Hey! Here's a little post updating my life, and a few thoughts.

Just finished opening weekend for Broadway Bound at Masquer's Playhouse in Point Richmond. It went really well, audiences seemed to like it a lot, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. The one thing that was weird/heart-stopping, was what happened opening night. Central to Act II is a radio show, which was previously recorded on a CD, and is played from speakers hidden in an old radio on the set. The CD started skipping just as the scene got rolling. The other actors and I were freaking out a little. Thanks to the fact that the audience had never seen it before, and they were already way into the story after having seen the first act, nobody seemed to notice. My character is really anxious about the radio show in the first place, so I just  worried more. It worked out just fine! :-)

Also, I improvised a little frustrated whack on the prop radio with my hand. I was a little worried that the director would be upset at me for improvising, but she was spending most of her energy pissed off at the CD skipping, which turned out to be because the CD player in the booth was rather old... My fellow actors thought it was pretty awesome that I hit the radio, and that made me feel great!!

There were some great photos taken at final dress that I'll get my hands on eventually, to share here.

So usually about the time I open one show, I'm doing auditions for the next. This time I have a different plan. Seeing as my savings will not last me forever, I'm going to make getting a paying job my top priority. That is, a better paying job than theater. I have been talking to some people who say now is a good time to look for work. I got job applications from Fry's Electronics and Pete's Coffee, and I'll also be considering internships, paid or unpaid, as my non-acting resume is rather sparse at this point.

Today was my first day of dance class at Diablo Valley College, the local junior college. I'm taking Beginning Tap, and Ballet Fundamentals, one right after the other on Tuesdays and Thurdays. This is something I've been meaning to do for a long time, so I'm pretty stoked! We just did introductions and talked about the syllabus today, we'll really start dancing on Thursday. I need to get some ballet shoes, and I'm also gonna need to ask Mom if she kept my dance belt and tights from way back when I took a few weeks of ballet class in high school. The ballet instructor was pretty intense about clothes, because ballet is a visual art, and if you can't see the lines your body is making, you can't tell if you're doing it right. So yeah. It's gonna be fun! I'm not a complete beginner, but I've never had formal ballet training, so this will be challenging, but hopefully not too hard.

Going to DVC was fun today, seeing all the young people, mostly. I don't always run into many people my age in theatre, but college of course is full of them. I saw many friends that I already knew from the community around here, and hopefully made some new ones... I can be a little shy with socializing, but I'm determined to put myself out there a little more, because I'm always happier when I do.

I also tried out for Fancy Dinosaurs, the second improv team in the Theatre Dept. there (the first being Dragon Viper Cobra, which I knew a few members of already, who also has won some competitions in the city). I think I did okay! It was fun anyways. I'll find out about that later.

So yeah. In other news, I've been watching Adventure Time, which I find very enjoyable despite it being a kids show. My friend Jamie is desperate to get me into Sherlock, but I haven't gotten around to it.

When Mom, Dad, and Steven visited last weekend, I used a gift certificate from Christmas to get new kicks! Check 'em out!

Went to a sushi bar in the city with my buddy Odie to watch the 49ers play the Saints for the NFC championship. Tried hot sake for the first time. It was tasty, but unfortunately followed by the bitter of defeat. But what the hell, it was a good game, especially since we hadn't had a playoff win since 2003. Even the Ferry Building was showing team spirit.

Last but not least, after almost a year of being stuck on World 8, I finally beat Super Mario Bros. Many an expletive were thrown at the hated Hammer Brothers, whose seemingly random movements and endless fusillades of smithing equipment vexed me to no end.

On a final note, I just read this article on io9, and found it very interesting.

PEACE
~Chris

I am writing this instead of doing the dishes.

But you know what, that's okay. Because I am okay with the fact that the sink is full of dishes. And in my personal journey, it's more of an accomplishment to not do the dishes, and feel okay about it, than it is to do the dishes.

Now I just need to do the dishes.

