It's actually been a few weeks, but Sarah and I went to this on its opening weekend in Albuquerque at the beginning of October, and it was definitely memorable and pretty cool to see!

Well, first of all, we love visiting Albuquerque & Santa Fe anyway. There is so much character there, plus all the art you can eat in Santa Fe, and the beautiufl, serene, almost-alien desert landscape.

Just thought I'd post a pic of it since I never did that (there were, like, HUNDREDS of balloons going up into the air in the span of less than 2 hours. Pretty crazy. Also crazy was the 2 hours it took us to drive the last 1.5 miles on the highway at 5:30 am leading to the event)

[PS. Several other cool pics of it at my Flickr account]

So, apparently I won a prize for a photo that I submitted to a pretty random free photo competition (about shipping containers -- I wouldn't have even known about it if a stranger hadn't mentioned it in a comment on my flickr photo)

More to come later, I guess, after the winners (I was a runner-up to first-place) are announced/published and my prize (a digital camera) is shipped.

The internet has provided me with some weird free stuff, mostly due to this blog... which was not its intention or purpose at all (despite so many people trying to exploit the "blogosphere" for advertising, self-promotion, etc) But hey... I'll take what I can get!

Just more proof of what I think is the current trend: new media (such as Internet 2.0 and the affordable proliferation of media production equipment - digital cameras, video equipment, etc.) will enable more people to produce, publish, share; in short, you no longer have to have money or power to be part of mass media. Personally, coming from a background of no money or power, I think that is a fantastic thing.

Unfortunately, one side effect is that many of these people who think (or hope. or pray) that they have some talent, creativity, or skill... actually don't. So the public is stuck wading through a soupy muck of mediocrity (or worse) -- that's where the jobs of producers, editors, music labels, etc. came in handy during the Media Economy 1.0... to help sort through the absolute garbage.

But on the other hand... there ARE some great, entertaining, poignant, or intelligent people and things being created out there. Things which would have never found a market if they had to go through the BS of being approved for mass, cookie-cutter consumption ala Media Economy 1.0


So, the end result? I predict (and already starting to see this happen) that more people will get a slice of the pie. And the pie is huge, but because so many people are now players, the slices will be a lot smaller than they traditionally have been. What this means (and what the YouTard hopefuls don't realize) is that the age of being "king of the world" and reaching a status of tenure is not going to be possible. There will be far fewer bigwigs in the media world... but that's because there will be many more smallwigs and mediumwigs.

I, for one, think it's great. It's really an example of socialism/communism at its finest, and it means success will have to rely far less on money, politics, and nepotism and far more on art, insight, and true talent. In the end, that means we all (except for the few bastards who have enjoyed sitting at the top) win.

So, one of my photos from Flickr was chosen to be used for an online travel guide called "Schmap" -- basically it is interactive maps with photos and descriptions of various points of interest. A pretty good idea -- I've seen it done before on the AAA Triptik site and a few others (Yahoo does it as well, I think)

What do I get for having my photo of Sarah riding a bike toward the Muckross House in Killarney, Ireland? Nothing. I get my name as the credit and I get to tell people my photo was published in a travel guide. That's about it, in exchange for giving them free non-exclusive rights to my copyright image. I wouldn't honestly allow people such free reign of my copyrighted material if it was any good -- but let's face it, that photo is okay but it is not outstanding and not one of my best. A nice memory captured for me, but why not let some other people get some use out of it?

So I have succumbed to the mind-sucking beast that is Flickr. I never bought into the Kool-Aid until now; in fact, I couldn't STAND the site back when it had its little word association "game"

I even bought a paid "pro" account. It makes me ill that I've actually bought into the Web 2.0 nonsense, and that some blokes made millions of dollars by developing a website to SHARE PHOTOS (hello, the web has been able to do that pretty much since its inception - no special services necessary!)

But, having said that, I have to give it this: the site is incredibly well designed, easy to navigate, simple with just the right amount of features, and the price is right. It's $25/yr and it allows me to have unlimited backup, storage, organization, and sharing of my photos. That's not too bad.

Anyway, if you want to see pics from the big summer Europe vacation or Thanksgiving Prague trip I took, you can go check out my photos. I thought some of them came out pretty good... but then I look around at some of the other photos on Flickr and just... wow. It makes me want to tuck my tail between my legs and cower in a corner. Everytime I get flooded with a cornucopia of talent and creativity (and, sometimes, desperation and attention-whoring) it just reminds me how MASSIVE the population of the earth is and just how insignificantly each of us (and especially me) are. That's transcendentally profound and shit-in-my-pants frightening at the same time.

P.S. If you're wondering why some of my photos seem so much "better" than others, it is for this reason: I am really torn about whether I should include "less than stellar" photos that are still memories (ie. snapshots) in the collections, since people fall into one of two camps on there: A) Holier-than-thou art elitists who desperately aim to be gods with a Nikon; or B)Average Joes who basically suck but have a good way to store and share pics of friends, family, vacations, etc. with other people. Once again, I feel like I fall between the two (why do I always have to be gray instead of black or white?) so I figure... fuck it, I'll just throw in both.

P.P.S. If you want to see some truly good photos (as opposed to some of my semi-good ones), check out my list of "Favorites" - it's constantly growing. I stop looking at them when my head is on the verge of exploding.