of enticing us to get in on major testosterone realms like gaming. So with this blog I'd like to look at my experiences with tech, my obsession with entertainment, and the ways in which both industries try to engage the feminine consumer.

While in the interest of full disclosure I have to admit this is a class project, I think there are a lot of interesting topics to explore, so I hope you will enjoy it. Please feel free to chime in if there is something you'd like me to talk about, something I say that grinds your gears or even hopefully something you have experienced yourself.