Going to China!

Tomorrow morning I head to China for the ASIFA General Assembly. While there, we'll have the assembly and an in-person board meeting, and most of us will also give presentations to the Jilin Animation Institute. Mine will be on stop motion technologies here in Portland, with a focus on Laika's use of rapid prototyping technology in Coraline and Paranorman.
To be honest, I'm not sure what to expect, but it will be interesting, that's for sure. I'm looking forward to the trip.

I've been corresponding a bit with Malcolm Turner, of the Melbourne International Animation Festival. Apparently we've both been been asking for a while why there is so much great animation here in Portland, and the perennial answer ("because it rains so much") is highly unsatisfying. As Malcolm says, "it rains in lotsa places that produce truly dire animation".
I shared with him my pet theory, which goes a bit like this:
Basically I think that Portland has long been home to people who don't care much about conventional measures of success or status; people who are seeking wealth and fame tend to go somewhere else. Portlanders talk a lot about "quality of life", and "quality of life" seems to be code for "I don't want to work too much" - it goes with low cost of living, ease of access of public transportation, and a diversity of non-work activities. Because people don't work too much, they cultivate weird hobbies; unicycling and juggling and knitting and animation. Portlanders are expected to have side-projects; we welcome strange habits and (and this is important) are very tolerant of failure
So I think that atmosphere cultivates the culture that has become peculiarly "Portland" - we not only have an abundance of animation and film and music, but craft shows and pedicabs and artisinal beers and specialty foods and so forth. We aren't so supportive of the Arts-with-a-capital-A, but celebrate and support Crafts of all kinds, and our animators present themselves as craftspeople, as experimenters and tinkerers, as people in pursuit of the interesting.
He likes my theory, and maybe it will be more fleshed out and substantial in time for his Portland-specific feature in next years' festival.

Next week is the Best of the Northwest Animation Festival, but I won't be in town to catch it. If you are, it looks like a strong program.

And I'm working on bringing a program of the Polish School of Animation to Portland next year, partnering with the Northwest Film Center. It may be the US premiere of the program, which would be exciting.

I'm rereading if on a winter's night a traveler, by Calvino, and some Robert Frost poetry. Life is good.

Catching up

Oh, so much has happened.

I'm now the president of Asifa Portland. I'm really excited about it. Mike did a great job of reviving the chapter and putting on some great events, and getting us in the habit of having events and planning ahead. Now I'd like to look a bit further out, and think about how we strengthen the whole community, and become a real resource for animation in Portland. I've recruited Rob Bekuhrs to be the vice president and hope that over time we can build a really strong board, with a lot of strategic partnerships in the industry and with other organizations. There are a lot of possibilities.

I'm also just starting to blog for Oregon Creative Industries, a consortium of creative companies in Oregon. I'll be profiling members of our amazing creative economy and hope to grow the blog to demonstrate the depth and breadth of the great work happening here. If you know anyone who would make a good interview subject, please let me know.

I think I also need to start another blog, specifically about being a producer. It will, I think, be good for me professionally and I hope to capture some of the insights I've been having lately as I talk with artists. Go me!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

What a year 2011 has been so far.

The big news, which I may as well announce here, is that, after 3.5 years, I'm leaving ADi. March 17th will be my last day. I think I'll freelance for a while until I figure out my next step, and am really excited about some of the opportunities and conversations I've had in the past week. I mean, yes, nervous about money and stability and all that, but I honestly think that it will work itself out.

In other news, we're planning the next BeTween and want it to be bigger and better than last year.

Sven has started a NW Animation Festival, which is now accepting entries over at http://www.nwanimationfest.com/. As many of you know, I've been agitating for something like this for a long time, so I'm really glad he's doing it, and will probably volunteer in some capacity or another.

The ASIFA chapter has got some great ideas and events in the works. I think that my initiatives about reaching out by open board meetings and increased social media presence are starting to pay off, and I hope that they continue to do so. We need more board members in order to reach our potential and serve our members, but we've got a new treasurer, new website, new bank account, and finally have the ability for people to join and renew online. Everything is coming together a piece at a time, and the future looks really good.

