The problem with being young after 2016, and perhaps it is also a blessing to promote as such (if only to lessen grief), is I had no exposure to most of the celebrities we lost, and thus do not have as deep a connection to them as I could. Some were just names to me—no matter how special they may have been.  No matter how important. I did not grow up listening to David Bowie, for instance. The only loss I felt strongly was Alan Rickman—and that’s because I am a nerd.

But, for today, I understand the loss. Because I’ve seen the work of John Hurt—deceased on the 25^th of January, 2017. I knew him. I knew of him because he was on Doctor Who. As the War Doctor.

But he was more than a character.

He was a person.

And, the problem with fame is we sometimes forget that. And I wish I could say more on his real-life portion. Promote the humanizing of these people we love to watch.

But, since I am in no position to speak on his personal life, I can point out this man was a legend among nerds. He is part of nerd culture as thoroughly as Alan, as Gene Roddenberry, as Nimoy. In case you did not know, here’s a quick list of some of the iconic shows and movies he was a part of:

The voice of the dragon in Merlin.

The wand maker in Harry Potter.

The guy the alien came out of in Alien.

He was in V for Vendetta, Hellboy, and, per IMDB, he was even in Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs.

That is a huge contribution. The fact of Alien alone, as the person who had the chestburster do its namesake, makes him a permanent and enduring part of cinema history. A cultural icon, a part of the media landscape, one anyone going into Cobb Theater at Countryside Mall will know by heart.

He was also prolific. This was an actor who just kept doing roles no matter how old he got. I can’t speak for certain—again, I didn’t know him personally—but that promotes he had dedication to his craft. A love of being in art.

He was even in movies yet to release—if indeed they do release. Sometimes they aren’t, in respect for the actor.

So, with all this said, I thank you, John Hurt, with one voice of a nerd, and I hope echoing many. I thank you for giving life to the characters we loved, and lending joy to people who may have needed it more than we or you knew. As I’ve said before in voice and in articles, the arts are important—and you gave a huge part of your life to keep them going.

Another one of the greats fell, now in 2017, instead of in 2016, and I hope we’ve finished with that trend. Start over fresh. I promote, to the utmost degree I can promote such a thing, that the rest of this year is full of spectacular people doing incredible and artistic things, without so much loss.

And I think everyone can get behind me on that one, not just the nerds of the world.  

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

Due to caffeine’s effective marketing pitch of being almost necessary to modern life, statistically, you go into coffee shops often. And, since you do, you probably have ogled a random painting hanging on the shop’s walls, or an artisanal ceramic on a little table, or a collection of CDs for some band you’ve never heard of—ever—in a wicker bin. Or, perhaps, you went to the Pierce Street Market under the bridge leading toward Clearwater Beach, and looked at all the cute and quirky and sometimes rather gorgeous pieces of art. But, here’s the question: do you ever buy any of it?

Does anyone ever seem to buy those sorts of things? I can’t recall ever seeing someone walking away with one of the hundred dollar paintings of the sea or something of that ilk.

And, as a person who makes art, I am not a fan of this outcome. But I understand where it is coming from, and why this happens. And why many people ultimately fail to make a living out of making just art.

It’s the economy, let’s get that out of the way. Money plays a role, obviously.  But it’s not that alone. Art HAS inherent worth. It is perhaps one of the most important things to human happiness. Outside of the necessary to life things like food and sleep and water, humans crave mental stimulation. The urge to become engaged by something creative is the biggest and perhaps, on an underlying level, the entire reason the movie industry and Netflix and YouTube are such smash hits and juggernauts of the world. But, the issue with creation nowadays is not a lack of demand: it is a lack of attention and funds. We humans are such a huge population with varying habits and likes, and the ability to make art (and the drive to make art) is so powerful and so common, that getting noticed is hard amongst your fellow members of the species, even in a niche.

What I mean is, no matter how much work and craftsmanship went into that wooden wolf on a lacquered stand with intricate tribal symbols carved all over it, if you are charging more than a few dollars for the piece, you have a likely incoming issue of finding someone who can or will purchase such a thing without some major marketing push.

