Month: December 2009

Writing Update: November

Oh, heck, still haven’t done one of these. So, yes, I’ve hit my target of twelve complete short stories, one for each month, that are going to be submittable somewhere. Some of them are even in a submittable kinda state. For the rest, I’ve got three weeks to knock some sense into them.
So one last time, that title list, some titles will change:
– “The Tape”
– “Buckets”
– “Babel”
– “The Twelve Times I Drank Too Much”
– “Lift Story”
– “The Apotheosis of Melvin Rameka”
– “Inappropriate Boss”
– “The Intervention Upstairs”
– “The Confession”
– “Box Takes A Honeymoon”
– “Perfectly Right”
– “Walking story”
In the last update I mentioned spending “half an hour today chewing over one line of dialogue” for the show. I spent another hour or so on it a week later, then in rehearsal someone called me on it. “Self-indulgent”. They were right. I cut the line, and it plays heaps better. So there’s a lesson.
For the first time in five years I’ve pulled the fantasy novel off the shelf and I’m ticking about with it, perhaps with an eye on this.
Actually, my main writing mission right now is getting my Kapcon game ready…
Right, final stretch. Wish me luck and fortitude.
[Previous writing update]

Twitter makes my world smaller

At a course I was on the other day, the tutor asked us to sell her on Twitter, the micro-blogging service that continues to be the flavour of the moment. What was the point of it?
The other web-native in the class related how Twitter is essential for her professional networking as someone who works in web; and how her active network of real-world connections effectively drive their social activity through Twitter.
It made me wonder about my own relationship with and use of Twitter. I signed up at the end of March, mostly to secure my preferred username. Since then, I’ve sort of figured out a rhythm for using it, and on reflection I think it has had a small but curious impact on my life.
I view Twitter as an ongoing conversation which I dip into from time to time. Sometimes I’ll click through the archives and catch up; mostly I just see what people are saying right now. The conversation aspect is important, as questions and replies ripple back-and-forth across the 180-odd people who I follow.
However, those followers aren’t all of a piece.

  • There’s my real-world crew, people I know and care about whose activities are of interest to me just because of that connection.
  • There’s my content-providers, people who I don’t know at all but who consistently provide curious and interesting things to look at (a significant chunk of Friday linky comes from Twitter).
  • There’s my political agents, people who are tracking and promoting political angles in which I’m interested.
  • And there’s my “famous people”, generally creative types who communicate on a massively one-to-many scale about whatever the heck they want.

Two effects on my headspace from this.
First, the world seems smaller. It really does become one big conversation, and connections between people seem magnified. UK writer Warren Ellis chats with recent arrival in Wellington Meredith Yayanos who swaps jokes with William Gibson while heading out to watch the dolphins just mentioned by friend Jack Elder who compares notes with friend Suraya who converses with Warren Ellis… and round and round it goes. It magnifies network effects, and NZ is already home to some pretty intense network effects. It makes the world seem pretty small.
Second, it’s shown me a new kind of “fandom” (for want of a better word). I’ve been following Dollhouse, as regular readers know, and the Twitter presence of that show is pretty strong. Many of the Dollhouse peeps are on Twitter and they all seem to be friendly with each other and hang out a lot; more importantly, they all were quite up front about what it was like fighting to keep their show on the air, and then lamenting its cancellation, and finally celebrating the fact that they are in a show they really believe in. And they clearly respond to and appreciate the community of readers around them. Its a view into the collaborative creative energy that I haven’t seen before, and that I really appreciate. (Longtime readers will also know I’ll a big fan of collaborative creative energy…) It’s something that I didn’t expect to appreciate – I was all snobbish and sniffy about following actors on favourite shows – but turns out, I like it, at least for this set of people.
So, yeah, Twitter. Not essential. Not for everyone. But definitely an interesting tool that can be harnessed in more ways that I initially expected, and one that will keep being part of my online presence.
(I also have been known to ask “what’s your at?” to people, asking for their Twitter ID. Heh.)
(Related to that last note – in conversation with a Yoof the other day, I heard for the first time the expression “typed up” meaning “found on the internet”, e.g. “He typed up this video of a kid dressed as Batman wrestling his mom”. Interesting usage for word geeks to note!)

