New York City Noir

Windows 7: Gateway Computer

I recently purchased a Gateway computer, model DX4822-03, in order to upgrade to Windows 7.

The configuration is great.  It runs on an Intel 2 Quad Q.8400 Processor at 2,66 GHz, has 8 gigs of RAM, a terrabyte hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce GT220 graphic adapter with a gig of discete RAM dedicated to video. 

The only problems I encountered when installing and using the computer were (1) the VGA hookup did not function, forcing me to buy a new monitor that worked with the HDMI port, and (2) after checking the Control Panel upon installation, I discovered the computer itself needed troubleshooting because the "Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter" was inoperative. 

I was not overly concerned about the monitor problem -- it only gave me an excuse to upgrade to a wide screen LCD far superior to the CRT I'd been using.  The failure to detect the wifi adapter problem was more troubling.  I think Gateway should not sell a computer without first checking to see if there exist problems with the drivers installed on it.  This was not a hidden flag -- all one had to do was look at the hardware control panel to see the triangular yellow sign with black exclamation point next to the computer icon.  Even more importantly, the faulty driver still did not work after troubleshooting.  In fairness to Gateway, I should mention that this problem hasn't had any effect on the machine's otherwise totally splendid performance.

Conclusion:  The Gateway is an extremely powerful machine and a great value at less than $800; but the company needs to improve its quality control procedures.

Photo Blog Resources

I recently read a book by Catherine Jamieson entitled Create Your Own Photo Blog.  Jamieson's writing is very readable and well intentioned, and the book has a good layout with many, many quality photo illustrations.  The problem I found with Jamieson's book is that, like so many guides to various areas of the internet, it's really too general to be of any practical use to a professional.  For one thing, it lacks specifics on ways in which to promote one's blog once it's been set up, an essential for any photographer using his blog to help market his work. 

To be fair, Jamieson's target audience seems to be more the hobbyist  or part-time professional.  For these readers Jamieson's book does provide useful guidance to setting up a blog on various venues (which is actually pretty easy to figure out on one's own without having to read a book -- Typepad itself provides several formats for multimedia) and even gives ideas for subjects to photograph. 

I don't know about others, but what puts me off most in Jamieson's book is the emphasis on "community" and "sharing."   It all seems too family-friendly for me.  The same could be said of the photo site Flickr.  For those who simply want to post a "cool" picture and share comments with other hobbyists, Flickr is great.  It also serves a useful function in supplying free online storage for digital files, though I'm not quite sure about size limitations on the images themselves.  (Jamieson's book does go into this area in detail.)  But it does not provide a venue on which professional photographers can directly market their work.  Selling photos from Flickr itself is a violation of the terms of service, at least as I read them. 

In short, I recommend both Jamieson's book and Flickr for those who just want to have fun taking pics (nothing wrong with that at all) and sharing with friends.  Working photographers would do better to purchase Bob Walsh's excellent book Clear Blogging.  This book not only gives specifics about setting up a blog on Typepad and other venues but also gives great deal of specific information on promotion (i.e., getting readers) through the use of Technorati, Digg, Squidoo and many other useful resources.

Squidoo Lenses

Squidoo lenses are basically one-page sites that anyone is able to set up for free on whatever subject he or she chooses as a way to promote one's blog or website.  Those who create pages also share in earnings from advertising.

I've set up two lenses myself.  The first is on Pictorialism and features a blurb on each of the three most prominent pictorialist photographers.  The second is on Traditional Photography where I provide a brief list of the films and enlarging papers I use most often in my own work.  Please check them out if you have a chance.

Blogging as a Tool to Promote Literary Works

My idea in beginning this blog was to let it serve as an adjunct to the online novel I'm writing.  Apparently, according to today's New York Times, the playwright David Mamet is going me one better by writing the blog from the point of view of one of the characters in his play.  I think it's a great idea.

For Broadway Play, Mamet Is a Blogger

By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN

Before premieres, playwrights sometimes tweak dialogue that actors stumble over in rehearsals, but once the curtain rises they rarely write another word for their characters. But in a promotion for his play “November,” which will open on Broadway on Thursday, David Mamet will continue to write a blog from the perspective of his leading character, Charles H. P. Smith (played by Nathan Lane), a sitting president about to lose a re-election bid.

In a Dec. 6 posting at www.novembertheplay.com, Mr. Mamet wrote in character about torture, “it should be recognized that information can be extracted only from those people possessing information; and that no one likes to give up their possessions without a little waterboarding.” As for gay marriage, “gays should be allowed to marry, but not to divorce; thus coupling liberty with punishment for their abominable practices.”

The Web site, which like the timing of the production capitalizes on primary-season excitement, resembles a campaign site, with stars and stripes and clickable icons to “contribute” (purchase tickets) or “meet his staff” (read actors’ biographies). Chris Powers, director for strategic marketing at Situation Marketing, which also created Web sites for current productions like “Spring Awakening” and “The Homecoming,” said the firm was at first not optimistic about enlisting Mr. Mamet, a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Hollywood writer and director, and novelist.

“We came up with the idea but thought, ‘David Mamet will never write it,’ ” Mr. Powers said.

But Jeffrey Richards, one of the play’s producers, said he barely had to ask.

“I was talking about the Web site to David and I said, ‘Would you be willing — ’ and he finished the sentence for me,” Mr. Richards said. “He said, ‘I know where you’re going: you want me to write a blog as Charles H. P. Smith. Let’s do it.’”

Through the play’s producers, Mr. Mamet declined to comment, either as himself or one of his characters. He will blog for the duration of the play, an unlimited engagement at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

Since the blog began on Dec. 6, the site has drawn about 15,000 unique visitors, Mr. Powers said. Asked if Mr. Mamet’s efforts require much editing, Mr. Powers responded, “No, not at all. I don’t feel qualified to edit David Mamet. They come to us Web-ready.”

The Online Novel

New art forms are always based on successive technological advances, each of which provides unique advantages.  Since time is required to integrate technology with artistic vision, any new medium first mimics the tropes of that which it replaces until, eventually, there are discovered new possibilities through which to communicate not just ideas, but emotions too.  For example, in the first motion pictures, the camera was limited to the role of a seated ticket holder at a theater performance.  It was only when D.W. Griffith invented the close up shot and Eisenstein the "subliminal" edit that that cinema began to dictate its own terms. 

By learning to exploit what is original, one creates a new art form upon which thost that follow can build.

The invention of the web is arguably humanity's most important advance in the past 550 years.  While the enormous quantitative increase in the amount of information available is widely acknowledged, what's less understood is that this vast flow of data brings with it a qualitative change in consciousness, a literal expansion of the mind.

From 1450 to 2000, during the "the Gutenberg Era," civilization grew at an unprecedented pace largely because the invention of the printing press had made possible the first advancement of knowledge in a  millennium to pass beyond medieval university walls.  Printing not only preserved information, but disseminated it as well.  Within fifty years of the introduction of printed books, the Renaissance had redefined Western culture, news was spreading of the (re)discovery of America, and Europe was experiencing a surge of scientific and cultural advances that would culminate, in the early nineteenth century, in industrialization and the emergence of the post-Napoleonic world.

The web has the potential to enlarge the audience of a fictional work from the relatively small number who have access to a print edition to the hundreds of millions who have an internet connection.  In addition, the web has provided fiction with multimedia tools that were unthought of a quarter century ago.  It's this increase in alternatives that's given new life to the novel and saved it from obsolescence.  Unlike, Amazon's Kindle, which only attempts to repackage the printed book, web publishing expands exponentially the range of the novelist's means of expression.

Before now, the publication of a fictional work in printed form "froze" the telling of a story once and for all.  Whether or not a reader ever cared who killed Roger Ackroyd in an Agatha Christie novel, one still expected, on rereading the whodunit, to find the killer to have been the same character as on the first go round.  It could not very well have been first the butler and the later the invalid husband who did away with the rich dowager.  But today, an author, by opting to publish in digital form, can return as often as he/she chooses to any story to revise it and/or to add to it.

A further advantage in using the web to publish a story is the author's ability to interweave, through cross reference, different artistic projects into the same work.  Early twentieth century novels actually anticipated this through the use of the "frontpiece," an elegant illustration accompanying the title page that tried to bring a scene or character to life in the reader's mind through visual presentation.  In the same way, in web publication, an author can use other pages on the same website to enrich a story by introducing other media to reinforce the text.  If, as in the current work, the protagonist is a professional photographer, the author can use his own photographs to enhance characterization on a level not previously possible.  Haunted by his Asian lover's rejection, the photographer in the present story compulsively photographs Asian women for his personal work.  Eventually, he is forced to confront his own attitudes and to address the extent to which he himself has been influenced by the same racial stereotypes he so passionately condemns.  For the reader,  the protagonist's photos of Asian women become a very real image of the character's obsession with Yellow Fever.