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secretmellowblog · 2 years

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Every day I wake up and horrified by the implications of AI on the entertainment industry….a lot of my friends are going to lose their jobs and starve to death because Elon Musk thought it’d be fun to fund a machine that automatically steals artists’ work against their will to create generic algorithmically generated mass market slop.

I feel like I’m going crazy because everyone pretends they care about how “popular media sucks now because it’s all created to be as generically marketable/similar to other things as possible, almost like it’s algoritmically generated >:(“ but then they’re also like “WOW COOL AI ART!”

Like dudes???? Don’t you understand that supporting AI art means that you’re supporting eliminating and eviscerating any last vestiges of humanity from art……..a company will definitely settle for “mass produced AI slop generated by an algorithm to look as similar as possible to whatever generic popular slop came before” if it means they don’t have to pay a human being.

And that’s not even going into the way that these algorithms monetize themselves……some of them have “free” tiers now but that’s extremely likely to change in the future. I can’t wait until the most prolific “comic artists” of our times are like, hedge fund managers who can afford to buy 1000000 prompts on Dall-E.

And once that starts happening more we’ll all be drowning in a tidal wave of hollow empty shallow algorithmically generated “”””art””””” created by machines that can’t feel, think, intend, or care— machines that can only rip off the artists they were designed to replace, the artists whose actually meaningful thoughtful creations were stolen to provide their training data.

I hate all of this, and I hate the mass callous indifference to it. I am baffled that people don’t see the dangers of a future where none of our art is created by people who care— by people who are trying to mean something and to say something and to connect with you from one person to another—but by algorithms mindlessly mashing pixels together. It’s going to be horrible. Especially because in a time of climate change and intense social stress/collapse it’s going to be very important to connect with other people through art, but AI removes humanity from art entirely. If climate change wasn’t likely to cause the collapse of society anyway I’d say that if we keep heading in this direction the art and entertainment industry is a bit doomed

#ai art #anyway!#i feel like I’m losing my mind seeing everyone be like #‘wow it’s so amazing I created this with Ai -heart eyes-#like you didn’t create anything….#Elon musk funded dall e so its more like you just commissioned Elon musk’s fancy machine for a drawing #the moment they remove the free tier from dall e you’re fucked lol #anyway #i have had absolutely no faith in the entertainment industry for a very long time #(it’s the ‘studying to work in the entertainment industry and making friends in it’ burnout )#so yee #it’s all cutthroat #if I wasn’t so sure we were heading towards some kind of greater infrastructure collapse #I’d be more sad about it #as it is I have a lot of other things to be sad about #but thankfully I have a decent job out of college #because I studied 3D stuff #which can’t be replaced yet

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chromaherder · 1 year

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Working in animation for the past 8 years has been awesome and a good time to level up my drawing skills, though it’s becoming harder to care working on big corporate projects. Burnout has been real since last summer and I’ve been torn over my life in the entertainment industry. I love the few friends I made, and I’ve grown so much thanks to them. The general art landscape though, I can’t help but think it constantly gets caught up on the most insignificant things. And I’m not saying I’m above it at all! Gods know I’ve toiled over making something good enough to be recognized by my peers. Not my proudest moment, but I think we can relate to wanting to be accepted in a community we want to be part of. Not to mention the current trajectory of AI art (it’s been talked to death, I know) and the hyper capitalization of the arts feels incredibly disingenuous. I’m all for new tools. AIs are incredibly powerful and a feat of computer science! But when it comes to people using such tools to cut corners and making more money at the expense of others, well...

Anyhow, in the past few years most animation projects revolve around hashing out a new take over an existing IP, or making something lukewarm with little substance. People running these things come from no understanding of the medium at all, thinking they’ll be the next hit, because animation is easy and a sure way to make money if you can appeal to the broadest of audiences. I took a break last week, where I experienced the natural beauty of the pacific islands. The diversity there was unbelievable. I first moved to Canada to study animation, and didn’t know much besides “Igloos and maple syrup”. Ever since, though, I’ve been blown away by the seeing the last pillar of wilderness that is the PNW, still standing. Albeit, it’s now much quieter than even just a century ago, from what I heard some First Nation elders say. During that break I felt wonder, anger and sorrow for our disappearing habitats coalescing and harden. Sorrow not just for animals and flora, but for Humans too. The Anthropocene+capitalism combo isn’t just deadly for our non-human brethren. We live day in day out, for most of their lives having access to our own natural habitats denied. Through centuries of anthropocentrism and colonialism, we’ve lost our understanding of our place in the grand scheme of things. And of course, wilderness has become a past-time of the rich. Anyways, that is just to say that I might have a shot at going back to school this fall to study natural resource conservation. Hopefully that’ll feel more meaningful than working 8 hours a day designing for shallow entertainment. I still love making art though! Storytelling and drawing and painting and music are some of the best things humans can do, and I don’t think I could ever give that up. Taking a sidestep might just be what’s needed to keep treasuring that, though.

