Writers Tweet Warhol's Eight Hour Film :Empire

One thing I like about twitter is that random and continnuing converstions about almost anything can develop.

Warhol's eight hour film consisting of one continuous shot of a nighttime Empire State Building became a forum for a continuous stream of consciousness from a group invited (so lucky!) to sit and tweet the experience from MOMA.

Post about it here.

First and Last LEBRON JAMES Post

Warning--if you are looking for an inside dope post about pro basketball and LeBron James's (correct spelling all in caps, in flashing lights) relative merits, stats, as a player, which team should go after him and how much should they pay, this is not it. The bottom line is he's real, real, good at what he does and lots of teams want him. It's also not, a prediction about where he might choose to go--although the safe bet now is that he stays in Cleveland.

This is more a comment on what looks to be the humiliation of an entire city/ region by one person looking to swell his ego.

Just look at the #Lebron James twitter talk

A great Sports Illustrated take.

"But Jordan had a different kind of ego. LeBron needs the adoration. Jordan needed to dominate. When Jordan ended his baseball career and returned to the NBA, he did not go on Larry King or feed speculation for months. He put out a two-word press release: "I'm back." He knew that was enough. He knew that what the world really wanted was Jordan on a basketball court, not Jordan in an hour-long TV special.

In so many ways, LeBron James should be a better player than Michael Jordan -- he is two inches taller and 35 pounds heavier, just about as explosive, a better shooter at this age and with better court vision. But if you could somehow suspend the laws of time and space and get the 25-year-old Jordan and the 25-year-old James on the same court, you would have to go with M.J., because he wouldn't worry about pregame theatrics or postgame speculation. He would spend every minute trying to rip James' heart out."

Others aren't so nice. The word Asshole is coming up a lot, even from some Cleveland fans. LeBron James Is A Cocksucker expresses some things that have come into my head.

It doesn't matter where he opts to go. If he goes to Chicago, he's a cocksucker. If he goes to Miami, he's a cocksucker. Even if he goes back to Cleveland, he's a goddamn cocksucker. He's a self-aggrandizing sack of shit, and ESPN is a bunch of pussy-whipped enablers for giving him a free hour of airtime tomorrow night and inevitably using 55 minutes of it to let Stu Scott give him a rimjob.

Look at what Kevin Durant did today. He signed an extension well before he could have filed for free agency, announced the signing, and then went back about his business. He didn't need all this dog-and-pony show bullshit. James does, and that means he's a dipshit. People have been kissing this man's ass SINCE FUCKING MIDDLE SCHOOL, and he still needs this hourlong AFI tribute special? Bullshit. BULLSHIT.

Without going to far into the metaphor, we know what is meant. The anger is so great because this type of sports star behavior is now so common. Pittsburgh, so far has been lucky until Ben showed up, to have avoided a lot of it.

King James indeed.

But the rational question to ask is how could a whole city respect itself so little, to feel like something like this matters. Perhaps if we paid more attention to the real citizens, businesses and and assets we have and knew more about them and supported them we wouldn't be in these kinds of spots and groveling to these so called kings.

Really, really do you think nobody would want to visit, work or live in your city without LeBron or a tiny number of other teams, or mega asset attractions? If that's true, something has gone terribly wrong.

Back On Twitter

I had a malfunction I was just to lazy to fix that put me off Twitter for quite a while. For what it's worth I'm back and trying to build more linkages between the Cleveland & Yinzburgh artists, galleries, crafters, musicians, filmakers and perhaps a fan or two.

Promise to be somewhat active. I like the medium, in that it's a viral open ended type system well suited to creating new interactions in an easy way.

Follow me here

http://twitter.com/Diggingpitt

What I can't get around to posting I may tweet.

Social Media And Economic Development

Jim Russell @ Burgh Diaspora talks about economic development professionals finally warming up to the use of social media and provides this link.