Rolley Derby in Wgtn


Just a quickie, since I’m late for school: on weekend went to the local roller derby for the first time, an event called Skate Highway One. The local Richter City women took on the Pirate City crew from Auckland. City-vs-city rivalry at its peak!
It was hella fun. Seeing the local team skate out to a thunderous welcome from the home crowd – yeah, it felt good. And the skating was intense and furious and competitive. Wicked fun, even though Auckland smashed Wellington – the Aucklanders were consistently bigger, stronger, smarter and more skilled than Richter City, and it showed. The locals showed a lot of heart by continuing to skate their guts out right to the end, though, and the crowd loved them for it.
I’m definitely going back.
The photo shows one of the winning banners. Heaps more photos of the bout here.

[mediawatch] *Sigh* DomPost does it again

In today’s DomPost, an article by Paul Easton about John Key’s decision to go to Copenhagen, as blogged extensively here last week.
Boxout section headed “Tackling The Environment”, in its entirety:

Lucy Lawless, actress: “There is no planet B. Let’s go about the business of tackling climate change. Our Government needs to sign on to a 40 per cent reduction target by 2020.”
Gerrit van der Lingen, New Zealand Climate Science Coalition: “I hope no agreement will be reached. After all, there is no scientific evidence human greenhouse gas emissions are causing dangerous global warming. Actually, the planet has been cooling for the last 10 years while CO2 levels kept on increasing. I call it the greatest scam in human history.”
Joe Milne, 19, shoe salesman, Wadestown: “It’s going to be a problem for my kids, and their kids. It’s good that Key’s going; you need the top figures there.”
Angelica Vestin, 27, mother, Tawa: “Hopefully it will not just be talking, and it will lead to some real action. Climate change does have an effect on the Earth, and it’s something that everyone can do something about.”

Why did Paul Easton feel the need to invite comment from the Climate “Science” Coalition?
Why did Paul Easton think it was fine to include that comment without any contrary scientific voice?
Does Paul Easton understand the implicit messages that result when you balance the concerns of three laypeople against the contrary views of someone identified with science?
Just… for heaven’s sake. Paul Easton – or, of course, the subeditors/editors who achieved this result – you get a big fat FAIL for this.

On The Telly Linky

So I was only on for a flash, but I was on, and more importantly the show I wrote and am co-directing got a big glamour play. So good! Can’t sell tickets if people haven’t heard about it, after all!
Anyway, some hasty linky for your Friday:
Re-creating a Matrix scene with Lego:

Incredible short piece of journalism about restorative justice in action – not glowing, not snarky, just completely real. Kudos to Stuff.co.nz for running this with such prominence, it’s the kind of thing that gets buried or ignored all too often.
Mother Jones article on NZ’s climate change refugees from Tuvalu.
The AV Club’s been doing their decade best-of. Best films of the decade, Best TV of the decade, Best Books, and more. Check it all out for some smart commentary about what culture has been doing the last ten years.
Historical photos with superheroes ‘shopped in. But kinda good.
And finally… Celestial Soul Portraits. Whoa.

Key is going


“Prime Minister John Key has done a U-turn and confirmed his intention to fly to Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change conference.”
I am pleased, and surprised, and pleased, for all the reasons discussed here (including comments).
Congratulations are due to the Greenpeace crew who really drove this campaign – although there was certainly some high-level pressure as well, e.g. at the Commonwealth Heads of Govt talks, the grass-roots definitely got the message out enough that Key heard.

Marie Antoinette on Nightline

Edit: we’re on tonight!

