The United States has been very good to me. I moved here with my family 20 years ago, when I was 9. Since then, I’ve gone to college and graduate school, I’ve met and married the love of my life, and I’ve experienced all kinds of freedoms that most people here are lucky enough to be able to take for granted.

The Constitution has always protected me. I’ve been able to say what I’ve wished to say and worship as I’ve wished to worship (if at all). I’ve been a member of the press, and I’ve never felt the heavy hand of government censorship separate me from a story. The list goes on, and yet, unless you count taxes, this country has never once asked anything of me in return. I don’t have to enlist in the military or cater to the whims of a dictator. I don’t even have to pretend to like or approve of anything our government says or does. In fact, the First Amendment to this great document ensures my right to “petition government for a redress of grievances” if I so choose.

This has been an emotional week for me. I’ve bounced back and forth between exhilaration at the thought of finally being an American and a feeling of mourning for the Canadian citizenship I’ve now given up. I have to admit: There were moments when I had to fight off the urge to go north of the border and stock up on ketchup-flavored potato chips and poutine—neither of which I even eat. I just had this irrational fear that these childhood favorites might no longer be available to me—that I might be seen as a traitor.

Of course, this will never happen because Canada, like America, is a free country. And now that the ceremony is over, I harbor no regrets. I love the nation where I was born as much as I love the United States. I am proud to call both of these places home.

The Ceremony:

The ceremony I attended took place at Boston’s Faneuil Hall. I couldn’t think of a more appropriate venue: It was there that Samuel Adams and others planned important actions that would help America attain its freedom from Great Britain.

All across America, hundreds of thousands of new citizens take the Oath of Allegiance each year. We, like President Barack Obama and the 535 members of Congress, can vote and run for public office. We can make a difference and enact change. And in exchange, if our country needs our help, we have pledged to give it willingly and without reservation. Here is the full text of the Oath:

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

I take these words seriously. If it is my right to vote or my freedom to speak my mind, then it is my duty to help my fellow citizens. And if I morally or ethically object to any of these responsibilities, then it is my right, my freedom and my duty to work within the laws of the land and petition the government to change things for the better.

It’s good to be an American.

Following the Oath of Allegiance, we each stood to represent our nations of origin as they were called. As the judge pointed out: While we were all Americans that day, America would not call for us to turn our backs on who we were.

There’s a fun meme making its way around the internet. It’s called the 30-Day Song Challenge, and if you haven’t taken part in it yet, you’ve probably at least seen it on Facebook, Twitter or any of the other social-blogging sites. The idea is pretty simple: Every day for about a month, you answer one question from a predetermined list (below) with a YouTube link to a specific song. Many of the questions do require some thought, so it’s no lie to call this challenging.

I’ll confess that while I loved the idea, simply posting links got pretty boring after the first few days. So, I took the meme a step further and cobbled together the following two-part compilation video, complete with clips from my 30 songs and narration explaining why I chose each one. Thanks for watching, and enjoy!

Note that these are embedded Flash videos. I’d prefer to use YouTube for the sake of social sharing, but the site blocks some videos containing copyrighted materials from streaming, even when they’re well within the realm of fair use like these are. Nevertheless, as I always say, “When YouTube fails you, convert your MOVs to FLVs and host them yourself.” At least I can be proud of my technical troubleshooting skills!

Anyway, for the sake of anyone who wants to skip around (and, honestly, for search-engine optimization since I don’t have the YouTube coverage), here’s the full list of questions and my answers:

Day 1 – Your Favorite Song
Queen – “March of the Black Queen”

Day 2 – Your Least Favorite Song
Shinedown – “Second Chance”

Day 3 – A Song That Makes You Happy
The Rolling Stones – “Get Off of My Cloud”

Day 4 – A Song That Makes You Sad
Gary Jules – “Mad World”

Day 5 – A Song That Reminds You of Someone
Bunty Aur Babli Soundtrack – “Kajra Re”

Day 6 – A Song That Reminds You of Somewhere
Better Than Ezra – “This Time of Year”

Day 7 – A Song That Reminds You of an Event
Social Distortion – “Story of My Life”

Day 8 – A Song You Know All the Words to
Bob Dylan – “Subterranean Homesick Blues”

Day 9 – A Song You Can Dance to
Vanilla Ice – “Ice Ice Baby”

Day 10 – A Song That Makes You Fall Asleep
Radiohead – “Exit Music (For a Film)”

Day 11 – A Song From Your Favorite Band
The Beatles – “Revolution”

Day 12 – A Song From a Band You Hate
Nickelback – “Photograph”

Day 13 – A Song That’s a Guilty Pleasure
Naughty By Nature – “O.P.P.”

