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mostlysignssomeportents · 3 months

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2600’s amazing Hackers on Planet Earth con may go down under enshittification

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

It's been 40 years since Emmanuel Goldstein launched the seminal, essential, world-changing 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. 2600 wasn't the first phreak/hacker zine, but it was the most important, spawning a global subculture dedicated to the noble pursuit of technological self-determination:

https://www.2600.com/

2600 has published hundreds of issues in which digital spelunkers report eagerly on the things they've discovered by peering intently at the things no one was supposed to even glance at (I'm proud to be one of those writers!). They've fought legal battles, including one that almost went to the Supreme Court:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS

They created a global network of meetups where some of technology's most durable friendships and important collaborations were born. These continue to this day:

https://www.2600.com/meetings

And they've hosted a weekly radio show on NYC's WBAI, Off the Hook:

https://wbai.org/program.php?program=76

When WBAI management lost their minds and locked the station's most beloved hosts out of the studio, Off the Hook (naturally) led the rebellion, taking back the station for its audience, rescuing it from a managerial coup:

https://twitter.com/2600/status/1181423565389942786

But best of all, 2600 gave us HOPE – both in the metaphorical sense of "hope for a better technological tomorrow" and in the literal sense, with its biannual Hackers On Planet Earth con:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers_on_Planet_Earth

For decades HOPE had an incredible venue, the Hotel Pennsylvania (memorialized in the phreak anthem "PEnnsylvania 6-5000"), a crumbling pile in midtown Manhattan that was biannually transformed into a rollicking, multi-day festival of forbidden technology, improbable feats, and incredible presentations. I was privileged to keynote HOPE in 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1D7APjmVbk

But after the 2018 HOPE, the Hotel Pennsylvania was demolished to make way for the Penn15 (no, really) skyscraper, a vaporware mega-tower planned as a holding pen for luxury shopping and empty million-dollar condos sold to offshore war-criminals as safe-deposit boxes in the sky. The developer, Vornado (no, really) hasn't actually done all that – after demo'ing the Hotel Pennsylvania, they noped out, leave a large, unusable scar across midtown.

But HOPE wasn't lost. In 2022, the ever-resilient 2600 crew relocated to Queens, hosted by St John's University – a venue that was less glamorous that the Hotel Pennsylvania, but the event was still fantastic. Attendance fell from 2,000 to 1,000, but that was something they could work with, and reviews from attendees were stellar.

Good thing, too. 2600 is, first and foremost, a magazine publisher, and these have been hard years for magazines. First there was the mass die-off of indie bookstores and newsracks (I used to sell 2600 when I was a bookseller, and in the years after, I always took the presence of 2600 on a store's newsrack as an unimpeachable mark of quality).

Thankfully for 2600, their audience is (unsurprisingly) a tech-savvy one, so they were able to substitute digital subscriptions for physical ones:

https://www.2600.com/Magazine/DigitalEditions

Of course, many of those subscriptions came through Amazon's Kindle, because nerds were early Amazon adopters, and because the Kindle magazine publishing platform offered DRM-free distribution to subscribers along with a fair payout to publishers.

But then Amazon enshittified its magazine system. Having locked publishers to its platform, it rugged them and killed the monthly subscription fees that allowed publishers to plan for a steady output. Publishers were given a choice: leave Amazon (and all the readers locked inside its walled garden) or put your magazine into the Kindle Unlimited system:

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/arp/B0BWPTCP4K?deviceType=A1FG5NAKX0MRJL

Kindle Unlimited is an all-you-can-eat program for Kindle, which pays publishers and writers based on a system that is both opaque and easily gamed, with the lion's share of the money going to "publishers" who focus on figuring out how to cheat the algorithm. Revenues for 2600 – and all the other magazines that Amazon had sucked in and sucked dry – fell off a cliff.

Which brings me to the present moment. After 40 years, 2600 is still at it, having survived the bookstorepocalypse, the lunacy of public radio management, the literal demolition of their physical home by an evil real-estate developer, and Amazon's crooked accounting.

This is 2600, circa 2024, and 2024 a HOPE year:

https://www.hope.net/

Once again, HOPE has been scheduled for its new digs in Queens, July 12-14. Last week, HOPE sent out an email blast to their subscribers telling them the news. They expected to sell 500 tickets in the first 24 hours. They didn't even come close:

https://www.2600.com/content/hope-ticket-sales-update

It turns out that Google and the other major mail providers don't like emails with the word "hacker" in them. The cartel that decides which email gets delivered, and which messages go to spam, or get blocked altogether, mass-blocked the HOPE 2024 announcement. Email may be the last federated, open platform we have, but mass concentration has created a system where it's nearly impossible to get your email delivered unless you're willing to play by Gmail's rules:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/10/dead-letters/

For Emmanuel Goldstein, founder of 2600 and tireless toiler for this community, the deafening silence following from that initial email volley was terrifying: "like some kind of a "Twilight Zone" episode where everyone has disappeared."

