I just got really inspired by some cool statistics and that we should all do our part in creating a happiness revolution. The big takeaway below in case you don’t have 12 minutes to spare.

Success is based on goal posts, and we think happiness is on other side of goal. Rather, we should find a way of being positive in the present.

Your brain at positive is 31% more productive than at negative, neutral, or stressed. It’s 37% better at sales, and doctors are 19% faster/more accurate at diagnosing patients.

Reverse the formula we currently have for happiness. Dopamine not only makes you happier it also turns on the learning centers in your brain.

Do this two minute exercise for 3 weeks in row and you’re guaranteed a positive result in your outlook.

Write 3 new things you’re grateful for each day and your brain retains a pattern of seeing things more positively

Other things to aid you on the path toward happiness:

1. Journaling one positive experience of the previous 24 hours allows for you to relive that memory.
2. Exercise teaches you that your behavior matters
3. Mediation gets you past our cultural ADHD and helps you focus.
4. Conscious acts of kindness make you feel better about yourself. 1 email that praises another person in your circle a day creates a culture.

10. Jessie’s Girl – Lusting for a best friend’s girl is pretty much the worst breach in Bro Code.

9. Every Breath You Take – Sting – The quintessential stalker song.

8. Afternoon Delight – Starland Vocal Band – The upbeat afternoon quickie song. Immortalized by Arrested Development when father and daughter karaoke sing this song to one another.

7. Turning Japanese – The Vapors – Too much masturbation leaves you squinting like a stereotypical Japanese person.

6. Stacy’s Mom – Fountains of Wayne – About being in love with your girlfriend’s mother and how incomparable she is to her progeny.

5. Strokin’ – Clarence Carter – A heartfelt song about having sex all day/all year, and inevitably making girls orgasm because your name is Clarence Carter.

4. My Ding a Ling – Chuck Berry – Momma teaches her son what a ding a ling is, and he goes on to have adventures with it for the rest of his life.

3. Oingo Boingo – Little Girls – Danny Elfman before he went ahead and became a world renowned musical composer made songs about pedophilia.

2. Father Figure – George Michael – About George Michael emulating your father and his role in your life, and making you fall in love with him because that’s what you always wanted… isn’t it?

1. Baby it’s cold outside – Dean Martin – The age old song about date rape tops the charts with tried and true methods of getting in the door such as “But baby it’s cold outside”.

Honorable Mentions:

Closer – Nine Inch Nails – Pretty aggressive song about having sex with a lady.

Camel Toe – Fanny Pack – Teenage girls runaround a play ground discussing the unhappy issue some women face.

Childhood – Michael Jackson – Controversially awful depending on how you interpret this song and whether or not the allegations of child molestation are true.

What What in the Butt – Samwell – How enjoyable having sex with another man truly is.

I Touch Myself – Divinyls – A wonderful song about masturbation from the 80′s.

Making the rounds in our collective meme consciousness in a NSFW viral video about a pizza boomerang that will come from the heavens to save our burnt mouths from total annihilation. I really cannot speak to what this Spanish language video is truly about, but rather that it hits just about every chord of internet meme-dom that is required to make it popular. I laughed, was embarrassed to be watching, and couldn’t keep my eyes away. Enjoy at work or in the privacy of your own home (depending on how corporate your office is).

11. In a horror movie, when the girl gets in the car

10. In a movie, when the villain has the unarmed hero at gunpoint

9. Must have lines in movies

8. When a housekeeper meets an attractive businessman in a movie

7. Computer geeks in movies

6. In a movie, how many times can a 6-round revolver be shot without reloading

5. Villain’s accuracy against the hero in a movie

4. Flower delivery vans in movies

3. Movies versus films and where they intersect in a diagram

2. What people think after leaving the theater

1. Producer’s Vision versus Director’s Vision

Pics via Ads of the World

Lesley Chilcott, Producer of Waiting for Superman
Asi Burak, Co-President Games for Change
Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, Executive Director of Witness.org
Chris Kazi Rolle, The Hip Hop Project

The format was ten minutes of presentation, a few questions from the moderator, and Q&A from the audience. For the purposes of making this a more cohesive piece I’ve condensed concepts and questions under each speaker.

Lesley Chilcott: Producer of Waiting for Superman

Originally I produced An Inconvenient Truth and that had a big campaign online. “Pledge to see the film” opening weekend was a brand new concept. When 221,000 people pledged to see the movie I knew we had caught onto something big. We were early to the “social media as a powerful tool for activism” game. We were the first film to put a URL at the end of the movie, and to give tips on how to take action now. We sold out most our shows, and had 70,000 people per screen. It was an amazing average. Having a small opening and a pledge campaign allowed others to feel like they were part of a movement, and allowed us to reach a wider audience.

