Ahh... If you have never read Gormenghast...A celebration of the writing & art of Mervyn Peake | via The Guardian

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And darkness," Peake says a few lines on from his reintroduction of Titus, "winds between the characters." It does, and it winds into each of them, and winds them together, too. One might say the same about the work of any black-nib-wielding illustrator. But the point is not only that Peake drew his own imaginings so brilliantly, it is that there is something specific about that brilliance. It is the manner in which, in his art, he captures intricacy and austerity. It is this that makes the claim of an elective affinity between his words and his images more than a tendentious fancy...

Keeping it Cool...On the Road 'amplified' in app of Kerouac classic | via guardian.co.uk

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Excerpt:

"...Readers will now be able to relive the journey taken by Dean and Sal in Jack Kerouac's legendary Beat novel On the Road, thanks to the release of an "amplified" version of the novel, which has just been published for the iPad.

Following Faber & Faber's iPad adaptation of TS Eliot's The Waste Land, which last week knocked Marvel's comic book app out of the top spot in the Apple App book store, Penguin has just released an iPad version of On the Road. As well as the complete text of the original 1957 novel, based on Kerouac's own adventures across America with Neal Cassady, the app includes an interactive map of the route taken in the book, complete with historical photographs and notes on the contemporary context.

The app also features photographs from Jack Kerouac's estate, rare audio clips of the author reading from an early draft of On the Road and pages from his journal with notes on plot and structure. A reproduction of his first, 120-foot scroll draft of the book will be comparable side by side with the published version, highlighting the elements removed by lawyers – including the author's most explicit treatments of sex and drug use. Letters between Kerouac and his editors about the novel's early reception, tributes to the book and author by writers from John Updike to Bob Dylan, and documentary footage of fellow Beats speaking about Kerouac are also included...."

Looks like Fun! Evil Dead for iOS review - via Macworld UK

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Excerpt:

"...What works well enough is the bizarre, cuddly art style, which ratchets Evil Dead’s charm level up to 11 and then soaks it in splatters of appropriately cartoony viscera and gore. Ash’s sparse characterization is also a nice touch—you can tell when he’s starting to lose it from all the PTSD-inducing violence thanks to some in-game text bubble speech—and the game’s basic mechanics are decent enough. Occasionally the developers break up the action with running or platforming levels, which are a nice change of pace..."

HBO Finds Its Own Way With Social Networking for Game of Thrones | Co.Design

Excerpt:

"...HBO Connect

is a solid attempt to direct interaction and conversation to HBO’s site -- and away from independent social networks -- without losing the benefits of content affinity and personal connection. HBO didn’t alienate social media audiences; it worked on their terms. Taken further, audiences can interact with actors on HBO Connect and have those exchanges published to external communities at the same time for others to see.

The site's true potential reveals itself in Feeds and Conversations.

The true potential of HBO Connect reveals itself in the Feeds and Conversations features of the site. The Feeds area is designed around one’s favorite show (in my case, TrueBlood) but provides a simple layout of the social land by pulling pertinent content from Twitter (real-time), YouTube, and Facebook without being obnoxious about it. HBO designed the Live feed simply and elegantly, but the aggregation of live feed data has been done before (even newspapers experimented with the idea during elections). It’s the Conversations area that really starts to show the power of audience development on the audiences’ terms..."

Serialized Distribution of Feature Film: Hollywood Star ‘Reverses’ Movie Distribution Model With BitTorrent

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Excerpt:

"...These days it’s hardly surprising news when a filmmaker choses to share their movie using BitTorrent. VODO, the BitTorrent-powered distribution network for independent films, has released a few dozen high-quality movies in the past year alone.

Today, however, VODO sees arguably its highest impact release to date – ‘A Lonely Place For Dying‘. With Hollywood veteran James Cromwell as Executive Producer, a talented first-time Director, and a crew of professional filmmakers and actors it has all the ingredients for a quality product.

The real impact, however, comes from the distribution model selected for the movie.

Rather than accepting offers from traditional Hollywood insiders who sought to acquire rights to the movie, the makers felt more comfortable in keeping the rights and funding through the BitTorrent community instead. They therefore chose a serialized release on VODO, for free, in the hope that they can secure enough donations to fund a theatrical release themselves..."

Grazie Henry Jenkins for posting!: Transmedia Hollywood 2 Videos from UCLA Conference

Now Available: Transmedia Hollywood 2 Videos

Due to technical difficulties, we've been delayed in sharing with you the videos from our April Transmedia Hollywood 2 conference, jointly sponsored by the cinema schools at USC and UCLA, and hosted this year at UCLA. We hope to be back next April at USC with a whole new line up of speakers and topics, which we are just now starting to plan. In the meantime, check out some of these sessions, which should give the ever expanding Transmedia community plenty to chew on this summer. As for myself, I'm flying down to Rio, even as we speak.

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Denise Mann, Associate Professor, Producers Program, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television

Transmedia Hollywood 2, Visual Culture & Design: Denise Mann Opening Comments from UCLA Film & TV on Vimeo.

'Good. I hate Facebook.': Alt Text: Google+ Is the New GeoCities | via Underwire

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Excerpt from post by Lore Sjöberg:

"...Google+ might hit the big time by surfing the wave of Facebook resentment while eluding dead rats and discarded styrofoam cups. If so, its time will eventually come to an end as people realize that it, too, fails to provide the sense of community and closeness that we keep expecting to find on the other side of our keyboards.

Is the solution to somehow recapture the personal ties of years long past, when we knew our neighbors and the front porch was the main locus of information exchange? Will we create true community by embracing our humanity rather than our technology?..."