jbrotherlove

In which we ask “What makes you a Black Blogging Rockstar?” #sxswbbr

jbrotherlove — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:48:36 +0000

A few things.

As I mentioned two weeks ago, I’ll be moderating the Black Blogging Rockstars panel at SXSW Interactive ( Twitter hashtag #sxswbbr ).

If you’re attending SXSW this year, we’d love to have you. We’ll be sharing our experiences with blogging as a platform and career catalyst as well as topics like Haters, Crabs and the Black Tech Community (you know who you are).

As I prepare for the panel, I’m really enjoying the contributions at the companion Black Blogging Rockstars website. The question is simply: What makes you a Black Blogging Rockstar? Answers can be submitted in the form of a quote, pics, an audio file, or a YouTube video link with your reply. Please share your thoughts, if you’re so inclined.

On a related note, CNN Money has an overview of this year’s Blacks In Tech panel & meetup (BIT), hosted by Ogilvy. I’m cited as one of the “early thought leaders” regarding blacks in technology, along with some respected colleagues. I can’t even wrap my head around that. It’s a fairly detailed article, nonetheless. BIT is sure to be well-attended and doesn’t require a SXSW badge to attend.

Okay, back to deciding which suitcase to pack.

Do we know each other, baby?

jbrotherlove — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:51:19 +0000

side A of my contact card
(get side B in person @ SXSW)

I Don’t Think We’ve Met by Nikka Costa (3492 KB)
Listen on posterous

‘Alice’ in Blunderland? Say it ain’t so, Burton!

jbrotherlove — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:14:23 +0000

I've been excited and nervous ever since I heard Tim Burton was filming Alice in Wonderland. Excited, because I generally love Burton's work. Nervous, because Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is my favorite book. Of the numerous versions on film, only the 1933 and 1966 adaptations appeal to me. I've already heard not-so-great opinions of Burton's take on Lewis Carroll's masterpiece. James Rocchi is especially brutal:

Burton's always been more of an image-maker than a storyteller. His films all tend to recycle the tale of the beautiful, misunderstood outsider; but at least "Edward Scissorhands" and "Ed Wood" had the lightness of inspiration and the physicality of the real world to support them, and in those films Depp was asked to do more than show up and be Johnny Depp. Like the sour, saccharine "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Alice in Wonderland" combines the heavy-handed clamminess of unneeded brand remarketing (Disney would love to sell new "Alice" stuff, and may have put more effort into the tie-in merchandise than the actual film) with the hateful hollowness of overdone and empty computer-generated imagery. The original 1951 Disney animated "Alice in Wonderland" is far from perfect, but at least it makes you feel like you're watching a fairy tale. With Burton's uninspired, underdone and underwritten version, you only feel like you're watching money.

Ouch! I'm still going to see it (probably not in 3-D though).

One Second Before Awakening from a Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate

jbrotherlove — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:52:37 +0000

I’ve got a lot going on right now. It’s no wonder my dreams have gotten surreal. Although, not this surreal.

more about Salvador Dalí

Could Avatar be the next step in interactive media?

jbrotherlove — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:38:01 +0000

I was having a discussion with a friend about the (debatable) merits of the movie Avatar. Our conversation segued into video games and the upcoming release of Final Fantasy XIII (stoked!). And because my mind is hypertextual, I remembered the following comment from an epic thread on FriendFeed.

[Avatar] seemed like more of a video game story line (Final Fantasy) than a movie. In a video game, the story is secondary to the game play, I think thats what we see here, a blurred line between movie & video game. Its like a 3 hour cut scene from Final Fantasy. It would have been cool if every1 got a 2 button controller and at key points of the movie, every1 made a choice (choose your own adventure style) and the movie progressed according to the choices the audience made in real time. Maybe the next step in interactive media.

via echostreamer on FriendFeed [Spoilers]