The spaceman is my favourite busker in Melbourne. He must be an engineering or electronics nut – his synths and tools all seem home made and he is intimately familiar with every function of them – and the sounds he creates are silly, funny, moving and eloquent. He is the future and he has come to save us from idol banality. Thanks for the electronica Major Tom!
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This academic paper suggests that there is a positive correlation between the ‘buzz’ about a film in the blogosphere and its success at the box office. This got me thinking about what else buzz metrics could be referenced against. Given my recent play in the Hollywood Stock Exchange, where my shares in Maggie Gyllenhaal have risen sharply, I wonder what the relationship is between the buzz about her online and her value in the HSX.…
I have been spending time with some artist friends this week. One let me photograph her sketchbook. She fingerprinted herself and filled pages with it. We talked about the creative process, and how an artist needs to continue exploring an idea and testing it until it breaks. Only then does the idea transform into what can become the work. I consider myself a writer, though I have done more as an editor; I like being a photographer but am purely an amateur.…
The 2006 Australian MotoGP is coming up soon, and I’m very excited. It’s one of my favourite events, and I love riding to Phillip Island to watch the race each year. Last year I was there to see Valentino Rossi win another title for Yamaha. This year, the championship is much closer and more unpredictable. Who will win?
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I have lived a week of colour. The blue of sea, sky and metal in the Docklands is also filled with blocks of many different colours, kind of like a massive legoland.
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I work in the Docklands (official site and wikipedia). It’s an emerging, growing space that often feels very empty. Sometimes it fills with people and I wonder why it doesn’t more often. It can be beautiful when the sun shines and the sky meets the river.
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I love Duran Duran, and was thrilled to see their sensational show at the Metro club in Melbourne in 2003. It exceeded all expectations; the excitement of the crowd was genuine and intense, even when queuing in a cold laneway off Bourke St at 6am to buy tickets, which sold out immediately. Now they are to play in Second Life, which I am sure will be fabulous. The idea is a gorgeous expression of retro futurism.…
The Hollywood stock exchange is an online virtual stock market. It’s a prediction market or information aggregation mechanism that collects the hypotheses of thousands of participants about the value of actors and films. It’s free to play and can be lots of fun. I’m getting addicted – I log in every day to see how my shares are doing.
I have the highly scientific approach of buying shares in gorgeous actresses I enjoy watching on screen.…
This week I attended my first Mobile Monday seminar. It’s held at Horse Bazaar – a cute bar on Little Lonsdale St. Walter Adamson spoke about the huge disruptive potential of mobile tv. The event is organised by Keren Flavell, who spoke earlier this year at one of the seminars I manage for the AFTRS Centre for Screen Business – The Business of Digital Distribution.
I also talked to Simon Goodrich and Andrew Apostola, the directors of the International Portable Film Festival.…