Hanging out with Robert Rodriguez and Gov. Rick Perry

Well, actually, I was just one of several hundred people standing in a big room at Troublemakers Studios in Austin, April 23. We were watching filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and Texas Governor Rick Perry enjoy a well-earned Big Moment in the media spotlight as the Governor signed legislation that will boost moving image production in the Lone Star State.

Gov. Perry came to Troublemakers Studios in a Texas-sized white limousine that had a movie camera as its hood ornament. He's also one of the few U.S. governors who belongs to the Screen Actors Guild (SAG)--which is a bit funny, since Texas is a right-to-work state and Gov. Perry, a social conservative, is no big fan of unions and guilds.

He got ringing applause, however, from the gathered crowd of Central Texans who work in the movie, TV, game and related entertainment businesses, because the newly enacted incentives promise to bring more projects -- and jobs -- to Texas.

The legislation was spearheaded by State Rep. Dawnna Dukes (D-Austin). She said the new law, which went into effect immediately, will give the Texas Film Commission more flexibility when deciding on the size of grants that it can award to movie, TV or game production companies. Approximately $20 million is now in place, and another $40 million in funding is now being debated as separate legislation in the Texas House and Senate. "We don't believe in outsourcing (entertainment industry jobs), especially to Louisiana and New Mexico," she said.

"Oh, we're gonna be busy!" Gov. Perry commented before he sat down to sign the legislation. " He noted that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal recently came to Austin for a visit, and Perry told Jindal: "All those movies you've been having in Louisiana? They're gonna be coming to Texas!"

Gov. Perry added that "the moving image industry has brought in more than $1.2 billion to Texas over the past 10 years. I promise you, this legislation is gonna blow that figure away."

One bystander, San Antonio lawyer David Yanez, remarked before the event that he is changing his focus from state politics to becoming an entertainment attorney. "People want to film in Texas," he said. But he cautioned that states cannot keep trying to outdo each other with production incentives. Before long, the incentives playing field will be more or less level. When that happens, state film commissions may have to create "alliances of states" in their area. In other words, rather than compete with each other, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and possibly other states may have to team up to compete with California and other areas of the U.S. for movie, TV and game projects.

After the event, I tried to meet Robert Rodriguez, but his line of admirers was too long, and he appeared anxious to move on and get back to work. The Governor also was busy shaking many hands. Anyway, I'm not one of Gov. Perry's political fans; I think he has been wrongheaded on many issues, including trying to refuse federal money to help the unemployed in Texas.

But this event was good news for Texas' beleaguered entertainment industry. I give full points to all who helped push the legislation through--and to the governor who encouraged it and signed it.

Maybe he'll get a few plum movie parts after Kay Bailey Hutchison defeats him in the governor's race in 2010.

-- Si Dunn

Remember When Information Technology Was Hot, Hot, Hot?

I came across a very telling article recently while cleaning out some old piles of my journalism. In January, 1999, I co-authored a piece, "IT careers for sale," that appeared in Computer User magazine. The subhead stated: "If you have computer skills and a pulse, recruiters want you on the IT front lines."

Remember when information technology (IT) was hot, hot, hot? Clinton and Gore were in office in those days, and the overheated dotcom boom was still underway.

Here is how the article began:

Chances are, you've gotten their calls. And their emails. And their faxes, postcards and letters. You've seen their big "Now Hiring!" signs hanging on the sides of buildings. You've read their billboards, heard their radio commercials, even felt their earnest handshakes and gotten their business cards at professional association social gatherings.

Lately, you may even have noticed their pitches in a most unlikely place: On monthly statements from some of your credit card companies.

It's a recruiters' jungle out there, and you, friend, are the big game they are stalking, even if you don't want to be hunted.

Blame it on demand versus supply. There are now many more information technology jobs than there are computer professionals to fill them. The Information Technology Association has estimated that one in 10 computer-related jobs currently is going begging--that's almost 350,000 vacancies.

Desperate companies are searching far and wide, recruiting on the Internet, on college campuses, at rock concerts and in distant lands. They are offering referral bonuses, signing bonuses and bigger bounties to outside recruiters. Some even are raiding their competitors' talent--or at least being accused of it...."

Sadly, those days likely are long gone now. But that seems to be how the American economy works: in cycles of boom and bust.

