As I reported previously, my review of Mediated Interpersonal Communication, edited by Elly A. Konijn, Sonja Utz, Martin Tanis, and Susan B. Barnes (Routledge, 2008), is out in the September, 2010 issue of the Journal of Communication. I know it’s just a book review, but it is my first publication in an academic journal, so I’m stoked.
Special thanks to Brian H. Spitzberg for passing this opportunity on to me.
Voting has begun for South by Southwest 2011. I have proposed two talks and one panel. I am hereby requesting your support. Click on the links below and vote for these ones:
INTERACTIVE: Disconnecting the Dots: How Our Devices are Divisive:
We drive cars to the gym to run miles on a treadmill. Inclement weather notwithstanding, why don’t we just run down the street? The activities are disconnected. We sit in close physical proximity with each other and text others far away. The activities are disconnected. Technological mediation creates a disconnection between physical goals and technology’s “help” in easing our workload. There are at least two types of disconnection enveloping our days: one between ourselves and our environment (e.g., pumping water vs. pumping iron) and one between ourselves and each other (e.g., individual distraction vs. global connection) with technology wedged in between in both cases. If our culture is essentially technology-driven, then what kind of culture emerges from such disconnections between our physical goals and our technologically enabled activities?
FILM: Building a Mystery: Taxonomies for Creativity:
There is a limit — a rule of the grammar, if you will — of the number of elements that the average story can carry. There’s a point at which too many elements cause one story to fall apart, a line across which something else (e.g., a sequel) is needed. This limit is qualitative to be sure, but it’s not hard to tell when it’s been exceeded. While building a theory and weaving a narrative are very different enterprises, one can see parallels in the amount of elements each will carry. It’s less like the chronological restrictions we place on certain activities (e.g., you must be 18 to vote, 21 to drink, etc.) and more like having enough cream and sugar in your coffee. It’s a difference like the one between hair and fur. So, how many elements make a good story?
MUSIC: Finding Success and Thriving on Chaos:
If you need help finding your way into the current music milieu or your way from a rut to a groove, this is the talk for you. Helmed by musicians with lengthy and successful yet unconventional careers and unconventional takes on the upended music industry (e.g., Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky, Dave Allen of Gang of Four/Shriekback, Aesop Rock, Rebecca Gates of The Spinanes, et al.), this panel will be stoked and stocked with helpful information, insight, and inspiration for the aspiring as well as the veteran artist. From punk rock to Hip-hop, all genres are welcome. The unserious need not apply.
Okay, so there are a million other awesome-looking panels and talks, but I must implore you all to vote for these. Voting closes on August 27th, so vote early and everyday until then. Please and thank you.
Suspected to have been dead for years, Preston the Cat finally received the call yesterday. He stayed at my parents’ house for seventeen years, through the tenure of two horses, and outlived Priscilla the Cat, Winnie the Dog, and Hershey the Goat. Like his archenemy, His Own Tail, he never liked me much, but we were almost friendly during his last days. At the time of his death, I only have one Preston-inflicted wound requiring a band-aid.
He is survived by Cindy (his initial owner), Moms (couldn’t care less about a cat), Jack (his primary caretaker who affectionately referred to him as “Worthless Furball”), myself, Push Broom, and his best friend Basket of ‘Tatas. His scowl, tail-hating neurosis, and intermittent but incessant knocking on the door will be missed.
The skate zine show There Is Xerox On The Insides Of Your Eyelids is headed to Southern California at the Torrance Art Museum. The show opens July 24th and runs until September 4th.
I need to get in on this…
With thanks to Andy Jenkins and The Skateboard Mag.
Here’s a clip of Laurie Anderson’s classic deconstruction of the National Anthem [runtime: 1:50], with thanks to Richard Metzger:
Steve Aylett sent me this PSP-animated short by Yuko Kondo It’s based on the Aylett story “The Man Whose Head Expanded.” Check it out [runtime: 3:18]:
Bob Osborn, owner of Wizard Publications, which published iconic magazines BMX Action (née Bicycle Motocross Action), FREESTYLIN’, and briefly Homeboy, as well as the book The Complete Book of BMX (1984), is a the kind of person the world could do to have a few more of. His free spirit and eye for talent indirectly influenced the course of my life. By hiring younger, kindred spirits on little more than a hunch (e.g., Andy Jenkins, Spike Jonze, and Mark Lewman), he changed the face and voice of BMX bicycles, as well as the lives of many who rode and read about them from the mid-70s to the early-90s.
McGoo McGruther, no stranger to the small but influential world of BMX, recently interviewed Osborn for Chop Cult, and I’m happy to report that his spirit is as free as ever, and he’s still rolling tough on two wheels.
After my guest lecture at The University of Illinos at Chicago in Mike Schandorf’s “Writing for New Media” class, recent UIC graduate Jenna Reisch interviewed me for their Unconventional Jobs blog. Here’s an excerpt:
How did you get started in academic writing and what interested you the most? Is research a large part of this career?
RC: Well, academic writing, strictly speaking, is done for academic journals and is mostly written by scholars for other scholars. What I do and want to do is either called “para-academic” writing or “public intellectualism.” I’m not really interested in writing strictly for an academic audience. I want to write about smart stuff, but to write about it for everyone.
How I got into this is probably a longer story than we have room for, but I’ll try to make it brief. After several years of doing music journalism, writing for magazines about bands and records, I read a book by James Gleick called Chaos. It blew my head wide open. I suddenly realized I wanted to do so much more. From there I read tons of “sciencey” books until I zeroed in on what interested me most (which turns out to be human communication and technology), and I went back to school to study it, which is where I still am.
Research is a huge part of this. As I mentioned above, following my interests turns almost everything I do into research, but good, old-fashioned reading and note-taking are also a big part of it. Fortunately, I love that stuff!
The full interview is here.
Many thanks to Jenna for the thoughtful interview and to Mike Schandorf for inviting me up to UIC.
Though he said that he shouldn’t go on camera after we’d been up all night (this was during SXSW after all), he makes a lot of sense (as usual): Dave Allen’s interview with Brian from CD Baby on musicians and the internet Continue reading “Strategy vs Tactics: Dave Allen Interview”
Directed by Johannes Gamble and Federico Vitetta, this one-minute clip of Rick Howard, Mike Carroll, and Spike Jonze quickly captures the spirit of skateboarding with your friends. Its handful of brief vignettes illustrate how sessions out on the board are as much about clowning on each other and dorking around as they are trying to land genetically enhanced, “molecular” kickflips — even though the latter is what people will be talking about. Continue reading “Spike Jonze’s Twizzler Lakai Commercial”
