Enjoying the power of real time social web - the new Sherlock Holmes series

I cannot stop but wonder how times have changed. When I was a kid I used to read books and watch productions made by establish directors without even thinking about the opportunity to meet them. In high school we all had our own celebrities all of which existed in the category of distant and completely out of our reach. Occasionally one would go the the theatre and meet few artists afterwards or bump into a celebrity in a small cinema in Warsaw or Cracow. Later on at the university things have changed a bit - as a minority student I lived with the opportunity of meeting really well established Polish writer, film directors, graphic artists in Polish Institute. I was fortunate to sit down for a beer with my favourite jazz singer, Ula Dudziak, and host my favorite gothic band, Closterkeller, in my own flat. At the time making breakfast for them seemed a bit surreal, because back in my homeland I would probably never had a chance to even chat to the band. 

Now living in the UK and not working in this industry I do not really have opportunity to talk to celebrities and honestly I do not have much time to follow developments in arts - apart from the most iconic or interesting ones I manage to pick up from news, local events or friends recommendations. Yet I very often feel the very same surreal notion every time I reach out to celebrities (I use the word for people whose work I appreciate, not the standard celebrity definition) via social platforms. And every time I do so, I feel the amazing change in the world we are to live in! 

We read books and talk to their authors on-line. I can follow and talk to my favourite novelists - Paulo Coelho, Joanne Harris or Ben Okri. I have direct, real time insights into their lives but also open channel for discussion. And I am not talking about building strong relationships, just the very idea or ability to talk to them. Don't you think it's amazing?

Just tonight, after entire day in bed due to yet unidentified bug, I managed to recover to watch the new Sherlock Holmes series on BBC. I am sure - I remember my uni days at the English Major - that many art critics will find great terms to describe this new definition of a genius investigator (new role model for teenagers, uber-geek who already moved to mobile tech, etc etc) but I simply think the series is good! It's a pleasure to watch, it's entertaining and it's really well written and acted. I love the locations, I love the colors and the usage of text and tech - the balance between elegance and modernity. I guess that's what I liked Holmes for in the first place first time I read the book...So once the film has finished I reached out to Twitter to check reactions of Twitteratti and quite quickly identified the Twitter account of one of the actors Mark Gatiss. And of course the first thing I did was to post an update letting him know that I really enjoyed his work! 

Honestly, I do not expect the actor to get back to me - he already has an impressive followership. I am glad however that the new world gives me the opportunity to say thank you to someone I can see on the screen! It takes me back to the times when I read books and felt that they were changing me for better and I really wanted to thank their authors for opening my eyes to various paths and solutions. Telling stories is really powerful and we should thank each other for doing so! Thank Twitter for the ability to reach out to our modern inspirations!