The Bluejacket Creative

So What Does It Look Like?Wrapping up the week here, and I want to share something with you that I’ve started doing this week that I think has positively affected my outlook, no matter how kooky it sounds.I have this little barrel chair in my studio. It was given to me by my grandmother years ago. I remember spinning around and around on it in her house until they had to put a wooden block on the track to get me to stop. I’ve recovered it, and today it’s my reading/thinking/sulking chair. I sit down in this chair at the beginning of every day, and I’ve been giving some thought to the endgame. What does the endgame look like? What is my ideal result? There’s really nothing new about this. It’s called creative visualization. Shakti Gawain wrote a book about this years ago, and it’s “the art of using mental imagery and affirmation to produce positive changes in your life. It is successfully used in the fields of health, business, creative arts, and sports, and in fact, can have an impact in every area of your life.” Of course, back in my younger and angrier days, something like this would have been met with a roll of the eyes. I really can’t do that anymore because the simple act of visualizing what the end of this looks like every morning for just five minutes or so has changed my outlook on things. I feel better about rolling this rock up the hill every day. I’m doing good work here. I’m expressing myself creatively, I’m finding material relevant to the things I like talking about, I’m spending less time on the things I don’t want to spend time on, and at the end of the day, the work is getting done. I’m still spending only about an hour a day on this work, and as of right now, I’m a week ahead of schedule and still going. More to the point, I have fun because I’m literally creating something every day right now, and it does wonders for my morale. It all starts with just sitting in that beloved chair every day and thinking every day that I’m going to win. I’m going to get what I want out of this work, this time, this life.Now, I haven’t gotten so far as to see the beach in my backyard, but give me a couple of months on that. Let’s see how this goes for a minute before I get ahead of myself.I’d like you to give this a try. There’s no chanting, no mantras, no sitting cross-legged on a mat and contemplating your belly button, think to yourself, “What does the end of this look like to me?” What does success look like to you? Maybe, once you sort that out and see it every day, and you know what step you’re on now, maybe the steps in the middle become clearer. It certainly couldn’t hurt. Cut Yourself a BreakOf course, it’s easy to get stuck. We all do. I certainly have. But that’s where “What’s Next?” comes into play. It’s the act of leaning into what’s causing you the trouble. You identify it, and you work to resolve it. That’s not just helpful in the creative arena, you know. Indeed, nothing hard ever gets better unless you commit to this. Otherwise, you’re spinning your wheels, and nothing gets done.There will be times when you’re going to fail, though, so let me pass on this piece of wisdom gained from years of doing the exact opposite: Cut yourself a break. No home-run king ever hit it out of the park every time, don’t kid yourself. Perfectionism is a fast track to a permanent failure, which is just giving up. Don’t get discouraged. Just take a beat. Show yourself some compassion, relax, and lean back in when you’re ready.Finally, don’t be a battering ram. That’s a good way to give yourself a headache. If it doesn’t work today, it might work tomorrow. Put it away for the day and try again tomorrow. Most importantly, don’t beat yourself up for the days you missed. Celebrate the days you succeeded because that will help you tomorrow when you go at it again.

Yesterday I told you that as creators, I think that social media is becoming our worst enemy due to the weaponization of the platforms for engagement and the appropriation of content by aggregators and other entities for their use and engagement. As such, I suggested that there might be a way to reassert control over your creative assets, and that’s what I want to talk about today.You see, I think we’ve got to get back to housing our assets in our own spaces, places that we control. Our own ship, as it were. Years ago, I had a small limited run podcast series called “The Peaceful Pirate,” in which I talked about building your own ship. That ship is your website, your base of operations. In one episode, I mentioned the need to go fishing every day, and by that, I meant sending out bait to all the appropriate places—links to social media, contributing to forums, and things of that nature. I believe you still need to do that. What I don’t think you need to do is give your content to social media. Please give them the breadcrumbs to come to your content instead.Some of you might think this is a difference without a distinction, but I don't see it this way. In one scenario, you’re laying it all out there somewhere else for someone to take it. in the other, they’re coming to you. Even in the eventuality that someone steals a photo from your site, for example, you have some recourse as long as your terms spell that out. Even if you don’t care so much about that, then I’d remind you that they had to come to your site, which was the whole point all along. For lack of a better way to put it, you caught the fish, and now that you know you caught one, you can catch another. The Value PropositionChase Jarvis on how to get people to come to your site:Note that I disagree with his suggestion to post your content directly on social. I still think you should link to your content at your place. That said, give them every reason in the world to do that by adding value to the topic, the conversation, and the platform. You have to build trust as someone who knows what they’re talking about, someone who has a talent for the topic, and above all, someone who is an adherent to Wheaton’s Law. What About Clubhouse?Steve Pratt at Pacific Content:First and foremost, whether you’re a creator or a brand, you need to answer this question: what’s the job you’re hiring audio to do?Once you know the answer, you can determine what to make, where it should live (podcasting, Clubhouse, radio, etc), and how to use it. There are lots of great uses — and some not so great uses — for Clubhouse. Here are a few ways to think about when and where it makes sense.As a general rule, if your value prop is that you’re the “blank” of “blank” (Like the ‘Medium of Podcasts’, for example), you’re already in the hole because to remember you, I have to think of someone else first.This is a real-time panel. That’s all Clubhouse is. Even then, I think of forums and Usenet threads back in the day. The shiny bit is that’s its audio. Now, one thing I think it’s got in its favor is that you no longer have to determine if someone is being sarcastic in a post. Unless you can’t listen for context cues, that’s going to be pretty easy to discern. Based on what I am seeing, Clubhouse is not going to be any threat to podcasting. I’m glad to see they’re doing well, but let’s check back in a month or so.I do have one thing to ask about, how’s their moderation game? I haven’t gone poking around, but I wonder what happens with Proud Q. Gunsalot comes poking around with his bullshit. I’m taking a wait and see approach on that. In Praise of BatchingOver at Jasmine Star’s website, they’re talking about batching your content. Hallelujah.I set two or three days per month to create all of my video content… But let me tell you friend, these marathon recording sessions don’t happen without WEEKS of advanced planning.*Yes, it’s true: when you have a plan to work smarter, you don’t have to work harder!*Last week I talked about doing a bunch of stuff on an hour a day, and I thought I was being smart. What if I could work out all the stuff I wanted to do for a month in 2-3 days and get it all out?(You could plan all the other shit you keep crying about making, Roley…)