#if you made it to the tags thanks for reading!#i don't want to make it sound like i hate art #idont think i could live without but sometimes things happen and you're left questioning #chroma speaks

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ill-be-istj-if-no-one-else-is · 2 years

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Hello! I would be interested in your opinion on my MBTI type! I’m fairly sure that I’m an enneagram 9, although I’m open to 6 for statistical reasons since I’ve considered Te-dom before, because I tend to be deeply conflict-averse outside of structured things like studies, work, and dnd, but in that structure I tend to be very active, hard-working, and detail oriented. I’m still conflict averse but being behind a structure that I have strong opinions about help me a lot.

For my circumstances, I’m a sophomore undergrad whose moved across the country and am looking to go into the entertainment industry- I’m aware and resolved to the instability of the industry, but have been devoted to my goals since I was a young teen and the decisions I’ve made have all been to mitigate risk. Even though it’s a new environment, I have a very regular schedule: I work out six days a week, play games with high school friends twice a week… (p2)

play another weekly game with my friends here, have set dates and regular things I do with my significant other, and have not gotten behind on work in years. I try to occasionally do new things, but novelty on its own isn’t appealing to me. Most times that I succeed on something, it’s because of my detail-orientation and fast work. I tend to turn in well-over the maximum requirement for work or study, just to be safe or because I feel I need to be excellent. However, this has also burned me (p3)

I just learned that I qualify for a massive career thing and have for years but have been stockpiling or preparing myself pointlessly for a long time. I also tend to get frustrated with peers over timeliness, amount of work, or an overdone planning process. My worst trait in a group project is that I think I can just do the thing without a whole pre-production process. I also get frustrated when I am not credited, in a professional situation, for doing better and faster work, (p4)

when others fulfill another cultural expectation but take more than twice as long as me (in my industry, someone who watches more movies than me might get along/get better opportunities from a mutual boss). It took me a long time to get to a place where I could really acknowledge my discomforts or frustrations vocally, but with my significant other I have developed in that and being emotionally available and openly affectionate (broadly, not just with them). (p5)

In all my relationships I tend to be very close with very few people. I text every day with my best friend whose been so since we were 12. I’ve really only dated long term and have gone long stretches of time without any significant relationship before reentering a long term relationship.I like to work on myself, not in the New Year’s resolution sense, but I try every day to address things I want to do better and I do the things that make me happy consistently. (p I didn’t track these right)

I feel like in the arc of my life, I’ll be better off if I make myself happy and maintain my mental health, so even though I feel a lot of pressure to grind even more and be more passionate about film, I prioritize my well-being rather than buying into the burnout allnighter culture. (p final, thank you so so much! I haven’t looked into typology for a long time because I wanted to stop and become more self aware, so I may have vomited this at you lol)

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Hi anon,

I am actually completely baffled why you are even considering 9 - none of this sounds like 9 (6 is very possible though). 9's aren't just conflict-averse - they're also often complacent/tend to lack drive or ambition, and can be remarkably resistant to change when unhealthy. They often avoid things like working on themselves. 9s do not engage in the grind, is what I'm saying.

High Te does sound right and 6 can fit- wanting a stable network and taking a lot of precautions/risk mitigation - but that might also be xSTJ, which seems reasonable. I am wondering actually if you are a 3: disconnect from expressing emotions, frustration with lack of credit or not realizing you qualified for something, and overachieving all are much more in line with 3 than 9. 3s care about approval and appearances, and can avoid conflict for that reason (3s can really go either way for conflict, honestly) and if you're an introvert that can also be a big factor. But I would without a doubt rule out 9, at least as a core.

#mbti #enneagram

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beyondthebook · 3 years

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Beyond the book: ‘The 5 AM Club’

“Many people want extraordinary things to happen to them, but that truly great people understand they can create those extraordinary events themselves”

I never in my life thought that I’ll be promoting starting your day as early as 5 AM. After all, I used to go to sleep at this time back in my college days. Well… you learn, you understand and you grow. I started kicking off my day early due to professional commitments three years ago. Soon I realized there was something magical about it. When I read this book it helped me put a lot of things into context. As it turns out, it’s not just about waking up at 5 AM but using that time. I’ll try to highlight my takeaways from the book and add some nuances to it through this article. Enough of the pre-talk, let’s dig deep into this secret billionaire mantra.

5 AM FOR THE PRODUCTIVITY

Let me start with selling you the benefits of waking up at 5 AM. The scientific advantages of waking up early are:

When we wake up this early, our brain’s prefrontal cortex which processes rational thoughts is impaired. This temporarily silences your worries, doubts, and fears.

During this time of day, your brain is pre-programmed to stimulate the production of dopamine and serotonin, both of which will make you happier and give you a more peaceful start to the day.

Imagine starting your day with no negative self-talk, energy and peace. This will let you enable the flow state which is a mental state of ultimate focus. You can use this time to perform the most critical tasks as you are most productive in this state. But before you tap into the flow state, there is a morning ritual that can elevate this experience — the 20/20/20 formula.

20/20/20 FORMULA

It is a method to utilize your first hour of the day to further optimize your productivity. The principle of this formula is to use 20 minutes to move, 20 minutes to reflect and 20 minutes to grow.

In the first 20 minutes, we should do vigorous exercise. Sweat decreases the fear hormone in our brain and generates the protein BDNF, which promotes the formulation of new neural connections. This, in turn, makes our brain think faster. Due to our prefrontal cortex being impaired, our brain cannot process if we like exercising or not. This can be an added advantage and we can push through these 20 minutes even if we do not like exercising.

In the first 10 minutes of the next 20 minutes, we should reflect on our goals, frustrations, failures, etc. The next 10 minutes we can use to document the same in a journal. It is my favourite part as I can put all the burden of my thoughts on a piece of paper and continue my day with clear objectives. It takes a bit of practice but works wonders if you are someone who is like me and thinks a lot. If you have any time remaining you can use it for meditating.

The last 20 minutes are used to learn. We can use this time to read about innovation, or learn about a business, or listen to a podcast that stimulates our thought. We can use this time to learn something that can add value to our career.

MULTI-TASKING IS A MYTH

Multi-Tasking is an amazing concept when it is applied to our gadgets. However, our brain is not made to perform multiple high-functioning tasks at once. When we think that we are multi-tasking, we are actually switching between the tasks and it is not efficient. We have limited mental energy for the day and it’s always better to use it towards the things that we care about.

DISOBEYING THE DISTRACTIONS

Distractions are often the key elements that take away your productivity. It can be as simple as reacting to our smartphone notification while working on an important task. Now, I just want to make it clear that I am not saying that we should become robots and just focus on our work. I make no compromises giving my time to do things that I love. When I say important tasks and distraction, I mean tasks that are important to YOU and distractions are the tasks that are not important to you. When I am working on such key tasks I prefer to switch off my notification and just keep my phone on vibrate for any emergency calls. If you have a hard time prioritizing tasks then you can make use of the Time Management Matrix. You can learn more about it here and I’ll try to cover it in some of my future articles.

UPSKILLING BY ACCOMPLISHING SMALL THINGS DAILY

In this modern industrial revolution where knowledge is practically free, we must constantly invest some time in ourselves for upskilling. We often tend to focus on achieving some big things occasionally and then being on the sidelines for a while. I believe this approach has been inherited by us from the way we use to study in our schools. We use to enjoy our time and once the exams were near we’ll take our battle gears out and prepare for the war. Ahh! it makes me all nostalgic. Well, we must understand that it is not the right way of learning. Learning and honing your skills should be a continuous and consistent habit. I devote a section of my day to personal development. I take this time to learn and practice the skills that will help me in my career or sometimes if they seem very interesting.

The key to help you upskill in the right direction is capitalizing on your talent. We often get discouraged and feel that we don’t have what it takes by seeing how talented others are in a certain field. However, what we must focus on is what we are good at and then improve our skills and knowledge by investing time into developing it. By doing so we become more positive and gain confidence.

THE FOUR INTERIOR EMPIRES

We all have 4 interior empires and all of them are connected. These empires are Mindset, Heartset, Healthset, and Soulset. Unlike the historical empires, all these empires must function properly for us to be the best version of ourselves.

MINDSET: We live in a fast-paced world that is driven by change. It is a place where start-ups can reach unicorn status overnight while established firms can lose billions over a tweet. In this world of chaos, we must constantly keep working on our mindset. We can train our attention on making our daily micro-achievements; reflect on our failures but focus on the positives. By doing so we can mitigate the negative bias of our brain.

HEART-SET: This empire deals with taking care of our emotional well-being. We can take a step towards that by expressing our emotions more frequently; by creating an open communication channel with our peers and loved ones.

HEALTH-SET: This empire deals with taking care of our physical well-being. I recall an interview of Warren Buffet where he put forward a cogent argument about physical well-being — Imagine if we could choose any car but there was a stipulation that we have to use the same car for the rest of our life. How well would we take care of it? I would probably take care of it like my own baby. Now, think about our body in the same way. We just have this one body for the rest of our life. The bare minimum we can do is exercise daily and try to eat right. Right?

SOUL-SET: This empire deals with taking care of our spirituality. It does not mean that we have to enroll ourselves in a religion. It means that we should find something that keeps us centred and help us connect with the truest version of ourselves. It can be simple things like taking a walk in nature, or meditating, or even praying. I personally enjoy sitting on my balcony with my thoughts and gazing at trees.

