A Writer’s Life

I found this video through Net@Nite, one of my favourite podcasts, though I had heard about the scream before. If you don’t know what the Wilhelm Scream is, it’s a distinctive scream that’s been used in Hollywood movies for over 50 years. For studios it’s easier (and cheaper) to recycle the stock scream than to pay voice extras to record new sound effects; it’s become something of an in-joke among sound designers and lots of movie fans try to keep track of where it’s been used. The current count is at over 130 films!

The list in the video only goes up to about 1999 and I know a few more since then; the Wilhelm Scream features in both LOTR: The Two Towers and The Return of the King, as well as King Kong, Sin City, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Hellboy. It’s been used prodigiously by Ben Burtt and Skywalker Sound as well, so it’s also in the other Star Wars prequels. Whether it will be in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or not will be interesting - Burtt has said he’s not going to use it as much now it’s so recognised, but it’s in the other Indy movies so he might go out with one last bang… or scream.

It’s just a fun piece of trivia, but I like it because it shows not so much a lack of originality as a respect for Hollywood’s past; it’s keeping some of the history alive 50 years later and in this digital age, that’s a nice touch. So have a listen the next time you play a DVD; chances are you might be listening to a little piece of movie history.

This quiz is continuing the Blog Action Day theme; the organisers’ created it for a bit of fun and to help people get the message out about the day on October 15. If you haven’t signed up yet it’s for a good cause, so no matter what kind of blogger you are, hurry up and join in!

My result says that I’m a Purist Expert Socialite blogger… okay… I guess I agree with the purist bit; I got into blogging because I love writing and wanted a place to talk about issues online, and everything else has just been a bonus. I’m not so sure about the social bit, though; I’m into social sites and I enjoy reading a lot of blogs, but I know I’m not very good at commenting and such. It’s the time difference - by the time I’m able to read them, most posts are already hours old and I’m not contributing anything new.

Obviously it’s just a fun quiz but still, it’s made me think about what this blog’s about and how it’s changed. I mainly started it to write book reviews and editorial pieces, things which I didn’t expect to be that widely read. But after a few months I found I started to talk about more general things; nothing too personal as it’s not that kind of a blog, but thoughts on technology, entertainment, online culture, copyright… now it’s a mix of many different things. Generally that’s not such a good idea for a blog, but it seems to be working… and I like being eclectic.

What’s surprised me the most, though, has been the conversation it’s created. I saw the blog as a way of showcasing my writing at first, but then people started commenting; they read my posts and went from there to look at my work… now I’ve received more feedback on my stories because of the blog than from all my publications combined. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised as that’s the whole idea behind Web 2.0, but for a writer it’s an incredibly valuable tool. Writing these days is really about marketing yourself and the best way to do that is through word of mouth; if someone says they read something on my blog that they liked, or if they liked a poem enough to reproduce it for others to read, that’s a big compliment and the best kind of marketing I can have. It’s something I didn’t consider at the beginning, so I’ve already gained more than I expected.

Anyway, those are just some of my thoughts on blogging, brought about by Blog Action Day… I wonder what kind of blogger you are, how your blog has changed since you started it?

Podcast of the Week: (8/10/07)
WebbAlert
Rating:

WebbAlert with Morgan Webb takes an informative look at the latest in online, tech, gadgetry and gaming news. Morgan Webb is the host of X-Play on G4 in the US and a former web developer, so she’s well-suited to analysing the latest in digital trends and culture.

Webb is a confident host and one interesting aspect is that WebbAlert tends not to source content from traditional news outlets, instead focusing more on blogs that break news stories. It creates a different dynamic and Webb often shows snippets of the posts and articles she’s talking about as well, so you don’t have to go to the shownotes to get more detail.

Something people might consider a drawback is the advertising, usually plugs at the start of the show and halfway through. The ads don’t bother me that much; podcasts require significant bandwidth and I don’t find the ads that intrusive anyway, but what’s really interesting is that Webb has already received notable sponsorship (HP has been one sponsor), which is unusual for such a recent podcast. Perhaps sponsors anticipated Webb bringing some of her G4 audience with her.

WebbAlert presents a fun look at the online world and is probaly a podcast people will either love or hate based on Webb’s style, but one that’s definitely worth checking out. You can subscribe via iTunes or watch episodes at WebbAlert.Com.

