Surfers Against Sewage
Andy Cummins – Campaign Officer
Andy has worked full time at SAS for 6 years and has worked on over 50 campaigns.
.
SAS is a recognised expert it its fieldd – how important is the issue of good research when it comes to campaining?
Credibility takes years and years to earn and can be lost in an instant. Once people lose trust in what you say, you lose power with what you are saying. Ensure everything you say is right.
Whats been SASs greatest achievements to date?
Billions spent on upgrading sewerage systems, changes in European legislation and industrial practices and increased awareness in water users, there are too many great achievements to choose just 1.
What do you make of the artificial reef being built at Bournemouth?
It’s ironic that millions is being spent in create a wave, that at best will be average, where a few miles away lies one of the UK’s best waves, yet the MoD are restricting surfers access.
You can pick any celeb you want to be SASs new banner waving ambassador – who do you choose?
Kelly Slater, the best surfer ever to step on a surfboard. Thankfully he’s also a big SAS supporter!
Tell us about the “Making Beaches Barefoot Friendly” campaign?
The SAS Barefoot Friendly beach cleaning tour gives you the opportunity to make a real difference on the beach. You don’t have to wait for Governments or industry to change their ways, you can roll up your sleeves and by the time you’re finished, the beach will be a better place. It’s really fun and educational and we thank all volunteers with a free BBQ and wine for the adults. This year we are stopping off at Newquay, Croyde, Bournemouth, Llangennith, Saltburn and Brighton. Come along, the more hands we have the better the beaches will look.
Im going to do one simple thing today Andy.. one tiny thing to make a change – whats that thing going to be?
Think. Think, what happens when you drop some litter, or walk past that bottle of coke on the beach. Think about how safe the water is after heavy rain, think about how you use water in your house. Think about what your Government should be doing to make your environment a better place. Think, then act.
.
Tim Lahan Tim Lahan is originally from Pennsylvania and now resides and runs a small studio in New York called Trademark™.
.
Whos cooler – Bloomberg or Giuliani?
Bloomberg is REALLY COOL. So is that salary he doesn’t accept. Mike, I need new colored pencils – slide me $400,000, I think that will cover it.
Loads to choose from but what do you reckons the best film ever set in New York?
Ghostbusters. Hands down.
Ever fired a gun?
Nope.
Your approach to image making has a kind of nostalgic/innocent feel – is this intentional?
I wouldn’t say it’s intentional. I think embracing the idea of being human is inherent to the way I work. When things are made with over-calculated precision they feel boring to me. I like imperfections, errors, mistakes, old technology that shows there’s a person behind the work. Digging on old signs and printed stuff from 30-40 years ago probably fuels the whole “nostalgia” thing.
Whats your attitude to computer generated trickery – you seem to embrace texture and happenstance?
I don’t get down with a lot of the tricks and “cool” techniques when it comes to making stuff on the computer. Almost everything I work on starts out on paper, so making sure the work retains some of the original handmade feel to it even when it turns digital is a big deal to me.
Whats new at studio Trademark?
Right now I’m trying to squeeze in some time for personal work between the client stuff. I’ve also got some more t-shirts I’m working on getting out. In fact there’s a lot of t-shirts. A lot of sleeveless t-shirts. Next year we’re going to stop taking on projects and just make sleeveless t-shirts for people with really big biceps.
.
Dr Karen Sternheimer
Karen Sternheimer is a sociologist at the University of Southern California. She writes about popular culture and youth and is working on a study of celebrity culture. She has provided commentary for CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and the History Channel.
.
Where were you when you first heard of Michael Jacksons death and what was your first reaction?
I was actually watching CNN’s coverage of Farrah Fawcett’s death when they announced Michael Jackson had been taken to the hospital in cardiac arrest and wasn’t breathing. It was a surreal moment, mainly because I could see how it caught the reporters off guard. They seemed confused and viewers could see how the network grappled with the information live. Overall his death reminded me of Princess Diana’s in some ways: both were unexpected, and they both seemed larger than life. Their iconic status made them seem immortal, but their deaths reminded us of their humanness.
From Golds Gym in Santa Monica, to governer of California – what do your reckon Arnolds legacy will be?