The enshittification that keeps 2600's emails from being delivered to the people who asked to receive them is even worse on social media. Social media companies routinely defraud their users by letting them subscribe to feeds, then turning around to the people and organizations that run those feeds and saying, "You've got x thousand subscribers on this platform, but we won't put your posts in their feeds unless you pay us to 'boost' your content":

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/platforms-decay-lets-put-users-first

Enshittification has been coming at 2600 for decades. Like other forms of oddball media dedicated to challenging corporate power and government oppression, 2600 has always been a ten-years-ahead preview of the way the noose was gonna tighten on all of us. And now, they're on the ropes. HOPE can't sell tickets unless people know about HOPE, and neither email providers nor social media platforms have any interest in making that happen.

A handful of giant corporations now get to decide what we read, who we hear from, and whether and how we can get together in person to make friends, forge community, rabble-rouse and change the world. The idea that "it's not censorship unless the government does it" has always been wrong (not all censorship violates the First Amendment, and censorship can be real without being unconstitutional):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/04/yes-its-censorship/

What can you do about it? Well, for one thing, you can sign up for HOPE. It's gonna be great. They've got sub-$100 hotel rooms! In New York City!

https://store.2600.com/products/tickets-to-hope-xv

If you can't make it to HOPE, you can sign up for a virtual membership:

https://store.2600.com/products/tickets-to-hope-xv-virtual-attendee

You can submit a talk to HOPE:

https://www.hope.net/cfp.html

You can subscribe to 2600, in print or electronically (I signed up for the lifetime print subscription and it was a bargain – I devour every issue the day it arrives):

https://store.2600.com/collections/subscriptions-renewals

2600 is living a decade in the future of every other community you care about, weird hobby you enjoy, con you live for, and publication you read from cover to cover. If we can all pull together to save it, it'll be a beacon of hope (and HOPE).

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/19/hope-less/#hack-the-planet

#pluralistic #2600 #hackers #magazines #publishing #kindle unlimited publishing #kindle #enshittification #monopoly #end to end #competition #events #nyc #hope #hackers on planet earth #amazon

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abluescarfonwaston · 9 months

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Edgeworth requesting the signal samurai theme song be played on the radio during the start of the seven year gap when Phoenix has gone completely AWOL and won't respond to him. Making a grand gesture like Phoenix did for him all those years ago to remind him he's not alone and that he'll help if only Phoenix will reach out and let him.

Of course Phoenix doesn't hear it because his schedule is all wonky between Trucy and the new jobs. Edgeworth wrinkles his shirt over it before Maya 'covertly' asks Nick about it. He's got no clue.

Cut to Edgeworth leaving Big donations with the request they play the song regularly. At every station they think Phoenix might even possibly listen to. It gets so intense there's massive speculation that it's a marketing stunt to raise hype for a reboot. It shows up on page five of the newspaper. People are demanding explanations from global studios. Phoenix still has not heard it.

Then Trucy hums it at home. Phoenix perks up and asks her what she's singing. She tells him how there's this OLD weird theme song that's been playing on the radio all the time. Some kids at her school have even been watching it. Not her thing tho. It was just catchy.

Phoenix turns on the radio that night after she's in bed. 'and once more signal red is sending out his sign, hope it reaches you signal blue. Or not- you've really helped with our station ad revenue!'

He writes a letter. Considers a stilted phone call instead. Sends in a request for the steel samurais theme instead with a note, 'Signal heard. But that doesn't mean I know what to do. From Signal Blue.'

Edgeworth hears it right away.

#wrightworth #Phoenix wright #miles edgeworth #the 7 year gap #i just think itd be neat #narumitsu

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best-fictional-band-poll · 2 months

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In one of the most exciting match-ups so far, two of the heavyweight champions from the first round go head to head!!

In the red corner, Mad Gear and the Missile Kid is, of course, the band from the Danger Days album - surviving radioactive post-apocalypse America, and still finding time to put out an EP! This is after all the My Chemical Romance website, and it's one of your blog runners personal favourite submissions - but can it compete?

In the blue corner, Gorillaz are a much-beloved animated band, with several studio albums, number 1 hits, and a MASSIVE global fan base! Almost everyone will have heard one of their songs, whether on the radio, from a friend, or even in the club.

But of these two, only ONE can go through! Who will it be?

