Passion without logic can be a good thing sometimes. It can manifest itself in raw, creative outbursts, in a deeper connection to something inside of us that the noise of our everyday thoughts usually obfuscates and as a result amazing art is created that crosses barriers and appeals to common elements within us.

Other times however, it results in name-calling, violence, and general foolishness. I think we’ve seen a lot of this recently around the health care bill and the battling over keeping government out of people’s lives. Give me my Medicare, but keep your government out of my healthcare is one of the idiotic statements that comes to mind.

Here below is a great post I chanced upon this morning, reposted by James Tung, and I think originally written by Konrad Maziarz that presents a breakdown of a fairly standard day complete with all the government intervention that takes place. Please read.

“This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating breakfast of US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory. I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads built by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to send via the US Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After work, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to a house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it’s valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and post on freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.”

I just finished the blog post Saishunkan Cosmetics – Customer Care Trumps a Factory, courtesy of the Evolving Excellence blog, on a hugely successful Japanese cosmetics company that really makes customer service and the idea of service as a whole not only first in, but an inherent part of, their company culture. Their journey to this company philosophy covered a bankruptcy, to an aggressive, non-customer centric sales strategy that netted around $100 million per year in sales, to a complete re-imagining of business strategy and sales approach that now nets them around $270 million in yearly sales.

Not only was the article incredibly inspiring and informative, and an amazing blueprint for other companies out there, but it presents a clear argument for, and counterpoint against the way we do business over here. The rapacious, short-sighted, short-term profit and reward oriented approach to doing business which played a great part in the current economic state of the nation is clearly untenable and generally destructive. While it seems like we, or at least the powers that be and businesses that helped bring us here haven’t learned to do different, as they weren’t really forced to suffer, as consumers or business founders and owners we can actively choose to take another path.

As owners and founders:

• We can create consumer-centric businesses. Not necessarily meaning ones that are purely driven by consumer insights and, or responses to current consumer problems / issues, but ones that focus on the consumer’s experience, take in their feedback, and honestly and seriously evaluate it and incorporate it into future improvements made by the company

As consumers:

• We can choose to patronize businesses that respect us and actually add value to our lives rather than treating us as replaceable cogs in their sales wheels that can easily be replaced and are therefore of little value. No matter what, money = power and if you don’t want to say something with your mouth, or people just aren’t listening, then say it with your pocketbook. As well, with the proliferation of social media tools, and the internet in general, our voices can be easily amplified and spread like wildfire.

On the power of social media to broadcast messages and effect change within companies take as cases in point the rapid spread of negative publicity as a result of Sprint charging for texts to send aid to Haiti, something they did an almost immediate about face on, and more recently Kevin Smith using Twitter to lambaste Southwest Airlines and their policies after they mistreated him, and ejected him from a plane due to his weight. Something they apologized profusely for and will probably regret for a long time.

On both points this is only the tip of the iceberg and many more both examples and ways in which to effect change abound.  We no longer have to wait for the powers that be the change things, organize massive rallies, or back expensive political pushes. If action isn’t taken from above now more than ever we have the power to fight back on our own terms with cheap, easy to use tools and within that set the tone for what flies and what doesn’t with corporate behavior.

Last night I went to check out Animal Collective and Danny Perez at the Guggenheim. I couldn’t get tix for the almost instantly sold out 9pm show, so I ended up going to the 4:30pm show they added earlier this week. When we arrived at 4:45 thinking we’d have a maybe 15-20 minute wait at that the line was around the block crazy. It literally wrapped around the corner of the museum on 89th, down to Park and then around to the other side of the block on 88th almost back on 5th avenue. Looking at that, and standing in it, it didn’t seem like we were getting in anytime soon especially given that they had 2 or so people with clipboards casually checking names for tickets purchased online. However, after about an hour of griping, waiting, and commiserating with fellow attendees in waiting, the event staff seemed to give up on this being conducted in any sort of semi-orderly and expedient manner and just started running down the line asking how many tickets each person bought and then just handed them out and ushered us in.

The experience was touted as “a site-specific performance piece that will transform the museum’s rotunda into a kinetic, psychedelic environment. Transverse Temporal Gyrus will feature original recorded music composed specifically for the event along with video projections, costumes, and props, rendering the band members and performers into intense, visual abstractions.” Given this description and hype that generally surrounds events like this I must say that while it wasn’t exactly what I expected and thought it was going to be more interactive, with more “band participation” I definitely enjoyed myself. As afternoon gave way to evening and the light slowly faded out of the rotunda, the space transformed and the music and projections bestowed a haunting, unique quality to the venue. People ringed the edge of the rotunda, lay out around the stage area and sat back against the sloped walls taking in the experience and absorbing the laid back almost astral feeling of the event. All in all, it was definitely a beautiful, contemplative experience I’d be happy to repeat again and I’ll almost surely be on the lookout for anything even remotely similar to this.

Check the iPhone images, and I’ll be sure to add more from the camera when I get a chance.