As a California resident, much of his legacy here depends on how the current budget mess turns out. For people outside of the state who might not follow the state’s problems closely, becoming a politician adds a new dimension to his celebrity, which was based on his physicality rather than intellect for the most part. It will be fascinating if he returns to movie making once he is out of office, and if so, what kind of roles he plays then.
Obama is the first President to harness the power of social media – what can others learn from his strategy?
Informal social networks are very powerful; if our friends ask us to get involved in something we are more likely to at least think about it than if a stranger asks us to spend our time or our money. One of the brilliant aspects of the Obama campaign was they made involvement very local and more decentralized than traditional campaigns. Calling potential voters in the past might have meant going to a field office’s phone bank and following instructions of local staff. Obama volunteers could sign up online, get a list of voters and call from home, saving time and the expense of traditional campaigns.
One of the many projects your involved with is the ever popular everyday sociology blog – as editor tell us about its success?
My field, sociology, has been an ignored stepchild in the social sciences for many years. To compensate, a lot of sociologists strive to prove that our work has serious intellectual weight and in the process much of it is utterly incomprehensible to the general public. Our blog takes the opposite approach, that sociology should be something that everyone can understand and apply to their everyday lives. We try and take everything from current events to the most mundane aspects of life and show how sociological concepts can help us think critically about things.
Your latest book “Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture: Why Media is not the Answer” is out next month – so its still ok for us to be playing Grand Theft Auto ?!
GTA is the game so many people love to hate because it challenges what many people see as good taste. Plus it provides an easy target to blame for otherwise complex issues. This is partly because we in the US are so used to individual explanations for social problems and it becomes easy to get steered away from large scale patterns. For one, violence in general and youth violence specifically has declined tremendously as these games have grown in popularity. Violence tends to have other significant causes: neighborhood instability and violence, family violence, and substance abuse to name three big ones. Because these issues seem too big to handle video games and other media grab more attention.
“The action is the reaction” – More than ever people are aware of the power of social change through collaboration – leave us with your top practical tip for making things happen.
The recent uprisings in Iran are a great example of how powerful sharing a video or picture online can be to mobilize others and educate them about a cause, even in the face of great personal danger. If they can do it under threats of beatings and arrest, those of us with freedom of speech can too.
Surfers Against Sewage
Andy Cummins – Campaign Officer
Andy has worked full time at SAS for 6 years and has worked on over 50 campaigns.
SAS is a recognised expert it its fieldd – how important is the issue of good research when it comes to campaining?
Credibility takes years and years to earn and can be lost in an instant. Once people lose trust in what you say, you lose power with what you are saying. Ensure everything you say is right.
Whats been SASs greatest achievements to date?
Billions spent on upgrading sewerage systems, changes in European legislation and industrial practices and increased awareness in water users, there are too many great achievements to choose just 1.
What do you make of the artificial reef being built at Bournemouth?
It’s ironic that millions is being spent in create a wave, that at best will be average, where a few miles away lies one of the UK’s best waves, yet the MoD are restricting surfers access.
You can pick any celeb you want to be SASs new banner waving ambassador – who do you choose?
Kelly Slater, the best surfer ever to step on a surfboard. Thankfully he’s also a big SAS supporter!
Tell us about the “Making Beaches Barefoot Friendly” campaign?
The SAS Barefoot Friendly beach cleaning tour gives you the opportunity to make a real difference on the beach. You don’t have to wait for Governments or industry to change their ways, you can roll up your sleeves and by the time you’re finished, the beach will be a better place. It’s really fun and educational and we thank all volunteers with a free BBQ and wine for the adults. This year we are stopping off at Newquay, Croyde, Bournemouth, Llangennith, Saltburn and Brighton. Come along, the more hands we have the better the beaches will look.
Im going to do one simple thing today Andy.. one tiny thing to make a change – whats that thing going to be?
Think. Think, what happens when you drop some litter, or walk past that bottle of coke on the beach. Think about how safe the water is after heavy rain, think about how you use water in your house. Think about what your Government should be doing to make your environment a better place. Think, then act.
Tim Lahan
Tim Lahan is originally from Pennsylvania and now resides and runs a small studio in New York called Trademark™.
Whos cooler – Bloomberg or Giuliani?
Bloomberg is REALLY COOL. So is that salary he doesn’t accept. Mike, I need new colored pencils – slide me $400,000, I think that will cover it.
Loads to choose from but what do you reckons the best film ever set in New York?
Ghostbusters. Hands down.
Ever fired a gun?
Nope.
Your approach to image making has a kind of nostalgic/innocent feel – is this intentional?
I wouldn’t say it’s intentional. I think embracing the idea of being human is inherent to the way I work. When things are made with over-calculated precision they feel boring to me. I like imperfections, errors, mistakes, old technology that shows there’s a person behind the work. Digging on old signs and printed stuff from 30-40 years ago probably fuels the whole “nostalgia” thing.
Whats your attitude to computer generated trickery – you seem to embrace texture and happenstance?
I don’t get down with a lot of the tricks and “cool” techniques when it comes to making stuff on the computer. Almost everything I work on starts out on paper, so making sure the work retains some of the original handmade feel to it even when it turns digital is a big deal to me.
Whats new at studio Trademark?
Right now I’m trying to squeeze in some time for personal work between the client stuff. I’ve also got some more t-shirts I’m working on getting out. In fact there’s a lot of t-shirts. A lot of sleeveless t-shirts. Next year we’re going to stop taking on projects and just make sleeveless t-shirts for people with really big biceps.
Dr Karen Sternheimer
Karen Sternheimer is a sociologist at the University of Southern California. She writes about popular culture and youth and is working on a study of celebrity culture. She has provided commentary for CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and the History Channel.
Where were you when you first heard of Michael Jacksons death and what was your first reaction?
I was actually watching CNN’s coverage of Farrah Fawcett’s death when they announced Michael Jackson had been taken to the hospital in cardiac arrest and wasn’t breathing. It was a surreal moment, mainly because I could see how it caught the reporters off guard. They seemed confused and viewers could see how the network grappled with the information live. Overall his death reminded me of Princess Diana’s in some ways: both were unexpected, and they both seemed larger than life. Their iconic status made them seem immortal, but their deaths reminded us of their humanness.
From Golds Gym in Santa Monica, to governer of California – what do your reckon Arnolds legacy will be?
As a California resident, much of his legacy here depends on how the current budget mess turns out. For people outside of the state who might not follow the state’s problems closely, becoming a politician adds a new dimension to his celebrity, which was based on his physicality rather than intellect for the most part. It will be fascinating if he returns to movie making once he is out of office, and if so, what kind of roles he plays then.
Obama is the first President to harness the power of social media – what can others learn from his strategy?
Informal social networks are very powerful; if our friends ask us to get involved in something we are more likely to at least think about it than if a stranger asks us to spend our time or our money. One of the brilliant aspects of the Obama campaign was they made involvement very local and more decentralized than traditional campaigns. Calling potential voters in the past might have meant going to a field office’s phone bank and following instructions of local staff. Obama volunteers could sign up online, get a list of voters and call from home, saving time and the expense of traditional campaigns.
One of the many projects your involved with is the ever popular everyday sociology blog – as editor tell us about its success?
My field, sociology, has been an ignored stepchild in the social sciences for many years. To compensate, a lot of sociologists strive to prove that our work has serious intellectual weight and in the process much of it is utterly incomprehensible to the general public. Our blog takes the opposite approach, that sociology should be something that everyone can understand and apply to their everyday lives. We try and take everything from current events to the most mundane aspects of life and show how sociological concepts can help us think critically about things.
Your latest book “Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture: Why Media is not the Answer” is out next month – so its still ok for us to be playing Grand Theft Auto ?!
GTA is the game so many people love to hate because it challenges what many people see as good taste. Plus it provides an easy target to blame for otherwise complex issues. This is partly because we in the US are so used to individual explanations for social problems and it becomes easy to get steered away from large scale patterns. For one, violence in general and youth violence specifically has declined tremendously as these games have grown in popularity. Violence tends to have other significant causes: neighborhood instability and violence, family violence, and substance abuse to name three big ones. Because these issues seem too big to handle video games and other media grab more attention.
“The action is the reaction” – More than ever people are aware of the power of social change through collaboration – leave us with your top practical tip for making things happen.
The recent uprisings in Iran are a great example of how powerful sharing a video or picture online can be to mobilize others and educate them about a cause, even in the face of great personal danger. If they can do it under threats of beatings and arrest, those of us with freedom of speech can too.