So first of all, this entry is more of a stream of consciousness entry, rather then some of the more crafted entries that I usually write.

I've been on-and-off following Ze Frank for quite a long time now, I wasn't exactly ground floor, but I was pretty early into it. The thing with Ze, is that as the show--the story even--progressed, he invited more and more contributions. A wiki, an earth sandwich, show intros, power moves... but the culmination is when Ze himself appears to have been affected by a song sung by a Preacher to his daughter, titled "I'm about to whip somebodys ass".

This song spawned countless numbers of remixes. A video was created. Okay .. get this, a video was story boarded by a member of the "audience", then another member (or the same one?) offered portrait skeches to anyone who would help fill in the video. The video was made, and suddenly, this Ray, this unsuspecting hyper-intelligent preacher now finds the trajectory of his life shifted, as he is inundated with countless versions of his song, in audio and even video format.

But people's lives are forever changed because of this song as well. If life, work, or whatever is just stressful...

Hum it to yourself.

You know the words.

Which leads me to say... over and over again: it's just a video blog, right?

Look, there is no denying, judging by the traffic that hits ZeFrank.com/org that his work has changed people, but if you watch the show, you can see how people change his work. An intro, a question in the forum. Creativity and culture just building and building on itself.

This is culture.

This is our culture re-inventing itself. There is no discussion about copyright. Its as if the contributors, Ray, Ze, the Sports Racers are all too busy inventing culture to worry about that shit. I am too, so that is enough of THAT particular hobby horse.

So on todays Ze, he flies to St. Louis to present Ray with a bunch of materials that the Sports Racers--the watchers of the show, more on this a little later too--have built for Ray, as tokens of gratitude. As you watch the show, you learn all kinds of interesting things about Ray. He is an anthropologist, a psychologist, a healer. He has long views. Just go watch the show.

Okay, so everything comes full circle at this point right? Like, Ray changes the sports racers life with his song, they change his life. It actually kinda brings a tear to my eye, total strangers are doing really deeply positive things for eachother. When I think about the kind of world I want Harmony to grow up in, this is the kind of world I think of.

Now the thing about Ze, is that he is almost through. In march, the show is officially over. I don't know if the wiki will still be around, or if the archives will still be around. I am going to guess that they will, so if you joined the game late, well shit, don't worry, just pick a few shows, and dive in. I have a few favorites, go check em out.

The thing is, that what will be around is a bunch of people who are used to, and demand that their media is 2 way. It's not enough to passively sit back and consume a the show, but it is instead about contributing to it. StrongBad emails are funny because of the encouragement to send StrongBad an email, because it's the interaction that really makes it funny and gives it its spark.

It makes people passionate. When you're that involved in the remixes for Ray project, it shows through in what you do and what you create. Ze's passion comes out in his work, and it infects everyone.

And now, he's made a social networking site about awesomeness, projects, and connections.

So a Project like "Remixes for Ray" which is totally awesome can grow feet a little easier, and then take off.

Maybe we can find more Rays. And I think that is important right now.

Like I said. The show is ending. According to the mythology--yes, this show has a mythology--because a giant baby has been born, the apocalypse is coming soon. Not only that, but Ze's internments into the league of awesomeness is coming to a close--again according to the mythology. But heres the thing, the sports racers believe the mythology. They do, they believe in the apocalypse more then 90% of the Christians, Muslims, Atheists, or Buddhists believe in their token world(limiting)view. They know its absurd, and revel in the absurdity of it all and, like I said, use it as a spring board to create, and I mean really, seriously create Culture. It is a Culture I can get behind. And these fanatical Sports Racers, Racing their Sports, with their Power Moves can all get in contact with each-other.

This is powerful stuff I think. I think Ze has unleashed upon the internet an interesting phenomenon that starts to link together people on the internet. Not in the mid 90's computers-are-being-linked kind of way, not in the yet-another-social-networking-service way where it is just a big popularity contest. But in linking together people who create, because all create. He has created a monster, and he is ready to unleash his hordes across the universe.

From Penny Arcade comes this great Fox News report about how child molesters can use a Nintendo DS to rape your children.

Even if you don't own a Nintendo DS, this is worth having a laugh at.

Total Bunk.

Over on the CBC there is an editorial on Hipster Parenting. It starts out with a description of A book about "Hipster Parenting" and quickly degenerates to "Kids these Days":

People used to raise kids with a sort of quiet stoicism; the fact that humans have been reproducing for millions of years was enough to humble any new breeder. But in this era of unfettered narcissism, child rearing has become a spectacle. The tabloids stalk famous females in search of a “bump” to monopolize the news cycle; Tom Cruise buys his pregnant wife a $200,000 US ultrasound machine for home use; and Oprah exalts celebrity mothers as though having a child is as novel and courageous as space travel. And non-celebs? They bloviate in blogs.

It’s the age of full disclosure, but also the age of prolonged childhood. Due to societal changes — particularly greater permissiveness in the workplace — people are no longer obliged to grow up. They show up at the office in the sort of garb they wore in middle school: sneakers and a hoodie.

Oh Noes! Sneakers and hoodies? It's the end of civil society! This is all highly ironic as I post—bloviate one might say—in my blog whist wearing sneakers, and a hoodie, at work no less. But I digress.

It seems that the main point of the is that in order for one to be a good parent, you have to be a passive little consumer doting on the center of your life. No, not only is it important that you devote your life to your little one, but now you must conform to societies norms as well. "Feel Pollack’s righteous anger, the way he scoffs at old-guard parents and their squareness, their addiction to Raffi, their misguided altruism.". I have news for you Andre, you old-guard parents are square. Your misguided altruism is worth scoff and scorn.

