The Parish Family Blog

Movie: "He Was a Quiet Man"

We watched this  movie last night and all of us are touched with how thought-provoking it was. I'm still thinking about it and talking about it. You will not recognize Christian Slater. He plays a strange quiet man in a depressive office environment (from his eyes). You feel compelled to root for him because he was so down-trodden. You just wanted something for him - clearly the reluctant hero. I found myself connecting to his character, and the love affair that evolves is so touching. This movie is not an easy one to watch emotionally yet it will speak to you in ways that make it well worth the effort. The movie was selected by SXSW 2007 so that got my attention too.

Here is the Netflix description:

"Cubicle worker Bob (Christian Slater) is a resentful outsider who's started carrying a gun in case he gets up the courage to use it on some of his co-workers. But when one of those co-workers starts shooting, Bob guns him down and becomes an inadvertent hero. Bob's newfound popularity makes him uncomfortable, even as he grows closer to Vanessa (Elisha Cuthbert), who was badly wounded in the shooting. William H. Macy co-stars in this quirky drama."

New Batman Movie - "The Dark Knight" Trailer

Tonight Gregg Roberts and Sharon McDonald came over for a meal, wine and movie. We watched a few  previews on the AppleTV first as warm-up. I  noticed the new Batman movie trailer was featured, so we played it, and that thing about knocked our socks off.  WOW.  The 'look' and the sonic feel of the movie is awesome.  I hesitate to put a YouTube version up because it just doesn't do it justice after our experience in the theater room.  Well ...regardless, the movie looks like it's going to be an 'experience.'  You HAVE to check out the chopper that Batman rides! Oh my, is it something to mavel at! And I'm not even into bikes.

This movie will not release until July 2008, but the YouTube preview has more than three million plays! The movie has quite a cast of actors - Michael Caine, Morgan Feeman and my favorite actress these days, Maggie Gyllenhaal. (She's so cute.)

Enjoy.

Tom

Demonstrating the Ease of Creating A Video Podcast

This is a cross-post from my TomParish.com blog. I just thought you would want to see what all is going on with social media and social networking for small businesses. This is an 'off the cuff' demonstration video podcast I did with Andrea Leigh, who is helping Gigi Sage pull together a 'new' marketing strategy.

You know, you can talk and talk, but there is nothing as powerful as experiencing a real demo. So while sitting here in the studio I showed Andrea how easy it would be to do something like this with Gigi to capture Gigi's pearls of wisdom for women wanting to improve their relationships with men. Andrea has a vision for capture Gigi's gifts in this area on video. For less than 15 minutes we sat in front of the iMac here in the studio with iMovie and did this in one take, then automatically uploaded it to YouTube. It was so easy and we had fun. I love my job of helping people and businesses be successful on the Internet.

With just a bit more effort we could have posted to iTunes at the same time.  I'm seeing more and more opportunities for small-, medium- and enterprise-scale businesses to use video blogging tools like this.

Music by 5AlarmMusisc.com

Tom

I'm So Jazzed - My Panel at SXSW Lives

I submitted an idea for a panel to SXSW 2008 (coming up in March) and it was close but mine did not get picked. However, as life would have it, something changed and my panel idea is now officially accepted. The panel I'll moderate with the four folks I'm inviting to speak is called "Social Marketing Metrics -Where Are They?"

This is a great honor because SXSW Interactive has become so popular and respected in the computer industry that I work in. This will be my 4th year to attend. A few years ago I was asked to speak on the future of podcasting at SXSW and that really got me hooked on the conference. I met so many people and learned enough in those 5 days to keep myself excited all year long with what was possible on the web to help a business grow.

Here is SXSW's summary from their web page:

"The SXSW Interactive Festival features five days of exciting panel content and amazing parties. Attracting digital creatives as well as visionary technology entrepreneurs, the event celebrates the best minds and the brightest personalities of emerging technology. Whether you are a hard-core geek, a dedicated content creator, a new media entrepreneur, or just someone who likes being around an extremely creative community, SXSW Interactive is for you!"