Category: kickstarter fail

Alain Lamas NSFW; Kickstarter Fail; All Things Penis



Alain Lamas NSFW

I recently accepted a friend request on Facebook and didn’t pay much attention to it at first. But when I saw an update and did a little checking, I found this interesting web site by Alain Lamas. As the title suggests, it’s NSFW. But I think it’s interesting to see something this independent. Most of the time it’s the same old run of the mill entertainment sites that always tend to exploit models. This looks different, and like a lot of indie authors I know, I think this model is taking his career into his own hands, so to speak.

There’s nothing to really excerpt here, so I’ll just give a link. Unlike a few careless bloggers I know, I can’t post photos because I would be infringing on his copyrights. The majority of the site is paid content, but you can browse for free just to check “things” out.

Kickstarter Fail

I’m back and forth with Kickstarter all the time, and one of the reasons is because of this article I’m linking to now.

A 30-year-old webcomics artist who raised more than $50,000 on Kickstarter has burned the books his donors paid for because, he says, he ran out of money to ship them.

In late February, John Campbell, who lives in Wicker Park, told his fans on the online crowdsourcing platform that “It’s Over” and published a video of himself burning 127 copies of his book, “Sad Pictures for Children.”

You can read more here.

And here’s a link to the author’s page where it gets even worse.

I shipped about 75% of kickstarter rewards to backers. I will not be shipping any more. I will not be issuing any refunds. For every message I receive about this book through e-mail, social media or any other means, I will burn another book.

There’s also a video of him burning the books. I’m serious.

What I don’t understand is that there a plenty of good charities that need support and need money. Why throw good money after bad by giving it away to someone like THIS?

All Things Penis

In yet another creative attempt to stand out in social media, there’s a Pinterest account about all things penis.

There’s a photo of a penis park in Korea. A photo of penis topiaries. And even a photo of a penis faucet in someone’s kitchen.

You can check this out here.

You should see what they did with eggshells.

 

Spike Lee Kickstarter Fail; Oxford Dictionary Adds Gay Marriage; UK Same Sex Relationships


Spike Lee Kickstarter Fail

They are saying that this summer has been the worst in years for feature films, and box office sales are down record levels in some cases. It’s not completely dismal, and some things are working, but that seems to be thanks to the biggest stars that always seem to draw people into the theaters, not the content of the films. I know that when I see Greg Kinear’s name on a film, I’m going to like it.

This is telling, and a sign of the times. It’s been happening in publishing for the last five years:

But the movies are undergoing yet another period of transformation. With the increasing appeal of cable and digital entertainment, and the bottoming-out of the home video market, Hollywood has tried to lure moviegoers with bigger (and more expensive) 3-D extravaganzas.

As usual, there’s rebellion in the works from filmmakers who feel marginalized by the studios’ shrinking purview. Spike Lee on Monday announced that he would seek financing for his next feature film through the online crowd-sourcing site Kickstarter.

People are spending thousands of dollars to design custom home theaters and they either stream or buy/rent on demand now. Tony and I haven’t watched a DVD or a video in ages. We either stream or rent on demand. Most of the people I know do the same thing.

But that line about Spike Lee and kickstarter bothers me. I’ve been a supporter of kickstarter before, in many cases. I think that it’s a great way for “starving” artists to get a jumpstart and prove to the world they have talent and that talent always wins out in the end. I’ve even contributed to a few projects. But when I see people like Spike Lee taking hard earned money from people who haven’t got a fraction of what he’s worth, it really irritates me. In other words, mortgage the mansion, spend and invest your own money, and back your own projects, Spike. That’s what I do with my indie books, because it wouldn’t feel right taking money from people that way to me. In other words, Spike, put your OWN money where big your mouth is.

These Hollywood people who have started hocking people on kickstarter really bothers me to no end. It’s as if they have this sense of entitlement, and it’s changing my opinion of kickstarter. There’s an old saying that goes something like this, and it reminds me of Spike Lee begging for money: He cried poor mouth with two loaves of bread under each arm.

Oxford Dictionary Adds Gay Marriage

I’d heard that the Oxford English Dictionary was thinking about revising and adding gay marriage, but now it seems official.

Evidently, they are constantly watching words all the time to see how they change and how they reflect what we are trying to communicate. Communication is constantly evolving, and many times the changes are indicative of common usage.

As it stands, OxfordDictionaries.com defines marriage as being a ‘formal union of a man and a woman, typically as recognised by law, by which they become husband and wife.’
In a reference, it says marriage could also be ‘(in some jurisdictions) a union between partners of the same sex’.

UK Same Sex Relationships

In this article, they dive into same sex relationships and the issues that can, and often do, arise. The problem is that those in same sex relationships aren’t always prepared for what’s coming along, and they tend to jump into relationships without knowing anything. This is one reason I’ve been so worried about younger gay couples running out to get married right away. And I’ve posted many times about how older gay couples were excellent role models for Tony and me when we first started out.

They are asking people for advice in what looks like an interesting survey. I would have taken it myself, but it says the survey is nationwide in the UK, and I assume that doesn’t include US residents. In any event, I found some of the definitions about how they define same sex relationships to be excellent.

Researchers at Sunderland and Leicester Universities invite you to take part in a UK-wide survey, to understand what you do when things go wrong in your same-sex, bisexual and/or trans relationships. Recent Equality legislation requires that services respond appropriately to those in same-sex, bi and/or trans relationships who might need help or advice. We believe that the best way to ensure this is to ask you about your experiences and what you need, so that we can feed that back to them.