Quick! Five Questions [Totally Random Edition]
Haven’t done this in a while, but let’s bring back the quickie questions. Leave your answers in the comments, buddies. Ready, set, go!
1. If you could only wear one color for a whole year, what would it be?
2. What’s your drink of choice?
3. What’s your favorite dinner?
4. Would you rather watch Titanic or The Notebook? (Pretend that neither is not an option.)
5. What celebrity do you look like?
Buzzing Bees, Honey, Storytelling | Comments (32)Adaptation
Millennials–those kids who were raised thinking everyone’s a winner, that you get a trophy just for showing up, and whose parents and teachers taught them that they can rule the world–are, as a cohort, growing up a little bit more. We Millennials joined the workforce with smiles, confidence and optimism, and we knew that our smarts and savvy would serve us well in our budding careers. Sure, we’re a special breed of junior staff, but I’d like to think (surprise, surprise) that we’re adding something special to the mix.
Last week, SHIFT Communications made the hard decision to conduct layoffs, and those let go were mostly junior staffers. The same goes for lots of other public relations firms across the country. And this is not exclusive to PR. Small tech startups to behemoth management companies are joining the fray as well. Dark days.
So what? This is the first time the all-smiles, reach-for-the-stars generation has experienced life and work in a major downturn. Gen-Xers and Boomers know the drill–they’ve been through this sort of thing before. This recession, these hard times–it’s a first for us, and these days will inarguably force Millennials to change the way we think about the world around us. Gone are the days of expecting gold stars for doing our best. Make no mistake, we get it.
It will be interesting to see how the hits we take today will affect the Millennial generation’s outlook and experiences in the future. I wonder too, if perceptions of our generation will change as we work hard to adapt and navigate these hard times. Will the kids who were told they could do anything change their tune after going through a major recession?
Photo by terren in Virginia
Buzzing Bees, millennials, Storytelling | Comments (12)Five Minutes of 2008
It’s been quite a year. Looking back, I feel blessed to have had so many moments of laughing, hugging, dancing, smiling, learning, sharing, celebrating, and loving this year. As the song says, these photos are all evidence of my life…
Good Thing This is a Personal Blog…
Bored. Sick. Shopping. Sandwich. Sniffles. Enjoy?
The Opening Lines of My New Book…
Jeanette Winterson is my favorite. Her books are totally gorgeous. I just started reading Gut Symmetries, and the way it starts is so awesome:
November 10 1493. Einsiedeln, Switzerland. Sun in Scorpio.
First there is the forest and inside the forest the clearing and inside the clearing the cabin and inside the cabin the mother and inside the mother the child and inside the child the mountain.
Today’s Honey: October 1, 2008
It’s been a while since we’ve had some good honey. I love this dance and song, so I wanted to share it with y’all. Emily Shock and Applause Studios are an inspiration–every routine tells a story in the most beautiful, intricate way. I’m Amanda Gravel, and this is what I like.
Song: Near to You by A Fine Frenzy
Amanda’s Long Weekend
August 30, 2008
Amanda moves from her second-floor one-bedroom apartment down the street to a first-floor two-bedroom apartment with a new roommate. Her family assists her with the move, which has been described as “pretty brutal.”
August 31, 2008
Amanda unpacks roughly 12 large boxes full of the following: clothes she hasn’t worn in more than a year, kitchen utensils she has never used, candles she refuses to light, shoes she hates wearing, and speakers for her TV that has no audio capabilities on its own. She waits for the Comcast guy, who initially shows up at the wrong apartment, yet makes up for it by getting the entire installation done in roughly 6 minutes once he actually arrives. Amanda wanders down Beacon St., trying to remember where the Star Market is, and when she finds it, she purchases Nutri-Grain bars and bananas, among other foods. She stays up late, simultaneously talking on the phone and watching wedding shows on WE.
September 1, 2008
Amanda takes a train home and attends Jessica’s wake. She thinks this is one of the saddest days she’s ever experienced. She goes to sleep early.
September 2, 2008
Amanda takes a long walk with her mom in the morning. She then attends Jessica’s funeral at St. Mary’s in Grafton, where she used to be a member of the parish back in the days when she grew up Catholic. Amanda still can’t believe that Jess is gone. She goes to lunch with a group of friends she’s known forever, and listens to stories that prove everyone’s all grown up. Amanda later gets a ride back to Boston with her father. She has trouble sleeping at night.
Amanda, Events, Storytelling | Comments (2)From Tin Foil Phonographs to iPods…
Earlier, Greg told me he had some sort of old-fashioned phonograph contraption, which got me thinking about how we listen to and have listened to music. I’ve grown so accustomed to my iPod and iPhone playing music at my command, on-the-go, in high quality and with great choice, that it’s now hard to imagine a world where that wasn’t possible.
I remember having a CD walkman and a CD player, which at the time seemed so cool because you could choose songs without waiting, even if the machines skipped sometimes. And before that, I think I recall a cassette walkman, on which I would play mixtapes I had recorded off the radio, pausing, rewinding and fast-forwarding the songs I loved when I was 10. Before that, I have vague memories of an old radio my dad kept in his workshop in the basement, where he would play classic rock while he built adirondack chairs and American Girl doll furniture. I had seen a few record albums in the basement, tucked away here and there–Billy Joel, maybe Earth, Wind and Fire–but I don’t know that I’d ever heard music play from a record player. (Greg showed me one once while we were walking around in NYC, but it was in the window of a store that was closed–so, no music.) Long before I was born, jukeboxes were installed at the Wonderbar Restaurant, owned by my godmother’s family in Worcester, Mass. When I worked there all through high school, the music was always playing–Sinatra crooning away as hungry families ate Italian.
I never really thought about music players dating before that. But this timeline from Steven E. Schoenherr (that unfortunately only takes us through 2005) gives a detailed history of how people jammed out to their tunes all the way back to the first recording of a human voice on a tin foil phonograph in 1877. Now we can share music online, start our own Internet radio stations, discuss the meaning of lyrics with people all over the world with the click of a button–hard to believe it all started with a clunky phonograph in the 19th century.
What’s interesting too, is that I associate certain songs and artists with certain music players. When you think about it, technology can drive our music memories. Do you have songs or albums that you think of in the context of the technology you use or used to listen to them? And how far back do you remember? Growing up, did you ever imagine that we’d carry music around in our pockets, listen to it from our mobile phones, never hear a skip or have to fast forward to the song we really wanted? I didn’t. Thomas Edison probably didn’t. Did you?
Music, Storytelling, Tech | Comments (6)Saturday in Amandaland
Was your Saturday better? I doubt it.
