#from full on like..legitimate movie length shit from my books

[serendipitous-mage]

its the Good Kush she got it at the dollar store :3

[trompe-la-mort]

Los miserables, 1971 – “Holy Hugo, they included ‘insert rare scene here’!”

Wrote this a while ago and realised I never posted it. So here goes.

Do you have a favourite obscure scene or detail in Les misérables that hardly ever makes the cut in screen adaptations? If you do, this might just be the adaptation for you. If you want to see an adaptation that tells the story well, however, this is not for you.

It's a nineteen-part (coincidence? I think not...) TV adaptation by the Spanish channel RTVE within its show “Novela”, a show of multiple literature adaptations that ran for fifteen years in total!

And the best part: You can see it all online on RTVE's webpage: http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/los-miserables/

You can skip all episodes with mod 5 = 1 (except the first one), those are the episodes originally shown on Mondays, recapping what happened last week.

Like the Italian TV adaptation, this is unfortunately hindered by its budget. Unlike the Italian TV adaptation, this has the additional problem of its screenwriter's frankly bizarre understanding of concepts such as “pacing” and “importance”.

Now, don't get me wrong, I think it's rather cool to have an adaptation that includes many of the more obscure scenes, but I know the book and I know the context for all of these. I think asking how much sense the plot actually makes to someone who only knows this adaptation is a legitimate question.

Time is “wasted” on montages, dream-sequences and scenes of characters tossing and turning in bed, all of them many times longer than they have any right to be. Partially, it feels like the screenwriter couldn't decide which plot details to include and then just tried to incorporate as many of them as possible – continuity be damned. As an example, he took the time to include Mabeuf's death at the barricade, but it doesn't mean anything, since it happens to a character we have never seen before. Because Mabeuf's entire background is missing. To top it off, the watching students call him “le conventionel”, probably just to tick another box on the check list. To get another time saver, “show, don't tell” is occasionally blatantly violated. We get Valjean's entire history from him telling his life story to the bishop. The backstory of Marius and Gillenormand is conveyed in their fight before Marius leaves, meaning all the info is solely for the benefit of the audience, because all characters involved already know this stuff. Yet, bizarrely, they occasionally have time for a “show” where none would have been necessary. We get a far too long montage of Fantine with Cosette in Paris, that includes Fantine getting fired from her old job. Honestly, you can cover the question of why Fantine leaves Paris with a single line – you know, like it's done in the original?

I wouldn't usually mind, but it not only messes up the pacing, but it also takes up time that could have been used to flesh out some of the details. Or even some of the main plot points. We have Marius letting Thénardier go at the end, but Marius doesn't owe him a debt in this one. It might have made the Gorbeau robbery easier, but at the end, Marius has no real reason to not call the police. That is, if Thénardier is even a prison escapee. It's never shown nor mentioned how he got out of prison after the Gorbeau house robbery. On a smaller scale, it leads to a few bizarre moments, where introductions or transitions are missing, as if someone was trying to cut the corners wherever possible. For example, one episode starts with Marius' and Gillenormand's fight, without any introduction to their conflict or any real introduction of the characters (apart from Marius being the cute boy from the park). Or take the Champmathieu trial. The prosecutor asks for the witnesses to be heard and the very next moment, the judge is already questioning Brevet. No scene of the witnesses entering the room or at least the camera pointing out that they've been there all the time (because I definitely missed that in the overhead shots of the fairly small courtroom set); no scene of the judge calling the first witness, which becomes even worse when he does it to every subsequent witness.

Between this kind of overly short editing and long, drawn-out scenes of Marius healing (which commits the additional cardinal sin of making us think that it's finally over with a short conversation, only to continue for another minute or so) or of Fantine tossing on her bed (which we only later realise is prossibly Cosette's birth!), it feels a bit like there were too many people involved and no two of them could disagree over the tone and style of this adaptation.

I have another, if slightly petty, complaint: Why do the opening credits contain pictures of scenes we never get to see? It makes it pretty hard to identify which actor played which character and it also made it look they would include scenes that end up not being there. From the credits, you could be forgiven for thinking that there are scenes in Toulon, that Valjean's sister shows up or that they include the scene where Éponine stops Patron-Minette from robbing the house in the Rue Plumet. None of these actually happen.

Just to finish my list of complaints about this adaptation, let me talk about Javert. Now, I like the basic idea of what they did with the character, if only because it is the opposite to what most other adaptations do. In many adaptations, Javert is portrayed as a far more villainous character than in the book. These guys went the opposite way. Javert is calm and polite most of the time (making his one outburst when he arrests Valjean even more meaningful) and in one scene seems concerned about Fantine's safety (while she's still employed at Madeleine's factory that is), when he meets her in a disreputable part of town after dark and insists on accompanying her to her destination. Yes, it's later made clear that he still uses this to find out what she was doing there in the first place and this is what kicks off the chain of events leading to Mme Victurnien finding out about Cosette, but the two scenes taken together imply that Javert is both caring about the safety of an innocent civilian and spying on said civilian, just in case they're not as innocent as they seem to be. If they had done it like this throughout the movie I wouldn't be complaining.

Yet, it also means they had Javert come up to Madeleine, stating that he is happy to be the first to congratulate him about his appointment as mayor. It makes Javert's later resentment of Madeleine seem quite petty. Or the end of the “Confrontation”, where Javert, rather than leading Valjean out  of the room, just makes a hand gesture to ask him to step out. Which again could have worked, but then he would have had to stay polite for all of the scene. Which he didn’t. They also decided not to stick to it for the entirety of the series. The portrayal of Javert in the later parts is more “traditional”, so to speak.

The acting is solid, for the most part, but hardly ever outstanding, although I’m likely not the best judge. Valjean's acting is fairly, occasionally too, subtle and he's a bit too calm for my taste in his entire encounter with the bishop. The actor, Pepe Calvo, is better known for his work in spaghetti western movies and I've by now realised that the reason he seemed familiar to me from the beginning is because of the western “Dead Men Ride” which I saw as a child, in which he plays a Myriel-like character of all things. I've described my thoughts on Javert, but I think that is due to decisions by the director and the scriptwriter, not the actor. Fantine has an annoying tendency to overact, especially in the later parts of her appearance. Cosette, fortunately not played by the same actress, is a bit boring. Little Cosette, however, does outstanding work for a child actress. Both Thénardiers are decent; they went the “Mme Thénardier needs to look sufficiently trustworthy for Fantine to leave her child with her”-route and she doesn't quite manage to be as scary as she should be. Everybody else is rather unremarkable.

