Celebrating women everywhere: Google has honored us all

On Tuesday, March 8, 2011, Google celebrated the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day with the logo that appears above, and I must say, that I, on behalf millions of women everywhere, who have blazed myriad trails in their own lives as well as industry, arts and science - this is a lovely honor.

Recognition oftentimes comes slowly if you are a woman. This, I have learned.

Today, I too am honoring women who are generous in spirit as well as heart, and whose voices have spoken above the crowd and continue to speak for generations yet to come.

Below are words of wisdom from some of the best and greatest women who have influenced my life and many others, and I hope their words and thoughts will touch your life, and the lives of those yet to come.

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” ~ Harriet Tubman ~

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” ~ Beverly Sills ~

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~ Maya Angelou ~

“To feel valued, to know, even if only once in a while, that you can do a job well is an absolutely marvelous feeling” ~ Barbara Walters ~

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” ~ Edith Wharton ~

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. “~ Eleanor Roosevelt ~

"I dwell in possibility…” ~ Emily Dickinson ~

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.” ~ Marie Curie ~

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ~ Maryanne Williamson ~

The Social Network Controversy: Part 3 – the Humor of it All

In Parts 1 and 2 of this post we explored the benefits and the pitfalls of social networking, along with methods to correct (at least on Facebook) privacy blunders that might cause potential problems for your online image.

A very recent study published by Nielsen (the American marketing and research behemoth) that tracks marketplace dynamics along with consumer attitudes for a variety of media enterprises, which includes television, radio, books, music, videos and web sites, has come out with some interesting statistics for the “Top U.S. Web Sites and Brands for April 2010,” and guesses what? - Ranking # 3 for the “Top 10 Web Brands (U.S. Home and Work)” was Facebook, which lagged only behind Google and Yahoo but ratcheted up over 122 million visitors, who each spent and average of six hours, 43 minutes and 22 seconds of time per week with their social networking. Those figures were a reflection of a 3.8% downward trend. Could that portend marketplace unrest with privacy and security issues? Time will tell.

However, to end this post series on a funny note – I’ll leave the final words to the folks who produce entertainment, and hold a mirror up to our society reflecting the craze of social networking.

WARNING: If you are not a fan of South Park, the adult cartoon that oftentimes goes over the top in portraying current affairs, do not watch the first video below, even though the clip is far more tame than the usual fare that they produce.

The second clip also carries a WARNING – if you are offended by the use of certain slang words such as, %@&*, *(%# and #^*$ you probably will not appreciate the humor in David Ippolito, the Guitar Man of Central Park’s newly debuted song, “Facebook is a Stupid Idiot” (subtitled "What the $*&@ is Farmville!?") which was performed at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater in New York City.

IMHO, I think both clips are way to laugh at the entire social networking dilemma and maybe, as Victor Borge once said, “ Laughter is the closest distance between two people.” Now, isn’t that what social networking is all about?

The YouTube Generation

Historians have a penchant for classifying generations. It’s a neat and tidy way to sum up a particular age group and distinguish it, one from the other.

After the turn of the 20th Century, we began with “The Lost Generation,” so-called because many of the best and brightest born gave their lives in the futility of World War I.

Then came “The Greatest Generation,” the term coined by veteran reporter Tom Brokaw who chronicled the age group that faced not only the Great Depression but also genocide and the international power struggles that ushered in the nuclear age.

Passing through time we have seen the birth of “the Boomers," “Generation X” and then “Y” (also known as the “Millennials”) all neatly packaged with their unique socio-economic and historical characteristics.

On Wednesday, April 15, I had the extreme good fortune to witness the birth of “The YouTube Generation.”

It was global musical history in the making. All thanks to the efforts of a collaboration between YouTube and Google, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, composer Tan Dun, pianist Lang Lang and a host of world-class orchestras including the London, San Francisco, Berlin and New York Philharmonic to name a few.

At 7 p.m., the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, comprised of ninety-six musicians, from 30 countries, playing 26 different instruments mounted the Perelman Stage in Stern Auditorium at storied Carnegie Hall in New York.

In December, 2008, ninety-one musicians, from 30 countries, playing 26 different instruments auditioned entirely on-line through YouTube with their downloaded videos and were brought together as an astounding compilation of virtuosity that rehearsed face-to-face for a mere 24 hours before presenting a three-hour electrifying performance of classical music from Renaissance to 21^st Century.

The performance was inclusive of demographics and musical periods, and did more for the progression of classical music in three hours than all the conservatory training has offered the marketplace in the last 300 years. No offense to music schools here, as I myself attended one, but preparing classical musicians to go forward and reach out to new generations of classical listeners has been minimalist at best. Some of the better music schools are beginning to wake up to that fact.

It was difficult to choose a favorite piece from the evening’s eclectic repertoire, but Tan Dun’s “Eroica” Symphony, as well as the beat-box rhythms of the Mason Bates recently composed piece, “Warehouse Medicine from B-Sides” were riveting. I believe that they will be part of the classical repertoire for years to come just as surely as the breathtaking Brahms “Allegro giocoso from Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98” and Tchaikovsky’s “Finale from Symphony No. 4”, which were also on the menu.

The entire evening, brought the world together from the use of technology and the import of musicians who have a passion for music making. Not only was a new generation born but also a rebirth for classical music.

The packed-house audience was not comprised of the staid and stuffy music aficionados one so often encounters at classical concerts but was all-inclusive of multi generations and ethnicities, and the music fit like a glove.

As the entire audience rose to their feet to give two, several minute standing ovations, I remembered what our daughter Samantha said in a news interview after having won a YouTube Symphony seat from a talent pool of 3,000-plus auditioned entrants, “If I didn’t think playing music had an impact on people, I wouldn’t be doing it.”

Welcome to The YouTube Generation – the generation that brought music to a global community.

Where do you put your garbage?

A little over ten days ago, the media airwaves began to be flooded and “twittered” with corporate indiscretions regarding how bailout funds were really being spent -
luxury jets, family trips to Baja, year end bonuses are de rigueur (even though companies weren’t profitable) but what stuck in my craw most was the purchase of a “$1,400 Parchment Waste Can.”

Supposedly, the tab for said “Waste Can” has been reimbursed, along with the entire redecorating fee of $1.22 million for the corporate corner office, which is no longer inhabited by the waste can’s owner. He was summarily fired when the pancakes hit the fan… justifiably so. But, and this begs a BIG question, “What on earth kind of garbage goes in a $1,400 Parchment Waste Can?”

I can only imagine – a broken string of Black Tahitian Pearls? No, they probably would be worth the effort to have them restrung at your local jeweler. Maybe old paper stock certificates from one of the big three automakers… nah, there’s some historical value to having a real paper stock certificate – they’re almost too good to cash in, because they are very pretty and just aren’t printed anymore.

Eureka! I know exactly what would go in a $1,400 Parchment Waste Can… the bill for the $1.22 million decorating job that was probably arrogantly tossed away (no need for tax records here, a cancelled check will do) and was possibly dumped out by the evening office cleaning lady or lad, whose tax dollars paid for the redecorating job… thus likely ending in the hands of one diligent investigative reporter. (Amen, and thank you to fellow members of a dwindling occupation.)

Maybe the smarter thing (all along) would have been to purchase a “United Receptacle Dimension 500 Series 29-Gal Litter Receptacle” - on Google you can find them for as low as $863.19, and here’s the best part… they are “durable, fire-safe and vandal-resistant.” Then again, maybe it just wouldn’t match the corner office suite décor – time for a decorator conference.

I guess nobody would ever look for a pink slip there.