Yesterday the afternoon was spent in the Hippopotamus restaurant, filming a segment for TV3’s Nightline late edition news show. Nightline does like its quirky culture bits to round off the evening, and we’re lined up for Monday’s show tonight’s show!
We had five costumed performers enjoying High Tea, improvising like mad and gesticulating for the cameras. Eric (of the “how to behave” video) was interviewed, then a couple of the performers (one in-character, one out). The whole experience was good fun, and low-stress once it got rolling. Reporter Tova and cameraman Dan made smart decisions fast and pulled good signal out of a lot of noise; it was obvious they were both building the piece up from nothing in their heads as they went. Nice to watch.
And the Hippopotamus was amazing – very accommodating and helpful. Their high tea is wonderful! I mean to go back and check out the evening menu some time, executive chef Laurent Loudeauc spent a while watching what was happening and he seemed to be a nice gent, and the food definitely sounds amazing.
So, nice work everyone! There’ll be more photos up on the Flickr photostream soon, I hope. And we should be on Nightline on Monday!
Homepage: Affair of the Diamond Necklace

Ignorance is Priceless


Yeah, I know, I’m about to rant about advertising again. Sorry.
The new Mastercard Moments “Pebble” campaign bothers me more than any other ad in recent memory. I saw it first as a print spot (see it here), then discovered it had a TV incarnation as well.
The print ad shows a lush landscape, with a timeline superimposed. The timeline describes geological activity over millenia that led to a particular pebble sitting beside a lake. A dad has just skipped the pebble across the water, impressing his son. The clincher: “Not knowing what goes into a moment: priceless.”
The campaign is by McCann Worldgroup (warning: their website is really poorly designed). They helpfully outline the reasoning behind the campaign here:
“Show MasterCard Moments as the enabler to making having priceless experiences easier, without you having to worry about a thing… Unbeknown to him is everything that gone into making that [moment] happen for him.”
Oooh I hate it so much. The phrasing they use is just so obnoxious. “Not knowing what goes into a moment”, i.e. being ignorant. In this case, ignorance of the natural world and the scale on which it operates, of the massive interconnectedness of the global eco-system, of the many complex contingencies that led to life playing out as it did. The less you know about this stuff, the better.
They could have phrased it differently. “Not needing to know”, say. “Having all the hard work done for you”. There are lots of other ways to keep the same general solution to the brief without saying ignorance is the neatest thing. We didn’t get those ways, though, we got “ignorance is priceless”, straight up. The fact that none of the copywriters or editors and Mastercard approvals people thought this was an issue just goes to show how little people think about ensuring they are really saying what they mean. Or perhaps that’s being charitable, and they actually mean to deride an awareness of the bigger picture.
Argh, it’s such a horrible, horrible spot. While I’m upset about it, consider: this ignorance of geological scale and interconnectedness, this fundamentally self-centred view of the world, is exactly the same affliction that is leading us to massively overexploit the natural world and underprepare for the consequences. The dude who is ignorant of all these things is surely driving a big ol’ Humvee, right?
Also: this priceless moment is all about a dad showing off to his son. That’s the one! Show that kid you’re way better than he is at skipping stones! Proving to him that you are still the man! Surely an experience to be cherished universally.
Y’know, if Dad wasn’t ignorant of all that history, maybe he could explain it to his son. Blow the kid’s mind a bit about how big time is and how small we are in comparison and how amazing it is that time shakes out a whole lot of chances into one specific result.
I know I’d find that a whole lot more priceless than watching my dad skip a stone across the water.

Key might go


The poll I linkied yesterday is gone to wherever those polls go (I guess they just get deleted, nice on Stuff.co.nz) but TV3 at least is reporting that Key might go after all:

“There’s a case that might be able to be put up that is if it looks like a deal is going to be concluded,” he says, “then obviously I might need to react to that and get on a plane.”

That’s our master statesman at work. Still, as I’ve written before, I think it’s very important to get as many top nobs in the same room as possible for Copenhagen. The climate change problem needs to be addressed through the nation-state (that is why the I in IPCC stands for Intergovernmental) and that makes John Key a player, our % contribution to the overall problem notwithstanding.
I hope the reportage is accurate, and the campaign that I talked about before has achieved an unexpected success. Go John Go!
(Hey, just checked that link, and the image of Reptilicus is gone from Photobucket! I’ll go add in a different Reptilicus photo. Go Reptilicus!)