Game of TV shows
I howled while watching the special one-hour finale of Friends almost a decade ago (yes, I’m one of those people). I’d invested ten years of my life watching and then re-watching the lives of the six friends. To me, this was officially the end of an era.
It was also the beginning of my love affair with television. I watched reruns of Friends because this was stuff I could relate to more than the emotional dynamic between saas and bahu. Years later, I discovered Torrent — a platform for online downloads — and the multitude of American TV shows it offered. as did a lot of others like me. TV channels then realised that if they could bring in more variety to their schedules in India, and they’d have a greater audience.
Soon, episodes of shows like Gossip Girl and Grey’s Anatomy were showing in India only a week after they aired in the US. Says Anurag Bedi, business head of Zee Cafe, “if we go back five years, it was difficult to get a large audience for a conventional English show… Fortunately, audience dynamics have changed now. New concept shows come as a welcome break from the conventional comedy, drama or reality shows.”
India not too far behind the U.S.Game of Thrones came to India only a few months after it first aired in the US last year. the second season, currently on in the US, will soon air on HBO India. “in the last ten years, more Indians now want good quality entertainment, and social media is only increasing their awareness of what else is out there. So our response time had to go up too,” says Shruti Bajpai, country manager, HBO. “We decided to bring in more American shows soon after they aired in the US.”
Last year, Star World launched Torrentz, a slot for the latest American TV shows only weeks after they aired in the US. However, because these shows air on national television, the censor board insists that nudity, sex and violence be cut. for a show like Game of Thrones, true Blood or Dexter, this means that a 50-minute episode will be reduced to about 35-40 minutes on an average. Mumbai-based Nikhil Taneja, an avid TV viewer who blogs on tanejamainhoon.tumblr.com, says that heavily edited shows on television leave viewers like him with just one avenue: downloading pirated episodes from the Web.
Whether via downloads or on TV, viewers in India today have a lot of options in terms of American television. and for fans of these shows, this is the most exciting time of the year — when TV shows we watch get renewed or cancelled by networks in the US.good TV Shows need a strong premise
A few shows that have recently been cancelled have been going on for eight years. for instance, House MD, about a misanthropic genius diagnostician, was a breakout hit in 2004, winning TRPs as well as awards. Tomorrow, it airs its last episode in the US. “the novelty factor dies down slowly,” says a Mumbai-based blogger from Television-talk.com who goes by the handle @rnvj on Twitter. “There’s a limit to how much can be done with the same set of characters. the premise can be altered slightly with seasons progressing, but to be consistent, one can’t deviate too much from what the show is already established as being about.”
Tastes in television are evolving and most viewers aren’t interested unless a show offers them a brand new concept. even for tried-and-tested concepts, the audience wants more. take Brothers and Sisters, for instance. “Today, that show wouldn’t get picked up by a network, because the show had a very weak premise — a family drama with certain dysfunctions in the relationships. Today, the premise needs to be stronger than because there are so many other options,” says @rnvj.
The treatment given to a show — like the documentary style of narration in Modern Family — helps increase its popularity. “the characters talking to the audience, directly into the camera has given the writers of this show several opportunities for more comedy and insights into the characters,” adds @rnvj.
There’s more than just the dramaBut if every show comes with a shelf life, why is Grey’s Anatomy (GA), set in a hospital in Seattle, been renewed for its ninth season? and why does mad Men, about an ad agency in the ‘60s, still have fans eagerly waiting for its fifth season despite a year-long break? Profession-based dramas (Bones, GA, mad Men, White Collar, the Good Wife, etc.) usually work not just because they offer an insight into a different industry — forensic anthropology in Bones, art crimes in White Collar, for instance — but also because they’re “essentially about relationships”, says Nikhil.
These popular shows have a central storyline — something on-going in the lives of the main protagonists. besides, every episode revolves around a certain case: for instance, in the Good Wife, a legal drama, while the lead character Alicia Florrick deals with her husband’s infidelity, single motherhood and her career, she’s also defending an alleged murderer in court or suing the American Hockey Federation for ignoring players’ neurological conditions. “Such ‘breathers’ keep you coming back for more,” says @rnvj.
