hal tweets ·9:49 AM
it’s a miracle: i’m actually cleaning my office.
2009,
16:23 GMT
How’s My Blogging?
Posted by: Hal
Hi everyone, how’s my blogging? Sally and the factotums of Choco Box have sent down a communique. They want to do a bit of a customer satisfaction survey. They want to know how you like my blogging so far. They’re particularly interested in any personal details you might be gleaning from my musings. Actually, you have to go way back to the beginning of this blog to find the personal stuff, but that’s about to change as next week I’ll be shifting gears and writing daily about the life and times of Hal. Anyway, if you have anything to say about my blogging, what you’d like to see me do, say, show, reveal, now’s your chance. Here’s the official customer survey as sent down from head office. Let’s hear what you’ve got to say as we head into the hot summer of Hal.
Hi everyone, We want to get Hal some feedback on his blogging so far. Has he been doing a good job of 'sharing'? Of revealing his personal side? What about his Facebook account? Do you feel you know him any better now than you did before? Or does he keep it too professional, too 'managed'? We're looking for your feedback and you don't have to be kind! Just send a comment to this blog and tell us everything that's on your mind. And stay tuned…full documentary production starts next week and we're looking for people to get involved!
2009,
16:34 GMT
The King of Peep
Posted by: Hal
He went the way he lived, veiled in bizarre secrecy even as the entire world wanted to know everything. Michael Jackson, king of pop, who thrilled me and my teenage cohorts with the audacious creation of a half-million dollar 14 minute music video complete with choreographed zombie dancing, is dead at 50.
He will be remembered as much for Billie Jean and ABC as for dangling his infant son over a balcony for the benefit of reporters and a clamoring public. The image of his moon walk (a move I’ve attempted and failed repeatedly over the last 20 years) competes with the legend of the bizarre ranch/amusement park he built and maintained, a playground so expensive he had to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to keep it going. And just what went on in the popmeister’s Pee Wee’s playhouse? Interest in Wacko Jacko has never diminished. Jackson fed the fire of our fascination with the private lives of celebrities by being at once completely and utterly exposed as a freak, and completely and utterly absent from the public view.
The legacy of Michael Jackson will be more peep than pop. His music will be remembered, but his effect on the culture has been nothing short of seismic. By living the way he did, he actually reshaped how mass media reported on the private lives of people in the spotlight. He was one of the first — if not the first — to get caught in the trap of peep culture. His life itself became spectacle and entertainment. Whether he liked it or not, his every move proved wildly entertaining. Jackson shaped peep culture like no one else. His personal travails showed, beyond anything else, just how entertaining and marketable other people’s lives could be.
Since Jackson, a long line of entertainers and regular people – from OJ Simpson to Britney Spears to Susan Boyle – have been submitted to the Jackson treatment. But it was Michael Jackson, whose every plastic surgery, rumored child fondling and real estate deal, spawned headlines across the world. It was Jackson who inspired the formula we now know and live with: paparazzi stake outs, tabloid celebrity “entertainment” shows focussed on peeping the lives of celebrities, 24 hour news cycles ever attuned to the doings of pop stars — these things were, literally, brought into being by our worldwide fascination with the doings of Michael Jackson.
In 2002, the BBC ran an online poll on their site for teens: “Is Michael Jackson a complete nutter or just misunderstood?” This crass, anything-goes way of using other people’s lives to entertain ourselves, that’s Jackson’s true legacy.
Rest in peace, Michael Jackson, king of peep.
2009,
20:19 GMT
The Pain and the Pleasure: Hal Tour Video Peep
Posted by: Hal
Okay here’s a cute little video Sally did of parts of my book tour. See me cracking up on the Joey Reynolds late night talk radio show (everyone go to Sally’s blog and demand that she give us another video JUST on that, it’s so bizarre and hysterical).
Also: Hal doesn’t want to talk about Chicago (where the listings in all the papers said the reading would be the NEXT night) and the great reveal in LA. (I won’t spoil it for ya, but what Sally doesn’t show you is her chasing down a horrified Timothy Dalton and knocking a stack of books over in the process. Sally: Can I take my picture with you? Timothy Dalton: Ah no, I’d rather not, actually). Here’s a signed pic of him Sally, to take away the pain…
I’m a stuck up asshole…
Anyway, great video and I suppose I better get used to it…Peep culture baby. My pain is your gain.
