Once it goes commercial you have to create something else.
We should all contribute at least one word to a book with an agreed upon premise then turn the tables on readers when they have to slog through acquiring hundreds of signatures.
As a cosplayer I love to just show up to random events in costume. This weekend I think Chewbacca is going to take over a Salvation Army Bell Ringers bucket or maybe Bane.
Those buckets are weird now, with slotted caps so you have to fold your donation. But the bell is among the best audio branding ideas. In Rosemary's Baby you hear that bell, and it instantly hatches Christmas in your mind.
I typically always hear the bell before I see the bell ringer. As an introvert it can be unsettling. Do I have any money? I better not make eye contact.
My mother got me a necklace just like the one Rosemary wears in the movie. But instead of herbs inside, it has a little bell. So, it's kind of like a memory squared.
From around 2010-14 I had a circle of friends that held a Santa pub crawl every Christmas in downtown Toronto. I remember walking past a mother and her son, maybe 7 years old, and the Kid whined "They don't look like Sanna!". The visibly irate mother spat out "those are just Santa's helpers". Another time we walked past what I think was a Japanese tourist enjoying a cigarette in front of his hotel and as luck would have it he was equipped with his giant telescopic lensed camera. His eyes lit up when he saw us file by and he gleefully started snapping away. Funny how one person loves what you're doing and another is irked by it. Good times.
It’s a shame that the liminoid, Dionysian ritual that the characters perform in ‘The Secret History’ didn’t catch on and become a big thing. Yeah, people may be out of their minds running round in bedsheet togas, humping and hitting anything that moves, but what the hell -- could be fun.
SantaCon has become a scourge (aka drunken frat-bro vomit-fest) here in NYC, to the point where some bars explicitly forbid them entry. Last year I saw a sign on a bar that said, "Not today, Santa!" I have to admit that made me laugh.
Years and years go, thanks to a louzy job the city power maintenancepeople did, once every 2 or 3 months, there was a huge power outage. For a year I think, everyone got used to it to a point, it became if I should say a temporary liminal event? For us kids, That an in between event for us. Prior, just normal kids goofing around but, during the power cut, that was our moment to supply ourselves with water bombs, and turn the tables on randoms walking the streets, stores, shops etc, and also have a civil war with the next door neighborhood.
One time I splashed a grown woman, all wet, hair and makeup ruined which means her day too. Minutes later, back home, as I walk into the living room, I find that woman sitting with my mother, she was actually visiting. We had eye contact and she somehow recognised me in an instant. That was so embarassing. But because of the circumstances I got away with it.
Years later, much older, moved to another neighborhood. Another outage happened, and kids from different neighbs were having a similar war. Can I say, power outage is somewhat halloween-like temporary event where time freezes, due to the dark everyone becomes mostly unrecognisable, and in a way alike and not exempt from a water splash, people perceived to be less powerful get to do what they want, while not fearing consequences? The world without internet, video games and endless movie channels had its great moments too.
Where is the new cacophony society? Who are the anarchists brewing new public pranks? I don’t mean to bark up the wrong tree and ask for the location of the nearest fight club… I mean to ask if we still have this communally structured disobedience and public flare. AT ALL.
I think its happening online. I think being a wacky yet profitable online creative is enough of a rebellion for this generation. 🤷♂️
I suppose. Perhaps we cant sustain an “outsider” cult without immediately mixing into social media. Perhaps the virtual space is a safer and more limitless place for transgressive communities.
I don’t think this generation wants to be in public. Rope rigging youtubers collaborate with skydiving youtubers. Gamers build computer circuits in minecraft. Instead of taking an email invite to a flashmob, I’ll stay home and create online.
Nowadays, its all about the insiders/pranks you create in virtual space.
How about this, all the dudes cover themselves in crunchy peanut butter and run down a main street in only their best tropical print shorts, yelling, "I'm a nut butter bro!" Think it'll catch on? Will it take over the world?? Women can join too, absolutely. "I'm a nut butter babe."
