Why I'm Not Writing today - Existential Dread edition

I've been watching the History Channel doco, "Life After People", which follows the planet Earth forward about 10,000 years to see what would happen if every single human were to disappear* right now.

* The doco continuously uses the metaphor of 'disappearance', as if we're all taken up in some raptural-like experience. Implicitly, though, it's asking "What happens if we all die?" ... and to its credit, it delicately steers away from explaining that this would give dogs that have been trapped inside a house an extra week or two of unrefridgerated food supply.

Things I've learned from it:

• Dogs with short legs are screwed; pity them more than you normally would
• Nuclear power plants won't melt down
• Radiation can have long-term benefits for the environment
• Flying squirrels are cool
• Radio and TV broadcasts from Earth probably turn to gibberish after travelling about 2 light years.

A bit lame and OTT in places, extremely moving in others. It's broken down into 10 minute segments on this site. I recommend it.

You tube time travel

And to continue with the time travel theme, a choose-your-own adventure delivered via youtube. Any ideas how make one of these things?

N - an animated Stephen King story

There's a new Stephen King story on the net. This one has been done as a series of two-minutes episodes, drawn by Alex Maleev, and partially animated.

The story is a neat cthulhoid take on obsessive-compulsive disorder, and some of the animation works better on screen than I think it will on the pages of the soon-to-be-published short story.

Watch it here. (And count the stones!)

There are going to be 25 episodes in total: a new one will be published each weekday, and they're about halfway through at the moment. There's some weak-ish voice acting to start with, but that soon gets better. I'm also a fan of its mood.

Links - Future of TV

OK, something a little new here. I'll post a whole bunch of related links, and then analyse them in the comments as I get time. Join in the conversation there, and if anything insightful pops up, that'll get a post of its own.

First up, the future of television / 4th generation media (4GM) ...

NBC fails (spectacularly) to bully Apple into raising its download prices.

Theatrical release isn't where studios make their money from movies.

Didn't I predict the death of the mainstream in one of my first posts? Well, it's happening. And, by the way, how many people do you know who regularly watch television anymore?

Guerilla drive-ins - organising movie screenings in unused public spaces, via flash-mobs.

What the hell. Boogie Nights / Star Wars (link to YouTube).

A TV professional speculates about future trends.

A link to a link about making internet content watchable - and move the audience from TV to the net.

And another link-link to a business model for internet content.

Enough for now.