NOVASTREAM - EMBRACING MEDIA AS ART

Waltzing Matilda. Waltzing Matilda. Who'll come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me. And he sang, as he watched, and waited 'til his billy boiled. Who'll come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me? Yes. That's right!!! Alaisdair will come a-waltzing!!!! Just as soon as he's punched Matilda in her face and told me about his website.





1) What are your own origins, Alaisdair? Plus what path did you take in life prior to getting to where you are today?   I am from Sydney, Australia, and my origins are as a singer / actor. Now when I realized that I was more of a writer than a performer, I decided to devote myself to entertainment writing. I started my own music blog in 2009, and then after a year my friend Ryan Lawler and I expanded it to movies, then gaming, and it kind of grew into this comic book, TV, pop-culture thing from there.

2) What inspired you to create ‘Novastream’? And why have you given it this name?   Creating Novastream came from changing my focus from music to movies and adding gaming and just loving writing about it. I got sick of reading blogs and websites bagging out things in pop culture that I thought were amazing and deserved to be seen.

And as for Novastream the name, I am from a place called Newcastle and we are known as "Novacastrians" -- and that's the Nova part -- the stream part came from the website really. Covering movies, music, gaming and TV were all 'streams of writing' that led into the river of the internet.

3) Can you briefly sum up your site for us?   We are a group of writers from all over Australia who write and podcast about movies, music, games, TV, comic books and all things pop-culture. The majority of us are nerds (either DC or Marvel) and that comes across in the site.

4) Have you had any form of recognition from the gaming or entertainment industries?   We have been nominated for "Website Of The Year" and "People's Choice" for the Australian Web Awards. 

5) What song would you say best represents your site and why?   Wow! That's a great question and a VERY hard one to answer. I would say 'Try Again' by Aaliyah. If at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again.

6) If you could get a celebrity – either living or dead – to promote your wares, who would you choose, and why would you want to choose this particular person?   I would choose either Hugh Jackman, because he's Wolverine and everyone no matter who they are just love him, or Cate Blanchett, because she was in Lord Of The Rings and she is a big advocator of the arts!

 
7) What have you learnt about yourself through this endeavour?   I am a control freak and it is good! I have learnt to change this and adapt to the constant changes of the industry.

8) If ‘Novastream’ had a motto, what would it be?   Embracing media as art.

And on that note, dear reader, I'd like to thank Alaisdair for telling us about his great website, Novastream, before directing you towards it, or else a koala bear will kidnap my baby.