Heather Gold

“I am not my keywords” Life in Perpetual Beta video interview

At the last SXSW I went into the Ladies room at the Four Seasons Hotel with Melissa Pierce and between flushes, recorded one of my favourite interviews ever. She did a fantastic job of editing. I’m delighted to have this as part of her film and project Life In Perpetual Beta, a phrase I coincidentally used years ago in speaking at the first 140 conference about how everyone is learning to be “private and Public” and everyone is a performance artist now.

This interview gets at a lot of the feminist ideas I’m exploring in my new project #WITH.

My Tools for Tummlers talk at WordCamp Seattle [video]

Here’s my talk on Tools for Tummlers at Seattle WordCamp. We need better ways to have conversations on our blogs and better options than facebook. Here’s a start at why and how. Sadly I can’t embed this on Facebook.

Keynoting Connect Up, UnPresenting and other Australia gigs

I’ve been getting a lot of calls lately that have led to lots of trips. The feeling of great things coming my way has been lovely. Ever since getting caught in the Icelandic volcano ended up with my driving across Eastern Europe with the leader of the Finnish opposition party playing Cold Play over and over, I’ve learned that anything can lead to anything.

A couple of months ago I played next the the Easter Bunny in the mall and Ani DiFranco at Get Lit Fest in Spokane. Then I headlined OUT/Loud at the University of Oregon.

You had to be there, in the room, to feel how the energy changed when Gold took over.

Her headlining performance, “I Look Like an Egg but I Identify as a Cookie,” engaged crowd members for more than an hour, shattering the traditional boundaries between performer and audience.

Oregon Register-Guard

Quickly after that came the first subvert show (f/k/a the Heather Gold Show) in Toronto and now I find myself in the most expensive hotel room I’ve ever been in in Melbourne Australia about to keynote ConnectingUp a conference for non-profits in the digital age.

Check my schedule for all the shows and gigs here in Australia in the next couple of weeks which include speaking at Google in Sydney at Gathering11 (a kind of mind meld for people looking to change the world) and I’ll be getting in some stand-up too. I’ve heard amazing things about comedy (and queer life) here in Melbourne and am really looking forward to hitting the clubs.

I’m also offering my UnPresenting workshop in Melbourne on 6/14. Limited tix are available here.

In the meantime, I’ve got that peculiarly western thing of loving the hell out of this plush hotel, but also hoping it was donated to the conference for non-profits.

If there are places you think I should see in Melbourne or Sydney or people to meet, let me know! I’d like to bring the Cookie show here for the Comedy Festivals and Mardi Gras.

Headlining OUT/LOUD and 5/17 Portland show added

I’m headlining University of Oregon’s OUT/LOUD fest tonight. It’s beautiful here. Lots of trees and piercing and some of the most innovative things white peoples hair can do. Here’s a piece in the local press. The interviewer duct taped the recorder to the dash and drove which is definitely the way to win all of my secrets.

I’ve just added an intimate living room show in Portland next week. It’s one night only, so let your PDX pals know. There are very limited tickets. And pie. So move fast and get your tix.

Moving and An Ingenius Design for All You Need in One Box

I recently found out I’ll be moving all my stuff from NY to Toronto and through customs. I have many practical details to figure out as well as prepare for the emotional piece of it. I find having the practical, physical stuff be simple makes the emotional part simpler too.

For those who have followed my #<3trip hashtag and the journey that began for me at the end of last summer, you'll know that I've been very mobile. I travel a lot for performing, and speaking and workshops too. The impact of all of this has been a kind of enforced minimalism that has crept up on me. Now that I have to deal with moving quite a bit and sorting out what I genuinely need and want, what feels good to me, I'm pondering the 27 boxes and various pieces of furniture and wishing I could just put this amazing bit of design in a small car and go. Casulo is the name of this box/furniture/moving package and it was created by students at the Koln International School of Design in Cologne. Perhaps the form and design make more obvious sense to Germans who don’t seem to need help with stark-ness, but the digital nomad trend to minimalism that’s been growing is more about responding to consumerism and overwhelm by getting in touch with what really matters to you.

I was pushed there by overwhelm and loss, which have been incredible teachers. Enjoy this bit of brilliant design.

