Corollary: Nervy, Pervy XII
Phew! Despite an iBill screw up and challenges accessing Suicide Girls' new secure payment server using multiple browsers in multiple OS's, a password tweak and assistance on the part of almost all of the core SG team -- LE, O, and Spooky -- has helped me get back into the mix.
It's weird. I don't even visit SG every day, but my interest in what they're doing -- and my inexplicable need to keep giving them $48 a year -- was really starting to take its toll. If I didn't have a passing acquaintance with them and hella respect for their community organizing model, I'd have given up and jumped ship when it first got difficult to get back in with my existing membership. Hope no one else has the same problems I was having!
Their attention to customer service is impressive. I'm sure they had better things to do today.
Friday, March 21, 2003
Corollary: South by Southwest 2003 XXI
This is oversimplifying his response to my SXSW Interactive reports, but Joe Clark doesn't think I should blog conferences. He's got some interesting reasons why, and an intriguing technical solution to the challenges of manual real-time transcription.
This is oversimplifying his response to my SXSW Interactive reports, but Joe Clark doesn't think I should blog conferences. He's got some interesting reasons why, and an intriguing technical solution to the challenges of manual real-time transcription.
Anchormen, Aweigh! XVII
The forthcoming CD, Nation of Interns, isn't even done yet, but the Anchormen have already written four new songs! Before you know it, we'll have another record's worth of material ready. Here are the new songs we almost completed last night. They're about 99% finished, I think.
Evacuation Day
Do we ever really know if we've found the one we're looking for, or do we just get tired and stumble home? Do we ever really care about the places where we spend our time, or are they just containers for the air that we breathe, and the water that we drink, and the dreams that we dream with the coming of the sleep, and the songs that always get sung when the bars are closed and we're walking home? Evacuation, oh, happy Evacuation Day. You've got to get out while the getting's good. Your reputation, your reputation can't be saved. Do we ever really claim the prizes that we're fighting for, or do the felt ears come off in the rain? Do we ever really heal from little scars in little wars, or are they just an outline of the pain that we feel when we're walking down your street, and the books that we read while we're eating our last meal, and the songs that always get sung when the blinds are drawn and we're home alone?
Harrison Avenue Overpass
I'm on the Harrison Avenue Overpass, watching the sun set behind the Pru, and the bridge below me is shaking and quaking as the commuter rail pushes through. And the cranes behind me are bending their necks as they life their heads high as my hopes. And the sky is turning purple as my heart. And I am reminded how great I am not.
She's Sick
She's sick: That's what her family says. Just like her mother, counting down the days. Please fix: I seek repair. I am so, so tired, just like damaged hair. She's sick, and I don't know what to say. She's sick, and she's always going away. She's sick; I guess that's the price that I've got to pay. She is sick. She's sick: That's what the doctor says. No chance of improvement; limited recovery.
Trapped in the Basement
We broke in through a window and climbed into the house. We were all tippy toe and dodgeball. We had to check it out. But then we saw the flashlight coming down the stairs so we ducked into a closet; we were feeling pretty scared. Now we are trapped in the basement. Got to get out!
The forthcoming CD, Nation of Interns, isn't even done yet, but the Anchormen have already written four new songs! Before you know it, we'll have another record's worth of material ready. Here are the new songs we almost completed last night. They're about 99% finished, I think.
Evacuation Day
Do we ever really know if we've found the one we're looking for, or do we just get tired and stumble home? Do we ever really care about the places where we spend our time, or are they just containers for the air that we breathe, and the water that we drink, and the dreams that we dream with the coming of the sleep, and the songs that always get sung when the bars are closed and we're walking home? Evacuation, oh, happy Evacuation Day. You've got to get out while the getting's good. Your reputation, your reputation can't be saved. Do we ever really claim the prizes that we're fighting for, or do the felt ears come off in the rain? Do we ever really heal from little scars in little wars, or are they just an outline of the pain that we feel when we're walking down your street, and the books that we read while we're eating our last meal, and the songs that always get sung when the blinds are drawn and we're home alone?