#SOMEONE PLEASE PLEASE ADD MUSICAL PROPAGANDA FOR BOTH #mad gear and missile kid #danger days #my chemical romance #mcr #gorillaz #Round 2

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praying4time · 6 months

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Robert Carlyle leaving the Global Radio Studios, June 2023.

#robert carlyle

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pinkscaped · 2 months

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wait omg myah please please PLEASE tell us more abt myrah’s career after allume (and maybe during too 🤭) i js NEED to hear more abt her !

MYRAH YAMAZAKI is a Japanese K-pop idol and global icon based in South Korea. She made her initial debut in the rotational girl group ALLUME in 2005 as the group's leader and lead vocalist until her generation's graduation in 2010. Myrah is often credited for making ALLUME as popular as they are, achieving international stardom during this time for her strong attitude and natural star quality. Her run in Allume would be dubbed "Myrah and Friends" by fans due her popularity often overshadowing her groupmates.

Myrah would immediately begin a solo career after her 2010 graduation, destroying both the Korean charts and Japanese charts with the mini album HAUTE TOPIC. HAUTE TOPIC would break records for having all four tracks debut in the Top 10 on Melon. Moonlight, Chase Me, Starlight, and Kitty Kat would all break into the top ten and remain there for a solid five months. Myrah's solo career would be proflic and global, debuting in Japan shortly after her Korean solo debut where she would destroy the charts there as well. She would be the highest-performing Flowerbank soloist ever until the acquisition of Baebi's contract in 2023.

Myrah is still a high profile celebrity, starring in a handful of blockbuster films, critically acclaimed dramas, and becoming the face of many luxury brands through out the years. She is also the head of the creative board in Flowerbank Entertainment, owning an impressive amount of stocks in the company. She has been the host of the radio show AllTalkMe for over ten years now, keeping her and Allume relevant over the years.

ﾞ . ✩ . ' ۫ INFORMATION!

STAGE NAME :: MYRAH

BIRTH NAME :: Myrah Yamazaki

Birthday :: December 1st 1987

Zodiac :: Sagittarius

Birthplace :: California

Hometown :: Osaka, Japan

Ethnicity :: Japanese

Nationality :: American-Japanese

Faceclaim :: Devon Aoki

Height :: 175 cm || 5′9

ﾞ . ✩ . ' ۫ VIRAL MOMENTS!

"I don't think people realize we haven't actually had sex...I wish but we're acting, guys." One of her first viral moments as an actress was in 2016 during the press tour for A Man and a Woman with her co-star Gong Yoo. Myrah and Gong Yoo would go on to have a public relationship that would often have them going viral for their cute and funny moments. To fans' dismay, the pair would split in late 2020.

When she snatched Sooah's mic from her during a concert, singing her lines and high notes. "My mic wasn't working. It's not like she sings much anyways," Myrah would go on to say in an interview, fueling the fire of rumors about the two having a feud during their time in Allume. After this, Sooah would noticeably clutch her microphone whenever Myrah would walk by her.

"How could I not like her? I've never spoken to her. I love 2ne1. Shut up." Myrah would shut down rumors of her and CL of 2ne1 having beef, telling a fan to shut up when they spoke negatively of her. Shot in glorious 2009 iPhone quality, the video would make its round around the internet. A week later, Myrah would post a selfie with CL on her blog with the caption "My bestiiiiii~ ^-^ <3" and the two are still close to this day.

She put her hand up in Gdragon's face when he attempted to sing to her at the 2013 MAMA Awards. It was a lighthearted interaction, Myrah laughing the whole time, but the internet took it differently and deemed her "a rude bitch" and VIPS would begin to harass her. This would have very little effect on Myrah as she would go on to post a couple of photos of her with T.O.P and Gdragon in the studio with the caption: "I lovvveee rappers!! (*^^*)♡"

"She's a bitch! A hot one though!" Myrah would shout out her car window when she was escorted out of a club by Flowerbank CEO Kim Iseul. Myrah was a bit of a club-goer post-Allume, often having to be picked up by friends or, on rare occasions, her CEO. When asked by paparazzi about her thoughts on Iseul having to pick her up, prompting her to say her now most iconic line.

#༘⋆✿ ARTIST PROFILE #༘⋆✿ MYRAH #fake kpop oc #idol oc #idol au #kpop addition #kpop oc #oc kpop group #fictional idol community #bts addition #kpop au

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leighpinnocx · 11 months

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Leigh-Anne arriving at Global Radio Studios today.

#hardwork queen #leigh anne pinnock #lpinnockedit #little mix #dailylmedits #dailywomanedit #dailymusicqueens #dailywoc #userwocs #lp: candids #dsl promo #femalestunning

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ollywears · 2 years

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Olly Alexander wearing a JW Anderson S/S 2022 jacket and vest in a paparazzi photo at the Global Radio Studios in London (November 1, 2021).

