anagram 08.10.99

the pix in this anagram aren't so great…but it's just one of those non visual weeks. been doing email interviews and working with mumbleboy on a new intro page. watching silly movies like "night of the comet". today I went for a nice brisk walk while listening to elvis costello's "spike" on my walkman. here is something I sent to my lists and posted to the bbs today

Posted by ANA on August 10, 1999 at 16:17:42:

hi :)
go here:
http://www.milkyelephant.com/mumbleboy/ana02.html
i'll try 2 get a new anagram up later today! now i must go get some clothes on 2 go outside
and check out this cool intro page that mumbleboy is making for me! ( www.milkyelephant.com )
oooo :) i am so lucky!

it's really nice out today, i'm eating pretzels and i gotta go get ready 2 go outside and do errands. i've been so blah lately 'cause of medication stuff.
for those of u unfamiliar with my various medications ( god, that sounds so weeeeird 2 type out 2 a bunch of people! )...i take amitriptilyne for my migranes that i used 2 get during my period each month. it is a sedative-like antidepressant but used in smal doses it can help with nerve pain.
anyway, i'm trying 2 go off all my meds so i went off amitriptyline and it made me so edgy that i used up all my xanax and i don't see the dr. tll the 24th, so 2 calm me down i'm taking sinequan which makes me really out-of-it like drinking a ton of nyquil.
man, so much trouble just to get off the birth control pill! so if i seem really distant from my cam that is why. that and i just fee gross from my skin breaking out from going off the oill. i wonder when all of this will die down?
well, i'm gonna make my way through all this strangeness!
so i wonder if i should get my tubes tied or what? i'm 33 so i don' t have that many more "safe years" 2 have a child if i decided 2 have one. my dogs are children enough for me, i think.
does anyone remember this REALLY weird cartoon they used 2 play on mtv ( i think )right after or before aeon flux ( this was many yeas ago ).
it was SO surreal that i'm wondering how 2 even explain it. it was very schizophrenic, i can't believe i forgot about it until last night. but then as i was trying 2 explain it 2 jason...i realized how utterly impossible it is 2 explain it. it had this nerdy depressed girl in it that would kind of switch between the real world and the schizo dream world. it had like a bag of bricks or mud in it that was in a closet that was "alive" and it had this field of flower things or somethiung that would eat u. and i remember this big big elephant sized character that was a diiferent character in each world. god..that does a terribl job of explaining it. when i think about it it's like remembering a dream that u can't explain in words. it was the weirdest "cartoon" i ever saw. arghhhh. i hope someone on here knows what i'm talking about 'cause i'm gonna be driven nuts until i can figure out what that show was called!

( i found out now the show was called "The Maxx" )

i have a bunch of email interviews to get done soon. i've ben putting them off too much. yesterday for about three hours i as writing back to the magazine "yahoo internet life" getting the last of the facts straight about a story tha i'm on that is coming out in their october issue. so i think that'll be available on stands sept. 15th! i was interviewed in person for that months ago. a cool guy named ben flew out 2 interview me. u can see pix from that day in ana2.com's anagrams.
actually, i'll just cut and paste u the things i wrote back to yahoo internet life yesterday...it's pretty long but here u go:

From: anacam@juno.com
To: AndreaBOC@aol.com
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 17:03:18 -0500
Subject: Re: Fact-checking questions for Yahoo! Internet Life

--Is your apt. in St. Paul? (Believe me, that's as specific as it gets.)

no, minneapolis :)

--Anacam began in August 1997.

yep, august 22nd..so soon will be anacam's 2nd anniversary!

--Do you choose not to show, as Ben puts it, "some bathroom activities and
some bedroom activities"? Other than that, when you are at home, are you on
camera all the time?

ya...i don't pee on cam. :) i guess i am either shy in that respect...or i just don't find it very interesting enough 2 take pictures of. hehe :)and some sex things now are not shown, because my boyfriend wishes not 2 appear on cam much.
it's not that he doesn't want 2 be seen on cam in that context..he just doesn't like 2 be seen on cam at all! :(
i hope in the future this will change! 'cause he is the hugest thing in my life...it's hard 2 not take photos of him!

