IS "TIME" OUT OF DATE?

When Nancy Gibbs, long time senior editor, took over as managing editor of Time Magazine, I cheered. I like her writing. I like her point of view; her sense of what's important more or less fitted with mine.

But lately, many -- no -- most of Time's recent cover stories -- "Fake Pot," "Rape On Campus," "Last Days 'Mad Men," "Saving Preemies," "Transgender Star of a new TV show, Laverne Cox," -- do not really interest me.

I'm sure these popular topics appeal to men and women, subscribers and readers, who are mostly concerned about their own lives -- their space and place in America. Hey, what's more important, truly important and intriguing, than the territory of you?

Anyhow, I flip through the magazine's pages and rarely pause to put a check-mark on something I want to read and pursue further. Turning the pages, the topics seem ho-hum, and not in tune with what's on my mind.

I gotta say -- I don't feel safe. Night noses wake me -- a siren. a boom -- is it the bomb? Is it IT? Is our building, our block, the city, going-going gone?

Okay, in your own territory, life is less stressful, probably easier and more enjoyable, when your mind is full of the latest popular doings. But hey, are Nancy Gibbs and her bosses diverting us -- making a lot of other stuff-and-nonsense important to keep us from thinking, wondering, worrying, trying to figure out how to fix, repair, or change -- do something -- about the bad things that are going on?

Could it possibly be a way, a tactic that keeps us not focused on the doomful things that might gather momentum -- like a snow ball that could get larger and larger as it rolls around and down the mountain?

For me the snowball's melting, mushy. I don't trust Time. Aside from the cover stories, there are plenty of articles filled with details, opinions, numbers, polls, percentages -- research on top of the research -- that obscures details that prove something-or-other is a major dangerous problem.

Yes, the other urgent, festering, dangerous, unsolved issues in the territory of you and me, are tucked in between ads, photos, articles, and cover stories.

I admire Nancy Gibbs, but she's an employee controlled by her conservative, probably rich, probably Republican bosses. Am I thinking paranoically?  Hmm. Probably.

Anyway, I think Time is behind the times. I'm not renewing my subscription.

ZUCKERBERG

Mark Zuckerberg -- the smartest guy in the neighborhood, the smartest guy in the school -- seems to be changing the face of Facebook again. 

In April, 2012, he bought INSTAGRAM, for $1 billion. It provided a mobile-centric platform at a time when Facebook's activity was primarily desktop based.

I wasn't into mobile back then. I am not into mobile now.

June 2012, he bought FACE.COM, for $60 million -- it provided recognition technology that Faceobook uses to automatically tag faces in photos.

I'm having serious trouble with photos in my blog -- Facebook ignores my cartoons -- just picks what it wants.  
 
This past February, he bought  WHATSAPP,  for $19 billion. It gives Facebook a presence in messaging that it's been working on for years, and also a foothold in other countries.

I can't send messages or get messages anymore on my Facebook page.

Last month he bought  OCULUS VR, for $2 billion. He currently is setting up top flight engineers to work on the virtual reality headset that Oculus created.

In a press conference, Mark Z said, "Mobile is the platform of today and now we are also getting ready for the platform for tomorrow. Oculus has a chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate."

Yowie -- Z is putting down a lot of money on virtual reality, which till very recently was considered a failure.

Are we -- you and I -- going to be facebooking in headsets?

Hey, gee -- I don't want to wear anything over my eyes, my ears and be in an artificially stimulated unreal environment with my head covered, sweating -- my hair, my crowning glory drooping, straggling, uglifying me and what I used to be -- before I got into social net-jerking.
 
No, no, no -- it feels so wrong -- Z is already controlling so much of our lives with his concepts -- he's buying into my future and I don't know how to stop him except by shouting, "beware of this clever-brilliant kid -- he's transforming us into money making doers, users of whatever he thinks is right, good, fascinating fun.  

F - U - N? 

OH MY GOD -- IS THIS THE FUTURE  OF FUN?

(VIDEO) JOHN CULLUM DANCES FOR EMILY

Praising John as a dancer, Emily presses him to demonstrate how he improvises a little dance for her, whenever she asks.

Groaning, John responds.

Spur of the moment, he does three improvisations.

Though his improvs embarrass him a little, they absolutely delight Emily.

UNCLE RUSH

I saw this photo of this guy proudly poised like a dancer.

His name is Russell Simmons. He was chatting with Belinda Luscombe, a Time Magazine reporter. who interviews important people with 10 questions. Simmons looked like a kid. I hadn't heard of him, but right off the bat, I got a sense that this guy was self confident.

Belinda asked, "Aren’t you worried that your book on meditation, 'Success Through Stillness,'  might make people think you’re too soft to be a rap entrepreneur?"

(Recently, some of my personal friends are into meditation and asking me if I meditate, and since I do, his reply interested me.)

Russell said, "I’ve been meditating for 20 years. I’ve been practicing yoga for 20 years. I’ve been writing books on happiness for 10 years. I think everybody in the hip-hop community knows Uncle Rush as a person who promotes well-being. I’m not at all worried, and meditating is something I want the world to do. I want to take in the hood and meditate. I want to go to Chicago and get Rahm Emanuel and put meditation in the schools in Chicago."

B asked the question that I wanted to ask, "Is Uncle Rush your nickname because you’re always in a hurry?"

RS: "Yeah, and Rush also was a particular brand of angel dust. But now I’m a monk. I don’t smoke or drink or eat animals or wear any animal product. About 20 years ago, I started to find meditation in the morning to be a lot more satisfying than drinking at night."

(I Googled, learning that Uncle Rush was 56-years-old, in the music business, clothing, and fashion business, with a net-worth of approximately $340  million. I glued my mind to hearing how meditation helped him succeed. I think of my dancing as meditating because it's an intense, unbreakable focus on doing steps I have danced every day for many years, -- it gives me joy, energy, and sometimes courage.)

B:  How would you respond to people who say, it’s fine for you to meditate – your money is making money – but the rest of us have to make a living?

RS: I run a fashion company, "Argyle Culture." I run three digital companies: "All Def Digital," "Narrative" and "GlobalGrind.com." I run four charities. I’m able to do a lot because I meditate. Meditation helped me to be more expansive in my abilities, but it also allowed me freedom to not carry the anxiety and weight that people associate with worldly pursuits.

B:: Do you have a dream disciple, someone you’d love to win over?

RS: Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber. We had a big initiative to end the drug laws the way they are today. Every celebrity you could think of signed our letter, all the civil organizations. We had a rally. Nobody did sh-t [in response]. Justin Bieber tweeted it out --  “Ding-aling, Attorney General on the line.”

B: Is it drug laws or the prevalence of drugs that’s an issue?

RS: The drug laws took innocent diseased people, locked them up, educated them in criminal behavior and dumped them back in the hood without a chance for employment or any opportunity to be good parts of society. That’s why I occupied [Wall Street]. That’s why I slept in the park. Only once. I live across the street.

B teased him about being one of the 1%  R said he was 0.5%. "The ones who were who are the 0.01% are the dumb motherf-ckers. They should be happy to pay more taxes."

(His humor was wry, ultra honest, and every time he cussed, it was bleeped.)

B asked, What do you think of the new trend of tolerance rap, like Macklemore and Lecrae?

RS: That’s not new.

(to me it was a new name, a group I'd never heard of)

B: Are you suggesting rap has never been homophobic?

RS: I’d say that society has always been homophobic. I would not say rap was more homophobic than Congress. F-ck no. Or the city council or the preachers. I like Macklemore’s record; I heard it while in shavasana.

(He was referring to a Yoga pose, I wondered which pose he meant).

B: Is the music business over?

R.S:  No, I think the doors are wide open, and whatever I’ve done can be done easily by someone who has the drive and interest. It’s easier to be in the record business now. You need a hot-ass record – that’s it. Nobody can stop you.

B   Is that why you’re back in the entertainment business?

R.S.  "All Def Digital" is young writers, directors, poets, comedians, music artists. There’s a bunch of black people who deserve a break. Hollywood’s diversity is –  did you know that Kerry Washington is the first black girl lead in a show like that since Diahann Carroll in Julia?

B: Is Hollywood more segregated than other industries?

R.S: More than anything I’ve ever seen. I’m not mad at Hollywood, by the way. They have good intentions, they’re sweet people, they’re liberal–they’re just less integrated than Jerry Springer.

Here's Russell practicing Yoga on the beach.

The video, excerpts of this conversation, will give you a sense of who this man is. I like him -- the kid is definitely a grownup, an unstoppable mover, shaker, and doer.