Category: television

luck, New York City, Sesame Street, television

My Year of Hopefulness – Prepare to be lucky

Christa Avampato

I’m in the middle of reading Street Gang: The Complete Story of Sesame Street. My sister, Weez, bought it for me because she knows how much I love those little monsters. I’ll write a review of the book as soon as I’m finished reading every last wonderful word of the book. There is one line in particular that I read this week that I have been thinking of constantly.

In the early years of Sesame Street and the Children’s Television Workshop things just seemed to work out, even in the most trying circumstances when there was little logical reason for hope. Joan Ganz Cooney often quoted E.B. White during that time. E.B. White is quoted as saying “If you’re going to be in New York, be prepared to be lucky.”

This saying can be construed a few different ways. E.B. White could be that if we want luck to find us in New York, then we need to always be prepared. Do our research, be ready to articulate our dreams and beliefs, have a plan for what we want to do and where we want to go and how we’re going to get there. White could also mean that we have to be open to luck finding us. We need to have an ardent belief in luck, that it is inevitable that good fortune will smile on us.

That saying has helped me keep my head up a little higher this week. It’s kept me looking up at the stars, even though my spirits have been down in the dumps. This is a lucky town if only we are willing to open our eyes and minds and hearts to give that luck a place to land within our lives.

dreams, entrepreneurship, television

My Year of Hopefulness – Doing the Impossible

Christa Avampato

Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. –St. Francis of Assisi

Tonight I’m home on one of my writing evenings: I come home from my day job, I make a quick dinner and I spend the entire evening until midnight writing, researching, and reading. I try to have a few of these nights a week. It helps me stay sane and makes me feel like I’m moving forward.

I usually have my TV on while I’m writing for a few reasons – one, it occasionally provides me with some materials and two, it keeps me company in my thoughts. I’ve noticed over the years that my writer’s block begins when I experience complete silence. The TV fills the void while also giving me complete control over the noise level.

I didn’t think I’d ever mention the TV show How I Met Your Mother and St. Francis of Assisi in the same blog post but here we are. I was just watching the show and one of the characters has decided to start his own architecture firm. Like many people who start a project that they are worried is more than they can handle, the character is staring at his phone, unable to pick it up and make calls to potential clients. He’s all he’s got in his own business. He is paralyzed by the fear we all know too well – the fear of failure.

He goes on to tell his friend a story about an architect who build an incredible library. The only problem is that he forgot to account for the weight of the books, and that extra weight caused the library to sink. “What if I forget to account for the weight of the books?” he asks his friend.

I did a little on-line research about this subject and it turns out that there is no truth to this beloved rumor of a library sinking because of the weight of the books it holds. The character was telling this story to himself as a way of stalling, of keeping a dream just a dream, perfect and untouched by someone’s ambition. We’ll tell ourselves anything if it helps curb our fear and anxiety. We’re so in love with the potential of our dreams that we some times have a tough time getting started.

So here are a few ways to help get us going:

1.) I like lists. They can be tools of procrastination so you need to be careful of them. However, if I can break tasks down into smaller tasks and then do one small piece at a time, they seem less daunting.

2.) Reading for inspiration helps me, too. I try to find people who I model my career after and read about how their success unfolded. Usually they made a lot of mistakes and wrong turns on their journey and that helps assuage some of my fears.

3.) And I follow the advice of St. Francis. I have big dreams and big ideas. And sometimes they are too big for me to bear myself. So rather than starting with the seemingly impossible, I just do what I need to do. Then I do what’s possible. And all of a sudden I realize that my big dreams can be accomplished with my big efforts. And before you know it, I’m humming along just fine.

This confirms my desire to believe that the impossible is nothing more than the possible that we just never thought of before.

health, healthcare, home, movie, news, newspapers, social change, television

My Year of Hopefulness – Mr. Ayers and Mr. Lopez

Christa Avampato

I’ve been developing a habit of reading and listening to inspirational stories. I need to keep my courage and strength up in these tough times. We all do. On Sunday, I watched 60 Minutes because President Obama was speaking. I planned to shut off the TV and go through some of my weekly reading that had piled up as soon as President Obama’s interview was complete. Instead, I spent the remainder of the hour glued to the TV, getting to know Mr. Ayers and Mr. Lopez. 