And the ASIFA chapter is supporting a network that we've dubbed OSNAP. It's a group of independent animators who want to support each other and contribute to each other's projects. A lot of the organization is happening on facebook and email so far, so I'd watch the asifa website for more info.

I'd like to blog more about networking and job searching, since I have SO much experience in this area. And who knows, I might have a lot of time for that kind of thing now. ;-)

Serendipity

I had been thinking about this poem a lot lately, but only knew parts of it by heart. Then, as often happens, I was in Powells with $5 to spend, and spotted an anthology that includes it.

Adrienne Rich - Song

You're wondering if I'm lonely:
OK then, yes, I'm lonely
as a plane rides lonely and level
on its radio beam, aiming
across the Rockies
for the blue-strung aisles
of an airfield on the ocean

You want to ask, am I lonely?
Well, of course, lonely
as a woman driving across country
day after day, leaving behind
mile after mile
little towns she might have stopped
and lived and died in, lonely

If I'm lonely
it must be the loneliness
of waking first, of breathing
dawn's first cold breath in the city
of being the one awake
in a house wrapped in sleep

If I'm lonely
it's with the rowboat ice-fast on the shore
in the last red light of the year
that knows what it is, that knows it's neither
ice nor mud nor winter light
but wood, with a gift for burning


other business: ASIFA will host another Drinking and Drawing in January at The Canvas Art Bar (really cool spot- Portlanders should check it out), we're getting ready for the next BeTween PDX in... April? May? Christine and I are starting to cogitate about some sort of Art+Tech event, to see if we can't get some people making connections.
This week, Webvisions is having an event on New Media. This month, SIGGRAPH computer animation festival is screening at PCC Cascade Campus, and ASIFA is having a screening of Fantastic Mr. Fox with animation director Mark Gustafson at The Canvas. And in early December, 3DPDX and AEPDX are having an event to show how awesome Cinema 4D is. Summer's over, so everyone is regrouping. Wheeee!

Post-Tween

This isn't really fair, since I'm getting together with the guys next week to have a semi-official post-mortem on the event, but I have so many thoughts that I want to organize/share them.

Firstly, the night before, I dreamed all night about all the ways it could go badly. And there was a guy on Twitter being a jerk about the whole thing, and because I was using the BeTween account I couldn't be as direct as I personally wanted to be. So every time I woke up I thought about that conversation and how negative he was...

But it really went beautifully. I think we had 40-some attendees total, which was the perfect number- enough for the conversations to be diverse and fruitful, but not so many that we couldn't handle them. And it went just long enough- longer than that and people would have gotten tired and grouchy, or we would have run out of content. Shorter than that, and it maybe wouldn't have been worth giving up Saturday for.

I decided to hold back Kohel and Kathy so they could participate in a session before leading one, and I think that was just the right call- it gave them a chance to get the tone of the event and set them up to lead their own sessions successfully. And people really wanted to talk with them and ask questions. Kohel ended up continuing his conversation with a smaller splinter group, which was just fine with me.

We had to really break up the conversations every hour in order to move on, and that, along with people complaining that the sessions should be longer, and that they should be recorded in case you missed something, assures me that they were fruitful and that people wanted to be doing what we were doing. I WANT people to think that maybe they missed something; I WANT them to have a tough time choosing which session to attend. That means we had high-quality content, and encourages people to want to do another one (if there is another one).

And I do think these are really fruitful conversations for animators to be having. The tech community does this kind of thing all the time, because their work is solitary and isolating. They form user groups and get-togethers and monthly stuff so that they can connect and share with each other, so that they can get insight and support, and the whole community benefits from it. I'm not sure why the animation community tends to think that the only people with insights to share are Experts who can Pass Down their Wisdom. It's often fruitful to ask your peers how they handle things, or if they know how to do something. And if we're going to build a more cohesive community here, we need to be talking to each other more. If we're going to start to develop an industry, a set of practices, a legislative agenda, it needs to come from communicating with each other on this level, not just talking about movies and artists.

However, as we did, I do think there's a real role for non-animators at events like this. We need attorneys and CPAs and insurance people, marketing and branding people, IT people and software people... we need to not only connect within our community, but outside of it, to build resources and knowledge that help us all work better. I think that any future BeTween should definitely include that aspect of it, although it's not a requirement of the format.