The first step to getting involved seems a little empty since all you have to do is watch my movie. So we wanted to take it to another level. With Waiting for Superman we wanted to set a new bar so we partnered with a group called Donors Choose. If we got enough pledges for people to watch the movie then non-profits would give a major gift. We set a few bars so that people would feel like they weren’t just coming to a movie and giving us money.

Pledge Campaign

For Donors Choose you could say, “My hometown is here I want to help this project”. It’s not just a movie. It’s a movement. It gave people a point to start at. When we had a movie that’s about global warming with Al Gore and a slideshow.

We didn’t know how to market it yet. First we got people in environmental groups to get on board. The biggest challenge to overcome was putting a personal face on it, and making sure people knew we were talking about many millions more. We are not experts nor do we pretend to be. Our goal was not to provide specific answers. We made a promise to ourselves that we should “call out” the obstacles, and the first thing was to “call out” with ourselves. Guggenheim, the director, says in the beginning that he’s a part of the problem because he puts his kids in private school. We wanted to boil down all the major issues to a level of how it affects a six year old. Our thought was that if we kept things simple enough then these problems are obvious. People will be able to relate to the people and understand the larger issues. Our role is to be a national convener of all thoughts. Randi Weingarten, who was portrayed quite negatively in the film, also wrote a chapter in the book we released concurrently with the film. As filmmakers you have to be aware of what you are saying and the implications of what you are saying. Documentaries are opinion pieces, and while we’re not experts, we do have thoughts on the matter.

(Editorial Note: If you go to the “take action” portion of their website it is very directed, and has a lot of specific solutions to the questions posed in the documentary.)

We launched our website 3 months before the movie came out and were looking for partners. We became involved with Donors Choose right around the time of Sundance. They raised millions of dollars to meet their pledge effort, and we’ve been overwhelmed by their dedication to fulfill their commitment to us.

Just before Sundance we were doing everything we could to reach the deadline, and in our push we had constructed two entirely separate films. One was a two hour movie of just graphics, charts, and concepts, and the other was a 2 hour story about these kids. 3 weeks before Sundance we combined the graphics and concepts part of the movie into one.

When you’re working on a very divided issue like education. You cannot accept funding from sources that will push a specific mission because the movie would have absolutely no legitimacy. A lot of the major reformers portrayed in Waiting for Superman did not have any creative input on the film. There were collaborative meetings, but to let them in the room would have negatively impacted the film. Funding has to be separate from non-profits so there is no conflict. After the film is made though is a good time to seek out opportunities like that. Each non-profit has their own agenda, and are working toward specific goals. For a cause oriented film you need to get non-profits to talk with one another to promote one specifc goal.

(Editorial Note: I remember doing this exact thing with Second Skin in preparation for SXSW film festival in 2008)

Asi Burak: Co-President of Games for Change

I am also a game developer, and made the popular and transformational game PeaceMaker. The game challenges you to succeed as a leader where others have failed. Experience the joy of bringing peace to the Middle East or the agony of plunging the region into disaster. PeaceMaker tests your skills, assumptions and prior knowledge.

The game immediately got an incredible amount of press, and was widely discussed as a ground breaking work that fused activism and gameplay into one. We commercialized it and sold it to many countries including 100,000 copies to Israel. Even though PeaceMaker is 3 years old it’s still used as the primary tool in schools to trigger discussion on how to solve the conflict.

Games for Change began as an intrepid group of 20 activists who believe games are the media of the future. There is a double challenge when you try to make “games for change” because people don’t believe games should be both fun and transform people’s perceptions. Video games suffer from a perception that they are violent, shallow, or fun. They have to be engaging in a way that films do not. PeaceMaker made people cry, and that’s a tough sell.

Filmmakers have an easier path because the documentary genre was forged decades ago for this exact purpose. The market allows for these type of movies to be seen by a specific sub section of the populace. The challenge of distribution in video games is much harder. There is a place to watch a movie like Waiting for Superman. However an educational game doesn’t have a “place” per se. NGO’s in many cases are the way to finding the audiences for Games 4 Change.

People are starting to understand that games are incredibly powerful tools. The notion that gamers exist as an audience was irrelevant for activists until recently. Now with Facebook games many people play socially, and there is an opportunity to catalyze on that interest. It is something that has bridged many ages and groups. If its become such a powerful media why not use the amazing capabilities we have to explore them? It’s still new to many people that video games can be used for causes.

The opportunity is that until now the media we consume is passive and linear. We are sitting in a dark room and told a story. It could be compelling but it’s not necessarily our story. New media and the internet are about choices and making changes to our world. We’re the heroes of those stories rather than seeing others. How do you make a game that break boundaries of taking action? We want our kids to be part of othe story, work at their own pace, not just being told passively. We just have to learn to use gaming as a tool better. The one advantage film has to gaming is there you are telling stories versus focusing on action. It’s hard to push content and messages.

