The Blind Spot Pilot from IB5k on Vimeo.

I found this pilot that I made for ABC News Now–what at the time was billed to be a mobile phone concentrated news network, which was to be the future.   With the layoffs at ABC News this past month, mentioned in this blog, I thought it interesting to revisit this moment in time–late 2004.  John Kerry had just lost the election and George W. Bush had a lot of political capital.  Of the THREE Anchors of a generation, only one had walked off into the sunset, another was in the process of being disgraced and yet another, didn’t know his fate.  Here are some interesting points when watching this:

1) Distribution. Youtube had not been invented, or made widely available yet–so I had very few legitimate options if I wanted to get this out on my own some other way.

2) Still trying.  Like Woody Allen, I keep trying to make the same movie over and over again.  REF: My email to Charles Gibson(I can reveal this today) after his Woody Allen Interview–I got no response: http://tomarken.com/criticism/2005/05/i-got-a-lot-out-of-your-woody-allen-intv

For instance, Sam Rieff-Pasarew finds a place in all my very first pilot projects–but I’ve learned a few things since:

3) 2004. Peter Jennings was still in the building when I showed this around.  As was, Ted Koppel down at his perch in DC.  I showed this to everyone I could find–unbased–but it had to be distributed by DVD(and that was modern–”DIGITAL”).  They were an all tape house.  I remember 40 year old producers futzing with the dvd tray to try on their DESKTOPS trying to get this to play, and the speakers were often not set up.

4) Its true.  I hijacked a studio–edited late at night in stairwells and now with my 30 year old mind, I appreciate the cover and support I got for doing this renegade from my bosses there at the time, I could imagine it was uncomfortable for them to have me showing it around.  Its sad that on the one hand I’m embarrassed wondering wtf I was thinking– I certainly look less dorkier right now–on the other, looking at the tape pieces, I’m pretty certain something like this WOULD have gotten picked up today somewhere.  I couldn’t get it on a mobile phone network at 2AM on a Thursday in 2004.

5) Instant Message thing.  With the Current, HACK THE DEBATE--I would say that it was realized there, EXCEPT–look at how LONG the AIMs were?    I’m not sure if that’s why twitter still struggles to find its place on OLD TEE VEE.  140 is too short for complicated thoughts and ideas.

And now–just the exploding TEE VEE part:

Just the Exploding TV from IB5k on Vimeo.

Feel like the New Jersey Turnpike:

Feel balanced (Bing died shortly after this)

Feel Passive Aggressive (Think Martha Stewart denial)

Feel Guilty

Feel Stereotypically Mexican

Feel hungry

Exactly one year ago today, Barack Obama was elected president–and that’s a critical moment in the history not just for the world, but for us. You see, I started my self-imposed exile from my place in San Francisco at the end of July 2008 to move to Chicago and join the New Media part of that campaign. When we won–and then a week later, Current TV laid off the division I had been working for, I decided in those cold dark days of November, to start something SCHMOO–although not even the name had surfaced yet.

All I knew was that so many of you who had done work for us and so many of the talented people I’d worked with were now all of sudden out in the cold–whilst I felt like I had won the lottery. Finding myself in the midst of a historic and winning presidential campaign.

Fast forwarding to now–we will get to the parts in between at another point–I never went back home. I continued to go about the country and put together the pieces that at first became our parent company, IB5k and then later our subset for the creative types, Schmooru.com.

How did I do this? As you can recall–after Obama got elected, the sky was literally falling. The economy was in shambles and people thought the banks were going to fail. Schmooru, I’m proud to say has received no investment in these early stages which means there are no strings attached while firmly developing our foundation. We control our own house and from there we can dream unbeholden.

It did cost money–and I’m happy to report, my savings are mostly intact. The first thing that’s been mysterious to me and I hope no one from the MGM Mirage corporation is reading this–but every time I’ve needed the money for something, I’ve gotten it in a casino. In a sense MGM and a few other names are investors in this company. Same way FEDEX started.

I don’t believe in gambling–but I’ve only lost one time this year. I’ve never gotten more than I needed to get me past the next post. Before Obama called in July of 2008, I had won a HUGE take in Detroit which made me feel comfortable taking the drastic pay cut to sign up–because it was so mysteriously large, I thought it meant something larger than me.

There are your curators who worked on a HOPE and a DREAM who basically did this stuff for future pay, but beyond that they deeply care in what we’re all trying to do there. Primarily, to have a lawyer, a webmaster, a business builder, a powerful DC power broker, an impeccably capable renaissance video man–but also, the girl I called one week after the election and said “I don’t know what it is, but we’re going to go out there and do something’–the most networked girl in video production–cause this thing always was conceived and lives within community–without these people–there would be no SCHMOO.

