hal tweets ·11:28 AM
Ghostbuster zines from the Canzine Hollywood Piracy Zine Challenge are now online! http://t.co/RoAMEQTU
2009,
18:55 GMT
Back in Action in 2009: Hal's new Macy's wardrobe, Adventures in Translation and JohnTV
Posted by: Hal
Okay I'm back and I'm blogging. I spent the holidays with W. and E. in the suburbs of Maryland. There are a lot of stores there. A lot of them. A good place to visit if anyone wants to ponder just how it is possible that people get sucked into spending so much more than they actually have. Speaking of which, we bought a whole bunch of new clothes. Macy's was having a sale. Hey, a man's gotta look good, right?
The visit was pretty decent. My mom watched the kid a lot which let me do what I like to do best: sleep in. When I wasn't sleeping I was doing something else I'm partial to: drinking beer. Also went to a hockey game (Capitals versus Leafs, Caps won of course, go Caps!), saw two movies - Slum Dog Millionaire and The Reader - both at this giant movie theatre on the edge of a fake lake built beside a weird fake town made up entirely of stores and restaurants (condos surround but do not intrude). Anyway, you get the idea.
So, while I was gone two articles popped up that mention my work - both in different languages. One appeared in La Presse (a Quebec paper) and one appeared in a Mexican newspaper. I posted the link to the La Presse article on Facebook and requested a translation of the article and promptly got two sent to me. I posted them to my FB page, so if you want to see them friend me. Today I posted the piece in Spanish, so hopefully someone either here or on FB will translate that one for me too!
Pic on JohnTV with the caption:
"This could be you. Would it be worth it?"
So the piece in French by Mario Roy is about pride and its spill over into pseudo-nonconformity ie. the idea that we are trying to be different just so we can proudly proclaim that we are different. It got me thinking about the roots of Peep Culture. Is it pride or insecurity that causes us to reveal so much about ourselves? It's probably a little of both.
While in DC I watched a bit too much cable on Dad's giant - and I do mean giant - recently acquired HD big screen tv. One of the shows consisted of Shocking Videos. They featured the work of Brian Bates, "Oklahoma's Video Vigilante" who takes great pride in videoing prostitutes and johns in the act and posting the ensuing footage to his website Johntv.com.
Obviously the fact that he does this, and that his videos are all over cable as well, is indicative of the rise of Peep - in which we derive entertainment from other people's 'real' lives. But there's something else here, the zeal with which Bates pursues his subjects, and the pride he takes when he is featured on TV. You can argue that the videos posted to YouTube via his website serve to advance his stated aim of battling prostitution in Oklahoma City, but when they are put on TV, they become entertainment, and the only thing they advance is his pride. (I should add here that at least one of the videos posted to YouTube from Johntv.com come with advertisments from YouTube that say: "Hookup With Sexy Asians.")
Here's a sample of the work of Brian Bates.
2008,
18:21 GMT
Kids Do Amateur Porn, Sex Offend Themselves
Posted by: Hal
So I’ve been meaning to write a post on this for a while: in the new world of Peep, teenagers are being arrested and charged with child pornography for taking pictures or videos of themselves and sending them to friends via cell phone and email. The poster child for this is a 15 year old girl in Ohio who was arrested for “sending nude photos of herself to other minors and was facing felony criminal charges for illegally using a minor in nudity-oriented material and for possession of criminal tools.” The teen could have been forced to register as a sexual offender annually for ten years. After public outcry, charges were dropped due to an undisclosed agreement with her family. In another incident in Michigan police did a drug-like raid and confiscated dozens of cell phones that all contained pictures of a 14 year old girl’s face and genitals (she, of course, willingly sent the pictures to a friend who passed them on to a friend who etc. etc.) Then in Florida a 16 year old and a 17 year old were arrested for basically taking pictures of themselves having sex with each other and sending the pictures only to each other via email.
Now if we’re going to criminalize peep sex, we’ll end up arresting a lot of people. An online poll reported on by Salon found that 20 percent of teens and 33 percent of young adults age 20 to 26 have sent or posted online nude or semi-nude photos or videos of themselves. Wow. Better build a new special jail to house all those hormone addled teens and their webcams.
