Not Art #28: Haiku I'm Thinking of Finishing One Day
I’ve got a bunch of Haiku started, but I just can’t seem to finish anything. Nonetheless, I’ve decided to publish!
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Filtering by Category: writing
AI Fearmongering
I am surrounded by local news this week. Awash in it. Unable to beat back against the shores or however that goes. I’ve learned that gas prices have decreased recently but that some experts agree prices may go up at some point in the next five months, but it’s too soon to say really and we’ll check in on the story as it develops at 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, and 11 tonight.
Also, I’m pretty surprised that there’s such a push to make people worried that AI chatbots are going to make work, school, and society obsolete. As someone who has played with them for a long time, including on this site, I think they’re interesting, and it’s fun to see new bots with new triggers and behaviors, but somehow they still feel the same underneath.
I have this idea that most of the time when someone proclaims a new movie to be the best or worst thing ever made, they probably just don’t watch that many movies. They don’t have a lot to compare it to. With the AI-generated items, they’re just not used to looking at that kind of thing. All of those images of people with weird hands and dozens of fingers? And the way certain bots somehow look ugly in the same way? The writing is like that too.
Kids using AI to get out of writing school essays are going to make a new kind of Prisoner’s Dilemma. Maybe if only one of them does it, it might be hard to spot. If the teacher is in a rush. And doesn’t notice how totally different the student sounds all of a sudden.
Not to say that you can’t do entertaining things with a bot:
I mean, I think it’s funny to teach a bot to constantly mention that it went to Harvard while you talk to it, but it’s like playing one of those games with a branching narrative where you have a delightful and personalized experience and enjoy it so much you decide to play again, only to discover you weren’t really making that many choices.
You know, having heard fifteen more local news updates about the scary AI, maybe it’s the local news writers who are right to be worried about bots taking their jobs.
Not Art: Issue 23
Now available on newsstands and to subscribers, issue 23 of Not Art. I fully expect an all-new continuity to rear its head in 2020, after months of experimental sizes and formats, but this month readers are taking another foray into Company Town. I couldn’t have predicted that, but not everyone knows what their psychic gift is.
Also not very available right now is the Not Art Annual 2020, these will not be available in the online shop or the lobby of your local comedy theater, because they’re a giveaway item for the LA Zine Fest. So I hope that Not Art is selected to appear in the fest this year. If it’s not, well, I’ll have to find somewhere else to get rid of them. Of course, beloved subscribers will be receiving a copy in the mail this month. I can’t mail them enough things.
If you need something good in your mailbox for a while, why not subscribe today? I still have a couple of sets left that allow you to start from the beginning, and get these issues two years from now!
Now Shipping: Not Art Issue #22
A new zine for the masses. This one kind of reworks an old story I never found a use for, and although I think maybe it gets away from me a little bit I wouldn’t say that out loud, I would say it’s the best one yet and you need a copy to feel good about yourself this holiday season! The best way to do that is to subscribe today, because then you won’t miss out on the cool stuff subscribers will be getting in their mailboxes in the new year!
Also, if there were such things as devoted Not Art readers, I would point out that this one somehow exists in the smallest, most central bubble of overlap between the different settings we’ve seen so far.
Better Radio Writing Submission Guidelines
Hello Friends,
We are currently hard at work on a new season of Better Radio, a scripted sketch comedy podcast by Rob Schultz and Russell Anderson, and writing submissions are now open.
What’s the show about?
In the distant future, an Archeo-Astronomer travels the stars listening to transmissions broadcast from Earth, researching where exactly things went wrong for our planet.
Each transmission (re: sketch) needs to work in audio only. This is not necessarily the same thing as having no visual component - this might be your chance to do things you could never bring to life on stage, or in video.
All scenes must necessarily take place after 1935. Anything we hear that takes place earlier or is supernatural in some way must, logically, be part of some other piece of media. (We don't need your framing device explained to the audience, but knowing that you're in fact writing a sitcom, or a monster movie, or a broadway cast recording, may unlock something for you.)
How do I submit?
Send your script to BetterRadio at NotArt.org by or before Bastille Day, 2018!
.highland documents and .PDF files are our top choices of file formats.
Please name your file NAME-OF-SKETCH_YOUR-NAME.file
What do we like?
We strongly prefer the conceptual over the topical. Self-contained ideas over reference-fests. Parody is a coin toss.
We like character monologues that we can build into scenes with interesting sound design.
The opportunity to do a cross-over or side story featuring your existing characters from a different project is something we’re very interested in. If your script or pitch falls into this category, please do send a link to the other show.
We like scenes that happen to be set in other decades for flavor. Remember, the show is set in the distant future. It’s weird and sad if all the scenes are about the news of 2018.
Feel free to go beyond the stock 5 settings for an SNL scene. We’ve done film noir, fake commercials, radio call-in shows, game shows, press conferences, and indeed, old-time radio drama. Remember that we have all of audio-visual recording history available as a playground.
The rules
Individual writers and sketch teams are both welcome to apply. Non-exclusive submissions are okay - that scene in your drawer from six months ago is welcome as long as it’s well- suited to radio.
Time and space are finite and not all submissions will be recorded. If yours is not selected, it’s probably not personal.
If we do select your scene for recording, we offer a writing credit on our program in exchange for the non-exclusive right to produce your scene and to publish the script. (You still own your work and may use it in other ways.) We may edit your script.
We will contact writers about submissions we would like to use by or before early August, which is when recording will begin. The new season will air in October, and be accompanied by a live taping at The Pack Theater in Hollywood on September 29.
Reference
To hear what we’ve done before, visit the show on iTunes at http://tinyurl.com/betterradio or Overcast at https://Overcast.fm/itunes320972864/better-radio or just stuff this in your podcatcher: http://feeds.feedburner.com/BetterRadio
Please direct your submissions to BetterRadio at notArt.org, and feel free to forward this to your writerly friends.
Your pals,
Rob Schultz &
Russell August Anderson