Category: True Life Adventures
It’s so good, I want to hate it.
Do you watch Bob’s Burgers on FOX? I got to the show late, probably third season, but it really is a fun show and it really makes me laugh.
One of my favorite moments is when 9 year old Louise goes to a concert with her older sister Tina to see the boy band/One Direction rip off Boyz 4 Now. The entire trip to the concert Louise is ragging on the band and even through the first part of the concert, she’s giving her sister grief about it. But then the Boyz 4 Now member Boo Boo takes the stage and Louise is instantly smitten which leads to this hilarious line…
Besides being hilariously funny, I think we have all felt this feeling or something like it. She’s so in love with Boo Boo but she knows it goes against everything she’s said up to that moment to love him because, in her mind, she’s supposed to hate Boo Boo. So, she combines the two feelings (love/hate) into one. “…he’s so gorgeous. I just wanna slap it, I wanna slap it, I just wanna slap his hideous beautiful face.”
I found myself in a similar situation this week when I stumbled upon the web series Paint By Monster. It’s a web series hosted by a monster puppet monster named Easel Monster and he teachers art and art principles to kids (and adults).
I had seen mention of it on Twitter and checked out and, honestly was not expecting much. From the opening song, though…I was hooked. I loved everything about it. The style, the puppet, the character, the way it is for kids but has an adult edge to it. It really captivated me. There are four episodes of the show out and I’ve watched them several times each. I want to know how every shot was accomplished. Is it a miniature set, if so, how? It’s just really fascinating to me. I would not be surprised at all if we hear about Paint By Monster being picked up and produced as an actual TV show. It’s that good.
It’s so good. It’s so good, I just want to slap it!
Making a web series is not a competition, theres enough bandwidth for us all. But this show was so good, I instantly loved and hated it. Hated it only because, in my opinion, my productions (Uncle Interloper, etc) are nowhere as good as Paint By Monster. Do I want it to fail, no. In fact I’ve promoted it heavily on my Twitter accounts. Do I wish the creator harm? Absolutely not! It’s just one of those things where I know my limitations and, watching this, I know that I can’t do it as good.
The show has a style and I think that’s something my creations lack. A sense of visual style. That’s because while I feel I do come up with good scripts and characters, I lack a sense of visual style. For example, where were putting together Stanley & JAX for Nerd-ament, Russ hit on them both having the same basic colors. That would have never occurred to me. Paint By Monster has such a great visual style and it frustrates me that I couldn’t do something that great.
The thing is though, the show inspires me. It shows me what a good, engaging web series can be and it gives me a goal to strive for. And I will.
So, please go watch Paint By Monster. He deserves your time. You will enjoy it.
And Easel, if I ever meet you, I promise not to slap you.
I love all the episodes released so far of Paint By Monster, but if the opening song in this one doesn’t make you smile, you’re taking life way too seriously.
The Do It For Yourselfie Challenge
My good buddy John deHaas and I have been friends for several years. We talk just about every day and recently I realized we were in the same headspace in regards to wanting to loose weight. My struggles with my weight going up and down are well documented on this blog and I am always looking for something to light that fire under my hinder and drop some pounds. With John feeling the same way I figured, why not have ourselves a little challenge? So that’s what we’re doing.
Starting today, and running though Memorial Day (Monday, May 25) John and I are having the Do It For Yourselfie Challenge! We will do our best to lose weight from now until then and then in May, see who is the winner. We are looking at percentage of body weight lost, not total pounds and we are aiming to lose the weight in a healthy manner.
It’s not even the end of Day 1 and of the challenge and already there is a lot of trash talking and texting each other pictures of horrible food (candy, donuts, etc.). But it is to be expected when there is so much on the line. Ah yes…what is being wagered.
John and I both think that Selfie Sticks are one of the stupidest things on the planet. We both enjoy going to theme parks and will often take photos of people using Selfie Sticks and text them to each other. So, the loser of this little wager will have to go to a theme park and take a selfie of themselves with a Selfie Stick. The loser will also have to have someone take a picture of them while they are using the Selfie Stick. Both pictures must then be posted to the web.
So there we go. Game on. I can’t wait to see John’s Selfie Stick Selfie in May!
Also, John currently has a Go Fund Me campaign going on to help fund his musical. If you have a moment, go check it out!
Creative Mondays #057 – Fight.
NOTE: This is the final Creative Mondays post. Thanks for the support.
Time and time again on this blog we have talked about how creating is not easy. Every piece of art that exists in this world is here because the artist who created it fought tooth and nail to bring it into the world. When you think about it, creating a piece of art has just about EVERYTHING stacked against it ever being created.
First of all, there is the simple act finding the desire, time, energy, fortitude to even begin the project. It is super hard to get a boulder rolling. Taking that first step, starting can be a Herculean effort for many, many people. I wonder how many great works of art, in all fields, we have missed out on simply because they remained as an idea in someone’s head? For whatever reason, they didn’t take that first step and start. The idea never stood a chance. It is only by taking that first step can we begin to bring the piece of art into being. Those who fight and fight hard and actually take that first step are the true creators.
Once you’ve started, things may seem easier but, depending on how you look at it, things can become more difficult. The bolder is rolling, yes, but your pushing it uphill. Once you’ve begun time becomes a factor again. Will you have time to work on the project? Will it take weeks? Months? Years? And if so, will you stick with it? Once you’ve begun is also when the critics come out. The people to tell you that you’re doing it wrong, or that you should do it a different way. Or the most vile critic of all, your negative brain. The voice in your head telling you that what you’re doing is not good, will never be any good, fixates on every minor mistake, tells you to just give up. You must fight against all these obstacles and continue to create, what you know deep down in your heart, is worth fighting for. To bring your vision into reality, you need to fight the entire time.
If you don’t fight, you will not create. It is that simple. True, some ideas may be worth fighting for more than others. It’s up to you to pick your battles. It is also true that some fights will be easier than others. A project can inspire you down to the core and you won’t have to fight to get it done. The fun of working on it will quiet the negative brain and you will, seemingly, create with ease. Do not be fooled. You’re still fighting though, because it’s much easier to do nothing, than to do something.
Lots of people have ‘great ideas.’ A lot of these ideas will never see the light of day because the people who have them are willing to fight to get them done. They feel that just by talking about them, someone else will take the reigns and make their idea a reality. These people will be right there when the rewards come in and they’ll want half, for their ‘idea.’ As artists we know that it is not just about the idea, it’s about doing the work that must be done. It’s about fighting.
So, here’s to the fighters. Those who believe in their art so much they will fight until they are broken, bloodied and exhausted to bring their art into the world. Creating is hard. Always fight.
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Have you every had to really fight to get a project done? Tell us about it in the comments below. Have a great week!
Creative Mondays #056 – Fixated on disappointment.
NOTE: Obviously, this was written early last year. It has some good thoughts though, even if it is a little dated.
Author Mur Lafferty and I are good friends who met through the early days of podcasting. Ten years ago! Wow! And we’re still friends. She lives in North Carolina and I’m out here in California, but we seem to have very similar attitudes about things that happen to us in our creative pursuits. We will have long email, Twitter DM and text conversations about random topics and we always feel the same about things.
In January, she wrote a blog post on disappointment. It was called, ironically enough, On Disappointment and I will let you go read it on her website at http://murverse.com/on-disappointment/. It’s a great post about how you can have a lot of stuff going on in your life that is very, very good but one little negative thing, in this case a rejection, can bring you down to the point where you become completely fixated on it.
This happens to me all the time. All the time and it is damn hard to get over.
At the end of 2013, Sesame Street held an open call for a puppetry workshop. You had to submit a three minute video of your puppetry skills and then just wait. From the moment I hear about it, I didn’t want to submit. I didn’t want to submit for the very topic this article is about. I knew if I submit and didn’t make it, I would be fixated over it and it would grind me up inside.
I then got a little inside information that if I did apply, I probably would NOT get it because the Sesame was casting a net for a different type than I am. Read: they already have enough white male puppeteers, the don’t need more. So again, I figured I would not apply. But then a friend of mine said that the pressure was off because I knew that inside info and I should submit ‘just to be seen.’
Well, I wound up submitting. And, surprise, surprise I did not get accepted*.
And to no one’s surprise it really crushed me.
Creative rejection sucks.
And the thing that REALLY sucks about it is, like Mur in her post, I have a lot of really great stuff going on. At the time the rejection came in, it had already been confirmed that I would be traveling to Australia with The Jim Henson Company’s Puppet Up. Shortly after the rejection, it was confirmed that I was going to be going on the Puppet Up U.S. Tour before the Australia tour.
I am being paid to go to Australia (and tour the US) to do puppetry, in a show that is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE THING TO DO, and all I can dwell on is the fact I didn’t get into a two day workshop that I would have had to pay to get to (flight, lodging, etc.). That is absurd!
I know many people who’s brains work like mine. And Mur’s. And it’s just insane.
This, unfortunately, happens a lot and when it does I just have to focus on the good. And there’s a lot of good. In fact, in this case, the good outweighs the bad by a trillion percent.
When this happens we have to focus on the good.
Focus on the good and just keep creating.
*The reason they gave me as to why I wasn’t accepted, and my reaction to that reason, would be a subject that would fill 10 of these blog posts, so I’ll hold off for now.
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How do you handle creative disappointment? Do you have a coping method that works for you? Let me know in the comments below.