LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 9am PDT

About This Video

An April 2024 Friday session. Van answers questions from the community and talks through current builds. Spring projects on the bench.

Transcript

Yeah. Okay. I'm seeing the dots. Can you hear me? Does it sound good or does it sound echoey? Okay. It sounds like I'm talking into this road and not the mic from the Oh yeah.

Wow. Pretty fast to get across the continent and ocean. The delay is only a couple seconds. Mute

this and then I'll dramatically roll up the thing at

Okay. All right. Happy Friday. Welcome to the live stream. In keeping with the live stream tradition, as people are

trickling in, we give the weather report. Now it's as a tribute to um David Lynch who used to do the same on one of the local radio stations here.

So the weatherport is I wore a down summit coat to work this morning at 4:30 or 5 a.m. and then I wore it at 7:30 a.m. to go get avocado toast down the street. So, it's pretty chilly, but we're kind of

soft here in Los Angeles, so it's not that cold. All right, so this is how it works. I make an announcement on

Thursday that there'll be a live stream on Friday, and then the questions under the in the comments section under the

live stream announcement, the Thursday announcement, I read those questions chronological

order from first come, first serve. So, if you're early with the questions, you're more likely to get it read and

answered. And I try to get through all of them and I try to keep it under an hour. Okay. So, first one is not easy.

The first one is, "What's on your bucket list? Anything you're ticking off this year?"

You know, one of my favorite YouTubers is Natalie Lynn, and she made a video

this year called when I think it might be called something like when your

dreams or when dreams when dreams become memories. And so what happens is, you

know, we're kind of in this country bred to be dreamers and to go after it. And

some of us are very blessed and have the ability and the luck to achieve like one

after another after another. And Verer Herzog I think refers to this. No, no, no, sorry. West blank refers to this

less blank refers to this phenomenon as the burden of dreams and you just keep feeding it and keep feeding it. So, you

know, I you're living dreams and you're having but you're not dreaming them a lot of times. And so, I don't know what

my bucket list stuff is because I know there are things that like there. Okay. Anything is po

anything is possible. Okay. But it comes at a cost.

So, it's extremely unlikely that I'll ever race in and finish the DAR

rally. Extremely unlikable. Carlos Sein senior won it at 70s something, so it's not impossible, but I haven't been a

lifelong racer. I've raced once off-road, so probably not going to do that. But that was one that's kind of a dream deferred.

Um, bucket list stuff. Uh, I kind of want to do like a motorcycle tour with my son

uh in in like Vietnam, Cambodia. I'd like to do that. I'd like to take my family on a bicycle

trip. There's this bicycle tour in um I think it's in Hiroshima Prefecture called the eight

bridges and there's like certain places that you stay in and you get a guide. I'd like to do that with my family.

Maybe maybe next year if there isn't World War broken out and it's not totally

uh unpredictable. Um everything else is just kind of family like ordinary family stuff, you know. I don't I don't really have one,

but uh you know, and like performance stuff, like I want to make a certain amount of money, like that's on my bucket

list. And then I want to like at some point switch over to a different

um medium or career or something that's on there. But, you know, I'm 50. I just

turned 50. And when you turn 50, if you aren't, if you're younger than 50, then

you don't know what you're talking about. When you're talking about being old and stuff, you have no idea what you're talking about. Um, but when

you're 50, like a lot of, and this also happens when you're 40, like a lot of doors close, like can't do that, can't do that, can't join the military, you

know, can't join special forces, can't, you know, lots of that. Lots of that. So yeah, I don't know. I've done enough.

I'm I'm I'm happy now. It's just kind of for my kids. I want stuff for my kids.

How do you Okay, so from Michael, how do you determine what type of glue to use when doing a fix? Crazy glue, epoxy, hot glue, etc. A lot of it is time and

strength. Strength is number one. What is the strongest bond? What will give me the strongest, most durable, long

lasting bond? And then the second thing is how long is it going to take? Because sometimes

like like tight bond which is a form like a it's a it's a wood glue is stronger than most wood. It's stronger

than all the wood that I use. It's stronger than pine. It's so strong. But it's like it takes a long time to dry.

So that's just something if I'm gluing something that's legacy that's wood and I'm clamping it and I don't need it for a while, I'll go with tight bond.

If not, maybe I'll go with crazy glue or maybe I'll go with hot glue um for that same wooden project. Uh another one

is like crazy glue has very specific applications. Like the thing it is best for is

is fixing clean breaks in like porcelain. That's that's the best use for crazy glue. Like I use crazy glue to

fix this and it failed and I use crazy glue again.

Um because the crazy glue was like around the brake the fracture. There's

glass in here. I couldn't get it in. And so the first fix was that. But there was no crazy glue gluing the frame to

itself. There was just crazy glue around the fracture. And then the second time it

failed. I could get into the little crazy glue mold of like plastic that was, you know, it's gold gilded and I could dab some crazy glue gel in there.

And then so now I've got a bond here and I've got like a a kind of a a clamp around it all made out of crazy glue.

Um glue stick for you know the glue stick for paper stuff. So it's basically time and then uh hot glue hates water.

Hot glue. Don't use hot glue if it's going to get wet. It doesn't work. And then like the best glue, and it's like the only glue my mother uses. It's

called like shoe goo, but it's all these different, they have all different names for it, but it's the same glue. It's like a latex adhesive. Um, they call it

goop. They call it shoe goo. They call it like E2900 or something. There's some weird name for it. And like that's if

you have two days to let it dry and you can apply it perfectly. And that's what

I used to seal the front wheel of my motorcycle, which is a spoked wheel,

which means you can't use tubeless tires because the air will seek out through the uh the holes that the spokes go

into. But you can take that stuff that shugu and you have to build a rig a jig and you have to do like the first

half one day and then roll the thing and do the second half another day and then you have to let them like dry for two

days and then you have to do it again and that's never failed. It's held air this like I've changed tires with it

and that is permanent. Thank god. You also have to get a special valve stem that's like air sealed that like lives

in your um in your rim. So there's those are some examples, but it's basically speed and like bond strength is what

what I Okay. How did you get into doing an advertisement for video for J Crew?

