Don't be a honey badger

TED on crack: Ignite Houston's first knowledge sharing fest enlightens, but makeit quick

Grace Rodriguez's believes that what drives art and creativity is what propelsall successful initiatives.
Photo by Ed Schipul
Feldenkrais guru Gika Rector uses pain as a catalyst for self-improvement andpersonal progress.
Photo by Ed Schipul
With a dab of comic sass, host Brian Block moved the fast-paced conference rightalong.
Photo by Ed Schipul
Five minutes is all each of the 14 speakers were allotted to reference 20 slidesset to auto advance every 15 sections.
Photo by Ed Schipul

How to avoid global annihilation? How to compose the perfect business email? What is a rubber chicken doing gallivanting around space? Would anyone wear Apple stickers as nipple covers?

At Ignite Houston, the answers to these enigmas and a myriad of others were no longer a mystery.

Ignite is TED on crack: A speed-dating knowledge-sharing bacchanal designed for short attention spans, ADD types and social media junkies multitasking and tweeting their way through power naps. At least that's how Houston's first Ignite gathering transpired at Ecclesias, where a sold-out mixed assemblage of more than 120 creatives, academics and learners were hungry for knowledge.

As the movement's descriptor puts it, "Enlighten us, but make it quick."

Five minutes is all each of the 14 speakers were allotted to reference 20 slides set to auto advance every 15 seconds. That left little time to waste and no opportunities for off-the-cuff improv. Ignite — the brainchild of Brady Forrest, technology guru for O'Reilly Media, and Bre Pettis of Makerbot.com — launched in Seattle in 2006 and today, more than 100 cities have hosted the event.

Daniel Cohen lives by his cardinal rules of communication: Start with a concept, know your audience and write with clear structure.

Ignite Houston benefited C2 Creative, an emerging nonprofit established to nurture co-working models, act as an incubator for fresh business ideas and facilitate creative partnerships. Credit the $1,100 raised to committee members Kelsey Ruger, Karen Walrond, Josh Tabin, Matthew Wettergreen, Tim DeSilva, Adam Stacoviak and Aimee Woodall and event organizer Erica O'Grady who curated a lineup of quick-witted speakers ranging from authors to communication professionals to techie buffs.

With a dab of comic sass, host Brian Block moved the fast-paced conference right along, lightening the otherwise intense two-hour info-session.

Don't be a honey badger: Care about your email recipients. That's what Schipul - The Web Marketing Company's Katrina Esco suggested when she compared a business email to a ransom note. The subject should not be a teaser, but a spoiler. Get to the point quickly and outline a list of demands and how to meet them.

Uplifting quote? Completely optional.

For financial planner Christyna Lewis, the laws of economics extended beyond financial matters. Lewis suggested using non-monetary personal currency to account for individual core values.

Author of Dirty Minds Kayt Sukel didn't just merely propose that the dynamics of drug, alcohol and chemical dependency are rooted in love infatuation. She scanned hormonal functions to decipher behavioral commonalities. Notice how the lyrics to love songs nod to addiction?

Rice professor Bryan Guido Hassin examined human conduct to devise ways to enhance efficiency. While technology has enhanced lives, it's important to remember that people aren't robots when implementing tools.

"Earth without art is eh," Rodriguez says. "Be kind, unwind and live a masterpiece of your life."

No pain, no gain? Though that may be the modus operandi of many gym goers, Feldenkrais guru Gika Rector uses aches for self-improvement and personal progress. Yes, the tendency may be to suppress pain and thrust forward, but eventually, humans clog up, wear out and can't move anymore, physically and emotionally.

Have most forgotten what it's like to feel good?

C2 Creative president and Culture Pilot's Grace Rodriguez's believes that what drives art and creativity is what propels all successful initiatives. The choices one makes in artistic endeavors aren't dissimilar from thought processes that help connect and empathize with people.