A simple hack to working on each of the interior empires is by implementing the 20/20/20 formula.

SLEEP AND HAVE FUN

Sleep is one of the key factors in determining life expectancy. It is important to manage a good 6–8 hours of sleep for our recovery and to avoid burnouts. If we want to continue operating at high productivity then we must maintain the cycle of passionate work and deep renewal through sleep. Yet, we are a sleep-deprived generation and technology can be pinpointed as the primary reason for sleep deprivation. To be precise, the blue light emitted from our smartphones, TVs, Laptops, etc reduces melatonin. Melatonin is chemical in our body that promotes sleep. In order to counter this, some studies suggest we must disconnect ourselves from these devices at least 2 hours before we sleep. I can understand it may seem like a difficult task as we are habituated with our routine but it can be accomplished. I have allocated this time for talking to my loved ones over a call. If you live with your partner or a friend you can play some indoor game or discuss your day. You can make your own routine and try to avoid the blue light radiations before the sleep.

Lastly, have some fun! Allocate some time of your day for doing the activities that you enjoy without worrying about them adding value to your day. Not everything is supposed to contribute to your career growth. Do not feel guilty about enjoying your me-time. I like watching YouTube for short while. Some videos that I watch are informative and some are pure entertainment. But who cares, I enjoy that time and most importantly, it makes me happy.

Thank you for taking your time and reading this article. I hope you find some takeaways from this article that helps you in managing your day.

Word of the article: Cogent (adjective) — Clear, Logical, or Convincing

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electric-sugar-darling · 4 years

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Entertainer’s turmoil

It’s a conflicting thing being an entertainer in the time of COVID.

Before the lockdown, I had the fortunate opportunity of not only having a singing/performing job as my main money-making job, but also to be able to local theatre as well. In fact, before lockdown, I was experiencing a bout of burnout because my schedule then had been “if I wasn’t performing at work, I was running straight to a rehearsal or show,” and before lockdown, my life had been exactly that for nearly 16 months straight. I was on the verge of stepping away from it all temporarily, to take a breather and focus my energy into an entirely different direction because everything I was doing was more out of necessity and obligation. There is certainly such a thing as too much of a good thing, and my love for it was very dangerously waning as a result.

Then COVID.

It happened gradually at first, but looking back on it now as if it were in the distant past (at least, that's how this entire year has felt like so far) it feels like it was all pulled out from under me (and many other performers) in one fell swoop. My rehearsals were cancelled. Then my gigs were cancelled. Then entire shows were being cancelled. And then my place of work where I performed (along with the rest of the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip) were shut down. And suddenly, the entire country was put on standstill. Frontline workers and essential workers still worked, but the rest of us were put on pause. And initially, it did bum me out. Mostly because it was such a breakneck shift from all my waking hours being filled with some sort of activity, to suddenly nothing there at all, and just nervously twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the next day, because day by day is really the only way to live currently. No movie or media about a pandemic could ever prepare us for a real-life pandemic. Especially with the way the current administration is handling it. But eventually, I saw it as some cosmic message to the entire world that our current way of life was too busy, too hectic, too obsessive with hustle mentality. And I decided to take the universe's hint and to take the break I was given, and reassess how I channeled my energy.

It's been a little over 3 months since then. And boy, have I reassessed.

I could go further into what all those things that I've reassessed are, but instead I'm going to just focus on one: being a performer in a time where large crowds are highly discouraged, or straight up not allowed at the moment.

I'm a singer, a performer, a musician, a theatre kid, all wrapped up in one. All of those things require an outlet. And an audience. I identify greatly as an introvert and as someone with severe social anxiety. But there is no amount of words that describe the transformation I instantly go through when audience lights go down, when stage lights go up, when curtains rise, when the overture begins, when I'm making my first entrance in a show, and I essentially come alive on a stage for the entire world to see. The filter is gone. The overthinking is (mostly) gone. It's a moment of do-or-die, when all the people’s eyes are on you, demanding to be entertained, yet also scrutinizing you all at once. Yet still, with a musical phrase, with a choreographed scene, with a line of dialogue that I've repeated to myself 1,000 times in different inflections through countless evenings studying and rehearsing, with a flourish and a smile, I am alive and fearless in the moment where your eyes are fixated on me, and on my colleagues, wondering what's going to happen next. There is no other feeling quite like it. And I miss it immensely.

However, there lies the conflict.

As much as I do miss my stage, my outlet, my performance, I can't deny the existence of this pandemic. A virus that's literally killing hundreds of thousands of people this year alone, and severely weakening so many others. Millions of cases, asymptomatic or not, with such a high chance of spreading it to others if you're one if the irresponsible ones (oh yes, and mini PSA: WEAR A FUCKING MASK.)

