#blank slates

MAGA Gullibility...

Bad Choice.

Agent Orange!

Not Until it Hurts...

Sick Personality Cult!!

Real MAGA Meaning?

Blank Slates.

How Low Can They Go?!

It Hasn't Worked Yet!

Please enjoy this Memorial Day.

Blank slates are the worst.

Okay so back when I was a communication major, my chosen focus of study was advertising. First up in that course curriculum: copywriting. This was basically a class about the process of creating all manner of advertisements from tv to radio to print. Now I don't remember the name of our professor, but I do remember that he was a professional in the field, a copywriter for one of the larger local ad agencies.

I also remember the first thing he taught us. It started with an assignment: create an ad.

Of course our immediate reaction was An ad for what product? An ad in which medium? An ad that does... what?

But no answer was forthcoming. Only the assignment.

Create an ad.

It would be for whatever product we chose in whichever medium we desired to accomplish whatever objective we determined.

Basically, this was a blank slate assignment.

Do whatever you want.

Completely unhelpful, by the way.

So then the assignment after that one was for all of us to create an ad for a product specified by our professor. The rest, as before, was open-ended. A nearly blank slate.

And then for the final assignment of this trilogy, he gave us the project and the objectives. 

So.

What did we learn?

Well, we learned that blank slates suck. We learned that working without product and objectives was hardest, working with product but no objectives was second hardest, and working with product and objectives was easiest. That last one was very much like having all the puzzle pieces on the table... allowing us to jump right into the creative and critical thinking process as opposed to hunting around for puzzle pieces.

Another metaphor for the lesson our professor was teaching us is to think in terms of arenas and games. As in it helps to know what game you're playing and where you're playing it.

That totally helps.

So as I'm thinking about the music for an upcoming tv series project, that's what I'm looking for: a definition of product and objectives. An understanding of which arena we're playing in... and what game we're playing. Limiting factors, basically. Something to sweep a ton of options, alternatives, and distractions off the table. Something to help me define the character of these shows, the sound of these shows, and the instruments that'll color them in the best emotional and experiential shades. Something to help me focus on the external vibe, on a natural beat, on a kind of internal reasoning.

And yes, I understand. There are no scripts yet. But we've been doing iterations of travel shows for quite some time now with the same production team. So I have a pretty good understanding of the arena in which we're playing as well as the game itself. Generalities... for now. Detail To Be Determined... but definitely on the way. Which means I'm engaging, for the time being, in a tremendous exercise of imagination. Of conjuring sort of proxy shows in my mind. Things to look at and play with and judge and tweak.

Rinse.

Repeat.

It’s my way of priming the pump while we’re still in pre-production. Spinning up the engine of my creativity...

2. (and men of course) behind the scenes. You name it. The can make him be it. Your very own choose your own adventure popstar.

It’s fascinating, really. I think his fans are as salty as they are because he is whomever you want him to be. If he’s that ideal person, then you would want to defend him. It’s a parasocial relationship, though.

let’s hold hands and suspend

tomorrow,

and instead experience each moment,

I have a new room at the flat. Its quite exciting, I’ve gone from sharing a room with five people to a single room with barely enough room to swing a cat. But I don’t have to worry about bothering other people when I wake up earlier than them (which I appear to invariably do).  It’s the bizarre routine of Edinburgh that even though I am shattered at every waking moment I still keep going. A single minded determination to enjoy myself and see (or endure) the festival.

The show I saw this morning was the Blank Slates, an Improv show from the student society at UCL.  It was a short form show with a variety of games being played by the five team members. UCL put on a good show with a small audience, most of whom were children, but I would have liked to see them in a situation where they weren’t forced into self censorship by the age of their audience. They ended their show with a small longform story, this had some fairly strong character work but lacked a level of pace which would have made it more compelling; I would attribute this to the audience  once again.

Following on from this show I went to flyer for the second Uni Jam; we only flyered for the hour before the show started, but it surprised me how many people we actually got, - pretty much a full house. The show this time was a group play session, lots of games and silliness and an opportunity to pay with people we don’t normally get to play with. I was in a game of Story Story Die – a fatal narrative game, and space jump in which I played a goldfish. I love playing with new improvisers so today was great.

After this I hightailed it across to New town to see ten thousand million love stories but unfortunately the show as canned for some reason. IT was a shame as they had an audience of about fifteen waiting for the players. Still that’s Edinburgh and something’s fall through the cracks.

I spent the rest of the Evening with Ben Hollands – another Uni of Notts student who’s an incredibly talented improviser. We had dinner then just went for a walk, around the city before returning to the flat for a bit. It was nice to catch up, he’s open of these people who has a thousand different talents and is in constant demand so we sort of lost touch over the year.