On Instagram AggregatorsSo, today on the show I'm going to go over some ground that I've seen trod upon many times already, but I'm not really sure side I fall on. The question is whether or not instagram is good for photographers. To be sure, I follow a lot of photographers on instagram, but there's something else I have found myself following lately, and here's where I have the issue. I'll call them photo aggregators. My beloved state of Maine, for example. I follow DownEast Magazine, which is to my mind the authority on the State of Maine. Their photography...hell, just their iconic magazine covers, are extraordinary. But then there are accounts like For the Love of Maine, which is an aggregator of Maine photography that they repost from other users. Yes, they credit those users, but who's getting the likes here? I find myself wondering what the clickthrough rate is from liking a photo on those accounts to following the person who actually took the photo, and realistically it can't be very high. It's not just Maine, though. Hell, there's Nantucket and Cape Cod aggregators, Black and White photo aggregators, there's minimal photography photos...I bet if you went to instagram and listed whatever your strangest geekdom is, there's probably an aggregator for it. So I have to ask the question if posting your work on Instagram is worth it if it's going to be appropriated by someone FOR THE GRAM.I suppose it comes down to a personal choice. Personally, if I post a photo of my work on Instagram and someone picks it up and reposts it, I would hope that person has approached me and asked for permission. I don't see that happening in a lot of these cases, but you never know. I would really be pissed off if someone took a photo of mine without permission and removed a watermark and I'd ask for them to remove it, but I'm not sure if I do anything other than shame them publicly if that were to happen. If that's happened on Instagram I haven't seen it.To be honest, I think there's a wider question to be asked about whether we need social media anymore If it's going to be weaponized against the creative specifically, and the general public as a whole. Would it surprise you that I'm leaning against removing myself from Instagram and Facebook completely? Maybe it shouldn't. I'm sensing a little shift in the earth here and I'm going to talk more about this on another show, but one thing I really want to address is the free as in beer mindset that a lot of social media marketers and those nebulous 'influencers' seem to operate on. That model depends on the ability of a person to work for 'exposure', for likes, for engagement, and for that person to be ok with ceding control of their work in the hopes that they can turn that exposure into dollars. I am less and less sure that ceding that control is worth it. I'm not saying that you don't put your work out there, of course you should. However, I think you need to be able to control how it's put out there, and I think there's only one way you do that. We'll talk about that in more detail next time. See what I did there? Monochrome In-Camera? YES, PLEASEThe more and more I shoot the more I prefer shooting in Black and White. There’s something about it that grabs me. One of the problems I’ve had time and time again was shooting something I thought would be amazing in Black and White only to bring it home and realize it was a great idea, but not a great shot. The reason I failed is simple: I’m shooting in color, I see in color, and I’m guessing about monochrome in my head. Turns out you can change that. I shoot with a Canon t5i, and here’s how you can change the Picture Style so your screen shows you a preview in Black and White (note: This is for the screen ONLY, your viewfinder will still show the world in glorious color). Also, my Canon camera has a touch screen function, but yours may not. For that reason, I’m going to give you the manual instructions. Adapt these instructions as appropriate.Press the MENU button, and then use the right-arrow button to the right of the LCD screen to scroll through the menu pages until you find Picture Style. Use the down-arrow button to highlight the line, and press the SET buttonUse the down arrow button to highlight Monochrome. Press the SET button again to select it, then press the MENU button to exit the menu.Obviously, you may shoot with another brand, but I’m sure many later model DSLR cameras have this ability. Consult your user manual or online knowledge base for instructions on how to do this for your camera. If you can get this right in-camera, you’ll have less to do in post.Oh, by the way: if you shoot in RAW, you can convert to color in the edit if you want. You’re not committing to monochrome by changing the screen. For All My iPhoneographersOf course, you know that the best camera is the one you have with you, and nine times out of ten, it’s the one on your phone. With that in mind, I’d like to give you some ideas about how to take your phone game to the next level. These tips will be for the native iPhone camera app, but I want to remind you that there are several apps out there that give you a lot more control. I personally recommend the Moment app, but you don’t need to buy an app to up your game. All you need is some knowledge.As human beings, we’re not stationary creatures. Even when you think. You’re standing perfectly; still, you’re not. In fact, if you were a Christmas Tree Stand, you’d be on the rug, and the house would be on fire. This is why sometimes when you take a picture on your iPhone, you go to the trouble of framing the shot, you try to stay perfectly still, yet the thing comes out blurry and out of focus. So next time, tap and HOLD on the subject of our picture. This will invoke the Auto Exposure/’Auto Focus Lock, and the camera will stay locked on to the subject no matter how much you move around. Then make sure you frame your shot and take that photo. The RPS ArchivesThe Royal Photographic Society has made their archives from March of 1853 to 2018 available for free online. Just let that sink in. That’s 165 years of history, captured in photos. Mindblowing. The Society covered the art and technical aspects of photography and the developments in those spaces, major events, and reported the activities of the Society itself. Even if you’re not a photography geek you might be a history geek, and this should be up your alley either way. I know more than a few Civil War Historians that might find this interesting, and I hope there’s something in there to get their mouths watering. I’m going down this rabbit hole as soon as possible, I encourage you to do the same.

