Tea with jam, jam and bread

My singing teacher went to voice instruction bootcamp in LA last month, and the tips he came back with have been pure gold. The program he attended was with Lisa Popeil, who has a lecture series and DVDs that very, very quickly convey how to support the voice, add emotion and color, and sing appropriately for many different genres: classical, r&b, country, pop, etc.

Okay, so there are a million other books and programs out there, but my teacher and I agree that I've made as much progress in the past two weeks as the past six months. Definitely check out Lisa's program if you're interested in serenading your sweetheart or knocking 'em dead at karaoke.

Corporate World Meet Web 2.0

As blogged in Beyond the Beyond, and originally uploaded by gtmcknight.

The High Purpose Company

I just finished reading Christine Arena's "The High Purpose Company" and recommend it to any companies who want to marry doing well with doing good. There are several inspiring books out there that make the case for marrying wealth creation and social responsibility, as well as a lot of data-driven analyses, but Arena's book is one of the first I've seen that connects all those dots: purpose, culture, business DNA, and metrics.

Arena's book is filled with great examples—and just yesterday, I came across a new one: this Techcrunch article where co-founder Sergey Brin at Google admits that going into China with a censored search engine was a "net negative" for their business.

The future of education

A stellar map of future forces affecting education from the smart folks at the KnowledgeWorks Foundation and the Institute For The Future.

My picks from Sundance

In my four days at Sundance, I saw some great films. These were my favorites:

Protagonist: My top fave. I connected immediately with this story of four men's lives twisted unrecognizably by good intentions, stubbornness, and bad luck. The director Jessive Yu used puppets, Euripides, and unflinching honesty to tell four distinct stories and find the echoes between them.

The Pool: A young room boy in Goa climbs a mango tree to catch a glimpse a rich man's swimming pool... and a subtle, unexpected story unfolds, with flawless child acting, terrific music, and an equal mix of humor and ache. Director Chris Smith's follow-up to American Movie.

No End In Sight: A powerful summary of the Bush administration's bungling of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. An unfortunate sequel to Fahrenheit 911, told with authority, and punctuated by images of smart, responsible soldiers and politicians silently facing the camera, their faces filled with loss and anger.

The Substitute and Bitch: Two accomplished and funny shorts, countering this year's "Sad-dance" trend. The Substitute can be streamed from Sundance.org—I'm keeping my eye out for Lilah Vanderburgh's Bitch.

And out of all the movies I didn't see, I'm especially looking forward to Manda Bala (the clips were fantastic) and Never Forever.

Can polyester save the world?

What the world needs now: a wearable, recyclable technical nutrient. (NY Times)

Design is the new advertising

From Marc Gobé, author of the forthcoming "Brandjam":

"Design is the new advertising...The only advertising that works is about product that you’re drawn to anyway." (as blogged in Design Observer)

Visualizing world trends

Gapminder pushes the visual display of quantitative information.

Greetings from Park City

I've been at the Sundance Festival this week, having a blast, and falling way behind in my blogging.

One treat for me the past few days has been hearing how directors are using social networking sites to complete and inspire their artistic vision.

• Documentary filmmaker Annie Sundberg ("The Devil Came on Horseback") found hours of B roll footage on YouTube from the only videographer still filming in Darfur after Sudan kicked journalists out of the country
  
• Nelson George ("Life Support") fleshed out his film's soundtrack with music found on MySpace
  
• Jessica Yu ("Protagonist") said that one way she looked for interviewees who fit her concept—a modern exploration of Euripedes using real documentary subjects and puppets—was to Google phrases like "and I suddenly realized that"
  

More soon, once I'm back in San Francisco...

BW takes on global citizenship

For my dayjob, I help companies find ways to use environmental and social good as levers for business growth. This is highly gratifying work, but it isn't always the easiest conversation to start... Until recently, many companies have framed their global citizenship programs as ways to "give back" or "do less bad." Meanwhile, William McDonough and others have noted that the real innovation and profit comes from finding ways to be "all good" and weaving eco and social responsibility into a company's primary business DNA.

Since it adds fuel to the fire, it's gratifying to see BusinessWeek take on this very topic in today's cover story "Beyond the Green Corporation." The article includes a lot of great examples of what traditional companies like Unilever, GE, Wal-Mart, and Philips are doing—as well as an honest account of why high-profile sustainability programs at Ford and BP have failed to deliver. I also liked the stats suggesting how social responsibility, not just environmental sustainabilty, can impact the bottom line:

"New York's Communications Consulting Worldwide (CCW), which studies issues such as reputation, puts it in stark dollars and cents. CCW calculates that if Wal-Mart had a reputation like that of rival Target Corp. (TGT ), its stock would be worth 8.4% more, adding $16 billion in market capitalization."

Feed me

Following a tip from my friend Ryan at Second Verse, I switched from Bloglines to Google Reader earlier this week. I couldn't be happier—it's a much faster and more intuitive interface for managing my subscriptions.

I can't believe I ate the whole thing

I stand corrected. Although I didn't like Six Feet Under when it first came out, thanks to Bravo, Netflix, and a bit of perspective, I was able to inhale all five seasons over the past two months. A wonderfully acted and written, and wonderfully human show. The DVDs are also beautifully designed—clearly a labor of love.