hal tweets ·9:49 AM
it’s a miracle: i’m actually cleaning my office.
Hal
2008,
17:03 GMT
On the Train to Kingston
Posted by: Hal
We’ve just passed Belleville, Ontario and I’m listening to the woman one row up shuffle through papers and talk loudly on her cell about how she needs help figuring out how to reboot her suddenly inoperative Blackberry. I don’t know who she’s talking to since it’s only 8:00 am. Anyway, it’s a fitting start to this blog. Am I peeping her or is she happily exposing herself to anyone who cares enough to listen? I’m not really peeping, because what else can I do but listen? On the other hand, I am doing more than listen – I’m paying attention and writing down what she’s saying.
This blog is about the rise of peep culture. Definition: a culture of mass voyeurism in which we get more and more of our kicks from peeping in on the entertaining foibles of the real lives of others; at the same time, we become more and more amenable to others peeping in on our lives.
So a bit of a peep into my morning: The train left at 7 am. I woke up at 6:10, five minutes or so before my cab was supposed to show up. Actually I didn’t wake up, W woke me up. Who knows when I would have gotten up if left to my own devices. I was counting on the kid to wake us both up at 6 am exactly, like she does every morning. Today, the little bugger decided to sleep in. So much to W’s annoyance I ended up waking them both up as I fumbled for something to wear and stumbled into the bathroom to brush my teeth.
Anyway, I grabbed my carefully packed bag, kissed everyone goodbye and jumped into the waiting cab. Five minutes later I realized I had forgotten my laptop, so we turned around. I ran back into the house past W and kid, and bounded up the stairs. W, who is the kind of person who has to get everywhere at least an hour early, shook her head in horror as I waved yet another frantic goodbye.
At this time in the morning it takes less than 10 minute to get from my house to the train station so I got there with fifteen minutes to spare – time to hit the bank machine and grab a coffee before the train pulled out. Stepping onto the train a few minutes before it left the station reminded me how annoying flying is and how great train travel is. High speed rail please!
I haven’t told you why I’m going to Kingston yet: On Monday, while compiling peep related links for this blog I dropped in on a site I’d been meaning to visit but hadn’t gotten around to yet. It was the website of the Surveillance Project , founded by sociologist David Lyon and located at Queen’s University in Kingston. I noticed that they had a talk scheduled on Thursday. A criminology prof from University of Montreal was coming to talk about public perception of CCTV surveillance cameras. Perfect material for an article I’m writing for The Walrus magazine and for the peep culture book I’m researching. So I called them up and asked if I could come visit the Surveillance Project and talk to David Lyon and the University of Montreal Prof. They set me up with 3 interviews – Lyon, the Prof and a grad student doing research on Facebook. That plus the talk seemed to make it more than worthwhile to spend a day in Kingston. I’ll be arriving in about ten minutes, so we’ll soon see if I’m right. (By the way, 2 more audible cell phone conversations took place on the train while I wrote this: One woman trying to coordinate a meeting and one woman just chatting about her life.)
2008,
14:58 GMT
Family Day
Posted by: Hal
So yesterday was the first annual Family Day, a new rather lame “holiday” invented by the Ontario government. Daycares were closed so I was home with E. I guess that’s the point of family day but of course when you are freelance you don’t have anybody giving you paid days off. W went into the office for half the day. As I was busy keeping E entertained I started to think of how weird it is to have a holiday that utterly lacks any kind of tradition. So anyone got any ideas? I’m thinking deep fried raisins, a televised parade of crying toddlers, and a marathon of family friend video games that goes deep into the night and leaves all parental and kid units bleary-eyed and vaguely hostile for the rest of the week.