"Social media–in the form of tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and blogs–are starting to transform how we live our lives. When it comes to the world of economic development, social media usage is growing, but not yet as a consistent part of the practitioner's tool kit.

A recent survey sponsored by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and Development Counsellors International (DCI) took a deeper look at the state of social media among economic developers. The survey asked more than 300 IEDC members about their use of social media and its role in their organizational strategies and communications efforts.

The survey results clearly indicate that social media is still a "new thing" for economic developers. While 57 percent of respondents use social media in their organization's communications efforts, most of this use has only begun in the past year. In fact, of those using social media, only 37 percent of respondents have used social media for longer than one year. As DCI President and Chief Creative Officer Andy Levine noted, "Economic development groups are just getting their feet wet with social media. We're in the very early days of this work."

Skipping ahead:

"Finally, Levine expects to see a lot of innovations in the use of social media. For example, he envisions that communities could create "digital ambassadors" to discuss the benefits of living and working in a certain region or community. These ambassadors, people who have many Facebook followers or LinkedIn connections, would serve as a very credible advocate for local economic development efforts. He expects to see lots of experimentation and new approaches over the next several years."

Of course, the basic premise is absurd. Almost every city already has dozens, if not hundreds and thousands of bloggers, Tweeters and such eager to hype their favorite city street,urban park, event, band, gallery, house tour, or private business.

The trick is often to just unleash them or at least not actively stand in their way with no photography policies and other barriers as many still do.

The viral success of an event like Artprize owed largely using this energy to market the event and the city.

Not surprisingly places like Youngstown with meager resources are leading the charge towards innovation and openness.

myG20

"A Crowd Curated guide to Pittsburgh"

So, what does that mean? Me, you, everyone is the "crowd". Instead of relying on the mayor, The Cultural Trust, The Tourist Office, The Post Gazette and a few interns at "approved institutions" paint a picture of Pittsburgh, we can play a part ourselves.

How does it work. OK, it took me a while to figure this out.

If your on Twitter

If you think your tweet is about Pittsburgh, Art, Culture, Food, Performances, life in Pittsburgh and you think it might be of interest to people during G20, tag your tweet with #myg20. Just put #myg20 at the end of your tweet.

For Flickr

Yes, it's even better. You can also share the images of happenings and things of interest during g20. Here's how

For Facebook

Yes, you can use Facebook too.

What happens next is that all this stuff tagged #Myg20 shows up on one site Myg20.org

"myG20 is a real-time, crowd-curated guide to Pittsburgh that will take place prior to and during the G20 Summit (September 24 + 25). It is a bottom-up response to the top-down flow of information that takes place around events of this magnitude. The objective of this project is to provide a platform for all people and parties – both on the ground here in Pittsburgh, as well as those looking in from afar – to share information in an efficient manner.

For approximately one week in September, millions of international eyes will focus on our region. And for good reasons. The health care and education sectors along with technology and green development have helped bring our city from an antiquated steel town to a 21st century force to be reckoned with.

Arts and culture in Pittsburgh are thriving. The arts community here is vibrant and impassioned. Our city's museums, artists, performers and performing arts organizations are second to none. They've played an integral role in the transformation of Pittsburgh as well.

So while the international eyes are upon us, tell them what makes Pittsburgh such a special place for you. Engage each other in a dialog about, "Why Pittsburgh?" Share your favorite hidden gem of a restaurant. Upload a photo of a piece of Pittsburgh architecture or public artwork that has made an impact on you. Share your most vivid Pittsburgh memory. Live tweet or photostream one of the many events taking place throughout the city."

MyG20 is a product of The Mattress Factory and Deep Local.

Social Media Revolution

I saw this posted on Brewed Fresh Daily and elsewhere. Of course it's heavy on the hype and has an agenda, but the underlying force of facts is pretty undeniable and transcends any one hot fad or single company.

Perhaps the average age of most twitter users is the best indicator that Social Media as a concept has buried deep roots in society.

My perception is that the real cultural potential of these technologies has yet to be felt.