But that’s not all. It took a village. A global one–in order to build this thing. And primarily–its not having paid rent for an entire year that has really gotten this thing off the ground. By my count I’ve stayed in over 47 different spots this year, and never slept in the street unless it was on purpose(There was the one night in Chicago when I wanted to go home and my hosts were partying all night but that was good for me;). I would say a word to the wisest is you have to keep on moving every three days in order to not overstay a welcome–but below, I’ve chronicled every place I’ve stayed in the last year–and many of them were repeats.

These people all contributed to the possibility, that creative people like all of you could band together–do projects bigger than oneself–and in doing so, help to preserve a creative lifestyle and profession that’s necessary to ensure our happy futures.

CHI
Caitlin Dorsey
Mike Debonis
The New Media Mansion people

STL
The Rev. Ben Schartman

NYC
Katie Beckmann

LA
Lauren Cerre & Tyler Manson-

SF
John Reed & Sarah McKinney

Omaha
Paul Tulipana & Megan Malone

Louisville
Tom Green

Birmingham
Mark Nugent & Jessica Kerley

Miami
Mark Steiner

St. Louis
Harrahs;)

Toledo
David & Esther Beckmann

Washington, DC Inauguration
Allison Archaubault

NYC
Holly Ecker and Christopher Smith

Washington DC/Manassas, VA
Mathew Taylor
David Bychkov & Nadia Madjid

SF
Richie Zevin

Bozeman, MT
Michael J. “mini” Noogent
Michael and Naomi Nugent

LA
Sarah Evershed & Julian Robinson
Dylan Ris

SF
Danny Debonis

Chicago,
Zac Witte & Goeff Domeracki

SF
Tori Taylor & Dave McMillan

LA
Saskia Wilson Brown

Wyoming
The Eversheds

NYC
John F. Brunner
Jory Cunningham
Sam Reiff-Pasarew

DC
Max Harper

Amsterdam
Dennis DeLange
Mike Glennon

NYC
Clare Sullivan & Thomas Hallaran

Great Barrington, MA
Nathanial Kerksick

CHI
Caitlin Dorsey
Mike Debonis
The New Media Mansion people

STL
The Rev. Ben Schartman

NYC
Katie Beckmann

LA
Lauren Cerre & Tyler Manson-

SF
John Reed & Sarah McKinney

Omaha
Paul Tulipana & Megan Malone

Louisville
Tom Green

Birmingham
Mark Nugent & Jessica Kerley

Miami
Mark Steiner

St. Louis
Harrahs;)

Toledo
David & Esther Beckmann

Washington, DC Inauguration
Allison Archaubault

NYC
Holly Ecker and Christopher Smith

Washington DC/Manassas, VA
Mathew Taylor
David Bychkov & Nadia Madjid

SF
Richie Zevin

Bozeman, MT
Michael J. “mini” Noogent
Michael and Naomi Nugent

LA
Sarah Evershed & Julian Robinson
Dylan Ris

SF
Danny Debonis

Chicago,
Zac Witte & Goeff Domeracki

SF
Tori Taylor & Dave McMillan

LA
Saskia Wilson Brown

Wyoming
The Eversheds

NYC
John F. Brunner
Jory Cunningham
Sam Reiff-Pasarew

DC
Max Harper

Amsterdam
Dennis DeLange
Mike Glennon

NYC
Clare Sullivan & Thomas Hallaran

Great Barrington, MA
Nathanial Kerksick

Mr. Johnson has been producing, shooting and editing video, television and the rest of it on two coasts (with gusto!) for as long as I can remember now. So listen now or subscribe to the radio hour podcast to get your weekly (give-or-take) fix!

Well hold your horses! There’s a heck of a lot going on inside schmooru right now. Building a solid creative community is like a nicely stacked woodshed(as more eloquently pointed out by Lee on her 2or3things) — you have to build it piece by piece. Sometimes you have to adjust a few things to the natural flow of the wood. This helps so your structure doesn’t fall over in a storm — and prevents water and varments from damaging too much of your wood!

We like to call this the Evershed Plan® — building a community that lasts the test of our creative times! Our person in charge of this initiative is also conveniently named Sarah Evershed and here’s a picture with her father Gary Evershed, one of the original Eversheders — in a long line of folks who’ve been building things right since man decided to put things together:

So to get more specific — we’re in the process of bringing in the right foundation of creative muscle and matching them up with the right group of creative consumers to make sure things match up right. We’re going through community building exercises so our Schmoos can Schmoo. We’re not in any hurries. We also don’t have to be known by every Tom, Dick, and Harriet out there. We just need to keep doing our thing well and stacking the wood just so — so that we’ll have this property to hand down to the next generation of Schmoos. That’s what we’re in this for.

If you have any questions or are interested in getting in on this early BONUS Round — please contact us. If anything, we’re friendly.

