Sara Haile-Mariam

Simply hilarious.

I was born in 1987, well after a young man named Michael Jackson broke down the abc’s and 123’s of you and me.

As an artist, and a person, he evolved. Not having known the MJ of the 80s, it was hard to reconcile the fact that the youngest of the Jackson 5 was also the young man from Thriller as well as the grown man who resided at Never land.

Nonetheless, his music was, is, and always will be timeless.

I had a conversation with a friend once on how music should be categorized as a form of public service. It’s obviously different than giving food or clothes or serving in office– but that shouldn’t dismiss the fact that it still has the potential to serve the people. To make people smile, and feel, and yes, to make people dance.

So the media will probably focus on the man behind the music. On the controversies of his career and personal development. I’d rather not go there. I’d rather not pick a part the man but rather reflect on what he achieved.

He lives on through his music, and it’s his music that I intend to celebrate.

I hope he rests in peace and I offer my condolences and thoughts to all who knew him, and all who grieve him.

Long live the king….

Bloomberg, LCA Response from Elizabeth Benjamin on Vimeo.

A dramatic take on twitterism.

” Suns center Shaquille O’Neal posted a note on his Twitter feed before a home game against Washington on Saturday night, suggesting he plans to post to the popular social networking website during halftime.
And sure enough, a brief message was posted on Shaq’s feed before the third quarter.
“Shhhhhhh,” it read. “

Twitter on CNN, twitter on E-News, twittering in the halls of Congress and now in the middle of a Suns game?

I’m on twitter…I tweet…but I have to say to say I’ve restrained myself from allowing my twittering to interfere with living. Frankly, I don’t think people care that much about what I’m having for breakfast. The only time I really twittered regularly was when I was at the Democratic convention last summer- I meant to twitter during the inauguration but I lost track of time hustling around DC in ball gowns trying to hail cabs in the freezing cold and ultimately forgot to tweet about how cold it was, and how sick I got as a result.

As I re-read the last paragraph I realize how ridiculous it sounds- “twitter” exists as a noun and a verb, it’s become this thing that’s larger than language that allows us to use language in 140 character intervals to provide snap shots into our lives.

The whole Twitter phenomenon is really fascinating- as if life isn’t busy enough there’s now an entire market centered around marketing the contents of your life on the one hand, and following the contents of the lives of (sometimes) strangers on the other. It’s extremely invasive and yet it’s ascribed to by choice. I’m still figuring out how to navigate twitter, to be honest, I haven’t had much time as of late to really figure out the whole reply/ re-tweet concept (the fact that the new Facebook is trying to be a twitter alternative is completely throwing me off as well). I’m 21 years old… theoretically one of the people targeted by the technology but I’m totally out twittered by everyone from John McCain to Shaq to even Jake Tapper.

I don’t really know what to make of that…suffice it to say that I think that a case study on twitter twenty years from now could be really interesting. In some senses it does serve as a public diary of sorts, you can look back on what you did at any given day. On the other hand though, so can anyone with access to a computer…

Update Keith Olberman names Twitter “Worst Person”- evidently he has 14,000 twitter followers despite the fact that he doesn’t have an account. Raising another interesting point- how do you know who you’re following is who they say they are?