A decade later, in troubled 2009, if you have computer skills and a pulse, you likely are unemployed, underemployed or in fear of losing your job very soon.

It may be time now to recruit yourself and turn your computer skills and job experiences into self-employment. If you still have a job or need more income, you can start something on the side and test the waters of small business. If you are unemployed and standing now with others in long lines to compete for one, two or a few jobs, it may also be time to recruit yourself and create your own job.

It's not easy, but if you have computer skills and a pulse, you can do it. You might even have to do it if the economy doesn't pick up soon.

Operators, unfortunately, are not standing by.

--Si Dunn

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Social Media Is Dead -- And You Killed It

That's right. Social media (or Social Media, as its practitioners and aficionados so importantly emphasize it) is dead.

You have killed it by overdoing it--day and night, endlessly posting and re-posting. You now stay online so much that you have become antisocial in real life.

Families? Friends? Co-workers? Don't need 'em.

You tweet, therefore you are. You blog, therefore you matter. And if you can just keep it up, hashtagging often enough in one 24-hour span, you can create the illusion that you are living an exciting, important, digirati life.

Those now jumping into social media soon will discover that they have arrived too late. Social media has become oh, so two hours ago.

The New Hot Thing is...Antisocial Media (ASM).

We in ASM tweet just to tweet (and don't you "@" or "DM" or "RT" me, you rat bastard. I'm too busy posting new tweets to read anything or respond). We blog because we can--and we purposely burn up many hours in the process, so the real people around us will get less and less of our time to waste.

Who needs actual social interactions when we can flood the digital universe with ASM?

Don't answer that. And don't attempt to argue with me. Just post your own stuff and don't expect me to read it. The true practitioner of ASM doesn't even read his or her own postings.

My new book, Antisocial Media: Hashtags in Hell (LOL), will be published soon. In the true spirit of ASM, I wrote it without reading it. I let no one edit it. And I will tolerate no reviews or questions about it.

Just click on the Amazon link, charge your credit card and forget about it. Instantly, you will become another expert in Antisocial Media, and you can publish your own book on "how to boost your ASM productivity." (Suggested title: "How I Got 8 Million Anti-Followers on Twitter in Five Seconds Flat.")

I won't read it, of course. I'll be too busy tweeting and blogging about the death of Antisocial Media and the coming of the Next Hot Thing: face-to-face, offline discourse and conversations (FFODAC). (Gasp!)

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New Blog: Third-Chance Book Reviews

Why third-chance book reviews? Well, why not? Authors work hard to create their books -- sometimes one, two, three, or even more years. Then their books are published, put on display in bookstores, only to be unceremoniously yanked from the shelves a few weeks later to make way for newer books.

Meanwhile, newspapers and magazines are eliminating book reviews or tightening up on the number of reviews they publish, on paper or online, to try to cut costs as they struggle to survive. Thus, it is getting tougher and tougher for authors to get their books reviewed anywhere.

If your book doesn't get reviewed right away, it rarely gets a second chance. And after it has been on the market for a year or two, it has almost zero chance of getting reviewed, except on a book-review blog. These days, the shelf life of a book is much shorter than the time it takes to create it.

Hence, Third-Chance Book Reviews. It offers one more opportunity for a few books to get reviewed.

To be honest, I am an old-fashioned book reviewer who is now in mortal danger of becoming unemployed in the dwindling world of print media. After many years of reviewing books in newspapers, magazines and literary journals, I have started this book review blog as a means of self-defense. It also reflects my longtime desire to help keep books -- words printed on actual paper -- in front of readers.

Much of my bias, initially, will be on books about the American West and Southwest or written by authors who live in the American West or Southwest. These types of books have been my speciality for about 25 years.

But I intend to expand my coverage to any and all types of books that interest me and entertain me.

I will not review books that I dislike. I will only post brief reviews of books that I have found interesting and entertaining and think others might like, too.

Likewise, I won't post "paid" reviews. If a particular book grabs your interest, I hope you will click on the link posted in the blog. It will take you to Amazon.com. If you buy the book via that link, I will make a few cents from the transaction. If you don't like that arrangement, just go to Amazon.com, search for the title and make your best deal.

