What Others Are Creating #003
Good Friday morning! It’s the end of the week and we have a long three day weekend ahead of us (well, for most people in the states). Before you leave Friday completely in the dust, take a look at some of the stuff these people are creating. Perhaps you’ll find a new favorite or something to inspire you in your own creative work.
Rob Paravonian – http://www.RobPRocks.com – Rob Paravonian is a comedy musician based in New York. He writes hilariously funny songs that prove the point: comedy music can be funny AND catchy! Head over to his Bandcamp page where you can download some free samples to check him out. Not only is he using his music to entertain, he’s using it to educate! He’s got a new series of songs called Tip Songs that actually teach you how to do stuff. Want to learn how to tie a bow tie or eight click on your mouse? Go check out Rob’s instructional videos and he’ll bust some knowledge on you. Finally, if you are a fan of the TV show Mad Men, check out this video that Rob edited together of every tracking shot in the show set to a hilarious song about ending with a tracking shot. Rob is a funny guy and it is well worth your time to check him out.
Space Casey – http://www.SpaceCasey.com – Back around 2008, I was asked by fellow Podcaster, Christiana Ellis, to lend a voice to a project she created called SPace Casey. It’s a science fiction adventure that won a Parsec Award and a Gold Mark Time Award forScience Fiction Audio Drama. Well, Christiana is back with a whole new SPace Casey adventure! Head on over to the Space Casey website at http://www.SpaceCasey.com and subscribe so you don’t miss a moment of the fun. I was honored to be asked to reprise my role in this sequel so I got a sneak peek at the story. It’s great!
Kristina Ruiz – http://www.etsy.com/shop/mAdELmOaRt – Kristina Ruiz is someone I met through the social media service Vine. Well, I guess I met her though my close personal friend Uncle Interloper but, never-the-less, I met her through Vine. She is hilarious, a great mother to her kids and a really amazing painter. The cool thing about Kristina using Vine is that she often posts Vines of the progress on her paintings and they are super cool. She’s got an Etsy shop which I highly recommend you take a minute or so to browse. Lots of fun stuff. I especially like her paintings inspired by Pixar’s UP. Definitely take a look at those ones.
One last thing, Tabitha Grace Smith‘s Sherlock Holmes inspired Kickstarter, that I mentioned last week, launched this week. Give it a look!
That’s it for this week. I’m always on the look out for new projects to feature so if you have something your working on and you’d like me to check it out for inclusion here, please let me know about it in the comments below! Have a good weekend!
Creative Mondays #020 – Be proud of your crap.
If you are any kind of serious creative professional, you put your all into everything you create and then you put it out into the world. And as you have continued to put things out in the world, there’s a good chance you’ve looked back at the stuff you created in the past and said, “Well, that was crap. Why did I ever put that out?”
First of all, know that that is perfectly normal to look back at your previous work and think it is crap. There are lots of creative professionals who look back at their early work and shudder. Take the early, early episodes of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. These were the twenty one episodes that were produced on the UHF station, KTMA in Minneapolis-St. Paul starting in 1988. These are known in Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fandom as the KTMA Episodes. Lots of fans want these first twenty one episodes to be released on DVD. They bombard Shout Factory, the company who puts out amazing Mystery Science Theatre 3000 DVD sets, with requests to secure the rights for DVD release. To this date they haven’t been released and they are sought after tapes on the bootleg DVD market.
I’ve heard Joel asked about getting them released and his answer is always some form of, “If people want to search them out for ‘historical’ sake, that’s fine. We just don’t want to release them on DVD because at KTMA we were still figuring out how the show worked.” Again, I’m paraphrasing, but the idea is the same. They don’t want to release those early episodes because they don’t think they are their best effort, compared to what the show later became. They are looking back at their early work and are thinking that it’s crap. (That’s my word, not Joel’s or anyone else’s who was involved in the show.)
When I first started writing comedy songs, I would put out anything that I could. I had an old MIDI keyboard hooked up to a Mac SE and would program in the lamest sounding drum and synthesizer tracks into it, then play it back and sing live into a microphone as it fed into my tape deck in my own little recording studio. These sessions produced such hits as I WANNA BE LIKE KATO (KALEN) and the hit Dr. Demento aired…once…edited…I REALLY LIKE TO EAT POTATOES. I listen back to these tracks and shake my head. These songs are the very definition of crap. And I look back and laugh because at the time I thought they were comic masterpieces and wanted everyone to hear them. To everyone who heard them, I’m sorry. They are crap. On my last comedy song release FAVORITES, I included I REALLY LIKE TO EAT POTATOES as the very last track because I thought it would be fun to see exactly how far I’ve come.
Here’s the point…it’s okay to put out crap. And even if it is crap, you can be proud of it. In many cases, that ‘crap’ leads to something very good. The early KTMA episodes of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 gave Joel and the other people on the show enough material to put together a pitch tape which landed the show on The Comedy Channel which later became Comedy Central. Dr. Demento playing I REALLY LIKE TO EAT POTATOES on his show gave me the fire to continue working on my comedy songwriting and I’d later go on to have a number one song on his show in N.R.L. (THE NURSERY RHYME LAWYER SONG).
The more ‘crap’ you put out, the better your work gets. So keep putting out crap. Crap is okay. And it’s okay to look back at all that crap and be a little proud.
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What early work of yours can you look back at and say, “That was crap.” How much better are you now? Let us know in the comments below.[ Grant Baciocco, 3/4/14, 9:19 PM]
What Others Are Creating #002
It’s Friday, that means it’s time to take a look at what some other creative folks are working on. I’m not sure that this will be a regular feature of the blog or a semi-regular feature, but if I have some creative stuff to promote I will.
Tappin’ and Yappin’ – http://orlandofringe.ticketleap.com/tappin-and-yappin/ – My good buddy John B. deHaas has a show opening TONIGHT at the Orlando Fringe Festival. It’s a hilarious, cabaret style show that John wrote and will be playing piano for. If you are in the Orlando area, check it out! With John behind ti, it’s bound to be gut busting funny. Again, the show opens tonight and runs for a total of seven performances! Don’t miss it.
AdvoCat – http://www.advocattv.com – Written and directed by my friend and fellow Puppet Up! Uncensored puppeteer, Michael Oosterom, AdvoCat is a web series about a woman who stands up for animals in the guise of superhero: AdvoCat! Episode 2 just came out, so catch up now over at the AdvoCat website. Not only is this project funny, Michael and crew have partnered with animal rescues to actually get some pets adopted! A worthwhile cause and very funny. Check it out!
The Sherlock Holmes Playing Card Kickstarter – http://www.sherlockholmesdeck.com – Tabitha Grace Smith is a friend of mine who I met via the wonderful world of podcasting. She is a podcaster, a published author and a super fan of all things Sherlock Holmes! In fact, she’s such a fan, she’s spearheading a Kickstarter to produce a set of playing cards with a Sherlock Holmes theme. She’s got some great people working on the project and I cannot wait to support her when the kickstarted goes live next week. If you are a Sherlockian (or even if you are not), be sure to check this one out and consider giving Tabz your support.
Comedy4Cast – http://www.comedy4cast.com – Clinton is another friend I met through podcasting. He’s been around from the start of podcasting and even though we live on opposite ends of the country, we still talk regularly. Since June of 2005, Clinton has been producing the Comedy4Cast podcast. It’s ‘random bits of audio fun’ are something the whole family can enjoy together. It seems every year or so, Clinton completely revamps the show and I believe that, along with Clinton’s clever writing, has made the show one I have never even considered unsubscribing to. Give his current episode a listen and if you enjoy it, consider supporting his Patreon campaign.
Kristin Hogan – https://www.etsy.com/shop/SquidFriends – I mentioned Kristin last week, but she’s at Dallas Comic-Con this weekend. If you’re nearby, go check out here squids at Table A126!
That about wraps it up for this edition of What Others Are Creating. Feel free to check out one or two (or all) of the projects listed above. I’m sure you’ll find one that you can dig a little deeper into. And, who knows, you may find something that really inspires you to create something.
Also, if you have a creative project, I’d love to check it out. Leave a comment below telling me how I can check it out and I’ll investigate further!
Creative Mondays #019 – An idea journal
A paper journal. A smartphone. A wire bound notebook. No matter your preference, get an idea journal and keep it handy. You never know when inspiration will strike and you need to write it down. YOU NEED TO WRITE IT DOWN! You will forget. I promise you. There is hardly any regret that stings more than forgetting that REALLY great idea you had and you said to yourself, “I’ll remember it later.”
I’m a notebook junkie. I love all kinds of notebooks. Recently I’ve been fond of Moleskine notebooks. I have a hardbound one for my Creative Journal that’s I’ve spoken about in a previous post and I have a softbound one my day to Idea Journal. The Idea Journal is just that, a storehouse for ideas. Ideas for stories, audio drama, scripts, songs, you name it, I’ll write it own in there. If I hear and inspirational quote, I write it down in there. It is a lined notebook, but I’ll doodle and sketch things out in there as well. It’s truly an all purpose notebook. I keep it in my backpack which is usually with me wherever I go.
When I don’t have my backpack, I rely on my smartphone (or other device). I’m a Mac user and it seems Mac has finally gotten it right with their Notes application. It is on your iPhone, your computers and iPad. If you create, edit or add to a note on one device, it syncs them all up (if you are connected to the net). It is a simple, no frills app and I use it a lot to jot down ideas when I don’t have my Idea Journal with me. There are other apps out there for taking notes, heck, there’s even a Moleskine app, but I like the simplicity of the Notes app that comes standard and it’s my preferred digital note taker of choice. Often times, I will transfer the ideas from my phone to my main Idea Journal to keep them all in one centralized location.
For many, many years now, I’ve also kept an Idea Journal next to my bed. This is usually one of those standard, college ruled, wire bound notebooks. The full US Letter sized ones. The reasons for this is if inspiration strikes while I’m lying in bed awake at night, or I have a fantastical dream that I want to write down for possible story ideas later, I can grab the notebook, flip open to the page and write down my ideas in the dark. The next morning I rip the page out and transfer the ideas (adding details that I’ll no doubt remember) into the Moleskine Idea Journal. During these ‘middle of the night’ flashes of creativity, I don’t worry if I’m writing neatly or on the lines. I make sure not to scribble but I just write it out, in the dark, knowing I’ll transfer it in the morning. The bigger sized notebook allows me to write away without worry of running out of room on the page.
So I use three different types of note taking items for my Idea Journal. A Moleskine soft cover, the Notes app on my devices and a wire bound notebook near the bed. One, all or none of these may work for you, but find the one or combination of several that do work for you. And start writing your ideas down. Once you start collecting ideas, your Idea Journal will be a treasure trove on inspiration to dig though when you’re feeling stuck.
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Do you keep an idea journal? If so, what kind/type do you use?