Behind the scenes with National Geographic's "Killing Kennedy"

Check out behind the scenes with some incredible lighting from Chimera.

Seduced and Abandoned: A review for filmmakers (HBO Doc)

The HBO documentary Seduced and Abandoned with Alex Baldwin and James Toback explores the insanity of the film industry.  It shows the difficulty producing a film with an a-list actor already on board.  The one reoccurring theme is that 95% of the time is spent chasing funding with 5% of time spent actually making films.  The film says "this is no way to live."  The times have changed where you cannot simply walk into a room and convince a director or actor to jump in on a film, everyone has a conscience and a due diligence to complete.  People in the large scale film business do not do films because they want to but because they will make a profit.  The COO of a major studio interviewed said it best "you make the shitty movie people will see not the good film that nobody will see."  What Toback and Baldwin suggest at the conclusion of the documentary is that new channels and people must be found who are willing to work in a new paradigm.

These people are everywhere I do believe.  Learn from the old but create something new.   The gatekeepers are dead as George Lucas said recently. So build your team, high concept something original and make it happen.  There are creative and unusual channels to find funding. It is still talent, concept and passion that will create.  Perhaps it is some kind of blind naivete and optimism that makes me think it is possible to create original successful works on large scale but I think this is what it takes to be successful.  Never give up when the doubters give you reason to do so.  Some of the most successful men have said that it is that one step they took beyond when others would have turned back and quit that made them successful. So here's to being a little crazy, unorthodox and having the strength to persist in creating something amazing.

It is my sincere belief that things worth doing are never easy.  Unless you take the view that it is easy because it is the only thing to be done.

Quotes of the day

"if you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not people or objects" -Albert Einstein

Quote of the day

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Marianne Williamson / Nelson Mandela

Story of the Day

Story of the day

One day the animals called a contest to measure their strength. Animal after animal displayed their strengths. Monkey leapt high and swung from tree to tree. All of the animals applauded his strength. Then Elephant leaned against the same tree and uprooted it, raising it high above his head. The animals agreed Elephant was stronger than Monkey. Man said, “I am stronger still,” but the animals laughed— how could Man be stronger than Elephant? Man was angry at their laughter and produced a gun. The animals ran away from Man forever. Man did not know the difference between strength and death. And to this day, they fear his ignorance.

-Old African Folk Tale

Atomic movie by IBM

Interesting film-making idea that had not previously been executed.

Watch the making of the worlds smallest movie

Slow Money

BMG attended the Slow Money National Gathering in Boulder Colorado and met up with Woody Tasch, author of Inquiries into Slow Money: Investing as food, farms, and fertility mattered.  A very interesting progressive investing conversation is occurring these days in Boulder and elsewhere based on the Slow Money movement, which is all about local investment in agriculture.  Check out what they are all about below. BMG supports localization of economies around the world in a variety of sectors including the local food movement. 

The Slow Money Principles

In order to enhance food security, food safety and food access; improve nutrition and health; promote cultural, ecological and economic diversity; and accelerate the transition from an economy based on extraction and consumption to an economy based on preservation and restoration, we do hereby affirm the following Slow Money Principles:

I. We must bring money back down to earth. 

II. There is such a thing as money that is too fast, companies that are too big, finance that is too complex. Therefore, we must slow our money down -- not all of it, of course, but enough to matter. 

III. The 20th Century was the era of Buy Low/Sell High and Wealth Now/Philanthropy Later—what one venture capitalist called “the largest legal accumulation of wealth in history.” The 21st Century will be the era of nurture capital, built around principles of carrying capacity, care of the commons, sense of place and non-violence. 

IV. We must learn to invest as if food, farms and fertility mattered. We must connect investors to the places where they live, creating vital relationships and new sources of capital for small food enterprises. 

V. Let us celebrate the new generation of entrepreneurs, consumers and investors who are showing the way from Making A Killing to Making a Living. 

VI. Paul Newman said, "I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer who puts back into the soil what he takes out." Recognizing the wisdom of these words, let us begin rebuilding our economy from the ground up, asking:

* What would the world be like if we invested 50% of our assets within 50 miles of where we live?
* What if there were a new generation of companies that gave away 50% of their profits? 

