Quiet on the Radio #004
March 3rd, 2010Quiet on the Radio is a potluck of mentionable items from my story. I group them together, not because they aren’t important enough for their own post. But because if I wait for the right amount of time the urge to divulge will pass.
The Mama Papa
There is a new Plants and Animals video. It’s quirky and française and I love it.
The Mama Papa by Plants and Animals from Secret City Records on Vimeo.
VideoFACT dollars hard at work. I am eagerly awaiting this new album. La La Land will drops April 20. You can hear another track, “Tom Cruise” here.
Plug a plug
Dan wrote a very nice piece congratulating Julie and my upcoming nuptuals. He also echoes my discoveries about how unpopular marriage is among the kids these days.
The funny little technicality that I would add is that not only are we having a short engagement, we had just celebrated one year of knowing each other the week before I proposed.
A mentor of mine commented in an email, “Man you don’t waste time. When did you meet this girl?”
To which I had to point out that my parents met and married within the timeframe Julie and I took to meet and get engaged. Needless to say, they aren’t concerned
Dan and I have yet to meet in person. We’ve been passing bits online for nearly a year now. He is a fellow musician and RSS junkie with exceptional taste. I’ve been able to cut way down on my feeds but still daily find interesting links through his feed. His Facebook Hiatus has challenged me to reconsider the value I receive from that service. I’ll write more on that to come. Maybe.
You Should Have Seen This
Greg Rutter has written a great list of ridiculous Internet memes. I quite like the simple design of the site, and depending on your cache clearing habits, items that you have already visited will be grayed out. Part 1 and Part 2
Warning: this will suck you in for a long time.
Wedding Dresses
….
Rube Goldberg Machines Too Shall Pass
Ok Go must have won a battle with their label about making their videos embedable. I’ve always been a huge fan of Rube Goldberg machines. Especially smashy ones. This video is certainly one of the greatest I’ve ever seen. A nice evolution for Ok Go’s string of single-continuous shot videos.
Update: Here is a link to a behind the scenes, “How they did it” of the video.
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Facebook and Death: The Sequel
February 9th, 2010Is Your Facebook Persona Real?
Is it really you?
Years ago, I wrote an article, “What Happens to your Facebook When You Die?” This article continues to be the most popular thing on my blog. Google sends me lots of people who are wondering this question. Back in November 2009, Nael Shiab, a student journalist at l’Université du Québec à Montréal wrote to me and asked me if I would answer a few follow up questions for an article that he was writing about Social Networks and death.
Here is a link to the article, On ne poke pas les morts (warning, it’s in French.) I wrote a lot more than the bytes that appear in the finished piece. And I thought I might as well share them here.
NS: Now that we have friends all around the world and electronic messages are often the only one way for us to communicate with. Should we think about an “electronic will” with all our passwords, email accounts, and profiles?
I think it’s a good idea to leave this information with a loved one. But the importance of it depends on the type of person and how they use these services.
Some people use Facebook just as a means of keeping in touch with old friends, or sharing photos of your goobery baby. For this kind of person, I don’t think it’s so crucial that their password is left in a will.
There are other people, such as myself (although less lately) who use Facebook as a kind of public diary. Their participation in posting status updates, pictures, links, etc is a part of how they keep track of what has happened in their day, what they learned, a funny thing that happened.
This is very similar to blogging, but A LOT easier, AND you are guaranteed a much larger audience than if you are starting a new blog.
For this type of person, I definitely think it’s important to leave instructions and passwords in a will. Why? because that is the fastest, easiest, and in some instances only way, to get in touch with all of the people that person is connected to online. Through their email, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter. If this is the modern address book, then this is the best way for a family to contact a persons community to notify in case of death.
Imagine someone is an active member of an anonymous online forum community. The relationships they have online can be real and meaningful. And if they pass away, how will word get out to the online community that he died, and did not just stop visiting the site?
Maybe to some people, these online relationships are less meaningful, and therefore do not deserve/require the same kind of grieving and respect to be paid in the sad event of a death. BUT, for the kind of person who spends a lot of their lives online, especially a large percentage of their social life online, CERTAINLY these people and connections are important.
NS: Is our virtual life a part of real life?
Most certainly. And if you don’t think so, maybe you need to watch the Matrix a second time. (Spoiler alert: there is no spoon.) As narcissistic as it sounds, the chronic facebooker I described above is defining themselves and their existence by posting status updates. Is it real? Absolutely. Is it the same thing as talking to real people? Not at all. And there is a danger of getting fb obsessed and mistaking fb for genuine human contact. A facebook poke is not the same thing as a hug. And we all need a hug once in a while.
How you choose to perceive yourself affects how other people will perceive you.
And for the Facebook obsessed, there is the fear that if you stop updating you cease to exist. Poof. You become invisible, and people will forget you’re alive.
NS: Some websites, such as Facebook, transform the page of people who have passed away into a “memorial page” where friends can left a message. Is this a new way to cope with bereavement? Is it as strong as the old way, which didn’t use the Internet?
I can’t really make the comparison between the “new way” and “old way” to grieve the death of a friend. I only know of one friend who has passed away that I was connected to on Facebook. But I can say that her page is a place where people visit to deal with their grief. This friend passed in 2007, but even as recently as today, yesterday last week, friends visit her Facebook page and write on her wall.
I think it’s therapeutic and healing for people to be able to remember a loved one by sharing a message, and sharing it in a place where other friends of hers can see it and smile, and share in the memories. Yes. I think it’s a good thing.
As I think back over all of this, one of the most interesting points is how many people have (and continue to) migrate symbolic importance of their existence into a virtual realm. Sounds sci-fi, but it’s reality.
Posted in Ponderings | Comments (2)
Waiting Until the Time is Right
February 8th, 2010
Dear Blog
Don’t take it personally that you were the last person I told. I still love you. (I know you won’t take it personally… you aren’t even a person! Barely even an inanimate object!)
The News: Julie and I are engaged and will marry this summer.
This new “engagement” chapter of my life has been educational, to say the least. I’m struck by how the kids of my generation don’t seem to understand the “need” to get married. ESPECIALLY, having an engagement less than a year. No, she’s not pregnant. Yes, people have asked.
“Yeah, and we’re planning the wedding 8 months from now. That will be perfect timing.” (For that non-existent baby.)
Well then, why get married? Why not… just… live together… for a long time, until the time is right. And then just see what happens?
I love Julie deeply, with all my heart. I want to spend the rest of my days at her side. She is in the dreams I chase. And I want to support her dream-chasing. We want to grow a family together.
(Is there ever a right time for kids?) Crickets.
The time is right, because I don’t want to let another day go by. And all the little demons: wedding cost, planning, organization – will sort out. They are small peanuts compared to the love we share.
Regularly scheduled blogging can now continue.
Posted in Unbelievable Until It Happened | Comments (9)
Echo Echo on Myspace
December 13th, 2009
You must go and check out the Myspace page of Echo Echo, a brand new Toronto-based electro pop duet. I find this music very exciting. Perhaps I am partial: I make up one half of the band!
Yes, Echo Echo has been my secret creative project, along with the lovely and talented Andrea Caswell. I’m thrilled to share the music with you.
Andrea and I met years ago when we were both cast in a Queen’s Players production. We later teamed up to co-music direct our own Queen’s Players production. Our paths went in opposite directions after Queen’s. I toured, stayed a while in Montreal, then New Zealand before landing in Toronto. Andrea contacted me in New Zealand and asked me if I’d be interested in a collaboration.
Yes! It was perfect to have a creative project in the works before I even moved to TO.
We have been meeting regularly and writing/recording demo material here in Atlas Studio. Andrea is incredibly talented, and it is so much fun to record her. I really believe in the music we’re creating. We’re working away on our debut album, with a release ASAP 2010.
I’m VERY excited to get these tunes on stage. How? Well… That’s a beast yet to be tamed. Andrea will be playing keys and singing, of course. I’ll be playing my laptop, predominantly Ableton Live with a Launchpad. But there’s lots of room for more interactive programming with either MaxMSP or Reaktor. And I plan on keeping my acoustic guitar within reach. You know, in case we blow a fuse. (Or a laptop. Tfu tfu tfu!) I assure you, we are planning an exciting and risky live show. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I’m SO sick of watching bands that look BORED on stage. Bored of their own music! Quit wasting my time and money. If you aren’t kinetically ecstatic to share your music, get out of my way. And I promise, I will waste no one’s time with music that I am not on fire about.
If you haven’t yet, go check out Echo Echo’s Myspace page.
Tags: Echo Echo, Listening, Music
Posted in Spotlight | Comments (1)
“Sexting” is a Problem
December 11th, 2009I know I just claimed there are no problems. I’m balancing my frou-frou with a gut-wrenching reality check. This is a chilling story about a 13 year old girl who committed suicide after on-going school-wide bullying that began after she sent a boy nude pictures of herself via her cellphone.
I am really worried about the discrepancy between the advances in technology/social media and the lag in developing education for ethical behavior, online and off. Do kids get the rammifications of what happens online? I doubt it. Stories like this break my heart.
Via Dan, who is always a great source of interesting links. Subscribing to hundreds of feeds so that I don’t have to.
Tags: Education, Internet Ethics
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