Oh, and while we're at it: If you cast as Cosette an actress who actually looks like a teenager and as Marius an actor who might be in his early thirties, you need to specify that Marius is only a few years older than Cosette. Please!

But now to what I like about this adaptation: It's occasionally insane attention to details.

I've complained about the over-abundance of dream-sequences, but some of them really work. Showing one of Cosette's daydreams explains her life, character and dreams much better than any number of “real” scenes could have. Even more awesome is the inclusion of Valjean's dream before the Champmathieu trial. I mean, “Tempête sous un crâne” is usually going to be a weird scene anyway, you might just replace it with a weird dream while you're at it. Also, holy shit, they included Valjean's dream! That's a definite first.

Here's a list of further uncommon scenes this movie has: -Valjean steals Petit-Gervais's coin, although he does it before meeting the bishop -The bishop gets some exposition. It's only done in two conversations with his sister and Mme Magloire, but it's there -The scene of Tholomyès and Co. dumping the girls -A meeting of the Amis verbatim from the book -Gillenormand believes Marius to be dead and faints when Marius opens his eyes.

And here's a list of crazily uncommon scenes this movie has: -Fantine's meeting with the Thénardiers includes the girls using a cart chain as a swing -Details about work in the jet factory -Fantine thinks she hears Cosette outside the hospital -Cosette lying about watering the guest's horse -The coffin-escape! In full, glorious length and details. -Javert has a letter from the prefect in his pocket -Marius' note to identify his corpse -Escaping from the barricade in National Guard uniforms (although Valjean doesn't put in the one he is currently wearing) -Valjean writes the letter explaining to Cosette the origins of his fortune

Also, the ending is really well done. I really recommend you watch it for yourself, I don't think describing it can do it justice.

Generally, avoid this for a first look at Les Mis, but for a fan this is an interesting adaptation to watch and I suggest you give at least some parts a look, if only for the novelty.

[softrosyqueen]

tag game thing woo

@loverboy-mercury tagged me to do this tag game thing (thank u erin 💫) and I’m bored so Here We Go!

how tall are you?

5′8

2. what color and style is your hair?

Blonde, below shoulder length, kinda wavey, fine but Thicc, I usually have it in french or dutch braids or a bun bc I’m Lazy and there’s too much of it and someone pls continue to egg me on to cut it lmao

3. what color are your eyes?

Blue 💙

4. do you wear glasses?

Yes I am near sighted and have a slight astigmatism, my perscription is really low but if I don’t wear my glasses everything is Slightly blurry and I’m pretty sure I’m legally required to wear them while driving bc I can’t read street signs for shit without them

5. do you wear braces?

Nope! Never have and don’t plan on gettin them any time soon

6. what is your fashion style?

I literally have no idea one day I look like a fuckin dad on vacation and the next I’ll be a 70’s fairy ??? The goal is Roger Taylor realness?? But most of the time I think I give off deacy vibes

7. full name?

Johanna Nunya Business

8. when were you born?

CANADA 🇨🇦 in a hospital. That’s all the info you’re gonna get from me lmao

9. where are you from and where do you live now?

CANADA, and I live... In Canada. The end.

10. what school do you go to?

I went to university in Ontario for two years (not gonna say which one but it was ..:::: not a gr8 experience) and now I’m working freelance doing editing and videography, sort of want to go to art school in my own province but 🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️ we’ll see

11. what kind of student are you?

Profs/teachers either love or hate my writing style, I pay rly close attention and will either do really well or bomb, get HELLA ANXIOUS during exams, will lend a pencil to anyone but not my good pencil, I was once “a joy to have in class”, will call you out if you look like you’re cheating off my test but I won’t stop you

12. do you like school?

I miss it because I’m a Fucking Nerd but when I’m in it I’m a mess

13. what are your favorite subjects?

In high school my faves were art, drama, European history, and English, in Uni my faves were art history, film studies, film production 101, and contemporary issues ! (Kinda like gender studies but more comprehensive???)

14. favorite tv shows?

sex education, mr. robot, the office, parks and rec, b99, please like me, the good place, arrested development, oitnb, skins, snl, stranger things, bojack horseman, breaking bad, dirk gently, baroness von sketch, literally so many more I’m just ..: gonna stop there

15. favorite movies?

borhap (of fucking course), trainspotting, eternal sunshine, the truman show, spirited away, what we do in the shadows, hot rod, the to do list, loving vincent, grand budapest hotel, fight club (sorry for bein a basic bro), swiss army man, frank, papillon, buster’s mal heart, coraline, and again this list is never ending so let’s just ... stop

16. favorite books?

Percy Jackson series, Harry Potter series, airborn series, perks of being a wallflower, looking for alaska (had to do it to em), smoke gets in your eyes, from here to eternity, ???? Uhh?? Dear dumb diary??? I don’t know I don’t read a lot to be honest?? That’s it

17. favorite pastimes?

Dancing in my room to loud music and creating intricate drag dance routines, playin guitar, drinking tea during a rainstorm, journalling

18. do you have any regrets?

Yeah A Few

19. dream job?

Full time filmmaker 👏👏👏👏👏

20. would you like to get married someday?

://////////////////// not really tbh I’m a child of divorce next question

21. would you like to have kids someday?

I might adopt idk ?????? Not really thinkin about it a whole lot

22. how many?

Most likely: 0, but if I found a partner that was down and we were both stable: 1

23. do you like shopping?

I used to like it a lot more before I was actively aware of how bad my social anxiety is and aware of uuhhhhh capitalism ? Yeah. Yeah kinda harshed the vibe.

24. what countries have you visited?

US, and UK.. that’s all

25. what’s the scariest nightmare you’ve ever had?

That’s a Nope from me I’m not gonna legitimize my brain fog ahahha

26. do you have any enemies?

I hope not !!!

27. do you have a s/o?

nope single like a pringle jingle

28. do you believe in miracles?