#Olly Alexander #Years and Years #Years & Years #style #Night Call #It's a Sin #Sooner or Later #Sweet Talker #Crave #Hallucination #STARSTRUCK #jacket #vest #jw anderson #jw anderson S/S 2022 #paparazzi #london #global radio studios

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backup-baby-backup · 6 months

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Cruel Summer: the hit that was meant to be?

Pictured: dramatic reenactment of us waiting for Cruel Summer to be a single for 4 years.

Background

This summer is the apocalypse.

-- Lover Journal entry, dated 29 August 2016

We all know about the cruel summer in question, right? To be fair, technically the cruelty of the summer stemmed from "a desperate summer love that might be doomed from the start" and "some element of desperation and pain in it, where you’re yearning for something that you don’t quite have yet", and not whatever Kim Kardashian was doing on Twitter, but given how those two events occured basically simultaneously, it's not outrageous to claim both experiences informed each other.

In 2018, Taylor went on the Reputation Stadium Tour. Between shows, Taylor started working on Lover, getting into the studio with Joel Little, Frank Dukes and our favourite producer Jack Antonoff. For Cruel Summer, however, there was something special: Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, was a credited writer on the track.

St. Vincent had worked with Jack for her 2017 album Masseduction, so much like how Lana ended up in the studio with Taylor, we can safely assume that Jack brought the two together. On 6 June 2018, St. Vincent mentioned that she had reworked one of her songs from Masseduction, Slow Disco, into a poppier production with Taylor's support. With this in mind, we can probably assume that she had cross passed with Taylor around this time. Taylor was papped recording at Electric Lady (Jack's stomping grounds) on 18 July 2018, which lines up with this theory. [1]

The failed single push

I’m not trying to blame the global pandemic that we had, but that is something that happened that stopped Cruel Summer from ever being a single.

-- Taylor Swift after performing Cruel Summer on tour in Pittsburgh, 17 June 2023

Cruel Summer had been a fan favourite from the get-go. When Taylor held listening parties for a select group of fans, it was the song that most people had positive feelings about. When Lover (the album) dropped in August 2019, it was the third most streamed track from the album, leapfrogging I Forgot That You Existed despite it being the second track. People started to lament the... poorly-received lead singles the album had. (I have nothing kind to say about those two tracks so I won't say anything.)

Then for a while, nothing happened. Taylor released Lover and The Man as singles to various degrees of success. The Man's disappointing (by her standards) chart run probably reignited discussion about how Cruel Summer would have smashed if it were only given a proper push and the GP had understood its talent. Then COVID came along, Lover Fest was delayed indefinitely, and it seemed that the Lover era was over, replaced by Taylor locking herself in with Joe Alwyn and drinking wine.

Then June 2020 came around, and...

Now how do we know that this is true? Apparently, Cruel Summer was added to AllAccess, a website where radio programmers download singles serviced to radio. While I can't verify this myself, I have seen numerous independent sources claim that Cruel Summer was uploaded to the site specifically on 17 June 2020. [2] Some radio website also ran with the story in early June, so I am inclined to believe this.

And it's not like there weren't any official hints...

Top to bottom: Spotify "enhanced album" promo mural, You Need To Calm Down music video, Amazon Music commercial, Lover music video [3]

The catch, however, is the Cruel Summer never got an official add date. An add date is "supposed to tell [radio] stations when to add a record to its playlist". Without an official add date, stations usually won't play your new song unless it's really hotly requested.

So the song didn't get a full label push and quickly died off, despite getting some radio play in 2020 (from anecdotal evidence), not appearing on the charts. And then in July folklore came out of the blue, and with it ended the Lover era, and seemingly all hopes for Cruel Summer world domination.

A music video?

While Taylor HQ is normally as hard to infiltrate as Fort Knox, over the years bits and pieces of information have leaked about her intentions for the rest of the Lover era. Chief among them was, apparently, to officially release Cruel Summer as a single to accompany her live shows in the summer of 2020. A music video was even filmed, before being scrapped when Taylor moved into the mythical forest of folklore.

-- Official Singles Chart (UK), 27 June 2023

Well, would Official Singles Chart lie? They do say "apparently" though, maybe to hedge their bets a little.

The problem with this claim, however, is the timeline. On 27 January 2020, Taylor released The Man as a single. She dropped the music video on Feburary 28th. Assuming a similar rollout for Cruel Summer, the music video would've come out in July. Given how the pandemic had basically put all possible filming activity to a standstill in March, it seems implausible that a music video would be filmed that early in advance, especially without knowing that the pandemic was on the horizon. Or maybe it was fully CGI and filmed in the luxury of her LA house, I don't know.