However, people are now playing the same game for weeks, months, and sometimes years. The holy grail is long form play, and getting gamers to engage. The mechanism that gets people to take care of  virtual chieckens and purchase goods through micro-transactions. Can you transfer that psychology for social good? Can you spend 4 minutes on the bus to donate to a nonprift? We don’t want people to take action at the end of an experience, but rather as part of the journey through the game.

Yvette Alberdingk Thijm: Executive Director of Witness.org

Witness.org is putting cameras in others hands, and using it to change the conversation on human rights. The foundation was created decades ago by Peter Gabriel. He would hear so many heartbreaking stories and yet afterward they would get lost. However, if you tape the story it can be used to keep those stories. So we get them to tell their own story, and use them as a catalyzing force for change. Who is the audience that needs to see it? We target small groups who want to empower one another to evoke change. Get the story told, get the right people to see it, and have them take an appropriate action.

We’re specifically working for women rights and activism. We want to speak to horrors in people’s own countries. We’re getting filmmakers to create these very personal clips and they are also incredible marketing tools. With a video that is explicitly used to fundraise you have to be very wary about what you are portraying. It’s disrespectful and unethical to exploit someone to get money for your cause. One woman from Zimbabwe with a particularly difficult story had someone create a Facebook page that was very popular and raised over $50,000 alone. We had to navigate her world with caution when telling that story.

When you fight causes in countries where they censor things what do you do? In Yemen the government bans our videos. Sometimes you have to get videos out of the country and make international communities aware.

The Iranian demonstrations during their elections are an example of that. The problem is oppressive governments are using social media well too. The Iranian government has a most wanted website, and they take the videos that are posted on YouTube, take stills out, put them on this site, and crowd source identification.

Chris Kazi Rolle, The Hip Hop Project

The Hip Hop Project is a cause film about Chris Kazi Rolle. The film is about a program I started in 1999 that brought kids into a place where they could produce their own Hip Hop albums. The Hip Hop Project is really about family relationships. The emotional fortitude to deal with my family situation was the biggest hurdle I had to overcome. I wanted to empower kids to do the same. If I can get in front of people with passion they become advocates for me and my project.

When the movie was completed it had a ton of swear words in it because the kids were rapping about their lives. The MPAA rated it “R” and I had to appeal them to get it down to a “PG-13” so that the people it was intended for could go watch it in theaters.

(Editorial Note: While the entire piece is written in their own words I connected the dots where appropriate)

Fact #1: They carry no diseases
Fact #2: They bite and leave marks that last awhile
Fact #3: They can hide just about anywhere, survive just about anything, and love your bed
Fact #4: They can live without food or drink for 370 days.

These buggers are in it to win it, take a note from the champions, be more resilient than they are.

1. Don’t got to some friend’s house that has/had bedbugs or move into a new apartment without asking about its history

We all know how obvious it is, and yet if a friend gets bedbugs we often don’t quarantine them. This is survival of the fittest gentleman, and your buddy is a corpse in the mud. Let him go. You’re never getting him back.

There is a bill that was signed in New York City that forces owners and lessors to divulge whether they’ve had bedbugs in their buildings. Don’t forget to ask for the documentation. It’s the law! If the answer is yes, and even if it’s the best deal on the most beautiful apartment in the whole world, don’t take it. It’s not worth a lifetime of pain and isolation from you friends, family, and that new place you’ll find down the road.

2. Don’t go to stores, movie theaters or sit on wooden benches

“Oh man I’m dying to get that new Hollister jacket”… Don’t do it. Hollister had bedbugs and they want to make you feel like it’s safe to go back to them. Victoria Secret‘s got their own skeletons in the closet.  One of the biggest hideouts for them is in dark little theaters where we humans put down our big coats, munch on popcorn, and sit down on comfy stadium chairs with all sorts of spaces for invaders.  Best to stay away from movies in general unless they’re on Netflix. In the subway there are those wooden benches. In an ideal world you’re not sitting there anyways (see #6), but if for some reason it seems okay to you stop right there. Those were the first goners to the war on bedbugs. It’s practically like inviting them over to your house with a wedding invitation for Jerry bedbug + 5,000,000 guests.

3. Don’t lie on mattresses on the street

In fact, don’t even go near them. In fact, move to the other side of the street altogether, make a mental note of the home, give it the big red X in your head, and don’t start conversations with the residents. Chat with their neighbor to see if there is word on the street why that mattress is out.

Also… Guess what drunk middle management guy in the Men’s Wearhouse suit, that means you too. The bed that you’re laying on for giggles just cost you thousands of dollars in damages. It’s ridden with bedbugs and now you have them too. If you’re the unfortunate friend of said guy excommunicate him immediately and don’t hug him goodbye. You’re doing yourself a favor anyway. That guy is a douche bag.

4.  Don’t use insecticide

They do not respond in the slightest to repellent insecticides. DDT killed them but was banned. Pyrethroids were used after that, but recently the bugs evolved a new strain that is impervious to it.