But it's especially heartbreaking for me as a singer and performer, because our craft not only requires being in a room with hundreds, thousands of people, crowded into one place. But I read an article stating that singers are one of the biggest spreaders COVID due to the extent that we use our voices to literally carry over entire rooms, and that we have the most potential to spread COVID particles to not only our colleagues, but to audience members as well.

Workers going back to work now that cities are opening up again (which is wildly absurd and irresponsible to me), and they can at least wear a mask to protect themselves. But as singers and performers, we can't wear masks, as it would inhibit nearly everything we're doing on stage. Speaking, singing, facial expressions, properly breathing during dance numbers. And so myself, and many other entertainers in this business, are faced with the harsh reality of our industry possibly being one of the last, if not the very last thing that would return to a "normal" state.

And therein, another conflict lies within the conflict. Because the casino I work in has recently attempted to open up again, and without giving too much away about what exactly I do, part of the jobs that have returned are certain singer-entertainer jobs that require us to be in close proximity of guests. We are required to masks around guests, but we are to remove them when we are singing. But guests are not required to wear masks, for fear of facing backlash of inhibiting on their "rights." We can protect ourselves for as much as it's worth, but guests get the reign to be as careless as they want, to not only increase the chances of possibly spreading the virus to themselves and others, but to us as well (even with masks and new casino safety guidelines which are ALSO being ignored by many tourists), who are being REQUIRED to return and serve these people who'd rather shirk good health and moral responsibility for a chance to go on vacation again? OH, the absolute privilege of it all!

I want to eventually return to performing. Perhaps not to the same all-hours-full capacity that I once was at before the lockdown began, but I do miss putting a show together. A lot of my performer friends do as well. And thank goodness for things like virtual shows, socially distanced livestream shows. And the prospect of people finding new and/or safer ways to express themselves as artists have blossomed, mostly out of necessity, of having an outlet to express. I have had a few alternative options myself in lieu of live performance, for which I am grateful.

But I can't in good conscience be fully supportive of opening theaters and performing spaces or anything of that capacity again at the moment, when Las Vegas, and other cities around the country, are already being the perfect test sites of what we SHOULDN'T have done, letting people run amok with the option of being unmasked, and thus, the sudden rise of COVID cases.

I miss my art. I miss sharing my art with my colleagues. I miss showing the world my art. But to try and bring it back to any in-person capacity with the current state of things, of administrations and businesses making morally reprehensible decisions for the sake of monetary gain, meanwhile willingly putting millions of lives at risk every single day that they won't at least make a ruling to make masks mandatory, doesn’t feel the least bit right. I say with a heavy and conflicted heart that this art will have to wait a little longer.

#singer #performer #entertainer #theatre #opera #live theatre #opera singer #coronavirus #las vegas

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gibsonsflowofthoughts · 6 years

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BE MODERN MAN: MEET 'THE SOCIAL INNOVATOR,' KARIZ MARCEL

BE Modern Man is an integrative program that honors the essence, image, and accomplishments of today’s man of color. With features of today’s leaders, executives, creatives, students, politicians, entrepreneurs, professionals, and agents of change—these men share the common thread of creating a new normal while setting the bar in tech, art, philanthropy, business, and beyond. The BE Modern Man is making a positive impact, his way, and has a story to tell.

BE MODERN MAN KARIZ MARCEL

Age: 36

Profession: Teaching Artist/ Social Entrepreneur

One Word That Describes You: Innovative

Social Media: Instagram: @karizmarcel | Facebook: Kariz Marcel

What does being one of the BE Modern Man 100 Honorees mean to you?

My immediate thought is appreciative. This platform is beyond important for the young black men growing up in this country and looking for direction or inspiration. With the odds stacked up against us, it’s great to know someone is watching us. The creators. The innovators. The men of DISTINCTION…your almost “impossible” accomplishments and work are not in vain.

What is your “Extraordinary Impact?”

I live in Baltimore City. We suffer from the same systemic evils that have been affecting us since the unwanted trafficking across the Atlantic Ocean. I was blessed at a young age to be educated about who I am as a person of African descent and how I can use my talents to better our communities at large. I’m a music producer who cares how music is sold, utilized, and taught. It was a matter of time before I found a way to use my gift to inspire others and create opportunities for the less fortunate. In 2007, I founded a company called Kariz Kids Youth Enrichment Services (now Innovation Echo Alliance). Within the 10 years of business, I created over 30 teaching artist jobs from within the communities of Baltimore; Washington, D.C., and Upstate New York. While in operation, we served 2,000+ youth and produced over 300 songs used as revenue-generating deliverables for all the youth in participation of our programs. To date, we have students working with major record companies, attending music institutes, and becoming thought leaders for the next generation of creators. For the last two years, I have been focused on exploring ways my music career can automatically benefit the youth, developing a new app for K-12 students, all while sleep training my 2-year-old son; he gets all the benefits of my extraordinary work.