Harrison Avenue Overpass
I'm on the Harrison Avenue Overpass, watching the sun set behind the Pru, and the bridge below me is shaking and quaking as the commuter rail pushes through. And the cranes behind me are bending their necks as they life their heads high as my hopes. And the sky is turning purple as my heart. And I am reminded how great I am not.
She's Sick
She's sick: That's what her family says. Just like her mother, counting down the days. Please fix: I seek repair. I am so, so tired, just like damaged hair. She's sick, and I don't know what to say. She's sick, and she's always going away. She's sick; I guess that's the price that I've got to pay. She is sick. She's sick: That's what the doctor says. No chance of improvement; limited recovery.
Trapped in the Basement
We broke in through a window and climbed into the house. We were all tippy toe and dodgeball. We had to check it out. But then we saw the flashlight coming down the stairs so we ducked into a closet; we were feeling pretty scared. Now we are trapped in the basement. Got to get out!
Conferences and Community IV
Adam Greenfield is planning a conference about moblogging in Tokyo this summer. I was supposed to go to Japan last spring, and a dear friend is moving back home next month, so I'm thinking about going. We'll see if this passes muster as a topic for a presentation or panel discussion, but here's what I just proposed to Adam:
What do you think? Worth researching?
Adam Greenfield is planning a conference about moblogging in Tokyo this summer. I was supposed to go to Japan last spring, and a dear friend is moving back home next month, so I'm thinking about going. We'll see if this passes muster as a topic for a presentation or panel discussion, but here's what I just proposed to Adam:
1:1 Mapblogging
Billboards outfitted with low-frequency radio transmitters. Acoustiguide's audio tours of museums. The Portland Radical History Tour's coupling of audio cassette and fanzine. The Web-based New York Songlines walking tour guide. The Wiki-like Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy. What if every building in every city in every country was set up with WiFi and a Web site or blog? What if you could learn what was inside the building -- offices, shops, sales, access to telephone directories and Web search results -- as well as about the _history_ of the building merely by approaching the building? What if you could contribute to that living urban history and map using Moblogging -- or Maplogging -- technology? This panel discussion will consider several extant experiments leading in this direction -- and consider what the final product and process might be, as well as its societal and cultural implications.
What do you think? Worth researching?
The Free-Range Comic Book Project IV
This is an installment of Media Diet's Free-Range Comic Book Project.
For more information on this project, please refer to this Media Diet entry.
This is an installment of Media Diet's Free-Range Comic Book Project.
The Adventures of Superman #477 (DC, April 1991). Writer and artist: Dan Jurgens. Location: On the Green Line between Haymarket and Park Street.
For more information on this project, please refer to this Media Diet entry.
Products I Love VII
I don't know if you remember the zine Office Supply Junkie, which was published by the Baby Split Bowling News crew in the Twin Cities. But a catalog I received in the mail recently rekindled my love affair with the humble office supply. Particularly those supplies found in the mail room and shipping department.
Ship It, a mail-order company based in Twinsburg, Ohio, is "your complete shipping supply source." Claiming more than 600 box sizes, the company also provides bags, bins, bubble wrap, edge protectors, envelopes, packing foam, knives, labels, mailing tubes, scales, stretch wrap, and tape.
And the catalog is a joy to behold, hella better than the office supplies available at Staples or Office Depot. Ship It also sells carton stands so you can neatly organize your flattened boxes, as well as a carton sizer so you can perforate and resize boxes that aren't the right size. The label section alone is awe-inspiring: "Discard," "Hold," "Salvage," "Re-Work," "Must Ship Today." There are international pictorial labels and caution labels available, as are your general mailing labels and manila shipping tags.
To paraphrase Devo, "Ship it. Ship it good"
I don't know if you remember the zine Office Supply Junkie, which was published by the Baby Split Bowling News crew in the Twin Cities. But a catalog I received in the mail recently rekindled my love affair with the humble office supply. Particularly those supplies found in the mail room and shipping department.
Ship It, a mail-order company based in Twinsburg, Ohio, is "your complete shipping supply source." Claiming more than 600 box sizes, the company also provides bags, bins, bubble wrap, edge protectors, envelopes, packing foam, knives, labels, mailing tubes, scales, stretch wrap, and tape.