So, my good friend Andy Spade, he um he's an advertising guy and he's started

out that way um like out of college and he's like one of the greats of advertising and

um he explained it to me one day. He was talking about his career. He was like, "I started out as an accounts manager." He was like, "And then I had to and then

I became like a creative and then I became a creative director and then I started Kate Spade and became the

client." He was like, "So I was the client, the creative director, and then the creative all the way down." And like Kate Spade, the reason I think Andy is

the reason why. I mean, you can't take Kate away from it either. But there's lots of awesome uh in the 90s there were

lots of awesome little fashion companies and Kate Spade just occupied that realm

and that was Andy set the tone of the advertising wit and there was like a darkness to it. So Andy after they sold

he and his wife sold Kate Spade, he started an advertising firm with um uh with a partner

um God I can't believe I know this guy so well and I can't remember his name. I think his name is also anyhow it doesn't

matter called partners and spade and he had a he was very he was pioneering with internet stuff. He was

pioneering. He had my brother and I do Kate Spade when they still owned the company. He had my brother and I do Kate Spade little videos

um just just for like the internet. And this is when no one was doing this. This is 2004. And when he had partners in Spade,

the internet's getting bigger and bigger so he could get more and more budgets.

And then he had a very long relationship with Mickey Drexler who's the I think he

was the CEO of of J Crew. It's a very It's a very small intimate little world there. It It's small, you know. It's not

those big brands that can afford to pay for the big expensive campaigns and so forth. There's not many of them and they're not adversarial. They're friends

like uh there's a woman Jenna Lions who was the Kate Spades. I think she was like the creative director of the

company. And the reason I didn't I said Kate Spades, I meant J Crew. J Crew.

Jenna Lions was the creative director of J Crew. I I don't know if that those are all right. I don't know if all those words are right, but essentially she's

the reason J Crew has extremely good colors is because Jenna Lions, and this

is just I think this is true. I don't know if this is fact, but there are people with extra cones in their eyeballs that can see colors more

vividly. And there's people who have not enough that I might be having this biology wrong, by the way. And those people are called colorb blind, but she's like the opposite of colorblind.

And when I would make stuff and we would do color correction, she would come in or she would look at it because she could perceive the colors and she could

direct the color correction. But um so Andy did, you know, he would get

little, uh J Crew gigs and he could deliver really good, really original because he was friends with all the artists and all the, you know, he's an

art collector and he's has great relationships and he's a creative in his soul. So he has a certain taste, a very specific point of view. And so Casey and

I were in his we were in his little orbit and he supported a lot of our work. He supported a lot of projects.

Kate Spade the company did. Andy Spade the company did. Partners in Spade the the company did and um he did a brand still around

called Sleepy Jones and then they did Francis Valentine and we did stuff I did stuff for them. Um but yeah, it's Andy. He could

see super high value, high delivery. He could still get good budgets and he could make a little bit of money off of the J Crew budget and then I could make

money off of the budget that he could give me. and he knew I was like a from scratch person and I didn't need a gigantic crew and all that ma mania. Um,

but we did have a little crew and we did that pool thing. We had Christmas shoot it and like I was watching

something. Oh, I was watching a a new one of the new films that good films who

did um Tiger King and um and Chimp Crazy. They have some new I don't even know if I'm allowed to say this. They

have some new stuff coming out and Chris Msina was a DP on some of it and I'm like I'm watching this thing like you know watching like a in a privately with

those guys. I'm watching this thing and I'm like that Chris Mina and he's like yeah and I was like oh my god he shot this for me because he's like one of the really good New York

cinematographers but we all came up together. He worked on the early you know Safty movies too.

So, incidentally, the first uh Josh Safy movie, it was called

um Pleasure of Being Robbed, and it was Josh's first feature film, and it went to uh it went

to Can Director's Fortnite at Can that Andy Spade and Kate Spade, they they like it produced that they financed that film. I'm in that film, too. Yay.

But they've just always been that's how I started with J Crew. Sorry, these are all very long answers, but that's what you're here for. Okay. Uh, this is from Ivan. Two questions if you have time.

What are you reading lately and when do you get time make for it? And two, what is your daily routine? Seems like you're up really early. I used to be a night

owl. Since having kids, I love having a few hours myself in the morning. Okay, so I'm reading um, you know, I read books and then if they don't grab me, I

just put them down. But I'm reading this book by the author's name is

Webb Jim Webb. I think he was like a senator or congressman from Virginia.

And it's called Born Fighting about the ScotsIrish because that's genetically that's my that's what I'm descended from is the ScotsIrish. So I'm like what am I

made of here? It's just like very violent crazy people. So I'm reading that. I kind of put that down and then I

started reading this book called um Swiss Watching about the Swiss just the like about Switzerland and the Swiss people. It's written by a British guy.

It's a little cute for me, but um I need the information and I need it from like

kind of an Anglo um Anglo-American point of view like our

you know like you know this is an English colony and we sort of have a similar point of view of British people.

So uh I'm reading those two things right now. Um, and then daily routine. I'm up between 3 and

4:30, sometimes 5 if I'm lucky. I can't really sleep past 410, 4:15 unless I stay up late at night. So, I go to bed

at 8:00 p.m., wake up between 3:00 and 4 something. Uh, and then I'm I have this

like injury, this like back injury that's like blah blah blah. So, I haven't been able to run in a few months, but I used to run like four

miles a day and do weights every other day. And so, I'm doing neither of those things. Um, but I, you know, shower and

all that, dishwasher, unload it, uh, put the put the clothes and and then it's

all in the dark basically. And then I drive to the studio. It's about 15 minutes away from my house. open the

studio meditation and then start writing or editing depending where I am in the in

the process and then until about 2 I can maintain that if I'm having a high energy good strong day I can go until

about 2 and then at two my brain just collapses and I'll start working on something with my hands that's for the project that I'm working on hopefully or

I'll just like procrastinate by doing walking around the studio and getting in

the to the weeds with like dialing in little tiny [ __ ] all over the place, but try to

keep it all within the paradigm so I can get some use out of it like as far as a video is concerned. So that's basically

my my routine. [Music] Uh, so there's some guys just saying thank you to me and to each other. Jeffrey says, uh, I tried to understand your process,

but the screenshots of your manuscript were a little confusing. One, do you start with writing a script and then move to voice

over? Of course. Then after voice over, create the shot list, then do the shoot. Yeah, I write the script. Oh, I see what you're asking.