One Small MomentToday I want to talk to some specific friends who I won't name, but I'm fairly sure that this will apply to way more of just them.First things first, I'm not going to insult your intelligence by giving you a bunch of platitudes. In my experience, they're nothing but empty calories. Filler and no substance, they're designed to make the person giving them feel better, not the person who needs help. In some cases, people who need help end up feeling worse. I'm one of those people, so I absolutely understand the feeling. So, no bullshit from me. Cool? Moving on.Let me describe my lack of bona fides right upfront. I'm a guy with a high school education and one year of college because I let my dick do the thinking up to the point that I ended up homeless and friendless. I tried to follow in my Dad's footsteps and join the military and washed right out after six months because I have a mouth bigger than my brain. I come from a family that describing as dysfunctional is exceedingly generous. My dad had anger issues, my mother was a narcissist manipulator, as is my brother. He's got a criminal record and is probably on his way back to prison for at least 12 years as I write this. I'm the voice of reason in my family, and as I have said repeatedly, this should scare the fuck out of you. I got married at 24, and I had three kids by the age of 30. I've been dirt poor most of that time. At this stage of my life, I believe that I am an undiagnosed case of autism from the 1970s because my kids--all of them--are on the spectrum. I didn't have a bad childhood if you looked at it from one angle, but I had a horrible one if you looked at it from the inside out. I inherited my Dad's anger issues and my mother's narcissism. I was a horrible husband for years until my wife walked out on me in 2005. It made me face myself in a way I had not seen before, and I couldn't take it. I had a nervous breakdown. My wife thought I was worth saving, and I am forever grateful for it. I promised I would work on my issues, and I have. Three times in my life, I thought I was at the end of my rope. Not from a thought of suicide ideation, just that there was nowhere else to turn. No one else to ask for help. No one else I could lean on. Just Roley.That moment right there is the point. The entire lesson. One small moment when your brain says, "Well, you're really fucked now, aren't you?" There is only one answer to that question, and that answer is yes because if you answer no, you ain't there yet. Trust me on this. You have to answer yes. This is the moment where you're accountable to no one but you, and you cannot lie to yourself. You can TRY. It ain't gonna work. Not for long.Let's not bullshit ourselves. There is a lot of work in repairing a life that you fucked up on your own. You climb up out of a hole for years before you ever see daylight. I was a shut-in for two years because I thought it better that the world forgets about me. I tried to make a living from home in 2006-2007, but this world we live in hadn't come to pass yet, and I was living a fantasy. It made me feel worse that I couldn't provide for my family, but I could barely function as a human at that point. So I decided to do the only work I was capable of: Working on myself. I read every self-help book and mental health book I could lay my hands on. I dug deep into myself to try to figure out why I was the person I was, how I became that way, and the answer was straightforward. First, I thought I was absolutely normal. My behavior, though abhorrent, was how I was raised. My parents treated each other and us kids horribly, but it wasn't physically abusive save for a couple of times I'll keep to myself. I grew up in the same environment I perpetuated. I was continuing a cycle. Secondly, to accept that fact and to change meant work I wasn't ready to take on. But human psychology is a lot like a car in that regard; you can do the work now, or you can do it later, but it's going to cost you a lot more. In my case, it almost cost me everything. It was the third of those three times that I faced myself in the mirror and heard that voice, and this was the time I said yes.For two-thirds of my life, my story is a story of failure, of self-hatred, of being a bad example. But from the age of 35 to 50, it's a story of repair and redemption. I'll put my humble path to today up against anyone's and dare them to do the work I've done to heal myself and come out who I am today. I'm still married to the same woman for over 25 years now. I've got three amazing kids who I adore. Up until May of this year, I had what I consider to be a dream job until COVID ate it, but I'm still with the same company, and I'm going to bust whatever amount of ass it takes to get my job back or demonstrate the skills I learned there to someone else who's willing to take me. I have a sense of self-worth and purpose that I've never had before, and I'm not taking being a call center tech support agent for the rest of my life. It is a means to an end, and it is not my life's work. I know what that is. It's helping you in the best way I know how: By being not the example of how to fix it, but from showing you by my example, it CAN BE FIXED that you can go from being a person full of anger and self-loathing and cruel behavior to being a person of kindness and compassion and love for people. That you can go from being a person who has no prospects to a person who can go to a job every day that fulfills them personally and professionally. That you can go from being a person who hasn't got their shit together at all to a person that can get morning to night without falling apart at the seams. This is my road, and my lane, but it's big enough for you, and I want you on this road with me. Some of you are gifted and talented beyond description, but the world doesn't know it yet because you have these problems. I know. I get it. I also see who you are, and the world deserves to see you as well. I had no one else to turn to at that last moment, so I did what I had to do. Myself. I'm asking you to take a walk with me because I don't want you to have to do it on your own. I may not know your way home, but I can get you as far as Anchorhead. You can get transport there to Mos Eisley or wherever you're going.I had to get one joke in there somehow. Did Joe Know About This?On the heels of the news of Joe Budden maybe-kinda-sorta-moving his show to Patreon (which is weird since it looks like it’s being hosted on Libsyn now), Spotify has announced plans for multiple business models for podcasts, possibly to include ad-supported subscriptions and a la carte options. These may be discussed at a live stream event later in February.Asked if Spotify thought customers would be willing to pay for podcasts, Ek on the earnings call responded that he believed there were several new models that could be explored.“I think we’re in the early days of seeing the long-term evolvement of how we can monetize audio on the internet. I’ve said this before, but I don’t believe that it’s a one-size-fits-all,” he said. “I believe, in fact, that we will have all business models, and that’s the future for all media companies — that you will have ad-supported subscriptions and à la carte sort of in the same space, of all media companies in the future.”“And you should definitely expect Spotify to follow that strategy and that pattern,” Ek added, more definitively.The answer seemed to indicate that Spotify is considering some of the ideas in that recent survey — of getting consumers to pay for some podcasts, instead of accessing them all for free or having them bundled into their music subscription.I wonder if Budden was aware of this and balked. Would there be a revenue split between Spotify and the creators, and what’s the ratio? Now that I think of it, isn’t that what they’ve been crying about re: Apple?For more than a year, Spotify has been making noise about Apple’s unchecked power over the App Store, and in March 2019, it filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission. Spotify claims Apple’s practice of taking 30 percent of an app’s revenue is unjustified, and says the company operates as a monopoly on iOS.Suddenly, I find this Budden/Spotify deal more intriguing. Wait, You Can Make Money Doing That?  Julie Miller from Vanity Fair writes about Hollywood coming over to the Pod Side for ‘fun and profit’:…entertainment types began orbiting the audio space about two years ago in earnest, as the number of Americans listening to podcasts every month headed toward the 100 million it is today. It was also around 2018 that agencies like CAA began incorporating audio deals into their development packages. One insider estimates that many celebrities could get a six-figure guarantee per year, with the biggest actors receiving between $1 million and $3 million to launch an unscripted podcast. Scripted projects offer less up-front money but can be adapted into TV shows, films, books, and so on.For the record, I am Steve Jobs, “Podcasts are Amateur Hour" Years Old. For years, podcasting was seen as less-than, so when I see stories like this, the little imp of the perverse in the back of my head tosses a bone at every true media elitist who, strangely, has a podcast now.. How About Not Doing That?Chris Curran over at PES has a question about your thin mouth:When I’m doing my fine-tuned editing on a podcast episode I use TwistedWave or Sound Forge because they allow me to VERY QUICKLY zoom in, highlight very small things like single mouthclicks, and delete them. When I try to make the same kind of edit in a DAW (Reaper and others) it takes forever. What say you?For the most part, my workflow tends to remove mouth clicks, or at the very least minimize them. If they still show up through my noise gate, I highlight and remove them. I can’t say this happens often because I like to make sure I keep some water near me while I’m recording. The single biggest

It might just be the time of year, but I find myself getting discouraged easily. It’s compounded by the fact that we’re coming up on a year since my job sent me home and everything that’s happened since then. The simple fact of the matter is I’m not where I want to be at almost any category of life you care to name. I’m currently making about half of what I was pre-May 2020, I’m struggling with staying in a creative mindset, I’m not necessarily hopeful that I will be able to realize a key hope of mine to regain the position I was previously in, and I’m not finding anything equivalent out there that I can do despite the experience. It leaves me in a pretty depressing place, and I’m not sure what my next move is. So when this happens, I try to move out of the mindset of what I can’t do to figure out what I can accomplish. I believe it starts with talking about the things I am passionate about. Demonstrating some knowledge. Possibly not being so unassuming about it?A lot of the past year had to do with how my friends stayed creative and productive during the pandemic, and now I may be best served by turning this camera inward. Let’s see what happens.After I wrote the above, I fired up my Feedly reader, and Seth Godin’s post today is very timely indeed.So, let’s consult the imp in the back of my head that wants to know what the bleep I’m going to do to turn YET into DONE. I think first we have to define what DONE is, and I’m finding that a little hard to do at the moment. It’s a Jackson Pollack splatter of thought about what I don’t want to be doing anymore, and very little thought about what it is I would rather be doing, and whether I can do it for a living. Nothing new here, this has pretty much been the case for a few years now. I need to put these thoughts together. I don’t want to take phone calls anymore. I do want a job in a creative field. I want what I create to be able to help people. I want to be able to live comfortably on the fruits of that effort, which means not only the bills are paid, but that the wife and I are not worried about health insurance, and that the kids are taken care of.So, maybe that’s what done is. If that’s true, then the next question—my favorite—is ‘What’s Next?”. What I’m about to write is the first time I’ve ever written this answer: I don’t know. I don’t know what the first step is, and if I don’t know what the first step is, I can’t figure the next one. Marie Forleo likes to say “Everything is Figureoutable”. I sure hope so, because being stuck in this place is a goddamn exhausting place to be.Of course, as I said at the beginning, it could just be that it’s January and it’s cold, and that I hate everything right now. It feels like more than that, but maybe it always does and I’m not remembering it. Oh, You Didn’t Know?Joe Budden, who up until a few months ago had an exclusive deal with Spotify, is moving his podcast to Patreon. The Verge has some comments from Budden:He says he proved the model, along with the potential of his audience, but didn’t want Spotify to use his fans and reach to prove the platform’s own worth and make money. “For many years, the record labels and the system that I come from tricked us into thinking they were doing us a favor by capitalizing off our talent and basically loaning us money, and that’s been the standard the entire time,” Budden says, adding that he already knows how that system worked out for creators. When Budden announced his split from the tech company, he said Spotify was “pillaging” his audience and only cared about how his show contributed to Spotify overall, not about his actual podcast.Budden was a recording artist before he was a podcaster. If he’s aware that the record labels played games, I can’t believe he didn’t see the obvious. Streaming Services aren’t exactly known for treating artists differently, for a start, but let’s address what I think is the elephant in the room, which is the question of whether or not what you had was actually a podcast, because I think that question is fundamental to the problem Budden experienced. A podcast is not exclusive to a platform, and I’ll argue that point until I’m blue in the face. If I can’t subscribe to your show on a different platform than Spotify, then you don’t have a podcast, you have a show on Spotify. Spotify might have a big user base, but that user base is all you have. Spotify’s Q4 2020 earnings state that they have 345 million active monthly users, and that only 25 percent of those users listen to podcasts on the platform. That’s around 86.5 Million, and trust me, they’re not all listening to Joe Budden. Yes, he’s got a lot of downloads, but what he’s got on Spotify is all he’s going to get by staying there. Patreon is a huge and smart play, I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes 3x on listeners and money at the very least.(Note to self, get back on Patreon, it’s about to blow up.) The Clothes Suck AnywayAh, exposure. SO great for paying bills, only the complete opposite of paying bills.One of my favorite Twitter accounts is @forexposure_txt, and they receive posts every day from creatives who receive requests, demands, and straight-up meltdowns from people who believe it’s ok not to pay a creative for their work. However, in some cases, there’s the odd post about a company that lifts a picture, alters it, and uses it on their social media without attribution. Take, for example, Meg of Margate, a photographer who discovered a fashion brand called Ted Baker (no link, I’m not enabling this behavior) lifted a photo, photoshopped it, and post it on their Instagram “for engagement”. When called on it, they offered Meg a 200 dollar gift card from their store, which she declined. They then stated they didn’t have the budget to pay photographers, so they deleted the image.Fine, but let’s be clear about what really happened here. A fashion brand that declared revenue of 617 million pounds in 2019 used a picture that didn’t own to drive traffic to their brand. They got likes and engagement for hours on that post. Then they told the photographer, sorry we can’t afford it, and just deleted the post. Ted Baker made money off that stolen picture, and they probably will have no liability for screwing a creative because it costs money to take people to court.If this doesn’t make you angry, it should.This seems like a good place to link to one of my favorite talks by Mike Montiero, “Fuck You, Pay Me.” More Instagram StuffInstagram is now conducting a test to remove the ability to share feed posts within Stories:You would assume that a lot of Stories updates are re-shared feed posts. The fact that Instagram is willing to reduce this seems like a positive sign for its development focus - but it might also indicate that people are viewing Stories less as a result of such shares, which has prompted Instagram to take action.I can tell you that many of my stories are photos from other accounts that I think are amazing, and I do that to encourage my followers to follow them. If you remove the ability for me to do that, then I have to resort to a third party program—Repost—to post them to my feed, and I don’t want to do that. My feed should be for my pictures. I hope what they’re driving at is removing the ability to share one’s own feed posts as Stories, and I would completely understand why they feel it’s redundant. That’s not how I read this story. In other Instagram news, it looks like IG and Twitter might be burying the hatchet soon and allowing integrations again:That's an even bigger integration. As noted by Jane Manchun Wong, Instagram hasn't provided direct Twitter integration since it disabled Twitter card preview support back in 2012, which makes it annoyingly difficult to share content between the two apps. Now, it seems they're mending bridges, which could facilitate not just tweets in Stories stickers, but wholly new integration options which would enable direct sharing of Instagram posts to Twitter as well, fully integrated and formatted in-line.That's not part of this proposal, and it may not ever be. But it would definitely be handy - and with Twitter seemingly now more open to such, it could pave the way for improved connection.If true, this would look a lot cleaner than the screenshots we’re all doing right now anyway. Honestly, this horse has been out of the barn so long it’s dying of exposure. Shot of The Day 

