Gareth – Page 61 – The Designer Monologues

February 17, 2017

The Return Of Friday Music!

Long-time readers will remember that I did a long series on this blog, called Friday Music, starting back in 2005. Every week or so, I’d post a “mixtape of the internet”, sharing stuff that had grabbed my attention, both new and old.

Like so many other things in my life, it kind of drifted off — I’ve tried, a few times, to resurrect it, but not with any real sticking power. Well, I’m giving it another shot — and this time, in that convenient streaming format that the kids all go crazy over!

Yep, I’ve now got a profile up on Mixcloud, and, every couple of weeks or so, I’m going to post a mix — 40 minutes or so of music, which you can listen to via your phone (Mixcloud has an app on Android and IOS), or your desktop. I’ll put a player widget here, and you should also feel free to share it via Twitter, Facebook, etc.

This week’s playlist:

1. Big Audio Dynamite, “C’Mon Every Beatbox”
2. Stewart Copeland, “Coco”
3. The Pursuit of Happiness, “I’m An Adult Now”
4. A Flock of Seagulls, “(It’s Not Me) Talking (Remix)”
5. The Ocean Blue, “Between Something And Nothing”
6. Nick Heyward, “Whistle Down The Wind”
7. Human League, “The Lebanon”
8. The Police, “I Burn For You”

February 9, 2017

If At First You Don’t Succeed…

The title of this post has multiple meanings. First, I want to start using this site to blog again. I’ve been failing at that — primarily, because of massively late projects meaning that I have no time for it, and secondarily, that lack of time making it far easier to share items of interest to me on other platforms (Twitter and Facebook, mostly). But I really need to make myself do this, to produce content on a platform that I control, rather than creating for some company’s platform (and besides, I can always keep using Twitter & Facebook, and just post links to here). Additionally, it serves a couple of other purposes: one, it diverts my attention from the frankly-horrifying news of the fascist dismantling of my country; and two, making myself put stuff up here is good for my discipline, putting me in the right mindset to then get more work done.

So what’s with the Paramount logo then? Well, that’s another story of “try, try again.”

Paramount originally tried to start a “fourth network” on broadcast TV in the 1970s, with a revival of Star Trek as the cornerstone. The plans were scrapped, however, with the Trek revival jumping to the big screen.

They tried again, in the 90s, launching the United Paramount Network (UPN). It later merged with Warner Brothers’ effort, The WB, to become The CW.

Anyway, there’s a ton more acquisition and rebranding that happens in the 21st century (CBS/Viacom/Paramount/etc.)… but the big news that was just announced is that Viacom is going to launch The Paramount Network — a rebranding of their cable channel Spike, in early 2018. They’re moving all scripted development over to that channel (from their various cable networks), and hoping for tighter integration with Paramount film properties (there’s that transmedia thing again).

No cable channel really competes on a full week of scripted originals. Most have one or two shows that draw a good audience. By consolidating all of that to one channel, though, Paramount could do it.

They’re going to focus on their “Core 6” channels — Paramount Network (which is where the scripted stuff will live), Nickelodeon, Nick Jr (stuff for kids), BET, Comedy Central and MTV. (Interestingly, they claim MTV will refocus on music. I doubt that will return to videos, but maybe music-based realty shows and concerts? Who knows.)

Merrill Barr, over on Twitter, mentions Paramount properties he expects will now get the greenlight for series: Mission: Impossible (based on the film universe), World War Z, 48 Hours, Top Gun, Mean Girls… He has a few other thoughts too. Worth reading (and following, if you’re on twitter). He sums up: “I really can’t remember the last time we saw a shake up in business model this massive, since the launch of The CW.”

It’ll be interesting to see how this shakes out.

Anyway — there. That was better than just a link on Twitter or Facebook. And it gave me something to do over lunch.

More coming. Watch this space.

December 30, 2016

Resolutions

David Bowie by Patrice Murciano 2016 was a rough one, no doubt about it.

I’m not going to belabor the point, which has pretty much become a cliché at this point. Dumpster fires, meteor strikes, the grim reaper chopping through the population of our heroes like a cuisinart… you all know how it goes.

A dark year for me, too. Personal reasons. Personal failings. I won’t go into detail. The biggest one is well-known — hell, it’s getting to be ALL I’m known for, at this point. Another 12 months without releasing FAR WEST.

There were great things this year, too — and I’m putting them here in an effort to prevent “2016 = horrible” to be the sole thing that I remember, years from now.

My younger daughter got engaged! My son reached the first goal of his plan and headed off to school! My oldest passed her second bar exam (NY – #EsquireSquared, as she says)! All wonderful things.

I brought on a much-needed partner to Adamant Entertainment — Eric Trautmann, who has had an immediate effect, not only getting me back on track, but spearheading the company into regular releases again (the stream of THRILLING TALES products over the latter part of this year is entirely due to his diligence).

So, as I post this with a picture of David Bowie accompanying it, I look ahead to 2017.

The Bowie pic is my reminder. My intention to hold him as my Patron Saint in the coming year. The goal of 2017 is to create, create, create — never stop creating. This is something that I struggled with in 2016. I was hard to find it within myself to create, when there were so many other things that overwhelmed me at times.

If I have any resolution for the coming year — the thing that is going to require my constant diligence to bring about, that I will need to remind myself of, and that hopefully some of you will remind me of as well, if needed, it is this:

DO NOT WASTE MENTAL OR EMOTIONAL ENERGY ON THINGS THAT I CANNOT AFFECT.

Doing so only makes us feel helpless, frustrated, overwhelmed. It is far better for me to spend my effort only on those things I have direct influence over… and in my case, that is my creative process. I wasted so much energy this year on anxiety, outrage and depression.

I cannot solve the world’s problems. I can only do my work. And if I do that, and only that, I will get things done, which will lead to the positive emotional feedback of accomplishment — which is a helluva lot better than feeling overwhelmed and adrift.

So that’s 2017 for me. Create. Get Things Done. And Keep Going.