While I was at the RNC, my New York Street Team partner, Sara Benincasa did something wildly creative and amazing. She made YouTube series of her dressed as Sarah Palin – and begged the question — if Governor Sarah Palin had a vlog - would it sound like this?
Within days, the blog attracted hundreds of thousands of views — and an on air compliment from CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that, “this stuff is pretty funny.”
Enjoy!
Vlog #6: Before the Big Speech!
Vlog #1
Vlog #2 — Bristol!
I was slightly stressed out last Monday. I didn’t have a story yet (for my weekly MTV submissions) and was under the methaphorical gun. Then I remembered the public housing two blocks down. I had always been curious, so I decided there was no time like the present. I watered down my outfit, threw an audio recorder and pen in my bag, and headed to the streets.
“We like to chill every day out here every day, you know what I’m saying, don’t bother nobody and don’t let nobody bother us.” I was glad I was not considered a bother.
It was Monday afternoon on a humid summer day. Two blocks from my apartment in Northwest D.C. was a string of public housing buildings. It was there I met Jamal, Harry and Stephan.
To friends and family when my video launched.
“This doesn’t just close out a month when I (determinedly) worked through each weekend, it signifies a milestone in my Street Team tenure. I am half way through this journey. My production skills have greatly improved, but more than that, I think I found what a friend and mentor advised I do back in January.
“Erica, Humanize this War.”
With that advice, I thought – and continue to think, about the way to do it. For this video, and over time, I talked to dozens of Veterans. Read every article I could. And through conversation, absorbed anecdotes — about a confusing and unorganized war – from intelligence officers, artillery soldiers, explosive specialists and more.
Here is my video, Mission Possible.”
They aired of the first Safe Sex PSAs in ‘85, covered the Persian Gulf War in ‘91, registered 37,000 new voters in ‘96 and documented genocide in Sudan in ‘04.
But now all the focus is on The Hills and Real World, which is why it is hard to believe MTV is still at the forefront of what is relevant to us. With full disclosure, I didn’t realize (until I got this gig and had to become familiar with MTV again), that significant political and social trails are still being blazed. Big ones. Right before your eyes.
Let me back up to share with you how I came to this post by admitting how sheltered my childhood was - (I did grow up in Indiana).
The year was 1996. Sixth grade. I saw the orthodontists more than my homeroom and was at the primo-awkward stage in life. Yes, it was *awesome. Note that sarcasm.
I was home on a summer day flipping through the channels and my eye caught Fiona Apple’s Criminal music video. I couldn’t help it, I was mesmerized for too many reasons to mention. Fifteen seconds later, my Mom walked into the room. I flipped the channel. She turned it back on — and what followed was total awkwardness. The next thing I knew, my Mom was on the phone with the cable company, and the channel was blocked. My life would forever be changed.
As I would learn a decade later, the video, Fiona said, was about ”feeling bad for getting something so easily by using your sexuality.” Now that I think of it, it is ironic that this video was about guilt. Something my Catholic upbringing made me all too familiar with.
That was a tragic afternoon but one that has informed, perhaps in the most backwards way, my adolescence and now young adulthood. The irony is that ten years later, MTV has come back into my life. If my Mom were here to share this adventure with me, I’m sure she would be proud. And here’s why.
At age 87, Dean of the White House Press Corp, Helen Thomas, is still kicking ass and taking names. Throughout her tenure as a wire reporter for UPI, Thomas helped to break the Kennedy assasination, traveled to China with Nixon, and covered the “Washington side” of Vietnam, Korea, the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts and now Iraq. Today, she writes a column for Hearst News Corporation which comes out every Thursday in the Falls Church News Press. When I asked Helen about her New Years Resolution, she paused and then with a burst of energy said, “Send Bush to the Hague!”
Check out my new iMovie video, which I just posted on You Tube.
In the first four days, it attracted more than 400 views.I used my Nikon CoolPix to shoot the photos on a trip to New Delhi, Varanasi, and Dharamsala, India this past March. Here is a little background.
Back to India
My first time to witness India was in 1996. I was twelve and had a mouth full of braces and blonde hair. From powdered milk to toilet paper, my cousin and I packed everything we could think of. “This was a third world country,” my Mom, would warn, packing me up so tight it hurt to let go.Yet the second I arrived and had my first dose of the chaos of India’s interstate, I would never feel homesick again. Instead, I would take two more trips, at ages 19 and 22. Each time I would learn prfound truths about the world, humanity and interdependence. It was remarkable.
This March, in a local market, I asked our driver, Rammi, if people minded me taking their picture. He smiled, nodded his head “no” and gave me the warmest reminder of why I love Indians so much. From that moment on, I shot everything I could, always trying to connect with my subjects if just for an instant.