A lot has changed over the past few weeks. I’ve settled in at home in Seattle, done a few really fantastic interviews, had my life — or at least my bathroom habits — changed by the new iPhone, and taken a trip to Portland. Next step: apartment hunting, job hunting (Know anybody hiring copywriters? Get in touch.) and writing, writing, writing.
Catching up on some friend news you can use:
Nick Douglas talks to a new podcast called PODCAST about being funny on Twitter, and his upcoming book, Twitter Wit: Brilliance in 140 Characters or Less. I am apparently in this book, although it’s disputable whether anything I do belongs between covers with the words “brilliance” and “wit” on them.
Neven Mrgan and Buzz Andersen release a top-notch new Twitter client for the iPhone. It’s called Birdfeed.
I gave a little talk about webcockery at BarCamp Seattle over the weekend — “webcock,” of course, being Dean Allen’s “naming convention for online-marketing, web-strategy, killer-startup cheerleaders/water-carriers.” Instead of tearing down webcockery directly, I tried to give a cock’s-eye view of the ideal social media marketing expert. Retweets! Hashtags! Auto-following! With these simple tools, you can ruin Twitter faster than ever before!
The session was called “Webcockery 101: How to Leave Twitter Soooo Much Worse Than You Found It. Ugh. Jesus Christ.”
Unfortunately, there’s no video of these shenanigans. Just in case people are curious, though, I’ve uploaded a PDF of my slides. Also, thanks to Tara Hunt for posting a good play-by-play of the discussion to Twitter. It went something like this:
# Now onto Webcockery! ……I don’t know either.
# “The webcock toolkit includes linking to urself relentlessly, only reading ur @ replies, following everyone back, followfridays, etc”
# “Retweeting is the webcock reach around.” LOL
# “If you don’t provide a place for people to see popular links on the internet, who will?” #webcockery
# “Only follow people who automatically follow you back.” #webcockery
# “Refer to yourself to a ‘______ ninja’ in as many profiles as possible.” #webcockery
# “You might just want to tap that star”
# .@catherinegordon ‘Webcockery’ is NOT a positive term. It means you are a douche. These are tongue in cheek.
# p.s. If ur following the #webcockery tag, it’s tongue-in-cheek. Webcockery is douchery. The ppl who are using twitter for the wrong reasons.
# In other words…DON’T BE A WEBCOCK.
# He’s creating a venn diagram of where Webcockery overlaps with Douchebaggery. Nice.
Afterward, Chris Downie, who ran a morning discussion about “social microgames,” offered $10 to anyone who would “retweet” my talk later that day. Dylan Wilbanks took him up on it and put on a version of the presentation that was as deadpan as I wish mine could have been.
On Sunday, we did a live Q&A for Am I Flirting?, the flirting blog I write with Melissa Gira. Melissa co-presented via Skype, to talk about some of the situations that led to AIF? posts and take questions from the audience. A lot of fun people showed up, and we had a great time with it (despite some problems with the patchy conference wifi). I have nothing but good things to say about doing a live version of your blog, especially if you write to a fairly narrow theme, as we do with AIF.
Drew Olanoff is going to beat his recently-diagnosed Hodgkins with the help of the entire Internet. If anything goes wrong in your life, blame Drew’s Cancer by twittering about it with the #blamedrewscancer hashtag. Hopefully, each blame will translated into a dollar for cancer research, donated by sponsor companies.
Tuesday, June 9th is a big day for J.C. Hutchins, because that’s when my Suicide Girls interview with him goes online. (EDIT: it’s up now.) Oh, he also has a book coming out, or something … Yes indeed, Tuesday is launch day for Personal Effects: Dark Art! There’s going to be a bunch of awesome crossover stuff on SG to coincide with the launch and add to the story. I’m glad to be a part of this, and I can vouch for the quality of the novel. It’s a well-executed psychological thriller that actually spooked me a bit, and the characters are great.
Gillen and McKelvie just released the cover for Phonogram vs. The Fans, a limited-run Phonogram fanzine produced by Matt Sheret and available at San Diego Comic Con this summer. Amazing stuff:
I’m in the process of moving, which means I’ve been pretty bad about putting anything new online over the past week or so. My tumblr is temporarily a lazy Internet paean to girls I like, and I’m finishing up some exciting interview stuff for SuicideGirls and pitching some new projects.
