This is why I love CA

Sent from my handheld. Sorry about the typos.

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Some things were meant to go together

like this:

May you rest in peace, Dear Sweet Lion of the Senate

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." - Ted Kennedy

Senator Ted Kennedy one year ago tonight at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO. May you rest peacefully in heaven, and may we continue your good legacy. Thank you for all you have done.

Organizing for Healthcare, because we ALL need it

You can watch President Obama's healthcare townhall live today starting at 2pm ET/ 11am PT. He'll be at the DNC in DC, but you can watch from the comfort of your office, house, favorite coffeeshop.

Last DC sunset for awhile, and it's a pretty one

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Mom's house on a July evening

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Sunset on the White House lawn and the Foo Fight

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Me at the White House for the 4th of July. FTW!

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Pretty flowers

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When images move

You have to open this image in a larger window to fully appreciate it. The facial expressions, but more so, the body language is all incredibly telling. (Thanks to G for sending it to me.)

Ah, love's a bitch

But it's so much fun some times.

Her Morning Elegance

I would love to sleep like this. Soon, very, very soon.

I Met in the Middle for Equality

...and it was good. Here are the photos to prove it.

Prop 8 Upheld

The California Supremem Court ruled to uphold Prop 8 banning gay marriage. While I'm not surprised, I'm disappointed and frustrated. Many wonderful families are being affected by this, with a literal see-saw of emotions. Yes, we will fight on and we cannot lose hope. But this back and forth process is all to emblematic of the need to change the process in California so that everyone's civil rights are protected and can't be overruled by a flawed political system.

This video was produced by my friends at the Courage Campaign. It makes me cry every time I watch it, and than I want to kick some ass.

What am I missing?

I need your help, dear friends. I have a pile of books, hundreds of links from newspapers, journals and blogs, handwritten notes from personal conversations, a few archived twitter feeds from conferences, and random photographs on my Blackberry. But I feel like there's still something missing and I just can't put my finger on it.

Here are the key words and topics I'm thinking of and need your suggestions for good reads/links/videos/projects/etc:
California
politics and democracy
journalism
new media
CA-GOV 2010
participatory democracy / civic engagement

Feel free to comment here, email me at thestateofcalifornia@gmail.com or just pick up the phone and call me (if you have my phone number).

For the (partial) list of what I already have, keep reading.

Books:
Davis, Mike. (2006 edition). City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Verso.

Didion, Joan. (2004). Where I Was From. New York: Vintage Books.

Janiskee, B.P., and Masugi, K. (2004). The California Republic: Institutions, Statesmanship, and Policies. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Lakoff, George. (2004). Don’t Think of An Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing.

Putnam, Robert D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.

Schrag, Peter. (1999). Paradise Lost: California’s Experience, America’s Future.Berkeley: University of California Press.

Shirky, Clay. (2008). Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. New York: Penguin Press.

Documentary and Politics

“Putting Candidates Under the Videoscope”, Brian Stelter, New York Times, February 11, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/business/media/11video.html?pagewanted=print

“When Images Galvanized the Nation” by Shaila Dewan, New York Times, June 20, 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/us/20civil.html

“Released on Web, a Film Stays Fresh”, Brian Stelter, New York Times, March 22, 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/movies/23gree.html

Past, Present and Future of Journalism and Politics

“Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable”, Clay Shirky, March 13, 2009.
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/

“Get Off the Bus: The future of pro-am journalism”, Amanda Michel. Columbia Journalism Review. March/April 2009.
http://www.cjr.org/feature/get_off_the_bus.php

“Who's Afraid of New Media?” Paul Waldman, The American Prospect, March 31, 2009
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=whos_afraid_of_new_media
“Obama hasn't shied away from engaging with the new vanguard of media. And the only people who seem bothered by this choice? Old-media reporters.”

“New Media, Old Media and the Blogger in the Middle” by Jonathan Miller, New York Times, July 2. 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/nyregion/02blog.html

“Blogger, Sans Pajamas, Rakes Muck and a Prize” by Noam Cohen, New York Times, February 25, 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/business/media/25marshall.html?nl=pol&emc=pol

Revolution, Facebook-Style
By SAMANTHA M. SHAPIRO
Published: January 25, 2009
Can social networking turn disaffected young Egyptians into a force for democratic change?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/magazine/25bloggers-t.html

“@Future of Journalism: Jeff Jarvis on 10 questions we should be asking now”, Caitlin Fitzsimmons, Guardian.CO.UK, June 24, 2008.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2008/jun/24/futureofjournalismjeffjarv

“The Post-Chronicle Wiki: Imaging a New Media Frontier in San Francisco” Nicole Price Fasig. AppScout: Stalking the Killer App. February 27, 2009.
http://www.appscout.com/2009/02/the_post-chronicle_wiki_imaging_a_new_media_frontier_in_san_francisco.php

The San Francisco Post-Chronicle
The Post-Chronicle is a wiki that's building a model for the daily news organization of the future. It began as a response to the possible demise of the Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle. Our city by the bay might soon have no newspaper.
http://postchronicle.wetpaint.com/

“America’s Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire” by Mark Penn, The Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2009.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124026415808636575.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

“State of the Blogosphere, 2008”
http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/

“Can the Internet Save Local News?” Day to Day, NPR. March 17, 2009.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102001001

“The 10 Most Endangered Newspapers in America” by 24/7 Wall St., Time.com, March 9, 2009.
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1883785,00.html?iid=perma_share


Journalism Schools

“J-Schools Play Catchup” Brian Stelter, New York Times, April 14, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/education/edlife/journ-t.html

“Columbia J-School’s Existential Crisis” New York Magazine, March 11, 2009.
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/03/columbia_j-schools_existential.html

“No, Fuck You.” Matthew Iglesias Think Progress, March 12, 2009.
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/03/no_fuck_you_2.php

Communications and Technology
“BBC Ends English Shortwave Service in Europe” by Doreen Carvajal, New York Times, February 19, 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/business/media/19beeb.html

“NYTimes Reader Shows Graceful Future of Online News” by Ryan Singel, Wired, May 11, 2009.


Social Networking and Shared Content

“Flickr Creates New License for White House Photos” by Ryan Singel, Wired, May 11, 2009.
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/flickr-creates-new-license-for-white-house-photos/

“The Wisdom of the Chaperones” by Chris Wilson, Slate, February 22, 2008.
http://www.slate.com/id/2184487/?from=rss

“The Future of Our Cities: Open, Crowdsourced, and Participatory” by John Geraci, O’Reilly Radar, April 9, 2009.
http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/04/the-future-of-our-cities-open.html

Slacker Be Gone!

I swear, I have not been purposely neglecting you all. I've just been busy making my way through this stack of books, movies, docs, and playing with fun new media toys. This is kind of just a teaser list of what I've been up to, with lots more to come.

thinking too hard

I'm thinking very hard, and there's a piece of me that knows all too well that I need to just let go and the ideas will come. I'm thinking too practically, too literally, too theoretically, when I need to just dream and see where my ideas take me.

I'm trying to get riled up and constructive. I'm trying to take the old and put a new twist on it. I'm trying to innovate, while keeping it simple.

I'm listening to old and new music mixed together, in an attempt to remember the oldies but goodies, while falling in love with the newbies.

I'm falling in love more than I ever thought I could, and trying to cut/paste that energy into everything else I do. (So far, I think it's working.)

This is not what I've been writing on all day. But this is what I've been reading, and I'm just in love with it.

(Image: Federico Veronesi. African elephants in Amboseli National Park, Kenya.)

A little bit of inspiration

Images from Franck Juery

Requiem

It came to me the other day:
Were I to die, no one would say,
“Oh, what a shame! So young, so full
Of promise — depths unplumbable!”

Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes
Will greet my overdue demise;
The wide response will be, I know,
“I thought he died a while ago.”

For life’s a shabby subterfuge,
And death is real, and dark, and huge.
The shock of it will register
Nowhere but where it will occur.

— JOHN UPDIKE

Sunset with the pug

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Lunch

Bacon quiche, salad with tomato and avocado slices and dressing, and a very foamy latte. Yum!

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Books I'm looking (aka drueling) at

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Dear Sir,

I'm borrowing the idea for this post from my BFF, but in our usual division of love and labor, she focused on the writing and I focused on the images. In this case, I'm just loving the slide show of portraits of Obama made by students of the 826 Valencia program. You can check out the letters that they wrote to Obama here too - complete with a list of food one students thinks he should be eating to "fatten up".