5. What to do with your Bed

Pull your bed away from the wall so there is about 6 to 12 inches of space. You don’t want those creepy crawlers coming up the wall and making the transfer. This also allows for you vacuum to have easy access at all times to one of the most susceptible parts of your home.

Cover your bed with a vinyl encasement. Bed bugs live in fabric not plastic. It’s almost like kryptonite, and you should definitely by one immediately. Not to mention, if you wet the bed, it will come in handy.

5. Check the bed bug registry

Are you unsure about whether or not a place has had visitors? Check the bed bug registry. If you’re an unfortunate victim of going to one of these places do others the favor of posting up where you spotted them. Also, don’t forget to quarantine yourself for 400 days after you’ve cleaned out the infestation. Don’t go walking around society like you own the place.

6. Cleanliness

Q:  You know what a major cause of having a really bad outbreak is?
A:  Being gross.

Clean up after yourself. This is probably going to help you in life anyways, but you might as well be doing it for the bedbugs if not for a boyfriend/girlfriend.

Vacuum: nooks and crannies every night.
Dishes: do them, no piling up.
Laundry: often, no excuses.

For the last four I have built a scenario that exemplifies a play by play of your actions.

You’re at a party chatting to a stranger named Richard who says, “Man I had bedbugs recently, and boy were they awful”. You ask, “How recently did you have them?”. He responds, “A couple of months ago, but we had the place fumigated”. Politely ask him, “Dick, do you think it’s okay to spread the infestation?”.

(Dear Richard: Don’t you know you’re alienated from society for much longer than a few months?)

7. Immediately get out of the conversation, wash your hands, notify the host, and leave the party.

8. Put all your clothes in a bag the second you arrive home and go directly to the laundromat.

9. Take a long hot shower, say the serenity prayer, cross your fingers, and light a few candles.

10. Start seeing a psychologist

By this point you’ve developed a really unhealthy obsessive compulsive disorder and possibly a mild case of anthropophobia. It’s probably worth it to get some help for the hysteria and neurosis. Nobody said preventing bedbugs was going to be easy especially now that you’ve become a paranoid psychotic.

Solutions that don’t get rid of bed bugs:

• $1 Rubbing alcohol
• $5 Baking soda
• $7 Raid, Extra Strength Raid
• $50 Raid in vast quantities
• $300 x 4 ($1200) Bed-Bug-Begone
• $500 Varnish wood floors
• $5,000 Moving to new apartment
• $10,000 Get rid of furniture/clothing and buy all new stuff

Not having bed bugs = Priceless
(Not a visa card commercial I promise)

Blizzcon is known for its hardcore geekery. What I didn’t know was that Jay Mohr was hosting the event though. Well, it looks like one of the fans got a little into being undead onstage with Jay. In the middle of jumping around onstage he falls backward, and he can’t get back up because he’s broken his leg. Sorry guy.

A couple words of advice: You should probably rock out more often and build up your rock capacity before you try rocking that hard again.

Also a question: Jay Mohr what have you been doing with your life? I haven’t seen you for awhile.

Do you know how we’ve all been glued to our televisions sets watching as each of the Chilean miners has come out of the cave? It’s a bit hard to imagine the entire process with the winch, and the giant rig, and the rocket that corkscrews into the ground, and the hugs, and the yelling. So Coopersmith put a friendly face on it so we could all understand a bit better.

Here is the reality:

Did you ever read Snowcrash? Do you remember how they had people whose entire existence was documenting 360 degrees of an event? They would be automatically uploading the information to some massive archival server. If the media was used in anyway in the news that person would be paid for his video. Well, I think we have one of the first consumer devices that will be doing just that. Enter the Looxcie.

Looxcie is always on, continuously videoing – there’s no record button. When you experience something you want to share, just click the Instant Clip button to save a clip of the last thirty seconds.

10. Chain Reaction

Two researchers in a green alternative energy project are put on the run when they are framed for murder and treason.

Not Keanu’s finest hour, but every here has to start somewhere right?

9. Much Ado About Nothing – 1993

Young lovers Hero and Claudio, soon to wed, conspire to get verbal sparring partners and confirmed singles Benedick and Beatrice to wed as well.

Kenneth Branagh directed this great adaptation of the Shakespeare play and features greats Denzel Washington, Emma Thompson, Kate Beckinsale, Michael Keaton, and of courseKeanu Reeves as Don Pedro’s bastard brother. With such a star studded cast you’d think Keanu might get lost in the woods, but of course he doesn’t. In fact he rises to the occasion with dignity.

8. Speed – 1994

A young cop must save the passengers of a bus that has a bomb set to explode if the bus goes below 50 MPH.

It’s a good film that made Sandra Bullock a star. I remember thinking how pretty she looked in this film, and I’m still pretty sure this is as good as she ever got. The movie is generally pretty good with a couple of solid line deliveries like the infamous, “Pop quiz, hotshot.”

