Three Great Shows from my childhood
Night Gallery
Twilight Zone
Tales from the Dark Side
This is the kind of stuff I would watch with my family. There’s clear evidence of this in my work 
http://MichaelDonovanPhotography.com
Music Video: Yeasayer – Ambling Alp
I’ve had this song on my computer for about two weeks but I finally stopped to look for the video. Wow. This is radballz!
Music Video: Flairs – Truckers Delight
Epic music video produced 8bits at a time
Download the song:
♫ Flairs – Truckers Delight (Alixander III Remix)
Test with Julia Wolters
Today we did a really casual test. Hair and makeup, no wardrobe. Here are a few of the shots we came up with:
Getting Published
A few of my pieces have been picked up by some regional and international magazines. It’s great to get these opportunities. My focus over the next month will be to get several more as well as some more clients on ad jobs. Life is good.
Personality Tests
I had to take a personality test for an assignment. These are AWFUL! I understand their logic but they are stripping responsibility from actual managers and employers. Also they often make NO sense. They require people to say whether they strongly disagree, disagree, agree or strongly agree on statements with NO contextual background. Theyr’re emotional cold readings and nothing more. Here are some of the questions I was asked followed by my thoughts:
You take things as they come, rather than think ahead a lot
Well that depends, Mr. Psychologist. What is the situation? Is someone laying dead and bleeding in front of me? Sorry, I have no time to think and I’ll just start reacting. Am I trying to figure out how to simplify a complex situation? I’ll take my time to figure out the best approach on that one. Each situation will give me different outputs. And, since these tests do not take into consideration past performance or experiences so you don’t know if I am someone who is constantly surrounded by crisis or someone who is removed from situations.
You do what you want, no matter what others think
Well that depends. As an aristt: Yes, I do what the fuck i want. As an employer: yes, I do what is right for the company. As an Employee: No, I do not. As an entrepreneur: Yes and No. If my customers said “We want Gobbidy Gooks” but I knew that “Coocoos” were better for them in the long run, I would ignore what they were saying and push the Coocoos, even though educating my customer would require me to force something on my customer and may make my customer feel stressed for a moment.
You have a forceful personality
That depends. Everyone has a degree of forcefulness. But to which degree am I forceful and in which circumstances? I don’t go to the circus and force them to change the acts to appease me, but I do get my way when I want a project to go a certain way. It is relative.
Right now, you care more about having fun than being serious at school or work
Wait, so I can’t have fun AND be serious? When did we enter a world without combination? Let me rephrase this question: Right now, you care more about having cheese than having sauce on your pizza
You hold back from talking a lot in a group
Again, that depends. Yesterday I went to meet some friends at a gallery. I lead the group talk for some time, but let it drop when I wanted to listen to everyone else. Assuming you’re a leader: you spend a lot of time leading groups but you also listen. So there is no “right way” of reading this UNLESS you understand someone’s true background. And, even then, you should be looking at the overall success, interests and motivations of someone before asking something like this.
You have always had good behavior in school or work
No one is perfect. And everyone rebels somewhere. And real leaders have ALWAYS had trouble with authority (otherwise we wouldn’t be leading since everyone would already be in the right spot doing the right things). But, as leaders, you know when to say certain things in certain situations. Saying “I fucked around in school” is not something a potential employer wants to hear (unless you can say “I fucked around a lot to make the place more efficient). Leaders KNOW authority would like to hear someone say “I never get in trouble” but these are NOT the people they REALLY want to hire. I usually hire people with disabilities for simpler tasks and hire rebels for everything else. The rebels have always kept my organizations growing and ahead of the game. And, when I was inherited submissive people, I trained them to behave in rebellious ways. The fact is: you can be a good-natured rebel
You work best at a slow but steady speed
This REALLY depends on the project. Seriously, why is this question in here?
You are careful not to offend people
Who are the people? Am I laying people off? Or am I not offending an employee/employer who has their head up their ass? Negativity is often destroyed through brute effort coupled with offensive actions.
You are more relaxed than strict about finishing things on time
Sigh…. I’m sure you can see where I am going with this.
The fact is: I did the test and I don’t really care how I scored. I decided that I would NEVER take one of these tests again. I would rather die than have to be treated like a computer in a vacuum. My advice to employers: ditch these mechanisms and start trusting your employees more. You’ll get better employers and retain them much longer of you do.
Update to My Site
I did a minor update to my site: http://michaeldonovanphotography.com/. I added a few more galleries including an archive showing some of the work I did while in Chicago. Take a look and let me know your thoughts!
The Global Merger
This is a screenshot I just took from Tudou.com. It’s part of a program on how to “crack English.” I’m actually REALLY excited about seeing the Chinese, Indian and Western Cultures mash together over the next few years, especially after seeing these soy sticks being sold.
MySpace wants to charge…
I don’t know which is more funny: people still use MySpace or that MySpace wants to charge people because less people are using it.
Basically, the idea is simple: less people are using MySpace so they are losing ad revenue. So what are the smart people at MySpace doing about it? They’re charging for music. Idiots.
See, bands have become the remaining life in MySpace. But what they don’t realize is: I just LEGALLY downloaded about 3 hours of free music from several websites where musicians are throwing their MP3’s online for free. And I’m not alone. Also, after I downloaded the music from the artists who were giving it away for free, I started sending it to all my friends. My close-ish friends live in NY, LA, Paris, Sydney, London, Hamburg, Milan, Seattle, Chicago, Miami, and everywhere else. And their friends all live across the globe as well. So now their music went global in about 24 hours.
So they want to charge for what they have left. Apparently they didn’t learn much from the artists (I have this feeling that most successful artists are smarter than most people with MBA’s since successful artists are capable of business/marketing AND creating content people actually willingly carry around with them throughout the day)
The game is simple: give it to us for free and we’ll pay to go see you in concert. And you know what? this is how it SHOULD be. Afterall, what would High School/College have been like without mixed tapes/CD’s from friends?!
Before everyone was double dipping: you had an album sale ($), followed by a concert ($$$) where you could buy products ($$). But, if you’re smart you will give away free content, get people to come to your shows and create AMAZING shows. You don’t even have to sell junk anymore (and please don’t. We don’t need more waste). A great band can bring its rates up higher, do daytime shows on Saturday’s at a reduced rate, and spend the evening putting on a higher priced private show at a smaller venue. Or they can do a smaller venue during the day and a much higher priced venue at night. Either way: people will stop listening to all the shitty bands and start attending good shows.
Just for fun, here is where bands can go a step further: At the end of a show, the band could provide free MP3’s of the concert they just gave to the participants. You could get the copy online, at the door or at the bar next door. And what do you think will happen? I’m willing to bet they will send it to their friends and get them to encourage the venues to bring them back ASAP.
So MySpace will charge. That’s a bad mistake. They should actually encourage more free giveaways and start creating BETTER venues where bands can play. That is the smarter move. This would encourage more people to take the site seriously, provide a better format for music to get out and create a real economy. Did they really think they could rely on a website that was made in Tom’s bedroom?!
But Myspace may not be that smart. Maybe they can join Classmates.com in the loser-circle.
New York
I’m in “Celebrate NY” mood. Here is a shot I took of the skyline last spring when I was first getting in to the city.
Later gators.
Getting Around NY
A friend from out of state said they have a hard time understanding the NY subway system and was intimidated by it. She always has questions about how we could possibly live without cars. Inspired by my previous post showing which cities have/are getting rail, I am posting NY’s Subway map. It doesn’t show the ferries, Path, buses, trains leaving Grand Central or Penn Station or Staten Island service but shows how easy it is to get around in NY. Or go to MTA for more info.
15CPW
People use the word “luxury” too much. So, just to put some at rest, I’m showing 15 Central Park West. It costs $6,000+ per square foot. Just to be clear, that is $6m for a 1,000 square foot apartment. And you still have to buy food. There are more places like this.
Art & Fashion is getting harder for me to digest
I want to block my eyes from most things being pumped out or accepted in mainstream society right now.
This week I went to the galleries to see what is new. It was truly NOT a good week for art. I am not going to name names but there was one gallery with extremely AWFUL work: macro photos of Lilly's on one wall, paintings of roses on another. There is no wonder why they were handing out pitchers of wine and keeping cheeses fully stocked. TACKY.
I look at fashion magazines and blogs where I run in to similar junk: people just being quixotic. Fashion photography is held up by the strength of just a few leaders but the limbs are all dead. There is no substance or meaning. But, then again, maybe fashion has always been that way and I just never looked at it with that opinion.
In the end, it is harder for me to consume this stuff. I consume art, literature, fashion and music because I want something that will change me. I like taking in products that actually open my mind and assist me in changing my mental or spiritual shape.
I was contacted by a magazine this week and they wanted me to hash out a fashion story. Their idea was trite and has been produced at least a dozen times. I decided to put a twist on the concept and bring in elements of modern slavery and discuss obsessions with the story. I told them I would only do it if I could treat their audience like adults. They were hesitant but went along with it. The reason American magazines are dying is simple: they are not treating their viewers with art or fashion photography that actually challenges them. They are forcing rainbows in to our eyes rather than passing a cup of acid.
Personally, I am on a mission to produce work that actually has substance. I don’t feel the need to pump out piece after piece after piece. It would be nice to be able to work hard and earn a nice home but I would be just as happier if I could produce work that inspired peace or social equality. I find a social issue and I tackle it with my work. Or I get an assignment and I find a way to tackle a problem. But making art just to fill a page, to “look like fashion/art” is beyond stupid and I am quickly losing patience and respect for anyone who does that.
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