Okay. So, I write the script, then I write the shot

list, then I shoot the shot list, then I read the voice over into the machine, and then I try to marry the

two. But it changes a little bit because sometimes I'm doing chunks of this. like I have a beginning point and an end

point, but I don't have all the I don't have the verbatim script written in between the two of them and I'm just doing the chunks because things are like

wishy-washy and they'll develop if the more and more vested I'm I I the more and more I am into the production the

more that they'll like uh mature. So, this particular project I'm

working on this month is um is like that. I'm just like chipping away at section like I'm shooting a bunch that

has a voice over for it, then editing that chunk, and then I'm okay, now I'm at this sequence. Then I'm going to write the words, then write the shot

list under the words, then shoot the shot list, then record the voice over, then plug it all in so that it's

harmonious music, etc. go on to the next. That's that's how that one's going. Um, do you decide ahead of what

will be talking head and what will be voice over? Do you record the entire voice over and then swap in talking head segments as you see fit? Just remove the

voice over, which would be the same script. Uh, it varies.

Sometimes if I'm being lazy, I'll just do talking head because it's less production. Or if I don't have enough time, I do the talking head because it's

less production. And then sometimes the talking head isn't written and I'm just kind of ranting and just kind of talking and thinking out loud. But that's a

heavier editing burden and a heavier like media. You know, you bring it into the

timeline, it's this long. if you're going on for 20 minutes and you know you're you're cutting into sections that are this big and this thing's this long.

So, um they all they all have their tradeoffs. So, it varies, but I try to have a plan and I try to have an end.

Yeah, I got to have an ending before I start because that's what you're going towards. You got to have the destination before I start shooting. I

mean, um, Keith, hey, Van, I teach academic writing for international students and would like to create the

thematic unit of the process of a thematic unit of the process of creating the creative process. what who would be some resources aside from yourself that

could be used to have these students integrate in their exploration of this process both writing um and other media

like okay so absolute required reading is um the creative act by Rick Rubin that

is absolute required reading and then the other absolute required reading is

um Uh, the War of Art by Stephen Presfield. Pressman Presfield. It's the guy who wrote Bagger Vance. It's called The War of

Art. And that's just sort of the test of are you up for this job? problem with

this job is that it's so cool and everybody I'm gonna be me

create. We had like a a a very rich kid come visit us multi-millionaires kid

come visit us and uh he was just like yeah probably going to be like an actor maybe a writer or something you know we're thinking

about moving here. It's like, all right, probably be fine because you're very rich,

but it should be kind of a compulsion. It should be a problem. It should kind of be a problem. It should be a thing that kind of like your compulsion to do

this [ __ ] mad crazy thing, your compulsion to do that should sort of destroy your life. It kind of will

destroy your life. And you'll have to build another kind of life and then you'll have to be with people who understand what the life is and it's

very hard to especially find like partners that will understand because it just looks like any other job. It's like

no you started out at Tom Sachs, you had that job, right? and then you went and did some work and then you did a project

with your brother and that was that job and then such and such and it went to HBO and such and such and such and such and that's it. It's not that. It's not

that. It's you're in a forest, you have a you have a Swiss Army knife and you

have to carve a road and a house, right? and like in into this into

the woods as you're going through trying to get to whatever you know your ambition is.

It's so I don't know. I think it's really important that kids a good person to listen that kids vet themselves and

be like am I really up to this? And a lot of kids will just say will just think that it's talent and they'll be

like I'm not talented enough shrunk and they'll just quit. Good. We want to get rid of those people because talent is

how much interest you have in it. How much you're addicted to it. That's what talent is. That's what talent is. It's like the It's the interest in the thing.

And then genius is just like you find it. It's so It's such a It's such a

insane addiction that you find the thing when you're 5 years old and you can't stop doing it. And when you do stop, you

probably die. Like Amy Winehouse or any of those people who Jimmyi Hendris or whatever. Although I don't think he stopped. He's probably had died with a guitar in his hand.

Um but that's I think for teachers really need to understand that way way way way too much emphasis on the arts in this in this civilization. Way too much.

Way too much. It's for billionaires children. That's especially in this era.

This ain't 2000. This ain't 1998, okay? It's 2025. You can't just go get a $400 a month apartment in New York

City right now. It's impossible. You can't get a $400 apartment in Quebec City or, you know, Iowa City.

It's just um there's way too much way too much encouragement in the arts. It should be

a hobby. It should be a nice way of you to explore the world. should be a nice way of you to relax and do your thing.

But as far as like becoming a, you know, as becoming a professional like whatever

YouTuber, it's for it's for billionaires kids and it's for just the people who don't need guidance because they're

going to do it anyway and they're going to chop their way through the through the forest with a Swiss Army knife. All right, so but those two books are great.

um, War of Art, Stephen Presfield and um, Rick Rubin the Creative Act. And they both say the same thing in those

those books. Like you're probably not cut out for this. Don't worry about it.

Do it anyway. Okay. Joel asks, "What is one skill, hobby, or interest you haven't been able to share on this channel?" Oh, uh, I'm a good cook, but I don't care.

Not interested. I think I'm a really good cook. And my friend Greg Gerston like I made him a grilled cheese sandwich and I just put it in front of

him and he was like he just took his phone out and he took pictures of it. He was like this is unbelievable. And I'm just like, "No, that's a grilled

cheese." And then when I think about it, no, I'm a good cook. I can make it look beautiful. I can make it taste great. Um

I can invent stuff with almost no with very few ingredients. I have certain tastes.

Um, presentations just all matter, but I just find food extremely boring and you just consume it. So, there's that's something that I don't share on this table.

Um, although I guess it's not a hobby. It's a skill, but it's not a hobby or an interest. I guess it's just Yep. So, Chris asks, "Uh, curious if you have any

jack knives hanging around. How long you used your original one you made years ago?" You mean like folding knives? Like to me, when I was a kid, a

jack knife was like a pocketk knife like that unfolded. Uh I have a bunch. I have those open L's. Like people give me

those. Like my friend uh Alex Calman when I left New York, he gave me an open L knife and he said when his father fled

Hungary when he was little, that was all he had. And he moved to New York and built like a [ __ ] awesome His name is

um Tore Calman. He has an incredible book. He did all of the Talking Heads covers. He's like a designer. He was

like a I guess you would say graphic designer, but his company was called

[Music] um I don't know what his company was called, but it's a famous like design firm, and they were amazing. Anyway,

that was his dad. He had an open L jack knife that he that was all he had when he came from Hungary when he was a kid.

