It still amazes me how the internet, specifically within the last few years, gives so many voices the opportunity to be heard - at once. What would take days to compile, happened today - literally - in seconds.
MTV News has already collected several sources online where students have been posting first hand accounts of the shooting. Within minutes, blog entries were up, photos were posted. Citizen/Collective journalism was furiously in effect today.
What amazes me even more, is how it’s possible that the shootings began at 7AM, and somehow this disturbed individual began shooting again several hours later, in another location on campus. How were the students not sufficiently warned? What happened?
Virginia Tech students told MTV News they have learned that the first shooting occurred at a residence hall and involved either the girlfriend of the shooter or her roommate, as well as a Resident Assistant. CNN reports that the campus-wide alert wasn’t made until two hours later, when the second shooting began to occur at Norris Hall. The police claim they thought the dorm incident was an isolated matter.
… I wonder if things would have turned out the same way if some sort of student body emergency-only mass text service had been in effect. Everyone with a cell phone (and text service) would have seen the message, been given instructions, and who knows? Maybe less damage would have been done.
A lot of lessons to learn from this. A lot to think about. Working on covering this has consumed my (and all my coworkers) entire day, and now I just want to go home and watch Little Rascals. Or bury my head underneath my pillow. Maybe I’ll do both. This is definitely not over and tomorrow I am sure is not going to be any easier. I cannot imagine how the students must feel.
Joosty Notes
I tried to open up Joost this morning but an error message told me I needed to download the latest version. With the new version, I needed to create a user ID. After logging in, I was pleasantly surprised to see the MTV channel finally in there, but then became bored again when all I saw was Laguna Beach and Two-A-Day episodes. Oh well, one day at a time.
The look of the new version is a lot more, let’s say, polished. The widgets area seems to be more organized, and my screen wasn’t doing that jumpy thing it was with the first version. However, I do have 2 gigs of memory on my work comp so it makes me wonder if the program runs as smoothly for the average user. Another change that I hadn’t noticed before was that I can’t send Joost tokens from the website anymore, I have to do it directly through the program.
Oh, You Pesky Emails
…According to the lovely news trackers of Mun2, Florida State Representative Don Brown is in trouble with Latino Republicans for sending an e-mail that read, “Don’t forget to pay your taxes — 12-million illegal aliens are depending on you!”
Kind of a dumb thing to say when you live in Florida, Donny Boy.
You can email his office and tell him off, or send snail mail to:
District Office:
OWC - Chautauqua Campus #205
908 U.S. Highway 90 West
DeFuniak Springs, FL 32433-1436
Phone: (850) 892-8431
I started reading The Fountainhead yesterday. And no, I’m not mentioning it just because I want to look literate, being that today I discovered that someone quite high up on the food chain here at the job stumbled across my blog, which resulted in an impromptu meeting. We had a nice chat about it, and it was an interesting way to finally meet one of my bosses - through my blog - and share ideas. I’ve met other people at MTV Networks through this thing too. It’s a rather surreal and definitely not anticipated result of deciding to experiment with this a few months ago. Imagine working at a giant company in the 1950’s (being a woman, no internet) - My God? How would you ever get noticed?
FYI bloggers, if you think that your co-workers aren’t reading your blog, you have been warned. Being aware that the world is getting tinier by the second, my most incriminating thoughts are pretty much reserved for a journal buried somewhere in my duvet cover 
That said, I still read my former boss’s blog on windsailing, my other boss’s blog about his music career and other interesting things, my coworker’s blog on NYC culture and music, etc. etc. It’s an incestuous blogosphere, that’s for sure.
But back to The Fountainhead.
via flickr
According to Variety, MGM and Salma Hayek, along with partner Jose Tamez, have joined forces to create the production label Ventanazul, which will acquire, develop and produce Latin-themed material and utilize Latin American and Hispanic talent on both sides of the camera.
Excerpt:
“Budgets for the mainly English-language projects will run from $5 million to $25 million, said Sands, “depending on what the material is and who’s in it.”
Hayek will be “running the company,” Sands said. “To the extent that it makes sense for her to act, she’ll do that; to the extent that it makes sense for her to produce, she’ll do that.”
Daniela’s hastily written Mini and possibly Inaccurate Salma Bio:
Salma had a thriving acting career in Mexico, but her vision would not be contained by borders. She came to the United States when she was twenty-four, appearing in bit parts on various television shows in the early nineties. Robert Rodriguez saw her on comedian Paul Rodriguez’s late-night Spanish-language talk show in 1992, and he soon gave her the big break she was looking for - opposite Antonio Banderas in Desperado. Tarantino featured her in From Dusk Till Dawn, but a comedy was what made her mainstream and gave Salma her first top billing: Fools Rush In opposite Matthew Perry. In this film, she wasn’t just a sex symbol. She was a multi-faceted character and her acting ability was more apparent. She played Serendipity in Kevin Smith’s Dogma, once again a sex symbol but at least a clever one. Wild Wild West was another “shake yer boobies” role, and it wasn’t until Frida that she was really allowed to show everything she encompassed - a truly beautiful AND intelligent, talented actress. She rejoined Rodriguez for the modest hits Spy Kids 3D and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and in 2006 became executive producer for the hit series Ugly Betty. Unfortunately, in that same year, Banditas was released which prevented me from “claiming” her. She redeemed herself in the eyes of Daniela with the news of this awesome deal with MGM.