7. Devil’s Advocate – 1997

A hotshot lawyer gets more than he bargained for when he learns his new boss is Lucifer himself.

The first hour or so of this movie were absolutely awesome. It’s kind of unfortunate the film falls apart later on, and ends with “vanity, my favorite sin”. Seriously, if this movie had finished as strongly as it started it would have made #3 on the Keanu list. There are some great scenes of Charlize Theron going crazy and becoming possessed. Keanu is solid support here even though he’s the protagonist.

6. Constantine – 2005

Tells the story of irreverent supernatural detective John Constantine, who has literally been to hell and back.

Keanu Reeves plays Constantine: a chain-smoking, depressed demon-hunter who lives above a bowling alley. In the movie Constantine is going to hell because he once tried to kill himself, and is desperately trying to earn his way back into heaven. Reeves acts a lot like he does in post apocalyptic films, sad. He is, after all, dying. The film really ends up being a vehicle for the demons and things which come to slay him, and it all works in spades.

5. The Replacements – 2000

During a pro football strike, the owners hire substitute players.

Keanu Reeves plays Shane Falco, a washed up All American footballer. A League strike suddenly brings him back into the game, and allows him to fulfill the promise he once had. Top marks for my friend Keanu here. I can’t help it – What an awesome guilty pleasure. This is the type of film that is just so easily watchable. I mean, I know it’s oozing with cheese, and yet I’ve kept on coming back for more year after year. So it has a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes – What of it? You try watching it and not enjoying it.

4. Johnny Mnemonic – 1995

A data courier, carrying a data package literally inside his head too large to hold for long, must deliver it before he dies from it.

Oh man! Where do I begin? I was obsessed with this film growing up. I am a huge sucker for sci-fi especially of the Gibson variety. From the moment Johnny gets implanted with over 160 Gigabytes of information straight into his head (way too much for any human!) everything goes from 100% perfect to 111% overdrive. A nice supporting cast of favorites like Dolph Lundgren, Henry Rollins, Ice-T, and Dina Meyer.

A final note: Originally Robert Longo (the director) and Gibson originally were trying to make it on a shoestring budget, but failed to get financing. It became a 30-million-dollar movie because they couldn’t make an artsy pic. Enter Keanu.

3. Point Break – 1991

An FBI agent goes undercover to catch a gang of bank robbers who may be surfers.

It’s just the best action film ever made ~ that’s all ladies and gentlemen. It doesn’t happen everyday, and it’s unlikely to happen again. This film has more adrenaline pumping action sequences per capita than anything that predated it, and I think is the prism by which bank robbery scenes were reinvented. You’ve got ex-president bank robbers, surfing, skydiving, Busey, and Reeves. Is there anything more you could ask for? The answer is NO, but did they listen to you? Again the answer is NO. Swayze Happens! Nuff said.

2. Matrix – 1999

A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against the controllers of it.

Keanu plays Neo: An average computer programmer that is secretly a hacker. He starts to follow a lead that helps him unravel the mysteries of reality, that he’s actually in a computer program, and is the only one who can save the world.

From the second I watched this film on Spring Break I was smitten, had the pleasure of re-watching it again the night after that, and since then a dozen or more times. One of the very best Sci-fi movies ever made, and definitely one of the most quotable Keanu pictures. Not to mention it popularized the incredibly cool and inventive visual effect called “bullet time”.

1. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure – 1989

Two seemingly dumb teens struggle to prepare a historical presentation with the help of a time machine.

Keanu is Ted Theodore Logan: One of two band members in “Wyld Stallyns”, a musical group that will become the foundation for a Utopian society. Well, as fate would have it, there are a few impediments on the road to greatness, and Ted must be up to the challenge. Most importantly it has one of the best concepts of time travel. The more I thought about it growing up, the more it made awesome sense, and the more I wanted my own telephone booth. By far the best Keanu film of all time.

Honorable Mention:

Dangerous Liaisons – 1988

Rich and bored aristocrats in Rococo France play high-stakes games of passion and betrayal.

It’s wicked and fun period piece that kind of shows off Keanu’s acting chops ~ don’t knock it before you’ve tried it. He’s not the main in this film, and I think it actually really works to his advantage. A little Keanu goes a long way here.

Research in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, which is based on a 20-year study of 1,824 adults, has confirmed this amazing reality. While it turns out moderate drinkers outlive everyone researchers are still figuring out why heavy drinkers live longer than those who abstain. The answer to longest life is 1 to 3 drinks per day, but more isn’t so bad either. The researches controlled for nearly all variables — socioeconomic status, level of physical activity, number of close friends, and quality of social support. It didn’t change a thing.

For years Aloholics Anonymous has been trying to prove that this discrepancy has to do with heavy drinkers who later in life became clean and sober. They have health problems incurred from years of heavy drinking, and this throws off the study. However, this is not the case. Drunks just live longer period. While it’s unlikely that you should drink irresponsibly at least that DUI can be smugly taken in stride. While in prison you can ponder how you’ll be able to live out your full sentence.