What are you doing as a BEMM to help support black male achievement now or in the future?

Being a mentor. Growing up, we didn’t have the proper guidance and leadership it requires to move intelligently toward our goals in the music business. After working with middle school and elementary students for seven years, I decided that I needed to start focusing on creating these opportunities for high school youth as well. This newfound direction led me to working with teenage men in detention facilities and several high schools on the East Coast. In 2015, I was called to help Baltimore rapper Damond Blue to launch his Beats Not Bullets program, where we train young scholars on the music business and production. I have become a resource of knowledge and guidance, pushing them to become positive and persistent. Working with young men who have faced similar challenges as I have is inspiring in every way you can imagine. Little do they know that they are helping me as well.

What are some examples of how you turned struggle into success?

While attending the Institute of Audio Research in New York City, I came upon some hard times. I was 18 years old at the time, homeless, and living in a barbershop in East New York, Brooklyn. The owner of this barbershop gave me a chance to prove myself as a beatmaker and he purchased some equipment for me to start building a catalog. The goal was for him to sign me and take me away to famous producer land…well, that didn’t actually happen. Every day I would wake up, make beats, and play them out loud to the customers. For the first few months, they would tell me how wack the tracks were and how the owner of the shop wasted his money on me. I kept making tracks until it got the attention of the customers. Three months and 250 beats later, I sold my first beat for $300. This is where I learned the science of having a formula. In this case, this formula would have never been discovered if it wasn’t for struggle.

(Photo: iRose Films)

What is an important quality you look for in your relationships with others?

Authenticity. Period. Everything else comes after.

What are some immediate projects you are working on?

I just finished up my first completed musical endeavor as an artist, titled The Blackwater Project. I took 20 teaching artists from my city and built a sound that reflects the diaspora from a Black American perspective. It’s available for streaming via www.theblackwaterprojectlp.com. In 2017, I won the grand prize in the Baltimore Hackathon (a technology competition). At this two-day event, I created a prototype of an app that can help young people make beats, record vocals, and distribute music all while learning core study subjects. I am very excited about this application hitting beta next year.

At the beginning of 2018, a few friends from the entertainment and nonprofit industry helped me launch Innovation Echo Alliance (IEA). The mission of IEA is to eradicate the lack of access to quality youth enrichment programs by facilitating the alliance between entertainment communities and nonprofit organizations. We have been working with organizations and entertainers to find creative ways to build funding portals via the industry to grassroots organizations and young creators in need of financial and material support to assist with their passions and career goals.

What is the best advice you ever received?

The most recent great advice I got was from a music vet who told me, “Learn how to deejay again and focus on producing and performing one genre that no one else is doing. It will get you where you need to be.” This is great advice because I was having trouble getting my new sound to be heard. After several failed attempts of producing other artists, I decided to give it a shot for myself and see what happens. So far, performing as a producer/DJ has helped raise thousands of dollars for music programs and brought attention to the causes that reflect IEA’s missions.

What is some advice you have for other men who want to make a difference?

Be very conscious of the energy you keep around. Once you identify the unproductive people in your circle, you may feel lonely at first but it’s the one thing that will help you attract your deepest desires and dreams.

How do you prep for an important business meeting and/or event?

Get a haircut! I also research whoever I am meeting with. A lot of times I even go as far as creating documents about those people or companies to help me become familiar with who they are and what they stand for. It leverages whatever outcome you desire from the meeting.

As a busy Modern Man, how do you unwind on vacation?

No vacation yet. I honestly haven’t thought about what I would want to do for a vacation. I’ve been waking up and loving what I do for a living every day for the last 10 years. A vacation has not been at the top of my list of priorities. Maybe next year. I feel a burnout coming.

If you could travel and stay anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Panama. My family on my grandfather’s side is Panamanian and they’re always telling me I need to go. I’m slippin’.

Anything else you’d like to say?

I am very appreciative to have an opportunity to be seen and heard. The bigger the voice, the bigger chances we have of positively affecting someone’s life.

It’s our normal to be extraordinary. Follow @BEModernMan and join the conversation using #BEModernMan.

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Good article originally from: blackenterprise

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symbianosgames · 7 years

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The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include a GDC talk on 'the aesthetics of cute', the hidden story of TOSE, & the return to car wrecking of key Burnout developers.

Another interesting week of longer-form 'things', and I've been ruminating a bit on how these videos and articles intersect in weird but neat ways with 'breaking news' or 'hottest games'. Seems like you'll get at least _some_ bleed-through - for example, this week we have Battlegrounds, Signal From Tolva & Night In The Woods again, all of which are newish or interesting releases.

But many of these pieces are evergreen & exist separately of the 'hot reactions' grind. Which is good. Exist too close to the 24-hour hype cycle, and you'll miss trends and more thoughtful takes like some of these good folks. VGDC aims to reverse that. We hope you think we do a good job.

