That Reena Girl

• Um, who is this again?

01-05-12

Midweek Awesomeness: The Return

Silicon Valley Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling has a special message for the ladies of technology: he loves you. In the spirit of F*** Yeah Ryan Gosling, RG gives words of wisdom, encouragement and support for those of us dealing with TPS reports, web development and code, startups and funding, search, social media and anything else that goes on in good ol’ Silicon Valley. This is my happy place today. Here are some of my favorites:

One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: An incredible kinetic sculpture of San Francisco

You read that right. 100k toothpicks. 35 years. I barely have the attention span to beat the next level in Katamari Forever (I will defeat you Star 7!) let alone spend multiple years of my life on the same art project. The artist Scott Weaver obviously has some serious patience. When he wasn’t spending time on his sculpture –an estimated 3000 hours in total—he was collecting toothpicks for it from around the world:

“I have used different brands of toothpicks depending on what I am building. I also have many friends and family members that collect toothpicks in their travels for me. For example, some of the trees in Golden Gate Park are made from toothpicks from Kenya, Morocco, Spain, West Germany and Italy. The heart inside the Palace of Fine Arts is made out of toothpicks people threw at our wedding.”

Check out the full article; it has a lot of great close ups of the sculpture. Oh and if you want to see it in person, it will be at the American Visionary Art Museum through September 2012.

Steampunk Laptop

Oh and while you’re here, a little shameless self-promotion. Somehow, I convinced Sony to let me have a steampunk artist trick out one of their laptops for their online show SGNL. I’m still a little shocked since this was my first segment idea and let’s face it, it’s a little out there. But the end result is pretty badass. Oh and even with all that wood and copper, it still works! Check out the video:

Fun fact: the computer used (the VAIO F Series) is the same one I use every day. I affectionately call it The Beast.

12-28-11

Stay True: An Ode to My Favorite Band

I just found out Thursday has broken up. It happened over a month ago? How did I not know? It happened over Thanksgiving, that’s how. Black Friday work had consumed my life.  Maybe it was better I didn’t find out then, when my stress level was at a seasonal high. But here I am, home alone, reflecting. High school me is really upset. Present day me is just so so bummed. I figured the best way to deal is to write an ode to my favorite band.

I first heard Thursday in Ryan O’Malley’s car. It was junior year and the song was “Standing on the Edge of Summer”. He had Full Collapse on mini disc and we were in his Honda Prelude. I didn’t know what band it was, but the words “pull your punches and burn with your cigarettes” and I looked them up online later. Shortly thereafter, a friend of mine, Gregg Poirier made me a mix with “Concealer” on it. Realizing it was the same band – Geoff Rickly’s voice was easy to recognize—I went to Newbury Comics and bought Full Collapse.

Full Collapse is one of the top 5 albums that changed my life.

It had the energy. It had the lyrics. It had the emotion. It was everything I could want in an album. Remember, I was a teenager then. I was struggling; being straightedge, listening to the music I did, dressing how I did (band shirt, jeans, chucks; that was my uniform), having black hair that always covered one eye made me an outsider in my small hometown. Almost every single time I wore my Thursday t-shirt to school (at least once a week), someone would make the stupid joke “Uh, don’t you know it’s <insert any other weekday here>?” Yeah, that never got old.

I even found a way to incorporate Thursday into a piece my theater class did in honor of September 11^th. I used the opening from “Autobiography of a Nation” and the end of “I Am the Killer” as the bookends. I’m not kidding, I really did. It was performed at a school wide assembly when classes resumed.

I saw Thursday every chance I got, despite the fact that I didn’t drive. And every time, they were amazing. I’m still in awe of Geoff Rickly’s microphone swinging skills (“think it’s gonna rain, rain down…”). Thursday is one of the only bands I will still go into the crowd for, pointing at key lines, bouncing off of other fans. I saw them with Thrice. I saw them with Fairweather. I’ve seen them with Underoath, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, etc. You better believe I was at the Full Collapse 10 Year Anniversary tour. The only show of theirs I missed was the one with Boy Sets Fire and I still regret it. I saw them in Worcester. I saw them in Boston. I saw them at a skate park in Rye, NH. I’m pretty sure I saw them in Providence, RI too. And I’ve seen them here in San Diego, CA.

This is me 10 years ago. Seriously.

Fun fact: When I started college at Northeastern, people knew me as “The Girl in the Thursday Shirt” before they knew my name.

Sophomore year of college, War All the Time came out. I went to Newbury Comics and bought it alone with Coheed and Cambria’s In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth. This was my go to album for the walk to class for months. I think I only swapped it out for Murder By Death’s Who Will Survive… That album still resonates with me. I still listen to “For the Workforce, Drowning” when I have a bad day at work.

I should also point out that between War All the Time and A City by the Light Divided, my ex-boyfriend stole my Thursday hoodie. I’m still mad about it.

Then Thursday and I parted ways for a while. I didn’t really get into A City by the Light Divided. I started to come around with their split with Envy and Common Existence. But really, No Devolution made me fall in love with them all over again. But I’ll leave it there because – spoiler alert – that’s my top album of 2011 and that post is on the way. So for now…

RIP Thursday.

To see my list/listen to my favorite Thursday songs, check out my playlist on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/w2XApS

12-19-11

Beginning of the Week Awesomeness

As I mentioned earlier, I have become obsessed with Battlestar Galactica. I actually feel that there is now a void in my life since finishing the series. And yes, I cried at the end. Not the full on, hysterical kind of cry, more of a soft weeping. Sigh. But apparently I’m not the only one. Portlandia knows how I feel. I think I really need to be watching this show.

And last, but not least, I will leave you with my favorite holiday YouTube mashup: Hey Ya Charlie Brown!

12-16-11

Nerd University: Why Geeks Should Gravitate towards NBC’s “Community”

It has become a well-known fact that NBC’s show Community may be verge of cancellation or at least on hiatus until further notice (though, there has been some good news). As a fan of the show, I’m having a hard time figuring out why people aren’t watching it. With nerd culture becoming pop culture, this show should be a geek favorite. Here are my top 5 reasons while nerds need to get on the Greendale train:

1. Abed: From his ridiculous pop culture knowledge base to his Alien costume to his new favorite show “Inspector Spacetime” (which is their version of Dr. Who) this guy is the ultimate nerd and I wish he was on my trivia team. Oh and let’s not forget about the blanket fort he built with his BFF Troy (Donald Glover). I’d put Abed up against any of the guys on Big Bang Theory. Plus Danny Pudi was in Comic Con 2011 fav The Knights of Badassdom.
2. Hot ladies: Let’s be honest here; saying Annie (Allison Brie) and Britta (Gillian Jacobs) are  easy on the eyes is a massive understatement.
3. The Dungeons and Dragons episode: You read that right. They did en entire episode where the gang plays D + D and it was pretty awesome. The paintball episode “Modern Warfare” was also epic.
4. Guest stars galore! This includes Sawyer from LOST, Omar from The Wire, and Betty White.
5. They did a Claymation episode… entitled “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas”. Sure beats the California Raisins special they used to air every Christmas in the early 90s.

So seriously, get on your On Demand cable or on the interwebs and help save Greendale!

If you’re already a Community fan, leave your favorite episodes/show moments in the comments.

12-05-11

Beginning of the Week Awesomeness

It’s kind of like a prequel to Midweek Awesomeness…

Just when FOX News’ super investigative reporting on how The Muppets are brainwashing kids to be anti-capitalist was making me lose all faith in humanity, I saw this:

A friend of mine shared this link on Facebook and I felt that it was too cool not to share so I’m dusting off the old blog. Long story short:  Illustrator Dave DeVries has created The Monster Engine; an on going art project where DeVries takes children’s artwork and adds color, texture, depth, etc. to create amazingly detailed pieces from their original doodles. Forgot the art of Tim Burton, these creature creations are even better. I wonder if I can submit some of my work from the early 90s…I’m sure my mom has some real gems saved.

Here are a couple more. To view the whole gallery: The Monster Engine

If that wasn’t enough, LucasFilms put together a slideshow of all their holiday cards from 1977 to present day. Spoiler Alert: After Jedi was released, it was all Ewoks for several years, not that I’m complaining. I was lucky enough to actually get one last year. Nothing completes your holiday home decor quite like the image of Darth Vader releasing a peace dove. It really tied the room together. Here is this year’s card:

As if that wasn’t enough to get me through this ordinary Monday, io9 decided to post some amazing Battlestar Galactica fan art. This is what BSG (the 2004 reboot that I should point out I’m currently obsessed with) would look like if it was turned into an animated series. These were created by Otis Frampton, who has also given the animated series treatment to other sci fi favorites like Firefly. Check out his DeviantArt page for more.

08-30-11

The Saddest Song I’ve Ever Heard

The album Hospice by The Antlers has been recommended to me many times over many months for the last couple years. Each person told me how great it is…but warned me of how it is also devastatingly sad.  I heeded the warning and did not listen in mixed company, at work, or any other place I didn’t want to be seen getting teary-eyed.

Hospice is a concept album; it tells the story of a caretaker and a terminally ill patient. You don’t get much more depressing than that right?But finally, curiosity got the better of me and I listened to the song “Kettering” and felt my chest cave in. Heartbreaking. My only hope is that this is truly just a concept album and not a depiction of a time in singer Peter Silberman‘s life.

Prior to listening to this, all my sad song choices were your typical you-don’t-love-me-anymore/we-broke-up type songs. But as sad as those are, breaking up is not the same as well, DYING. For reference, here are my top 5 favorite sad songs, in no particular order:

1. Everything I Once Had- The Honorary Title

2. Ambulance- Eisley

3. In the Arms of Sleep- Smashing Pumpkins

4. Delicate- Damien Rice

5. After the Movies- Cursive

Honorary mention: It’s Cool, We Can Be Still Be Friends/Haligh Haligh A Lie Haligh- Bright Eyes, Everything’s Too Cold…- The Early November, This Bitter Pill- Dashboard Confessional

But seriously, none of those even compare to this. I decided that the song “Kettering” would be the easiest to start with since it was used on an HBO trailer so I had briefly heard it before. Um, nope. I listened to this yesterday and half hour later in my car I was choking back tears just THINKING about the song, thinking about if I were in that position, thinking about losing people I love… just listen.

Because you’d been abused
By the bone that refused you
And you hired me
To make up for that

And walking in that room
When you had tubes in your arms
Those singing morphine alarms
Out of tune

They had you sleeping and eating
And I didn’t believe them
When they called you
A hurricane thundercloud

When I was checking vitals
I suggested a smile
You didn’t talk for a while
You were freezing

You said you hated my tone
It made you feel so alone
So you told me
I had to be leaving

But something kept me standing
By that hospital bed
I should have quit but instead
I took care of you

You made me sleep all uneven
And I didn’t believe them
When they told me that there
Was no saving you

###

So tell me, what’s the saddest song you’ve ever heard?

08-23-11

Earthquakapocalypse 2011: The Best Reactions

There was an earthquake in the United States and NOT in California today. A magnitude 5.9 quake hit the Washington DC area and the Twitterverse pretty much exploded.

Being born and raised on the east coast and now living on the west coast, I expected more from my friends in the east. How appropriate; it apparently takes an earthquake to shake up New Yorkers, Bostonians and the like. I’m seriously considering calling my mom and saying “Oh my God Mom! Are you OK? I heard about the disaster!” like she does to me every time she sees something on the news about Southern California.

But with any ridiculous overreaction comes humor. Here are the funniest earthquake reactions I’ve seen on Twitter today:

@ditzkoff

That was no earthquake, kids. That was God himself shaking his head at the Will and Jada news

@DRUNKHULK

SORRY EAST COAST! DRUNK HULK JUST FIND OUT THEY GO FINISH SEX AND CITY TRILOGY!

@kevinquinn 

Today would have been a bad day to have laser eye surgery. #earthquake

@kristina__g 

Damn… images of the earthquake in DC… bit.ly/pNevem

(Seriously, click the link)

@80miles

These hilarious quake tweets ought to be called “laughter shocks!”

@hodgman

This guy in the cafe and I agree that we liked the earthquake when it first started. But now it’s like, the wrong people are into it.

@TimDuffy 

My favorite part was when we stopped working for a few minutes to talk about the earthquake. #nostalgia

@darthvader 

I just felt a tremor in the Force. No wait, that was an earthquake.

