Month: January 2024

I Often Wonder How The Tykes I Taught English In South Korea Ended Up

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Thankfully, to date, I’ve not had to have any awkward discussions with the grown-up versions of the little kids I attempted to teach English to back in the day.

I tried my best, folks.

I was very — colorful — back in the day and I can only imagine the weird memories they have of me. And as I grow older, I am reminded over and over again about how the smallest thing when you’re a kid can have a huge impact in later life.

I did my best to teach those then-children English, even if I constantly failed.

I suppose I’m over thinking all of this. I will probably be a few more years before the children I taught English will be willing to put the energy into a quest to talk to me.

Though, I will note that that very thing would be a great movie for a Korean-American to write, produce and direct. Think of it as a successor to Past Lives with a bit of Lost In Translation and To Sir, With Love mixed in for good measure.

The 2024 Media Landscape

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Hmmm. If someone gave me, say, $1 million in startup media cash, how would I use it? If I had a choice, I think I would invest in it some sort of experimental media company for the Apple Vision Pro that would link it to AI generated entertainment.

But if I *had* to work with legacy media, then, I think I would setup shop in Manhattan and start a zine of some sort that was really weird and really conspicuous. I would go out of my way to all but stalk the employees of the major media outlets in the city and physically hand them copies of the zine.

I would then leverage the buzz from that to make a really popular network of podcasts that would point people to a series of blogs.

And, yet, I think I’m too stuck in about 2006.

The media landscape is kind of meh at the moment and it definitely seems as though some combination of XR and AI is where we’re going to see all the cool stuff in the next few years (months?) There’s just no space left for any sort of new media outlet with a print component.

Print is all over but the shouting, as best I can tell.

So, I dunno. It will be interesting to see what the next few years see.

A Woman Who Is A Bit Closer To What I Imagine The Heroine Of My First Novel Looks Like

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This lovely young woman below is a bit closer to what I imagine my heroine of my first novel looks like as I write the third draft.

Zoë June Zeegelaar

It’s not a one-to-one. But my heroine is somewhere between Ms. Zeegelaar and Corrie Yee.

Corrie Yee

Anyway, the point is I need to stop screwing around and actually get this third draft done. It’s just taking longer than I expected because I’ve had to re-imagine and rework the second and third acts, given how much I changed the first act.

The Mad Red King

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The key thing to remember about all of this “dictator” talk by Trump is he just wants that idea rolling around people’s minds should he get re-elected. It will, in his ding-dong brain — give him more wiggle room when it comes to what he can actually do.

While I hate to compare someone as lazy and dumb as Trump to an actual Great Man of history, it is easy to compare Trump as Julius Caesar. Just like Caesar, Trump could be a transitional figure for our hobbled Republic. It could be that for no other reason than Trump is old, fat and lazy as fuck that it won’t be him who turns us into a Russian-style autocracy, but, rather his next Republican successor.

But all of this won’t happen in a political or historical vacuum. The United States is not a one-to-one with the late Roman Republic, as much it might be easy to assume that it is. The US is more likely to collapse into revolution and civil war than it is to peacefully transition into autocracy — especially under the ham-handed “guidance” of someone like Trump.

And, remember, after Caesar’s death, there was a huge civil war. So, I think rather than us assuming Trump is an American Caesar, we need to think seriously about the global implications of the world’s hyperpower buckling into autocracy, revolution and civil war.

We Need A Media Outlet To Believe In

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The potency of The New York Times comes from how many people believe in it. And, in its own way, that’s what made Gawker Media so potent at one point — it was easy to believe in it. Until it wasn’t because it was icky.

I have a tendency to draw attention to myself.

But I do believe that there is a market — and audience — for a media outlet that leans into the spirit of the old Gawker’s early days when it was a fun, snarky blog that rallied the troops every day with its call for droll common sense.

Of course, the obvious venue for this would be a podcasting network of some sort. And, yet, I think even podcasting is so mature these days that, lulz, why are we even talking about this.

This all makes me think about how if I somehow magically lived in New York City that I would start an old fashion zine that covered whatever borough I lived in. I really enjoy zines — obviously — and if I did a good enough job with the zine, I think people of note would take interest in it.

Put me in, coach.

Of course I would hand the thing out in person in front of offices of The New York Times in an effort to catch media attention for it. Even though I’m old as hell, if I was living in either NYC or LA for any duration of time, I could still draw a lot of attention to myself just by…being myself.

