Guilty as charged.

I love getting feedback. It helps me improve. However, when somebody gives me a negative comment I just want to strangle them with a garden hose until their whiny little heads pop off.

I jest. There are a few people whose feedback I value and I find myself consistently seeking advice from. I'm also more likely to share my undeveloped ideas with them early on in the creative process because I trust them and know they'll be honest but respectful about how to improve. There are a few people who I know if I can get them to say they hate my work, I feel like it's a mission accomplished because they're worthless human beings. That doesn't really help though.

I actually do enjoy getting feedback from a wide variety of sources but I often find myself resisting it at the same time. For instance, I was really opposed to the idea of the rough cut for our doc assignment in 185 because, to quote myself exactly, "I just like doing things right the first time." So I went into the screening already planning on disregarding any negative comments but I realized afterwards that the feedback I received was very helpful-- it's good to know what people are confused about because you're so used to the context and the connotations in your head that it really helps to get other eyes and brains involved so you can see what you missed. It also helps to watch or review your work in a room full of people you respect and some you don't because it makes you look at your work in a different way as well. I often feel very happy with my work but then when I let other people see it, all I can see are the things I want to change. 

It's important for me to receive positive feedback. I feed off it. But it's more important for me to receive constructive feedback. I think that's where I need to be less hesitant-- showing the unfinished product early on and getting some good suggestions will help the development and execution of the idea so I can get more positive feedback and feel good about myself. When I got into this program I felt extremely underprepared and out of place but still super protective of my ideas but I've been able to learn a lot and open up a lot and it's been good for me.

Mormon Artists: Interview with Gabriel Ghent, "DJ SkratchMo"

Click here to listen to my interview with Gabe Ghent, local dj.

He's seen here in a home studio recording drum tracks for a sample.

Interesting Audio Stories -- Ryan Adams

To me an interesting audio story needs to have much the same structure as any other story. It needs to have something to hook me at the beginning, it needs to progress, and it should have somewhere to go and it should end in a satisfying way. With an audio story such as a podcast you can cut out a lot of the dead space that might not be easy to edit in a video interview or story -- for one, because there shouldn't be dead air in a broadcast or the listener loses interest quickly, so that allows the editor or podcaster the chance to keep things interesting. It can sound smooth and seamless. I'm not much of a podcast listener but I will listen to something that has to do with things I'm interested in -- musicians I love or comedians I admire. Most other podcasts I see linked around are just noise. I don't really see them.

Click here to listen to Ryan Adams on World Cafe.

I loved this interview for a few reasons. I was already a Ryan fan so that's what drew me to click on it in the first place. I also loved the stories he told-- a look into his personal life and his personality that you can't really get just through playing his albums. I love his attempts to speak creatively and poetically in conversation because he is poetic but when he's just talking he sounds like a stoned teenager. The interviewer asks him interesting questions that prompt interesting stories and rants that sometimes don't even answer the question asked. (I love him describing his wrist break and the way they tried to fix it.) And lastly, I love the musical selections he plays. In some cases I think the performances he gives in this informal interview are better than the record he released which is enjoyable to hear as a fan. They're also rewarding tidbits that break up the interview into manageable pieces.

The Great Battle of the Beverages (300-word story)

There once was a kingdom which desired to have an official beverage with which to celebrate and make merry. Many choices were brought before the Council of the Kingdom, and many drinks were eliminated. Water? Too boring. Wine? Too expensive. At long last, the remaining drinks from which to choose were Milk and Coca-Cola.

For days the Council debated. Milk was plentiful and delicious, but nothing satisfies like the refreshing taste of an ice-cold Coke.

The debate went from the Council to the streets.

-Milk is gross! said one.
-Milk is healthy! said another.
-Coke contains harmful chemicals that can create dependency! said one.
-… So what! said another.

Thus a great rift began to divide the kingdom. Brother argued with brother. Father argued with son. Milk-drinkers were mocked. Coke-drinkers were mourned.

One morning in the square as the debate raged, a potter dropped a vase and it shattered on the cobblestone. A man panicked. -They’re attacking us! he shouted. He picked up his glass milk bottle and threw it into the crowd of Coke-drinkers.

With that spark, all took up their swords and civil war broke out in the kingdom. The milk-drinkers fashioned spears with tips made from broken milk bottles. Coke-drinkers made arrows with tips made from shards of Coke bottles. Milk-drinkers used milk pails as helmets, and rode to battle upon a thousand mighty cows. Coke-drinkers wore breastplates of bottle caps and rode upon a thousand fearsome polar bears.

For three days the battle raged. Thousands were lost. At long last, only two souls remained. Their swords, now stained red, swung feebly at each other. They collapsed from exhaustion and loss of blood. They looked upon the valley, strewn with bodies. One turned to the other.

-You know, I like water, really.
-Me too.
And they died.

30 ROCK -- man-made.

(notes on) biology

This video is best watched at fullscreen.

I'm not sure how I found this but I've loved it for a while now. The stop-motion photography at the beginning is a little difficult to get used to but prepares the viewer for what is to come. The story told in this video is one most people can relate to-- being insanely bored in a science class. What happens though is so unexpected that you keep watching, through the tedious beginning, for the enormous payoff at the end.

The protagonist, the boy who starts drawing in his notebook, is a character I immediately connected with, though his artistic abilities were actually able to meet his imagination's expectations which was impressive. And the thing he chooses to draw-- a robot elephant that blows things up with its cannon trunk-- is so absurd yet so fitting that you hardly question it. (But it's such a guy thing to draw.) The addition of sound effects and the numbing and eventual disappearance of the teacher's voice completes the effect until we too forget that he's in class and he's drawing all over his notes.

While it's a boring story at its bones (kid gets bored in class so he draws on his notebook) the medium allows a completely new story to be told, one that wouldn't make sense in another form.

I don't think the story is trying to tell us anything specific except maybe that biology can be boring and robot elephants are the shiz. What I gained from it was that a simple fun idea can be worth the large amounts of work you put into it-- they had write hundreds of believable yet unique and hilarious pages of biology notes before they could begin the animation. That amount of work for little or no financial benefit is inspiring.