Post Vacation Blues

well, sadly, it's back to the same old, same old.
You know you need a vacation, when---even when the weather is the pits you have a great time.  I think a change in venue was definitely in order.  There is something about being out of your own bed and all that makes your brain take notice that it's on vacation.

I cried when I returned home.  This is the same drive I have made into this valley for 12 years and I became sad when I realized that this was probably one of the first times I wasn't excited or had no feeling about coming in.  This just sums up the past six months where I have little respect, no acknowledgement of talent or intelligence which leads to no passion.  I never thought I was passionate but at this point, I am looking at internships and lower paying jobs or anything that will help me find that lost spark.  I hope I truly remember this time and lead and manage people better in the future since it looks as if my talents, experience, and knowledge mean little at the moment.  Fingers crossed the next six months will bring lots of excitement, change, and most importantly--Fireworks!

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Good weekend at #SXSW

Sooooo, I chose NOT to fork over some pesos and attend the conference BUT to hit the free after parties for this year's cultural meca USA. I think it was a good choice since I was only in town a day or two and I got a taster of future events. I will return, this was my first rodeo but it won't be the last !

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Paleyfest- The New Girl or as I call it--It's Jess!

Creator Liz Meriwether

It's Jess!

Last night was an unusual night as a panel.  The sneak preview of the next episode gave us a little more insight into Cece's life, we saw a lot of Nick, and Winston said goodbye to his car.

Before the screening, Liz Meriwether came out and introduced the episode.  The writer and creator sang a little song like Jess and joked with the audience.  I head one person in the audience ask if she was eighteen.  As the panel continued, it was apparent that there is a wonderful collaboration between the writers, cast and crew to create a fan favorite.

To me the show resonates what it's like to be single and in your twenties.  Everyone has an opinion about Schmidt but I feel like I know that guy, just like I know all the characters on the show.  At one point, actor Max Greenfield was joking about his character's relationship with Cece and someone in the balcony yelled JAR! and he through some money in the douchebag jar.  Another fun moment was the fellas talking and laughing about filming the interactive music video and how they had never worked with a choreographer.  Jake M. Johnson showed us his pitiful moves and Max laughed that that was probably the best Jake had performed it! Jake said he thought he could hide in the back but on the day of the shoot he realized he was wrong when he saw the cameras clearing a path to him.
Lots of fun and sweet times for the fans as the cast signed lots of autographs after the talk. _______________________ _________________________________

Paleyfest-Community

Last night I volunteered for Paleyfest at the Saban Theatre.  The show Community was being featured and it's a Paleyfest first that this show has been in the festival for three years.  This is my second viewing of Community and the cast is a blast to see interview. Yvette Nicole Brown amazes me in that she is a very smart performer and yet unlike a lot of the cast, she doesn't try to be silly or "on" during the panel discussion. When questions from the audience I was most interested in the unusual question of who was a great mentor or inspiration to the cast. Yvette answered Bea Arthur. I first thought of The Golden Girls but then I also thought of Arthur being one to push boundaries with her show being the first to talk about abortion. Yvette Nicole Brown said Arthur was the first sassy woman--that a lot of people talk about the black sassy woman but Bea Arthur was the first sassy woman-a trailblazer.
Lots of gals love Joel McHale and the fellas love The Soup but I have to say I have been crushing on Jim Rash. Last year I was hoping to meet him, but when I saw him winning his Oscar, I knew my chances to meet at Paleyfest were now even slimmer. He brought the statue with him and joked about it as well as the screen feed director played with the running joke of going back to the Oscar on the large screen behind the cast. Rash and the cast joked that he wrote the funny lines that Clooney's comatose wife was supposed to deliver. Audience questions also came from two young ones, making me realize the fan base for this show is bigger than the 20plus somethings. The kids love Abed. The greatest thing that always amazes me is having a large group for a screening. The communal experience is amazing and it's a greater experience watching a tv episode with a couple hundred others. The Community Panel also gave insight into what fans of television they are with references to show finales from years past-Eight is Enough, Quantum Leap, Seinfeld, and Newhart were mentioned. Although I think Community is ahead of its time and I often don't make time for viewing, every time I see the show I enjoy is as entertainment and also for what they are doing for future television. _______________________ _________________________________

Future of Radio-Community and Microjournalism--KHTS

I wrote this for a publication that folded before the series was published. Still think this information is of interest. KHTS is a great station that works hard to serve the Santa Clarita Valley. Enjoy!