* What if there were 50% more organic matter in our soil 50 years from now? 

You cant write it better than that: The masters 2013

Best 20 minutes you could spend watching golf!  

Then watch the follow up interview for insight into taking the shot

 "never give up on what you dream of" Adam Scott with some eloquent answers to hard questions. 

Next 100 days: life hacks FTW

From Life Hacks! Check it out.

Home
1. Create a “100 Days to Conquer Clutter Calendar” by penciling in one group of items you plan to declutter every day, for the next 100 days. Here’s an example:

Day 1: Declutter Magazines
Day 2: Declutter DVD’s
Day 3: Declutter books
Day 4: Declutter kitchen appliances
2. Live by the mantra: a place for everything and everything in its place. For the next 100 days follow these four rules to keep your house in order:

If you take it out, put it back.
If you open it, close it.
If you throw it down, pick it up.
If you take it off, hang it up.
3. Walk around your home and identify 100 things you’ve been tolerating; fix one each day. Here are some examples:

A burnt light bulb that needs to be changed.
A button that’s missing on your favorite shirt.
The fact that every time you open your top kitchen cabinet all of the plastic food containers fall out.
Happiness
4. Follow the advice proffered by positive psychologists and write down 5 to 10 things that you’re grateful for, every day.

5. Make a list of 20 small things that you enjoy doing, and make sure that you do at least one of these things every day for the next 100 days. Your list can include things such as the following:

Eating your lunch outside.
Calling your best friend to chat.
Taking the time to sit down and read a novel by your favorite author for a few minutes.
6. Keep a log of your mental chatter, both positive and negative, for ten days. Be as specific as possible:

How many times do you beat yourself up during the day?
Do you have feelings of inadequacy?
Are you constantly thinking critical thoughts of others?
How many positive thoughts do you have during the day?
Also, make a note of the emotions that accompany these thoughts. Then, for the next 90 days, begin changing your emotions for the better by modifying your mental chatter.

7. For the next 100 days, have a good laugh at least once a day: get one of those calendars that has a different joke for every day of the year, or stop by a web site that features your favorite cartoons.

Learning/Personal Development
8. Choose a book that requires effort and concentration and read a little of it every day, so that you read it from cover to cover in 100 days.

9. Make it a point to learn at least one new thing each day: the name of a flower that grows in your garden, the capital of a far-off country, or the name of a piece of classical music you hear playing in your favorite clothing boutique as you shop. If it’s time for bed and you can’t identify anything you’ve learned that day, take out your dictionary and learn a new word.

10. Stop complaining for the next 100 days. A couple of years back, Will Bowen gave a purple rubber bracelet to each person in his congregation to remind them to stop complaining. “Negative talk produces negative thoughts; negative thoughts produce negative results”, says Bowen. For the next 100 days, whenever you catch yourself complaining about anything, stop yourself.

11. Set your alarm a minute earlier every day for the next 100 days. Then make sure that you get out of bed as soon as your alarm rings, open the windows to let in some sunlight, and do some light stretching. In 100 days you’ll be waking up an hour and forty minutes earlier than you’re waking up now.

12. For the next 100 days, keep Morning Pages, which is a tool suggested by Julia Cameron. Morning Pages are simply three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning.

13. For the next 100 days make it a point to feed your mind with the thoughts, words, and images that are most consistent with who you want to be, what you want to have, and what you want to achieve.

Finances
14. Create a spending plan (also known as a budget). Track every cent that you spend for the next 100 days to make sure that you’re sticking to your spending plan.

15. Scour the internet for frugality tips, choose ten of the tips that you find, and apply them for the next 100 days. Here are some possibilities:

Go to the grocery store with cash and a calculator instead of using your debit card.
Take inventory before going to the grocery store to avoid buying repeat items.
Scale back the cable.
Ask yourself if you really need a landline telephone.
Consolidate errands into one trip to save on gas.
Keep track of how much money you save over the next 100 days by applying these tips.

