Thursday Feb 25, 2010

 
Tom Burrell - "BRAINWASHED"
Marketing communications pioneer and Advertising Hall of Fame inductee Tom Burrell is credited with revolutionizing the image of African Americans in television and changing the face of American advertising. His award-winning work promoted positive and realistic images of blacks and acknowledged the purchasing power of the African American community. Burrell is the founder of The Resolution Project, a nonprofit organization that promotes intra-racial dialogue and community-based new media "stop the brainwash" campaigns. He lives in Chicago's South Loop area.   "Black people are not dark-skinned white people," says advertising visionary Tom Burrell. In fact, they are much more. They are survivors of the Middle Passage and centuries of humiliation and deprivation, who have excelled against the odds, constantly making a way out of "No way!" At this pivotal point in history, the idea of black inferiority should have had a "Going-Out-of-Business Sale." After all, Barack Obama has reached America's Promised Land. Yet, as Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority testifies, too many in black America are still wandering in the wilderness. In this powerful examination of "the greatest propaganda campaign of all time"—the masterful marketing of black inferiority, aka the BI Complex—Burrell poses ten disturbing questions that will make black people look in the mirror and ask why, nearly 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, so many blacks still think and act like slaves. Burrell's acute awareness of the power of words and images to shift, shape, and change the collective consciousness has led him to connect the contemporary and historical dots that have brought us to this crossroads. Brainwashed is not a reprimand—it is a call to action. It demands that we question our self-defeating attitudes and behaviors. Racism is not the issue; how we respond to media distortions and programmed self-hatred is the issue. It's time to reverse the BI campaign with a globally based initiative that harnesses the power of new media and the wisdom of intergenerational coalitions. Provocative and powerful, Brainwashed dares to expose the wounds so that we, at last, can heal.

TV Guide Networks Diana Robina  - "TV  Blunders"
It's all those water cooler discussions and head scratching moments rolled into one!  TV Guide Network's special "TV Blunders" will tickle your television fancy!  From failed talk shows (anyone remember The John McEnroe or Chevy Chase Shows?) to bad remakes (Bionic Woman) and premature exits (Shelly Long- Cheers), it's fun to ask what were they thinking!  What were they thinking with Cop Rock? Did Dana Delaney know she was turning down the role of a lifetime (Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City?) How could Janet Jackson's wardrobe accidentally 'malfunction' on live TV?  Why did Felicity cut her hair and ratings nosedive?  And will viewers follow when Jay Leno returns to The Tonight Show in March? Talk with TV Guide Networks Diana Robina about the upcoming special TV Blunders!   The Network head of programming is a self described "true television junkie" who will enlighten and entertain you and your listeners when sharing some of the biggest mistakes ever on television!

Ben Bova  - "Able One"
Ben Bova is a six-time winner of the Hugo Award, a former editor of Analog, former editorial director of Omni, and past president of both the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America. Bova is the author of more than a hundred works of science fact and fiction. He lives in Florida. When a nuclear missile launched by a rogue North Korean faction explodes in space the resulting shockwave destroys the world's satellites, throwing global communication into chaos. The United States military satellites, designed to withstand such an assault, show that two more missiles are sitting on the launch pad in North Korea, ready to be deployed. Faced with the threat of a thermonuclear attack, the United States has only one possible defense: Able One.