I realize that it’s been over a month since my last post on The Lair. Sorry! I am always blogging (among other things) for my current gig and actively tweeting/sharing news through other feeds, so admittedly I often neglect this space. It happens.
I am going to be doing a lot between now and the end of the year, but one of the more exciting things for me is representing the POC Zine Project at the Portland Zine Symposium. I’ll be in Portland from August 26 – 31, collaborating with new friends and having lots of fun.
When I founded the POC Zine Project earlier this year, I had so many goals that I thought I would have achieved by now. Rather than beating myself up for not meeting them all yet, I am going to enjoy the journey and be happy that a lot of people support the idea and trust that eventually things will come together. In the middle of work, school and my other forms of activism, I can only do so much. Sponsoring folks to attend the event in Portland, tabling, and forming a Facebook community for POCZP is the most I’ve been able to accomplish this year.
I also recently collaborated with For The Birds Collective for an event at Book Thug Nation, where POC Zine Project (Winston and I) gave away free zines and snacks.
I will have more opportunities to promote POCZP when I am in California from August 1 – 26. I’ll be all over the state, visiting friends and following up with colleagues. The end of 2010 is all about travel; I’ll be in Paris working on a super secret (for now) project for a month and then going to Mexico City at the end of December. I feel grateful for these opportunities and will spread the love/empower others while I’m pursuing my own dreams.
I’ll end this post with a weird video I made the other day:
On May 17, 2010, I produced and shot an interview between MTV Tr3s Associate Producer Sandra Roldán and director George A. Romero. “Survival of the Dead” hits theaters today (May 28), but I already saw it on May 2nd, so HA HA! *Nelson laugh*
Did I mention I am an insane zombie fan?
We’ve been rolling out clips and related blog posts from the interview on Blogamole.
This shoot was a labor of love. As many folks already know, MTV Tr3s is in the middle of a huge reboot. In addition to changing the brand to Tr3s: MTV, Musica y Mas, the channel and all online & mobile properties have a bunch of surprises for July 12.
Suffice it so say, my team and I have been incredibly busy and don’t have time for many shoots between now and July. When I found out that there wasn’t anyone available from production, I had to make a quick decision. Romero or no Romero? Did I even have to ask myself that? HELLO.
It was an easy decision to collaborate with Sandra on this shoot. She is a fan as well, and despite our insane workload, we knew we couldn’t pass this up. We slammed through other assignments, prepped a list of questions, coordinated with Romero’s team and made it happen, DIY style.
I shot the interview on a Panasonic DVX100B, the only camera that was readily available. We had wireless lav issues so luckily we can prepared with a stick mic. Romero felt comfortable sitting in front of a sun-filled window, so we did the best that we could with the set up.
After the shoot, I kept a laptop near my desk and edited our clips on Final Cut (while simultaneously working on my PC). During some parts of the day, I would be editing with my right hand while typing with my left.
Right now, we have a standing marquee promo on MTVTr3s.com that links to our ongoing coverage. We’ll be rolling out content until mid June.
And those, my friends, are the crazy lengths that fans go to.
It was refreshing to be around a director who was very down-to-earth, friendly and open. I am sure it didn’t hurt that Sandra is easy on the eyes; at one point I needed Romero to look in her direction and asked him if he would. He responded playfully by saying “No, I definitely don’t mind looking at her!” His energy was like a rough around the edges, mischievous uncle.
At the end of the interview, I told Romero what I thought about “Tomboy,” one of the characters in “Survival of the Dead.” I shared that I was glad he made the most intelligent and longest-surviving star of the film an (openly) queer Latina soldier.
His eyes literally twinkled when he replied, smiling:
“Yes, when you’re not jailed by the system you can show characters that normally don’t get represented, it’s nice.”
That statement and his cheerful response totally made up for the fact that “Tomboy” is masturbating wildly for no apparent reason in her opening scene.
My interpretation for that scene is that initially we don’t know “Tomboy” is a lesbian and sexualizing her made it easier for the audience to see her as feminine/attractive/acceptable after her identity is revealed. She has a very confident personality and the other characters respect and care for her.
I suspect that the gratuitous wacking off was just a spoonful of perverted sugar to make her reality go down for the boys in the audience.
I am proud to be associated with this collaborative mini-doc, produced by photographer/activist Bashira Webb and students from Phipps West Farms Teen Program in the South Bronx.
Back in April, Phipps Community Development Corporation contracted my services through DCAP Media to serve as an advisor and support the edit.
This video was made almost entirely by [...]
Integrated marketing campaigns can be immerse experiences that add to an ongoing dialogue, inspiring positive change. But more often than not, they can be creepy as hell and make me vomit in my mouth a little. Enter the “Small Talk” Campaign, a new partnership between Toyota and YouTube that encourages parents to whore out their [...]
If you’re curious about more details, I wrote my “origins” post back in 2007. I did a 5 year benchmark post last fall, where I dissected some of the events that helped me “get here.”
One thing is for sure: I would not be where I am today without [...]
I am excited to announce that the “Amanda Palmer Sounds Off” piece I edited/co-produced for Uncensored Interview is a 14th Annual Webby Awards Official Honoree!
My colleagues at UI forwarded the group this email today:
——— Forwarded message ———-
From: David-Michel Davies
Date: Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 12:58 PM
Subject: You are a Webby Honoree
To: x
Dear x:
It is my [...]
I am not sure if I am going to make a habit of blogging from my phone, but I like to know that a handy option is available when I need it.
I am creating this post right now, using my new Droid phone. Here’s a photo test:
My friend Sherise and I were having drinks in [...]
Back in 2006(7)? one of my bosses called me into his office to warn me about blogging.
Apparently someone had submitted a “tip” that I was talking about my job on my blog. Luckily, I wasn’t an idiot and what I had written was purely factual and easily found in an existing press release…
