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Netflix and Take A Pill (timotheories presents: Watch Culture)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Internet culture is cool right? Reshoots and disputes and set leaks galore.

Oh wait, nope, that’s not cool at all.

It’s all just a hype machine and it sucks. Because legitimacy of so many of the films coming out right now aside (read: Justice League, Baywatch, Pirates of the Caribbean), we don’t need to spend hours upon hours of our time reading click-bait themed single paragraph articles from buzz sites, tweeting from similar newsfeeds that should be reporting on politics, and binging on YouTube video theories and opinions. I mention this because we’re talking about things which haven’t even come out yet.

It’s weird though, because culture has shifted.

You probably didn’t notice it, did you?

Yeah, funnily enough, the notion of hyping movies has been around for a while. You see dear readers, there used to be a time when we would get on a hype machine ahead of a release date, but we didn’t have a place to vomit all of our millions of ideas about it. And people didn’t capitalize on all of the theory, using their particular geek skills to funnel people Then the internet came along. And we lived a happy place between hype and geek culture for a few years.

So what happened and where’s the shift?

Culture Conundrum

Well, I think at some point publishers of ideas, and cultural icons realized that the volume of new content being created reached far beyond their own individual capacities to give opinions on it, so they instead choose to focus only on the new and glamorous, adding in their two cents as it were. Luckily for the vast majority of us, technology has shifted too and our attention spans for the new and novel are increasing, so we don’t have time to look at everything. We instead spend five minutes on one thing we care about, to then move onto another five minutes segment about the thing we care about.

Content creators benefit from this in a big way, and everyone is happy. Because we can all share in that hype machine, never really contributing anything in the way of constructive feedback and driving our subscribers to purpose.

Which is why I decided to introduce a new series of video posts called WatchCulture into the mix. In this series, I will be sharing brief recommendations on movies which have been around for more than a year, and which I think you should watch for your own cultural edification. These are going to be short videos on film, music, art, etc., which fit into the cultural norm, but the difference is that instead of saying netflix and chill, I’m going to ask you to take the red pill.

theories Summarized

You can thank André Lindo, the producer of my Cross Talk series, for this idea, and a greater insight into my own thoughts and feelings on what culture we should be consuming at any given time. Expect to see Watch Culture episodes cropping up every week, very soon.

But for now, I’ve no more theories to share. Only well wishes and a hope for a new tomorrow.

Tim!

 

 

A New Theory (Renee Wood, interview preview)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

This moment, we own it.

That phrase, or idea if you prefer, is from a wonderful song called We Own It, as made famous by the poets 2 Chainz and Wiz Khalifa. And it also happens to be the title track in one of my favourite soundtracks from my favourite movie franchise of all time. This song lays out exactly what an entrepreneur and/or creative should be thinking, on an unconscious level, at all times.

About a month ago, I hinted at the possibility of expanding this blogging experience of mine into a different direction, or rather that I was organizing something interesting for all you fine folks. Remember? If not, don’t worry, I’ve got a link that will help jog your memory. (see Space Jam)

Well the time to further peel back the onion has arrived, and I am happy to announce my intentions for the next layer of timotheories. My primary goal with this digital tapestry has been and will remain to be about finding health and happiness within the arts, but why not involve other experts and get their personal insights into specific areas of creativity?

The answer is that there isn’t a reason to stop this, because it’s my party and I’ll share with others if I want to.

So who am I bringing to said party to open things up? Well, I don’t want to give away too much just yet, especially because I want to allow her a proper introduction on a full blown post all her own, but I recently met up with a fantastic lady by the name of Renee Wood. Renee happens to be another Edmontonian with a hunger for community and thirst for the arts. How convenient for me that I had a chance to connect with her over iced coffee and talk about some of her thoughts on her field of interest.

This is a little teaser that highlights part of our interview, just enough to give you a taste. It’s so incredibly awesome, and because you are awesome, I know you will check it out. So ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out.

I especially liked this response in the clip, but I’ll expand upon the idea of habits in relation to risk-taking in the next post.

I guess going for coffee with people [helps] too, I know its a stereotypical one, but I don’t know, when you are talking to people, sometimes they just solve the problem for you, without you realizing that you even asked them the question.

Now I think the next order calls to give you some more flavour on the kinds of interviews that I will be conducting in the future – the plan is to get cool people who have creative interests (music, photography, dance, painting, comedy, theatre, board games, curating, etc.) to focus on a particular topic and then I will vibe with them. The reason for this strategy is that I want to cover a broad range of fields, but I also want to provide a practical set of topics that we can all draw from at any time and use it for growth, whether we are artists, athletes, business people, or whatever.

In other words, concepts like motivation and discipline are cross-functional traits, so that should make sense to anyone and apply thusly.

But what kind of examples do I have in mind, you ask? Let’s do it. Do you have questions about risk-taking? Or are you interested in what it’s like to date someone with a creative background, whether you have one or not? What about artistic siblings, how does that work? Where do you go to network? Seriously, there are lots of avenues to explore dear readers, and I promise it will be fun.

But for now, I’ve pretty much gone to the well in terms of theories, so I will leave you with this verse from We Own It, to ponder over.

What you say? Tell me what you say
Working hard, repping for my dogs, do this everyday,
Taking off, looking out for all, making sure we ball,
Like the mob all you do is call
Catch you if you fall, Young Khalifa

And don’t forget to tell me what you think dear readers. What kind of topics do you want me to cover in the foreseeable future? What kinds of experts do you want to hear from? Leave a comment or send an email. I’ll reply, I promise.

Tim!