Rehearsal is going really well for Broadway Bound, (the play I'm in: info here ) and it's really exciting, because we're so far along in the process, and we haven't even opened the play yet! Often when I'm in a show, we get to the third weekend, and I feel like "Oh, that's how that's supposed to work! I wish I had known that sooner."  This time is different. It's a fun show too.

If you're in the area, and want to come to the show, let me know! Also, if you want to come FOR FREE, we need lots of people at previews this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (16th,17th, and 18th) so we can get used to having an audience laugh.

By the way, I never really told you how my time at home for Christmas went.

It was wonderful. I picked up my brother Steven from SFO, and we drove up 101 together, taking turns putting our iPods on the stereo to share music (I found out Steven likes to bump Jurassic 5). It's a really pretty drive. Daniel was there at home, Mom and Dad were really glad to see us, so was Violet (their kitty). Steven and I jammed on a little Paul Simon (I brought my bass guitar), Dad barbecued the turkey for Christmas dinner, it was delicious.

Steven and I even got to take a little walk up the redwoods in the drizzle. It was great. The woods up there are kind of my spiritual home. I love going up there.

When it came time to come back to the Bay, I was a little melancholy. In fact on the drive back, I felt really lonely. Then really angry. I don't know why I get so angry when I leave.

Anyways, that all passed, and I'm very pleased to be back here with all my friends. My new year's resolution is to put more into my friendships.

Here's a picture of the art that my parents gave me for Christmas:

by Elaine S. Benjamin, www.bluechairpress.com

Oh and here's the cool clock Steven gave me:

Hard Drive clock by John Berwick Gearomatic@aol.com (a classmate of Steven's) 

So yeah, that's how things are for now.

~Chris

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, that are dreamt of in your Third-Quarter Revenue Projections."

Listening to the rebroadcast of "Forum" on KQED, they're talking about SOPA and PIPA, they have a guy from Google, and a guy from NBC Universal, and they're having a very good discussion. They're making me think harder about the issues, presenting it as a nuanced issue, and assuaging my outrage to a certain extent.

That's not to say I didn't do some yelling in the car at this vogon from Insanely Huge Media Conglomerate dodging questions. Yeah, yeah, I get his point that the online world should have theft laws, just like the physical world. But even so the idea of the federal government shutting down sites just sickens me. I liked it better when art hadn't been dismembered and maimed so it could fit into business models as "Intellectual Property."

I just want to point out that any debate is going to be biased, you can't avoid that. But even when it is biased, you can attempt to minimize the bias, and you can encourage thorough discussion. I haven't taken a course on debate, so I'm not sure of the theoretical basis for productive discussion. But I know it when I hear it.

Does anyone but me realize that discussing divisive issues can actually lead to a solution? That it's not just about getting one's point of view across? And certainly not just about getting higher Nielsen Ratings? Not only that, but the quality of public discussion will directly influence the quality of thinking that goes on about these issues. Better thinking means finding better solutions quicker. Who wouldn't want that?

News and radio and magazines need to make money, but I would greatly appreciate it if they would realize that there are higher needs than making money, and businesses that publish multimedia material are in the perfect position to influence things in a positive way. This won't necessarily make you money in the short run, but it will give you a legacy that will live beyond your product or company name. It's a tall order to have a profitable and "not evil" business, as Google can attest, but I wouldn't mind if a few more businesses actually aspired to that in more than just their mission statements.

It makes me want to start a non-profit that is specifically dedicated to productive public debate. It might prepare citizens better for town hall meetings and legislative hearings. In a democracy, if "the people" rule, then we also have the responsibility of rulers, to be more than just a member of a mindless horde, to see both sides of the issue, to be devoted to oneself, but also to consider things beyond.

Granted, it's hard enough to make a living these days without trying to consider things beyond one's own needs, but it's something that can be done, and every little bit helps. Organized religion has given "faith" a bad rap, but I think it can be applied without danger in this sense: to have faith that the good acts you do and the extra time and work you put in will benefit someone along the way, if you've thought it out right. You may not see these things happen right in front of you, but they will happen, and they'll happen even after you're gone.