You will

If you

BELIEEEVE

And that’s the end of the tag I’m gonna tag @r4mimal3k, @bohelpmian, @youworryyouworryshit , @joemazzelloz and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it!! Tag me so I can see it!!! (Also if you’re tagged and don’t wanna do it’s all g)

[paulisweeabootrash]

Series Review: Read or Die (R.O.D. the OVA)

Welcome to another episode of Paul is Weeaboo Trash! Today’s topic is a show I’ve previously seen one episode of, so long ago that I’m almost going in fresh: the OVA (what we in the US would call a “direct to video release”) of Read or Die (2001–2002)! I was lucky enough to grow up in a household where education and fun were not portrayed as opposites, and we had the means to find plenty of fun educational things to do.  My parents searched for all kinds of potentially interesting activities, and living in southern New Hampshire, the Boston area was not prohibitively far to go for them.  And so I was signed up for Splash, a program one weekend per fall in which MIT students teach middle- and high-school-age kids seminars on a wide variety of topics.

What counted as topics worthy of education was quite broad, however.  I ended up in a "class" that consisted of watching one episode each of several anime that the student running the class was a fan of.  This was back in the days where anime fandom spread person-to-person by recommendations and there was more emphasis on developing a background knowledge of "classics" among the more informed and/or snootier fans.  (I still feel this way a bit because certain tropes and references are so common or influential that being familiar with the original sources can make newer shows suddenly make a lot more sense, but I disapprove of the gatekeeper tendency to look down on people who don't yet know the things "everyone knows".)

I don't remember how many shows we sampled there, but the two that made an impact were Hellsing, which in retrospect was at best questionable for the age of the audience, and was very much not my thing because I have a low tolerance for gore, and the topic of this post, Read or Die, which was very much the kind of thing I wanted to see: a nerd being a badass in a fantastical way.  Especially since I was also really into James Bond at the time, so I was probably primed to eat up other media involving a British spy fighting a mysterious secret organization.  Since I'm incredibly averse to media piracy and had no clue where to buy anime, though, I never followed up to finish watching it, and eventually it faded from my mind.  Until I stumbled across the first volume of the manga for super-cheap at Saboten Con last year, and it flicked some nostalgia switch that reminded me how much I'd enjoyed it at the time, although I barely remember any actual details, so I am practically going in fresh here.

Read or Die follows Yomiko Readman, a teacher, obsessive book collector and reader, and superpowered secret agent who can manipulate paper in nearly any way.  Any paper available, from money to ribbons to a briefcase full of blank looseleaf she apparently just brings with her.  She uses this power in the course of her service as a secret agent, codename The Paper, working for the British Library?!  Along with Miss Deep, who can selectively phase shift, and Drake Anderson, a gruff and dismissive military type (and apparently potter in his cover job), she is assigned to a plan to save the world in a way that vaguely involves collecting books.  Saved from whom?  The I-jin, clones of historical geniuses with superpowers related to their areas of expertise, such as... knowing stuff about insects, or... uh... spreading Buddhism to Japan... who are going to flashy and violent lengths to steal books the British Library is trying to acquire legitimately.  Trust me, it eventually gets explained, and the Big Reveal, although pretty goddamn weird, fits in with the rest of what has been established.  Suspend your disbelief enough to accept the I-jin at all, and it’s fine, although still a bit ludicrous.

And I submit that all that is still less weird and ridiculous than your typical superhero or spy movie, and this show does after all have elements of both genres in one.  Or, well, more and more superhero and military action as it goes on.  Although the theme music uses 60s guitar sounds, chromatic chord changes, and blaring brass hits that are virtually guaranteed to evoke the James Bond theme, and our main cast do work for a secret intelligence agency, they are in quite open military-style conflict with the I-jin -- with the approval of the UN -- and very little that’s actually covert occurs, with the notable exception of something I can’t spoil that happens at the end of ep. 2.  And because of the superpower angle, some of the instances of weirdness are not flaws at all but pretty creative implementations of the characters’ powers (using a paper airplane as a lethal weapon?!).

This last point didn’t really fit in organically, but I'd also like to mention a couple of things about the art that I love but don't see often.  The very first shot of the series uses multiple flat backgrounds at different distances moving in relation to each other to convey the camera moving across the scene, which I have seen in other animated works (at the moment, I can only think of examples from very old Disney movies off the top of my head), but not in recent ones.  I don't know whether it's simply out-of-fashion or this is a result of the shift to CGI so animators figure "why would we do this when we can actually render a city with realistic perspective?"  This show also has a particular kind of fluid motion in characters that I’ve seen in many reasonably-high-production-value shows from the 90s and 00s, but rarely in newer shows (Space Dandy being a notable exception).  Maybe I'm watching the wrong recent shows, maybe it's just a stylistic choice that's out of fashion, maybe it's harder to pull off convincingly when you're not animating by hand.

I’m glad I finally got to watch this.  It’s even better than I remember.  Now to get to work on the rest of the manga and the other series.  Oh yeah, haha.  The abbreviation "R.O.D." stands for both "Read or Die" and "Read or Dream", which are different parts of the same larger series.  The Read or Die manga (4 volumes), this OVA series, the Read or Dream manga (also 4 volumes), and a 26-episode TV series all take place in the same narrative universe, rather than the usual model of the anime being an adaptation/retelling of the manga.  There is also a light novel series I know nothing about, but it sounds from the Wikipedia article like that is the single ongoing series that is the source for the two manga and two anime.  (There is also apparently a barely-related future side story manga.)

-----

W/A/S: 1/3/3

Weeb: I don’t think there’s much, if anything, in here that would require explanation to a typical Western audience and which isn’t also explained in the dialogue.

Ass: There is a single implied nipple in the opening sequence.  Gasp!  And Miss Deep's costume design is pretty fanservicey, but only barely more explicitly so than you're likely to get in American media deemed suitable for older children.

Shit: Until the Big Reveal, it's just unclear why anyone involved other than Yomiko should be this interested in acquiring the specific books that serve as the show’s MacGuffin, nor is it clear that the I-jin’s plans extend further than searching for them in a very destructive way, leaving me baffled that the Library immediately makes the connection that the books are key to saving the world.  There are a few minor errors in the subtitles and a visual glitch (Blu Ray remaster, please?), and a couple of places where faces just... don’t... look right.  Oh, and if you’re watching the dubbed version, add another half point of Shit for Crispin Freeman’s British accent.

And for the first time I feel the need to add a CONTENT WARNING.  Usually, I think the review is sufficient to give you the idea whether there is anything likely to be disturbing in a show, but this is different, because the first two episodes have the sort of over-the-top stylized combat you might expect from other action anime or Western superhero media, where even a death comes off as un-shocking.  But in ep. 3 of this, there is a shocking pivot.  There are several short instances of graphic and sudden violence of kinds that are quite a bit more disturbing and distressing (even when they involve the use of powers) than anything that occurred previously.

-----

Stray Observations:

- Yes, those of you who know a little Japanese caught that joke: "Yomiko" could be loosely translated as "read girl".  Her name is "Read Girl Read Man".  Because she likes to read.  Get it?  Ha!  Ha!  Ha!

- In the manga, Yomiko is also established to be a literal bibliophile.  As in "books, regardless of content, turn her on".  I'm kind of glad this is not a plot point in the anime.

- The “secret” operation in the last episode, which is conducted with UN approval and involves an actual military attack with an actual goddamn naval fleet (and collaborating with North Korea to keep the US too distracted to notice it, even though this is a British operation against an organization that literally burned down the White House in the first scene of the first episode) might actually beat the first few episodes of Full Metal Panic! for “worst undercover operation ever”.

[vacationcalendar]

7/18/21

Good morning Max!

So.

We are steadfastly embarking here on a blogging journey only about 3 entire weeks after we had this fantastic idea. One might argue that a *start* to an endeavor can’t be steadfast; steadfast is a pace that is maintained over a period of time, it indicates a consistency that can’t be identified after mere seconds of typing. But I would argue that that steadfast pace is going a certain speed, and we as a society have a collective idea of how fast that speed is, whether we’ve ever said it out loud or not. And I believe it is that speed at which I am embarking. So there. You bear with me and try to visualize THAT idea, and I’ll try and learn more words so we don’t have to keep having these little thought experiments every paragraph or so.

OK GREAT! WE’RE OFF! I have literally taken two full length breaks since I’ve started writing this. Why was I so scared to get this thing started anyway? Writing comes so naturally to me, like breathing, or shitting. I can’t believe people actually get paid to do this.

Alright, in all honesty, I know this is going to be wildly difficult for me to do with any consistency at all, much less DAILY (good lord...). So in order to make this a more surmountable task, we are going to make the topics and form that the blog takes on a little more free flowing than I might initially want them to be. We don’t care how the river is shaped at this very moment, just so long as there is water flowing down it.

Here are some creative writing projects constantly hanging over my head that might just rear their ugly heads in some form or another during these posts: Comedy Sketches Stand-up bits Segments/ideas for my eternally unfinished novel Standalone essays that I think would work as a youtube video, because of course an introverted depressed guy who thinks he’s interesting in 2021 wants to have a youtube channel. Etc.(?)

There, I finished the list with etc., even though I had no more concrete ideas for creative writing projects. That makes the list instantly 300% more official, and doesn’t paint me as wildly unconfident in my own personality AT ALL. I did mention to my mother that I was working on assorted creative writing projects to keep busy, and she immediately asked, “Oh! Like a [auto]biography?”

She’s pretty confident that I’ve got a bestseller on my hands if I just recounted the sad and lonely details of my life up until this point. She also called it a biography as indicated in my direct quote there, and I tried to fix it in post like any good editor would. But now I’m noticing that “fixing” the quote to say autobiography like she *meant* to say changes the proper article before the word from “a” to “an,” and I have no idea what the protocol for that correction would be...

Maybe it’s [an auto]biography? An [auto]biography? Maybe it’s [an autobiography], but then it’s much less clear what my mother’s initial mistake in vocabulary was, and I don’t want to let her off the hook so easily. Maybe I google this later, if I can think of what the hell you would type into google to find an answer to this. I guess my point bringing this up at all, is maybe I do actually try and use this space occasionally for a journal. Wading through the slimy, fetid bog of my younger days sounds extremely unfun, and, to a point of contention with my well-meaning mother, distinctly unprofitable. But unpacking my current self’s thoughts onto this page periodically does actually sound nice.

And this is a trade secret between you and me (you’re the only one reading this Max, sorry), I think it would behoove you to include several autobiographical moments in your perpetually ethereal novel. You need all the cheat codes you can get to get this wretched thing off the ground. We should lock the name in on that sucker by the way, just to help save you some keystrokes at least. I know I wrote down ‘Elements of War’ a loooong time ago as a placeholder. And I can confirm as of Sunday, July 18 2021, I don’t like it. It’s no good. I look at other titles of other stories, looking for inspiration, and they all seem to work just fine for the story their attached to. Harry Potter is just the name of the main guy, and that worked INCREDIBLY well. “Harry Potter and the [insert magic themed adventure keywords here].” Foolproof.

The main problem I have with a title is simply the fact that I know so little about the contents of my book at this point. It stands to reason that the book should find a title for itself as part of the process of actually writing the book. Seeing the events transpire in the story from a bird’s eye view would give you just about everything you could possibly need to title your book. Choosing a title for a story BEFORE the story really exists feels a bit like working backwards, even though the title would technically be the first thing anyone reads. I guess I could see it plausibly being created in either order. You don’t necessarily need to know the entire story you are setting out to tell to understand the story you’ve shown up to tell. Breaking Bad ostensibly didn’t know many of the finer details of its story before Vince Gilligan picked its title. Hell, it didn’t know many of its details before literally airing on TV. And there was never any consideration of changing the title of the show retroactively, once the showrunners figured out the ending, right? Stories need a title. And I don’t think I’m making some irredeemable authorial error by picking out a title before getting too far into my story-writing process. Although I’m often reminded of the They Might be Giants song “Experimental Film” when I dream up things like titles or dramatic plot points or the like:

“I already know the ending, It’s the part that makes your face implode, I don’t know what makes your fact implode, But that’s the way the movie ends.”

We all want that awesome moment. We all want to create that life changing piece of art. But creating is hard, and dreaming is easy. Or rather, dreaming is natural. We all have a dream at night, we get one simply by virtue of being awake. Understanding the dream, communicating the dream is hard. Hell, communicating anything can be hard. Part of me thinks that creative project that will define my legacy (wow, try unpacking that sentence later buddy) will be an interview show where I work with my guest to try and manifest the story they dream of telling in there head, but have never tried to tell it. Tell me that’s not a million dollar idea! If Ira Glass announced that show next week and Barack Obama was his first guest, you better believe that thing’s taking off like the fucking Quinjet from the Avengers. But you wouldn’t even need a big celebrity guest! I believe that literally everyone has the ingredients of a completely unique story kicking around in their heads. And to conclude this thought, I will often times pretend I’m the guest on this podcast (of course it’s a podcast), and I’ll try to play out what that interview would sound like. And I’ll be honest, that show would need a VERY smart host to keep the flow going. And in my interview fantasy, I’m also the host; so it’s admittedly hard. I think the “Experimental Film” song would be the theme song for that show for SO MANY reasons.