Finally, I'm personally so pleased that I feel like I gave our community this tool- that now there's a bunch of people who know how to do this and could lead one of their own. It's simple and inexpensive, and it's powerful. Maybe I won't have to lead the next one, or other people will decide to have their own on other topics. I'm beaming.

So yeah. I'm so pleased and yes, proud of myself, for making this thing happen and for having it go well. It's been a long process, pushing it forward, and I'm glad I never gave up on it (and thanks to those people who said to not give up on it). That's part of the learning experience for me; that if I don't feel supported in a good idea, to just keep with it until people get it and see where I'm coming from. I tend to think that if nobody buys in, it must not have been a good idea after all- I doubt myself. But I shouldn't be so eager to doubt myself. And I hope that these things I've worked on and brought to Portland animators; Drinking and Drawing, BeTween, and (to some extent) the local WIA chapter, have a life beyond me, and continue to serve everyone long after I've moved on to other things. Go me!

My hundredth post!

The ASIFA Showcase is Saturday, and it's going to be really good- I'm so impressed with the level of submissions, and the show is going to be very strong. And it's FREE, so please come- Saturday at 11am at Cinema 21.
I think we've done everything we can do for BeTween- now we just need to hope people show up and bring their participation hats. There will be coffee, and bagels, and maybe some swag, and we've left ourselves some room to be flexible depending on how many people show up. I so sincerely hope that people benefit from it- David and I were talking about how hard it can be to get people to come if they don't think there's anything "in it" for them. I wonder why the tech community doesn't seem to have that problem- they benefit personally when the group benefits collectively, so they don't need to be persuaded of the value of collaboration. I wish we had more of that spirit in the creative community. Baby steps, Rebekah- baby steps.

And, as always, let's close with a poem- I've been reading a lot of Jane Hirshfield lately.

THREE FOXES BY THE EDGE OF THE FIELD AT TWILIGHT

One ran,
her nose to the ground,
a rusty shadow
neither hunting nor playing.

One stood; sat; lay down; stood again.

One never moved,
except to turn her head a little as we walked.

Finally we drew too close,
and they vanished.
The woods took them back as if they had never been.

I wish I had thought to put my face to the grass.

We kept on walking,
speaking as strangers do when becoming friends.

There is more and more I tell no one,
strangers nor loves.
This slips into the heart
without hurry, as if it had never been.

And yet, among the trees, something has changed.

Something looks back from the trees,
and knows me for who I am.

Poem and stuff

I'm really excited about BeTween- I think it's going to go really well, and if it doesn't, we've learned what we'll need to do for the next one. Yes, David and Sam really want this to be an ongoing thing, which pleases me.

Now it's just a question for me of maintaining momentum, following up on the loose ends, connecting with the people on my list to connect to. I don't want to get lazy here in the home stretch.

And I've been listening to the Poem of the Day podcast, which reminded me of Jane Hirshfield. Here's one of my favorites from her:

Letting What Enters Enter

Even in January rains
the blossoms open --
absence and longing
are also the plum-fragrant spring.
As the woman with her sign and cart of rags is spring,
beside the highway, stepping slowly
through the undimmed flower of her life.
"What I now most want to happen
in my raving heart, make it happen --"
Sappho's cry to the goddess.
Who knows if that prayer was answered?
Each part holds the rest in the chill
spring rain and the silence; let one animal
eat from your hand and the whole herd comes.
but the woman was not beautiful
or whole in her heart's raving,
and she forgave me nothing that I love.

Online registration now working

Head on over to the website and pre-register for BeTween! It's going to be interesting, and I think a really good group will attend.

BeTween!

So, I've been meaning to blog about this for weeks, but I've been putting my efforts on the project into realizing it, rather than blogging about it. You may remember me making noise for months about an unconference for freelance animators, and finally, with the support of David Billings and Sam Niemann, it is actually going to happen.

Our website is coming together, and the event will be on May 1 at the Art Institute open space. I'm so so excited.

Even though it's an unconference, we'll have some "experts", who can speak to IP and copyright/fair use, taxes, health insurance, software... my hope is that people can get real information out of these sessions, rather than just trading stories and frustrations (although that's incredibly important too).

