Listen to this incredible, evocative song and watch the wonderful music video that accompanies it. Then interact with the narrative of the song, by going to Labuat.  Make sure you move your cursor like a paint brush across the screen as the song crosses the space and takes its emotional journey with you, allowing you to connect with the piece as an art form. As you interact, your own expressive journey is recorded, each person unique and different, and then send your recording to your friends. This is truly inspired. Watch it. Be it. Love it!

There’s a blog post here in Spanish, saying something like this:

The new LaBuat group – formed by Virginia of OT, Risto Mejide and The Pinker Tones- it requested a experience to us Web different for the launching from its first single “I am your Air”. A full song of many and few. Of orchestras and threads of voice. Of truths and lies by halves. 

When a song arrives to us, we felt that uncontrollable desire to move to us. Here we wanted to offer an interactive experience that it allowed us to be able to express to us… with a brush. The user can freely move the brush by the screen like that dances or moves the arms, but the pinto brush in synchrony and so he happens in the song, changing of size and force based on the intensity of music. In addition the brush barks to the rate of the song.

It is therefore a connected species of alive brush to music that you can use still more for meterte within the song. The result is a video with your personal interpretation, that you can see and send to your friendly.

Every day barriers are transferred. Every time it is one more near which it does the other. Even within him. The public form leaves from the artist, of its work. It implements it amplifies, it, trasforma. And although to many we would have liked to live the great moments on the sixty, we did not forget the great revolution ours was: the democratization of the information, the leisure and the art in the network makes that our thought is less local, more human and altruistic. The work is of all, anybody and each. 

(Translation thanks to Babel Fish).

Isn’t it beautiful!

(thanks to Gary Hayes for the link, and for his fantastic post: Letting Audiences Play With Your Pieces: Participatory Film and Media)

In a very clever move, popular soap opera The Young and the Restless has developed an online magazine and blog for a fascinating blend of fiction and reality.  Restless Style is a magazine that is an important part of the YATR storyline, and although fictional, it now exists in the online world so fans can access extra-diegetic videos, info, tips, music and so on. There are fake news clippings about the launch of the magazine, interviews with the “magazine CEOs”, videos of magazine cover shoots, fashion tips and more, all linked to the fictional characters in YATR and yet…. linked to RL fashion events and info like a real fashion magazine might do.  I think it is very clever and wish the show was on Australian free-to-air TV so I could watch for intertextual links.  

I found out about it via one of my favourite pop culture blogs, Pink is the New Blog, here.  

Spoilers ahead

Latest update from Just Jared (via the NY Post): the pregnancy and the wedding were dream sequences, and Evan Handler’s hiccup problem wasn’t as bad as everybody reported *laughs*

Meanwhile, a source close to the “Sex and the City” movie which Handler is making in New York says the photos published around the world of Carrie in her wedding gown and of a very pregnant Charlotte are from “dream sequences” in the picture.

“They’re playing mind tricks with the fans. The pictures have been staged to make people think they’re following a predictable plot, but these are really only dreams,” said the source. “Everyone’s wondering how Charlotte could finally get pregnant after all that time. They’re loving that everyone’s imaginations are running wild.”

I think its wonderful that Evan is getting so much attention, advice, and homespun remedies sent to him for help with his hiccups. Here’s an example from the NYPost:

 Simply touch the uvula at the back of the throat (uvula is the fingerlike projection from the roof of the mouth) with the handle of a toothbrush or other long object. It will create a gag and the gag reflex will stop the hiccup.

That’s fabulous!

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been logging in every day to my favourite gossip blogs to catch up on what’s happening with the filming of the movie Sex and the City. I’ll put the rest of this post under the fold, but beware, all the major spoilers buzzing around the blogosphere are there!

The movie isn’t released until May 2008, but already the gossip blogs have been buzzing and shots from the filming have been widely circulated about: Jennifer Hudson’s role, the in-fighting and alleged slights between Kim Catrall and Sarah Jessica Parker, the pregnancy of Charlotte, the possible wedding of Carrie and Big, and even Evan Handler’s hiccup problems.  As one anonymous commenter said:

By the time the SATC movie is released, all the entertainment tabloids will have revealed every plot point in it (with matching photographs) and wreck the entire experience for everyone involved. Isn’t that thoughtful?

