Ice Ball Maker

Image Credit:  Ice Ball Mold - http://www.iceballmold.com/ice_ball_mold.html

I'm always looking for ways to give my fine selection of Burnett's liquors the presentation that they deserve.  While traditional ice cubes certainly work to help cool the liquor providing an excellent mouth feel, the rapid dilution of the ice certainly leaves much to be desired.  I stumbled across an ice ball maker which produces perfectly compressed ice spheres within a matter of minutes (the videos below provide a pretty solid assessment of the technique).  If you're interested in picking one up, the prices run from $200 for this little tiny one from Williams and Sonoma to $1322 for this deluxe one from Japan Trend Shop (the Japan Trend Shop link also provides a pretty solid assessment of the technology).

Low Budget Hell - Book Review

Reprint of a review originally featured on Urban Times (http://www.theurbn.com/2011/10/low-budget-hell-book-review/)

So I’m one of those people that watch a movie and then watch the credits go by totally amazed by the number of people and titles involved in the process.  Admittedly my children have drastically reduced the range of titles I get to watch, but did you realize that it took like 800 people to make the first Curious George movie?  Anyway… I never really bothered to think about how much work those people listed on the credits might be responsible for or how cutthroat the industry that they work in might be, but I have a new found respect the whole process of movie making after reading Robert Maier’s Low Budget Hell Making Underground Movies with John Waters. 

Maier explains his love/hate relationship with low budget film making through his remarkable journey as a crewmember and producer in the early days of John Waters’s career as filmmaker.  At times brutally honest, most of the time riveting and funny - Maier talks about his own journey alongside Waters’s rise to fame and the simultaneous progressions in their careers.  The book maintains an amazing level of detail into the production process (and the difficulties that came along with that process).  Maier manages to impart the reader with a plethora of knowledge about the mechanics of movie-making without interrupting the narrative of his personal experience.

Picking up after Waters’s release of Pink Flamingos (1979) Maier explains his role in low budget movie-making hell and the struggles that came with the territory.  He also unfurls a fascinating story about the intersection of his career and that of Waters which continues until the release of Cry-Baby (1990).  The storyline keeps it interesting with vignettes about stolen (borrowed) movie equipment, helicopter near crashes, union bullying, shady project funders, artistic debates and Hollywood production company antics.  This is the inside line on low-budget moviemaking.  If you’re an outsider to the movie industry, you won’t watch another movie the same way.

Maier’s memoir is interesting because of the balance that it strikes in telling his own story and in explaining Waters’s rise to notoriety.  John Waters has been somewhat relegated to the margins of cult and “trash art” filmmaking and I have to admit that I had never seen a John Water’s movie prior to starting Low Budget Hell (I’ve since watched A Dirty Shame – which might not be a purist Water’s film but insightful and entertaining in a trashy, social critique kind of way nonetheless).  Maier defines who Waters was when they worked together and contrasts that personification to what he has become today .  As a side note, if you start the book a John Waters novice, you’ll have a solid appreciation for the vision behind his films which goes a long way toward providing the necessary perspective.  I’ll also make another side note that John Waters is not really as important as the comparison that he provides in Maier’s memoir.  In other words, Waters simply serves as the visionary behind looking to produce a specific product and Maier provides background on the nuts, bolts, sweat, and blood that make that vision happen.  It’s a great read and it provides a level of inside knowledge that you’re unlikely to encounter elsewhere.  I enjoyed the dive into movie history and understanding the soul-crushing work it takes to make a movie happen.

Check out the book's Low Budget Hell's Facebook page for more information.

You can find the print version here or the Kindle edition here.

In order to be completely forthright, I must admit that I went through segments of basic training and deployed to Afghanistan with Maier’s son (Evan), and he was gracious enough to take a very intoxicated me to my first post-deployment American breakfast upon our return to the states.  He and his wife have also been kind enough to let my whole family crash at their house during our travels…  that all being said he writes a great book.

A Look at the Occupy Wall Street Consensus Model

Creating Personal Presence: Look, Talk, Think, and Act Like a Leader - Book Review

Let me preface my comments by pointing out that I have never read a book focused in this arena before.  Honestly, I have seen a number of books promoted in a manner similar to Creating Personal Presence and have been turned off simply because they appeared to focus on rudimentary or superficial issues when it came to the idea of becoming a more successful entity in a corporate sense.  That being said, I was extremely impressed with both the depth and positive nuance of Creating Personal Presence.  I was surprised at how captivated I became with the content of the text and how easy it was to draw correlations between the examples in the book and the realities of my own performance.

I envision the book as a primer in teaching leaders the ability to develop the personal skills required of a leader.  I’ve managed core groups of leadership (in the Army) who are responsible for ensuring the well-being of different aspects of company operations.  While I am always blown away by the technical competency of those I’ve worked with, I find myself constantly having to work with some of my most proficient section leaders in learning how to present themselves properly as a leader as well as how to project authority through their presence.  I would love to be able to assign Creating Personal Presence as a resource to assist my management in developing the interpersonal skills that allow them to translate their competence into holistic leadership abilities. 

I felt that the material was presented in a manner that was balanced in terms of maintaining a positive and encouraging atmosphere while at the same time demanding improved performance.  Booher avoids blame and instead focused on how to develop leadership despite individual circumstances.  I enjoyed that the book assumes an amount of personal success on behalf of the reader dodging the ever looming “bootstraps” mentality.  I found that by starting from a level at which technical competence was assumed allowed the book to be more inviting.  Overall the material had more of a coaching/mentoring feel to it.

I like that the book incorporates the author’s research into the field citing the exact nature of specific studies and even including the questions posed to those interviewed. I think these add weight to the ideas presented and clarify the author’s authority in the field.  The narratives do an excellent job of creating opportunities for personal introspection and add entertainment value to the text.  I found myself drawing similarities between my own performance and the characters discussed.

I found that the book addressed a topic that I struggle with both in my actual job and in my Army career… that is learning to convey what I know in a manner that other people flock to.  It’s one thing to know a field, but it’s another to be able to convey that knowledge.  The book does a terrific job of explaining presence and why it’s important to advance in the work place. 

Home Free Bagels and Social Entrepreneurship

Ashoka an organization working to “allow social entrepreneurs to thrive and enables the world’s citizens to think and act as changemakers” points out that Social Entrepreneurship provides an opportunity for people to take charge of their communities in a way that enables positive growth while at the same time working for social reforms. Ashoka feels that, “Rather than leaving societal needs for the government or business sectors to address, social entrepreneurs are creating innovative solutions, delivering extraordinary results, and improving the lives of millions of people”.


Taking a step back, it’s important to understand the essence of Social Entrepreneurship… “Unlike traditional business entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs primarily seek to generate “social value” rather than profits. And unlike the majority of non-profit organizations, their work is targeted not only towards immediate, small-scale effects, but sweeping, long-term change” (PBS 2005). Social Entrepreneurship steps outside of a number of pressing societal conventions. They create business that don’t rely on traditional metrics of profit and sales volume but instead add additional measures of success hinging on their ability to effect social change within their community. The terms Social Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise are often used interchangeably, the main emphasis being on extending the traditional focus of capitalist business ventures to have a primary focus on their ability to create social change. A social enterprise has an obligation to operate in ethically, socially, and environmentally responsible ways. It differs from traditional enterprise in that the priority is social justice rather than personal wealth.


I recently had the pleasure of meeting Chris Sullivan and getting an opportunity to talk to her about her personal venture in Social Entrepreneurship, Home Free Bagels. Her plan strives to provide homeless members of the community with tangible stepping stones while at the same time satisfying a dearth of locally produced bagels. As she puts it, “Home Free Bagels is a social venture that seeks to provide employment opportunities for individuals experiencing homelessness, while also generating profits that benefit the Asheville Homeless Network. We make a bagel that exceeds the quality of any other in town, and we sell our delicious product wholesale to local coffeehouses and restaurants. In doing so, we present motivated and hardworking individuals from the homeless community with an opportunity to bypass the frustration and humiliation they often face in the employment market. I have personally watched enthusiasm turn to disappointment when an individual is turned away from a job that seemed to be a sure thing. One gentleman told me of a time when he reported for his first day of work, brought his sleeping bag, and the employer immediately turned him away. Stories such as that, plus a lack of quality bagels in Asheville, were the catalyst for Home Free Bagels. We value dignity, integrity, and loyalty, and seek to provide an environment that allows employees to foster these qualities, simultaneously building self-respect. Working for Home Free Bagels is more than a job and a paycheck; it’s a vessel for reintegration into mainstream society”.


Chris is passionate about the necessity of community investing in social entrepreneurship. She points out the success of President Obama’s campaign in asking people to donate in small amounts in order to build a grassroots effort that everyone felt part of. At the heart of her business model is her unwillingness to make compromises in quality or in her dedication to Home Free Bagels’ workers. She is absolutely committed to paying a living wage and making sure that Home Free Bagels honors its own ideals from the start.


While Home Free Bagels are currently only available in Asheville, North Carolina, the model that Chris has developed offers a perfect example of Social Entrepreneurship/Social Enterprise. Home Free Bagels is witnessing local success finding its way onto the counters of several local stores and cafés, but there is still a need to build capital in order to ensure the longevity of the project. Chris continues to engage in a grassroots style fundraising campaign to continue to build a foundation for Home Free Bagels’ success. It may seem odd for a business to solicit contributions, but as Chris points out those contributions are an investment in the community and a demonstration that Social Entrepreneurship is important to the people of Asheville.


You can get more information on Home Free Bagels (and contribute to the cause) on Facebook. Also follow them on Twitter for the latest developments and information.