Hey, you sick twisted freaks, It's Roley, how ya doin', welcome to the show.I've been doing something the past couple of weeks that has been really productive, and I'd like to share it with you today.  So let me ask you a question:  Is there an hour a day that you've been pretty much screwing off instead of doing your creative work?  What if you instead locked in for that hour and dedicated it to "the plan," or whatever you want to call it?  How much do you think you could get done in an hour without interruption?My answer should be pretty evident; I did 13 podcasts last month.  I edited two albums of photos.  I deep cleaned the ever-living hell out of my studio.  I did a few screen simulations for things I have yet to edit.  I took a class on shooting video.  I edited a video for a friend's podcast.   This month, I plan to keep that momentum up and hopefully add a few more things.  I did it with an hour of dedicated, uninterrupted time every day.   Because I was able to do it with an hour a day, I was able to do it without the burnout I've previously felt by grinding for hours, I was able to take care of other things outside of the creative as well, and most importantly I was able to get the sleep I've been sorely lacking.  Once I've finished my hour, I take stock of where I am and plan out what I need to do next.  Since most of what I do is cyclical, I have a checklist for that.  If I take on additional work or have a new project, I'll plan those outside the dedicated time.  Usually, in the morning, when I'm going over admin stuff before I hit the day job.  Admittedly, this took a little getting used to because I'm used to just powering through a mountain of work, but what I have begun to realize about myself is that after a while, there's a point of diminishing returns about what I do.   Constraining the amount of time I get down to writing, for example, makes me focus on the task for a certain time, and I think it improves the product.  I'll be using this process in the future, and I plan on folding it into a larger idea of workflow that I'll share with you once I have it ironed out.   For now, I think we'll call this an experiment in Project Management, but one that appears to be working out.If you've found this helpful, I would appreciate it if you'd share this with someone you think could use it. Subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already, and I'd really appreciate a review of the podcast if you have the time.  Also, if you find this episode or any of this podcast to be of value to you, how about being me a coffee?  You can go to buymeacoffee.com/krisroley, and...well...buy me a coffee.  Now, I've mentioned this at the end of the podcast since the beginning of the year, but I haven't really gone into a lot of detail about what you can find at the BMAC site.   Over at Buy Me A Coffee, I have three tiers:  Free content, content for supporters of my work, and membership content.  I'll always put up free content at the site because I realize some people can't part with a buck right now, but I still want you to have something.   Supporters get a weekly dispatch, a sample of my photographic work, and what I call 'One Sheets,' which are one-page tutorials on how to do something.  For example, January's one sheet had to do with how I process voices for audio.   Members will get all the Supporter content, a special podcast, and any video tutorials I do.   You can support my work for as little as a dollar, and memberships are 5 bucks a month or 50 dollars a year.  There are two other ways you can support my work. The first is by going to krisroley.com and clicking on the photography link in the menu.  The photos I've posted there are available for purchase, and more photos will be posted there as we go.   The second is by hiring me to edit your podcast, provide show notes, or write for you, and you can check my rates by going to krisroley.com and clicking on the services link.The website HQ for all this madness is krisroley.com, and you can go there to see the latest and connect with me on all the social mediasssss.  Stay Solid, people, see you next time...buhbye. 

