Michael Sikorsky, CEO of Cambrian House software, may be mistaken as a man of maxims:"Cambrian House; its like open source but with money.""If nobody hates it, nobody will love it.""Act as if Karma exists." Listening to Michael at a recent DMAA event in Calgary, Alberta , one could tell that there was more than maxims and slogans to his vibe. Cambrian House is a crowdsource software company with some bright ideas in the web & software space. Michael clearly has an plan for the start, middle and end-game of his ventures. He lays out some interesting plans for marketing and product development in this presentation. Products can fulfill needs -- "vitamins", solve problems -- "pain killers" or create new categories -- "viagra", of which the Blackberry is a classic technology based example. Listen to Michael as he explains tech marketing and company development in a way that you have never heard before. What's Michael's "bias for action"? How mass collaboration can change everything. Recorded live by Brad Gibson with great thanks to the Board of the DMAA and Michael Sikorsky. This content is evergreen and is suggested for those interested in:
This web radio podcast originates from the Current Thinking Radio site at www.ctiweb.net and from the Bradcast, podcasting since 2004 at www.bradfordgibson.net .
When you think about technology leaders one of the names that often comes up is Robert Scoble.
Scoble doesn't run a company, he's not a developer, he hasn't launched an IPO or invented a ubiquitous interface. On the other hand, when you think about conversations in the technical space, Scoble's book "Naked Conversations" does define marketing and interaction in the web and blogging space. Robert Scoble exercises web leadership through his involvement, his curiosity and his enthusiasm.
I caught up with Robert after a long day at Northern Voice 2007 in Vancouver. We talked about what is working for him in his latest videos, the character of Northern Voice, entrepreneurship and recent changes in his career.
Victor Cajiao of the Typical Mac User has posted his latest podcast and yours truly has about 4 minutes in the show. Towards the end of the show I talk about Synergy, which is a great open source software tool for replacing a KVM switch. Synergy also allows cutting and pasting between different operating systems. I use it all the time between my tablet and my MacBook.
Thanks Victor for the podcast and thanks for helping me with the switch.
Just a reminder... The Bradcast is gone but my new series of podcasts is available at www.currentthinkingradio.com.
The latest Current Thinking Radio podcast features a chat with Robert Scoble. Please take a visit to the new podcast site and subscribe to the podcast at ctiweb.net/rss.xml.
Update: ... and the mp3 for the Robert Scoble interview is available here now too because of download problems at ctiweb.net...
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Scoble Robert Scoble
This year's Northern Voice -- the 2007 edition -- was a great event. In terms of the things I wanted to get accomplished:
Chris Pirillo -- who I have butted heads with in the past over at techpodcasts.com -- was also at NorthernVoice but in something of a more exhausted state. Chris popped in later Saturday morning, I was hoping to get a few minutes of his time for the podcast but he was not in a talkative mood. I told him how I felt his writing was getting richer, more on point; which I attribute to his marriage. Chris thanked me profusely and apologized for not being more engaged at NorthernVoice. He explained it to me and here is his explanation for you.
And here is something else I got at NorthernVoice -- 2 days off work when I really need to be at the office. It seems like a lot of us got sick there. On Tuesday a fever of 38.5. Very memorable.
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Photo by Eric Eggertson of commonsensepr.com
One of the guys I really wanted to meet at Northern Voice this year was Derek K Miller of penmachine.com. Alas, it looks like Derek needs a few more days of rest before he gets back to the normal rhythm and readies himself for the next round of treatment.
So Derek, for me, NV2007 will not be quite the same because I will not be seeing the guy who gives so generously with his music, his sound knowledge and his insights. Instead, Derek decided he had to give something more this year. Now we're all learning in detail what it's like to develop awareness and mastery over the cancer that he, his body, family and doctors are fighting. What a team! Thank you for your leadership, your inspiration and -- even though it can be ugly and unpleasant -- your courage in telling the tale. Our friend Mike beat it a couple of years ago and so can you.
Update: Derek made it out for a few hours after the Saturday session. It was great to see him, Read Derek's post about the night here and see the back of my head in this picture with Buzz Bruggeman and Will Pate.
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It was a day of MooseCamp fun but the big dividend was our table of four at Vancouver's Shiro -- which roughly translated means "great Sushi". How I ended up sitting with Buzz Bruggeman, Robert Scoble and Maryam Scoble had more to do with Buzz's leadership and the small size of the restaurant than anything I did, but sometimes you just have to show up.
So what do you want to know?