Thank you in advance for visiting Third-Chance Book Reviews, and thank you for considering some of the books I have chosen to review.

Si Dunn
Third-Chance Book Reviews
Sagecreek Productions LLC

Volunteer to Fight for the U.S. Economy

Things now are officially so bad in the Great Recession that those of us near the bottom of the economic food chain need to start doing something--anything!--to try to fuel a recovery from the bottom up.

President Obama and the Democrats on Capitol Hill--with almost no constructive help from the Republicans--are struggling to do what they can, within the painfully slow, inefficient and chaotic framework of U.S. politics.

Meanwhile, many among us are suffering and getting their butts kicked. We need to try to help them, today.

Can you start a business, no matter how small? Can you create a job, even part-time, temporary or something for a consultant to do? Can you do it today?

Will you do it today?

Can you buy something extra? (It almost doesn't matter what: a latte, a Lamborghini, a Lava soap bar, a lava lamp, a leg waxing, a loaf of bread.) Almost anything you buy can help save or create a job. Can you buy something today?

Will you do it today?

Can you use and pay for somebody's service? Get the gutters cleaned, get a bicycle repaired, get a haircut, get a pizza delivered--today?

Will you do it today?

Can you donate money or food to a food bank and clothes, unneeded tools and other useful items to Goodwill, the Salvation Army and other organizations and agencies in your community? Can you do it today?

Will you do it today?

And don't forget churches, whether you attend or not. Many churches now are struggling to keep unemployed members, parishioners and strangers afloat even as they try to keep their own doors open, too. Can you donate a few bucks to one or more of them today?

Will you do it today?

Anything and everything we can comfortably afford to do needs to be done...today. Now. Immediately.

Do it today.

Start pushing the economic recovery from the bottom up and keep pushing. Do it today.

Maybe those at the pinnacle of the economic food chain soon will learn how to stop playing "gotcha" games (we can only hope) and start helping push recovery dollars downward where they are now desperately needed.

And maybe we'll all meet in the middle soon and hope things never get out of control like this again.

But it all starts by doing something today.

-- Si Dunn

Republicans Confirm Move to Parallel Universe

WASHINGTON (D:O) -- While their party leaders proudly unveiled the presentation folders for their details-to-follow "Road to Recovery" budget alternative, anonymous sources within the Republican Party quietly conceded today that the GOP soon will move "lock, stock and barrel of tax cuts" to a separate universe "where no one can ever again attack our plan as the 'Road to Ruin.'"

One source explained: "We're moving everybody and everything--within certain limits--to a much better world. It's a parallel universe where no one will ever have to pay taxes, and there are no pesky poor people, homeless veterans and unemployed middle-class families to gum up our strategies. It's a world open to those solid citizens who make $100,ooo and up, on a steady basis."

The name of the parallel universe, the source added, is still being debated within party circles.

"Some want to call it 'Rushmore,' and some want to call it 'Jindalville.'" A conference committee is attempting to come up with a compromise, another GOP source emphasized.

Not everyone likes the move, the second anonymous source conceded. "A number of Republicans who make less than $100,000 say they feel betrayed and may become Democrats. Or Libertarians. Or Communists. Their point is that they can't stay in the Republican Party if it insists on leaving them behind in this reality."

-- B.W. "Blanque" Page, Washington correspondent for Dateline:Oblivion.

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The Republican Ticket from Hell

According to CNN Political Ticker, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is defending Republicans who want President Barack Obama to fail. He has joined conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh in wishing aloud that the President's efforts to rescue the American economy will flounder, so that millions upon millions of people will suffer and somehow, magically, sweep the G(NO!)P back into power.

So, there you have it: The G(NO!)P ticket in 2012 will be Jindal/Limbaugh or Limbaugh/Jindal.

Either way, it will be the political ticket from hell.

Gov. Jindal and radio-mouth Limbaugh keep talking past the point that if the President's efforts fail, the havoc set in motion by the Bush era (and the Bush errors) will leave the nation severely damaged, and much of the resulting destruction will be directly tied to, and properly blamed upon, Republicans' obstructionism and resistance in this time of crisis.

"NO!" is not an economic plan. But it will look great on campaign bumperstickers: "Bobby & Rush in 2012? Just Say NO!"


-- Si Dunn