With so much showing on TV and promising new concepts coming up every year — like Homeland, which got a tremendous response for its first season, and Touch, also renewed for season 2 — TV in the US, and subsequently in India, is only going to get better.
Traverser la France pour voir Bruce Willis
Elle s'appelle Élodie et elle a 27 ans. Ce n'était pas écrit dans son cou. J'ai dû le lui demander, même si c'est toujours délicat, ce genre de question, vous savez, avec les filles. Autre règle d'or du journalisme: ne jamais hésiter à poser les questions difficiles.
Élodie, 27 ans, a fait 1200 km lundi, d'une traite, en voiture, pour se rendre de Lille, plein nord, jusqu'à Cannes, plein sud de la France. Lille, la ville où l'on m'a appris toutes les règles d'or du journalisme.
Hier, je l'ai rencontrée, assise sur une chaise de métal, dans le terre-plein du boulevard de la Croisette, juste en face du Palais des Festivals. Respirant les émanations de gaz carbonique avec deux douzaines de badauds qui, comme elle, ne sont pas à Cannes pour les films, mais pour ceux qui y tiennent l'affiche.
Depuis huit ans, Élodie fait ce même parcours de 1200 km au mois de mai, avec sa soeur. Elle loge à La Bocca, un quartier de Cannes, pour 15 jours. Ses vacances annuelles. Tous les jours, elle vient faire le guet devant le Palais. Tous les soirs, elle enchaîne sa chaise à la barrière qui sépare les badauds du boulevard où s'arrêtent les limousines et les stars, avant la montée des marches.
«Je prends des photos et je collectionne les autographes, me dit-elle. C'est plus facile avec les vedettes américaines. Elles sont plus sympas que les vedettes françaises. Elles prennent le temps de venir nous saluer.» Sa plus belle prise? «Angelina Jolie, tout le monde se l'arrachait et c'est devant moi qu'elle s'est arrêtée.»
Ce soir, pour l'ouverture du 65e Festival de Cannes, Élodie espère que Bruce Willis, de la distribution de l'intrigant Moonrise Kingdom de Wes Anderson (Rushmore, the Royal Tenenbaums), lui fera le même honneur. «C'est quand même Bruce Willis.» Quand même.
Parmi les chasseurs d'autographes, pour la plupart des habitués, certains ont réservé leur place devant le Palais depuis dimanche. Leurs escabeaux enchaînés entre eux. «Ça se bouscule un peu, le soir venu, mais nous nous connaissons tous ou presque, dit Élodie. On se relaie pour guetter les places, pour ne pas rester au soleil toute la journée!»
Même Bruce Willis ne vaut pas une insolation.
Compétition de couple
D'ordinaire, ce sont eux qui font le plus tourner les têtes sur la Croisette. On ne sait pas encore si Angelina Jolie accompagnera son beau Brad cette année. Pitt tient la vedette de killing them Softly d'Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), en compétition. Quoi qu'il en soit, Brangelina aura de la compétition avec la venue confirmée de Kristen Stewart et Robert Pattinson, jeune couple à l'écran et à la ville de la série Twilight. Tous deux seront de la compétition: Pattinson dans Cosmopolis de David Cronenberg (qui prendra l'affiche le 8 juin au Québec) et Kristen Stewart dans On the Road, l'adaptation du célèbre roman de Jack Kerouak par le Brésilien Walter Salles (Central do Brasil).
L'égérie Marilyn
Au Palais des Festivals, on a installé une gigantesque affiche de Marilyn Monroe soufflant de sa bouche en coeur une bougie sur un gâteau d'anniversaire. L'effigie de ce 65e Festival de Cannes souligne les 50 ans de la mort de la plus sexy des actrices américaines, toutes époques confondues.
