Changing Gears

Can you believe that it's 2007? Seriously, I clearly remember being in New York City when it officially became the year 2000. Not long before that, I was a kid in Junior High School reading George Orwell's "1984" and wondering to myself how dramatically different the world would be when it actually became 1984.

The answer? Radically different than anything we could have imagined.

2007 is the beginning of RetroKitten's seventh year on the Internet. Long before MySpace, Friendster and FaceBook came along, RetroKitten has been serving a very small community of artists, photographers and models in alternative genres. It's merely a way for people to network and find others to work with.

About once a week, we reject the cell phone photo of yet another aspiring 16 year old model. Inevitably, their response is always, "Oh yeah, well you suck anyway. MySpace is SO much better. You suck."

Our response? "You are quite correct dear, MySpace is a much better place for a 16 year old girl taking photos of herself with a cell phone."

You see, sites like MySpace are wonderful social networking tools. The RetroKitten staff all have MySpace profiles. In fact, there is even a RetroKitten Group on MySpace. MySpace is a wonderful way to meet people you might not otherwise have met. It is not however a truly ideal place to find others to collaborate with.

Instead, professionals and semi-professionals need to turn to sites like Model Mayhem, One Model Place, Wicked Talent, and yes, RetroKitten. RetroKitten is unique on the internet because we don't advertise. We don't want tens of thousands of fan boys a day coming here. RetroKitten stresses Quality of Quantity.

We are often asked how to get the most out of the RetroKitten experience. RetroKitten is only one piece of a much larger puzzle. Set up a profile on Model Mayhem. Set up a profile on MySpace. Tell your photographers, your models, or your artist friends about RetroKitten. Word of mouth. More importantly, get out there and create art. The more you practice, the better you get.

Above all, be active. Whether it's adding friends on RetroKitten, commenting on Member Guest Books or Articles, or just browsing the site looking for people you want to work with.

Let's face it, none of us are getting rich doing what we do. Hopefully, we are having fun, learning and growing. Perhaps we are on our way to our end goal, or perhaps this is just a pit stop. Remember, you only get out what you put in. Everyone thinks the Internet is the get rich quick answer to all the worlds problems. It's not.

With that in mind, lets see if we can't make 2007 our best year yet.

Thanks for listening to me ramble.

Daniel H Goode
Editor in Chief, RetroKitten

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