How to Succeed in Business by Trying Really Hard

Pic mostly unrelated.

This is kind of an offshoot of the previous post about this webcomic, where I point out the high quality of the project, and the diverse skill sets and professionalism of those behind it. 

So I have said in the past that I hate entrepreneurs*, but here I am fascinated by this whole phenomenon: talented young people of diverse skill sets, making connections with each other to produce a unique creative venture that is not only high quality but (business buzzwords incoming) leverages cross-media intellectual property, non-traditional fundraising , and social media to attempt a profit-making business model. As I mentioned in an earlier post I think, I'd like to make money at what I do. And I guess sometimes I fantasize about doing something that is not only quality and meaningful artistically, but self-supporting financially. 

That's not to say I don't have a lot of anti-establishment blood in me. Like many systems put together by people (besides the Calculus, I suppose) the world economic system is very flawed, and has unhealthy side-effects (like people starving when there is enough food for everyone). So BURN EVERYTHING HAHAHHAAAA!!! 

No I'm just kidding. 

But seriously, there is a choice to be made here- do I want to "sell out" or not? 

I talked to a guy who works for Ubisoft at a party the other night. I was super excited about it, because I've often pictured myself working for a video game company. I've heard that it's a really stressful and soul-crushing field to work in, but I remain optimistic for some reason. Anyways, I got his contact info and asked him if there were any entry level jobs available. He said to check the website, and I could use him as a reference. He friended me back on facebook, so that's a good sign. 

He told me that he had wanted to be an animator when he was a kid, and went to school for that. I was impressed by his love of art, and the fact that he worked in a very "business-y" business- a multi-national corporation. So I mentioned this inner conflict I had about artistic integrity vs. making money.

He said that he loves painting, and sculpture, but that the hard work of selling yourself, finding your audience and making sure stuff sells enough to make a living, was just not for him. He had great respect for the people who did that. He also mentioned that he only spends part of his hours at work doing what he really loves, which is the artistic development process. The other part of his work involves deadlines, budgets, marketing, and business things like that, which he said can be a real drag. 

There was something else I asked him about that I can't remember exactly. I think it was about the way American culture values (or de-values) the arts, and how the bottom line is always money. He mentioned something about the elephant in the room at work. 

This was last Friday, and the Holiday Punch, while making me feel awesome, did not help my memory of the conversation. But that's the gist of it, I think.  

So overall, I'm excited to keep checking out career options to see what they're about. 

Maybe I'll actually get a regular job one of these days. 

Maybe. 

-Chris

*in a rant that is not published. Basically what it boils down to is worshiping money. Money in itself is worthless, if your primary goal is to make money, you get in danger of making something that is very damaging in other ways. Then again, money is how you survive these days. It's a tricky thing. I have more feelings and thoughts on this subject that I will elaborate on later. 

Over analysis of a little-known webcomic

Here I am awake at 5 AM again.

Here I am writing about digital media again:

Aikonia is a webcomic I just got into a couple minutes ago. I am very impressed by the writing and the art.

The writing is what pulls me in— I imagine that with the same art, if the writing/story was poor, I wouldn't like it all.  I'm no critic, and it's been a long time since I took a literature class, but I'll attempt some analysis.

It feels suspenseful when I read it. God, am I really going to fully cite specific instances, like I'm writing a paper? Hell yeah.*

• Chapter 1 page 1 panel 4- mention of danger and implied depiction of death, in a non-specific instance, which implies that death may occur but hasn't yet, which is basically the definition of suspense.
• Chapter 1 page 3 - nervous discussion of monsters, anticipating encountering monsters soon, without a depiction of monsters
• Chapter 1 page 7 - serious discussion of grave consequences, with specifics left out

The plot seems to jump to different viewpoints at all the right times.

• Chapter 1 page 12 to 13- we go from a character investigating something and getting attacked, to her friend who asked her to do so being approached by the person they were investigating.
• Chapter 1 page 20 to 21 and 22- we go from a character and his friend being tortured, to the funeral service featuring the torturer and on of the "torturees."

