Geek Nirvana
Can I really explain the Geek Nirvana that is Comic-Con? I can try. And HotterInHollywood.com is helping me.
This is my first year at Comic Con. The great thing about Comic Con is that if you wait in line, you will be treated well. You don't have to know anyone; you don't have to have an "in"; as long as you plan and get in that line, you will meet the people you want to meet. And while you're on line, you'll probably have a great conversation.
I have a Comic Con event Sunday, July 24, at 10:30am, at the Smart Pop booth, B-4, in the small press section of the San Diego Convention Center by the guy selling steampunk. Editor Leah Wilson and I will sign The Girl Who was on Fire and I will also sign any other books of mine that you show up with!
Leah Wilson, plus contributor Ned Vizzini
Signing The Girl Who Was on Fire
Sunday – 10:30 – 11:30 AM [more]
Today's Reader Email
Today's reader mail comes from Kaleia in Anthem, AZ.
Regarding your squip campaign for Be More Chill, I was wondering why the campaign was shut down and all of the websites were deleted. I've been searching for them because this is something that truly fascinates me. So... any insight?
Kaleia, the squip campaign was an immersive viral marketing art project coordinated by me and Adam Collett in 2004-2005, in conjunction with the release of Be More Chill.
The idea behind the campaign was to invent websites that made it seem that the squip -- the pill that makes you cool in Be More Chill -- was a real product you could buy. We invented 30 websites and flooded Google. For a short time in the history of the internet, if you Googled "squip," you found yourself in this strange web of sites from an altenate universe: sites like GetSquip.com and squippersagainstsquips.org, and my personal favorite, "Celebrity Squip."
These sites do not exist anymore. They may be on the Wayback Machine. The campaign is best encapsulated by this video:
The Squip Video
(only for the truly awesome)
Why were the sites shut down? Because I was very depressed and unstable in my life at this time and I could not keep up with the personal and legal demands of managing an imaginary universe.
I'm sorry if you miss the squip campaign, but the glory of it is captured in that video, and some of the original squippers are still on "The Nedboards".
In terms of whether or not there will ever be another squip campaign, I defer to Josh Homme (of Queens of the Stone Age) on his old band Kyuss:
"The offers come in all the time. They're getting more and more expensive, and more and more elaborate. The money is crazy, but I've never been tempted - I don't really care about the money, I never have.... It's not what it was, it's what it is, and Kyuss was a really magical thing and if you weren't there, well, you weren't. That's just the luck of the draw." [more]
But that doesn't mean I didn't love it.
This is my first year at Comic Con. The great thing about Comic Con is that if you wait in line, you will be treated well. You don't have to know anyone; you don't have to have an "in"; as long as you plan and get in that line, you will meet the people you want to meet. And while you're on line, you'll probably have a great conversation.
I have a Comic Con event Sunday, July 24, at 10:30am, at the Smart Pop booth, B-4, in the small press section of the San Diego Convention Center by the guy selling steampunk. Editor Leah Wilson and I will sign The Girl Who was on Fire and I will also sign any other books of mine that you show up with!
Leah Wilson, plus contributor Ned Vizzini
Signing The Girl Who Was on Fire
Sunday – 10:30 – 11:30 AM [more]
Today's Reader Email
Today's reader mail comes from Kaleia in Anthem, AZ.
Regarding your squip campaign for Be More Chill, I was wondering why the campaign was shut down and all of the websites were deleted. I've been searching for them because this is something that truly fascinates me. So... any insight?
Kaleia, the squip campaign was an immersive viral marketing art project coordinated by me and Adam Collett in 2004-2005, in conjunction with the release of Be More Chill.
The idea behind the campaign was to invent websites that made it seem that the squip -- the pill that makes you cool in Be More Chill -- was a real product you could buy. We invented 30 websites and flooded Google. For a short time in the history of the internet, if you Googled "squip," you found yourself in this strange web of sites from an altenate universe: sites like GetSquip.com and squippersagainstsquips.org, and my personal favorite, "Celebrity Squip."
These sites do not exist anymore. They may be on the Wayback Machine. The campaign is best encapsulated by this video:
The Squip Video
(only for the truly awesome)
Why were the sites shut down? Because I was very depressed and unstable in my life at this time and I could not keep up with the personal and legal demands of managing an imaginary universe.
I'm sorry if you miss the squip campaign, but the glory of it is captured in that video, and some of the original squippers are still on "The Nedboards".
In terms of whether or not there will ever be another squip campaign, I defer to Josh Homme (of Queens of the Stone Age) on his old band Kyuss:
"The offers come in all the time. They're getting more and more expensive, and more and more elaborate. The money is crazy, but I've never been tempted - I don't really care about the money, I never have.... It's not what it was, it's what it is, and Kyuss was a really magical thing and if you weren't there, well, you weren't. That's just the luck of the draw." [more]
But that doesn't mean I didn't love it.
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