It's been such a pleasure working with David and Sam, and I've been thinking a bit about that. It was so discouraging all those months when I would talk about it and people would just give me a vague look and nod. And I was so convinced it was a good idea, but so few people seemed to share that conviction that I got discouraged (as I often do). So the process of just continuing to talk about it until I found the people who got it and shared my enthusiasm has been enlightening. I can think of other projects that would have benefited from that kind of persistence and faith, so I need to keep that in mind.

They also really want these to be ongoing events, which is an interesting idea.

So let's close with a quote from TH White in The Goshawk:

To write something which was of enduring beauty, this was the ambition of every writer: as it was the ambition of the joiner and architect and the constructor of any kind. It was not the beauty but the endurance, for endurance was beautiful. It was also all that we could do. It was a consolation, even a high and positive joy, to make something true: some table, which, sat on, when it was meant only to be eaten off, would not splinter or shatter. It was not for the constructor that the beauty was made, but for the thing itself. He would triumph to know that some contribution had been made: some sort of consoling contribution quite timeless and without relation to his own profit. Sometimes we knew, half tipsy or listening to music, that at the heart of some world there lay a chord to which vibrating gave reality. With its reality there was music and truth and the permanence of good workmanship. To give birth to this, with whatever male travail, was not only all that man could do: it was the human contribution to the universe. Absolutely bludgeoned by jazz and mechanical achievement, the artist yearned to discover permanence, some life of happy permanence which he by fixing could create to the satisfaction of after-people who also looked. This was it, as the poets realized, to be a mother of immortal song: to say Yes when it was, and No when it was: to make enduringly true that perhaps quite small occasional table off which subsequent generations could eat, without breaking it down: to help the timeless benevolence which should be that of this lonely and little race: to join the affection which had lasted between William the Conqueror and George VI. Wheelwrights, smiths, farmers, carpenters, and mothers of large families knew this.

Inspired Involvement

As you can tell, I'm struggling a bit with maintaining this blog lately. It was begun in a burst of enthusiasm for social networking and Portland's open source community, and a deep desire in my heart to bridge disparate elements. I mean, that's the whole reason that I love animation- it's an amazing balancing act between creativity and technology, between inspiration and repetition. It's a place where I can satisfy both my desire to create original work, and then endlessly perfect it.

And yet, despite my excitement about the events that Asifa is putting together (Drinking and Drawing next week!) and my incipient freelance event*, I've also been going through a very introspective period lately. So instead of blogging about events and happenings in the community, I've been blogging about what I'm thinking and reading, or blogging not at all.

I'm fortunate that this blog has so few followers, and all of them know me, so it's not like I have to live up to any particular expectations, and yet I did have some expectations of myself when I began this, when I chose this title.

And I have gone on a slight derail the past couple of months, when I decided I was going to move and that anticipation put a number of things on hold for me (since I'm also not updating the sister blog to this one). And those steps I was taking for personal growth were very meaningful for me- I hope to resume them as soon as possible.

However, I very much don't want this blog to devolve into a journal. I do sincerely hope that the act of reading it is of some benefit to someone, and not just that the act of writing it benefits me.

And on that note:

* I want to put together an event, perhaps an unconference, that focuses on the realities and opportunities for freelance animators (and other creative people) in portland. I think that the film and video community have a lot of resources that animators don't necessarily know about, but that there are also challenges unique to the animation community. If anyone is interested in helping organize such an event, or has thoughts or suggestions to share, they would be welcome.

Thanks as always for your patience with me. :-)

Bric a brac

Well, it looks like I'm a board member of ASIFA Portland. I have to admit, it seems like it will be fun- I don't have, you know, a Real Job like an elected member, and they are a pretty laid-back bunch. So we'll definitely be putting together another Drinking and Drawing- I may not be hosting this one, but I'll show 'em how it's done. :-)

Personally, I'm going through a few transitions- I can't tell if this is baby steps toward major progress, or just sidesteps as I work out a few things. One thing I've been really focusing on (and it was going well until tonight) is delineating my time- I need my work day to end, period, at some specific time, and the rest of my life to commence. I tend to drag work stuff around with me all the time, and it's poor stress management and doesn't let me focus on other areas of my life that need attention. So even if it's just for an hour or two at night, I need it to officially stop. I've been hitting a gong in my apartment, and it's funny but it helps.