Day 14 – A Song No One Would Expect You Love
Johnny Cash – “Folsom Prison Blues”

Day 15 – A Song That Describes You
Charlie Schmidt – “Keyboard Cat”

Day 16 – A Song You Used to Love But Now Hate
Cee-Lo Green – “F*** You”

Day 17 – A Song You Always Hear on the Radio
Mumford & Sons – “Little Lion Man”

Day 18 – A Song You Want to Hear on the Radio
Massive Attack – “Teardrop”

Day 19 – A Song From Your Favorite Album
Queen – “Seven Seas of Rhye”

Day 20 – A Song You Listen to When You’re Angry
Dropkick Murphys – “I’m Shipping Up To Boston”

Day 21 – A Song You Listen to When You’re Happy
Save Ferris – “Come on Eileen”

Day 22 – A Song You Listen to When You’re Sad
Dave Matthews Band – “Grey Street”

Day 23 – A Song You Want Played at Your Wedding
Back to the Future Soundtrack – “Earth Angel”

Day 24 – A Song You Want Played at Your Funeral
Death Cab for Cutie – “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”

Day 25 – A Song That Makes You Laugh
Key of Awesome – “Angry Birds”

Day 26 – A Song You Can Play on an Instrument
Top Gun Soundtrack – “Top Gun Anthem”

Day 27 – A Song You Wish You Could Play
Eric Johnson – “Cliffs of Dover”

Day 28 – A Song That Makes You Feel Guilty
Rick Astley – “Never Gonna Give You Up”

Day 29 – A Song From Your Childhood
Kenny Loggins – “Footloose”

Day 30 – Your Favorite Song at This Time Last Year
Cascada – “Evacuate the Dancefloor”

Do you smoke weed? Does God exist? How do you feel about fat people?

And most importantly, how do you feel about your family members, potential employers and the entire world, for that matter, having access to your answers to these questions?

Last month, the planet’s largest social-networking site launched “Facebook Questions,” a tool that allows users to post questions and answers as easily as a status message. The feature is advertised to users as a way to “get answers from the people [they] trust.” Notably, access to this data gives companies an incentive to advertise via the site, which in turn is fiscally beneficial to CEO Mark Zuckerberg and crew.

The problem is that unlike every other feature Facebook has rolled out, this one comes with no privacy settings. And why would it? Your answers mean nothing to companies if you won’t share them.

According to the FAQ:

As with other Facebook applications like Photos and Events, there is no way to turn off Questions. … You should only ask and answer questions that you are comfortable sharing with everyone on Facebook as the questions you have participated in are visible to everyone.

So, that’s it. Your cousin asks you, “What do you think about those gosh-darn hippie vegans?” and you jokingly respond with an answer that, if acted out, would land you in prison. Soon, the world will know what a jerk you are. There goes that amazing job you applied for—and that second date with the cute girl who thought you were just so sweet and sensitive.

But don’t rush to delete your Facebook account just yet. There is one solution that might not save you from Google Cached for awhile, but it will clean up your profile and make you the presentable Mr. Charming you once were. From the FAQ;

You cannot edit the text of your questions or posts, but you can delete any of your questions or posts as follows:

If you have asked a question:

• To delete your question, go to the question box and click the “Delete” button which is located in the lower right of the box.
• To delete question options that people voted on, go to the question box and click the “Edit options” button which is located in the lower right of the box. Then, you can delete individual options by clicking the X beside them. Please note that deleting a question option will also delete any associated votes for that option.

If you have provided an answer:

• To delete a post you provided as an answer, go to the question box and find your post within the “Posts” section. Then, click the X to the upper right of your post to remove it.
• To remove your vote from a poll, go to the question box and click the “Unvote” button which is located in the lower right of the box. If you voted for multiple options, just uncheck each of your votes to remove them.

The lesson: There is no such thing as privacy on the internet. If you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see it, you’re better off just not posting it.

Don’t worry, it’s all fun and games. No one, to date, has lost an eye.

I attended the Boston fight at Cambridge Common, near Harvard University. Though unarmed, myself, I bravely entered the battlefield to take a few pictures (below). I got hit by a few small children—they’re ruthless—but I left mostly unscathed. In all, it seems the revelers had a great time.

Being the multimedia nerd that I am, I also shot this short video via my iPhone:

For more information on this flash-mob-style event, or to register your city for next year, check out the International Pillow Fight Day Web site.

According to Facebook developer Josh Wiseman, the new profile makes it quick and easy for users to learn about their friends’ personalities, interests and activities.

According to Wiseman:

The profile begins with a quick overview of basic information such as where you’re from, where you went to school, and where you work—?the kinds of conversation starters you share with people you’ve just met or exchange with old friends as you get reacquainted.

And since there’s often no better way to learn about a person than through photos, the profile now includes a row of recently tagged photos of you. In my case, my profile features pics from my engagement and wedding, two of my life’s most recent and happiest moments.

Here’s what Wiseman’s profile looks like:

Of course, you might not actually want your recently tagged photos to appear front-and-center on your profile page, especially if you hang out with a serial-photographer who also happens to be a Facebook power user. *innocent whistling* What do you do then?

Lots of people have taken advantage of the new layout by playing with different “hacks” that make their profiles stand out from the crowd. In fact, you can accomplish this yourself with an interesting photo and Adobe Photoshop‘s slice tool.

In case you’re wondering, this is what my personal profile looks like right now:

If you don’t have Photoshop or similar software, or you just want to make the whole process simpler, never fear—there are plenty of sites out there that will create your image hacks for you. Check out this great service from Schweppes:

Have you “hacked” your new profile? If so, how?

View a larger version through my Flickr account.

How do you plan to ring in the new year?

At the risk of sounding pretentious, I consider myself somewhat of a culinary adventurer. I’ve tried everything from shark stew to ris d’agneau (fancy French for a lamb’s thymus). And, while I admit I haven’t revisited most of these daring dishes—mainly because they ended up tasting, to me, as gross as they sound to my American ears—something inside of me keeps wanting to press forward, to keep sampling new, unique cuisine from the far reaches of our planet.

To give a nod to author and blogger Trey Ellis, I don’t like to “yuck” anyone’s “yum”—not until I’ve tasted it, anyway. How can you pass judgment on foods other cultures love and, more importantly, sustain themselves with, when you haven’t even tried them yourself?

This weekend, several friends and I sampled the Empanadas de Chicharron de Chapulin (fancy Spanish for grasshopper turnovers) at Tu Y Yo, a wonderfully authentic Mexican restaurant in Somerville, Mass. Grasshoppers are considered a good source of protein throughout much of Mexico, particularly in Oaxaca, where they can be purchased as street food or enjoyed as a meal at home. (I learned this when I worked with authors and insect connoisseurs Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio for a NOVA feature I produced called “Bugs You Can Eat.”)

Though I’ve spent most of my life terrified of bugs, I figured what better way to conquer those fears than to eat my enemy? All right, so that sounded better in my head.

Here’s what my friends and I had to say about our first foray into the the world of creepy, crawly eats. But first, the brave tasters and the meal ahead:

Audrey

Matt

Kristina

Steve

Rima

Ethan

Brandon

Rima [slicing an empanada in half]: Do you guys see any grasshopper parts, here?

Audrey: You know, they’re not really distinguishable, but–Oh, there’s a leg!

Rima: Is that a knee? Do grasshoppers have knees? Gross.

Audrey: I thought I wouldn’t be nervous about this because I’ll eat pretty much anything, but now I’m having some second thoughts. [She tries it anyway.] You know, it’s not that bad. You can’t tell that there are grasshoppers in there. It just tastes like an empanada with something salty and greasy inside. It tastes like fried…meat. Just some sort of meat. Not that bad!

Brandon: I’m eying one of these middle pieces—I can see some discernible grasshopper parts. There’s definitely a thorax going on here! For the sake of food purity, I’m not going to sauce this. We’re just going to go pure, fried grasshopper. [He takes a big, greedy bite; most of the group gasps and/or gags.]

It’s pungent! It’s a little doughy, perhaps from not having been fried long enough, but I caught one of those furry little back legs that really tickles your tongue. Excellent mouth feel—I could eat a dozen of these.

Trying it with the sauce, I really like it. It’s got a little serrano chili, a little crème fraiche, a little cilantro. Fatty mouth feel, there. All of the flavors are really subtle.

Steve [after about a minute of chewing and thinking]: Trying it without the sauce, I couldn’t really taste anything identifiable in the empanada. I think I would need to just eat a plain grasshopper, no spices or seasoning, just to see what it really tastes like. This tastes like a generic fried appetizer to me.

Rima [moving a leg part around with her fork]: Wow. That does not look nice. I know it’s good, low-fat protein, however the visuals are really scaring me here. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I really don’t like for my animal by-products to look like the creatures from which they came.

Brandon: So, you like to be far-removed from the food you’re eating?

Rima: Absolutely. Not gonna lie. But, I’ll try it. In a minute.

Brandon: Just pop a whole one in your mouth. It’s delicious. It’s got the texture of soft-shell crab.

Rima [taking perhaps the smallest bite possible]: Psychologically, that was the scariest experience I’ve had in a long time. I’m terrified of insects, and there’s something weird about eating something you fear. Taste-wise, this was kind of a let-down. I’m with Steve and Audrey: The empanada just tasted like a fried, spiced meat turnover with no flavor of its own. I really like the sauce, though: It’s got a kick to it, but the creaminess really cools that down.

The dish is unlike anything I’ve tried before, and I’m not really too keen on trying it again.

[Observing Brandon]

Oh, yuck! You’re discarding the empanada and going straight for grasshopper pieces?!

Kristina: Is it chickening out if I just eat the doughy part?

Everyone: Yes.

Kristina: It’s… OK. Actually, it’s yucky. But, I think seeing the grasshopper body bits made it hard to objectively judge the taste.

Ethan: I’ll try it. [He takes a bite to rival Brandon's.]

It’s like a swarm in my mouth! A plague of flavor! To me, it’s kind of musty-tasting, like beef jerky mixed with shrimp chips.

Matt: Yeah, it’s pretty good! It’s chewy, but the grasshopper itself doesn’t have a strong flavor. I like it. I give it a thumbs up!

Audrey: On the second time around, I actually really like it. I just had a bigger piece, and I find it meaty. It’s fried, doughy meat.

Rima: Would you guys try this again?

Most of the table: No.

Brandon: I would! I’d definitely eat more grasshoppers in the future. I think I’ll get the grasshopper tacos next time and ask the restaurant to really fill them up.

Ew, is that a knee?

(Sidenote: I am a big fan of NPR’s “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” I got idea to transcribe our conversation above from their weekly blog series, “Sandwich Monday.” Read it. You’ll love it.)

VYou combines the intimacy of one-to-one conversation with the reach of broadcast. It feels like a typical video chat, but the responses are pre-recorded and can be played by anyone, anywhere. Users interested in creating their own accounts can establish a one-[wo]man audiovisual archive of useful information on any topic of their choosing. It just takes you, the viewer, to ask questions.

Here’s my VYou:

“Daily Show” anchor Jon Stewart discusses commentator Keith Olbermann’s return to MSNBC following a brief suspension for making unapproved political contributions.

There. I said it.

I could write paragraphs about how I sway a little left or a touch right, depending on the issue, but I would have to qualify each and every sentence with words like “usually” and “often,” and phrases such as “in my experience.” I have no loyalties to liberalism or conservatism, and so in the end, my stances on various topics come out sounding a bit wishy-washy.

It’s the plight of living in the aisle that so many politicians struggle to “reach across.”

Following last month’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” in Washington, D.C., some of my more liberal friends expressed great disdain at moderate “Daily Show” anchor Jon Stewart for acknowledging that left-wing commentators like MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann can be just as damaging to truth and public knowledge as his right-wing contemporaries: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and so forth.

Indeed, here’s a clip from a January episode in which Stewart calls Olbermann out for attacking Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) as an “irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees.”

Olbermann says that Scott Brown supports violence against women because, shortly after a Brown supporter screamed at a political rally that someone should “shove a curling iron up [opponent Martha Coakley's] butt,” Brown smiled and said “we can do this.”

I admit the timing doesn’t exactly work in Brown’s favor (see the following video), but it’s a long stretch to say that the statement was in any way related to the Coakley comment. More likely, since Brown was about to leave the platform, his smile and “we can do this” words of encouragement were just his closing gestures to his audience.

That said, there is no way to misinterpret Olbermann’s own words, where he likens Michelle Malkin (also not one of my favorite talking heads) to a “mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it.” Olbermann’s rant begins at 1:03.

To a moderate, Olbermann sometimes just goes to far, as does Malkin, as does Limbaugh, as do Bill O’Reilly and the whole crew. The most detestable talking heads on the left and right twist language to make opinions sound like facts. They make a living demonizing the opposition. But, as the late Democrat senator (New York) and United Nations ambassador to India, Pat Moynihan, once said, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.”

This twisting of language is the root cause for why so many lefties can say that “at least Olbermann is telling the truth” while many righties, by the same token, say the exact same of Rush Limaugh. Point out any misleading, corrupted statements from either-or, and supporters will claim hyperbole or that their favorite talking head was “just being facetious” (I’ve heard that one before). Point out similar misleading, corrupted statements from the other side, and those same audiences will spout angrily about “lies” and “deception.”

Here’s the thing about moderates. We see both sides to every coin. We can’t help it.

There was a great piece in yesterday’s Washington Post from one of my favorite living journalists, Ted Koppel, in which he lamented about “Olbermann, O’Reilly and the death of real news.”

Koppel writes:

We live now in a cable news universe that celebrates the opinions of Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly—individuals who hold up the twin pillars of political partisanship and who are encouraged to do so by their parent organizations because their brand of analysis and commentary is highly profitable.

The commercial success of both Fox News and MSNBC is a source of nonpartisan sadness for me. While I can appreciate the financial logic of drowning television viewers in a flood of opinions designed to confirm their own biases, the trend is not good for the republic. It is, though, the natural outcome of a growing sense of national entitlement.

…

Beginning, perhaps, from the reasonable perspective that absolute objectivity is unattainable, Fox News and MSNBC no longer even attempt it. They show us the world not as it is, but as partisans (and loyal viewers) at either end of the political spectrum would like it to be. This is to journalism what Bernie Madoff was to investment: He told his customers what they wanted to hear, and by the time they learned the truth, their money was gone.

It is also part of a pervasive ethos that eschews facts in favor of an idealized reality. The fashion industry has apparently known this for years: Esquire magazine recently found that men’s jeans from a variety of name-brand manufacturers are cut large but labeled small. The actual waist sizes are anywhere from three to six inches roomier than their labels insist.

Perhaps it doesn’t matter that we are being flattered into believing what any full-length mirror can tell us is untrue. But when our accountants, bankers and lawyers, our doctors and our politicians tell us only what we want to hear, despite hard evidence to the contrary, we are headed for disaster. We need only look at our housing industry, our credit card debt, the cost of two wars subsidized by borrowed money, and the rising deficit to understand the dangers of entitlement run rampant. We celebrate truth as a virtue, but only in the abstract. What we really need in our search for truth is a commodity that used to be at the heart of good journalism: facts—along with a willingness to present those facts without fear or favor.

Unfortunately, as Koppel goes on to say: “The transition of news from a public service to a profitable commodity is irreversible.”

And there you have it. We as a nation, as a planet, have turned our one source of truth and information into something tailored just for us and our sensibilities—into some ridiculous venti, skinny, half-caf, caramel-mocha latte-on-ice version of news.

We don’t have to hear about how the people we support aren’t necessarily the “good guys” today because all of that air time is now taken up with filler, hyperbole, conjecture, and brutal verbal attacks on the opposition that aren’t quite as clever as we (the Maddows and the Malkins) seem to think they are.

The worst part is, there’s nothing left to stop us.

Click the placemark for directions to Cheekwood or, for links to my photos, try the camera. You can also view a larger map.

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Dale Chihuly is known for his large glass sculptures, but pay attention to the minute details and you’ll see his art in a new light. (Click for larger.)

