It occurs to me that in a way, I've been doing more updating of a personal nature on my music blog. Not sure if it's of interest to anyone over here, but just in case, here's the link:
http://heathermillermusic.tumblr.com/
Lots of songwriting contests and such and posting my latest demos there.
Loving the fall. Got myself a brown corduroy jacket and feel pretty spiffy about that. :-)
Read my grandma's memoirs again tonight. Lots of little insights and sweet anecdotes. Feels like there's gotta be a song in there somewhere. Would like to do one for all my grand parents. Hopefully before they go.
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Monday, January 05, 2009
The Internet is Not Your Enemy!
(Huge post I just went off on in my MySpace blog. So much has been stewing around in my head lately that I feel like I might need another blog that just deals with the music biz/social networking aspect of things, but for now it's going here too.)
I've been running into a lot of artists in the past year who bemoan that they "have to do all this darn internet stuff!" They're having people tell them from all sides that they HAVE do this or that thing online to be successful. And learning how to use all the new sites, plus keeping up with them, seems like a major pain-in-the-arse timesuck, not to mention the totally valid cry: "How will I have time to be creative?! I can't even keep up with the stuff I'm already doing right now! I just want to play guitar!" (or whatever it is they do, write songs, practice piano, etc.)
It's totally true. Maintaining a current profile and even superficial relationships on even just the few most popular social networking sites CAN easily eat up all your time. And there are new sites being created every day, most with good intentions to help artists, and some not-so-good intentioned ones. With so many rabbit holes to fall down, hours later you can end up somewhere barely related to where you started out, and nothing checked off your to-do list. (guilty as charged!)
Here's the thing though - according pewinternet.org 75% of Americans use the internet. I don't know how accurate that is exactly, but really, that's huge, and it has to be pretty close. So yes, if you want to be a performing artist as a living in today's world, you HAVE to have an online presence. (You can be a music maker in plenty of other capacities besides as a living, obviously. But it's good to be clear on which it is you want.)
So, you have to have an online presence, but you get to choose what that means for you. There's no one way to do it. Fans just want some sort of relationship with an artist, if it's not personal interactions, they want to feel like they matter as part of the team. Of course there are bands on big labels that have people running their social sites, but indies like Ani DiFranco and Dar Williams have had their interns blog about them - it's totally transparent, fans know they aren't chatting with the artist, but they still get an insider perspective. Imogen Heap makes 10 minute video blogs every couple weeks or so, updating fans on the progress of her latest album.
Online tools should be an extension and support to offline life, not a hindrance. I mean, how cool is it that you could give an online concert to someone in Portland, Maine and Portland, Oregon at the same time, from your cozy nest in the middle of a tiny town in Iowa, no schlepping of gear or filling of gas tanks required? Sometimes it helps to remember that there are other people on the end of those internet connections, who WANT to be connected to you. But it helps to be smart about it and find the right communities. If your music is best heard in a coffee shop environment, you probably aren't going to have much success playing at a punk rock venue right?
Here's something I left as a comment over at Gayla Drake Paul's blog, when she was saying how she started a Facebook page and keeping up with it PLUS MySpace was making her crazy. I brought it over here because I think it relates to the thoughts I was writing about above, which have been stewing around in my head for a while now, because she's not the only one who has been having a hard time keeping up with all the online stuff:
"Yeah, you don't have to do any of those games and such on Facebook, they're pretty much just silly and you can hit the ignore button on them, really. Unless there's a few you like.
The thing that's neat about Facebook is it can be sort of like going to a virtual coffee shop, connecting with people, having conversations, overhearing conversations and joining in, sharing things. It's more two-way than MySpace (which is maybe something you'd rather not have!). But it's perfectly ok to set up your own ground rules like "I don't do games on Facebook". I mean, in the offline world, if you don't play football, it's not like people expect you to play football. But sometimes you have to let people know in the online world what you do and don't do, cuz it's not as obvious to them. You're the hostess of your online party, you can tell people what kind of party it is. :)
I was reading these articles the other day by a pretty smart guy named George Howard about how "random acts of improvement" generally do more harm than good, and going into these networking tools without a game plan can lead to sense of "oh, I tried that and it doesn't do any good." or even "I made a Facebook page and I didn't sell any albums, maybe my music just isn't any good/people don't get me." etc, etc. Not that you SHOULDN'T have a Facebook or MySpace page, but that your other pages should be part of a bigger strategy.
