Tuesday, September 25, 2007

"Mixing" It Up

I had to share a great email from addicted2crowes, a Black Crowes fanatic.

First, some background. Here in South Florida, City Link, formerly XS Magazine, a great news, arts & entertainment weekly for 16 years, has been systematically gutted over the last few years by it low-rent, low-class corporate bosses, (Forum Publishing Group), who have aggressively attempted to replace their seasoned journalistic staff members with minimum-wage, untrained and mostly clueless newbie’s who can't string two sentences together.

Several weeks ago, City Link's online site, which was operated on a shoestring but managed to post all of the features that made the paper worth reading, was killed off and replaced by "Metromix," a generic entertainment site that seems to be mostly all wire service celebrity gossip coupled with hideously bad restaurant, bar and club reviews.

I got a copy of a2c's comments on the new site that is hilarious. Check it out:

What, no Vanilla Ice?

After numerous attempts to reach City Link online, I am finally presented with "Metromix," portending to be my new "home" for music, nightlife, restaurants, clubs and more.

In case you were too busy slaving over 14 pages of celebrity Britney, Paris et al, to notice that the housing market sucks, let me update you. People aren't buying homes, and I'm not buying this glossy fluff piece.

Hey, I know you're beta, and most of the content is so generic that I can get it anywhere, but even the feeble attempt to provide local info leaves me asking where is all the City Link material that draws me on to the web in the first place? They have in-depth and unique event listings with stuff that even New Times doesn't bother to find; Timeline, which is drop-dead amazing, and the best music and film writers anywhere. I mean please, Beth Feinstein-Bartel on local music? She is, I am sure, a very nice lady, but she's got to be at least 60 -- she was writing for the Sun-Sentinel 20 years ago when I was in high school. Not that it matters when all you get from her is recycled press releases. Where is Dan Sweeney?

Look, it's a nice try, very pretty and flashy and well organized. It's just bad that without pros who know the local scene writing for you, and depending on "content producers" and "special correspondents," Metromix comes off as just another pathetic, all-fluff, all-the-time, attempt by big media to reach out and connect with the information-age, high-spending, pop-culture superficial trendoids who advertisers covet.

All flash and no soul. I'll be back when you give me a reason to invest my time.

a2c

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Diamonds in the Rough - Quotations from Papa Smurf

Who needs fancy platitudes? Here's the first in an on-going series of life observations by my whack friend Rusty Diamond, or, as we who faced Class VI whitewater with him and survived call him - Papa Smurf.

"At any given moment, an Eagle is seizing a fish."

Solid.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Channeling Chåvez

While researching hunger issues in the Rio Grandé valley, where I did volunteer work in the migrant camps, or "Colonias" (a Spanish term for neighborhood or community) several years ago, I came across a writing by César Chåvez, which I found empowering. I hesitate to adopt his description of this as a "Prayer" because it speaks more universally when not taken in a religious context, so let's just call it an "inspired" piece of prose:

Show me the suffering of the most miserable;
So that I will know my people's plight.

Help me take responsibility for my own life;
So that I can be free at last.

Grant me courage to serve others;
For in service there is true life.

Give me honesty and patience;
So that I can work with other workers

Bring forth song and celebration;
So that we will never tire of the struggle.

Let us remember those who have died for justice;
For they have given us life.

Help us love even those who hate us;
So we can change the world.

Into the fire - Ending Childhood Hunger

So I'm back in the fight, having survived personal tragedies and challenges over the past 18 months that I could have never imagined. Now it's time to sell myself, and my cause. All the usual career-speak applies: I'm passionate, committed, sport a wildly varied resume that includes a law degree as well as undergraduate degrees in economics & marketing and multiple leadership positions on the boards of over a dozen not-for-profit organizations. I choose to use that background to try and made the world a better place.

But who am I?
I am the first-born son of an upper-middle class, loving midwestern family.
I am left-handed.
I was an editor of my high school paper.
I was expelled for three days for breaking their dress code by being the first student to wear bell-bottoms.
During a summer spent studying French in Europe, I once left the audience and danced naked on stage in the Paris production of Hair. And I still can’t speak French.
I live in a nice house in the suburbs with a pool, a big Doberman and three Abyssinian cats.
I have an amazing and inspiring wife and partner.

But wait, there’s more.
I have never fought in a war.
I have never suffered from a mental illness.
I have never gone hungry.
I have never been homeless.
I have never lost faith.
I have never lived without love in my life.

I’ve got it pretty good.

I'm a merely a foot soldier, not a general, in a battle that seems overwhelming at times. Whatever I have accomplished in the past to make the world a better place is not enough. I will do whatever is in my power for the rest of my days to insure that every child brought screaming and frightened into our world will never know the pain and suffering that hunger brings.

Want to help? check out . Hell, you can even donate if you want.

Networking for Social Change

OK, I'm hooked.

I've never been a fan of those "update your contact information" programs, but I am totally taken with LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is an online network of more than 14 million people from around the world, representing 150 industries. When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients, and partners. You can add more connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of people.

As I ramp up my Florida not-for-profit, I am reaching out to hundreds of friends through LinkedIn that I would have been unable to connect with. Sweet.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Killing Time

2006 will go down in my personal history book as a year of death, destruction, betrayal, disillusionment, emotional wreckage, soul-scarring of great depth and life-altering experiences that have changed me forever. And there were some bad times, too.

But I'm facing 2007 with my family battered, but intact, my circle of friends holding tight and the promise of a bit of calm, having surfed and survived a year of negatives waves of epic proportions.

Peace out.