This week, over and over

Media

It’s outrageous, I tell you.

You know what I’m talking about. The thing that happened on television the other night. The whole thing has me so pissed off. I mean, it’s not enough that…right, exactly. Someone needs to think about the children…right, they’re adults but still. And it’s also the issue of…uh huh, right. It’s definitely an issue, racially speaking. Yeah, I don’t know, I think it’s a cultural thing.

Oh and the news story that one network posted about it? Ridiculous. Get with the times, you know? Oh yeah, there’s a hashtag. It’s trending.

And then there’s the government. No, the local government but don’t get me started on those other guys. Did you see the thing I posted on Facebook? That tells you everything you need to know. Just steamroll right over the little guy, you know? But back to the White House a second: they need to do something. I mean, that can’t just go on, you know? Something needs to happen.

It’s always something.

Did you see that list I linked to on Twitter? Soooo stupid. Totally missing…yeah that and also…right, you know what I’m talking about.

More importantly, did you see who they’re putting in that movie? Come on. Totally wrong for it. And the script’s going to be terrible, you just know it. I mean, if they’re going to do what I think they’re going to do.

I totally forgot to mention this: What about those people with the petition for….right, go live in the suburbs if you can’t take city living, pal.

So much in the news to keep track of, you know? Yeah, I’m as guilty as the next person.

Some days you just need to kick back and relax and watch a few episodes of that show with the guy that deals drugs and kills people, you know? Just to take a break from it all.

Right, OK, see you tomorrow.

Ben Affleck and the Batman Armageddon

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Ben Affleck will be Batman in the new Superman film (or whatever it is Snyder’s making since the title is still a mystery). This post will be one of 1,438 you will read just today on this topic so I’ll try and be brief especially since I fulminated plenty on Twitter last night.

I like Ben Affleck and have since Chasing Amy. He’s a good actor, charismatic, funny and intelligent. Chasing Amy director Kevin Smith thinks Affleck is so gifted he could play the shark in a remake of Jaws. That’s perhaps a bridge too far but I could definitely see him playing Chief Brody.

The truth is, he’s not utilized well in big films that are more about plot than character. Affleck can carry a film easily but what he does well is character work with a movie star’s bearing. A few compare and contrasts in which Affleck is a lead:

Chasing Amy, Good Will Hunting, Dogma, Bounce, Jersey Girl, Changing Lanes, Hollywoodland, The Company Men, The Town, Argo

vs.

Armageddon, Forces of Nature, The Sum of all Fears, Reindeer Games, Daredevil, Paycheck

(The one exception to the above theory seems to be Surviving Christmas. And while Gigli seems to be a smaller film the reasoning behind its creation was certainly high-concept. )

A few of the movies in the first list are not good films – Jersey Girl, for example – but he’s still good in them – which further makes my point and puts the lie to the notion that what matters more in the new Batman film will be the script or the directing. You need someone right for the role. Did people object to Michael Keaton and Heath Ledger in previous Batman films? Yes. But the films they were in played to their strengths, ultimately.

In bigger films, Affleck’s asked to be a movie star with a square-jawed, everyman style. In smaller films, he’s given character work and asked to fill the screen with his movie star presence. In the former, there seems to be a belief that because of Affleck’s charisma you can stick him in any lead role in a film, that you can make him the shark in Jaws if you want and it will work. This belief has not been borne out in experience.

“But wait,” you say! “What if, as with Keaton and Ledger, Snyder makes a movie that plays to Affleck’s strengths?” Snyder’s Man of Steel – a film I really disliked – was big with an emphasis on plot, not character.* He’s not employed to make subtle character-driven films, he’s asked to make big, splashy movies. Exactly the kind of films Affleck gets lost in. And it suggests the filmmakers believe their film is more about its component parts than the overall story.

Hey, it could be worse! They could have finally decided to make a Wonder Woman movie and cast Katy Perry.

* If you don’t believe me think back to when everyone thinks Jenny Olson is buried under rubble near the end of the movie…don’t remember that? This is my point. The movie makes a really big deal about it as if she’s a character we’ve grown to love through the film even though it hasn’t put in the time with her character to earn it. It just happens so we’re supposed to care.

** I still think the whole Superman vs. Batman thing is overblown and the Batman appearance is going to be a mere cameo in a film that’s all about Superman. The lack of a title in yesterday’s press release seems to point to this but I could be wrong.