I'm reading Locke's Essay on Understanding. Delightful writing style- he starts out so self-deprecating, with just a few of his humble observations, and then commences to thoroughly, systematically, demolish any competing opinions. Funny how we take the whole tabula rasa argument for granted now, and wrap it into nature vs nurture- when he wrote this stuff, it was really groundbreaking.

What's coming up? Cre8Con, for one. I'm not sure I can afford to go- it's so much more expensive than it was last year, and my job just spent a fortune to send me to Siggraph. Too bad, too- I got a lot out of it last year. Also Art Spark, BackFence PDX, OMPA Industry Night, and Dr. Sketchy. So if you're a creative type, September has a lot to offer.

It's been a while

Going to iSite's anniversary party on Monday. The people I've met from there have made a great impression on me at cre8 camp and on Twitter, so I'm looking forward to it. They have a handy RSVP form on their website where you not only say that you're coming, but can tell them if there's any expert you'd like to talk to, and then adds the date to your Outlook calendar. Nice!

Also coming up- Science Pub and Interesting PDX.

I'm taking a couple days off in early April and really looking forward to it. It always seems like a person should take vacation when they have somewhere to go, but I never can afford to go anywhere. So I try to remember to take vacation anyway and just relax. I have to admit that I worry a bit about everything when I'm gone, but that's just because I take it seriously and feel a personal commitment to our projects- it's good that I worry, and good that I leave anyway.

Tomorrow we start putting together the baby board for the Portland chapter of Women in Animation- that should be exciting!

Also on Twitter, I'm late to the party, but Christopher Walken is my current favorite tweeter. He's hilarious. Someone really needs to put together an audio set, though, so you can hear him saying this stuff.

Also, shout out to some ex-Laikans who are staying in town and taking a shot at their own studio. I wish them all the best.

miscellany

A crucible is a heat-resistant container in which materials can be heated to very high temperatures.

Cre8 Camp on Saturday. To be perfectly honest, I'm feeling a little apprehensive that the event will be something of a forum for the OCI peeps. That makes it feel less organic and participant-driven than the Legion of Tech events, which is precisely what I value about them. However, I am looking forward to it.

Women in Animation stuff is happening- I've been really busy at work so haven't followed up on it as much as I keep intending to.

Still reading James P Carse and listened to his Long Now lecture last night. Really interesting, and surprisingly consistent with some stuff I was thinking way back when I studied philosophy, although, of course, much more cogent. His thinking is an interesting mix of rationality and mysticism that appeals to me.

End to my calendar woes?

Today on Twitter, @turoczy turned me on to Calagator, an open-source, totally awesome Portland Tech event calendar. It doesn't have all the events I'd like to see on it, but that's okay because I can add them. They're pretty flexible on how "tech" the events need to be, and I love the "export to google calendar" feature- it's pretty much just what I've been looking for.

Hopefully someday I can persuade them to make a widget for blogs, but in the meantime, head on over to Calagator and check it out.

Calendar Widget

So, the google calendar widget I had on here doesn't work any more. I'm also not sure that anyone used it except me, to keep track of what was happening when.

I'm open to suggestions for a calendar widget if anyone can think of one. I'd like it to be super easy to update, and ideally collaborative- it would be cool if other people could post events to it, or if I found a site that had calendars of all the stuff I'm interested in.

On that note, there is an adult night at OMSI next week- cocktails and science. It sounds like fun. Also, Cyborg Camp on the 6th, and The Auteur premiers on the 5th. Next week looks busy... fun!

Great Portland Interview Experiment

Started here, I participated with Adron Hall. I'll publish the results of my interview with Liz Grover when that's done. This has been really fun to do- great idea!

A: How goes the efforts for the animation festival?

R: Firstly, I'd like to have coffee with Steve Gehlen, because he has more experience putting such a thing together than I do, and I'll need some guidance. I really need a fiscal agent, and he's got one. Secondly, I'd like to put together a brainstorming meeting with people who are interested and see what we'd like the event to look like and what it should include. From there, Marten and I can create a tentative plan, and start working on logistics.


