How Twitter Makes Me a Better Friend

I'm way behind on my magazine reading this month for a number of reasons — it's summer, doing a bit of traveling and, of course, Potter — but I managed to get around to reading last month's (or was it the month before?) Wired magazine last week and came across an essay I want all my friends to read.

I've been a Dodgeball user for about 9 months now and it's sort of lame because I only have one friend, Frank, who is also doing it. It's particularly dorky and pathetic when we're out together and we dodgeball each other our location.* (Yeah, I know.) I've tried to get other friends to use it, but it's just not something any of my friends (read 30-somethings who are mostly married and consider 10pm a "late night out" -- sorry guys!) find intriguing. So my friend and I decided to experiment with it on our own. Almost immediately, he became a power user. These days, he's often in the top 10 list of SF's most active users on the Dodgeball site. He does it because he likes to review the history of the bars, restaurants, nightclubs and events he's been to. (I've noticed guys out here love to keep lists — or is it not a West Coast thing and just true of guys generally? hmm... maybe.)

Even though I've never actually met him out at a bar or restaurant when he posts his dodgeball location (which I guess is the general idea), I've noticed that when we see each other in person one of us will remember where the other one went and ask about the food or the ambiance of a particular bar, or whatever.

And then I read this Clive Thompson essay that described what I've been experiencing so well. Here's a snippet.

So why has Twitter been so misunderstood? Because it's experiential. Scrolling through random Twitter messages can't explain the appeal. You have to do it — and, more important, do it with friends. (Monitoring the lives of total strangers is fun but doesn't have the same addictive effect.) Critics sneer at Twitter and Dodgeball as hipster narcissism, but the real appeal of Twitter is almost the inverse of narcissism. It's practically collectivist — you're creating a shared understanding larger than yourself. link

Frank and I started using Twitter about 3 months ago, and although I probably post twice a week at most to the colleagues I am connected to there, I post a lot more often directly to Frank, sometimes two or three times a day — and, over time, we've become better friends because of it. It's hard to explain, but Thompson's essay does a good job, "Individually, most Twitter messages are stupefyingly trivial. But the true value of Twitter — and the similarly mundane Dodgeball, a tool for reporting your real-time location to friends — is cumulative."

I wish I could get my New York friends to twitter with me. It would be nice to know what they're up to and it wouldn't take too much of their time or mine — at 140 characters or less.

* P.S. The way I wrote that made Frank sound as pathetic as me. He's not. He has other friends on dodgeball besides me. As I stated above, I don't. I'm the dork. back up

YouTube / CNN Debate Watching

So I finally got around to watching my TiVo of the YouTube CNN Presidential Democrat Debate last night as I cleaned my apartment. It was the perfect accompaniment to some much needed tidying up. It wasn't the sort of thing that you really had to watch, or even really pay attention to... Plus, I figured it was my attempt to multi-task like a member of YouTube Nation might do. It worked out well.

I thought the debate was pretty entertaining, overall. The biggest disappoint for me was Barack Obama. If he said, "when I become president" or "that's why you should vote for me for president" or "when I'm president" one more time, I was going to scream. If there were more people in my apartment, I would have suggested a drinking game based on him saying the word president. You kind of needed a drink to listen to him, because it was so annoying. OK, I get it, you want me to envision you as president, shut up!

The biggest surprise of the night for me was Chris Dodd. I found myself saying out loud, "You bring it, Chris!" and "Go, Chris!" and "Sing it, Brother!" I'm from CT, so we're sort of related that way, and I live in the Haight, so maybe I was channeling some OD'ed hippie. (OK, I don't think I actually said that last one.) Anyway, you get the picture. I was totally digging Chris. I think I just liked his grasp of the issues. I guess I like the wonks. Even though I didn't agree completely with some of what he said, I was impressed. (And yes, I know it's weird that I talk to my TV, but it's something that happens to me during baseball games, George Bush's speeches, and apparently also presidential debates, so deal.)

