crucial

web2.0, hype and cynicism, pump and dump, craving and aversion

Web2.0

One of the amazing things I experienced while being in India for 6 months was a complete lack of cynicism. They have evil and greed and stupidity, but cynicism just isn't there. People don't worry about hype cycles or being cool or reacting to (anybody's) success with an immediate pull back (waiting to see when the back lash comes).

Coming back to NYC was a total shock. Friends don't make eye contact with each other. People seem to be hiding all the time. Any thing that might be a simple positive is regarded with a hands-off wait-see distance. Judgments are intrinsically related to the judge's self and how that self-image will be judged. Especially noticeable in people's attitudes towards music and musicians. You can't just say something is good because that act might end up on the dump list soon and you attached yourself to it. Grime is strictly love it or hate it.

The flip side of cynicism is hype. Its the same push-pull relationship as anger (aversion) and lust (craving). If you indulge in lust, it leads to anger/ill-will coming out in some other part of your life. If something is good, simply enjoy it. Don't get the band name tattooed on your ass and don't hold back from dancing if the show is going off.

Web2.0 is just a definition about new modes of internet communication that are starting to take hold. There are concepts and huge possibilities. It doesn't really matter whether you think its hot or not (or anybody thinks you're cool or contrarian), its actually just a definition of what is already in the process of happening.

We have the possibility to improve the layers of mediation in our lives, to break down systems of information control. The way information is distributed defines reality itself. America is its television. That's changing now, and this is actually big and important. More than 50% of Americans now get their main political news on the internet. More important than news is how we get images, styles, modes of thought because these define reality itself in the manscape.

A lot of old web-media tried to replicate network television--centralized control. The counter-culture was a lot of little web sites that no-one had the time to discover. One of the effects of Web2.0 is connecting micro and independent media and generating information based on what is happening there. Blogs themselves are not Web2.0, its what can now be done with all that bloggage that is interesting. And past that when the cell phones start streaming video and audio all the time...

People are mis-reacting as usual and talking shit. Its been what... a couple of months ? its hype vs. hater. Exactly the crap that caused the dot-com boom and bust.

If you want to think its just another valley tech meme, then that's what it will turn out as. Wouldn't surprise me--the replication of human stupidity into the global brain.

Don't push, don't pull. That's the wheel of karma in action. If you yank the chain, it will yank back.

This was inspired by some of the links on rupture's funny Web2.5 take :
http://negrophonic.com/words/pivot/entry.php?id=251

but mostly inspired by the whole "too many men talk nuff blah-blah" in the egorati-scape.

Links and things

I am timeblind on myspace. thanks for the add.

I am crucialfelix on del.icio.us which is where I link to all the interesting shit I come across.

I put my photos up on flickr

NYC events iCal : anything that looks good.

Berlin events (parties, shows, vernissage, films): subscribe to google calendar / iCal

When I listen to music at home it all gets echoed onto here and on my Last.fm page. Most of the time I don't use that cause I don't want you to see me obsessively listening to my own mixes, really bad working titles.

You can read some posts I thought were interesting from various feeds.

I've been doing the Dance Music Business Resource since 1995, back when it was on hyperreal.org. Articles and info for artists and small labels. Recently I've been posting interesting industry news items and adding some new content about downloads etc.