But I think there's a different catch here. Note how the above source claims that Cruel Summer would have been a single to "accompany her live shows in the summer of 2020", namely Lover Fest. According to the planned Lover Fest schedule, by the summer of 2020 she would be performing in Europe, including headlining Glastonbury.

Now consider Taylor's usual single rollout. Fearless, Sparks Fly, Red and New Romantics were all the last or second-last singles pushed from their respective albums, all of which got tour videos. [4] It seems that given how Cruel Summer would be the fifth single pushed according to the original plans, it most likely would've gotten the tour video treatment as well. Which makes sense: imagine a music video with her performing under broad daylight to huge crowds at festivals!

Cruel Summer 2: The Return of the Hit

With the advent of the pandemic something interesting happened: people started re-discovering old songs and making them into hits again. Catalogue streaming amounted to a whopping 70% of all streams in 2022. Running Up That Hill, a song from the 1980s, went viral again thanks to Stranger Things and this new ability that

Maybe it was because people wanted something familiar to go back to in a world where nothing was familiar anymore. Who knows. Many other music critics have written better articles about this phenomenon. What does matter, however, is that releasing singles from an album from years ago was now commercially viable. Sia, Lady Gaga and The Weeknd all did it to various degrees of success.

So when Cruel Summer, a song which had been among Taylor's most streamed songs for a while, acted as the tour opener on the Eras Tour [5], it would only further gain in popularity from then onwards, even re-entering the Billboard Hot 100 before it was even officially promoted to radio. And so her label moved to capitalize on this trend, and finally released Cruel Summer as a single on 20 June 2023, almost 3 years to the day after its original planned release date.

The million dollar question: would Cruel Summer have smashed if it was released as originally planned?

I'd say no. The general public had already moved on from Lover as the lacklustre The Man performance demonstrates. Besides, without the accumulation of popularity that Taylor had with folklore, evermore, the re-recordings, Midnights and the Eras Tour, who know where her career would've been?

(By the way, even if Cruel Summer had been the lead single there is absolutely no way it passes Old Town Road for #1.)

Timeline

Summer 2018: Cruel Summer is likely written around this time.

23 August 2019: Lover is released.

27 January 2020: The Man is released as a single.

27 February 2020: The Man music video is released.

5-12 March 2020: According to Steve from the IC, band rehearsals for Lover Fest took place during these days, with a whopping 32 songs.

19 March 2020: California enters lockdown due to COVID-19. Taylor was living in Los Angeles at this time.

17 April 2020: Lover Fest is officially delayed.

27 April 2020: Taylor writes cardigan, her first collaboration with Aaron Dessner and the beginning of the concept of folklore.

6 June 2020: Steve posts that cryptic message about folklore, signifying that the album was mostly complete by this time.

17 June 2020: Cruel Summer is uploaded to AllAccess, incidentally the same day as Steve teases cardigan.

20 June 2020: The European leg of Lover Fest would have begun on this day.

20 June 2023: Cruel Summer is officially released as a single.

23 October 2023: Cruel Summer hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Conclusion

Stream Cruel Summer.

[1] Cruel Summer is also the only Lover song to be registered on the US Copyright Office with a creation year of 2018, rather than 2019, suggesting that it was an early cut. (credit: @taylor-on-your-dash)

[2] Surprisingly, people have also claimed that I Did Something Bad was added to AllAccess in a similar fashion.

[3] That being said, if we take that hint in the Lover music video as hinting towards a Cruel Summer single push, this also means Afterglow was also meant to be a single...

[4] Do not quote me on this, Taylor herself didn't acknowledge that chorus of Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince either.

[5] Getaway Car should've been here...

#taylor swift #cruel summer #lover

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perhaps-in-anotherdream · 1 year

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This exclusive radio accompanies Victor’s mind quest Not the Slightest Gap (至无隙无间).

⌚ This post contains detailed spoilers for content yet to be released in the global server! ⌚

•─────⋅◍♡◍⋅─────•

Victor: Come in.

Goldman: CEO, the Digital Twin technology project we participated in is already moving forward according to the plan.

Victor: Mm, is the meeting in question scheduled for tomorrow?

Goldman: Yes, it’s tentatively scheduled for tomorrow at 3 pm. Do you see any need for adjustment?

Victor: Mm... bring it forward to the morning.

Goldman: Okay.

Victor: By the way, there’s one more thing that I need your help with.

Victor: Help me find a Latin dance studio that offers professional Paso Doble dance courses.

Goldman: Are there any specific requirements?