In the meantime, moving means a few inevitable days and nights of looking back, and I prefer to get that out of my system by posting music videos. The only thread tying this playlist together is that these songs have spent weeks or months at a time caught in my head. I’m temporarily between homes, between plans, and without much of a grip on things, so please indulge me while I go with my first instinct and retreat into the familiar.
Reverend and the Makers – Heavyweight Champion of the World (2007)
I remember watching as Seattle’s former Major League ballpark, the Kingdome, was imploded to clear the space for a sparkling new stadium. That’s what graduation is: an inevitable, carefully-planned blast. Right now, I am as old as the Kingdome was when it came down, and I’m smiling through the dust of two decades spent in school. School’s been good. Cold, concrete, familiar, like the Kingdome. There were a lot of memorable games, a lot of players came and went, and fortunes rose and fell along the way. But ultimately, the thing’s got to be blown up. It’s got to be sucked into itself to make way for a more comfortable, better-lit space, without a bad seat in the house. So, hello, from the midst of my own personal implosion. I move back to Seattle one week from tonight. Here’s to building something this summer.
Momus always seems to turn up at uncertain times in my life. Almost three years ago, he replied to my panicky email full of questions about what I should do with my life. A year later, I made my first trip to New York City to catch one of his rare US performances. He gave me sound advice, and I owe a lot of good times and lasting friendships to the realization that New York wasn’t as far away or as intimidating as I had imagined it. How fitting, then, that I ended up at a Momus show last night right here in Philadelphia. Maybe it was the lighting, or maybe it’s all in my head, but the photos I took all seem weirdly reverent. Someone also posted a smattering of videos from Momus’ recent performance art collaboration with Aki Sasamoto, Love is the End of Art, which I missed due to silly timing on my latest New York trip.
I also decided, in the interest of my sanity, to scope out a Star Trek/Terminator: Salvation double feature. I definitely recommend it if you have an afternoon free for mindless entertainment and sickening amounts of popcorn. Christian Bale almost ruins Terminator, but he doesn’t have an enormous number of lines, so it still manages to be a fun action flick. Star Trek will thrill you if you’re a fan, and probably still entertain you if you’re not. They’ve clearly plotted the introduction of each familiar character in the film for maximum fanboy catharsis, so if you have even the faintest idea who Kirk, Spock and Scotty are, you’ll leave with a smile.
And, of course, what my friends are up to:
Speaking of recent graduates, the brilliant Diana Kimball has excerpted her thought-provoking paper on the state of publishing for her blog.
There is also Melissa Gira’s completely charming Sex 2.0 keynote, in the style of This American Life. Remember, kids: Unitarians do it with the good condoms.
Melissa also recently wrote about the Craigslist sex services scandal for Slate.
Evan is going to be on NPR’s Soundcheck again on June 5th, discussing the massive feature about Purple Rain that he wrote for PopMatters.
Over at SuicideGirls, I’ve been lucky enough to share screen real estate with nearly 2000 gorgeous, tattooed, pierced, alt-style-loving women, and a group of formidable writer geeks that includes Mur “Playing for Keeps” Lafferty and Wil “The Happiest Days of Our Lives” Wheaton. If that’s not enough to beggar belief, wait until you meet the new girl. Rachael Webster, aka PixelVixen707, is a New York-based gaming columnist who’s a bit more unconventional than even SuicideGirls is used to.
See, Rachael is a fictional character. I know. It surprised me, too. She publishes amazing video game reviews on her blog at PixelVixen707.com, she Twitters, and if you ask her a question, she’ll be happy to write back. She’s also a character in my friend J.C. Hutchins’ current fiction project, Personal Effects. There’s a novel called Dark Art, a freshly-released prequel, Sword of Blood, and absolute oodles of other stuff around the Internet. Start off at J.C.’s website, get lost in it, and go nuts. Actually, go ahead and literally go nuts: you can have yourself committed to the book’s mental institution, Brinkvale, and get the papers to prove it. Some of this stuff is even going to be turning up on SuicideGirls in the near future.
A few years ago, reading Daniel Robert Epstein’s interviews with some of my heroes on SG, I could honestly never have predicted that I’d get the chance to do those interviews myself. And if you had told me that one of my co-workers would be a fictional writer who brings a new meaning to “coming alive on the page,” well, forget about it.
I just enjoyed my first week without law school in three years. I can’t explain what it feels like to be through with applying to law school, fretting about law school, studying for law school, actively avoiding law school, or talking to other people who are doing any of the above.
