jennifer newell

Taking a stab at video blogging

swedishfish — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:41:56 +0000

There’s a reason I write… I’m much better at it.

And I totally have something in my teeth.

TV.com NOW Awards: A bit of a misfire

swedishfish — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:08:43 +0000

The TV.com NOW Awards (approx. one-third of crowd present)

Well, gosh. I just don’t know where to start.

I guess I’ll start with the positives. I had a fantastic time at the TV.com NOW Awards. The single biggest reason I had for attending was to see Spoon, my favorite band, perform live — but I had a great time seeing The Soft Pack and V.V. Brown perform, and it was super-cool to see stars like Rob Lowe, the whole cast of The Big Bang Theory, and LL Cool J up on stage. The event was definitely a bargain, considering the tickets were free.

So what could’ve been bad about it? Considering the apparently high production cost of the show, the whole event was possibly one of the most poorly-planned gigs I’ve ever seen.

Hey, we came out to perform for all… 85 of you!

V.V. Brown at the TV.com NOW Awards

How can you have acts like Spoon and V.V. Brown on stage, appearances by stars like L.L. Cool J., and hosting by John Oliver (of Daily Show fame), but fail to fill up the audience?

The lack of attendance was apparent upon arrival; the line outside Petco Park was short and sparse. The event staffers outside the venue seemed confused about which wristbands meant what and what they were supposed to do with the tickets upon entry. When a disappointingly low attendance seemed imminent, the staffers hit the streets — but as I listened in on their explanations of the event, they could hardly articulate that the event was a free awards show featuring several live music performances. Attendance was so dismal that those of us “public” attendees (non-VIP and unaffiliated with sponsorship) were allowed up close to the stage, originally intended as VIP space for special attendees.

I’ve personally gotten more people to attend an event on a far smaller budget with fewer incentives and higher ticket price. How the promoters and planners of this event did not get even half of the 700-800 expected people into this event totally blows my mind. Somebody definitely dropped the ball here; I had this feeling when, via Google Search, I could not find any mentions of the show dated earlier than July 20. Although TV.com bragged about its high Facebook and Twitter support during the show, why was it so difficult to find information online?

Furthermore, I heard from those who picked up the tickets at Comic-Con that the people working the booth were offering tickets to attendees but not doing a very good job of advertising who was playing. According to a friend, “They went up to people, said ‘Want free tickets?’ and wasn’t telling anyone that the show included Spoon or John Oliver.”

We’re going to enforce the rules, but only for you… and you… but wait, not you

The Soft Pack at the TV.com NOW Awards

When I left my house to go to the show, I meticulously checked the fine print. No photography or video? Okay. But did the rules state that cameras would be confiscated? Not at all. I figured I would take my camera — there’s plenty to film during Comic-Con, especially the costumed attendees — but be wary about taking any footage. Aren’t a lot of Comic-Con attendees going to have electronics on them in the first place? If the print is that small and ambiguous, would they really confiscate a camera? I thought I’d be fine. However, when we tried to get through security, two of us were told we couldn’t be let in with the cameras and we couldn’t leave them anywhere. “Leave them outside or something,” the supervisor of security said to us. Luckily, my friend was able to put our stuff in the car.

No later than a few acts in, we found that plenty of people brought recording devices. In fact, at least three people around me had point-and-shoot cameras out in plain site as soon as the bands started playing. Why didn’t security yell at them for having cameras? Hey, I know we’re attending a free event, but why only apply this rule to a few people?

I ended up taking photos on my iPhone anyway.

It can’t be good when your own host turns on you

John Oliver is a brilliant comedian. The guy just kills it up there. But whoever was doing the writing for the program had some serious issues figuring out what was actually appropriate and funny. In our spot, the teleprompter was easily visible; although Oliver didn’t use all of the material, some of it seemed pretty questionable. Some of the jokes included declaring Americans as a society that deems books useless (okay, we could debate this one), portraying viewers of To Catch a Predator as sympathetic for the culprit (really?), and as seen on the teleprompter (but avoided by Oliver), “Americans are idiots.”

It had to have sounded better in the writer’s head than it looked on the teleprompter.