Happy Lensday, kids! It's Roley, how ya doin', welcome to the show.Today, I want to talk a little about street photography and the hit and miss nature.  If you're keeping an eye on my Buy Me A Coffee page, you know I've been heading down to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront about once a month to take pictures of life on the beach because I want to capture the side of a beach town that you don't get to see.  Having done that for a couple of months now, I can see a few things I need to improve.   The first thing is the variety of shots I should be taking.  Most of the shots of people are off doing the things you usually see people doing, like walking a dog, riding a skateboard, or riding a bike.  I think a few shots stand out; one that springs to mind is of a young lady looking out the door of a cafe at something off the frame.   However, there's really not a lot of variety because, in the age of COVID, there aren't many people out and about.  Even in the dead of winter, there is at least some action.  Something else I feel a little guilty about is shooting the homeless.  There's a significant homeless population down there, and I have a pretty good idea of when and where I can catch them.  I feel a little uneasy about photographing them, but that is part of the story I want to tell, so I need to figure that out.   I am sure I need to make this happen is a change in my lens choice.  For the most part, I've been using my kit 18-55mm lens for this, but it's possible I need to use a longer lens for this.  So, I'm thinking about using my 55-250 lens and taking my 24mm lens for wider shots of the street and architecture, things like that.  Varying the times of day, I get down there may also help because I'm usually finding myself down there at midday.  I need some early morning and early evening shots, especially in the winter.  Of course, as we get into the summer months, night time shots with all the colors and lights will be part of the game, but then the streets will (hopefully) be full of activity.  Right now, the name of the game is the seedy part of the beach in the offseason.  I've been making a point to make all the winter shots in black and white, and when we move into spring and summer, we'll change to color.  That's just an artistic choice to help tell the story, but it's something I might need to rethink as we go forward.  I've also been wondering about portrait shots of people down there, but I'm not sure how to go about that without pissing people off.  Cameras do tend to make people nervous now and then.The most important thing I want to pass on to you is that nothing I've mentioned in this podcast is a dealbreaker for whether or not I continue.  Even if this project is largely a 'failure,' I can't consider it one.  Street Photography is something I have wanted to experiment with, and anytime I can take the camera out of the bag, I've already won because I'm learning every time I do it.   That's the big lesson out of this.  Just shoot.   Consider what you have, and iterate every time you head out.  Everything is practice.  You can't take the good shots unless you take a mountain of bad ones, and trust me, I've taken some bad photos, but I've got some outstanding ones out of this that I'm proud to share with all of you.  If you've found this helpful, I would appreciate it if you'd share this with someone you think could use it. Subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already, and I'd really appreciate a review of the podcast if you have the time.  Also, if you find this episode or any of this podcast to be of value to you, how about being me a coffee?  You can go to buymeacoffee.com/krisroley, and...well...buy me a coffee.  Now, I've mentioned this at the end of the podcast since the beginning of the year, but I haven't really gone into a lot of detail about what you can find at the BMAC site.   Over at Buy Me A Coffee, I have three tiers:  Free content, content for supporters of my work, and membership content.  I'll always put up free content at the site because I realize some people can't part with a buck right now, but I still want you to have something.   Supporters get a weekly dispatch, a sample of my photographic work, and what I call 'One Sheets,' which are one-page tutorials on how to do something.  For example, January's one sheet had to do with how I process voices for audio.   Members will get all the Supporter content, a special podcast, and any video tutorials I do.   You can support my work for as little as a dollar, and memberships are 5 bucks a month or 50 dollars a year.  There are two other ways you can support my work. The first is by going to krisroley.com and clicking on the photography link in the menu.  The photos I've posted there are available for purchase, and more photos will be posted there as we go.   The second is by hiring me to edit your podcast, provide show notes, or write for you, and you can check my rates by going to krisroley.com and clicking on the services link.The website HQ for all this madness is krisroley.com, and you can go there to see the latest and connect with me on all the social mediasssss.  Stay Solid, people, see you next time...buhbye. 

Welcome to February, shipmates1. I hope you had an excellent January.  I think I did.  I managed to put out 12 or 13 episodes of this podcast in January, and I managed to get my first supporter at Buy Me A Coffee. Over the course of the month, I received some great validation that I have helped people move forward with what they want to do.  One particular podcaster that I helped a while ago called me his Obi-Wan and mentioned that he wouldn't be podcasting were it not for some mentorship along the way from me.  I have to tell you, as a person that doesn't really need much in the way of validation, I was legit choked up by that.  More than money or recognition or any of those things, the simple act of validation that I'm doing the right thing for people is more than enough for me, and I will continue to move forward and do the right thing for all of you.  That's why we're doing this, that's why I'm here.  And so, we move forward.Moving forward has been on my mind lately, to be truthful.   In my case, moving forward means I'm leaving things I used to do behind.   I'm not focusing on the comedy, so folks that came here for the comedy may be surprised.   That's not to say that humor is not a part of what I'm doing here; some aspect of the haha will always be woven into this podcast because I can't be serious all the damn time, nor would I want to be.  The fact remains that if you move to serve another audience, the existing one may be disappointed.    This is the choice we face not just as creatives but also as humans.  When we focus on something else, we lose focus on what we were doing before.  However, there is one other thing we tend to do as humans, and that's feeling guilty about the process.  I'm going to suggest that we stop feeling guilty about it because the part that we're failing to grasp is that nothing we will ever make or do will please everybody.   Look at the most recent iterations of The Doctor, the Star Wars Prequels, or the most recent trilogy.  Hell, some people think Pink Floyd sucked when Syd Barrett left the band, and he was only on ONE ALBUM.   The point is that it's impossible to please everyone, but it is possible to displease a lot more people by not creating anything at all.   So, stop creating for everyone.  Create for someone.  Even if that someone is just you.  If you've found this helpful, I would appreciate it if you'd share this with someone you think could use it. Subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already, and I'd really appreciate a review of the podcast if you have the time.  Also, if you find this episode or any of this podcast to be of value to you, how about being me a coffee?  You can go to buymeacoffee.com/krisroley, and...well...buy me a coffee.  Now, I've mentioned this at the end of the podcast since the beginning of the year, but I haven't really gone into a lot of detail about what you can find at the BMAC site.   Over at Buy Me A Coffee, I have three tiers:  Free content, content for supporters of my work, and membership content.  I'll always put up free content at the site because I realize some people can't part with a buck right now, but I still want you to have something.   Supporters get a weekly dispatch, a sample of my photographic work, and what I call 'One Sheets,' which are one-page tutorials on how to do something.  For example, January's one sheet had to do with how I process voices for audio.   Members will get all the Supporter content, a special podcast, and any video tutorials I do.   You can support my work for as little as a dollar, and memberships are 5 bucks a month or 50 dollars a year.  There are two other ways you can support my work. The first is by going to krisroley.com and clicking on the photography link in the menu.  The photos I've posted there are available for purchase, and more photos will be posted there as we go.   The second is by hiring me to edit your podcast, provide show notes, or write for you, and you can check my rates by going to krisroley.com and clicking on the services link.The website HQ for all this madness is krisroley.com, and you can go there to see the latest and connect with me on all the social mediasssss.  Stay Solid, people, see you next time...buhbye. 

As we close out the month of January, Here's what I hope you've managed to do, and trust me when I tell you this is just as much for me as it is for you.  I hope you've made a list of the things you'd like to get accomplished this year, although I hope you've made two lists—one list with COVID, one without.  I hope you've made a budget.  I want to recommend a website and app called YNAB -- You Need A Budget.  It actually helps make sense of the one thing that causes us the most stress in our lives.  Subscribe to the YouTube Channel.  I'll put it in the show notes.  Try the budget app out for the 34-day free trial.  No, I'm not making any money from this. I like to tell you about the tools I use and whether I find this useful.   I believe this is useful.I hope you've begun setting boundaries in your life.  Not just about what we've talked about previously, but also about time.  I hope you're carving out time--scratch that--I hope you're scheduling time to create, to reflect, and to review. These are the three most important times you need in your life.  Schedule this time and don't negotiate about it.  Your creation time is what you need to move your life as a creative forward, your reflection time is so you can be grounded in the rest of your life, and your review time is so you can review what you've accomplished and what your next steps are.  If I can get nothing else through to you in this episode, make sure you get this one.  Please consider this year one other period of time, and that's time to learn.  Whether that's through YouTube, Creative Live, Masterclass, LinkedIn Learning, or just good old fashioned book learning, it might be a good idea to sit down at some point during the week and learn something that will help you in your craft or life.  I hope you get some sleep, goddamn it.  You're no good to anyone as a zombie.  It's supposedly cool to bust your ass three ways from Sunday for the grind, but if all you're doing is work, there's no time for the rest of your life.   If I have one regret in my life, it's not getting this lesson earlier.  I hope you're on the way to realizing what you're worth, and when you do, don't negotiate it.  I'm not just talking about work.  Be willing to walk.  Finally, I hope you're willing and able to change your plans.   Nobody gets exactly what they want how they want it 100 percent of the time.  Shit happens.  Control what you can, and roll with what you can't.   Improvisation, when done well, relies upon two words:  'Yes, And.'   Add that to my two favorite words, 'What's Next', and you have the two things that have changed my life for the better in the past thirty years.  Use them and see If it works for you.   I wish you a better year than the one we've all had.  We could really use it.   