A: So Twitter, the speed at which news is relayed and information spread, how or do you ever feel a bit overwhelmed?

R: This is probably a bad week to ask me that question- I usually try to balance my life so that there is plenty of time for activity, but then also plenty of time for introspection/reflection. I've got a lot going on lately, and haven't had much time for mental processing, which can lead me to feel overwhelmed. I've also just crossed the line in Twitter where I follow so many people that I can't read all their tweets.

I am trying to have a relationship with information/communication where I consume it mindfully and with attention. Unlike, say, the TV, which once it's on just stays on for hours in the background, or a radio station. Video watched on-demand gets watched deliberately and with my attention. I do the same thing with social media- I only participate in a few sites, and try to do it well. And subscribe to podcasts, and then listen to them mindfully. So as I mentioned, I feel like I have all these things- books, movies, shows, podcasts, clamoring for my attention, and I don't have enough time to mindfully consume all this stuff. I feel like I should only follow enough people on Twitter as I can read and correspond with and give attention to- I don't like feeling like I'm "behind" all the time.

I think there is a tipping point- as I mentioned, I love how fast things happen on Twitter, and it is really fun for news and events. However, I'm bordering on either having to use it very differently than I have been, or trimming back the number of people I follow.


A: The value of Twitter, at least in my humble opinion, is the people that tweet & twit all day long. Have you ever thought about how the connections are made, and what draws people to follow each other on Twitter?

R: This dovetails nicely into the above question, because the issue really is the paradigm of using Twitter. I like following people who tweet real content- good blog posts or news articles, tweetups, events, knowledge. And I try to respond with thanks or commentary on that content, and not clog up the bandwidth with my own chatter.

I do think that Twitter is evolving into a whole unique thing- people tweet as themselves (rather than creating handles and the personalities that go with them). People who interact on Twitter also generally interact in real life- again, this isn't some persona that is being created, and that prevents some common online drama, where, say, "WizardKing_027" is the most powerful poster on a game forum, which has it's own private set of memes and social hierarchy, etc. If I can't make a good impression on real people, I can't make a good impression on Twitter. What's also weird is that people go around at events with their Twitter IDs on their nametags, and the two are sort of interchangeable. Anyway, Twitter for me bridges the online social experience and the real world social experience in a totally unique way, and I think everyone is still figuring out how that's going to develop over time. Very soon, the community will be overrun with spammers and scammers and people's usage habits will change accordingly, and they'll either migrate to a different thing (like Shizzow, maybe), or the technology will evolve to somehow exclude those users/that type of content. It’s still changing, we’re still changing it.


A: Steampunk Fan? What's characteristics do you like about these story themes? What do you like about the ideology?

R: The easy answer is that in Steampunk, technology is beautiful and valuable, unique, and invented by the person who uses it. Currently, technology has really streamlined visuals, is mass-produced in plastic and aluminum, and is developed by someone else- you have to learn how to use it. Victorian technology belonged to everyone (of a certain social class); anyone could get a chemistry set or a telescope and proceed to make discoveries or do experiments- it wasn't the realm of specialists. Today, knowledge belongs to specialists who study something extensively, and they are viewed as being the only people who can make meaningful contributions to the body of knowledge on that subject.

Incidentally, I do think that's changing, and it's one thing I just freakin' love about open source software, and other... let's call it the democratization of the sciences.

Also, I generally like alternate histories. It isn't always done well, but that's true of every genre of literature. :-)


A: You appear per your blog to have read the Declaration of Independence. What is your opinion of the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution? Any particular thoughts that stand out?

R: I'm going to be elitist here and say that I think the Constitution is the crowning achievement of the Enlightenment. It's an absolutely amazing document, written by brilliant men, emerging from an untested, unstructured, collaborative process. I could go on and on about the tremendous challenges of inventing a system of government that is cogent enough to work logically, and yet flexible enough to evolve over time, to meet the needs of the people over the course of centuries. It’s so difficult to think long-term, and the founding fathers could have just been reactionary- could have just invented something that redressed their grievances with the monarchy, but instead they invented something that went far beyond that.