Un «sosie» (il faut le dire vite) de Marilyn déambulait d'ailleurs sur la Croisette hier, signant des autographes. Ce qui m'a inspiré cette question sans réponse: combien vaut un vrai faux autographe d'un sosie de Marilyn Monroe sur eBay? Ainsi que cette question avec réponse: comment distingue-t-on un Cannois d'un touriste? Le touriste fait signer des autographes sur la Croisette. Le Cannois laisse son chien signer des «autographes» sur la Croisette.
Le duel (la suite)
De tous les films de la compétition, peu sont aussi attendus que les nouveaux longs métrages de Michael Haneke et de Jacques Audiard. Il y a deux ans, Un prophète d'Audiard était le favori des festivaliers pour la Palme d'or, qui a été remise à l'excellent Ruban blanc d'Haneke. Dans Amour, l'Autrichien s'intéresse cette fois-ci à la déliquescence du couple. La presse française spécialisée, qui a vu le nouveau film d'Audiard, annonce de rouille et d'os comme l'un des grands chocs du Festival. Certains accordent déjà un prix d'interprétation à Marion Cotillard, en dresseuse d'orques qui perd ses jambes. On va attendre d'avoir vu tous les films, quand même...
Le bal des Australiennes
On a bien hâte de voir Nicole Kidman en nymphomane trash dans Paperboy de Lee Daniels (Precious). Et on est bien curieux de découvrir la pop star Kylie Minogue dans le nouveau Leos Carax, que l'on n'a pas revu depuis Pola X en 1999. En espérant que ce ne soit pas une catastrophe. Oui, j'ai peur.
Ils ont raison
Laurence anyways de Xavier Dolan sera présenté en sélection officielle, vendredi, dans la section Un certain regard. Et la presse française de faire écho à la «déception» du jeune Québécois de ne pas avoir été retenu en compétition officielle. «Nous avons eu beaucoup de presse grâce à lui, me disait hier en souriant Christine Aimé, la responsable du service de presse du Festival. Il a raison et nous avons raison. Tout le monde a raison et personne n'a tort.» Elle a raison.
Title: Sale Students Work Soup Kitchen – WCBI category: Local News
To fulfill the requirements of their International Baccalaureate years at Sale Magnet School in Columbus, two students are volunteering at a local soup kitchen.
Today [Monday], they had a little help from their classmates.
The Sale students, who are servers at Loaves And Fishes Soup Kitchen in Columbus, are glad they decided to invite friends from their class to lend a hand, if only for a day.
This is one of the many agencies Sale students chose to help back in April.
"Since then they've had to research their project. find out what was needed for each of the organizations. We have mentors from each of the groups, somebody who could kind of tell us what was needed, what could we do to help them," said Machele Shepherd, Sale Teacher.
"We're expecting a lot of people to come in and we're doing this to help out the community," said Czarya Le-Bigbee, Soup Kitchen Worker.
Lessons learned while assisting those less fortunate now, could lay the foundation for a lifetime of service.
"How that will equate later on is, they will actually, we are hoping they will take this with them for the rest of their lives," said Shepherd.
Kayla Williams and her classmate Czarya Le-Bigbee are pleased with their decision to feed the needy.
Now that they've gained knowledge of the resources in their own backyard, they'll likely be more apt to help anywhere else they may be in the world.
"Because it was interesting and we didn't know it was here in Columbus," said Le-Bigbee.
"I was like, its a good project because some people don't have enough money to buy food," added Williams.
On Tuesday an exhibit will be set up at Sale Gym giving the students a chance to explain their different projects to parents and community members.
Printed Pens – A Must Have Trade Show Promo
While it is never an easy task preparing for any kind of promos, this kind of undertaking is worth every while and at trade shows; you can be able to can easily gauge the kind of competition you are facing. Trade show marketing also offers you the opportunity to connect with prospects or new customers or clients. when you have to determine how you will boost the profile of your business, you will have to choose which product to use. it is possible that you might want to use a number of products and not just one specific promotional product.
