Keeping a lid on email clutter – the Email Charter

On July 13, 2012 by Colin

When I was at Mountain Lake PBS, I came to the brink of declaring “email bankruptcy” – deleting all my messages and sending all my contacts a short message saying “write me if it there is something important you need me to address”. I typically got between 35 and 100 emails a day, – most were a waste of time.

Here’s an idea for stopping all that nonsense: http://www.emailcharter.org/

Here’s just one of the Charter’s Golden Rules:

8. Give these Gifts: EOM NNTR
If your email message can be expressed in half a dozen words, just put it in the subject line, followed by EOM (= End of Message). This saves the recipient having to actually open the message. Ending a note with “No need to respond” or NNTR, is a wonderful act of generosity.

Let’s hope these ideas spread!

 

An idea whose time has come… the beer bike!

On July 12, 2012 by Colin

Leave it the enterprising hipsters of Portland to combine two of that city’s great passions: cycling and craft beer!

Schmoozing = “Discovering what you can do for someone else.”

On July 11, 2012 by Colin

My Photo

This five minute read by Guy Kawasaki demystifies networking with common sense (but not always instinctive) suggestions like:

“Ask good questions, then shut up. The mark of a good conversationalist is not that you can talk a lot. The mark is that you can get others to talk a lot.”

and, “Only talking about business is boring. Good schmoozers unveil their passions after they get to know you… Your passions make you an interesting person.

Beautiful visions of the city’s past… Abandoned NYC

On July 10, 2012 by Colin

This may look like Istanbul, but no… its New York!

The most recent of many intriguing and beautiful posts in the the Abandoned NYC blog is this depiction of Harlem’s amazing 111 year old PS 168.

 

 

 

Skatopia Documentary Screening this Thursday in NYC

On July 3, 2012 by Colin

We just found out that Skatopia: 88 Acres of Anarchy got scheduled in the Newfilmmaker series in NYC for this week!   Come on out this Thursday.  beer at 8:30.  movie at 9p.  spread the word.

Skatopia: 88 Acres of Anarchy  95 mins
Thursday, July 5, 2012 at 9pm
New Filmmaker Series
Anthology Film Archives 32 2nd Ave (at 2nd st)
Beer at 8:30p

Back Story:
Two Brooklyn filmmakers lived at Skatopia “skatefarm” in Appalachia for one year, shot 400 hours and made this feature documentary.  The movie gets way behind the mayhem as seen on Viva la Bam, MTV’s True Life and other Skatopia videos.  It follows Brewce Martin, Skatopia’s owner, and hundreds of skaters as they build their dream of a skateboard park where anything goes.  Not sugarcoated.

“I’m a skater. I’m here to prove a point… that you can survive without immersing yourself in the system.”   – Brewce Martin

Music Performances by Die Hunns (Duane Peters), Big World, Skatanic Rednecks and many many more.
Skaters include Bam Margera, Matt Dove, Brewce Martin, Tony Hawk, Benji Galloway, Dustin Dollin, etc etc.

 

How a Bicycle is Made – “A Great Boon to Man”

On June 20, 2012 by Colin

 

Wow, makes me want a 3-speed! My friend Amy Fillin rode one from coast to coast before the “10 speed revolution”. For her, walking up hills was not an option – she stood up and cranked over the Rockies.

“Definitely makes squeal” Skatopia Film in Eastern Bloc at the DIY Film Fest

On June 1, 2012 by Colin

Minsk (Belarus): June 21-24,

Warsaw (Poland): July 5-8.

In the “Reclaim Yr Space” section of the DIY Film Fest

Nice description:
“After all, who said utopia should look the same for all 7 milliard of earthlings? Skatopia, skaters’ Mecca on the Appalachian farm could be criticized for the compromises they make and their hierarchy, but it definitely has something that makes squeal both schoolkids with braсkets on teeth and old punks with beers, the reason why local hillbillies and traveling skaters year after year continue to dig and concrete… Everything for their dream.”
And what’s not to love about to this great festival blurb?
:: DIY FILM FEST is the first and the only cyclic movie event focusing entirely on counterculture and its creative influence on surrounding reality.
DIY FILM FEST also attempts to redefine certain ideas and concepts. It is a homage paid to creativity devoid of particularistic and capitalistic values, as well as an invitation to everyone appreciating independent culture to document and archive its signs and achievements, assuring that they would get to wider audience.
DIY FILM FEST is also a realization of its authors’ dream, that is creating something with no budget, offer something for free, not requiring disinterested support, always offering something in exchange. The event itself is a particle of what we would like to talk about, which is broadly understood concept of DIY.
But above all, DIY FLM FEST expresses affection for cinematography free of formulas, taboos or stylistic conventions. Cinematography that is free in its form and content. Cinematography not depending on box office results, producers’ requirements or spectators’ clichéd preferences.

Douglas Rushkoff – Occupy Your Town

On May 9, 2012 by Colin

via motherboard.vice.com

Occupy isn’t over… it’s seeding new paths toward sustainability.

Skatopia – Sk8 or Git!

On May 4, 2012 by Colin

via elasticback.blogspot.com

An old (but long) blog entry about city boyz terrorized into believing that Convict IS Skatopia.

Bill Moyers returns to public television with some sharp words of warning for pub TV

On January 7, 2012 by Colin

Bill Moyers in the New York Times today.

 

…Mr. Moyers noted, [that] PBS announced an additional version of “Antiques Roadshow” just a few weeks after the Census Bureau released figures showing the number of people living in poverty had risen to more than 46 million.

Moyers also points out the lack of concerted vision and fragmented response by public media to the threats it faces.

 

In November he called for executives at local stations to come to grips with financing and governance issues that he contends threaten public television’s future.

“We’re just hanging on, leaking away, fraying at the margins, scrambling year by year to survive, hoping all the while for what in an era of trillion-dollar deficits and austerity will never be: more and more funding from Congress,” he said in a speech to his colleagues. “What we need is a makeover of our own” to help “realize the goals of our founders: diversity, public access, civic discourse, experimentation, a welcoming place for independent spirits.”

Many stations are already on that path, said Rich Homberg, president of Detroit Public Television, adding, “I think we need an army of people to read that speech and go act on it.” He said Mr. Moyers has been “an important voice for a long time, and we welcome him back.”

 

via nytimes.com

 

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