16. For the next 100 days, pay for everything with paper money and keep any change that you receive. Then, put all of your change in a jar and see how much money you can accumulate in 100 days.

17. Don’t buy anything that you don’t absolutely need for 100 days. Use any money you save by doing this to do one of the following:

Pay down your debt, if you have any.
Put it toward your six month emergency fund.
Start setting aside money to invest.
18. Set an hour aside every day for the next 100 days to devote to creating one source of passive income.

Time Management
19. For the next 100 days, take a notebook with you everywhere in order to keep your mind decluttered. Record everything, so that it’s safely stored in one place—out of your head—where you can decide what to do with it later. Include things such as the following:

Ideas for writing assignments.
Appointment dates.
To Do list items
20. Track how you spend your time for 5 days. Use the information that you gather in order to create a time budget: the percentage of your time that you want to devote to each activity that you engage in on a regular basis. This can include things such as:

Transportation
Housework
Leisure
Income-Generating Activities
Make sure that you stick to your time budget for the remaining 95 days.

21. Identify one low-priority activity which you can stop doing for the next 100 days, and devote that time to a high priority task instead.

22. Identify five ways in which you regularly waste time, and limit the time that you’re going to spend on these activities each day, for the next 100 days. Here are three examples:

Watch no more than half-an-hour of television a day.
Spend no more than half-an-hour each day on social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Stumbleupon.
Spend no more than twenty minutes a day playing video games.
23. For the next 100 days, stop multi-tasking; do one thing at a time without distractions.

24. For the next 100 days, plan your day the night before.

25. For the next 100 days, do the most important thing on your To-Do list first, before you do anything else.

26. For the next 14 weeks, conduct a review of each week. During your weekly review, answer the following:

What did you accomplish?
What went wrong?
What went right?
27. For the next 100 days, spend a few minutes at the end of each day organizing your desk, filing papers, and making sure that your work area is clean and orderly, so that you can walk in to a neat desk the next day.

28. Make a list of all of the commitments and social obligations that you have in the next 100 days. Then, take out a red pen and cross out anything that does not truly bring you joy or help move you along the path to achieving your main life goals.

29. For the next 100 days, every time that you switch to a new activity throughout the day stop and ask yourself, “Is this the best use of my time at this moment?”

Health
30. Losing a pound of fat requires burning 3500 calories. If you reduce your caloric intake by 175 calories a day for the next 100 days, you’ll have lost 5 pounds in the next 100 days.

31. For the next 100 days, eat five servings of vegetables every day.

32. For the next 100 days, eat three servings of fruit of every day.

33. Choose one food that constantly sabotages your efforts to eat healthier—whether it’s the decadent cheesecake from the bakery around the corner, deep-dish pizza, or your favorite potato chips—and go cold turkey for the next 100 days.

34. For the next 100 days, eat from a smaller plate to help control portion size.

35. For the next 100 days, buy 100% natural juices instead of the kind with added sugar and preservatives.

36. For the next 100 days, instead of carbonated drinks, drink water.

37. Create a list of 10 healthy, easy to fix breakfast meals.

38. Create a list of 20 healthy, easy to fix meals which can be eaten for lunch or dinner.

39. Create a list of 10 healthy, easy to fix snacks.

40. Use your lists of healthy breakfast meals, lunches, dinners, and snacks in order to plan out your meals for the week ahead of time. Do this for the next 14 weeks.

41. For the next 100 days, keep a food log. This will help you to identify where you’re deviating from your planned menu, and where you’re consuming extra calories.

42. For the next 100 days, get at least twenty minutes of daily exercise.

43. Wear a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps, every day, for the next 100 days. Every step you take during the day counts toward the 10,000 steps:

When you walk to your car.
When you walk from your desk to the bathroom.
When you walk over to talk to a co-worker, and so on.
44. Set up a weight chart and post it up in your bathroom. Every week for the next 14 weeks, keep track of the following:

Your weight.
Your percentage of body fat.
Your waist circumference.
45. For the next 100 days, set your watch to beep once an hour, or set up a computer reminder, to make sure that you drink water on a regular basis throughout the day.