The blogging community -- those that really believe this is a discussion not an elevator pitch -- know that we're all here to engage. We talked. What else can I say. Maryam is a compelling woman; charming and delightful. Robert is pensive, which may mistakenly be taken as aloofness. Buzz is engaging, articulate, a leader and an encyclopedia of personal experience. Buzz remembers things and he pulses with the connectedness of our digital age. When you sit and eat raw fish with these folks you know why the digital web can never match the analog stimulus of eye contact and great conversation.
When it's your turn to have dinner with Buzz and the Scobles, don't think about what you need to do to get a link, be noticed or sound controversial. You made it to the table; you are part of the tribe. Be prepared to listen. Ask questions. Some of the things you are doing may or may not be relevant. That's okay, we're having a conversation here.
Thank you very much Robert, Maryam and Buzz.
PS: Robert, we will hold a night open for you in Calgary when you come through this spring for the W3C. Come on Calgary bloggers and podcasters let's treat Robert to great dinner!
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Buzz Bruggeman Robert Scoble Maryam Scoble
Boris and the cooking crew got us going with the grub and Lee LeFever charmed with a NASCAR intro to his world wide odyssey. This could only be Northern Voice.
Hey, if you want a micro-view of the kind of stuff that goes on here then picture Keith Bao and I raving and lamenting about the wonders of drupal. Keith loves the platform for the obvious community functions and that's really important for his over 700 player Vancouver Dodgeball League. Man, if the web had existed when I was a twelve year old dodgeball savant who knows how far I could have gone.
MooseCamp tomorrow and then the "real" conference stuff on Saturday, stay tuned.
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Jennifer Hudson is a cinematic delight and sonic wonder but prior to 2006 one of the greatest songs of our age was the sole property of one artist. Sure, hundreds have sung the role in revivals, reviews, at clubs and amateur productions. Yes, it has been recorded by others but only one woman in history has the definitive, the undeniable, the ultimate rendering.
That woman is Jennifer Holliday.
I remember hearing the record for the first time early in 1982 at the request of a friend who was an inveterate music buyer. He bought everything and he raved about everything. Having heard his admonitions in the past I figured the record was probably okay but I distinctly remember being staggered the first time I heard Jennifer Holliday singing And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going. You remember things about your life and your situation when you hear your favourite music. Holliday set me in an era the first time I heard the song. I knew this was probably the most powerful performance I had heard on record to that point in my life. I liked Ms. Ross, I had heard Billie Holliday, Mahalia Jackson, Aretha, dozens of others. It was an era of anthemic singers; Grace Jones, Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer, Cheryl Lynn, etc., etc. etc. Holliday, with one song -- a single recording -- set a new bar.
Content in this post originates from www.bradfordgibson.net.
What must have the first renderings of Holliday's interpretation sounded like? Jennifer Hudson has said that Henry Krieger taught her the song one on one at the piano "just like he did with Jennifer Holliday". Aside from the terror of knowing that for Hudson, just imagine how those first few run-throughs must have developed. In the late '70's and early '80's Krieger and Bennet had something in mind for the song -- and while Nell Carter was an early candidate for Effie -- they knew they needed Holliday to do it; she walked out on work-shops at least twice and they kept bringing her back. Performance rarely gets a perfect combination of lyric, melody, tutelage and interpretation. Who's idea was it that Holliday's interpretation would literally span the entire performance genre of American music in 4 minutes? It's almost preposterous to think they would have tried and yet it's there; devotional, soul, rock, swing, jazz, blues. Check out how Holliday is able change gears at the 2:07 mark in the original cast recording to go from blues to a blistering soul as she emotes "Tear down the mountains, Yell, scream and shout." The song begins with three symbolic bell-like tolls and cascades to a tumultuous torrent with Holliday's plaintive repeat of the title phrase at the 2:27 mark -- it is a spine tingling moment of the most raw and dynamic energy ever laid down on a track.
Holliday is literally living the song and we believe her every time we hear it.
There are flashes of great art in Dreamgirls that leave the student slack-jawed with awe. The movie is framed by one such piece that is both perfect in its symmetry and poetic with its foreshadowing. At the start of Dreamgirls four sisters sing together at a talent show, they are not the Dreamgirls. At the end of the movie we see four different women -- four "sistahs" -- singing together and they are no longer the Dreamgirls; they are saying goodbye. The movie says hello and goodbye with startling clarity and a clear sense of purpose. This movie has been made with a goal in mind and with devotion to the source material. Another elegant touch can be found in the lyrical twist built into the two versions of "One Night Only". In Effie's offering, she sings about how her lover of one night does not have any more time for her. In the Dreams rendition by Deena Jones, the lyric is turned on its ear; now it is the singer, Deena, who doesn't have any more than one night for her latest conquest. While this touch does exist in the original Broadway musical, we would expect Hollywood to squelch a detail like this -- they are lacking in so much of what we watch in movies now -- it almost seems like a bonus when somebody bothers to put the effort into making the small touches that render real symbolism in the story.