In the eternal words of Ben Franklin, “There can be no good living where there is not good drinking.” Little did you know how right you were my long gone friend.

Bottom Line: If you’re interested in longer life, and generally being more social then snap it to a Zima or three (if you can still find one let alone a six pack or was it a four pack?).

So,  are you looking for that easy fix to prevent climate change?  Here’s a no brainer that can make a big difference: white roof paint!  What’s that? White roofs can make a big difference in the air temperature. That means a cooler city and climate change prevention.  Here’s the story:

What’s more?  There is already momentum behind white roofs.  President Obama supports them, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus) provides funding for green jobs including weatherization and initiatives like white roof painting that both create jobs and curb climate change.

So why isn’t every roof white? We’d like to know that too. You can help us fix the problem.

GO HERE TODAY.  Make a donation of time, money or knowledge.  You can be part of the paint-it-white-go-green movement!

Raheem Jarbo better known as Random or Random Beats or Mega Ran is an American underground rapper and record producer. He started making up rhymes when he was 16 years old, and got into producing a few years later. He released his debut album The Call in 2006, and is made a big hit with his album Mega Ran, a tribute to Mega Man (soon after we used his track in my film Second Skin!). This album made Random one of the superstars in Nerdcore. Now he’s come back to us with a new tantalizing offering of nerd beats and rhymes. This time he’s teamed up with K-Murdock to make it all happen. P10 asked him 10 and got some answers for you.

1. How was Mega Ran born? When did you say: “Wait a minute, it’s time I rapped over video game music”
Yeah, actually….I had gotten to a stage of my life where I was unhappy with the music I was making… I needed a break, so I stopped making music and started playing games. It was like the moment when Ace Ventura’s dog laid on the picture of Ray Finkle. aha!! Video games and rap! That’s it! And Mega Ran was born.

2. How do you choose which video games make the cut? What is it about Little Nemo? What memories do these games spark? How do you bring in that nostalgia to your lyrics?

I always choose the games that 1) had standout music and 2) were important to my childhood in some way. The memories connected to this music are so numerous… In general, it takes me back to a time of total innocence.. When life was so simple.

3. You become unstuck from time and have the opportunity to change one event in history. Where do you go and what do you change?

I don’t think I’d change anything, because our history is who we are. Without it, we’re nothing. I think that’s the social studies teacher in me…. Plus Doc Brown always warned Marty that if you alter the past it will drastically affect the future… I’m a huge fan of the Back to the Future series, haha.

4. How long did it take to record Forever Famicom? How was it collaborating with K-Murdock on this project?

was about a 3 year process from inception to completion, but I had other obligations and projects that took up most of that time. Kyle and I met online years ago and chatted about making this project, but it took about 9 months of solid writing and recording. It was my first time recording a whole project without actually being in the room with the engineer– it was a cool experience, and I’d love to do it again.

5. Thematically what should people take away from Forever Famicom?

That 8 bit will never die! These themes are the new classics.  I want people to recognize and respect the 8 bit and 16 bit tunes, and tho appreciate the work that went into creating a new work out of them. I hope that when people play it, they’re taken back to their youth, and the games they enjoyed.

6. You get $200,000 dollars to work on a concept album? What do you do? Where do you go?

I’d go to London and record a live album with the Philharmonic orchestra.

7. Who are your role models?

My mom, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley and Mozart. In life, Martin Luther King, Ghandi… and Spider-Man.

8. What song or album are you listening to right now that I should be listening to?

I really love the new Sage Francis single, “The Best of Times.” it’s like he told my life’s story with that one.

9. Is there a bridge between in-game music and hip-hop that you’re trying to make? How are you paving the way for nerdcore?

I don’t know– I mean, I just want to do something fun, something different. I want what every artist wants: to make a difference in a new way. Nerdcore, and hip-hop on a whole, has existed before me, and hopefully will after, but I hope when I’m gone someone will recognize that I somewhat made a mark in some weird way.

10. What’s next? Are you touring this summer?

I’ll be touring all summer, from east to south to the west. Check out megaran.com/shows for more details.
Forever Famicom will release in Japan in the Fall, hopefully I’ll be over there for some promotional stuff; then it’s back to school!

LISTEN TO SOME OF HIS TRACKS ON YOUTUBE.

BUY THE ALBUM HERE!

There is something so satisfying about seeing aging juggernaut Microsoft fail on its feet so badly. Introducing and ending the Kin – In just 48 short days we have seen an abysmal product (marketed heavily on top 40 radio around the nation) that you may or may not have heard of go from being the latest effort in Microsoft’s restart to being its next massive disappointment. This company is having difficulty tying it’s own shoes when it wakes up in the morning! I can only imagine how disheartening it is to be so behind the curve while still throwing millions if not billions of dollars at the same problems year after year.

Guess what Microsoft: You are your own worst enemy. You’re scared of the market and making things that are built for people nobody. Why are you doing this? My best guess is you have incredibly smart people that are being given carte blanche on projects, and they’re finding the system that governs production and testing is incredibly outdated. It’s time to give up all that stored up pride all you unhappy Vice Presidents’ and get back to brass tacks.

I hope the success of an operating system (Windows 7) that isn’t completely backwards hasn’t made you too happy. Google is coming for you ~ and Apple beware. You’re not going to hold on to that #1 throne for too long.

So if you’re into discontinued products that have barely any use (and no cross platform appeal) then buy a brand new Kin at the Verizon store. I’m sure you’ll be as disappointed as they are at Microsoft. Dang guys, get your act together! Somebody might start taking notice… oh right… too late. Verizon slashed the prices of the phones to $50 from $200 for the higher-end model and to $30 from $150 for a stripped-down version. Verizon still claims they’re taking Kin seriously… although it seems like this device is having a fire sale. Watch for them to pop up at local dollar stores, Tru Value, and the Family Dollar.

Special thanks to I Can Has Cheezburger for the appropriate photo to describe what Microsoft needs right now.

Also, just to get the record straight, I have no big love for any of the major companies in the tech game. They’re just products and as those go I think Google has stepped up their OS game a lot with the Android. Now if they could stop randomly introducing weird things like Google Wave or Buzz to the market we would be square.

Werner Herzog is probably one of the most beloved/hated documentary filmmakers of our time. Right up there with Michael Moore. His musings are at once obtrusive, insightful, redundant, and interesting to watch.

For an incredibly callous approach to a film watch “Grizzly Man”. The video above exemplifies what it’s like to see the world like him. Also, he randomly got shot in the leg a few months back while being interviewed.

So it looks like the machines are going to win at another tried and true American game, Jeopardy. IBM just recently finished a computer called “Watson”, and it’s taking aim at all the trivia crazed population thus making humans obsolete in yet another category (oh the humanity). First the steam powered hammer. Then Kasparov loses to Deep Blue (also IBM’s invention). Finally, Watson will take out Trebek (at least all his contestants). I guess the only thing we’ll be watching in the future will be CPU vs CPU. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane though.

Steam Powered Hammer, 1840s

John Henry is an American folk hero, notable for having raced against a steam powered hammer and won, only to die in victory with his hammer in his hand. He has been the subject of numerous songs, stories, plays, and novels. He had a 20 pound hammer that he thought was light, was 6 feet tall, and weighed about 200 pounds. – Wikipedia

Deep Blue, 1997

In May 1997, an updated version of Deep Blue defeated Kasparov 3½–2½ in a highly publicised six-game match. The match was even after five games but Kasparov was crushed in Game 6. This was the first time a computer had ever defeated a world champion in match play. – Wikipedia

Watson, 2010

This is the quintessential sort of clue you hear on the TV game show “Jeopardy!” It’s witty (the clue’s category is “Postcards From the Edge”), demands a large store of trivia and requires contestants to make confident, split-second decisions… Nobody ever tackled “Jeopardy!” because experts assumed that even for the latest artificial intelligence, the game was simply too hard: the clues are too puzzling and allusive, and the breadth of trivia is too wide. With Watson, I.B.M. claims it has cracked the problem — and aims to prove as much on national TV. – NY Times

There are a few surprises in the fight for the Gulf of Mexico. One is that Kevin Costner is not only a humanitarian, but he has a plan on how to save us from the worst oil spill of all time. He teamed up with his brother after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, bought up a patented process from the Department of energy, hired scientists, and got to work. He invested 20 million dollars in the business, and developed something that cleans 210,000 gallons of oil-polluted water per day. Currently BP has bought 30 of these devices, and should be deploying them soon. Unbelievably there is no technology created by big oil to handle this kind of disaster except fish nets and long plastic devices that skim the surface.

Are your bucket loads of money 2 ply BP? Couldn’t you spend at least $50 million a year on developing new technologies such as this one? Gross negligence the live camera footage of the broken pipe is just appalling.

Christ after all the horrifying imagery I’ve been looking at, and the press statements by BP/Halliburton… it’s enough to make a grown man cry. We need something hilarious and cathartic to even believe there is a God. And just like that thank you Upright Citizens Brigade for taking these knuckleheads to the cleaners. In this sketch BP is at a board meeting where one of them spills a cup of coffee, and they all try to join forces to fix the disaster together.

Okay ~ back to why we need to do something about all this right now. We need some harrowing looks at how bad things have gotten. We’re responsible for this atrocity.

After that we need something to bring us back up. Well thank Jesus we still have Costner. At another press conference he goes hero, and tells us what he’s done and why he took matter into his own hands.

Costner takes center stage at 4:32

Coster had this to say: “It may seem an unlikely scenario that I am the one delivering this technology at this moment in time,” he said. “But from where I’m sitting, it is equally unfathomable that these machines are not already in place.”

