April 2008 Archives

"What if the only thing you knew about Thomas Jefferson was that he owned slaves?

What if, instead of the video of the I Have a Dream speech, elementary school students were taught that Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "My government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world ..."?

What if the single piece of information you possessed about Nelson Mandela was that he co-founded a terrorist organization called Umkhonto we Sizwe (abbreviated as MK), which stands for Spear of the Nation?

With apologies to William Blake, if you believe you can see the world in a grain of sand, you better make sure it is the right grain."

-- On Faith, Washington Post

I know some folks feel bitter about me, as bitter as the first dandelion greens of the season. Yet these people are not without hope, hope that is drizzled on those dandelion greens like a dash of sweet pomegranate vinegar. Do they begrudge the scorpion its sting, or the duck its quack? How can I be other than what I am, The Guy Who Got Where He Is Only Because He's Black?

-- Visible Man, Colson Whitehead, New York Times

A little non-traditional casting not to be confused with another blood-pumping effort with a similar name.

A long, thoughtful analysis of the current election by Stanford Law prof. Lawrence Lessig. Well worth the 20 minutes.

A warm, low-key, unscripted endorsement from a writer in her kitchen.

"Martin Luther King Jr. at least left behind a model of how to repair the social fabric. He was scholarly, formal, assertive and meticulously self-controlled in public. If Barack Obama's campaign represents anything, it is the triumph of King's early-'60s style of activism over the angry and reckless late-'60s style. King was in crisis when he was gunned down. But his inspiration is outlasting his critics." -- David Brooks

Steven Heller interviews Brian Collins on branding and typography in the New York Times:
"Barack Obama is running the first real transmedia campaign of the 21st century. His people not only understand how media has splintered, but how audiences have splintered, too. Cell phones, mobile devices, Websites, e-mail, social networks, iPods, laptops, billboards, print ads and campaign events are now just as important as television. The senator's design strategy has given these diverse platforms (and their different audiences) a coherence that makes them all work together. I've worked with giant, global corporations who don't do it this well."