Barackface

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Tom Vilsack, Iowaman

Hillary In Person

Leila Noor was going to make up for the fortune it cost me to attend the Hillary event, and that by a free pass to a Vilsack event. My business ideas can come across as so out of the whack, I can come across as a member of the Starving Artists' Association (SAA). You show up at some fancy Manhattan party dressed up like a dot com millionaire, and people actually avoid you, otherwise my instinct is to work the room. Especially if you also have long, uncombed hair, unless combing with fingers counts. But today I had my haircut from the day of the Hillary event. And I dressed up, or as far as possible. Spickspan shining shoes, man in black trousers, shirt and jacket. But inside the buttoned jacket - one button, double breasted - was an untucked shirt. And there was no way I was going to put on a tie. It might as well be against my religion.

But then my "new French friend" Alvaro from the Hillary event emailed today, and so I put him on Leila's mailing list for the expensive fundraisers I can not make it to: he got the money alright.

So I was going through the flyer for the event. And there she was the Somalian cum American Queen Noor sitting on the committee, again: political animal, Obama heritage - a combo I find fascinating like stars to astronomers, Obama trait. I am telling you, these lawyers have more fun politicking than lawyering. I just need a few hundred of these nationwide to take off: Video Blogging For A Living!

So today I was actually dressed up, but this time the blackness hit me, the way bright colored Indian clothes might hit American eyes. (blac) I did fine the first round. I made small talk. Then there was the event. Vilsack talked, I recorded it all on video. And I remember thinking, isn't video blogging less travel? Then he was done, and I was about to leave, and Noor was at the other end of the room, nearer the gate, away from the stage, where I first saw her. She was perhaps jaded from the more private audience organizers like her had with the Governor right before the event.

That was the beginning of part two of the evening. It culminated in me meeting with an actor who actually has made an apperance in the mega movie Any Given Sunday (Any Given Sunday (1999)): DJ Funny. The guy has met Al Pacino, the American Amitabh Bachchan.

"What is he like in person?"

"He bites nails."

DJ used to work a Wall Street job. He quit that to follow his sartorial dreams.

Robert Smith hosted the event. Towards the end he presented Vilsack with all sorts of "black" books and magazines. It might have been an awkward moment. He also announced the organization endorsing several candidates for the same office, and got one wrong, he got it mixed up between Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor.

I am so glad I stayed on. I got more and more comfortable. I was one of the last to leave. I was getting into the groove. Once I warm up, there is no stopping me. I talk like I blog, impulsive, unstoppable.

Vilsack has an impressive record. He has been both DLC Chair and Chair of the Democratic Governors' Association. Bill Clinton was one, Howard Dean another, I think. I overheard him having spent an hour with the Time magazine columnist Joe Klein. I guess you come to pay your respects. Should not journalists be doing field work instead? Some media types come without term limits!

I got to quiz his staffer. She was taking care of the logistics for his tour. Political work is much physical stamina.

During the first half of the evening before the speech, I bumped into one group, two were for not sparing the rod, one was for no touch, in terms of raising children. I joined the second school of thought, and the vote became 2-2.

I arrived way too early. That gave me time to get a slice of pizza in the neighborhood, read a few stories in the New York Post that I had picked up in the train, the most reading of the Post I have ever done. Then two glasses of coke in the outside bar. Then a glass of pineapple juice downstairs before the Vilsack hubbub began.

On The Web

Office of Governor Tom Vilsack and Lt. Governor Sally Pederson
Tom Vilsack - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Office of the Governor
DesMoinesRegister.com
Tom Vilsack on the Issues
The Fix - Chris Cillizza's Politics Blog - (washingtonpost.com)
Vilsack for Veep?
Heartland PAC
Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Democrat

In The News

Insider Interview: Tom Vilsack's Democratic Optimism Washington Post, United States
Vilsack quietly focuses on '08 presidential campaign DesMoinesRegister.com, IA
Candidates address penitentiary issue Keokuk Gate City Daily, IA
Leader Sees Video Lottery Restrictions As Inevitable KCCI.com, IA
Vilsack: Lawmakers could miss ethanol opportunity Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier, IA
Vilsack to lead trade mission to India Cedar Rapids Gazette, United States

Visitors

22 February

21:06

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23 February

22:25

Orange County Dep. Education, United States

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Video Blogging For A Living

Google's Blogger was not around during Dean 2004. So the idea that you can have your own blog in text for free is kind of recent. The idea that you can have your own podcast for free is even more recent. Google came up with the video option, as have a few others like YouTube.

I moved to New York City this past summer. Why did I move? I needed a place I could call home, something crowded, and diverse, and noisy and a little on the dirty side. Career was a secondary concern. I thought I might cultivate a few business ideas. Instead I was doing the Nepal work days, nights, evenings, and weekends.

I dipped into the storm during the dot com mania, I have been to all 48 states, I have driven overnight through a hurricane, and I am hard core political. And bills have to be paid.

I believe I have found a business model that could work for me. Google Video has announced it will make pay per view possible. If I could produce a 30 minute clip per day and get watched by 100 people per clip on average, at 50 cents a clip you are looking at $1500 a month, still below poverty line, but enough to pay all my bills. At 1000 viewers, that is $15,000 a month though, and that is rich. At 200 viewers you are looking at 36K per year. At 400 viewers 72K, which is ambitious even by NYC standards. There are various permutations and combinations possible. And it does not have to be one loyal band of 500 viewers. It can be a revolving door. Some of my most watched videos for free are those people must have found using the search engine. (My Four Most Viewed Video Clips)

It can not be my Nepal blog (Activism And Entrepreneurship), it has to be my Americana blog. I need a potentially large audience. You do your own marketing. You post a blog entry, and go looking for blog posts on similar topics, read them, leave links to your article in their comments sections, and you get return hits. A few days back I left less than 10 comments, and I had 50 plus page hits the following day, a record for my blog that had 30 plus max on any other day prior. But then the day after it went up to 80 plus without any additional work. With 500 comments, I could possibly hit the magical 10,000 page hits mark. At that point you are really talking. I could be blogging on a daily basis.

The business model is as yet unproven, but the numbers look really good and achievable. And it is appealing so many other ways. This feels like a dot com. This is entrepreneurship. On the other hand, this is politics in a the future is now way, in a politics at the speed of thought way. Blogging dissolves boundaries. Between politics and business, between academia and politics. Heck, I might even write a novel and publish it the same way.

This business model will allow me to do a whole bunch of reading, something I look forward to greatly. Books, movies, music.

This really helps with my political work. I believe I am going to be much more focused on my blog and my MeetUp. My political career does not go through DFNYC. I am going to be much more selective in terms of the DFNYC events I attend. I can not be moving one meeting at a time. I have to move at speeds possible online. And with the online option, you don't meet the geographical bounds. If it were just offline politics, I would feel guilty at some level. What am I doing for my people? My allegiance lies with the Global South.

If you write a blog entry that gets read by 200 people, that is like addressing a 200 strong crowd. I am all set. I am excited.

I have not had to open up those envelopes yet, but if I need venture capital, it comes in the mail in the form of credit card offers, in case the business idea takes a few months longer to take off than I have thought. Now you are really talking dot com.

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Busiest day so far	20 February 2006
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21 February