Sure, it’s a ridiculous idea. Too ambitious, not realistic at all. How’s a twenty-something from a small Dutch city going to take over New York’s most famous square? Yet that’s what I like about it. Because I think this project will show how our societies have changed. We’re a networked society and we’re gonna prove it.

Project description by Justus Bruns

At first, it was just Justus. But as soon as he was convinced to give it a go, six others from the BKB academy joined him (including me). The snowball started rolling (literally, it has been snowing for a couple of days now). We’ve built a website which Justus will present on Pecha Kucha Amsterdam (January 20th). The goal: to get as many artists on board as possible. So that we can witness the beauty of the network society.

If every artist starts to promote the idea within his or hers network, we’ll get an enormous group of people. And that means power, money, and quite possibly the realization of Justus’ idea. We’re going to show the world what the buzzword ‘crowdsourcing’ really stands for.

Sure, Justus Bruns can’t change Times Square on his own. But he can ignite a spark. He can be the first of thousands aiming for those huge billboards. Even though he hasn’t even seen the damn square. Stay tuned to see it happen. Better yet, hop on the bandwagon. Drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter if you’d like to participate. If you’re an artist, submit your work to our Flickr or Vimeo pools.

Let’s not just rock the blogosphere, let’s rock Times Square.

PS. For those who think ideas can be too unrealistic, I gladly refer to this talk by Timothy Ferris:

Yet at the same time a little voice inside my head kept telling me all those tapes were a waste of money and space. Within a few years, DVD would be the standard and tapes would be hopelessly old-fashioned. In fact, I was already late with adopting the whole DVD revolution. That’s why the tapes were so cheap.

It was only a few months later that I got my first DVD player. The stack of tapes had become pretty useless.

I’m writing this down because I’ve got a similar feeling now when it comes to books. A few weeks ago I looted a second hand store. Huckleberry Finn, Brave New World, and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest were mine for only 1 euro and 75 cents. Yeah. But then the little voice came back…

Photo Flickr / Chotda

Let’s be clear: reading the books is not the problem. But whenever I’ve finished a book and put it back in my bookcase, I feel guilty. All that paper. All those books. Just collecting dust. That’s a bad thing, for two reasons:

1. Ebooks are the future. As soon as the Kindle touches ground in Europe, I’ll say goodbye to the paper backs. I got that ‘a-ha’-moment when I read Steven Johnson’s piece for The Wall Street Journal called
   How the E-Book Will Change the Way We Read and Write
2. The great works by Thompson, Kerouac, Safran Foer, and Wolfe are basically rotting away in my little personal library. I should give every single book away to friends and colleagues. By doing that I’ll share knowledge and great stories.

Although I dream of a library with a Chesterfield and green carpet, I think I’ll have to get rid of my collection. I should make other people happy with it and read digital books. When proposing this to my Twitter followers, I got some interesting replies:

@JayHootsen: I gave away about half of my books last month. Not because of eBooks or so, but it made some people happy anyway.

@Alper: As soon as I can get my entire library digitally on my iPhone, I probably am doing something similar.

@loekessers: Of course, books are here to be read. And if you want to read a book again, you’ll support the author by buying a new one.

@RemcoBron replied that giving away books hurts authors, since people won’t buy the book anymore when they get it for free. I replied that books can go viral then. @erwblo; then said that books always have been viral. Hence the libraries, said @alper.

@obk and retweeted by @pastoorponcke;: Keep your books. They’re worth it. If not, change what you read.

@_Pim_: Dude, you won’t even look smart!

@Jerryhtmn;: I’ve always wanted a whole bunch of stuffed book shelfs, just because it looks really intellectual. So I’d keep them.

@LeanneRoos: ebooks would make your books antique or retro = money

What do you think? Do you recognize my sentiment or are you still aiming for that Chesterfield?

Drawing by the great Thomas Hawke

Hunter S Thompson is a hero of many. The writer of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the most honest book about the Hell’s Angels appeals to thousands of young journalists. He invented Gonzo Journalism. A journalism genre that finds its roots in New Journalism, where the old distinctions between journalism and creative writing were blurred. Tom Wolfe and Truman Capote are two of the most famous New Journalism-writers.

Gonzo Journalism took things a little further. It’s more colorful, wilder and more extreme. As the BBC puts it: ,where Tom Wolfe politely declined an acid tab in his iconic Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Hunter S Thompson denied himself nothing. (..) The writer became the story. Structure was thrown out of the window, replaced by a shambolic, yet magical, rollercoaster ride of artless hedonism.”

So Thompson died in 2005. You’ve read all his books. What’s left? Pointless nostalgia? Or can we reinvent this genre? Give it a twist and adapt it to the digital revolution which took place? Let’s find out.

What’s there to write about?

To get an idea how we can reinvent Gonzo Journalism we should come up with some ideas for stories first. After that we can brainstorm about how we could cover these subjects in a new and rocking way. I posted the following message on Twitter yesterday:

Want to experiment with Gonzo Journalism (coined by Hunter S Thompson) and thinking about spectacular subject. Who has an idea?

Some stories that need Gonzo style reporting

Olaf Koens, a Dutch correspondent in Moscow suggested to send a reporter to war-zone, since that’s one of the subjects where Hunter S Thompson had flaws. A few hours later, he added:

Antonie Fountain from the band Little Things That Kill suggested to investigate trafficking and forced prostitution on the Red Light District.