46. For the next 100 days, make it a daily ritual to mediate, breath, or visualize every day in order to calm your mind.

Your Relationship
47. For the next 100 days, actively look for something positive in your partner every day, and write it down.

48. Create a scrapbook of all the things you and your partner do together during the next 100 days. At the end of the 100 days, give your partner the list you created of positive things you observed about them each day, as well as the scrapbook you created.

49. Identify 3 actions that you’re going to take each day, for the next 100 days, in order to strengthen your relationship. These can include the following:

Say “I love you” and “Have a good day” to your significant other every morning.
Hug your significant other as soon as you see each other after work.
Go for a twenty minute walk together every day after dinner; hold hands.
Social
50. Connect with someone new every day for the next 100 days, whether it’s by greeting a neighbor you’ve never spoken to before, following someone new on Twitter, leaving a comment on a blog you’ve never commented on before, and so on.

51. For the next 100 days, make it a point to associate with people you admire, respect and want to be like.

52. For the next 100 days, when someone does or says something that upsets you, take a minute to think over your response instead of answering right away.

53. For the next 100 days, don’t even think of passing judgment until you’ve heard both sides of the story.

54. For the next 100 days do one kind deed for someone every day, however small, even if it’s just sending a silent blessing their way.

55. For the next 100 days, make it a point to give praise and approval to those who deserve it.

56. For the next 100 days, practice active listening. When someone is talking to you, remain focused on what they’re saying, instead of rehearsing in your head what you’re going to say next. Paraphrase what you think you heard them say to make sure that you haven’t misinterpreted them, and encourage them to elaborate on any points you’re still not clear about.

57. Practice empathy for the next 100 days. If you disagree with someone, try to see the world from their perspective; put yourself in their shoes. Be curious about the other person, about their beliefs and their life experience, and about the thinking process that they followed to reach their conclusions.

58. For the next 100 days, stay in your own life and don’t compare yourself to anyone else.

59. For the next 100 days, place the best possible interpretation on the actions of others.

60. For the next 100 days, keep reminding yourself that everyone is doing the best that they can.

Quotes of the day

"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."

"I live on Earth at present, and I don't know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing—a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process—an integral function of the universe." --Buckminster Fuller 

Christopher Hitchens on Thomas Jefferson

Where do you get your news?

Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught in falsehood's school. And the one man that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool." - Plato

Mostly independent journalists and authors such Howard Zinn, William Rivers-Pitt, Robert Fisk, Arianna Huffington, Geov Parrish, Thom Hartmann, Arundhati Roy, Bill Moyers, Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Sherman Skolnick, John Kaminsky, Norman Solomon, Helen Thomas, Greg Palast, Will Thomas, Robert Scheer, etc. provide excellent and well-researched articles.   Content like this provides a often external point of view from the mainstream. 

Photo of the day

Credit: Ansarov

Quote of the day

Tony Robins on relationships

Friends of BMG

James Balog speaks at Inside the Green House

James Balog: scientist, adventurer and photographer 

On April 1, we will be holding a conversation with James Balog, founder of the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) and producer of the recent film 'Chasing Ice'. James will be discussing his film, his ongoing work (providing new and never-seen-before footage) while talking with Inside the Greenhouse (ITG) co-founder Beth Osnes. EIS work is not only highly relevant to the ITG project, but is also at the forefront of considerations of climate change in the Boulder community.

This event seeks to inspire members of the campus and area communities to engage with the challenges and opportunities associated with 21st century climate change. After this pilot show, we plan to hold similar ITG events for engaging the university and wider community one to two times a season (or semester).

More information on the class-based parts of the project is available here and www.insidethegreenhouse.net.

The pressing issue of 21st century climate change cuts across numerous disciplines within and outside of academia.  Deep currents of ideologies, values, culture, and worldviews underlie and fuel climate change deliberations, debates and discussions surrounding how to respond to causes and consequences.

This project steps in to complement ongoing research from the natural and social sciences as well as humanities in order to provide a creative communications platform for ongoing engagement. As ITG co-founders Osnes, Safran and Boykoff have examined these issues now for over a decade, they recognize that present science, policy and public conditions provide great opportunities to effectively pursue this work that creatively expresses climate issues through video, theatre, dance, and writing, to connect to a broad audience.

The chosen title of the project - Inside the Greenhouse - acknowledges that, to varying degrees, we are all implicated in, part of, and responsible for greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Through the development and experimentation with creative modes to communication, we treat this 'greenhouse' as a living laboratory, an intentional place for growing new ideas and evaluating possibilities to confront climate change through a range of mitigation and adaptation strategies. ITG also draws on the highly-successful James Lipton-led model called 'Inside the Actors Studio'.

While some people continue to ask 'why don't people just get it?' and 'why can't people make the 'right' decision?', this project seeks to provide useful ways to acknowledge and embrace the complexity of these issues - meeting people 'where they are' while also encouraging people to re-consider their present contributions.

quote of the day

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. 

--Alan Watts--

photo of the day

a possiblre future of america

"there’s going to be a huge shift in American society, American culture, in the places where one is going to get rich. The stock brokers are going to be driving taxis. The smart ones will learn to drive tractors so they can work for the smart farmers. The farmers are going to be driving Lamborghinis. I’m telling you. You should start Forbes Farming." --Jim Rogers

Ahead of the curve? BMG thinks so. 

quote of the day

quote of the day #2

quote of the day -- Dalai Lama

quote of the day

“To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.”  
― Nicolaus Copernicus

Image of the day

Image of a clandestine US airbase located inside Saudi Arabia near the Yemen boarder.

quote of the day

Michael Jordan quote

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed

Michael Jordan

quote of the day

Quote of the Day

“Try to imagine a life without timekeeping." ". You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.” ~Albom

Quote of the day

Kurt Hahn believed that outdoor experiences have the capacity to “arm students against the enemies—fear, defeatism, apathy, and selfishness.” -- Kurt Hahn founder of Outward Bound 

Leadership Habits

- Habit 1 is to be proactive; proactive leaders realize that they can choose how they respond to events.
- Habit 2 is to begin with the end in mind; effective leaders always keep their ultimate goals in mind.
- Habit 3 is to put first things first; leader's time should be organized around priorities.
- Habit 4 is to think win/win; those with win/win perspectives take a mutual gains approach to communication, believing that the best solution benefits both parties.
- Habit 5 is to seek first to understand, and then to be understood; effective leaders put aside their personal concerns to engage in empathetic listening.
- Habit 6 is synergize; synergy creates a solution that's greater than the sum of its parts.
- Habit 7 is to sharpen the saw; continual renewal of the physical, social/emotional, spiritual, and mental dimensions of the self.

Sherpa John's Wisdom

Wise words on business from a genuine fellow I know named Sherpa John.  

• Don't sell yourself short. If you think you're worth X number of dollars at your job.. push to make X number of dollars. 

• Making less than half of that X number of dollars is an insult to yourself, your family, and your degree/work.

• Never let someone take advantage of you, your creativity and your skill set... as a way to better themselves, take all the credit, and leave you behind.

• Appreciation is more than a thank you, or a paycheck.. it's getting credit where credit is due.. 

• Your co-workers... are ALWAYS out to get out. Remember, that any fodder you can give others to bring you down that could raise them up.. they'll use.

• They don't really care about you and in most cases, you're not really good friends. Beware of the superficial friendships.

• Your time is worth something.. maybe it's not money, maybe it's more than recognition.. whatever it is... don't work for free.

• That boss you hate or don't quite get along with... down the road, you might discover that he's the best you ever had and you'll miss working for him.. it's true. You'll discover this when working for someone worse. :)

• You have a right to not sign or amend a no-compete clause.. research what that clause means in your state and if your employer can actually enforce it.

• If your employer lies to get business, fudges the numbers to pay the government less, takes all the credit for your work, makes a lot of excuses, and makes it a mission to take down any and all competition... LEAVE. This is an incredibly dishonest way to conduct business.. imagine what he's doing for/to you when you're not watching.

Human power