by hook or by crook, i will be first to write in this b...log. doesn't have the same ring to it somehow. anyway, to get the ball rolling, i thought i'd point people in the direction of gene youngblood's expanded cinema, now available online. useful to consider in conjunction with lev manovich's language of new media. their predictions and intuitions are occasionally searingly accurate, whilst others such as the hyped promise of VRML or the dream of television as being the optimum broadcasting channel for the masses leave one wondering about the predictive skills of today's future forecasters.