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July Update: I Keep Being In California
🕑 Added 2019-07-31 23:14:44 +0000 UTCHey team! Greeting from the Berkeley Public Library.
The State of Things
Let's start with the accomplishments!
I released two videos this month: Who Shot Guybrush Threepwood? #3 right before heading to VidCon, and [deleted scenes] right before heading to the East Bay. I've spent a lot of this month in California, but, thankfully, it is not currently on fire. (In fact, it's cooler than Boston, which is currently having it's third heatwave of the summer.)
Two videos in the same month means one of the four videos I owe you is taken care of! Three to go!
Also, as of today, I've finished David Neiwert's Alt-America, which is instrumental for the next episode of The Alt-Right Playbook. I livetweeted it as part of #IanLivetweetsHisResearch, and the thread is compiled via the Thread Reader App here. I also updated the Research Masterpost.
My hope for next month is to put out the next Alt-Right Playbook, but we'll see how feasible that is. For the first time, I may be doing a bit of original research for this one, and doing that right may slow things down. If it takes too long I may sneak out the first episode or two of Protagony while I work on TARP. We'll see how things shake out. I'm kicking myself because I left some of my notes back in Boston, which limits how much prep I can do from California, but I'm working in other areas!
VidCon Postmortem
VidCon was a blast! I dappered up. I got to meet internet friends in person: Magdalen Rose, Dan Olson, Hbomb, Maggie Mae Fish, Sarah Z, Kat Blaque, and also Kat Lo. And I got to see some of my in-person friends again, like Lindsay Ellis, Contrapoints, and Mike Rugnetta. I also made a few new friends and met with a handful of fans who recognized me. Received a bunch of business cards during a networking event, too. I haven't been that extroverted in a while, and it turns out I can pull it off sometimes, so long as I sleep a few hundred hours when I get back home.
One of the weirder moments is I was at a grill the day before at a fellow YouTuber's house (?!) and Hank Green was there (?!?!!) and when I got introduced as the guy who does Alt-Right Playbook he said "oh, I'm a huge fan" (?!?!?!!?!?!??!?!!??!?!??!?!). SO THAT'S A THING THAT HAPPENED.
But beyond the social component, VidCon is a strange animal. It's one part fans meeting their celebrities, one part YouTubers trading information, and one part big corporations giving number-crunchy talks about search engine optimization and such, and each of these wildly different experiences is gated off by price. Being on the creator track, I couldn't go to any of the industry track stuff, which was in a completely different building, and apparently came with a bunch of free food. Industry track folks are actively encouraged not to leave that section of the convention center, because many of them are Big Name YouTubers who will get swamped with fans if they go into the main hall. Means smaller YouTubers like me have a hard time socializing with our peers if we're not shelling out for the more expensive tickets, since they keep heading off behind the velvet rope. I don't begrudge anyone for this, I see the problems it's meant to solve and I don't feel entitled to anyone's time, but it's an awkward class reminder.
Still, very glad I went, and, if the money's there, I might spring for Industry Track next year.
Things I've Enjoyed This Month
I've continued reading novels this month, finishing off Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (very nice), banging out Lightless by C.A. Higgins (strong start, saggy middle, weak finish), and savoring The City & The City by China Miéville (excellent). I've just started Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, but I'm too early in it to judge its quality.
On the red-eye back from Anaheim, I finally played What Remains of Edith Finch, which is both wonderful and almost exactly one full Switch charge long. Gonna pull the same thing on the red-eye back from San Francisco with Wandersong, which I've played just a little of and already adore.
I haven't been to many movies save Midsommar, which was... intense. I finally watched Evangelion all the way through, having only caught a few episodes back in the day on KQED (let me tell you, catching only a few scattered episodes and then suddenly tuning in for the finale is a weird experience). Haven't soldiered through End of Eva yet, but I guess I will soon. I guess I saw the new Spider-Man, but that was mostly the usual "can't decide what to see for date night so I guess it's a Marvel movie" thing. I'm kinda over the MCU.
I think that's everything! I'm gonna go get some rice balls.
-I
Comments
The City & The City is quite possibly my favorite book and yet no one seems to have heard of it.
I'm so excited you're playing Wandersong!! It was my favorite game of 2018 and I've been recommending it to everyone :D
Ian Danskin
Largely informal, I don't think my sample sizes will be large enough to publish a paper. But I'll probably do a blog write-up.
Smurfton
Original research is exciting! How formal do you plan on being with it? Will you be publishing a paper?
Ian Danskin
Your tastes seem to overlap with mine! What should I read next?
Sata Prescott
The City & The City is one of my favorite texts of all time. As is Parable of the Sower, my first book by Butler. The Windup Girl is hella good and thoughtful, with a sensible judgement of economics. Thanks for all your work!
Ian's thoughts on Evangelion are definitely pertinent to my interests
Pierfrancesco Crivellari
No we did not! Thank you (:
Ian Danskin
Have you seen Primer?
Pierfrancesco Crivellari
just generally, we're replacing theater nights with home video nights :D
Ian Danskin
You mean stuff in theaters, or just generally thought-provoking?
Pierfrancesco Crivellari
Little OT: Hi Ian, me and my girlfriend are kind of over MCU too and are trying to do a lIst of thought-provoking movies to watch next. if it doesn't bother, I'd love to have some suggestions from you!
Crissa Kentavr
Fire season is usually centered on August and September. July is usually foggy in the coastal mountains but the Sierras or high Big Sur can catch fire (and there was a fire above 2000' in Big Sur they just got a hold of). Anyhow! Good videos. Can't wait for the next.
Sam
Oh, you're in the Bay Area now? That's awesome. I know you probably don't want to meet a fan on a whim, but if you do want to while you're in the East Bay/SF, feel free to send me a message. Safe flight home!