###

Got any others? Please leave them in the comments. Let’s forever remember this day as the day the East Coast lost its edge.

08-15-11

The following band has been brought to you by…

As I was checking my Twitter feed this afternoon I came across this tweet from a local venue:

@SOMAsd SOMA San Diego

Nov 6 – Motel 6 Rock Yourself To Sleep Tour 2011…. More Details coming soon ~

My initial thought was “Really? Motel 6?” (along with “Really? That’s the name you’re going with?” and “And those are the bands you chose to sponsor?”) but the more I thought about it, the more brands are popping up as music tour sponsors. As a music lover, a former marketing agency person and now, someone who works for a worldwide mega brand, I’m kind of torn with regards to how I feel about this.

A few months ago I went to see Thursday and Taking Back Sunday. The ticket and the House of Blues marquee read “Coca Cola Presents Taking Back Sunday”. As I entered the venue, there were Coke banners everywhere and a Coke booth giving out free samples. Coke Coke Coke, everywhere you looked (sounds like I’m talking about scene in Scarface not a concert…unless we’re talking backstage at Fleetwood Mac on their Rumours tour). What was the point really? Yes it is advertising, but I highly doubt that anyone in the room took a swig from a Dixie cup and said “OMG what is this delicious fizzy brown liquid!? I must have more!” You’re not going to see a major sales increase and if you’re a mega brand like Coke, I don’t think you need to generate brand awareness, so really, why are you there?

I think the key to corporate sponsorship of tours is to add value to the concert experience, not just ads. Your mere presence is not going to increase sales or make you synonymous with whatever demographic the bands/artists on tour attract.

A simple thing a brand can do: Have a booth with a QR code that people can scan and get free exclusive live tracks of the bands playing the show.

For Motel 6, a cool thing would be if bands could get free rooms based on how long their tours are. For every week on the road you get one free night at a participating Motel 6 <insert “free bedbugs” joke here>. Or maybe there can be a special band account sign up so bands can get discounts.  It’s a simple way to promote the brand and support live music.

Even though consumers are so much more advertising savvy, we’re only going to see an increase in this type of thing: bands need to tour to make money and brand need the “cool factor”. But hopefully, it will move beyond banners and onto more creative and cool ways of spreading brand messaging.

Have you seen any examples of corporate sponsors doing cool, value adding promotions, booths, activities, etc at concerts? If so, please share in the comments.

08-03-11

Wait wait wait…the new Spiderman is BLACK?!

Sigh. What year is it? Really…

Yesterday Marvel Comics announced the new Spiderman will be Miles Morales, a half black, half Hispanic kid from New York. While the passing of the superhero torch has often been done – think Batman—I have never seen such controversy over a successor. Is it because readers still miss the deceased Peter Parker? Maybe, but most of the commentary seems to be focused on Miles not being white.

To be honest, it makes me sick to my stomach that this is even an issue. Yes, I’m white girl who grew up in a pretty nice town in Massachusetts but just as a decent human being I can’t tolerate this kind of senseless bigotry.

My dear friend Buffy made a great point by saying “ any time you have to preface a statement with “not racist/sexist/etc, but ____” then what you are about to say is definitely racist/sexist/etc, there’s just no way around that. “ And she’s right. Think about it.

The shock of it all is well, shocking. Of all the things that happen in comics, Spiderman being a minority is too hard to believe?! Not that kid gets bitten by a radioactive spider and then can climb up buildings, have super speed and strength, etc…that’s all totally understandable. Maybe I’m missing something. Can only white people be bitten by radioactive spiders? Do they have a pasty flesh tone preference?

Think I’m being ridiculous? This whole thing is ridiculous!

Part of what I don’t get is that people are acting like this is the first time there has been a minority superhero. Really? You don’t have to be a fan of comics to know that Storm from X-Men is most certainly black. You can’t forget Bishop if you are a fan of X-Men storylines like “Age of Apocalypse” or “Civil War” or if you ever watched the X-Men: The Animated Series version of “Days of Future Past”.

Now, let’s talk Nick Fury. He has been both white and black, the latter being portrayed by none other than Samuel L. Jackson in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and the upcoming Avengers movie. Oh and while we’re on the subject, black Nick Fury appears in Ultimate Marvel Universe, where the new Spidey will also be, so it isn’t even the first time there is a minority character in that world!

Somehow, probably due to the ranting of conservative radio psychopath Glenn Beck, there is talk of Miles Morales also being gay. 1. Nowhere did it say he was gay. You are misinterpreting a quote from Sara Pichelli who was one of the artists that helped create the new Spiderman. And even if he was, so what? Again, not like there haven’t been gay superheroes before Northstar, and now Colossus in Ultimate Marvel Universe!).

We all miss Peter Parker. But like the saying goes, “with great power, comes great responsibility” and someone needs to carry the torch. Maybe before you state your oh-so-important opinion on Spidey’s race, remember Buffy’s tip. Oh and do your homework before you start running your mouth.

Or better yet, just don’t say anything at all.

08-02-11

Things You Need To Stop Doing

I write a lot about trends I notice, trends I like. But when you work in social media, you also get bombarded with the most annoying trends on the Internet. Consider this an open letter to the Internet in general regarding things I do not wish to see anymore.

1. Lol-speak

I often imagine what it would sound like if my dogs could talk, what their tone would be and what they would say. However, I’m pretty sure since they are both adults they would not ask me if they could “haz” a treat (not to mention, one of them can already say “I love you”. For real). I Can Haz Cheezburger is cute; I’m OK with Lol-speak as captions on cute pet photos. But where I draw a big, fat line is when 1. You pretend to be your pet online and 2. You insist on talkinz lyke dis.  It’s bad enough you have a whole separate profile for your dog, however I am also guilty of this, but in my defense…

Does my English Bulldog have a Facebook Page? Yes, because he’s ridiculous looking. What do I post there? Photos and videos of him looking ridiculous. Do I pretend I’m him when posting updates? No, because he’s a dog and I’m a person with a pretty decent grasp on the English language… and because if he could update Facebook I’m pretty sure he’d talk major sh** about me. He’s kind of a jerk.

(Don’t be fooled by how cute he looks when he’s sleeping, he can be a total ass)

2. Ridiculously long hashtags

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the point of a hashtag on Twitter is to create a clickable, searchable term. Often they are used for humor (my favorite example being #firstworldproblems) or to participate in a discussion. But almost every day when I look at the trending topics, there is at least one that is pretty much an entire sentence. Example: #icantbelieveitwhenguyssaythingslike

A hashtag is not supposed to take up ¾ of tweet. You are not using your 140 characters wisely or allowing your careful crafted message to be shared as easily.  I’m guessing that the majority of these are caused by someone forgetting how to use a space bar and throwing# in front of their update. Somehow their followers assume this is intentional – “OMG! #isototallyhateitwhenmymomtellsme to pick up my room too!” – and spread this nonsense across the Twittersphere.

Some Twitter users are clever enough to work around them, working them seamlessly into their update.  But most people don’t get the point of hashtags, tack them onto the end and then, in order to fit the max character limit, abbreviate everything until it barely resembles English.

So, please, moving forward #keepitshort, #keepitsimple and #stoppostinguncessarilylonghashtags.

3. Calling your blog a “bloggie”

This is more of a personal one. I’ve been working on a social monitoring project and this term keeps coming up. Listen, amateur bloggers of the world. It’s a BLOG, not a bloggie! No need for to make an already kind of silly word even sillier. Do you update your “Facebookie”, post on your “Tumblrie”? No? Then stop calling your blog a “bloggie”!

If you take it to the next level of annoying by calling it –and I’m not joking, this is really common—a “bloggie woggie”, it takes all my self control to resist the urge to punch my computer screen. OK, if you’re 14, you get a pass. But as an adult, trying to get people to read blog posts you’ve worked really hard on, you should probably not instantly kill your credibility.

I hear the words “bloggie woggie” and I automatically assume your blog is chock full of updates about conversations you have with your cat, how much you wish Edward Cullen would take you away from your sad existence and detailed regurgitations of everything you’ve already posted on Twitter, that I didn’t care to know the first time.

Maybe I’m just being really particular here, but for some reason, it just bothers me. It also makes my job much harder.

Now if only I were The Oatmeal and could illustrate this in a brilliant web comic/infographic…

UPDATE: Contribution sent over by my friend Dan. This proves I’m not the only one that feels this way: