Archive for the ‘Media’ Category
There are plenty of people speaking out over the perceived harshness in the Chinese ‘Tiger Moms’ child rearing style. With near epidemic school bullying, little girls in kitten heels and make-up and our boys struggling in school with record low grades perhaps all is not going so well in North American homes either.
I had an English upbringing; a child rearing style that lacked in spontaneous hugging and trips to amusement parks; along with a zero tolerance for whining and not eating one’s
vegetables. There were rules and there was discipline. On the other side of the coin talking things through and being heard was only a cup of tea away. I was loved in that ‘we are here when you need us, always do your best, try everything once and treat people with respect’ way.
The world’s children can not be bought up in a universally approved homogenized process. Cultural differences in raising a family shouldn’t bring with it an assumption that being strict translates into an absence of humour or love.
Maintaining a steady grade average, taking part in carefully chosen extra curricular activities as well as learning good manners, deference to personal boundaries and self-reliance aren’t old fashioned they make for a well adjusted adult. Without these traits many of today’s ready to enter the work force young adults are about to learn that the world doesn’t have time for their poor inter-personal and communication skills, inability to empathize and over inflated sense of self.
With Your Biscotti & Coffee
Continuing our look at the younger generation …………
1) Peggy Orenstein’s Cinderella Ate My Daughter. To purchase amazon.com
2) Before heading off to college some students are going out into the world to expereince adventure and volunteerism. Is the gap year worth it? by Sean Gregory
3) Can Google Earth enhance the reading experience for students? What the Joads Saw by Vanessa Farquharson
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Recently I read an opinion piece by Barbara Yaffe entitled PM’s wife stepping out of the shadows then I check the top of the newspaper to make sure I hadn’t regressed in time. The repetitious ‘wife of’ along with phrases such as ‘becoming chatelaine of 24 Sussex avenue’ & ‘highly judicious manner’ had the role of the PM’s wife playing out like a political version of Father Knows Best.
While the US title for the president’s spouse of First Lady is not great; it has definition and in that capacity she does have the support and lee way to define the role and subsequent contributions during the President’s term.
Compare Michelle Obama on the White House website to Lauren Harper on the Prime Minister’s of Canada website. For balance we can look at the more traditional first lady, Laura Bush and what she accomplished during her years in the White House.
What is keeping the Prime Minister’s wives from fulfilling the potential of their position? Is it an outdated political protocol in Ottawa, type casting by the press or the personality types of the wives themselves?
One day a Canadian first lady will give that role the depth that it deserves; which is not as the article suggests about being a media personality nor is it about enhancing a husband’s political image. It is recognizing the opportunity to make a difference, leave an imprint in Canadian history and when the children ask what did you do while daddy was Prime Minister the answer is not going to be “Making sure that no one noticed me”.
With Your Biscotti & Coffee
Instead of An Interesting Woman I thought that I would end the year with a few good men and the choices may surprise you.
1. There is little doubt that the old style of politics is gradually and thankfully becoming a thing of the past. Today’s young politicians like Newark’s new mayor are running their cities from the streets. Is Cory Booker the Greatest Mayor in America? by Lucy Kaylin makes you believe in the future of some of America’s defunct cities.
2. South Africa no longer has the wisdom and steady hand of two of its most revered statesmen. In October at the age of 79 Archbishop Desmond Tutu retired. Nelson Mandela is 92 and November of this year his foundation asked that the public allow him to have a peaceful retirement.
3. At number four is the often abrasive, sometimes inarticulate Prince Charles. Recently interviewed by Brain Williams there is no doubt that above all else he has accomplished a lot through The Prince’s Charities and has been a visionary when it comes to the environment and organic farming.
In high school I fell into the ‘not’ group not athletic, not cute, not artistic, not particularly scholastic. As my parents travelled a lot I was also the new girl. Needless to say I was on the receiving end of unkind comments and jabs. Bullying didn’t have the virtual element back then but being the intended target of weak and insensitive people is painful.
I came out of childhood with a strong sense of my own individuality. Conformists bored me back then and still do today. People with a well developed sense of self ; will dine alone, visit countries as travellers not tourists, don’t have perfect faces and are really interesting to talk to.
Recently I got a chance to sit down and watch Avatar. It amazed me that one man could create this other world with such attention to detail. I wondered about James Cameron; was his childhood lived through his imagination or was he a jock? As bullying reaches a near crisis point this is the time when the heads of companies, scientists, artists, writers should come out and say “I didn’t belong to a popular group. I was the kid standing alone in the playground, the boy who loved to dance or the quiet girl reading in the corner of the library.”