Content in this post originates from www.bradfordgibson.net.
One of the performers who seems so willing to accept the significance and depth of the roles in Dreamgirls is Eddie Murphy. Murphy has astounded for years with his ease and flow on screen and yet he has never appeared in anything great. James "Thunder" Early is Murphy's greatest role, a perfect showcase for a man who should have and should be taking better parts. Murphy almost succeeds in erasing his most questionable choices of roles with his redemptive performance. His Early is tragic, sympathetic and conflictingly comedic. Murphy's skill is in his understanding and ultimate surrender to the part; it stands in perfect contradiction to the dumb-founded Jamie Foxx, who, as in Jarhead, seems utterly incapable of determining what he is doing; in the part, on screen and in the overall context of the story.
A similar criticism has been leveled at the acting ingenue Beyonce. Here, however, Condon found the right person. Beyonce's on-screen quizzical looks perfectly fit the climbing ambitions of the thin and "perfect" Deena. Beyonce never comes close to establishing a relationship with her audience beyond the lense, she is in love with the camera and herself, unwittingly she plays a uniquely correct Deena. Beyonce's reedy voice and undisciplined lack of breath control have been superbly exploited by the director and musical producers.
In contrast Jennifer Hudson does not even seem to notice the camera, she connects and offers compelling visuals throughout the movie. Hudson's voice is also exemplary, although her ability to interpret some of the songs is questionable. Where her interpretation and power could not encompass the universe of the original Dreamgirls themes, the cinematography steps in to render a new interpretation. In the later parts of the And I'm Telling You... scene, a flat-footed, bare legged and bruised Hudson performs for an empty room. Amidst the mirrors, the lights, the stage Hudson is not an iconic performer, she becomes a frail and angry child in an adult body. She is scorned and scornful at the same time and takes And I'm Telling You in a more personal direction. It has been reported that four versions of the song were interpreted by Hudson, the team chose the right one for her on screen. In all, Dreamgirls fulfills an essential requirement for great art, it creates a cohesive link between the story, the lyrics, the music, the times and its cast. Dreamgirls, the movie combines smaller pieces of art and design into a more complete whole.
Tomorrow: The Jennifer
In an industry so utterly devoid of an ethical center, a humanistic soul and a purposeful mission, Dreamgirls astounds with an artful combination of flash, brilliance and truth amidst a sea of dis-belief suspending artifices. Why shouldn't it? Dreamgirls is ostensibly about the entertainment industry and about the only thing the entertainment industry ever gets right is itself. Remember how perfect everything felt about the era in Cameron Crowe's, Almost Famous? Well Dreamgirls is a genre picture like that with nearly maniacal dedication to art and symbolism thrown in for good measure.
Content in this post originates from www.bradfordgibson.net.
Of course there's more to Dreamgirls than the Hollywood treatment the original musical gets. There is, of course, the terribly important, gut wrenchingly important, important importance of it all against the back-drop of the greatest disease culling artistic terror since the Black Death. Can we ignore what Jennifer Holliday's monumental rendering of And I'm Telling You... has come to symbolize with the passing years? Rendered in honour of the memories of both lyricist Tom Eyen and director Michael Bennett it has become an anthem of love and loss but posited against an era of AIDS deaths it is an anthem. To ignore what Dreamgirls has meant to so many communities -- from opening night in 1981 -- and subsequently, to everyone that has been touched in some way by AIDS -- which is everyone -- would be to deny truth.