We have access to so much media, a flood, in fact, that the only way to remain sane is to flit from thing to thing or ignore the bulk entirely. The amount of stuff free (or just requiring a subscription fee or internet access) is so staggering, and people like their screens so much, that certain art has a real issue being seen or receiving more than a little attention.

It’s a problem which heavily hits crafts and carvings and paintings and statues and anything else physical. Sure, placing all that stuff around a home livens it up, but a lot of people—especially with the turbulent financial stress adults have been going through as of late—can’t or won’t put down the money for another thing in their house.

But, again, I believe physical art has a reason to exist and should be more financially viable—without hurting the artists of the world. I’m just sad to say I am not as helpful to this advice-wise as with other topics. I don’t know the solution yet.

It will take a supreme act of marketing, or a revolutionary change in outlook, to solve this problem. It will not be easy. But it is worth striving for, it is worth achieving. Culture needs physical art. I love technology, but that doesn’t mean all creation should be digital.   

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

Facebook recently introduced the ability to livestream, and this promotes to an even higher degree the breakdown on privacy, but also the increase of interconnectivity. For the uninitiated, how a livestream works is in the name: it is a video, like the kind on YouTube, that is playing live, as in, if you are watching, it is happening right as you are watching, except maybe off by a few seconds.

And this is astonishing technology. Sure, it might not seem that impressive at first glance, but the fact Facebook gives this power to anyone to use, for free, means that connectivity is increasing. And so is the lack of walls.

As a person who recently tried out the function, the thing that becomes apparent is that people are viewing you right then. Which, as I said: is how the system works. But that reality does not sink in until you start. There is no chance to edit later, or fix flubs. The concept of stage fright is inherent the second you know someone is “present”.

And it’s recorded. Permanently existing somewhere, on some server—unless you delete the video (and they might still save the file somewhere: who knows?). Remember that too. The idea of constant monitoring that novels like 1984 raged against, is being willingly used. And the funny thing is that because we get to choose to some degree when technology is observing our lives, we seem to lose a lot of the concerns.

Like all social media, livestreaming promotes placing yourself, all of yourself, out there so you can be more personal with the world. If you felt connected to the people you watch on certain shows before, then just wait until you watch the person live.

Sure, these videos might remove a little of the magic inherent to life’s mysteries, but knowing someone is somewhere while they are there, is still incredible technology. Yet again: incredible. If you thought video chat letting you bring one person to a vacation with you was cool, if you thought letting one person join you on your errand to somewhere like Nature’s Food Patch was an interesting trick of the new world: well, now you can bring a whole group of people with you.

And, livestreams have changed media in other ways. Livestreaming while playing a game, livestreaming while building crafts, while having a political discussion, playing music, cooking, what have you, garners an audience. Viewing something happening as it is happening, no matter the barriers of space, takes the mundane and stale and makes the experience new and interesting. It’s reality television’s draw on hyper drive.

Livestreaming is effective because humans like being around other humans. And now, one can be with thousands of their fellow man from the comfort of their own home. It’s not quite filming, it’s not quite theater. It’s not even exactly candid camera. It is the direct link between viewer and presenter, between friends/strangers and another’s life.

And this can lead to beautiful things. And things no one has ever conceived of. Yes, some horrible outcomes can, and did, and will, happen: but with how livestreams conceptually link to what we all already promote through our social media use, be we a company or an individual person, it’s not going anywhere, anytime soon.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

Is it just me, or does the world of education seem to have a PR issue nowadays? Wasn’t attending college and other forms of higher education an act of stability? The, for lack of a better pun, most educated life decision for the average person? The thing we all grew up knowing we would do, as a given, assuming you were not in a financial situation which made it not possible?

Well, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. This is more speculative than some of my articles, and, perhaps, it is the biased media that swings my perspective in this direction, but everywhere you go, you hear about problems of employing people. Of people coming out of schools not actually fit for the job they were hired and trained to do. And, of course, the one-thousand-pound elephant in the room which is the dreaded “Student Loan Debt.”

Now, some degrees, some would say, were always useless for an actual paying job. The English major or the human studies major or the art history kid working at the range of fast food joints like the ones on Gulf to Bay right out of higher education is a prevalent stereotype. But the problem now seems to extend to many potential vocations.