Cast of The Big Bang Theory

Oliver also picked up on the lack of attendees and made some very harsh jokes about how empty the place was. Justified? Totally. Is he going to be invited back to a TV.com event again? Probably not. But his jokes about a scarce audience were just that funny because it was just that true.

Whatever… it was still a good time

While it looked like a pretty decent failure, I’m sure it’s not the only thing out-of-whack for TV.com. I just checked their site to see if anything from today has been posted, and instead of holding off until production was complete, there’s a whole lot of empty going on:

TV.com: lazy web developers?

[Update: I checked back today, several hours later, and there's at least something filling it up until the end product comes out.]

Despite the steep lack of attendance, discordance with venue staffing, and content issues, the show was a blast. V.V. Brown was way better than I anticipated, The Soft Pack totally killed it, and Spoon was just as great as I knew they’d be. In fact, I had the opportunity to chat with lead singer Britt Daniel after the show (pic soon!). I’ve always appreciated when popular musicians take a little bit of time out for their fans. And I snagged my first concert setlist! How cool is that?

Spoon (minus Eric Harvey) rocking out at the TV.com NOW Awards

Could the awards show have been any worse? There’s almost always a worse scenario. But could it have been better? Oh, yes, it could’ve been far better. Another thing that bugged be slightly was that they bragged about Twitter and Facebook exposure and asked us to tweet about the event, but seemingly little idea of how to tie social media into the event (hashtag? Twitter name?). It seems like the event was hastily planned.

Will we see another event like this by TV.com? Who knows, because if I was in charge of setting the TV.com advertising budget, I would not have deemed this event worth the cash they probably spent on it.

[Update: pics! Thanks Derric!]

With my friend Eileen at Spoon

Renee (an awesome, super-dedicated Spoon fan), Britt, and me after the TV.com NOW Awards

Super Ray promo guys!

One Day at Coachella with the Sony bloggie

swedishfish — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 01:41:27 +0000

A beautiful day at Coachella

Last month, I attended Coachella as a guest of Sony. I was only able to attend one day, but you bet it was worth it!

So I had been hearing about this thing called the bloggie (yes, Sony brands it in lower-case) for a few months. My friend Liam won a bloggie at a Sony event and Sukhjit has been showing me what a it could do, and it was finally my chance to check one out. At Coachella, Sony gave me a bloggie to document my time at the festival and basically show just what I could do with it.

Okay, let me tell you: I was psyched. I’ve never really ventured into video; any projects I’ve done were about being in front of the camera or having written content. Any kind of video is something really strange to me and I don’t entirely know what to look for when creating or editing video. Now, not that the bloggie is complicated — it definitely isn’t — I feel like it’s my chance to start learning how to develop an eye for creating and editing video.

I was able to take all kinds of video at Coachella, including a few clips of my favorite band, Spoon, as they performed.

I spent a lot of time just taking clips of the scenery or random little things I think I might string together when I find a good editing program and start playing with my video.

I wish I’d taken more video in HD. I was just so curious about the bloggie and excited to have one in my hand, I just started taking video right away without even changing my settings. Now that I’ve had time to see what I can do with my bloggie, I have learned how to change settings without frustration and how to use the software provided for transferring files to my computer and uploading video to social media services. It’s very user-friendly software and gives me more of an incentive to use my bloggie because I know I’m going to be putting my video and photos somewhere after I record it (I’ve already started a Coachella playlist for my videos on YouTube).

I’d have to say that I also really like the photo quality. I’ve taken some really gorgeous pics with the bloggie, and now I’m glad I have a pro account on Flickr — it’s something I’m going to have to start using again.

Britt Daniel on the big screen at the Coachella Main Stage

Needless to say, I’m pretty happy with my bloggie. I’ll definitely be using it more. What I’ve posted here is nothing compared to what I’ve already recorded. I’m absolutely certain that this will help enhance my blogging. Thanks Sony for the great experience at Coachella and the many opportunities I will have thanks to the bloggie!

Must Read/See/Hear for 5/24

swedishfish — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:24:35 +0000

I’ve been in Florida for the last several days visiting my family, so I don’t have a whole heck of a lot to say besides the fact that I’m really happy to be seeing my parents for the first time in over six months and my brother for the first time in something like ten months. I also have a very good little puppy dog that missed me a lot, too!