Last week, I traveled to Nashville’s Cheekwood botanical gardens to see some incredible blown-glass pieces from Dale Chihuly, a brilliant artist whose works are currently on display at parks, gardens and museums worldwide. You might remember his glass flowers, located at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, from Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven.

Cheekwood is a privately funded 55-acre estate on the western edge of Nashville. It houses the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, and is home to beautiful plants, streams, and both indoor and outdoor exhibits.

As you’ll see in the slide-show below and the image at right, Dale Chihuly is a prolific artist who experiments with color, texture and shape to give his sculptures a decidedly organic feel. At Cheekwood, Most of his pieces can be found throughout the gardens, “planted” among flowers, trees and vines, or floating peacefully on the water. While the installations certainly stand out from their surroundings, they also feel “natural,” as if they belong and have always been there.

You can check out Dale Chihuly’s installations at Cheekwood until October 31, 2010. If you’re in the Nashville area, be sure to get your tickets before it’s too late!

HDR (high dynamic range) imaging allows photographers access to a greater range of light levels between the darkest and lightest areas of an image. If you’ve ever taken a picture of a sunset over the mountains and bodies of water, you might notice that the area where the sun appears is very bright and washed-out, while the mountains and streams are very dark. HDR techniques can fix this and make the rock and water much more visible, while toning down the sun. When done right, and HDR’d image looks a lot more like what you can see with the naked eye.

On Wednesday, Apple released their highly anticipated 4.1 software update for the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4. The upgrade offers various features for all iPhone users, but you must either jailbreak your phone or own the latest iPhone 4 in order to take advantage of the new HDR photography option.

But, never fear. If you’re like me and own a 3G or 3GS, and you want to shoot HDR, there’s an app for that. In fact, there are several.

The one I’ve used for this piece is called “Pro HDR.” It works for iPhone 3GS or newer, and can be purchased for $1.99 via the App Store. It’s not perfect, but for two dollars worth of smartphone software, it does the trick pretty well.

Below are three pictures depicting my MacBook Pro and part of my dining room. The first is overexposed, so that you can see the dining room. The second is underexposed, and while the dining room is very dark, you can easily make out what I have up on my screen. (Click any image for a larger version):

Using Pro HDR, I was able to combine the images and use the best parts of each, all right on my iPhone.

If I wanted to, I could also use Pro HDR to further edit the end result by manually adjusting brightness, contrast, saturation and other image elements.

All in all, I would recommend Pro HDR to casual users who want to improve the look for their “mobile uploads” folders on Facebook. If you’re looking to take particularly stunning photos, I’d suggest investing in a real camera that can’t make phone calls.

Front row again at Zanies! I hope @michaelianblack talks to us during the show like Tracy Morgan did.

When we saw Tracy Morgan (“Saturday Night Live,” “30 Rock“) last month, he spent several minutes throughout his set flirting with the women at our table and making fun of the men. At the end of the night, he shook our hands and thanked us for coming to see him. It was great! The fan-celebrity interaction added immensely to our enjoyment of Morgan’s already phenomenal performance.

And so when Black came out last night, smart phone in hand, and read my Tweet to the audience, my heart began to race. He asked me to raise my hand so that he could find me, and when I did, he laid down on the stage and looked deeply into my eyes. Resting his chin on one hand, he spoke sweetly into the mic: “So whacha wanna talk about, hmm?”

I was both exhilarated and mortified.

My throat went dry, but I managed to reply, “I–I don’t know. I’m sorry!”

Black leaped up and exclaimed to the audience, “Oh, so she gets on Twitter and asks me to talk to her like Tracy Morgan did [emphasis his], but when I do she has nothing to say!”

The crowd swelled with laughter. It wasn’t so much what Black said that was funny, but more the idea that he’d broken down the fourth wall to bring a lowly fan up to his level as the show’s star.

The hilarity didn’t end there. Black called me up on stage twice during his performance, and at one point he actually left me there by myself while he went off to get me a bottled water.

So, I did what anyone in my position would do: I called the Bob Ross-looking guy at the table next to mine up to take my place.

When Black returned, he scowled at the bearded man and said, with a surprised whimper, “You’re not Rima. [Pause] You’re the ‘Joy of Painting‘ guy.” He then turned to me with mock disgust: “Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

Amid more laughs from the audience, Black transitioned seamlessly into some incredibly funny prepared material for his final 20 minutes on stage. And at the end of the night, people seemed to want to talk to me almost as much as they wanted to talk to him.

What a rush.

Old Spice Goes Viral

Michael Ian Black isn’t the only celebrity taking advantage of social networking.

Last month, Isaiah Mustafa, better known as the “Old Spice Guy,” surprised fans by producing more than 150 short YouTube videos in under 24 hours. Each clip beautifully mimicked Mustafa’s popular Old Spice ads, with their lofty metaphors and hilariously grandiose monologues about power, strength and abdominal perfection.

Mustafa and a team of writers, marketing gurus and tech geeks selected their favorite fan questions via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other sites. They then quickly put together scripts and props for Mustafa’s responses and somehow managed to produce and publish quality videos almost as quickly as fans could watch them.

The Old Spice crew even helped a fan propose to his girlfriend, as you can see in the video at right. (She said yes.)

Bridging the Gap Between Celebrities and Their Fans

I spoke to blogging pioneer and author of Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business, Steve Garfield, earlier today about how social networking has brought celebrities and their fans closer together. Garfield, a jack of all trades when it comes to new-media tools, is by all accounts a regular guy who doesn’t regularly hobnob with A-list celebrities. But he is resourceful and, as his book title implies, he knows how to “Get Seen.” Garfield has gotten the attention of a lot of famous people, and at present keeps in regular contact with the likes of Saturday Night Live alumnus and late-night host Jimmy Fallon.

Here’s an excerpt from our conversation.

Q: How have sites like Twitter and Facebook influenced the ways celebrities and their fans interact?

A: Social networking has really made it easier for celebrities to communicate with their fans. In the past, celebs had to get a Web guru to create a stand-alone site and set up bulletin board systems, and things like that. It was a struggle. But now, third-party sites like Twitter allow fans to share ideas with and talk to these celebrities. And the celebrities have the opportunity to talk back without having to know the first thing about creating a Web site.

Q: Tell me about Jimmy Fallon. At first, you were just a fan of his, commenting online like other fans. Now you talk all the time, and Fallon is even a prominent interviewee in your book, Get Seen. How did that happen?

A: Jimmy Fallon is the perfect example of a celebrity who has embraced social networking. He started a video blog and I commented on it. Then he mentioned me in another video blog post. Jimmy asked for videos, and so I made a video. And then he mentioned it, and so forth. So, we got little relationship going and I met him at the Consumer Electronics Show. I got to interview him there, and the next thing you know, I had VIP tickets to see his TV show. He even invited me backstage. Now we regularly communicate back and forth over Twitter. It’s so easy to communicate this way, and I think celebrities find (or should find) these communications valuable.

In the book, I interview Jimmy Fallon and we talk about interacting with the fans. He wants to set up “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” so that he can do just that. I also interviewed Gavin Purcell, Fallon’s producer, who talks about how they are working to make the audience experience more interactive.

Q: That’s fascinating. Have you found other celebrities who are open to interacting with fans online?

A: Definitely. I was just in the Bahamas and I saw the band Tears for Fears. They put on a great show. I shot some video of them, but I was really at a loss as to where to put it because of all these recent take-down notices from record companies asking fans to not put copyrighted materials on the Web.

So, I found the lead singer Curt Smith online and I Tweeted to him asking if I could put clips of his Bahamas show on YouTube. Within minutes he tweeted back at me sure, “the more the merrier“!

That would never happen without social media.

Q: So what advice do you have to fans who want to get in touch with their favorite stars, or who want to use the power?

A: The Internet and all these new-media and social-networking tools like Twitter have leveled the playing field and made celebrities more accessible. With celebrities having millions of followers or fans, it sets the expectation that a famous person might not see your comments, but there’s also the possibility that they will. Jimmy Fallon asks for responses and reads them. Recently he asked Late Night viewers to use a specific phrase in their Tweets, and then he shared his favorite responses on the air. That kind of interaction is fun.

People who want to get their favorite celebrity to notice them really only need to reach out. Celebs are just people like the rest of us, and they often check search results for their names on Google and Twitter, just to see what people are saying. If you have something interesting to say to them or ask them, do it because they might just respond back.

Steve Garfield’s video of Tears for Fears, live at the Oracle Club Excellence at the Atlantis (Bahamas) on July 30, 2010.	Curt Smith, lead singer of Tears for Fears, was pleased with the video and elected to share it with fans via Twitter.

Tell me, readers: Have you ever met or spoken with anyone famous thanks to the Internet? Share your stories below!

Four-page Jeep ad shrouds USA Today editorial content. (Click for larger)

If you’ve picked up a USA Today in the past two weeks, you’ve probably noticed that the paper has been missing one crucial element—its front page.

Well, to be fair, the front page is still there, per se. It’s just hidden within the fold of a four-page Jeep ad (see image).

This marks the first time USA Today has allowed for such unorthodox advertising, but at $1 million-plus from Jeep, it seems the deal was just too tempting to pass up.

According to industry publication MediaWeek, USA Today‘s senior vice president of advertising, Lee Jones, says that in the past, concerns about editorial integrity and circulation deterred the paper from selling ads of this nature. But now, market demand and the quality of the ad have eased these worries.

“I think it’ll have minimal impact on single copy sales,” Jones said. “The look and feel will be very close to the way the paper looks.”

While the ad may or may not impact newspaper sales—I’m still waiting for the figures—since when does aesthetics trump integrity? I’m not saying that USA Today is being unethical or even just a little bit naughty, but I do think that Jones is reaching when he implies that the ad is a-okay because it looks good.

The truth is that if USA Today and other papers weren’t buckling under the recession, neither they nor their parent companies would ever allow for advertising to hide vital content.

But as we all know, journalism jobs are dwindling and media companies, especially newspapers, are having to rethink their advertising strategies in order to stay afloat.

So, what do you think about USA Today‘s move to sell ad space not just on, but in place of its front page? Do you think it violates their journalistic integrity? After all, how could they run a potentially negative story on Jeep if the paper is wrapped in images of the Grand Cherokee? Or—do you think that desperate times call for desperate measures, and that this will in no way influence editorial content?

Selected further reading from News-Geek.com:

• Kiyoshi Martinez: America’s Most Famous “Angry Journalist” on Our Struggling Industry
• Scared of Losing Your Job? Start Studying.

To commemorate this joyous occasion, I took this photo of young Herbie frolicking in the yard this morning:

Fun facts:

• Herbie’s full name is Herbert Ashmont Mycynek. As he himself is long, fast, and red, it’s only fitting that his middle name pay homage to Boston’s Red Line. (Ashmont is an end stop on the line, which I rode frequently while living in Boston.)
• Herbie’s initials spell “HAM.” We think this is cute and moderately funny.
• His “likes” include: Learning, growing, playing, chewing, eating, sleeping, barking in his sleep, and hunting his big fluffy bed as if it were a gazelle on the Serengeti
• His “dislikes” include: Cold weather, rain, bed time, bath time, and other dogs who hang out on our lawn
• Favorite quotation: “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight–it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” — Mark Twain

Though we had an official photographer, one of my favorite pictures from our wedding came from my friend and former radio co-host Matt Williams

To commemorate this milestone, the site will launch “Facebook Stories,” a collection of short, user-submitted blurbs about how Facebook has changed our lives.

According to Zuckerberg (sister of CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg), a “Facebook Stories” Web page will list selected tales by location and themes such as “finding love,” “coping with grief” and “natural disasters.” Each story will be limited to just 420 characters, or the maximum length of a status update.

You can submit your own story via a simple form. And, if your story becomes popular and gets more “likes” than most stories, it could be featured on the site for all to see.

Here’s the story I submitted:

FB turned my wedding into a social-networking event! When we got married, we had a full “wedding week,” typical of my Indian people. Several of our friends photographed everything–sangeet, chura, various parties, our two (Hindu and Lutheran) weddings, our reception, etc.–and promptly uploaded their pics. One of the best gifts I received was an inbox full of loving comments from those who couldn’t attend.

What kinds of stories would you submit?

July 21, 2010 Update: Be sure to hit up http://stories.facebook.com and vote for your favorite stories! You can “like” mine here–that is, if you really do like it.