OutCast Austin interview

I did an interview recently on OutCast Austin on KOOP an amazing local station. We talked about my move to Canada, my upcoming podcast subvert and tummeling people in shows and getting them to come out. Give it a listen.

Austin is one of my favourite places, with many of my favourite people, where I go for SXSW every year. I’ve premiered shows there, had my first ideas to do performance interactively there and even emceed Gay Pride. I’m even considering living there a few months of the year.

The best SXSW Panel: Collaboration is the way of the Net, w/ Allee WIllis Kenyatta Cheese + Mary Jo Pehl

This was my 13th SXSW and this was the most thought and heart-provoking panel I’ve done yet for me personally. The room was almost completely “old timers” (we’re not actually that old, just on the web) and so we went pretty deep, eventually ending up in a place that made me question whether or not money itself would change. WIl we really need it if we fluidly make together and continue the current vector of open making? How will we make it if not?

The audio podcastof the conversation. I’d embed it if SXSW would make that possible.

Since the web began we’ve been talking about artists having a career without a label and going directly to fans. We finally have examples of this working, so what does it look like? I sat down with successful collaborating indie artists: Allee Willis (September, Boogie Wonderland, The Colour Purple, Theme from Friends over 50 million albums sold), Mary Jo Pehl (actor, Mystery Science Theatre 3000, writer RIfftrax, NPR) and Kenyatta Cheese (Know Your Meme) and the super smart room formerly known as the “audience.”

The Net links almost every form of artistic making, so it makes sense that we’re in an era of increasing collaboration and creation in many forms. We discussed how limitations and openness serve us in an era of “personal brands” and how to deal with rights, friendship and creating the best space in which to collaborate. We dug into their collaborative process in making social experiences, music, video and comedy and find out how they’ve succeeded creatively and in every other way.

Highlights that stuck with me (as I recollect them. Not direct quotes):

•My name is Kenyatta Cheese and I am of the web.

• I don’t feel that I can own anything anymore – Kenyatta

• When AOL and MySpace came along I was so upset. But I learned to get over it. It’s ego. You have to let that go to create. The web keeps encouraging you to let go of ego – early social network creator Allee WIllis

•My focus is on the process – Allee WIllis

•What do you really need money for? Will the culture

•This conversation had a major impact on my personal theme that came out of this SXSW: the difference between celebrity and software culture. Post forthcoming.

How do you know someone is a good collaborator for you? Do you think of “everyone/audience” as collaborators and if so what made that thinking happen for you?

tag: #collab

Video: I confront my tech addiction [back in the Sidekick days]

Here’s a video from the old vlogging (video blogging) days in 2005 or so.

Even before the iPhone I knew that having some place to focus my attention was helpful and also completely unhelpful.

Recent interviews: Internet Collaboration and why SXSW fun is good for art and business

I recently guested on Feast of Fun, a delish gay podcast hosted by the adorable Fausto and Marc. That’s Fausto’s sister above who came to their queer meet up at this years SXSW. We talked about canv.as, Color, and what makes web apps, sites , parties and the Internet great : collaboration.  Of course we meandered into Ani DiFranco, Kirstie Alley, Rosie O’Donnell and how to pick up a nerd.

I was also part of a Business Insider piece about SXSW, written to justify partying as work. SXSW has had a huge impact of my life  and my work. It has certainly got some new issues but I still found it really worthwhile and energizing to be there.  The place now does have massive attendance and it’s crawling with marketing and old school media companies trying to be all Internet cool now. But I actually found that I learned something from this. More on what that is soon.

The End of Shame, or Getting Over Oversharing

I hosted this conversation at SXSW 2011 with Melissa Gira Grant, Cindy Gallop Jeff Jarvis and many other participants formerly known as the audience.

There has been a real backlash against openness as the word “oversharing” implies. As CNN noted, I think an “oversharing” accusation is often another persons way of saying “what you are saying is making me uncomfortable.”

Handling out feelings and learning how to be in public space together is what much of my work is about. I believe it’s a lot of what the shifting economy is about too. As I told Umair Haque in our TummelVision conversation: “We’re not going to think our way out of this economic/cultural place. We’ve got to feel our way out.”

The End of Shame conversation happened because it was the one Melissa most wanted to have and it was one of the bright moments of SXSW for me this year. It was a room of incredibly smart and interesting people who taught us more than we shared. And we know how to share.