I was also pleasantly surprised by Hillary. She was GOOD. Really good. I actually liked her. Of course, in most cases, she was preaching to the choir because she had this whole "I am woman. Hear me roar." thing going on with some of the silly questions people were throwing at her. My favorite Hillary line was in response to the lunkhead jarhead from Okinawa, who asked whether Hillary could expect to be taken seriously as president by the leaders of Muslim countries, because they treat women like second-class citizens. I really wanted her to tell him off. Instead, she thanked him for his service to our country, and went on to give a really thoughtful answer, pointing out that lots of other countries have female leaders. She ended her comments by saying wryly that she actually thought "it would be quite appropriate to have a woman president deal with the Arab and Muslim countries on behalf of the United States of America." Go Hillary! Here's the exchange:



I also found myself liking Edwards again. He just seems so darn sincere. So who knows who I'll vote for in the primary. Luckily, I still have more than 6 months to make up my mind.

Did You Feel It?

I was awakened at around 4:30 am because my bed was shaking. Then I heard that sound, the sound that only an earthquake makes. I guess it comes from the resettling of buildings, trees, the ground — everything that is normally still. It's sort of a simultaneous groaning and creaking kind of noise. It's eerie and somewhat unsettling, or maybe the unsettling bit is the part where you've just felt the ground shake beneath your feet, or bed, whatever the case may be.

Just wanted to share my favorite line from the article in this morning's SFGate. Apparently, the epicenter was in Oakland, so it was stronger for people in the East Bay. My sister, who lives over there, said it was "scary." But in general, the people who monitor this stuff said it was not major.

"It was all pretty minor," said U.S. Geological Survey spokeswoman Leslie Gordon. "It didn't interrupt doughnut production."

Yes, that would have been a tragedy. ;)

Oh Julian... How I've Missed You

I realize that this is just crazy, two posts in one day, but I had to post a quick note about my (somewhat pathetic) enthrallment last night at the treat that PBS' Mystery gave me. I can't remember the last time I saw Julian Sands in something, and, boy, have I missed him.

My favorite movie as a teenager (and maybe of all time, it's up there) was A Room With a View. When I first saw it, at the awkward age of 15, my diary was filled with love poems for George Emerson (wow, no wonder I like the name George so much! I had forgotten) and his quest for the eternal Yes! I think I watched that movie about 15 times during the '80s. I'm sighing just thinking about it.

And last night, there he was looking very handsome, although so much older, and cast as a lame (literally), second fiddle, passed over childhood friend still desperate to win the love of the fair lady, Audrey (who was far too young to have been his childhood friend, but no matter). He was great, but I felt like he deserved a lot more screen time. PBS, let's bring him back for a starring role sometime soon, ok?

Meanwhile, I'm going to end this post and head on over to Netflix and send A Room With a View to the number one spot on my queue.

Do You Have a Healthy Media Diet?

I was searching the Gothamist blog looking for a review they did of one of P.O.V.'s films, unsuccessfully (even though I know it's there), when I came across this interview with Brooke Gladstone (pictured right, from Gothamist.com) of WNYC's On the Media. I was shocked to see her picture and register the fact that she is not 70 years old — as I'd always pictured her in my head (which I feel really badly about now). Anyway, they asked her some good questions, including "What would you consider a healthy media diet for New Yorkers?" Here's what she had to say:

For New Yorkers to stay informed, I would say listening to The Brian Lehrer Show and Lenny's show would be a really valuable thing to do. [John] Schaefer's show. I know this sounds like I am really sucking up to the station, but I have worked in public radio for a long time, and for a number of years in Washington. I've heard a lot of public radio and there is no other station like this. That's probably why it is the number one public radio station in the country.

