NAM Expo: First Day in Atlanta

AS IS ALWAYS THE CASE with my “on the road” blogging, this will be brief and likely devoid of linkage or fine tuning or formatting I would prefer because I am typing this on my iPhone.

And sitting in bed! Drinking some sort of coffee-like substance. Anyway. On the road iPhone blogging really represents so much of what is great about New Media. And not just that, but that I can hook into networks (legally, part of fone’s abilities) and bypass exorbitant Wi-Fi fees, stream video (check Qik.com/Nezua), upload fotos that I snap while about (Flickr.com/Nezua or (Tumblr.com/Nezua) upload audio (also on Tumblr) or blog to various sites. So with one device I am a very light and mobile news (or nonsense!) unit. And this doesn’t have to be a Mac ad; I just happen to use an iPhone and between Apple and the third-party developers, it’s all very easy. (Though it is only fair to note that I had to “jailbreak” my fone to enable the video abilities of the previously corporate-controlled device). And not long ago, impossible.

I explored a bit of this ability when I went to the RNC and DNC conventions last year (on this site) and if you search my flickr site you will see some fun pictures of when the police were getting ready to get rowdy on the marchers, (oh MAN I need to edit that video I have some really great footage) so as the clampdown came down, I was getting and giving realtime updates on where the action was and who was where.

The trip yesterday was crazy. So long. Woke up at 3:30 am on the West coast and finally passed out at 2 am or so on East coast. On my Twitterstream (twitter.com/Nezua; you seeing a pattern here?) I was dryly noting layovers and connections and posting fotos (Twitpic.com/photos/Nezua I think) and a friend replied “I felt tired just reading about your trip.”

It was gruelling. No doubt.

But coming out here to accept an award for what we have done with the Sanctuary is huge to me. And worth it. That’s today. Tomorrow I speak on New Media and that will be fun, too. I do this now and then, and some of it began with the MTV gig and has only grown thru my TMC gig and all the things I do organically thru movement building with some beautiful and dedicated people out here.. It’s amazing…I never saw or planned that Id be involved with the new emerging shapes of journalism but it feels good, and exciting, and important to be doing so.

Also unexpected was the meeting of a Xicano last night at the Hyatt bar who works (very passionately) for the US Census! We talked a bunch and exchanged info (nowadays this includes web addresses and Twitter accounts por supuesto!) and I think it will be a very valuable contact as our interests do overlap, as you may imagine.

I will close this out by first saying that in the light of all the class war the US Elites/entrenched corporate interests are waging on the bottom 99% of wage earners, the cozy little curtained-off First Class sections in airplanes feel really vile. They seem an anomaly in this day and age. Corpulent leftovers from a destructive and outdated mindset. And silly. Decadent in an illusory, irrelevant and false way. Like adorning a plummeting hot air balloon with ornate lead figurines. Charging me $15 for one stowed backpack now and ending my free snacks, but giving these well-reclined fools free drinks and a sheer curtain with which to keep theselves alone with their separate bathrooms? This is how you get yourself into trouble with the Most of Us. (Thats the rest of us).

And lastly, thanks so much to those friends and readers who have tapped that button below that says “Feed the starving artist” because that’s how I am eating. (And yes, at times drinking cervezas with a US Census worker!) And big thanks go to the couple friends who’ve gone to extra trouble to see Nez gets where he needs to on this trip. I’d not even be here now were it not for them. And that’s really what we need to remember about New Media, about Social Media: without the people and the human connections that bridge the gaps and divisions, it’s all just toys and gadgets and junk. And we’ve got plenty of those already.

Peace! Talk soon, amig@s!