Do You Crave Independent Media?

Independent film, art and media is important.

It enables us to create new ways of thinking and being. It attacks the grinding status quo.

Do you crave independence? Do you value your own choices, and wish you weren’t constantly being hammered by media, advertising and society? Are you sick of the powerful telling you what to eat, what to think, what to do and who you can love?

The good news is, you’re not alone. Not by a long chalk.

We’ve covered uprisings, we’ve taken apart the narratives of the powerful wolves in the board-room, we’ve explored the ways we can subvert and use the Drone-Future to our advantage.

We’ve used ancient archetypes to shed light on today’s patterns.

You’re not alone.

Throughout the world there are countless folks like you, who crave that independence, who have that urge to steal the fire from the newsrooms, and the studios, the corporations and the 1%.

And that’s the thing - the ones you think hold all the cards? They’re actually in the minority. A vanishingly small selection of people inhabit the shells of corporations and the halls of power.

Big empty rooms, echoing with the occasional footstep.

But imagine for a second - imagine what would happen if those empty, hollow spaces were filled up with a plethora of voices?

Even traditional media cannot deny the heaving crowd, the seething mass of all those individual voices raised. It’s just not possible any more.

You’ve probably read how Clark: A Gonzomentary is appearing at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival.

 Think about that. Independent people coming together to celebrate their achievements, to create things because they want to, because they need to.

Because dammnit, there is a way to do it, despite what you’ve been told.

And if you look, there’s always more:


Strange Factories - Trailer from FoolishPeople on Vimeo.

On Monday, FoolishPeople announced their collaboration with London’s Cinema Museum, to release their crowdfunded independent film, Strange Factories

Through that collaboration, a live cinema event occurs in October, the characters coming to life and interacting with the audience!

You can pre-order Strange Factories now, download it then, and stream it to join in with the rending of the veils on opening night.

You can explore its world through the doors of Theatric Arcana wherever - and whenever - you are, on the damn planet.

And this is possible because you are not alone.

We are not alone.

Collaboration and interdependence means exactly that.

In today’s networked society, you can lend your voice to the crowd, you can give politicians bloody noses and corporations kicks in the profit margins.

You can support blazing visions that burn brighter than the sun, and you can spread laughter that reminds you to be alive.

You are not alone, and it’s time we reminded you of that.

Independence is not isolation, it comes from inter-dependence. It comes from hundreds, thousands, millions even, supporting each other in any way they can.

Time to spread the word.

Be seeing you.

*** 
Craig 'VI' Slee is a Consultant & Theorist dealing with Mythology, Folklore, Storytelling & Culture.

Currently, he serves as Writer and Content Developer for FoolishPeople, an internationally acclaimed immersive theatre company who create ritual experiences, books and films. Their latest work is STRANGE FACTORIES, which will be released to worldwide distribution October 2013.

[Where is the fucking counterculture? Mythos Media.]

Media and Monetizing The Container

By James Curcio
Some of us still remember going to a store to buy a CD, a tape... a record! Or a book. Most of us don't want to buy just any book. We want to buy a book with certain content. A book associated with a certain author or idea we are attracted to.

A few of us bemoan the loss of quality that occurred with the containers themselves over the years. The decline of paper quality, the loss of craftsmanship in the process of mechanization, mass-market industrialization. They are the few who relish the feel of the material object in their hand, consider its craftsmanship a part of what it is. Books themselves used to be works of art. But this is unfortunately an even older perspective on media. Most consumers don't think much about the container, the packaging, or anything else. It is all to be discarded, it is all attractive junk. They want to devour the "good stuff" inside. Or maybe they just want to put the book on their bookshelf and make people think they read it.

You know the story of what's happened. Digital media doesn't require a container. You can download an album, a movie, and now a book, without needing a container. You can carry hundreds or thousands of them around with you. And so we have the advent of "piracy," because all these years we've been monetizing the container. This is not an entirely new point, even for me - I've weighed in on this subject many times in the past. 

What I want to ponder - what I want all of us to ponder - is the conundrum facing both the producers of media and the companies that "support" them. We'll also look at some of the ways that these companies have failed to sufficiently understand the problem they're facing. 

Consciousness: post hoc

Following is a conversation I had with Jason Stackhouse that sprang out of talking about my article that recently ran on Reality Sandwich. (For newcomers here, Jason is an old friend of mine; we've also co-written several projects together. He's an excellent writer, I suggest you check out his blog. This is probably the same debate we've been having in some form for ten years now, but it's still just as fun.)

(Click post title for conversation.)

Join My Cult! audiobook ep 2-6

iTunes long ago picked up this feed but the one from the Fallen Nation blog isn't showing yet so for the time being I guess I will continue to link the mp3s here.

Check 'em out if you haven't already, it's an odd ride.

Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6

Feedburner / RSS

Public Domain New paradigms and Creative Commons

Worth checking out- as the new paradigm for books continues.

Why am I allowing you to copy the book for free? And why is Yale University Press letting me? To understand why I am doing it, watch this video by Jesse Dylan. And if you want to understand why it makes economic sense to my publisher, read this short article.

The Public Domain.