I’ll be back in conference mode, with near-real-time updates via Flickr, Dodgeball, Twitter, and possibly Facebook, as well.

PS – Clay says to watch i’m in like with you, which he (probably rightly) thinks is going to explode at SXSW. I don’t have an invite yet (hint hint), but it’s social networking in a faux-commercial situation – you’ve got to bid and offer something (as “games”, which I think might be the wrong word) to communicate with people. Social transaction costs brought to the forefront…interesting.

PPS – Well that didn’t work. Google Calendar embedding won’t let me share a calendar that’s been subscribed to from somewhere else, so no one but me could see it. I’ll leave up the Upcoming schedule, but my daytime schedule is down until I can sort it out.

Anyway, here’s the abstract, click through for the full description:

What if we turned our most serious problems into fun and games? We can encourage the human impulse to play while channelling that energy to effect lasting change. Yes, we can save the world, and we can have a heck of a lot of fun while we do it!

What if you could fight AIDS while fighting orcs? What if everyone in Manhattan was competing to be the friendliest? What if we turned our most serious problems into fun and games?

Games of all varieties already shape our social interactions and encourage good will and camaraderie while undermining the differences that can separate people. As we enter a time when games and social play are recognized as an important part of our culture, we can encourage the human impulse to play while channelling that energy to effect lasting change.

Whether raising money for recognized causes, educating players about foreign viewpoints, or challenging us to make simple changes to our daily lives, games can quickly and effectively bring people together with a lasting impact. Game play enables people who might otherwise feel unmotivated or powerless to make a difference in their community, their lives, and their world, while fostering relationships with other players around the world.

Whether it’s video games, board games, street games, or something completely new, we can use gaming to aid in medical research, civil rights, environmental protection, and other important causes while simultaneously tackling deeper seated issues of isolation and perceived differences between cultures.

Yes, we can save the world, and we can have a heck of a lot of fun while we do it!

The point of the story is that, after my lengthy blog silence, only recently broken, I’ll be offline for another week. Email via my Treo, so no MySpace please, and I won’t be able to reply to LJ comments (tho I can read them). Sigh. Well, at least there’s now zero excuse for not exploring the city!

Speaking of the apartment, it’s great! I’m living with Austin and Terri on the second floor of a converted brownstone. The second floor was traditionally where the parlor was located, so that’s what we call our apartment. And as a neighborhood, Park Slope is pretty dang wonderful. I need to explore some more here, too.

T-minus two weeks until school starts, and even less before orientation! Addie just landed in town, and, honestly, I can’t wait to see her – it will make my purpose for being here seem more concrete, I think. Daniel, are you in town? You should be a part of that!

Here’s a video tour of The Parlor, with photos coming as soon as my Flickr exporter spots freaking out on me:

E3
Part of the reason my travel schedule is so wonky is that I’m trying to not miss more than a week of work, but attend events on both coasts – I’m flying home on Thursday morning so that I can be at E3 Thursday afternoon and all day Friday. I just have the free expo-pass, but I thought I should abuse my corporate privilege while I have it and scope out some new toys. I will especially be scoping out the Nintendo booth, and I’ll spend my entire time at E3 in line if it means I get to hold a working Revolution controller. That’s all I want, really. I’ll be on Nintendo WiFi whenever I’m waiting, so let me know if you’re going to be at the show and we can play Mario Kart while we wait, or go hunting for adorkable booth boys.

adorkable:
Both dorky and adorable. A higher state of being all dorks strive towards.

[Urban Dictionary via Snarkmarket]

I got in to ITP!

I just got an email saying the following, as if I had already known what was going on:

“This message marks your subscription to an NYU email announcement listserve for recently accepted applicants for the Fall 2006 term which I manage. Congratulations on your acceptance! By now, you should have received your acceptance package from the Tisch Graduate Admissions office.”

Okay, so a bit unceremonious, but I can live with that. Yay! And, um, wow, I’m moving to New York and going to grad school. Despite my lack of an alternate plan, I think that’s still going to take a while to sink in.

“It was only 6:15 a.m. when Special Agent DB* dragged himself out of bed and joined the other two members of his team, who’d been lying in wait for an hour at Barry’s Boot Camp in West Hollywood. The trio was armed, incognito, and had photo confirmation of the target. They had tracked their target to his gym by studying his MySpace profile, then one of them posed as a Boot Camp Regular to find out which class he attended. As he emerged from the class he was nailed. Another successful kill.”