Toby, my Shar-Pei

I’ll be back in San Diego by the end of the week — I wish I could stay with my family a bit longer, though. Not long after I get back, I will settle down in a new apartment, and on June 15th, I’ll start a new gig as a project manager. I didn’t think I could manage staying in San Diego, but it looks like San Diego can’t get rid of me just quite yet.

Well, enough about me… what should you check out this week?

MUST READ

I came upon an article discussing the role of hipsters in society and… wait, did I really start out a sentence like that? Believe it or not, there’s some serious discussion out there about hipsters, what they really are, what they do, and what we should think of hipsters. Live and let live, if you ask me, so I’m not one to criticize; however, this article (“What We Talk About When We Talk About Hipsters” in The L Magazine) supports hipsters, if you will, as propagators of culture. I guess.

MUST SEE

There are some neat videos on YouTube commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Annecy Animation Festival. This one was peculiar but pretty neat — check it out:

There are more videos on the festival’s YouTube channel.

MUST HEAR

I caught a cute little advertisement for Schwinn bicycles and really loved the song they used. It’s called “Just a Dream” by AM60.

Must Read/See/Hear for 5/17

swedishfish — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:03:57 +0000

I know, I know… been a while since I’ve done this. I am finding that it’s a lot more difficult to maintain a weekly series than you’d think.

So I’ll make it short and sweet this Monday.

Chocolate and Fig Preserve Cupcakes

MUST READ

If you like food blogs, this one is a definitely a Must Read: 80 Breakfasts, written by a woman based in the Philippines, is a great food blog of very unique and tasty recipes that go beyond breakfast. One of the recent recipes posted was quinoa pudding with mango and pineapple, preceded by a recipe for fried eggplant with sumac and garlic yogurt dip. How can you go wrong with that? While the titles sometimes sound complicated, the author breaks down the recipes with simple explanations and fascinating stories about food.

Other recipes I really want to try? The Greek-style patani/lima beans, salmon and salsa verde pasta, the chocolate and fig preserve cupcakes, and the creamy mushroom and onion omelette.

MUST SEE

Ellen Degeneres caused a little bit of a stir with Apple for poking fun at the iPhone. I love my iPhone and think it’s wonderful, but after seeing the satirical advertisement she did on her show, I don’t think it was much to get in a tizzy about. Ellen apologized — she really didn’t need to, if you as kme — and I suppose Apple is satisfied now.

MUST HEAR

I saw the Gorillaz play Coachella in April (I know, post still forthcoming!) and one of my favorite tracks was “Stylo” from the new album Plastic Beach. The music video is pretty great — Bruce Willis! — and the beat is catchy. Plastic Beach is certainly growing on me.

The official YouTube videos for “”Stylo” are disabled for embedding, but you can check out the video at the WBRU blog.

Aubrey Sacco still missing in Nepal

swedishfish — Sun, 16 May 2010 22:58:38 +0000

Aubrey Sacco, missing in Nepal

Aubrey Sacco did not board her plane on Saturday and is still missing in Nepal.

Members of her family are planning on traveling to Nepal to continue the search for their daughter while it appears that no leads have led them any closer to finding her.

I check every day, several times a day, to see if there is any more news about the search. While things get more and more serious by the day, I’m holding on to positive thoughts that Aubrey will be back on a plane to Colorado in no time and that she will be reunited with her family. Personally, it’s given me some perspective and has made me think a lot about the most important things in life. It really makes me want to go back and visit my parents soon. I can’t imagine what her parents, Paul and Connie, are going through, and how her brothers are dealing with this stress.

Please, please keep tweeting, blogging, and posting on Facebook about Aubrey. The more we can get word out that Aubrey is still missing, the better chance we have of getting information that may help find her.

Aubrey’s family continues to make updates on the Facebook group dedicated to sharing information about her disappearance. The Sacco family stresses that this is the best source of information for updates on Aubrey’s whereabouts.

Also, big thanks to Elephant Journal for continuing to tweet about Aubrey and publishing a post about her disappearance. This has helped get a lot of exposure, make a lot of good connections, and gain advice for where Aubrey may have gone.

Help find Aubrey Sacco, 23, missing in Nepal

swedishfish — Tue, 11 May 2010 02:28:38 +0000

Aubrey Sacco, Boulderite and Colorado native, missing in Nepal

This afternoon I received a text from my brother: “Can you retweet my last tweet? Morgan Sacco’s sister is missing in Nepal.”