Since the invention of radio, many have said it is a dying medium. Depending on what or who you read, radio still is dying, or maybe not- in a current environment where Pandora usage grew and every type of i device helped create a time bend in created content, people are still in their cars and are still listening to radio.

Over the last 30 years, many things in communications have changed. There was deregulation under the Reagan Administration and the Communications Act of 1996 that in many ways meant the death of small, locally owned radio stations. Big corporations came in and gobbled up all they could own in a particular market.

Currently, media looks to be consolidating differently. The internet reshapes and is combines what was traditionally print, radio, and television into one. A person has many ways through internet and traditional media to acquire information that matters to them.

Storytelling remains key and a new concentration in journalism has surged in covering local news. Micro journalism harkens back to the turn of the last century when many neighborhoods had papers often in the language of the neighborhood printed on a daily or weekly basis. Today with blogging, internet, and smart phones the focus is the same, but the delivery method has changed.

Locally owned KHTS is an example media working toward what news and journalism will possibly look like in the future. Carl and Jeri Goldman have owned the station twice- first from 1990-98 and from 2003 to present. Radio is something they both know well, being second generation in the business. This knowledge and experience makes the station something unique, something that industry people from all over the nation are taking notice of and are visiting to try and learn what the answer is in making a local station successful.

“Our vision is that as owners we can do what we want.” says Jeri Goldman. “Coming from a corporate America radio world, everything was live and die by ratings.” Now the duo looks to break the mold and work to find ways to serve the community. Examples of the station’s programming include a Non Profit Spotlight, highlighting local charities (the show has a year out wait list), Families in Action with local teens in studio and giving voice to their stories as well as coverage of sports-locally with high school games and Los Angeles professional teams.

KHTS is aware that they are the only station in town and they see it as a way to serve the community and do what they want in response to feedback from the community. Many people in the Santa Clarita Valley are tuning in because they like the local news, ads, and traffic with the community/hometown feel. The station continues this message and content through text alerts and email updates as well as the station’s website.

KHTS is a place to serve the community in a way that no one can compete against them. The station is aware of its strength to cover local news and when looking at the website, no national news is on it- they know a reader will go elsewhere, but if it’s SCV news, they work to do a better job than anyone else, making it the target and the focus.

In reflecting the community, that is how the station is able to compete with larger Los Angeles stations. “If there is an accident or closure (in the SCV Valley) KNX isn’t going to report it or even if they do a listener would have to sift through traffic from Orange County to Palm Springs.” says Carl Goldman. “So that’s the beauty. We compete against the big boys in that they can’t cover it all. They are more handicapped -they can’t cover it all or it’d be all traffic.”

This is a strength in an emergency situation too. The Goldmans and KHTS were there for the 94 Earthquake, the Tunnel Disaster, three floods and six fires. When fires happen, the bigger stations don’t know the streets and have reported roads open when they weren’t. Being local also means relationships. KHTS has the trust of the sheriffs and a back and forth communication that a larger LA station doesn’t have in a time of reporting a local emergency.

KHTS also faces different challenges in serving the community versus a public radio stations in that it can’t always live stream content due to licensing. When asked what’s a concern for radio what to look for in legislation, Carl Goldman first shared his experience with the Fairness Doctrine in that his first full time job in radio was 95 percent Fairness Doctrine in preparing documentation to send to the channels that be and he was not the only one on staff with that duty. He argues that currently there are so many avenues to express different points of view and that most broadcasters look to both sides because the bottom line is it is a bad business decision to not voice both sides. By not bringing in an opposing view it wouldn’t serve the station or the community. It is a free market, not a monopoly on getting those opinions out and if not on the airwaves, the opposing view has many other ways to be heard-so it makes sense and good radio to have it happen.