Scientist admits his life’s work has made people dumber

Media

In 1982, polls showed that 44 percent of Americans believed God had created human beings in their present form. Thirty years later, the fraction of the population who are creationists is 46 percent.

In 1989, when “climate change” had just entered the public lexicon, 63 percent of Americans understood it was a problem. Almost 25 years later, that proportion is actually a bit lower, at 58 percent.

The timeline of these polls defines my career in science…

via Welcome to the Age of Denial – NYTimes.com

So I guess we know who to blame now.

(Sorry, I know it’s been a while since I’ve written and my first post back should be more than an immature joke, but I couldn’t resist. Here, dear reader, let me make it up to you: Read this affirmation from Ice-T.)

“The Art of Sexting” – Funny Ha-Ha: 05.04.13

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Funny Ha Ha May 2013This is the piece I read at Funny Ha Ha in May. As you can see, I got to share the stage with some incredibly talented people.

Due to a busy week of work in the days leading up to the event, I wrote this piece the night before. I’m not wild about the close but I liked the rest of it enough to ignore the complete non-sensical nature of the last line. Deadlines, man.

I’ll also note that this is the draft I walked in with but there were a few ad libs along the way. After two years of live readings, I’m finally figuring out how to let the audience be a part of the reading, rather than just relying on the text.

—

I’ll admit to you right at the outset: I don’t know much about sexting.

I’m a 38-year-old man and have been married for five years so my dating life was largely unencumbered by the complications born of current technology. Thank Christ. While I did a little online dating back in the 90s when it was still considered the sole haven of weirdos and not, say, your divorced parents, I managed to avoid the problems of whether to hide someone from your Facebook wall when you break up or unfollow them on Twitter so you can’t see all the fun they’re having without you.

Sexting seems more like a thing you do when you’re dating, like leaving the house to go see a movie. The closest I’ve gotten to sexting somebody is when my wife and I were trying to coordinate our commute home from work a couple weeks ago and my iPhone accidentally autocorrected “I can come pick you up” to “I can come oil you up.” I re-texted her the correct phrase but – not wishing to lose out on the moment – I texted “I can do the other thing later.” I didn’t.

Oh actually, the other almost-sexting thing I’ve done on my phone is take pictures of my wife topless…but that was because she was having trouble breastfeeding in the few days after our daughter was born so we hired a lactation consultant who taught us ways to hold our daughter at a certain angle while my wife held her boob in just the right way, all of which was supposed to be the best get the flow of milk going.

I know, pretty sexy, right? THIS IS ALMOST 40.

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Friday Night Lights, binge-watching and super-fandom

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Does binge-watching a television show’s entire run in a matter of months – instead of devoting that same amount of time to it over a number of years – mean you become less of a superfan of the show?

I just came to the end of my two-month binge-watch of Friday Night Lights, a show I watched via Netflix as it stopped airing new episodes in 2011. I loved the show. I looked forward to each new episode…which were just seconds away. I could read recaps of the episode while the credits were rolling on it. If I wanted, I could read ahead and know what developments would occur two seasons from now.

But I’ve only been a fan of Friday Night Lights for two months even though the show ran for five years with long breaks in between seasons. My enjoyment of the show and dedication to it has been immediate, in some ways fleeting. All-consuming for hours at a time – I’d frequently watch 3-4 episodes at a time – but it took up a brief time in my life.

And therein was the question. Was I really a big fan of Friday Night Lights? Sure, I’d seen all the episodes* and may have put in all the chronological hours watching the show other folks had but I didn’t have all the time between episodes or seasons to consider what might come next or read up on cast changes or new plot developments. I just filled the time between episodes with thumb-clicks of the Roku remote, queuing up the next episode through Netflix.

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Working again

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I’ll keep this short: This Monday I start a new job at Cramer-Krasselt, the second largest independent agency in the country.  At C-K, I’ll be leading content strategy for clients and developing content for Web, mobile, social, video and other channels. The really exciting thing about this job is I’ll be doing a fair amount of writing again, which is something I’ve missed in my last few positions. It will be good to have that discipline on a regular basis and in a professional context. Through the interview process, I’ve met a bunch of really great people at C-K. Really looking forward to working with all of them.

During my time off, I spoke to some really great people and made a bunch of new connections. Many people helped me with introductions, coffee, lunch and other types of networking. A big thank you to everyone who read e-mails from me, listened to me explain what I was looking for and tried to help me find it or just sent a supportive message or two.