"Earth without art is eh," Rodriguez says. "Be kind, unwind and live a masterpiece of your life."

Nothing aggravates Daniel Cohen more than three writing faux pas: Statements without a concept, not considering the intended audience and poorly constructed linguistic mechanics, like misplaced qualifiers. Panera Bread's "Make today better" and Farmers' "We are farmers" descriptors miss the mark alongside Pee Cola and Phuket Lager Beer.

As the lead copywriter at BrightBox Brand Marketing, where he churns out blog posts, press releases, social media messages, PR plans and advertisements, Cohen lives by these three cardinal rules of communication: Start with a concept, know your audience and write with clear structure.

What's a quadrocopter? For Igniters, the flying robot is now vernacular vocabulary. Blame that on Ed Schipul, whose inner geek came out when he operated one of these hovering creatures and illustrated applications valuable in wildlife photography, fine art, commercial promotion and search and rescue operations. As similar technology becomes more accessible and less expensive, these drones have limitless potential.

Guests met Camilla Corona, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory rubber chicken educational mascot. She has been to the edge of space, chatted with astronauts, teachers, parents, even governors and military generals. Camilla even has her own blog.

Her mission? To encourage girls and women to get involved in science and technology by talking about space weather phenomena.

Missed Ignite Houston? TapeWorks Texas was on hand to chronicle the event and it will be posted online at a later date.

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Movie Review

Spine-chilling new horror movie Undertone puts podcaster in jeopardy

Photo courtsy of A24

Nina Kiri in Undertone.

While the horror genre is still capable of producing some innovative filmmaking, most of the output tends to fall back on jump scares and other tropes to deliver their terror. So when a film like the new Undertone tries something different, it should be applauded for the effort, even if it’s not as successful in its execution.

Evy (Nina Kiri) is a podcaster who co-hosts a show called Undertone, which focuses on paranormal videos and sounds they find on the internet. Her co-host, Justin (Adam DiMarco), lives in London, so — for kind of contrived reasons — in order to make the time difference between them work, Evy records at around 3 am her time. Evy — who lives at home with her bedridden, dying mother — is the skeptic of the two, consistently debunking clips that Justin presents to her.

Her doubts are tested when Justin brings in a series of 10 audio clips that purport to be about a boyfriend recording his girlfriend as she talks in her sleep. The audio begins in a lighthearted manner and quickly turns creepy and then sinister as unexplained things start happening. Evy senses that what she’s hearing is bleeding into her own world, especially when inexplicable actions take place in her mother’s bedroom.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Ian Tuason, the film is effective early on when it introduces the story concept. Making great use of sound design, Tuason essentially puts the audience inside Evy’s head, where every little sound is heightened. Setting the podcast sessions in the middle of the night ups the anxiety level for both her and the audience.

However, as the film goes along it gets a little tedious watching Evy listen to the audio, even as Tuason attempts to keep the film dynamic by moving the camera around her. The premise of the story — progressively going through 10 clips — and Tuason’s framing of shots that focus as much on the background as they do on Evy seem to promise more interesting results than actually transpire.

What ultimately holds the film down more than anything is its lack of different viewpoints. The only other person who’s actually seen is Evy’s mother, who is unable to speak. Evy speaks to Justin, another friend, and a doctor over the course of the story, and while each broadens our understanding of Evy somewhat, none of them make her a truly three-dimensional person. Getting a little more information about her history might have helped the story work better.

Kiri does her level best to vary her acting in the various podcast scenes, and even when they start to get repetitive, she remains compelling and watchable. It’s difficult to judge the other actors based on audio alone, but knowing that DiMarco also starred in season 2 of The White Lotus helps to visualize him and his acting style.

Undertone does well in creating a spine-chilling mood, but it needed something beyond that to become a truly great horror movie. Tuason shows some promise as a filmmaker, especially in the way he uses the camera to create tension, but a more complete story will serve him better the next time around.

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Undertone is now playing in theaters,

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