Moleskin Marvelous

Now the image to the right is an archetypal blank page - which many creative people just love to encounter. However more than a few writers I know, aren't that fond of a blank page, even if it's part of a famous 'moleskin' notebook. Many of us prefer the merest of hints, a kick-start, a slight nudge, something small that prompts additional output or even leads to creative crescendos and that, ever elusive, flow. and of we go, the bottom or so, the next

Chris or someone in my twitterstream pointed me to this site, which I believe is very entertaining and inspirational,you should have look and make up your own mind - all of the images are copyright.

http://moleskinex4.blogspot.com/

What I want for Christmas 2008

Dear Santa, May I have one of these Please:

new media me arts - keep them gates locked

Over at the Irish Arts Council, they came over all new media recently, yet I'm sure some traditional Irish phds could prescribe a suitable course of treatment to remedy that situation.

In the interests of freedom, information and national progress, they have even gone to the trouble of putting up several files offering audio etc from the the various strands and break-out sessions from the day.

I really must say, having listened to and viewed pretty much all of the material, in part hope of some free education maybe, I learned little if anything new, also, with the exception of some comments from the artist Conor McGarrigle the majority of the information and opinion struck me as both dated and somewhat skewed, any central idea that there is only two major perspectives on 21st century creativity and that new media is merely the web or web + mobile, or webtv & podcasting and blogs, just ridicules the whole point of bringing so many people together for a 'new media and the arts' discussion in the first instance. But this is a state sponsored body remember, so you can really only expect state sponsored thinking.

I got peeved with Keen's condescendingly curt dismissal of the collaborative novel project 1 million penguins - and his overall myopic pigeon holery in general. While good ole gooner charlie leadbetter did 'pitch in' on the merits of potentially new paradigms, and despite the presence of the ever popular John Kelly, the whole thing still managed to come across as a private champagne party in some poor unfortunates' desert. Thanks god we'll be back to proper civilization soon eh charlie...back behind our own familar gates.

New media is exactly that, it's media that is new, as opposed to old and we all know what old media is.. the fundamental difference between old media and new media is quite simply: access.

So it was illuminating to see so many representatives of the gate keeping fraternity on the role call prepared to discuss all aspects of it.

What with the draconian IP laws in ireland and the EU, It's like potential criminals visiting a prison officers convention to learn about freedoms of expression. We had RTE, Microsoft, the education sector in various guises and then a few self interested self promoters there to snag a bit of business and tell us what the best (them centric!) methods were. Which again is entirely counter-productive to the spirit of new media.

Oh I could rant for hours about this sort of cultural hegemony... but I won't.

Plastic Pages - Chewing it - Yum Yum

It took a while for solid info on the Plastic logic electronic reader to trickle down the web to me. IMHO, although it is supposedly aimed at a 'non-lesiure' or business market it will more than give Sony and Kindle a run for, your money.

In his embedded presentation here, Richard Archuleta mentions that the device has an open standard - for me the most interesting and exciting aspect of the product. We all know about thae VCR becoming an electronic babysitter.

For business technologists, business writers, creative writers, digital creatives, indeed all writers; this must be an interesting development, all writers are readers - a simple fact new writers often overlook or conversely become preoccupied with.

Works considered 'classic' or essential to writers' understanding of their craft seem to grow exponentially by the week. Apart from the actual classics, I have easily 100 books about learning various forms of writing on my physical bookshelf and another half a terabyte of articles and essays, papers, notes, clips, presentations, diagrams, images, etc etc filling my external WD drive. Yet only seven of those books and a surprisingly small number of articles and papers actually discuss future formats. Few writers feel equipped to speak about the future of their craft.

The BBC posted an article on it today and as usual, the whole discussion is framed in terms of our current media formats, existing and past platforms - we are speaking and writing about future technology but in yesterday's critical vocabulary.

Its frustrating that Richard and his colleagues must also do the same to ensure they don't alienate the vast rump of the business community that is, treacle-like, reluctantly trudging towards a networked future.

Rather than the Sony Reader, or Kindle, I'd really like to get my hands (& eyes) on one of these devices - specifically to test if it will support some new forms and formats I've been playing around with lately and which I believe will become more prominent in the future.

ONLY 33 followers in four days of twittering?

Actually 33 real and generous people being in anyway interested in anything I might have to spontaneously say/write possibly seems like an incredulously outlandish stat to my long suffering wife Lucy.

But there it is in green and white and a bit of blue and a kind of off colour which is hard to pin down at this time of night/ morning. I have learned some stuff in the last four days since I first joined twitter:

1. Do make lists, people apparently like lists.

2. Don't be my usual overtly opinionated self - be humble but not an idiot.

3. Find some funny images of cats or monkeys to improve tweet end visuals

4. I can't be truly spontaneous without shower gel in my hand.

5. The world of Twitter contains a lot of PR centric and 'good info' tweets

6. The world of twitter contains a lot of Real and generous people.

7. Don't use 'big' words like incredulously or outlandish as they really break th twitter bank and make me sound like a dick.

8. Put some time and thought into tweets and posts.

9. Don't start using twitter until I've finished building my site (Got that one very wrong)

10. Is always a good place to end lists.

11. be original - most kids haven't seen spinal tap.

SNL classic already

more entertaining than the real thing - for sure

Irish Long Tale: a short story about a short-sighted short Arse ?

I read Chris Anderson’s book last year, it got buried among the other books I read, I dug it out recently just to remind myself of the sub-title:

‘Why selling less of more is the future of business’

Now how many people are cognizant of that idea of ‘niche’ mass markets ? Let me be optimistic and say the vast majority of people with Broadband access and a brain, most of us understand that social media, web 2.0 and baseline technology innovations have enabled the creation of a proliferating Internet that caters for all tastes, the web now brings geographically diverse interest groups together, with the consequent impact on customer creation – Chris Anderson might not have another quality idea in his lifetime, he might have several, even thousands ! And that’s the real nature of the future – unpredictability. Or is it ?

Some subtle common sense indicators of the future exist, a sky that crams with clouds may suggest to even the most meteorologically myopic that there is some potential for rainfall. A chill wind might suggest the prudence of having a jacket to hand. Such delicate indicators were present in the Irish Economy in the last five years and few warm and dry greed merchants took notice, propelled as they were with their own important opinions and an exponential appetitive for their own self improvement – sadly seeking it only in the material sphere.

BIFFO (above), our then arrogant minster for finance, was down and dirty with the engine of our economy: the builders, the developers, the finance industry, while FAS ran amuck training people how to use hods and spinning jennies, enterprise Ireland did what they always do: Sweet FA and generally after the fact, The uni’s got pumped with money, so that the Dean’s could adopt a more CEO like posture, God forbid if they had to actually teach someone something, researching some research while primary education was given mere lip service, the politician’s even tried to give themselves a pay rise, Meanwhile BIFFO just fired our money at things for political expediency, but it’s the National Development Plan clevercelt, it’s the spatial strategy dipso, again it’s the economy stupid, infrastructural deficits, building with the builders for the future, reduction of national debt, you small folks just don’t get the bigger picture.

And he’s probably correct, I don’t get his bigger picture, as painted in their monochrome ideas, the colour in my life comes from all sorts of sources and primary (sic) among them, are my three sons. I tried to protect/insulate my kids and prevent them from getting dragged into the material whirlwind and greed storm that was Irish society over the last couple of years. I listened to them, because they are part of the one predictable thing about my future. That for me has been the biggest flaw in our national government over the last number of years, utterly incapable of engaging with and understanding the next generation. Trying to do so now, just smacks of patronisation.

Dublin's Snoozin' Skyline

Kevin Power reports a no-show from David McWilliams after all.

MR Power (doefishal blog roighter bye de look off tings) Opines:
"(where was he?), the Irish Values debate proved a fairly stimulating seventy minutes. It was a fearsomely bourgeois event – a reminder of the extent to which the Irish middle class still hasn’t become aware of itself as the dominant social and cultural force in this country. "

Jaysus I hope dare not waitin' on yous fellas to wake dem up dare Kevo. Let dem haff an udder snuz while me mates and me check out dare gaff.

Power perpetuates arcane class strata and incorrectly attributes cultural momentum to a lardarse of passive cultural consumers by means of the most bourgeois of comments. Middle classes me arse Kevin. Ginger took me advice and stayed away.

Bye Bye ‘Buy New’ Button.

So Amazon and the British Publisher Hachette Livre UK are indulged (yup that’s the right word) in commercial fistycuffs over a contract renewal that has meant many of Hachette’s titles have had a ‘buy new’ button removed. Litopia’s podcast and theBookseller.com have discussed this, a couple of very reputable industry figures have waded in also, condemning this squeeze by the big bully on-line distributor on a bastion of the UK publishing industry (well they started in France but what the hell they’re physically in London ole bean and isn't bastion a French word anyway). Of course the bottom line is apparently that it’s the writers who will suffer. So very little new news there then.

But many observers (in Ireland anyway) might ask, why do I recognize that name ‘Hachette’ ? Well they were responsible for giving a deal to the irreverent Irish b(L)ogger (WARNING ON NEXT LINK CONTENT FOR SENSITIVE TYPES) twenty major for his satirical (i.e. unoriginal) book – the order of the phoenix park – so there’s a strange on-line reverse affinity thing going on here.

Hachette attempts to ‘cash in’ on the popularity of an on-line entity, by doing a two book deal, flopped partly because aggressive football terrace humor is really only popular during matches and office lunch breaks, also because blogs let you get some value out of your broadband outlay without having to fork out even more cash, unlike books for which you must hand over real money (unless you use Amazon - ironically ?). Blog viewing tends to be fairly private, I don’t know what badge of honor might be suggested by publicly carrying 20 major’s book. With its singular level of trite humorous simplicity – (think the onion without insight, or infantile opinionated news items plus additional swear word value) – 20 might be able to compete in the world of the free, but when money gets introduced so too does the proverbial quality bar. As experts Hachette didn’t consider this at any point ?