--Don't know if this is something you actually did or if it's theoretical:
Can Anacam viewers spend an entire evening watching you watch a wildlife
documentary (or anything else) on TV? Anacam has also shown you sleeping,
working and reading.

ya, u can watch me watch tv a lot :) and documentaries and biographies are my favourite things 2 watch on tv ( surprise ).
you can watch me do almost everything on anacam. i even take it with me when i leave my house. me sleeping on cam is the surprise "hit" on anacam, to me.
so many people love 2 watch me sleep because they say they find it peaceful and relaxing 2 them...that i have started "The Universal Sleep Station" at www.voog.com where u can watch up to 30 people ( and rising )sleep at once now from around the world! It is also to raise awareness about various poltitical things. like the atrocities being done to the women of afghanistan right now. so my sleeping picture links to www.rawa.org an organization that is trying 2 help the women there.

--Do you sometimes make an image appear blue or red?

yes. i often play around with all the filters i can get my hands on to manipulate the picture. i like 2 have fun with the photos i make. i am a photographer documenting my life in real-time. my cam is not about surveillance. it's not a "peep show". it is wide open and i play around with the camera in the same way that i play around with my or books , films, paintings, make-up, hair. i dye my hair every colour known 2 man so i do the same thing with everything around me, too. it's in my nature to be unnatural :)

--Have you stripped, painted your body and coiled up on your living room
floor, on Anacam? ( I assume, as part of an artwork.)

yes, i have done all of that and more! but i did that exactly those same things whether i was on cam or not. it is something i have always done. i started playing around with body paint and all that from the very first second i could get my hands on anything 2 play around. it's hard 2 explain whether or not if every time i do that it is "art". i just do what i do because i love 2 play and communicate. everything i have done on cam , pretty much, thus far, has been purely spontaneous and improvised. i would not assume that is all part of an artwork. but i suppose, in the large context of what i'm doing that when u take "everything" that anacam is and put it all together...that the whole entire thing is an art project. not just one little time that i decided 2 spray paint myself silver..but all of it all together...the silver paint and the sleeping...all together is one big art project. but that really doesn't explain it either. because there certainly have been certain things that have had a beginning and ending that i consider an art project in their own right. i don't know how clear i'm being. it's hard for me 2 explain.

--When did your old band, The Blue Up?, form? (Online, I only found the year
you guys disbanded.)

The Blue Up was formed around 1985, i think. we were together for 11 years. We made 4 albums and carious singles, all of which are out of print. but u can hear mp3's of the records at anacam. WE stil talk all the time tho, and i don't feel like we ever "broke up'. we are stil our little "tribe" they are my sisters.

--How do you spell your given name? I've found two combinations:
*Rachel Olsen (this is on All-Music Guide)
*Rachael Olson

"rachael olson" but that is not my legal name any more.
i have now changed my legal name to :

Violence On Television
( my middle name being "On" )

--Do you have breast implants? (I know it's blunt, but it's libelous if we
say you do and you don't!)

ummm, yes. me and a million others :)
to me, body modification is just another fun way to play!

--Ben says that it in the summer of 1997, your solo record deal was mired in
red tape, and that's when you first started spending time on the Internet and
discovered Jennicam. True?

my record company had a huge problem that i decided to to modify my breasts. because i decided to enlarge my breasts, they became confused as to how to market me..because they wanted to market me as an "androgynous freak" but when i got breast implants i became a "woman" to them, and therefore they couldn't figure out how that was marketable since they already had signed there quota of "blondes".
while they were trying 2 figure out how "just another woman" was marketable....i happened upon the remarkable internet because robert, (my boyfriend at the time and who i had sex on cam with the first time ), showed me the net. but contrary to popular belief, i did NOT start my cam off as a marketting ploy. i did it as an entirely seperate thing from my music. i needed somewhere 2 go let my creatvity out and my communication..something that was purely mine and not signed up and tied up in marketing strategies.
i just let loose myself into the net. it was pure heaven!
i actually discovered jennicam by pure accident, as i was flirting with a girl on a bisexual list i was on....she sent me a picture of jennifer. i traced the picture back to jennifer's site and voila...i discovered the webcam and sparks flew off in my brain as i went "ah! now THAT is something i could REALLY communicate with and play with!"

--This is when you got the idea for Anacam; a male friend of yours (I only
specify because we say "he") loaned you money and helped you sketch out a
plan for it.

no plan no plan!
one of my very best friends, zachary vex ( who makes incredibLe guitar pedals for people like The SmashIng Pumpkins and Sheryl Crow and Robert Fripp( www.zvex.com) who i have been friends with since i was 17...helped me finance the beginnings of anacam but there is no "master plan" behind ANACAM. i just hooked myself up to the net and improvised and seeing where it led me and what i felt like doing. there is no "plan". and definitely there is no one "behind" that is planning anything. it is hard to talk about because if ever there is a "male friend" financing anything "behind" a woman...then a lot of sexism takes place and much is assumed...like , a pimp-like "plan". it aggravate me 2 no end. f part of what anacam is "about" is 2 help put an end to sexism.

--Do you consider that your album is on Radioactive Records or on Wasteland
Records? I understand it's the same company, but I've seen your album
credited to each & don't know if one is more accurate over the other.
the last cd i made was on radioactive/mca records. wasteland was simply a name they made up in order 2 get around some sort of contractual things the had so that they could sell it on the net.
--Also, is it available *on* the Internet only? Or is it available to buy
*through* the Net?

at first it was only available 2 buy on the net, because they made me their internet guinea pig. it was really pathetic. but eventually it was available for sale everywhere.

--You album was released in the summer of 1998. How do you write out the
title?:
*anavoog.com
*Anavoog.com
*AnaVoog.com
*Other?

"anavoog.com" but that url is now not in use anymore. as soon as my MY site , anacam.com ,became successful, they saw how i was then marketable....since they had been so uttlerly confused by my decision to get breast implants. that was not the original title of that cd ( however i'm not going to say what the original title was 'cause i'm saving that title for another future cd ).
--When the album was released, you appeared on *Vibe* with Sinbad. Was this
appearance more about the music (i.e., an on-air performance) or about Anacam?
it was about both. i sang my music live on Vibe, so it was an "on air performance" of my music.
but i got that spot on SinBad's Vibe mostly because of Anacam. i believe it was because they saw an article about Me and my Anacam from USA Today.
That was such an amazing and wonderful thing that i was given that opportunity!

--The original Anacam uploaded a real-time still of your apt. every 2 minutes.

yes, and that is still true. i switch between uploading a picture every 2 minutes and 5 minutes depending on what i can afford at that time.

--The original Anacam was billed as a promotional tie-in for your album.

no! please, this is SO not true and i REALLY wish to stop this horrible assumption.
Anacam was NEVer a promotional thing for my cd, although , radioactive tried desperately to make it so because they had no clue as to how else to market me.
i started anacam as a totally seperate thing from my cd . radioactive triec 2 link the two things together because they saw that as a great oportunity to save $$ on marketing. they were so utterly lost and confused as to how 2 market me when i decided 2 get breast implants that my cd was 2 years late in coming out! so when i started my cam and they saw how that was successful, they saw that as a cute little way 2 tie everything in and put me on the market as their internet guinea pig. it was digusting and cruel.
thank god that the internet was my curse and my blessing in getting me off of major labels. talk about sexism run rampant! i hate them i hate them i hate them.
it was pathetic and lazy of them. i am so glad 2 be off of major labels. i'll never sign a conttract with anything like that ever again. if any good thing coud come from this article i wish to scream as loudly as i can 2 bands out there 2 NOT sign to a major label if u are at all interested in doing anything "new"'.

--This concept changed when (and again, pardon my bluntness here) the cam
caught you having sex with an ex-boyfriend for 3 hours in November 1997.
(You've said that he was over, you were both drinking, and one thing led to
another.)

no, there was never a "concept" , in my mind, that my cam shouold be a promo for my cd. in fact, when i recorded my cd, i never had even heard of the net in my life. nor did the cam "catch me" having sex..as my cam is not a surveillance tool. i am well aware that it is there..yet i do real;ize now that i was niave as to how many people were watching or the power it had. but my life did change after that night, yes. we were not both drinking. robert didn't drink anything. i had one drink, yes. i said i was drinking , i think, in one interview....but i meant that in sort of a joking manner. in saying that i was aware of the cam and was a bit nervous...but i didn't mean to imply that i was careless or not aware of the cam because i had had a drink.

--This "event" made the newspapers nationally. Are you aware if the New York
Post headline was "Madonna, eat your heart out"?

yes, the news of my "event" did see to spread like wildfire. i was quite amazed! i do not know if the New YorK post had a headline that said "Madonna, EAt your heart out" .

--How often do the stills update on your site now? On your site itself, I saw
one area that says it's every 7 minutes, another area that says every 15
minutes. And Ben says every 5 minutes.

ya, i need 2 update my site. there is some information on there that is out of date.
i have played around with various different update times. anacam refreshes every 2-5 minutes and ana2.com ( my members section) has 4 cams that update every 30 seconds with sometimes streaming video with sound.