And the catalog is a joy to behold, hella better than the office supplies available at Staples or Office Depot. Ship It also sells carton stands so you can neatly organize your flattened boxes, as well as a carton sizer so you can perforate and resize boxes that aren't the right size. The label section alone is awe-inspiring: "Discard," "Hold," "Salvage," "Re-Work," "Must Ship Today." There are international pictorial labels and caution labels available, as are your general mailing labels and manila shipping tags.
To paraphrase Devo, "Ship it. Ship it good"
Thursday, March 20, 2003
The Free-Range Comic Book Project III
This is an installment of Media Diet's Free-Range Comic Book Project.
For more information on this project, please refer to this Media Diet entry.
This is an installment of Media Diet's Free-Range Comic Book Project.
Action Comics #658 (DC, October 1990). Writer: Bill Messner-Loebs. Artist: Curt Swan. Location: On the Red Line between Park Street and Central Square.
For more information on this project, please refer to this Media Diet entry.
Animation Nation III
If you haven't already eyed the Animatrix shorts currently available, they're worth checking out. Beautiful work. So far, there are two episodes available -- and a trailer. Seven directors take on nine animated shorts, some of which will be released for free online, and some of which will precede feature-length films in movie theaters. A DVD of all the eps will be released this June. The animation released online to date is primarily Moebius-meets-anime styled work, but some of the pieces teased in the trailer appear to be more video game graphic-like in approach. There's even a Hack the Matrix Easter egg hidden on the site that allows you to access video shorts from the Matrix movie itself. Fun stuff.
If you haven't already eyed the Animatrix shorts currently available, they're worth checking out. Beautiful work. So far, there are two episodes available -- and a trailer. Seven directors take on nine animated shorts, some of which will be released for free online, and some of which will precede feature-length films in movie theaters. A DVD of all the eps will be released this June. The animation released online to date is primarily Moebius-meets-anime styled work, but some of the pieces teased in the trailer appear to be more video game graphic-like in approach. There's even a Hack the Matrix Easter egg hidden on the site that allows you to access video shorts from the Matrix movie itself. Fun stuff.
The Mediated Me
Two recent Web readings match up quite nicely. Joi Ito comments on how different Anil Dash is in person than he is in his blog, remarking that "his ability to manage his online personality was his key to success."
Elsewhere, William Gibson considers the difference between mediated personas and the public self. "While a ruler would have a public (as well as a private) self, this technological 'broadcasting' of the individual constitutes something else, something fundamentally different," Gibson says.
These posts raise some interesting questions. Sure, Sherry Turkle and Brenda Laurel have written about the performative aspects of computer-mediated communication. But what about blogs and LiveJournals?
Here, in Media Diet, am I sharing a public self? Or am I portraying an idealized self? The me I want to be -- or the me I want you to think I am? I don't know. To be true, the Media Diet me is a mediated me. I consider what to say and how to say it -- which is no different than in real life. And I can probably make myself out to be more than I really am, although I like to think I rarely do that. But it's easier to say less or more when an audience is largely anonymous. Just like when I published perzines.
I've also been thinking about this in terms of email communications with friends. Sometimes there are things that are easier to write -- and hit Send -- than they are to say in person. You can be more honest. You can be almost irresponsible. But yet, what's been said is out there, and we're left with the repercussions, as tenuous as they may be.
Were I to ask Media Dieticians a question, it wouldn't be whether our Web writing represents a mediated persona (which I believe it does), but what such self-representation means -- for us as well as for the other.
Discuss.
Two recent Web readings match up quite nicely. Joi Ito comments on how different Anil Dash is in person than he is in his blog, remarking that "his ability to manage his online personality was his key to success."
Elsewhere, William Gibson considers the difference between mediated personas and the public self. "While a ruler would have a public (as well as a private) self, this technological 'broadcasting' of the individual constitutes something else, something fundamentally different," Gibson says.
These posts raise some interesting questions. Sure, Sherry Turkle and Brenda Laurel have written about the performative aspects of computer-mediated communication. But what about blogs and LiveJournals?