Now that we no longer live in the age of the blockbuster, Dreamgirls is as close as we can get to knowing that a community of artists, technicians, producers and financiers can still execute on a real dream. A big dream. Dreamgirls carries within it a reasonable facsimile of historic truth with the punch of artistic symbolism. We can no longer posit about what it might have done if released "on time" in 1984 or 1987 or 1991 or 1995. It didn't get released because it wasn't made then. We can't stop to think about how this picture compares in box office to Grease or Sound of Music or West Side Story because it has been released now, in the age of the long tail, the first era after hits were made. Somehow it seems fitting and with the silver anniversary of the Broadway musical a distant memory for many of us and completely unknown to a large percentage of its viewing audience, Dreamgirls -- the movie -- now delivers context to a different era. Think of how different it is. How many of us would have imagined the startling change in acceptance of gay marriage and adoption there has been. For most of us in Western societies -- save for America -- it doesn't matter anymore and it never should have. So Dreamgirls is about a memory of how it was; for women in the the '60's and the entertainment industry, for African Americans, for other minorities. It's all a memory isn't it? Things are better now aren't they? Say that and think of the things that still don't make any sense. The pitiful official response to tens of thousands stranded in New Orleans. The unwillingness to be moralistic in the Sudan while engaging with gusto elsewhere. The persecution of legitimate travelers and legal immigrants against a back-drop of nationally sponsored religious fervours. No, there really is nothing left for the classic story of Dreamgirls to tell us anymore, is there?
Tomorrow: Symbolism and Performance in Dreamgirls, the Movie
As mentioned in my previous post, it's time to say so long to The Bradcast. No tears please -- I will be podcasting over at currentthinkingradio.com (which actually points to www.ctiweb.net). Current Thinking Radio will be devoted to Business, Technology, Leadership.
So say bye, bye and get ready to say hello to a new feed. I will continue blogging here -- we kick off the new Current Thinking from Brad Gibson with Dreamgirls Week tomorrow. Later in the week it will be wall to wall Northern Voice; I will be in Vancouver to cover and participate in one of the best new media conferences in North America. I hope to see many of you there.
brad_gibson podcast NorthernVoice NorthernVoice2007 NV2007 currentthinkingradio
From today through Wed. Feb. 21, I'll be taking a look at Dreamgirls, the show, the movie and the art. Today we kick off with an overview and a perspective on Dreamgirls rebuke by members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
In 1981 Michael Bennett brought Henry Krieger's and Tom Eyen's Dreamgirls to life after a period of workshopping in the late 1970's. For Bennett, Dreamgirls was not a necessary ingredient to define a successful career; A Chorus Line had cemented that, but it became the determinant in defining his greatness on Broadway. Dreamgirls did not win Best Musical at the 1982 Tony Awards but who hums songs from Nine in the shower these days? Within a couple of years of its opening, Dreamgirls had established itself as the premier musical of its era and stands as one of the greatest American musicals of the last 30 years.
Content in this post originates from www.bradfordgibson.net.
Dreamgirls the movie has lived as a promise since the early '80's. While various production attempts have been launched only one has succeeded in creating a finished product. As the 25th anniversary of the musical loomed, David Geffen leased the rights of Dreamgirls to director Bill Condon. The results speak for themselves. While most movie musicals of the past 25 to 30 years have been disappointing, Dreamgirls the movie, captures both the artifice and the attitude of the era it represents as well as the era in which it was produced. There will be no Best Picture award for Dreamgirls at the Oscars in 2007 but good art does not need an Oscar. Too often, the Oscar does not represent the epitome of art or creative insight. The Oscars exist in a complex web of political wrangling and PR hype. This year, Dreamgirls hype machine went overboard and caught a backlash from Academy members. One can only be thankful that the PR flacks cannot retroactively alter the results on screen.
It is probably worth reflecting upon why the shameful huckstering of Dreamgirls PR team was necessary. Why were so many put off by the intensive lobbying and the carpet bombing of the ads, the notices and the promos? In 1983, the Dreamgirls PR campaign would probably have caught fire but it was so relentlessly old school and so completely ignorant of modern social interactivity that it just smacked of arrogance. That said there were some master strokes in the concepts, one being the payment of all performance royalties by Dreamworks for amateur companies performing Dreamgirls in 2006. In the final analysis however, PR blather resulted in a net loss for an astonishing piece of big box office art. As consumers, we are not the losers as we still got to see the picture and can return again and again. No, only the star making machinery of Geffen's world is the loser and I scarcely think the Ferraris will be repossessed in anyone's driveway on Mulholland as result of going over the top of even Hollywood's elongated tolerance for marketing guff. So let's forget the Oscar's and look at the art.
Tomorrow: Dreamgirls, Hollywood and Art
Things are changing here at Current Thinking from Brad Gibson. So here are some news items you need to be aware of:
1) Effective immediately the Bradcast brand is no more. There are too many other Bradcast's out there and since I did not trademark the term when I originated my podcast back in 2004, I cannot get anyone to respect the title. Other Brad's have decided to usurp the name and, frankly, I don't want the Bradcast to become associated with their product. So you will soon be hearing your last Bradcast. Fear not there is something far better that will replace it.
