Filed under: Hip Hop
Two more phrases for the Hip Hop Dictionary:
Lame Kiffin: To be used when describing something that has been crippled, disabled, or impaired. Or something that is weak, inadequate, unsatisfactory, clumsy. Like the common term ‘lame’ but inspired by the the jacked up coaching tenure of Oakland Raiders Coach Lane Kiffin.
Memphis Bleak: To be used when described a dire situation where a negative outcome is likely. Inspired by the identity of rapper Memphis Bleek and the bleak record sale numbers of the aforementioned rapper to date. (Will try adding again later. Technical difficulties.)
I am hip hop.
Filed under: politics | Tags: drew, election2008, freshpressed, LA, PBR, piz, politics, screenprint, tshirt, YPM
Today got a nice email from the folks at Young Progressive Majority. Featuring pictures galore, including one of my rad shirt, me trying it on and my cousin P-I-Z gettin’ crunk like only we progressives do.
Partied with them on Saturday, along with my Piz and the homie Drew, at this great new biz called Fresh Pressed, which I can’t recommend enough.
And the party was cool. No big rah-rah speeches. No aggressive politicos fighting over flyering tables. Just good tunes. $2 PBRs. DIY screenprint t-shirts. Like a lil’ slice of Progressive Heaven here on Earth.
YPM was celebratin’ the publication of its 2008 LA Primary Election Voter Guide. (I made my own.)
Oh, and please do check out Fresh Pressed (4646 Hollywood Blvd.). Really cool folks, good vibes and rad tees over there. I live nearby so holla before you come out and we can meet there.
VOTE FEBRUARY 5. Unlike the evil GOP empire, the CA Democrats welcome ‘decline to state’ voters into our primary. Welcome!
Just how old can we be before we’re no longer Young Progressives? 35? What do you wanna print on a tshirt at Fresh Pressed?
Filed under: APOC | Tags: annenberg, APOC, boomspin, envrionment, foundation, greenordie, grunchable, usc
Green or Die. Your Choice. Everyone’s Future.
Oooo. Catchy, huh?
It’s the name and tagline of my recent foray into online community development. Along with four other graduate students, last term I helped develop this social network geared at promoting everyday changes for greener living. (As in, more environmentally friendly, not like Kermit the Frog and the Jolly Green Giant. Although they’re cool too.)
It’s called Green or Die.
Some killer aspects of our community: A widget that allows folks to show off their green-ness on Facebook, MySpace, etc… A challenge to live greener, via a game/quiz which will someday change each week and ask you questions about things like how much water you waste while brushing your teeth… A cool “Odd Couple”-type movie which is pretty damn entertaining while getting across some serious points and branding the community.
A big… uh… “challenge”: Site isn’t done. We ran into some delays early, which led to firing someone, which led to delays, which led to running into a developer’s vacation, which led to delays, which to led to more delays, frustration, excuses, and confusion. (Welcome to web development!). It’s not quite ready for primetime but it is primo cool (or can be).
So, this morning, I and two other APOC student presenters presented our final projects from last term to the Annenberg Foundation Board of Trustees. These final projects were to be the culmination of our USC graduate studies. Yahoo!’s Cody Simms, APOC Director Karen North, and three additional APOC students were in attendance.
We presented to a rather impressive roster of Annenberg Foundation trustees. I was impressed by their engagement and dedication to online communities as an area of future study and by their thoughtful questions and comments throughout the presentations.
I gotta admit I was pretty nervous speaking before this group of heavy hitters. But I also gotta admit — I (and the group) rocked it! Our hard work showed through clearly and I’m glad we were able to back up that the Foundation’s investment in us and in the future was money well invested. The Annenberg family, including Willis Annenberg who was in attendance, have an AMAZING history of philanthropy at USC and elsewhere.
The other groups are amazing too. Check ‘em out:
- BoomSpin, a social networking site promising legal free music
- Grunchable, a clever consumer complaint site along the lines of Yelp! but focused on the fun, negative reviews we all love to read (and write).
What do you think of Green or Die? Is it a concept worth taking beyond prototype and doing something with it?
Filed under: politics | Tags: california, election2008, losangeles, obama, politics, voterguide
Those who don’t run for office make voter guides. Check out mine. Make your own. I’d love to see it.
It offers up my choices for President and on state propositions and a local Los Angeles measure.
This effort comes from The League of Young Voters, the folks behind the killer Facebook Primary app.
Filed under: APOC
I’m team teaching a class at USC. It’s for graduate students in USC’s Annenberg communications school. The students are part of the Annenberg Program for Online Communities, hereto referred to as APOC.
Along with Professor Karen North and Second Life Co-founder Cory Ondrejka, we’ll be exploring the world of online communities. A unique challenges in plotting this course comes from the fact that this is a new area of study without a defined history. We won’t know with certainty what works and what doesn’t, and what developments were more significant than others, for some time. The opportunity in this course is to have a true group learning environment with experiential learning and real-time evaluation of a revolution in progress.
So it’ll be fun. You can follow along by tuning in to our class wiki.
Sound good to you? Maybe you should apply to be an APOC student…
Filed under: politics | Tags: election2008, obama, politics, southcarolina
No, not USC…. South Carolina.
It was just announced that Barack Obama won the South Carolina Democratic Primary. CNN says it’s by a “substantial margin.” Good for SC. With that news, I’m planning to vote for Obama in the February 5 California primary.
I also really support John Edwards, whose focus on delivering social and economic justice appeals to me, and who has been my endorsed by my California SEIU friends. A co-worker and I watched him rally the SEIU faithful just over a week ago and he was great as always. But if Edwards can’t win his home state, he can’t win many other states. And he hasn’t earned my vote.
So that’s right — vote for Obama on February 5. Peep my Facebook page for some Obama widgets you can sport.
Hope. Hope. Hope.
Change. Change. Change.
There’s still one candidate that could easily woo my support. We’ll see what happens.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Blogging, BlogTheChange, ClintsProjects
Alright, it’s time to grow up and start an adult blog. Now’s the time. So, yeah, stay tuned for my musings on making a better world. Coming of age in college, I was intrigued by anticipated developments in new media & journalism, politics, the environment. Now, we’re seeing an increased interest in those areas and fascinating efforts to improve our world.
Specifically, here’s what I have in mind for this space… posts about social media community building and the democratization of all areas of life via new technology… posts relating to progressive politics and issues of social and economic justice…. posts about social marketing, social entrepenuers and other ways business is trying to do better… posts about community building and organizing.
So here it goes.
What do you think? (leave a comment)