I'm not sure if what I wrote about jumping viewpoints makes sense, but know that the citations I made are examples of what I would consider good narrative choices.

pic related: an example of a poor narrative choice

It's written from a third-person omniscient point of view, like Harry Potter, and involves a school of magic, like Harry Potter. It also has some common fantasy tropes; like Power-hungry Bad Guy, Good Guys Trying to Unravel Conspiracy, Magic Has a Downside (like Full Metal Alchemist), Magic Comes From Another Dimension, etc. But the execution is really good; it doesn't feel like a Harry Potter knock-off, to me at least. It's written by Timothy Hely, who is a programmer as well as a writer.

The art is by Katie Tiedrich, a mechanical engineering student in Hoboken, New Jersey, who also draws Awkward Zombie, which is mostly about popular video games, and is pretty popular. I should probably read Scott McCloud's books before I attempt analysis, but here goes anyway.

From what I can tell the art creates the setting and tells me what the characters are feeling really well. For a great example, Here's a couple panels:

The character's faces show emotion clearly and specifically (in acting you're always supposed to be as specific as possible). The robes and candle make it instantly clear we're in a pseudo-medieval setting. The backgrounds (aptly) fade into the background, letting us focus on the characters.  

Here's the clever thing- as I see it, Grey Robe was reading this book, and after what Purple Robe said in panel 2, he was surprised and quickly shut the book in panel 3. Maybe this is elementary comic-ing or something, but notice there are no motion lines in panel 3. The only thing that's telling you that he shut the book quickly is the puffs of dust, and the surprised look on his face. In theatre, I was taught to show, not tell, and this is an example I think in comics of showing, not telling. Those little puffs of dust show (instead of indicating using lines) that he closed the book quickly. The color of the puffs and the book also give me the impression that the book is old. Hopefully your impression of the panels lines up with mine. If not, what is your impression? (if I haven't spoiled it by giving you mine.)

Again, this may be pants-on-head basic comic technique, but it's things like this that make a comic work, and not all amateur webcomics work this well. 

One more note about the art: all the characters are in hooded robes, which is interesting for a few reasons. First, it makes it easier to draw, but it removes some of the expressive possibilities of body language. Second, it increase the capability to communicate social structure and class through color and style of the robes, but as a trade off makes it virtually impossible to tell characters apart from behind if they have the same color robe. 

Another thing that I must mention is that the site is incredibly well done, which I confess I did not expect, because most webcomics are done as hobbies, and the sites are not always this nice. After some research, I found that the site was put up by MADSOFT games inc., and they put together this website because the comic is a prequel to their game of the same name. 

So there's my analysis. Check it out if you want! 

Maybe I should go to bed.

-Chris

*Here's what my education has wrought. Applying memorized definitions of floaty terms in a robotic fashion to support an argument. Well, maybe it's not so useless. I'm tempted to think, however, that the most useful things are things that cannot be memorized or easily taught.

McKinley-era patriotism makes for a great dystopian steampunk setting

http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/07/08/bioshock-infinite-e3-2011-demo-video


Just like Portal, this game looks like it's going to push the envelope as far as compelling storytelling and action. granted, I did just stay up all night. But I need to get the first Bioshock now, that's for sure.*

Coolest shit I've seen in a long time.

Good storytelling is all about connecting you with the characters, and the potential in video games to connect you with a character is HUGE, because you can actually control the actions of the character. This causes big problems for the writers- usually they are the sole arbiters of cause and effect- so they have to work around it, strike a balance. Now that people have been exploring the medium for a while, they're starting to get down to what works- and it shows.

For me, the coolest things ever are things I see in films and tv shows- people like Indiana Jones, doing cool shit. And ever since video games started being a reality, people have been looking for a game that makes you feel like you're Indiana Jones, or Spike Spiegel, or Sherlock Holmes, etc. This video I think gets right down to the core of that, at least on the action hero level.

The reason I think storytelling is so important is that it does more than entertain, it changes the participants in a way that affects their real life- by revealing a truth or awakening a memory or feeling. Video games have just as much potential in this aspect as any other artistic medium.  the term "video game" is too broad, it encompasses a HUGE range of virtual experiences- from manipulating small shapes as they fall, to city simulations, to competing with virtual avatars of your real life friends. When narrative (that is, "story") is applied, and if the player engages in it, it has the same potential as other narrative forms like film and theatre and fiction.

That is not to say that narrative is the only way to make video games relevant to real life, there are a plethora of other things, from studies that show improvement in cognitive and manipulative skills in people who play video games, to video games that allow scientists to "crowdsource" complex problems such as protein knots, and other possible benefits... this lady Jane McGonigal discusses.

When games first came out, they were defined not by their content, but by the fact that they were interactive, while other forms of entertainment like movies and books were almost entirely passive. Lately we've seen that games have branched out, the number of people who play games has dramatically increased, and there are whole generations of people that see them as a fact of life.

As always, when taken to excess, something can be detrimental, and I think it certainly applies to video games. Especially when games are beginning to be designed to not be fun, but addictive, because in the end, all the developers want is your money.**

But overall, I am very excited*** for the compelling stories that have yet to be told in this form.

P.S. shout out to Killian for inspiring this footnote format. I just don't know how to format it all cool like she does.


* Especially that I am now (as of last week) mentally and emotionally healthy enough to have video games without doing stuff like flipping my desk over, thundering the worst expletives I can think of at 2 AM, and forgetting to eat.

** I have a bone to pick with the way that the free market can blur priorities- money becoming an end in itself, causing products and services to be designed for no other reason than to make money, even if it harms the people who buy it.

***Part of my excitement is about the fact that you can ACTUALLY MAKE A LIVING in games, and as much as I love theatre, I would like to make a living at what I do, and don't tell anyone but I sometimes get this urge to be involved with a form of storytelling that is more in vogue than theatre. I have celebrity fantasies. Then AGAIN, I hear that being in game development is a rather hellish experience in itself, so maybe it's best to leave well enough alone.

Carl Sagan's been gestating in my brain for a week...

The only cure for delusion and ignorance is information.

Nothing is more dangerous to this country than ignorance. Let me be clear, ignorance, I like to think, is abundant in all circles, and no political, social, or theological group is free from it. And let me also be clear that avoiding ignorance does not mean "being right, " in fact it is just the opposite. It is never being right.

Being free from ignorance is not a passive state, it is an active state. It means a commitment to pursuing and communicating the truth, no matter how complex or counter-intuitive it may end up being. It means being aware of your personal biases, and combating them instead of leaning into them. In short, it means never being satisfied with what you believe. It means considering opinions that are entirely abhorrent to you. And I suppose, it also means being courageously vocal regarding what you believe, something that will cause conflict. But as you know from English class, conflict is essential to a good story. And who doesn't want to be part of a good story?

What I mean to say, is that ignorance will continue as long as people's views are equated with their core being, and therefore their value. Dismissing an assertion, once you have enough evidence to do so, is understandable and expected. Dismissing an entire PERSON is never a good idea, because history has shown that like ignorance, truth has no boundaries. Even the most seemingly bigoted, idiotic, backwards and misleading rant can have some truth in it.

That's a pretty pithy thing to say, I know. Because one can't go through one's whole life listening to nonsense, hoping to find some grain of truth in it. I don't think you should abandon your point of view. Quite the opposite: keeping your own point of view is important because the multitude of diverse, but still self-justified points of view is what gives us the best chance of making sense of the world. If your point of view doesn't even make sense to you, then the chances are even less that it'll point towards the truth. Keep your point of view, but recognize that the more you challenge it, the stronger it will become, and the more you pander to it, the weaker it will become.

When I say that the only cure for delusion and ignorance is information, what I mean is that as soon as the argument begins to be about the people involved, and not the issues at hand, then nothing is getting done except squabbling.