Today, I received an email from an admitted student, seeking advice and asking about my experience. I stopped short of saying “do not do this thing to yourself,” but only just. Instead, I put my shiny new legal education into action and more or less took the fifth. I’ll do the same here, and skip right to telling you about things I don’t regret:
MC Lars played a show in Philly a couple Tuesdays back, and I trekked out in the rain in the midst of finals to hang out. Despite the weather and the short notice keeping people away, Lars and his band put on a great show for a small crowd of hardcore fans. Catch them live if you can, because they leave no crowd un-rocked. Plus, how sweet is it when you’re hanging out with a buddy and then you see he’s opening for Nas a week later? (Totally sweet.) If you missed my SG interview with Lars, backtrack here. Also, it’s worth noting that Lars asked me the most important question anybody could ask about his new album, “Does it make you happy?” Yeah. Yeah it does.
The night after finishing my last exam, I celebrated by going to see the joyous, raucous, indescribably high-energy live show of Peelander-Z. Take Japanese punk from outer space, add crowd participation at every turn, crazy color-coordinated costumes and human bowling, and you still haven’t fully explained Peelander-Z’s greatness. I left the club grinning uncontrollably. Although it doesn’t come close to the live experience, Peelander-Z has an awesome new album out, called P-Pop High School, and it is appropriate for anyone who enjoys fun.
Next, I took a trip up to New York to visit Nick, Melissa and Amanda Lee. I had a great time seeing everyone, and enjoyed some much-needed de-stressing from the past three years of school. Did you know that Whole Foods in New York sells beer? I didn’t, but I sure do now.
Meanwhile, my interview with the recently-rediscovered proto-punk band Death is up at SuicideGirls. It’s a story about music that was ahead of its time in the ’70s, but never got the audience it deserved until this year.
We have also been posting at Am I Flirting? again. Please resume sending your flirtcentric questions to amiflirting (at) gmail (dot) com.
And of course, my friends continue to astonish me:
• Melissa gave the keynote at Sex 2.0 over the weekend. Apparently she conducted it in the style of This American Life. Wish I could have seen that. I’ll link a video if I find it.
• Corey’s throwing up panels from his upcoming Sharknife: Double Z. My god, they DO exist!
• J.C. Hutchins optioned his 7th Son novels to Warner Brothers for a possible movie. I’ve got more Hutch-related news to throw at you soon, but the guy is working like a madman to put out cool stuff for his Personal Effects: Dark Art project.
• I have been remiss in failing to inform you that Gillen and McKelvie’s Phonogram: Singles Club #2 is out, and that it is magnificent. It’s arguably the best Phonogram story yet, and by far the most accessible to the non-pop-musically inclined reader.
Musical Interlude: Hammarin & Robin: Hell Knows I’m In Love
I’m supposed to graduate next month, and I currently find myself in the thick of my last-ever law school exam week. Although the signal from this blog is weak right now, you can still find my regular trail of crumbs on Tumblr and Twitter during this harrowing time. Posting at Download Squad, while not prolific, is also still happening. In the meantime, here are some of the things pushing me through a harrowing exam week:
On top of containing more caffeine than your standard cola, Red Bull Cola also tastes approximately 50 times better. It’s not sickeningly sweet, it’s not harsh, and it doesn’t leave you feeling like a bloated puddle of corn syrup after you’ve had a couple cans. I swear by coffee for long studying or writing sessions, but as summer rudely barges in and the heat gets unbearable, a refreshing cold beverage makes a better caffeinated companion.
A music site like Pandora or Last.fm is essential during exams, helping you avoid the potentially infinite timesink of making a study playlist. It’s easier to cut corners and by firing up the Orbital station. Instantly, you’ll be swimming in a sea of pleasant-yet-undistracting tracks from your favorite mainstream 90’s electronica acts. Orbital, Leftfield, Underworld and The Orb all feature prominently.
N.B.: this is probably less effective if you weren’t into this stuff ten or fifteen years ago, because you may find yourself abandoning your studies for a Google mission to learn more about the genre.
If you feel like you’re taking yourself and your studies too seriously, you should probably give it a rest and watch a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory. Big Bang is a serious contender for my favorite sitcom of all time, and it’s a goofy look at academia that might help you put your exam-week challenges into perspective. Take two brilliant, socially inept physicists, put them in an apartment across the hall from an attractive-but-average girl, throw in some Chinese food and Halo, and you’ve got a perfect distraction from your work.
