http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/Hal/ en hal@brokenpencil.com Copyright 2010 2010-02-27T15:14:58+00:00 http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/two_articles_in_colombian_media/ http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/two_articles_in_colombian_media/#When:15:14:58Z Two links to articles in Columbian magazine Semana which quote my ideas about Peep Culture. Here’s an article on the rise of online-spying-as-entertainment: original article here. as translated by google here. And here’s an article about surveillance, crime prevention and what happens when shocking surveillance footage becomes entertainment: original article here. as translated by google here. Blogging, Surveillance, News, Personal 2010-02-27T15:14:58+00:00 http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/peep_my_pplication/ http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/peep_my_pplication/#When:13:41:21Z Tufts University wins the award for realizing that not only is the college admission process grinding and nerve-wracking, it’s also highly entertaining for the rest of us! So Tufts has done the right thing, giving their applicants the opportunity to include a one minute posted-to-YouTube video with their application, as documented in this New York Times article.  Now thousands can watch these wannabe admitted students do whatever they think they need to do to get noticed. Before we get to the videos, which I will helpfully embed below of course, let’s think about a few things. First, Tufts screwed up: why give YouTube this juicy material? If they’d set it up so the kids were posting to the Tufts website, they’d be drawing hundreds of thousands of eyeballs to their site and reaping the rewards, not Google. Second, it’s a great precedent for anything that where one side holds all the power (think reality tv): make them do a video (a Peep Pplication) and tell them it only counts if they post it publically on the ‘Net. You get attention, they get laughed at, we’re entertained and the appropriate commercial messages are displayed a the appropriate intervals. This is essentially an ancillary business model that could be applied to cash strapped schools, publishing houses with better reputations than bottom lines, blue chip talent agents who want to make money on the side…heck, even charities can employ this technique: make the needy beg online for their handout in the name of keeping us amused, and generating cash flow for those lucky enough to have shown how very desperately they need the help. (Wait a minute, they’re already doing this!) Cewebrity, Culture, Relationships, Television, YouTube 2010-02-26T13:41:21+00:00 http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/peep_in_the_news_chatroulette_/ http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/peep_in_the_news_chatroulette_/#When:18:41:44Z Everything I think I’ve hit the ultimate peep phenomenon, the one thing that totally conveys everything there is to convey about Peep Culture, something new comes up. In this case, it’s ChatRoulette, a site that is spawning all kinds of articles, blog posts and states of excitement. On ChatRoulette you are connected to a random human being somewhere, anywhere, with a webcam. You stare at each other. You chat or, more likely, someone hits next. Here’s a good piece that basically describes the experience. Obviously ChatRoulette is pure Peep – you watch, interact, take what you can out of someone else’s life (while giving what you can of yours) and then you change the channel before you get bored or sucked in. This isn’t the future of the ‘net it’s the future of pop culture – more immediate, more interactive, more compelling, more fun, more disturbing, than anything they could ever green light in some corporate board room. And, like all things Peep, this particular entertainment phenomenon raises far more questions – moral, social, existential – than most of us want to deal with in the course of trying to have some fun without leaving the house. Here are some screen-shots from a BuzzFeed page that feature a ton of ChatRoulette images.     Blogging, Surveillance, News, Personal 2010-02-23T18:41:44+00:00 http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/hal_live_today_on_wisconsin_public_radio/ http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/hal_live_today_on_wisconsin_public_radio/#When:14:38:29Z Hey everyone, I’ll be discussing Peep Culture and taking calls on Wisconsin Public Radio today at 11 am est. Listen in online at http://www.wpr.org/   Blogging, News 2010-02-19T14:38:29+00:00 http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/deathmatch_semi-final_is_neck_in_neck_in_final_stretch/ http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/deathmatch_semi-final_is_neck_in_neck_in_final_stretch/#When:14:32:33Z Wow, with just the weekend to go for voting, it’s Abel’s story of drugs and an angry man-bear at 51% and Dupcak’s tale of drugs, sex and performance art at 49%. What a round! North America’s no-holds-barred short story contest continues! Go read the stories and vote right now at the Broken Pencil Indie Writers Deathmatch! Hal 2010-02-19T14:32:33+00:00 http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/the_indie_writers_deathmatch_is_now_on/ http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/the_indie_writers_deathmatch_is_now_on/#When:21:02:50Z Broken Pencil Magazine’s Indie Writers Deathmatch is in full swing with two stories in heated competition with each other. This is the innovative online writing competition fight to the finish brought to you by Broken Pencil: the magazine of zine culture and the independent arts! Check it here out right now! I’m the moderator for the first round! http://www.brokenpencil.com/deathmatch/ Hal, Cewebrity, Culture 2010-01-21T21:02:50+00:00 http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/quick_update_on_peep_the_movie/ http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/quick_update_on_peep_the_movie/#When:21:35:00Z A lot of people have been asking what the status is of the Peep documentary. The status is that the good people of Chocolate Box Entertainment are working hard on it in the editing suite. The next big date will be February 3rd, when we are having a full day meeting to watch what they have so far — which, according to director Sally, may be as long as 4 hours! Wow 4 hours of Hal. That might be too much, even for me! In the meantime, I’ll post so more excerpts from the logs of the surveillance cameras, if you missed the first one it’s here. And just because, here’s the original Peep trailer.       Culture, Diary, Documentary 2010-01-19T21:35:00+00:00 http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/the_mass_psychology_of_winning_american_idol_/ http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/the_mass_psychology_of_winning_american_idol_/#When:16:39:51Z Here’s an interesting piece from Psychology Today that talks about the psychology at play in who wins American Idol. Much of it is applicable to other Reality TV shows, at least in terms of who we come to love/hate and why. So, check it out. It also quotes my book Hello, I’m Special, which early on has a scene with me in the try-up lineups for Canadian Idol. Blogging, Surveillance, News, Personal 2010-01-11T16:39:51+00:00 http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/the_e-book_as_argued_on_cbc_radio/ http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/the_e-book_as_argued_on_cbc_radio/#When:17:00:39Z I was on CBC Radio’s The Current this morning. You can download the podcast here. I discussed/argued the e-book with journalist Noah Richler and David Kent, President of HarperCollins Canada. It was pretty entertaining. I was coming at it from the perspective of a writer, particularly one without the benefit at this current point in time of a publishing deal with a multinational corporate-owned publisher. (Interestingly enough, the producer who contacted me told me she was having trouble finding a writer willing to talk about e-books and publishing…) So my take on it: small presses and independents are shut out of the chain bookstores that comprise the majority of the marketplace. Furthermore, even those writers who are published by a big company are finding themselves marginalized if they can’t generate significant sales. From that point of view, the e-book can only help writers who won’t find their books stacked up at Indigo or Barnes & Noble anytime soon.  Obviously this is a complicated and divisive issue but I think the situation is relatively dire in terms of access — there are 10,000 plus books published every year in Canada alone, but how many of them will you see browsing through your Superstore? I think the ebook will benefit independents and small presses, and those writers who are increasingly finding for-profit publishing a difficult fit for what they want to achieve. And what about books that fall out of print in a shockingly short amount of time? Things can only get better for writers in terms of ongoing sustained access to the marketplace. Blogging, Surveillance, News, Personal 2010-01-06T17:00:39+00:00 http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/the_worlds_bloodiest_short_fiction_contest/ http://thepeepdiaries.com/home/site/the_worlds_bloodiest_short_fiction_contest/#When:20:18:25Z Hey everyone, the magazine I publish, Broken Pencil, runs an annual short story contest called Indie Writers Deathmatch. It’s super fun and crazy. The top 8 stories as picked by the BP editors battle against each other in our online arena. The top three stories get published in the magazine and get cash and prizes. We’ve extended the deadline to January 10, 2010. So enter now! Hal, Cewebrity, Culture, Exposure 2010-01-02T20:18:25+00:00