Both these companies are grown ups and playing in the same commercially conceptual space – when people started introducing the dreaded Walmart analogy – the trading temperature increased – the worst thing that ever happened the games industry was Walmarts decision to sell computer games – this immediately deflated the lower end (not really a bad thing) but also wiped out the edges of ( where the innovation mostly happens) the market – the ripple effect, fixed price points – bargain bins rather than the buried games cassettes – divided opinion in the market and the industry – turned the sales floor into a metaphorical subterranean cellar tightening the very structure of the industry in the process - a large contraction.

But Tesco is already selling books in supermarkets and that’s narrowing consumer choice – yes for consumers who shop in Tesco – its pushing down prices and profits and whinge whinge whinge. I love books and booksellers, I love bookshops, I visit both independents and the major chains, I even have loyalty cards but I also shop on-line – some of the books I buy I can only buy on-line. Unless I want to spend two hours on a train (cost 25euro) and a half day wandering around Dublin City (priceless – not in the mastercard sense but in the no money can compensate you for having to do that when you don’t want to sense) So I really do value the service that Amazon offers, sitting here typing on one screen, I can view their latest, albeit ‘automated’ recommendations for future purchase – a tad more proactively efficient than hunting down and interrogating some pimpled graduate in waterstones. But at what cost ? many book store staff are genuinely wonderful human beings and interactions with them are truthfully priceless in that mastercard sense. The robotic proficiency of Amazon is all very well but being built on brand, on a set of concepts that occur in the heads of prospective buyers – Hachette have recently managed to introduce another element to that set of concepts – the online bully and nobody (even other bullies) likes a bully. So it may well be Bye Bye Buy Button for many others, not just Hachette.

Maybe in some sense all writers are actually using Amazon ironically.

STICK TO THE PAGE GINGER

The Dublin Writers Festival will take place from Wednesday 11th to Sunday 15th June inclusive where else but in down and dirty Dublin - should I make that 100 miles round trip to listen to the waffle ?

Ok I'm still seething over that Dublin goal, clearly taken in the square, that spelled the beginning of the end for Louth last weekend in Croke Park - although admittedly the end was never going to remain dyslexic for long - that isn't a valid reason not to whinge about this fine event nor an intentional insensitive remark about dyslexics, it's just.. Dublin ? - do I really have to!

Over those four days next week, the jackeens will host over 40 Irish and international writers and poets, journalists, political commentators, and for some reason lawyers for a series of readings, discussions, debates and public interviews. According to the press release, the Festival will explore the themes such as war, loss, national identity, Irish values, childhood, crime, and the art of the short story.

The 2008 line-up includes JP Donleavey, Tom Stoppard, Anne Enright, Ivana Bacik, Roy Foster, Alan Gilsenan and that particularly idiotic and annoying home-bread ginger man David McWilliams. Ginger is apparently a media sensation that came to collective attention pontificating on that most precise and exact science - future economics - He has written authoritatively about the economic and cultrual developments in Ireland. Maybe a bit strange then that even he isn't lined up to discuss the great white elephant in the room - electronic literature - or indeed the future of the book - of course even with Ginger there isn't any actual authorities about to enlist in a discussion. That could be one reason for the topics absence or omission the other of course could be that even the organizers don't know anything about it.

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If I could get 10 fans never mind 1000 - I'd survive

As any English premiership manager can tell you, you need balls, obviously it's football- of course you need balls but you also need to keep the fans happy. When results in soccer start to go pear shaped, the fans are usually the one's who initiate the call for the manager's head. And sure as bankruptcy follows sub-prime, the aforementioned manager will (to combine footballing epithets ) get the boot, at the end of the day. (all credit to the lads (just for extra cringe)

So what would happen if the to be sacked manger 'managed' (sic) to retain 1000 (yes 1K) fans, well apparently, while perhaps not a guarantee of a premiership management salary, it would be sufficient for the sacked manager to make a living by using the internet. Now before you start flinging Nielsen rating at me, understand that it is the eminent Kevin Kelly that offers this hypothesis and not myself.

I happen to find it intriguing to think that you can support yourself (wife, kids and family) on a loyal readership of 1000 fans. Well obviously you'd have to produce something worth buying (like maybe the new elbow album I'm listening to at the minute) which is pretty excellent stuff, butI find it interesting that I forked out 18 euro for the physical CD and it's available on 7 digital for under a tenner. That's a good way to lose fans.

What Kevin might also seek to address is the difference between the hordes of bloggers and floggers on the net. I'm not particularly interested in monetizing my content, I have no urge to ram ads down people's pupils, I'm not going for the audience build thang, like many others I'm just amusing myself here with some cheap textual therapy, which means this is already saving me 60 euro an hour writing it, to then have the audacity to ask someone else for money would simply be a long tale too far. If 10 people read and enjoyed this, that's more worthwhile than 1000 demanding fans. I know it's Paddy's day but you'd really want to be outta your skull to chase fame and fortune by the thousand.