2) Current Thinking Radio is "On the Air". That's right, you can reach my re-branded podcast over at www.currentthinkingradio.com or at www.ctiweb.net. I'll have more to say about Current Thinking Radio in the coming weeks and for you late switchers on the RSS feed, I'll be offering a double-helping of Current Thinking Radio both at the home site and here.
3) Full feeds are probably going to go away. I have been relentlessly pilfered from on a regular basis and I'm sick of seeing my feeds being mugged by sploggers. They are systematically stealing and reposting my content. That, and I have become the target of some pretty predicatable site attacks that have managed to cause my feed to hiccup on occasion over the past few months. If you have any ideas I would be glad to hear them, however I think most of the automated stuff will be easily defeated by going to partial feeds. That will mean you will have to click through to the site to read my full text. If this offends your sense of RSS purity then please unsubscribe. I am also personally annoyed that Google Reader does not count the number of subscribers in its feed, so to get an accurate count, it's time to come and visit the site.
4) Current Thinking from Brad Gibson will be getting more personal, more musical, a little more theatrical and somewhat more friendly over the next little while. I figure a namesake blog should be, well, more namesakeical. What about the tech wit, business acuity and trenchant comment though, you ask? You of course were thinking of another blog. I will still be attempting to put some kind of focus on technology, business and leadership over at currentthinkingradio.com and currentthinking.net. Both of those sites will explore themes that matter to technical business types, tech workers, creative marketers and managers. It's time to break out some of these topics and this little domain was just too small. There are feeds galore at all of these sites so get your feed reader warmed up.
So there you have it -- an early spring cleaning. If you have any ideas or suggestions then please get in touch.
This is the first in a series of new web radio, netcast, podcasts: Current Thinking Radio, which is sourced at its new home on www.ctiweb.net. I'm retiring the Bradcast in favor of a more direct focus on technology business leadership. Please be patient with this new media "re-branding". I will be unveiling more concepts over the next few weeks. In the meantime you can pick up the podcast feed in the same place. I will make sure there is adequate overlap in transitioning to the new Current Thinking web feeds.
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Michael Sikorsky, CEO of Cambrian House software, may be mistaken as a man of maxims:
"Cambrian House; its like open source but with money."
"If nobody hates it, nobody will love it."
"Act as if Karma exists."
Listening to Michael at a recent DMAA event in Calgary, Alberta , one could tell that there was more than maxims and slogans to his vibe. Cambrian House is a crowdsource software company with some bright ideas in the web & software space. Michael clearly has an plan for the start, middle and end-game of his ventures. He lays out some interesting plans for marketing and product development in this presentation.
Products can fulfill needs -- "vitamins", solve problems -- "pain killers" or create new categories -- "viagra", of which the Blackberry is a classic technology based example. Listen to Michael as he explains tech marketing and company development in a way that you have never heard before. What's Michael's "bias for action"? How mass collaboration can change everything.
Recorded live by Brad Gibson with great thanks to the Board of the DMAA and Michael Sikorsky. This content is evergreen and is suggested for those interested in:
This web radio podcast originates from the Current Thinking Radio site at www.ctiweb.net and from the Bradcast, podcasting since 2004 at www.bradfordgibson.net .
You've got to hand it to the buzz-marketing folks that work for Apple Computer... or, er, Apple! Apple! Apparently something happened yesterday. Apple managed to be bigger than the whole of CES and they were not even there.
In a stunning move, Steve Jobs invented -- or, pardon me, "innovated" -- the cell phone, the music player, digital camera and personal digital assistant. It does look cool but I have never gotten the appeal of these all in one things. Inevitably they do nothing well.
You think this is going to appeal to the Blackberry crowd? (Disclosure: I have a 7130e) Not a chance. How do you type coherent emails on a touch screen? Want to listen to music? Well not for very long because if need the iPhone available for calls you don't want to be wearing down the battery.
[Content in this post originates from www.bradfordgibson.net.]
The neatest trick that this box does is OS X. Apple has shrunken the kid in the family; this is the new Mac Mini. Elegant and sleek, with a bit more memory, a bluetooth keyboard and mouse; you may have the start of a super portable computer. I do feel kind of vindicated (ie: hear my prediction on Victor's New Year's Eve show) that the touch screen interface is somewhat tablet like... watch for the invention, or, er, the "innovation" of tablet computing in a future iteration of this device.