My friends, these are the confessions of a tweet-aholic: Me. I am not afraid to admit that I love to tweet, anywhere and everywhere. But there is one place where this addiction is squelched with a strict mantra of “No Phones Allowed” – theaters! Movie theaters have even resorted to witty adverts to get theater patrons to silence and suppress their phone usage. So as a self-proclaimed tweet-aholic I am forced to keep my 140 character thoughts to myself until the credits start rolling or the curtains go down.
So naturally, when I heard about “Tweet Seats” starting to get introduced at theaters for so-called Twitter enthusiasts like myself, I was thrilled. Although they are not in Cleveland yet, it can only be a matter of time until the trend spreads here, too. I mean we have FroYo now, right? While some people are completely against the idea of Tweet Seats, calling them the new smoking section, many theaters have already started to embrace the idea and have seen great success. Rick Dildine, the executive director for Shakespeare Festival St. Louis — an outdoor theater festival — began using tweet seats two years ago for his events. He is a major advocate for this new trend. “The arts are evolving right now,” he said. “They are participatory. Social media is a tool we rely on, and we have been unafraid to experiment with it.”
Curt Hopkins expresses the exact opposite sentiment in his article titled: Tweet seats deserve to be booed out of the theater. In the article he states that “tweeting during a play is like eating corn on the cob in a truck stop bathroom. It’s just gross.”
I assume you all know my opinion by now. I’m all for it. I think that a designated area in the back of theaters out of the viewing pleasure of un-tweeting patrons will not bother anyone. And if people still want to complain at that point, they clearly have issues beyond just a tweet seat that need to be resolved.
So what is your opinion? Are there any other self-proclaimed tweet-aholics out there that are excited about the idea of tweet seats, or do you agree that their big screen debut needs to be cut short?
And a huuuuuge advantage at that! Public tennis courts within walking/pedaling distance?!? We discovered these fantastic courts last week and had a great lunch hour playing on them. I’m pretty sure we’ll be doing this all summer and, as you know, we’re always up for a challenge!
Nicole Melville showing off her backhanded skills!
So, maybe my form is not as good as Nicole’s. It works for me.
Stephanie Landes “charging” the net.
My bad ... I’m somewhat responsible for this painful looking scrape on Steph’s ankle.
Here at Melamed Riley, catchphrases, nicknames and elaborate finishing moves aren’t enough for us. Recently, we decided to take our Ping-Pong game to the next level by creating some killer paddle designs to represent the personas each of us bring to the table.
Joseph “The Reach” Hughes has amazing offensive ability, launching shots at his opponents with authority. He consistently saves the day by effortlessly defending against long-range returns.
Eat your heart out Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Darin “Sniper” Hintz can place a ball anywhere on a Ping-Pong table with pinpoint accuracy. His smashing attack is capable of piercing the armor of even the toughest defensive players.
Patrick “The Frenzy” Bensi is like a mixed martial artist around the net. His unusual and aggressive stance allows him to quickly snuff out incoming slams, smashes and dribblers.*
Brian “The Rash” Kowalczyk burns opposing players with his unpredictable style, frustrating challengers with his questionable tactics on the playing surface.
Nicole “Quiet Storm” Melville’s defense is unrivaled, seemingly forming an impenetrable wall that defends against even the sharpest returns. What’s more, her serve is so severe, several players have compared it to lightning.
All five swanky designs.
Alternate ’80s Cleveland design for Bensi.
*A dribbler is defined as a ball that skims the surface of the net assembly, causing it to lose all forward momentum, which results in a particularly tricky return for defenders.
Let’s get one thing straight — I’m getting old (I turn 25 in August) — and if we really only get one go-round on this lovely planet of ours, I’m running out of time. With that in mind, I decided to come up with a bucket list of sorts. First on the agenda: Opening Day. As a lifelong Tribe fan, it was only natural I spend what I consider a national holiday with the Cleveland Indians. Here are a few pictures from the before, during and after:
Major League-themed jerseys and beer cans — there were plenty of both to be seen during what I like to call “Opening Morning” in downtown Cleveland.
In an effort no bartender could compete with, a specially-trained Dalmatian passed out bottles of the best Belgian brew I’ve ever tasted.
A worthy cause, this man successfully conjured several Opening Day fans to open their wallets.
The view from my seat at Progressive Field, blurred in an attempt to convey my state throughout most of the 16 inning showdown.
Special thanks to Aria Mirabile for providing visual documentation of Opening Day 2012.
Easter Sunday has traditionally been a day of spending time with family, eating to excess, and watching “Sunday at The Masters.” This year was no exception (especially the excessive eating). However, this year I found myself watching The Masters quite differently. While watching, I found myself not only engaged in the amazing action taking place on the television screen, but also engaged in the amazing action taking place on my iPhone via Twitter. Not only was my own Twitter timeline blowing up, but hashtags like, #Masters and #Bubba, as well as the personal Twitter account of eventual champion, Bubba Watson, @bubbawatson, were all receiving overwhelming attention during the two holes of sudden death playoff golf.
Interacting with Twitter or other Social Media Platforms during TV programs isn’t new to me, in fact, that very same night, I tweeted to Michael Symon, @chefsymon, and the hashtags #choppedallstars and #autismspeaks during Chopped All Stars on the Food Network. And I also followed along closely to my Twitter timeline and the hashtag #MadMen for tweets about the most recent episode of Mad Men.
All of this Social TV got me thinking about some articles and blogs I’ve read recently. While there is a lot of discussion about how people are using two screens when they watch TV, there is equally as much if not more discussion about how social media is reducing people’s ability to communicate effectively face-to-face.
Take this post from www.lostremote.com, which discusses the results of a study on social media multitasking. Yes, it’s true that we don’t know the full methodology of the study that was conducted and some of the results may be misleading, but from my personal experience, I easily see myself within many of these results. During The Masters, for example, I was most definitely posting tweets while watching the tournament live. And during Chopped All Stars, my tweets made me feel connected to other people who were watching including Michael Symon who was live tweeting throughout the previously recorded event. It’s clear that my experiences while watching these programs were enhanced through the use of the Twitter social platform.
Conversely, there are posts like this one from hbr.org that discusses how too much internet, digital and social media may, among other things, contribute to people (especially pre-teens and teens) displaying poor eye contact and a reluctance to interact socially. Again, referring back to The Masters, while I was watching the final round with multiple other people, I found myself to be at least as engaged, if not more, in what was happening on my iPhone screen as I was with the rest of the people in the room. Using this personal experience makes it easy for me to see the validity of the post and the research within it.
As a father of two teenage children and as a marketer with a keen interest in social media, I find both of these topics to be fascinating. I don’t discount either of them because I’ve demonstrated personal experiences to substantiate both. I don’t see Social TV and the interaction going away, only increasing and evolving, so I can only hope that education by parents, myself included, as well as our education system will work to curtail the reduction of interpersonal skills in children.
What do you think? Is Social TV enhancing the experience or reducing our interpersonal communications?
Last night, I tried again. This time, I was going to start with a green smoothie. Even though they usually look a lot like swamp water, they can actually be pretty tasty. And the recipe I had in hand called for juice from a fresh lime and a fresh lemon, so I figured all that zippiness had a great shot of overpowering the chicken. Here’s the recipe:
1 cup fresh spinach
1 cup cucumber
½ bunch of celery
¼ tsp ginger root
½ bunch of parsley
1 apple
Juice from ½ lime
Juice from ½ lemon
1 organic chicken breast
I used the same taste tester from two years ago, my son Luke. (After all, there needs to be a control — this is science!) I first whipped up all the ingredients in my Vitamix sans chicken to see what my son’s reaction to that would be.
Not overly impressed, but not bad. He thought it could use more citrus. Maybe an orange. But okay. So then I threw in just ½ of the chicken breast and fired up the Vitamix once again.
The picture pretty much says it all. I don’t think there will be a Drinking Chicken, Part 3 blog. At least not with this test subject. I’m pretty sure Luke’s done with it.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Use the same recipe, but add tons more citrus, not just a little.
2. Just eat the damn chicken breast on your drive to work like you would a granola bar.