Here, in Media Diet, am I sharing a public self? Or am I portraying an idealized self? The me I want to be -- or the me I want you to think I am? I don't know. To be true, the Media Diet me is a mediated me. I consider what to say and how to say it -- which is no different than in real life. And I can probably make myself out to be more than I really am, although I like to think I rarely do that. But it's easier to say less or more when an audience is largely anonymous. Just like when I published perzines.
I've also been thinking about this in terms of email communications with friends. Sometimes there are things that are easier to write -- and hit Send -- than they are to say in person. You can be more honest. You can be almost irresponsible. But yet, what's been said is out there, and we're left with the repercussions, as tenuous as they may be.
Were I to ask Media Dieticians a question, it wouldn't be whether our Web writing represents a mediated persona (which I believe it does), but what such self-representation means -- for us as well as for the other.
Discuss.
Technofetishism XXIX
It's about time! For years, I've pestered the fine folks at Corex Technologies to release a Mac-compatible CardScan business card reader to no avail. Earlier this week, in the April 2003 issue of MacHome magazine, I read about the Iris Business Card Reader II for Mac. I still need to research its features and such, but, wow. Maybe my piles and stacks and shopping bags of business cards will soon be useful.
It's about time! For years, I've pestered the fine folks at Corex Technologies to release a Mac-compatible CardScan business card reader to no avail. Earlier this week, in the April 2003 issue of MacHome magazine, I read about the Iris Business Card Reader II for Mac. I still need to research its features and such, but, wow. Maybe my piles and stacks and shopping bags of business cards will soon be useful.
Shock Jock or Not?
Howard Stern has filed a $10 million law suit claiming that ABC stole its "Are You Hot?" idea from him. I'd say that it's much more likely that they cribbed the concept from the uber-rating Web site Hot or Not?, if anywhere. I wonder whether Jim and James' project predates Stern's "The Evaluators" radio bit.
Howard Stern has filed a $10 million law suit claiming that ABC stole its "Are You Hot?" idea from him. I'd say that it's much more likely that they cribbed the concept from the uber-rating Web site Hot or Not?, if anywhere. I wonder whether Jim and James' project predates Stern's "The Evaluators" radio bit.
Archeolo-Gee!
It's a good day for archeologists, historians, and urban anthropoligists. In Boston, preservationists have determined how the Union Oyster House acquired the characteristic bend in its structure. Turns out that the proprietor of a once-nearby candy needed to widen the street to accomodate carriage access to his building. The Union Oyster House bent to his will.
Meanwhile, an FBI sting snagged North Carolina's original bill of rights when a collector tried to sell it for $5 million. The historic document, actually worth about $20 million, was stolen by Union soldiers in 1865 and has been passed hand to hand since then.
And Spanish archivists have discovered almost 1,000 ancient Hebrew texts tucked into the covers of medieval books. Hidden inside about 165 books, the texts include fragments of the Torah, as well as wedding and business contracts. The son my my childhood piano teacher used to hide pages torn from pornographic magazines in the sleeves of record albums. I wonder if those documents have ever been found.
Just goes to show, as uncertain as the future might be, the past can only become more and more certain.
It's a good day for archeologists, historians, and urban anthropoligists. In Boston, preservationists have determined how the Union Oyster House acquired the characteristic bend in its structure. Turns out that the proprietor of a once-nearby candy needed to widen the street to accomodate carriage access to his building. The Union Oyster House bent to his will.
Meanwhile, an FBI sting snagged North Carolina's original bill of rights when a collector tried to sell it for $5 million. The historic document, actually worth about $20 million, was stolen by Union soldiers in 1865 and has been passed hand to hand since then.
And Spanish archivists have discovered almost 1,000 ancient Hebrew texts tucked into the covers of medieval books. Hidden inside about 165 books, the texts include fragments of the Torah, as well as wedding and business contracts. The son my my childhood piano teacher used to hide pages torn from pornographic magazines in the sleeves of record albums. I wonder if those documents have ever been found.
Just goes to show, as uncertain as the future might be, the past can only become more and more certain.
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