Mon Nov 17, 2008 @ 10:03 am
So, we’ve had blogs and the intarwebs for some time now, but it still feels a bit like the wild-west frontier at times. It’s fun to see people exploring the medium, trying to find new ways to connect, or just make a buck.
In an interview with The A.V. Club, Felicia Day talks about blurring the lines between ‘fans’ and ‘friends’ online:
AVC: It’s someone they’re invested in, who’s in their world, as opposed to someone who was thrust on them by movie posters.
FD: Or you know, completely separated and become something you project all these things on. Like, “Oh, that person’s like this.” Well, they know how I am. They probably know what I had for breakfast that morning. [Laughs.] And that’s the cool part. And I respond to people, if they post on my blog, I’m like, “Oh, that’s really cool you read that book, that fantasy series!” It’s almost like they’re my friends in a sense. There’s less separation. They know me more as a human being with my flaws, versus some kind of actor on a pedestal.
The timing with this is funny, as I’ve been watching something similar on Patrick Rothfuss’ blog / fundraising project. If you don’t know, Patrick Rothfuss is a lecturer and writer, who’s first book, The Name of the Wind is probably my favorite book this year. He’s currently running a fantastic sort of ‘charity raffle’, wherein people who donate to the incredible Heifer International through his project will not only have their donation matched by the author, but also receive a signed book, artwork or what have you.
Specifically, it’s been interesting to watch the project morph and change shape over time. Just a few days after starting, based on fans’/friends’ feedback, Rothfuss has expanded and altered the original terms of the raffle, and the whole process has the conversational style you’d expect among friends. I’m sure some of that is Rothfuss’ own style and presentation, but that only goes so far—there’s a give-and-take here that you don’t see with traditional mediated fan relationships.
See also: 1,000 True Fans, give or take a few
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Mon Nov 3, 2008 @ 7:47 pm
‘Tis the season for mixing horror and chocolate, with frighteningly delicious results!
Would you believe that H.P. Lovecraft used to write copy for Whitman’s Sampler? (McSweeney’s) Like the following:
Chocolate Cherry Cordial…
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Sun Oct 19, 2008 @ 3:23 pm
Salon.com interviews Berkley Breathed about the end of his long-running, oft-revived cartoon character & strip. I thought this quote was touching, in a melancholy sort of way:
The very, absolute last comic strip characters destined to become true …
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Fri Oct 17, 2008 @ 6:43 pm
An excellent editorial by the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland sums things up nicely:
Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific …
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Thu Oct 16, 2008 @ 12:10 pm
I’m drooling over the new MacBooks Apple announced this week. I’ve wanted to upgrade my MacBook to a MacBook Pro for some time (every time I run rspec or try to watch video on YouTube, the fan turns the box into a miniature jet engine) but …
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Wed Oct 15, 2008 @ 7:28 pm
Michael Pollan, author of the very well-written The Omnivore's Dilemna, has penned a timely and flat-out brilliant op-ed for the NYT. Though a tad long-ish, the whole thing is well worth reading.
This, in brief, is the bad news: the food and agriculture …
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Wed Oct 15, 2008 @ 7:06 pm
Kevin Kelly has an interesting take on the challenges of being an artistic type in the modern, hyper-digital era:
Other than aim for a blockbuster hit, what can an artist do to escape the long tail?
One solution is to find 1,000 True Fans. While some artists …
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Wed Oct 1, 2008 @ 9:15 pm
... how many conservative chatterboxes have actually heard Pelosi’s “hyper-partisan” speech (transcript, video). Maybe hyper-partisan speech is, like, subliminal, or something, but I don’t see anything here to get all offended …
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Mon Sep 29, 2008 @ 5:07 pm
This is my first time watching the US presidential process from abroad. I’ve lived abroad before (a year in Germany and two in Canada), but never managed to overlap with a US election before. I was part of a course in persuasive speaking during …
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Thu Sep 11, 2008 @ 12:40 pm
NPR has a great overview of the current scandal/gate/tempest-in-a-teapot brewing in US politics. Hearing more of Obama’s speech, it’s clear that the “pig” comment refers to his “that’s not change” riff. Out of …
Permalink • Posted in: 2008 election, politics, news • Comments (1)