That said, I also think you need to read The New York Times, you need to read the Daily News; and it really helps to read the Observer. I think it is worth dipping into New York magazine from time to time, but I don't know if it is a requirement. I think The Daily Show is essential as a digestif, if for no other reason. New York City often feels like a protectorate of the United States rather than part of it, and The Daily Show, which is of course produced in New York, makes New Yorkers feel less alone. A kind of Daily Show Nation. Or is that the Colbert Nation? link

I love the way she describes The Daily Show as a digestif. I would describe it as dessert or as a raiding-the-fridge-and-eating-something-with-your-
hands-after-everyone-else-has-gone-to-sleep kind of late-night snack, but clearly I'm not as sophisticated. Even though I'm no longer a New Yorker, I still like to keep up and I'm happy to say most of these are on my list each week, except for the Daily News and the Observer. (I always preferred the Post, but I guess I wasn't reading it for "news," per se) And I would say that New York magazine is a requirement (if not just for this week's cover story on Katie Couric ... poor Katie ... alone).

What do you think would be a healthy media diet for San Franciscans? I would say SFist.com, the Chron (obviously), NPR's California Report (I love it), Fecal Face for art happenings and 7X7 for occasional fun stuff to do (I guess?).

Anything to add? Post a comment!

PS - Got my prints in the mail today. They are even better than I thought they would be! yay! I can't wait to frame them.

Design & Art Weekend

Finally logged onto Etsy.com over the weekend and it put a little dent in my wallet. So much cool stuff! Yipes.

I was in New York for the past two weeks and I spent an evening with some friends in New Jersey over the Fourth. They have some great artwork they purchased at a friend's gallery here in SF, and it made me think about my own apartment's sad lack of art.

So I logged on to Etsy and totally scored. Very excited to receive my shiny new artwork. I got two prints. One by Matte Stephens and one by Erin McCauley. (left and right respectively, below) I'm pretty sure they are both going to hang in my bedroom, in the corner near my computer where I can stare at them while contemplating posting on my blog, which let's face it, I spend a lot more time doing than actually posting!



Matte Stephens has a show at super7 in San Francisco this month. I am definitely checking it out!

My Dinner with Andre Barack

So my friend Bruno sent me this invitation to have dinner with Barack Obama. Well, not really, but Obama's campaign came up with this amazing idea to ask for donations on their website (could be as little as $10) and then you are put into this drawing for a free dinner with Barack Obama. If you win, they fly you in, and you and three other lucky folks get to have dinner with Obama -- he even pays for dinner. It's brilliant. The catch is that you have to enter before midnight tomorrow -- that's Wednesday, June 13 -- in order to be in the drawing. He even has a little video on the site where he explains the whole thing. I love it. I even gave $25, because, you know, I'm rich. ;)

Bloomberg to Worrywarts: Get a Life!

Bloomberg took a while to make a statement about the foiled JFK bombing plot revealed over the weekend. And his comments yesterday took some people by surprise. I loved what he had to say. So nice to have a reasonable guy in government and not the fear mongering crew we've got in Washington.

"There are lots of threats to you in the world. There's the threat of a heart attack for genetic reasons. You can't sit there and worry about everything. Get a life." - Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Read more of what he said in this story by the local CBS affiliate.

Update: Good article in the Times about this today.

New York Mystery

I just got off the MUNI after a LONG ride (why does it stall inexplicably for 15-20 minutes before entering or leaving the Van Ness tunnel EVERY TIME I ride it?! good grief!) where I enjoyed reading my new issue of New York magazine and wanted to blog about this great article which detailed the story of the "Splasher." This guy/girl (no one knows who it is) is going around the city and painting over revered street graffiti art with (the theory goes) a supersoaker paint gun. I'm so out of it here on the West Coast that everyone in New York probably already knew about this person, but I hadn't heard of it before — and I found the article totally fascinating. Along with the paint splash, the Splasher also posts a manifeso diatribe against the commodification of the graffiti art form.

At first I was really bummed about someone going around destroying art like that, but in the end, I wasn't so sure I hated the Splasher. I can't say I agree with what s/he's done, but the whole debate that it's stirred up is an interesting one. I'm too tired to post more now, but I'll post some more thoughts later in the week.

You can see more images here on the streetsy blog, which I also didn't know about and will bookmark for future viewing. Some discussion of the piece here. Was I duped? Is this an insider joke?

Not a Bad Apple

So I'm on vacation this week and decided to head over to Green Apple books on Clement to check out their used book selection. It was so great. I found 7 books and I hadn't even stepped inside yet! They were all on the super sale outdoor rack. One of them was by a guy I used to work with in New York. I was so excited to see his book and thought, wow! I'll have to write him and tell him that I saw/bought it. Then I realized that it had been marked down to $2.50. I guess I won't be telling him about it, after all.

I meant to go hiking today, but the weather is so crappy, I think I'll just settle into my afternoon with one of my new books, perhaps Adam Gopnik's "Paris to the Moon." I've been wanting to read it for awhile, and at $1.99, I don't think it will disappoint.

It's Good to be the Queen

I have to say I'm riveted by the coverage of Queen Elizabeth visiting the States this week. President Bush even made me laugh when he joked with her about one of his usual misstatements in a speech he made in the Rose Garden yesterday. (He said we celebrated our bicentennial in 1776, instead of 1976. She gave him a look and he made a joke about how she gave him a look that only a mother could, and I think he meant that England was sort of like our mother, so it was appropriate that she should scold him like one. But maybe I'm giving him too much credit. I was impressed with his quick wit. And that never happens. And then the British press got all upset about it because he winked at her, too. You're not supposed to wink at the Queen, apparently.)

Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about was the Queen's hat today. Check it out from all angles. It's fabulous!

Laugh Out Loud TV

A few notes about what made me laugh out loud this week on my comfy couch:

- This week's Liz Lemon gets the guy and Kenny does his best Sydney Bristow imitation episode of "30 Rock." Nobody I know watches this show, even though I talk it up all the time. C'mon people! Watch this show. Watch it now! It's funny. (Oh, if you really haven't watched the show before, check out this one first. It's my favorite so far this season. Mostly because it features LL Cool J. And I think we can all agree that it doesn't get any better than that.)

- The Daily Show: Yeah, everybody loves John Oliver. Me too. But my favorite correspondent these days is Larry Wilmore. The guy cracks me up. And putting them together in this Wilmore and Oliver Investigates segment is the best idea they've come up with in a long time. (I have to admit I felt a little badly for the councilman at the end. Even though his heart's in the right place, his idea to make certain words illegal definitely isn't the solution.) I'm going to try and embed it here.

- The Daily Show: Same ep as above. John Hodgman explains executive privilege. The thing that I found most interesting about this clip is at the end when the audience laughs, but I didn't feel like they actually got the Nixon reference in the John Stewart/Hodgman "conversation."

It's Hahhrd Out There for a Teenaged Girl

I'm a little behind on my NYTimes reading, but this article from (2!) sundays ago that I just got around to reading today freaked me out. In my early 20s, I had many dreams about what I would do with my life, who I'd marry and the number of kids I'd have (six!). I had some big dreams (most of them involving me being big, I guess)... but one of my more common daydreams back then was to marry my boyfriend and settle down in his hometown of Newton, MA. *sigh* Ah Newton!

Newton was this magical suburb outside Boston where everyone was smahhhhrt, well-educated and super, super liberal. I LOVED IT. Back then I was living in Boston and guys my age used to talk about Newton Moms. Newton Moms were a special breed. First of all, they were all hot. They had these cute hairdos and cute outfits, and they all did yoga (or whatever people did back then to stay fit — jogging and Jane Fonda's aerobics, I guess?), and they were smart.. just basically awesome. And I wanted to be one.

Life played out... The guy I was dating turned out not to want to get married, or have even one kid (forget six)... and I moved away from Boston, blah, blah, blah... Life has been great and *is* great, even without (or especially without) the six kids, or the hubby, or the Newton address, but imagine my surprise when I came upon this NYTimes article about what life is like for teenaged girls in 2007 living in Newton, MA. I mean, if I had realized that dream, one of these girls could have been my daughter. It kinda blew my mind reading it.

But even if you've never heard of a Newton Mom, or had a dream to live in a (no longer) middle-class suburb of Boston, this article is fascinating. These girls are amazing. Actually, these kids — boys and girls — are amazing. Here's a snippet:

One of Esther’s close friends is Dan Catomeris (17), a school theater star. “One of the most attractive things about Esther is how smart she is,” said Dan, whose mother is a professor at Harvard Business School. “There’s always been this intellectual tension between us. I see why she likes Kierkegaard — he’s existential, but still Christian. She really likes Descartes. I was not so into Descartes. I really like Hume, Nietzsche, the existentialist authors. The musician we’re most collectively into is Bob Dylan.”

Dude, I don't know about you, but I don't think any of the boys I went to high school with knew what "intellectual tension" was, much less used it to describe a relationship they had with a girl.

I don't know. Even though this article seemed to be pushing the idea in the headline that these girls are rattled, stressed out freaks who want to be Barbies in a mortarboard someday (perhaps the latest salvo of the NYTimes' recent attack on feminism? See here and here.), I found their stories really inspiring. I mean, don't get me wrong, some of my favorite memories from childhood involve lying in my backyard staring at clouds, and it seems distressful that these girls don't take the time to zone out more often, but overall these girls seem centered and together to me — and destined for great lives — whether they get into Stanford, or not.

P.S. I can't believe I left this out... but now that I'm all growed-up, of course, I'd rather live in Somerville (mp3) now (as soon as I find my Irish Riviera-bred man who wants to go there, too). #1 song on my iPod these days. I just love it. Enjoy.

BSG, blossoms, Bibles and bees

Pop Candy: Links to this interview with BSG executive producer Ron Moore discussing Sunday's finale. The final five are "fundamentally different." He says it twice.

Boing Boing: Lawrence M. Small, the guy who sold out the Smithsonian's video collection to Showtime, has resigned without severance — "after an internal audit showing that the museum complex had paid for his routine use of lavish perks like chauffeured cars, private jets, top-rated hotels and catered meals." Reading the entire article in the NYTimes... it says the Smithsonian's board, which includes Dick Cheney and Chief Justice John Roberts, approved all but $90,000 of the perks. So that's what you do with taxpayers' money, huh?

Slate: Guess I'll be missing the cherry blossoms when I visit D.C. late next month. Darn it. Also, David Plotz continues to blog the Bible. Best quote from the Book of Proverbs? "He who greets his fellow [neighbor] loudly early in the morning shall have it reckoned to him as a curse." Hallelujah!

Screens: The Huckabees tapes... Love it! Even if I didn't (not-so-)secretly (now) love Dustin Hoffman, I would love this. Although, I do feel bad that Lilly Tomlin is so upset. She seems really rattled.

Why We Should Care About Josh Wolf

Today I had a conversation about activism and journalism, and the imprisoned SF blogger, Josh Wolf, came up. Wolf is a 24-year-old self-described anarchist and independent journalist, who attended a G-8 protest that occurred in the Mission last year and videotaped the event. He ran into trouble when federal authorities requested that he hand over his footage to aid them in an investigation of an alleged attempt to set a police car on fire during the protest. He declined and ended up in jail.

Wolf is a blogger who shoots video and sometimes sells it to local news outlets. One of the reasons Wolf said he was at the protest with his camera was that he knew that the media wouldn't be covering the protest otherwise. If the protest hadn't gotten ugly (a policeman was injured in a melee), it's possible that the footage might only have made it to Wolf's blog. As it turned out, he sold some edited footage to a local TV news here in San Francisco. Wolf contends that he did not capture any video of the alleged car burning attempt and there is nothing in his tapes that would aid in that investigation.

In an interview with Amy Goodman broadcast on Democracy Now! in February, Wolf said, "Essentially, what the government wants me to do, as we can tell, is to identify civil dissidents who were attending this march, who were in mask and clearly did not want to be identified, but whose identities I may know some of, as their contact that I’ve been following in documenting civil dissent in the San Francisco Bay Area for some two-and-a-half years now."

