brass Blog

Hello, interweb! I’m Cody Wetmore, the new Editorial Intern at brass. Over the next six months I’ll be blogging and writing articles when I’m not getting everyone coffee or doing compulsory push-ups.

I spent five glorious years at the University of Oregon studying Electronic Media (basically Broadcast News). You may be asking yourself, “If you studied Electronic Media, why are you working for brass?” Well, let’s just say I’m trying to broaden my skill set in order to latch onto any cool job I can find (i.e. brass). TV news can be a little dry (”So Chet, are we going to see some sunshine this weekend?”), and this little bird needed to spread his wings. Plus, my high school English teacher always told me I have a great face for radio. However, don’t be surprised (though the video department might be) if I end up on our vlog or the brass|SHOW in the near future.

Like most people our age, I’m not sure what the future will hold, but interning at brass should open a few doors. If anything, I’ll try my darndest to produce so much work for the website and magazine you’ll think I’m a full-time employee.

–Cody

I recently read an article in Mental_Floss magazine about the haka. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a dance originating from the Maori tribe in New Zealand. The dance is now used by sports teams in some countries as a ritual to get fired up. It was made famous by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team, which performs the dance before every game.

The haka has spread beyond New Zealand, and is now practiced by several football teams in the United States. The University of Hawaii Warriors put their own island spin on the Maori haka. But the pre-game displays aren’t always received well–they are occasionally dinged with 15-yard penalties for “unsportsmanlike conduct.” However, in New Zealand, the dance has come to represent equality and peace, and most importantly, solidarity. And the dance must work, since the UH Warriors finished this past season with a near perfect record. Perhaps the most high profile coverage of the dance involved the team from Trinity High School in Texas who received coverage by CBS Evening News for their version of the haka. (Video via CBSnews.com.)(Update: The CBS video isn’t embedding properly, but you can see it here.)

Fact: When you get psyched, your body releases adrenaline, which literally preps your body for action by increasing heart rate, dilating pupils and boosting blood sugar levels. So dancing the haka can be more than a mere display — it helps spur real chemical shifts which ready you to tear into the game. Motivation can make a big difference, whether you’re out to accomplish something big or small. Find your own haka dance, what pumps you and others up, and use it!

–Jennie

Life is a never-ending quest to better understand the world around you, be it economics, current events or foreign culture. In today’s globalized business world, the need for understanding and respect of differences has never been more important.

I picked up this mindset from my Dad. He owns and operates an environmental planning and consulting firm in Hawaii which does business throughout Asia and the Pacific Rim. For his work, I saw my Dad adapting and learning not just about business but about culture too. He sharpened his Mandarin Chinese language skills, tried exotic foods like frog and camel while traveling (Mom stopped him from eating scorpion), and even considered planting a betel nut tree in our back yard when doing business in the Solomon Islands (where the red betel nuts are chewed with tobacco).

If there’s one thing I learned watching my Dad’s business relations, it’s the importance of both respecting and understanding different cultures. The biggest cultural concept he’s learned is the Chinese term called guanxi.

Guanxi loosely translates to “connections,” and is a keystone term in Asian business. Building good guanxi entails the exchange of social favors, even something as simple as showing a visiting business person around town. Building good guanxi can take years and even span the length of entire careers.

Some in the U.S. may try to dismiss guanxi as simple schmoozing or a part of the “good ol’ boy” networks, but doing so can be a costly underestimation. Guanxi is a concept that goes back for centuries to the heart of Asian beliefs. I guess you could describe it as networking on steroids. In China, without guanxi there can be no serious business.

I’m just barely scratching the surface of Chinese business culture. Guanxi isn’t unique to China either; it has its own manifestation in Japan, and in Russia it’s sometimes known as blat.

Check out brass’s November 2007 cover story on Sumaya Kazi and visit her site, theculturalconnect.com, to discover how one young person is breaking through cultural stereotypes so we can start sharing our values and cultural perspectives. The world is too small to approach business from a single cultural perspective. You have to be on your toes and ready to learn. Who knows–you just might enrich your own life along the way. Now that’s real world stuff.

– Peter

I recently came across a quote about billionaire Warren Buffett–one of the world’s richest individuals.

“Buffett’s still living in the same house he bought when he was 28 for $31,000.”

In today’s day and age, with all of the attention-getting extravagance of CEOs, celebrities, and politicians, a detail like that makes you stop and think. Then again, Buffett isn’t your average rich guy. As this article sums up, despite his large charitable donations (and when I say large, I mean giant), his fortune continues to grow. He advocates for higher taxes for the wealthiest of the wealthy. And he hangs out with fellow billionaire do-gooder Bill Gates, not only sharing the top-most places with him over the years on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people or donating an immense chunk of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but playing online bridge together under the usernames “T-bone” and “Commander.” Here are a few more things you might not know about Mr. Buffett.

• Two years ago when he was 75, he promised to donate 85% of his fortune to five foundations.
• He is known as “The Oracle of Omaha,” likely because of his success as an investor. The nickname may also reflect his ability to set and reach goals like he reminisced about in this Fortune magazine interview: “Well, when we got married in 1952, I told Susie I was going to be rich. That wasn’t going to be because of any special virtues of mine or even because of hard work, but simply because I was born with the right skills in the right place at the right time.”
• According to Forbes.com, he issued a challenge to members of The Forbes 400 in October: he would donate $1 million to charity if the collective group of richest Americans would admit they pay less taxes, as a percentage of income, than their secretaries.
• He is reported to love Cherry Coke.
• He knows he’s not perfect and says so (from that same Fortune interview above): “In philanthropy also, you have to make some big mistakes. I know that. But it would bother me more to make the mistakes myself, rather than having someone else make them whom I trust overall to do a good job. In general, Bill and Melinda will have a better batting average than I would.”

Consider this a good reminder that being rich isn’t about clothes or cars or bling, but as our CEO once said, it’s a way of life–one that embodies fulfillment, balance, and compassion for others. Words of wisdom for your weekend…make it a good one!

-Sarah

Today’s a special day–aside from being Friday and just a few hours away from the weekend–it’s February 1st and that means the latest issue of brass is out! It’s not only full of info to help you make, manage and multiply your money, but we’ve got an awesome cover story on four guys who are grabbing life by the horns and doing a lot of good along the way. (In some cases, jumping on the bull underneath those horns and riding it…and I’m not kidding about the bull. Jonnie has a broken thumb to prove it!)

Speaking of doing good, brass CEO and founder, Bryan Sims, encouraged everyone to find a way to “give back” in last issue’s Publisher’s 2 Cents, . He asked for readers to send in their stories about their own experiences paying it forward, and today we’ve got a story straight out of Montana. Chelsea O’Hara found a way to do what she loves, give back, challenge herself, and meet new people. Here’s what she had to say:

My story isn’t so much as having a major impact on a single person, but a minor one on many. I live in Montana, where there are a lot of mountains, forests, lakes, camping and hiking areas, and national forest parks. Because I love to hike and camp so much, I joined the Montana Conservation Corps (MCC). It is a volunteer job where you are interviewed and given a government stipend. There, I worked on building trails, and improving/clearing trails for 40 hours a week, for two weeks. The group that I worked with had to camp near the work sight and often hiked (about 1-2 miles) to where we were working. After spending two weeks camping and hiking in the Little Belts, we moved on to Glacier.

One thing that kept me working were the small “thank you’s” my team and I got, whether in Glacier or in the isolated Little Belts. Another is the lasting impression that I left. I had worked on trails so that others could hike on them. I had worked so that other people from around the world could see the beauty that I have the privilege to see everyday. It wasn’t for the money (which was only $500 for the whole four weeks), but for the people who would come later on in time. While I did leave an impression on the land I worked on, the people who worked with me certainly left their impressions on me.

Always a reader,
Chelsea O’Hara

Thanks for sharing Chelsea. And to everyone else, be sure to check out this February’s Publisher’s 2 Cents and let us know what you think. Between that and the cover story, I don’t know whether to go mountain climbing, bull riding, or start a cupcake company this weekend…

- Sarah

Hey everybody out there in the blogosphere! My name is Susie and I’m a new Editorial Intern at brass. I’ll be posting stats and stories with you over the next few months, but let me share a little about myself first.I’m a senior at Oregon State University (June = freedom!) and while my major is Merchandising Management (think fashion-y business) my real love lies in journalism. I’ve spent three years working at the university newspaper in various departments, and currently edit our opinion page and write a weekly fashion column. I grew up near the beach in beautiful Southern California, and while I always get shocked looks as to why I came to Oregon (seasons, snow, new people!), I just love it here.

I like change, which is why after graduation I’m making the cross-country move to New York City to pester media bigwigs and break into the magazine world out there. Last summer I had the best experience of my life working as a fashion intern at Glamour magazine and am only too ready to make the permanent move to NYC. And I may be a little (read: extremely) frightened. So it goes.

As much as I loved playing with clothes at Glamour (and seriously, it was pretty awesome), I’m thrilled to put my editorial skills to the test here at brass. Everyone on staff really is as cool as they seem and it’s an exciting world to be a part of…now, I better get back to work!

- Susie

We’ve got an update on our awesome May 2007 cover story, Alison Kelly. The fashion designer has not only revamped her online shopping experience, branding it with an approachable yet high-fashion feel, and a cool name: Atelierdahl, but her efforts were featured twice in the trendsetting blog Daily Candy — one mention for her new custom clothing boutique and one for her bridal line. That led to the Condé Nast Group taking note and including her in one of their latest projects. Along with MoviesRock and Chevrolet, Condé Nast has created a fashion-forward campaign that’s touring the U.S. It’s exhibiting a line of Chevy’s hybrid vehicles by combining fashion-forward products and music/film stars like Mary J. Blige and Emmy Rossum as part of the package (I recently saw an ad for this campaign in Glamour). They’ve created an online shopping experience called Chevy Malibu Shops — and Alison’s got one of her pieces featured in the line-up. The young designer is now a part of an innovative campaign where industries have joined forces to help promote a worthy environmental endeavor.

Alison’s also bouncing off the viewer appeal she found on Bravo’s Project Runway by returning to the network to write her own blog covering the current season.

How’s that for entrepreneurial spirit? Congrats to Alison…can’t wait to see what comes next.

- Sarah

Check this out. Last week, I saw a story on reddit about a young teen in Australia who saved a man from an oncoming train. Julian Shaw, 14, pulled 54-year-old Mark O’Dwyer to safety after seeing him faint and fall from a train platform onto the tracks six and a half feet below.

Shaw, who stands around 5′9″ and weighs in at about 155 pounds, hefted the older man, about 6′1″ and 243 pounds, onto his shoulder and moved him out of harm’s way as the train screamed past. You can read an account of the full story here.

According to the story, Mark noted that young adults don’t always get positive publicity. Here’s the good news: Not only did Julian receive a medal from Mark’s grateful girlfriend, he also received a letter of commendation from The Department of Education and has since written his own song for his punk band about the event. And now, brass is blogging about the inspiring feat!

Nice job Julian–that’s an awesome thing you have done. It’s incredible what you can do when the pressure is on.

- Jeremy

How often can one person watch the same movie in the theaters? I watched Ocean’s 12 three times in the theater, and I don’t regret a minute of it. Unfortunately, so far I have only watched Live Free or Die Hard twice in the theater (and loved it both times), and watched Transformers once.

Having been to the theater three times in one week for the last two movies, I was able to see a certain Diet Coke commercial three times. Titled The Morning Routine, and directed by Josh Greenbaum and Raul Fernandez (students in USC’s graduate film school program), the short won this year’s Coca-Cola’s Refreshing Filmmaker’s Award (click on the “2007 Winner” link to watch the commercial). I normally prefer Cherry or Vanilla Coke, but even I wanted to try some Diet Coke after seeing that short.

Additionally, Greenbaum won mtvU’s Best Filmmaker on Campus Award at the ‘07 MTV Movie Awards, and two of his shorts played at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. If you’ve got some time, go to his website and check more of his stuff; I got a real kick out of the commercials. But don’t take my word for it. Watch for yourself (you’ll have to use the link above because I couldn’t find any of his Coke stuff on YouTube).

I bought a $10 antenna the other day just so I could watch Lost and The Office, my two favorite TV shows. I didn’t expect to watch anything else. I didn’t expect to be impacted in any significant way by the tube that evening. And I definitely didn’t expect to be writing a blog about it for brass.

However, I ended up watching The CW after The Office was over, and there I saw the BR!CK Awards. This show featured a handful of young adults who are making an impact in the world we live in.

Ranging from a dog-bite victim to a Tourette Syndrome Association Youth Ambassador to a survivor of the Liberian civil war, the 12 young award winners are really making a difference in their respective fields. Here’s a video of some red-carpet interviews with a few of them:

The show was hosted by celebs like LeAnn Rimes, Wyclef Jean, and Mandy Moore. Dashboard Confessional was one of the night’s performers (lead singer Chris Carrabba is an active social worker). I was also impressed to find that the awards show was ethically “green” in its production efforts. Check out this backstage tour of the award show.

The BR!CK Awards has the application for the 2008 awards already up on their website. I’d recommend checking it out if you think of yourself or someone you know as making a positive difference. Oh, and by the way, there is a prize of $10,000 in grant money (for the winners’ projects or programs). If you are under eighteen, half of that is scholarship money. Not too bad for doing something you love.

I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a great thing they’ve got going on there; changing the world can seem like such a daunting task, so it’s inspiring to see everyday young people out there picking up a part of the world with their own two hands. Check out these people and get inspired to do something to help others.