I edited an essay tonight by a Burmese democracy leader. I like his take on leadership:

“A potential leader needs mental toughness. I don’t want to be a mean leader; I want to be a tough-minded leader who sees things as they are and will accept responsibility for my actions. Leadership creates a certain separation from one’s peers. The separation comes from carrying responsibility that only we can carry. A leader must be able to keep his or her own counsel until the proper time.”

Our final assignment for media workshop class was to make a music video. As usual, I had to go overboard and film my own content (and import some found footage as well, with permission). My fashionable lady friends came dressed for a Bond film (M. made that green dress, by the by, and collects vintage hats), and together we made this whacked out thing (a Bond scene sans James? Oh geeze!) in the tunnels of MIT. Music by Danielia Cotton, who opened once for my man Ryry and is indeed very awesome.

Today – Danielia Cotton

Today – Danielia Cotton from audubon dougherty on Vimeo.

Recently CMS (via director Henry Jenkins) sponsored a third “Futures of Entertainment” conference with media execs from across the TV/internet/mobile industry. Apparently, this video emerged as a faux transmedia viral marketing piece on Henry’s book, Convergence Culture. It’s a little intense, but explains pretty well the concepts we’re studying here…

entering the office/MIT building this morning, i passed two older people, leaning on the arms of two younger people, and as they passed (was it specifically the man who passed?) i got a whiff of something that jolted my memory. in the elevator, it was even stronger: my grandfather’s aftershave, or perhaps his cologne. i haven’t smelled it in 13 or so years, and might never have remembered it if it weren’t for the old man in the hallway. to associate a smell so much with a place (or, to emotionally geomap the smell, as some 2.0 people would say) — philadelphia, in a small condo on the 11th floor, in my case — and then to experience the same emotion, via smell, in a completely different context, is not only unnerving, it often doesn’t make sense. i almost stayed in the elevator to remind myself this was not the strath haven (condo name), this was not the 11th floor, this was not the 80s or early 90s, this was not my beautiful house, this was not my beautiful wife. what is that beautiful house? where does that highway go?