KEN HERTZ ABOUT MUSIC INDUSTRY TODAY

Ken Hertz is a lawyer who represents top talent in New York City. Many stars are signed to his firm which he represents. In this interview Ken talks about how the music industry has changed over the last 3-5 years, both the positive sides and the negative sides. He sees artists being more empowered and creating what he calls thier own 360 businesses. He discusses what he learned from the Picnic get together in New York and how the internet has created a new "Virtual Fame Chart" for artists. For more interviews I made at Picnic New York Salon, check here.

PIXAR CREATIVE PROCESS

Image by matlock via Flickr

In this interview from , Michael B. Johnson of Pixar discusses tips on the Creative Process. He also talks about moving from an analog to a digital creative process and some of the pitfalls of working virtually as well as some of the pros. Michael develops software for the animators and creatives at Pixar animation Studios, which is known for it's creativity and 3D animation films. To watch more of these interviews, check the link here.

INTERVIEW WITH URBAN GAME GURU

Image by fiahless via Flickr

This is an interview I filmed for Picnic in New York together with my good buddy Kevin Slavin. Kevin is the founder of Area Code and is an extremely smart and creative dude. He develops everything from Urban Games to ARGs, to Cross Media games, and more. Have a look at the interview and definitely check him out at Picnic in Amsterdam this year. In the interview he talks about the Augmented City and how information technologies need to simplify rather than complicate the information we generate around a city.

Like on Facebook!

-ASKFRASCO and @MARLOOZ talk about "Like me on Facebook" and other geek girl chatter. by www.gabemac.com

FACEBOOK COMIC LIFE

facebook events thread.

History of Gaming

Do you want to know the amazing story of how video games came to be the way they are today? I found this great 5 Part documentary series that takes us through Pong being made on an oscilloscope( I think ), to the Virtual Worlds we have today. And every beautiful Ms. PacMan, Legend of Zelda, Tetris and Leisure Suit Larry story in between. Although it talks mostly about Atari's scandals, it touches on others. Like the feud between Nintendo and Sony that dates back to the change from cartridges to disc. I loved this series. It was like my own personal histroy in front of me. Every console, every hype, to live through that. Fuck the Baby boomers and thier Televisions. We have FREAKN! VIDEO GAMES!!!!

You wanna know how long I've been playing Video Games? Well, I remember as a kid recording programs over the radio onto a cassette. Then on a camping trip to Washington, to help stop a highway being built in the neighborhood, (my mother the activist), we actually plugged in the Atari to the RV. Started playing the cassette tapes for hours, and finally after about 3 tries it would work!!! Voila! We had an amazing video game with 10 monochromatic pixels. Those were the days when software and games were all free. Now, according to the worldometers, Some 8 million $ have been spent this year on Video Games. Nice.

Discovery Channel - Rise of the Video Game Level 1
Discovery Channel - Rise of the Video Game Level 2
Discovery Channel - Rise of the Video Game Level 3
Discovery Channel - Rise of the Video Game Level 4
Discovery Channel - Rise of the Video Game Level 5

Note to all you "Viral Marketers". I'm sorry but if you don't know about video games, you have absolutly no idea why this video clogging Utube.

Dark Night Viral Campaign

Many people wonder how Viral Campaigning works. Many beleive that all you have to do is make a funny video woth a cat and that will spread the message. Sorry, that was about 2-3 years ago. The truth is nowadays you have to create a Multi Media Alternate Reality Game. Otherwise known as an ARG. There are puzzles spread over the internet, areas to communicate with other players, real world phone calls and emails. This is how you create a Viral. Not just a 30 sec. clip but an allround Media experience, puzzle and immersion. These are the types of projects that my students have been developing over the last few years. One of the first of my DVTG students created on his own, with no budget, an alternate reality game that spread from temples in Thailand, lockers in London, phone calls from New York and the Vatican. Using the tools available all over the internet with free sites, this is how Alternate Reality Games are spread. Below we see a video of the Dark Night Campaign, and there are 2 of the Transformers virals that were spread. Those videos spread from the transformers is called, "The Rabbit Hole". Or the first video trigger that leads one into the Alternate Reality Game.

A BOY AND HIS BIKE!

Since I've been back in Amsterdam, I have been unable (too lazy) to get a bike. My old one, is dead somewhere near GabeB's place and I can't find the key. Marc had another bike which he lost the key to outside my house since August. Good condition though. I finally got around (was awake and in the country, and remembered that I could) to going to the bike shop across the street to get the lock taken off. They do this between 10 and 12 on Saturday. I mean seriously, when you go out on a Friday night, the last thing you think about is getting a bike lock sawed on a Saturday morning. I finally got to it, and Marc even threw in a new seat for it. What a great friend! He has a video and some great pics on his blog here. I can't tell you how nice it is to have a bike again in Amsterdam. After cleaning it, throwing on some stickers (need to customize your bike in Amsterdam always), and putting the seat on, we went for a ride in the VondelPark. I was so happy, like a kid who just got a new bike for Christams. That's really how it feels. Even in these rough times, it is with a little help from my friends like Marc that help me through. MARC YOU ARE MY HERO!!!!

HELLOO GERMANY!

So last weekend or so I was in Berlin to Speak at a workshop, and I did an interview with gruenderszene as well as some other journalists. In any case gruenderszene posted the video interviews as well as a nice writeup. In the interviews I talk about twitter, the difference between entrepreneurs in Europe, United States, and Israel. I also talked briefly about my thoughts about how there should be a fund by technology VCs and investors that be given to artists to try and understand the meaning of what we are building. Of course this is already happening, becuase artists will always do this, but it helps stimulus when they can actually live off of these crazy pieces they do. It's an idea that Paulo Cohello says will come but in years time at Le Web. Well here are the videos. They are posted on gruenderszene.de. The translated post is here.