Simon S. Tam's Blog, page 11
November 28, 2014
How a Portland Event Being Cancelled Demonstrated White Privilege
This week, a controversy eruptedover a local show in Portland, OR. It all stemmed from the promotional artwork meant to look like a Black Friday sale advertisement:
The ad features several racial stereotypes about black culture: cocoa butter, oversized basketball jerseys, grills, and so on. Understandably, local racial justice activists were upset by this poster and began contacting the venue, who initially issued a patronizing dismissal of the concerns. The event was eventually cancelled and...
November 25, 2014
Give Racism a Chance
This is the text of my TEDxSpokane talk that I recently delivered. In light of the protests and events taking place across our country now, I thought it would be appropriate to share. When the video is available, I will be posting it here.
In November of 2013, I did an interview with Travel & Leisure Magazine about the city where I live, Portland, OR because it was being profiled for a piece called “America’s Best Cities for Hipsters.”
It’s definitely something that we’re known for – and if you...
November 17, 2014
Your Life Has a Word Count Limit – Make Every Word Count
My newest TED talk, from TEDxSalem. I hope you enjoy
October 14, 2014
TEDxSpokane, NW Public Employees Diversity Conference, Shonen Knife
What an incredible past 4 days!
Things kicked off on Saturday night in Portland, OR, when my band (The Slants) debuted our new lead singer and shared the stage with Japanese pop punk legends, Shonen Knife. It was an incredible show – many local friends joined us at the show and gave Ken (our singer) a warm welcome.
Early the next day, we drove to Spokane, WA to load in and soundcheck for TEDxSpokane.
On Monday morning, we drove to St. George’s School for the event. I was on double duty that day...
September 22, 2014
5 Ways to Live Tweet Like a Rockstar
How do you create the number one trending hashtag in the world?
The answer is a little complex: it requires the help of thousands of users who are micro-blogging/talking about the same subject on social media at the same time. It sounds immensely difficult to achieve, but scaled up or down, there are things that you can do to control and shape it.
On September 21, 2014, the world woke up to thousands of marches across the planet under one unifying message: leaders need to take immediate, decisi...
September 14, 2014
TEDxSalem, Latino Network, and Jade District recap
It’s been a whirlwind of a weekend!
Things kicked off at Noche Bella, the annual fundraising gala for the Latino Network. It was a beautiful event and I’m pleased to report that we helped raise over $30,000 for their incredible services. They had some especially moving videos that showed the power of their services on the community.
Early the next morning, I met my band to load equipment and drive down to Salem for the TEDxSalem event. I was honored to speak and perform at the event…and had som...
August 23, 2014
Ice Bucket Challenge and Fundraiser
Unless you yourself have been living under a bucket, you have noticed the Ice Bucket Challenge fervor spreading around the world. This is my take on it – not only to help support efforts in finding a cure for ALS, but to raise money/awareness for issues related to clean water, which is currently affecting almost 1 billion people.
I want to help step it up even more.
So the until September 30, 100% of the money from my book sales will go towards ALS and Charity Water.
Feel free to check out my bo...
July 3, 2014
New Scheduled Appearances: TEDxSalem, Music Millenium, Oregon Paralegal Association
I’ve updated the appearances page with a few more entries. Some of the highlights include:
July 12: Portland, OR – Music Millenium
I’m hosting a discussion of arts and business as well as doing a book signing for my newest release, Music Business Hacks. The book isn’t really formatted for doing a straight reading, butwe can certainly discuss the concepts behind it.The event will be at 2:00pm, then the band will take the stage at 9pm at Cartlandia’s new venue, The Blue Room Bar.
August 16: Portla...
June 25, 2014
11 Options Available for New MBA Graduates to Launch Their Careers
For the past few years, there has been an onslaught of articles questioning the worth of higher education. Many of these have been examining the return on investment for MBA programs as well. Yet for all of the number crunching and statistics (hint: almost every major study confirms that education pays off), I found very little resources on the types of options available that new graduates can take, especially the widely discussed MBA, other than types of careers that can be pursued.
So what c...