Ok, I’ll be honest. I took yet another break in the middle of that last paragraph, and I may have lost the thread a teeny-tiny bit. So I’m going to try and finish out any relevant thoughts and then I’m going to do a hard break and just move on to a completely new thought.

I actually had an idea of what my (at least for now) title should be. ~The Franz Lion~ This is the name of the ship in the story that all the main characters travel on. This is the primary setting for the majority of AT LEAST the first series of events in the book. I imagine if my story moved far away from the boat, by that point I could that “Part 2,” or it could be like a whole second book. Like the first book is called The Franz Lion, but then a new book comes out and you find out the series is called like “The Greatest Windybilly”; and Book 2 is like “The Drowned.” I don’t know, and I don’t care at this moment. I just know that all signs point to “The Franz Lion” as a fine title for this book. I admittedly can see a world where it’s more of a phrase, like “Aboard the Franz Lion” or “Weaver and the Franz Lion”, but right now, I don’t see something like that being better than just “The Franz Lion”. 

The Franz Lion is one of the VERY FEW things that I feel like I’ve hit a home run on. That to me is a fucking great name for a boat. It’s memorable, unique, easy to get on board with. I am aware that the boat from Legend of Zelda: Windwaker was named “the King of Red Lions”, so it’s not COMPLETELY unique. But I’m pretty confident that there is plenty of real estate in the Lions + Boats territory. So confident, in fact, that I’m locking that name in HARD. And then the name of the boat just works great as a title. Literally no one would be confused or lost or tempted to look too far into it. AND THEN, if they did look into it, I think there would be puh-lenty of symbolism and theming to pull out of the boat’s significance in the characters’ lives. And man, I know we talked about autobiographical elements, that’s unmistakable; which I am legitimately happy about. Fran Lyon was a HUGE figure in my life. Our relationship signified a change in my life that I literally was never able to come back from. And using that as inspiration for a ship that literally carries the main character away on a life-changing adventure seems like as great a place as any in trying to tell MY story. One day I can be Kurt Vonnegat-like good at writing stories, and I won’t have to borrow from real life to make convincing plots and characters, but for now this makes all the sense in the world to me. So, yeah, The Franz Lion. It exists in my head and one day it will exist on paper. And then I can die I guess. Wouldn’t that be nice? I look forward to trying to bring a teensy bit to you on your calendar here. Wish me luck!

----------------------------------------------------

Ok that was the break. This wasn’t THAT hard. Thank God. Cuz we have to do a lot more than this to be satisfied. We quit our job on my 30th birthday in part because the notion that I was missing the chance to do *this* was constantly gnawing at the back of our head. Honestly the fact that I literally forgot that this was the writing project I was supposed to be doing for like 18 days may just be a testament to how hard I had been trying to just read. 

I bundled writing with reading when I decided that I needed to be writing more. I said, well writing IS reading, and I can’t just sit down and read for shit. So if I’m going to really put writing at the forefront of my brain, I’m going to have to read too, dammit. And then I tried to sit down and read for, no joke, 2 entire weeks. And it fucking killed me. Unbelievable. Unbelievable how hard it was to incorporate into my life. I still don’t get it. So I quit with the intention of picking up these habits. And then I would evaluate how fulfilling it all felt, before I continued onto my path of adult life. You know, working, trying to meet new people, idk what else.... etc. And now that I can confirm how hard it has been to really stick to this and grind out being creative, all I know at this point is I’m not ready to go back. I can tell I want to be more competent at all this before I can make an assessment on what role being creative will play for my future. Seemingly my whole life I have teetered back and forth between wanting to be creative and being too scared to really try, and wanting to have the full life that hard work gets you; you know, the life that society sculpts for you. A wife, kids, vacations, cooking, friends, parties, movies. It’s not a matter of figuring out how it all works, it’s just a matter of going out grinding it all out. Securing it all piece by piece by putting in the requisite work. It’s not easy, but it’s also not complicated. And I guess ultimately I like to think I’m not someone who’s afraid of hard work. But if I’m not afraid of hard work, then why have I not put in the work to secure a career or friends or a partner or physical fitness or anything? Because I don’t want to? Do I really not want to? Or maybe I AM afraid of hard work. 

But let’s take a second to unpack that. I put in hard work at Olivia’s. I truly did. I worked hard enough there to qualify as working hard, period. And it felt good. I know this. I shouldn’t forget that. I worked hard, it wasn’t impossible; it wasn’t unsustainable. And it felt good. This is mostly why I tell myself I’m not afraid of hard work. Because it’s not some dark mysterious unknown entity. I’ve been on the other side of it now. It’s the main reason I didn’t think I HAD to be creative anymore. I’ve seen the whole path of hard work, and it actually looked traversable. I sometimes wonder if I had been so drawn to being creative because I was so afraid of travelling on the path of hard honest work. It would explain why it felt so good to actually work hard for once. It would explain why the idea of abandoning the creative path felt so good once I had it. I would imagine the idea of quitting “comedy” would be a pretty mournful one, to someone like me who had clung so desperately to that dream for so long. But it wasn’t. It was a relief in a way. To know that I didn’t have to pull out some wild success in this tumultuous field to be ok; it felt like taking off a heavy backpack. I just felt more capable, more free. The simple act of allowing myself to “quit” felt ok simply by virtue of spending years of my life thinking I couldn’t do ANYTHING, and that being creative was the only way to be ok with the prospect of being alive. Thinking about abandoning that dream told me I was more normal than I had managed to be for over a decade at this point. I looked up for the first time since I had been in college and had the thought that I could work hard and succeed, whatever that might mean. College was the place I first realized I was useless, and now Olivia’s was where I realized that that wasn’t true, I just wasn’t old enough yet. I am aging much slower than the average population; I haven’t exactly figure out why yet. But it’s clear that I am. And for better or worse, this is THE factor that has cast me aside from the le person. Figuring out why would be nice, but the truly important thing to do clearly is to use this to my advantage. Get my leg up the world with my unique vantage point. And as far as I can tell, in fact it seems quite obvious to me, my leg up is going to come from a creative outlet. A twenty year old having his 30th birthday is only going to have diminishing returns in the traditional American dream. It’s like getting paid 70% of what my peers are making. Part of me knows that even 70% of the full salary isn’t that bad. It’s plenty if you’re a hard worker and know how to live in the moment; but another part of me knows that only a fool should take less than he’s earned. I don’t actually know if I can make up all this time I’ve lost, being the proverbial time traveler that I am. I don’t know how on earth I would ACTUALLY go about recouping my salary back to its rightful 100%. I can’t manifest lifelong friends; I can’t rewrite my relationship to my parents and siblings; I can’t pick up 10+ years of romantic experiences from a youtube video. I could technically go back to college, but I don’t really want to. I only want to do that as much as I want to hop in a time machine and actually be the age I’m supposed to. 

Now that I think about it, if there was a story about a man who accidentally travels to the future and the finds out the world moved on without him (I mean there is, it’s called Rip Van Winkle). Yeah, now that I think about it, my story is very similar to a Coma patient’s. I just seemingly was given less time than I was promised. And I have to deal with that. But, what I’m saying is, it stands to reason that if this WERE a story, that character wouldn’t shine under those circumstances. They would wilt. They would lament and diminish. Only the rarest and most inspiring would rise up and overcome their disadvantage. Because it is a disadvantage. It’s not a unique vantage point. It’s not a matter of optimism vs pessimism. The glass is not half-full or half-empty; it is considerably less full than halfway. 

Right?

Hmm. What is my point here? I have suffered. Unequivocally. And to suffer is to be alive. Again, unequivocally. So maybe my time-travelling has actually gone the other way. I’ve lived far longer than the scant 30 years my birth certificate claims. It certainly feels like longer than 30 years, even though the activity log of my life would disagree. Maybe that’s it. I’ve replaced my life with dreams. I’ve suffered in places where I was meant to thrive. And in doing so I’ve gone far under my quota of accomplishments and memories, and gone far over my quota of misery and regrets. In that sense I’ve lived out less of my life that I was meant to in some ways and lived out substantially more of my life in other ways. And I can’t say that unhappy (or rather that I don’t love myself as I am), but I can see why I never ever heard anybody recommend living your life this way. 

“I am young. I am old”

Why can’t I be the age I am? Why was that so hard to accomplish? What did I need to do to fix that? And why do people think I should enjoy my birthday? Can’t they see I’ve been time-traveling? This birthday was for someone else. I don’t actually know when my birthday is. I only know when it isn’t.

Now that I’ve thought about it, I think a time-traveler is a perfectly fine person to be a creative type. He might not be the smartest or the fastest, and he’ll never be the happiest; but it’s safe to say he cheated and got wiser than his peers will ever get a chance to. At least if he was paying attention he got wiser. We all know what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But then we all go spending our life trying to get stronger, and rarely do we ever get close enough to getting killed. So I have to show up like the man that survived the fatal disease, and got stronger than anyone should have to, without even really trying*.

Ok calling it here. Day 1 in the books. The daily blog is still at 100% completion rate! Nice

Love you, be good.

[adeaddrop]

The fourth-annual LA Podfest. Photo by the author

The line in the Sofitel Hotel in Beverly Hills already ran the entire length of the second floor hallway and coiled down the foyer stairs into the lobby. This wasn’t a queue of excited fans waiting for a pop-up concert, book signing, or early film screening. These people, all of whom had paid between $30 and $120 to be here, were waiting to watch comedian Doug Benson and his yet-to-be-named guests play movie-centric word games as he recorded another episode of his hit podcast, Doug Loves Movies.

This was the fourth annual LA Podfest, a congregation of podcasters, sponsors, and ardent podcast fans who gather to celebrate and discuss the industry. For the first time this year, the event had a festival-wide sponsor—Audible.com, a subsidiary of Amazon.

As someone who listens to podcasts daily as a zen escape from LA’s traffic, I was excited to catch live performances by the people I’ve listened to year after year—but the cynic in me wondered if the medium sits precariously on a bubble that could burst at any moment. After all, some have argued that podcasting won’t survive, since the medium hasn’t exactly gone mainstream and no one’s making millions on them.

Podcasts have existed in their current form for a little over a decade, starting with small-scale shows and growing to include quite a few breakout stars. What was once a cottage industry is now a full blown Big Business, with major movie studios buying podcast networks and A-List celebrities making appearances on podcasts to promote their new shit, the same way they flood the internet with mandatory Reddit AMAs.

But it wasn’t until last year’s murder-mystery series, Serial, that the general public figured out what the podcast medium really was. With over 80 million downloads since it launched in November, Serial seemed to signal that the medium had finally arrived. It was as if one day your mom, boss, and middle-aged neighbor came up to you and said, “Hey! Have you ever tried this stuff called ‘su-shi?’ It’s so good! You have to check it out!” People were going nuts—TIME even published the handy “You Asked: What Are Podcasts?” to explain the medium beyond Serial‘s fame.

After the initial buzz wore off, podcast listenership continued to grow, nearly doubling between 2008 and 2015—but content on the medium still falls short of becoming the stuff of water cooler talk.

“Podcasts are never on unless you’re choosing to listen to them.” — Justin McElroy

Then, in June of this year, comedian and—for lack of a better comparison—the Oprah of Podcasting, Marc Maron, pulled off the coup of interviewing Obama. If this couldn’t legitimize the medium, nothing would. But, as with Serial, Obama’s visit to chat with a comedian in his garage didn’t seem to pull podcasts into the zeitgeist. Maron, who performed at Podfest over the weekend, told me that “it was an honor to do it—and then you kinda get back to business as usual.”

Marc Maron at LA Podfest. Photo by the author

So what’s the problem? Public ignorance about what a podcast even is remains one of the challenges—if not the biggest challenge—facing the industry as a whole. As Doug Benson put it, “You type the word ‘podcasting’ on your computer and a red line goes under it like it’s not even a word.”

That’s not to say the medium isn’t growing. The television was invented in 1926 but it took three decades before everyone had one in their living room. Just a decade into its existence, podcasting has already made impressive strides: There are now over 75 million unique monthly podcast listeners, compared to 25 million in 2006, so there’s clearly consistent growth happening.

But Maron and others say it’s difficult to attract new listeners, since listening to podcasts isn’t intuitive. If podcasts are ever going to go the way of television, Maron told me, “one of two things will happen: People will get into the habit [of downloading and listening] or there will finally be a platform that will make it incredibly easy to consume. Fortunately, I’m not the type that has an ego where I’m like, ‘I WANT IT TO BE HUGE!’ I’m happy at this point in my life to be earning a living in a medium that doesn’t require me to be pretty or to have it be based on ratings.”

Related: These Are the Five Video Gaming Podcasts You Need in Your Life

Justin McElroy, of the weekly comedic advice podcast My Brother, My Brother, and Me, shared similar concerns. “[Podcasts are] not really being curated for you in any way. I would bet the rate of people that just listen to one or two podcasts is a lot higher than the rate of people that just watch one or two TV shows.”

“TV is something you get pretty passively,” McElroy continued. “It’s on a screen. You walk into someone’s house, you see a bug for it at the bottom of the screen while you’re watching another show…Podcasts are never on unless you’re choosing to listen to them.”

Paul F. Tompkins. Photo by the author

Paul F. Tompkins, one of the more prolific performers in the podcast biz, cited this as the reason podcasts will probably never blow up in mainstream media.

“I don’t know if podcasts are ever going to ever achieve the same recognition that a hit TV show does, because I think not everybody likes to consume things in that way. It’s a medium that requires a little more work,” he told me. “TV is very easy. You just sit there and it’s audio and video. It’s everything you need. But I think the kind of theater of the mind that requires you to focus and pay attention on a voice… You’re already asking for one extra step from people.”

This could potentially pose problems for the funding of podcasts down the line—something that actually could kill the medium. For now, most larger podcasts on podcast networks use the advertising model: Advertisers like Audible and Squarespace place an order for so many ads over so many months. Smaller podcasts have adopted the paid subscription model, providing some free content to attract new listeners. Others, like the elder podcast statesmen behind Uhh Yeah Dude, which has been ad-free since 2006,have turned to fan donations to keep the lights on.

Did you know our food channel MUNCHIES just started a podcast? Listen here.

Dustin Marshall’s network, Feral Audio, tries to be more like a profit-sharing art collective than a business. This self-imposed independence has branded Feral Audio’s collection of shows as sort of the quirky misfits of the space. But what they lack in corporate support, they make up for in their talent pool, with flagship podcasts like Communitycreator Dan Harmon’s weekly pseudo-town hall meeting Harmontown, garnering upwards of two million downloads a month, according to Marshall.

“Everybody’s trying to monetize this thing, but [Feral Audio is] mainly concerned with maintaining independence. There’s ‘big podcasting,’ but we’re more concerned with owning everything because then we don’t have to worry about delivering to investors,” Marshall told me.

Sure, money and popularity are great. Nobody I talked to wouldn’t love to make the nextSerial. But it’s the intimacy, earnestness, and creative freedom that seems to be the main reason podcasts inspire such passion among both listeners and producers—and that’s why they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

“I’m going to do this whether I make money or not,” Tompkins said. “I really enjoy the form. I really enjoy the medium and I like that you can do whatever you want. You just have to buy your equipment and put it up.”

Thumbnail photo via Flickr user David Martín.

Story from 2015

Source: Podcasts Aren’t Dead, They’re Just Getting Started | VICE | United States

[definitionmusic]

ILL COMMUNICATION: 2017 YEAR IN REVIEW

NOTE: This post will be long, but hopefully there are some things to be gained from reading all the way through. I plan on writing monthly newsletters consistently this year and this is the jump-off. If you’d like to opt out, please don’t hesitate to unsubscribe or request off. I’m definitely not interested in wasting anyone’s time, unless you like to waste time. If so, stick around, I got you. But yeah, on to the newsletter:

Even though 2017 is over, I wanted to take a second and present a quick-round up of all the amazing projects I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of this year. I hadn’t planned on doing a 2017 review, but reading everyone else’s got me super motivated, and it’s important for me (and probably everyone) to recognize the small victories that I typically look over in pursuit of the next creative venture.

I also wanted to publicly share my goals for 2018 with all of you; the first goal being the writing of this newsletter. I’ve never shared my goals beyond an album release on such a public forum, but I’m learning the more we all share our goals, the greater the chance we may be able to share resources with each other that help us attain those goals.

So without further ado, I present to you highlights from 2017: The Year of Anarchy

For those who don’t know, my professional life is divided into 4 businesses:

Beat Box Records (record shop)

Ill Poetic (me when I rap & produce)

Definition Music (our record label/media platform)

SoundRzn Design (my sound production and visual branding company)

Each of these businesses work hand-in-hand with each other. One thing I’ve learned as a self-employed artist is to create as many revenue streams as possible and make sure they all flow in the same direction; not just financially but creatively as well. Below are some highlights from each.

                                       BEAT BOX RECORDS

Beat Box Records is an amazing shop owned by my friend Bernie Fishman (DJ Inform) in the Barrio Logan neighborhood of San Diego. In 2017, we celebrated our third year in a physical space, closing out the year with a successful 3 Year Anniversary party that invited vendors, DJs and performers (including myself) from all around the SoCal region. In 2017, Beat Box Records and our Barrio Logan neighborhood received national attention this year via coverage from the New York Times as well as the Wall Street Journal. Bernie always stocks the shelves with rare finds and fire funk, soul and jazz records. He’s a huge inspiration as to helping my musical palette widen and my overall ear for music deepen greatly. My record collection at home is definitely picking up nicely ℅ Beat Box. If you find yourself in San Diego this year, swing by and say what’s up. Keep up with us on Instagram HERE.

                                                ILL POETIC

2017 was a huge year for me as an artist. First and foremost, after 10 long years, we finally released my full-length album “An Idiot’s Guide to Anarchy” to the public via our label Definition Music. I’ll speak about this more in later columns, but suffice to say, I spent this entire year deep in the world of project management, preparing for this release. From working with my team on budgets, to finalizing mixing and mastering; from flying out to Ohio to shoot our “Bleach” video to borrowing my neighbor’s car to drive to LA and pick up 33 boxes of vinyl (Thanks Kim!).