2009,
13:33 GMT
This is You…This Could Be You….Broken Pencil Summer Sale and Fantasy Party
Posted by: Hal
I interrupt the normal flow of peep info and debate to bring you breaking exciting news from Broken Pencil, the magazine of zine culture and the independent arts. (I’m the publisher and the fiction editor of this amazing mag!)
We’re having a summer sale and contest. Sign up now for a $10 subscription (that’s a $14 savings!) and you will be automatically entered into the draw to attend our totally crazy and awesome BROKEN PENCIL FANTASY PARTY.
So here’s the deal:
Your ticket will cost you $10. For a measly ten bucks you get a subscription to Canada’s most dangerous magazine, Broken Pencil, the magazine of zine culture and the independent arts.
Your ticket will also enter you into the draw to win admission to our summer BROKEN PENCIL FANTASY PARTY. Yes, this is an ACTUAL party with ACTUAL FREE BEER. It will feature bands, readings, videos, general weirdness, special guests, and the Broken Pencil intern staring wild eyed at the specter of bacchanalia and creative mayhem that will be the BROKEN PENCIL FANTASY PARTY.
SIGN UP ONLINE NOW
2009,
16:36 GMT
Peeping the Iranian Revolution
Posted by: Hal
Last night my brother was watching the 6pm broadcast of the CBC (Canadian Broadcast Company) news with his 12 year old son. They showed one of the videos currently sweeping through YouTube that captures the last gruesome moments of life of Neda Agha-Soltan, shot dead by persons unknown while walking the fringes of the protests against Iranian’s repressive pseudo democracy. My brother, who had previously watched the video online, was halfway out of the living room at the time and only partially heard them talking about the video. When he realized they were actually playing it, he ran back in and told his son to cover his eyes. But it was too late – the most graphic part of the video, the final seconds of Neda’s life, ending in a closeup of the 26 year old woman’s face as blood gushes out of her mouth and nose and her eyes roll up into the back of her head — was already playing. Afterwards, his son asked him: “I don’t understand. If she was shot in the chest, why was there blood coming out of her face?”
Last week, the Western media was convinced that Twitter was galvanizing the Iranian people into full scale revolution. This week, the news is that it will be the YouTube video of Neda’s death that will spread outrage and ultimately topple the Islamic regime of Iran. Meanwhile, everyone is putting out articles on how the importance of Twitter and Facebook are being overstated in this burgeoning revolution.
So what to think about all this? Sad to say but Peep plays a role. Whenever we are using mediums that primarily provide entertainment – from television to twitter – to cover fast breaking world events like this one, we are dealing with the problems endemic to Peep.
These problems include: *Veracity – is this a genuine tweet or video? Everything seems true. *Passivity – by watching this and maybe even appending a comment or sending a tweet like “to Neda…we will remember your bravery” are we imagining we are somehow taking meaningful action which actually prevents us from taking meaningful action? Everyone shade their tweets green in support of the Iranian protests. *Context – One person’s outrage is someone else’s entertainment. There is an unsettling blurring between the two. A video of a woman dying sandwiched between commercials for Tide, plus updates on the weather and sports. On YouTube I found a panorama of scenes from the protests culminating with Neda’s death set to U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday. Appended to the video the pronouncement: “Khodaya be Iran azadi bede - ????? ?? ????? ????? ??? NOT A ROCK MUSIC VIDEO. DO NOT VIEW AS SUCH.”
Ultimately, we don’t know if the video showing Neda being murdered will prove to be a catalyst, a distraction or equal measures of both. Our instinct is to believe that when images emerge from a crisis of this magnitude with so much at stake we are not peeping. We are not simply spending our leisure time watching other people’s lives. We are absorbing and passing on crucial information. But the more television, YouTube, twitter and Facebook blur into one big infotainment peep universe, the harder it is to figure out when we have crossed the line from crucial information to peep. We have to watch the video of the young woman’s death so that she will not have died in vain. At least, that’s what we keep telling ourselves when we watch it, decide to broadcast it, or pass it along.
I’ll end with a random sample of tweets about Iran I grabbed off the Iran.Twazzup site providing real time amalgamation of tweets related to the Iranian protest.
Show support for democracy in Iran add green ribbon to your Twitter avatar with 1-click - http://helpiranelection.com
We r having difficulty gettng updates 2 u as many of r contacts been arrested-life here is v/v/dangerous now #Iranelection
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...
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