Which leads me to a simple thesis statement I would like to present to you all: Fuck BP

I had the chance to chat with fellow filmmaker David Heilbroner about his latest picture “Stonewall Uprising”.  Its about the 1969 riots that began the Gay Rights Movement. The film premieres on June 16th at the Film Forum, and will be in theaters near you. David, of course, is incredibly excited.

“It was the Rosa Parks moment,” says one man. June 28, 1969: NYC police raid a Greenwich Village Mafia-run gay bar, The Stonewall Inn. For the first time, patrons refuse to be led into paddy wagons, setting off a 3-day riot that launches the Gay Rights Movement. Told by Stonewall patrons, Village Voice reporters and the cop who led the raid, STONEWALL UPRISING compellingly recalls the bad old days when psychoanalysts equated homosexuality with mental illness and advised aversion therapy, and even lobotomies; public service announcements warned youngsters against predatory homosexuals; and police entrapment was rampant. A treasure-trove of archival footage gives life to this all-too-recent reality, a time when Mike Wallace announced on a 1966 CBS Reports: “The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested in, nor capable of, a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage.” At the height of this oppression, the cops raid Stonewall, triggering nights of pandemonium with tear gas, billy clubs and a small army of tactical police. The rest is history.

- Film Forum’s synopsis of “Stonewall Uprising”

1. What got you interested in making a film about the Stonewall Uprising? Why now? What’s the importance of this subject today?

Stonewall was a story Kate and I thought had already been told which is why, when American Experience approached us about doing a Stonewall Doc we both felt nonplussed. Then, when we started to look at the huge amount of material that had never been put on film, and listened to the voices of the people who were fighting on the streets those nights back in 1969, we suddenly felt that we had a chance to make a real contribution to the historical and cultural record about the great human rights struggle.

I think the film is timely now, especially timely, because America has finally come far enough historically to look back at how deeply homophobic we were as a society and feel a true sense of horror. The film, I hope, remains an inspiration to all people who still feel oppressed, carrying a message that history often changes from the bottom up.

2. Were there moments you uncovered while researching that surprised you? Who or what was the most disturbing?

Most disturbing was the archival footage from the 50s and 60s showing the respectable likes of Mike Wallace on CBS stating with absolute certainty that “the average homosexual…is promiscuous. He is neither interested in nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage.” And Wallace was not alone…

3. You get 10 million dollars to work on whatever project (film or series) that suits your fancy? What subject do you attack and who do you interview?

It’s too late now, but I’d rent a boat/copter, cover the oil spill and try to get inside BP to watch CEO Tony Hayward soul searching late at night…

4. Making a movie is team work between you. How does the creative process work for you both? Does one of you edit while the other sifts through history?

Kate and I trade off in all sorts of ways. Kate usually does the first pass at an edit, then I can come in and see the bigger picture. In very general terms, she tends to be better at fine cutting and I am better at structure on a larger scale, but that generalization often falls apart. Our main motto is that we have to check our egos at the door. It’s the film that counts. And there’s no job too small that one of us won’t do it.

5. Who are your role models (fictional or real)?

I tend to admire all the really uncompromising artists, be they painters, novelists or musicians. They range from Jimi Hendrix to Vladimir Nabokov to Werner Herzog. That’s probably because in film it’s really hard not to bend to the dictates of a commissioning editor, though Kate and I do it all the time and pride ourselves on being good team players.

6. What film of yours are you most proud of and why?
Right now it’s Stonewall Uprising because we managed to blend a lot of different techniques into an aesthetically unified whole. There were deeply intimate interviews, recreations, and deep historical archival montage. We could never have pulled off this film ten years ago.

6. Have we evolved as a society much from when the original Stonewall Uprising took place? Are we getting closer to real equality?

I think every generation finds new ways to look at equality, and inequality — a lesson I have learned from being a parent of teenagers. Socially, we have evolved profoundly from the rampant, nasty homophobia of the 1960’s (gay men were hospitalized, arrested, even castrated!) but I have no illusions that there’s not a long way to go. The real goal, I think is in post-identity politics, where we get beyond grouping people into segments and demographics. But that’s probably a pipe dream.

7. You both get to co-direct a film with the documentarian of your choice? Who do you choose to work with?

Me, I’d choose Werner Herzog. I’d just be grateful to get coffee and watch him work!

8. Are you still writing novels? How do you balance the writing/directing/producing?

Novels and all other creative activities, like music, have been on the back burner for the past two years as we’ve been making three docs simultaneously. Stonewall, Diagnosis Bipolar (which aired last year on HBO) and a murder story for HBO that is still in production.

9. What song or album are you listening to right now that I should be listening to?

Carlos Lyra, Revisited Classics.

10. Best pizza in NYC?
I make my own, and my wife swears by it…

Thanks David for taking the time out to chat.