Tue Jul 21,
2009,
21:12 GMT

Today Quick Update and Musing on Tonight’s Meeting

Posted by: Hal

So a few updates on what’s been happening in my life today. The morning started of with me chatting a bit on the lifecast, doing a quick blog post on what turned out to be a kind of weird review of my book in the San Francisco Chronicle. Actually I think it was the first bad review, though it the reviewer didn’t say as much, preferring to imply the book was bad. Whatever. That’s life.

Then a nice young woman from the Torontoist.com came over to do an interview, and we chatted with her (director Sally was there too). She seemed impressed/horrified with the whole massive camera setup. She said she was thinking about writing her thesis on Peep!

Lunch was the fish stew I made yesterday while lifecasting – cooking with Hal! Hoping to do another cooking with Hal tomorrow, possibly a fancy burger night. So far Cooking with Hal is my favorite part of lifecasting, though Sally says I’m acting ridiculous and come across as a really cheesy version of the galloping gourmet. So what’s so bad about that?

Jeanette came over and showed me how she managed to turn my netbook into a mobile lifecasting unit by installing a webcam and tethering the whole thing to the 3g wireless network of my cell phone. Cool! We’re going to try it out tomorrow and make it the primary lifecasting cam when we’re in Los Angeles next week.

Finally I rushed off to a meeting at Harbourfront with the Festival of Authors of people. We’re doing an opening night peep event. It was a bit frustrating because, well, to be honest, this was the 4^th meeting and stuff I thought we had decided on turned out to be not what we’re doing at all. But we hashed out a plan and it’s going to be pretty cool.

Biked home, beat the rain, listened in to a long conversation between Sally and Jet and DP Mark about equipment for LA. Then W. came home and showed me the 3 shirts she bought me! W. is awesome! She made my day buying me cool shirts and agreeing to cook tofu burgers on camera – Cooking with W. It’s happening now. Check out her hat.

Comments: -3-, Add yours…

Tue Jul 21,
2009,
11:39 GMT

Frustrating Review in the San Francisco Chronicle

Posted by: Hal

This is an interesting, if frustrating, review of The Peep Diaries: the reviewer doesn’t seem to like the book, and relies primarily on sweeping statements that dismiss my arguments. I would have liked more specifics, from the real world and from my book, to have been raised by way of demonstrating why I am wrong about just about everything. For instance, the reviewer’s most damning accusation is this: “Why we want so desperately to give up privacy mostly eludes Niedzviecki.” Okay then, how exactly does it elude me, and why are we do desperate to give up privacy? What follows reads like a kind of riddle:

“Why we want so desperately to give up privacy mostly eludes Niedzviecki. The line between exercising individuality or surrendering it is blurry. Liberalism thrives on people’s desire for split personas. We might as well question fiction, diaries and intimate letters. Self-expression merges reality and fiction. This discomforts Niedzviecki, who makes a fetish of ‘the real.’ Questioning the reality of the self is a starting point for likewise questioning religion, nation and history. One of Niedzviecki’s subjects, who let his life be distorted (edited?) for reality TV, likens it to torture. But Peep culture denizens voluntarily give up privacy. Art is driven by the urge for commonality, even as the audience is uncertain (Niedzviecki is torn by this paradox).”

Lots of interesting stuff to think about and parse in there, but it’s all generalization, nothing specific, nothing substantive. I like the questioning tone, I just don’t like the sweeping pronouncements.

Any responses and thoughts people?

Comments: -3-, Add yours…

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...