There are a few important dates coming up over the next month, so I thought I’d do a quick post in case anyone didn’t know about them. One might be of interest to anyone looking to follow up on BlogCatalog’s Blogging Against Abuse Day.

The first is that October is international Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an annual campaign by the major breast cancer charities to increase awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research. In Australia alone 36 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every day and one in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 85.

Part of the campaign in Australia includes Pink Ribbon Day on Monday October 22nd where you can buy a Pink Ribbon or Wristband to support the cause. Something else you can do is to support The Breast Cancer Site. The site helps to provide free mammograms to women in need; every click from a user raises money from sponsors which goes toward the costs of mammograms. 11,000 mammograms have been provided since the year 2000.

October 15th is BlogActionDay, a community project encouraging bloggers around the world to unite about an issue on everyone’s mind: the environment. BlogActionDay is in its inaugural year and is being supported by over 6,850 blogs and institutions including Greenpeace, Lifehacker, Treehugger, Web Worker Daily and Change.Org. Bloggers are being asked to publish a post relating to an issue of their choice about the environment and to donate any daily advertising revenue to an environmental charity. I haven’t decided what my topic will be yet but I’ll definitely be participating; if you want to find out more, check out BlogActionDay. And thanks to MusEditions and Sanjida for letting me know about it.

The third thing is more of a public service notice for anyone in the US. I heard about this from WC and couldn’t believe it; the laws in the US that keep Internet access tax-free are set to expire on November 1, 2007 and the houses of Congress are currently debating whether Internet access should be kept tax-free. I find the idea that you might have to pay whenever you go online bizarre and it really impacts people outside the US as well as US policy is often adopted as standard in other countries. It’s probably not going to happen but the coalition at MyWireless.Org has a form for people in the US to fill out urging politicians to pass the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2007. You might like to have a look and find out more about keeping the Internet tax free.

Lastly is just a reminder that the next court sitting regarding the defamation case which led to the banning of Wordpress in Turkey is also set to take place on November 1st. Hopefully more information about the ban will be available after the 1st, but if you’d like to send a letter to the Turkish authorities asking that the Turkish courts reconsider their position or sign MidEast Youth’s petition, it might help. Plus you’d be joining with other people in condemning censorship, something which seems particularly important now with the events in Burma.

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I’m unashamedly a child of the 80s; I’m too young to remember much before 88, but I’m fascinated by the clothing, the big hair and mullets, the songs. I love U2, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, but for a guilty pleasure you can’t go past the power ballads. These are some of the ones I still love… so come on, get out your iPod and have a listen; no-one needs to know.

5) The Flame
Cheap Trick
I’ve never been quite sure what the lyrics to The Flame really mean, if the song is about loss or it it’s a statement between lovers. If it is actually the former, then it’s quite like The Police’s Every Breath You Take - a song about obsession and not really a ballad at all.

4) I Want To Know What Love Is
Foreigner
One of my favourite angst songs, I always loved the This mountain I must climb/Feels like a world upon my shoulders line. It went to #1 in Aus, the US and the UK, so I guess I’m not the only one.

3) Sweet Child O’ Mine
Guns N’ Roses
It would be hard not to include Axl Rose and Guns ‘N Roses in a list like this, but Sweet Child O’ Mine is one of my favourite songs anyway; I love the vulnerability of the song and the guitar solos (of course). Just don’t listen to the cut version; if you’ve only ever heard the edit, you’ve never heard Sweet Child O’ Mine.

2) Home Sweet Home
Mötley Crüe
Home Sweet Home was probably one of the first hit songs of the MTV generation; its first release never got past #89 in the US, but it was MTV’s most requested song for four months straight. I must admit, I know it more from the ‘91 re-release, but it’s a great song.

1) Holding Out for a Hero/Total Eclipse of the Heart
Bonnie Tyler
Okay, so I’m cheating a bit here with two songs, but I can’t separate them so I’m going for the artist instead; if I had to think of one artist to represent the 80s, Bonnie Tyler would get my vote - huge songs, way overdone, but fun as hell. I love Bonnie Tyler as well because of Cate Blanchett in Bandits; if you haven’t seen the scene where she dances to Holding Out for a Hero while chopping vegetables, you don’t know what you’re missing.