Anyway, I think they are worth a read (you may have to copy and paste the two halves of that first one and stick 'em together. And just swap out the word "entrepreneurs" for "musicians" when you're reading it, the same principles apply.)
http://www.artistshousemusic.org/articles/the+importance+of+setting+goals+and+tracking+progress+for+entrepreneurs
http://tunecore.typepad.com/tunecorner/2008/12/conclusion.html "
The internet has TONS of powerful tools that can help you further any sort of career, musical or otherwise. But there really IS way more information being put out than you can possibly keep up with! There's something like more than ten hours of content was uploaded every minute to YouTube alone! We have to start learning how to put filters in place for ourselves. I heard the analogy applied to Twitter that it's best to treat it like a cocktail party, and I think it applies to plenty of other online sites as well - don't expect to follow every conversation in the room. Drift to the ones that engage you naturally, have a good time, make connections that you may strengthen or deepen later in a setting more appropriate to doing so.
OK, so this has been really long, and I have a lot of other thoughts on the subject, but I think the main point is: YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF YOUR ONLINE LIFE! You choose how to use the internet, don't let it use you.
This is something I need to work on for myself this year. One of my friends said she's going to try setting a timer for certain tasks, and then just walk away for the day when the timer goes off. I thought that was a pretty cool idea. Anyone else have time-management ideas?
I've been running into a lot of artists in the past year who bemoan that they "have to do all this darn internet stuff!" They're having people tell them from all sides that they HAVE do this or that thing online to be successful. And learning how to use all the new sites, plus keeping up with them, seems like a major pain-in-the-arse timesuck, not to mention the totally valid cry: "How will I have time to be creative?! I can't even keep up with the stuff I'm already doing right now! I just want to play guitar!" (or whatever it is they do, write songs, practice piano, etc.)
It's totally true. Maintaining a current profile and even superficial relationships on even just the few most popular social networking sites CAN easily eat up all your time. And there are new sites being created every day, most with good intentions to help artists, and some not-so-good intentioned ones. With so many rabbit holes to fall down, hours later you can end up somewhere barely related to where you started out, and nothing checked off your to-do list. (guilty as charged!)
Here's the thing though - according pewinternet.org 75% of Americans use the internet. I don't know how accurate that is exactly, but really, that's huge, and it has to be pretty close. So yes, if you want to be a performing artist as a living in today's world, you HAVE to have an online presence. (You can be a music maker in plenty of other capacities besides as a living, obviously. But it's good to be clear on which it is you want.)
So, you have to have an online presence, but you get to choose what that means for you. There's no one way to do it. Fans just want some sort of relationship with an artist, if it's not personal interactions, they want to feel like they matter as part of the team. Of course there are bands on big labels that have people running their social sites, but indies like Ani DiFranco and Dar Williams have had their interns blog about them - it's totally transparent, fans know they aren't chatting with the artist, but they still get an insider perspective. Imogen Heap makes 10 minute video blogs every couple weeks or so, updating fans on the progress of her latest album.
Online tools should be an extension and support to offline life, not a hindrance. I mean, how cool is it that you could give an online concert to someone in Portland, Maine and Portland, Oregon at the same time, from your cozy nest in the middle of a tiny town in Iowa, no schlepping of gear or filling of gas tanks required? Sometimes it helps to remember that there are other people on the end of those internet connections, who WANT to be connected to you. But it helps to be smart about it and find the right communities. If your music is best heard in a coffee shop environment, you probably aren't going to have much success playing at a punk rock venue right?
Here's something I left as a comment over at Gayla Drake Paul's blog, when she was saying how she started a Facebook page and keeping up with it PLUS MySpace was making her crazy. I brought it over here because I think it relates to the thoughts I was writing about above, which have been stewing around in my head for a while now, because she's not the only one who has been having a hard time keeping up with all the online stuff:
"Yeah, you don't have to do any of those games and such on Facebook, they're pretty much just silly and you can hit the ignore button on them, really. Unless there's a few you like.
