“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles… The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who at his worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, 1910, at the Sorbonne in Paris

“I failed my way to success.” – Thomas Edison

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” – William Shakespeare

“One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again.” – Henry Ford

“Wherever we look upon this earth, the opportunities take shape within the problems.” – Nelson A. Rockefeller

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” – Harriet Tubman

“Everything I hold dear in my life came from taking a giant leap of faith into the unknown.” – Me, Daniela Capistrano

Yup, haters gonna hate. However, sometimes it’s much easier to ignore haters in your life who you already don’t like. But what if the hater in your life is someone you can’t easily avoid — like a romantic partner, your boss, or a family member? That’s when things get tricky.

When people bring negative energy into your life through their thoughts and deeds, knowing when to draw the line is really important to thriving. It’s up to you to decide when enough is enough. If it seems like it’s easier just to keep a hater in your life than to deal with them and discuss the issues, that’s just an illusion.

Ultimately, you are worse off putting up with their B.S. because every second that you spend making excuses for them and taking their verbal/emotional blows is a wasted second you could have used towards fulfilling your dreams.

I promise you: The moment you stop giving a hater in your life permission to weigh you down, new opportunities will immediately open up. It’s just like magic. Much like this amazing GIF:

See more on Know Your Meme

Did I mention I am an insane zombie fan?

We’ve been rolling out clips and related blog posts from the interview on Blogamole.

Here is one of my favorites:

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.

GO, ROMERO!

About thirty seconds into watching one of my favorite actresses scamper around in a giant spider costumer, I gasped!

Rossellini was reenacting the mating rituals of various bugs!

I devoured all eight films and was enthralled; I had to see more.

Luckily for me, season two (which is devoted to marine life) was available on http://www.sundancechannel.com. I shrieked my way through every episode. It was like being a sixth grader in health class when they put on that cartoon about getting your period; I hadn’t had so much fun learning about reproduction in years.

I also gained a new found respect for nature.

The series began in 2008 and currently airs on The Sundance Channel. It is conceived, written, and directed by its star, Isabella Rossellini.

In this Salon interview with the actress, Rossellini explained her creative process in developing Green Porno for Sundance:

The first series I did on animals that I knew, that were in my garden and I had studied — I could just lift a stone and find my earthworms. I wanted animals that everybody knew. We did the same for the sea creatures with the starfish and barnacle and clams, everything that people know. And the third series that comes out in the fall is again about fish, but this time it’s called “Bon Appetit Green Porno.” It is about animals we eat, but again it has sea animals, because I found an incredible accomplice in a marine biologist called Claudio Campagna.

I get the information from books, but then to verify that I really understood it — when we do the costume, is it plausible that he has antennae like this? — it’s nice to have a real scientist collaborating.

Season three will focus on farm animals and I can’t wait to watch!

About The GREEN & Green Porno
In March of this year, Sundance Channel announced a new multiplatform initiative to raise awareness of green choices. One of the network’s cornerstone initiatives of the year, THE GREEN, presented by Robert Redford, launched on Tuesday, April 21st at 9pm with the debut of an original series “Eco-Trip: The Real Cost of Living” featuring eco-adventurer David de Rothschild, the Australian series “Carbon Cops’ at 9:30pm followed by the television premiere of the acclaimed documentary film Flow: For The Love of Water at 10pm. Isabella Rossellini’s short film series “Green Porno” launched its second season on sundancechannel.com on April 1, 2009.

This controversial singer calls herself a ‘fat, feminist lesbian from Arkansas’. In 2007, Beth Ditto is said to have turned down a design deal with Topshop after criticizing their ‘limited’ sizing policy.

“If there’s anyone to blame for size zero, it’s not women,’ Beth said. ‘Blame gay men who work in the fashion industry who want these women as dolls. Men don’t know what it feels like to be a woman and be expected to look a particular way.’

‘The Beckhams are part of the machine; Paris Hilton is part of the machine.”

I first saw Beth Ditto perform with The Gossip in 2002 at Ladyfest Bay Area. I was struck by this large girl throwing herself at the audience, flinging herself into the pit naked and howling, while the crowd moved her high in the air with such ease. She didn’t give a fuck.

After that incident, I bought all of her albums. She reminded me of Janis Joplin and Mamma Cass, if they had fused together and grew up in the South, listening to Black Flag and the Bad Brains.

The Gossip may be regulars on MTV these days and partying it up with Kate Moss, but Beth Ditto remains a proud fat white lesbian activist who refuses to hide who she is.

She appears to care more about being true to herself than being a celebrity, and in her case it’s paying off. People love her because she IS her. Unapologetically.

I can’t wait to hear MUSIC FOR MEN on June 22nd. I loved Live In Liverpool but gave it away to a drunk gay boy on the subway. I felt he needed it more than I did. I’ve been waiting for new material ever since.

The Gossip’s U.S. tour will begin later this year and I will definitely be attending a New York and/or Cali show. =)

Standing in the way of control

Yeah! This sounds awesome.

I will probably get there around 1 AMish, for those interested in coming with me or meeting up.

Luckily, Funny Or Die’s parody of SXSW films that fall within the genre does not:

My first “mumblecore” movie experience was at IFC, where I saw Hannah Takes The Stairs.

Even though I actually enjoyed watching “Hannah Takes The Stairs,” I can appreciate the spot on way that FOD pwns the mumblecore style.

I haven’t seen Medicine For Melancholy yet, but I am hoping that I can watch it without thinking the word “mumblecore” in my head because I think that would a disservice to director Barry Jenkins.

My first feature will likely be low budget too and I want it to be seen for what it is, not immediately grouped in some hipster category. John Cassavetes could have been considered “mumblecore”, thank goodness no one thought of the word at that time.

Beauty in the trees…

Whoever made this = hi.lari.ous –>

My favorite little boogie down stinker…

>>More photos from The Bronx<<

The Bronx, like all burroughs, is rapidly becoming gentrified. This was news to some when it was brought up a few years ago in this NYTimes article on SoBro. The area around the Bruckner Gallery has increasingly “developed” through spacious artist lofts and eclectic venues. Students, young professionals and other bohemians of all stripes are rediscovering the Bronx (pros and cons to that), recognizing that it’s still relatively affordable and a fresh alternative to over hyped Williamsburg and now even Bushwick (my hood, which I still love anyway).

As I recently stated in a comment on the BushwickBK.com blog about incoming students, my hope is that newbie Bronx residents recognize what they are individually contributing or taking away from the existing community. Social responsibility is key in preventing the obliteration of culture. Specifically, the following:

- Buying a building in the Bronx and then jacking up rents/kicking people out is fucked up.
- Being exclusive/not sharing your artist/”community” events with the existing community creates unnecessary and insulting cultural silos. Don’t assume what people like or don’t like. Put your event fliers in venues regardless of what language you think people inside prefer to speak in.

All you need is your phone, a PC with a webcam in your home/apartment and an orb.com account.

Step 1. Set up an Orb account on your home PC (won’t work with a Mac right now, but see notes below)

Step 2. Connect your webcam to your Orb account

Step 3. Visit orb.com through your blackberry storm browser and elect to view the webcam. Your bberry is now a mobile security camera, on-demand!

Step 4. Get the proof you need that your cat is eating your jewelry (like mine) when you aren’t home

Pout not, fellow mac users. Orb Networks is working on a version for macs.

You can use their beta version but it currently won’t let you livestream your mac webcam to your bberry, which sort of defeats the purpose of installing it if that was your goal.

I am curious if the livestreaming webcam capability works on other smartphones. If you decide to do this, let me know how it goes.