I was elated with the roll-out and response to this album. From the premiere of the first single to early reviews; from fan responses of and pre-order sales, everyone made me feel like the 10 years it took to make this record was time well spent. This was a huge relief for me, as I definitely had a lot of fear and anxiety in prepping for this release. As much as I don’t like to focus on numbers (mostly because I’ve never had crazy high numbers) the album charted high on it’s debut with Bandcamp and amassed over 50K views for the “Bleach” video.

The initial “AIGTA” campaign came to a peak with back to back release parties in Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio. Coming back to Ohio to perform is always a huge deal for me, as it’s the only chance in the year I have to see friends and family back home. This trip didn’t disappoint, especially Cincinnati. I received a huge outpouring of love and support in words, hugs, door donations and vinyl purchases; all extremely humbling. I’ve never gotten so much love from the press for a single release as well, from my hometown of Dayton, Ohio, to The Cincinnati Enquirer & CincyGroove in Cincinnati, and Columbus Alive and (614) Magazine in Columbus. PS - these hyperlinked articles aren’t a humblebrag, I’m beyond proud of this record and what we’ve done so far with it, I’m enjoying my moment in the sun :)

In 2018, we’ll continue pushing this record hard. It’s expected that once a music artist releases an album, they move on to the next project, but after 10 years of building to this moment, I got nothin’ but time to push this project until I feel it’s reached its full potential. So expect to see me and/or me + the band coming to a record shop or venue near you. I plan on taking this record and show throughout the country and eventually overseas to various regions. Not accepting anything otherwise.

“An Idiot’s Guide to Anarchy” is Available on 2LP Deluxe Vinyl & All Streaming Platforms

iTunes | Bandcamp | Spotify | SoundCloud

Alongside the “AIGTA” campaign, I launched a recurring event in San Diego, CA, titled SEANCE. My partners on stage, Carlos Fisher & Jesse Claybourne (Ill Atmospherics) made the move from Ohio out to LA, allowing us to grow our stage show out west. This resulted in our SEANCE event, where we select a talented range of professional producers, musicians, vocalists, DJs and percussionists to join us on stage throughout the night to create a live experiences from scratch; blending Hip-Hop, Funk, Soul, Jazz, Deep House, Electronic, Latin, Trap and Psychedelica. Our first events have had a very ‘intimate’ crowd, but the experience has been amazing for everyone, and I’m looking forward to making this a core focus for 2018; first by turning this into a monthly residency and second by booking SEANCE as an act to be booked throughout San Diego and beyond. Learn more about SEANCE HERE.

Lastly, after failing spectacularly at my first attempt many moons ago, I miraculously found myself in a place I swore I’d never go back to….

College.

This summer, my wife and I started back to school full-time. I’m currently attending San Diego City College in pursuit of an Associates Degree in Audio Production / Music Technology. The degree is cool and all, but I’m most excited about finally diving deep into areas of music I’d wanted to study or been too intimidated to previously step into, for example; music theory, jazz studies, world music and Pro-Tools audio engineering, which rounded out my first semester. I’m pretty excited to apply a lot of this knowledge and continue to better myself as a producer, recording artist, performer and entrepreneur.

                                     DEFINITION MUSIC

Though Definition Music has been around for a while, and our relaunch in 2016 really sparked our most recent direction and stream of releases, 2017’s release of “An Idiot’s Guide to Anarchy” is where we began to all throw our eggs in the same basket. We all invested time, energy and (a lot of) money to see this release out the right way and stake our claim as a legitimate platform for quality, progressive music (and soon film) releases. From pressing vinyl, hiring our first publicist and securing the option of physical distribution with Fat Beats, we made huge strides this year that we only plan to intensify in 2018.

2017 also saw the extremely successful Columbus, Ohio premiere of “Poster Grrl” from label partner/artist Ason Intrigue and his Fringe Life Squad as well as Ason’s pop-up solo production EP “Zyghoste” of which I featured on and mastered.

In 2018, my manager and label partner Micshon Harper will be leaving his corporate job of 21 years to move full-time into the music field. Behind the scenes, we’re all drawing in tighter as to really make our platform and next wave of releases and endeavors something truly special.

Keep up with Definition Music via our Website, IG, Twitter & FB

                                       SOUNDRZN DESIGN

Though I worked on some very cool projects (follow my SoundRzn IG to see), I took a step back on SoundRzn to re-evaluate my direction with the company as well as to focus on our label’s major projects (mostly my album as well as sound-designing the above-mentioned “Poster Grrl” movie). I’ve been reading, studying interviews and listening to podcasts about how freelance companies were able to continue to grow beyond their first stage, which is a huge hurdle I faced early in 2017. After much studying and thought, I decided it makes more sense for me to tighten the scope on what projects I choose to take and focus only on the clients and projects that I truly believe in. As financially difficult as this year has been (and ooooh has it been difficult), this is the first year I began actively turning down work even in the face of financial hardship, as I could begin seeing how taking on that work would only hurt me in the end. In 2018, I’m looking forward to providing services for my label partners and honing in on my favorite top long-term clients very specific needs to help them really grow out their visions as well. I still plan to take on new clients, but only if they truly interest me and if I think I can really help them reach their goals as well.

Visit my SoundRzn Portfolio or contact me HERE

I’ll close with this. I compiled the above accomplishments to help keep a good perspective on everything. This year was challenging and heartbreaking in a lot of ways. Without getting too deep into my personal shit, my family faced financial difficulties that often left us wondering if we’d even last in California another month. My wife suffered a host of health-related issues that only compounded with the above-mentioned stresses. Throughout many of the projects I spoke on above, I battled more than ever to maintain the momentum to push forward and not completely give up. I’ve cried out of sheer frustration this year more than the last 5 years combined. I found out a friend and local Columbus, Ohio music legend Nes Wordz passed away unexpectedly, a moment that emotionally crushed an entire music scene.

As difficult as shit has been for me and my family this year, I’m still privileged as hell and I (almost) never lost sight that my problems pale in comparison to that of most. So when it’s all said and done, I’m super blessed to even be here typing this right now. 2017 taught me to take the wins and love them. Take the losses and learn from them. Go through the pain and apply the knowledge you gain to work toward the next day. That’s about all we can do.

If you’ve made it this far, God bless you. Please don’t hesitate to drop me a line back any time. I’m usually pretty quick to respond and always love to connect. If you have any questions, hit me back here as well.

Looking forward to a really amazing 2018 with all of you. Have a good one

Ill Po