Hey Chuck, wanted to ask you something. You know how you talk about how books are unlike other mediums, and how you can get away with a lot? You encourage writers to write the most extreme, the most provocative, the most bizarre, and so on. When you first learned about that, did you readily embrace it? Or was there hesitancy? I kinda shirk at the idea because I'm afraid of what'll come out lol
Truth is, I was slow. My stuff was tame and timid, and it wasn't until I'd given up hope of ever getting published that I wrote anything risky. It's that resignation that did the trick.
At first, I thought your commented was defeatist. But after thinking about it, there really is no guarantee of getting published. So I understand that acceptance. I still have to thank transgressive authors, like yourself and Bret Easton Ellis for opening those doors to allow for more transgressive work. Do you think your work has made it easier for others to go balls to the wall with their writing?
Heck, whatever works. Soren Kierkegaard wrote about how that midlife resignation -- I'm getting nowhere -- allows people to take a "leap of faith" and do the task they're normally too afraid to do. Defeat allows for greater freedom.
I might stop seeking to sell people on Adjustment Day. If people noticed it, we are guessing you might receive some nasty vodka drinking attentions from the first person shooter crew. This was a good one, but I need to reread to find how the liminoid wins. By moving on? To the next? Unlabled human head scratching behavior?
Dig, it is like eternal verifies. And be it said if you were to repeat them daily they mangle . Let's say people can run 35 miles an hour stung by the right species of bee. You try to communicate this to everyone you meet, it will pick up formal formatting cast metal blobs. Might as well say the opposite of what you mean as Hen Miller said he could. If all you want is to be pinged, you should just go ping.
Once it goes commercial you have to create something else.
We should all contribute at least one word to a book with an agreed upon premise then turn the tables on readers when they have to slog through acquiring hundreds of signatures.
As a cosplayer I love to just show up to random events in costume. This weekend I think Chewbacca is going to take over a Salvation Army Bell Ringers bucket or maybe Bane.
Those buckets are weird now, with slotted caps so you have to fold your donation. But the bell is among the best audio branding ideas. In Rosemary's Baby you hear that bell, and it instantly hatches Christmas in your mind.
I typically always hear the bell before I see the bell ringer. As an introvert it can be unsettling. Do I have any money? I better not make eye contact.
My mother got me a necklace just like the one Rosemary wears in the movie. But instead of herbs inside, it has a little bell. So, it's kind of like a memory squared.
From around 2010-14 I had a circle of friends that held a Santa pub crawl every Christmas in downtown Toronto. I remember walking past a mother and her son, maybe 7 years old, and the Kid whined "They don't look like Sanna!". The visibly irate mother spat out "those are just Santa's helpers". Another time we walked past what I think was a Japanese tourist enjoying a cigarette in front of his hotel and as luck would have it he was equipped with his giant telescopic lensed camera. His eyes lit up when he saw us file by and he gleefully started snapping away. Funny how one person loves what you're doing and another is irked by it. Good times.
It’s a shame that the liminoid, Dionysian ritual that the characters perform in ‘The Secret History’ didn’t catch on and become a big thing. Yeah, people may be out of their minds running round in bedsheet togas, humping and hitting anything that moves, but what the hell -- could be fun.
Yeah, but soon there would be no rural caretakers to bludgeon to death.
Guess it’s a first come, first serve situation while stock lasts then.
SantaCon has become a scourge (aka drunken frat-bro vomit-fest) here in NYC, to the point where some bars explicitly forbid them entry. Last year I saw a sign on a bar that said, "Not today, Santa!" I have to admit that made me laugh.
Years and years go, thanks to a louzy job the city power maintenancepeople did, once every 2 or 3 months, there was a huge power outage. For a year I think, everyone got used to it to a point, it became if I should say a temporary liminal event? For us kids, That an in between event for us. Prior, just normal kids goofing around but, during the power cut, that was our moment to supply ourselves with water bombs, and turn the tables on randoms walking the streets, stores, shops etc, and also have a civil war with the next door neighborhood.
