Great Inspiration: Mision Cumplida Chile

Mission Accomplished CHILE
Credit: Video Image taken October 13, 2010

Pandora Mobile, Music In Your Moment

Loving Pandora. In case you're wondering, Pandora is all about delivering you the music you love! Set up radio stations with your favorite artists and songs. Share your favorite stations with friends. Read more about The Music Genome Project. Even more enjoyable---listening to Pandora mobile and blocking out the riff-raff noise on BART while riding to/from my day job! From Yo-Yo Ma to Tina Turner, whatever music I feel like hearing in the moment. Simply brilliant.

iPhone 4 Totally Rocks & So Does Jonathan Mann

Hats off to Jonathan Mann for his perfect Song A Day response to the iPhone4 "Antennagate" hoopla. Apple kicked off the July 16 press conference with Jonathan's YouTube channel clip. Steve Jobs followed with a passionate presentation about their latest findings and "We Love Our Customers" good will commitment. As for me, I love my iPhone4!

_ Jonathan Mann, Great Dreamer

Gulf Coast Shrimper Dumps Oil on Herself in Congressional Hearing

Long-time environmental activist Diane Wilson poured Karo syrup over the top of her head during a Congressional hearing on the Gulf oil crisis just as Senator Lisa Murkowski started speaking. Senator Murkowski happens to be a top ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Wilson was immediately hauled out of the hearing room and arrested ---of course.

Reports say that Diane was protesting Senator Murkowski's intention to block legislation which would lift the cap on liability payments for oil spills in the Gulf. A spokesperson for the senator reportedly said she is 'for raising the cap on oil spill liability' yet believes 'it's inappropriate to raise the cap to $10 Billion without proper review.'

BP as in Big Problem: Another report says the Senator has received more than $225,000 in campaign contributions from oil and gas industries during the past 4 years.

Knowing Diane, she wanted to make a point about what it's like to have oil dumped on you in addition to the political garbage going on behind the scenes. As a fourth-generation Texas shrimper, she began fighting the local chemical plants that destroyed the Gulf coast town of Seadrift, Texas more than 15 years ago. I've written about Diane in previous columns and hold alot of admiration for her. In some ways, I envy the fact that she's got the spirit and courage to be out there in front saying all this for the rest of us.

Diane Wilson on the Gulf Oil Gusher

Watch a Fox online news video report of the event and interview with Diane after she was released from custody:



Photo Image: Getty Images

Greyson Chance a Social Media Success Story

Greyson Chance performed Lady GaGa's "Paparazzi" at his local hometown 6th grade talent show on April 28 and posted the video of it on You Tube. Now with more than 23,260,000 You Tube views, two guest appearances on Ellen, $10,000 in prize money, new Yamaha piano, and a contract with Ellen's record label, no one could be more surprised than Greyson. This social media success story took less than 30 days.

Lady GaGa's personal advice to Greyson? "Stay away from the girls . . . and focus on your music." Elton John, Billy Joel--how about adding Greyson Chance to your show? Check out Greyson's "Broken Hearts" and watch clips from Ellen as he speaks about what inspires him.
__ Greyson Chance, Great Dreamer

Watch Greyson97 You Tube viral video . . .

On Meeting Lena Horne

My first real job took me to LA. I worked the Las Vegas Fun Train in Winter sometimes and once met Mantan Moreland, a comic actor best known for his wide-eyed presence in the Charlie Chan movies. I told him that I was going to see Lena Horne at Caesar’s Palace, he gave me his card and said to use it, he’d meet me there. Mantan didn’t come with me to the show, he decided to hang out with his pals. Caesar's employed celebs like comedian Nipsey Russell and the former heavy-weight champion Joe Louis to mingle out and about the casino lobby area.

Mantan’s card put me in Lena Horne’s dressing room, she was expecting Mantan---of course. I told her he was out front somewhere with Nipsey and would see her later. Lena Horne was beautiful and gracious to me, a regal iconic figure of civil rights change and great strength. She sat at her dressing table still wearing a tight fitting royal blue sequined gown, her coal black hair stylishly short. A framed photo of her son stood on the table. She had lost her husband not too long before the Caesars Palace engagement and in fact, had been out of the limelight for a few years. We spoke a few minutes about little that I can remember now some 38 years later. She signed a photo to me, I thanked her and left.

Today, I can still see Lena Horne standing on the stage at Caesar's Palace, her dark eyes piercing straight ahead as she sang. Ms. Horne recorded "Being Green" in 1972, it's the best I've heard---even better than Kermit. It seemed such a poignant statement about the treatment Lena Horne and other black entertainers had received over the years.

One afternoon on my day off, I drove up to Mantan's place just off Highland, I hadn't run into him again while in Las Vegas. He showed me his scrapbook, drank hard liquor with milk in it and spoke adoringly about Leslie Uggams as though he had discovered her. About a year later after I'd moved to Washington, D.C., I read in the news where Mantan had died. Whenever I see, hear,write or read about Lena Horne, I always think of Mantan.

SNL introduces Sarah Palin Network

Hats off to Saturday Night Live as Tina Fey introduces the world to Sarah Palin Network. "All Palin All The Time" at least through 2012 . . . heaven help us.

Derek Paravicini On 60 Minutes

Watch CBS News Videos Online


Watch CBS News Videos Online

GREAT dream PRODUCTIONS 2010 Oscar Picks

Favorites:
Meryl Streep
Inglorious Basterds
The Hurt Locker
UP

Will wins:
Best Picture & Animated Feature: Avatar & UP
Best Actors Leading/Supporting: Sandra Bullock, Jeff Bridges, Mo'Nique, Christoph Waltz
Best Director, Editing, & Screenplay: The Hurt Locker

On The Hurt Locker

Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" is recommended viewing. And I am not a fan of war. Watch it, if you don't believe in war and everything remotely associated with war. Watch it, if you can get past the needless killing of those who are innocent and a war that no one wants to be involved in fighting. If you can realize that radical fundamentalists want to destroy you and believe in what they are doing, then watch "The Hurt Locker" and the men and women who are out there daily, regardless.

A brave, courageous statement about the people who sign up for/end up in serious hazardous duty and a snapshot about the toll it takes on those who do. Bigelow's vision and direction for the film is perfect, she brilliantly places the viewer smack in the middle of the action by using multiple hand-held cameras. It's real, it's gritty, and deserves every bit of recognition.

View Trailer:

Page Turner: 2010 San Francisco Writer's Conference

This weekend marks my first experience at the San Francisco Writer's Conference on the quest to official publication. Agents, authors, and editors gather at the Mark Hopkins Hotel to host invaluable sessions on topics from pitchcraft to twitterpower. Keynoters feature Steve Berry, Jacquelyn Mitchard, and Dan Poynter. Presenters include the Bay Area's own Adair Lara, Mary Mackey, Cara Black and others.

GrandPa Elliot - Playing For Change in LA

On Julia Child After Julie & Julia

Meryl Streep whipping up the essence of Julia Child in Julie & Julia proves to be Nora Ephron's best ingredient. Who else but Streep could paint the portrait of Julia Child we hold in our hearts and minds? Only Streep could capture Julia's zest for life with the same fervor she displays Julia's utter sadness at her inability to have children, the most poignant and private moment of the entire film.

I had dinner with Julia Child early one Sunday evening at a restaurant in Marin (a stretch but I count it since a friend of mine and I were having dinner when Julia and friends came in; it may have been on our way back from Copia and Julia's Kitchen).

Not being an avid cook, let alone French cooking, I wondered why Julia was stopping at this restaurant. While local restaurant critics gave it a decent rating, it was not exceptional or even mildly wonderous so it ended up on my "overrated" list. I'd probably have a heart seizure (sans excessive butter usage) if Julia Child had ever entered a restaurant that I owned.

'A Quiet Revolution' Awarded EMMY®

Women of Tibet: A Quiet Revolution awarded EMMY® by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences San Francisco Northen California Region during the annual awards ceremony. 'A Quiet Revolution' is the second in Bay Area filmmaker Rosemary Rawcliffe's Women of Tibet trilogy. Even more poignant, the honor marks the 50th Anniversary of the Tibetan uprising and forced exile of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Rosemary's film depicts three generations of Tibetan women and His Holiness the Dalai Lama telling the story of one of modern history's greatest movements in nonviolent resistance. An estimated 15,000 unarmed Tibetan women took to the streets of Lhasa in 1959 to oppose the violent Chinese occupation of their country. The surviving exiled elders are the last generation of women left to tell the story of the Women's Uprising and transmit their cultural legacy. Having survived decades in prison and perilous escape across the Himalayas, they have become the architects and builders of the new Tibet in exile. His Holiness the Dalai Lama pays tribute to their spirit and influence.

To learn more about Rosemary's trilogy: Women of Tibet

Playing For Change: "Stand By Me"