Meet Mr. Lopez, a columnist for the LA Times. A good guy whom you imagine might be your neighbor, a fellow parent at your child’s school, if you’re lucky he’d be your boss or colleague. Now meet Mr. Ayers, a homeless man in LA. He suffers from the disease of paranoid schizophrenia. And he is a brilliantly gifted musician. Cello, violin, and trumpet. Gift enough to be admitted to Julliard. Gifted enough still to keep up with the LA Philharmonic whose members now rehearse with and provide lessons to him when he visits them at the concert hall. 

After his first year at Julliard, Mr. Ayers went home and began showing signs of his illness which was rearing its ugly head inside his wonderfully gifted mind. As a last ditch desperation move, Mr. Ayers followed the advice of psychiatrists and subjected her son to electric shock treatments. It is a barbaric treatment that was at one time, not all that long ago, accepted as a viable tool to manage the disease. Instead, it sent Mr. Ayers into a downward spiral from which he has never returned. 

Mr. Lopez and Mr. Ayers met three years ago. Mr. Ayers was playing his cello in a park as Mr. Lopez roamed the streets trying to come up with a story for his looming deadline. What struck Mr. Lopez in addition to Mr. Ayers’s virtuosity, was that he wasn’t playing in the park for money. He was just playing his cello for himself. Mr. Lopez would learn that Mr. Ayers played to forget, to chase away the frightening effects of his schizophrenia. He needed to, wanted to drown out his deepest, darkest concerns. Thus began a 3 year friendship that continues and flourishes so much that it caught the attention of Universal Pictures and has been turned into a movie, The Soloist, featuring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr. The movie will open in theatres on April 24, 2009.  

My father was a clinical psychologist so I know a bit about diseases like paranoid schizophrenia. I can tell you that it is a heartbreaking disease to see and experience up close, and it is even harder to see the strain the disease places on families and loved ones of the person who has the disease. To hear the story of Mr. Ayers, to hear his incredible musical gifts mixed with his equally incredible demons, we have to believe that in all people, regardless of circumstances, there is good and not-so-good. 

It was a reminder to me that too often we cast aside the mentally ill in this country as if they have nothing to offer society. They are hidden away, forgotten, ignored. Their basic needs like healthcare and shelter too often go unfulfilled. In our society, they have very few vehicles to raise their voice, to come together, to stand up, and to be counted. Let’s hope that The Soloist is not just another feel good story at the box office but that it actually raises awareness that inspires action. On the movie’s website, there are links to help you get involved in the efforts to end homelessness and help those with mental illnesses.   

To read the 5-part series written by Mr. Lopez about Mr. Ayers, click here.

The above photo depicts Mr. Nathaniel Ayers playing the violin. I found the image at: https://christaavampato.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/1865563850_9f4c68c464.jpg?w=300
business, cooking, food, television

My Year of Hopefulness – Charm City Cakes

Christa Avampato

President’s Day was a company holiday. Hooray! So how did I spend it? I slept in (a little), did a couple of errands, some writing, some research, watched the Ace of Cakes marathon (for 5 hours) on the Food Network, and met my friends Linda and Monika for a glass of wine at City Winery. I had the pleasure of meeting Chef Duff, owner of Charm City Cakes and star of the show Ace of Cakes, when he delivered a cake made to look like a 64-box of Crayola crayons to the Toys R Us in Times Square. I was working at Toys R Us at the time, and my boss was giving interviews to the press that were there covering the event. We were celebrating the 50th birthday of Crayola’s 64-box.

Prior to the event, I was a huge fan of the show and of Duff. After meeting him and getting to see one of the Charm City Cakes up close, I became an even more dedicated fan. The artistry that goes into these cakes is amazing – no question. What’s even more incredible is the environment and culture of the company that Duff created. He is the only trained pastry chef in his bakery, and many of the other people at Charm City were his friends long before he opened the bakery. Charm City Cakes has one rule – you must have fun! Their website proudly states, “There are no limits to what we can do here at Charm City Cakes. You dream it, we’ll bake it, you eat it.” Just watching the show you see what great camaraderie the group has. They collaborate, they have artistic freedom, and they share a tremendous amount of trust and support. It is one of the best models for a business I’ve ever seen. They work hard, they laugh, and they play. Warning – watching too much of the show may make you want to quit your job and create a company that’s as much fun as Charm City Cakes.

