Tonight: we lift glasses in memory of Charles N. Brown at the Pike Place Brewpub around 7:00. If you are in Seattle or can make it into the city, be there!
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 11:15 Caught up on critiques. Drove into the town of Ocean Beach for supplies. No phone or Net at Iron Springs. #
- 11:22 Whoops! Town of Ocean City, not 'Beach'. Did drive onto th beach here though. Nice, but must get back to Iron Springs. #
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 06:28 Woke on my own, half an hour before the alarm went off. Felt rested! Cleared email and RSS feeds. Now already productive! #
- 06:29 Today: Work at home. Go in to the office. Try to leave before the traffic spins up. Drive to coast for Iron Springs Writer's Retreat. #
- 15:31 Apparently Michael Jackson has died. Somehow it just seems for the best, doesn't it? #
- 15:34 On my way to Iron Springs Writer's Workshop. Freeways clogged, opted for Ferry to Bremerton instead. Prettier drive anyway. #
- 18:33 Having dinner in Shelton with my daughter, who lives near. Very authentic Mexican! Next, back on the road. #
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 09:55 Working at home this morning, writing XML schemas. Funny how much harder using XML becomes when you apply rigor. #
- 15:19 At home all day, working steadily. Still in my jammies! Much done, but need to take a caffeine break right now or it all grinds to a halt. #
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 11:59 Taco Tuesday at Taco Del Mar. Lunch perfection! #
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 07:45 How *not* to use #twitter for #business - www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/103334 #
- 14:01 Ditto! RT @hal_kent: .@daviddlevine: congrats on the Analog sale. #
- 17:30 Traffic wasn't bad this morning. Why does it suck so bad now? #
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 09:47 Today is chore day. With extra grandson. #
- 17:24 Blog post: The revolution will be Tweeted - jackwilliambell.livejournal.com/234937.h
tml #rant #iranelection # - 17:40 RT @GreatDismal RT @DougCoupland A piece [he] did for the Economist for the Mac at 25 bit.ly/7AqCw Couldn't agree more. #
- 19:33 At Outback Steakhouse in Tacoma, waiting for my daughter. First time she ever arranged a Father's day dinner. #
I wanted to start this essay with this sentence: "Like everyone else I have been fascinated with recent events in Tehran and the role of social software in them."
Only I can't.
You see, despite the fact the mass media are finally reporting about the Iran election protests and the role of Twitter (among other Internet tools) in them, pretty much only people actually playing in that space are paying attention -- and not all of them. And, of that subset, fewer still are really thinking about what this means to the future of social unrest and grass-roots political action.
Even of those Twittering with the hashtag #iranelection or those who have turned their Twitter icons green
in sympathy; most have no real connection to events there, other than a wish to support what appears to be mass uprising against the mullahs. A 'freedom' movement. We (and I count myself among this crowd) actually do not understand the real situation on the ground there, communicated to us in a storm of 140 character bursts and links to images; all a complicated mess of fact, rumor, and deliberate misinformation. Worse, we misinterpret the protester's motivations. Their actions. Even their goals.
We don't really understand. We tend to see everything through our own eyes. Forgetting, or never knowing, that the meaning of the word 'freedom' is somewhat different for us than for the protesters in Tehran. There is a cultural gulf here and few of us are crossing it. Most of us are almost guaranteed to be disappointed in the end! Even if they are successful, the protestors are not seeking to replace the mullahs with Western-style democracy. They want, and will get, an Iranian system.
And yet it remains compelling. It feels as though we are watching, even taking part in, the first software-mediated revolution. So we raise our own voices in a worldwide howl for attention. And that attention has been returned in the form of arrests and killings of those daring to use these social tools to protest and organize protest. All while the rest of the world remains mute.
(Sidebar: If every tweet with the #iranelection hashtag not posted by an Iranian was replaced with a dollar, the amount of money raised to assist the protests or rebuild the broken lives arising from them would more than suffice. Yet attention is a currency of its own, with value not easily measured in ducats. Still, attention doesn't pay hospital bills or help bribe jailers for the release of a young man who's only crime consists of words in Persian tapped on the keys of a cell phone.)
For me the most interesting thing here is the thing itself. As in the last U.S. election. As in Guatemala recently. As in every case where a spontaneous social upheaval finds itself being organized and broadcast to the outside world via social software tools. This is significant. This is new! This is proof we live in a future weirder than even William Gibson (Twittering as GreatDismal) could predict!
