triggerhappymedia

I’m pretty much all over the place when it comes to music, so I love getting recommendations. Imeem is a nice little social networking site to share your musical tastes with friends- and any random person who will listen.

Right now I’m in a hot and slow summer days kind of mood. Here’s the playlist:

Morena Mia - Miguel Bose feat Julieta Venegas
Gold for the Price of Silver - Kings of Convenience
Forget Me Nots - Patrice Rushen
Que Creias? - Selena
It Ain’t Hard to Tell - Nas
Na Ri Na - Lura
Leiley - Dania
My Moon My Man - Feist
Ya Salam- Nancy Ajram
Balance - Sara Tavares
All the Way - Craig David
Allem Alby - Amr Diab
No One - Alicia Keys
Escapar - Sussie 4
Al Sa’ban Aleh - Sherine
Siempre Me Quedara - Bebe
Je Sais - Perle Lama & Princess Lover
Eres Para Mi - Julieta Venegas feat Anita Tijoux & Serko Fu

_________________________________
Trigger: imeem - what’s on your playlist?

Never fear for those of us with plenty of comic strip ideas, but zero drawing skills. There are a number of sites where wannabes can create comics using supplied graphics. My favorite is Stripgenerator from a small company in Slovenia- they offer a nice choice for visual content.

_______________________________
Trigger: Stripgenerator

• As of today, total number of Residents in the used-created virtual world, Second Life: 7,877,298

• Total number of authors credited to Second Life: the Official Guide: 6

• From the latest stats, the average number of minutes spent in Second Life per user, per day in the US: 122

• Total number of minutes I’ve spent in Second Life: 120

• Total number of minutes I’ve spent in Second Life that I will never get back: 120

• Total number of Second Life: the Official Guide I’ve purchased: 0

________________________________
Trigger: Second Life: the Official Guide as displayed at La Grande Libreria Internazionale Hoepli, Milan, Italy

I was reading about the Austrian filmmaker in London who made an entire movie from live images captured by CCTV cameras… and I was thinking how much I love the idea of creating films without using a standard video camera.

Jumpcut is one free tool available for amateur moviemakers. For a choppy, high-intensity slideshow, still pictures can be edited together with an audio track to produce a fluid film.

The set up looks like FinalCut Pro (the editing program favored by indepedent and semi-professional filmmakers), except the functions are much more basic. It’s as easy as uploading individual pictures or video clips, adding an mp3 track, and playing with the timing and special effects until the desired look is achieved. To test out Jumpcut, I made a video for triggerhappymedia.net:

UPDATE! Jumpcut went under. Too bad.
___________________
Trigger: Jumpcut
Video credits: Thanks to Rayme and Miranda July for inspiration, Royksopp for the music, and existenz.it for some wicked pics.

A recently-released survey from Technorati has revealed that less people are signing up for blogs, while social networking sites continue to take off at warp speed.

The reason appears to be a preference for the more interactive sites like MySpace. Of course, there are blogs that boast their own passionate audiences. But what about the blogs that no one is reading?

Victor Keegan writes for The Guardian:

“Far better to communicate through a peer group in a social networking environment where shared interests will guarantee you an audience, rather than propel your thoughts in the blogosphere where often they will be read by no one unless you have managed to build up a ‘brand’.”

But this statement is dependent on many factors. Primarily, which social networking environment is suitable for what you want to communicate? And should your goal be to reach just any pair of eyes, or those with an interest in what you have to say?

MySpace has boosted the careers of musicians, but the platform isn’t designed for writers. The site also has the power to get you some traffic and a “thanks for the add!” This is a validation, sure- not of your ideas, but simply that you exist.

____________________________________________________________
Trigger: ‘To the average Joe, blogs aren’t cutting it’ by Victor Keegan

YouTube started out as a quirky UGC site that’s become a worldwide phenomenon. But it’s not all treadmill choreography. Videos can be passed around anonymously and with ease: the perfect tool for a bully.

Today the UK’s education secretary, Alan Johnson, announced growing concern over cyber-bullies- students who post videos to harass and humiliate their teachers.

YouTube, along with RateMyTeachers, was singled out as the reason why teachers are leaving their jobs. Johnson argued that videos showing abuse against teachers should be removed, much like the filtering of pornographic content.

But is it the site’s responsibility to monitor bad students? Some argue that the schools need to tackle the problem head-on. This would involve restricting the use of mobile phones and recording devices, and punishing bullies with greater impunity.

For now the burden will fall on YouTube to offer protection against cyber-bullies. Simply imposing more rules doesn’t seem too promising a solution. Kids will always find ways to bully, especially as technology allows for sneakier and crueler ways to do it.

_____________________________________________________________
Trigger: ‘YouTube urged to get tough with cyber-bullies‘ by Jane Hoskyn

This is what brings music videos to the here and now.

A community of musicians and filmmakers is gathering at Qoob, a project developed by MTV Italy. The clever feature on Qoob is the video contest.

Every couple of weeks a musician or band hands over a track to the site, and users are invited to create a video clip to match. Other visitors then vote and leave their tips and encouragements.

The best part: the winner will produce the official video for the track!

__________________________________
Trigger: Qoob