Yeah, I was that easy to take out. Last I heard, there were 15 players left (down from the initial 200), but the numbers are dwindling slower these days, with only 2 picked off all of last week. Unless something major happens over the weekend, sudden death will begin on Monday.

Also, in my sickly haze of the past week, I neglected to mention that Surge of Power, the campy gay superhero movie I worked on a couple of years back, had it’s theatrical premiere at the Sunset 5 last weekend. Brent went with me to the premiere, which was interesting, to say the least. The movie was pretty terrible, but Nichelle Nichols (Ohura from Star Trek) and Noel Niell (Lois Lane from the Superman TV series) were both in attendance. Brent and I agree that Nichelle Nichols’ scene was the best part of the movie. She was amazing to work with, and really bouyed everyone’s spirits in the middle of a long shoot.

And hey, here I am in IMDB, with my one credit! Woo hoo!

For those of you who may be wondering about ITP, but don’t have the gumption to read my 1000 word personal statement or, you know, any words at all Cool Hunting’s new video podcast has three 1-2 minute clips from the ITP Winter Show. Cool Hunting, if you don’t know, is honestly very cool themselves

Or, for those of you for whom 1000 words isn’t enough, check out the syllabus for Clay Shirky’s class on Social Facts. Shirky’s a major influence in the social software sphere (say that ten times fast – “Shirky’s social software sphere”), and one of the reasons I’d be drop-dead lucky to study at ITP.

As I said, I completed the entire application in about a week, from initial epiphany (in the bathroom, of course) to filing. You can read all about that wacky process on my LiveJournal.

Click through for my personal statement.

Here’s my entire personal statement:
During my young life I’ve ping-ponged between creative and technical fields which have only recently begun to intertwine. When I was young, I had wanted to be a filmmaker, and as I grew older, I decided to pursue directing for theater. The method may have changed, but the essential desire remained the same: to tell stories, to communicate and converse on a cultural level. I was also busy forging a solid bond with technology, spending afternoons programming on my Apple II and playing video games. At thirteen, I taught myself web design, since no adult in my life knew much about the internet. But that’s always been a part of my relationship to technology – no matter what the task, I know that I can solve my problem and create what I need.

I had often struggled with balancing my creative and technical interests, until I was selected to be part of a pilot program of Disney Imagineers teaching at UCLA. I got first-hand knowledge of some cutting-edge experiments in interactive technology. Most of my relationship with technology up until that point had been confined to sitting in front of a screen. But while talking to a holographic Mickey Mouse who knew my name, it became blindingly clear that the future lay somewhere beyond a monitor and keyboard. The intersection of art, media, and technology was rapidly expanding, and I saw the potential of where my diverse skills could lead.

Initially, I turned to what I knew – the theater. I redesigned the website for Son of Semele Ensemble (SOSE), a nationally recognized small company, to enhance the relationship with the audience and community, using blogs, podcasts, and feedback comments. The media was particularly popular, and helped build a strong sense of community around the politically-minded company. I also directed several pieces in a co-production between SOSE and the Rogue Artists Ensemble, HYPERBOLE: epiphany, which utilized masks, puppets, robotics, and projection to create pieces akin to live music videos. It allowed me great flexibility to experiment with integrating technology into my theater work, and the collaborative process was one of the most successful I’ve ever experienced.

While at UCLA, I had come out of the closet and quickly became enamored of queer politics. Attending a conference of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force solidified my commitment to grassroots activism and guaranteed that it would have a place in all of my future work, regardless of form. I didn’t have to look far for inspiration, as politics became integral to the emerging changes in media.

I’d been creating online content for years, and when I started blogging, it had little to do with finally “finding my voice” or political organizing. I was blogging to communicate and share stories, something I had previously relegated to my theater work. Only later did I come to understand this act itself as inherantly political. The emergent social technologies which blogging foretold promised to upend all forms of media, including the Hollywood that I had dreamed of as a child. The democratization of the media was upon us, and it hinged on the intersection of technology and media, with politics playing an increasingly important role. My major influences had begun to conflate, and I found myself in a promising position.

An entrepreneurial spirit dictated that I make some use of my knowledge beyond my own small sphere of influence. I worked as a professional blogger, managed one of the first commercial video blogs, and I am currently coordinating online video for a television network. While I discovered a lot about the business of new media, these companies were too invested to try something truly revolutionary, and were unable to see the crossroads at which they are standing. Despite my background and knowledge of the implications, the conditions were not right for truly revolutionary work.