It makes me wonder about the future of software in politics and social discourse. What if the tools were just a little richer? Just a little more commonplace? Would the chaos of #iranelection be replaced by a system of vetted commentary over anonymous channels? Would we get an instant protest-wiki, edited into usefulness with the cultural background and history required to understand what is really happening? Would we have systems for raising money and getting it to those in need with a minimum of graft and waste?
And, more importantly, would our own governments find these tools to be instruments of freedom or dangerous channels for terrorists?
But that's not the punchline. No, this little joke has a real zinger: When (not if) such tools become available to us, they will not be intended for social upheaval. Instead they will exist for the same reasons that Twitter and Facebook and LiveJournal exist. They will exist so we can talk. So we can share who we are with the world.
And that is the kicker. Because who we are includes what we believe. And, in the end, that is the best hope offered by these tools. Maybe we will overcome our differences because we actually talk to each other. From this, I dare to hope that one day the idea of someone like myself supporting people in Iran who believe things about Jews, homosexuals, and women I could never agree to would seem a little less bizarre.
Only I can't.
You see, despite the fact the mass media are finally reporting about the Iran election protests and the role of Twitter (among other Internet tools) in them, pretty much only people actually playing in that space are paying attention -- and not all of them. And, of that subset, fewer still are really thinking about what this means to the future of social unrest and grass-roots political action.
Even of those Twittering with the hashtag #iranelection or those who have turned their Twitter icons green
in sympathy; most have no real connection to events there, other than a wish to support what appears to be mass uprising against the mullahs. A 'freedom' movement. We (and I count myself among this crowd) actually do not understand the real situation on the ground there, communicated to us in a storm of 140 character bursts and links to images; all a complicated mess of fact, rumor, and deliberate misinformation. Worse, we misinterpret the protester's motivations. Their actions. Even their goals.
We don't really understand. We tend to see everything through our own eyes. Forgetting, or never knowing, that the meaning of the word 'freedom' is somewhat different for us than for the protesters in Tehran. There is a cultural gulf here and few of us are crossing it. Most of us are almost guaranteed to be disappointed in the end! Even if they are successful, the protestors are not seeking to replace the mullahs with Western-style democracy. They want, and will get, an Iranian system.
And yet it remains compelling. It feels as though we are watching, even taking part in, the first software-mediated revolution. So we raise our own voices in a worldwide howl for attention. And that attention has been returned in the form of arrests and killings of those daring to use these social tools to protest and organize protest. All while the rest of the world remains mute.
(Sidebar: If every tweet with the #iranelection hashtag not posted by an Iranian was replaced with a dollar, the amount of money raised to assist the protests or rebuild the broken lives arising from them would more than suffice. Yet attention is a currency of its own, with value not easily measured in ducats. Still, attention doesn't pay hospital bills or help bribe jailers for the release of a young man who's only crime consists of words in Persian tapped on the keys of a cell phone.)
For me the most interesting thing here is the thing itself. As in the last U.S. election. As in Guatemala recently. As in every case where a spontaneous social upheaval finds itself being organized and broadcast to the outside world via social software tools. This is significant. This is new! This is proof we live in a future weirder than even William Gibson (Twittering as GreatDismal) could predict!
It makes me wonder about the future of software in politics and social discourse. What if the tools were just a little richer? Just a little more commonplace? Would the chaos of #iranelection be replaced by a system of vetted commentary over anonymous channels? Would we get an instant protest-wiki, edited into usefulness with the cultural background and history required to understand what is really happening? Would we have systems for raising money and getting it to those in need with a minimum of graft and waste?
And, more importantly, would our own governments find these tools to be instruments of freedom or dangerous channels for terrorists?
But that's not the punchline. No, this little joke has a real zinger: When (not if) such tools become available to us, they will not be intended for social upheaval. Instead they will exist for the same reasons that Twitter and Facebook and LiveJournal exist. They will exist so we can talk. So we can share who we are with the world.
And that is the kicker. Because who we are includes what we believe. And, in the end, that is the best hope offered by these tools. Maybe we will overcome our differences because we actually talk to each other. From this, I dare to hope that one day the idea of someone like myself supporting people in Iran who believe things about Jews, homosexuals, and women I could never agree to would seem a little less bizarre.
