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I’ll see your truth and raise you satire
Too often, we’re sensitive to truth and doing the right thing, or in the case of the New York Times, forget our purpose.
I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge “facts†that are asserted by newsmakers they write about.
Vanity Fair’s Juli Weiner eloquently, in her best Jonathan Swift form, states, “no shit”.
…we here at V.F. are looking for reader input on whether and whenVanity Fair should spell “words†correctly in the stories we publish.
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What a college career center should be
Yes, the college career services should offer the following stock services:
- Resume and cover letter help (I’d argue that cover letters are a waste)
- Mock interviews – know how to talk and be self aware
- Resources for soul searching to figure out skills and interests
I’d expand with the following:
- No nonsense, active tips, in the vein of Ramit Sethi, where individuals are encouraged to be aware of their strengths and market the hell out of them.
- Industry, pull-the-curtain-back on how businesses and careers run, styled like Penelope Trunks‘ detailed missives.
- Light hearted life coaching that encourages personal introspection, ala Therese Schwenkler
- Big, bold, constructive, have no fear to do good work, as told by Seth Godin
What links the four individuals? An emphasis on active actions (monster.com, sending out resumes are passive), where we’re self aware of what the hell we’re doing.
Sethi details psychology of actions and their perceived impacts. He may come across as arrogant in his style, however, fine tune his advice to the point of self  confidence. Formatting and whitespace on a resume ain’t gonna do that.
Trunk hails as the veteran, the insider, the one who’s been there and still doing it. Â She seeks out information to gleam insights into trends or to justify why a common approach really doesn’t work. She emphasizes doing something and learning about what your learning–random jobs can teach you something.
Schwenkler brings the “life balance” dialogue to the career center. Â If you’re not happy, aren’t aware of your attitudes, all your relationships will be a challenge. She’s that cool, slightly quirky advisor that can actually relate to people.
Godin is a marketer of life. Â His writing belies an understanding that puts everything into perspective–career and life and all that we want to do with it. So long as we’re honest, working to do the right thing and not be afraid of our self doubts, we’ll be successful.
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My 2011 favorite albums
Below lists the albums I enjoyed the most in 2011. Â 2011 overflowed with good music from numerous artists and genres. Hip hop, country and polka are sadly underrepresented on my list.
- [amazon_link id=”B0054JURZA” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Bon Iver – Bon Iver[/amazon_link]: The album swirls with lush arrangements and endearing, if cryptic lyrics. The tracks are places, whether a state of being or emotion, with Perth, Holocene and Michicant being standouts. Â Seeing Justin Vernon lead his Bon Iver creation in concert at an opera house is definitely a highlight.
- [amazon_link id=”B005OUB7MQ” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Feist – Metals[/amazon_link]: A more subdued album (read: no 1234-esque track) seeks a more introspective take to the coffee house chill fest Leslie Feist creates. Graveyard builds to an anthemic chorus and the album’s closer, Get it Wrong, Get it Right, sing simple, meditative phrases to close your eyes to.
- [amazon_link id=”B004HP8VJG” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Seryn – This is Where We Are[/amazon_link]: Out of Denton, this quintet of super talented multi-intrumentalists created an album that ebbs and flows with emotion. A mix of folk, rock, blue grass, jam band chamber pop, there’s much to discover. So Within perfectly starts out the album–short, dramatic, leaving you wanting more. River Song and We Will All be Changed lead in so many different directions. Â I even had them play an unplugged set in my living room for my birthday.
- [amazon_link id=”B005HG4AIU” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Wild Flag – Wild Flag[/amazon_link]: Ex-Sleater Kinney bandmates lead this foursome of rockin’ ladies. Â Romance charges out and makes punk seem fun again. Â Glass Tambourine is a throwback to the 70s acid rock.
- [amazon_link id=”B0058ZKXKY” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Calm Blue Sea – We Happy Few[/amazon_link]: Post rock is basically instrumental rock. The Calm Blue Sea put together satisfying arrangements to sit back and enjoy a glass of bourbon on the patio. Â They never reach the dramatics of Sigur Ros or the quiet/loud/quiet of Explosions in the Sky, and that’s not a bad thing.