I’ve been following the work coming out of ITP for the past few years, ever since I noticed several posts on the art and technology blogs covering an ITP Winter Show. The work was surprisingly diverse, covering a wide spectrum of art, design, technology, media, and games. More significant, though, was that the work it overwhelmingly productive and valuable. This wasn’t just art or geek wizardry, but actual experimentation with the interaction between technology and life.

I want to study at ITP because of that approach. ITP students are performing research – attempting to sort out better, smarter, more meaningful ways to use technology in our lives. It’s “experimental” in the sense of a scientific study more than an artistic movement. Yet, the aesthetic is there, too. The students at ITP are creating full-fledged products and services which, whether or not they are ever developed, commercialized, or even seen by anyone outside select circles, are advancing the collective intelligence of where we’re headed. It’s applied futurism, and I can’t imagine anything more exciting and more useful.

Part of my goal in attending ITP is expanding my own knowledge across a wide range of disciplines. While I’m knowledgeable in media technology and its social and political ramifications, I have little understanding as to how the videos I upload every day actually became digital in the first place, or how to integrate location-based data into media players, or what RFID will mean for the future of gaming. I may never need to design a circuit after I leave ITP, but knowing what possibilities and limitations are involved makes conjuring up hardware ideas that much simpler, and then I can go on to prototype it myself, if need be. Most of my hands-on skills are relegated to traditional computing, and I’m eager to expand my knowledge of physical computing, electronic design, fabrication, robotics, and location-based technologies, among other things, all of which may have significant impacts in the next decade. The time when shifts in technology were isolated is long past – the emergence of any one of these technologies as a major force will necessarily impact the social order and political regime.

My learning thus far has been largely theoretical. It is increasingly important for me to work with others who can challenge my ideas and complement my skills. As with theater, the collaboration between people with overlapping skill sets creates something much greater than the sum of its parts. ITP’s emphasis on collaboration and the diverse roster of students and faculty are perhaps both its most appealing aspect and the secret to its success.

I’m still searching for how best to apply my skills in the rapidly changing intersection of technology, media, art, and politics. The fields are now inextricably linked, and I’m excited that the world has evolved to the point where my diverse talents and interests are not only able to be combined, but are most effective when used together. The students and faculty of ITP are at the forefront of the revolution, defining fields where none existed and keeping technological development focused on the people it will enable, empower, and change, separate from the commerce which will make it possible.

Both of these organizations play an important role in protecting our rights online from corporate interests and our own misguided government alike. EFF provides informed opinions on technology issues for politicians and media, and organizes the public whenever our rights are threatened. CC offers an alternative to monolithic American copyright law by working within the established system to offer more specific copyright schemes. Together, they’re making sure that emerging independent media like blogging, podcasting, and vlogging get the chance to challenge mainstream media, and that the internet remains a free and open marketplace for creativity. As tools and techniques become more accessible in these fields, the work these organizations do will go from being important to being mission-critical.

So, if you’ve got a few dollars left after all your holiday shopping, I urge you to think about donating to Creative Commons or the Electronic Frontier Foundation. CC, in particular, is in need of several hundred thousand dollars more before the end of 2005 in order to prove to the IRS that they have “public support” and can retain their non-profit status.

2006 is going to be a big year for digital media, on your desk, in your living room, and in the palm of your hand. In 2005, I saw even many of my least-internet-saavy friends begin blogging, and I expect the same to happen for audio and video next year. If for nothing else, show some support for the non-profits who are making sure you will be able to do that, and that the media of tomorrow will be made up of a billion points of light.

If you know anyone whom you think would be interested, please email me at adam [at][the name of this website]. Thanks!

I’m not precisely sure of Viacom’s (CBS’s parent company) blogging policy, but given that what I’ll be working on is (surprise!) directly related to my primary interests of late, I’ll try to write as much as possible. I’d love to one day fancy myself the Tom Coates of CBS, and I’m taking a step toward getting myself out there a bit by attending Webzine in San Francisco in a few weeks. Webzine seems right up my ally – indie digital media on a budget. And with my near-expired frequent flier miles, the uber-cheap entry ticket, and a borrowed couch, I’m doing the whole thing for $27 + food. So, if you’re there, come find the blonde guy with the “sexy gay nerd” button, and I’ll buy you a drink with my savings.