One time I splashed a grown woman, all wet, hair and makeup ruined which means her day too. Minutes later, back home, as I walk into the living room, I find that woman sitting with my mother, she was actually visiting. We had eye contact and she somehow recognised me in an instant. That was so embarassing. But because of the circumstances I got away with it.
Years later, much older, moved to another neighborhood. Another outage happened, and kids from different neighbs were having a similar war. Can I say, power outage is somewhat halloween-like temporary event where time freezes, due to the dark everyone becomes mostly unrecognisable, and in a way alike and not exempt from a water splash, people perceived to be less powerful get to do what they want, while not fearing consequences? The world without internet, video games and endless movie channels had its great moments too.
Where is the new cacophony society? Who are the anarchists brewing new public pranks? I don’t mean to bark up the wrong tree and ask for the location of the nearest fight club… I mean to ask if we still have this communally structured disobedience and public flare. AT ALL.
I think its happening online. I think being a wacky yet profitable online creative is enough of a rebellion for this generation. 🤷♂️
Maybe flash mobs were? The world is so connected now that it seems more difficult to do outsider events.
I suppose. Perhaps we cant sustain an “outsider” cult without immediately mixing into social media. Perhaps the virtual space is a safer and more limitless place for transgressive communities.
I don’t think this generation wants to be in public. Rope rigging youtubers collaborate with skydiving youtubers. Gamers build computer circuits in minecraft. Instead of taking an email invite to a flashmob, I’ll stay home and create online.
Nowadays, its all about the insiders/pranks you create in virtual space.
"Here it seems that some Santas are more equal than other Santas."
... no words ☹
How about this, all the dudes cover themselves in crunchy peanut butter and run down a main street in only their best tropical print shorts, yelling, "I'm a nut butter bro!" Think it'll catch on? Will it take over the world?? Women can join too, absolutely. "I'm a nut butter babe."
You first.
Hey Chuck, wanted to ask you something. You know how you talk about how books are unlike other mediums, and how you can get away with a lot? You encourage writers to write the most extreme, the most provocative, the most bizarre, and so on. When you first learned about that, did you readily embrace it? Or was there hesitancy? I kinda shirk at the idea because I'm afraid of what'll come out lol
Truth is, I was slow. My stuff was tame and timid, and it wasn't until I'd given up hope of ever getting published that I wrote anything risky. It's that resignation that did the trick.
At first, I thought your commented was defeatist. But after thinking about it, there really is no guarantee of getting published. So I understand that acceptance. I still have to thank transgressive authors, like yourself and Bret Easton Ellis for opening those doors to allow for more transgressive work. Do you think your work has made it easier for others to go balls to the wall with their writing?
Heck, whatever works. Soren Kierkegaard wrote about how that midlife resignation -- I'm getting nowhere -- allows people to take a "leap of faith" and do the task they're normally too afraid to do. Defeat allows for greater freedom.
Thank you for sharing this with us. For sharing all of these things that mean a lot to us.
Orientation week at university (Frosh for some?) was still like this before social media, and when the internet took a long time to load pictures.
There were upsides to this, more freedom. More problems as well.
I still remember walking across campus with my roommate and seeing all of these clubs trying to recruit.
And we laughed so hard at the hostile displays from the clubs for the Communist Party of Canada, and the Marxist-Leninist Party.
Hilarious how people who claimed to want an egalitarian economy couldn’t get together and work out their differences.
I suspect both groups would have been banned on US campuses...
I might stop seeking to sell people on Adjustment Day. If people noticed it, we are guessing you might receive some nasty vodka drinking attentions from the first person shooter crew. This was a good one, but I need to reread to find how the liminoid wins. By moving on? To the next? Unlabled human head scratching behavior?
The liminoid wins because it's how you can put something lasting into the culture.
Dig, it is like eternal verifies. And be it said if you were to repeat them daily they mangle . Let's say people can run 35 miles an hour stung by the right species of bee. You try to communicate this to everyone you meet, it will pick up formal formatting cast metal blobs. Might as well say the opposite of what you mean as Hen Miller said he could. If all you want is to be pinged, you should just go ping.
https://improveverywhere.com/2018/01/08/no-pants-subway-ride-2018/