Thanks Max. Thanks Phil. Max is Max Middle, poetic curator, and Phil is Phil Minton, veteran vocal confabulator from the land beyond the sea and maestro of Ottawa's briefly resplendent Feral Choir, which I was part of, one of 25 growling, howling vocalists in sensible shoes. (Nikes in my case. Phil wore Chinese slippers.) We... Continue Reading →
Hi. This post lists and links to my first 50 posts on this blog, indexing 50 brief critical essays on contemporary media culture. Topics include The Leveson Inquiry, Occupy Wall Street, Privacy, Music, Food, Economics and more. Try one. 1. Happy Birth Day! my blog is born 2. Gifts and Books, Books and Gifts books as... Continue Reading →
EDIT to this post: as you'll see if you check the comments to this post, someone has informed me that in fact the Girl Scouts/Guides had nothing to do with the suing of Men at Work and in fact it was an Australian publishing company called Larrikin Music that pursued the suit. I apologize to... Continue Reading →
A few weeks ago I gave a talk at the Toronto Reference Library as part of an excellent series called Treehouse Talks. It was a lovely event, attended by about 100 people and held in the spectacular 5-story atrium of the library. I gave an updated version of the talk that I call Know Your... Continue Reading →
My kids have been invited to a lot of birthday parties over the years. One thing I've noticed (or to be more accurate, my wife has noticed...I only noticed her noticing it!) is that more and more kids are having parties where gifts are politely declined. "No gifts" has been scrawled on more than one... Continue Reading →
A couple days ago I posted a recording called Where The Bears Go by my duo The John Waynes (so named because it consists of John Sobol (me) and Wayne Kelso). Today I posted a second recording by The John Waynes called The Evil I. For those keeping score, Where The Bears Go is a... Continue Reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iJYd2M3Ul4 The Evil I by The John Waynes John Sobol (vocals) & Wayne Kelso (piano) All words and music in this piece are 100% improvised. No plans, no paper, no second takes. From the unreleased CD TRUCE. Image by Kiyotei Hear Where the Bears Go by The John Waynes Read about Improvised Poetry and Our... Continue Reading →
Tomorrow I'll be arriving in New York where I'll be staying for a few days. I'll be speaking at (and attending) a cool conference on the future of digital culture and education called Mobility Shifts at The New School. (My talk is Saturday at 2:30 pm, Wollman Hall, Eugene Lang Building 65 West 11th St.,... Continue Reading →
Two weeks ago I played a role in a terrific local festival called Taste of Wellington West whose centrepiece is a massive public gifting event. This year 36 different independent local restaurants, bakeries and food shops gave out tens of thousands of free food samples to thousands of visitors throughout the afternoon. It is partly... Continue Reading →
"It is better to give than to receive" goes the old adage, and today I feel it is very much true. Although I hope that tomorrow - or whenever these books I am sending out today arrive on your doorstep - that you will be equally pleased to receive! For today I am sending out... Continue Reading →
YOU ARE YOUR MEDIA 