Duff and his team are a great example of what’s possible in business. He wanted to do things his way and he wanted to work with his friends. Duff is a great leader – he doesn’t need to stand over them and approve all of their work. In actuality, he can’t – there’s too much to do and the only way to get all those gorgeous cakes made is to have an entire team that he trusts to do exceptional work. They’ve never once let one another down, and the resulting success is staggering. Every entrepreneur class at every business school should study the case of Charm City Cakes – the students would be better off and so would the world of business.

career, comedy, holiday, office space, television

Holiday card mishap

Christa Avampato

This story is just too good to keep to myself. I debated about whether or not to tell it in a public forum but I just can’t resist. My friend, Jane, had me laugh so hard today that my eyes were tearing over. My stomach was aching. 


She has a boss who’s a bit of an exhibitionist. For example, when they needed to use some photography for a new product her company was launching, he used a photo of himself. In a muscle shirt. And the presentation was being sent to perspective clients.

So with this year’s holiday cards, he got a little creative. Most people get a family photo where everyone’s smiling, the dog seated on the couch, etc. Not this guy. He took a trip to Bali this past summer and thought he’d like to showcase that. Now, a normal person would choose a picture of the sunset, the ocean, maybe even a picture of himself sipping a tropical looking drink. 

Jane’s boss decided to have someone take a photo of him in a black speedo (what Jane describes as an ill-fitting banana hammock) and used that for his holiday card. Yep – sent it to family, friends, co-workers, business contacts. I was floored. Talk about lack of judgement!

Now the card is all the talk about the office. People crowding in corners, at the copier, at the water cooler. Some are laughing, some are appalled, all have lost respect for him. Even clients are commenting on the card. It sounds like a stunt that Steve Carell would pull on The Office. (I’m thinking of sending the idea in to NBC.) Would anyone in their right mind seriously do that? Well, you know what they say – in all good comedy, there’s a little bit of truth.     
art, comedy, humor, NBC, television

I Might Be Liz Lemon, and So Are You

Christa Avampato

I’m a little late to the party on this one – 30 Rock has already won several Emmy’s and is in its 3rd season. I’m just now getting into the series on DVD. Hilarious. And comedy writing is not easy – I’ve tried it and I was terrible. I laugh out loud at the ridiculous behavior of those characters and marvel at how often I think things at work that they say freely to one another. If only all workplaces were that honest, we’d have greater job satisfaction. It’s the passive-aggressive behavior, the simultaneous smile and toss under the bus that kills morale. 


Liz Lemon, Tina Fey’s character, is someone I relate to immensely. She is a single 30-something who lives on the UWS, just a few blocks from me. Works hard, sometimes to the detriment of her personal life, makes impossible relationships a hobby, and eats as much as I do. She’s nerdy and independent. We love our humidifiers. While she has this dream job, she’s constantly worried that she will be reduced to teaching improv at the Y. She’s all our unsavory features rolled in to one sympathetic, funny shell. We don’t love the character because she’s perfect or well-balanced or someone we aspire to be. She isn’t any of those things. We love her because she is who we are, warts and all.

30 Rock is proof that we can do something original in an over-crowded field. It just requires that we put aside our egos, stop looking to others for “copy-and-paste” ideas, and just be exactly who we are and say exactly what we think, funny, nice, meaningful, or not. And for goodness sake, we need to learn to laugh at ourselves and those around us.      
Beijing, NBC, Olympics, sports, television

NBC’s Olympics website

Christa Avampato

I’ve started to have discussions with some companies and non-profits about the possibility of integrating social media into their marketing plans. Originally when I considered this type of consulting work, I thought the issue would be content creation. What I’m finding is that it’s about commitment and organization – the same two issues that companies struggle with in many aspects of their business. 


For the past week, I’ve been obsessed with watching the Olympics, and like so many people across the world, I am most keen on women’s gymnastics and the U.S. men’s swim team. I want to see Michael Phelps get his 8 gold medals in Beijing and I wanted to see Nastia Liukin win the all-around. Michael’s got 7 and Nastia surprised everyone, including herself, with her win in the all-around. 