Victor: One-on-one class. The class time needs to be flexible so that it can be adjusted according to my schedule.

Victor: Aside from being professional, the instructor must be patient.

Goldman: I’ve made a mental note.

Victor: Sign up for two people.

Goldman: For two people… are you going with MC?

Victor: Mm.

Victor: …the setting needs to be better. I guess she will want to take pictures when we check-in.

Goldman: Okay. Do you need help with the outfits for the two of you for your dance classes?

Victor: No need. I’ll take her myself tomorrow.

Victor: That’s all. If you find something suitable, feel free to send me any time.

Goldman: Roger. If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave now.

Goldman: [after walking a few steps] CEO, can I ask you a personal question?

Victor: Go on.

Goldman: How do you still manage to have the energy to exercise after getting off work? When I go home every day, all I want to do is lie down.

Victor: Each individual obtains their energy in different ways.

Victor: For me, proper exercise works as a stress reliever.

Goldman: Eh? But don’t you go for an early morning jog every day?

Victor: …dancing is not the same as a morning jog.

Goldman: It’s not the same?

Goldman: Uh, I mean, it sounds like they are both aerobics…

Victor: Do you want me to make a report for you on that?

Goldman: No need, no need. I’ve been blabbing. I’m just curious.

Goldman: And one last thing. Since you two are learning ballroom dancing, then for the company’s annual meeting program…

Victor: How come I don’t know that you’re doing all the administrative work now?

Goldman: A-ah, I’m just asking since I’m here…

Victor: Get off work if there isn’t anything to do. Or don’t you want to go home and lie down tonight?

Victor: There will never be a shortage of things to do in the company.

Goldman: …got it. I’ll go and do what you asked me to do.

Victor: Wait, there’s one more thing.

Victor: About the dance studio, try to choose a place as close as possible to MC’s company.

—

#you do need to read the mind quest for context BUT THIS CONSIDERATE™ MAN!!!😭😭#also Goldman pls go home & give Vivian a call take her out on dates aksjxhdj then you’ll understand where Victor gets the “energy” from🫠🫡#p.s. i started doing the translation after 1 AM last night and then fell asleep on my laptop. so obviously it’s not done yet :’)#but this time i can promise that i’ll be able to post it by tomorrow morning i.e. 24 hours from now~#mlqc victor #mlqc li zeyan #mlqc #mr love victor #mr love queen's choice #恋与制作人 #李泽言 #love and producer #mlqc cn #mlqc spoilers #mlqc translations

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sweetdreamsjeff · 3 months

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Jeff Buckley on Music and Life: A Rare Interview with a Rare Soul

BY MARIA POPOVA

In 1995, while working for an Italian radio station, journalist Luisa Cotardo conducted a candid, soulful, and profound conversation with beloved musician Jeff Buckley (November 17, 1966–May 29, 1997). His only studio album, Grace — which includes Buckley’s now-iconic cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” — had been released a few months earlier and he had just performed in the town of Correggio in Northern Italy as part of his European tour. Less than two years later, at the age of thirty, he would drown by a tragedy of chance while swimming in Tennessee’s Wolf River during a tour. Rolling Stone later proclaimed him one of the 100 greatest singers of all time.

Cotardo has kindly shared with me her recording of this rare and remarkably rich interview, in which Buckley discusses with great openness and grace his philosophy on music and life. Transcribed highlights below.

On why he chose not to include lyrics in the album booklet, a deliberate effort to honor music as a deeply personal experience interpreted and inhabited differently by each listener:

So that instead of people being compelled to read through the blueprint of the songs — instead of them looking at the dance steps ahead of time, they would just go through the dance. So that they would let the songs happen to them. Later on, they will find out what the meaning is, but for now — I mean, you know, we’re just meeting for the first time and it’s better… It’s better to grab your own reality from it right now instead of like, you know, read.

On what he seeks to communicate with his music, echoing composer Aaron Copland’s conviction about the interplay of emotion and intellect in great music:

[What I want to communicate] doesn’t have a language with which I can communicate it. The things that I want to communicate are simply self-evident, emotional things. And the gifts of those things are that they bring both intellectual and emotional gifts — understanding. But I don’t really have a major message that I want to bring to the world through my music. The music can tell people everything they need to know about being human beings. It’s not my information, it’s not mine. I didn’t make it. I just discovered it.

On the problem with Western charity efforts like LiveAid:

I would like for the starvation and oppression to end in Africa. I like for money from concerned people to go there, you know, to go to Africa, to aid. But … the real solution will come from Africa ruling Africa and not Britain ruling Africa, not America ruling Africa — it’s the only real key. If Africa rules Africa, that’s the only way that pattern of oppression from the outside can be stopped — not money, not only money. Money is a tool and it can be, I don’t know, I really don’t… It’s great that Mandela came out and took office in Africa. I think that’s the real revolution.