Once you finish off an exam, you may want to kick back with a light, delicious beer. Banana Bread Beer is good any time of the day, making it ideal for the weird hours school sometimes forces on us. It’s not literally like drinking banana bread, and — judging by the reviews on Beer Advocate — you’ll be disappointed if that’s what you expect. Instead, expect a light banana flavor, not a lot of hops, and a generally smooth drinking experience.
That’s all for right now. I’ll catch up with you when exams finally come to a merciful end.
I’ve started quite a few posts for this blog this week, believe it or not, but I’ve been busy with taxes, job hunting, and other life business that unfortunately has little to do with writing. I’ve still been keeping busy, writing-wise, though. You can check out my interview with Maynard James Keenan (Tool, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer) over at SuicideGirls, and I’ve been tumbling some interesting finds over at Film Noir Tagline.
Meanwhile, around the web …
I haven’t met Allison Weiss, but I am totally proud of her for winning a regional competition for CampusMusicFest. I think of her as representing the Internet for all music-related purposes, so when she wins the whole enchilada in LA this summer, it’s like all of us win too. I sincerely recommend checking out her music and following her Tumblr.
My pal, the brilliant sci-fi thriller writer J.C. Hutchins, has revealed the new cover for the upcoming print version of his 7th Son: Descent. It looks fantastic, and does a great job of representing the story. If you haven’t heard the 7th Son Trilogy as a free podcast, get on that before the print editions come out. I’m excited to see how Book One has tightened up and gotten better in subtle ways since it was first podcast, and I know Hutch will deliver. Also, one of the clones is now named Jay. I’m not saying it has anything to do with me, but a dude can dream.
While I’m talking about friends’ book covers, here’s the cover for Nick Douglas‘ collection, Twitter Wit, which is due out this fall.
Corey made a poster for his Seedless comic that is too awesome for words. I display it here for your inevitable approval. You can pick one up at Emerald City Comic Con. Dear Corey S. Lewis, please draw me a new thing for the top of this blog. It doesn’t have enough hot comix axxxion.
Musical Interlude
French indie-rockers Phoenix have the album of the year in the works. It’s called Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, and it comes out in May. For now, you can whet your appetite with their four-song Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix EP. Here’s the first single, 1901. It’s extraordinarily addictive.
Seattle has treated me wonderfully so far, but it has also worn me out with too much fun and too much food. Fortunately, the Internet offers many spectacles for your amusement and careful consideration. Here are some that grabbed me this week:
From Friends, etc.:
Nerdcore buddies Doctor Popular and MC Lars have a new musical video up, in which Lars drops names and Doc drops a great chorus and flexes his legendary bod (is this how he got to be so Popular?).
Via Suicide Girls: Sam (sometimes known as Fractal Suicide) is raising money for a cancer treatment facility in honor of a friend she recently lost. 18 Suicide Girls posed for the gorgeous “Fuck Cancer” print that you can pick up for a small donation at Sam’s site. [Thanks to the always-mindful SFSlim for pointing this out.]
Paul Ford reviewed 700-something South by Southwest mp3s last year, six words at a time. I thought he was insane. This year, he did over 1,300. I’m not sure what I think he is, now. Tired, probably. Possibly a newly-minted alcoholic. I know I would be.
This poster by Matt Jones gets right to the heart of things. Yes yes yes. I found it via Merlin Mann and Warren Ellis — the first time I’ve ever seen anything reposted by both of them. I think that’s less a coincidence and more a comment on the universal appeal of Matt’s message.
You don’t have to wait to read the whole issue. Click “Add to Cart” and we’ll ship your copy immediately.($5.00 + S&H) Regular edition NY, NY edition Explorer may ask you to enable ActiveX before it loads the Add to Cart buttons.
One reason (not THE reason but ONE reason) Hannibal and Heist have slowed down is I have no computer. Why? Well, I’m volunteering here in New Mexico with Organizing for America to help reform health care. This is something I believe in enough to quit my sweet job and digs back in New [...]
A couple tiny sketches out of my tiny sketchbook, the...1)2)- ZUKO from Avatar! My fav character in the whole series (voiced amazingly by DANTE BRASCO, who also played the amazing RUFIO in HOOK). Mebbe it's not a huge secret anymore, but I recently did some Avatar work (which should be showing up soon?). And I'm kind of working on a new pitch for a […]
Tuesday, June 9th is a big day for 
Over at SuicideGirls, I’ve been lucky enough to 
Need more? Check my tumblr, 