And um Alex bought me the same one when I moved to LA. God bless him. Very thoughtful guy.

Um, have you used your original one you made years ago? Oh, I think you're thinking of the

Swiss Army knife with the keys in it, right? Jack knife hack or something.

What? Swiss keys. It's the original one you used years ago. I lost the original one and I don't have that car anymore

that it started. Or maybe I gave it away. I don't know. But they started making I took a Swiss Army knife, I took the blades out, I put all my keys in it.

I put four of my keys in it. So, the key to my bike, key to my truck, maybe a key to my studio, something like that. And

then I made a video for the promotion for the Inside Brothers show. And then they started making some companies just started just copy that idea and you can

get like they're basically jack knives that you take apart and put your keys in and then screw them back together and it's like a thing. And I felt like, oh, that's cool. I beat them to that.

Um, so I used that original one until I probably until I got rid of the car. So, a year or something. Okay. Jeffrey Stevens asks, "One more thing. How do

you handle the manual focus of the Leica? Is it a process to make sure you'll be in focus?" Uh, I thought Leica only has manual focus. It has automatic

focus. It's not that good. It has that facial recognition. It's not that good.

And I just either I do tape measure and do it that way. So, it's locked perfect.

Or because, you know, it has the it has the um graduations on the lens. or uh I have it set so that when you

turn the focus ring it automatically blows up so you can mic you can see whether or not it's in focus

and then I have it I don't know what it's called histogram something like that not the chart thing but I have it so that it turns red when it's really in

sharp focus so that's how I do that's how I do it it's kind of a problem it's not as good as the Sony it doesn't have good like robot eyes but I don't care

because It's like the perfect blend of digital and analog. And the analog world's kind

of a pain in the ass. That's why uh there's so much digital stuff out there.

Um Oscar asked, "What's your opinion of forcing yourself to be creative? For example, at the moment, I don't feel very inspired to create, but I still

push myself to do stuff. Am I doing more harm than good?" I have mixed feelings about this. I think rest is part of

discipline. I think being lazy. I think like I love hearing Fran Leeovitz whom I love. She's not productive at all. She's

like very not prolific as far as like new writing is concerned because that's her primary

talent arguably. But um she's like I am the laziest person in the world. But she

does all these speaking engagements like when she gets broke she does all these speaking engagements. She he was she was she said when she was looking for a new

apartment, she needed an apartment to accommodate her books. She has thousands and thousands of books and she's like and the when the broker showed me it was

three times what I was able to afford and so and she got it and then she just like worked really hard but she has

these vast amounts. It's a different style I think for this for the for making videos on YouTube.

Um the the skills are a little bit perishable and I think you got to just keep going regular be doing some part of the

process being writing or editing or shooting or even reading or built for me building. It should just sort of be in

part of the flow. You should be if you're like a naturally and truly creative person, you just can't stop yourself really. you'll just if you're in a dentist office, you'll start

rearranging the [ __ ] magazines or whatever, you know, like.

So, I kind of feel like that's okay to a certain extent, but you sort of always want to be tangentially working within

your medium. You want to be doing things that will feed your medium, I think. But Rick Rubin would probably disagree with me if you read that Rick Rubin book.

He's just like, "When it's ready to be made, you'll make it." So, I don't know. I don't know. I go back and forth on it, too. Like, I think I'm a little burned out right now, but

I've been taking it real easy. I've been doing like one video a month for YouTube, like one sponsored video a month for YouTube, and it's made me,

it's allowed me to focus more on my personal life. It hasn't fed back into my creativity yet, but maybe it will.

And I haven't had any breakthroughs. That's how you get breakthroughs and changed and do big major changes and stuff is by having breaks. It's probably

what why I decided to do the channel is I was just doing work for it. It was all creative work though, just for other people. And so I had like that open

available space to like come up with some breakthrough paradigm shift for

myself to start a channel. Um you're not doing more harm to push yourself. When in doubt, push yourself. You don't know

whether to do it or not do it. Just push yourself and make bad [ __ ] all the time.

That's fine. Just don't force it upon other people. Don't ever make anyone watch your experimental film.

Never. Um, I've been trying to get into journaling and I'd love to hear if it's something you do. Uh, any tips from your experience would be incredibly valuable.

I should be more disciplined about it. I used to be more disciplined about it. I have some up there and like there are some years that are this thick with 8

and 1 half inch by 11 in typed pages and then there's like last year which is this thick and it's inversely proportional to the how I don't know if

that's true. It seems like it's in inverse inversely proportional to how much like video stuff I'm doing cuz it

I'm not writing enough. The whole basis should be writing. The whole basis should start with journaling and stuff like I wrote yesterday, but that was probably the first time in I know that

was the first time in the month of March. No, sorry, in the month of March or April that I had written anything.

So, I don't know if you're not making videos and writing all this stuff all the time. I'm constantly writing and fixing and writing and

so but that's no excuse I should be doing it every day. you read like there's a great Jean Cockto who was sort of a

Renaissance man in the uh kind of the first half of the 20th century. He um he was a filmmaker, writer, he was a

painter, he was a poet, he did plays, he made just he was just amazing. and he

had um I think he made the grand illusion was like his famous film that he made and he had these diaries that you can buy and they're just incredible

and you're like and he's writing the diary a lot of the diaries all the stuff he has to do. It's like I'm meeting with so I'm meeting with freaking Hemingway to go blah blah blah and I'm meeting

with Ceile de Mill to do D and like no and it's like and he has such perfect

taste and it's that old just disciplined brain but you see like how the hell did

you have time to write this thing and you're doing all that other stuff and you sat down and write this thing and

it's like well no YouTube no phone that's how lots of train rides.

Uh, okay. Lucas, uh, I got these wax kevlar boot laces off Amazon. Very nice upgrade. Thought you and my spirited man

brothers and sist thought of you and my spirited man. My spirited brothers and sisters here. Whoa.

Um, I'll have to check that out. Kevlar. Yeah, because the regular ones just kind of wear out after not long enough.

Khalil asks, "Is there a topic you've struggled to translate individual into video? Something you've wanted to share

but can't quite work out?" Yes, there's an abandoned project. Oh, what was it?

And it's just like it's like the folder's there. It says like part because I do by parts. That's how I keep them in order. Like I'm working on part

236 right now. So it's like part 179 or something. What was it? What

was I trying to do? And I just couldn't write it. I just couldn't get it written. And I had I have I had like

note like tons of notes and I had outline and I had and I just couldn't

get it. Oh, I can't remember what it was. That's a good question. But there's a couple of those.