If you know me pretty well, you know I have a crapload of bags.  I have briefcases, leather bags, canvas bags. I love bags.  But finding a camera bag that works for me has been a real struggle, and I know why that is: I pack bags like I'm Felix the Cat.  If I even think I need it, it goes in the bag.   The simple fact of the matter is I don't need to take every piece of gear I own with me, but I do need a bag big enough for a few things, and I need a bag small enough to sling over my shoulder and go.   It all comes down to what gear I'm taking with me for what reason.I have found a bag that works for me, and it's the Rugged Sling Bag by Moment.  Now, before I go any further, I'm not being paid for this, I bought my bag like everyone else, and I have not been asked by anyone to review this bag.The bag is made out of sailcloth material on the outside, which is water and fade resistant.   It's got nice YKK zippers that protect your gear from the environment.   The inside of the bag is a bright orange, so it makes finding things inside the bag pretty easy, which I have come to appreciate when taking shots at night.   There are two straps on the bottom of the bag for a tripod or a jacket.   The bag's straps are attached to 'wings' that wrap around your back to fit better, and the buckles have magnets to help you fasten them quickly and easily.   There's also a stabilization cross strap to keep your bag sturdy and distributed evenly.  As far as the pockets are concerned, I like the organization.  There's a front external pocket for wallet, keys, phone...the stuff you need quickly.  There's a zipper pocket there with expandable pockets for other items on the inside of the front cover.  I think Moment meant these pockets to be used for Moment lenses, and while they do fit there, I use them for my Akaso Brave 7 and batteries, and a few cables I use more often.   The main compartment had room for your main gear and a pocket for a tablet that will easily accommodate an 11 inch iPad Pro in the Smart Keyboard folio case.  This bag is well constructed, easy to keep clean, and easy to use.  Most importantly, it's a bag you're going to be able to use for a long time because of the build quality, which is something I look for in a bag.  I want something that is going to last years, and in my view, spending a bit more once for something that will last several years is better than spending a small amount every year or two on a new bag.   This bag will be with me for a long time, and if you're interested in a great bag for your gear, I recommend the Moment Rugged Sling Bag.   I'll put an Amazon affiliate link in the show notes for it, so if you do buy the bag using that link, I will make a commission from the sale.LINK: Moment 10L Camera Sling Bag

I had a bizarre dream once that I'd like to share with you.   I had gotten off a plane in Kathmandu, Nepal.  I was heading for the Himalayas in search of a wise man, an ascetic who had shunned all life's luxuries and niceties.  I found him adorned in nothing but a loincloth meditating by a lake at the foot of the mountains. I waited patiently for him to awaken, and as he fixed his gaze on me, I solemnly intoned the words I wanted him to hear.  "Phil Collins..." I said.  He silently nodded and did the drum break from In The Air Tonight.   I thanked him and made my way back to the airport, and flew home, fulfilled.  I think you could walk up to anyone with your phone and play them 30 seconds of any Genesis or Phil Collins song--even instrumental sections where he's not singing--and very few people would not identify the song you're playing as a Phil Collins or Genesis song.  Why?  Because that gated drum sound is unmistakable.  His playing style is immediately recognizable.  The production of his music is specifically tailored to his voice and that drum.  You can't miss it.  Like you can easily identify a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt, a pair of Nike sneakers, or an Apple iPhone.  It's the whole image and design of a thing that sets it apart from everything else in its area.  For us, the working and aspiring creative, it's the thing we want to attain.  Our particular flavor of crazy that we put on what we do makes it undeniably ours.  Our gated drum.   As frustrating as this might be, it's not something you can just come up with in a day and slap on there and say, "THIS IS A ROLEY ORIGINAL."  Believe me, I've tried, and it doesn't work that way.  No, this is something that comes with level grinding.  The doing of the work.  The unyielding practice of the daily craft.  The showing up and giving of yourself to the Creative Powers That Be.  The gurus would love you to believe in shortcuts, but there aren't any that don't involve the passing of coins to them so that they enrich themselves and establish credibility they may not deserve at the expense of your hard work.  The truth is, the longer you practice your craft, the way to set yourself apart will come with skill and talent.  You'll find it, not unlike the way you find missing change in your sofa.  You'll come across it as a happy surprise, and then put it in your pocket to use.  So, have you found that pocket change?  Any ideas?   Use the hashtag #bluepocketchange and share it with me.  There may be a surprise in store for people who share.  If you've found this helpful, I would appreciate it if you'd share this with someone you think could use it. Subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already, and I'd really appreciate a review of the podcast if you have the time.  Also, if you find this episode or any of this podcast to be of value to you, how about being me a coffee?  You can go to buymeacoffee.com/krisroley, and...well...buy me a coffee.  The website HQ for all this madness is krisroley.com, and you can go there to see the latest and connect with me on all the social mediasssss.  Stay Solid, people, see you next time...buhbye.  

Kris and Matt Reconvene the No Segue Machine and talk DC Riot, Matt's versions of Heaven Hell Purgatory and Limbo, Sci-Fi series, The Waffle House, and more.Matt's drink for January is the Manhattan Railroad, and it will railroad you.  Oh yes.  Yes, it will. 

As the kids say these days, I don't know who needs to hear this, but fuck all the isms and fuck all the ologies.   Unless you're a complete sack of jello, of course.  If you are a sack of jello, please at me because I need to know how you got offended by this.  There is exactly one ISM you need.   Here's how it works.  Say your last name.  I'll wait.  Now add ISM to the end of it.   There it is.   Now you've named it, what the fuck do you do with it?  Well, the straight answer to that is whatever the fuck you want, but let's drill down a bit.  Again, excepting the jello--and what flavor are you anyway--you did survive up to this point with some core beliefs.  You've got some right and wrong concept unless you're related to me directly, and I hope you've got some discipline and ethics, and maybe a goal or two.  If you don't, maybe it's time to write that shit down.See, it's my firm belief that most people know exactly who they are and what they need to do to be who they want to be.  But they don't want to do the work, and hey, guilty as charged.   I can be just as lazy and procrastinating, and problem avoiding as any three of you combined.  Trust.   But I also have the self-awareness to know where that leads.  It begs the question: What exactly are we afraid of?  Well, I wish I knew.   I can't decide if we're afraid of trying and failing or trying and succeeding.  We are terrified of trying, that's for sure.  So we read all manner of self-help books and attend scores of seminars and webinars, and listen to a plethora of gurus to tell us the thing we should already know.  We have the ability to think for ourselves and control the path of our lives, and all we have to do is start DOING it.  Unless you're a psychopath, you have an inner compass.  You know which way North is.  Stop listening to other people that think they know what's good for you, and YOU know what's good for you.  You know what you believe, and you know what your values are, know what your priorities are, and know what you need to do.   We--myself included--need to stop being a chickenshit and stop believing in something other than ourselves, NEEDING something outside of ourselves to get shit done.   Cut the lines.   Get your ass off the dock.  Sail. 

Hey, I don't know who needs to hear this but just because you have a camera and like photography, you don't ever have to go pro no matter how many times your friends tell you.  Look, your reasons are your own.  I certainly have mine, and chiefly among them is that I love photography and don't ever want to put myself in a position where I hate it.  One of the reasons I like talking about several different platforms that I'm interested in is that I don't spend all of my time on just one.  I can work or play in the photography space for a little while, and when I get to a natural stopping point with a project, I can move to writing, podcasting, or anything else.  Now, would I love to have this effort at new media become a full-time business?  Yes, I would.   I would also like to hire or contract people who are better at photography than I am.   I would also like to know some people manage to squeeze 27 hours' worth of work into a 24 hour day.  I'm not very good at time management.  If I were, I wouldn't have to take so many breaks in podcasting, would I?   I think a pro needs to be mindful of deadlines, both personal and professional, and perform against them.  I used to think that my photos don't cut the mustard, but when I've had people buy photos from me, it's hard to keep believing that.   I think I'm good enough to be paid for what I do; I still think I have a long way to go before calling myself a professional photographer and being comfortable with it.  I don't know if you can call that a true case of impostor syndrome, but I like to think it's keeping myself humble.  I'm good.  Not sure I'm good enough.I know what I don't want to do with my photography, I can tell you that for sure.  I do not want to do marriage or portrait photography, where I have to work closely with people.  I like street photography and a slice of life photography as an art form, and I've found myself gravitating towards taking pictures of life by the ocean as a theme.  I want to continue doing that and finding my style that way.  I suppose that I will have to take pictures of willing subjects as part of that style at some point.  I'll cross that bridge when I get there.  All in all, I would love to stay in love with photography, as I remain in love with the other things I do because I get to do them all and do them how and when I want.  Yes, I'd love to make money doing it, but I'm having fun being able to practice all my craft until then. 

This may or may not be a really long one today, kids.  It's a pretty straightforward point if I don't end up confusing you with my half-baked, meaningless babble.  I have a friend that had a character he invented--I think it was for a short story if I recall correctly--who had a saying.  Who we are now is not who we're going to be at the end.  I was reminded of this recently when I re-watched "The Time of The Doctor," which is Matt Smith's last episode of Doctor Who.  He says, “...We all change when you think about it. We’re all different people all through our lives. And that’s ok, that’s good, as long as you keep moving, as long as you remember all the people that you used to be..."And you're saying to yourself right now, "Roley, C'mon.  Timelord Regeneration as Life Lesson?"  Sure.  Why not!  People find reasons to do things on the side of a freakin bottle of Heinz 57 if they're looking for it.  Usually, as I said a couple of Mondays ago, I try to capture where I am at the end of a year and set out some goals for the coming year.  I said back then that I haven't done that this year because at the moment, any goals I set are likely based on the best-case scenario of us being able to go places and do things that won't get us killed, and if I get myself killed, who I am right now IS who I'm going to be at the end of my life—it kind of defeats the point.  The capturing of who I am and where I am at the end of a year is so I can remember all the people I've been.  Where I want to be next year is up in the air, but the end has never been in doubt.  I have a very definite idea of who and what I want to be at the end, and every year I make sure that's written down somewhere I can refer back to.  The path to that person isn't a straight line--none of life is--but that's the reason for the yearly review.  It's a quality calibration, to use a call center term.  I say all of this to ask you a simple question:  Have you got a picture of the kind of person you want to be at the end?   It might be a bit easier for me to see because I'm 50, and I'm over the hill and starting to pick up speed.   You might be in your 20s and are just starting the climb, and I'm telling you to sit down with a notebook and start thinking about it because the greatest piece of motivation anyone can have is an idea of your highest self.  Your transformed person.  Your...uh...final regeneration?Sure.  We'll run with that.  Why not.  So, what is your final form?   Use the hashtag #blueregeneration and share it with me.  There may be a surprise in store for people who share.  If you've found this helpful, I would appreciate it if you'd share this with someone you think could use it. Subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already, and I'd really appreciate a review of the podcast if you have the time.  Also, if you find this episode or any of this podcast to be of value to you, how about being me a coffee?  You can go to buymeacoffee.com/krisroley, and...well...buy me a coffee.  The website HQ for all this madness is krisroley.com, and you can go there to see the latest and connect with me on all the social mediasssss.  Stay Solid, people, see you next time...buhbye. 

This business of creativity that we're engaged in has its challenges, that's for sure.  And Last year was definitely a challenge for all of us.  Now we're in 2021, and for sure, the coronavirus hasn't gone away yet.  In fact, if the past is prologue, then by the time you hear this podcast, we might be in the middle of a spike from people being stupid on Christmas and New Years'.  At my day job, I've been told that we'll be at home until the end of March, so that will make it a full year that I will have been at home.  Of course, part of it was without a job, but the principle is the same.   And this got me to thinking, well, why?  Well, speaking in the general sense, we're all a bunch of fuckers, that's why.  It's easy to blame the virus for things, and certainly, the virus is to blame to a point.  Because we've had the chance to mitigate this, and we could have been working our way towards normal months ago.  This fall and winter rise in cases didn't have to happen.  But of course, we had Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years', and as the bunch of fuckers we are, we went out and partied and caught the damn thing.  "Oh, but that's just the Holidays, Roley," you say. "We got the vaccine!  Things will sort themselves out."  Really?  Because I'm looking at Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo, and Memorial Day happening before everyone can reasonably get at least the first shot, and I know that we're a bunch of fuckers who won't stay the fuck home.  Then there's you stupid brain dead motherfuckers who've equated wearing a mask and doing the simplest goddamn shit in the world--really the bare ass minimum--to help keep people safe with an assault on your personal freedom.   I mean, sweet feathery light floating Jesus, you people are really wired incorrectly.  I'm long past asking you to stop and think because clear thinking is not your jam.   If you were able to apply a modicum of logic to this situation, the suggestion that the Governor of Michigan or Virginia is the same as a murderous dictator because they asked you to wear a mask would never come out of your fetid rotting face hole.  Of course, I know where this comes from.  It comes from being told for over 70 years by quack philosophers like Ayn Rand and conservative talk radio hosts in the 80s and beyond that selfishness is a virtue.  From supposed news sources and idiotic bloggers and conspiracy theorists that have mastered the art of keeping you in the echo chamber. And of course, from your having never been taught to think critically, ask questions, or to do anything other than blindly agree with those that agree with you.  Now, of course, it no longer has anything to do with right or wrong.  It has to do with much more shallow things than that.  I honestly don't know how the cause and effect of this escapes you, frankly.  It seems pretty obvious to anyone that isn't an imbecile.  If the virus is still unchecked, and you hang out for long periods of time in close quarters with people not taking any precautions whatsoever, you're playing Russian roulette.  And one day, you're going to son that chamber and lose.  But it's not going to be just you now.  No, it's just possible that the wife and kids get it, your co-workers, the checkout lady at the grocery store who's working three jobs to support her kids because she's doing it herself, but no.  You just have to hit that gym or get that craft beer or...y'know, just fuck you.  Seriously.  Fuck ALL the way off, as far as you can fuck off, then fuck farther off, for eternity.   Because it's you stupid brain dead motherfuckers that are costing people jobs, homes, and lives because you think personal freedom gives you the right to be dickheads.  It does not.  Do you want to get back to normal life? Not wear masks and be able to hit the bar and fail miserably to get laid like you did every other weekend of your life before the pandemic?  THEN GET WITH THE FUCKING PROGRAM.  I promise you. You'll be crying in your beer on Saturday night again in practically no time, douchebag.  