We need to get the message out that being unique and different is ok. That it is often the loner who best leaves their distinctive mark on the world.
I do it in the evening; Chris prefers to do it with his morning coffee. We have two delivered every day; the Calgary Herald and the National Post; when I am out & about I buy the Globe & Mail. In spite of all our efforts articles abound that the newspaper industry is in peril.
Is this slump in sales, partially due to different generational tastes yes, and it is also about lifestyle. Everyday I revel in, utilize and thoroughly enjoy the technology that puts the world at my figure tips. It allows me no limitations to where I can take both my coaching company and online magazine. However when it comes time to relax I prefer the print media format.
I don’t think we are seeing an end of print media so much as a time of rebirth. “We have a generation that is consuming information in totally different ways” says news anchor Kevin Newman in an interview that talks about his decision to leave his on air news job in order to explore the world of digital media. (Read Crossing digital divide, interview by Karen Mazurkewich)
Time’s Managing Editor Richard Stengel recently announced that ‘For the first time since the magazine’s birth in 1923, we will soon be delivering the entire contents of TIME to paying customers in a radically different way: as a self-contained application that you can download to the iPad. (From Ushering In a New Era)
Even though the competion for readership numbers is no longer about who has the news box on the corner of main and 1st street; the media companies are still choosing to handle the issues in a singularly autonomous fashion. Will the different media apps for devices such as the Blackberry or pay for content on the Internet prove to be the sustaining solution? Of all the articles being written on this subject, James Poniewozik sums up the current situation best in his editorial All the News That’s Fit to Mint
I think tackling the insatiable need for information and news in today’s world with a more united or partnering approach might prove to be the beginning of a solution for the media’s woes; in other words to go where no newspapers have gone before.
With Your Biscotti & Coffee
1) There was once a time when I would plow through any book, now I have to agree with Sonya Chung the list of books that I haven’t finished has increased. From her column in The 
Millions blog read Sonya’s post – It’s Not You, It’s Me: Breaking Up With Books.
2) Things are so troubled for the Roman Catholic Church that it is easy to forget that there are some truly heroic nuns and priests doing some remarkable work in the world. From the NY Times Who Can Mock This Church? by Nicholas D. Kristof
3) Does your dog like to rock to Bono or is your cat more of a jazz fan? If you don’t think that they have a preference check out the world’s first Music fof Dogs concert, article by Amy Coopes.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is currently showing “Renoir in the 20th Century” ; until May 9th when it moves to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In true Renoir style many of the women that he painted are voluptuous. While his paintings are a little vapid for my taste his female models are glorious in their natural and often nude beauty. One can only hope that families and schools take advantage of exhibitions such as these so that we can remember that the human body is really quite spectacular.
While this LA museum is celebrating the Renoir’s females down the highway television executives decided that a Lane Bryant plus size lingerie commercial should not appear on certain shows in specific time slots.
“According to Lane Bryant, the ad was rejected from a number of programs that would air at 9:00 p.m. including Dancing with the Stars, Game Shows, America’s Funniest Videos, Extreme Makeover, Home Edition and Wipeout …………..”
So why the puritanical censorship when it comes to this company? The model, lingerie and filming are all stunning. One must assume that they object to the plus size cleavage but if we ignore for a minute the sales pitch perspective are not commercials just another form of modern artistic expression?
In 2210 when the Philadelphia Museum of Art is exhibiting ‘Women of the Early 21st Century” will it truly reflect what we see as we dress every morning. For centuries art has been about the portrayal of the authentic female form but perhaps I am wrong and ABC knows better.
Written by a sublimely less than perfect woman
When it comes to my choice of television shows this season I seem to be experiencing some symptoms of having a multiple personality.
Love The Good Wife for all the right reasons; from the story lines, the clothes, to its strong female characters and if that isn’t enough I watch just to see how Christine Baranski can punctuate the end of a sentence with her expressive eyebrows.
Stepping back in time I confess to enjoying the very lusty and bloody Spartacus: Blood & Sand. Step aside Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) the Emmy goes to John Hannah as Batiatus. This role takes him from supportive roles to carrying the majority of scenes and story line and he does that exceptionally well. In my defense for having this 18A rated show on my list it was a lusty and bloodied time……….wasn’t it?
Tom Hanks & Steven Spielberg have another classic with The Pacific. Done with the same finesse and attention to every detail as Band of Brothers, this is a great series. When the camera puts you right on the battle field you want to turn away but you cannot because if those young men can face the death and agony so can we.