However, upon stepping back and observing outpourings of goodwill, the existence of multiple philanthropic organizations created with no greater motive than to simply help, and looking at the commonality and empathy shared between man in moments of tragedy, sorrow, in the face of strife, or on a more positive note, in times of joy, one can’t help but to wonder if this was nothing more than a cold, reductionist view of humanity.

These sentiments are bolstered by recent research, about which the NY Times just published an article, suggesting We May Be Born With an Urge to Help.

I can see this every day even in a city well known for its coldness and loneliness, a city I was born and raised in, and truly love (mostly), NYC. Admittedly, you also see the counter side of this argument, watching people push past the elderly, step over the homeless, and ignore the plights and suffering of others who are obviously human, but who we may have pushed to the fringes of society and made into “an other” or who we may simply have had too many negative experiences with and no longer wish to entertain the possibility of future ones.

Either way, especially in the revealing light of tragedy, such as the one in Haiti, I think it would be quite hard to argue that human nature tends towards the hurtful rather than the helpful. Besides the outpouring of aid from the common man, even those hard pressed themselves, and the aid from multiple countries, some in less than ideal economic situations, we have communities that lived together in tenuous truces, if they could be called that – such as the one highlighted here, Haitians and Hasidim Find Common Cause, that came together in the face of this recent disaster.

But all this brings up a deeper question for me…why does it so often take the face of pain, suffering, and despair to stir these feelings? I understand desensitization, media oversaturation, and just simply being overwhelmed by it all, but where we are spending time curing we could have been preventing. We could have been making sure these tragedies never happened, and that if they did, they would never have happened on this scale.

Through forgiving Haiti’s debt before this tragedy, through helping to set up infrastructure, and through allowing for more immigration to the US, which even if it didn’t result in a more well-to-do population coming back to Haiti, would at least have allowed for increased cash flow into the island, the effects of this tragedy could have been helped to be stemmed. And I don’t end it there with Haiti alone, I want to use this moment to call attention to the myriad ills we face in this country and worldwide and ask people to look outwards, remember that no man is an island, and understand that now more than ever we truly are a global community. It’s time to forget what we’ve learned and go back to the times when helping came naturally and it didn’t take images of abject misery in order to tug at our heartstrings, only the simple, lovely, joy of shared human connection.

First off let me say that as entertainment I really liked the movie. I had a good time, thought it was pretty cool, and to top it off I was more than lucky enough to get to experience it in 3D, in an IMAX theatre.

Now for the second and much less amazing part.

Sorry folks, but Avatar was definitely not the best movie ever made. I know most of you that have been saying this were simply caught in the throes of early stage 3D-mania, so I forgive you, but let’s sober up a bit and examine reality.

Besides being visually awesome there just wasn’t a ton of depth, and while this can be perfectly acceptable as obviously not everything needs to be a deep meditation on something, or make a major statement, it mattered with Avatar because not only was the movie sending a message, it was basically shoving it down our throats.

For most of the movie, or pretty much whenever I stopped being engrossed by epic battle scenes, or surveys of the flora and fauna of Pandora I felt like an overly full suitcase that someone just kept trying to stuff more and more into, with no regard for my limits. Stop beating me in the face with the fact that these people are like the Masai meet Native Americans, yes I see the long hair, yes I see the Masai physique and jewelry, maybe I didn’t get their connection to the land and all that lives upon it though so just in case better make some tentacles that come out of their hair that they can use to literally connect to Mother Earth.

Sorry, James Cameron, but between the always annoying glorification of our lost connection with the earth that native peoples still have, the really stupid, overly bellicose, one-dimensional American characters that use Bush-era “war” terminology, and worst of all the ‘Dances With Wolves’ in space with blue people bullshit, I just was not feeling it.

Hollywood, is it really so hard for you to make a movie where the natives, whose ways you consistently romanticize, can actually handle their own shit. Seriously, is that too much to ask? Come on, indulge me.

As for Avatar, yes it’ll make money, yes it was fun, and yes it was stunning, but also, yes it could have been much better as a simple action flick instead of an approximately half billion dollar, overly moralizing, excessively preachy foreign & environmental policy propaganda piece.

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Sitting here at the computer, a couple hours after I probably should already be in bed, and maybe 4-5 hours before I’m actually supposed to wake up I’m faced with the very welcome, yet daunting challenge of starting the New Year off right.

While admittedly the idea of resolutions and making changes specifically for the New Year is kind of silly and more so simply something that can be done on any day, there is something special within the mass spirit of making changes and the resolve to see those changes through in the long term.

As for me, I’m hoping going to seize the bull by the horns, start out on some proper routines regarding work as well as physical and financial health and hit the first full week of 2010 feet on the ground, running.

And I’m going to take the enthusiasm and excitement I have for this brand new year, and decade and run with it, building upon this initial momentum and continuing with it through all of 2010 and beyond.

Wish me luck and I’ll keep you posted.

This is especially interesting to me as it represents another bit of innovation achieved through true public/private partnership. No, I’m not talking about the government just handing out money to corporations, or corporations telling the government what to do (what seems to be de rigeur these days), but actual collaboration between bureaucracy and business.

