Making Precise Cuts

We all come to a point in our lives when we see that every moment is a blessing. Whether it's after the death of a friend or a "big" birthday or some other milestone event, the feeling of being lucky to be able to jog on a crisp, cool morning; bite into a nice steak; or laugh with friends becomes somehow absolutely evident and spectacular.

I'm not going to say that any one thing hit me on the head to make me feel that very way, but more so a sense that a lot of wasteful behavior I've participated in the past is now unnecessary. Procrastination, distraction, even being fearful are all time sucks and are no longer a part of how I want to spend each of the precious minutes I've got in a day.

From here on out, I'll be devoting myself to identifying and solving my most complex challenges--everything from getting a new mobile phone to getting rid of the clutter around my house to snagging sponsors for our upcoming Asians & Friends international conference. Each of these challenges requires thought and action, specific steps taken with precision. Today I pledge all the time I can to being a surgeon with all my responsibilities, including my job as a dutiful husband, friend, son, brother, relative and colleague.

Yours in determination,

Angel Bright

GAM-TV Prepares to Go Public

Thinking how best to promote both my GAM-TV projects (webisodes--comedies, profiles, documentaries--produced about gay, Asian men) as well as the international Asians & Friends conference coming to Chicago this Labor Day called IFCON 2016, I'm planning to publicly release all of the GAM-TV websodes we've produced over five years. We'll do a drum roll leading up to it through February and hopefully attract sponsors for the effort. Watch for word on all of this in the coming weeks.

Preparing to Max

I wanted to write about planning. Oddly enough, I was watching "Tropic Thunder," a crazy spoof on "Rambo" style movies where Robert Downey Jr. plays an Australian actor portraying a black man and Tom Cruise does a bring-down-the-house performance as a manic Hollywood executive.

At each moment of this crazy film, I was in awe of every single element. The actors, the sets, the planned comic sequences--and the kind of resources necessary to bring everything together. With my small little webisodes, I feel almost embarrassed at trying to do what others are spending every drop of energy and every resource to produce.

Yet, what a delicious endeavor.

I've always wanted to just be an artist. While my job requires me to do many artistic things, I'll always yearn to devote myself 100% to my art.

I'm not going to fool myself into thinking I can replace my current salary, but I'm not going to stop trying to be the artist I am inside.

My revelation last night was the notion of redirecting my energy into maximizing my time outside my professional career towards planning and execution. In my near future there are target dates, opportunities for me to meet, learn, perform and persuade the right people to get me to a different place. I have to say, that a lot of those lessons can happen at work, which is a great opportunity. But outside work, I'll need to allow for rest, education, rehearsal, development and performance, with all of it being calculated and planned. Every step from here on out will be deliberate, with the intent being maximum impact.

Yours in premeditation,

Angel Bright

I Started Thinking About Branding

My to-do lists are the best. I start with stuff like "clean absolutely," which is code for de-clutter. Get rid of everything that I don't wear anymore, is out of date or no longer "me." I then lob into errands that question how much time I have to leave the house, execute and return--keeping in mind how tired I'll be when I get home. Finally, I stumble into moments of entrepreneurial creativity, where I think about the personal projects I started, such as my gay Asian male webisodes (gamTVusa.com, but pardon the reconstruction, we were hacked a few weeks ago). I've produced about a dozen and I'm wondering about next steps.

My to-do list led me to thinking about branding. If I used my webisodes as a launching pad for a brand, then the money made off of advertising and selling the "stuff" (ironic having brought up clutter) that being a part of that brand would mean to people.

In a single vision, a "ping" moment, I reconnected with what "brand" means to me as a gay, Asian man growing up here in the United States. That glaring, tangible thing was a movie, Ordinary People. Though I grew up in Honolulu, it spoke to me.

The story was about a boy living in a not-so-ordinary, affluent suburb of Chicago. (Another irony is that I live in Chicago now.) He was the surviving son from a boating accident that killed his older brother. The older brother was the shining star of the family, with the surviving brother having always been content to live his life as a shadow. After the accident, the mom, dad and son are crippled as a unit and the boy struggles with his own self-inflicted wounds but during the film, claws his way into a new light. Along the way, he becomes open and vulnerable, helped tremendously--here's the gay part--by a warm, wise, bear of a psychologist. Good Will Hunting has a similar storyline.

The moments of tenderness and discovery between the boy and the psychologist still drive into my core.

I read the book, rooted for the movie during the Academy Awards, loved to hate Mary Tyler Moore, wanted a big warm Cardigan sweater that the actor Judd Hirsch wore playing the psychiatrist and will always, always remember those feelings.

