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shefanispeculator · 4 years ago

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I'm slightly disappointed to log onto Zoom and find Gwen Stefani in Los Angeles. I wanted to see the ranch. Stefani spent most of the pandemic in Oklahoma with her fiancé and fellow The Voice coach Blake Shelton, with whom she has recently collaborated on a string of country radio hits, alongside a kitsch Christmas song. For a ska-pop superstar, it's a pivot, but Stefani and Shelton are cute together — picture-perfect in their opposite attraction.

Country Gwen exists, her urban counterpart assures me, but on this particular MacBook she's nowhere to be seen. I'm not sure what crude regional stereotypes I was expecting (Stefani spitting sunflower seeds? Shelton line dancing in the background?) but I get Californian sunshine instead, illuminating a version of Stefani more familiar from my teenage years, when Love. Angel. Music. Baby and its follow-up The Sweet Escape spawned millions of fans, haters and imitators. She's platinum blonde, red lipsticked and wearing a black-and-white outfit that matches the decor. The checkerboard pattern can be traced back to an even earlier era, when Stefani and her No Doubt bandmates were '80s teenagers obsessed with two-tone acts like Madness and The Specials.

Cowboy boots wouldn't fit this picture, and nor would Stefani's glitzy showgirl outfits from The Voice, where she just wrapped another season as a celebrity coach. As she prepares to release her fourth solo record, and enters the fifth decade of an extraordinarily successful music career, Gwen Stefani is re-re-branding as... Gwen Stefani.

Top: Local Boogeyman, Pants: GCDS, Shoes: Valentino, Earrings, bracelets and rings: Dena Kemp (The Residency Experience), Necklaces: Gwen's own, Engagement ring: Gwen's own

"But what is that?" Stefani asks with seriousness, as we consider the possibility of some essential, inherent Gwen. "Everyone's interpretation of what I am and how I sing, I mean, that's what this era is about for me."

Said era kicked off late last year, with the music video for "Let Me Reintroduce Myself." It saw Stefani playfully revisit the wardrobes of album cycles past, from the ab-bearing tomboy tank tops of "Hollaback Girl" to the club kid blue hair mascara of '90s No Doubt. Her Harajuku Girls also make a return. The entire visual is a huge flex, not only for the sheer volume of iconic career moments recreated in dutiful detail, but the fact Stefani can still fit into the clothes originally worn during all of them. She looks eerily the same, frighteningly good, ageing in reverse at the same pace as her frequent collaborator Pharrell.

"It's really a blessing to be able to have such a long career, where there really is nothing to prove anymore."

Pop stars are expected to be young forever, in looks but also in their capacity to innovate new trends. Which makes the nostalgic music video a curious choice. Doesn't Stefani know by now that the cardinal rule of pop is to avoid repeating yourself? That even the hottest artists in the world are basically required by law to create completely new eras from scratch every six months in order to appease fans and maintain maximum TikTok-ready relevance?

Of course she does, but that doesn't mean she has to participate. Stefani isn't trying to chase down her contemporaries, despite clearly possessing the physical fitness required. "It's really a blessing to be able to have such a long career, where there really is nothing to prove anymore," she says. "It's a different energy. You know, it's really just about doing it to do it, as opposed to trying to make a statement or make a mark."

Corset: Ronald van der Kemp, Bracelets: Dena Kemp (The Residency Experience), Earrings: Lana Jewelry (The Residency Experience), Engagement ring: Gwen's own

Even the Saweetie remix of her latest single "Slow Clap" happened on a whim, after the younger artist happened to post a video of herself vibing to Stefani's 2004 single "Luxurious" on Instagram Stories. They knocked out the song and accompanying video in a day. Neither seems bothered by the Old Navy meme. "It was just this little video that we did on the fly," Stefani says. "It just happened. It just feels good to put new stuff out there."

Stefani completed a two-year Vegas greatest hits residency in 2019, which gave her a sense of perspective on her own legacy. "You make a new record because that's what is exciting for you," she says. "But people really just want to hear the records after a while that were the backdrop to their lives, a 'Don't Speak' or a 'Just a Girl' or a 'Hollaback Girl,' or whatever it was for them. So, you know, it's hard — you can only be new when you're new, and that's just the truth, and I know that."

She says she was pleasantly surprised that "Let Me Reintroduce Myself" charted at all, and that she only found out it did when Shelton walked into the kitchen to show her the iTunes numbers. "I burst out crying with joy, because it was like, 'Whoa, really?' I think I'd set myself up to be quite realistic about where I'm at."

Stefani, endlessly polite and self-deprecating in conversation, which on her end mostly consists of endearingly earnest run-on monologues, says she still has "tons" of insecurities. I get the impression she has been trying harder to give herself credit lately. She recalls recently hearing Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" on the car radio and finding herself in awe of the song's timeless catchiness.

Suit: Balmain, Earrings and choker: Lana Jewelry (The Residency Experience), Necklaces: Gwen's own

"But then I started thinking," she says, in a goofy Cher Horowitz tone. "Like, I have a few of those myself." She talks of this realization as a genuine breakthrough, which is a little worrying for a woman who has sold 40 million records. No shit, she has a "few of those." More of them than Lauper, actually.

More new music is coming along slowly, but I've caught Stefani on a day when the horizon looks closer than usual, and while things haven't quite fallen into place yet, she's feeling more confident that they eventually will. "I'm at the end," she declares. "The idea of going for a session and not being with my kids or the idea of taking time away from Blake doesn't fuel my fire like it did two months ago. I need to decide, wrap it up, put out the project."

Crucially, there's no rush. The album will simply arrive sometime this year, tracklist and title currently undecided.

"You're talking to me at a weird transitional time," Stefani says repeatedly throughout our conversation, which sometimes takes on the cathartic tone of therapy. But having time in the first place is a new feeling.

Bracelet and choker: Dana Kemp (The Residency Experience), Obsession necklace: Lidow Archive, Gold necklaces: Gwen's own, Clothing: Blumarine, Boots: Philipp Plein

NO DOUBT WERE A BAND for nine years before getting on the radio. Enough time for Stefani and bassist Tony Kanal to be in a long term relationship then break up and write a whole hit album about it. All of the Fleetwood Mac drama was resolved pre-fame, which enabled the group to capitalize on the surprise success of Tragic Kingdom singles like "Don't Speak" and "Just a Girl" with a world tour that lasted almost three years. Three more albums followed, and Stefani has reinforced her household name status in every decade since, launching a solo career and multiple fashion lines while never totally cutting the cord from her original musical project.

In other words, record executives have been dictating Stefani's schedule since the mid-'90s. She even sings about it on Love. Angel. Music. Baby opener "What You Waiting For," in which her biological clock ticks like a metronome. Interscope Co-Founder Jimmy Iovine, who discovered No Doubt and continued to work with Stefani on her solo output, was quick to point out that his client's prime childbearing years were also her last opportunity to cross over into pop stardom. And after her first record went number one, it only made sense to lay down some new tracks straight away.

"Whether or not I get the response that I would hope to get — because that's what I'm used to, because I'm so damn spoiled and I've tasted the blood of success — I still got to do the creative journey."

"I had the baby, the first one, and it was only like eight weeks after I had him, that Jimmy was calling me saying, you've got to go in the studio with Akon," Stefani recalls cheerfully. "Like, Akon wants to work with you. Like, no, I'm nursing my baby. But then I couldn't say no." And then? "We wrote 'Sweet Escape.'" And then? "I went on a world tour." And then? "In the month that I got home from that one hundred and whatever shows it was, I got pregnant with Zuma. So then that was that." (It wasn't. Admittedly: "Then it was like, No Doubt, let's do another record.")

Things are different now: "You can just drop singles and you don't have to put a record out. But if you want to put a record out, you can work on it slowly." But even as she talks of slowing down, speculating that she might not even go on tour after the pandemic ends, in the next sentence Stefani's back to admitting that there's more work to be done, that she wants to write a couple more songs for her new record, "just to make sure."

Earrings: Lana Jewelry (The Residency Experience) Choker: Chanel, Necklaces: Gwen's own, Gloves: Laurel DeWitt, Top: Local Boogeyman

"The creation is the thing that fuels me so much," she says. "Whether or not I get the response that I would hope to get — because that's what I'm used to, because I'm so damn spoiled and I've tasted the blood of success — I still got to do the creative journey."

Like any good lyricist, she reaches out to her listener, hoping to convey a more universal point. "It's just probably the same for you as a writer," she guesses. "You know, it's the anticipation. You're in it now. You're getting the information. This is what you live for. You're doing the interview and then you're going to write it. And that's going to be the challenge."

GWEN STEFANI WAS PUTTING out diary entry pop when Olivia Rodrigo was still in diapers and Taylor Swift was but a humble Pennsylvania Christmas tree heiress. She struggles to pen lyrics that aren't confessional ("I'm not a creative writer when it comes to like, 'Oh, let's just write a sad song about something that didn't happen to me'"), and occasionally re-traumatizes herself when performing old hits. Return of Saturn deep cut "Dark Blue" triggers "crazy, just horrible" recollections of a past relationship. Even "Don't Speak" felt emotional onstage in Vegas.

But after releasing an excruciating divorce album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like, in 2016, Stefani is back to writing happy songs only. She's getting married, after all. She won't be releasing any of her trademark breakup anthems anytime soon. "Girl," she laughs, "I think I've had my fair share."

Bow: Laurel DeWitt, Earrings: Lana Jewelry (The Residency Experience), Bracelets: Dena Kemp (The Residency Experience), Shirt: Vintage Archive, Dress: Erdem, Tights: Capezio, Shoes: Marc Jacobs (Lidow Archive)

Stefani and Shelton's relationship has puzzled some fans. Shelton, a country radio phenomenon, never endorsed Trump in the 2016 election, but he did come close. Earlier this year, he was criticized for releasing a song called "Minimum Wage," about finding small joys during periods of economic struggle, at the peak of a recession.

Is Gwen Stefani a Republican now? She's not offended by the question, or really anything I have to ask. She has been famous for so long that she expects and even embraces scrutiny. "If you're going to be a star, that's what you get," she says. "You know what I mean? You get what you get, and you don't get upset, at all."

As for her politics, it's read-between-the-lines."I can see how people would be curious, but I think it's pretty obvious who I am," she says. "I've been around forever. I started my band because we were really influenced by ska, which was a movement that happened in the late '70s, and it was really all about people coming together. The first song I ever wrote was a song called 'Different People,' which was on the Obama playlist, you know, a song about everyone being different and being the same and loving each other. The very first song I wrote."

One of very few multi-racial bands playing stadium shows for hoardes of American teenangers in the 1990s, No Doubt did very literally embody those second-wave ska principles of inclusion. Stefani even wore bindis and saris on stage as a symbol of cultural exchange with Kanal, who is Indian-American, briefly kickstarting a white girl facial jewelry trend that it's safe to say would not fly in 2021.

Rings (left): Dena Kemp (The Residency Experience)

"The Specials and The Selecter and all those groups, and what they were doing in the late '70s was this whole kind of anti-racism, we come together, Black and white ska movement," Stefani elaborates on the band's founding principles. "And we were sort of echoing that in the '80s when we did it, we were like the third generation of ska."

Ska she's always happy to discuss, but Stefani was brought up to keep her electoral preferences personal, and that rule has held for her entire career. "The whole point of voting, is you have this personal space to feel how you feel," she explains. "I use my platform to share my life story and to engage with people and to exchange whatever gift I was giving. I'm not a political science major. I am not that person. Everyone knows that. So why would I even talk about it?"

"I don't need to go on Instagram and say 'girl power.' I just need to live and be a good person and leave a trail of greatness behind me."

It never has been. Looking back, it's weird that "Just a Girl" is so integral to Gwen Stefani's brand. She's never written anything else with remotely the same message, and or publicly identified as a feminist. To Stefani, it's just a song about growing up, and "all of a sudden you realize your gender." It wasn't meant as a protest or anthem: in fact, being her breakout hit, she didn't think anyone other than her bandmates and some local fans would ever hear it.