I was so excited to see that NBC had created so much incredible content and integrated so much functionality into their Olympics website. Sadly, the organization is so frustrating that after a few visits of endless clicking, I’ve all but given up on trying to figure out the televised schedule. And that’s the trouble with an abundance of great content – all of a sudden the management and organization of it becomes just as critical as the information itself. 

I was surprised that NBC didn’t think through the site design more thoroughly. NBC had so much time to plan out how they would cover these games that the expectations of fans skyrocketed, mine included. I wanted it to be a piece of cake to navigate the website and find exactly the content I was looking for with barely any effort on my part. If anything, I’ve had to spend much more time sorting through the site and rarely find what I am looking for. I guess the network doesn’t hold simplicity in very high regard.

I take my hat off to the content creators of that Olympics website and to the many reporters who are contributing to the coverage; what the network really needed was a simplicity expert who actually understands how to use new media. With a once-in-a-lifetime event like these Beijing Games, it’s a shame that the executives didn’t see that for themselves.  It’s not abut throwing as much information in there as possible – this isn’t a flea market or a treasure hunt – and they certainly had enough money to do it right. Here’s hoping that they’ll learn from this error in time to make adjustments for their 2010 and 2012 coverage.         
Africa, environment, food, friendship, girl scounts, politics, sports, television, travel

10 little things

Christa Avampato

My friend, Julie, is in Tanzania for about 2 months. She’s on assignment with the Peace Corp and has started a blog to track her experiences. http://turnyourhead.wordpress.com/


On one of her posts, she takes a cue from her blogging sister and lists 10 little known things about her that are interesting and unique. I love the idea so much that I’m stealing it. Thanks for the inspiration, Jules 🙂

1.) The first profession I ever had an interest in was paleontology because I loved dinosaurs.
2.) When I was little, I memorized every fact about Africa that I could get my hands on and my mother would patiently listen to me go on for hours – if only we had the internet then.
3.) I was a Girl Scout until I was 12.
4.) I learned how to swim when I was 30.
5.) This is the first year I have ever been registered with a political party. My mother gave me a voter registration form when I turned 18 and until this year have always been an Independent.
6.) There is a tractor crossing sign on the road I grew up on. 
7.) The two countries I must visit some time in my life are Rwanda, to see the mountain gorillas, and Cuba because of the movie For Love or Country.
8.) I hate talking on the phone – it’s my least favorite form of communication
9.) My favorite charitable cause is environmental protection
10.) Mary Lou Retton was my childhood idol  
and a bonus fact:
11.) My sister and I have two common obsessions: The Gilmore Girls (my baby niece is named after Lorelei Gilmore!) and Dunkin’ Donuts (which we affectionately refer to as “Dunks”)
child, children, Sesame Street, television

The Top 50 Sesame Street Moments

Christa Avampato

I am indebted to Gwynne Watkins and her team of editors over at Babble. They combed through the over 20,000 YouTube videos of Sesame Street to pull out the 50 best ones. As a lover of all things Sesame Street, I am ecstatic!

And I understand that some people may be wondering who in the world would ever spend that much time on Sesame Street. But then clearly those people don’t know what they’re missing!

Click here to get to the Babble post that contains the 50 clips.

child, children, kids, Kidscreen Summit, Spanish, television

V-Me

Christa Avampato

There are 5.5 million pre-school children in the U.S. who are Hispanic. Their parents are interested in preserving their culture and raising their children to speak Spanish. V-Me is a new network that has launched to serve this population, as well as those parents who are interested in having their children learn Spanish. 6 hours / day, 6 days / week, V-Me provides Spanish-language programming for pre-schoolers.

As interesting as the content of V-Me is their business model – it is the first hybrid in television to be a public TV partner and have private investors. While many public companies strive to create content with a good return that is good for the public, many are willing to tell you that when push comes to shove, the money doesn’t play second fiddle to content. Production, after all, is very expensive. V-Me has the challenge of putting financial return on a level playing field with content.

A recent partnership of interest is with iTunes. V-Me content will be the first iTunes partner to have children’s content in Spanish.