hal tweets ·7:42 AM
A short piece I wrote for AOLnews about why Peep culture trumps privacy online. http://bit.ly/bQECsC
2009,
14:14 GMT
Peep Art: Rhianna painting (with bruises)
Posted by: Hal
Since I’m on a celebrity kick here this week (see yesterday’s Courtney Love Double Peep) here’s today’s entry, Peep Art. Yes, peep is the new sex and as everyone knows peep (sex) sells. Enter Los Angeles artist Sham Ibrahim who has given us a Warhol knock-off portraying pop star Rhiannon’s police evidence photo (also conveniently leaked to the press). Taken after her boyfriend, fellow pop star Chris Brown, beat her up, the photo and subsequent painting show Rhiannon all bruised and bloodied.
But, hey, don’t look for social commentary here. Says the artist, who goes by his first name: “I thought the bruises in the police photo were interesting shapes to draw. And it was cool to color them pink and blue. Those are two of my favorite colors. There is no message to any of my art. It’s meant to look cool hanging on your wall and that’s it! I’m not into deep meanings.”
I’ll bet you aren’t. But you are into peep and you know, just like your not-buddy Courtney Love (see below) that anything that has to do with the private lives of celebrities will get you instant attention. In this case, when Sham’s painting was put up on celebrity gossip and ephemera site World of Wonder (you can buy it here for $100 and hang a faux Warhol beaten pop star in your living room) it was noticed by E!Online, then Yahoo News, and then thankfully made it into my daily Globe and Mail. The result: crappy Peep Art goes global!
I googled our man Sham and discovered that – exciting — there’s a Courtney Love connection to all this! In 2007, Sham wrote a piteous blog post on World of Wonder. In it, he follows Courtney Love around after one of her concerts and is apparently shattered when Courtney rejects him: “I jumped out of the cab and said, ‘Hey, Courtney!’ I was about to tell her that her show rocked and ask for one simple picture. That’ s it. Before I could do that, she said, ‘Why is this ugly guy following me?’ and sauntered into the hotel.”
2009,
11:52 GMT
Courtney Loves Double Peep
Posted by: Hal
Here’s an example of one of my favorite (new) media phenomena: the Double Peep. In the Double Peep, someone—usually a celebrity—peeps him or her self by revealing far too much about their thought process through some online format. Then the mainstream media takes over and does the rest: relentlessly promoting an overshare barely anyone noticed until it takes on a life of its own.
Here are the details as culled from an article in the Independent which managed to twist this mindless tidbit of celebrity gossip into a very serious sounding 700 word piece titled: “Love’s online spat sparks first Twitter libel suit”.
Basically, Courtney Love has been obsessively tweeting (is there any other kind of tweeting?) on the subject of the character of her former fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir. The Austin, Texas designer (now the recipient of millions of dollars of free publicity as countless media outlets run this news story accompanied by a pic of Love in one of the dresses she designed…see below..) has launched a lawsuit for, among other things, accusing her of being a “nasty, lying, hosebag thief.” Nice tweet Courtney!
Apparently all this has to do with a $4000 bill for clothes received Love never paid, which caused the designer to…ah…stop sending her clothes.
Hey I wish I could parlay a dispute over four grand into a multimillion dollar publicity campaign - I mean lawsuit, sorry - that will probably benefit both these women far more than hurt them.
Double Peep strikes again. This isn’t the first time, and it definitely won’t be the last, that somebody entertains us by offering an unfiltered portal into their thought process (however addled) and, in the process, offers the media a ready-made story peeping the peep. Consider the lawsuit is a bonus for everyone involved.
2009,
16:42 GMT
Hal at the Buffalo Small Press Fair and Hal goes out tonight! Wow, the excitement!
Posted by: Hal
Hey everyone tomorrow (Saturday March 21) myself and Broken Pencil editor Lindsay Gibb will be in Buffalo selling mags and books and checking out the Buffalo Small Press Fair. So if you’re in the mood and in the area, come by and check it out. We’ll have special deals for all our American friends! (Ps - we have 2 seats left in the car, too, so if you want to come with us, shoot me an email at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) Click on the link for all the info…
Also, tonight I’m going to drop in at the ROBERT DAYTON/JEAN-PAUL LANGLOIS art exhibit launch: Friday, March 20, 2009, 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: Paul Petro Special Projects 962 Queen Street West.
So come by if you want to see some funny art and hang out a bit.
2009,
12:48 GMT
The Other Porn Addiction: Why are ordinary women exposing themselves online?
Posted by: Hal
Check out my article in the Walrus, The Other Porn Addiction. It’s about women who expose themselves online. It explores their motivations and the possible reprecussions of their ‘hobby’. It starts off with a scene from the Red Clouds dinner party some of you might remember me writing about in this blog last year. Anyway, let me know what you think.
Oh and there’s also an interview with me about the article, also up on the Walrus site, done by the very smart Toronto writer Stacey May Fowles. So check that out too.
Above: Illustration by Virginia Johnson.
2009,
16:40 GMT
Is Facebook Gossip, Entertainment or Friendship? Hal discusses on CBC Radio's Q
Posted by: Hal
So this morning I’m going to be on CBC Radio’s art and lifestyle show Q talking about Facebook, in particular responding to a study just released by the Economist.
The study basically shows that the average person has around 120 “friends” on Facebook but that most people only actively follow and comment on the profiles/status updates/pictures/wall posts of say 10-15 of those “friends.”
This is pretty much a validation of what I’ve been arguing in terms of Peep Culture, that we use social networks less as genuine attempts to achieve friendship and more as a combination of entertainment, marketing and gossip (not the gossip that used to keep community cohesive, but the new global cyber gossip that allows us to feel like we have relationships with people we don’t know).
The truth is that although many of us claim that we only add people we know, most of us do not really ‘know’ 120 people in any meaningful way. We’re adding them because the urge to do is irresistible. With the click of a button, we’re entertaining ourselves and marketing ourselves. It’s all very addictive and exciting. (I’m totally guilty of this…the other day someone accused me of being FB friend obsessed….I thought about it for about 4 seconds before realizing that she was totally right…I need help.)
So check out the show if you want to hear me discussing this in more detail, it’s on today at 10am est but they also have a podcast.
The Bloggist
Hey, I’m Hal Niedzviecki. I’m a writer/thinker who lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my wife and daughter. Up till now I’ve always considered myself a private person. But at the same time I’m fascinated by people who effortlessly open themselves up to the whole world. So I’ve… more...
A short piece I wrote for AOLnews about why Peep culture trumps privacy online. http://bit.ly/bQECsC
New content on the Broken Pencil website! Short fiction: Shack the Clam Girl + How to Make Your Own Game Cabinet http://bit.ly/b6CHLP
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