On place and what constitutes home and belonging for a global nomad like himself:

I don’t know what belonging means… I can only use my brain and intellectualize. I really wouldn’t able to tell you from the heart what belonging means… My memories of that place are my link to the place — memories of your experience in a place is your link… All people belong to the world. There is no exclusivity in that… The soil from America can differ from the soil in Malaysia, but its soil, it’s still the same. And the color of people’s skin can differ from place to place but it’s still skin. And, in that regard, there is no difference. People must belong to the earth and a traveller must belong to world somehow and the world must belong to her or him somehow. But, you know, then there’s the social level — that’s just the archetypal level, people usually live in the social level.

Echoing what Jackson Pollock’s father so poetically told his son in 1928, Buckley parlays this into his humble yet wonderfully wise advice on being in the world:

I have no advice for anybody except to, you know, be awake enough to see where you are at any given time and how that is beautiful and has poetry inside, even in places you hate.

On one’s journey of self-actualization and the organic letting go of dreams that no longer fit that journey:

It’s part of maturity, to project upon your life goals and project upon your life realized dreams and a result that you want. It’s part of becoming whole … just like a childish game. It’s honest — it’s an honest game, because … you want your life to hold hope and possibility. It’s just that, when you get to the real meat of life, is that life has its own rhythm and you cannot impose your own structure upon it — you have to listen to what it tells you, and you have to listen to what your path tells you. It’s not earth that you move with a tractor — life is not like that. Life is more like earth that you learn about and plant seeds in… It’s something you have to have a relationship with in order to experience — you can’t mold it — you can’t control it…

#jeff buckley #jeffbuckley #Jeff Buckley on Music and Life: A Rare Interview with a Rare Soul #MARIA POPOVA #soundcloud #SoundCloud

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reimenaashelyee · 1 year

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ok, I've read your article on your website about creating a gn pitch. did you have to pitch Alexander to hiveworks to get it printed? also, was seance published thru hiveworks or another publisher?? how difficult is it to get a publisher to actually pick up your book and have it printed + distributed? sorry for so many questions lol. I have a lot more but I'll refrain for now

Feel free to send your questions but please do separate asks if they are somewhat different subtopics

Alexander

Alexander is a special circumstance because Hiveworks is actually where I work as a dayjob. Staff members and creators already part of Hiveworks can get their webcomics hosted/printed with no barrier should they choose to be picked up by the studio - though they still need to make a pitch document to check whether the content matches the editorial catalogue.

Before this though, I had shopped Alexander out to other traditional graphic novel publishers. Which didn't work out because 1) there is still no viable market for adult graphic novels that isn't political, educational or memoir, 2) Alexander is a risky book, cost-wise and content-wise, 3) I wanted it to be webcomic too, 4) pandemic

Seance Tea Party

Seance Tea Party (and My Aunt is a Monster) is through Random House Graphic, a kids/young adult graphic novel imprint of Penguin Random House - the largest traditional publisher globally. I am only stating this to situate the difference between Alexander and Seance's homes. Hiveworks is absurdly tiny, hyper-independent and almost entirely digital. Random House Graphic is part of a big ecosystem that almost all your favourite authors past and present are part of: bookstores, libraries Hollywood, TV adaptations, ads on the bus or magazines or radio, Oprah's book club, worldwide distribution...

About the difficulty, it really depends on your specific situation.

For starters, you really need to have some kind of record of being able to finish something (mini-comics, a decently sized (100 paged) webcomic)... or in the case of long, ongoing webcomics, the ability to maintain it.

This should be enough to get you to make an attempt for Hiveworks (or Webtoons/Tapas...). But then you also have to consider the genre, subject matter, "representation", length, style of the work you're pitching... all the things I talked about in my GN Pitch article. As I have hinted at Alexander failing at being picked up by traditional publishers, some comics are just not able to break in to certain markets due to a variety of factors. Adult graphic novels are still seen as risky by traditional large imprints, so you tend to see them more in indie publications - like Fantagraphics, D&Q, Selfmade Hero, First Second, Silver Sprocket... or webcomics. However, if you're pitching a kids or young adult book - especially in the memoir, queer contemporary romance, POC (tailored to Western lens, RIP) fantasy, educational genres - then you'll have a way better time.

You still have to look at the publishers and see if your vibes match theirs. Then if you're interested in opening up the option to pitch to traditional imprints (and add more credibility to your submission), you really really really NEED an agent. Some GN imprints like Ballantine or Alfred A Knopf do not accept submissions at all except through agents and known contacts. Pitching to an agent is a whole other barrier... though once you get that agent, you can almost entirely hand over the grueling work of shopping pitches to them.