I think that this is highly illustrative of a stark cultural, and perhaps generational divide between Andre and myself. Andre asks: "In 'Notes from a Drunk Aunt,' Lisa Gabriele writes about the freedom of not having to be someone’s role model. What moral are we, as parents, supposed to glean from that?" And to me, there are plenty of moral lessons, like: why do you expect every adult to be a perfect role model? Is it really appropriate to talk down to children? Does my liberalism end when it relates to my daughter, and why should this be so?

So what is this cultural difference between Andre and I? Well it strikes me that Andre comes from the "What to expect in the first years" school of parenting. The style of parenting that claims your child is a beautiful individual special little snowflake that needs your constant care, attention and doting, but only within certain well-defined parameters. Andre complains about this era of "unfettered narcissism", and yet the parenting style that removes our children from the gritty realities of daily life, that encourages them to think they are special, that they really are the primary focus to mommy and daddy causes the unfettered narcissism.

Now don't get me wrong. I love my daughter. Lots. Lots and lots and lots. I don't go to as many all night rave-techno parties any more. I don't spend hours down in my studio,I spend time making castles and running in circles instead. But that doesn't mean I am no longer a musician. The way to raise a well balanced human being is to be a well balanced human being, and being a well balanced human being means maintaining something similar to the lifestyle that I currently live. Are there compromises? Of course! But when a child realizes that they are the center of their parents life, they realize that they can wrap them right around their little finger. I'd rather raise a child who can become an important part of her community based on her own merits, skills and abilities. Harmony is a part of my life, not my whole life.

Andres article ends off with complains about the babble.com website based on what can only be a quick scan of the photos and headlines. If you actually read the articles, Madeline is not complaining about her second, instead, she is expressing a fear that a lot of parents have, and pointing out that average isn't bad. Erin Cressida Wilson is giving a frank look at wanting a girl, but getting a boy, which if you are a perfect "What to Expect..." parent, should never happen. Frankly, it looks as if Babble.com's articles are truthful windows into what it's like to be parents, rather then the bullshit white-picket-fence-and-soccer-mom (pseudo) reality that Andres would have us all "grow up" into.

I'd like to finish off with this quote from babble.com:

What we're hoping to create with Babble is a forum for all the experiences that make having and raising kids in the city so fraught. But we also hope to channel the spirit of all those non-neurotic strangers on the street who greet new parents with nothing but the purest delight.

Yea, sounds like a horrible site to me.

What is the cutest, best and most awesomest kids TV show of them all? If you know me, then you might expect me to say "Hello Kitty" and that would be the end of it.

Well, you'd be wrong. The cutest, best and most awesomest kids show is Pocoyo. Bar none. It is the kind of show that I can sit down with Harmony to watch. Harmony loves it, I love it, it's good.

First off, it is very cute in that heart-warming-make-you-smile way, versus the too-sugary-sweet-need-insulin way; it is not like Hello Kitty (the TV show) in it's cuteness. Second of all, the message of each show is really quite good. As an example, Barney the dinosaur has a very superficial message, like: cleaning is fun because I say (sing?) so, whereas Pocoyo will show you how to have fun cleaning up.

But the charm of this show is more then how the message is presented, it is also the quality of the message that is presented. While Barney is singing about brushing ones teeth, and Cailou is busy whining about how scary the next door neighbor is, Pocoyo is learning about how some things (like skipping rope) are hard, and how it takes time, practice, help and most importantly, the ability to ask for help. My favorite episode is called The Key to it All, and is worth watching whether you have kids or not. I've posted the YouTube in the extended body of the entry, so if you wanna watch it, click on the read more link below.

The final statement of that episode sums up why I enjoy this show so much: "This is the best treasure of all isn't it, after the fun we've had today: opening doors, asking questions, and exploring your world. That is the key to it all!"

David Sirfy's State of the Blogosphere came out recently. What is interesting is that Dose picked up the story and ran with it. On the cover of one of their recent weeklies was the logo of the biggest and best blog search engine: Technorati, along with a full report on page 2 of David Sirfy's findings.

So big media, at least by Canadian standard as Dose is owned by one of the larger media companies in the country, has not only sat up and noticed blogging, but they have used a blog as the primary soruce of their information. This is all backwards. Blogs are supposed to generate their content from big media, not the other way around.

The other thing is that the Dose article mentions that Blogs are not going to be over-taking big media quite yet, because only 4 independent blogs are in the top 10 (or something). The thing is, blogs work on the Long Tail principle. Most good blogs appeal to a smaller number of people due to their topical nature. So while the overall trend is that the large media companies get more hits then Knitting and Kitty Blog X, Knitting and Kitty Blog X gets more hits from people into cats and/or knitting. Well that is my suspicion anyway. People who are into Knitting, The Iraq War, and Pervery will get an RSS feed of a few different knittingblogs, pornoblogs and warblogs, rather then hitting CNN. And this trend will continue. People are mixing up their own news sources, rather then turning to something "authoritative".

We've already seen some interesting things when blogging and big-media intersect. I suspect as blogs get bigger and better, this will only continue.

I got interviewed for the EletroAmerica website. Things are comin up like roses I tells ya.

I've copy+pasted the interview here, just so I have it for myself as well, but go check it out on their site.

I got mentioned at SXSW yesterday, specifically at a panel titled DIY Media - Consumer is the Product featuring Limor Fried (of x0xb0x fame). Probably about all the work I have done/am doing on the x0xd0x wiki, but potentially also about the user support that I participated on the forums, and/or my involvement in the IRC channel.

Pretty freakin cool. Not as cool as going there, or being a panelist, but still cool.

I'm gonna be searching to see if I can find a podcast or transcript of the session, and keep y'all posted.