There's one about the Palisades fire that like I had all these memories of the Palisades and I thought that my some of

my memories were actually footage which happens a lot and um so I went back into

the footage and it was too fragmented. I was like, "Oh my god." because I would do the Palisades with my son on

Saturdays or Sundays and on our bikes and you know I have this thing about not shooting everything all the time which

I'm which I shouldn't do that. I I I don't have I really don't have business doing that. My brother Casey is really really great about always just shooting

all the time and keeping it all organized and everything and I I you know I'm lazier and I I just take breaks

from it. you can justify it blah blah blah living the experience blah blah blah but then afterwards I'm just like

[ __ ] man I never shot the thing about the Palisades so this is an abandoned project I was going to do this thing called the Palisades fire was going to be like my love letter to the Palisades

and I was going to talk about in the Palisades a very very very rich not very very very but it's a the working rich

okay that's what the average house I think is like $8 million okay and this is a plain ass modest house neighborhood

These houses, if they were in Akran, Ohio, would be $186,000 houses. They're $8 million.

These aren't big mansions, blah blah blah. These are just little houses with little yards next to each other. And um during

the just to just to give an indication of what the neighborhood was like, but these are rich people. Um during the

during the during the pandemic, there were all these little sidewalk

tableau for the people of the neighborhood and the people wandering through the neighborhood to play with when they were outside. So there was one

house that had a rope swing that swung out over there was a bunch of rope swings. One house that had a rope swing that swung out over the road. That same house had just piles of hockey pucks.

Like a hundred p. So ex and I, my son and I, we would play with those hockey, he was little. We would play with those hockey pucks for an hour and make up all kinds of games and sculptures and stuff.

That's one house. One house had a no [ __ ] in the sidewalk, like sidewalk where you walk and then there's that

green area where all the dogs [ __ ] in that green area where all the dogs [ __ ] a no [ __ ] pumpkin patch with like dozens

of pumpkins in it. One had a little one house had a little mini golf course where you could play little mini golf.

One house had a hammock there. More and more and more there multiple um multiple swings. And I'm really upset that I

didn't shoot all of that because it's all gone now. And it was really it kind

of put like what these people were like cuz yeah they were rich but they weren't the inherited they're still alive. I mean

they're not the inherited lazy entitled a-hole rich the snobby loser rich like the people where

I'm from are like. Um they're the working rich man. They're the immigrants that came and somehow made it and ground it out. A lot of them. a lot of them.

Um, and the or the entertainment people that you love, people from Saturday Night Live that you love, people that grounded out on that show or you know

that grounded out and like these are the people that were the Palisades and they and the embodiment was this way that

they treated their neighborhood as a neighborhood. And um I went through and looked for the shots and like I don't

have the mini golf. I never shot it because the people who own the mini golf, they came out and I didn't feel comfortable just shooting these people,

you know, I could have asked permission and then it's like, well then what's it for and blah blah blah blah blah blah and whatever. So I just enjoyed it and

so that's a project I might not ever be able to make. I mean I could do it but it'll take a lot more work than if I

just shot the the the stuff the Palisad stuff. There's more. There's more cool

palisades. Oh, basketball hoops all over the place with basketballs where they let you play like dead ends that if you

had a bike, you could go around and get to like different parts of the neighborhood. It was just such a such a [ __ ] awesome place, the Palisades.

Um, I'll try to remember the other one that I gave up on. It was some like high concept thing.

Okay, Gareth asks, "My wife and I recently know my wife recently noticed I watch your videos and couldn't understand what

exactly it was all about. And it got me thinking. I love the work you do, the videos, the style, the aesthetic, but I don't quite know how to describe it all

succinctly. though your work through your work I discovered Tom Sachs and other artists and creators who follow a

similar vein but I still can't put my finger on what it is and it fascinates me. I wondered how you would help

describe this style slash approach that you do. Tom Saxs calls it

brolage and that's sort of like I don't know if you remember this TV show called Macgyver or the A team and they'd get in this

situation and the only way to get out of it was by like taking a whole room full of junk and making like a tank or like

making a some kind of Rube Goldberg thing. But it's essentially this process of maximum return with

minimal resources or kind of making the thing that you want just what with what you have. It's like a form of innovation. I think that's a lot of what

it's about. I did this thing that uh a few years ago where I asked I think I asked all the patrons, but I might have

asked the main YouTube subscribers. This might have been like the only time I read the

comments on YouTube. I was like, "What is my channel about?" I think I asked the patrons actually. It's like, "What is my channel about?" And just leave the

comments and my two favorite. One of them was it's about thinking with your

hands and then one of them was it's Gen X Yankee Workshop. But if you don't know what the New Yankee Workshop is, which

was a show about making furniture on PBS, then that's lost on you. I if I remember when people ask me I say it's

Mr. Rogers for adults. And then people are like, "What do you mean?" And then I just give examples of certain episodes,

but I don't really know either. Somebody smart is going to come up with a name for what it is, but I haven't figured it

out, you know, so I don't know. It's hard. I have trouble with it, too. I have trouble describing it. It's hard

when you're trying to do new things or you just are in you're not you don't have the talent to do the established

things well. So you make up your own thing to do and you just keep doing that thing. It's hard to describe to the

people what that new thing is. Like how would you describe the show's 60

minutes to like the Walter Kankite audience because they just want to make

it in their head. They want to associate it. Oh, so it's like Oh, so it's like it's like not really. It's not that. So

I don't know. I also like to say and all the stuff I would compare it to just doesn't exist anymore or it's like obscure like the the short films that

the Emmes made the the EMS uh studio Charles and Ray Emmes they made short films for like IBM and

Polaroid I think they're called industrial films. It's kind of like that but nobody knows what that is. kind of a little bit like Andy Rooney who used to

have this little opinion kind of column at the end of 60 Minutes on TV where he'd be like, "How come pill bottles have so much cotton in the top of them?

I mean, look at all this cotton." And then he'd go so deep dive into the thing that like, you

know, 90 seconds in, you're in like ancient Cairo and the cotton fields and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

So, um, it's kind of like that Andy Rooney, but I don't know. It's very hard to come up with some succinct thing because it's so weird.

Um, some of your fixes, while effective, might, this is from Colin, some of your fixes, while effective, might get a bit cumbersome to work with the long term.

Puzzle piece, deck, desk connector, etc. Do you ever get frustrated with the solutions you've created after you've worked with them for a while?

I think I do. Yeah, but they're just like the puzzle piece that was for a video because, you know, I wanted to make a

video about puzzles and so maybe that was a little bit a little contrived. But then I just keep building

to make that work better because like the puzzle wasn't exactly even, so I had to make these shims for the desk. And then the other desk wasn't exactly even, so I had to make these special shims.

just kind of feeds and feeds and then before you know it, it's a whole little like tableau of craziness that I think I

kind of like. So the Japanese, they have this concept called Kaizen, and it's just

this mentality of just constantly improving. Like you're allowed to at Toyota. There's a button at all the stations. you can stop the entire

production line if you discover an improvement that'll make the building of the car more efficient. I don't really

get why I don't get why why you have to stop the [ __ ] production line to do that. But, you know, uh, my friends, um,

Ariel Schulman and Henry Juice, aka Super Maruction System, which is an actual

like manufacturing process that many, many, many companies besides Toyota use called the Toyota produ production

system. and they Toyota during Hurricane Sandy, there was all of these goods coming in that were needed to be

distributed to the people in um in in in Sand uh Breezy Point in Brockaway and um it was like one of the tasks was a

box of that had like an apple juice box sandwich but for the workers. It had like 10 things in it. And so before

Toyota got there, it took like, and this sounds ridiculous, but you got to think the apples are in Suz's car and she's

parked over on West 29th Road, but there's a roadblock, right? The boxes, they're here somewhere. The boxes are

here somewhere. It was like that for like eight things. And so the first round and they did like a time they averaged and it was like 12 minutes to

to fill the box. And then they employed they had some like people from Toyota come and build a system for this

distribution and they were getting it down to like they went from like 12 seconds to like 90 seconds to like they had the whole thing streamlined blah blah blah. And I kind of learned how to

do that in I was a pot washer which in an industrial kitchen and I just this kitchen was so big they did it was at

this place called the Williamsburg Lodge which is in colonial Williamsburg. They did a huge um but it wasn't like colonial Williamsburg isn't 100%

colonial, you know? It's like they have iPhones and freaking smartwatches and stuff there and then you have the colonial Williamsburg part that's like

people making bricks and oh hey and little spectacles and stuff but then you have like the hotels and stuff and they have running water and they have

kitchens and food and conveyor belts for the dishwasher. Anyway, it was such a big kitchen that there was one man, me, whose job was just to wash pots and pans, you know, for thousands of meals.

And um the thing I loved about that job, I was like 21, 20, 21, was I got to

design the whole flow of the kitchen and where the chefs would put the stuff.

This was the soaking bin where thing uh sink. This was the cleaning sink. This is like the soap sink. This is the sterilization sink. This is the drying.

and uh and was that Kaizen process just always always coming up with new

techniques and that's sort of what the whole thing is. Some of the [ __ ] Yeah, it's just way easier. Go on Amazon, buy a new one or you can make a tape

dispenser and it'll always be a little bit problematic, but you know, blah blah blah. So that's it. Yeah, it's

cumbersome to work with long term. kind of stick shift probably a little

um was curious about your from Brandon was curious about your thoughts in developing disaster preparedness

packouts etc any resources you use um when you move to Tanga you get a

manual that tells you all the stuff and they also distribute these radios if you

they're for three that are like they're weather emergency radios and they get one channel. They have one channel and you keep batteries in them because if

the power goes out you have no com communications the because the phones now are tied to the internet. So stupid there's not like a separate landline

where we live. So um and then preparedness is just sort

of no it just kind of comes with experience because you know we've been we had been evacuated like three times

and um then I just my preparedness was I just go from worst case scenario and try

to work my way back and kind of make sure I have all of those systems. Worst case scenario is it's the power went out at midnight.

It's four o'clock in the morning and obviously this goes without saying.

It can always be worse. No matter how much you imagine it, there could be a swarm of monkeys that got out of a swarm

of 500 gorillas and chimpanzees that got out of the zoo that are also in this thing. And they all have aids and they

all have knives. Okay, it could always get worse, but like the worst case scenario that I can imagine that's probable is like power went out at

midnight, nobody noticed. It's 4:00 in the morning. The flames are at the door.

The somebody fleeing to Panga. There's only two ways out. There's only like one

way out now. Broken axle on their trailer. It's gridlock traffic and the flames are coming for you and your

one-year-old and your six-year-old. And I have the I have a bolt. I have a angle grinder in the back

of the Land Cruiser. I have three motorcycles ready to go. I have I can we can I have a backpack that I can put my one-year-old in and ride my motorcycle.

Either I can pick for my electric motorcycle or my gas motorcycle.

Isabelle has a gas motorcycle. She can put X on the front or vice versa. She can wear the backpack. X has a motorcycle. I mean, that's desperate. If

it comes to that, that's bad. If he has to ride his little bike out of there, I have the And I know the roots, the fire road roots out of the if if if the

traffic is just blah blah blah. I know the fire road a couple fire road routes out of Tanga into the valley, out of

Tanga into the to the ocean. Um, and then everything is just sort of ready.

It's just like ready. My bike is on my truck right now. how the battery is charged, you know. Um, and I'm kind of wherever that truck is. I have a

chainsaw in the back of the Tacoma that lives in a box that's weatherproof that has all of

the chainsaw gear. I have this you can buy at Home Depot. You can buy premixed two-stroke chainsaw gasoline that has a

special preservative so that it lasts for years and you don't have to worry about um it because gasoline deteriorates, especially when it has oil

mixed in it. So, my chainsaw has never have been fueled, never been used, but I have the, you know, I have the bar oil.

I have everything ready to go. So, I should eventually use it just to use it, but I know how to use a chainsaw, blah

blah blah. And that was when they called in the winds. They said the winds are, this was before the fires, and they started, they closed the school, and they said that we're going to be

shutting down power because the winds are going to be so severe. And I just imagined fire, blocked road, tree in the road. if only I had a chainsaw, you

know, and then I drove the Tacoma to and from work during that period.

But I grew up, it was hurricanes where I grew up and so there was a hurricane preparedness stuff and um that September

11th in New York after that was kind of a wakeup call and just puts you in that mindset of

like no one's in charge. No one's in charge. You're in charge. There's another book that I started reading called No One's Coming to Save You by

like one of these like Green Berets or something. And it's just this mentality.

