Twittering- End of one week (subtitle - Addiction)

Last time I wrote about my Twittering, I really had no idea what I was doing, and missed the fine points of this amazing tool. I started with the scattergun approach, got a few follows, but did not really understand how it worked. I was just amazed that people found me at all. I had no name, no cred, no industry followers (from any industry) but plenty of internet entrepreneurs wanting my attention.

Internet Entrepreneurs...now there is a topic for another day...

Now it is Sunday night, I am up to 270 followers. I am amazed by this and only about a quarter are random, non digital art/bookstore/library/academic/artist/designer/gamer people. I am focusing on these areas for now as they are the ones ultimately who care about the books first and my blog/rantings second. I have so far spent untold hours answering every follow, finding fresh people, exploring the followers of my followers, writing directly to people who have written directly to me, responding to tweets, writing my own about either stuff , artists I like, events concerning Ballistic, books alerts, bookstores that carry Ballistic, the list goes on. And I have only just scratched the surface here!

I could effectively spend the next month or two just working twitter, connecting properly with key news groups for retwitterings, and establishing a whole new publicity list to get our word out to. I have subscribed to a few twitter help sites to really work the business end of it, but that will take time too! All of a sudden I have an outrageously full schedule!

So to wrap it up, twitter is going to be a fantastic tool, and with a bit of fine tuning will be able to really make it sing. The key is to manage this new addiction, because it is the new crack.

Mike Hepburn - illustrator and now Animator!

Mikey used to work with me at Ballistic, as my web designer, but on the side he worked to create his own truly amazing designs. Big Fat Robot is the result and he just comes up with one awesome design after another. I just think that here is someone who is well on his way to greatness.

Today a workmate pointed me to the Doritos commercial he did for a competition, and after looking at the the others, his is actually the best and most fun. So I twittered it hoping we get some more votes happening!

Here is the link. http://www.doritos.com.au/index.cfm?sq=1775

You can vote up to 5 times a day!

Twittering

I have spent days in Twitter, trying to figure it out and think I have it. After all that, it is not that much to figure out, but is it just going to be the greatest waste of my time since Puzzle Quest? Let's face it, this is social network crack. I have spent many hours already searching for like minded souls, vetting people who wish to follow (like there is any vetting at all...), hunting down bookstores (not nearly as many as I would have hoped), and there are still a jillion art schools to follow. And I have not even started on the design studios....

So now I have a plan. To connect with as many art world people as possible, and with a bit of luck people from outside of our pond will start paying us more attention. And at the same time those in our world get even more excited about what we do. I really feel that we are at the edge of greatness, we are so close for our books to simply click with art lovers out there.

And have a bit of fun while I am at it. The tally now stands at 33 followers and 137 following...and 35 updates

There are more reports yet to come on all this...

Diet

I went cycling with a group yesterday through the Adelaide Hills, a magic day and a great ride. I am still frustrated by my fitness. By most standards I am very fit for my age, ride to work every day, walk with my wife, play fun, aggressive table tennis with my step son, have my own aerobic exercise regime, go off on my own riding for an hour or so in the hills once a week, but I go riding with a team and I am just left in their dust. I am getting better at riding up close in the pack, am riding further than before, but these guys I ride with are not pro cyclists, they are just regular guys, many older than me.

My friend Tony says that it is more technique and simply spending more time on the bike.

However, the point of today's story is about one of the guys I rode with who is super fit but also suffering from a blood clotting condition and has been on blood thinning drugs for a year. What amazed me was that if he had a crash, cut himself in any way, he would simply bleed out. What a terrifying thought! He stops treatment in 3 weeks which is terrific for him.

We got to talking after the ride and I was very curious about his condition. I thought that maybe his diet caused his condition, which makes his blood clot around his lungs. So, in my normally blundering way, asked him about all aspects of the situation. At the heart of it is that he loves Pepsi Max, and a bottle of wine a night. His doctor said that he should cut back on the Pepsi, and I assume that he backs off the wine a bit too because of the blood thinning alcohol.

I would have thought his doctor would have said, 'Well, there is the main culprit. Stop drinking that poisonous Pepsi!', but no, he should cut back on it. I was floored. There are so many horrible chemicals in there that it is hardly surprising his body is reacting badly, especially as with the onset of this condition he was competing at a very high level.

Now this is only my opinion, but I don't think this guy would suffer from this again if he removed some things from is diet, or at least allow himself a single glass of wine a night. What I see is that he keeps his body in a complete state of distress and it got fed up with him. I liken it to a Ferrari engine. This is a high performance vehicle, but he puts dirty fuel in and expects the car to run normally. The engine is working extra hard and inefficiently to clear the dirty petrol out of its system, but it never gets a chance. The next fill up is dirty again.

Although it is none of my business, next time I meet him, I will ask him about this again. He is actually working against himself! I don't get it...

Lawrence Leung - Choose Your Own Adventure!

I have become completely addicted to this series. For me, it works on so many levels, from his breathless enthusiasm to the rapidfire editing and quirky visual asides. He incorporates animation, different camera styles and tricks, and boundless energy to create a dizzying, eclectic mash of expression. And his parents are adorable (playing along beautifully although clearly baffled by him) and you can see that they are both long suffering and genuinely adoring of their completely batso son who is the opposite of his brother, whom we don't meet. And he also subtley uses this as a vehicle to express his own feelings of inadequacy. Well, sometimes not so subtle, but the point is that Lawrence knows he is talented and creative, but at the end of the day he is always compared to the perfect brother, who merely did all the right things by his parents, school, etc...

I also do not see his relentless attention seeking as anything but pure creative outlet. He could have taken the lazy way and had someone follow him around with a camera. Instead, he has endeavored to cram as much as possible into his project. I would have loved to have been there when he pitched this to the ABC, and he is certainly giving John Safran and Chris Lilley a run in the unshackled creativity stakes. And this does not take anything away from those two, who produce gold at every turn. Well, except for Safran's latest stunt getting crucified in the Philipines. I hope it is being misreported and that he does handle it with the right respect and dignity, considering it is such an extreme expression of religious devotion.

Here is his website for CYOA. http://www.abc.net.au/tv/lawrence/#/begin

More to come this week!

All Twittery

I made the leap into Twitterland this week and still trying to get my head around it all. At this point it just looks like a lot of people talking to themselves, aloud. I see an open space filled with people walking around, maybe looking around, but for the most part looking straight ahead, repeating something they heard, saying something they just thought of, hoping someone might overhear their statement, but then not caring if anyone does. At the heart of it, no one is really speaking to anyone.

Mind you, it is still early days and I might just get a big 'I get it!' moment about it. This has not stopped me putting my entries in, but now it just seems like more noise, more clutter.

Maybe the trick is to turn it from clutter to something of value. Otherwise it is just one more thing I have found to waste my time.

My followers are gradually growing, I may have 6 now, and really wonder what has attracted them in the first place, especially as I have not really said anything.

Peter Norman and 'Salute'

Here is a movie, documentary, telling a story I had no idea about because Peter Norman, human rights activist, 1968 Olympic champion (his Australian world record still stands) and true pacifist, has been ignored by the press and Australian Olympic powers for 40 years. He was part of one of the most powerful symbols of the 20th century, stood up and made a quiet stand against injustice, a particularly sensitive issue at the time. He is the white guy in the photo of the two black sprinters holding the single black gloves over their heads.

I can't recommend this movie highly enough. It should be shown in all schools, it should be celebrated by all Australians, not to mention everyone else. But he did it all so quietly. No violence, no impassioned speeches, just a statement on the podium after winning silver at the olympics.

But despite all the noise and trouble he got in, he never said a bad word against anyone. He just moved on to the next thing and got on with his life in the most positive way he knew how.

http://www.salutethemovie.com/

Digital art spreading its wings

I have seen the Mars ad a few times, the one with a couple of dudes walking across town, surrounded and followed by these cool creatures. Are they from their imaginations? I think so, and populating your world with these creatures and artworks is comp lately natural. One of the guys has huge dragon wings superimposed on them, that are brilliantly drawn and realised.

Is this just an Australian ad? Anyway, this is one of my faves simply because of the sheer range of digital art styles. Abstract, clay characters, 3D models, pop art, japanese waves, 2-D animations, traditional art styles, a bit of fractal/chaos stuff, and all being brought into the mainstream...

I just see it as people are becoming more comfortable with it, more accepting, and seeing it as part of being cool and contemporary.

Have another look at it, there is so much crammed in to 30 seconds!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNcz34eUP2A

Digital Art communities

There are some brilliant art collectives and online communities out there that I would like to list here. I would also like to see digital art, whatever the genre, start to grow in recognition in the world.

It will happen, I just want it sooner rather than later. (Patience, Grasshopper!)

Here is a starter list:

http://beinart.org/ - I frequently get lost in this surreal art collective
http://beinart.org/artists/group/International%20Digital%20Art/

Although not a digital artist as such, this guy is amazing. I like character studies with a sense of humour or the absurd

http://beinart.org/artists/david-dalla-venezia/gallery/paintings/

One of the very greatest communities outside of CGSociety is ConceptArt.org. I love this community, the depth of talent and energy is breathtaking! Here are artists who just go on doing their thing and daring the art community to keep up!

http://conceptart.org/

I better throw CGS in here too!

http://www.cgsociety.org/

More to come as I keep digging!