I remembered instantly who Ryan was talking about. I didn’t know her well, but I saw Aubrey on the CU campus probably only a handful of times. Regardless, it scared me right out of my sleepy stupor; she had been traveling in southeast Asia on her own. I checked Ryan’s Twitter account and found a link to the Facebook group, where people have been posting messages of support and the membership has been growing steadily. Aubrey’s cousin Amanda has asked people to spread the word, especially on social media, so we can find people who can help.

Aubrey’s last verified location was at Shyabrubesi on April 20, where she checked in before her trek and after she arrived from a bus trip from Kathmandu. She was trekking the Langtang region and planning on taking a popular route from the Lonely Planet guide. She was supposed to be back by April 30 or May 1, when her parents expected to have heard back from her — but nobody has heard from her.

Aubrey Sacco

Since then, there have been strikes in Nepal — strikes that have shut down shops, transportation, and services all over the country. There’s a strong likelyhood that Aubrey has been unable to contact family because of these strikes, but the Saccos still want to find their daughter is and it’s the community’s duty to help make it happen.

I rang up (okay, direct-messaged) the Elephant Journal with a plea: please help! Knowing that readers of the Elephant Journal not only care about the well-being of a valued member of the spiritual community, but may even know others who can help find Aubrey, I figured it would be one of the best ways to spread the word on social media.

Waylon got back to me in minutes. He said he’d publish something if I could get it to him this afternoon. After getting ahold of Connie, Aubrey’s mother, I had a detailed explanation of the circumstances and a piece to go with. Also, the Daily Camera was looking for information. By evening, the Daily Camera / Colorado Daily, Greeley Tribune, and the Elephant Journal all had information about Aubrey posted on their sites. Faithful Elephant Journal readers are tweeting and re-tweeting about Aubrey.

Today I have seen a huge demonstration of community and I’m hoping that this continues. The Saccos are a good family and they deserve to see their daughter step off the plane on May 15, when she is scheduled to come back home.

Before then — and I mean, right NOW — please spread the word. Pass these links along. Tweet about it. Join the Facebook group. Do whatever you can do get this message around the world and in the hands of people who might be able to help.

UPDATE: The Denver Post is also writing about Aubrey and I’ve included the link below.

UPDATE, pt. 2: The Greeley Tribune has published a piece about Aubrey for the Tuesday edition. Link below.

UPDATE, pt. 3: I’ve added a few more blog posts and television coverage.

Six months in San Diego

swedishfish — Sun, 09 May 2010 16:23:22 +0000

Ocean Beach, San Diego

Six months. I’m still in California, but I have no idea where I’ll be in a month.

I arrived in sunny San Diego on November 8, 2009 with no idea what to expect. Had you asked me then where I’d be in six months, I’d have given you an answer quite different from reality. And that’s okay, because I’m enjoying it. I’m learning a lot and it’s just what I needed.

What’s next? I’m excited to find out.

Busy Little Bee: a quick update!

swedishfish — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 08:34:57 +0000

A worn-down jennyjenjen at Coachella

For a few weeks now, I have been silly busy. I’ve even been too busy to post a Must Read/See/Hear update; there’s just so much going on, like moving, finding a job, and attending boatloads of events.

It’s been nice being busy. My mind has generally been occupied with the future, my ambitions, what I need to do to succeed at this point in my life, and actually, the relationships I have around me that keep me balanced and sane. While I get a little frustrated every day, I’m also in this very great period of personal growth — and I’m getting outside of my comfort zone, just like I intended to by moving to San Diego.

Anyhow, I thought I’d post on my blog for several reasons: first, Butch keeps bugging me about my Must Read/See/Hear series (which shall return even as soon as this Monday); second, I should definitely keep this remotely updated and post something during the month of April; and third, I wanted to post a rundown of all the fun things I’ve been doing this month that will appear on the blog within the next few weeks.

So what will I be eagerly writing about soon?