--According to your site, the Ana2 area costs $10 a month. Ben says $19.95 a
month, so I just want to double-check this with you.

it's 10 dollars a month.

--Is it true that you haven't kept track of how many people visit your site,
but that you estimate there are more than 2,000 visitors each day?

it's about 20,000 people a day on the average now, i'm estimating. but at peak times i have had up to 7 million "hits" a day.
i have never been able 2 keep an accurate track of how many people visit. truly
--What is your estimate of visitors to the Ana2 area? (Or perhaps, since this
is a pay area, you do keep track of it?)
this information i keep private for now, because people get very hostile about this. it's really a strange phenomena about the hostlity and i go over and over it in my mind as to why that happens and what that is about.

--Once (recently?), you put the Anacam on 9 plums in a bowl and ate them all
between snapshots -- making sure that you weren't actually seen reducing the
fruit to pits.

yes :) that is hard to explain and it sounds really boring to talk about, in my opinion. but the photos are very pretty . at the end of each day, in ana2.com i make a thing called an "anagram" which is a visual/written summary /diary of the day.
the "plum day" photos are very nice...each shot u can see a transparent plum of where the plum i ate originally was it's hard 2 explain it. u just have 2 see it. i love 2 play around with visuals,even more than music....i have always been a visual artist first and foremost. again, i must say, that i just love 2 play around with everything around me :)

--You change your hair color every few weeks. Some of the colors it's been
(I've seen photos of the others) are: blue, black, orange, and pink with a
dusting of orange.

yes. i haven't seen my original hair colour since 1982. i don't change the colour of my hair every few weeks. maybe several times i year more like.
i have had my hair every colour in the book.

--In November of 1998, you shaved your head for a performance film.

yes :)

--Your apt. has tan carpets (more than one?) and white walls.

yes

--You own an "odd-shaped" pet carrier for your dogs.

i call it "the space capsule" it's a clear blue plastic dog carrier

--There's a computer in the center of your living room that controls all the
cams. One cam sits on top of this computer, and as a result, often shows you
at the computer screen yourself.

sort of. their is one big computer in the middle of the living room that controls a lot of them. then i have a laptop top that also is ana2's 2nd cam and it's also a cam i "switch on" to anacam a lot. like, when i'm sleeping and u see me from above, that is the laptop cam. then i have another compuyer in another room with two more cameras connected 2 it.

--You have a total of 5 cameras: Some are video cameras that are wired to
your comptuer, and others are Webcams. One camera is especially good for
close-ups, while another adds streaks behind rapidly moving objects.

7 cameras in all. the rest is correct

--You use a scarf to tie one of the cams to a boom so you can film yourself
sleeping.

yep :)

--Jason recently started a new job.

yes

--Besides Fetik3, Jason is sometimes known online as Siam.

no, he doesn't use "siam" in over a year. he just uses "fetik3" only

--You & Jason met a few months after you started Anacam, and began dating
after a short online courtship.

yes. we met actually because we played a show together at Minnepolis' WAlker ARt Center
He was playing there with his band ( now broken up ) Ousia, and i was there ( but not physically ). i was doing performance art..my cam was projected live onto the wall of the WAlker Art center as i triggered a speech synthesizer that people could hear there as i typed from my home.

--You moved in together at the end of last year. You moved from Minneapolis
to St. Paul.

we live in minneapolis.

--Jason, in essence, is also an Anacam employee, because he is responsible
for designing the site, as well as maintaining your billing, the hardware and
software. He's the only Anacam "employee."

nooooooooooooooooooo!!! :)
I designed my site! he helps me maintain the site and then some. he does do the cc billing for me.
he did not design any of the hardware or software for it. but he does design programmes for it, like The Universal Sleep Station. i could not do it without him. he keeps it running smoothly.

--Jason prefers not to be shown on Anacam. So certain areas of your apt. are
designated as "cam-blind" spots. Sometimes you set the cam to film only half
of the bed or half of the couch, so Jason won't be on camera.

there are no sections of the apartment that are "cam blind spots" but i do not point the cam a jason. he prefers to not be on cam, yes.
when we sleep, i only show the section of the bed that i'm on, yes.