Printed pens are one of the best alternatives that a company or a business can use at such promos. Many of these promos are attended by large public audiences and are a wonderful opportunity for any business to exhibit their products and services while also making a crucial connection with new customers who can sample what you have to offer them and decide if they want to be associated with you through your products and services. because trade shows are often jammed with people, this is the best time to make a connection with prospective customers and printed pens which are one of the best trade show favors can be used to do that.
There are many reasons why a business ought to use printed pens as trade show promos. one of the reasons is because printed pens are not expensive. if you are a small or medium scale business and you want to reach out to people at trade shows, printed pens are one of the best promotional products to do so on a budget. Small businesses can take advantage and use printed pens as a trade show favor during such promos.
Pens are also very useful and one way or another, many people have to use them each and everyday. this makes them one of the best promotional products to use for making initial contact with prospective clients. Printed pens will give any business exposure on a daily basis and will enhance the visibility of a business and increase their customer base. the fact that they are durable and are easy to distribute makes them quite ideal for use in trade show promos. with printed pens, your company can gain lots of exposure and for a very long time. Printed pens increase a company's visibility in so many ways.
When choosing printed pens to use as favors in trade show promos, you need to consider a number of factors. these factors include how comfortable the recipients will feel while writing with the pen, and if the pen is attractive to them. if you give the wrong kind of printed pen to trade show attendants, your pen might jut end up being thrown away and never gets to be used. this will mean that you have wasted an opportunity to connect with potentially new clients for your business.
Always ensure that you give trade show attendants pens that are different and are of superior quality if you want to make an impression that will make you distinctive. most importantly you should never forget to include your name, your logo and probably your contacts on the pen because when prospects decide to become your clients, they will want to find a way to contact you.
Does Advertising Frequency Make a Difference?
Coca-Cola. How many times have you seen that familiar red and white logo in your life? How about just today? Coca-Cola was one of the first brands to use advertising effectively and has created an image that nearly every person on the face of the planet recognizes. one way they have achieved this success is by frequency.
One of the first things taught in college advertising classes for those who plan on working in the advertising industry is that frequency is a must in establishing a brand and in effectively delivering an advertising message of any kind. it doesn't matter how revolutionary your product is or how brilliant your ad copy if the message isn't seen frequently.
The simple formula for effective advertising is reach + frequency = awareness and sales. this means, in the most basic terms, that an advertising message must reach as many different people as possible, as frequently as possible to achieve awareness of the product or service and, therefore, generate sales. the very fact that frequency is a full 50% of the equation indicates how important it is.
If any advertising sales representative is truly honest with you, he or she will tell you that it is always better to run a small ad more frequently than it is to run a larger ad less frequently. If you can afford to run the large ad more frequently, even better. But, if you must make the choice in how to disperse your advertising budget, always go with repetition over size.
There are varying numbers depending on the source, but it is generally estimated that a customer must see an advertising message at least ten times before he will act on it. this is another clear indication of the important frequency plays in advertising. If you want customers to act on your advertising message, which is the entire point of advertising in the first place, then you must make sure that they see the advertising message frequently.
This does not mean that you have to beat them over the head with it. You don't have to show the exact same ad a thousand times in a row, but you do have to deliver the exact same message as frequently as possible if you want it to sink in. the number of exposures necessary for action is actually probably higher today since we are exposed to so many more visual and auditory communications daily than ever before.
Think of Coca-Cola again as an example. Fortunately a soft drink is a fairly simple product. However, Coca-Cola has never sold just a soft drink. They have sold the image of that familiar red and white can with the distinctive ribbon device and they have sold refreshment. From the early days of Coca-Cola's marketing (except for the debacle that was the cola wars of the 80s and New Coke, but that was kind of like that one season of Dallas-just a very bad dream) the message has been consistent. Coca-Cola is refreshing. Simple, effective, brilliant, repeated over and over. If you had only seen the Coca-Cola logo once in your lifetime and only heard the phrase the pause that refreshes or some variation once in your lifetime, you'd be far less likely to press that red and white button on a vending machine. Frequency and consistency in delivering their advertising message has kept a lot of cans and bottles of Coca-Cola dropping from a lot of vending machines for a very long time.