Why you should care about what happened with Texas’s SB5 bill

Politics, , ,

Yesterday, a senator in the Texas legislature named Wendy Davis attempted a thirteen-hour filibuster to prevent the passage of SB5, a bill that would have placed such onerous restrictions on clinics providing abortion services that it would have caused most of them to close thereby preventing many women from getting other basic health care services in their area. You can read more about it here.

This was not a threatened filibuster. This wasn’t even a read-the-dictionary filibuster. This was a stand-up, keep-talking, stay-on-topic, no-leaning, no-breaks-for-food/water/bathroom, good-old-fashioned, give-’em-hell-Harry filibuster during which Davis read testimony from and about women – constituents! – who would be affected by the bill. Even if you’re against making abortion legal, you should have concerns about the unintended effects it would have had on women’s health coverage, particularly for low-income women.

Around the eleven-hour mark, Davis stopped speaking due to objections by her colleagues who said some of her comments were not germane to the bill. One comment included a discussion about sonograms. You can decide for yourself whether a discussion about sonograms is germane to a bill about abortions, especially when many legislatures require women to get one before getting an abortion.

What followed in the next two hours was some of the most inspiring political theater and voice-of-the-people democracy I’ve ever seen. From Davis’s fellow legislators using procedural debate to extend the discussion past the midnight deadline for passage to Leticia Van Der Putte – a female legislator who spent the day at her father’s funeral – who asked the Senate President “At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized by her male colleagues?” to the fifteen minutes of cheers from the gallery which refused to subside and therefore delayed the vote past midnight.

If ours is truly a government of, by and for the people, last night was a shining example.

Until…

Until the Senate President called an illegal vote on SB5 at 12:02am – which passed – and he tried to convince thousands of people that the measure was now law. At one point, even the AP reported it as such. Eventually, it became clear that the bill had not passed due to the deadline. The Texas Tribune reports on what happened over a tense few hours in the middle of the night.

Keep this in mind: At its height there were 182,000 people watching this play out via a live video stream. Thousands of people were discussing it on social media platforms. We watched as the deadline passed. Yet the Senate President felt empowered to literally ignore the voices of his colleagues and constiuents and call an illegal vote and then say it passed.

What’s astounding about what happened here is the bill could have been called in another special session. Or brought up in the next regular session. But rather than do that, the Senate President decided to hold an illegal vote and try to convince everyone who saw it that they didn’t see it.

If ever there was a moment that demonstrated the need for a participatory democracy, if ever there was a time when we saw the need for open goverment, if ever you needed proof that some politicians think they’re above the will of the people – especially when it comes to issues affecting women and minorities – this. was. it.

Regardless of your feelings about abortion and whether you’re angry or relieved that SB5 didn’t pass you should be angry at the way a small group of legislators tried to hold this illegal vote and lie to their constituents and people all over the country about it. You should be outraged that these people have such contempt for the rule of law.

When it comes to our government, we all need to pay attention. We need to watch. We need to participate. We need to have a debate. We need to raise our voices. We need to hold our leaders accountable. And we need to support the reporters who cover these issues and bring them to light like the folks at the Texas Tribune, which provided the live video stream of the proceedings.

Otherwise they’ll break the law right in front of your eyes and call you a liar for saying so.

Superman, Man of Steel: A failure of storytelling

Comics, Media,

Art is subjective and Superman belongs to all of us and none of us. The Superman of Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns is not my Superman. Nor is the recent New 52 Superman. Even the widely hailed Superman of All-Star Superman isn’t one I’ve fully embraced. But I respect the efforts. Like all good art, the exploration of Superman in those works is intended to tell us something, usually about ourselves. I learn the most about myself from the John Byrne Man of Steel reboot. Your mileage may vary.

All this is to say I can’t get behind those who say “Superman is…” or “Superman isn’t…” He’s an avatar through which we tell stories. Personally, I believe Superman is a Kryptonian formed by an upbringing on Earth. Near-immortal but made vulnerable and relatable by his humanity. Heroic, but flawed. Anything you want to do inside of that is OK by me. Even Dark Knight Returns Superman might seem to fall outside of the above but he’s still within those guidelines, even if he’s corrupted by them. In every Superman story, I’ve been a sucker for both Jor-El and Lara’s mix of anguish and hope and Jonathan and Martha’s gift of sacrifice and big-hearted sympathy because that’s what central to his character.