The Goldmans and KHTS recognize that it is challenging times for small business in the community. The station is projecting by quarter versus a year out due to these economic challenges. They boast that through it all, they have been able to keep everyone on staff. In these times they are motivated by the John F Kennedy quote, “When written in Chinese, the word ’crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity. It looks as if KHTS is looking forward to the future and are poised to take off, focusing on serving the community with local content on many different media platforms. _______________________ _________________________________

Relationships and Social Media

Tuesday night, I headed over to KPCC’s Crawford Family Forum for a talk titled Relationships in the Age of Social Media. I’ve debated whether to write about this evening or not but since this has been on my mind the last few days, I guess it’s of interest. The night was recorded and should be posted on KPCC’s site if you’re so inclined.

The night was not what I expected. I’ve been to a few other evenings at the Crawford Family Forum and they have been informative and thought provoking. Tuesday’s talk took way too long to become anything close to other visits. Blog Editor Tony Pierce moderated guest panelists Alie Ward and Amanda Lewis. He opened with a sophomoric question of relationships and making them “Facebook official”--when does one change their status from single to in a relationship? Alie Ward responded that we all have now elevated ourselves to public figures and joked that “it’s complicated”. It became apparent that Alie Ward had bought into the whole Los Angeles/ Hollywood thing and talked more about herself, joking that she should be on the couch rather than creating an interesting dialog on what social networking means to relationships.

All three on the panel talked of personal experiences of editing photos, untagging and Ms. Lewis confessed to making a list of people who could view relationship status so her man in the relationship would feel ok with it and the rest of her friends wouldn’t see her change in status.

I know of one fellow blogger who wrote and posted of her changing her profile and announcing that she and her were “separated”. I haven’t had to cross that bridge but for a person of my generation that embraces social media, I still feel that I have a lot a privacy-that no one can really “cyber stalk” me and get a background check of me before we go out. I look at social media as my dinner party of 400 (on FB) and that I really don’t say or post anything that I wouldn’t say at the dinner table. (shocking to some of what I will say!) As far as relationship status on FB the panel felt it was shady and “keeping your options open” by keeping your status as single, but I feel the status is similar to the boxes on a written form and I have never seen “in a relationship” box so I will stay single on FB until I get married.

Unlike myself, one member of the audience likened Facebook to a class reunion where he wanted to share a lot on the newsfeed to create “fb envy or fb revenge”. Later in the discussion, the talk went to a place where I expected it to start, in talking about how teens use Facebook and will not start fights at school but head home and get on the computer to start maliciousness--often trying to soften the blows with an “lol” or a “jk” at the end of a terrible statement. That then segued into Tony Pierce asking about text fights. fighting over texts, and mentioned a friend of his liked to argue over g-chat, thinking that both parties would have a moment to think before they wrote or sent anything which IS interesting since she then has it “off the record” so it’s expunged after the argument is over.

After it came up that twitter was just about PR and that it could be a labyrinth of feeds, I argued that I have met more interesting people through twitter and that most on twitter are very active about meeting in reality with tweetups. They agreed that yes there are as well as tumblr meet-ups (which I have yet to experience). It does come down to device assisted communication versus interpersonal communication and how the lines have blurred, just like time bending in that if we are running late we will text and reset the clock so to speak. All this does in it’s own way, celebrate the written word and it points out that that writing is still important, although I would argue that most of these devices are more of a conversation than writing. Another friend who teaches high school told me that auto correct is killing us though and that many teens don’t bother with punctuation or capitalization. That is where we still need to recognize what is informal communication and what is formal.

My favorite idea to come out of the night was a moment talking about how texts can be a form of courting, but I do think that often women view texting different than men. Alie Ward brought up the idea of what would F Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda’s texts look like as well as the idea that Emily Dickinson would probably be on Tumblr and she’d be soooo Emo, which does bring interesting ideas and a smile to my face.

Overall, I was shocked that I was one of the few in the audience on many social networking sites. It tells me it has become an interest of mine in how we communicate and how technology is changing things yet solid writing and writing well still is important. In a time where we are inundated with more information more than ever, what we choose as our media diet and our news feed is important- be it our friends or our current event content. _______________________ _________________________________

Hear me on Hear in the City

Excited about my opportunity to share the Nethercutt Collection with my friend, Sara Harris's show, Hear in the City.
Check out my talk with Sara on today's show, 3:30 pm Pacific on KPFK

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