If you want your advertising to be as effective as it possibly can, determine what makes your product or service stand out. what is the one key thing that makes yours the best? Think refreshing. Now, come up with a visual style and a message that represents that. Get that message out to as many people as you can and maximize the effect with frequency.
Did ‘The Fugitive’ Director Andy Davis Direct a Blaxploitation Film?
"Stony Island" Andy Davis, who would go on to direct "Code of Silence," "Under Seige" and the Oscar Award-winning film "The Fugitive," directed the film "Stony Island," a celebration of the R&B music coming out of Chicago's South side. It attracted so many black audience members in historically white theaters that the distributor was forced by exhibitors to re-publicize the film as a blaxploitation film, re-titling the same film "my Main Man from Stony Island."
"Stony Island" is a love letter to the South side neighborhood of the same name. amidst the pursuit of a relationship with Lucie (The Bangles' Susanna Hoffs, the daughter of Davis' co-screenwriter before her days of walking like an Egyptian), Richie Bloom (Andy's brother Richie) is the only white kid on the block who decides to form an R&B band with his best friend Kevin (Edward 'Stoney' Robinson'). The duo gets together a funk group with their mentor Percy (Gene 'Daddy G' Barge). The film also features early roles for Dennis Franz ("NYPD Blue") and Meshach Taylor ("Designing Women").
recently the film was acquired for DVD and VOD distribution by Cinema Libre Studio. to celebrate the film's re-release, special screenings were held for the Chicago South side community that inspired the film. Indiewire spoke to Davis shortly after those screenings.
How did it feel to screen the film for a hometown audience?
It felt great. The people who grew up in that neighborhood feel it's a real time capsule. The young kids look at it and say, "This is really cool! look at those afros and bell bottoms." It's a very personal movie for a lot of people. It's a time and a place that's unique in American history, with the rich musical and cultural history of it.
Who all from the film was there for the Chicago screenings?
Gene Barge, the old sax player, is now 85 years old. He plays the House of Blues now, but he played two nights in a row for our Chicago screenings. my brother Richard was there with his new band. several of the musicians were there, as well as some crew.
How does it feel to watch the film now?
It's great. The film was never available on video. It opened to rave reviews in 1978, but the distributor booked it into arthouses and black kids showed up, so the theater owners pulled the picture because white people didn't want that. so they re-released it as "my Main Man from Stony Island."
So why release the film now?
we had the old, trashy trailer. That was it. all the time, I was wondering how I was going to get my first child out of the closet. Cinema Libre is politically progressive, they're releasing all kinds of offbeat things. I hope the film has a revival quality.
What motivated you to make this film?
I was a young cameraman, struggling to get in the union. they were illegally administering their rosters to let certain guys, their friends, in but they wouldn't let the young guys in. so I led a class-action suit against them. I had seen "Mean Streets" and "American Graffiti," and I thought I'm gonna do a film about where I grew up. I started taking pictures with my brother. He was starting to play music. I met Tamar Hoffs and we collaborated on the screenplay together. we raised $300,000 for the movie. my brother richie is in it, young studio musicians and street kids, and this started all of our careers.
I grew up on the South side of chicago, and with my reel-to-reel tape recorder, I would tape Little Richard, Cool Kent, a famous DJ, Pete Seeger and The Weavers. I liked that music. I was in a couple of bands in college, and I always liked the chicago sound: Herbie Hancock, Chaka Khan, Earth Wind & fire. When Louis Armstrong came up from New Orleans, he got off the train in Stony Island. There's a whole history of musicians of this era - black and white - Common and Kanye West are all from the South side of Chicago. When I made the film, I had a sense of what I wanted the music to be like. I wanted to talk about the relationship between the blues, Muddy Waters, Bo Didley, Chuck Berry, the history of blacks moving up the Mississippi to find jobs.
What did you learn from watching it again?
my feelings were happily reinforced. A lot of 20-year-olds were going crazy... they loved it. This movie was made before videotape and DVDs but also before hip-hop, rap, and breakdance, that culture. This was right after Elvis was singing "Hound Dog," a song originally sung by a black woman, right after Pat Boone, right after Don Cornelius had to make an alternative to "American Bandstand."
"Stony Island" will be released on DVD and VOD April 24 by Cinema Libre Studio, and tonight at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Davis will be joined by the Hoff's for a screening and Q&A.
Below are two trailers: the first is a 1978 TV ad for the recut "blaxploitation" trailer, the second is the 2012 trailer for the film's re-release as "Stony Island."
Lennon: We need Rangers rivalry
Neil Lennon says Celtic's drive for success won't be diminished by events at Rangers, but says the SPL would be poorer without their rivalry.
A deal to sell the debt-laden Ibrox club has been signed with a consortium fronted by former Sheffield United chief executive Charles Green, but it remains uncertain what side Rangers will be able to field in the Scottish Premier League next season.
Rangers boss Ally McCoist could face a shortage of experienced players if the club fail to overturn a 12-month embargo on registering players over 17 when they face a Scottish Football Association appeal tribunal on Wednesday, while if a 'newco' option is pushed through, players could leave for nothing under employment law.
Lennon, though, relishes the old Firm battles, which are unique in the world game.
"Celtic v Rangers is a great selling point for the Scottish game," said Lennon, who was in London today as Celtic donated £50,000 to sponsor a room in Paul's House, the CLIC Sargent Home from Home, near University College Hospital.
"If you look at last two derbies, they were fantastic occasions, with the colour, the energy and the intensity of the games, just the all-round atmosphere.
"It is a great rivalry and it is important that it stays there."
Lennon insists Celtic must not concern themselves with what may eventually transpire at Ibrox as they focus on the new campaign and trying to reach the group stage of the Champions League.
"It will all depend how competitive Rangers are going to be. I don't know what the sanctions will be, if there are any, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it," Lennon said.
"It will not change our outlook on what we are striving to do. "We have a plan in place for next season and have identified three or four players whom we hope to bring in.
"We also need to trim the squad because it is a bit big at the moment."
Celtic have several players out of contract this summer, and Lennon admits there are set to be some tough decisions ahead.
"Already Niall McGinn, mark Wilson, Richie Towell will leave the club because their contracts are up, and Daniel Majstorovic has signed for Stockholm this week," he said.
"There are a few more who will be out of contract, and I need to know what their plans are themselves.
"There are some I would like to keep, but I am not too sure that is going to be the case."
One player Lennon intends to do all he can to keep at Parkhead is goalkeeper Fraser Forster, who has impressed on his two loan seasons from Newcastle.
"He is a priority for us and hopefully we can get it over the line," said the Celtic boss.
"I think in his mind he is very happy and has been brilliant for us.
"He is a fantastic young keeper with the world at his feet and would just like to have him here with us for another year or so."
Lennon was accompanied by the charity's patrons ex-Formula one team boss Eddie Jordan, boxer Barry McGuigan and singer Sharleen Spiteri, from the Scottish band Texas, at the central London venue on Tuesday afternoon.
CLIC Sargent, the UK's leading cancer charity for children and young people, has nine Homes from Home around the country and provide free accommodation for families close to major cancer treatment centres.
Lennon, who took time to pose for photographs with some youngsters in Celtic shirt and sign autographs, said: "We are delighted to sponsor one of the rooms here at what is a fantastic organisation, where the money has been raised by our London-based supporters, and we can be very proud of what they have achieved here.
"It is what makes our club unique, is something which is in the DNA of the club.
"Celtic was founded for charitable reasons and this is a very special place."
Weaving tech into fashion biz
SANDRA GUY sguy@suntimes.com may 18, 2012 7:56PM
23614555 Article Extras
Updated: may 19, 2012 7:54AM
Northwestern University sophomore and fashion-design entrepreneur Zoe Damacela is combining old and new Chicago business cultures — garment sewers and social-media networking — as she expands her clothing lines from juniors and young women into mature women and children’s collections.
About 80 percent of the profitable company’s revenues come from online transactions, with 20 percent originating in overseas markets such as Canada, Italy, Latin America and even Sri Lanka.
“Technology is a huge part of our business,” said Damacela, who is majoring in History, Italian and astronomy while she pursues her entrepreneurial career as CEO of Zoe Damacela Apparel.
“We set up an online catalog four years ago that used PayPal as the payment method, and a year ago, transitioned to an e-commerce function so customers can pay directly through a shopping cart,” she said of the company website, ZoeDamacela.com.
Damacela has promoted her collections on Facebook and MySpace from the start — efforts that prove increasingly effective as more people communicate through such media.
Depending on the demand, as many as 30 contract garment workers sew the fashions in Pilsen, where Damacela and her mother split their time moving back and forth from Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, Calif., while Damacela was growing up.
While the Damacelas were moving during the 1990s, they were homeless, living on food stamps and spending nights sleeping in relatives’ guest rooms, on floors and in basements.
“My mom was a single mother, struggling to work jobs and take care of me,” said Damacela, 20, whose mother, Farah, a West Side resident, serves as Zoe’s role model and as vice president of her company.
Zoe Damacela said she had no idea her life was different until she was in the second grade and went to a friend’s house for a sleepover.
“I saw that my friend lived in a big house with a swimming pool and she had two parents,” she recalled. “I went back to a group home for single mothers and their children that a church supported.”
Farah, 41, was able to return to school 12 years ago and now works as a manager at InRoads, a program to help minority students achieve internships at Fortune 500 companies.
Before she could do that, Zoe Damacela helped by doing what her mother suggested: If Zoe wanted a $60 Razor scooter like the ones her friends had, she’d have to raise half of the money herself.
Zoe starting with making greeting cards out of construction paper, glitter, stickers and her own designs, and selling them on a street corner in Santa Barbara, Calif., when she was eight years old.
She quickly realized she was good at it. She earned $30 in two to three hours on her first outing.
She turned to selling hand-made jewelry and hair accessories and then sold her paintings and drawings before she learned how to sew in middle school.
Damacela started sewing prom dresses six years ago after her family gave her a $200 sewing machine as a Christmas gift.
She sold her dresses for $30 to $40 apiece before she realized the demand called for a higher price. her fashions’ popularity among girls ages 10-12 enabled her to launch a junior’s line, and in 2011, a casual T-shirt collection.
About three years ago, Damacela started visiting elementary, junior high and high schools on behalf of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship to encourage students — especially those from low-income communities — to stay in school, and to lobby school systems to offer classes in entrepreneurship. She was inspired by her own NFTE class experience while she attended Whitney Young High School.
She has also won acclaim by appearing on Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network, The Tyra Banks show and in a 30-minute feature on MTV. after she won first prize in Seventeen magazine’s 2011 Pretty Amazing cover contest, she was featured as the cover profile in the October 2011 issue.
Her lobbying has now extended to President Barack Obama’s Start Up America Initiative. She was a keynote speaker at the White House and is advocating for helping small businesses more easily obtain loans, patents and trademarks.
“I want to give a first-hand account of how powerful small businesses are to the economy,” said Damacela, who is working on her new children’s clothing line that will extend her fashion lines from infants through women in their 40s.
Ajaz Ahmed, founder of innovation agency AKQA and co-author with Nike executive Stefan Olander of “Velocity: The seven new Laws for a World gone Digital,” said Damacela shows how entrepreneurs must be resilient to fight through barriers while maintaining their visions.
“One of our seven laws in ‘Velocity’ is that making a convenient or easy choice isn’t usually the right choice.
“The right choice can be difficult, but is more worthwhile long-term,” Ahmed said. “Organizations that give their customers the greatest of convenience do this by making their own lives very inconvenient. that takes courage and determination. Yet the rewards are worthwhile because it creates incredible loyalty from customers.”