"I don't even know if I knew what feminist at that time was," she says. "I was very sheltered growing up with my family. I wasn't political. I wasn't angry." Even now: "I don't need to go on Instagram and say 'girl power.' I just need to live and be a good person and leave a trail of greatness behind me. Stop talking about it and stop trying to bully everybody about it. Just do it. And that's how I feel like I've lived my life."

WHEN STEFANI WAS GROWING up in 1970s Anaheim, her father got a job doing market research for Yamaha, which required frequent business trips to Japan. He'd bring home Sanrio toys, as well as anecdotes about the Tokyo district of Harajuku, where teenagers were dressing like Elvis, and "taking all these American things and making them Japanese." His daughter was entranced. "He would be telling me these things my whole life, like my whole life. I had a deep fascination."

So when No Doubt played Japan in 1996, Stefani describes, "It was a pretty big deal for me." The tour was the first time she'd traveled outside of the United states, save one trip to Italy when she was 21. "I just was inspired," she recalls. "It's a world away. And at that time it was even further, because you couldn't see it on the internet. I don't think a younger generation can even imagine what it's like to not have access to the world."

From then on, Japan became one of Stefani's biggest career motivations, especially when it came to her solo albums. If she could just write more hits, she'd get to tour there again, see the street style, visit the vintage stores. "If you read the actual lyrics [in 'What You Waiting For?'], it talks about being a fan of Japan and how if I do good, I get to go back there," she says.

In the meantime, she decided she'd bring Japan to Los Angeles. "I never got to have dancers with No Doubt. I never got to change costumes. I never got to do all of those fun girl things that I always love to do. So I had this idea that I would have a posse of girls — because I never got to hang with girls — and they would be Japanese, Harajuku girls, because those are the girls that I love. Those are my homies. That's where I would be if I had my dream come true, I could go live there and I could go hang out in Harajuku."

Earrings, bracelets and rings: Dena Kemp (The Residency Experience, Gold Necklaces: Gwen's own, Top: Local Boogeyman, Pants: GCDS, Shoes: Valentino

Dancers Maya Chino ("Love"), Jennifer Kita ("Angel"), Rino Nakasone ("Music") and Mayuko Kitayama ("Baby") would go on to accompany Stefani for her next two album cycles, dancing on stage and in her videos while also making silent, but very well-dressed, awards show appearances. Kita, who'd grown up in LA, visited Japan for the first time on Stefani's tour.

In a 2006 interview with Blender magazine, comedian Margaret Cho compared the Harajuku Girls to a minstrel show. The backlash against them has been consistent ever since. Stefani, to this day, disagrees.

"If we didn't buy and sell and trade our cultures in, we wouldn't have so much beauty, you know?" she says. "We learn from each other, we share from each other, we grow from each other. And all these rules are just dividing us more and more."

Hello Kitty merch was harder to come by when she was a kid, but in other ways, life felt easier. "I think that we grew up in a time where we didn't have so many rules. We didn't have to follow a narrative that was being edited for us through social media, we just had so much more freedom."

Earrings, bracelets and rings: Dena Kemp (The Residency Experience), Necklaces: Gwen's own, Dress: GCDS, Shirt: Faith Connexion, Tights: Capezio, Shoes: Marc Jacobs (Lidow Archive)

Stefani's penchant for rule breaking has always been apparent in her music as much as her aesthetic. Genre-wise, she's a randomista. The chart success of No Doubt's bouncing ska beats felt like an accidental post-grunge-era glitch in the matrix, and it's insane to this day that one of Stefani's biggest solo hits samples "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof, by way of '90s British dancehall duo Louchie Lou & Michie One. That another, "Wind It Up," features earnest Sound of Music yodeling.

"I just make up whatever comes out," Stefani says of her songwriting process. "I don't even know where it comes from. I feel like it just comes from the source. It's not trained, and it's not perfect, it's just real."

She looks back on the Love.Angel.Music.Baby era as unusually experimental and artistically fulfilling. "It was just a really incredible time, and a very creative time. I feel like it was just a really creative project."

STEFANI VIEWS HER CAREER success as mostly a matter of luck. Pop stardom is God-given and mysterious."Because the fact I made it, it doesn't make any sense," she reflects. "It's written in the stars. You know what I'm saying? I'm not the most talented. I'm not the most pretty. I'm not the most smart. None of those things. But I made it, right?"

Clothing: Blumarine, Bracelet and choker: Dena Kemp (The Residency Experience), Obsession necklace: Lidow Archive, Gold necklaces: Gwen's Own

Every week on The Voice she watches objectively gifted musicians fail at becoming artists. "I watched people that went through that without seeing their faces, without knowing what color they are. And I chose the ones that pulled my heartstrings. And even though they were so talented, none of them have had careers. It's made me look at myself and even feel even more amazed by the fact that anyone cared or cares."

If all of this is actually so out of her control, then Stefani feels safe stepping back a little bit. "I don't have that fuel in me like I used to, because I already won," she says. And now she has other victories in mind. "Being a good human, a good mother. I want to have a good marriage. I want to be a good wife. I want to win at finding peace. I want to win at finding other hobbies that I'm good at."

But at the same time? "If I'm inspired, I'm going to try to do something with that inspiration." That's the most fun part: whatever else comes after has always been an amazing bonus.

The "Let Me Reintroduce Myself" era, whatever form it may eventually take, isn't a desperate grab at former glory. It's Stefani refusing to evolve for the sake of it. She's poking fun at the whole idea of having to compete with past personas alongside current ones, while acknowledging the fact she's grateful to still be in the game at all.

"You don't know what you're doing," she says, somehow both confident and resigned. "You're a cartoon of yourself at this point, and you don't know what people are thinking. They're wondering, what? Why are you still here? And I'm like, I don't know. They said I could be here. So I'm here!"

Photography: Jamie Nelson Styling: Nicola Formichetti Hair: Sami Knight Makeup: Michael Anthony Nails: Carolyn Orellana Wardrobe director: Marta Del Rio Production: Katrina Kudlick Digitatech: Sean MacGillivray Logo design: Luca Devinu Story: Kat Gillespie

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docholligay · 5 years ago

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The Time Traveler’s Bullshit

@katrani comissioned me to write out my full review of The Time Traverler’s Wife, my most hated book of the year thus far, and I feel like it won’t be dethroned. nearly 3,000 words and I skipped a whole section I was going to write about, ENJOY

Three dollars and ninety nine cents will buy you a Big Mac. It will buy you four hours of downtown parking in my city. Three dollars and ninety-nine cents will buy you a latte made with burnt coffee at Starbucks. For Three dollars and ninety-nine cents, I can get a can of terrible beer and have a dollar left over for tip. All of which would have been a better choice than what I ultimately spent that three dollars and ninety-nine cents on, which was this book.

I am careful to read hyped books out of their time, so that I’m not influenced by something that has been so lauded no book could ever hope to reach those heights. So when this first came around, and I saw many women talking about how much they had loved it, I figured I would just read it later. I buy books used, so this is generally what I do even outside of worrying about being affected.

I finally picked this book up after a reader of mine told me it reminded them of my writing.

After reading it, several years after all the hype, I have one question: Are women who fuck men okay?

(“Why not just straight women, Doc?” you may rightly ask me, and I, unfortunately, am forced to answer that I know a number of bisexual women who also enjoyed this book, leading me to believe that the trouble is far worse than previously imagined.)

I found this book to be borderline insulting, and if I didn’t know any better, I would have claimed this book was written by a man. The entire way through I felt the constant assault of the idea that this reminded someone of ME. What have I been doing wrong all my life, I asked? I should probably give up writing.

Let’s go into the book itself!

The core of the novel hinges around the idea that Henry goes through time without wanting to and with no consious conrol, and so in a sense lives his life out of order. This is a fascinating idea but for the fact that book’s main hinge is the relationship between Clare and Henry.

Who Henry meets, as an adult out of time, when she is six.

And proceeds to groom her to be his wife someday.

Oh, it isn’t put that way, of course, it’s simply that they end up married and so, I suppose the author might say, it’s only natural that Henry interact with her when he comes the “the Meadow” nearby where she lives. But this sort of “things are already decided” that the author is extremely fond of does not remove this intensely squicky framework from their relationship. Henry begins with Clare when she is six years old, and it comes on VERY fast that they are supposed to get married. She is at a sleepover, still as a literal child, ELEVEN YEARS OLD, when the Ouija board spells out his name as the boy who likes her.

The book takes pains to describe how he won;t have sex with her until she’s 18, but how difficult it is for a thirties to forties man not to have sex with her when she’s 15, 16, 17. I want to say there might be a part where he describes it when she’s 14, but I can’t find it in the book right now, so we’ll pretend it’s not there. “But they’re married in the furute!” one might say, listen if my wife had to resist having sex with sixteen year old me, and didn’t see me as a fucking child, I would think she was gross. It’s gross for a thirty-something to forty -something dde to struggle not to fuck a teenager, period, end of story.

All of this is wrapped in the book’s idea that this is romantic, instead of the idea that Clare’s “date with destiny” is tragic. She doesn’t ever have a boyfriend, because she is “waiting for Henry”. She sleeps with one of Henry’s friends before he and Clare ever officially “meet” and bursts into tears because she feels as if she has been unfaithful. Meanwhile, Henry is out having girlfriends like no one’s business, and “Well Doc he doesn’t know” why is Clare the one who has to bear this arranged marriage?

Clare herself even alludes to the way she’s being groomed to be the woman he wants in a way that I DO NOT THINK the author intended, as the author is desperately wrapped up in the idea that this is sexy and romantic and not deeply fucking unsettling.

Pretentious-ass Henry is dropping German into a casual conversation with a thirteen year old so that you know he is learned and cool, and explain that it’s from Rilke, one of their (note: Not your, but OUR) favorite poets.

Clare responds: “You’re doing it again!”

“What?”

“Telling me what I like.” Clare burrows into my lap with her feet. Without thinking I put my feet on her shoulders, but then that seems too sexual, somehow, and I quickly take Clare’s feet in my hands again and hold them together with one hand in the air as she lies on her back, innocent and angelic with her hair spread nimbus-like around her on the blanket. (Sidebar: I can only fucking imagine that the sort of people that are into this are the sort of people who think nothing at the idea of some Victorian gentleman marrying his attractive young ward, as apparently there’s no problem with having seen someone as a child and then having them marry you! It’s not deeply fucked up at all!) …..

“Henry?”

“Yes?”

“You are making me different.”

“I know.”

These brief asides are meant to make us feel that Henry has done enough to assuage his guilt, that we are meant to forget that what he is doing is wrong. The book goes so far as to have sixteen year old Clare be the aggressor with a 37 or so year old Henry, as a way of trying to tell us, “Oh look none of this can be Henry’s fault” and an absolutely cringeworthy section where Henry goes and beats up a kid who took Clare on a date and proceeded to assault her. (She dates him to prove she’s not a dyke wow what a great book and thank you for reminding us that Clare never wants to see anyone else for her own sake even as a teenager, very healthy)

All of which would make me a hell of a lot more mad if I managed to like Clare even a little bit. But it’s not at all surprising that I don't--Clare is hardly a character in this story so much as she’s a cardboard cutout that exists for Henry.

Each of her desires and thoughts revolves around him, from the time she’s a child, save for minor pouting incidents when Henry either won’t tell her something, or disagrees with her. But she always caves, but for the exception of having a child, another horrible thing we’re meant to feel sorry for them in, but I, at least, never really do, as they know the problem, they know how horribly Henry’s life has been affected, and yet they persevere. I find myself asking why in the fuck they don’t use donor sperm, but I suppose that would not fulfill Clare’s real use as being Henry’s vessel. It might have been very touching to write about their experience of infertility if they were likeable at all, or the chapters were anything but flat and emotionless despite dealing with really high-emotion topics. It’s essentially Clare saying “I want a baby inside me” and having a series of miscarriages. I’ve read more compelling narratives on online message boards.