Tom Rovers said that we should go to a music festival since most festival reports are boring and can use some Gonzo style reporting.

Twitter user Gumbah said we’ve to investigate coffeeshop suppliers by posting outside their doors. ,,Gonzo style would be to infiltrate their system,” I replied. Then he came up with the brilliant idea to start our own shop.

Journalistic talent Loek Essers has sent me a direct message with two story ideas and even mentioned who should write them. Firstly a story by Antonie van Campen about the world of the Roma in Europe and secondly Adriaan Alsema should write a Gonzo story about gang wars in Colombia.

Last but not least, Sjeltur had a gonzo tip that sounded somewhat familiar: ,,Start a political party. Make a weird movie. Get elected and become THE new politician! :)”

Those ideas make a great start, what’s next?

So the idea of reinventing Gonzo Journalism has been coined, the first story ideas have been submitted, what’s next? Well, I’d say two things:

• Let’s come up with even more story ideas
• Let’s think about how we can use new technology for the reinvention of Gonzo

I can’t wait to see your comments and ideas and write another post about them. Gonzo style!

(anybody who says Gonzo 2.0 must buy the other commenters a bottle of whiskey)

Maarten Besseling did the same. One of his friends, a singer, had a bad break up, so he invited him to come on a trip to a cabin somewhere and make music. Several years later Besseling releases yet another album in his music series “in a cabin with“. By now, he has traveled to remote cabins in Iceland, Greece, South Africa, Australia, Mexico, and fifteen other places.

That last cd happened to be recorded with the designer of this blog, Odilo Girod. Not only is he a graphic designer that can make blog designs which are ahead of its time, he also has a voice that comes close to Mark Everett’s rawness and the surrealistic sound of Thom Yorke. On top of that, he plays the piano and handles sample machines like Jamie Lidell. Talking about multi-talents…

The dream-like album presentation of Girod’s solo project Chop Wood, in the Melkweg last Sunday, blew me away. Girod translated his countless sleepless nights in a performance that touched all senses: light shows, an actor actually chopping wood, a sleeping woman on stage that wakes up and starts singing beautifully, a bubble machine combined with smoke (really cool effect), and Girod discussing his hints of insomnia with the audience: it was all part of the evening. None of this would have happened if Besseling hadn’t taken a poor friend on a trip a few years ago.

In a few weeks, Pakhuis de Zwijger will be the stage of an international blog conference organized by Edial Dekker and me. A year ago I didn’t know Edial. When we met at an eco fashion party a few months ago we discovered we both wanted to do something which was over our heads. On February 2nd, a bottle of whiskey and some good chats led to the idea of BLOG08 – a small bloggers meet-up in Amsterdam. Then we found Boris, Patrick, and Arjen from The Next Web interested to participate in it. Now we’re talking about a gig with 350 attendees, some A-list bloggers, live music, and a dedicated book. Just because Edial and I went with it.

What will you do?

[The Chop Wood album was recorded in Berlin and is available as a free download]

But during the last couple of years, this love has faded a bit. I started listening to music that can be qualified as “less mainstream” and forgot about the rock star.

Yet when I saw an announcement on ticketmaster.nl saying Mr. Kravitz would perform in my country the coming summer, I – without a doubt – bought a ticket. He would rock the Goffert Park in Nijmegen and I was surely gonna be there.

Yesterday was that day. Although his songs had lost their privilege to feature on my iPod and I hadn’t bought any of his latest albums, an old music love did revamp. This guy is a rock star, a real performer, and a musician who knows everybody loves him and isn’t afraid to hide that.

So may I advise you, dear reader, to go and check out the tour dates of the band of your youth. I won’t disappoint you. It’s as running into the ex you still fancy a bit. Really.

Devendra Banhart was born May 30, 1981, in Houston, Texas, U.S. but was raised in Caracas, Venezuela from 2 to 13 years old. He is a folk rock singer-songwriter and musician. Banhart’s music has been classified as indie folk, psych folk, Naturalismo, and New Weird America; his lyrics are often surreal and naturalistic. (wiki)

I love the mysterious and somehow optimistic songs of this long-haired guy and so it was a true pleasure to create a playlist for you. Without a doubt, it will give those evenings on your balcony or veranda another dimension.

• Devendra Banhart official homepage
• Devendra Banhart Myspace page
• Some summer music tips by Renato Valdés Olmos

• More webart here

When Boris and me sat down in Lori’s diner for a quick break of all the Web 2.0 Expo chaos, I discovered an old-fashioned jukebox. So I robbed Boris, ended up with six quarters and enjoyed my jukebox moment. See a visual- (via microblogging service Twitter) and music (via Mixwit) representation.

After posting some pics on Flickr, I discovered I’m not the only Dutch fun of Lori’s cooking skills. Jeroen Mirck has also visited the place a couple of times and made some nice photographs.

• Invite 30 professionals from the creative industry;
• Put them in an industrial room with good food, drinks, web connection and four tables;
• Ask those professionals what their area of expertise is;
• Ask them what they want to get done;
• Get a speed date process going so that people who can something for each other will connect;
• Let them do great things for each other.

So why is this a great idea? Firstly, in less than two hours I’ve met some really interesting and inspiring folks – like Rolf Coppens from Grrr and Odilo Girod. Secondly, most cash-jobs suck. But when people meet to help each other out for free, creativity flourishes.

Photo by Frank Schuil