Bravo, Salma! I am looking forward to seeing what comes of this. Hopefully nothing like Banditas, but I am hopeful! 
yay.
Related Links:
PerezHilton - He calls her salami. That’s mean.
Not really, but it was a really long double feature. I managed to keep it together and remain in my seat for the entire three hours, however many of my fellow attendees were not so lucky and ended up missing a few of the phony trailers that sandwiched Tarantino’s Death Proof and Rodriguez’s Planet Terror.
via flickr
And it really didn’t need to be so long.
Planet Terror, as my creative partner Jennifer stated, was gory fun “and at least had a beginning, middle, and end.” Unfortunately, Death Proof - although mildly entertaining in the first half thanks to Sydney Tamiia Poitier’s bitchy yet awesome Jungle Julie character - dragged through the last forty five minutes. Kurt Russel’s character Stuntman Mike starts out a bad ass psychopath and ends up a sniveling crybaby. It was totally unbelievable, even for a grindhouse flick. Lead Zoe Belle (who was Uma Thurman’s stunt double in Kill Bill), was likable but ultimately boring - I really didn’t care if she was going to live or die. I am sure others will argue me to death about this, but I really felt like Death Proof was a lame ripoff (not homage) of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.
To make things worse, (according to Deadline Hollywood), Grindhouse hasn’t been giving enough love to actual grindhouse theaters. Quote:
“I wanted to give you some insight into Grindhouse being a flop,” Seth Sonstein (photo right) emails me. “We begged The Weinstein Company for a print of this film. In the end they would not give us a print. 
Also, Dan Halsted runs the Grindhouse Film Festival out of The Hollywood Theater in Portland, and Weinstein would also not release a print to him. (Dan knows more about Grindhouse films then anyone in the country.) So I attest that the distribution was botched on this film. When your local Grindhouse isn’t allowed to screen the Grindhouse, then you KNOW that there is trouble.” Sonstein said his theater and its audience were psyched when they first heard about Grindhouse and followed its progress from Day One. “
..The Grindhouses across America are the exact opposite. While people may need Regal so they can go see films like Wild Hogs and Norbit, they will never catch a double feature of Foxy Brown and Black Samurai at the local Regal Cineplex. Grindhouse, a film that is a throwback to the great Grindhouse films of yesterday, will not be playing in a Grindhouse.”
No wonder it may be re-released as two separate films. I loved Planet Terror and the cool trailers but would not sit through another three hours in a theater just to catch it again.
IGGY & The STOOGES w/SISTAS IN THE PIT this Monday, April 9!
The United Palace
4140 Broadway at 175th Street
New York, New York 10033
(212) 568 - 6700 ext. 11
59, 50, 40 dollars
get tickets at ticketmaster (more tour dates available)
I wish I could afford to go, but as my dear friend Ju’ so aptly put it earlier today:
alantra (2:14:36 PM): i love sistas in the pit
alantra (2:14:40 PM): but it’s a broke love
alantra (2:14:46 PM): a love that dares not speak its name
alantra (2:14:48 PM): at the atm
MTV News will not be there, unfortunately 
…So if anyone does go, please YouTube something. Anything.
Girl Drummer Love
I have a private childhood fantasy of being a Drummer God, which flares up now and again… (more…)
The Giant Awakens is a DVD compilation of compelling short films from all around the country, due to hit the streets in the weeks before Mayday 2007. Shot, edited, and brought together by a network of independent video activists, graphic designers, community organizers, musicians, and immigrant rights activists, it is a collective memory and a tool to inspire action this MayDay 2007, when the Giant will raise its voice again to say: we are one people, without borders. (from website)
My video for Pistolera’s song “Cazador” will be included on this DVD and I am looking forward to checking out the other contributions.
- via flickr <3<3<3<3<3
Tori Amos’ new album American Doll Posse will be available May 1st. It will have several anti-war songs and she will also be touring Europe beginning May 28th (according to her MySpace page). I might see her perform in Paris in June, I hope!
Check out mtvnews.com tomorrow morning for an interview with Amos about the album, her tour, and inspirations. I read it already, haha ;P
I shot some interesting Louisiana sights and sounds, I may upload something later this week. …I’ve been feeling a bit uninspired. Perhaps it’s because I wasn’t ready to return to work.
via the twitter
Rummaging
…I found this image I made a while back for my roommate’s myspace page and it perked me up (a little):
I think it successfully captured her personality.
…Oh yes, Killer Films has a MySpace page.