— D. P. B., Amsterdam 08.07.09

DELTA
For the times you’re not delayed, sitting at home, but wish you were: http://blog.delta.com

GM
Coming to you from that guy at the conference table from the “how to avoid bankruptcy” meeting who was like “we could start a blog?” — I like to describe those types of ideas, lets call them “Shirleys” after the drink “Shirley Temple”, as akin to holding up a cocktail umbrella during a shit storm: http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/

WALMART
Don’t forget to “check out this blog”;) where all the “lanes are open”;) — and while you’re there checking out “gadgets, green gaming and MORE!”;) cause that’s what ALL blogs are about;) remember those HAPPY employees at the REAL checkouts “who wish they could afford computers of their own & Health care”;) http://www.checkoutblog.com/

MCDONALDS
And then while you’re at Wal-BLOG, why not wash down your day of corporate readings by driving-thru this one on your way home, although we doubt several thousand, let alone billions and billions have been served here: http://www.crmcdonalds.com/publish/csr/home/_blog.html

@Schmooru
if we have anything, we’ve got aspirations. And while these corporate blogs above are to be applauded for their attempts to start some sort of dialogue with corporate stalkers, WE HERE have at Schmooru have a deeper mandate — Together {RE} We Build Media ! And how does one actually go about {RE} Building Media? That’s what the SchmooNEWS is for — a blog dedicated to telling the story of our collective journey — intended to inspire us NEW MEDIA DOOZERS to DOOZE what we DO.

SchmooNEWS is the New {Shirley Temple} Black!

It doesn’t end there — you’re curators and in fact, many of you will soon be contributing to this feed on a regular basis — intelligently and WITH purpose. So while the “other guys” sit around and phlem about Heidi Klum — we’re gonna go BACK in TIME and use some of the things that worked that have since been thrown away — dust it off and re-use some of the oldest tricks in the book. In this case, it’s old school, origination generation — in the form of BEATS (yes for those who know Beckmann well — I love BEETS)

The following Curators follow and write about the following ideas:

Dan Beckmann — Creative Process: Where Ideas Originate From/Creative Industry
Sarah Evershed — Schmooru Community/Creative Folks and how they do what they do
Tori Taylor — Schmooru Client Community/Acts of Creative Implementation
Jared Tankel — Legal Schmeegals for Creative Types/How to be COOL and CREATE
John Reed — Online standards in creation

{more coming soon}

• Our love is a great list of people we know who can get the shit done
• Our love is the people we know from all the places we worked and all the people they know and so on..
• Our love is the generational shift going on before us, both in media and government
• Our love is even a found in a crap economy, for within it we find opportunity
• And finally — our love is each other — as explained below the roles we play in our Sha-la-la-laaa…

Here we go:

Dan is Alex P. Keaton. (Managing Director/Business Development)

It’s true — in the 80s, growing up in Ohio, I liked Reagan. He appeared to be friends with Michael Jackson and his first name was the same as one of my other favourite characters Ronald McDonald. While my taste in food and politics may have evolved since then, my admiration for Alex P. Keaton has not. I’m here to work the deals, get things done and make long winded speeches.

Sarah is Mallory (Lead, Community)

I mean in her picture she seems awfully dreamy like Mallory was and in this “very special episode” that’s why she is the person at the center of our Schmooru. She has traveled everywhere in search of creative people like you. Now she finally has a place to put them or you — Schmooru!

John Reed is Skippy. (Webmaster)

The reliable, trusty, fashionable, co-conspirator born out of the I-70 latitude of middle western charm. As our Webmaster, he built the house where our love takes place. For a “good time”, please don’t miss his show at radiohour.org.

Sharon is Meredith Baxter Birney (Lead, Washington/Broadcast Communities)

Sharon was Schmooru before there was Schmooru — her walls and bulletin boards a “facebook” of broadcast folks as if someone ripped the idea straight from her headlines. She provides us with motherly wisdom — and may very well have aspirations to one day move on to Lifetime Original movies — whatever that storied form turns out to be once we “remake it”.

Tori is Mr. Keaton (Lead Client Relationships)

She’s a woman in every respect, but her role is very similar to Mr. Keaton (and since she lives in San Francisco, can’t a Mr. be a woman? One must always “rethink”). She provides level headed one-liners, likes documentaries and knows how to keep the family moving with a rational sense of wisdom. Her job is to make sure our clients are happy and also come up with a system that makes sure people get paid.

Jared is Nick (Lead Counsel)

No, Sarah and Nick are not a couple in real life, although they may play one on TV. Nick is our legal council here which may make you wonder why he’s like Nick — the guy that used to say “ay” all the time. Well that’s because Nick was an artist, and our legal council Jared may be one of the most artistic among us. He tours the country with the Budos Band. They are awesome and he’s quite busy doing it. This means he GETS what its like to be a creative and not get dicked over by the law — in one work: “AY”.

Hopefully we won’t need to add the little kid for ratings — now taking applications for the Courtney Cox character

Sha-la-la-laaa