Not to mention when Henry suggests adopting and Clare says “That would be pretending” bitch fuck ALL THE WAY OFF. I repeat: WE ARE MEANT TO LIKE THIS CHARACTER. NOTHING ABOUT HER IS SHOWN AS A NEGATIVE.

A fair amount of time in the book is spent describing how hot Clare is, and it’s a bit cringey to read about a super hot redhead with great tits and also rich, who’s a visual artist, and then flip to the back and see a redheaded visual artist as the author. It’s not that I don’t believe that authors are ever allowed to find themselves in a character, quite the contrary, but one hopes that there would be a level of detachment or at least plausible deniability. But no, Clare is nothing but wish fulfillment for the author, but unfortunately cannot fulfill any of ours. I get the sense that these characters are far more complex and layered in Niffenegger’s head, but they fall completely flat on the page, sketches of annoying human beings.

Clare seems to have been raised in an Austen novel, where the home is noted for its architecture and we ‘dress for dinner’ which could be intensely compelling if they ever went anywhere with it. But we don’t. Because of course Clare’s raising in a straightlaced, extremely wealthy family has no affect on her and she is a very cool girl who is laid back and likes the right music and poetry. (Sidebar: The name dropping in this novel is SO TIRESOME. Every band, artist, poet, etc has to be named and identified so your are aware of how absolutely well-read and smart and cool Niffenegger is)

The we’re meant to feel for Henry when her family finds out that he is half-Jewish which I suppose is meant to be shocking when he doesn’t practice or isn’t different in any marked way from her family? The character has no Jewishness in him but as a side note and dare I say for shock value. Her family isn’t even written as believably against the union, as no one can resist super cool hipster protag Henry DeTamble (Even his name sounds INSUFFERABLE)

The problem, of course, is that the very wealthy can buy their way out of many problems, meaning that an author has to have a particular deftness of hand in order to make you feel something for them. This is not that author. Any sympathy one might have for Clare goes immediately out the window when she’s complaining about having only a small room for a studio in which to create, while she’s living off the INTEREST from her trust fund, and hiring a cleaning service because neither of them is willing to vacuum. Not her trust fund. The INTEREST from her trust fund, which means there must be so much fucking money in there we all want to scream.

Of course, Henry goes into the future and wins the lottery so they can give her a new studio, I shit you not this is a thing that happens in a novel where we are supposedly meant to identify with the characters and feel for them. They buy a nice house with a separate studio in the backyard, not even in the house, just a large brick edifice where Clare can do whatever she wants because these people don’t have consequences until Henry’s death, and by the time he dies, we’re all thanking God that at least there’s one thing they can’t weasel out of. The book has the audacity to have them, later, describe having a private box as one of their “little indulgences” friends a private box is the realm of $1,800 dollars for ONE showing of an opera, and while I am a believer in the good of occasionally saving up to do something that is an experience, there is no way I would describe that as an ‘indulgence” but these people have such wealth that they never need worry about anything at all, except the central point, which is that Henry drifts in and out of time and we would like to sentence a child to that.

Henry himself is a collection of traits rather than a person--it is so important to the author that we know he is a real punk with great musical taste, that he knows German and poetry and Chicago--it’s all rather a laundry list of the long-haired, tall, punkish but very classically learned boyfriend Niffenegger would like to have rather than someone who has a heart or a mind. But the luck of it all is that she clearly cares about henry far more than she does Clare, and so he gets a bit of fleshing out with a tragic anime backstory and all that, and from time to time we see bursts of real humanity in his character.

Their love, even if it were not burdened by the exceptional trouble of CLARE BEING GROOMED AS A CHILD, has the weight of air. Henry is a womanizer with a drug problem, but then he meets Clare, hot rich redhead who proves she’s known him her whole life, and suddenly the magic swelling violins are in the background, love has found its day, and no more is ever said about it.The book refuses to get anywhere deep into how they feel about things and why, it is only glancing blows that seem to suggest an emotion rather than allowing ourselves to get into their minds.

The bulk of the description of their love is sex. Sex sex sex. I get it, they are hot for each other, I am trying very hard to get over the fact that they are married when Clare is 22 and Henry is thirty, but you’re giving me nothing to pin their relationship on but the fact that they enjoy railing each other and Henry has been around since Clare was a child. I don’t understand the why of their relationship even once, it all seems so accidental, and I wanted there to be a lesson, or something to be said about humanity and relationships, but I found nothing save for maybe the idea that women are fully engrossed in their relationships and men basically luck into them and then drop out from time to time? But even that is far far deeper than I think the novel deserves credit for.

The side characters are somehow worse, mainly racist stereotypes or one note characters who ALSO exist to have their lives enhanced by the protagonists. Even their friends only exist so that Gomez can have the hots for Clare for years, because Everyone Wants To Bone Clare.

The writing itself is terrible too, written in the style of a script, almost, rapidly shifting between first person narratives in a matter of one or two paragraphs, often, helpfully telling who is talking by, I shit you not, putting “CLARE:” or “HENRY:” before the paragraphs, so we can enjoy who it is that is navel gazing and picking over the conversation without saying anything really, save for how badly Henry wants to fuck his super hot wife, who may or may not currently be a teenager, and how desperately Clare loves him, and has loved him since she was a child, for reasons that remain unclear.

It’s padded out and ridiculous and reads like some of the drafts when I am being a complete garbage pile, and thank you to the person online who had already typed this out so I didn’t have to:

Henry:

Clare is wearing a wine-colored velvet dress and pearls. She looks like a Botticelli by way of John Graham: huge gray eyes, long nose, tiny delicate mouth like a geisha. She has long red hair that covers her shoulders and falls to the middle of her back. Clare is so pale she looks like a waxwork in the candlelight. I thrust the roses at her. "For you."

Please try to read that with a straight face and get back to me, i could not manage it, and it was early on the book, and this sort of thing goes on for pages, if you don’t like hearing about how pale Clare is, and that she has red hair, her two most dominating character traits, you are in for a very, very rough time.

The narrative voice of the characters is identical. I mean, I suppose I should thank whatever god is responsible for this clusterfuck for the CLARE and HENRY bits because otherwise I would have no clue who was talking from moment to moment. Does NIffenegger think all people think alike? That their internal monologues are the same? It seems to me she must because I can’t figure any other way that one could write two characters and have them, even when their opinions differ, sound like the exact same person.

I did enjoy the letter at the end of this story--and this is where I saw where my reader connected me to this book--it almost seems as if it was written for a different novel, a novel about a doomed love between two people that truly loved each other and had rich inner lives. It’s beautiful, or it would be totally removed from this novel.

This review has, in itself, gotten to be as rambling and listing as the novel, and so I will let it rest here. I read incredibly fast. This took me something like five or six hours to read. It was a waste of every single one of those hours and I wish I had gotten a Big Mac instead. Save yourself, save six hours, save three dollars and ninety-nine cents, and read literally anything else.

#Doc Reads

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windowslong · 3 years ago

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visual-studio-crack-v6 · 3 years ago

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imgibbon · 2 years ago

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I have a hard time deciding which I like better, Lufia II or Shadow of the Colossus, but I'm going to go with SotC for the purposes of this answer.

As much as I am involved in GAMING™ these days, I did not actually have a lot of access to it when younger. My first console was an atari. I did not own a Super Nintendo until after the N64 was out, and did not own an N64 until after Donkey Kong 64 came out. For much of my childhood the computers I had access to were a Commodore 64 and an old black & white mac. That being said, once we did get a better computer, I suddenly had access to Myst and Riven, and the wonderful world of emulators, and I began to absorb games, and the ones I tended to latch on to were the ones with rich and vibrant worlds that communicated a lot through their visuals in addition to their textual storytelling. So it's no surprise that I latched on to the Donkey Kong Countries or the Lufias or old adventure games and the like.

And then Shadow of the Colossus came out. I remember seeing the opening play out on a demo kiosk in Sears or something and just standing entranced. The absolute majesty of it. I wasn't aware of the term "cinematic platformer" at the time but it was love at first site. I absolutely had to have this game. And it was everything I hoped for and more. It blew my mind.

It is a masterclass in environmental and inferred storytelling. Even just really basic building blocks of the game's world that seem pretty inconsequential tell you so much if you delve into it a bit. Take, for instance, the central hub of the game, the tower. It's partially broken, and is where the consciousness of the godbeing Dormin is sealed away, at the center of the "Forbidden Lands". Pretty straightforward, but there's a lot to unpack there! "Dormin" is "Nimrod" backwards, for instance. Nimrod was a biblical hunter king of some renown, as well as the one who commissioned the infamous Tower of Babel. As punishment for his hubris in trying to build a tower to the heavens, God had his body torn apart and scattered to the four winds. Well, Dormin lives in a ruined tower and his essences was ripped into 16 pieces and scattered about these lands, which are now verboten to enter. And so we begin to see parallels.

Other things like the fact that basically ever Colossus in the game has some counterpart in the environment. There's lizards and dear and birds and fish and other critters about in the forbidden lands if you look for them. There's also little shrines dotted about that echo the design of the central tower. There's a ton of "as above, so below" going on in the game, and it teaches you about the colossi and how to go about confronting them if you just kind of explore the world and soak it in. You can get the big horse colossus' attention to whistling for it, like you do your horse. Just like you can grab onto the giant avian colossus' wings, so too can you grab onto the birds flying about. Just like you can knock the lizards off things so too can you cause the lizard colossus to fall from the walls of the pit. And so on.

And that doesn't even begin to get into the game's overt, surface level plot happenings, or the magnificent gameplay, and its NG+ & time trial stuff or all the other things that kept me coming back to it endlessly during college and beyond and made me a lifelong fan of the studio.

Anyway yeah this is getting longwinded and I should probably wrap this up before I hit a word limit or something haha.

Welcome to Daily Gaming Discussion!

These questions are intended to help video game fans here on Tumblr get to know each other better, whether it's discovering new things they have in common, or new recommendations of things to enjoy! So feel free to spread around and reblog!

On Mondays I will normally ask about music, but since today is our first day, let's start with a baseline question.

DGD #1: What's your favorite game ever, and why?

Bonus topics if you want to add them:

-Do you have an easy and definite answer for this, or is it hard to pick between several?

-Would you say your favorite game changes a lot over time, or has it been the same for ages?

-Do you think anything could ever replace this game as your #1? What would it take?

*Feel free to answer in replies, tags, or reblog comments! Say as little or as much as you want!

#shadow of the colossus

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noiseartists · 5 years ago

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Daydream Deathray: Crispy and bold Shoegaze from Kentucky

Daydream Deathray is an aggressively melodic Shoegaze band from Kentucky. They have a great band’s name also.

Originally conceived in 2016 from the dissolution of a punk rock band, the project was initially mired in difficulty. At the end of their first attempt at a debut EP, the studio owner left town and ceased communication with his clients. This prompted founding member, Matt Glick, to put together his own studio and re-record that EP. But, just as it was nearly completed, the studio was broken into and nearly everything was stolen - including their recordings. This came on the heels of family tragedy for Glick, leaving him in a cloud of depression for months, and effectively ending that chapter of the group.

Once Glick finally began recording again, a different aesthetic direction started to naturally present itself. With this sense of a fresh start, Daydream Deathray have crafted a short and sweet debut that feels light, but with a sprawling sense of darkness just on the horizon. They give an overwhelming sense of personality to their take on a genre that often tends to fit neatly within its own self-imposed guidelines.

Note from the Editor: Before the interview starts some apology on the latness of this article. The band have been kind enough to send the blog their interview earlu in 2020 and due to operations slowing it is only now that it is picked up.

