One Paragraph at a Time

Time to get a bit nostalgic for another post. I Want My MTV is a lengthy, oral history of the first decade of MTV, when music was the focus. Like many of videos of the era, it's assembled in very brief snippets that make it seemed edited by someone with a short attention span.

The chapters are easy to follow, it flows in loose chronological order and we get to read sentences by many of the major players of the time. Stewart Copeland hates Sting, Martha Quinn wonders why and Adam Curry hates everyone.

The chapter on the winner of a weekend with Van Halen is sad and shocking as is the chapter on the video that ended a career.



The book depicts a lot of egos, sex and drugs. Plenty of coke was consumed. There's still a lot of he said, no he did not about the network's race controversy in the pre-Thriller era. I'm surprised a few of these stories came to light as, even thirty years later, they're rather eyebrow raising. Makes me wonder what the author/editors could not, or would not print.

If you were there during MTV's heyday and want to relive the times, or want to find out the history of a station that did change the way music was marketed, it's rather compelling reading.

One minute snapshot

Today is Autistics Speaking Day, an event similar to last year. My son does not type, but I put together a video last year and this year I have done the same.

My son does not initiate a conversation with you, for the most part he is non verbal and echoic. He is capable of telling you some of the things he wants, but he has only verbally expressed how he is feeling to me just once in his nine years. He is in there. You can see the wheels turning, the joy and the frustration. This is a typical minute of his life, with prompting.

Patti is Right

There might be an ad. Sorry, but this is the only version of the original video I can find.


Patti Smith - People have the power
Uploaded by leebil. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

Wow. What would be like to be under thirty in Egypt? The only ruler you've known is Mubarak and now he's out.

Not Shutting Down

Today is supposed to be Communication Shutdown Day, people turning off their twitter or facebook accounts in support of those with autism. There's been a counter effort for autistic people and those with Aspberger's Syndrome to tell their stories and not shut down because the internet and social media is one of the main ways for them to communicate. I agree with the latter group. I've written before about many organizations, such as Autism Speaks, that use celebrity spokespeople and ad campaigns of gloom; rarely using actual autistic men, women and children in their public service announcements.

This is my eight year old son. He has autism. The short clip is not him being bad, or being good. This is him. Communicating.