The thing that's neat about Facebook is it can be sort of like going to a virtual coffee shop, connecting with people, having conversations, overhearing conversations and joining in, sharing things. It's more two-way than MySpace (which is maybe something you'd rather not have!). But it's perfectly ok to set up your own ground rules like "I don't do games on Facebook". I mean, in the offline world, if you don't play football, it's not like people expect you to play football. But sometimes you have to let people know in the online world what you do and don't do, cuz it's not as obvious to them. You're the hostess of your online party, you can tell people what kind of party it is. :)
I was reading these articles the other day by a pretty smart guy named George Howard about how "random acts of improvement" generally do more harm than good, and going into these networking tools without a game plan can lead to sense of "oh, I tried that and it doesn't do any good." or even "I made a Facebook page and I didn't sell any albums, maybe my music just isn't any good/people don't get me." etc, etc. Not that you SHOULDN'T have a Facebook or MySpace page, but that your other pages should be part of a bigger strategy.
Anyway, I think they are worth a read (you may have to copy and paste the two halves of that first one and stick 'em together. And just swap out the word "entrepreneurs" for "musicians" when you're reading it, the same principles apply.)
http://www.artistshousemusic.org/articles/the+importance+of+setting+goals+and+tracking+progress+for+entrepreneurs
http://tunecore.typepad.com/tunecorner/2008/12/conclusion.html "
The internet has TONS of powerful tools that can help you further any sort of career, musical or otherwise. But there really IS way more information being put out than you can possibly keep up with! There's something like more than ten hours of content was uploaded every minute to YouTube alone! We have to start learning how to put filters in place for ourselves. I heard the analogy applied to Twitter that it's best to treat it like a cocktail party, and I think it applies to plenty of other online sites as well - don't expect to follow every conversation in the room. Drift to the ones that engage you naturally, have a good time, make connections that you may strengthen or deepen later in a setting more appropriate to doing so.
OK, so this has been really long, and I have a lot of other thoughts on the subject, but I think the main point is: YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF YOUR ONLINE LIFE! You choose how to use the internet, don't let it use you.
This is something I need to work on for myself this year. One of my friends said she's going to try setting a timer for certain tasks, and then just walk away for the day when the timer goes off. I thought that was a pretty cool idea. Anyone else have time-management ideas?
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Nandi's 100th Post Contest!
So one time, back in June I guess it was, I told my friend who always sends me great links that she should start a blog. Because the whole world should know about her great links, not just me. So 6 months later, Nandi has hit her 100th post! Whoo Hoo! And she's having a contest to celebrate!
All you have to do is go to her blog and leave a comment on this post about something you've done that was unusual or spontaneous and you could win a hand-knitted chapstick holder, complete with chapstick. And it's really yummy chapstick.
And while you're there, check out some links and other posts!
All you have to do is go to her blog and leave a comment on this post about something you've done that was unusual or spontaneous and you could win a hand-knitted chapstick holder, complete with chapstick. And it's really yummy chapstick.
And while you're there, check out some links and other posts!
Friday, December 05, 2008
Oh blog...
It has only been 5 days. I have missed you, and yet been relieved not to HAVE to post anything (though granted it was my own idea to participate in NaBloPoMo). So much and so little has happened during our time apart!
I've been temporarily laid off my part time gig due to lack of funding. (so has everyone else, I haven't been singled out). Due to "the economy" as they say. It should pick up in January, there's lots of promising promises being made that I believe. So I'm not worried really. Just knowing I should make ends meet in the meantime, but without the same fire under my butt that not believing would ignite.
I also have some leads on some temporary part time work to fill in the gap, but none of that has really started quite yet, so I'm floating in limbo this week, not really getting anything done at all, not even my homework, and I'm very, very far behind in that. ARGH. Been visiting and talking and planning and having meals with people, which is very good, because I'm also alone. So I guess that's not nothing.
The sink totally backed up today, made a mess of making dinner for my brother and his gf. Embarrassing, but they seemed to take it well. I prattled on a lot, a little nervous, wanting them to be happy and comfortable. I managed to ask some questions towards the end, I hope I did alright. So silly, isn't she supposed to be the one nervous to meet me? Maybe she was. They are super cute together in any case, and the food was tasty, so yeah. It was an "extra Thanksgiving" theme, because I personally did not get enough Thanksgiving, because it was a potluck and I didn't bring home any leftovers other than stuffing.
G's friends and family have been chatting with me a lot more lately, wanting updates about him in Dubai. I honestly don't know much more than they do, but I AM impressed at how well my minimal Spanish is holding up so far with them. I was worried I'd totally lose it after focussing on music stuff to the exclusion of Spanish, but so much of it is still there. Thank goodness.
