Trying to duck the trick-or-treaters on my block tonight (Halloween induces a bark-a-thon at my house), I escaped into the closest movie, Michael Jackson's "This is It."  I expected nothing. Like everyone else, after Jackson died I watched every person who ever met him once parade through Larry King Live saying what a good person he was, and listened to Liz Taylor moan about how she couldn't go on. While I never thought Michael Jackson was a child molester, I wasn't a true fan, either. And I probably believed he couldn't make it through fifty shows on the drugs he was on.

I now question my own judgment. The very first show would have electrified the world and given Jackson the adrenalin to go on. The man was a genius. Coming into rehearsals, he clearly knew every song, every move, every note. It was as if the music poured out from inside his DNA , where it always lived and now was being given the chance to express. Having never been anything BUT a performer, Michael Jackson was still a performer at 50, capable of astounding dance moves and exquisite timing. Not only that, but at 50 he was happy to be in the role of mentor to the younger dancers and musicians, rather than a competitor with them. He clearly wanted to give them an opportunity to shine. The audience would have loved him. Did he do every acrobatic move that the younger dancers did? Of course not.  But he reminded me of a great tennis player who can win a match through superior strategy even though athletically past his prime.

At the rehearsals, he seemed comfortable with the show. Never irritable on camera, he appeared gracious and loving. By the time they were set to go to London, he had accepted the cast and crew as family, and they gave him the adulation he deserved. Many of them had traveled around the world to audition for the show. It's sad they never got the chance to hear the applause. And it's sad Michael never got a chance to do even ONE show, because the sets, costumes, lighting, and graphics would have been out of the ballpark.  Go see this movie to see what they were working on; this production would have been worth the ticket price even if the understudy went on for Michael Jackson:-)

The footage was shot with two cameras, fortunately in high definition, but nothing like a finished movie. It was meant to be for Jackson's personal archive, and it is truly a documentary — it documents the rehearsals without window dressing. In it you can see the mutual respect between Kenny Ortega, who directed the movie and co-directed the show with Michael, and Michael Jackson. Clearly they are used to working together, and they help each other out. I especially liked it when Ortega told Jackson to "hold on" to the bars on the cherry picker the first time Jackson took a ride on it. Jackson seemed fearless, wanting to take it higher and sing while doing it, but Ortega only wanted him to take the ride and test the safety.

Was Michael Jackson a sick drug addict? No way. Did we, the public and the media, hasten the death of a man who felt for the planet and wanted to deliver a message of love to the world? Probably. We have a grim way of eating our public figures alive these days. I'm sure Michael Jackson wasn't perfect, but neither are we.

Posted via email from Not Really Stealthmode

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Trying to duck the trick-or-treaters on my block tonight (Halloween induces a bark-a-thon at my house), I escaped into the closest movie, Michael Jackson's "This is It."  I expected nothing. Like everyone else, after Jackson died I watched every person who ever met him once parade through Larry King Live saying what a good person he was, and listened to Liz Taylor moan about how she couldn't go on. While I never thought Michael Jackson was a child molester, I wasn't a true fan, either. And I probably believed he couldn't make it through fifty shows on the drugs he was on.

I now question my own judgment. The very first show would have electrified the world and given Jackson the adrenalin to go on. The man was a genius. Coming into rehearsals, he clearly knew every song, every move, every note. It was as if the music poured out from inside his DNA , where it always lived and now was being given the chance to express. Having never been anything BUT a performer, Michael Jackson was still a performer at 50, capable of astounding dance moves and exquisite timing. Not only that, but at 50 he was happy to be in the role of mentor to the younger dancers and musicians, rather than a competitor with them. He clearly wanted to give them an opportunity to shine. The audience would have loved him. Did he do every acrobatic move that the younger dancers did? Of course not.  But he reminded me of a great tennis player who can win a match through superior strategy even though athletically past his prime.