It's very American mentality where it's just like you've got to get the thing done. You've got to be self-sufficient and you got to and it's

like so I don't know. I don't know where the training comes from. Probably paranoia.

Okay. So, from Vincent, Wes Anderson's characters fascinate me particularly because they often feel interconnected.

For example, Adrien charact Adrien Brody's character in the Grand Budapest Hotel could easily be imagined as the same person in

the French Dispatch. Yeah, I agree. Um, have you ever thought of about writing fiction or experimenting with fiction on

your channel? Yes, I've done it. I've tried. I've thought about I don't I kind of understand why

fiction exists and I think fiction is just so that you can change the names so that you don't get sued. And I'm not kidding. I think that that's what it is so that the king doesn't cut your

[ __ ] head off. Um, but it's also its own like art and I don't know what

translates and I don't know. I'm kind of locked into this thing. I think I don't then I'm not interested in it. And like you go into a bookstore and you're like

really like and this is just this bookstore has like 0.001% 001% of all the books that have ever been written in it and it's wallto-wall

at the Have you ever taken your book collection and it's like crate after crate after crate and hundreds of pounds of books and then you put it on the

bookshelf and it's like this many books like there's you know I don't know I I'm not I don't care about making a feature

film. I don't care about that. That's just a big business. That's just like I don't care. I don't care about making an

independent cool film. They made all the great ones in the 90s. I don't have anything new to say. The the guy like

Yorgos Lanos and like Wes Anderson and stuff make all of the stuff that I could that

I would just try to make because they're just so great. So, I'm not Yeah, I'm not really interested. Um, but I am interested in

writing non-fiction stuff. Um, Ryan asks, um, "How have you gone about curating

your po portfolio over the years to best represent your work?" I don't I just I

only do it in an emergency. I don't I mean, now that there's so much out there, I don't need to. Um, and people

if there's job opportunities or something, I'm pretty lazy and not ambitious in that respect. So it's people having seen my work or heard

through trusted acquaintances that oh you would like this person this person's work. So

I don't have a portfolio. I just have the what's out there. And then I have a press thing that I wrote I don't know

2012 like that I'll add to that's like man Neistad is based in blah blah blah and

he in 2000 blah blah blah. I have that and then some photos, but that's just kind of it.

Um, Patrick asks, um, "Have you ever thought about doing a workshop for your Patreon fans? I'd absolutely love to

take a workshop on you with you on film making or how to nurture your creativity. Would you ever consider putting together a creative workshop in person? That would be amazing." Yes.

Yes. I think that will probably be the next thing. and I can't figure out how to do it. I can't figure out how to do

it and make a profit and keep it as a viable business. And it's like, well, dude, you could just get grants

from Google, man. They have like trillions of dollars. Just call the dude at Google and they'll just like send you a million dollars like tomorrow. But no,

it's not that. It's like you're beholden to all this stuff and then you're like raising money and grant money and all this stuff. Um, so that figuring out the like self and also you want the power.

You want it to be self- sustaining. You want it to go. So, and I don't really want to build a like from scr not from

scratch. I don't mind, but I don't want to do poor man's version

like like, oh, I started Tate's cookies um with a toaster oven in my tiny little

apartment. Like, I've already done that for decades upon decades. I am not interested in doing that. I'm interested in doing it the other way where I have a

cool story that I show to some investors or whatever uh venture capitalists. I

don't know and be like this is what I think this is this is this and here is my past work and this will be the this

will be the physical manifestation of this my salary on this job is $100,000 a

month. That's how it starts. And the school or whatever costs this and this facility and blah blah blah. And yes,

we'll start out small and develop, but I don't want to start out I don't want to do it enough to

start out like making Tate's cookies in a toaster oven in my little apartment.

But yes, it's sort of the logical conclusion is like people are losing manual skills and sort of I think my mission

like what I'm here to do and there's like only kind of two other people who are doing this that I know of or three

is I want to make like craft and not just hipster craft. I mean

like driving a bulldozer craft. I kind of want to I want to make it kind of high status. I wanted there to be a

status like a high status cool factor associated with working with your hands and Mike Row and Adam Corolla and to

some extent Tom Sachs they're the one they're the like champions of the same thoughts and uh Temple

Grandon saved the shop class but I think we got to repackage it as like the Hermes I don't know if you know about

the Hermes like craftsman program that they have is the best brand in the Hermes makes the best things that human

beings make. Nobody makes anything better than Hermes. Nothing. Not Ferrari, not Lamborghini, not Elon Musk,

not Rolex, not um uh Pek Philippe. Um they make bags that cost half a million dollars. um because that's what it takes to make those bags and their system is incredible and that's a high

status high quality making with your hands thing. Um and with this one of the things that we've lost, you know, these things like there's a lot of mixed opinions about the tariffs. Almost everyone says

they're terrible. Almost everyone thinks they're terrible. And the thing that people come back to a lot is that it's the consumer. And this makes sense that

the consumer loses because there's everything's more expensive. But to me, people are just buying more garbage.

Like maybe something will happen where you have to buy things that are more expensive and

higher quality. I understand they're taking the same products and just adding 25% to them and that hasn't happened yet. But there's, you know, they're I

watched a video where they're building Chevy's building the the the V8s now so that they have like a electronic or electrical

um oil pump that fails and destroys the engine. And it was a perfect engine and it had a passive oil mechanism, oil pump

mechanism that was just a function of the engine. And they were indestructible and lasted forever. And now they make them so that they last just as long as

the warranty and then they self-destruct. And we need to get away from that. And we need people to be

comfortable fixing and repairing and so forth. And I don't know,

uh, but I would love a school that I wasn't super hands-on with, but like kind of perpetuated that idea of like

the just like what it does, the educational value of working with your hands, the spiritual value of working with your

hands. Uh, you have loved visiting Mexico with your family in the past.

With these tariff tensions brewing up, will you ease up on your out of country?

Absolutely. I'm not going to Mexico anytime soon. I think it's going to get super dangerous.

Um yeah, it's like we're I'm thinking about doing a movie about this, but about like things are getting cooking.