- Simon, curator.]

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Guild Wars 2’s art style passes from father to son (Philippa Warr / RockPaperShotgun) "Recently I had the chance to talk to ArenaNet (and thus Guild Wars 2) art director Horia Dociu about his work at the studio. One of the interesting things about his promotion to the role is that he succeeds his father, Daniel."

We’ve been missing a big part of game industry’s digital revolution (Kyle Orland / Ars Technica) "Last year, the Entertainment Software Association's annual "Essential Facts" report suggested that the US game industry generated $16.5 billion in "content" sales annually (excluding hardware and accessories). In this year's report, that number had grown to a whopping $24.5 billion, a nearly 50-percent increase in a span of 12 months. No, video games didn't actually become half again as popular with Americans over the course of 2016. Instead, tracking firm NPD simply updated the way it counts the still-shadowy world of digital game sales."

Warren Spector believes games 'need to be asking bigger questions' (Alex Wawro / Gamasutra) "Gamasutra sat down with Spector at GDC last month to catch up on how the process is going, roughly a year into his full-time gig at OtherSide. It was an interesting conversation, especially if you're at all interested in where games are at these days, where they came from, and what sorts of stories they're best at telling."

A Rare Look Inside Nintendo (Otaku / Game Escape / YouTube) "This clip is an excerpt from the French documentary film "Otaku" by director Jean-Jacques Beineix from 1994. It appeared dubbed on German TV some time later, which is the version you are seeing here. It has, to my knowledge, never been released in English. The subtitles are my own. Content is the intellectual property of the original rights holders."

An Interview With One of Those Hackers Screwing With Your 'Black Ops 2' Games(Patrick Klepek / Waypoint) "He's not there to ruin your stats. He's there to sell you software that'll let you launch a DDOS attack from your Xbox 360. [SIMON'S NOTE: this is crazy - modded Xbox 360s that find other player's IP addresses and can DDOS them?! I had no idea.]"

Put a Face on It: The Aesthetics of Cute (Jenny Jiao Hsia / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC session, Hexecutable's Jenny Jiao Hsia explains why cuteness as an aesthetic may be worth exploring for developers who want to push against current trends in game design."

Proc. Gen. and Pleasant Land | Sir You Are Being Hunted (Robert Seddon / Heterotopias) "It was a perfect rustic idyll, in its way. Perfectly lovely, nestled between the grassy fields. Perfectly quiet, as only dead places can be. Perfectly still, because a player careless enough to create a disturbance might attract the robotic hunters. Big Robot’s Sir You Are Being Hunted had, through the digital governance of its landscape generation algorithms, somehow perfected the British countryside."

How video games were made - part 3: Marketing and Business (Strafefox / YouTube) "In this final chapter we cover the business side and marketing of 8 and 16 bit games. [SIMON'S NOTE: Lots of archival footage in here & SO much work cutting it all together - and the other entries in the 'how video games were made' series look pretty good too!]"

Video Games Are Better Without Stories (Ian Bogost / The Atlantic) "A longstanding dream: Video games will evolve into interactive stories, like the ones that play out fictionally on the Star Trek Holodeck. In this hypothetical future, players could interact with computerized characters as round as those in novels or films, making choices that would influence an ever-evolving plot. [SIMON'S NOTE: lots of responses to this all over the Internet - here's a couple of good ones from the Waypoint folks.]"

'Burnout' Series Creator Talks Remaking Crash Mode for 'Danger Zone' (John Davison / Glixel) "Spend longer than a few minutes talking with fans of driving games about which series they'd love to see revived, and invariably someone will bring up Criterion's Burnout. Unlike contemporaries that were leaning harder into realism and officially-licensed cars as a response to games like Gran Turismo, the first Burnout – released by Acclaim for PlayStation 2 in 2001 – was unapologetically action-focused."

Famitsu Special Report – The Mystery of TOSE (Famitsu / One Million Power) "This is the real story behind TOSE: The game development company that’s been making games for nearly 38 years (since 1979), but hardly any gamers know. [SIMON'S NOTE: Brandon Sheffield covered TOSE for Gamasutra back in 2006, but by and large, they've been PRETTY vague about what they work on - which is fascinating.]"

How Three Kids With No Experience Beat Square And Translated Final Fantasy V Into English (Jason Schreier / Kotaku) "One day in the late 1990s, Myria walked into the Irvine High School computer room and spotted a boy playing Final Fantasy V. There were two unusual things about this. The first was that Final Fantasy V had not actually come out in the United States."

Night in the Woods is Important (HeavyEyed / YouTube) "An analysis of the recently released game - this video contains very minimal spoilers but watch at your own discretion.."