I have something I want you to marinate on for a second.  Take this and weigh it.  Every time you take a picture, you have the opportunity to share with people how you see things in a way no one else can.   But to do this, you need to start seeing things the way a photographer does.  You need to train your eye to see things to shoot.  The advent of digital cameras and smartphones is absolutely wonderful, and it allows everyone to take thousands of pictures of anything and everything. Still, there is one thing it took away:  The scarcity mindset.  The kind of mindset you cultivate when you know you only have 12 or 24 exposures on a roll of film.  You've got to be pretty sure that the shot you take is a good one, and the way to be really sure that you're taking that good shot is by developing a photographer's eye for things.  One of the things I used to do with my old Pentax back in the day was I would frame things up and work out the composition.  I didn't have any film in my camera; I just raised the camera to my eye and went through the motions of framing and composition of the shot. As time went on, I stopped taking the camera with me.  I would look around and compose the shot in my head.  Today, I use the Moment app on my iPhone to compose shots I think I like.  Sometimes I take the picture, sometimes not.  The eye's training is the thing, and the great thing about this practice is that you don't have to go anywhere special to do this.  All you need to do is look around.  Find the shots that look interesting to you in whatever environment you find yourself in.   Use a camera app to frame the shots, but you don't necessarily have to take the picture.  Just work on developing your eye.  Look for depth in a shot.   Is there something in the foreground?  Is there something in the background?   Is there an action taking place that you can capture?   What about an interesting light and shadow?  Are there people in the shot doing something?  Does the scene tell a story that would be lost if you didn't capture it?  And by the way, if you're instinct doesn't scream at you to grab the camera and get the shot on that last one, we need to talk about that.  We'll do that another day.  For now, though, take some time to be aware of your space and find the shots.  Train your eye.  Learn how to share how you see things the way no one else can.   

This week, I'm thinking about the concept of boldness.  Taking chances.  I don't know about you, but I've not exactly been keen to step up and do something out of the ordinary, and I've been wondering why.  Is it because of the past year?  Is it because I've set expectations of what I should or shouldn't do?  Am I assuming you have expectations of what I do?  Am I just scared?  Maybe a little of all three if I'm honest with myself.   That said, back on episode 372 of this fine bit of poddlement I talked about a period of self-reflection on turning 50 and what I was and wasn't willing to deal with anymore.   The more I think about it, the more I'm not willing to be afraid of taking chances with what I do.  More to the point, I'm dropping some baggage related to it.  For years, I've had this battle in my head about being one thing all the time or being Roley, who is not one thing all the time.  I got reminded of this the other night listening to an album that should have never been made.  Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music.   There are many stories about this album being a fuck you to fans or a way to get out of a record contract, but let's put that all aside for a moment.  At its core, Metal Machine Music is an experiment.   It's discordant, and it's screechy, it's industrial, it's grating.  All of that is true.  But do you have any doubt that much of the guitar work we see today, or some of the most popular bands in the past 40 years, have listened to this at least once?  I guarantee you Trent Reznor has.  I think one of the most critical failures in rock music in its 65-year history gave birth to ideas we didn't see until much later, and that's the triumph of it.  But the real message is in the liner notes of the album.  He writes, “Most of you won’t like this, and I don’t blame you at all. It’s not meant for you.”   He's right. It wasn't.  It was an experiment and an exercise in indulgence.  It's the sonic act of music folding back on itself and collapsing, of electricity copulating and feedback exploding until all you hear is a wall of fuck you, clear as day.It's the creative act of a mad scientist, and it's fucking brilliant.  Want another example?  Look at David Bowie.   Any version, because there are so many versions of David Bowie and so many different music styles you can find with him, is the point.  Bob Dylan, too.   They made the albums they wanted to make for the most part, and if you didn't like the new one, you knew that the next one was going to be different.  You didn't like the African vibe on Paul Simon's Graceland?  Cool.  Check out The Rhythm of The Saints, and it's Latin influence.  David Byrne ANY GODDAMN THING.Bjork left Planet Earth and does what she wants, and people dig it, or they don't.  They decided that they could be bold.  They took chances.  Some didn't work.  Some didn't work at the time.  Some are home runs from the gate.   All of it was an idea they couldn't wait to work on.If we're looking for permission to be ourselves and do the thing we want and be unafraid and unapologetic, I think Lou Reed gave it to us decades ago.   Do the thing.  Be bold.  Take chances, and stop caring what people think.  So!  If you had no fear, what is your bold creative project?   Use the hashtag #boldcreate2021 and share it with me.  There may be a surprise in store for people who share.  

Something new for your earholes.  Cinema VeriTardy, where I watch all the movies I've never watched and provide a real-time commentary track.  In the first episode, I watch The Room (2003) Starring The Golden Gate Bridge.  It should star the Golden Gate Bridge as many G.D. times they show it.  This movie might have lost money, but whoever they bought the stock footage from made out pretty well.  It also stars a football in what has to be the best acting job in this movie.  This movie is brought to you by whiplash lawyers, for the amount of time it took the actors to go from zero to WTF in any random scene. Enjoy!  

As you're listening to this, we're about 2 weeks from what will hopefully be an uneventful inauguration here in the US.  Joe Biden will become President of the United States, and Donald Trump will hopefully go away.  I doubt it, but I'm hopeful.  As we end this terrible chapter in American History, I look around, and it's just mind-boggling.  The amount of damage done, the number of things we have to fix now.  Hundreds of thousands dead.  Millions out of work, So many slipping into poverty because of what's happened this year.  But all of this needs to serve as a reminder of something we all should know and act accordingly.  There is no one coming to help us. There is a lot of talk, and a lot of hand-wringing and many pearls clutching, but no action.  We can't count on some stimulus, unemployment assistance, the next administration, or even the basic things any person should have at this point.  No one's going to save us.   So, we're gonna have to save ourselves.  Well, what does that mean?Well, I'm not quite sure, but I think it probably has the most to do with money as with all things.  Who has it, and what they do with it.   A stimulus, you see, is designed to put money in our hands so we can spend it.  It's not to stimulate US; it's to stimulate the economy.  To keep the economic engine turning.  To keep businesses in business.  To keep profits up and shareholders happy.  They give us a stimulus so we can SPEND it.   Give the upper-class stimulus, and they SAVE it because they can. They also get tax cuts so they can keep more of what they already own.  But there's no economic boost to giving the upper-class money; they don't do anything with it.  So, if you really think about this for a second, you should come to a straightforward but profound conclusion, and it's that if WE stop, everything stops.   It's also why we're not talking seriously about UBI or a higher stimulus than 600 bucks right now.  It's just enough to keep the fish on the hook but keep us in line with the folks' best interests up there.The first step to this, I think, is recognizing that we're still fish on the hook.     We need to slip the hook, and then...and this is key...we don't retake the lure.   We do that by leveraging the actual purchasing power we as the working middle class have, and all we have to do is what our grandparents did.  Not our parents...they took the lure.  Our Grandparents--at least mine--grew up in The Great Depression.   They learned self-sufficiency.  They learned frugality.  And when they bought something, they damn sure that the thing they bought was going to last them years if not decades.   Of course, this is when things were built to last a long time.  These days you can get the stuff that lasts a long time, but it costs more.  The Great Value version is cheap, sure, but it breaks quickly and easily.   This means you buy another one, maybe a new one every year.   Look at your phone, especially you Apple folks.  Do you need a new phone every year or two?   And yeah, I get it.  I've done that too.  But understand this, because it's important.  The consumer culture of cheap, fast, and now only hurts US.  Not them.  They get hurt when we stop buying when we don't STIMULATE the economy.  When we save our money when we own things that don't break in a year.  When we stop buying so much shit we don't really need.When we stop, everything stops.  And they'll lure us with sales and zero percent financing and all sorts of sparkles and sports endorsements and such, and we need to resist it.  We need to become, for lack of a better term, minimalists.  I actually despise this term because there's a hip and now connotation to it, but I really can't think of a better one.   I suspect that the working class, when it finally realizes that they've been shit on by both parties for 40 some odd years, realizes that they can have their voice heard by simply keeping their wallet in their pocket, things will start happening.   It's a pie in the sky hope, admittedly.  It's asking for a profound culture change, which puts people well outside what makes them comfortable.   I believe I see the logical result of the culture continuing the way it is, and I find it unacceptable to leave it to my kids to fix.   It's very much Man in the Mirror time, and that's as it should be right now.  If we can commit to a change in our consumer lifestyle for a certain amount of time, say 18 months, I believe the next Congressional elections and the legislation that comes out of it will look very different from what we see today.