Who are the group members?

As of this moment, it’s really kind of just me. There have been a few half-assed attempts at putting together a live band, with one more attempt coming really soon. But, I dunno… people are busy, I’m kind of particular about things, and playing live just hasn’t really been too much of a focus for me. That being said, Mandy Mac was part of the last attempt at putting something together, and we get along pretty well - so, as long as everything works out, I’m sure she will remain a part of the line up. Judah Moore-Denk is possibly going to join on guitar, and Zach Ortiz may be joining on bass, for this next experiment.

How did you meet?

With Mandy and Zach, it’s mostly just from playing with other bands in the past, and/or just having mutual friends. Judah is actually the son of some friends of mine, which is wild. I’ve actually witnessed him grow up, and always knew he’d turn out to be a rad adult.

How did you come up with your name?

Coming up with band names is really not a strength, for me. Daydream Deathray means something, but I can’t possibly articulate what it is. What is your music about? On the ﬁrst EP, Bloom, it’s kind of all over the place. Love, rejecting conservative idealism, and surrealism are all there. I don’t ever think too much about the “what” or the “why” with lyrics or themes. I kind of just arrange whatever seems to be ﬂowing through me from the ether, I guess.

What are your goals as an artist artistically/commercially?

I really do mostly just try to make music that I enjoy. In doing so, I hope others get a feeling from it that I get from the music that inspires me. I like pushing my own boundaries, too.

What are you trying to avoid as a band?

I think part of the reason I’ve (maybe subconsciously) stiﬂed us becoming a legitimate live band is to avoid situations I’ve been wrapped up in with past bands. I just don’t want to become too boxed in, creatively. I feel like if I’m writing the majority of the songs, I shouldn’t feel limited in following whatever direction feels natural for me. But that’s not a mentality that everyone can always get on board with, when everyone feels equally invested in a project.

Why do you make the music you make? Is it in you? Is it your environment?

I guess it’s just who I am. I’ve tried to stop and focus on other things, but it never works.

What inspire you for the music or for the Lyrics?

Sometimes it’s just whatever is going on in my life, or whatever is eating up a lot of my energy on a larger social level. A lot of times, it’s love or desire, and trying to put words to those feelings, but in a way that hasn’t been done a million times before. But, usually, it just…comes. I don’t know from where or why.

Tell us what you are looking when trying to achieve your sounds. Do you experiment a lot or have a clear idea of what you want?

Sometimes, it’s a very clear idea, and it comes out exactly as planned. Other times, it takes years of fooling with a part of a song that I can’t stop messing with. I try to not be too rigid with creating things, and just let things happen. And, sometimes that means it takes a really long time to happen (as you know…haha.)

Explain your songwriting process.

I usually just have something come to me while I’m playing guitar, and I’ll either take the reigns a bit and make something of it, or I’ll be a little more patient with it, and just hop on board and see where it takes me.

Describe your palette of sound.

It depends on my mood, I suppose. I may have synesthesia, to some degree. I tend to think about visual color spectrums a lot while writing and recording.

Who would you want as a dream producer, and why?

I have “heroes” when it comes to music and production, but I think I’d be far too timid to work with many of them, if the chance arose. And, I’m aware that I likely wouldn’t get out of it whatever I’ve fantasized about, y’know? I think, practically, I’m far more interested in working with dream mixing engineers. And, at the top of that list is Alan Moulder. I would have the time of my life just sitting and learning from someone like that.

If you could guest on someone else’s album, who would it be and why? What would you play?

I’d actually really love to work on a straight up pop record. Speciﬁcally on the ‘sound design’ end of things.

What musical skills would you like to acquire or get better at?

I’m currently focusing most of my practicing energy on becoming a much better drummer. I’ve always been able to play a bit, but I’d like to be really proﬁcient someday. And, as always, I wish I could sing better. Like, much better.

Which other musician/artist would you date?

Well, I am happily married to the most beautiful human being on the planet. But, I guess, purely for the interest of having a laugh, I could mention that I had some pretty heavy teenage crushes on Toni Halliday and Miki Berenyi.

Is there a band that if they didn’t exist you wouldn’t be making the music you make?

So many, really. In addition to the obvious ones like Lush, MBV, Curve, Slowdive, I’d have to say The Cure, Jane’s Addiction, and Smashing Pumpkins were probably the three most important ones to me in my formative years.

You are from the U.S. what are the advantages and inconvenient?

I like the fact that I live in the middle of dozens of bigger cities, but I actually live in a really small town in Kentucky. So, I get the best of both worlds. It’s pretty easy to tour here, especially in the eastern half of the country. As far as drawbacks go, I’d have to say they’re currently mostly political.

What are some places around the world that you hope to play with your band?

I would really, really love to tour Europe someday. My last band got several offers, but it never worked out for various reasons. But I really LOVE traveling and exploring, and if I had all the money in the world, I doubt I would ever stop traveling for very long, with or without music as the catalyst.

When is the next album/EP due?

Hopefully before the end of winter. I had really hoped to have an EP out months ago, and a full length in the spring. But, life happens, I guess. I seriously have so much material at various stages of completion. There’s already at least three full lengths worth of stuff up my sleeve, if not more.

Some artists you recommend.

I hate to say that my ability to ﬁnd current music that really excites me has been sort of ceased up in the past few years. I used to know all of the cool new bands before everyone else. Now, I’m like “holy shit this band is amazing!” And then realize the recording came out 2-5 years ago. I guess it’s because I’m not out socializing and touring all the time, anymore. I’m fairly out of touch.

Anything else you want your fans to know?

If anyone’s actually a fan, I’m beyond grateful for them taking the time to listen, and I’m overjoyed that they connect with what I create.

FInd Daydream Deathray here

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Bandcamp

Website

Youtube

#USA #Shoegaze #Noise Pop

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architectnews · 5 years ago

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El Quincho, Córdoba Property

El Quincho Córdoba Property, Argentina Real Estate, South American Architecture Photos

El Quincho, Córdoba House

1 Nov 2020

El Quincho – Córdoba Home

Architects: by Lalo Carrillo, CaSA and SY Architectos

Location: Córdoba, Argentina, South America

Newly built. Asado pavilion and guesthouse. 140m2. Location: Córdoba, Argentina

Photos: Ramiro Sosa

Premise

According to RAE (Real Academia Española), the word quincho, widely used in Argentina and Uruguay, defines “a shed consisting of a thatched roof supported by wooden columns or other material; It is usually built in the garden of a house or in its back, and is used as a shelter against rain or sun in outdoor meals.” The word derives by “quincha”, an ancient Quechua word that defines a traditional construction system of South America that consists of a threaded cane or bamboo covered with mud.

In Argentina, having asado (cooking meat on embers, similar to barbecue), more then a culinary tradition is an art, or a religion.

Basically it’s a ritual. Argentinians now use the word quincho to define a construction made expressly to prepare and enjoy a good asado. This is generally a family business, since the variety of pieces of meat and their dimensions are big. It’s a shared meal, and the construction can be simply a barbecue, a covered shed, or a proper building.

Brief

When our clients bought the property next door to their ’60 existing house in a small town in the Córdoba countryside, to widen their garden, they decide to commission the construction of a new building in the newly acquired plot: a quincho, specifically for making asado and family gatherings.

Once demolished the dividing wall, it was clear the area of the new building had to be between the existing pool and the dividing wall corner of the new plot, leaning against the last.

The wish was to have a big dining room for family and friends, visually and physically totally open to the garden but with the chance to close it completely. In addition, a double bedroom for guests, with a bathroom, had to be designed.

Formally, this new pavilion had to establish a conversation with the white-painted brick walls forming the existing mid-century house that has a distinct design, being surmounted by a thick, charcoal-colored roof volume that surrounds the villa.

Project

The choice had been to recall the solid brick volumes of the white original building in the new construction this time in natural brickwork, like in the asador itself, a thick but slender chimney-like volume clearly expressed on the side of the building, the taller element of the building.

A pristine white, cantilevered roof contrasts with the walls, wrapping around the bricks block, forming a gallery that blurs the transition between indoors and outdoors space and giving shelter from the copious summer rains. This thin white roof, in relation to the thick, exposed brick walls of the structure below, establishes a relationship somewhat similar to the one of the thick, dark grey roof of the existing building, still without imitating it.

A Cassia Fistula tree happened to be on the corner of the gallery area, so the architects made the decision to punch two round holes, one on the floor slab, another in the roof itself, allowing the tree to remain, grow through the roof and blossom its bright yellow flowers cascade in summer, just above it. The plot had been abandoned for decades, so other grown plants and trees have been carefully kept during the site works and taken in account in order to make the most of them once the project was done and the garden enlarged.

Another architectural element in the gallery is a corner seat, cantilevered in concrete within the nook of the facade brick wall. This cozy corner is thought to contemplate quietly the garden, drinking mate, the national drink.

On the inside, a spacious patio divides the dining area from an en-suite area with a spacious guest bedroom and an intimate bathroom with diagonal views on the patio. Taking advantage of the one story building, the shower has a light well placed right on top of it, bringing extra natural light.

The bedroom volume protrudes towards the garden to add intimacy to this more private part and to have an even closer relation to the luscious green outside.

On the other side, the existing pool had to be divided from the new building for safety reasons, given the family has one kid with special needs. A simple white metal fence was placed for this purpose. One of the project’s key pieces is the asador, the brick oven where the asado is made.

Often these items are placed outdoor, but the family final choice was to have it as part of the dining in order to have the cooking family member enjoying the same space as the rest, rather then work isolated. The cooking space has been divided in two to allow one side for a pizza and bread oven.

The big kitchen has everything for the preparation of the food, wide countertops and plenty of cabinets and storage space. All the kitchen doors are in cedar solid wood, adding its very warm finish to the room.

The same solid timber has been used for all the doors, storage and paneling.

The building has been furnished with pieces from the family, as well as new designs.

Four original Diamond chairs by Harry Bertoia, in the house since the ’60, were restored, provided with new cushions that matched the ones of the corner gallery seat and placed on the poolside. An old, big, solid wooden table is the center of the dining room, surrounded by Windsor chairs also belonging to the family for decades, along with other new chairs. Family heritage are also the Persian rugs used both indoors and outdoors and the thonet-style, hay rocking chair. Abstract art pieces by Rodrigo Schiavoni (one of the architects collaborating in the project) give the finishing touch.

El Quincho, Córdoba Property, Argentina – Building Information

Team: Lalo Carrillo architect, Matteo Colombo and Andrea Serboli for Colombo and Serboli Architecture – www.colomboserboli.com Adán Yenerich and Rodrigo Schiavoni for SY Arquitectos – www.sy-arch.com

Site direction by Gisela Filippi para MF Arquitectura – https://ift.tt/3mHN28K

Styling and art direction: SY Architectos and Eduardo Carrillo

Photos: Ramiro Sosa – https://ift.tt/2GhOhfv

El Quincho Córdoba property images / information received 011120

Location: Córdoba, Argentina, South America

Architecture in Argentina

Contemporary Argentina Architectural Projects

Argentina Architecture Designs – chronological list

Argentina Architecture News

Argentina Houses

Casa Rampa, Patagonia Design: Andrés Remy Arquitectos photo : Alejandro Peral Ramp House in Patagonia

Nordelta Tigre Yacht Club House, Buenos Aires Design: Estudio Ramos, architects photograph : Daniela Mac Adden Nordelta Tigre Yacht Club House

Córdoba Architecture

New Café Building in Córdoba

Bicentennial Civic Center in Córdoba Building Architects: GGMPU Arquitectos + Lucio Morini photograph : Claudio Manzoni Bicentennial Civic Center Córdoba Argentina

Contemporary House in Cordoba

Argentina Architect Studios

Argentine Buildings

Comments / photos for the El Quincho, Córdoba Property page welcome

Argentina

The post El Quincho, Córdoba Property appeared first on e-architect.

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superstringstudio · 6 years ago

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Mottos, Mantras and Mission Statements; 4 Steps to Branding Your Studio

Recently I’ve put a lot of thought into how I want my studio to be perceived by others. I’ve asked myself: What are the attributes that make Superstring different to the slew of other indie devs? What values will unite all the games that are born out of my studio? What does Superstring stand for?

I can almost hear the gags and wretches – this subject matter unavoidably gets into quite guffy, saccharine territory. It sounds like a load of bollocks, doesn’t it? Not long ago I would have agreed and written anything like this off as pretentious busy-work – a fat waste of time.

In retrospect, that thinking was naïve. I’ve come to realise how important this positioning work can be in the long run; it’s a vital step that a lot of smaller developers and studios are overlooking.

Taking the time to properly position your studio/company will cement your creative vision – it will give the games that slowly fill your catalogue consistency and a stamp that is undeniably yours. It will help you hire likeminded folk, and – most importantly – it will allow you to shape what the masses think when they see your studio interacting in the wild. This work is easy to rush and difficult to nail, but it’s not expensive. Anybody can do this work. Everybody should do this work.

I want to say up front, by the way: I am by no means an expert in the world of indie development - Superstring is still a very young studio, and yet to release its first game (Headspun is out later this summer, releasing on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC and Mac). I have A LOT to learn about development. I have, however, worked in the games industry for over a decade, with the past four years in a global brand role at an AAA publisher. Recently, I’ve been trying to leverage some of that big-publisher-thinking on a smaller scale.

Today I want to share that work here.

In this first entry in the Superstring Journal (get updates here!) – a new monthly blog exploring various aspects of indie dev life – I wanted to walk through the four steps I’ve taken with Superstring in terms of building a brand for the studio. I’m not claiming Superstring is the best example of any of these steps, merely an example.

Note: in an ideal world, the below would be worked up alongside the birth of your studio. It should influence the name you choose, the icon you design, the language you use when communicating with the world. I’d imagine lots of people skip over all this and just get cracking developing their dream game – I know I did. Much of the below can be figured out at a later date, however – it just needs a step back, and some dedicated time to figure a few things out.

Ok, here we go!

1 | DEFINE YOUR STUDIO’S MISSION STATEMENT

This should be an easy place to start, but wrapping language around the aims of your studio/business is surprisingly tricky. “Because I want to” doesn’t cut it, sadly.

Your mission statement isn’t a slogan. It doesn’t need to be catchy or clever. It just needs to lay out what you’re trying to achieve. If you’re a tech company it will simply outline the solution that your product offers to a problem. As game developers, our mission statements are more likely to be rooted in the experience we’re looking to give to our players.

Some examples:

Supergiant Games “We want to make games that spark your imagination like the games you played as a kid.”

Dropbox: “to unleash the world’s creative energy by designing a more enlightened way of working.”

Blizzard: “Dedicated to creating the most epic entertainment experiences...ever.”

Doublefine: “committed to making high-quality games with an emphasis on originality, story, characters, and funâ€‹”

Giant Sparrow: “[to create] surreal experiences people have never had before. Our dream is to make the world a stranger, more interesting place.”

Superstring: “To bring narrative to unlikely places through genre hybrids and experimentation.”

Try not to skip this step, as it segues directly into the second.

2 | DEFINE YOUR STUDIO’S VALUES

Yeah, the second step is equally as vague and woolly as the first. Sorry. But again, it’ll unlock a lot if you can really nail this. Knowing the three values your studio stands for will help you to hire staff who share the same virtues, and thus develop games in accordance with a unified vision. It will help write your studio’s signature.

It’s all too easy to rush this step and fart out a few quaint sounding words - but if they’re not reflective of traits you genuinely believe in, they’re meaningless. ‘Honesty’ might sound like a lovely value on paper, for example, but in an ideal world this would be true of all companies and brands. It’s hardly a virtue to shout from the rooftops, is it? “We don’t’ lie!” Brilliant. Even if this is, in actuality, less common than we know to be true, it’s just a bit shit and generic. Dig deeper.

In an effort to minimise ambiguous bollocks and show how these values can directly affect your ongoing work, I’ll share Superstring’s values alongside examples of how these values help in practice.

Superstring is:

T R A N S P A R E N T This might sound similar to ‘honest’ on paper, but it’s not. It’s about being actively open in all facets of development. It’s about sharing, and keeping very open channels of communication. In practice: transparency will inform the content we create and share outside of core development - hence this blog! It guides how we interact with other developers, and – hopefully – shapes our games, which will benefit from the outside perspective we otherwise lack as a small team. I think this is really important for small studios where you can easily end up working in a bubble. Transparency is a two way street.

G U T S Y There were several words I flirted with here – spirited, daring, adventurous – but they all relate to being bold. As Superstring is a one-man team, and a side project (I have a salary and full time job if things go pear-shaped), I’m happy to take risks. If an idea doesn’t pan out, nobody loses their jobs. Nobody goes without food or accommodation. In practice: Riskiness as a value means that experimentation is built into the studio’s DNA. Our games don’t need to be approved by a risk committee. We will actively pursue ideas that are more out there.

R E B E L L I O U S This sounds try-hard, but I’ve always been keen to weave a little attitude into Superstring’s persona. I don’t want the studio to walk or talk like a traditional developer; I want it more in line with a band’s brand, for example. Specifically, I want to tap into the themes and visuals of the synthwave music scene – which I feel embodies this attitude nicely. In practice: rebellion as a core value gives nice constraints for visuals, tone of voice and language. This value has directly influenced the visual identity work I'll outline later.

3 | WRITE YOUR STUDIO MOTTO/TAGLINE

The first two steps involve language that – should you wish – need never be public. They’re the invisible tracks your studio will run along. Your motto (or tagline), however, is the slightly more succinct and catchy embodiment of the first two steps. It’s the language you’ll whack on your website and Twitter bios and whathaveyous. It should succintly convey what you’re all about.

Here’s what I landed on for Superstring (after many iterations…):

“(Superstring is) dedicated to abusing the boundaries of game genre.”

I like this because it a) reinforces my mission statement of experimenting with genre hybrids, and b) introduces a little hint of attitude. It sounds progressive – a little rebellious, even.

Note: With the motto complete, I’d also recommend building out a long and short description for your studio, too. There’s countless uses for these (website about page, press release boiler plates, etc etc) , and having a long and short versions prepared will save you a lot of time.

4 | DEVELOP YOUR VISUAL IDENTITY

With the first three steps nailed, you can start building the core assets that will reflect your aims. All that introspective ethereal rubbish can now be converted into some lovely eye-candy! This final step is a big, complex one, in truth; the extent to which you’ll be able to act on it may be limited by budget (it certainly is in my case – there’s plenty more I’d do with a bigger wallet), but there’s a lot you can do to bring your intention and values to the world.

A – by no means exhaustive – list:

L O G O What is your studio logo? How does it reflect your values? Does it reflect your tone of voice? Does it take advantage of accompanying iconography? Does it work in both black and white? How will it animate in video form?

P R O F I L E P I C T U R E S What is your Twitter/FB/Insta/Discord/IndieDB profile image? Does it use your logo’s iconography? Is it still readable at a teeny-tiny resolution? Perhaps there’s no better representation of your studio than your own beautiful face.

K E Y A R T I wouldn’t say your studio needs bespoke key art (unlike your game, which most certainly does), but it can help establish your values and convey what you’re all about. I was really keen to have something more than just a logo for social headers / website backgrounds etc.

C O L O U R P A L E T T E This will likely fall out of your key art & iconography – but having a defined colour palette will help tie everything together across the many platforms you’ll likely use. Continuity is key. Whenever I set up Superstring on a new service or social media, I ensure the colour themes are set to purples/blues/pinks; whatever is closest.

F O N T What font or lettering are you adopting for studio communications? We all know how poor font choice can lead to wrong impressions...

O T H E R S T Y L E E L E M E N T S e.g. D O U B L E S P A C I N G I M P O R T A N T T E X T //Branded bullets Signature Emojis

W E B S I T E How does your website bring together all of the above to perfectly convey the brand you've tried to cultivate? This is the one place you have complete control over, and it should accurately portray what you're all about.

Note: I see lots of developers leaning on imagery from one of their games in relation to the above. I think it’s important to separate your studio imagery from game imagery as soon as you’re able. Let your studio stand on its own legs and exist outside of individual game branding.

There’s a lot more to it than just this, of course. The language and tone of voice you adopt is also born out of all this positioning work, but there's enough to talk about here to dedicate a blog of its own. I won't go into it now.

I still think a lot of the above can feel pretentious and without substance, but going through the motions of each step honestly unlocks a lot. Give it a bash.

Thanks for reading – I hope somebody finds some use in this. I am more than happy to chat in more depth about any of the points here – come chat with me on Discord - and if you found this helpful, please do subscribe to the Superstring newsletter for the next dev journal.

Jamin

#gamedev #indiedev #indiegame #games #videogames

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bangtan · 8 years ago

Text

170320 Q&A: BTS Reveals How They Bridged The Gap Between K-Pop & Traditional Top 40

BTS formed in 2013 and consists of Rap Monster (Kim Namjun/team leader, Rapper), JIN (Kim Seokjin/vocalist), SUGA (Min Yoonki/rapper), J-HOPE (Jung Hoseok/choreographer & rapper), JIMIN (Park Jimin/choreographer & vocalist), V (Kim Taehyung/vocalist) and JUNG KOOK (Jeon Jungkook/vocalist, rapper, choreographer). With five studio albums under their belts, the most recent being YOU NEVER WALK ALONE released in February 2017, BTS is currently wrapping up the last leg of their sold-out WINGS Tour across North & South America. Amongst an endless list of accomplishments, the boys were named Billboard’s #1 most retweeted artist, “Spring Day” is the first song by a K-pop group to break into the top 10 U.S. iTunes chart, and their recent “Not Today” and “Spring Day” music videos have amassed over 100 million views.

As BTS continues to dominate, we checked in to get their thoughts on how they’ve bridged the gap between disparate genres, how they stay humble, and what’s next on their to-do lists after the tour. Read more in our exclusive Q&A below.

OTW: What is the story behind your name, BangTan SoNyeonDan (BTS)? BTS: The name can translate to “bulletproof boy scout,” and the story behind it is that we wanted to become someone who defies prejudices and discriminations against the young generation in general when we made debut in 2013. OTW: What are 3 elements that make your music so relatable? In other words, what do you think it is that allows BTS to bridge the gap between traditional Kpop and top 40 pop? BTS: One, our music is well-balanced between message and performance. Two, we adapt the trendiest pop genres so that anyone can enjoy regardless of cultural and language barriers. Three, special chemistry made by seven personalities in the band. OTW: Give a nickname to each of the 7 members in BTS that describes their role in the band. BTS: Rap Monster: Leader (official leader of the band) SUGA: Grandpa (caretaker behind the scene) j-hope: Hopemaker (always encouraging and cheering others) Jin: Uncle (Jokes all the time) Jimin: Cute & sexy (his role on the stage when performing) V: Four-dimensional (very creative and thinking outside-of-the-box) JungKook: Golden youngest (man of all-mighty) OTW: Congrats on your recent album, YOU NEVER WALK ALONE! Is there a certain message or theme you wanted to communicate with it? BTS: YOU NEVER WALK ALONE (YNWA) is a supplementary story to our previous album, WINGS, and we wanted to tell a different story that was not told in WINGS. That is one of reasons why BTS members look somewhat different, perhaps a little bit more casual and younger, in YNWA artwork. The same idea goes to “Spring Day” video. The song is based on memories with old friends who we don’t see anymore, and we wanted to visualize the story in the video blended with additional metaphors. The album is a kind of a tribute to those who long for hope and condolence, and we wanted to say, “you’re never alone, and we’re here for you,” with new songs. OTW: How has your music evolved since the 2013 2 Cool 4 School album to the most recent (and all the music in between)? BTS: BTS music is based on hip-hop and pop music in general because all the members grew up listening to famous hip-hop artists as well as pop vocalists, even before the debut. It was definitely very hip-hop back in 2013, and the style kind of evolved as we grew up listening and experiencing many different genres of music the last couple of years. We constantly look for new beats and read books just to intrigue ourselves to renovate as artists, even if it means failure to some of us. Rap Monster and SUGA have released separate mixtapes to test and show their unique features as individual artists along the way, and it is part of the band’s experiment to evolve together as an entity to make the better, newer music. Thus we don’t want to label our music as a certain genre or limit it to K-pop, but would like to make a new category for it if possible. OTW: The “Not Today” music video is now the most viewed video in a 24-hour period to debut on the YouTube Top 100 Chart in 2017. Tell us about the making of the video and how did you feel when you received the news? BTS: It was “Wow” at first when we heard the news, and we instantly started to talk about the behind-the-scene episodes of the shoot back in January. It was cold and bleak out in the field with over a hundred dancers making dance moves in sync. But it was fun. “Not Today” is definitely one of the most powerful songs yet and the trendiest choreography ever, and we’re very proud of ourselves for completing the mission again! OTW: The BTS effect hasn’t slowed–in 2016 you were listed by Forbes as the most retweeted artist on Twitter, you have sellout arena concerts, advertising deals, and a devoted fan base. All of this brings pressure and expectation–what are some ways you deal with it all and stay humble? BTS: We would be lying if we said there wasn’t any pressure in front of us. But we manage to get over it by openly talking about it with one another all the time. As you might know, we’ve been living together in the same house for the last five years, and we share literally everything even if it is stress and burden. BTS teamwork helps us get through the pressure and expectation in everyday life, and it also lets us stay humble as ordinary people, like guys next doors. We make casual jokes and give pieces of advice to other members so that we can still be down-to-earth, as we were before ‘BTS.’ OTW: What is in the works after the tour? What’s your definition of the ultimate success? Rap Monster: We’ll be busy all year round even after the tour, with new albums coming up and advertising deals. My definition of the ultimate success is to continue to make good music and deliver great performance in order to have people listen to my creation as much as possible. SUGA: My goal for this year is to cultivate my ability as a producer and write more songs. That’s my definition of success. j-hope: We always have new, additional plans for tours, even after this tour. My definition of the ultimate success is becoming the iconic artist who always delivers the best show as a true artist. I want to create a show that’s “must-see” for everyone. OTW: Which artists are on your Ones To Watch list? BTS: J. Cole, Drake, dvsn, THEY., Frank Ocean, Mac Miller OTW: Any message you want to send to fans right now? BTS: We’d like to thank A.R.M.Ys around the world from bottom of our hearts. We couldn’t have done what we’ve achieved without your love and support. We know it takes time and effort to vote, listen to the music, and watch the videos, and it means a lot to us. We are wings for one another. Let’s fly together high up.

#bangtan #t:article #170320

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theyarebangtan · 8 years ago

Text

Q&A: BTS Reveals How They Bridged The Gap Between K-Pop & Traditional Top 40

While the massive popularity of Korean pop is nothing new, there’s only one K-pop group that’s infiltrated U.S. charts as they earn a permanent residence amonst typically-considered “top 40” music. BTS is the seven-member boy band formed by South Korean label Big Hit Entertainment, and their extraordinary worldwide success has spearheaded the movement in dissolving the definitive lines between K-pop and traditional pop music. BTS formed in 2013 and consists of Rap Monster (Kim Namjoon/team leader, Rapper), JIN (Kim Seokjin/vocalist), SUGA (Min Yoongi/rapper), J-HOPE (Jung Hoseok/choreographer & rapper), JIMIN (Park Jimin/choreographer & vocalist), V (Kim Taehyung/vocalist) and JUNG KOOK (Jeon Jungkook/vocalist, rapper, choreographer). With five studio albums under their belts, the most recent being YOU NEVER WALK ALONE released in February 2017, BTS is currently wrapping up the last leg of their sold-out WINGS Tour across North & South America. Amongst an endless list of accomplishments, the boys were named Billboard’s #1 most retweeted artist, “Spring Day” is the first song by a K-pop group to break into the top 10 U.S. iTunes chart, and their recent “Not Today” and “Spring Day” music videos have amassed over 100 million views. As BTS continues to dominate, we checked in to get their thoughts on how they’ve bridged the gap between disparate genres, how they stay humble, and what’s next on their to-do lists after the tour. Read more in our exclusive Q&A below. OTW: What is the story behind your name, BangTan SoNyeonDan (BTS)? BTS: The name can translate to “bulletproof boy scout,” and the story behind it is that we wanted to become someone who defies prejudices and discriminations against the young generation in general when we made debut in 2013. OTW: What are 3 elements that make your music so relatable? In other words, what do you think it is that allows BTS to bridge the gap between traditional Kpop and top 40 pop? BTS: One, our music is well-balanced between message and performance. Two, we adapt the trendiest pop genres so that anyone can enjoy regardless of cultural and language barriers. Three, special chemistry made by seven personalities in the band. OTW: Give a nickname to each of the 7 members in BTS that describes their role in the band. BTS: Rap Monster: Leader (official leader of the band) SUGA: Grandpa (caretaker behind the scene) j-hope: Hopemaker (always encouraging and cheering others) Jin: Uncle (Jokes all the time) Jimin: Cute & sexy (his role on the stage when performing) V: Four-dimensional (very creative and thinking outside-of-the-box) JungKook: Golden youngest (man of all-mighty) OTW: Congrats on your recent album, YOU NEVER WALK ALONE! Is there a certain message or theme you wanted to communicate with it? BTS: YOU NEVER WALK ALONE (YNWA) is a supplementary story to our previous album, WINGS, and we wanted to tell a different story that was not told in WINGS. That is one of reasons why BTS members look somewhat different, perhaps a little bit more casual and younger, in YNWA artwork. The same idea goes to “Spring Day” video. The song is based on memories with old friends who we don’t see anymore, and we wanted to visualize the story in the video blended with additional metaphors. The album is a kind of a tribute to those who long for hope and condolence, and we wanted to say, “you’re never alone, and we’re here for you,” with new songs. OTW: How has your music evolved since the 2013 2 Cool 4 School album to the most recent (and all the music in between)? BTS: BTS music is based on hip-hop and pop music in general because all the members grew up listening to famous hip-hop artists as well as pop vocalists, even before the debut. It was definitely very hip-hop back in 2013, and the style kind of evolved as we grew up listening and experiencing many different genres of music the last couple of years. We constantly look for new beats and read books just to intrigue ourselves to renovate as artists, even if it means failure to some of us. Rap Monster and SUGA have released separate mixtapes to test and show their unique features as individual artists along the way, and it is part of the band’s experiment to evolve together as an entity to make the better, newer music. Thus we don’t want to label our music as a certain genre or limit it to K-pop, but would like to make a new category for it if possible. OTW: The “Not Today” music video is now the most viewed video in a 24-hour period to debut on the YouTube Top 100 Chart in 2017. Tell us about the making of the video and how did you feel when you received the news? BTS: It was “Wow” at first when we heard the news, and we instantly started to talk about the behind-the-scene episodes of the shoot back in January. It was cold and bleak out in the field with over a hundred dancers making dance moves in sync. But it was fun. “Not Today” is definitely one of the most powerful songs yet and the trendiest choreography ever, and we’re very proud of ourselves for completing the mission again! OTW: The BTS effect hasn’t slowed–in 2016 you were listed by Forbes as the most retweeted artist on Twitter, you have sellout arena concerts, advertising deals, and a devoted fan base. All of this brings pressure and expectation–what are some ways you deal with it all and stay humble? BTS: We would be lying if we said there wasn’t any pressure in front of us. But we manage to get over it by openly talking about it with one another all the time. As you might know, we’ve been living together in the same house for the last five years, and we share literally everything even if it is stress and burden. BTS teamwork helps us get through the pressure and expectation in everyday life, and it also lets us stay humble as ordinary people, like guys next doors. We make casual jokes and give pieces of advice to other members so that we can still be down-to-earth, as we were before ‘BTS.’ OTW: What is in the works after the tour? What’s your definition of the ultimate success? Rap Monster: We’ll be busy all year round even after the tour, with new albums coming up and advertising deals. My definition of the ultimate success is to continue to make good music and deliver great performance in order to have people listen to my creation as much as possible. SUGA: My goal for this year is to cultivate my ability as a producer and write more songs. That’s my definition of success. j-hope: We always have new, additional plans for tours, even after this tour. My definition of the ultimate success is becoming the iconic artist who always delivers the best show as a true artist. I want to create a show that’s “must-see” for everyone. OTW: Which artists are on your Ones To Watch list? BTS: J. Cole, Drake, dvsn, THEY., Frank Ocean, Mac Miller OTW: Any message you want to send to fans right now? BTS: We’d like to thank A.R.M.Ys around the world from bottom of our hearts. We couldn’t have done what we’ve achieved without your love and support. We know it takes time and effort to vote, listen to the music, and watch the videos, and it means a lot to us. We are wings for one another. Let’s fly together high up. cr: http://www.onestowatch.com/blog/qa-bts-reveals-how-they-bridged-the-gap-between

#interview #you never walk alone #bts #bangtan #bangtan boys

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mbaljeetsingh · 6 years ago

Text

5 Ways To Improve Development With Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is extremely flexible and powerful. By learning the ins and outs, you can greatly improve your speed, efficiency, and process as a developer. In this article, we'll look at the top 5 ways to do so!

Check out Learn Visual Studio Code to learn everything you need to know about Visual Studio Code!

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As a developer, think about every time you save a file, copy /paste a line of code, open a file, etc. You do these things constantly, and without shortcuts, each of these actions requires grabbing the mouse. Although it may not seem like much, the transition from keyboard to mouse takes time, even if just a few seconds each time (more in some cases).

Over the course of a couple of hours, these transitions really add up and detract from the amount of time you are able to write code. NOT GOOD!** **

Moving your hand back and forward from keyboard to mouse is very inefficient.

In Visual Studio Code, it's incredibly easy to view shortcuts (also referenced as key bindings) and customize them. To do so, go to Code **-> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts on a mac and *File *-> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts **on Windows.

There's also a shortcut to get to shortcuts...cough, cough! :) Command K **+ Command S** on Mac or Control k **+ Control S** on Windows.

The problem I often find with IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) is that they are bulky with tons of functionality already built in. Visually, with so many features, buttons, menus, etc. you can often be distracted from what's most important to you, your code!

There are tons of ways to alter your layout in Visual Studio Code.

Note: All of the following can be accessed from either settings *or from the *command palette with cmd+shift+p

Optimize your layout to be less distracting and optimized for writing code!

Move the Activity Bar From Left to Right

By default, the Activity Bar is on the right. It can be minimized, but when it is opened it pushed your code over to the right.

By changing your settings (see Settings section below), you can dock this menu on the right.

This way, when it is opened, it does not push your code over.

Or... Hide The Activity Bar Completely

You can take the previous option one step further by hiding the activity bar completely! Open your settings menu and search for "Activity Bar: Visible".

Simply uncheck the box, and the Activity Bar goes away!

In addition to hiding the activity bar, you can also hide/show the status bar at the bottom.

Zen Mode

Zen Mode is the easiest way to get rid of all the frills and just focus on code. It hides all extra menus from you for so code is all you see. Use Command **+ K Z** on Mac and Control **+ K Z** on Windows to toggle Zen mode.

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Centered Layout

One last option is to use Centered Layout which centers your text editor (as is the default with Zen Mode), but does not hide all of the other menus in the UI. With this layout, you don't have to worry as much about opening the Activity Bar pushing your code over. To toggle Centered Layout, open the command pallette (Command Shift **+ P/ Control Shift + P**) and type "Toggle Centered Layout".

