The Revolution-less Democracy

So I have been thinking about this thing in Iraq for a pretty long time now. I wish I could say I have some great idea; some great answer to solve the conundrum in which we find our country, our military, and the middle east as a whole.

The only conclusion I can draw is this: freedom and democracy is not a gift you can simply bestow. Even though I believe that every human soul craves liberty from fear and oppression, all outward signs indicate that the people of Iraq have historically not felt strongly enough about it, as they were content to allow dictators and tyrants to rule over them.

Democracy is not a gift that can be bestowed. It is not something that can be constructed from a blueprint. We can’t simply make xerox copies of the United States’ Constitution and save all mankind and government. Freedom, government, and self-determination are things only a people themselves can fight for and attain.

Revolution itself seems necessary for any kind of representative government. While the phrase “bloodless revolution” has been coined and accepted, there is no such thing as as revolutionless democracy. The people must stand up and say that the country that unites them transcends their religion and special interest. That before being a Sunni, Shiite or Kurd; they are an Iraqi. In the United States we have revolutions every two, four, and six years. We call them elections.

Look at Isreal. We “installed” a democracy in that country much like we are trying to install the democracy in Iraq. More than fifty years later, it still hangs by a thread.

Are we willing to engage in a Neo-Colonialism where we send our military to every country of the world in which we have an interest? Will our military bases and embassies become the new wave of American colonialism?

One thing is for certain. Barring any major breakdown (a la 1979 Iranian revolution) in the Iraqi government, we will be there for a generation or two.

It’s Elementary!

It’s that time of year again. School bells are ringing, (well, actually none of the schools I ever went to had bells – they opted for the more annoying alarm-esque steady digital tone) and children are returning to school. The school yards are different, even from my elementary school days less than 15 years ago. The teeter totters and merry-go-rounds have been removed and replaced with environmentally friendly, super safe, rubber rocks. Yes, education has changed in this country.

One thing I vividly remember learning as early as second grade, was about the many explorers and adventurers of Christopher Columbus’ day. There were explorers like Vasco DaGama, who discovered the oversea trade route to India around Africa. There was Columbus, who defied all science and tradition by going west, and discovering the “new world.” There was Magellan, whose voyage ended as the first to circumnavigate the entire earth, exploring the terrible freezing passages of South American straits. The list continues: Leif Erikson, Henry Hudson, Bartholomeu Dias, & Pedro Cabral. While the accuracy of what I learned has been dramatically called into question by today’s historicity, the important thing is, this is what I remember learning when I was in the second grade.

With that in mind, let me brazenly shift gears. Many Americans are afraid of India and China, the world’s largest emerging markets. How can a country as relatively small as America have any chance of competing with countries with such vast human resources?

The answer comes from what I learned in second grade.

Americans are explorers. We are adventurers. We are innovators. We lead the world in technology, and have done so through the 20th centry. We pioneered the digital/information age, and remain at it’s forefront. Even though China and India can manufacture and produce products at much lower cost, the intellectual property and innovation which makes those product possible is still originating from this country.

So as we watch our educational system evolve, as it will inevitably do. Let’s keep talking about the explorers and the adventurers. Lets promote and enhance innovation, creativity, and change in our public and private universities. Therein lies the key to preserving our status as the world’s greatest ideological superpower.

No Time Like The Present

One of my good friends, Jeff, once told me:

There’s never a better time to look for a job than when you already have a job you love.

So in that spirit, I want to congratulate Jeff on his new job as an Arts Manager at a large university, and remind everyone that there is no time like the present to be looking for your dream job! When you least expect it, it may just present itself.

iPhone – Why I’m Still Waiting…

I would absolutely love to buy an iPhone…

-BUT- (there’s always a but)

Here are the top reasons why I have not purchased my iPhone yet. If Apple wants my $600 and at&t wants my wireless business, they will have to address these items first.

1. Voice Navigation/Calling

The most crucial problem facing the user interface of the iphone is its lack of tactile buttons. You can’t use your motor memory to make or even receive calls. For example, using my current cell phone, without even looking I can press Softkey 2 to open my contacts and press the M key will bring up “Mom”, then I press talk… no need to even look at my phone. With the iPhone, I have to look for “Contacts”, flick through the list until I find “Mom” then press her contact, then press to dial her. I had to look at my phone at least 4 times, not including a very prolonged look to flick through the contact list. What this equates to is millions of drivers having to LOOK at their cellphones to actually use them. This will create major safety hazards on roads (as if the current state of the 21 and under crowd txting from their cars wasn’t bad enough). Even when I just had a standard iPod, I found myself distracted by it, trying to switch playlists or genres while driving.

2. 3G EDGE Network

There is no excuse for launching the worlds most anticipated mobile device, promising to unleash the mobile internet in a way that has never been accomplished before, and then (in effect) putting a 14.4kbps modem on it and expecting everyone to love it.

We crave SPEED! Launching iPhone with the 2.5G network is dumb. Maybe it was the excessive power requirements of the 3G chip. Maybe it was the added cost. Maybe it was that at&t hasn’t rolled out the 3G network widely enough. Maybe the iPhone is just ahead of its time…

And don’t try to sell me a line about how the built in wi-fi will satsify me. Unless I am at home or at work, I am not in a hotspot or near a hotspot. I am freakin’ mobile! Public hotspots at coffee shops and airports cost WAY too much money… no way i’m using them!

3. Corporate Discounts/Accounts

Although this one doesn’t affect the public at large, this IS a PRIME segment of your market, and the ones I would argue are the most important to iPhone success: people who work for tech companies… THE EARLY ADOPTERS. Many tech companies pay for their employees phones, and Apple’s/at&t’s absolute refusal to grant them the ability to offer the phone to them is just plain silly.

I would even be OK if they didn’t want to discount the iPhone, but precluding corporate paid users from even purchasing the iPhone is shooting yourself in the foot. If you haven’t guessed by now, I work for a tech company. My co-workers and I would absolutely LOVE to buy iPhones. We would love to recommend them to everyone we see. We would love to show them off and tell everyone how Apple has made our dream device… but you just simply won’t let us.

4. Support Stereo bluetooth headphones and get rid of the proprietary headphone jack.

You can’t advertise an iPod that you can’t plug a set of non-Apple headphones into. People spend BIG bucks on earphones these days, and it’s no secret that Apple does not have the good ones. The white wire sure is stylish, but if I want a good $200-500 set of noise-cancelling earphones that lets me hear the music rather than the plane’s engines, I CERTAINLY want them to work in my $600 iPhone.

Along these same lines, let me utilize the bluetooth capability and go wireless with my headphones! iPhone does not currently support stereo bluetooth headphones. This is a MUST!

5. The Battery

This has been one of the biggest issues for everyone, and simply summed up it is this:

  • People can’t live for 3-5 days without their phone while Apple replaces their battery (or actually swaps the handset)
  • People want to be able to have spare or extended batteries in case they are using power intensive applications (which on the iPhone is pretty much everything: video, voice, data, wireless technology)

Honestly, it is less of an issue for me. I have owned an iPod for 3 years and still haven’t seen much degradation in the battery, such that I would want to replace it. However, knowing the flawed nature of Lithium Ion batteries, Apple needs a better battery strategy.

That’s it Apple. Fix those 5 things, and I’m on board.

SYTYCD – Top 4 Reviews

OK Friends… Quick blog today about last night’s SYTYCD, before the big revelation tonight.

First of all, I’d like to point out the major changes to the competition this year. This year’s top dancers did solos every night. Even on the vote off shows, they often had the dancers do solos. This made things even harder for the ballroom/partner dancers and gave great advantage to the beat boys and hip hoppers. Also, the finals are between 4 people, and up until that time a guy and girl was kicked off every week. This was to increase the chances that a girl could win the competition, since it is so clearly skewed toward the guys.

OK. Let’s get down to business.

Danny – your strengths are your technique and your beautiful lines. You are tall with potentially awkward lankiness, yet you seem to know what to do with every inch of your body in order to make it look great!

The waltz was my favorite last night. So beautiful and flowing. Those smooth waltzes take me to another world.

You’re solo was FREAKING awesome. It was certainly your best this season, and gave me a real reason to want to pick up the phone to vote for you.

Lacie – you are at a slight disadvantage here. If you win, everyone will say it’s because of your brother. Your instant popularity has been because of him, but you have proved yourself week after week. You are consistent, and actually very good at what you do. The latin styles are great, and you’ve held your own in the other styles.

What was up with your solo outfit tonight? It was super-ugly . Looked like tin foil wrapped over underwear.

Neil – I would not have placed you in the top 4 at the beginning of this competition. You lacked confidence that somewhere along the line you found. You are the most improved/developed dancer in this competition. I think the reason we like you is that you’re not too dancie. You have a good mix of gymnast/dancer/actor. Something weird happens to guys when they get too dancy (like Ben from last year and Danny this year). You are just dancy enough, but still seem like a great guy.

I really liked the Mia Michaels routine with you and Danny. I thought it was so NOT mia michaels style. It was so athletic and rough. She is usually so much more internal to external.

I hated the hip hop routine. You both felt so unnatural.

Sabra – Based on your total performance this season, you are my pick to win this year. You truly dance with your whole heart, and you seem like a really great person. It is time for a girl to win this competition, and I would prefer it not be a Schwimmer. You didn’t only dance all the styles, you brought it in all the styles. I almost died when I saw the video of Dominic dropping you during You Can’t Stop the Beat. I can’t believe that happened and you didn’t have a concussion.

I really didn’t like many of your dances last night. The Fox idea was underdeveloped, i thought. Not badly danced, just not fully thought through choreography.

I liked your solo, but I thought you had done better solos earlier in the season.

Well America… It’s up to you now, but I made my pick.

SYTYCD – Top 6 Reviews

I am deeply sorry for not posting after last week’s So You Think You Can Dance. Let me just summarize my thoughts with the following… WOW Mia Michaels, and yes, the right people went home.

First, I just have to say that Mia did a phenomenal thing with that contemporary routine, the one she dedicated to her father and said symbolized a reunion with him. She has a way of making this creations that are just simply transcendent. They are simple, connecting, and expressive. They are very emotionally available, and easy for anyone to ‘get.’ This is another DEFINITE emmy nomination for next year. I enjoyed it so much, I will include it here:

Also, I was not sad to see Sarah and Dominic go. I will say, though, that I am so impressed and surprised that they lasted that long. They both significantly out performed the expectations on them. Many weeks we simply forgot that Sarah was a b-girl.

Ok. Now to this week. I have to say, first off, that this is perhaps the highest caliber episode to date. The choreography and dancing was top notch, best it has ever been in one episode.

Sabra is emerging as my favorite girl. As Nigel pointed out, she dances with her whole heart and soul. The most stand out performance of hers for me was her solo, followed by the red dress number… umm… paso double, I think. Neil was a great partner for her, although I thought he might have pushed it a little too hard in the Paso Double. He was walking a fine line for me. The coolest move of the night came at the end of that dance, when Sabra fell from her lift down Neil’s body like a man going through the center of the donut, then as if that wasn’t enough he drug her (as a cape, as the dance calls for) to the judges for judging. I thought it was a brilliant finish!

Neil was good this week. He has had a run of good luck in getting the best choreographers and best partners in the last two weeks. I think that combination, coupled with taking his shirt off last week, will secure him a place in the finale. The table dance was one of the most interesting dances I’ve seen in a long time. It brought the foreign world of dirty business into the creativity/free-thinking dance realm. Really they are two opposing ideologies, and it was really cool to see it tackled in dance.

Next has to be Pasha and Lacie. Their first mannequin dance was really quite amazing and creative, and the smooth waltz was exquisite. I think Lacie has lost a bit of the drive to win this thing. She is just not quite attacking it as she was in the beginning. Not quite the ‘force’ to be reckoned with as I thought she would be. She certainly is technically proficient, but I’m not sure she is “America’s Favorite Dancer”.

I fear for Pasha because he has less of a chance in the solo arena. All of his solos are weak, and this week he strangely chose to dance onstage with a real mannequin and dress. It certainly increased the level of his performance, but it would have seemed a lot less odd (and we still would have gotten it) if he would have simply envisioned the dress and mannequin and danced without it onstage. Having it there was just a little creepy… Good rehearsal technique, really strange performance choice.

Now, Danny and Lauren. Their dances were great. Danny is incredible and prolific. I’ve never seen anyone spin like he can. Their Mia Michaels routine, while it was a slight let down after last week’s incredible routine, was still amazing and awe inspiring. HOWEVER, I think (in this competition) they are America’s least favorite dancers. Lauren did excellent solo work.

Lauren is at the most risk for the girls and it’s sort of a toss up between Danny and Pasha.

Danny still has a slight barrier between him and the audience, and while he is certainly talented and prolific, he will NOT be America’s Favorite Dancer for the simple fact that after a whole summer of watching him dance, we still have not been let into who he is. I’m a little surprised that Mia hasn’t ‘broken him down’ as she has a history of doing to several dancers.

Quick Pick Me Up

OK… so tonight I went to my first pop/rock concert in, well… a LONG LONG TIME.

Tonight I saw the group Berlin. I didn’t know many of their songs, only their one big hit which was a major son in the film Top Gun, and I was drug there against my will by my uncle who is a raging 80’s music LOVER. Despite my insistence that I was just doing this as a favor, I am happy to report that I had a fabulous time watching this live performance.

I’m not one of those “floor” people. I don’t want to be close. I don’t want to feel like I have to interact with and support the artist during every moment, even if it isn’t good. But I love being in the room and feeling the ebb and flow of the energy of live performance.

What I thought was going to be a “has-been” concert turned out to be a great musical experience. All these years later, Terry Nun’s (sp?) voice has retained it’s impeccable quality. She was spot on all night long, and she sang a good hour and 1/2 set.

If you’re feeling blue, go see a live performance of something. (preferably something good) It made me feel good tonight.

SYTYCD – Top 10 Reviews

Happy Top Ten everyone! What a crew of dancers we have this year. It is really quite amazing that no ones dies from this show. The stress, the anxiety, the physical demands… and that’s just for us the viewers…

I have yet to make a proper homage to Cat Deely yet. Let me just say that every week she has another cute little dress that is just a little bit shorter and involves less and less fabric. Her legs are SO long! I don’t think i’ve seen legs that long since I used to play with the water skeeters in the ditch in front of the house… Anyway.. the point is… the legs are hot, but kind of distracting in an “other worldly” sense. It’s just TOO much for me. I like legs. I like long legs, but I fear that at any moment a slight draft will move up her sundress in such a way that will leave no more anatomical secrets for America. Also, I like how she is now very self-counscious about how she says the word “Judges”… it’s more like “jiddggez”. The last few episodes she hasn’t’ even said it, she makes the audience do it. Maybe she could hear me laughing and taunting her through the TV screen… I don’t know.

OK. Lets get right down to it.

The big winner tonight was Lauren. Her solo was RIGHT on, while others seemed to slosh through the movements. Tonight was her MAJOR coming out party. Her solo was spot on, and her partner dance was fabulous. I loved the little “transformer” (as Nigel called it) character. It was so fun and creative. The hip hop was pretty good, in spite of the russian partner. Major night for her.

Danny was my top guy tonight. His solo was amazing as well, but quite different from Lauren’s. He kind of flowed and melded through the movement, but everything was specific and fluid. That’s what I like about watching him dance… it’s not “control” like tense control, it’s specificity in every muscle and movement in his body. His partnering with Lacie was just OK, and that was a little disappointing for me because he has had a rough time with other partners and I was excited to see what the two most capable dancers of this competition might come up with together.

I have never seen a woman move like Lacie in that Samba! Whoa! We needed a fire hose to come soak down all the men in the audience, and well what the hey… soak her down as well. She was HOT! Of course, latin is her thing, and you can tell why. The footwork was incredible, and she was a little less skanky than last week, which I can appreciate.

Let’s talk about Dominic. Major step backward this week. His commitment to his choreography which essentially brought him to this point in the competition was his liability last night. You can tell how much a good guy he is by the way he kept apologizing to Jamie though, like it was all his fault that the choreography didn’t work, the costuming wasn’t very good, he can’t dance, and all of that was sort of exposed (the mia michaels word of the week) last night.

Speaking of exposed… Kenneth… Kevin… no… Kameron. That’s your name. I thought you were OK. You seem to be just OK at everything. Not great. If it weren’t for your mohawk, I would have no earthly idea who you are. I think you are in real danger in the next couple of weeks. The judges were really hard on you, and Lacie isn’t there to draw the votes your way. Your duet with Sabra was OK, but I thought the amazing grace music didn’t make much sense, and the choreography was kind of one dimensional. At the end of the day, Sabra showed what an inept dancer you are.

Sabra, once again, another major coming out party. You were already creeping up there, but I think we saw this week that you were the one who made Dominic so successful in week’s past. I’m not sure exactly what you did, or why it came apart after you left, but I think you are starting to come into your own. And for Mia Michaels to say you are her favorite dancer, is no little thing.

Pasha. You really brought it in that wicked hip hop routine with Lauren. It was perhaps my favorite routine of the night. But your solo stunk bad.

Neil and Sara really hit it with both their solos and their duet. I think they are kind of the underdogs of this year, but yet they are solid. What was up with that HUGE tumbling split leg thing Neil did. WOW! How does he tumble with all that height!!! Sara, remember, is our little break dancer chick, but boy does she look good in that little Disco dress.

So my favorite routines tonight… tie between the disco and the samba with the hip hop in a close second.

My favorite solos: Lauren, Sabra, Danny.