May Flights Of Angels Sing Thee To Thy Rest

The Original Angels at The Emmys, 2006

My mother bought me my first gun when I was five years old.

She did not want to buy it for me, but I begged and pleaded until she did. It was a toy gun, a .38 Special replica that fired caps off of those rounded red disks. The same gun that Kelly Garrett, Sabrina Duncan, and Jill Munroe carried. (My mother did not know at the time that our housekeeper Helga had been allowing me to watch episodes of “Charlie’s Angels” in secret; I was only officially allowed to watch PBS.)

“My name is Munroe!” I yelled to my mother, after mock-shooting a Bad Guy (it was a seagull) on our beach, thrilled by the reports of my toy gun’s caps.

“Munroe?” my mother queried, brushing brunette strands of hair out of her face against the wind. “Your name is Bartelby. Who is Munroe?”

“Jill!” I exclaimed, firing my toy gun again and channeling the woman I had seen on our brand new color television set, fighting Bad Guys and solving crimes and racing cars and playing tennis and looking fabulous, all feathered blonde hair and soft, whispery voice.

“I am Jill Munroe!”

My mother laughed, indulging me. “Well, mon cher, I am sure that you are.”

That evening, we watched an episode of “Charlie’s Angels” together, after I had confessed to her that I had been watching it, but without divulging Helga’s involvement. We watched Jill drive. We watched Jill run (in five-inch cork wedge heels). We watched Jill solve crimes.

As the closing credits rolled, I turned to my mother and asked excitedly, “I’m Jill, yes? I am Jill Munroe?”

“Yes,” my mother said to me, caressing my cheek, “you are definitely Jill Munroe.”

It’s a difficult space to be in, when one of your idols has died. When one of those icons of your youth has suddenly vanished. When everything that they represented to you comes back into focus. When suddenly that toy gun that you made your mother purchase for you, just so you could become so much more adept at being Jill Munroe, a.k.a. Farrah Fawcett, suddenly retains so much more meaning.

Farewell, Angel.

I shall miss you.

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ELSEWHERE ACROSS THE DIGITAL WORLD:
There is an excellent post up right now on BlogHer that is a fabulous compendium of Farrah Fawcett’s life and career, by AV Flox, of course. You should read it.

Filed under: Personal , a-list, celebrities, Charlie's Angels, emotional landscapes, family, Farrah Fawcett, Jill Munroe, linkage, memories, video

Job Applications In The 2.0

SuperCW And A Really Goode Job Application

Last evening I received an email from a dear friend of mine from back in my days of The Cocktail Circuit in Honolulu, Christa Wittmier. It was a brief note explaining that she was applying for a job, asking her friends and contacts to vote for her video application, and linking us to her application page at Murphy-Goode Winery in Sonoma County. The “Really Goode Job” is for a social media whiz whose title will be “Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent,” and I think that the concept of requiring job applicants to submit YouTube video footage of why they deserve the job is amazingly fitting.

I really can’t think of a better way to test the talents of a potential social media maven than to request an application via video, and Christa, of course, rose to the challenge, compiling her extensive online curriculum vitae into exactly one minute. The video condenses a Google search into only the most essential information, and showcases it all remarkably well.

As a friend who is very well-acquainted with Christa’s tireless photoblogging efforts at Honolulu Nightlife Diaries, jealous of her constant VIP passes to only the hottest of Honolulu nightlife and arts events, and enamored with her ability to socialize and write it and photograph it all at the same time, I suppose it is no surprise that I voted for Super CW here.

(And also no surprise that I think you should, as well, since I give good recommendations like that.)

But more so I think that this is where job applications should be heading: concise, simple, creative communications of our talents.

In only sixty seconds.

Filed under: Blogging, Media, Net Culture, Technology , a-list, christa wittmier, employment applications, hawaii, honolulu, honolulu nightlife diaries, linkage, Murphy-Goode Winery, pimpage, social media, social networking, supercw, the elevator pitch, video, YouTube