There are tons of other ways to customize your layout. Spend some time trying things out and see what works!

Visual Studio Code is built using Electron.js which allows it to be customized very easily by Web Developers. We've looked at a couple of ways of customizing through shortcuts and layout already, but let's explore a few more.

We have a VS Code course: Make Visual Studio Code Your Editor

Extensions

It's incredibly easy to add extensions or plugins. There's an extensions tab where you can search extensions, install them, and view ones you've already installed. You can find an extension to do just about anything. Just give a search.

Here's a look at some of the extensions I have installed.

Remember, if you don't find an extension that does what you're looking for, you can also creat one yourself!

Themes

You're just one install away from an easy on the eyes editor!

Themes are, in fact, extensions, but they are cool enough to look at separately. Themes can add some amazing colorization (is this even a word?!) and make your code and menus much easier to read. I personally use Cobalt 2 by Wes Bos, but there are tons of great ones out there!

Here's a few more.

Settings

Settings are easily customizable as well and are saved in a Json file that Visual Studio Code manages and allows you to customize. Visual Studio Code also provides an interface with dropdown menus, search ability, etc. to be able to change settings. You can open the settings window using Command **+ Comma** on Mac or Control **+ Comma** on Windows.

Want to change the font size, for example? Just search and update it!

Developers often spend a lot of time "cleaning" up their code... checking indentation, wrapping text on new lines, adding semicolos, etc. This can be even more difficult to implement across a team as each developer might have different opionions.

Setup auto formatting and never worry about it again!

Did you know you can setup VS Code to *do your formatting automatically? *Well, you can, and it's amazing! Here's a few options.

Prettier - Code Formatter

The Prettier - Code Formatter extension can format your JavaScript, TypeScript, and CSS using Prettier.

ESLint

The ESLint extension allows you to both Lint and Format your JavaScript code.

TSLint

The TSLint Extension allows you to Lint and Format *your *TypeScript code.

Every day we write some of the same code over and over again! Stubbing out for loops, event handlers, unit test, etc. are all good examples. With Visual Studio Code, you can define snippets to write all of that boilerplate code for you!

Code Snippets means you don't have to type the same code over and over again!

Code Snippets are based on language and saved in a Json file that Visual Studio Code manages. You can add snippets by going to Code **-> Preferences -> User Snippets on Mac or *File *-> Preferences -> User Snippets** on Windows. Then you'll choose your language. Here's a snippet for generating a for loop through an array in JavaScript.

"For Loop for Array": { "prefix":"forarr", "body": [ "for (let $index = 0; $index < $array.length; $index++) {", "\tconst element = $array[$index];", "\t", "}" ], "description":"This will create a for loop through an array" }

For more details on creating snippets, check out Creating Code Snippets in Visual Studio Code. If you're working with React, you'll also want to check out Write React Faster With Simple React Snippets.

Visual Studio Code is an amazing tool that is extremely customizable. By taking advantage of the features and settings above, you can greatly increase your development experience as well as your speed and efficiency!

via Scotch.io http://bit.ly/2ELeqkj

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zerohour1974 · 8 years ago

Text

When it comes to computers, I’m Weird...

That many would say is a strange statement and you would probably be right. However in my case that statement is also very true.

I don’t follow convention. Never have and probably never will but I don’t equally follow the path of the alternate to the letter either. Confused ? You will be…

I am typing this on a Windows 10 machine using a minimalist word processor called Focuswriter . Why? now this is where it gets weird. If I was to have started this in Microsoft Word or Open Office, you would have nothing to read.

When I open up these programs I regularly find myself staring at a blank page. No words will come to mind, it will be a complete blank. Are these programs more than capable of accepting these words. Yep and probably a lot more besides.

However in these environments I become unproductive. My brain sees it and switches off. I see all of those stupid fonts and buttons and my brain goes Nope, not playing ball with this and that’s it. I will stare at a blank page until I get frustrated and normally quit the program.

Start up something like this and I type away happily. Now here’s a crazy thing. I used to work with a program called Atlantis Ocean Mind (now just Atlantis) it was a Microsoft word clone but a lot lighter but it had a quirky little feature that when you typed it made the sound of a typewriter on every keystroke and when you got to the end of a line it even dinged to tell you it had got to the end of the line. I loved this program I even bought a license which I have since lost.

This I also spent far too long with the system clacking away like an old typewriter and it inspired me to write. How mad is that?

Now I have used many word processors over the years. Some have stuck and I still use them occasionally. Many have been cast by the wayside.

On the Mac I tend to use two different word processors. The first is Word Perfect 3.5 for Macintosh which works on Mac OS 6 up. The reason I used this regularly was its grammar checking software Grammatik was much more concise than any version of any word processor, including the later versions of Word Perfect.

The second is Writeroom when using OS X. Writeroom is a minimalist word processor in fact the first one I ever used written by Jesse Grosjean of Hogbay Software. I love this piece of software I got version 2 for free when I signed up for the Nanobundle at Macheist.

I later paid for a key for version 3 many years later when I moved up to a G5 Mac. Both the G5 and the key are no longer with us. The key was lost due to deleting an email I shouldn’t have and when I tried to recover it. It failed. Ho hum, such is life.

To give you an example of how much I enjoyed this software. A lot of my earlier blog entries were written using a VM of OS X (Mountain Lion and later El Capitan) on a Windows machine using VMWare. The data was then saved into a shared directory and then opened in a further word processor and copied to the clipboard which was then pasted into the Tumblr blog window in a browser.

That’s the first of my computer quirks…

Another thing is I have messed around with virtually every alternative OS to Windows. If it exists I have probably tried it from ReactOS, Syllable, SkyOS, BeOS (now Haiku), Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, AROS and more. However I still use a Windows 10 base. Have a major dislike for Linux well documented elsewhere.

That’s because I can normally get Windows to do what I want with the least effort, sure it has issues but not to the degree I have had with the Linux derivatives out there.

Now OK a lot of the alternatives have fallen due to lack of software support. However I really did like BeOS. It was fast as hell. The programs seemed to work well of what there was. Sure Abiword for BeOS went weird and refused to word wrap when used but most stuff worked.

Haiku while started off with a bit of a comeback seems once again to be dying off again. One day we may get beyond Alpha 4 without running a nightly build.

I like the quirky bits of software nobody cares about. I liked Lotus Organiser nothing has been made similar since. Well that’s not true there is a program like it on MorphOS but I am not paying the silly price for a license to run it on my G4.

Digita Organiser on the Amiga is similar too but I don’t use my A1200 as an everyday machine.

When everyone was messing around with Microsoft Visual Basic (Yep it was once a thing people actually used) I was looking at Delphi and Kylix (Delphi Linux version) from Borland. Yep Pascal and as people got interested in Delphi, my interest ran out. I’m odd as I said.

When emulation first began getting done on the internet I was permanently downloading things like MAME, Fellow, Z80 by Gerter Lunter, JPP, Callas, Magic Engine and much more for DOS I was permanently chasing around the VG Network keeping tabs on things.

Then a lot moved to Windows did I follow, well for a long time I didn’t. I had Windows but I found the early API hideous stuff as an ex DOS programmer so I refused to run a lot of them on principle alone.

Now virtually everything is emulated and yes I think I have tried virtually every emulator out there. In fact the more obscure the emulator the more likely I am going to try and do it.

I was saying about running Mac OS X in a VM to use Writeroom. however when OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) was released I was trying to get it running on a PC emulated PPC software called Pear PC. It was slow, it was buggy but damn I was determined I would get it working to a degree and sure as hell I did.

I have Hackintoshed many PCs with varying levels of success or failure. Several I have documented. Why do I want to run Mac OS on a PC?

Simple they have fascinating programs like Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro X. I want to have the best of both worlds. Why should Mac have all the fun programs.

I want a machine that can run both without issue and more.

I have used programs like Quark when InDesign is the known standard just because I found InDesign awkward to get used to. However I will continue to use Photoshop even though many alternative exist out there. As I said I’m not consistent.

I complained about Microsoft Office for Windows but the funny thing is I love to mess around with Word 5.1 on Mac OS. I hate the Gimp as a photo editing software but will much happily use something like Xara Studio for vector work in preference to Adobe Illustrator.

Overall I am a quirky computer user. I use what ever I want and may not always use the same tool everyone else uses. I like the odd and the strange programs but equally get frustrated if certain programs don’t do what I want. I’m fickle…

Many will ask my opinion on what software to use. What antivirus, what Office software, etc. To be honest I am probably the last person on this Earth you should come to for software advice.

Find what works for you. Try a bunch of stuff, see what sticks. If you don’t like it, try something else. That’s what I do.

I will try and make machines do everything they are not meant to do. If you can emulate it I will try it, if you can virtualise it I will try it, Can it to something else stupid it was not originally designed to do. That’s what I will be trying to get it to do.

I’m like that if I had a Mac I would be trying to get it to be something else probably to do with Windows or something even more stupid just because I can.

As I said at the top of this article when it comes to computers. I’m weird…

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laurendcameron · 8 years ago

Text

How to Stream to Facebook Live Like a Pro

Whenever I go live on Facebook, I always get messages from people asking me about what I do when I go live, what tools I use…

Today we’re going to focus on and dissect Facebook live.

Why Facebook Live?

Why is Facebook Live something that can help your business?

1. Live video is a great way for you to provide value to your audience. It can also help you grow your audience.

2. It’s also a great way to connect with your audience. If I publish a blog post, all the interaction comes after the fact. Live video is, well, LIVE! We can have a real-time dialogue, and that brings things to a whole new level in terms of connecting with your audience.

3. It’s a great way to get reach on Facebook. In the past, you could post something to your Facebook page, and most of your followers would see it. That’s no longer the case.

But one of the benefits of Facebook Live is that Facebook is prioritizing live video. They’re increasing exposure for people doing live videos, so more of your followers will see it.

How Do I Go Live?

Well, there’s a super easy way to do it:

FB Live

Just pull out your smartphone, log in, give your video a title, and go live. You can walk around, stream what you’re doing, and create a pretty decent video.

This is part of the reason Facebook Live is taking off so quickly: it’s EASY.

But what if you want to step it up a little bit, and do things the professional way? There are a whole bunch of things that you can do. I’m going to walk you through some of your options.

The Software

Last year, Facebook opened up their API. Since then, developers have been able to create software that will allow you to do cool stuff when you go live.

There are a couple of options: one free, and one not at all free.

OBS Studio is an open source program, and it’s 100% free. It allows you to do what I’m doing right now. You can create different scenes for your live video, add banners and logos, or bring in pre-recorded video.

The only thing is that OBS can be a little bit tricky to use. So I created a series of OBS Tutorials for you! There’s a whole lot you can do with OBS if you get the right training. Go over to http://www.becomeablogger.com/obs/ to find out more.

The program that I’m using to stream today is called Wirecast.

What’s awesome about Wirecast is that I can have multiple layers, and I can select the things that I want you to see. I absolutely love Wirecast, but it’s much more expensive. The version that I have cost about $495.

Wirecast does all the same things that OBS does, but it does them much easier and faster. In OBS, you have to create separate scenes for everything. In Wirecast, I just click on the things that I want you to see. If I want a lower third, I just click on my lower third. If I want my logo, I just click. Easy!

However, I don’t recommend that anyone start out with Wirecast. Why spend all that money when you’re still figuring things out? Go for OBS at first, and then decide if it’s worth it to upgrade.

Equipment Options

I spoke a lot about equipment last week, but I want to just run through a couple of things here, too.

Video Equipment

First up: the Logitech C920 Webcam. This is gonna be WAY better than your built-in webcam.

This guy combined with some lighting makes you look so much more professional than a built-in webcam alone.

Next, we gotta talk about audio. You want your audio to be good. People will tolerate crappy video, but they will not tolerate crappy audio. The C920 actually has microphones built in, so you can use those at a bare minimum.

But if you want something even better, I’d go for the Audio Technica ATR2100 USB. It’s the perfect microphone for anyone looking for a more professional sound. You need to use a stand with it, but it does a great job.

Say you have a DSLR or Camcorder, and you want to connect it to your computer. You’ll need the Blackmagic Design UltraStudio MiniRecorder. It turns regular camera into a super high-quality webcam. The one that I have is Thunderbolt to HDMI, so it only works with Mac computers, but there’s a different version that will connect via USB.

Let’s talk lighting. The soft box lights that I have were bought on eBay for like $100. I couldn’t even tell you the brand.

But if I were buying lights today, I would buy LEDs. They’re easier to travel with, they don’t get hot, and they don’t take up as much space.

Lighting

A ring light is a great option: it’s just one light, and your camera goes in the middle of the ring. I haven’t tried one yet, but I’m looking into getting one.

A really important lighting tip: make sure that the lights are in front of you. If the lights are behind you, the camera will lower its exposure and you’ll look really, really, dark. This is true if you’re just using natural light, too. Put the window in front of you, not behind you.

One last piece of equipment: a Bluetooth keyboard. In OBS and Wirecast, you can set up keyboard shortcuts for all your different elements. I can quickly and easily switch between cameras, or bring up a bottom third, or whatever I want.

You can even get a Bluetooth number pad that just has the numbers, which is all you need for shortcuts.

Scheduling your Live Streams

People are always asking me how I set up a scheduled live video. Facebook actually allows you to schedule a live stream up to a week in advance, and then you have a URL that you can use to promote the stream.

Click on Publishing Tools

You’ll need a Facebook page that you personally manage. Once you have that, go to the “Publishing Tools” tab at the top of the page. Then go to your Video Library.

Then, click on the “+ Live” button, and it will give you all the information you need to set up a live video. You get the option to go live immediately, or to schedule your live stream.

You can also schedule regular posts in the exact same way. When you write your post, click the little down arrow on the “Publish” button and choose “Schedule.”

Posts may also be scheduled out.

You can’t do this from a personal profile. It only works on a Facebook page.

In the past, it was not possible to schedule Facebook Live videos from Wirecast. But in version 7.4, the newest version, you should be able to schedule from Wirecast.

By the way, check out my affiliate link for Wirecast: http://www.becomeablogger.com/wirecast

Doing Your Facebook Live

The problem with a lot of Facebook Lives is that people just go live and start rambling.

Going Live with FB

Now, there’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself. But if you want to use Facebook Live to build an audience and build your business, you have to provide value. To provide value, you have to have a plan.

Ask yourself, why are you going live? What value are you going to provide for your audience?

In other words, what is in it for your audience?

Plan the topic in advance, and outline what you’re going to be talking about.

Have one specific goal in mind. What one thing do you want your audience to be able to do at the end of your stream?

For example, my one goal for this live stream is to help you understand your best options for live streaming so that you can use Facebook Live like a pro.

One more thing: remember that this is video. It’s a visual platform. How can you use the fact that it’s video to provide even more value to your audience? Actually show people stuff!

Your Questions

FB Live Engagements

Philip asks, “How do you deal with engagement during live video?”

You always want to ask for engagement. Ask for people to share, ask for people to comment. That’s why I start the show by asking who you are and where you’re coming from.

Once they are responding, how do you manage all that interaction? Stick to your outline and make sure that you get through all the material. If someone asks a completely unrelated question, you can take note of it and come back to it later.

Jonathan wants to know, “What software are you running for the teleprompter?”

I found it on GitHub. It’s a pretty technical process, but the short version is that I downloaded an open source live comments teleprompter, and I added it to my server and then added my own details to it.

Now that it’s set up, I can come to a URL and see your comments as they come in. I go to that URL on my iPad, and then I use the teleprompter to show me what’s on the iPad.

Malene says, “Leslie, that is a lot of moving parts. How do I keep it simple and get the job done in excellence?”

Software and Tools

If it feels overwhelming, start simple! You can stream right from your phone on a tripod. Done! Or if you want to take it just one step up from there, you can get the webcam and OBS. Build up from there. It all gets easier with practice.

Kantis asks, “What mic are you using?”

I’m using a lapel mic, which is connected to my camera. It’s a Sennheiser EW 100 G3.

Kantis also wants to know about my ear buds.

Those are my in-ear monitors. They’re Shure SE215-CL Sound Isolating Earphones with Single Dynamic MicroDriver. I like these because they wrap around my ear, and the cable goes in the back. It has a little clip that allows my to connect the two sides in the back, so that you can’t see too much of it on the video.

Gideon asks whether the new Apple AirPods would work well with live streams.

I bet they would work well! The only thing that I don’t like about the AirPods is that there would be a white thing sticking down from my ears, whereas with these I can tuck the wires away behind me.

Also, because the ones I’m using are Sound Isolating Earphones, I don’t hear much beyond what’s happening in the live stream, which I like.

Nanette says, “I noticed some people broadcast on their personal profile page instead of business page…what are the pros and cons of doing so?”

FB Insights

Personal profiles do tend to get more engagement. However, when you broadcast from your personal profile, you don’t get the same tracking insights. You only see the number of views on your personal profile, and that doesn’t tell you anything! You get to see so much more data on a business page, and that makes it worth it to go live there.

Kantis asks, “Does Wirecast work with Keynote or PowerPoint?”

Absolutely! You can share slides directly into the video.

But there’s one downside to doing webinars on Facebook Live. When someone is scrolling through Facebook, that’s exactly what they’re doing. They drop in for a few seconds, and then they move on.

The amount of time people spend on a Facebook Live video is significantly less than the amount of time spent by people who have actually registered for a webinar.

However, the benefit to doing it on Facebook is the significantly higher reach. So test it out. See how it compares to doing webinars on other platforms.

Nanette asks, “What do you think about playing a recorded video live?”

That depends. If the whole stream is a pre-recorded video clip, then I don’t really see the point of going live. But if you want to use short clips to demonstrate something, then that makes sense to me.

Resources Mentioned

OBS Tutorial

Wirecast

Equipment options for taking videos live on Facebook:

Logitech C920 Webcam

Audio Technica ATR2100 USB

Blackmagic Design UltraStudio MiniRecorder

ring light

bluetooth keyboard

The post How to Stream to Facebook Live Like a Pro appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel.

from Lauren Cameron Updates http://www.becomeablogger.com/24495/stream-facebook-live/

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sandranelsonuk · 8 years ago

Text

How to Stream to Facebook Live Like a Pro

Whenever I go live on Facebook, I always get messages from people asking me about what I do when I go live, what tools I use…

Today we’re going to focus on and dissect Facebook live.

Why Facebook Live?

Why is Facebook Live something that can help your business?

1. Live video is a great way for you to provide value to your audience. It can also help you grow your audience.

3. It’s a great way to get reach on Facebook. In the past, you could post something to your Facebook page, and most of your followers would see it. That’s no longer the case.

But one of the benefits of Facebook Live is that Facebook is prioritizing live video. They’re increasing exposure for people doing live videos, so more of your followers will see it.

How Do I Go Live?

Well, there’s a super easy way to do it:

FB Live

Just pull out your smartphone, log in, give your video a title, and go live. You can walk around, stream what you’re doing, and create a pretty decent video.

This is part of the reason Facebook Live is taking off so quickly: it’s EASY.

But what if you want to step it up a little bit, and do things the professional way? There are a whole bunch of things that you can do. I’m going to walk you through some of your options.

The Software

Last year, Facebook opened up their API. Since then, developers have been able to create software that will allow you to do cool stuff when you go live.

There are a couple of options: one free, and one not at all free.

The program that I’m using to stream today is called Wirecast.

However, I don’t recommend that anyone start out with Wirecast. Why spend all that money when you’re still figuring things out? Go for OBS at first, and then decide if it’s worth it to upgrade.

Equipment Options

I spoke a lot about equipment last week, but I want to just run through a couple of things here, too.

Video Equipment

First up: the Logitech C920 Webcam. This is gonna be WAY better than your built-in webcam.

This guy combined with some lighting makes you look so much more professional than a built-in webcam alone.

Let’s talk lighting. The soft box lights that I have were bought on eBay for like $100. I couldn’t even tell you the brand.

But if I were buying lights today, I would buy LEDs. They’re easier to travel with, they don’t get hot, and they don’t take up as much space.

Lighting

A ring light is a great option: it’s just one light, and your camera goes in the middle of the ring. I haven’t tried one yet, but I’m looking into getting one.

You can even get a Bluetooth number pad that just has the numbers, which is all you need for shortcuts.

Scheduling your Live Streams

Click on Publishing Tools

You’ll need a Facebook page that you personally manage. Once you have that, go to the “Publishing Tools” tab at the top of the page. Then go to your Video Library.

Then, click on the “+ Live” button, and it will give you all the information you need to set up a live video. You get the option to go live immediately, or to schedule your live stream.

You can also schedule regular posts in the exact same way. When you write your post, click the little down arrow on the “Publish” button and choose “Schedule.”

Posts may also be scheduled out.

You can’t do this from a personal profile. It only works on a Facebook page.

In the past, it was not possible to schedule Facebook Live videos from Wirecast. But in version 7.4, the newest version, you should be able to schedule from Wirecast.

By the way, check out my affiliate link for Wirecast: http://www.becomeablogger.com/wirecast

Doing Your Facebook Live

The problem with a lot of Facebook Lives is that people just go live and start rambling.

Going Live with FB

Ask yourself, why are you going live? What value are you going to provide for your audience?

In other words, what is in it for your audience?

Plan the topic in advance, and outline what you’re going to be talking about.

Have one specific goal in mind. What one thing do you want your audience to be able to do at the end of your stream?

For example, my one goal for this live stream is to help you understand your best options for live streaming so that you can use Facebook Live like a pro.

One more thing: remember that this is video. It’s a visual platform. How can you use the fact that it’s video to provide even more value to your audience? Actually show people stuff!

Your Questions

FB Live Engagements

Philip asks, “How do you deal with engagement during live video?”

You always want to ask for engagement. Ask for people to share, ask for people to comment. That’s why I start the show by asking who you are and where you’re coming from.

Jonathan wants to know, “What software are you running for the teleprompter?”

Now that it’s set up, I can come to a URL and see your comments as they come in. I go to that URL on my iPad, and then I use the teleprompter to show me what’s on the iPad.

Malene says, “Leslie, that is a lot of moving parts. How do I keep it simple and get the job done in excellence?”

Software and Tools

Kantis asks, “What mic are you using?”

I’m using a lapel mic, which is connected to my camera. It’s a Sennheiser EW 100 G3.

Kantis also wants to know about my ear buds.

Gideon asks whether the new Apple AirPods would work well with live streams.

Also, because the ones I’m using are Sound Isolating Earphones, I don’t hear much beyond what’s happening in the live stream, which I like.

Nanette says, “I noticed some people broadcast on their personal profile page instead of business page…what are the pros and cons of doing so?”

FB Insights

Kantis asks, “Does Wirecast work with Keynote or PowerPoint?”

Absolutely! You can share slides directly into the video.

The amount of time people spend on a Facebook Live video is significantly less than the amount of time spent by people who have actually registered for a webinar.

However, the benefit to doing it on Facebook is the significantly higher reach. So test it out. See how it compares to doing webinars on other platforms.

Nanette asks, “What do you think about playing a recorded video live?”

Resources Mentioned

OBS Tutorial

Wirecast

Equipment options for taking videos live on Facebook:

Logitech C920 Webcam

Audio Technica ATR2100 USB

Blackmagic Design UltraStudio MiniRecorder

ring light

bluetooth keyboard

The post How to Stream to Facebook Live Like a Pro appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel.

from Julia Garza Social Media Tips http://www.becomeablogger.com/24495/stream-facebook-live/

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