Thursday, July 16, 2009

meet me at mikes, thursday, july 16th, 2009


Go directly to this blog, do not pass Go! This is the leading image on meet me at mikes today...Im not saying any more except the amazing Pip behind this has got it all happening! She even has the most wonderful tips for bloggers getting going or wanting to finesse their blogs. She has a book... a shop...amazing! Crafters will particularly adore it...but brilliant inspiration comes in many other forms as well...and the tutorials on blogging...have a look! DO! ...snap...she also just put something on her blog about Ebony from Hello Sandwich.

4 comments:

Chrissy Foreman C said...

That is so wierd ~ I was just looking at meet me at mikes then clicked over to your blog ~ and you're blogging about it! Isn't it great?!

Sophie Munns said...

Very curious indeed! Last night i blogged about Ebony from Hello Sandwich, and today, after doing the post about Meet me at Mikes I noticed they had a new post just put up on their blog about Ebony too! A bit of an East coast Aust energy link up.
I say that half in jest....but I've heard from a number of sources lately that there is a discussion circulating in this country re the possible fact blogging is not that widely practiced here. Apparently, per head of population, in comparison with other countries of reasonably similar access to the necessary medium...we are not such keen or frequent bloggers.
Well..I'm a bit too new to blogging to have any real clue about that.All I could say is that is I have found it easier to find weblinks (websites, blogs etc) for the Fine Arts/ visual artists category if they are from Abroad rather than here. once again, this is not any kind of reliable measure of this...just the impression one gathers from one's travels on the net!
thanks for the comment by the way Chrissy....see you soon!
S x

Chrissy Foreman C said...

Hmmm ~ That's really interesting Sophie ~ I wasn't aware that Aussie's were a bit behing the 8 ball with that one.

I was invovled recently in a blogging discussion on a blog called 'Nothing Elegant'. She put out a call for feedback about the act of blogging, and how it can both connect and separate you from online and real-life communities. It was really interesting.
See the first post here: http://nothing-elegant.blogspot.com/2009/07/conundrumand-embarrassing-quest-for.html
and the resulting update here http://nothing-elegant.blogspot.com/2009/07/monday-mischief-big-hug-and-kiss.html

One of the points she most highlighted is that other than personal expression, blogs can (especially after a time) wind up being a lot of work with very little feedback ~ who is (if anyone) reading my blog? Am I pouring my heart out into a black night? Definitely worth a read.

So perhaps, because Aussie's are such 'laid back' people, maybe blogging is in the too hard basket, meaning why do it when there's little return when you could be relaxing instead? Just a hypothesis ... who knows. There's always an exception to every rule.

Thanks for the great conversation point Sophie(as always)!

Sophie Munns said...

Thanks for some thoughts on this...
I will look into the links you sent. Its interesting to consider...You can see some bloggers have a very particular character to their blogs that draws an audience and brings lots of comments their way...what I love is that there are such enormously diverse ways to appeal to people! So its certainly not a case of there being a formula that is always successful...or not!
And time is needed... a certain savviness!
Maybe what seems most noticable is internationally you can connect with many established artists far more easily through galleries or weblinks than here...and that does seem like a cultural difference.
I'm at the tail end of the baby boomer generation....
Somehow I see loads of under 30's jumping into all the web options...but there seems a big resistance the older you go in OZ to participate in this realm.Not that its an alien experience just in terms of technology...but perhaps in that step one has to take with blogging of coming forward...getting into the act of being seen in a way that is perhaps culturally not too comfortable for Australians...especially the older they are.Maybe???
I am going to really be provocative and suggest that truly engaged/reciprocal conversation with people who are not your best mates is also not such a strong national pastime here the way it may be in some cultures and places.
I have heard australian writer Robert Dessaix talk about a certain tendency for australians to conduct a form of combative monologue in place of what he would perceive as true conversation. At times I could be seen to agree with that.

I guess I keep looking outside to the rest of the globe to engage on the blog and find the same etiquette and responsiveness that comes from away does not necessarily happen so easily here.
That is interesting....when you sense that the spirit of generosity which travels all over the globe is possibly more hesitant here! or is it?
I can say I hear back 99 times out of 100 when I link to someone outside Australia...The response comes soon and is always expressed with courtesy, pleasure or delight...no matter how busy or in demand the person appears to be! I'm not sure one has the same experience of that here at all. The result of this is that I keep on forgetting about what is happening here! The energy exchange is not the same ...so I look further afield! maybe we all do this where ever we are...look away to far horizons and dont feel so much is at stake with a stranger?
I wonder....
best,
Sophie