I think, on average, breaking into publishing is moderately hard. But I cannot guarantee it. I know for myself and a friend of mine, we broke into it easy: we got our agents quickly and secured our first book deals through major traditional publishers - though we had almost a decade of webcomics experience and community presence to back that up. Then for most of my peers/friends, it's months and months of rejection, no answers, editors/agents telling them their work is not for the market etc. Some of them overcome those troubles. Some of them become sick of it and go full independent self-published. Speaking of, there are still options outside of the mainstream. You can engage specialised, single-purpose services like White Squirrel to distribute, or Mixam to print your comics. You can host your work online and gain your own readership through updates, festival appearances, etc.

Again, it really depends on what you want to do, what your work is about, and the fallbacks you have. Please do your research, and prepare your strategies, and approach pitching with a realistic, pragmatic lens. Hope for the best, expect the worst. Everything above your must-have is a bonus.

#publishing #pitching #comics

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fyeah-olivia-colman · 1 year

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Olivia Colman arriving at Global Radio Studios promoting new movie 'Empire of Light' on January 06, 2023 in London, England

#Olivia Colman #OColman #Empire of Light

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davidfarland · 2 months

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David Farland’s Writing Tips—Why You want Your Books Turned into Film

Many authors dream of seeing their books turned into films, but for some it’s a nightmare.

After all, filmmakers tend to take liberties with an author’s story, often making changes that seem detrimental to the tale just to “make it their own.”

For example, P.L. Tavers, author of the Mary Poppins series, burst into tears when she saw what Disney had done to her books. Now, the film “Mary Poppins” won the Academy Award for “Best Picture of the Year and became a huge hit, but Tavers didn’t like it. In the same way, Tolkien didn’t want to sell his rights to Lord of the Rings, but filmmakers got them anyway. When the rights to Harry Potter went up for sale, Rowling went so far as to put an ad in the New York Times decrying the sale.

Heck, just a few weeks ago I pulled my Runelords books from consideration with a large television studio because I had an artistic disagreement. They wanted to add more sex and violence, I didn’t.

You might not always like what a studio does with your books, but usually the film sale will work out very well for a writer. Why? Because one of the biggest costs for making a film comes from promoting the film.

Promoting a major movie typically costs $35 million spent on ads in-theater, on television, in print media and on the internet and radio. All of that advertising doesn’t just sell the movie, it also spills over and increases sales on your book.

Once a book gets turned into film, the book gets a new lease on life. The book will get wrapped with a new cover—one taken from stills for the movie—and will be distributed widely in better supermarkets and gas stations everywhere. The book will also be put in special displays in bookstores, and the publisher may engage in a bit of print advertising.

All of this will sell a lot of copies. A few years ago, a terrible movie was made from a popular book that I won’t name here. The movie was a real dog, a classic disaster. But the publisher told me that they sold an extra two million copies of the book anyway.

Think about it. The royalties paid to the author would have equaled about $1.6 million dollars. You could crumple those 1.6 million-dollar bills all up and make a very cozy mattress out of them!

This example comes from a movie that was a disaster, but what if a genuinely good film were made from your books? The Lord of the Rings movies helped sell about 100 million books globally, from what I can tell. The Harry Potter movies helped make the book the bestseller of all time. And Tavers with Mary Poppins—I’m sure she cried all the way to the bank.

The same can happen in television. The Game of Thrones series helped make the books into a phenomenon.

You can of course turn a book into a huge hit without having a movie tie-in. The problem is that it requires a lot of investment from the publisher in cooperation with the bookstores. The stores have to agree to give the book special face-out advertising in prime locations in the stores. They may have to agree to put up special displays. If the books are selling at a high-enough velocity, this makes sense for everyone. But coordinating these efforts with bookstore owners who might be harried, lazy, or stupid is emotionally draining for the publisher, and often doesn’t work.

That’s why, if an author like JK Rowling or Stephen King or Dan Brown breaks out into the “phenomenon realm,” where they are actually selling more books than the genre’s audience would seem to allow, it is almost always done because a good film tie in was made.

This is why, with my Apex writing group, I want to stress that writers be open to filmmaking. You should begin nurturing contacts with film producers and agents early. You might find it helpful to attend large film festivals, or even begin mastering the fine art of writing a screenplay.

For more on David Farland's Writing tips, visit https://mystorydoctor.com/writing-blog/

And you can also click here to get your David Farland Daily Meditations.

#writing help #writing #writing advice #writing tips #author

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