It's been rattling around, several people now have told me that I should write a book (maybe a whitepaper?) about about music social marketing and/or to start a service for musicians to help them with it. The thing I haven't figured out yet, is that a huge part of it is BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS. And I can't do that for them, can I?
I mean, I guess big companies have evangelist/mouthpiece/marketing people, and if being a musician is running a small business, no reason they couldn't have someone doing that part for them, but it would be a delicate balance - how transparent would it be? Ghostwriting? Just a representative, openly doing the work/gatekeeping? Depends on the artist? Some like the social networking, some hate the idea of even turning on a computer. I have the patience to coach people through this stuff, but it's only as useful as you use it... You have to actively participate in the community to build a community. I can set up your accounts and show you around, but you oughta be the one maintaining them right?
The tricks are (and this is not necessarily the order of priority):
1. To get them to understand WHAT the tools are - explaining things (what's a widget? Twitter wha'?) from the ground up is tricky, need to find the common denominator things they DO know and build from there.
2. To get them to understand WHY the tools are useful and important (do I really have to do ANOTHER online thing?)
3. To get them over their fear/confusion/frustration with the internet/computers/technology in general (I just want to play my guitar!)
My brother suggests that I do my book with cartoons, people like comic books and they're more likely to pay attention. :-)
Writing a book is NOT ever something I thought I would ever, ever do. Books are what other people do. Books take too long to write. I want to write songs. Right? Hrm.
I've been temporarily laid off my part time gig due to lack of funding. (so has everyone else, I haven't been singled out). Due to "the economy" as they say. It should pick up in January, there's lots of promising promises being made that I believe. So I'm not worried really. Just knowing I should make ends meet in the meantime, but without the same fire under my butt that not believing would ignite.
I also have some leads on some temporary part time work to fill in the gap, but none of that has really started quite yet, so I'm floating in limbo this week, not really getting anything done at all, not even my homework, and I'm very, very far behind in that. ARGH. Been visiting and talking and planning and having meals with people, which is very good, because I'm also alone. So I guess that's not nothing.
The sink totally backed up today, made a mess of making dinner for my brother and his gf. Embarrassing, but they seemed to take it well. I prattled on a lot, a little nervous, wanting them to be happy and comfortable. I managed to ask some questions towards the end, I hope I did alright. So silly, isn't she supposed to be the one nervous to meet me? Maybe she was. They are super cute together in any case, and the food was tasty, so yeah. It was an "extra Thanksgiving" theme, because I personally did not get enough Thanksgiving, because it was a potluck and I didn't bring home any leftovers other than stuffing.
G's friends and family have been chatting with me a lot more lately, wanting updates about him in Dubai. I honestly don't know much more than they do, but I AM impressed at how well my minimal Spanish is holding up so far with them. I was worried I'd totally lose it after focussing on music stuff to the exclusion of Spanish, but so much of it is still there. Thank goodness.
It's been rattling around, several people now have told me that I should write a book (maybe a whitepaper?) about about music social marketing and/or to start a service for musicians to help them with it. The thing I haven't figured out yet, is that a huge part of it is BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS. And I can't do that for them, can I?
I mean, I guess big companies have evangelist/mouthpiece/marketing people, and if being a musician is running a small business, no reason they couldn't have someone doing that part for them, but it would be a delicate balance - how transparent would it be? Ghostwriting? Just a representative, openly doing the work/gatekeeping? Depends on the artist? Some like the social networking, some hate the idea of even turning on a computer. I have the patience to coach people through this stuff, but it's only as useful as you use it... You have to actively participate in the community to build a community. I can set up your accounts and show you around, but you oughta be the one maintaining them right?
The tricks are (and this is not necessarily the order of priority):
1. To get them to understand WHAT the tools are - explaining things (what's a widget? Twitter wha'?) from the ground up is tricky, need to find the common denominator things they DO know and build from there.
2. To get them to understand WHY the tools are useful and important (do I really have to do ANOTHER online thing?)
3. To get them over their fear/confusion/frustration with the internet/computers/technology in general (I just want to play my guitar!)
My brother suggests that I do my book with cartoons, people like comic books and they're more likely to pay attention. :-)
Writing a book is NOT ever something I thought I would ever, ever do. Books are what other people do. Books take too long to write. I want to write songs. Right? Hrm.
Sunday, November 02, 2008
What the hey...
I noticed that NaBloPoMo has rolled around again. That'd be National Blog Posting Month, where you're supposed to post something every single day in November. Well, I already missed yesterday, but I thought I might give it a whirl this year and see how far I make it through the month.
