Category Archives: current events

Signal above the noise.

I’ve ignored this blog and website for a really long time. Nearly all of my energy has been pointed toward the success of Panda Mony Toy Brands and our first line Alter Nation, but now is not the time to ignore whatever platform a person might have.

I’m really unhappy with standard social media platforms. I use them for advertising 99% of the time, that’s it. I don’t feel closer to people, I don’t feel like I’m staying in touch, it feels very cynical, and I can get a shocking amount of information about tens of millions of people just by buying a $5 ad. People in technology know how scary it is and how the algorithm can be used to less than honest ends, but I don’t know that everyone really gets it. The echo chamber makes it really easy to not care. But there are things happening in the world that we have to care about, and we need to care a lot. Facebook/Instagram/Twitter aren’t giving me the tools I need to make the kind signal I want to make. Audience, yes, but I need to get that audience away from their platform so the message isn’t diluted by all the noise.

So, rather than scream into the void I’m coming back here. I can use social media the way I’m comfortable using it – as an advertising platform – and get the message out in a different way.

I don’t know how well this will work, but this is a time of change and experimentation, so I’m going to experiment.

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Filed under activism, current events, politics

LIVE Discussions & Patreon – We’re doing things!

We have been hard at work on all of our new stuff and while we’re are still working on things like sketches:

And things like Rene’s music parodies:

The thing that seems to be taking off is our series of LIVE Discussions. These are weekly (Sundays at 11am Pacific Time) and recorded live on our YouTube Channel. We have a topic of discussion (usually arts or creativity related) and I assemble a panel of friends, co-workers, and contemporaries to talk about it for at least 20 mins (although lately we’ve been going longer). Once a month we do a Feature Discussion with a bigger panel. Feature Discussions last for at least an hour and I do a follow-up video of just the highlights after the fact. Below is a playlist of all the discussions so far:

Please check these out, feel free to click on any of the advertising (wink).

Rene and I have some big plans for the future, especially as we continue building our own content. We can do a lot on our own, but we could use some additional financial support to help raise the bar on our activities. Everything we’ve done thus far has been done on a shoestring where we beg, borrow and steal what we need to get a project done. This has worked pretty well, like with The Chili and Bloody Mary:

But with a little bit more money we can do a lot more!

Please consider joining our Patreon page. We’ve set-up some good starter rewards and I’m very pleased to announce that I got some of our art proofs back this morning for the merch that we will be releasing (actual release date TBD, but it’s coming!!!).

If Patreon isn’t an option, please don’t be afraid to click on the advertising links you see here and on the channel. I try to make sure that all of the ads presented are appropriate for the page and they should be set-up so that the items shown are things you, as the reader/watcher, would be interested in.

Thank you all for your support! We have seen the page jump in activity since we started – and we’re doing very well for only being about 4 weeks into this new effort! We’re really looking forward to what’s next!

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Filed under acting, Andelon, awesome, behind the scenes, blatant plug, Bloody Mary, business, comedy, creativity, current events, Curtis Andersen, day in the life, directing, diy, doing new things, filmmaking, Frankie, fund raising, getting started, making movies, marketing, money, new projects, new shows, news, producing, productivity, projects, rene, short film, social networking, state of stuff, update, video, videos, YouTube

Fun Video Friday – What Women Really Want

Rene and I were just talking about this, and actually have been talking about this in a general sense for years now – how things are marketed to women.

Big thanks to author/actress/blogger Kimberly Rae Miller for the find!

See you next time!

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Filed under current events, fun video friday, rene, REVOLUTION, women

Drone Strikes on U.S. Soil?

 Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Normally I try to avoid anything too political on this blog, but drones, how they are authorized and whether or not they can be used on U.S. soil are being hotly debated in Washington D.C. right now and then MSNBC posts this story:

Fugitive alleged LAPD-killer is first drone target on U.S. soil

So I figure it’s worth a discussion. 
As I read it, it looks like they’ll use the drone(s) to monitor the border in case he tries to cross into Mexico, so it isn’t like they’re using them to patrol the streets of Los Angeles. But even given that, what do you think of this? Do you think that anti-immigration groups may want to use this more actively to discourage illegal immigration? I’m interested in your thoughts, feel free to add them to the comments and I know this might be a heated issue so please keep it civil.
See you next time!

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Filed under current events, politics