In 6th grade, I was Rod Serling

My 6th grade teacher, Mr. Crell, had a yearly tradition where he’d produce a video, by his students, for the entire school. A play or short story would be chosen that his class would act out and he would direct. My class got the educational experience of putting together a production of a Twilight Zone episode titled “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”.

After watching the original, we had a discussion over some of its themes, how they might apply in our lives, and they reflected on our country’s history. The take away was that fear and paranoia were dangerous, and could be used to manipulate us. I had the honor of playing Rod Serling. Honestly, I probably got the part because I didn’t want to be on camera all that much, and I spoke very clear and deliberate back then, in an effort to overcome a speech impediment.

Like Pax it was a small pleasure hearing it referenced in one of Keith Olbermann’s commentaries last week. This one, particularly impassioned, having to do with 9/11’s fifth anniversary. It fit well. Sadly.

If you haven’t watched yet, well just take a few minutes.

Rough Week

And an exciting one. There is a possibility of a huge – and terrific – life changing event, in the near future. I’ll share if it happens. Maybe still if it doesn’t.

In the meantime, I’ve missed some work due to a nasty cold (with sniffles and cough), that led me to miss this month’s monthly blogger meetup, and to fall behind on sharing a bunch of conversations I’ve been involved in recently.

Some can be found in my latest post on media 2.0/publishing 2.0/whatwascalllednewmediabutnowisn’t at Philly Future, including links to interesting reading on copyright, RSS, the A-list, and more.

Also of note is part 1 of a report on where things stand at Philly Future.

We interrupt this quiet blog for an announcement

Remember – today is election day. Get out and vote.

Now we return you to your regularly scheduled …. ummm…

Seriously – I’ve been far to busy at work, with Philly Future and with other matters to update this personal site this past week or so. It’s important to keep focused and I’m not going to let my compulsion to blog get in the way (sounds like I’m convincing myself don’t it?). But it’s true – I’ve gotten a terrific amount done this past week.

In other news however – my band plays the Hollywood Bistro this Saturday. Hope to see you there.