Web 2.0 OD

Is there such thing as Web 2.0 OD? I’m not talking about the spectative side of the Interweb, but rather, the participatory side. I’d like to consider myself a moderate user of Web 2.0 interfaces. I don’t have a YouTube account. I don’t dive into Google apps and Yahoo personalization offers. I do get out into the sunshine, ride my bike places, and interact with human beings outside of my apartment.

The other day, while making food in the kitchen, a room mate suggested that I make a web site for an idea I had just thought up (can’t remember what it was). I rolled my eyes. “Oh, no! Not another web site!” I got a laugh, but then tried to count off all the web sites I do have or administrate. Here’s the list: Happy Feet, Stencil Archive, Stencil Nation, Stencil Nation MySpace, Flickr, CELLspace.org,  Sage in the Cage (which is down at the moment), and then online promo for CELLspace (about 12 events list sites, including Facebook and Tribe). This list doesn’t include a few other sites that I log into from time to time for other reasons. During the conversation with the room mate, I couldn’t remember all the sites I logged into to post content to. After counting about five sites, my brain shut down and the conversation moved on to other topics.

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Shaken, Not Stirred at Cloverfield

The United States has a huge monster in its closet. Before you even see the beast, it tips over an oil tanker, creates a huge explosion, tears the head off of the Statue of Liberty, and maliciously throws the head into Midtown Manhattan. Hmm, oil, destruction, and liberty; a monster who sadistically destroys the symbol of a great American Dream: to own a building that reaches up to the heavens. Closer to God at the end times?

The movie Cloverfield is basically a tale of a heroic, or stupid, group of friends that jump into a fantasy land to rescue a woman in distress. That fantasy land includes a lot of walking, lights that are always miraculously on where ever they walk/run in Manhattan, and other athletic, death defying feats (with screaming and jokes thrown in).

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Ever Been to CELLpace?

What: Community Meeting to Keep the CELL Alive and Well
When: Monday, November 19th @ 7pm
Where: CELLspace
(2050 Bryant Street btwn 18th & 19th, Mission District SF)
the CELLspace community: anyone who has passed through our doors (or has been wanting to!) to attend an event, receive services, create some art, participate in community building, or for refuge.
Why: CELLspace’s future is in jeopardy.   The collective and Board  members are struggling to pay monthly operating costs. We need to refocus community support and revitalize our fundraising efforts and collective energies!

The Evening will provide an update of the current status, a gathering of creative thoughts and ideas, and an opportunity to get involved in our metamorphosis.
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Random Perusals

The tabs on my Firefox browser have been up now for over a week. I haven’t shut down the app or the machine in a while, and after those random bug crashes (that happen often on the newer versions of Firefox), I bring the tabs back up. The past weekend led to some great online research/time wasting (you pick which term because I sometimes cannot tell the difference) thanks to folks like Larry, Pod, and my new hobby with researching the P2P torrent world. I’m ready to close some of these tabs; don’t worry, they’re bookmarked, so thought I should pass some of the leads along to whomever hits the HappyFeet universe:

• GraffitiGen: Fun site that lets you type in words and turn them into graffiti-style art. Change the colors, link to the type you made, and have a good time doing legal digi-graff.
• Visual Complexity: Pod turned me on to this great site a few days ago. This site shows you how things connect using advanced design techniques. Some major thought goes into these images, and the results can look otherworldly at times. Pod and I both wonder if this is the future of corporate data manipulation. Imagine Google using their information on all of us to make these complex charts that will further the bottom line.
• The Oil of the 21st Century: Speaking of information, this convention just happened in Berlin. From their site: “Under the banner of the ‘Information Society’, a cartel of corporate knowledge distributors struggle to maintain their exclusive right to the exploitation and commodification of the informational resources of the world.”
• tvRSS: I just learned what a tracker site is. And I’ve also just learned that sharing a torrent file does not mean that you are sharing info with “exclusive rights”. This site is worse than having cable TV because every show is one click away. Want to spend a day wasting time in front of the tube? Hit up tvRSS before Interpol gets them.
• Also found out that The Pirate Bay is legally hosting a torrent tracker in their home country of Sweden. Sort of. The exciting story coming from that country is that there’s a movement to start a Pirate Party that will seek seats in government. Will the WTO be the final ring for this battle?
• Had the honor of meeting Aaron and his Tactical Ice Cream Unit after the Peace March Saturday. I document educational vehicles and his Ice Cream truck fits the method. I hope to post photos and write more about the TICU soon, and will say briefly that he’s got a good deal going on with that project.
• February 29 might seem far off, but a group of organizers have decided to make Leap Day a day of creative chaos. A call has been sent out to get the ball rolling across the planet for a day of direct action that focuses “on living life in a positive, creative, loving, cooperative, sustainable fashion without domination of others or the earth.” The object is to be so off the wall that the actions will confuse cops and business owners. Sound like fun to me!
• Finally, I read an alt-history book about girls who had to give up their children for adoption in the 1950s and 1960s. The Girls Who Went Away gives first hand accounts of many tragic stories based upon societal, familial, and religious ignorance and misunderstandings. I had to read this book slowly because each story a mother gave filled me with sadness, anger, and compassion for their heartbreaking stories.

July Flew By, No Posts From Me…..

Wondering where I’ve been? Have you given up on checking my RSS feed? Has this blog fallen off the face of the earth? What the hell happened to Russell in July?

Not much. Maybe that’s why I haven’t been writing. Well, not exactly “not much,” but mostly things I didn’t want to write about. I’ve backed off of reading the news, reading books (though Phillip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” rocks!), going out, consuming anything beyond a movie here or there. So I haven’t been thinking about politics, taking many photographs, doing any carny or puppet gigs, or thinking in audial mode. I haven’t really left the house that much.

Why? Well, I spent half of July at a vipassana retreat in North Fork, CA (near Yosemite NP). The course lasted 10 days, Goenka the teacher called it “prison,” “deep surgery,” “a monastery,” and I had an intense time. I couldn’t talk, write, gesture, interact with anyone else beyond the assistant teachers and the manager. The less distractions the better. My brain more than made up for the lack of technology, consumptive items, and interaction with others. I wrote amazing blog entries about the course, made many revisions, and then realized that I shouldn’t say much about the workshop. Once we all broke Noble Silence, we all realized that we had different experiences.

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July 4th Tragedy in Dolores Park

From the grapevine:

Hello,

I am Roisin’s father. July 4th, Roisin and friends were in Dolores Park watching fireworks. Some stupid piece of shit threw an M60 at them. It landed on Roisin’s right hand and blew it apart. She will undego surgery later this morning but it doesn’t look good. Most likely she will lose her index finger; second and third fingers will also be permanently impaired and disfigured. Needless to say, her musical career is over.

I want this fucker. Media attention will help flush him out. People know who did it and I’m offering $20,000 for a name. Please do whatever is necessary to get the story out. Do so and I will reward you as well.

Thank you,
Chris Isner
chrisisner@hotmail.com

What I Saw:

Chris,

So sorry to hear about Roisin’s tragic injury. I have no name but saw it happen. I live in the ‘hood and had never been to Dolores Park on the Fourth. I hear huge explosions all the time from my apartment and realized Tuesday night where they where coming from.

If any of this helps, here is my account:

I got off the 33 bus at the J church stop and walked up the hill by the tracks. Huge explosions where going off all over the park. I realized quickly that anyone below me was in potential grave danger. There was a no-man’s land above the bathrooms, with people randomly tossing and setting off huge fireworks. I saw a few go off from about 30 yards away and wouldn’t get any closer.

I saw a guy, average looking, white maybe brown skinned, with short dark hair, light something and hold it for a really long time. With a fuse that long, I speculated that it was one of the round fireworks you put in a tube to shoot high up. Why the hell was he holding it? He finally tossed it into the no man’s land (he was standing on the 19th st. side of the bathroom, past it up the hill) and tossed too hard. Guess he was excited. I saw the bomb bounce through the empty space and into the crowd down there (they where too close). It went off and screams started. A guy, I guess a friend or boyfriend of Roisin, raged and ran into the empty space ready to kill the guy. I didn’t see where the tosser went to.

The firetruck and ambulance soon showed up. Huge explosions like that one randomly continued all over the park. Then, when people started running out of fireworks, the SFPD showed up and drove around the park.

I do think that it was an accident. The fuse was too long and the firework was thrown too hard. I bounced several times before going into the crowd. There where also a lot of drunk people there and no rules. One couple where setting off huge fireworks in a small 20 foot circle elsewhere. Hundreds of people where around them. Chaos, alcohol (I was stone sober), ordnance, and  “patriotism” equals a lethal cocktail.

I don’t think I could identify the tosser. I was too far away and it was dark. I saw no discerning features in the soft light. I could tell you where he was standing, maybe the exact same spot. What caught my eye was the long burning fuse. It burned for about 5 seconds before he threw it.

Again my sincerest sympathy and regards towards your daughter, a victim of an unfortunate, tragic accident. I hope she recovers soon and continues to follow her musical passions.

Sincerely,
Russell H.
San Francisco