One Day Coachella 2010 with my Sony bloggie. This has to be one of the coolest things I’ve done in a while! I had the opportunity to attend Coachella 2010 for just one day, and thanks to Sony Electronics, I had the opportunity of capturing it with a bloggie.
Getting a makeup tutorial by Estie. Estie of Estie’s International showed me (and a few other ladies!) how to apply makeup in a way that flatters the shape of my face without looking overdone, and then he sent us home with some goodies so we could test our newly-acquired skills ourselves!
Attending yoga classes at Corepower Yoga. Thanks to a week-long free trial at Corepower Yoga from Sugar Jones, I was able to try some yoga classes. Funny — I never took yoga classes while living in Boulder, CO, but after trying it at Corepower, I like it!
Attending the Influence SD awards. I was the lucky winner of two floor tickets for the first annual Influence SD, thanks to Someday I’ll Learn. It was the first event of its kind that I’d ever been to, and I had a blast!

Phew. That’s a lot, really. How many exclamation points did I use there? (No, really… don’t count.) April really has been an extremely exciting month for me, and I’m hoping that it only gets better as May rolls around.

And with that, I’ll also have plenty about being a complete fangirl and getting the chance to meet Spoon. (Yes, I met Britt Daniel! And I kept my composure!)

Until then, this busy little bee needs her beauty rest…

Must Read/See/Hear for 3/29

swedishfish — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:07:10 +0000

Why does Monday always sneak up on me?

This week is not much different, except that I’m extremely happy to be starting out a new week after getting locked out of my car, spending loads of time on a perfect job application for a position that was filled anyways, and almost running out of gas on the freeway. This week just has to be better than the last!

Anyhow, I figure some politics, gigantic iPhones, and a great song from an awesome Denver band will make for an excellent start to the week.

P.S. It’s my kid brother’s birthday. Go say hi to him.

Frank Rich (from nytimes.com)

MUST READ

Turns out I wasn’t the only person who compared the post-HCR victory threats on Democratic lawmakers to der Kristallnacht; New York Times columnist Frank Rich echoed such comparisons as he described the violent, ‘pitchfork’ mentality exhibited by opponents of health care reform.

How curious that a mob fond of likening President Obama to Hitler knows so little about history that it doesn’t recognize its own small-scale mimicry of Kristallnacht. The weapon of choice for vigilante violence at Congressional offices has been a brick hurled through a window. So far.

According to Rich, these sentiments are not actually about the health care bill itself — instead, it’s a sign that the Right is afraid of change. I’m inclined to agree with his perspective; Rich notes that the outrage over the health care bill is disproportionate compared to the actual terms of the bill, much of which has been amended to be more cooperative with Republican opponents and some of which even follows the structure of GOP-sponsored legislation.

I don’t disagree with Rich on this point. I really do feel that the incendiary attacks on Democrats are not really about health care itself; for one, many Americans don’t seem to actually understand the bill (it’s not socialism!), and two, the lack of articulation expressed by many opponents have me inclined to believe that the inability to argue points with reason means that opponents just don’t have solid, legitimate reasons to argue the bill.

Anyhow, regardless of your stance on this, it’s an interesting read.

credit: Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

MUST SEE

If you’re into iPhones, this is quite nearly a dream come true: Del Mar startup MeLLmo has managed to supersize the iPhone to demonstrate its Roambi business intelligence app.

For those of us who love our iPhones, what could be better than a gigantic iPhones? (That’s actually a pretty rhetorical question.) I mean… for those of us who love our iPhones, what could be better — besides actually being able to get decent coverage from a particular, cough, provider — than a gigantic iPhone?

By the way, yes — this is nearly a fully-functioning iPhone, with just about everything going for it besides the snap-zoom function. Because I’m a cool kid and know people, I have to say that I’m uncertain how this didn’t hit techie news sites or blogs before this mention. I hope I’ll get to see one of these someday, because I’m also aware of other gigantic iPhone out there. In fact, somebody made an iPhone costume once before — but unlike MeLLmo’s version, it looks like they have to be operated through the phone itself.

MUST HEAR

My friend John Common has a band called Blinding Flashes of Light, and in January they released a new album entitled Beautiful Empty for the enjoyment of the masses. My favorite track from the album is “Don’t Follow Virginia,” and I have it here for your listening pleasure. I highly suggest two things: 1) visiting John’s site and downloading the entire album, and 2) following John on Twitter (@johncommon) for a daily dose of random musings and occasional hilarity.