Hey, I just (finally!) made my first post to Symposium blog, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works' Transformative Works and Cultures journal. My co-blogger there is Dana Sterling, who's posted some good stuff about TWC's Supernatural-themed issue and the John Scalzi/Wil Wheaton fan fiction contest.

In my post, I look at fan cultures around MTV's The Hills, and suggest a mode of 'parasocial fandom' to complement what obsession_inc  and damned_colonial  have described as transformational fandom and affirmational fandom.

Okay, that makes my post sound pretty boring -- and it isn't, really! Probably? Anyways, check it out, and feel free to comment there if so moved.

So has anyone been trying out Google Wave? I don't have an invite, and after reading Robert Scoble's take, I'm not sure I want one. I can barely manage my inbox in its current form; I'd probably give up completely if it morphed into anything resembling Google 'email on steroids' Wave.

Am I failing at fall TV, or is fall TV failing me? So far I'm underwhelmed by FlashForward, bored by Fringe, and -- there should be a third show here, preferably one whose name starts with an 'F', but I don't think I'm even watching anything else. Not Supernatural, not Dollhouse, not Merlin, and certainly not Heroes.

Meanwhile the ill-conceived fall season of the U.S. version of So You Think You Can Dance appears to be stuck in an endless round of auditions, while the second season of its Canadian counterpart has been somewhat lackluster so far compared to last year. Hurry back, Australian version!

One bright spot: Kristin Cavallari has taken over from Lauren Conrad as the star of The Hills. Now, I have a soft spot for Kristin -- she was great on Laguna Beach, and reminds me of someone I went to high school with -- so it's nice to see her in action again, but the show feels hopelessly contrived now. Lauren was really the emotional center that grounded everything; Kristin's clearly not interested in playing that role, and nobody else can really fill the void that Lauren left. So I'm not sure how long I'll keep watching -- and seriously, who really wants to see Kristin and Audrina spend a season feuding over Justin Bobby?

But to my surprise, the NYC-based spin-off, The City, is actually looking promising. They dumped the boring characters, leaving only Whitney and Olivia Palermo from the original cast, and brought in work-and-friendship conflicts instead of the relationship focus of the first season. I gave up halfway through season 1, but I'm cautiously optimistic that the producers are not only aware of, but aggressively fixing what wasn't working. Also, last week's episode used one of the best songs from Amanda Blank's new album, which is vaguely impressive (or maybe I'm easy to impress).

Today's quote, courtesy of Tiger Beatdown: "Dear Joss Whedon, thank you for your interest in Feminism, but we cannot make any hiring decisions at this time."

 A young Nigel Lythgoe dances, and sings, and -- okay I really have no idea what's going on here:

via someone's Tweet to Nigel.

I'm on the verge of breaking down and getting a fannish Twitter account to follow the respective reality show 'verses of The Hills* and So You Think You Can Dance, which collectively adds up to at least two dozen people that I've seen on Twitter so far. Is that wrong? Or weird? Or just very 2009 of me?

* Which 'verse incidentally now includes Chris Pine, since he's been hooking up with Audrina from The Hills recently, but even if he were on Twitter I really really wouldn't want to follow actors there. Somehow following reality tv stars feels different, which probably makes me old-fashioned or puritanical or repressed or something.