While there are already many programs for providing the low-income, elderly, disabled or other parts of our citizenry with free or low cost landlines, these are no longer relevant in today’s on the go world, and being without a mobile phone means lack of connection which can often translate into lost opportunity, something that might possibly be felt even more acutely for these often marginalized populations. However, given government bureaucracy and the fact that it often takes the longest time for the simplest of tasks to be executed, the quick, innovative pace of business and especially a business like Virgin is a welcome kick in the pants.

I hope to see more collaborations like this in the future, ending up in goodwill benefits, brand recognition and affinity for the business, and actual quality of life improvements for the customers / beneficiaries. If anyone has any interesting examples of collaboration like this on this scale – please read…not corporations teaming up with government to screw people – I’d love to hear more about it.

While I’m sure many (all) of you know this already, nextNY’s blog has awesome listings for This Week in the New York Innovation Community, a compendium of tech-related events in the NYC area. Sometimes featuring new Silicon Alley startups, sometimes helping get people together to create the next Silicon Alley startup this is a must if you’re in the tech game, trying to get into it (like me), or are simply one of the what I’m assuming are 4 or 5 NY tech groupies. Ha.

Check it out!

Adam Rich - Thrillist

While I knew they were doing well, I had no idea they were doing this well! 1.1 million subscribers and counting.

After recently reading two articles on Thrillist, and its founders Adam Rich and Ben Lerer (Business Insider’s Thrillist Is Blowing The Doors Off & Inc. Magazine’s 30 Under 30 Profile on Thrillist – please read them both) I must say I am both impressed and even more acutely aware that I need to seriously step my game up.

I’ve got about a year and 2 months to get on this 30 Under 30 list and if I plan on actually making it I’m going to need to cut out some of my favorite activities like sleeping and socializing and get into coffee and late, probably lonely nights.

Ben Lerer - Thrillist

While I know any sort of “stepping-up” will without a doubt have to come from internal drive and personal motivation to succeed, I’m hoping that like these two, and so many other successful duos, in the next couple months I can find a co-founder or some sort of partner to work with that can help to keep me continually motivated and inspired when I’m feeling a bit worn down and in need of some much needed socially oriented release.

But back to the articles and Thrillist…

I’m actually still trying to wrap my head around how they have or maybe even more so require 45 full-time employees to pull off their daily email lists, and beyond that how they’ve managed to take in around 10 million in revenue this year, derived purely from sponsorships and advertising mind you. While I know when you boil it down it’s only ten dollars per subscriber, per year value to reach their highly coveted 20-something, 30-something “urban male” demographic  (I’m actually a subscriber myself). It still seems like a damn good amount of money to be making purely from having a daily email list that goes out to guys.  Once again, I know Daily Candy (same deal, but for chicks) recently sold for $125 million so obviously someone knows something I don’t, but I’d love to see some metrics on campaign efficacy, email clickthrough, email opens, whatever.

While I’m obviously not 100% the perfect target and sometimes require something to really pique my curiosity or grab my attention for me to seriously and consistently engage with it, I know in the years I’ve been receiving their mail, while I’ve opened a ton, there’s been very few things I’ve investigated and even less that I’ve actually followed through and gone to or purchased, but who knows, some of the venues, companies, and brands may be indelibly marked on my subconscious just waiting to be triggered by a follow-up email or secret spoken phrase activating a sleeper message which will compel me to buy, buy, buy and make the sponsorship and advertising dollars worth it.

When I lived in Germany for a couple months in 2001 doing a study abroad, our program took a trip to Poland for about a week. In Poland, at least at that time, the main portrayal of black folks that they had seen was from the Cosby show and maybe via some musicians, such as Bob Marley, etc. something that led to considerable good will and expectations of a positive and potentially enriching encounter from interacting with me. I’m not saying there was no one in the country with negative feelings based on unfounded fears; there was extremism there, like all over the world, but the fact remained that due to these media portrayals I experienced no negative energy right off the bat, and nothing but positive, open vibes from all the people I had the pleasure of dealing with.

Now, contrast that with America, where there is quite often a very different story that takes place before I open my mouth, and sometimes, unfortunately even after. A place where I am constantly dealing with negative vibes from simple activities as entering a certain establishment, being near someone on a dark street, or walking quickly, as I always do.  Experiencing what I’ve experienced, I can’t even imagine what less well-dressed or well-spoken black males than myself must go through. Granted I might feel it more as I will quickly cop to hypersensitivity, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there and it doesn’t affect people, and as a result hurt them.

For those that would argue that people are simply going by the law of averages I say that yes, maybe people are examining statistics and looking at things as they are portrayed by the media, and take precautions to protect themselves in some way and that’s fine, as god knows I myself might get shook if I see a bunch of thugged out kids walking down a dark street towards me…but there is something in it that smacks of prejudice instead of self-preservation. I really don’t know where to find the happy medium, but I do know a couple things, we’re not anywhere near it and that media images and portrayals matter, and they matter a lot.