And, yet, lulz.

Anyway, there definitely seems to be something of a vacuum in modern media at the moment. Or maybe everything is so scattered and defuse at this point that since there’s no “center” anymore that it’s just not possible for there to be an alternative to it.

Oh well.

Does The USA Need A ‘Dictator?’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The short answer is: fuck no.

We could see a few of these in late 2024, early 2025.

The longer answer is — it’s complicated. I think there is a good chance that through a combination of Executive Orders and using the pardon power that Trump could probably be something akin to a dictator in 2025 should he win in 2024.

But the thing that the liberal popinjays on Twitter miss is the nation’s slide into dictatorship would NOT happen in a vacuum. People would get pissed! As such, if he did such a thing, I think the following MIGHT happen — Trump is somehow “deposed” and we might get something akin to a military junta with someone like James Mattis as acting president.

That is all VERY SPECULTIVE.

But the point is — it’s at least possible that late 2024, early 2025 could see some amazing, unprecedented political and historical events take place. What’s more, if the USA implodes, the the entire post-WW2 global order will implode, too.

We could see about 1 billion people around the globe die DIRECTLY because of ding-dong Trump being such a fucking idiot.

A Complete Reboot

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I’m in the second act of the third draft of this novel, I realize that I have to totally rework both the second and third acts. Pretty much, I have to throw everything up in the air.

This is obviously going to slow me down, but I know the general story of this novel so well that I think I can still — maybe –hit my deadline of roughly the April — June timeframe.

I hope.

But this week I’m going to switch gears and focus a lot more on development than writing so that by the end of the week I — should — be ready to write again. I also hope to give me life a lot more structure so I can work on some secondary stories, reading and watching.

I really, really, need to stop being so fixated on producing media and start to think about consuming other people’s content — especially if I ever hope to figure out what novels to “comp” my novel to when I query (hopefully) in late 2024, early 2025.

My Review of Adam Nagourney’s ‘Biography’ Of The Modern New York Times, ‘The Times’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to read more, and, as such, I just finished reading Adam Nagourney’s “biography” of the modern New York Times. I’m not getting paid to write this, so you get what you pay for.

Adam Nagourney

In general, this is a great, great book. Very well written. I highly recommend it if you’re a media nerd like me. I suppose I don’t have the proper context in my head to be able to point out any problems on that front, but, in general, it SEEMS to do a pretty good job of laying out the ups and downs of The New York Times the last 20-odd years.

One thing is clear — when it comes to internal politics, especially succession issues, The New York Times is a messy bitch. Repeatedly in the book, Nagourney recounts how internal politics got in the way of a simple succession from one Executive Editor to the next.

It probably comes from how much power and prestige is involved with the job. So it’s a regular Game of Thrones easing anyone out of the spot to put new blood in. That’s probably the most entertaining part of the book. Another fun part of the book is how flat footed The Old Gray Lady was with the rise of the Internet.

I will note, in passing, that an entire book should be written — and maybe has already been — that would directly address in tick-tock form EXACTLY what happened at the paper on 9/11. That would be really interesting and compelling. I felt that specific topic, while addressed, was not fleshed out enough in The Times book — but that was probably simply size constraints.

Anyway. Buy the book. It’s really good.

I’m Too Old For Mischief

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If I was younger, I would pick a random celebrity and write a lot about them on this blog, just to see if any of their “people” noticed. But, you know, I’m just too old.

While, on paper, it would be a fun experiment, it also would be too easy for said “people” to take one look at this blog and think I’m some insane stalker. So, meh. I have better things to do with my time.

We Need A Gawker-Like Podcast Network

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This is kind of moot now, but I suppose that there is still a little bit of a window of opportunity for someone to create a Gawker Media-like podcasting network. Instead of a blog, you would have a lot of podcasts — two a day, five days a week.

You would have morning and afternoon / evening podcasts that ran about an hour that would discuss pop culture events. If you really wanted to be a bit edgy, you might stream them live so they could react to events in real-time.

But, like I said, I don’t know if such a thing is even possible now. We’re kind of just on the cusp of moving into a new media environment where everything gets pulled into the maw of AI and XR (VR / AR) and, well, that’s a whole new frontier.

So, I dunno. It is curious that no one did such a thing while there was still time. I think some of it is that the media landscape isn’t one-to-one to the early days of blogs, so there never really was an opportunity for a new Gawker-like media outlet to be birthed in the age of podcasts.