Operation Lysistrata
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 11/11/2007 - 13:18My earliest memory of Aristophanes’ plays was reading a copy of The Frogs, which my older brother had. Other than the crude jokes early on in it, I don’t remember much. Years later, a friend in college produced a modern adaptation of a Greek play as her senior project. I don’t recall if it was Aristophanes. I seem to remember it using large puppets, having a Greek chorus, and I having something to do with sex and war.
Was it Lysistrata? I don’t know. However, this week, people around Fairfield, CT will have a special opportunity to see a production of Lysistrata, or perhaps more accurately, a documentary about the Lysistrata Project.
In January 2003, two women in New York City, Kathryn Blume and Sharron Bower, thought to organize readings of the ancient Greek play by Aristophanes, Lysistrata, as a protest of the imminent preemptive war on Iraq. Originally conceived as a local event, however, over the course of a several weeks, word of the Lysistrata Project quickly gained momentum and became a worldwide happening for peace. On March 3, 2003 over 1,000 simultaneous productions of Lysistrata were performed in 59 countries around the globe.
The film "Operation Lysistrata" shows how two women transformed their individual aspirations for peace into a movement which allowed the global community to share in their vision, using grassroots activism, conflict resolution, community building and the role of art in a functioning democracy.
There will be a screening on Monday, November 12, 2007 at The Fairfield Theatre , 70 Sanford St, Fairfield, CT at 7:30 PM. It should be a fun evening. It makes me think of the great quote attributed to Emma Goldman, “If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.” If our political activism, even on matters as important as trying to stop a senseless war, can be filled with fun and art, then I worry people will burn out to quickly and the efforts will fail.
Donna Hudson and Avery Donninger
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 11/10/2007 - 15:12Today, I received an email pointing me to a letter in the Waterbury Republican. I haven't seen the letter; I'm not sure if it is online. However, the email summarizes it and asks me for my thoughts. I thought I would publish them here.
In the Waterbury Republican today (11-10-07) is a letter to the editor on page 6A that makes a good point. It was written by Donna Hudson of Harwinton. She says that Avery D isn't in trouble for calling school administrators a foul name. Instead, she's in trouble for inciting a campaign to harass them and disrupt school. It further says the newspaper reporters failed to thoroughly research the incident. What do you think?
I replied:
Donna is partially right. I do believe that Avery was punished for encouraging parents to contact members of the school admininistration concerning the way facilities at the school are used. Most significantly, it was an embarrassment to Superintendent Schwartz who had already been criticized for the way the school administration was handling facitilities.
Yet to encourage citizens of a town to speak with the school administrators about how school facilities should be used should not be considered harassment and disruption, it should be considered civic duty.
Likewise, Donna is correct about newspaper reporters failing to thoroughly research the incident. If they had, they would be up in arms and writing good investigative reporting pieces in the local papers about the principal of the school, testifying under oath that she instructed school officials to place false information in students records.
If that was properly investigated and reported on, people would be wondering about what is in their children's records, and calling for a full investigation, possible criminal proceedings and the immediate removal of those involved.
Am I, Though, Really?
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 11/10/2007 - 14:10That was the response that a social networking guru friend of mine at Yahoo! wrote in response to my inviting him to join the group “i'm making a difference”.
On Friday, I received an email from the Sierra Club which said,
I'm writing because, with your help, we can get Microsoft to donate an additional $50,000 to the Sierra Club. Here's the challenge: If more than 50,000 people join their "i'm Making a Difference" Facebook group *through* today, Nov. 9 (until midnight EST), they'll give $50,000 to whichever organization gets the most votes.
This sounds an awful lot like the urban legend kicking around the Internet for ages that Internet users can receive a cash reward for forwarding messages to test a Microsoft/AOL e-mail tracking system.
If it hadn’t of come from the Sierra Club, pointed to a Facebook page, and been something I heard folks from Microsoft talking about as a successful marketing strategy at ad:tech, I probably wouldn’t have believed it.
However, this one isn’t a hoax. The Instant Messaging space is pretty calcified. Everyone has their favorite IM client by now and people aren’t changing clients much. There just isn’t that much difference. It is sort of like Coke and Pepsi.
Recognizing this, folks involved with marketing for Microsoft decided to try and use social media and people’s philanthropic interests to get people to pay attention to the latest release of their Instant Messaging program. I haven’t seen any studies on changes in market share of instant messaging programs recently, but folks involved with the effort are touting this as a great success.
The ‘i'm making a difference’ group now has over 50,000 people in it. I suspect that $50,000 is a pretty small price for a marketing campaign like this, but can be a significant help to various non-profits.