It's been a long time since I really wrote a post on this blog, at least the kind I remember writing when I started, but that's not to say I haven't been thinking up posts in my head. That's a problem I think I have with a lot of areas of life, actually taking the time to translate things out of my head and into reality. I get frustrated with how long it takes, and how it's often not as cool as when it was in my head.
But there's another thing I've been realizing/remembering a lot lately too, kind of headsmackingly obvious but it's come into focus for me lately - if you want to get good at something, you have to do it. Practice. A lot. I forget because I have certain skills that I take for granted. "I can type pretty fast! I can remember where all the letters and numbers are on the keyboard without looking! How come I can't play guitar?" But I remembered recently that when I was learning to type, it took me a while. And my parents got me a game - Mario Teaches Typing. The game made it fun but I had to play it a lot to get good.
Oh my sheesh, I LOVE YouTube! Here's a short video of the gameplay. But was the sound really that annoying? ergh. You'll get the idea without sound if you turn your speakers off:
Same thing goes for writing songs. "I wrote tons of songs in just 6 months of college! How come I only get a couple a year now?" Uh, maybe because it was my assignment in music class to write a melody EVERY DAY. And if I did a chorus melody one day and a verse melody the next day, the rest of the song is bound to come out pretty quickly. duh. And even if they're not all good, when you're writing at that volume, there's bound to be some keepers.
So I think that's part of my reason for wanting to try this NaBloPoMo thing out - just to write something every day, with a definite end in site so it doesn't seem too daunting - with the hopes that by writing frequently on the blog, I'll get those writing juices flowing in general. My other goal being to try and keep the posts at short, easily digestible sizes, for the sanity of both me and any of my possible readers. I know there are a couple of you out there! We'll see how it goes though, the temptation is to try and update this with everything that goes on, and just write till my head is empty, but that doesn't seem very practical.
It's been a long time since I really wrote a post on this blog, at least the kind I remember writing when I started, but that's not to say I haven't been thinking up posts in my head. That's a problem I think I have with a lot of areas of life, actually taking the time to translate things out of my head and into reality. I get frustrated with how long it takes, and how it's often not as cool as when it was in my head.
But there's another thing I've been realizing/remembering a lot lately too, kind of headsmackingly obvious but it's come into focus for me lately - if you want to get good at something, you have to do it. Practice. A lot. I forget because I have certain skills that I take for granted. "I can type pretty fast! I can remember where all the letters and numbers are on the keyboard without looking! How come I can't play guitar?" But I remembered recently that when I was learning to type, it took me a while. And my parents got me a game - Mario Teaches Typing. The game made it fun but I had to play it a lot to get good.
Oh my sheesh, I LOVE YouTube! Here's a short video of the gameplay. But was the sound really that annoying? ergh. You'll get the idea without sound if you turn your speakers off:
Same thing goes for writing songs. "I wrote tons of songs in just 6 months of college! How come I only get a couple a year now?" Uh, maybe because it was my assignment in music class to write a melody EVERY DAY. And if I did a chorus melody one day and a verse melody the next day, the rest of the song is bound to come out pretty quickly. duh. And even if they're not all good, when you're writing at that volume, there's bound to be some keepers.
So I think that's part of my reason for wanting to try this NaBloPoMo thing out - just to write something every day, with a definite end in site so it doesn't seem too daunting - with the hopes that by writing frequently on the blog, I'll get those writing juices flowing in general. My other goal being to try and keep the posts at short, easily digestible sizes, for the sanity of both me and any of my possible readers. I know there are a couple of you out there! We'll see how it goes though, the temptation is to try and update this with everything that goes on, and just write till my head is empty, but that doesn't seem very practical.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Beautiful Photography Blog
I thought people might like this site: http://3191.visualblogging.com/
It's a joint photography project by two women friends who live 3191 miles from each othehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifr. They each take a phone every morning without telling/planning anything, and post them side by side before. Sometimes the synchronicity is breathtaking.
Here's a little bit more from their "about" page:
"3191 is a joint photography project.
we live 3191 miles apart as the car drives, not as the crow flies.
we take our photographs in the morning and do not discuss them beforehand.
we photograph M-F but don't necessarily post every day.
stephanie lives:
portland, oregon, usa
mav lives:
portland, maine, usa
our camera of choice:
Nikon d50"
Enjoy!
It's a joint photography project by two women friends who live 3191 miles from each othehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifr. They each take a phone every morning without telling/planning anything, and post them side by side before. Sometimes the synchronicity is breathtaking.
Here's a little bit more from their "about" page:
"3191 is a joint photography project.
we live 3191 miles apart as the car drives, not as the crow flies.
we take our photographs in the morning and do not discuss them beforehand.
we photograph M-F but don't necessarily post every day.
stephanie lives:
portland, oregon, usa
mav lives:
portland, maine, usa
our camera of choice:
Nikon d50"
Enjoy!
Thursday, May 17, 2007
This would be so cool...
Problogger posted a job for a music blogger on their jobs board. http://jobs.problogger.net/
wow would that ever be cool. I'd love to spend time covering indie/folkie musicians, but I don't think that's what they are looking for. And you have to provide samples of your work, and I don't think I have any great samples... grah. But I should just start doing it, writing about music, and really trying to craft entries and actually SAY something, have an opinion about stuff... and then see what happens. yeah. I should...
wow would that ever be cool. I'd love to spend time covering indie/folkie musicians, but I don't think that's what they are looking for. And you have to provide samples of your work, and I don't think I have any great samples... grah. But I should just start doing it, writing about music, and really trying to craft entries and actually SAY something, have an opinion about stuff... and then see what happens. yeah. I should...
Sunday, May 06, 2007
It FEELS like I've been blogging... or something...
So I guess I haven't blogged much in a while, yet I feel very immersed in blogs in general, since we've started one at work and are trying to figure out how the whole commercial blog thing works. (add "blog" to the end of our address to find it). so I'm reading blogs about copywriting, blogs about home decorating, blogs about blogs, blogs about marketing and SEO... It's pretty amazing really. Makes me wish I had something I actually was passionate or knowledgeable about on a regular basis that people also wanted to hear about.
Two of my blog heroes are:
copyblogger
and
design*sponge
Copyblogger cuz he's so damn good at what he does - his posts are always a great example of what he's teaching in that post - it kind of blows my mind actually.
Design*Sponge cuz she's just so enthusiastic and fresh and generous and honest and supportive of independent designers.
Oh, and let's not forget No Impact Man. The guy in NYC who is trying to live sustainably/off the grid with his family for one year (at least). I'm totally in awe. It's also opened my mind to the concept of how we're so disconnected from each other, that it's no wonder we're disconnected from the environment. We're all plugged in to things that keep us from interacting in real life.
Now, I have a lot of long distance friends and family, and I've found the internet to be a blessing for keeping in touch with them. I bet I would not be nearly as close to some of my college friends, and perhaps would have lost touch with them altogether if not for the internet. Might not even be married right now if G and I hadn't been able to get to know each other online from across the continents, quite honestly! And I love being able to video conference with his family, and I think the whole "on demand" concept of media is wonderful. So that's great. I lurv teh intarwebs! but it's so hard to recognize where that line crosses over from amazing tool for connecting to addictive time-waster for hiding behind... Blogs, flickr, podcasts, MySpace, everyone is generating content, but who is listening and responding? Is it just going out into a void? It's kinda crazy...
Two of my blog heroes are:
copyblogger
and
design*sponge
Copyblogger cuz he's so damn good at what he does - his posts are always a great example of what he's teaching in that post - it kind of blows my mind actually.
Design*Sponge cuz she's just so enthusiastic and fresh and generous and honest and supportive of independent designers.
Oh, and let's not forget No Impact Man. The guy in NYC who is trying to live sustainably/off the grid with his family for one year (at least). I'm totally in awe. It's also opened my mind to the concept of how we're so disconnected from each other, that it's no wonder we're disconnected from the environment. We're all plugged in to things that keep us from interacting in real life.
Now, I have a lot of long distance friends and family, and I've found the internet to be a blessing for keeping in touch with them. I bet I would not be nearly as close to some of my college friends, and perhaps would have lost touch with them altogether if not for the internet. Might not even be married right now if G and I hadn't been able to get to know each other online from across the continents, quite honestly! And I love being able to video conference with his family, and I think the whole "on demand" concept of media is wonderful. So that's great. I lurv teh intarwebs! but it's so hard to recognize where that line crosses over from amazing tool for connecting to addictive time-waster for hiding behind... Blogs, flickr, podcasts, MySpace, everyone is generating content, but who is listening and responding? Is it just going out into a void? It's kinda crazy...
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