The dream of America (all men are created equally, life liberty pursuit of happiness, government of the people by the people for the people) is never, of course, the reality of America. The reality of America is, just like everyone everywhere, the wealthy have tremendous political advantages, and a small number of people have control over the actual living conditions of everyone else... but the dream of America is real and tangible and worth living and fighting for. It’s such a compelling dream that we keep dreaming it, that we keep on striving, generation after generation, to make it true, to make it true for all of us, and then to make it true not just for us, but for everyone all over the world. It keeps speaking to us, calling to us, forcing us to take action.

And, of course, it makes me sick that we have political leaders who don’t believe in this dream, who undermine it and sabotage it, or say that this is a dream that only citizens get to have, who don’t GET it, what we’re doing here, what the experiment actually is that the Constitution set in motion and then entrusted to us.


A: You wrote "I've spent a lot of my life trying to get to this moment, to reach these goals, to be sitting here. And the past year or so I've been asking myself what comes next, what's the next goal?" Have you come up with some new goals, plans, or ideas of accomplishments you'd like to achieve?

R: Actually, I haven't. And I'm getting busy with Drinking and Drawing and all the various camps and this potential animation festival... I get mentally stimulated by these things, and that stimulation is part of what I am looking for. I need a certain level of challenge in my life, and so I like to feel like I'm working toward something. But I'm not sure right now what that "something" is.


A: You also wrote "Instead, I keep finding that when I'm ready, I become the master." What are your thoughts when you reach this level; alone, accomplished, scared, brave, brash?

R: Now I'm embarrassed to read that post- it sounds really narcissistic. What I meant is that when I go out there somewhere and struggle along, I'm fearful and unsure of myself. I wish there was support or guidance, and there never is- I just have to stumble along alone, feeling my way as I go. And invariably, after the fact, people ask me how I did that or learned that. That's what I mean by "becoming the master"- now people look to me for guidance and support.

I guess what I first feel after I've accomplished something major is relief- I was bluffing along the whole time, and can't believe that it actually came true/worked out. I kept expecting someone to come along and stop me, and I'm always surprised when no one has. So I gather my breath for a while and take in the new view, and in that period there is a sense of being proud of myself. Then, of course, I get bored and set myself the next challenge.


A: So what are your ideas for a reorganization for a new superstruct?

R: Well, the superstruct was a device that the people running the game thought would be the thing that saves the world- collections of people with the same goals who bring their disparate experience to the table and work together. I suppose it's a legitimate theory- how else are we going to save the world? But I myself didn't start a superstruct, and barely participated in any. I wanted, like I always want, to bridge them together. I saw so many superstructs that were similar in goals or processes, and wanted them to connect and work together. I know that was part of the intent of the game, but I didn't see it happening much while I was playing.


A: I find you are one of the few people in the country who understands short selling, naked short selling, and even credit default swaps. Does it leave you ok with the idea of these moves in the market or do you believe they should be banned? If they are banned, how could they do so effectively? If they aren't banned, what would the reason be?

R: That's an interesting question. I think that if bankers remembered what their actual business was, then none of this would have happened. Bankers are supposed to make prudent, low risk investments, and protect their solvency at all costs. What happens, bizarrely enough, is that people look at a stock portfolio and think "I'm a millionaire!" rather than thinking "I own stocks that are worth a million dollars today, but might be valued differently tomorrow". Then, the next level of bizarre behavior, they don't start selling stocks to buy things, they start borrowing against the value of their stocks. I mean, they don't sell some stocks and buy a new car- they finance a new car against the value of the portfolio. Eventually they are sleeping in the car.

Do I think there's a legislative solution? Yes and no- firstly, there is a reason we have anti-monopoly laws designed to prevent a given company from dominating a market. People think that legislation is designed to protect the consumer from collusion and price fixing, and that's part of it. but the other reason (and the more important reason) is that in a free market economy, there is no such thing as a company that is "too big to fail". To have too much capital concentrated in too few companies means, literally, that if those companies fail, our economy fails. So, yes, we should much more stringently enforce anti-monopoly laws and encourage a business environment with a lot more real competition. Good lord, if people don't want to finance the auto companies by buying their products, we shouldn't have to finance them with taxpayer money. That's ridiculous. And there are a ton of tiny car companies out there, making alternative vehicles, that would gladly step in and sell cars in a competitive marketplace, and, given the opportunity, would probably be able to absorb a number of employees laid off by the Big 3.