It seems to me that the question of whether or not Wolf is a journalist is not really the issue here. The ACLU and the Reporters Committee filed amicus curiae briefs stating that they believe that if this case was under investigation by state authorities, Wolf would most definitely be within his rights to refuse handing over the tapes and testifying before the grand jury under California's Shield Law. But this is a federal investigation, and there is no national shield law for journalists. Federal authorities got involved with the investigation because they say that the alleged crime of attempting to burn a police car is within their jurisdiction because the SF Police Department receives funding from the federal government and the car is therefore federal property. They say that they are not making this a federal case solely to get around the California shield law. Hmm...Okay.

That aside, the bigger issue at play is the "chilling effect" that this case could have on journalism in this country. In an OJR article, Christine Tatum, president of the Society of Professional Journalists, said: "As unconventional and non-traditional as [Josh Wolf's] work in journalism may be in many respects, he is contesting an age-old argument... and that's that journalists never should be arms of law enforcement." If the government could ask journalists to turn over their notes or video any time that they think the materials "might be" useful to them in an investigation, what kind of effect would that have on reporters' ability to do their jobs? A healthy democracy depends on the constitutional protection not only of confidential sources, but also of the newsgathering process itself. Of course, it depends on how you interpret the First Amendment, but I'm inclined to agree with Wolf that it protects him in this case.

And I sure hope it does, because if not, we may be getting future news from AnonymousBlogger3456 instead of the NY Times.

What do you think?

Like Politics? Listen to this Podcast

I listen to a lot of podcasts on my shiny new green iPod Shuffle. (It's so darn cute, isn't it?) But of all of the podcasts I download, my absolute favorite is Slate's Political Gabfest. Three Slate writers — Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz — gather every Friday in their D.C. conference room to talk about the news of the week. The podcast has a simple conversational format that works really well. They offer astute analysis of three political news stories and a fun feature at the end called "Chatter" where they each share one news item that they will be "chattering about" at cocktail parties over the weekend. This week's podcast features discussion about:

The sad news about Elizabeth Edwards' health; the mashup of Apple's famous 1984 ad that has Hillary Clinton worried; the brewing constitutional showdown over whether White House aides will testify about the U.S. attorneys scandal; and why John doesn't listen to This American Life. link

Try it. You'll like it.

StreetFilms: Making a Difference

I'm a commuter cyclist here in San Francisco, so I'm not exactly crazy about cars, and when I first read about this amazing example of citizen journalism on Steven Johnson's blog, I bookmarked it so I could keep up with this developing story about the streets of my old stomping ground, Park Slope, Brooklyn. Transportation activists and community groups were upset about a proposal to turn 6th and 7th Avenues (currently two-way streets) into one-way streets. Here's a little snippet about the controversy from the StreetFilms blog.

Most advocates believe that two-way streets function better for pedestrians, cyclists, commerce, and livable streets. In fact all across the country, hundreds of cities are changing one-way streets back to two-way ... In this StreetFilm, advocates from each of the NYC Streets Renaissance partners show just how much 8th Avenue differs in its street geometry and car speeds and how it would impact neighborhood life on 6th and 7th Avenues. link

The good news is that the plan was scrapped last week due to "community outrage." Clarence from StreetFilms, wrote on their blog, "I'd like to think we had a little something to do with this." I think so, too.

If you've got a transportation situation going on in your neighborhood, make a film about it, upload it and tag it "streetfilms." They are posting the best on the StreetFilms site.

First Post

I've thought about — and actually started — this blog a couple times over the past ten years. Recently, I read this article in New York magazine, and I started to think about it again. When I look back on all the links to articles, blog posts, etc. that I've sent out to friends over the years, it seemed like it would make more sense to do it on a blog so it would be archived. So here goes... Here's my blog. Hope it's interesting.