Sunday 15 July 2012

Only the Beginning for Casey Jones

Name: Casey Jones
City: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Date: July 15th, 2012
 


 1. What type of work do you do? I am in charge of making all the video content for a tiny little website called andPOP.com. I'd much rather be editing videos with more substance than they've got me working on, but at least I'm getting paid, right? 



 2. What are some of your favorite parts about your job? I like it whenever we have a contest on our website, and I have to slap together a video explaining how to enter. These videos are always extra goofy and fun because the powers that be don't take them very seriously, and I'm thus free to stretch my creative goofy muscles and make these mundane videos into fun little presentations. I think they're probably my most entertaining work, even though they have zero substance to them whatsoever.
 


 3. Do you do any fun on-the-side artistic projects? A couple months ago, I woke up hungover and had to walk eight blocks to pick up a camera to start shooting some footage of people doing their every day activities on a beautiful Sunday morning in May. Getting random footage of people enjoying their day cured my hangover completely and put me in a lovely mood. I'm currently in the process of buying myself a camera so that I can go out and do this more often, and just save up all this pretty footage of people doing their thing. Maybe some day I'll do something with it, but otherwise I just like the process of making that footage, even if I never show anyone at all.

I also try to write tiny little one-pager short stories out of the random ideas that pop into my head from time to time. Partly as a writing exercise at not over-cooking an idea, partly as a bite-sized, enjoyable bit of writing without the crippling anxiety that comes along with coming up with an idea for a story that could only be properly written as a short novel. I haven't written a one-pager in almost a year because I've been so busy with work, but it's always been a nice outlet for me.


 Oh and I also draw goofy comics. Though I won't lie, I've hit kind of a dry spell for comedic inspiration in the last little while. I feel good about it right now, though, as I'm writing this. Who knows? Maybe I'll get back in the cartoonist's seat, starting now.

 (I'm glad to have sparked subtle inspiration!)

 4. What are 5 things you despise seeing on online videos?
1) Boring introductions of some jackass sitting in front of a webcam explaining what they're about to show you. If you need to explain what someone's watching, there are much better ways to present it than by sitting in front of a webcam.

2) Any self-important ME-ME-ME vlogger on youtube who gets better traffic by talking in a dumb voice and saying jokes that aren't even remotely funny than a channel that is legitimately funny and well-crafted. (ie Ray William Johnson and Fred.)

3) Web videos intended to sucker people into becoming activists or to start caring passionately (for 24 hours) about a subject that they didn't even know about beforehand. I'm looking at you, Kony 2012.

4) Those dumb "Let's Play" videos where some unfunny knob plays a video game and makes lame jokes about it as he plays. Save comedy for the professionals, save gameplay videos for speedrunners and people who are actually good at the game in question.

5) Instead of staying all negative, I'm going to list something I love to see in internet videos: I love seeing long essay-style videos about what makes a certain movie or game good or bad. (ie Plinkett's 60+ minute Star Wars reviews, or egoraptor's Sequelitis shows. I could watch those dozens of times because they're all legitimately smart and incredibly funny without sounding forced.)



5. What is the first thing you think of when you read/ hear the word "Gamelan"?
Me wearing some Halloween mask and screaming the word. This image is then immediately followed by extreme sorrow at the fact that I have no idea where that tape lives anymore.

(Yes, I am saddened by this, as well.) *Casey and I were in the same percussion class in high school where he made a very strange video about "Gamelan". I believe the halloween mask was a gorilla face...* (Gamelan seen below)

 6. What are some things you do to relax?: I always feel good after I spend some time sitting down and reading a good book. I feel like good writing greases the gears in my mind and makes living on this planet a bit easier to process.

7. If you could tame any wild animal to have as a pet, what would it be and why? I would personally love to have a pet squirrel that would ride around on my shoulder, but if I had the ability to tame just one animal, I'd probably try and tame a Koala because my lady friend is in love with them and that would be the best gift I could ever give her. (That's so sweet !!)

8. Let's go time travelling! Where are we going? Why did you choose this time/place? How is it better/worse than 2012? I totally already ask people this question, and I always have my answer ready in advance: I'd go back to the Wild West, and I'd live as a Clint Eastwood-style bounty hunter, High Plains Drifter style, going from town to town chomping on a cigar the whole time, roughing up bandits, and saving farms and towns everywhere I went. It's better than 2012 because 2012 is a sensory overload of everything and a simple life hunting bandits would be a lot more fun, I think.
(Sheriff Jones? Has a good ring to it!)
 

9. How do you take your coffee? If not coffee, then what would you get?
I drink my coffee black. My Dad always took his coffee black when I was a kid, and I just grew up assuming that's how you were supposed to drink it. Double Doubles are nice, but they don't taste much like coffee to me. Also, I think I'm becoming lactose intolerant or something because any time I put cream or milk in my coffee I get a belly ache.

10. What are a few annoying/tedious things about your job? Having to hold my tongue and not constantly scream and protest how all we do as a website is worship celebrities. I've grown to live with the knowledge that I'm not enriching or enlightening anyone's life or mind with my work, but I still don't like it. I'm part of the problem and I'm using my gifts for evil instead of good.
(Chin up, Mr. Jones! You'll find a better use of your skills and talents in the future, I just know it! :D )
   



Eevee Asks: "Hello, Uncle Casey! What kind of shampooz and conditionerzes haz you been using lately? Is it naiyce?" I use boring old Head & Shoulders shampoo/conditioner, the kind that is supposed to give your hair more volume. I don't notice a difference, though, my hair's still pretty quiet. BADUM PSHH.

11. Do you have anything coming up we should know about? This is a stumper. I don't have much that I'm working on right now because I'm trying to switch jobs, but I suppose that you should keep an eye on my Tumblr blog, because I'm always trying to add more and more content to it. I'm also trying to crack this cartoonist's block that I've got going on right now, so if you follow my blog and light a fire under my ass to not lose motivation, that'd be lovely.(You can do it!!!)


If you'd like to follow Casey's progress and light that fire, check out the links below! ^_^

 http://caseyisrad.tumblr.com/
www.twitter.com/dcaseyjones

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