As I think about what branding is and why we do it, I'm drawn to what motivates us as people, our need for love, acceptance, comfort, family. It makes us do things so we can have the basics, but more than that, it drives us to discover and express who we are. Building a brand is merely the foundation necessary to keep the idea of a brand alive. Beyond the necessities, brands are symbols of the fire inside of us, what stokes it, what it eats and its beauty as it rages.

It's a merry circle, creating brand. I'm creating a brand to sell stuff, to generate an ongoing stream of capital, so I can fulfill my ultimate passion--recreating that Ordinary People moment for myself and to share it with people like me.

The Price of Fab

Alright, so I'm at the point where I've got to step up my fab game, especially on my birthday. Here I am with my poor hubby Bob who has to get out of the way of my zany expressions of  gla-mour. But of course, there's a cost involved. And with this blog being about the logistics of being a gay, Asian male, here's the rundown:

Wig: $55

Dress: $36

Rings: $4

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Total: $95

Now let's add in a few soft expenses:

Necklace from last year: $15

Bracelets from three years ago: $8

Make-up from many years ago: $15

Dress that I don't have to fight to get into: Priceless.

Yours in accounting,

Angel Bright

Developing Complexity

Our Asians & Friends chapter in Chicago is hosting our larger parent organization's annual conference next Labor Day 2016 and we're developing a strategy to identify and secure sponsors of all shapes and forms--swag contributions to straight-up financial backing. In my mind, that means a marriage of a company's core ideals with ours, as well as bringing to bear our marketing value (as a small organization in the greater scheme of things).

Here's how one of our planning team members responded to my request for a list of sci-fi/comi-con companies to approach:

It's an interesting idea, but we'd really have to propose to these potential donors how our attendees are their target audience. I know a few in the club read comics and maybe watch anime or play board games, but unless we were hosting an anime room or board game room, I'm not sure how we'd get donations. I believe with long-standing anime conventions, anime distribution companies may donate some new films to screen during the convention, to be played in rooms that just show anime all day.

Gaming companies might donate a new game to demonstrate as a way of attracting sales, maybe, but that's if we were an established fan convention. Since our itinerary is basically doing tours of the city and not hanging out at the hotel playing games or watching movies, I don't know how we'd pitch a sponsorship idea.

Don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but not sure how to approach this.

Here's my response:

Very true. I don't think we'd score diamond-sponsored donors today, but I know that companies in general are losing out on traditional means of advertising and having to identify groups like ourselves to gain traction with on a piecemeal basis. So-called "influencer" groups. If we connect with the right one, we could always get T-shirts or other give-aways as a start. I'm thinking how we got all that Memoirs of a Geisha stuff that one year.

It's also a crap shoot, so the more I know of who these companies are, the more I can send out feelers and may hit one that is trying to develop grass-roots strategies.

As another part of the strategy, I'll post a survey of our group that I ran by Brad on Basecamp. Its results could better describe who our group is and potentially pose that kind of appeal. Billy gave me the name of Blizzard Entertainment as a start. Might you suggest one or two others? Anyone local too--Midwest or even Chicago?

***

I'm probably naive, but in a world of "cord cutters" and regular consumers finding alternative ways of gaining content, advertisers are looking for unconventional ways to connect with people. It's a bit of a chaotic time, both for advertisers and someone like me who's trying to assess the value of our group and how we could potentially monetize what we have today in an effort to grow for our own purposes.

The end result, in my mind, is an organic, systematic "chipping away" process, where we follow through with each idea, identify companies, inquire, explain who we are and see what develops. If you consider that process, then you think of fractals. They're mentioned in that wonderfully annoying "Let It Go" song from Disney's Frozen. Fractals refer to the chaotic but somewhat organized patterns that form organically, like when water freezes on and creates designs like on glass or with snowflakes. It's not an orderly process, but because there's a repetitive formula embedded in the process, patterns form.

So, see you on the other end of this fractal.

Yours in orderly chaos,

Angel Bright

The Cost of Halloween

As everyone struggles to come up with a costume for Halloween, a few thoughts to consider: Last year, Americans spent $7.4 billion on costumes. Of that $3.2 billion was on costumes--$33.68 per person.

I spent over $100 in Hello Kitty stuff to perform in a local club's "Night of 100 Drag Queens" this week. It was an amazing experience (thank you Sidetrack) and they paid me back that amount as an unexpected surprise, but it's quite a sum. Should I shake my fist and cry "What are we doing?"

Ah, no.

I simply ask, what price joy?

Life has a movement in my eyes. As we cycle through our days on earth, we work, we ponder and we celebrate. We bond, we find commonalities, we create families. If we didn't have Halloween, we'd have some other celebration where we have an opportunity to physically manifest our inner selves. I certainly gave myself permission to burn through my paycheck.

And I had a ball.

Yours in excess,

Angel Bright