As for banning credit default swaps, I don't think it's necessary. Bankers are learning that if they want insurance, they should buy insurance, not spread their bad debt around. They'll forget in another 50 or 70 years and need to be reminded, but... you know, it's like Enron (another company the government allowed to get too big, with a paper value that could evaporate overnight). If someone is out to find a sneaky loophole that allows them to rip off people, the rules and laws are convoluted enough that they will find a way. Making something illegal after the fact doesn't really solve anything, and just adds more complex legislation to an already insane business. Banning naked shortselling (which they did a few weeks ago) doesn't get rid of the people who want to make money unethically.

Events!

So, the date for Drinking and Drawing is set and I've just sent a message to everyone via everything. I'll spam it again next month when I have cool graphics and a press release. I have to admit I want it to be huge, so I'm open to suggestions of where to promote it.

In case you're wondering, the next steps are: design the fliers (Kalina will do that for me), write the announcement/press release (next week), borrow light tables (apparently Brian Larson will help with this), and then start recruiting volunteers to work the event itself. Next month I'll meet with the guys at the Someday Lounge and go over the details, and it will all be cool as long as a ton of people come and draw.

Ignite was really fun- a great crowd, great presentations, great all around. It was funny to see everyone going by their Twitter handles. Here's my favorite presentation:


Aaand tomorrow is cre8 camp- I'm really looking forward to it.

Twitter

So, I know I was skeptical about Twitter six weeks ago, but now I'm really excited about it.

Firstly, I had no idea that so many cool things were happening every night in this city. I follow some really interesting people, and they are always inviting everyone to these amazing events and screenings and lectures, and if you aren't there, they tweet the event and let you in on what you missed. Same for people who aren't in this city- I can find out what's happening at a design lecture, a steampunk convention, an open-source seminar, and a political rally all at the same time, all in real time.

Secondly, it is staggering how fast things happen. Twitter knows about current events faster than Google does, and the moment something happens it spreads throughout the twitterverse, and everyone knows about it. It's funny, because I'll read something on Twitter, turn around and mention it to a coworker, and a couple minutes later it will have been retweeted to them- if it's good, or funny, or important, it makes it all the way through the community in record time. The community talks about things that are of tremendous local impact or interest that don't show up in the mainstream media, or show up hours or days later. I've always liked the speed of the transfer of information on the internet, but twitter is exponentially faster.

Finally, I appreciate being able to connect with people either actually (like all the Legion of Tech folks), or passively (like I follow Hodgman or WarrenEllis). I get insights into who they are, what they think, how they live- it's very cool.

So come find me on twitter (@rvillon), if you haven't already. I'll try to keep my updates funny or important or both.

Amazing Animated Shorts part 2: Brush

This one was in SIGGRAPH's Electronic Theater a couple years back. (Speaking of which, the current Electronic Theater is screening in Portland in a few weeks).

I just love the 2D-to-3D effect on the horse in this one.

Hither and Yon

Don Hertzfeldt screened his new film at the Laurelhurst today, and did an extensive Q&A session afterward. Another one of those events that reminds me what I like about Portland, because it was sold out and packed- people were sitting in the aisles and standing in the back. Saw some of the usual cast of characters there- the same people tend to come out for animation events, and it's good to catch up with them.
He's so fortunate. He admits he's never had a "real job", and been free to practice his art his whole life. He knows how lucky he has been. I was also really happy to have him say that he uses film and old-fashioned cell technology, but doesn't see them as superior to computer technology. He dislikes the debate about which is better, and says he just works in the medium he knows.

I'm listening to Science Friday right now- there's a piece on how people develop superstitious behavior when they feel out of control of their lives. It's something I have thought about quite a bit with religion. I think that there are many people who are sincere adherents of their faiths, but that some people use religion as another form of propitiating the unknown, of asserting control over the unknowable. For people who feel threatened by a volcano, it is probably soothing to sacrifice a virgin, so the community can feel at ease. There doesn't have to be an empirical causal relationship in order for there to be an emotional release.

Finally, here's a great quote from Jack Kerouac:
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars...