The composition of blue sea and of green,
Of blue light and of green, as lesser poems…

- Wallace Stevens (Lesser Poems)

Although I’ve completed my protest posting of photos of the Pacific coastline over on the political blog, I have a few more that I took at the end of August while watching a sunset that felt like a gift from God. So I’ll post those here…and at the same time, remember those who are suffering as a result of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, including some blogging friends.

Even though we’re in a horrible economy right now, and things are tight everywhere, please try to make a donation to the Red Cross to help the folks out who have been devastated.

Go visit Julie Pippert’s blog to get an idea of what she came back to, then multiply that by tens of thousands…they need attention and help. There is a sort of general sense that because they aren’t New Orleans, they’re getting no media attention. I think that’s likely true to some extent, though I’d also include the bleak financial news that kicked off this week as another reason.

Anyway, help if you can. As will I, and every little bit will hopefully help folks like Julie.

My heart goes out to all of the families and friends of the victims. This train is one that Sticks rides regularly. He has a late class on Friday and had to drive. Had he taken the train on a normal day, this would have been his train. As well,another one of the victims listed here is the close friend of a close friend…gratitude and grief, comingled…

Remember them, even if you did not know them. Because they represent the urgency, the fierce urgency, of now.

This makes me incredibly sad. This is (was) the best emerging jazz festival I have followed, and I was looking forward to Sticks having the opportunity to attend in 2009.

If there is anyone reading this who can assist them and possibly find a sponsor or a grant for them to continue, please visit their website and contact them. Seriously. Because this country needs the arts. Jazz is making a huge resurgence among young and old alike because it’s great music. The kids like Sticks need ways to see them perform.

Bonus Link

Portland Jazz Festival is ceasing operations ending a five-year span of presenting a world class jazz festival each February in Portland.

Operations and planning for the 2009 February event could not continue because of a decline in funding and sponsorship support. New sponsors could not be found and other short falls accumulated making it impossible to survive on ticket sale projections and related forms of earned revenue. Even with the anticipation of the 09 festival dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records, recent attempts to develop support throughout the community were not successful.

Since opening February 2004 with Wayne Shorter, Portland Jazz Festival has presented such artists as Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Chick Corea & Gary Burton, Dianne Reeves, McCoy Tyner & Ravi Coltrane, and many others. Over the past few years, an array of international artists, including Trygve Seim and Tord Gustavsen (Norway), Tomasz Stanko (Poland), Nik Bartsch’s Ronin (Switzerland), Amina Figarova (Holland), and Diego Ramirez (Mexico), have been prominently spotlighted.

In addition, PDX Jazz was formed two years ago as the membership umbrella, presenting jazz throughout the rest of the year. With a membership base, PDX Jazz has presented Sonny Rollins, Pat Metheny & Brad Mehldau, Return to Forever, and Esperanza Spalding to Portland audiences. In 2007, PDX Jazz initiated the Portland Jazz Orchestra as the resident ensemble of the Portland Jazz Festival with members acting as clinicians and workshop leaders for free instructional programs for student musicians. The Orchestra will move forward with its 2008 concert schedule.

Jazz Education & Outreach programs have always been a vital part of Portland Jazz Festival February events with middle school performances of The Incredible Journey of Jazz celebrating Black History Month; dozens of performances by student musicians at the PDX Jazz Pavilion at Pioneer Courthouse Square; free master classes with Regina Carter, Donald Harrison, Dave Douglas, and others; open rehearsals with SF Jazz Collective, Bill Frisell, and Myra Melford; countless Jazz Conversations and Jazz Journalists’ panel discussions.

The Portland Jazz Festival would like to thank the following. Special thanks to our Volunteer Coordinators, whose dedication for this festival truly defines commitment. Our Sponsors, past and present, for your support. We thank the hundreds of Volunteers who each year worked tirelessly and passionately.

Most of all, we would like to thank the incredible Audiences and Members who supported this festival and will continue to support jazz in the northwest. Thank you.

• Oh, Identi.ca! » How to Keep Track of Your Twitter Community After Switching to Identi.ca
  Twitter is slowing the flow of our information; and controlling our content, to the point of limiting access to it, even. Identi.ca is the open source Twitter, and has track features enabled, built into the core.
  (tags: identica microblogging track twitter)
• Gustav Information Center
  Props to NPR's Andrew Carvin for setting this up so rapidly
  (tags: socialnetworks socialmedia information emergency)

Light blogging this week. It’s the first week of school, busy at work(s) and the convention has my attention.