I owe this step up to CBS in large part to Ray, whose day job in daytime helped get my resume through the mail slot. But also to Conductor, where I was given the opportunity to manage content and community for a high-profile site, develop a measurement and optimization plan, and learn to navigate thorny business meetings. Not to mention the day-to-day discussion of some of the marketing techniques I’ve been reading about from people like Seth Godin. I’ve already been putting that experience to good use, developing a surprising (even to me), zealous promotional strategy for Inverness and Emophiliacs. It’s all a part of my digital media strategy, so you can bet that you’ll be seeing lots of video and audio pouring out of every site. More details soon from Prince and me soon, as soon as I can get him on the phone, but if you’re interested in helping and know something about punk music or the LA music scene, email me at adam at prophecyboy dot com. I have other things brewing, of course, but CBS is the big one of the week, with Inverness a big one down the road.

• The new Son of Semele website is up and running. Lots of upgrades in it’s future, but it’s there, and I’m very happy with it. Now to convince those kids to start blogging… (read my first post about why it’s time for SOSE to start blogging)
• In two weeks, we’re about to start working on the SOSE/Rogue Artists collaboration, HYPERBOLE:epiphany. I’m very excited to finally be working with my friends at RA!
• The first episode of Lapse, my radio drama podcast, is nearly complete, and should be up in the next couple of weeks. Editing SFX is way more time-consuming that I thought!
• DriveThru Man, the film I’m ADing for Prince, has been delayed. All signs point to a fall shoot. It’s a great script, and I can’t wait to actually start shooting.

I’ve also spent a lot of time recently exploring theater/tech installation/performance pieces, and I hope to make an announcement about that soon.

It was more fun in theory than practice. But hey, I’ve now got a great crazy work story, and something to impress the boys at cocktail parties for months to come. And it’s funny, “I used to blog about porn” somehow sounds intriguing, while “I blog about porn. Every day. For hours.” just sounds trashy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

||UPDATE||
So, after some back and forth with Jonno, and some across-the-board bitching about just how hard it is to keep that steady flow of porn coming to you, gentle reader, we vetted a sweet deal where I’m going to fill in on Fleshbot every couple of months on an ongoing basis, or whenever his bondage fantasies leave him so tied up he can’t get to the keyboard. It’s a rockin’ setup: I still get to write for the site on a regular basis, but I’m spared from slogging through the daily updates on Falcon.com. It’s Making Porn Fun Again! (now with 20% more profit) ™

Last week was a flat tire and a dead hard drive. Next week is the start of a new job. I think I hit the bottom and I’m on my way back up.

Yes, it’s true, I’m currently looking for work. What marvelous services might I provide for you and your company? Well, if you spend half a minute poking around this site, you’ll get a pretty good idea of my skills and interests (when in doubt, ask About Me).

Here’s a recap:
Obviously, I’m a blogger. I would love to be a professional blogger, if you’d like to make that happen! I can certainly blog on any of the topics below, as well as teach individuals or groups about blogging for business or personal use.

I’m an experienced web and graphic designer, highly proficient with blogtech (ie, blogging software and the technology that supports it). I’ve spent a great deal of time honing these skills in designing marketing materials for theater and arts organizations. I’m highly proficient with digital media of all stripes, including web distribution. (In fact, most of my tinkering in recent months has been in precisely this field.)

I’m also a director and stage manager, and have worked just about every other job in the theater in the past twelve years. Stylistically, my directing tends toward the experimental. I’ve also directed multicamera television, and worked as a production coordinator on a mid-budget indie shoot. And to circle back to digital media, I definitely know my way around Final Cut Pro.

I currently live in Los Angeles, but I’m more than willing to relocate or work remotely.

In the realm of intangibles: I’m very well read and up-to-date on current trends, technology and otherwise. I’m great at researching and synthesizing. I’m not just a web-head: I go to art openings, see theater, hike, bike, travel, etc. and that gives me a broad perspective. I’m well-traveled, and have a constant yen for experiencing new places and cultures. I’m very adaptable: I can learn/create/fix any software, hardware, language, etc. very quickly, especially in context of a project.

Oh, and I’m a nice guy. You’ll like me.

Without further ado:

• click here to download my theater resume (PDF)

Also, I developed, designed, and manage a site forSon of Semele Ensemble, and I’m a sometimes-contributer to Gay Fleshbot.