Cognition and Recognition

Frequently, for me anyway, in the blog world, and many other creative worlds, in an appositive way, one frequently becomes a bit frustrated, or perhaps just apprehensive, or perhaps just disappointed, when one feels like one is just throwing stuff out there into the world only to have it swallowed silently into the void. I know when I was a electronic music composition major, I would sit in the basement of the Conservatory for two months, crafting my odd little musical collages, then emerge to play the tape before a small audience in the concert hall to a smattering of applause before slinking back to my den of intrigue to muddle together another piece of wickedness. There was that public performance, though. It was nice to hear the reaction to the little sonic interlude I had produced.

In a similar fashion, I'm now producing these promotional videos for the CageMatch show I produce at the DSI Comedy Theater. They were originally designed to be released on Powerbomb and YouTube on the Wednesday before the show, in order to promote the show and get the word out to potential audiences. I finally decided that the viewership from Wednesday-Friday was pretty much only the people who were going to be coming to the shows in the first place, or company members who just wanted to see the videos. I ended up waiting to premiere the videos on Saturday night, partially because the Wednesday viewings weren't doing any good, and partially because I liked to hear the first reaction to the videos, akin to the public performance rewards I got from my electronic music concert performances. I just like hearing everybody laugh when they see the video at the halftime of ComedySportz, and love looking back and seeing the wide faces and anticipation from everybody in the back. It's my reward, and it's what I enjoy.

On to the subject at hand. Blogging is another creative endeavour, and it's enjoyable to put up a little something each day to express myself, challenge others, or share a little tidbit from the web. Unfortunately, it frequently reminds me of my days in radio, when you would work to produce a really good program and send it out over the airwaves to an invisible and inaccessible audience. You produce the material for the enjoyment of it, but eventually you wonder if anybody's listening...you crave the response from the audience...you want to be recognized in some fashion for what you do. Enter Nick Faber, fellow DSI-er, improv catcher, and gunslingin' cowpoke. He's come up with what I think is a brilliant and thoughtful idea. He's committed himself to producing what he calls The Friday Friend Roundup. (Yes, he admits it's a lame name.) Each week, he seeks to highlight something from his friends' blogs, with perhaps a little accompanying comment. I think it's a very nice way to show his friends that he pays attention to them and enjoys what they do. I thought it was such a good idea, I've devoted an entire post to it. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll make this week's Friday Friend Roundup. (Or maybe next week's, since we'll all be in New York on Friday.) Thanks, Nick!

(Oh, and my videos can be found here, and this week's video with Children of the Atom is here. Enjoy. Tell me how much you love them.)

((Oh, and I apologize for that first sentence. It got out of hand, and then it amused me so much, I kept on going comma-crazy.))