But Chris Noth is reported to have “pooh-poohed” the assumption that the scene with Carrie in a wedding dress actually means she gets married.

Nevertheless, the pictures are sparking full news stories outlining the “juicy plots” supposedly from onlookers in New York City. The reports say the same thing everywhere:

Carrie will marry Big in the new movie.

The actress – who reprises her role as the feisty sex columnist in the big screen adaptation of the hit series – shot the wedding scenes at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral today.

During the wedding ceremony, Carrie will be supported by her three closest friends, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda – played by Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon respectively – who will all be wearing jewellery borrowed from H. Stern.

Last month, it was revealed Kristin’s character Charlotte would be pregnant in the new movie.

The actress was seen wearing a large prosthetic baby bump on the New York film set as she filmed dramatic scenes with Mr. Big.

Onlookers watched as Charlotte – who struggled to conceive a baby during the hit series – stormed out of Italian restaurant Lumi on Lexington Avenue, apparently heavily pregnant.

Charlotte then appeared to go into labour before being rushed to hospital in Big’s chauffeured limousine.

I’d like to believe the same as this fan:

If this is being revealed so cavalierly, then there must be some sort of surprise twist in the movie–maybe a “Grey’s Anatomy” style alter shocker? Carrie looks contemplative, does she run out on him?

Let’s hope there’s no trite saccahrine sweet ending after all the ground-breaking this series did – even Marlo Thomas (who, incidentally, was quoted by Carrie in one of her columns – yes, I am such a fan I know all her columns!) didn’t get married in my absolute favourite classic 1960s series That Girl. As another commenter remarked, it would be a backwards step for the narrative if everybody lived happily ever after:

I’m guessing that Carrie marries Big, but I’m hoping they don’t do the sit-com version of a comic childbirth for Charlotte. If everybody ends up getting married, it will be the same ending as the movie, “How To Marry A Millionaire.”

 Anyway, as both a fan and an academic interested in the “extratextual” (my new favourite term!) I’ll be checking in regularly with the news and speculation arising from the SATC filming.

Fascinating new blog find (via Christy) – the Extratextuals, a group blog defined as the following:

This is a blog about the media. However, with other blogs on television, film, and the media in general, we wanted to carve out a specific niche. So our blog will focus primarily on the extratextuals that surround the media. By this, we mean everything but the show itself: previews, merchandising, industry buzz, branding, interviews, posters, spatial context, temporal context, related websites, ARGs, spinoffs, spoilers, schedules, bonus materials, transmedia extras, games, YouTube clips, etc. But we’re interested in these things not to be arcane or eccentric; rather, we believe that the extratextuals often make the show what it is. Hence this blog is about the mediation of media.

In hunting for the term extratextual I also came across a wonderful study by Marianne Cantwell, all about fan knowledge and participation in the extratextual.

I have a special superheroes kit, which includes my superhero undies:

and I get superhero missions sent to me via text messages:

Angela, traffic jams in Sydney are accelerating global warming. Help to plug this perniciousness! Reply “yes” to accept this mission.

Try it yourself, it’s fun!

Wow! A jigsaw puzzle with emailed anagrams, clues all over the web, and a 1 million pound prize for the first person who solves it.  How exciting!

But if you want to be amused, read the part in the comments section where one person complained about not being able to get to the site to register for the emailed puzzle bits.  Another commenter remarked  – “If you can’t find how to sign up, you’re not going to have very much success trying to find the 1000 pieces of this jigsaw”. *laughs*

Next week the NMC is running an entire weeks symposium on “Creativity in Second Life” There are a number of strands: Machinima, Fashion, Sculpture and Modeling, Virtual Photography, and Teaching Environments, social / arts events, and lots of practical and interactive sessions. I am involved in three sessions, all at (sort of) Australian friendly times. Here are the details of these sessions (in Second Life time):

Fri Aug 17 7pm – Fri Aug 17 8pm

Teaching On the Second Life Stage: Playful Educational Strategies for Serious Purposes

Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Conference%20Center/64/193/22