And, again, this could be the media/internet inflating a situation beyond what is happening. Confirmation bias or panic or shoddy surveys. The unemployment or wrong employment numbers are not concrete. It would not surprise me if the employment rates and dropout rates for college and high school were much less scary than what’s told. Fear sells after all.

But, I kind of doubt it’s that far off the mark. I know how we compare to other countries in all our major subjects. It makes sense.

And... this is a PR nightmare for a lot of groups, and it feeds into common economic worries. If schools are not trusted as much, and, indeed, if being so far into debt is such a Faustian bargain, you get less and less people enthused about attending schools. And, if less and less attend, or bother to give it their mental all when they do attend, the people who can vouch for the benefits of higher education become fewer and fewer.

The result is we get stupider as a nation. If the schools aren’t already contributing to that problem.  

But, that’s not the end of it. Because the companies hiring also have an issue: when school is not a useful measuring stick anymore they lose stability. How do you determine who to hire when you can’t trust credentials? You must smile and take your chances or take the huge amount of time to test every single person interested in a job.

And they have a similar problem if they do trust the schools. Because, apparently, they’re not getting the best people always, and with fewer applicants to choose from, the competition will get more and more difficult to decide upon. And then, as a smart business, they’d only hire the already experienced, and the youth then don’t have jobs, and everyone gets mad at them for not having jobs, and people go on support mechanisms like welfare.

This sounds like a slippery slope argument, and it kind of is, but the situation has doom and gloom. It’s not PR anyone wants, especially not the ones who oversee the children and young adults forming the next generation.

And, I hate to be the complainer. But it’s not something I personally can help fix outside of discussing it. The only answer is not an easy one. The education system would need sweeping reform and change. To improve itself and its PR so people trust it more again. And then make the debt it causes not so crippling. It’s not an issue easily brushed under the rug. You can’t slap an A+ on it and hope for the best.

But here’s the funny thing, and the hopeful thing. The people equipped to do it, to solve it, might not be from the biggest, most well-funded places. People already smart enough to do what needs doing exist somewhere. We need to find them and accept their solutions even if their accreditations aren’t top notch. And then we can get the world back to where accreditation means something concrete again.

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More than one form of advertising exists. Some of it is specific to companies, made by them, and set to sell something. But, there exists another type of advertising…one not meant to get across the idea to spend money, but to make someone out as more and more powerful.

And, in the today, in the now, with the media landscape as it is, that advertising focuses squarely on celebrities. And sure, that’s not new news, but who can be a celebrity has changed. First off, fame has layers now, more than ever. If you go into the maelstrom that is YouTube, you will find plenty of people who you could certainly call famous, and yet, outside of their subculture, the random person will not even know their names. Besides, perhaps, the children of the local high schools like Clearwater Academy International, Washburn Academy, The Learning Connection, Delphi Academy, or the simply named: Clearwater High School. But that is not the everyman population of the work-a-day world.

Subcultures grow through, and some become common enough random people know them. And, I’m sure you have already guessed going off this article’s title which subculture got enough advertising for the news and the world to give them more than a passing glance: the nerds. The geeks. The dweebs. When else in history does the average person not only recognize who people like Stephen Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson are, but has also seen them interact with the media at large?

In what other world—because this age does seem like a new world—does the author of a fantasy series become a household name (and the fact you probably thought of a different person than I intended proves my point)? Actors can become known not for who they are, but for what nerdy character they play.

This is the new nerd, the bigger than life nerd. For some beautiful reason, the outrageous, obsessive, risk-taking social rejects get all sorts of documentaries made about them. Gets major actors playing them in multi-million dollar films.

For an easy example, I can’t imagine any other situation where something like The Imitation Game would not only be a movie, but a movie which glorifies not the smooth overly square-jawed man in a three-piece suit, but the hard-working smart guy who almost no one likes to be in the room with.

You can make all the derisive comments about the “special snowflakes” and the “precious millennials” you desire, but we are in a world which is now advertising that perhaps we need a little less of the men who waddle in and take out many with guns, and more of the clever and odd and the nerdy.

Nerds love a good power fantasy, perhaps because for a long time they did not feel powerful (like many other groups). But now, along with other “minorities” of subcultures and actual minorities which were marginalized, being us, being nerds, is taken by advertising to be a power fantasy.

And I think we could get used to that.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com