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
ETA: So I didn't twitter the rest of the day, but the Solstice Parade was great! I don't think I've ever seen so many nude bicyclists and the floats/marching groups were both funny and awesome. We had a great group there, but it kind of fractured when the parade was over.
Afterwards we had lunch, where we were joined by my friend Rusty and his girlfriend Megan. Next Rusty, Megan, my grandson,![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
scarlettina, and myself went to the Woodland Park Zoo and then back to Fremont to explore the fair and eat some fair food. (And it was pretty fair food, considering.)
Finally back toscarlettina's place, where we watched My Neighbor Totoro. And then, finally, finally home. All in all a long and fun day.
- 08:44 Solstice parade today. It also looks like I will have my grandson for the weekend. Both are good things for different reasons. #
ETA: So I didn't twitter the rest of the day, but the Solstice Parade was great! I don't think I've ever seen so many nude bicyclists and the floats/marching groups were both funny and awesome. We had a great group there, but it kind of fractured when the parade was over.
Afterwards we had lunch, where we were joined by my friend Rusty and his girlfriend Megan. Next Rusty, Megan, my grandson,
scarlettina, and myself went to the Woodland Park Zoo and then back to Fremont to explore the fair and eat some fair food. (And it was pretty fair food, considering.) Finally back to
scarlettina's place, where we watched My Neighbor Totoro. And then, finally, finally home. All in all a long and fun day.Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 06:16 This morning my iPhone became an iBrick. Looks like the dev version of OS3.0 expired, but iTunes keeps insisting it is up to date. :-( #
- 06:38 Looks like iPhone 3.0 beta to release upgrade is a significant Apple #fail. Found a trick to force it in the developer forms though. #
- 07:02 Well, I have a working iPhone again. But it lost all my settings, apps, music, and contacts. Serious Apple #fail here. #
- 07:08 @rogdef First I couldn't upgrade at all from beta. So I had to force full reset by holding home button. Then it failed to restore. #
- 07:24 @dj_ir0ngruve Didn't have a choice. iPhone 3.0 beta expired this morning without warning, bricking the iPhone. Major Apple #fail! #
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 07:59 Had the hardest time waking up this morning. I may not beat everyone else into the office today. :-/ #
- 13:12 But, now I want one! RT @warrenellis Merchandise I must never make: a t-shirt bearing the words WARREN ELLIS PUT HIS DISEASE IN ME #
- 13:28 @GreatDismal But what about the times when the pragmatic choice is to plan pessimistically and hope for the best? #
- 19:39 Dinner at Stell's with @JESilverstein. #
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 08:00 They put out mouse traps in the office last night. This morning I came in and found a twitching mouse in a trap next to my desk. #
- 08:49 Large collection of links RE: #IranElection - cyrusfarivar.com/blog/?p=2169 #
- 19:04 At the weblog meetup. Tweeting is tonights topic. #
- 21:20 My neighbor, who runs a fruitstand, just gave me three pounds of cherries. Yummy! #
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 08:18 @YuekHahn It says you like grilled meat products. #
- 09:28 Those in the know will note that I have a green icon. Those who actually know *me* will note that I've *always* had a green icon. #
- 10:38 The game @JESilverstein is working on: www.aiononline.com/us/ #
- 10:39 Opera Unite looks very interesting to me, partially because it resembles an old thought experiment of mine: unite.opera.com/ #
- 13:23 RT @lisaspindler Sullivan running "a constantly updated feed of the best tweets [from] the resistance, real time:" tinyurl.com/mdwsns #
- 13:24 Twitter as a social tool leads naturally to Twitter as a social uprising tool; see Guatemala two weeks ago, Iran today #
- 13:26 Those not following #Tehran and #iranelection are missing the most amazing story of the year. Amazing and scary. #
- 00:20 New blog post: Vanishing Point - jackwilliambell.livejournal.com/233457.h
tml #
The more things change, the more we want them to be like they used to be. (Except for when we don't.)
Back in the 1970s I spent a lot of summer nights in local drive-in theaters south of Seattle. Victims of changing demographics, the video tape player, and rising land prices of the 1980s, drive-in movies are rare today. Rarer still is the drive-in that runs a three or four movie slate on weekend nights with a single price per car-load; making itself into a place for youth with nothing else to do to hang out on a hot summer evening.