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Fort Worth City Council social media usage
Yesterday, I looked at which city council members had a Twitter account. Â Only three did: Mayor Betsy Price and Council Representatives Kathleen Hicks (District 8) and Joel Burns (District 9). Jungus Jordan’s name is registered as a Twitter username, however, the account has no tweets, followers or follows anyone else.
By the numbers (as of 12/20/11, 10:56pm):
- Betsy Price: 473 Tweets, following 995 accounts, followed by 1005 accounts; most tweets link to her official Facebook page that publishes pictures and stories of her recent engagements.
- Kathleen Hicks: 3,994 Tweets, following 1,425 accounts and is followed by 896 accounts; Kathleen tweets, retweets and replies.
- Joel Burns: 1,590 tweets, Â following 2,920 accounts, followed by 5,329 accounts; tweets reflect personal and council rep duties.
What about the rest of Fort Worth City Council?
Danny Scarth
- Website is well designed, specifically for campaigning. What interesting is the use of the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Creative Commons license. Â This means, anyone can repost content from his site so long as they attribute it and repost as is.
- The site links to a Flickr account that hasn’t been updated in over 4 years.
Sal Espino
- Decent looking website for campaigning; images are are Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Creative Commons licensed. Not only can you take images from Sal’s site and repost them, you can also remix, or edit them.
- There’s a link to Facebook, but it disappears.
Zim Zimmerman
- Decent looking website, strictly for campaigning; not very interactive.
- Notable: There’s a news page that copies letters to the editor from the Star Telegram and Fort Worth Business Press. I wonder if his campaign received permission to do this.
Frank Moss
- There are lots of Frank Mosses in the world. Â I could only find the Councilman’s Facebook page, which appears to not have been updated in some time.
Jungus Jordan
- Website design is very clean, attractive and modern.
- Is this his Twitter username?
- Notable: When searching for Jungus Jordan in Google, Fortworthology’s Jordan/Streetcar editorial is on the first page.
Dennis Shingleton
- Similar to Frank Moss’s presence, limited to a campaign Facebook page.
Kathleen Hicks
- Very active on Twitter.
- Has a web presence, however, not very findable; the site could use a design refresh and some search engine tweaks for findability.
- Has a Flickr account for photos.
Joel Burns
- Very active on Twitter.
- Has a clean website.
Caveats
All media use has a cost in time, effort and attention to create that media (even 140 character tweets). I’m going to err on the side of optimism and hope that each council rep is using their time appropriately, and also recognize they commit to events, meetings, phone calls and emails social media does not make public.
Price, Hicks and Burns seem to have figured out a balance to stay engaged with constituents and remain active in their personal and professional duties while using social media. Â I feel like they get modern, 21st century civic engagement and thus have gained my trust and respect. Â And when used well, use of social media can do that to create effective civic outcomes.
The Point
Fort Worth is attempting to brand itself as a more modern city, engaged and aware of its citizens’ needs. Â Per the SteerFW event:
Employment Oportunities
Goal: Create strong preception and brand for the city that will stimulate emerging entrepreneurial businesses — such as tech, health care, green and research industries — to grow into large employers for our city.
Urban Development
Goal:Â Encourage development that includes sustainability standards that encompass a balance/focus on environmental, economic and social consciousness for all local communities.
It’s unfair to use a council rep’s adoption of Twitter as a metric for modern, connected civic engagement. They do good work. That should be appreciated. But the above two points rely on doing things differently and becoming connected in a different way that’s more agile, adaptable and astute.
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Fort Worth City Council Rep Twitter representation
The Fort Worth City Council consists of nine members: the mayor and 8 city council representatives. Â The current city council comprises of the following individuals:
- Mayor: Betsy Price
- District 2: Sap Espino
- District 3: Zim Zimmerman
- District 4: Danny Scarth
- District 5: Frank Moss
- District 6: Jungus Jordan
- District 7: Dennis Shingleton
- District 8: Kathleen Hicks – on Twitter
- District 9: Joel Burns – on Twitter
Below are two maps. Using the Fort Worth GIS city council overlays, I used Photoshop to layer the districts over a Google Maps still. Â Due to the shape of the districts and lacking quality from the GIS, the overlay below is approximate. Â Districts containing the Twitter bird represent those districts with a city council representative that has a Twitter account. The second, shows, for comparison, districts with a rep on Twitter versus the remainder of the city. Click the images to make larger.
More analysis tomorrow.
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Review: The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry
Todd Henry provides a framework to systemize creativity in [amazon_link id=”1591844010″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Accidental Creative: How to be brilliant at a moment’s notice[/amazon_link]. The first three chapters cover “the dynamics” of creative work–what it is, creative team work and things that can sabotage creativity. Â These chapters set up the “creative rhythm”, being cognitively aware of the dynamics of creativity to do creative work.
In the rhythm, Henry discusses being able  to identify what’s important, maintaining healthy relationships, staying healthy to do creative work, one’s environment (or stimuli), how much time to do creative work.  The last two chapters tie his concepts together with examples of his own personal implementation.  The index in the back of the book is useful for further reading, as he cites books he referenced to formulate his ideas.  The book is pretty close to a how to book on being creative as you can get, however, you need ideas to work with, which he discusses and suggests to set aside time each day just to think up new ideas.  Accidental creative starts slow (for me at least) and contains concepts and tips found elsewhere.  I’d recommend this as a starter book and take concepts needed to get stuff done.
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Review: Old Masters and Young Geniuses by David W. Galenson
What happens when an economist becomes an art critic? That’s the premise David Galenson writes in [amazon_link id=”0691133808″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Old Masters and Young Geniuses[/amazon_link] with as he examines numerous artists, primarily from mid 1800s impressionists through mid 1900s modernists. The thesis is that two life cycles of an artist: old masters and young geniuses. Old masters are those that reached their peak later in life, and Galenson believes, due largely to a life of artistic experimentation. Â Young geniuses succeed due to conceptual innovation, simplifying previous complexities. Â His two metrics to quantify and distinguish artists into either category are the price of an artist’s work from a certain point in their career, or the number of prints, or citations, of their work from a time in their life.
Galenson also applies his framework for analysis to the Renaissance painters of Michelangelo and Carravagio, 19th century and early 20th century American writers, directors, poets and sculptors. (Photographers are noticeably absent.) The book is dry and reads like a mixture of art criticism and art history. Â The depth of research provides an overwhelming, yet comprehensive analysis of creating art, and the citations are provided at the end of the book. Â My criticism of the book is probably one of scope. Â The artist compared were clumped at particular time periods in history. Â What would be interesting would be to see if more contemporary artists fit the same framework for analysis.
I’d recommend this book as a Kindle read. Â I found myself wanting to mark and highlight the book and look up words or research an artist, particularly the poets. Â The analysis of poets alone should make someone somewhat informed of Frost, Plath, Eliot and Pound.
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Review: Monster Island by Dan Wellington
★★★☆☆ [amazon_link id=”1560258500″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Monster Island by David Wellington[/amazon_link] – This is well written for a zombie novel.  A zombie apocalypse ravaged the world, leaving 3rd world countries, like Somalia, one of the few safe places. Dekalb is a former UN weapons inspector, agreeing to lead a band of teen, female Somali soldiers in search of anti AIDS drugs that may exist in New York City.  Greg is a zombie, who has somehow maintained his ability to think, speak and act.  Dekalb meets Greg, and a rash act by one of the soldiers makes an enemy of the two.  The story progresses with Dekalb meeting a group of survivors and having to take on Greg, whom Dekalb finds that Greg is more capable than being able to think.
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Review: A Visit From the Goon Squad
★★★★☆ [amazon_link id=”0307477479″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan[/amazon_link] – Central to the story are time, music, Bennie Salazar and Sasha. Beyond them are pasts that they share between people they’ve known and places they’ve been.  Bennie is an aging record executive and Sasha is his assistant. The story travels back and forth in time, sometimes jumping past, present and future all within a paragraph describing out people try to escape their actions despite the passage of time. The format is unorthodox, and a long chapter, told in the guise of a PowerPoint deck, comes across as amusing at first, then sobering. Jennifer Egan figured out how to wring emotional catharsis out of a PowerPoint deck. In a sense, the past catches up with all the characters presented to tell a story of transformation.
