I've always liked the blog about video blogs called We Are The Media. I often found it refreshing to tap into a non-radical, even non-political take on the simple idea of citizen participation in media production, without the usual party line so prevalent within Indymedia circles. It gave me hope that this alternative media revolution could be bigger. But today the dark side of that non-stance has reared its head with an entry bleating the wonderous coolness of Rocketboom's new commerce-soaked format. I could understand mentioning the fact that Rocketboom, the most popular vlog on the net, has sold itself for a week literally to the highest bidder and will spend a week making special advertisements that go at the end of its regular vodcast. But all the hyperbolic celebration of this as a beautiful and innovative new opportunity for advertisers is making me want to puke the more I think about it. Here's a choice quote:

When people download Rocketboom every morning, they have the episode on their computer and the Rocketboom team have taken this advantage and scored a touchdown. They made a commercial where the idea is simple, but the story is full of intruiging [sic] and subtle details. If you want to get it, you just watch it once, but if you want to really get it, you have to watch it over and over for all the easter eggs and cool details that lie just below the surface.

No thanx. I'll pass. I'm not even going to link to Rocketboom here. I don't watch RB anymore anyway. I used to look at it pretty much every day for a few weeks last fall, but i lost interest pretty fast. Hackneyed newsdesk format that relies on having a pretty blonde anchorwoman. blech. Goodbye forever, Rocketboom, blasting off into the stratosphere of corporate capital...

Over the last 12 years the world has seen the general public gradually catch on to what the Internet is good for. It's been a long slow process.

First it was an "Information Superhighway," which most people didn't understand. Nice try, Al.

Then it gradually turned into a giant shopping mall, and then, sort of after the fact, a library. And a few other uses are seeping into the zeitgeist. It's a place to pick up dates; a place to promote your band or sell your band's indie recordings; a place to share photos of that trip to Disneyland with grandma; a place to auction off the old stuff in the attic; Even a place for a sort of public diary and/or soapbox.

The last, frustrating frontier: a place and a tool for distributed collaboration; a lot of people still just don't seem to get that. I first started thinking about it in 1994, as soon as I found out about the web. Well, actually before there was a web, but I won't go into that (early participation in what would become SITO...) And this stuff isn't rocket science. I'm talking about simple shit, like, say you're an artistic collective or a nonprofit of some kind. Wouldn't the web be a good way to make available files that different members might need regularly? Like hi-res versions of the group's logo, or letterhead, or common templates for documents? Oh, yeah! good idea! Never thought of that!

sigh... suspira...

I just arrived in Flagstaff with 2 other imcistas from Tucson. We're here for an indymedia teach-in/workshop thing, trying to get activists and community members here in Flag more involved with indymedia. It should be interesting and fun.

It's snowing here. Big fluffy flurries of snow. On the way here at about 3000 feet I got to see the transition zone where snow was accumulating on saguaro cacti. That's a weird sight. Cool to have that range of climate in 4 hours of driving. But it is 5000 feet of altitude difference so, not that crazy, though this much snow this late in the winter is unusual, I'm told.

Wow. Ha Ha Ha America is a clever, funny, scary little film about China and the U.S. Everyone in gringolandia should watch this. Everyone. Go. click and watch it. now.

Saw a great film tonite called "Sembrando Esperanza" (Sowing Hope) about the Magonistas of Oaxaca, CIPO-RFM. They're a sort of a network of indigenous communities in Oaxaca that are simliar in their goals to the Zapatistas, only they are pacifists; but it's interesting, this may only mean that so far they have never taken up arms, because, just as with the EZLN, armed struggle is the last resort after other things have been tried for a long time.
Also, CIPO uses tactics such as letting loose hordes of rats and bugs in the offices of government officials, or putting nametags with the names of politicians on pigs and letting them run through a building... things that in the U.S. would probably get one arrested and charged with "eco-terrorism."

Anyway, it's inspiring to see other radical resistance movements in Mexico besides the Zapatistas, and its great to see solidarity campaigns starting here for them.

Also, right before going to that film I met some AZ indymedia folks at the cafe and we met with 2 guys from Ambazonia, who are involved with the indymedia center there. They're working on a film about what's been going on there in Ambazonia, a small country that's been sort of a buffer zone between Nigeria and Cameroon, and hence between colonial powers France and Britain, for a long time. They're still struggling for independance from Cameroon, and demonstrating students are getting shot in the streets. shot dead. Next time your little white middleclass peace march gets peppersprayed, remember that.

Yesterday I sent out a mass mail to everybody I know that's ever shown interest, so you may already know this- but anyway, I'm trying to raise funds so I can manufacture a whole bunch of copies of the DVD of On The Edge (my film about the femicide in Juarez). You can donate and get a copy, or even order one for your school or organization. The more money I can raise the more copies I'll be able to have made, meaning the more people will see the film.

And in related news, there are only 3 sections of the film left to translate into spanish. Thank you to everyone who's been helping with that. Just a little more and we'll be ready!

Happy International Women's Day! I just found a website that has a global register of IWD events. So go find what's happening where you are.

A friend in Italy says on his blog that the holiday is a much bigger deal in Europe than in the U.S.

Can someone please explain why people are wasting time and money trying to impeach Bush? For one thing, it's not going to happen, but even more importantly, do you really want Dick Cheney to be president?

We'd have to impeach like 8 people before we'd get to someone in the chain of command that's not just as dangerous to the world as Bush. At least Bush is an incompetent monkey that's making a fool out of himself and the whole regime. Impeaching him would be like getting rid of Jar Jar Binks so that Darth Vader can take over.

Is it just symbolic? Pshaw. I'm tired of (at least that kind of) symbolism. I bet you'd have more positive effect on the world if you took the money that these people are spending on impeachment ads in the New York Times and spent it buying satellite internet modems for villages in Iran.

I have to admit, I've always been a sucker for vampire films. Not all of them. I go for the "cool" vampire films. Call it a guilty pleasure, but I love stories of immortal superhuman nightdwellers that take place in the modern world surrounded by pop cultural allusions. From Lost Boys to Queen of the Damned, even Blade, they may not be that good as cinema, really, but for some reason I go see them and usually enjoy them.

So, take that as an extended caveat. Maybe you shouldn't trust me to endorse the film I just saw today, Night Watch ("Nochnoi Dozor" in Russian), but I thought it was pretty great. It had incredible Matrix-inspired effects and a gripping "mythology" involving an age-old truce between good and evil "Others," who are basically superhumans with a variety of powers - seers (like the main character), witches, were-tigers, healers, and, yup, vampires. Plus, it all takes place on a backdrop of seedy Moscow nightlife, with goths and gangsters and bureaucratic officers of the Night Watch, which enforces the truce, driving around in big yellow rocket-powered firetruck-like vehicles. (I know, sounds silly, but I warned ya)

Seeing this film was my test, speaking of trust, as to whether I should give cred to the reviews of Tucson Weekly movie critic James Digiovanna, who basically panned the film. Now I know not to listen to his conclusions, though I can say he included enough factual description of the film in his review for me to think that it sounded interesting. One thing I hate is reviewers who only give their opinion and don't back it up with any facts about the film.

One of the things that Digiovanna got right was that the film has one very amazing innovation: the subtitles. It's really incredible how they've worked the typography and animation of the subtitles to fit with what's going on in the scene. For instance whenever the evil vampiress is calling her prey to come to her the subtitles look like floating, bloody smoke. Or when the good nerdy hacker is searching cyberspace for information and telling his boss what he finds, his subtitles have a cursor and they scroll like text on a computer. This could get hokey but it's not overdone; it's very artful. I wonder if this will inspire a trend.

One might just write this film off as good meaningless fun with great effects but not much else, but I actually think the plot is a subtle allusion to current geopolitics. The film depicts a classic, epic battle between sides that are literally called the Dark and the Light, and yet there's still moral ambiguity; there's the idea that the side that is supposed to be good is doing some pretty shitty stuff that makes them not that different than the baddies. I won't give away any more than that.

Anyway, I look forward to the second installment in this trilogy. It's called "Day Watch." Maybe it'll suck compared to the first one, but I'll give it a chance.

Epic is the "hip" place to hang and take an espresso in Tucson. It's often too hip for me, but sometimes I go. And the demographics are actually more varied than the "hipster" moniker implies. It's a really popular place with lots of people, but the vibe is definitely leaning toward the overly-cool idle class. If I went there regularly I could probably make a whole blog just about the strange things I overhear there.

Today was one of the exceptions to the demographic but a great example of the surreal conversations I accidentally eavesdrop on all the time. I'm sitting there now and as I walked in I overheard the following: "...sounds like you need to have a rottweiler loose on the property." I look over and it's a grizzled old guy in overalls talking on a cellphone and smoking a cigar. He's wearing a black baseball cap that says "Get The Fuck Away From Me."

Um, Okay.