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Posted by: Millie Stein
To me, Kate Jinx is the kind of person the Internet was made for. Her blog, Abracadabra Department, is like a pop culture archive. She’s practically fulfilling a public service. We spoke about this and Sandra Bernhard over Gmail Chat. Continue reading…
Posted by: Millie Stein
On the 20th of March this year, he quietly stepped out online with his blog, The World News. Almost one month and three playlists later, the only noise he’s making is in playlist form. No pretension, just some really good songs. No commitment, either – you can download, or just listen.
We asked DJ World Music to tell us what it’s all about, and this is what he said.
The World News originally came to be in the prefrontal cortex of my brain. Since its neurological debut, the rest of my body has been so busy giving TWN an existence outside the somewhat-incestuous world of neurons that it hasn’t had a spare moment to ask my brain why it felt the need to create the idea in the first place. With such little available information, one can only assume it was for evolutionary fitness. Continue Reading…
Text: Tristan Ceddia
As well as fronting up Sydney’s Monster Children Gallery, Joseph Allen Shea is also an artist, publisher, curator, writer (Kill Pixie/ doingbird) and runs a hefty mixed business named Izrock. This week, we asked Joe to tell us a bit about his extensive Izrock blog…
I started the Izrock blog in February 2008. I had just created a new site to show the books and zines I had been making and wanted to have somewhere to post updates.
It is a very personal weblog and was in more ways than not a response to my friends who lived overseas and had blogs. Living far from your friends, it can be hard to keep up on what they are doing. So it was always great to see regular posts from my European pals like French, Marcus Oakley, Stefan Marx and others. So it really started for them to see what I was up to.
I soon became aware that there is a larger audience than just people I know and I consciously try to make the blog interesting for others. At the same time I try to be honest and not vain or self-conscious (or grossly self-promotional). I try not to censor myself and I try not to be concerned if I want to post something dorky or embarrassing. I try to forget my ego.
It is odd to me, the lives we now lead are often in the public arena. We are so aware of image and audience. We are more than happy for everyone to know our business, our interests and personal details. This can be positive but can also be truly ugly and also dangerous. Our culture is so grossly obsessed with celebrity and it makes sense that we want our 15 minutes. It is so easy these days for authorities to keep track of us (and marketing companies – who are just as evil), and here we are making their jobs easier. They are making money from the information we supply.
I think there will be a backlash. I definitely see myself flipping back the other way and falling back to privacy and some more reclusive behavior. But until then I am enjoying this outward spew of open information. The internet gives us the possibility to obtain niche information and indulge in niche interests and that is the greatest thing about the web. This blog is my contribution to anyone who wants to know about sub culture and the relating art in Sydney.
I hope this blog is an insight to what is going on with my peers, so many of whom are making incredible work. It is something I am interested in and therefore interested in showing.
Izrock
Text: Tristan Ceddia
This week in place of the Wiz Quiz, we asked Huw J Bennett, one half of Sydney label Vanishing Elephant to tell us about his blog Cultivate Modesty.
Cultivate Modesty initially started out as a travel diary that I worked on while I was away selling collections – hence a salesman’s diary. I had just come to the end of 2 months of travel and wanted to showcase my favourite bars, restaurants and sites I saw whilst I was away. I had also been archiving various photo’s and really wanted to incorporate these into the blog. At first my posts were quite themed but now it is an over all mood board.
I guess it is a summary of my own needs vs wants. Someone recently told me when they visit the blog they’re struck with instant lifestyle envy, however in many ways this goes against what I’m trying to do. Mostly the blog is meant to be about great photo’s, people that inspire me, amazing landscapes and cities as well as shoes I want to wear, but don’t necessarily need.
Cultivate Modesty
Text: Tristan Ceddia
Beci Orpin is a highly talented and sought after designer to say the least, but even the most talented among us have trouble putting pen to paper so to speak. Here on You & Your Blog, Beci tells us about how taking the blogging plunge has changed her life…
Initially i was quite anti-blog. I used to read a few here and there, but on the whole it seemed pretty mediocre stuff. then I discovered some good ones, and I started to like the idea.
I work on a lot of different projects, and me being techincally retarded it’s hard to update my website all the time without having to pay someone else a lot of money. when I relaunched my site in March Seamus set a blog up too so I could easily show my new work. but my blog has turned into more than just work updates. Now I post all kinds of stuff on there – what my kids are doing, what’s going on in my house, things that are going on in Melbourne, my nervous dispositions of the moment. as much as I try and avoid it, it’s definitely quite personal, but my whole approcah to what I do is pretty personal… so it makes sense. it’s also therapy for me too – I had no idea I would love writing it all down as much as i do, but I guess that too makes sense, as I when growing up I always used to keep a diary – this is probably a more public and less teenage lovesick version of that.
www.beciorpin.com/blog
Text: Tristan Ceddia
For this You & Your Blog we asked Annie Wright to tell us about the world of Tubarosa…
Tubarosa was a character I accidentally made up in about 1999, I was on a weekend away with my ex-boyfriend and some random friends of his who spent two days locked in a cabin with white powder on dinner plates and I couldn’t handle it and escaped into a world of Tuba. I only had one A5 sketch book and a black and a red biro and I filled the book in about a day and a half. Anyway that’s not really got anything to do with blogs as it was so long ago. But it was a sketch book that people would borrow and read, and lots of people took inspiration from it, and it developed a little following amongst friends.
I decided to revisit Tuba about two months ago as I was in desperate need of a hobby. I used to spend all of my free time on the internet looking at other peoples fashion blogs and it was kind of killing me. I became SO bored! I couldn’t believe how authoritative fashion bloggers were trying to be and how un-original and en-masse it all is.
Anyway, I guess I needed a hobby and I wanted to start drawing again. Why I felt this should be a blog and on the internet for the world to see is beyond me. Why can’t it just be my sketch book again? I really don’t know. I guess that’s why I decided to add recipes, as at least this is something that can be shared. Otherwise I do feel very self indulgent and I would never expect other people to look at it, or I should never expect to “get” anything out of it, as seemingly lots of bloggers start out to do. I just wanted to keep myself busy!
Tubarosa
Text: Toby Marlow
This week for You & Your Blog we spoke to Dylan Thurlas and Joshua Foer about their travel site Atlas Obscura which covers “the strange out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional travel guidebooks and are ignored by the average tourist”.
What do you hope people will get out of Atlas Obsura?
We want people to have the travel resource we always wanted to have. For us, the Atlas Obscura is not just about collecting oddities. It’s about creating a lens through which to see the world. In an age where people think everything has been explored and there is nothing new to be found, we want to remind people just how wondrous and amazing the world really is!
As a wiki site have you ever had to reject any articles you felt were too inappropriate?
Nothing so far has been too inappropriate. If it is wondrous, curious, or esoteric, we will accept it, provided the place is real and its story checks out. If we reject something it’s usually because the history and interesting background isn’t really there, or it is just too commonplace. But people seem to really get it. More than 90% of what gets submitted is right on and makes it in.
What has been your favorite article so far?
Well, we have a new favorite everyday, but right now my mind was just blown by these incredible root bridges in India grown over a period of 10 to 15 years. They are literally living bridges, and look like something out of Lord Of The Rings. We are regularly astounded by the quality and time that people have put into their entries. It is such a thrill to read about a new, wondrous place. The Atlas wouldn’t be possible without the work of everyone that has added to it.
Visit Atlas Obscura
Text: Tristan Ceddia
This week for You & Your Blog we have asked James W. Mataitis Bailey to tell us about his blog Yimmys Yayo
Yimmy’s Yayo is a creative endeavor in which I aim to expand my visual vocabulary and present images which I find beautiful or amazing. It began as a small folder on my desktop in 2007, but has grown to something I could never have anticipated. I believe a great image should present a story or evoke emotions, and I try to show this with each post. Being more of a visual person the imagery chosen sometimes is done so to express my own emotions, where I feel a textual response would fail. Ansel Adams said, ‘Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs’. I think photography helps bridge the gap between reality and what we dream, making our deepest desires or fears attainable and real.
In essence Yimmy’s Yayo is about sharing beauty and stories through visual imagery and response. It’s grown naturally by sharing and the love of great pictures. This was my intention in the beginning and I’m happy that it’s continued to do so.
Yimmys Yayo