[This post continues after the jump with spoilers so read at your own peril.]

Continue reading Superman, Man of Steel: A failure of storytelling →

Don’t build a brand, build a business

Media,

The other day my friend Veronica Arreola of Viva La Feminista asked this on Facebook:

Hive mind….Instead of talking about “building a brand,” we should say [fill in the blank]. 

I’ve heard people say “reputation.” Any other phrases? Working on something for my students and I don’t want to use “brand.” Thanks!

I said “Business.” She asked me for an explanation and I said that being known for something (building your brand) isn’t enough. This is action, not reaction; strategy not execution. You should have a mission statement and a vision for what your career is going to be.

It’s like being known as a personality instead of an actress, less Kim Kardashian and more Kate Winslet. Sure, Kim Kardashian has made a bunch of money for herself. But the number of people who can replicate her success over a long period of time is minimal. The associations attached to her are as problematic as they are positive, she’s of-the-moment and she can only work in a proscribed space (reality show character and product spokesperson). Whereas Kate Winslet has built up a solid reputation as someone who can work in a variety of films with a career that has longevity and a bankable, consistent value for someone other than herself.  You know what you’re getting with Kate Winslet. With Kim Kardashian, the wind could change quickly.

Metaphors aside, students need to be taught how to put notoriety in terms of hiring or intellectual property they offer that no one else can: a viewpoint, a process, a track record of building or creating new things. That’s where the real value is for them and someone that might hire them.

If they can’t make an employer or the public see how their skills and notoriety translate into a business environment then it will be difficult for them to make a living doing what they love.

This is similar to something I’ve told college students and others trying to develop writing careers. Businesses pivot from time to time, but they have a sense of what they do and what they don’t do. If you’re going to be a writer or other type of freelancer, you’re essentially a one-person business. What spaces will you own? Keep in mind this is also about learning what you are going to say no to or avoiding a too-crowded field. It sounds really awesome to be a food writer. But if you don’t know the difference between small plates and tapas, you have no business reviewing food. (Also, in 2013 it’s a too-narrowly defined space with fewer opportunities. )

You will probably do a lot of freelancing; you’re going to have assignments that don’t always hew to your mission but everything you do should somehow support that mission (even if it’s only monetarily) because once you’re known for doing certain things people will look to you more often to do them. When I was at magazines, we’d always be looking for a writer who can handle a specific topic. It was rare that we said “Well who’s a good writer in general who might be able to handle this?” Specificity helps.

Now, figuring out what you’re worth and what to charge people for it? That’s a post for another day.

A new opportunity, presented as a challenge

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I was laid off from Ogilvy yesterday. It wasn’t completely unexpected as there were some layoffs last week and I was new on the team. Plus, the position wasn’t a particularly good fit for me. I know that sounds like spin and maybe it is but it also has the benefit of being true.

I still believe what I said when I started at Ogilvy:

To those paying attention, it’s become obvious: Anyone or anything can be a publisher, including consumer brands.

[SNIP]

Behind all of that content are methods and practices that tell us how long people view that content, who’s doing the viewing and how that information can be used to build a sustainable business. It’s something that traditional media publishers need to know more about and do more of in the future.

If I want to have a complete view of the mass media ecosystem and truly understand how content is created, consumed, tracked and paid for across all platforms, then the work I’ll be doing at Ogilvy is the next logical step.

I spent years at news publishers and loved it. But ultimately I’m a content strategist. Whether it’s on behalf of a brand or a traditional media publisher isn’t as important to me as the opportunity to create it, measure it, and motivate someone to take action as a result of it: seeking out more information, participating in the conversation and sharing it with others, taking action in a community, or becoming a new customer. It can be done in print, on the Web, via an app, at events or in many other channels.

While Ogilvy didn’t quite work out the way I expected, I learned a great deal there in a short time. I’m better at what I do now than when I started. The experience didn’t sour me on agency life but it has given me more perspective on it.  My boss and the rest of the team were a great group and I’m looking forward to seeing what they do next.

As for me, this situation is not wholly unfamiliar; something similar happened to me when I was at Playboy.com. After I left there, I got the chance to talk to a bunch of interesting people about their projects before landing at Chicago magazine, which was a great opportunity. I’m looking forward to the next great opportunity this time as well.