Humping The (new) Media Landscape

No Emoticon

A Manifesto.

 It is not too late to say what you feel.

Every time you let one of those little emoticons slip into your technologically mediated communications you let a little bit of your humanity slip away. An emoticon is an inadequate and irresponsible stand in for real emotions. And more so, it is an insult to the human ability to express.

Each of us, currently has the right to speak about how we feel to each other. And we have a right to transmit that, in most cases, through a variety of text-based medium. Do not take that lightly. Your personal communications are political. There have been times and there are places today, where you must us symbols to stand in for feelings in order to avoid persecution.

The ability to express is not a given politically nor is it a given practically; we must learn it though practice and experimentation.

Consider each emoticon you choose to eliminate, as an exercise in freedom and practice of expression. Practice the written expression of your emotions with abandon! Use language. At a loss for words? Then say that, or explore a thesaurus. Make up language, if the words you find won’t do. Every colon followed by closed parentheses is a missed opportunity for an expression of human joy. Just think about all the deliciously, salty language experiences we miss out on when someone chooses to express themselves with a semi-colon, closed parentheses rather than a full description of their thoughts at that moment.

Emoticons are feelings for computers. And you, as much as, you may like to think otherwise, are not a computer. Fundamental our experience as a humans, is attempting to express feeling, failing or succeeding, and in the process, creating beauty and understanding. Trust that the thoughtful choice of words will mean, as much if not more, than the immediacy of your response, for every emoticon you eliminate from your communications is a small heroic human act.  

Holiday Gifting

Advertising agency Mother decided to give their entire holiday gifting budget to one person. How they went about this will make you laugh but what happens to the money in the end is really quite heart warming.

This is by far the most creative agency holiday card I have ever seen! Nice example of having fun and doing good, all the while creating a great bit of digital marketing for themselves.

And in light of that, I continue my list of organizations which I'll be making donations to with my final paycheck of the year.

I picked the radio station KEXP because in the last year their partnership with WNYE in new york has introduced me to so many great new bands AND has gotten me back in the habit of actually going to see them live. See, I used to go see bands 3-4 nights a week when I lived in Richmond and DC - mostly friends or friends of friends and then you would discover a new band from seeing the opening act and then make friend with them and so on. Since I've been in NYC I found myself just overwhelmed - didn't know a lot of the names of bands on listings so i didn't know what to see and just kind of got out of the habit but I really really missed that connection you get to music when you see it performed live.

Thankfully, KEXP arrived on my dial and now I Wake Up! to great music every morning and since they are committed to live music, most sets feature songs from bands playing in NYC the very same week/month. This is what radio should be! They also feature radio documentaries about music history and exclusive live performances which bring you even closer to amazing new indy musicians in a range of genres.

Be sure to go to their site download some of their excellent podcasts - my ipod is dominated by Music That Matters and Song of The Day - your ears will thank you.

Click here if you also want to make a year end donation to KEXP!

Where Your Mouth Is?

Time to put my money where my mouth is - I will be taking my last paycheck of the 2009 calendar year and donating it to a variety of organizations which support independent creative projects. Trust me its not because I have the cash to spare, I live in NYC for goodness sake!

I am going to post about each of the organizations over the course of this month.

Feel free to send me any suggestions for orgs I should add to my 2009 donations list. I am specifically interested in learning about any that have helped you or your friends (or just artists you admire) with their creative work, this year.

The first organization I have chosen to donate to is WET  - this is a production company that supports women writers.

Here's how they explain their mission:

Equal opportunity still does not exist in the entertainment industry.

Only 17% of theater productions in the US are written by women
Only 16% of theater productions in the US are directed by women
Only 15% of film directors, producers, writers, and editors in the US are women.
Only 20% of film studio executives working in the US are women*

Additionally, the representation of women and girls in the media is often based in stereotype, and sets up impossible and unhealthy expectations women and girls feel they must live up to.

According to studies, Women and girls of all body types are equally and negatively affected after viewing pictures of models in magazine ads for just three minutes**

Teen-age girls who viewed commercials depicting women who modeled the unrealistically thin-ideal type of beauty caused adolescent girls to feel less confident, more angry and more dissatisfied with their weight and appearance.***

If we continue to accept the under-representation and misrepresentation of women in the media, an industry that defines and reflects our culture, then we are responsible for supporting and perpetuating inequality.

This is not a woman’s issue, this is a human issue.

I couldn't agree more! And they produced my brilliant friends' show I Eat Pandas this year on Off B'way

If you need any convincing of the shameful dearth of women's voices and the lack of variety in the ones which are represented, please read NYT Film critic Manohla Dargis article about the state of women in Holloywood in 2009.

Click here if you also want to give WET a gift this holiday season!