Soundgarden Release New Music Video for ‘Live to Rise’
Story by Charles Ken
Chris Cornell and Soundgarden release blue-washed music video
Soundgarden are back with their first fresh song in over a decade and a half, a catchy anthem called, “Live to Rise.” Today (May 3), the grunge rock boys released the official music video for the song, and the clip features live footage of the band rocking out in a blue-washed, laser light setting, plus clips from the upcoming film, “The Avengers.” Watch the video for the song, which is featured on the soundtrack for “the Avengers,” below.
Fans who don’t think the new songs sounds like what they’re hoping to hear from the new phase of Soundgarden shouldn’t worry. in an interview with the Los Angeles Times‘ music blog Pop & Hiss, frontman Chris Cornell explained that the track is not at all like what Soundgarden will churn out for their upcoming new album. “It sounds kind of stripped down and more streamlined than a lot of other songs we’ve been writing,” Cornell said of “The Avengers” tune.
“But if you take any song out of context, from any one of our albums, going all the way back to our first sub Pop EP, it’s not going to tell you anything about the songs around it,” he added. “We’re just that way. This would fit on our record … but if there’s a way that it stands apart, this is fairly rhythmically straightforward.”
The soundtrack for “The Avengers” also features songs by Bush, Papa Roach, Shinedown and Evanescence. the soundtrack is currently up on iTunes, while the film hits theaters on may 4. (Photo via YouTube.)
Watch Soundgarden’s Music Video for ‘Live to Rise’:
GreenSmart Kea Laptop Daypack
GreenSmart’s $55 Kea Laptop Daypack, a medium-sized backpack with a built-in laptop sleeve and plenty of smaller pockets, is so comfortable to wear that it’s difficult to believe the bag is made from recycled plastic bottles.
GreenSmart proudly constructs all of the company’s bags out of materials made from recycled plastic bottles—every inch of the Kea was once a bottle that’s been ground up, spun into yarn, woven into fabric, and then sewn into the bag. The end result is a flexible material that feels like a soft canvas or nylon. The Kea is available in Ocean Blue (blue and grey exterior with an orange interior) or Mocha (two shades of brown with a grey interior).
The backpack has a 14-inch, padded laptop sleeve that really is for 14-inch (or smaller) notebooks—I tried to cram a 15-inch MacBook Pro into it, just to see if I could, but was unsuccessful. It’s a great fit, however, for a 13-inch MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, either of which fits snugly inside the sleeve without much wiggle room, so it feels quite secure. a 13-inch MacBook inside a thin sleeve or case would even fit. The Kea of course can be used with an 11-inch MacBook Air or an iPad, but there’s quite a bit of wiggle room—I’d recommend putting one of these smaller devices inside an additional case or sleeve just to add a bit more protection.
Apart from the inner laptop sleeve, the Kea’s main zippered compartment has two smaller mesh pockets (either of them great for an iPhone) and one larger zippered pouch (perhaps for your MacBook’s charger). There’s also a zippered pocket out the outside of the bag; this pocket hosts a mesh flap, four slots for cards, two pen slots, and another pocket.
My only gripe with the backpack is its shape. The Kea has bottom panel that’s about seven inches deep, front to back, so you might assume that the bag would expand to up to seven inches deep most of the way to the top. but once you zip the pack closed, the front-to-back depth at the top is much smaller. While this is a common design for backpacks, for whatever reason it gives the Kea a particularly unbalanced appearance. And since the material isn’t stretchy, stuffing the pack with books or other rigid items leaves a gap of open space at the bottom-front of the backpack, and this space is nearly impossible to access once the bag is full. I also didn’t find the Ocean Blue option to be particularly stylish—either the color or the overall design.
GreenSmart’s Kea would be a great option for students who take their MacBooks to class, or as a carry-on bag—the bag’s comfortable, airmesh padded shoulder straps and back cushion make carrying it a breeze, and the built-in laptop sleeve keeps your MacBook safe.