Item 1: My Voice

Jonathon Flaum integrates the Phoenix metaphor and a "be yourself" concept into a narrative about a red wolf to make an existential claim about suffering and freedom. Flaum's claim is that to become free, one must come to terms with their instincts and the mental prison that they have placed themselves into. Once this is done, the mental prison is overshadowed by the intrigue and benevolence of life. External freedom meant nothing to Mumon, the red wolf, until he conquered his internal suffering. The Islamic concept of holy war, Jihad, comes to mind. External Jihad is named lesser Jihad, and internal Jihad is named greater Jihad. Only when Mumon went on a spiritual journey and ultimately died was he able to be reborn to find his howl and the make the most of being set free from captivity and lead his pack. We must conquer our doubts about ourselves before we can experience freedom.

            Mumon’s Spiritual journey reminds me one of my favorite Neil Young songs, “Hey Hey, My My”. The song was featured on his 1979 release with Crazy Horse, Rust Never Sleeps. The particular lyric that I think may apply is the famous, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away”,

            The idea behind this lyric is that in the world of Rock ‘n Roll it’s preferable, or even more admirable to die at the height of your success, rather than when you’re on the decline. Kurt Cobain exemplified this idea when he quoted the lyric in his suicide note.

            I think the lyric is very thought provoking and I admire the thought that Neil put into it but I don’t know that I agree with it. Or at the very least when it applies to non-rockstars like myself. And I believe that that Mumon’s spiritual journey is an argument for the antithesis of “It’s better to burn out, than to fade away”.

            Mumon went through an incredible journey. He hunted a deer and sought advice from the animals of the forest. He faced a hunter and witnessed tribes worship him in the center of the Earth. But at the height of his journey, he didn’t burn out. He lived to hunt another day. He lived to become the savior of his tribe.

            If Mumon had burned out at the height of his glory, his tribe would be lost without a leader, and without a howl. I believe Mumon’s story can be a metaphor of how one can still be useful after their prime. And Neil Young is even an example of this. In his old age, he’s still making music, involved in several projects, has a family, and is living a fruitful life. I don’t mean to diminish the value of the lyric, but rather offer another perspective about it, or interpretation of it.

Item 2: Storytelling

"Entimeclopedia" Treatment

Logline: An educational episodic series similar to “The Magic Tree House.” In a world in which talking animals have gone through exactly the same history as humans, a group of four talking friends find a magic encyclopedia that allows them to travel through time and space. In each episode they learn about strange events or times that they travel to and see that truth really is stranger than fiction.

Synopsis: “Entimeclopedia” brings the success of the “Magic Tree House” concept to an episodic television show. Through the show, children explore events from the past and learn lessons along the way.

Pilot Story Arc:

            Terry the Kangaroo, Milly the Flamingo, Bill the Tortoise, and Leonard the Lion are walking through the jungle when they happen upon a struggling frog wizard, whose foot is stuck in a bear trap. They help the frog wizard out of the trap and before he teleports away and in return the wizard bestows upon them a magical encyclopedia. 

            The four friends are intrigued by the magical, glowing book. They flip to a page in the middle of the book and just after they see the page labeled “Salem Witch Trials”. The quartet is whisked away to Salem Massachusetts in 1962.

            The friends begin to explore Salem in confusion when Milly pulls out her cell phone, only to realize she has no cell service and none of her calls go though. The four are spotted by some of the townsfolk. The townsfolk don’t recognize the foreign technology of the cell phone and suspect the friends of being witches. They throw the friends in jail.

            The friends meet other suspected witches, learning they are not actually witches. The witches describe what they will go through if they do not escape so the four friends trick jailer and escape with the witches. They are then teleported back home. People actually thought that witches existed, truly stranger than fiction.

Item 5: Weaknesses

Suggestion 4. Forget It: Don’t try to Fix Your Weaknesses

David Rendall suggests that it is a waste of time to try fixing weaknesses. He claims that fixing weakness is a slow, and painful process. He also suggests that fixing weakness tales time away from more potentially fruitful or fulfilling ventures. And finally that remediating weakness does not actually work, as weaknesses never become valuable strengths.

            Although pessimistic, I would say that this suggestion is a valid one. It could be seen as a cold, hard truth. Rendall’s theme in this manifesto is one of owning weaknesses. I think that I could take this suggestion even a step further by turning weaknesses around into strengths. Where a weakness is a weakness with some application, it may be a strength in another. Rendall’s example is that he applies his attention deficit and tendency to talk too much in his career as a professor.

Suggestion 5. Build On Your Strengths

            Converse to suggestion 4, this one suggests building a foundation of strengths. David Rendall claims that it feels good to focus on strengths, one’s greatest potential lies in their strengths, and that strengths make up for weaknesses and can even make them irrelevant.

            This suggestion absolutely works in tandem with the last. I’ve found for myself, when recording and mixing music, that focuses on my strengths always boosts my confidence. If I dwell too much on my weaknesses I will eventually become discouraged. It does feel good. Also, if I build on my strengths and make those parts of a work string enough, it might overshadow or validate the weaker parts of the work. I’d say this is also a valid suggestion.

Identifying My Own Weakness

            I’m not really the introspective type but one weakness I can easily point to in my creative process is the tendency to dwell too much on one aspect of a work and lose sight of other aspects of the work.

            For Instance, on a mix I was just working on for a metal band, I became entirely fixated on the level of the vocals and the kick drum. I mixed the song accordingly and then sent the mix to some friends (who are also audio engineers) to get some feedback on the mix. They told me that the mix was muddy and the guitar wasn’t cutting through. Of course this was eye opening, and it caused me to go back and look at the mix as a whole and eventually re-engineer and remaster the entire track.

            Time and again, getting an outside perspective from a knowledgeable friend has helped me work around my weakness. I’m grateful that I have this option and I hope I will always have the availability of knowledgeable peers to give feedback.