One more thing on family day: what about people with no family? won’t they feel bad sitting at home alone? Family Day, coming just a few days after Valentine’s Day, is a double whammy for those without any source of love in their lives. Will Ontario see a rise in suicides and help-line calls in the 3rd week of February? Help me, I’m at home eating my deep fried raisins and watching the toddlers on floats bawling their eyes out but I’ve got nobody to play Wii with and the only Valentine the mailman brought me was from McDonalds and I’m thinking of ending it all, damn you Dalton McGuinty! (premiere of Ontario, responsible for holiday…)
In order to celebrate family day after E went to bed we watched the first two episodes of the second season of Gene Simmons: Family Jewels. I was impressed with his star turn on celebrity Apprentice and wanted to see more of this aging pseudo-Lothario in action. Very disappointing. The whole thing just came off as Ozzy-lite. Everybody wanted to be wacky and histrionic but nobody seemed to have the chops to do it. Gene’s family lacks dysfunction in a big way. According to Gene’s website season 3 debuts in March. Maybe it gets better? Never mind. W is obsessed with that new HBO show In Treatment anyway. More on that later.
2008,
23:43 GMT
Canzine and the One Two Punch Pitch!
Posted by: Hal
Wow, it’s been a while since I updated the blog. So lots to tell you about. The main thing right now is that Canzine is coming up fast. It’s this Sunday. Canzine is the annual festival of zines and alternative culture my magazine Broken Pencil puts on every year. This is one of the best lineups we’ve ever had: 200 zines registered, 6 readers, 6 comedians…if you’re in Toronto or nearby this weekend, I heartily recommend you check it out. It is awesome. Complete times, place, and schedule for the day is here.
Also we still have some spots open for the One Two Punch Pitch event happening at Canzine. For this spectacle, contestants get two minutes to pitch a book idea in any genre or format. Then the three judges – myself, Michael Holmes of ECW Press, and literary agent Samantha Haywood – each have 1 minute to respond. The best pitch wins a Broken Pencil prize pack worth $150 and, who knows?, maybe even a request to see that manuscript in somebody’s in-box pronto. To sign up for this, email your pitch to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
So that’s it for now. After Canzine I promise to get back to regular blogging and update everybody on the Peep book, new articles, and the general ups and downs of my existence. See ya Sunday I hope!
2008,
14:48 GMT
Hal in the New York Times Magazine
Posted by: Hal
Hi everyone…I’ve got a piece in the New York Times Magazine that comes out tomorrow. It’s already online here. It’s my formal write-up of the Failed Facebook Party. Give it a read and let me know what you think! Best, Hal.
ps – pick up the Sunday Times on your way to Canzine, and you can tell me what you think in person! I’ll be there all day, from 1-7.
2008,
14:58 GMT
Who Will Be Hal's 1000th Friend?
Posted by: Hal
So, okay, here’s the deal. Since my article in the New York Times Magazine came out about my failed Facebook Friends party, I’ve received hundreds of messages and friend requests. People have commiserated with me, shared their own tales of failed social events, and told me their philosophy of Facebook Friend adding/deleting/refusing. They’ve promised that if I’m ever in San Antonio or Palo Alto or Sudbury, they’ll buy me a beer. They are kind and, since most of them liked my piece, they seem smart too.
I still believe in the value of making “friends” online through Facebook or other social networks. Obviously I’m now far more skeptical of the possibility that one might take some of those virtual online friendships (which are more like connections, acquaintances, handshakes) and turn them into ongoing real life friendship. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop using Facebook or stop accepting friend requests from people I don’t personally know.
So, with all that said, I’m on the cusp of having 1,000 friends. I am, to be precise, now at 959 friends. And I have 53 friend requests. This means that somewhere amidst all those friend requests is my 1000th friend. Who will it be? Well, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to take my 1000th friend out to lunch. (If they are anywhere near Toronto, that is…if they’re somewhere else I’ll send them flowers and we’ll do a virtual lunch.) I’m going to find out all about them. I’m going to report back to you about my 1000th Facebook friend. Who are they? Will they have lunch with me? Will they want to be my “real” friend?
Sometime tonight or tomorrow I’ll be going through those 53 friend requests and adding them. I accept all comers so I won’t be picking and choosing…it will be a totally random in-order-of-friend-request process by which I arrive at friend one thousand.
Stay tuned…
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...
it’s a miracle: i’m actually cleaning my office.
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