At the rehearsals, he seemed comfortable with the show. Never irritable on camera, he appeared gracious and loving. By the time they were set to go to London, he had accepted the cast and crew as family, and they gave him the adulation he deserved. Many of them had traveled around the world to audition for the show. It's sad they never got the chance to hear the applause. And it's sad Michael never got a chance to do even ONE show, because the sets, costumes, lighting, and graphics would have been out of the ballpark.  Go see this movie to see what they were working on; this production would have been worth the ticket price even if the understudy went on for Michael Jackson:-)

The footage was shot with two cameras, fortunately in high definition, but nothing like a finished movie. It was meant to be for Jackson's personal archive, and it is truly a documentary — it documents the rehearsals without window dressing. In it you can see the mutual respect between Kenny Ortega, who directed the movie and co-directed the show with Michael, and Michael Jackson. Clearly they are used to working together, and they help each other out. I especially liked it when Ortega told Jackson to "hold on" to the bars on the cherry picker the first time Jackson took a ride on it. Jackson seemed fearless, wanting to take it higher and sing while doing it, but Ortega only wanted him to take the ride and test the safety.

Was Michael Jackson a sick drug addict? No way. Did we, the public and the media, hasten the death of a man who felt for the planet and wanted to deliver a message of love to the world? Probably. We have a grim way of eating our public figures alive these days. I'm sure Michael Jackson wasn't perfect, but neither are we.

Posted via email from Not Really Stealthmode

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This Tuesday is the first Tuesday of the month, so it’s Tech Tuesday at 6:30 at It’s Italia in Half Moon Bay. If you are in the neighborhood, come on by! Meet all the coastside geeks who work out of their houses or over the hill and are gradually coming together as a community. Because after all, when the economy isn’t perfect, “it’s the community, stupid.”

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Admittedly, this is a fast-changing story, but here, from the Health Affairs Blog, are the highlights of the new House Bill. The writer is an attorney who has written a book on health law, so it's a trustworthy summary.

• First, the bill would dramatically reform the insurance market, prohibiting pre-existing condition exclusions; eliminating underwriting based on health status, gender or occupation; limiting out-of-pocket expenses; removing lifetime or annual coverage caps; and mandating medical loss ratios. It would also define “essential” benefits that must be covered by insurance plans, improve insurance disclosure and transparency, define marketing standards, and require fair grievance and appeal procedures.  This part of the bill closely resembles the Senate bills and is likely to be part of the final legislation.
• Second, the legislation would create a national health insurance exchange through which all new nongroup policies would be sold and through which insurance would also be available for employees of small and perhaps eventually large employers. The exchange is supposed to increase the accountability of health insurers and the transparency of their products as well as reducing costs through increasing competition and limiting administrative costs.  The Senate bills also create exchanges, but at the state level.  The final legislation is likely to include exchanges, but as will be discussed in my next post, the House version of exchanges is the most ambitious approach.
• Third, the legislation would require employers with payrolls exceeding $500,000 per year to provide health insurance to their insurers or pay a penalty (which does not fully phase in until payroll reaches $750,000).  According to House leadership, 86% of American businesses would be exempt from this requirement, though most employees would be covered.  The legislation would provide tax credits to small businesses who offer their employees health insurance.  The Senate Finance bill has a much weaker mandate, but the final bill is likely to include a mandate of some sort.
• Fourth, individuals would be required to purchase health insurance or pay a tax of 2.5% of their adjusted gross income above the income tax filing threshold up to the cost of an average insurance policy.  If insurers are not allowed to underwrite based on health status, healthy as well as unhealthy individuals must be in the market, and this mandate would help drive them into it.  For this reason, all of the bills contain an individual mandate and one is likely to be in the final bill, although this is one of the provisions of the bill that evokes the most visceral opposition. 
• Fifth, affordability subsidies are available to help lower income individuals and families purchase insurance and to lower their cost sharing obligations. This should lessen the burden of the individual mandate.  The subsidies are set at the levels established by the Blue Dog amendments in the Energy and Commerce Committee.  On the whole, the premium subsidies are much more generous than those found in the Senate Finance Committee but less generous than those in the HELP bill, while the cost-sharing subsidies are generally more generous than those found in either of the Senate bills.
• Sixth, the bill would expand Medicaid eligibility to 150% of poverty level and eliminate current categorical eligibility requirements.  The Federal Medicaid match for those to whom coverage is extended would be 100% in 2013 and 2014 and 91% after 2015.   The Senate Finance bill sets eligibility at 133% of poverty, as did HR 3200. Because Medicaid coverage costs the federal government less than would the premium subsidies needed to cover those between 133% and 150% of poverty through private health insurance, however, HR 3962 lifted the coverage ceiling.  Significantly, the legislation would increase payments to primary care practitioners who participate in Medicaid to 100% of the Medicare level by 2012 and transfers most of the cost of the increased payments to the federal government. The legislation goes a good distance toward reducing the burden of Medicaid expansions on the states, which are currently reeling from the recession. The states are likely to continue to be wary of the future costs the legislation threatens, however.
• Finally, there is the public plan.  HR 3200 had a “robust” public plan, while the Senate HELP bill provides for weaker, state-based plans and the Finance bill has no public plan at all.  HR 3962, as has been widely reported, continues to have a public plan available to individuals who purchase insurance through the exchange.  The public plan, however, would have to negotiate rates with providers, which, as will be discussed in a subsequent post, will in all likelihood doom it from the start.

Posted via email from HealthworksAZ

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I borrowed this cool list of Phoenix events in November from Brent Spore, the most creative guy I know and one of the organizers of PodcampAZ, is always determined to work for the good of the community, and he compiled this list. I'm borrowing it, with attribution.

The craziness actually starts at the beginning of the month. Ignite Phoenix #5 explodes in Tempe on Tuesday, November 3rd. Then the inaugural TEDx Phoenix happens in Mesa on Friday the 6th, followed by the BIL Conference in Scottsdale Saturday the 7th. Each promise to be a great evening of knowledge-sharing by some of the brightest minds in the area. If you're from Phoenix, make plans to attend all that you can.

And then the "week of" happens, and things are crazy. Tuesday the 10th is Creative Connect, a great place to meet new creative folks. Hacknight at Gangplank takes care of Wednesday the 11th, and Thursday contains both the Arizona Entrepreneur Conference during the day and Social Media Club Phoenix that night, both at Desert Willow Conference Center in Phoenix. (http://www.azec09.com)

WordCamp Phoenix dominates most of our plans on Friday, but leaves enough room for the massive #pfn meetup/tweetup/drink-up that night!

And somehow… we have to find the energy to get out of bed and crank out PodCamp AZ the next two days. But we're dedicated. We are young-ish. We can handle it.

Click on the links above for more information about these events. And this *just* scratches the surface of the cool stuff going on in Phoenix. Now you see why we live here? See you soon!

Posted via email from Not Really Stealthmode

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I have the first, worst Kindle, the one most of my friends didn't bother to get, and the one Scoble discarded in disgust after a week. It's not International, or version 2, which is easier to turn pages on. I got it the way I get everything, in a fit of curiosity, and I didn't use it for a long time, especially after the Kindle app came out for the iPhone. I was beginning to think I didn't need it.

And then I took a long trip this weekend, the first this year across the country with layovers. And the Kindle was awesome. First of all, I have just realized that over the past year I have bought more books than I probably bought in the five previous years.  There are books about quantum physics, books about the collapse of the financial system, and books about health and healing. There are also several novels. Have I read them all? No, because as one of Leo laPorte's girl geeks said on the air recently, the Kindle is a book-buying machine.  It's way too easy to buy books on the Kindle, like it's way too easy to buy music from iTunes (I have a lot of that, too).

But at home, it takes me weeks to finish a book. I ordered Ted Kennedy's memoir, True Compass, and it took me forever to read, which is why I never buy books. It was heavy even to cart from room to room.  I made an exception because it wasn't available for Kindle.

In the air, I can read an entire book each way on the flight. And more, I'm sure, if I'm going to Asia.  Long after the iPhone and the MacBook Air are dead, the Kindle is still my stalwart. Showing 85% battery life. And I am carrying all my books in my purse. My purse, unlike most women's, is a receptacle for portable devices–laptop, smartphone, Kindle, power cords, backup batteries, etc. I can never even find a lipstick in there, and the bottom is full of loose change. The guy next to me is always stunned to see a woman-of-a-certain age unpack all those devices.

But I would never have read Nick Hornby's Juliet Naked without the Kindle, and I never would have laughed out loud from my aisle seat. Despite the fact that back in the day I wrote dissertations on contemporary literature, the path of life has led me away from it, from books, and from knowing much about contemporary literature at all. I defiantly don't read "junk," a throwback to my arrogant lit-major days, but I don't read anything else either, except business books, contemporary history (mediocre writers like William Cohen and David Faber, rushing books about the stock market into print) and a gazillion RSS feeds a day.

So I'm taking a moment to express my gratitude for the Kindle, and for the occasional opportunity to enjoy a good, old-fashioned reading experience. It may not be a "book," but intellectually it sure feels like one.

Posted via email from Not Really Stealthmode

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Posted via web from Not Really Stealthmode

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"Has Twitter become overrun with marketers?"
I ask myself this question every so often, when my stream looks like it's full of people I don't know with brand logos instead of photos. I asked it again this morning, but this time I asked Twitter, too, and not just myself. The response was quite interesting; my small group of responders felt Twitter was doing a pretty good job of saving itself from being purely a marketing tool, in fact better, one person said, than LinkedIn. This informal survey is a mirror of how I feel, because I refer to Twitter as the "givers" and LinkedIn as the "takers" network.

   .  conrey Twitter isn't nearly as hijacked as linked in but that is primarily because it is an opt-in. You can just unfollow the marketers
   * espressojunky @hardaway @rbstang1966 It may be extensibilty and filtering tools which keep twitter relevant. Or, I'm really good at ignoring marketers!
   * teleken @hardaway "Hijacked" may be a strong term, but I'd say Twitter is oversaturated with marketers too lazy to engage.
   * espressojunky @hardaway Sig to noise ratio has changed but its still possible to tease out the disruptive voices. Early adopters have usually leapt by now
   * iCIMS I say no, not completely
   * WhiskeyChick @hardaway Which in internet time renders the tool outdated and "archaic" in it's usefulness, leaving the savvy users searching for the next.
   * paulwiggins @hardaway in summary, has not been hijacked by marketeers because veterans, a relative term, have estabished consensus. #Twitter
   * iCIMS @hardaway I dont think so.Som of the best people I follow on here r not marketers @ all, but rather thoughtleaders w yrs of (non mkt) exp
   * WhiskeyChick @hardaway …so by the time the pitchmen start to overrun, it's also a signal that mom, your boss, and great aunt Millie are trying the tool
   * WhiskeyChick @hardaway Savvy users already have "pitchman blindness" but these online pitchmen aren't targeting savvy users… (cont)2
   * jane_fell @hardaway As with any effective comm tool, opportunists come along and try to take advantage of it, ironically

However, neither Twitter nor LinkedIn can hold a marketing candle to Facebook.  The bigger it gets, the worse it becomes. And yes, I know the privacy rules. But I also know many people all over the world that I'd like to keep in moderate touch with.

But every day I get a dozen or more event invitations to events that take place in cities I don't live in, followed bu a plethora of friend requests, friend suggestions,  and announcements that  So-and-So has become a fan of (Company Name Here) and would like me to become one, too. I realize I don't HAVE to do these things, and I ignore things with great regularity, but often I have personal friends whose professional affiliations have nothing to do with our friendship. And I don't want to be a fan of their gift shop. Nor do I want to join yet another cause. All these inbound contacts make Facebook a chore for me.

So I'm thrilled that my instinct was right about Twitter. It's the best place for me right now.

Posted via email from Not Really Stealthmode

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This excellent Ted Talk explains why crisis can also be opportunity for our country. (HT: Guy Kawasaki) Although it starts by saying society is going through a "great unwind," it ends on quite an optimistic note.
And I really like it because it underscores the role of new, more social technologies in social change.For the past decade I've had confidence that the internet would change the world, but I didn't envision any of this:-)

Posted via email from Not Really Stealthmode

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