So, thirty-five plus years ago I was among the thousands of local kids flocking to the Valley or the infamous El Rancho (aka the 'El Rauncho', home of the triple feature 'cannibal night' on Thursdays). We would pack a car with beer, snacks, and teenagers and spend our night talking and laughing and, sometimes, watching the movies.
One of the perennial features of those triple and quadruple feature nights was a chase film that has since become a cult classic: Vanishing Point. Perhaps the victim of a bad distribution deal or some other factor which made it cheap to show, it seemed like Vanishing Point came back to the drive-ins two or three times every summer. In any case I must have seen it a good half dozen times back then, but I never quite figured it out. Vanishing Point is a very strange story, which ends with its beginning or begins with its end, and seems to come as close to making sense in between as you possibly can without actually getting there. The whole thing is imbued with a quirky philosophy, from the dialogue to the very structure of the movie.
The teenage me loved it.
A few years ago I rented the video and it didn't hold up so well. To my older eyes the philosophical messages seemed a bit heavy handed and obvious. Still, that DVD did bring back to mind those nights of beer and marijuana-fueled laughter. It helped me to remember being seventeen and as free as my dodge van could make me.
For some reason I got to thinking about Vanishing Point when I was drifting off to sleep in my hotel room last week. I got to wondering if perhaps someone should re-make the movie as a modern piece. To make some of the same existentialist points. To try and illuminate the modern condition in the way the original tried to illuminate the aftermath of the Summer of Love.
So imagine my surprise when just last night I was scanning channels, looking for stuff to Tivo, and I ran across a 1997 remake of Vanishing Point starring (of all people) Viggo Mortensen. Kismet, no?
No.
I watched the movie tonight and, great ghu, it was awful. The only philosophy in the whole thing was a muddle of bad libertarian thinking and a short burst of completely misinterpreted American Indian spiritualism. And the worst part? They tried to put an actual story into the story, giving the main character an understandable motivation.
OK. That wasn't actually the worst part. The worst part is the way they completely broke the ending, by grafting on an actual ending in place of the unassailable oroborosian logic of the original.
I still think Vanishing Point is a movie that could be remade into something at least as good as the original. But if that wish leads to made-for-TV crap like this, I'd rather do without. Just like I'd rather download a movie than watch it through the smeary windshield of a car full of teenagers and smelling of stale beer.
You see, the more things change...
Back in the 1970s I spent a lot of summer nights in local drive-in theaters south of Seattle. Victims of changing demographics, the video tape player, and rising land prices of the 1980s, drive-in movies are rare today. Rarer still is the drive-in that runs a three or four movie slate on weekend nights with a single price per car-load; making itself into a place for youth with nothing else to do to hang out on a hot summer evening.
So, thirty-five plus years ago I was among the thousands of local kids flocking to the Valley or the infamous El Rancho (aka the 'El Rauncho', home of the triple feature 'cannibal night' on Thursdays). We would pack a car with beer, snacks, and teenagers and spend our night talking and laughing and, sometimes, watching the movies.
One of the perennial features of those triple and quadruple feature nights was a chase film that has since become a cult classic: Vanishing Point. Perhaps the victim of a bad distribution deal or some other factor which made it cheap to show, it seemed like Vanishing Point came back to the drive-ins two or three times every summer. In any case I must have seen it a good half dozen times back then, but I never quite figured it out. Vanishing Point is a very strange story, which ends with its beginning or begins with its end, and seems to come as close to making sense in between as you possibly can without actually getting there. The whole thing is imbued with a quirky philosophy, from the dialogue to the very structure of the movie.
The teenage me loved it.
A few years ago I rented the video and it didn't hold up so well. To my older eyes the philosophical messages seemed a bit heavy handed and obvious. Still, that DVD did bring back to mind those nights of beer and marijuana-fueled laughter. It helped me to remember being seventeen and as free as my dodge van could make me.
For some reason I got to thinking about Vanishing Point when I was drifting off to sleep in my hotel room last week. I got to wondering if perhaps someone should re-make the movie as a modern piece. To make some of the same existentialist points. To try and illuminate the modern condition in the way the original tried to illuminate the aftermath of the Summer of Love.
So imagine my surprise when just last night I was scanning channels, looking for stuff to Tivo, and I ran across a 1997 remake of Vanishing Point starring (of all people) Viggo Mortensen. Kismet, no?
No.
I watched the movie tonight and, great ghu, it was awful. The only philosophy in the whole thing was a muddle of bad libertarian thinking and a short burst of completely misinterpreted American Indian spiritualism. And the worst part? They tried to put an actual story into the story, giving the main character an understandable motivation.
OK. That wasn't actually the worst part. The worst part is the way they completely broke the ending, by grafting on an actual ending in place of the unassailable oroborosian logic of the original.
I still think Vanishing Point is a movie that could be remade into something at least as good as the original. But if that wish leads to made-for-TV crap like this, I'd rather do without. Just like I'd rather download a movie than watch it through the smeary windshield of a car full of teenagers and smelling of stale beer.
You see, the more things change...
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 06:36 I thought of something to say, something simple and amazing, which could crystalize into a movement towards world peace. Then I woke up. #
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 13:35 Off to Bellingham for a #valhallacon meeting. # (edited valhallacon)
- 15:02 Passed a car fire on N I5 just S of exit 210. twitpic.com/7ey9f #
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 14:50 Home all day. Doing the cleaning and other domestic jobs undone in the last two to three weeks. Sadly, I do not expect to clear my tasklist. #
- 16:42 Finally fixed the tailight on my motorcycle. Much harder than it should be due to engineering choices of the Kawasaki designers. #
- 23:03 @JESilverstein :-P #
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 08:14 Last day of #wwdc. Soon home and a chance to sleep in something that doesn't make my back hurt all day. #
- 11:08 @jay_lake 12 / 20+ #
- 11:27 After giving it hard thought, have decided to stay and do afternoon sessions at #wwdc instead of going to the computer history museum. #
- 13:54 Last #wwdc session about to start. Then collect bags and figure out how to get to airport. Been an interesting week. #
- 15:19 @JESilverstein - you don't have to tweet you know. You can just follow. #
- 15:59 At airport, on standby for an earlier flight. Here's hoping! #
- 16:27 Didn't make the cut for this flight. Only hope is someone didn't show up. Preferably someone in first class. #
- 16:37 Heh! My bag made the flight anyway. I just saw them load it. #
- 18:23 Two Seattle flights are loading now, one after the other. No clue if I will be on one or not. #
- 18:48 So, yay! Made it onto flight A 303. I'll get to Seattle hours ahead of schedule. #
- 20:44 Just landed. Hello Seattle! #
- 21:36 At this rate, waiting for the Shuttle Express van to fill up and drop everyone off is going to take longer than the plane ride. #
- 22:21 Home! Nighty night tweetybirds. #
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 06:26 @doctorow Bad news. They might be closing the Tonga Room: www.savetonga.com/ #tiki #
- 08:12 Tim Berners-Lee says "We no longer fully understand the web." bit.ly/XxFK6 #
- 12:12 @jay_lake Waaahh! I don't have enough style to write like Jay Lake! #
- 20:01 The rumor is true: Cake is playing for the #WWDC bash. #
- 20:20 Dude! Cake! #wwdc twitpic.com/765fr #
- 22:11 Whatta sausage festival that was! First rock concert I've ever seen with a line at the men's room and no line at the ladies. #wwdc #
Twittering as jackwilliambell.
- 08:29 Ahh. Another day of Apple indoctrination! iPhone-ate me, please. #wwdc #
- 16:15 Today's #wwdc got sidelined by #work over and over again, to the point I hardly finished even one session. Phone conferences, we hates you! #
- 16:26 Well, when the going gets tough, the tough go to the Tiki Bar. I'll be at the Tonga Room tonight from 5 to 6 (or so). Join us! #wwdc #
- 17:27 The Tonga Room very much the classic Tiki bar! I'm already getting an island attitude. Mahalo dude! #
- 17:30 (Snicker. Nice. Uh-huh.) RT @warrenellis: Hello if @johnperrybarlow just sent you over. Pay him no mind, I'm really a very nice person #
- 19:00 So far I am down one Mai tai, one piña colada, and one tonga tart. Mellow much? #
- 19:03 @doctorow Am hanging at the Tonga Room with friends. I assume you've been here but, if not, you'd love the fake rainstorms! #
- 20:31 Found the SproutCore folk. Soon to be a mass geek exodus to the WebKit party. #wwdc #
- 21:15 Back to my room early tonight. Must get up and work before sessions tomorrow. I hope that insulates me from interruptions all day. #wwdc #