--Has Jason ever been shown on Anacam?

oh yes, he gets shown on anacam almost every day.....just not a lot...or u see him in the distance

.
--Some of your fans were against you moving in with Jason and are upset that
you've toned down the on-cam nudity. However, you don't walk around topless
as much as you did in your old apt. because it was overheated there.

some of the people that watch the cam are against almost everything i do. when that many people are watching then there are always a few thousand people u can't please. several thousand are against me being nude, another several thousand are for it. but they all watch never theless!
i still walk around the house nude all the time. but not as much in the winter. in my old apartment it was incredibly overheated! i would have all the windows open even if it was 30 below outside.

--You recently held an "all-nude week" to celebrate the summer solstice.

yes, at the beginning of each solstice ( except winter solstice! ) i celebrate it by being nude one whole week. it's just for the fun and silliness of it :)

--You wish that Jason would appear on camera because part of your life is not
represented, but you respect his wishes.

yes

--Are you interested in exploring on-camera sex again?

yes! just as i wish 2 have almost every aspect of my liufe on cam, because i love 2 photograph and document. and i really think the world needs to see more TRUE AFFECTION not just sex.

--Were Jason and your father interviewed for this story? (Just making sure
what we have are indeed their quotes.)

jason was, i think? my dad was not.

--Your parents are divorced. Your father (whom I "saw" you just visited!) is
a Lutheran minister. He made a guest appearance this past July when he came
by your apt. to take you out to lunch.

yes

--Your mother is remarried to a theology professor and won't discuss Anacam.

yes

--Again, this gets touchy but I need to be sure it is absolutely accurate:
Some ex-boyfriends (more than one) have gotten violent with you.

yes

--You've had stalkers.

yes..the violent x-boyfriends were the stalkers

--You were a rape victim when you were living with your mother. The criminal
was a stranger who broke into the house.

yes

--You have felt insecure about being petite. This, plus your other
experiences, may be why you prefer to stay at home more than go out.

i'm not insecure about beng small at all. but because of almost constant harassment even in the smallest of ways ( like people yelling out there car windows at me )..yes..i stay inside more than i'd like to.

--You have paper-trained your dogs so you don't have to walk them outside.

yes. they are as small as cats. so no reason they cannot go inside like a cat does.

--In your chat room, you once had 15 different countries represented,
including China, Japan and Australia.

yes!

--Some regular Anacam viewers include: Dave Navarro, Brett Reed of Rancid,
and novelist William Gibson.

i know they have watched, i don't know if i'd call them "regular" watchers at all.

--You communicate with your viewers on your chat board, about every
imaginable topic, from sexual fantasies to the plight of Rwandan women.

well, ya...way more diverse than that. although we rarely ever talk about sexual fantasies. i think that subject has been raked to death.

--One viewer wrote to you after the "Vibe" appearance to discuss the
whiteness of your teeth. (How lame on his part!)

yes! he said that "because he loved me" he "had" to tell me "that my teeth were not as white as "they could be"

--Once, Anacam viewers saw a series of pictures of you sitting on the couch,
watching TV, then saw Jason enter the picture, leave, and you began to cry.
Many people wrote to you to say that Jason must be awful to make you cry. But
actually, you had a migraine and he was getting you medicine.

yes

--Hard figures: For basic operations -- hardware, software & upkeep -- Anacam
costs between $3,000 & $5,000 a month.

yes...around

--Part of this cost is because of the Net's "nudity tax," so to speak:
Servers willing to carry nude images charge more due to anticipated increased
traffic.

yes..there is no "nudity tax" tho

--The billing for Ana2 covers only the cam's operations costs. (I.e., you're
not making a profit) Banner ads haven't been a successful source of revenue
yet.

no, i make a small profit.

--Re: Herenandnow.net:
*In mid-March of this year, you went to Ohio to check out their offices.
*They asked you to play guitar on camera. Did you?

yes. i didn't play guitar. i loathe playing guitar.

--Some ideas of yours:
*Make a lot of money from Anacam
*Invent a virtual world w/3-D modeling
*Operate a round-the-clock online radio station
*Broadcast in streaming video
*Have people who go to your chat room sit down next to an electronic,
animated (i.e. virtual) version of you to talk.
*Have a living space designed to meet the needs of the cam

absolutely! and more!

--This past June, the Museum of Modern Art requested an electronic archive of
Anacam images for inclusionin an exhibit. Is this the current exhibit called
"Fame After Photography"?

actually, the entire "anacam" was part of the exhibit..not just pictures :) ( yay! )
it's called "fame after photography" yes