Matthew Wayne Selznick

Does anyone else get this as protest art? Especially the Counter Strike stuff.

Wow.

(via We-Make-Money-Not-Art)

I’m having a hard time articulating this blog entry. It’s hard, because I’ve made a decision to not be involved with the Los Angeles Podcasters Group’s (LAPG) booth at the Podcast & Portable Media Expo in a month and a half, and the decision is based on a combination of ethical, personal, and purely gut reasons.

So it’s hard to explain it, and yet I feel the need to blog about it. It’s hard to explain, because I don’t particularly want to get into the personal reasons (I sense that bad feelings and perhaps some flared tempers would result.) Let’s just say I don’t mesh with some of the participants, and the perceived motivations that seem to drive their actions.

I wrote a post on the LA Podcasters’ forum to, more or less, state my reasons. Read that, if you want. It explains most of it. I guess it’s enough to say that I want to meet people, and interact, and network, and build relationships, and all of that… I don’t want to stand around in a convention hall and wait for people to come to me and my Los Angeles comrades.

See, I long for community, and I don’t think we live in a world where community is, or should be, geographically based. Community should be built around shared ethics, passions, interests, and goals… and let the threads be stretched across the globe. Let participation be defined by those who speak, not by who’s sitting at the literal table.

Yeah, some might feel I’ve changed my tune. In fact, I’m steering back on course. I veered off at the thought of the LAPG booth, and the hint of media involvement, and the potential exposure to hundreds and hundreds of people.

I let myself forget: what’s important is reaching fewer people who care deeply, not many people who may not care enough. I strayed from my own personal DIY ethic, and now I’m back.

I want to get the most I can out of this conference — I’ll still be there, baby, both days, with bells on, morning on into night. I’ll be in a different session every freakin’ hour, soaking it up and participating when I can. Interacting.

I’m not there to put on a show. I’m certainly not interested in podcasting live from the booth — I recall Curry’s keynote-turned-podcast recording session and how it turned my stomach. I’m not there to stand in a booth, as in “Here I am, a podcaster, and here you are, a conventioneer.” Putting walls around the creators of content, separating them from the folks who consume the content, is so last century, even if those walls are just temporary partitions or faux velvet curtains.

Quotin’ Dave, “We’re all just folks,” and that’s exactly what I want to be. One of the folks, With the folks. All the folks.

Okay. Between this and that, I think I’ve said it.

… I’ve thought about it for a long long time…

Oops, wait, this isn’t a Todd Rundgren song, it’s a blog post, and long overdue at that!

Yeah, it’s been a couple of weeks, almost exactly, since I’ve posted. What’s up, Matt?

Well, work at the Cursed Day Job (CDJ) mostly, and red-pen work with Brave Men Run. The edits are almost complete on the book. I’ve started working on the web page. I’m gathering my ideas and plans for marketing the work, which will be available in no less than three different media… podcast, e-book, and print.

Speaking of that, many thanks to Jan at the Big Bear Grizzly for her generous research work on my behalf. She saved me a day long excursion up the mountain.

Actually, a day in Big Bear is a nice thing, especially now that it’s finally autumn. Fall is my favorite season, and at 3,500 feet above sea level here in the lush and lavish studios of MWS Media, I can actually experience the change of seasons despite living in Southern California. Big Bear’s higher still, which means I can go up there in a couple of months for a snow fix.

Ramble, ramble… I have to actually work today at the CDJ, so I’m going to get the MWS Media Radio Show podcast out of the way early today. I won’t have time tomorrow, as there’s a meeting of the Los Angeles Podcasters group in LA then… busy busy!

Thanks to Duncan, I discovered that PayPal has shut down at least one Katrina relief fundraising effort that uses their service. They’re concerned about the potential for fraud.

That’s regrettable, and a real “one bad apple…” kind of thing.

In light of this information, I’ve taken down the MWS Media campaign drive. Instead, please donate directly to one of the suggested charities in the sidebar on the right-hand side of the page. These are all charities with confirmed direct involvement in the recovery effort.

I read a few blogs, of course. Just about every one of them has had something to say about Katrina, and the disaster, and the relief effort, and all that.

Just about every one… but not every one. Some of them carry on with the typical self-referential stuff that is, under normal circumstances, the very point of blogging. And I find myself disturbed by the impression these bloggers give that their life is continuing as if nothing had happened.

I don’t know. Maybe some folks don’t want to comment on the tragedy — maybe they want to keep it to themselves. I guess I can respect that. Still… I read about their vacations, and what not, and there’s nary a peep about this biggest disaster, biggest political fiasco, biggest logistical nightmare this country’s had to face in some time.

And it puts a bad taste in my mouth.

I’m just sayin’.