In case anyone wondered, I thought Hillary Clinton rocked the house last night. She did exactly what she needed to, and I give her big props for that.

Tw*tter-like services are hitting the mainstream, and there is no better example that what Rick Sanchez over at CNN has been doing for the past few weeks by bringing Tw*tter and Facebook into the political conversations he’s been having on his Saturday shows.

I was intrigued by his use of Tw*tter last week, and followed after his last show. With the Biden announcement today, it seemed like a good time to join the conversation, especially since his question intersected with the question we were discussing on NewsGang Live — whether or not the Great Obama Text Message Experiment was a failure or success.

I shot a message to Sanchez saying I believed that the text message announcement plan accomplished exactly what it was intended to accomplish: Buzz, and a large audience available at the send of a single text message. Since we were in the middle of a pretty interesting and intense NewsGang Live discussion, I left it at that, and went on with our show.

That would have been the end of it except that I received a direct message from a Twitter friend telling me that he saw my icon pop up on Rick’s twitter page on-air. That intrigued me for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that it meant that Rick was using Tw*tter in real time, unedited. (At least, in as real time as Tw*tter can be, given that they’ve disabled track and hobbled conversations. Hence, the use of the asterisk in their name.)

I was impressed. Impressed enough to return to his 10pm show.

My suggestions and criticisms for Rick follow:

Rick, props for understanding the value of real-time conversations with people on Tw*tter and other social media. Props for understanding the value of bringing the audience into your conversation in a real way, and props for understanding that by interacting with us, the conversation can evolve.

I believe you understand the value and power of these conversations. However, in your 10pm show, you made the mistake of harnessing the collective idiocy instead of the collective intelligence of those following you, and then turned that into some kind of “Tw*tter shaping the story” thing.

Now that tells me a couple of things. First, it says that you read my earlier tweet to you about Tw*tter breaking the Biden story ahead of you all. It also says that you understand the value of real-time conversations as they relate to news.

These are good things. However, the third factor in an effective use of Tw*tter and like services is the most important: Your own participation in the conversation.

Seriously, the only reason that 3AM lunatic comment got any traction is because you gave it traction. You skipped over really well-stated opinions in favor of the one that was utterly ridiculous.

If you’re going to have a conversation one to many, make it count.

Oh, and you could completely lose your pundit panel, too. Let the folks who really follow these issues be the center of the conversation. Kind of like Talkback Live was back in the days when I worked for CNN Interactive. Talkback Live was the prototype for what you’re doing now, use that audience power to propel you.

To the folks like Mark Mayhew who took me to task for criticizing Sanchez:

You make the point that Sanchez’ followers jumped from 500 to 950 in the span of an hour. How do you think that happened?

It happened because I, and a few others, sent Sanchez’ message out to those folks who follow us, who then sent the same message out to those who follow them, widening and overlapping the circles.

And Mark, the way I found your critical remark? I track my name. So when you sent me a message without following me, I was able to discover it and have a real-time conversation with you about the whole thing because track worked.

Not Summize. Track. via Twitterspy.

Tw*tter, as it is structured right now, precludes those real-time conversations. Important conversations. They control the flow of the conversation, preventing us from engaging with one another in a fashion that allows the conversation to shape the event. Steve Gillmor said it best:

Here is where the difference between search and track will prove pivotal. Search produces analysis after the fact, while track produces interactions that change the events themselves. As social hubs perform for the “cameras” over the next weeks, the efficiencies of those with real time synergies will likely outperform more historical views of the resulting data. Those micro-communities more adept at conversational politics will do better faster, and may in fact tip the election in much the same way Obama’s teams tipped the nomination process via the caucuses.

I call it this: The fierce urgency of NOW.

• Shotgun Freeway
  (tags: netflix movie losangeles film)

• MomLogic :: Phelps: From 'Nothing' to Hero
  As much as I enjoyed reading about Michael throughout the Olympics, I also enjoyed reading about and listening to Debbie. She was divorced and basically raised three kids on her own. Michael was bullied by his peers, diagnosed with ADD and told by many educators that he would amount to nothing. Debbie, an educator herself, knew that wasn't true. The world now knows that wasn't true … and I believe there is a message not only for the kids out there facing challenges but also for their moms.
  (tags: adhd olympics michaelphelps success)