Viva la Feminista

And if you need more incentive to apply, r ead a fabu interview over at Feministing of the two women in charge, Carol & Glennda. But don't let that smile fool ya, Glennda has an inner right-wing radio host in her. Deadline to apply for the first class is December 15th.

********************************************** Monday night I made my WGN network debut (well, if you don't count catching glimpses of me at Cubs games) on the WGN News discussing the B word - BITCH. I taped the segment a few weeks ago and it was pretty nerve wracking because the crew was coming to my house (clean up!), on a "vacation" day I had scheduled to watch my daughter & her BFF on one of many CPS teacher service days, I didn't know how the doxie would react with two strange men coming over, AND of course, it was my first on camera in a long time. But thanks to my peeps at the Women's Media Center, I had my talking points all written out. I never got to meet the producer, Pam, but we chatted on the phone quite a bit before and over the past few days. She seems like an awesome woman and I hope we can work together again in the future. Antwan is amazing. He was super nice and seemed genuinely interested in the conversation. The gold star goes to t...

This week's giveaway: The American Journey of Barack Obama (There are new rules & an extended deadline) **************************************************************** There will be a second year of training progressive women to transform the media landscape! The best part of this call? The entire three class schedule is out. So clear your calendars feministas and apply today! If I can get in, you can get in...so get to it...And good luck. I personally encourage Midwesterners to apply. We need more of us represented. It's all paid for (except the drinking, unless a certain Rachel Maddow-loving staffer brings wine to dinner), so don't complain you're too poor. Of course, child care will be an issue...Alas, I have no easy answer to that one. I never did write up my last thoughts on the training. I don't want to do that now. It wasn't a perfect training, but I hope that some of the pains of being the first year will mean the second year participants will go s...

Part of the Progressive Women's Voices training is teaching us to get our talking points down. And for those of you who haven't had to do this with trained professionals, let me tell you it is exhausting. There was a chance for me to be on a national radio show but the staff wanted to make sure I was ready and had talking points. So I spent 15 minutes on talking points for the topic, called them back, and the staff person immediately said, "Too long." We then spent 30 minutes going thru each of my three talking points making each one shorter and more to the point. My problem is that I feel like I have a good story to tell for somethings, but stories just don't always fit into a talking point. Sometimes they do, but today most of mine didn't. I got off the phone to rewrite my points and wait to hear if the show wanted me or another PWV'er who had also volunteered. Well the slot itself closed up, but they were interested in me. This is good and bad...Good ca...

My 30 second spot is now up on the Progressive Women's Voices site. I'm not going to embed it because I think it would drive me crazy to see that video for a few more days. In order to get this video I took a zillion takes, made a lot of fumbles, and was extremely nervous, which I think is evident on the video. After I saw the video, I was disappointed. I was hoping that somewhere in the 15 minutes I was taped I had done 30 seconds of good stuff without the office needing to splice the video. But seriously I was that nervous. Why was I nervous? It was a combination of a camera being in the room and knowing that countless people would or could see this video. But honestly it's the thought of being wrong. I've seen it a lot of more these days...people putting out their opinion and then saying, "But I'm not speaking for all [insert group here]." Well, honestly you are. And getting to that place was hard for me. For many years I was speaking, representing wom...

I'm exhausted...mostly mentally. I also feel incredibly lame for being in my hotel room in NYC watching "Swingtown." Today we worked on messaging. How to create our message and how to tighten it. We also took turns doing an on camera interview. As soon as I sat down for mine I knew I was doomed. The first question asked was one that I normally trip over, mostly because I have about 5 different answers for it. I didn't know which one to use and of course I went with the most awkward/hard to say in a concise way. It took me awhile to warm up to the interview as well. While watching myself later was one of the more awkward things I've ever done, the room was filled with uber-supportive women. They all gave some fab feedback on how to strengthen my message. I knew a lot of the things that were "taught" to us today, as did many of my classmates. The difference was going thru the activities together, getting & giving feedback, and of course having all of u...

OK, nothing's happened yet. But I wanted to post this photo of my kick ass shoes I bought for this weekend. They match my dress perfectly. Aren't ya jealous? Don't be. They're from Target...$23.99. You can have them too. I put some gel insoles in them. Cross your fingers that they don't kill my feet! I'm off to the first day of training and we end after dinner tonight. But first, I think I need to fuel up at Starbucks.