So, yes, I believe that my joining the Facebook group, ‘i’m making a difference.’ A chunk of money will go to non-profits as a result. Marketing people will see that using social media and appealing to people’s philanthropic interests can be an effective marketing strategy. Both of these are ways that I hope my social networking guru at Yahoo! is also hoping to make a difference. The third difference may be an increase in people using Microsoft Live Messenger instead of Yahoo! Messenger, which might be a difference that my friend doesn’t want to make.
Now that the 50,000 people have joined the Facebook group, Microsoft is keeping things alive with this:
The i’m™ Initiative from Windows Live Messenger™ makes helping your favorite cause as easy as sending an instant message. Every time you start a conversation using i’m, we share a portion of our advertising revenue with some of the world's most effective social cause organizations. Each of our partners will get a minimum of $100,000. As for the maximum? There is none. The sky's the limit.
Let’s hope this puts pressure on more organizations to share a portion of their revenue with effective social cause organizations.
Community Novel Writing
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 11/10/2007 - 10:25Humans, by there very nature, are storytellers. From the gatherings around campfires and drawings on cave walls, to the modern day novel, people have always told stories. The problem with the modern day novel, however, that like so much of media in our recent history, it is broadcast. The writer sits down, writes the novel, revises then novel, tries to get someone to publish it, and eventually, it is out there in a static form, broadcast to anyone that will read it. There is very little interaction between the writer and the audience, except maybe at a book signing or in random hate mail. At least that is how it has always seemed to me as strictly a consumer of novels.
Now, however, I am making my first attempt at writing a novel. Sometime this weekend, I expect to pass the half way mark. I’m not sure where the point of no return is, but I believe I’ve passed it and now have to finish the novel.
During this experience, I went to a write-in. To people who view writing as a solitary experience, a write-in doesn’t make a lot of sense. I know that I write better when I am alone and not interrupted or distracted. A bunch of writers getting together to write, and chat about their writing and eat curly french fries, well that just seems too distracting, and at my first write in, I only accomplished 800 words. I probably would have done twice that if I stayed at home.
Yet, I’m finding that writing isn’t a solitary experience, or it doesn’t have to be. The municipal liaison for NaNoWriMo in my area sent out an email to all of us, encouraging us on. It had various statistics about the average number of words written by various groups of writers and the writers that attended write-ins were the most prolific.
More significantly, I’ve been speaking with friends about my novel. I’ve sent them sections of my first draft and they’ve provided great suggestions. I’ve worried about whether I’m bugging them too much, but they’ve commented about how much fun they are having watching my novel unfold and making suggestions.
Perhaps this returns the story telling process to a little bit more like the stories told around the campfire. The audience asks questions and the story take shape with their participation. If you are doing NaNoWriMo, I would encourage you to get to write-ins and to talk with trusted friends that can give you good advice. It makes the experience all the more fun.
Overload
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 11/09/2007 - 10:03The first snow of the season graces the fallen leaves as I dally in bed. It has been a busy week and I am on overload. Wednesday, I went to ad:tech, and there is still more to write about that. In the evening, I received additional emails about the alleged trademark infringement in Second Life, which deserves much more attention. Thursday, I addressed various business concerns and the never-ending effort to get a little more cash in the door. Last night, I went to a panel, “The State of Student Free Speech” at Quinnipiac University School of Law, sponsored by the American Constitution Society. It was a wonder session that deserves a write up of its own. Through all of this, I continue to work on my novel for National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, and process the great input I’ve been getting from a small set of friends who are reading the rough draft of my first write through.
I’m not officially participating in National Blog Posting Month, NaBloPoMo, which has a goal of putting up a post every day during the month of November. This is in part because I’ve got too many things going on already, and in part because the goal of putting up a post every day is one that I’ve been seeking for the past few months anyway, and intend to keep pursuing. I only missed one day in October, none in September, and two in August, so I’m in pretty good shape there.
However, on the email side, I’m not in as good shape. The unread emails in my inbox has expanded back up to close to 1400, and for the first time during NaNoWriMo, I didn’t write the 1,667 words for my novel which is the average number of words needed to be written each day to complete the 50,000 words by the end of the month. However, I am still in good shape with the novel. During my first week, I averaged close to 3000 words a day, so I’m currently at 21,306 words and interesting new subplots keep hatching
So, I’m overloaded. I’ll get my blog posts up as soon as I can. I’ll get back to emails as soon as I can, and I’ll try to keep my novel goals on track. Wish me luck.
