‘Turn The World Around’ by Harry Belafonte, performed by Give My Love To Milo (the music player above may not appear on some mobile devices)

I have been back from New Zealand for a week—a week—and I still haven’t gotten a decent night’s rest. We started in California and visited Disneyland for a few days, hopped over to New Zealand for about a month, came back through Tahiti for a little rest and I slept just fine in all of those places from day one. The time difference was no problem, I just adjusted. For some reason I simply cannot get back into the swing of things at home.

Something tells me my body has decided where it wants to be.

I had never been to Disneyland but I knew what to expect. Great design, great storytelling and great fun. What I didn’t expect, though, was for New Zealand to unfold like a great story as well. We found mountains and valleys and plains and caves—the country’s twists and turns constantly surprised us and there was always a big payoff in the end. I’ve never been anywhere quite like it.

I thought I’d share a song as I desperately try to get my body clock righted (or wronged, depending on my true internal nationality). The first time I ever heard of Harry Belafonte was when he performed “Turn The World Around” on the Muppet Show. Something about the song and the imagery of the tribal puppets stuck with me until I was much older and had to record my own version. Everything you hear was recorded using the same guitar, a very cheap instrument with dulled and cracking wood to give the song a simple feel. Every guitar line was played on it, every drum beat was tapped out on the back of it. I even sang into it when recording the vocals to lend an earthy wooden tone to my voice.

Coming back through Tahiti, while idyllic, made us miss the rugged beauty of New Zealand and the idea that you could just go and feel the world as it used to be. Turning the world around seems like fun.

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Give My Love To Milo is on SoundCloud. Listen. Download. Share.

Tiki tour—New Zealand slang meaning a roundabout way of getting somewhere, or taking the scenic route.

There’s a pretty good chance you won’t be hearing from me for a while, not here anyway. In a few days I’m leaving. No no, don’t try to stop me. Besides, it’s not you, it’s me. Well, me and my wife Cristi.

On April 8 Cristi and I will be on our way to New Zealand and will be staying for a little over a month. Go over to Kiwi Tiki Tour and subscribe to keep up with us.

For about five weeks we will be going up and down the island nation (no business to take care of, just a long vacation) kicking off the trip with a stop in Disneyland and ending with a relaxing couple of days in a bungalow in Tahiti. There may be time in there to write new entries for this site, but I can’t say how many posts you’ll see between now and mid-May.

So we’ll take a tiki tour of a little corner of the world. From what I’ve heard, when traveling around New Zealand you can’t help but take the scenic route. Don’t worry…I’ll be sure to send back a few pictures.

That was the idea anyway.

Unfortunately it didn’t work. When scrolling down the effect was lost entirely, first because the character’s motions were bouncing upwards as a viewer was scrolling down which confuses the brain, but second, and more importantly, it was hard for the eye to keep from moving upwards with the images. Even though the effect works on the same principle as film projection, your eye either needs something stationary to lock on to (like a screen) or the frames need to go by so quickly that your mind can’t perceive the motion for the illusion of animation to occur.

Nope and nope.

Still, it is a good idea that I wanted to share. Below are the individual motion frames (remember, the character is bouncing from left to right between the Facebook album squares so she appears cut off at times when she leaves the visible area. This is a portion. In total it took 200 images). Considering how many people use Facebook, it is the currently the greatest platform for entertainment, storytelling and artistic expression. Maybe someone will figure out how to make it work, or hopefully come up with something better.

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In the 1940s Jacque Fresco, industrial designer and futurist, was asked to make a film projector that could show a 3D image without the need for glasses. He discovered a solution that involved projecting the image from behind the screen, but there was one little catch: in order to see the image a person had to sit in a very specific spot, a focal point. Move slightly beyond the focal point and the image would disappear entirely.

Getting to this stage in development, Fresco decided he needed a little backing, financially speaking, to move forward. He met with Technicolor and they were awed by what they saw. They wanted to know everything about how the system worked, but Fresco wasn’t giving up any of his secrets. After talking for a while they noticed something was a little off. “Did you know that if you move to the side a little the image disappears?”

Finally, the point. “Yes, I know,” Fresco said. With their backing, he explained, he would continue the project and find a solution to the problem. Technicolor considered the situation saying that once he had solved the focal point problem they would be happy to back him. He explained again—you back me and I make it work; they explained again—you make it work and we back you.

Stalemate.

Fresco was frustrated by the impasse, but being a logical human being he began to break down the reality of the situation. As he thought he said to himself, “Alexander Graham Bell didn’t receive funding until after he had created the telephone, Thomas Edison didn’t get any support until after he had created the lightbulb.” Jacque Fresco realized when you’ve got something new you have to take it all the way, you have to develop it, before people can see what you are getting at.

You may have a grand vision for a new product, a new technology, a new app, a new cartoon or a new experience that you know will be a runaway sensation. Your concepts would blow people away if only you could get a little backing, if only you could get a little support, if only if only…

In this situation there’s just one “if” and just one “only”—the project will get done only if you go ahead and get it done. You’ve got to build it, you’ve got to develop it, you’ve got to chase it all night and not stop short in hopes that someone else will take you the rest the way. You have to accept that other people cannot see into your brain and cannot automatically see the intrinsic value of what you have in mind. You have to get them there and if you can’t then you just have to keep going.

There is also the temptation to hold back to protect intellectual property. “If I just give them what I’ve got, they will steal my idea and cut me out of the loop.” The truth is no one pays people to have an idea, they pay people to have ideas on top of ideas and, most importantly, to see them through to completion. The breadth of your ability is far more valuable than any single idea and to hide all of yourself for the protection of just one thought is like burning down the bakery to protect one loaf of bread.

Fresco’s 3D projector died, but the lesson he learned did not. This was one small event in the life of a fascinating human being. Learn more about Jacque Fresco in the very poorly produced documentary, Future by Design, streaming now on Netflix.

A wicked little animal reading a wicked little book.

‘Don’t Tampt Me, Woman’ by Give My Love To Milo (the music player above may not appear on some mobile devices)

From the book Wicked As They Come—

“You don’t feel safe anymore, do you?” he asked. “Don’t worry. Nothing can harm you so long as you’re with me.:

“But what happens when I leave you?” I asked him. “You can’t spend all of your time chasing me around and strangling rabbits.”

He laughed and pulled at the grass. “Don’t tempt me, woman,” he said.

I watched him playing with the long blades of grass, weaving them into patterns as he hummed an unfamiliar song, a waltz.

Delilah S. Dawson’s new book (she has a BOOK out…did you know?) Wicked As They Come sits on my couch, propped open to page 30. When I read the lines above I smiled and remembered Delilah warning that she had stolen a line from one of my songs. Never mind the fact that she wrote the passage before she ever heard that song, and probably before we got to know one another again, it’s thievery none the less.

I am not a fan of the book’s genre. Wicked As They Come is a steampunk paranormal romance with vampires. In no world does any combination of those words appeal to me, yet a couple hours after I bought the book I found myself 100 or so pages in, desperate to keep reading. I trudged off to bed, barely able to keep my eyes open and hating to put Delilah’s book down.

What’s happening to me?? Vampires? Does this mean I’m a Twilight fan now??? Am I reading in hopes of more references to myself? No, I don’t think so because I know there aren’t any. Maybe I am reading to be a good friend. Wrong again. I’ve quit books written by other people I know only a few chapters in because they were so poorly written. No, I’m reading it because it’s a good book.

Wicked As They Come is the author’s imagination, clear but tangled, tight but free, extravagant yet elegant. It hits that special place of too much and never enough. It’s hard to read a book written by someone you know. Often you can’t help but hear the person’s voice, imagine their cadence and mannerisms when they speak, keeping you in between the author and the book never letting you fully enjoy either. While reading Wicked As They Come I could hear Delilah S. Dawson some, but I could feel the world she created far more. She managed to take a topic that I avoid and turn it into something that I can’t get enough of. It’s like hating pink yet finding one artist who uses the color so masterfully that you forget your preconceived notions and just enjoy. If her book could do that to me, imagine what it would do with you.

Either that or she deviously included that reference to one of my songs knowing that I’d be a sucker. (I must be, right? I mean, I just wrote a whole book review about myself)

That’s probably what she did. I always like to imagine inner dialogue:

“Let’s see…how do I draw people in? I know! I’ll include little inside jokes and references specific to each and every possible reader of this book. Let’s start with some easy ones—her grandmother could call the heroine ‘missy’ and later she could eat a crabapple. That covers a good base. Now let’s get specific. There’s Ryan…bob, maybe a ‘bob’s your uncle’ somewhere? I’ll have to think about that one. Jenny in Ohio…I’ve never met her or even heard of her really but I know she’ll read my book in a couple years when she’s old enough so I should say something about her cat sleeping on her chest.

Now, Plsek. Hmm…haven’t thought about him in years. I bet he writes music…

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Wicked As They Come by Delilah S. Dawson.
Buy it for your Kindle, Nook or your hands and face.

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I always thought the idea of a valedictory address was a cruel practice. One girl in our class was forever on track to be the valedictorian and everyone knew two things about her—she was very smart and she never spoke. EVER. I can hear the conversation with the administration…

Hey you, yeah the one who spent your time studying and who isn’t friends with the horrible popular kids, stand up and talk in front of all those kids. That’s fun, right?

In the end that girl wasn’t the valedictorian. Everyone was shocked but then speculation began. “You know, I bet she got a B in some class just so she wouldn’t have to give a speech.” As it turns out you can decline to speak at graduation which is exactly what Delilah did (if only I had known that I wouldn’t have thrown that class and gotten a B, or those Cs, then there were some Ds…hmm…F…). She has had some time, though. Following the publication of her new book (she has a BOOK out…did you know?), Delilah decided to go ahead and deliver that speech on her blog. (The following is an excerpt from her post The dirty truth about release week, and also life)

When I was little and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I used to say a vet or an advertising executive. I always thought authors were out of reach, that writing a book was impossible. When I got older and my friends chose colleges and professions and people asked me what I wanted to be, I said “I just want to be happy.” I was high school Valedictorian, but I didn’t do a speech because I didn’t have anything to say.

If my high school invited me to speak today– because who doesn’t want a vampire sexytimes author addressing their impressionable youth?– I would say this:

Forget other people’s hopes and expectations and pieces of paper and sitting behind a desk being bored. Figure out whatever makes you feel alive and do that. Just because it’s not a job on your counselor’s list doesn’t mean someone won’t pay you to do it if you kick enough ass. Comfort won’t make you happy but passion will. If you have to sit behind a desk to pay the bills for a while, stay up all night following your dreams. Find someone who cares as much about 10-years-ago-you and 1o-years-from-now-you as they care about in-their-bed-now-you and commit to caring that much about them, too.

Never stop fighting. Do the thing that scares you. Resist much. Obey little. Paraphrase badly. Borrow extensively– ideas and quotes, not money. Never stop reading, never stop learning, never stop questioning and asking What If?

But above all, if you find yourself thinking, “I should change something” or “I wish I was doing something else with my life,” then for the love of all that’s holy DO IT. You have nothing to lose but mediocrity and the status quo. You’ve got one life, a million chances, and a body that’s going to start getting wrinkly at 33, so just carpe the hell out of that diem. Nothing tastes as sweet as the revenge of a fulfilled life. [full post]

=)

There’s another thing I find cruel about the practice of the valedictory address. The valedictorian—the “smartest kid in the class”—is supposed to address his or her peers with words of wisdom and encouragement. This is an impossible task. A high school student (even the “smartest kid in the class”) has no real wisdom and they have no real encouragement, they have fear and doubt and confusion just like all the rest of us sitting with the masses waiting to never have to take another whiff of high school again, but secretly afraid of that big bad monster called tomorrow.

It takes perspective, it takes time, but most of all it takes life to gain wisdom and to pass along encouragement to others. Delilah said no thanks when they asked her to speak. She didn’t have anything to say…yet. Maybe to some her address came late, but I think it came right on time.

Step one: get online. (check!)

Step two: go to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Simon & Schuster or some other magical eplace (or you could take a little trip back through time and go to an actual bookstore).

Step three: BUY IT!

That’s all there is to it. Just look at how happy the author looks pointing to a place where her book is. Just imagine how much happier she would be if she were pointing to a place where her book used to be!

It is from this history that we get the film Sweatbox (article no longer links to the film), an unauthorized documentary that chronicles the making of The Emperor’s New Groove, from story to design to music by Sting. Disney makes films like this all the time, but The Emperor’s New Groove had such a long and torturous journey that in some cases it brought out the “business” in the businessmen, prompting the Disney execs to scrap the documentary all together.

Luckily the filmmakers (Sting’s wife oddly enough) grew tired of sitting on their work and, in researching ways to get the movie out to the public, stumbled across something called “the internet.”

Two things from the film stuck with me. One of the players talked about the importance of addressing painful situations early, to get pain out of the way so a project can move forward. When it was decided that the early version of Disney’s newest story wasn’t working, swift and sweeping changes where made. There was no wait and see, no further test audiences, the people in charge assessed the situation and acted. He said that delayed pain is exacerbated pain and will only get worse the longer you wait. This has been a major difficulty for me in the past.

To me, addressing problems means confrontation and I’m not a confrontation kind of guy. I like conversation and collaboration, but I will let things slip bit by bit, thinking that it’s not a big deal but of course eventually the little bits add up to huge bites. What I never realize until it is far too late is that the only reason a confrontation may be necessary is because I have allowed a problem to get so out of hand that confrontation is inevitable. Maybe I need to institute a personal sweatbox policy.

Walt Disney did not use his sweatbox as a form of confrontation, he used it as a way to address problems before they became Problems. It may be hard, but addressing pain early, establishing parameters (as in dealing with bullies) and making sure everyone is still on the right track is essential to making sure a problem with a little p doesn’t become a problem with a big p. (Side note: Walt Disney could have taken a lesson from himself and “sweatboxed” the situation that lead up to his animators’ strike in the 1940s. The situation went from a problem to a Problem to a PROBLEM and probably could have been avoided if he had properly addressed it before things got out of hand).

You can make the best train in the world, but if you have no track and let all the railcars become unattached you no longer have a train, you have bumper cars.

The second thing that stuck with me was another quote from the documentary that dealt with the director who was removed from what would become The Emperor’s New Groove. The director was justifiably crushed (he had been on the project for years already) but he didn’t grumble, he wasn’t bitter, and he didn’t let everyone know just how unhappy he was by sulking and being generally unpleasant. Instead, he behaved like “a gentleman and an adult.” No one can blame a person for being upset when things aren’t going well, but after frustrations you pick yourself up and get moving again, which is something else I need to learn.

Sweatbox, if you can still find it (which is becoming increasingly difficult), is an enjoyable watch for fans of animation, process and storytelling as well as anyone who enjoys seeing Sting get irritated.