In between these TV shows I am trying to read AS Byatt’s The Children’s Book; many reviews call it absorbing, I’ll let you know. So far it is a bit hard to get into. I will say that some basic knowledge of Edwardian England and an interest in the same is a prerequisite for reading this book. Thank goodness I have all those Masterpiece Theater shows behind me!
With Your Biscotti & Coffee
This week I am bringing you a film site, a book and some perspective on reality TV.
1) The Auteurs, an online movie theater and gathering place for film lovers
http://www.theauteurs.com/dashboard
2) What’s Right with Reality TV by James Poniewozik
I was first going to skim this article because I thought it would be just about the reality shows but he went deeper; touching on generational and social changes which proved interesting.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1963739,00.html
3) This Book is Overdue by Marilyn Johnson
For all the closet librarians out there or info junkies like me this book looks perfect.
http://www.thisbookisoverdue.com/This_Book_Is_Overdue/Stop_Here_First.html
Check out the Librarian Blogs page.
International, US, Canadian that is the order in which I process information. Doing this when I read the newspaper is easy but when it comes to the internet it has become more of a challenge.
I have my IE browsers set for the US but an annoying pop up window keeps asking me if I want to go to the Canadian home page. I tell it ‘not to show me this again’ but every time they update it comes back. On Mozilla I finally get my Google search beaten into submission so it is set to Google.com not Google.ca. Then the same thing happens, an update and I’m back to square one. It is not that I have anything against local content but most of the time I need search results that cover a broad spectrum. In an attempt to be user friendly the companies that dominate this internet are also making the world less easy to access.
So what is happening to the World Wide Web? The use of www is now outdated, we no longer put it in our urls and everything related to it falls under the term Internet. Maintaining search engine optimization in today’s virtual world gets more & more complex and with that we often lose smaller but no less valuable sites.
Canada’s Privacy Commission has taken on FaceBook and more recently Google over privacy issues. Which is fine, intellectually I get it but the creeping in of government interference to ‘protect’ my interests can be a double edged sword. As they legislated Canadian simulcast commercials into the American stations (that I am paying for) will I one day turn on my computer to find that I only have access to a watered down version of certain sites that are seen as breaking Canada’s privacy laws.
The BBC is currently airing SUPERPOWER: Exploring the extraordinary power of the internet. A title that reminds us how we should neither take the Internet for granted nor try to harness its future potential.
With Your Biscotti & Coffee
1) Moms De Plume
Children’s books take on a new dimension with The Mischievous Mom at the Art Gallery
March 12th edition of the National Post
2) Sanitary pads…… made out of bananas?
While the title is a little humorous and wonderfully green, the motivation behind this product is a serious one. That thousands of women and girls around the world cannot go to school or work because they don’t have sanitary napkins.
Read the article & Watch the video Marie Claire Magazine
3) The Judy Project
Breaking down how the stereotyping of women in the work world is still prevalent
Recently the New York Times asked “How do you decide to get rid of a book.” The answers from six authors and one book store owner are worth reading if you too are the ‘ I would rather read than have sex, what bestsellers are on sale this week, I want to die in my favorite book store’ kind of person.
Which books we get rid of goes to the root of what type of readers we are. I read fiction and biographies to relax and for the escapism into a different life and someone else’s reality. If I don’t like it I pass it on or take it to the second hand book store. I am not snobbish about my library; hardback, trade paperback or written in the margins from a garage sale if I enjoyed reading it….it stays.
As a business coach business books get rotated quickly as they have to be current. There are of course the classics that all entrepreneurs should read such as: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson, The E-Myth by Michael Gerber or the timeless Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich
The majority of life self-help books are overly clichéd and devoid of any genuine long term life solutions, unless it is exceptionally thorough I don’t buy much of the self-improvement genre. This criterion makes it easy to maintain a manageable selection.
While I have a minimalist attitude when to clutter in general, obviously this doesn’t seen to apply when it comes to books.There are piles in the living room and dining room, my office shelves are full and what does the top of my beautiful antique bedside table look like any way? I’ll just put a basket underneath to catch the spill off and stop it from groaning.
I can definitely relate to Joshua Ferris sentiments in his last line of the NY Times piece “………..I leave and come back, and the books I find there tell me I’m home.”
I must also confess that while I will not read about what famous people are wearing, eating or where they vacation; I am curious about what books they are reading. So Lesley Jane Seymour , Al Gore, Rahm Emanuel, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Michaëlle Jean, Angela Merkel what are you taking to bed?