Designing the giant battle royale maps of Playerunknown's Battlegrounds (Alan Bradley / Gamasutra) "For Brendan "Playerunknown" Greene, the creator of Battlegrounds, the vision for his game world was born from extensive experience creating and manipulating environments that direct players to play his games the way he intends them to be played."

All We Have Is Words (Matthew Burns / Magical Wasteland) "Sometimes I give the impression of knowing Japanese, but I really don’t. I have no claim to it. I never made a real study of the language, I don’t know kanji and thus can’t read at all, and even in speech I can’t exchange more than pleasantries or the most rudimentary logistical information. [SIMON'S NOTE: I believe this is a subtle 'subtweet'-style article response to the recent Persona 5 translation furore? Maybe?]"

Changing the Game: What's Next for Anita Sarkeesian (Laura A. Parker / Glixel) "Anita Sarkeesian’s talk at this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco falls at an unfortunate time: 10am on the last day of the conference – a Friday. Most attendees – a mix of indie programmers, mainstream publishing teams and media – are still bleary eyed from the night before. And yet, at five-to-ten, the small room on the third floor of the Moscone Convention Center is standing-room only."

The quest to crack and preserve vintage Apple II software (Leigh Alexander and Iain Chambers / The Guardian Podcast) "Why has the quest to hack old Apple II software become the best hope we have of preserving a part of our cultural history? How do these floppy discs – still turning up in their box-loads – shine a light on the educational philosophies of the 80s? And do a new generation of gamers risk losing whole days of their lives by playing these compelling retro games in their browsers?"

Video Games Help Model Brain’s Neurons (Nick Wingfield / New York Times) "Since November, thousands of people have played the game, “Mozak,” which uses common tricks of the medium — points, leveling up and leader boards that publicly rank the performance of players — to crowdsource the creation of three-dimensional models of neurons."

Longtime 'Star Citizen' Backers Want Its New Referral Contest to Die in a Black Hole (Leif Johnson / Motherboard) "Developers of multiplayer video games often host referral programs encouraging existing players to recruit their friends for a boost in cash flow, and in that regard, the new referral contest from Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games isn't much out of the ordinary. The same can't be said of the reactions from the players themselves."

Localization Shenanigans in the Chinese Speaking World (Jung-Sheng Lin / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC session, IGDShare's Jung-Sheng Lin discusses a wide variety of possible issues that can arise when undertaking Chinese localization for your game. These problems include grappling simplified vs. traditional Chinese, naming problems, UI & fonts, and China-specific policies that may relate to localization, political implications, and more."

Good Game/Tech/History Youtubers (Phoe / Medium) "[SIMON'S NOTE: this got birthed after a conversation I had with Phoe in the Video Game History Foundation Discord chat - he watches a lot of good retro/interesting YouTube, and there's a number of recommendations in here I was unaware of!]

Red Bull TV - Screenland (Red Bull TV) "Plug into the fresh stories within the world of video games and game design. The personal tales, wild new developments, and unexpected genres shed new light on what gaming means in the world now and what it could mean in the future. [SIMON'S NOTE: this is an entire _season_ of gaming documentaries, including with Frank Cifaldi (Video Game History Foundation), UK cult classic Knightmare, and lots more.]"

Tim Schafer tells the story of Amnesia Fortnight (Philippa Warr / RockPaperShotgun) "“I started feeling a little bogged down by the scope of [Brutal Legend],” says Tim Schafer, founder of Double Fine. “It was really huge and I felt like the team had been doing it for a long time and had a long way to go yet. I felt like they needed a break.” That break was Amnesia Fortnight, a two week game jam during which anyone at the developer can pitch an idea and, if it’s selected, lead a team to turn it from concept to working prototype."

The Signal From Tolva: The Best Game Ever (Matt Lees / Cool Ghosts / YouTube) "New video! Matt dives into a spooky robot world, to talk about some of the cool design aspects of The Signal From Tölva. [SIMON'S NOTE: Can't emphasize enough that Cool Ghosts has some of the best game criticism on YouTube. Please patronize them! (On Patreon, not by talking down to them.)"

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[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to [email protected]. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

#IFTTT #Blogger

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symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

- Simon, curator.]

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

Night in the Woods is Important (HeavyEyed / YouTube) "An analysis of the recently released game - this video contains very minimal spoilers but watch at your own discretion.."

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

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

- Simon, curator.]

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

Night in the Woods is Important (HeavyEyed / YouTube) "An analysis of the recently released game - this video contains very minimal spoilers but watch at your own discretion.."

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

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

- Simon, curator.]

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

Night in the Woods is Important (HeavyEyed / YouTube) "An analysis of the recently released game - this video contains very minimal spoilers but watch at your own discretion.."

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

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

- Simon, curator.]

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

Night in the Woods is Important (HeavyEyed / YouTube) "An analysis of the recently released game - this video contains very minimal spoilers but watch at your own discretion.."

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

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes