This project was for a start-up fashion line called ‘Honey Matthews’, was a fun editing and post production job — mainly fun because the video was short, but still took some time to find the right look.
I also worked on some of the visual layout for the branding of some of the images on the blog.
For more info on the line, visit www.honeymatthews.com
.:: LiBM ::.
Kim Kadarshian got flour bombed, now its time for dirtbag boyfriends to enjoy a similar fate – but with more flour!
Comedy Parody Music Video written and performed by Nadine Marie (@Nadinemarieg)
Audio Mixing & Mastering by me, Desmond B (@lifeinbmajor), as well as Video Direction, Editing, and Post-Production
Video Produced by Urban Comedy Network
.:: LiBM ::.
Recently had to ask some people that I work with a strange request: “can I have a woman dump a bag of flour on you?”. Yes, the bag of flour that you make bread & cake with. At first, I thought that I would be looked at as a ‘madman’ – or to some, ‘madder’, but I decided to ask anyway. Sometimes I was hesitant, other times I was blunt with it. I found out that most people at first found the request strange – as I expected. Some said ‘nah’, which I knew was gonna happen, however more people than I thought actually agreed. No compensation was offered, nothing was promised, which led me to ask the question as to why they would agree to such a request. And the only answer I could possibly fathom is the apt title of this post – ‘on the Strength of’.
One could only agree to such a request if they fully believed and supported the individual making the request. This had me almost kinda baffled because sometimes, or most times, I question and doubt my self, ideas, and concepts, but it is almost overwhelming (don’t worry, not gonna cry) to know that there are a group of people around me that will ‘ride for the cause’, primarily because they believe in ‘YOU’. And its odd, and something that I have to change. I should be my biggest believer in my self before anyone else is. We all should aim to have that same mindset.
.:: LiBM ::.
Some interesting propaganda posters from the world wars, and to modern politics. Essentially, propaganda were the first original ‘Memes’ – meant to convey emotion and thoughts.
Some powerful imagery ahead.
.:: LiBM ::.
Insecurity Intelligence
In any system, there exists certain rules that dictate how that system operates. In Computers, when a user selects an application to open, the OS must find the files, execute the code, send instructions to RAM and so on. Everything has to be responsive in the computer in order for the application you selected to show up on your screen – when that application doesn’t show up, something in the system is unresponsive. And that can really be frustrating to the user, especially if its an app that you really need. To correlate this to the ‘real world’, I’m coming to terms with ‘unresponsiveness’ from people, especially in group dynamics. I used to give people the ‘benefit of the doubt’, and make excuses for their unresponsiveness, but I think its a lost cause. Not only are they unresponsiveness to your stimuli (thought, idea, email, txt), but they are unresponsive to YOU, as a person. And when you have a ‘team mindset’, you should operate with a ‘consensus’ attitude – I operate with that ‘ebb & flow’ of communications, ideas, and debates. But when you put out ideas & concepts to your team, and you got to cattle prod them for a response, I’m learning that the cattle prod isn’t necessary. At this stage, you are looking more for ‘Validation’ than a ‘Response’, and that is a sign of one’s own insecurity. Insecurity is what holds us back, doubt ourselves, and causes strain on relationships. A BlackBerry slogan tagline goes something like ‘Action Starts Here’, which is their little red asterisk on a message, remove the corporate intent, and it can be said that ‘action’ should begin at a stimuli – and maybe some people are just better at action than others … And for the others that aren’t as ‘better’ than one whom is, don’t let their ‘inaction’ slow you down or sway your motivation or cast doubt.
Maybe I’m babbling here, but anybody that has been in a team environment on a startup business can probably relate. Share your stories about unresponsiveness in the comments below.
.:: LiBM ::.
Sideshow Apps for Mobile
One of the biggest growing segments of the tech sector is Mobile & Web App Development. Ever since FaceBook became the behemoth that it is today, thousands of entrepreneurs have begun coding & developing the next multi-million or billion dollar app. I read popular tech blogs such as TechCrunch, PandoDaily, Mashable, and so on, and everyday you can see a report on which new app developer got some seed funding or investments, or you’d see which analyst placed a valuation on a app, and so on. And for awhile, I would say that the funding was for legitimate businesses: e-commerce apps like Gilt.com, FourSquare, Evernote, and the like. It made sense to me because these apps have that thing called a ‘Business Model’.
Enter Snapchat & Poke.
I read on a tech blog article that SnapChat is valued at about $50 Million dollars. Pause. Think about that for a second. A messaging app that self destructs messages after a few seconds of viewing is worth millions of dollars – and this is a ‘business’. Welcome to the wide world of ‘features’ being ‘businesses’.
FaceBook initially wanted to buy SnapChat, but reports indicate that they wanted to hold out for a higher buyout, in which FaceBook said ‘F— That; we can clone you and make you a feature app in our OS called FaceBook!’. And that is how FaceBook’s ‘Poke’ was born – in a matter of few days. FaceBook is essentially a communication experience, and in some regards a sophisticated web OS (not to be confused with webOS), and they realized that apps such as SnapChat, Instagram, to name a few, are features that can be integrated into a larger system. The late great Steve Jobs said it best when he had plans to acquire DropBox for its cloud solution for Mac OS/iOS, and DropBox played ‘hard to get’. At the time Steve Jobs said DropBox was a ‘Feature’ not a ‘Product’. And many of these app developers with their nonsense apps I hope realize that they don’t really have a product, but are working hard to sell/integrate their feature app into a larger system.
.:: LiBM ::.
Sometimes you just have to ‘Laugh About It’ – at situations that involve yourself. Specifically the situations that you act indifferent over; like it can go either way, and either way it goes you won’t get overly worked up about it. They say that laughter is a ‘medicine’ to life’s stresses & ills – which I agree, there have been studies that show that when we laugh, chemicals are released in the body that relaxes us – with the end result being that we experience momentary happiness.
Personally, I sometimes have to laugh at the situations that I find myself in, but more specifically the disparity of the narratives in my head. To explain further, pretty much the differences of how I think of a situation or a person, and how that person thinks of it. Being one that is creative, likes to write narratives, storylines, and characters, its no wonder that that brand of thinking has fused over into how I see/construct my personal relationships with people. I’m one to write narratives with metaphors, deep subtext, and immersive correlations – which are great on paper or in a scene that you Produce; but it doesn’t translate that well in the real world. People don’t pick up on the subtle nuances so easily, and its damn near impossible for them to pick-up on the narrative that you are trying to construct with them – so rather than the relationship being an indie film with intricate metaphors & creative subtext/sub-plots, its best to keep it a blockbuster movie – make sh*t clear and transparent as possible to understand. Another case of ‘dumbing it down’, and for myself – not being able to realize this, I definitely have to ‘Laugh About it’.
Lessons learned, one chuckle at a time. Well, one chuckle at yourself at a time. As always, I try to correlate these little anecdotes of me to a greater scale, so here are some reasons why its good to ‘Laugh About it’, when situations.
.:: LiBM ::.
First, ‘Breaking Bad’ has to be thee best, or one of the best TV series on air right now. This post is in reference to the episode ‘Problem Dog’, where ‘Jesse’ sits in an Addiction Help Group where he comes to a revelation regarding self-help. He poses the question, “So, if we just do stuff, and nothing happens, what does it all mean? What’s the point?”. He is referring to the idea of ‘accountability’ and ‘consequences’; see, Jesse had been doing some sinister actions and yet he hadn’t been held accountable and received no consequences (jail, retribution, etc.); and he is questioning what it all means – why do some people get to do things and suffer no consequences for their actions? By consequences, I’m not necessarily referring to the ‘negative’, but I sometimes think we are increasingly living in an era, where people are doing wild/outlandish things, saying things – but no one questions and/or holds them accountable. I guess the question of accountability has always existed, with the rich & powerful using their status in of itself as a rationale for not being held accountable – they believe they have a certain sense of self-entitlement to say or do things ‘just because’ they can, and no consequence can affect them.
It is almost like we are in the ‘Wild Wild West’ of Free Speech:
Chief Keef
– openly talks about on-going investigations
Kim Kadarshian
– we all know her rise to fame, and now she has a fragrance line
The Game
– Videotaping a beatdown of ’40 Glocc’ (yes, that’s his name)
But I find with the rise of Social Media and our increasingly ‘free expression’ (which there is nothing wrong with that), that no longer does this sense of ‘fleeting accountability’ can be reserved for the rich & powerful, but can be reserved for the average Joe & Jane. You can go on the social networks and see the constant nonsense of people spewing out comments, recklessly, as if they feel they can say what they want, with out feeling they have to back-it-up with something called ‘substance’ or ‘logic’. Is this something that I am just seeing? Or can anyone else out there relate?
Free Expression is a beautiful thing, it really is, many nations are currently fighting & dying for it as we speak, but let’s not believe we can just say things and not be held accountable for it. Every action should have a consequence to it, or a re-action; such is the law of nature, a law that we all abide by.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iYiqZemVpsQ
.:: LiBM ::.
Ahhh, does that make sense? As I write this, it makes more & more sense, and I feel more & more disgusted that I am probably not alone in this concept – collectively, we do this all the time, presenting different self’s to different people in hope to persuade them or something. Or maybe its a form of bamboozling – either way, its a way of detaching from one of your self’s, probably your true self. So when you hear the phrase ‘oh, she ain’t being herself’, it can also translate to say ‘she is trying to cater to what she thinks you want’ – and this is the slippery slope that we glide down, daily.
.:: LiBM ::.
This one Woman told me that I “think too much”, which is probably true – but she framed it in a negative context (or that’s at least how I took it). And ever since she said that, things between us haven’t been the same, and by “been the same’, I mean she kinda brushed me off. Which is okay I guess, as they say, more ‘fish are in the sea’, and I further don’t have time for someone that doesn’t like the analytical nuances – which I convey. And furthermore, these occurrences happen time after time, which makes me wonder a few things … A lot of things, but for the sake of this post, I want to find out what ‘normal’ people discuss.
Is it just Weather? The latest reality show? Workplace gossip? I tend to think I discuss these basic things also, but I would further analyze the situational factors of the reality show, and point out behavioral issues of one’s co-workers. And I look for the ‘meta’ things in life, taking the conversation to a level where the topic becomes the merits of the actual conversation (if that makes sense). I even tried to search online to see what ‘normal people talk about’, and the more results I found, the more I realized that I wouldn’t want to subscribe to that sense of ‘normalcy’
Anyhow, I’m tempted to either change my ways – engage in that basic discourse, but a line from Lupe Fiasco keeps agitating me “When you dumb it down, its just harder to understand“, yup, guess its going to have to be good riddance to not just ‘bad rubbish’, but ‘basic rubbish’.
.:: LiBM ::.
There are 4 Types of Rappers that we all know, love, hate, despise, and secretly want to be like.
Top 90’s Rappers:
Top Gangsta Rappers:
Top Swag Rappers:
Top Emo Rappers:
Yeah, we know there are more types of Rappers that could possibly be added to this list, feel free to list those types in the comments below.
.:: LiBM ::.
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Credits:
Video Produced By: Urban Comedy Network
Director, Writer, Editor: Desmond LiBM B
