Join Me at South by Southwest Interactive

March 13-17, Austin will be buzzing with web and new media professionals and enthusiasts for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference, part of the entire SXSW festival which includes music and film and spans over a week of events.

I found out a couple of days ago that I will be leading a Core Conversation that I proposed a few months ago. It's entitled "Whitehouse.gov 2.0: Upgrading to Open Source Government." What that means is I'll be primarily operating in the role of facilitator for a discussion about how the new national administration can provide more open dialogue through new media and use of the Internet.

Here's how I described the session in my proposal: "The 2004 and 2008 campaigns' use of collaborative tools, blogs and social networking have shown citizen activism and online communities can wield powerful influence. In 2009, our challenge becomes how to harness these tools in order to reopen the policy-making process."

I hope to produce a report of the recommendations that come out of the discussion to submit to the new administration and I'm looking forward to getting as many people involved with this as possible. Please join me at SXSW in Austin!

(Cross posted from the FutureCampaigns blog.)

Indiana Jones Predictable But Satisfying

Until a few years ago, Harrison Ford was always my favorite movie star to oogle and I still love his films, but at one point I realized he was much closer to my parents' age than mine, so I reluctantly moved on... as does the series with the new film. However, I snuck away yesterday for a couple of hours' break while in the midwest, feeling far removed from the wildfires. (We bought the tickets before the fire began or I probably wouldn't have gone, but anyway, there's not much we can do from here.) I really enjoyed the movie, but it was partly because I knew what to expect and partly because they knew exactly what to give their audience.

Anyway, the one spoiler I will give away is this: don't be late for the movie or you'll miss some great action and a lot of plot setup. Otherwise, there's a Star Wars line, a lot of family fun, and of course bugs, snakes, and precious artifacts. It's perhaps not as suspenseful as other films, but it does a really good job tying all of the previous films and characters in the series together. It's fun that it's set in the 50's when Indiana Jones is older because it adds an element of American Graffiti to the picture. There are also some definite Spielberg moments mixed in. I won't expand on that or I'd give them away. Anyway, it's fun, surprisingly sweet, nostalgic and clever. And Harrison Ford still has his mojo at 66.

Rosebud Revisited - Peter Finch & Thunderbird Theatre Production in SF

What do H. G. Wells, Orson Welles, Huey Lewis and Tom Stoppard have in common? "Aaah! Rosebud," a new play by KFOG News Director, Peter Finch, directed by Dylan Russell and produced by the Thunderbird Theatre Company. A comedy of Evil Dead proportions, featuring an "evil sled" (often referred to as a "she-devil" by multiple characters in the play), the play takes us "Back in Time" to retell the story of Citizen Kane, where a collection of crafty champion curlers fight a killer cabal.

The theme of the play twists the tale on why Kane's final word was "Rosebud", taking it in a comedic direction vs. a serious one. Finch, a veteran actor for the Thunderbird Theatre Company, wrote the play with the theatre company and several of their regular actors in mind according to the Chronicle article. He acts splendidly in the two roles he plays. My husband, brought up in Michigan, was cracking up at his Canadian curler accent as Mack.

We signed up for the play to see our friend, Maria Ross as Esther, belting an off-key musical number and taking on some not so pretty new personality traits. (I could tell you, but I don't like spoilers.) She didn't disappoint; nor did any of the other actors including Max Bernstein, who, proving the world is always indeed a small place, was a former co-worker of mine at NDA. (I didn't know he was in the play before perusing the cast list in the program.) Other actors include (in alphabetical order) Faith Aeryn, Shay Casey, Dirk Echols, Emma Fassler, Matt Gunnison, Jason Harding, Rob Herrmann, Z'ev Jenerik, and Nathan Tucker. I was always annoyed when they told us in playwriting classes the rule was to never write more than 8 actors into a play (due to the cost of production); kudos to Finch for ignoring that.

There are some really silly moments in "Aaah! Rosebud". My favorites included the "Washington Lobbyist" cardboard cut-out's place in Xanadu, some great newspaper headlines, and a lot of jabs at the musical, "Cats". And the song adds a feel-good element to the ending. The only problem I had with the plot was when the curlers (ok, so one brief spoiler required for this) are standing over a pristine sheet of ice that is being soiled by a bloody corpse and their first action is to be sad over their friend's death rather than appalled by the soiling of their frictionless practice surface. I'm kidding, of course, but as a figure skater, I had to make one joke about it.

The play takes many fun twists and turns, breaks the fourth wall on occasion in a Ferris Bueller-esque way, and follows baguette-length tangents toward dramatic and comedic ends. (Trust me, this will mean more when you see the play, which I highly recommend if you're at all a fan of the stage or comedy.) An easy hop into SOMA for a fun night, don't forget to stop by Basil for dinner beforehand.

At intermission the night we attended, the company gave away raffle prizes as well as some prizes for a random drawing for getting on their mailing list. My husband won the drawing for 3rd prize and I won first prize which included a photo with the character of my choice. I chose Mack, played by Peter Finch. (See the blurry photo of a Polaroid below.) All in all, it was a good time.


"Aaah! Rosebud" is running August 23rd through September 8th at the New Langton Arts theatre at 1246 Folsom Street and September 21st-22nd at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts at 2640 College Ave. in Berkeley. Don't forget to support the San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club.

YouTube Videos a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

I know their strategy - I've figured it out. The Republicans are the ones really behind the videos like "1984", "Obama Girl" and "I Feel Pretty" (or whatever it's called - aka, Edwards's hair). They purposely chose images and audio that would get stuck in our heads and cause psychological trauma in order to weaken us, and it's working. Now every time I have a quiet moment or read an article where Barack Obama's name is mentioned, that infernal song immediately forces itself into my mind. It's like Voldemort to Harry Potter or the ring to Frodo - I just can't shake the thing. So my only conclusion must be that it's a vast right wing conspiracy. The only recourse I have is to then start singing "I Feel Pretty" and picturing Julie Andrews in my head instead of the Presidential candidates. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.

Script Frenzy - NaNoWriMo for Screenwriters & Playwrights

I can't believe I had to hear about this from a newspaper clipping sent via snailmail from my mother instead of via broadband or word of mouth. Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, aka November), the man who coined my nickname, 'Sairy', when we were in high school together, has now launched Script Frenzy, a month-long scriptwriting 'contest' where writers hash out scripts for full length screenplays or stage plays. Looks like fun.

I was one of the first people to participate in NaNoWriMo but I bailed because of my carpal tunnel syndrome... it was pretty fierce at the time. But back in college, I recall writing a one-act play in 2 weeks while studying British Film & Theatre over the summer in London, so I figure if I could do that then, certainly I could do it again now. I've written a hand full of other plays and screenplays and directed/co-produced one of them, but that was all in college and they weren't particularly good. I probably write over 2000 words a day professionally now not to mention email, so if their requirement is 20,000 words in a month, no sweat. (Famous last words.) For point of reference, this post is 375 words. The 4 posts I've written today add up to 2400 words. Dialogue is easy. Just talk to yourself for several hours and voila!

Looking at the Script Frenzy site, they have tips for script writing, an insightful blog, a forum for participants, and of course a call for action. One of my favorite parts is the donation package incentives. As someone who's worked with a lot of nonprofits, these perks are some of the most amusing I've seen. For $5000, their team will make a 5 minute movie about you and enact it with anything from finger puppets to A-List actors. And these guys are smart - it would probably be damn good and definitely it would be funny. In any case, they need money to keep the contest going and to launch it again in future years. They also support young writers in a variety of ways.

They operate NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy both through their nonprofit, The Office of Letters and Light.

Green is Greater than Gold

In an international, star-studded event, tonight's Oscars captured not only a billion viewers but it conveyed a strong message of environmentalism and world cohesion. One of the films was described as "a time-bending rumination on today's global village", but that could have described many of the movies highlighted by the awards tonight.

Several Aussies, Mexicans, Spaniards, Italians, French, Taiwanese, Japanese and British actors, writers and filmmakers presented awards and received nominations and Oscars. Included in the winners was Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" for "Best Documentary Feature". As expected, it received a well-earned standing ovation. On oscar.com, you can read recommendations on how to go green. On top of that, during the show, some simple steps were listed as Melissa Etheridge sang a song, "I Need to Wake Up" from the film.

Each year of the past decade, it seems that one issue has been central at the Oscars. One year was the year of black award winners; another focused on gay rights, and this year's took a global perspective. Every year from the Golden Globes to the Oscars, I want to see all of the films nominated. I wish I had time to do so. This year, for starters, I really want to see "Babel". Having traveled much of the world, I feel a strong association with its message about how similar we all really are. Also central to tonight's Oscars was a stronger emphasis on all of the nominees. But the real winners are all of us if we can take home the message of how to stop global warming - being green will make us much a much richer planet than any gold ever could.

Congratulations John Knoll

I've never met John Knoll but we exchanged e-mail a decade ago when I was finishing school. His father, Glenn Knoll, served as Interim Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. As President of the University of Michigan Engineering Council, I interacted with him regularly and I also served on the Dean Search Advisory Committee to find a new dean for the college. Glenn Knoll was kind enough to introduce me to his son via email, knowing I was working at the time on directing and co-producing a play I wrote, "Invasion of Cyberspace". John was at ILM at the time, working on "Mission: Impossible" and he had just finished up "Star Trek: Generations".

Fast forward to tonight and John received the Oscar for Achievement in Visual Effects for "Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest". His other credits as Visual Effects Supervisor or Assistant Supervisor include "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", "Hunt for the Red October", "Hudson Hawk", "Mission to Mars", "Deep Blue Sea" and all 3 "Star Wars" prequels. As a computer graphics designer and animation camera operator, he worked on "The Abyss", "Willow", "Innerspace" and "The Golden Child". According to IMDB, he also worked on early versions of Photoshop. He was also nominated for "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl", "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" and "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones".

Congratulations John!

Best Oscar Montage

I love Nancy Meyers films. If I ever write a screenplay that's remotely as good as hers, I'll be happy. She wrote some of my favorite films - "Something's Gotta Give", "Irreconcilable Differences" and "Private Benjamin". And she directed "The Parent Trap", "The Holiday" and "What Women Want" (as well as "Something's Gotta Give").

Nancy Meyers put together a marvelous montage in the Academy Awards tonight shown just before the Best Adapted Screenplay award. It showed clips from some of the best films about writers - "Shakespeare in Love", "His Girl Friday" and many others. It was wonderfully compiled and really gave a sense of the screenwriting process, along with fabulous quotes and fun music.

Oscar Gowns Galore

The Academy Awards are just starting now, but I wanted to blog the fashions as on the pre-show red carpet. Not being an expert on tuxes and not having been able (another story) to view any of the nominated films this year, I'm sticking with blogging about the gowns.

So the nominees for my favorites are...

- Penelope Cruz in a peach Versace with a train of ruffles
- Jodie Foster in a blue-gray mermaid style
- Cate Blanchett in dark gray sparkly goddess one-shoulder Armani Prive
- Reese Witherspoon in such deep purple it looks like black
- Gwyneth Paltrow in a sheer rose-salmon pleated Zac Posen
- Rachel Weisz in a gold-oyster Vera Wang with Cartier jewelry
- Emily Blunt in sparkly sapphire blue
- Nicole Kidman in red with a big velvet bow

And the winner is... Cate Blanchett. Stunning ensemble. All of them are absolutely gorgeous.

Bows prevailed, as did sparkles and beads. Mermaid style was the most popular gown cut. Grays, light mints, very dark blues and purples, white and various shades of pink dominated the colors.

Some of the other actresses (mostly nominees) in attendance at the event include Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Hudson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jessica Biel, Cameron Diaz, Celine Dion, Anne Hathaway, Salma Hayek, Beyonce, Kirstin Dunst.

Of course the men look remarkable as well - Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, John Travolta, Clint Eastwood, Eddie Murphy, Daniel Craig first coming to mind.

But the overall best dressed award goes to my daughter, Julia, who chose Sharon Stone's designer, the gap, and wore the same fashionable hot pink color as Jessica Biel. And she's her own stylist.

Macs Running the Home of the Future Now and the IRIX File System

MacWorld unveiled a "home automation tool" called Indigo. Supposedly it lets you do things like turn on your lights with your cell phone and change your sprinkler schedule from your laptop in bed. The epitomy of laziness and complete convenience. I read about it on the O'Reilly Network. Adam Goldstein profiled Indigo and its uber sci-fi cache of stunts like determining how to turn on the coffee pot 5 minutes before sunrise. For parents, it has the ability to turn off things like fans and heaters in the kids' rooms without going in and waking them up. Pretty spiffy.

I couldn't get over the name Indigo, however, because I knew it had been used before... then I remembered there was an SGI Indigo. Wikipedia says it first came out in 1990 (I feel old). It ran IRIX and NetBSD. It had a 32-bit MIPS R3000A RISC processor. Ooh, ahh. I'm dripping with nostalgia, recalling the first time I saw one of these babies in a dorm room at Iowa State University. It had this really cool 3D file system demo that I'll never forget, because every time I see the movie, "Hackers", it jogs my memory. In the film, they have a pathetic GUI for their security system at this big evil company where they observe files being attacked from different ports. It's completely hokey but I'd be willing to bet the special effects team got the idea from the much smoother IRIX. I digress...

Did tech suddenly run out of words? All of the sudden, Steve Jobs declared that it's open season on usage of the same word twice to describe different technical products? iPhone and Indigo were this week. What's next week?

Star Trek XI - The Prepubescent Wanderings

OK so as if the zillionth Rocky sequel wasn't enough, studios keep figuring they can make more money on these things by adding prequels so now we have Star Trek XI (that's 11... ELEVEN of these films) that according to Slashdot focuses on early Kirk & Spock. The bar will be high for this - I expect buff red shirts, a herem of hotties around Kirk Jr. and a lot of raised eyebrows from the mini-Nimoy clone.

And what's up with the Indiana Jones sequel? Well, I checked out the site and supposedly the film begins production in June. It will be a partnership between Lucas, Speilberg and Paramount Pictures.

Fashion League Group - Golden Globes Through Oscars

In conjunction with another Silicon Valley Mom, Beth B, I'm running a Fantasy Fashion League group contest from the Golden Globes (Jan 15) through the Oscars (Feb 25). Anyone who's interested, please email me at the contact info on the bottom of this blog sidebar and I'll send you instructions on how to sign up for our group.

To read more about what we're doing with the league, see Beth & my post from a few days ago at svmoms.com. And for a refresher as to what the FFL is, check out my post from last fall.

Apple's On Fire - Latest & Greatest from Cupertino

I wish I had time to go into all that's happening with Apple this week, but here are the highlights: they're changing their name from Apple Computer just to Apple. Woz (Steve Wozniak) thinks it's a smart move, according to Bloomberg. Nobody but stockholders ever see the "Computer" part these days anyway.

The "Month of Apple Bugs" is rolling along... and people are tracking the security aspects and posting fixes as well.

Apple TV, the next new new thing in file sharing and TV has arrived. It's like the iPod on TV. Also Apple came to an agreement with Paramount Pictures to sell movies on iTunes, which sounds like a cool deal. That will be the vehicle to transfer files from online to the TV.

And finally, the long-awaited iPhone has surfaced and everybody wants one. Here's one comparison with other smart phones. Unfortunately for Apple, there was another iPhone in 1999, made by InfoGear and bought by Cisco. Supposedly Apple has been trying to get usage of the name for a long time although Cisco held the Trademark for 6 years. They're still negotiating but there is a lawsuit involved now as well. We'll see how it all comes out.

Tag Team Cocktails

Thanks to Beth Blecherman for tagging me in the Virtual Cocktail Party along with other SV Moms. (This is cross-posted.)

Five things about me that no readers, let alone most of my friends, would know...

- In a former life (aka college), I taught courses on etiquette and modeling. Yes, it was a far cry from the t-shirt and jeans wardrobe I adopted a few years later as a post-grad sysadmin in Silicon Valley, but I learned some valuable skills that come in handy at cocktail parties!
- Chick lit is my literary weakness. I gulp it down like water in a desert - cheezy, shallow characters and all. Some day I hope to publish my own chick lit novel.
- I was offered a part as an extra in Robert Altman's film, "Kansas City", which I turned down because they wanted me to cut my hair to a period cut and I was getting married the following month. The marriage was almost as short-lived as the film, but I'm still bummed I missed out on that opportunity being a Kansas City girl who loves jazz. (At the time I didn't know the movie was "Kansas City"; I figured that out later.)
- My favorite view is of a starlit night.
- Instead of attending my high school prom, I went to a Queensryche concert with 11 of my best guy friends. We had floor seats and my view of Geoff Tate's gorgeous physique in leather pants was much better than what I would've had of my then-boyfriend in a cheap rent-a-tux.

From those not yet tagged (to my knowledge), I choose five people who have helped me out either with my blog or another area of my life in the past year: Maria Piccininni Ross, who incited me to get off my butt and launch my own blog, Cory Doctorow, who gave me some sage blogging advice when I first started it, Ed Vielmetti, who wrote some nice things about my blog and helped promote it to his friends, Alix Mayer, who provided me with resources to turn things around after several challenging months, and Elizabeth Edwards, who inspired me in numerous ways through her book and our meeting with her.

Now for a tequila shot...

Christy Turlington & Stephen Spielberg Partner for Fashion TV Drama

Style.com reports that "Steven Spielberg and husband-and-wife team Ed Burns and Christy Turlington are said to be making their own TV show based on the lives of five twentysomethings with fashion jobs." This is in response to the success of shows like "Ugly Betty" and "Project Runway". Here is the press release about the upcoming drama series.

Fashion has always been a factor in arts and particularly film and TV, but with the track record of 'chick lit' and shows like "Friends" setting trends for years, not to mention the Style channel and the emergence of a number of fashion blogs, it's become its own TV market. Stay tuned...

The Ultimate in Fashion for Charity

Last week, Christie's auctioned off the long, black Givenchy gown Audrey Hepburn wore at the beginning of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" for approx. $1 Million dollars (I've heard 410,000 pounds sterling & 467,000 - not sure of the exact figure.) So essentially that's like buying a gown for more than the average Bay Area home (or 3 nearly anywhere else). City of Joy Aid is the organization that will receive the money and they plan to help build schools and provide medical care for poor children in India. The gown broke the record of the one Marilyn Monroe wore when singing "Happy Birthday" to JFK.


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You can go online to get fashionable dress shoes. We all know how fun it is to shop for womens designer shoes but sometimes it can be a pain. With shopping online you can find Steve Madden shoes and other designer shoes so you can keep your closet full of new shoes.

Best R2-D2 Toy Yet

Last Christmas I got the coolest R2-D2 toy in the world. It's a small robot toy slightly over a foot tall and it actually responds to voice commands. This year, it's out in force in catalogs and I highly recommend it for Star Wars fans.

I have an R2-D2 collection that began in college. Not on purpose. It was somewhat organic in its growth, but I always loved Star Wars as a kid and played with the action figures. I never had the R2 action figure as a kid, and as I grew older, and learned about computer security, I began to admire the character's hacking skills. I always loved his personality. In addition to a couple of other simpler remote toys, I have a life sized R2-D2 cooler (purchased on eBay by a friend of mine as a gift several years back) that holds all of the R2s except this new one. It serves drinks at parties, just like in Return of the Jedi.

My favorite feature of the toy is that when you say "hey artoo", then "game mode" followed by "dance program" it plays the Cantina Band song from the first Star Wars film (Episode IV) and it dances, swiveling and turning back and forth. Highly recommended holiday gift.

Errors Reported in E-Voting Machines Across the Country

It's started. The reports are coming in - errors in many kinds of electronic voting machines around the country are occurring and they're major. VotersUnite.org has a great Election Problem Log page where they report any problem noted in the media.

Florida, Kentucky, Ohio, Texas, California, Indiana, Kansas, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Washington, Michigan, Maryland, Virginia and Nevada have all reported errors so far.

Do what you can - request a paper ballot.

And check out HBO's documentary, "Hacking Democracy" airing Tuesday.

The Bad Etiquette Droid You're Looking For

I don't know why I just thought of this recently, but why, I ask, was C-3PO, supposedly programmed for "etiquette and protocol" in millions of languages and cultures, so devoid of manners and etiquette himself? A bit of a snob, he was, but always interrupting people. "But Sir..." "Shut him up or shut him down," injected Han Solo during "The Empire Strikes Back," sick of listening to 3PO's babbling.

Not only did he interrupt often, but he kicked his "counterpart", sweet little R2-D2 and called him an "overweight glob of grease." Now, I ask you, is that a polite thing to say?

Evil Dead - The Musical?

It's Friday the 13th, and just when you think you've seen it all, someone takes the 80's cult classic campy horror films, "Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead II", and turns them into a musical in New York City. Yes, that's right. A musical. Not quite a Broadway musical (on 50th street, between 8th & 9th Avenues) but one of the co-directors is a Tony winner.

Evil Dead, The Musical, does right in not taking itself seriously. The quotes on the web site reading things like "disarmingly funny" and "live-ish performances". Ahh, brings back fond memories of high school. Song names are pretty good too - "All the men in my life keep getting killed by Candarian demons" and "What the f*#k was that" were my two favorites listed.

The ticketing site, listing performances through December 9th, has the following disclaimer: "The first two rows of the orchestra are the 'Splatter Zone.' Patrons in the 'Splatter Zone' should be prepared to have a bloody good time…and dress accordingly." Sounds like fun.