Angela Thomas (aka Anya Ixchel), University of Sydney

Kim Flintoff (Kim Pasternak), Edith Cowan University

Theatrical spaces have historically been places used to teach, purge and shape culture. For over a decade, virtual reality has offered a new kind of theatrical space; now, with the rise of social networking spaces, many more people are using the potential of the web to perform, critique and comment on cultural issues. Second Life provides a new and exciting space where students can explore issues that are both personal and global in significance. Teaching strategies which incorporate dramatic and theatrical components are perfectly suited in the Second Life environment for engaging students in playful but meaningful reflection on such issues. This session will involve participants in role-playing, reflection and discussion. Participants will also be encouraged to brainstorm the possibilities of incorporating such strategies into their own educational programs.

Sat Aug 18 4pm – Sat Aug 18 5pm

No More Business Suits Please: Creative Identity Play in SL

Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Conference%20Center/185/136/43

Angela Thomas (aka Anya Ixchel), University of Sydney, Australia

Second Life offers a unique opportunity to refashion one’s self and to play with fictional identities. Yet many of us who work inside Second Life feel trapped in our offline identity roles and conform to traditional discourses of femininity, masculinity, appearance, beauty and fashion. Professionals wear business suits, educators cry out for more modest clothing, and artists wear funky coloured skins. In some contexts, people who resist these discourses are discriminated against. This session explores how we might be able to leverage one of the greatest affordances of Second Life—the avatar—for personal, community and professional agendas.

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Sat Aug 18 5pm – Sat Aug 18 6pm

Panel Session: Reflections on Creativity in Second Life

Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Conference%20Center/214/18/51

Moderator: Alan Levine (aka CDB Barkley), The New Media Consortium
Lori Bell (aka Lorelei Junot), Alliance Library System
Jo Kay (aka Jokay Wollongong), Illawarra Institute TAFE, New South Wales
Hilary Mason (aka Ann Enigma), Johnson & Wales University
Troy McConaghy (aka Troy McLuhan), ISM Corporation
Nick Noakes (aka Corwin Carillon), Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Beth Ritter-Guth (aka Desideria Stockton), Lehigh Carbon Community College
Angela Thomas (aka Anya Ixchel), University of Sydney

Yesterday when I added Andy Piper as a friend on Facebook, I flippantly said “now we’re friends everywhere” – since I knew him on Second Life, on Facebook, on twitter, on flickr, on his blog, and through his comments on my blog.

He paused for a while, then replied with a wide ASCII grin:

“friends *everywhere*? see http://onxiam.com/people/andypiper“ 

I clicked the link, and my jaw literally dropped in astonishment at the number of tracks Andy makes across the web.  How the HECK can any one person do so much?!?!

Right now I feel pretty overwhelmed by the number of social media spaces I seem to exist in: 3 blogs, 3 or 4 roleplaying forums, a fan forum, a zine, flickr, linkedin, twitter, facebook, Second Life (plus an alt), 2 youtube accounts, gmail, work mail, skype, google chat. People keep inviting me to new things but I just don’t have the time!  And each one of these has channels or groups or threads – I am in 63 flickr groups, 19 facebook groups, subscribe to numerous blog feeds, several podcasts and a number of youtube channels.  I’m part of 2 high traffic email lists (Association of Internet Researchers and Second Life Education), and about 10 low to medium traffic ones.

My solution at handling them all is to concentrate on two or three at a time.  The amount of reading and writing and uploading and downloading and viewing and clicking I do every day is becoming ridiculous.  I am a terrible commenter on friend’s blogs, I only blog once every day or two, I barely post to email groups, and I only keep up with urgent emails.  If I tried to fully engage in everything I wouldn’t ever get any work done!
Andy wrote a post about his experiences called The Quicksand of Web 2.0, in which he debates some of the pros and cons of different applications and talks about addiction and his “off switch”.

Its all left me wondering about the kind of identity play we engage in across all of these different spaces we inhabit, and the type of narrative constructions other people are making about us as they make connections between our multiple cross-media selves.

And is it possible for people who read your work across these spaces to suddenly get turned off by a bad case of TMI (too much information)?  Or as one of my literary colleagues is wont to say, “that person just has too much narrative going on.”

But not you Andy