Comic-Con '08

If you are or know anyone who is a content creator (books, comics, film, tv, web) and who will be at Comic-Con, I'm looking to put together some "off the beaten path" interviews for Geekerati, both for the blog and for our internet radio show/podcast.

Please email me if you have an interest in being interviewed or has a friend (or client, if you are PR) that would like to be interviewed.

Thanks all! To my readers: I'll be twittering the whole thing, as I did last year. I'm hoping to really improve coverage, particularly focused on the TV panels (and there are a LOT of them this year), not only for my blog but for the aforementioned blog and podcast.

The water's fine.

"You don't even bother to check the temperature of the water, you just jump right in."

This is what a friend said to me today about how I treat my 'hobbies' and fixations. If I get interested in something I go at it full force, no messing around. I don't just dabble...I *live* it.

Some of you were around for my "Taylor Hicks phase", something I'm still grasping to understand myself. I just knew it was something that had taken hold of me at a particular time in my life when I needed something to excite me, and I went for the ride. And what a ride it was. It's still difficult to explain that Mr. Hicks really became a minor player in my hobby. Each time I saw him put on a show, it became less and less about him, more and more about who I was spending the time with, and all of the experiences I was having. I went to Birmingham, AL twice, Atlanta, New York, Las Vegas...all to experience life with this group of people who were becoming my friends.

I don't talk to many of them anymore, but the ones I talk to a lot are the ones I intend to keep forever. I'm sure I'll continue to have some conversations with a few of the others, but once this 'phase' was winding down for me, it seemed to be winding down for others...we just moved on.

So, now I've dived into my next hobby, phase or 'subculture' as I am frequently finding fascinating similarities and interesting differences between the various groups I mingle with (writers, blues and soul music fans, sci-fi geeks, tech geeks, etc).

I'm *really* into wine.

And that doesn't just mean I find a couple I like. Oh no. It means I 'found' the winebloggers, the vloggers, the wikis, EVERYTHING I can get my hands on that relates to wine. I track my cellar and tasting notes. I have 43 bottles right now, 15 of which I consider worth 'saving' and not just popping open to drink randomly. I'm learning how to train my palate to get better at tasting wine.

I live my passions.

So Friday, I'm checking in on my favorite wine vlogger, who is a cult icon with the wine lover set -- he has fanatic followers and has caused a lot of controversy in the staid wine business.

Meet Gary Vaynerchuk.

Gary took over his family's wine business many years ago and has built it into one of the premier wine businesses on the web. He embraces Web 2.0 (and I'll be posting about throwing myself deep into the social networking pool more in another post...this only scratches the surface of it).

So Friday, I learn he's up in Sonoma tasting wines with Kevin Rose, founder of Digg. Kevin was using a great new Web 2.0 tool Qik to broadcast LIVE from his Nokia phone out to the site and to the entire world. Further, you could chat with them through the phone as they were recording, resulting in some questions being asked by people to Kevin and Gary which they could answer (that is until the lag got kind of bad -- there's still work to be done on this technology).

Gary is also joined by Tim Ferriss, author of the NY Times Bestseller "The Four-Hour Work Week" and Robert Scoble from Fast Company. These four people are extremely successful with their business and a lot of it can be attributed to their shrewd use of Web 2.0 technology.

During the course of the video, Gary mentions it might be fun to host a party Saturday night for the Twitter followers -- yes, Twitter is yet another Web 2.0 technology that I have embraced (if you come here often, you've probably seen my recent twitter updates over in the sidebar).

So, a party? A WINE party? Hosted by *the* Gary Vaynerchuk and with the aforementioned internet 'personalities' in attendence? I instantly knew that I had to be there. Before they could confirm their musings I twittered Robert Scoble and asked if the party was a go. He told me it was, and I said I'd be there, in Santa Rosa, for the party the next night.

Crazy, right? Looking back, no crazier than my flights hither and yon to see the American Idol winner. In fact, this looked downright sane in comparison. So, I sought out travel companions of a female nature...my other thought being it would make for a good girl's weekend and I didn't need any of my male friends (who I cherish SOOOO much) to get in the way of any possible, ahem, romantic possibilities. Hey, some of these guys are wealthy. A girl can dream, right?

I had no takers on the trip. At first I was bummed, and almost talked myself out of going...seven hours of driving alone seemed too risky. But I didn't let it stop me. I got up Saturday morning, gassed up my car, packed a small bag and hit the road.

SPLASH. I am in the pool, and the water is fine.

(To be continued...)

Casting a Long (Digital) Shadow

So I recently tallied up my various 'presences' on a variety of Web applications, 2.0 widgets, etc etc. Here's what I found:

This Blog
The Sistercritics Blog, which I run with...my sister.
Geekerati Media Blog
A LiveJournal account
A Facebook account
A Myspace account
Geekerati Radio Show
My (TV Junkie) Radio Show
A LinkedIn account
Twitter account
Pandora account
Photobucket account
Youtube account
Google News Reader/Google talk
AIM
Yahoo Messenger
MSN Messenger (which I never use anymore)
Yelp account
My CellarTracker Account (Wine)

And Fusing most of these together is my new FriendFeed account.

And we don't even want to count the forums I'm a member of...

Wipeout

It's good to know people are still reading the blog...or at least stopping by to annoy me to post something. Trouble is, I'm completely wiped out.

The strike. My new job. Britney Spears. Super Tuesday. All just drops in the bucket, but all taken collectively with everything else in the world, and I am just overloaded.

Call in 'Online O.D.'

I'm seriously spent, mentally. I wasn't sure why until I had to spend about 20 hours fixing the at home DSL after upgrading to high speed (thanks Earthlink!) While I was stressed to the gills trying to fix my onramp to the info super-highway (thanks Al Gore!) I was actually relieved to be out of touch for a whole 24 hours. Sure, there was anxiety...that happens to all addicts in withdrawl, but once the shakes diminished, I felt euphoric. It was like the shackles around my wrists had disappeared, and I was free.

Of course, once I was able to connect to the rest of the world again, my addiction came back full on. But this time, I have the knowledge of my addiction...and I am left empty with each email, web page, or blog post I read or write.

So, just to sate your hunger for 'stuff from me', here's my quick hits:

* THE STRIKE - Please, for the love of God, let this be the beginning of the end.

* LOST - Good buildup. Interesting stuff going on, as usual. At least I feel like the writers have the map in front of them and their road is marked.

* ELI STONE - Not as bad as I thought it would be. Actually enjoyed it near the end. Will watch again this week.

* SUPER BOWL - Meh. Didn't care for either team, but I found myself rooting for the Pats as I found more and more people were rooting for the Giants, and not because they *like* the Giants...more because they didn't want the Patriots to get their perfect season. I am actually ruminating on this phenomenon a lot. Maybe I'll even post about it at some point...

* HOUSE - Loved it. Still such an awesome show. Really doesn't get the kudos it deserves...

* BRITNEY SPEARS - Girl, there are people in this world who really do care what happens to you. Listen to them. Get some help. I really don't want to see you be a trainwreck anymore. The tabloids love it, but screw them. Get better.

* SUPER TUESDAY - Okay! Fine! Everyone (except Hollywood Park) wants me to vote for those Propositions to get more money from the Indian Casinos and grant them more slots. Just go away after tomorrow, please!!

* EARTHLINK - I wish I knew how to quit you.

* MY NEW JOB - Busy. Like, they are making me earn my ridiculous salary busy. Bastards.

I promise to come back and say something else this week. Maybe more than a couple of words.

The first salvo in the new internet TV revolution?

A story that was reported over the weekend, but doesn't seem to have picked up much traction in the TV blogosphere. Here's the thing. If Google is partnering with Simon Fuller to create programming, it means Google is changing it's business model. It's not content to be in the distribution business only. They want to get into the content creation business.

A quote from the article: "News of the collaboration will prompt speculation that Google's plans for the TV market include generating original content and competing with major broadcasters."

And another very significant quote: "Earlier this month, it emerged that Google's advertising revenues had overtaken those of ITV1, Britain's biggest commercial TV channel."

Think about that -- it probably isn't at American network advertising revenues, but one could reasonably speculate that it's only a matter of time.

Goodbye, studio system. Your demise is imminent.


Link: Google turns to X Factor's Fuller for push into TV -- The Observer