But where do all these people, young and otherwise (as some of my previous blog posts have suggested) get the idea to take and exchange racy photos? As we shift ever more permanently from pop culture to Peep culture we also compete for time and attention with each other – who will look at me, who will pay attention to my life? Meanwhile, everything from Paris Hilton sex videos to Lindsay Lohan no-panties limo exit shots, tells us that the one sure fire way we have to ensure we’ll draw a lot of eyeballs is to throw sex into the mix. And yet, in many cases, what society continually demonstrates as a legitimate strategy to gain attention is considered illegal and immoral.
This is one of the more fascinating elements of Peep culture. It’s the emerging new normal of self exposure rubbing up against old school morality. Nowhere is this more evident and absurd than in cases where teenagers are charged with making child pornography of themselves.
Here’s Lindsay Lohan with some guy. A few minutes online and I found about 10 sites devoted to celebrity “upskirt” photos.
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2008,
19:17 GMT
Peep Culture Music Video
Posted by: Hal
Hello everyone...been meaning to post this for a while now. It's a music video made up exclusively of Facebook clips. It's great, and so is the song. So check it out. Dance Dance Revolutions Co. / Tomboyfriend's End of Poverty
Hal.
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2008,
19:53 GMT
Hal Update: Book, Doc, 1000th Friend Photos and Me Love Blob!
Posted by: Hal
I haven’t updated much lately. No excuse, really, except that I’ve been both busy and lazy, a devastating combination, but one that many feel with the onset of winter and holidays. Snow flurries outside, a guy on the radio talking about selling plastic ice surfaces to Quebec townships(!), and, well, it’s already halfway through December.
So lots on my blog agenda. First off, I had lunch today with Amy Holmes who presides over the Open Book Toronto website. She’s cool and it’s cool so check it out.
In Peep Diaries news, I’m happy to announce that I’m in the editing stage of the game, the feedback from my editor at City Lights is good and things are coming together nicely. The book is on schedule to be published in May. There’s a cover now, it’s great, and I’m going to reveal it early on in the new year. In the meantime, wish me luck on the re-writes. Actually here’s the sick truth: I love editing. Writing is annoying but editing I find incredibly peaceful. I can only write for an hour or so at a time, but I can edit all day. Is that weird or what? I guess it’s going to be a blissful rest of the month, cutting, pasting, inputting changes, adding new developments…
In Peep documentary news, it looks like the funding has finally come together to make the documentary – in which I attempt to be the most peeped man alive – and to put together the ultra-cool Peep interactive online project that will both stand on its own and be integrated into the documentary. We’re meeting on Thursday next week to talk about our plans for the website, and general timing. I’ll keep ya posted.
Well what else to tell you? I took E. my three year old to the TINARS For Tots Holiday Reading last weekend. It was fun and we picked up a copy of CTON’s Super A-maze-ing Year of Crazy Comics by Clayton Hanmer, who also did the cover of the summer Broken Pencil How-To issue! It’s a really funny book and E. is super into it, particularly a maze involving trick-or-treating and a giant monster attacking the candy store. We love you blob!
Finally, before I forget, I also want to update you on my 1000th friend, Marie Angell of Baytown, Texas. She received the box of goodies I sent her and sent back a bunch of pictures of her and her wonderful family opening up the stuff. Now, Marie, I’m waiting for book reports and a review of the mixed CD of indie Canadian bands I burned for ya. Hanukah came early to the Angells of Baytown, as you can see by following this link to Marie’s slideshow .
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2008,
20:07 GMT
New Short Story - Band Names by Tor Lukasik-Foss - added to the Broken Pencil online fiction se
Posted by: Hal
Hey for anyone interested in short stories, in my capacity as Broken Pencil Magazine fiction editor I just added a new story by Tor Lukasik-Foss to the BP online fiction section.
Band Names by Tor Lukasik Foss appears in BP 41, on stands now, and has just been added to the website. This story is freakin’ funny. Here’s a sample:
“He stared intently at last week’s ideas: BANDS: SWEET LADY WINE (‘70’s hippie rock) 4 STAR MOTEL (any kind of band, any kind of genre) UNISEX UNITARD (name for a small indie label, could have a great logo) CLINICAL TRIALS (trash-punk, gotta be a girl on drums) THE CREAMS (retro-glam pop) FRENULUM (prog metal without the goth) FORGOTTEN GYROS (Mediterranean jazz fusion).”
This is Tor.
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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...
Ghostbuster zines from the Canzine Hollywood Piracy Zine Challenge are now online! http://t.co/RoAMEQTU
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