Things are this is not a stable world that we're living in. I would be careful about and I'm a person who's been all over the world. I've been person I've

been overland te Mexico. I during cartel [ __ ] and I've been held at gunpoint in Mexico and I had been told by people

like state department people do not go to Mexico and I've gone anyway with absolutely no problems. I've driven thousands of miles up and down through

Mexico. I'm not like a fearful paranoid person blah blah blah blah blah. But I live uh a couple hours from Mexico. I

see things I see things in my in the United States of America like with my eyes and

um you know that forth turning stuff I don't know he was right about he was right about six or seven or eight

things. I don't think he's going to be wrong about the next couple things that are coming down the pipe. And

uh think about if you were traveling during uh the first couple weeks of COVID and you got stranded because all

of the airlines the whole freaking thing was shut down and you got stranded in between two nice places in a crap place.

What are you going to do? You know, and that's just that's just co what happens if they shut the you know any attack

we're going to experience is going to be electricity or communications or both.

can't do anything. What are you gonna do? So, I I mean, having said that, I do I am scheduled to go to Mexico in in uh June.

I do have a trip planned, but that's just me. No family. Uh I'm taking a plane. But no, I can't do the family

overland thing until this stuff chills out cuz the the cartels being agitated

is not I don't think it makes it safe. I think it's scary. and we're in between this there's this just civil war and there's a in Mexico between the cartel

and the non-cartel and they I I I go on and on about this stuff but it's it's it's a little I don't want

to because I'm a I'm a I'm not a state department official I'm a YouTuber.

Um just a nice thank you from Nathaniel. Um, Daniel John Daniel asks,

"Do you have any strong feelings about pens? I see a lot of pencils in your videos. I would think you'd be the guy." Well, you know what the thing is? Is I'm

left-handed. And when you're left-handed, you write your ink path is along your hand

path. And unless you have a so a ballpoint pen, that ink never really dries. and your hand goes right across

and gets ballpoint pen ink all over there. And then you go to your friend's

atellier and he has a $50,000 armchair and you put your hand down to get up and you've just ruined a $50,000 armchair.

Um and uh I and then the other kind of pens, the ink is they late, they leak.

I've tried the nib pens. Those are a disaster. Um, I do have a pen that I write checks with that

my uncle gave me. It's this very nice like cross pen. It's really heavy and it's like uh written and it's like big

and it's 18 karat goldplated and uh it has this like cartridge special thing that you have to order that's expensive

and it goes in. That's nice. I like that pen. It lives in a cup here and I just use it for writing checks. And then wherever I'm at a place where I have to

fill things out like a passport office or the DMV, I just use whatever the pens are that they have there. And then there's a pen built in an emergency,

there's a pen built into my uh leather man that's blue ink. So that's my thing with pens.

You know, pencils are waterproof and they're not that messy. You can clean them out of the $50,000 armchair more easily.

Okay. Uh David, crazy think it's only been six weeks since your intense experience with LA fires. Does it feel like forever ago or like yesterday?

Anything you'd have done differently? Have your thoughts on what caused fires changed at all? You had originally talked about homeless encampments, but now, but most of what I've read recently

blames power lines. How are you feeling about LA now? Um, those fires broke my heart.

Those fires were to me the embodiment of the uh delusion the the the fantasy of the citizens and the leadership of this place. I will say that during the I was

impressed by the Angelinos like the rank and file Angelinos like me like when there were evacuations and stuff it was

very orderly. There was no horn bumping there were beeping. There was no speeding. People let each other merge even though that it was super scary. You

could see the fires and there was traffic blah blah blah. I was very impressed by that. But the policies and everything, I don't know this about the

I don't know that they have conclusive I haven't really been following the power lines stuff and um why the [ __ ] are the power lines

above ground stupids? Why are you that dumb? This stay I mean I could just go on and this is a painful thing. This broke my heart. LA broke my heart. Those

fires broke my heart. I'm leaving. We're probably leaving. Um and this was the greatest place. And then the thing that people said about it that I would defend

against, oh, but the, you know, Angelinos, they're so late, you know, the Los Angeles is so fake. It's so blah

blah blah. All that [ __ ] was laid bare um during those fires because that's true. And then we had, you know, the firefighters and those people were

[ __ ] amazing. And people from all over the place, all over the world came to help us to save this city. I don't

see much gratitude. I don't see much thanks. I don't see much honor in that. Uh, I was talking or Isabelle was talking to the rabbi and

the rabbi's wife up the street and she was like, "Everyone for just forgets when the fire after the fires. Everyone just forgets and that's why they keep

happening." Um, I didn't do anything. I wouldn't change anything that I did. I I you know I did what anything you'd have done differently? No, I don't think so.

Not really. I would tried to behave better, but I'm always trying to behave better. I was a little like frazzled and like it was very terrifying and stressful.

Um, no, I think what caused the fires is uh incompetence, arrogance,

um, hubris, uh, corruption, whether it was those power lines. What the [ __ ] are the power

lines? Why do we have power lines? This state has infinite money.

This is the rich, this state is the fifth richest country in the world. We have unlimited money, but we have

extremely limited competence and extremely limited will. And they don't have they don't have my road open. It's

a road. Human beings have been building roads for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. If this and people say this and it's it's scary when people

say this and it's weird but if this was and people like well they can move there then but we used to be this um if this

was China that road would have been open in 18 hours but they're going to milk it because they know they got a hundred million last time for uh a little

mudslide. They got a hundred million from the feds to bulldoze mud out of the way. I could have done it with a hundred

grand and like two guys. So, they're just going to leave that road closed and they're going to keep going after the feds. Give us more money. Give us more

money. Give us more money. And um yeah, there's just no, it's not New York. New York's full of

will. New York during the during the um the New York City Marathon, it's 26 miles, right? It goes through all five

burrows. New York is not big. New York's a tiny little thing. Okay. Um the forest fire the fires here were like three or four Manhattan. Okay.

Um but there's like kind of the same number of people and after this is during the this is during the competent

Bloomberg administrated administration granted but after the New York City marathon where

there's 850 trillion paper cups from all of the runners on every freaking street along the road everywhere there's

rappers from the thing there's clothes that people shed 24 hours later it's immaculate You would have no idea there

was a marathon there. There were like they build like a city in Central Park for like the high rollers. They secure it with the military um because it's a

you know it's a highv value target or whatever soft target um 48

hours Bloomberg and I want to know I want to shake the hand and this person deserves a medal. Whoever the person was, might

have been Giuliani, I don't know. Some genius in New York City, some genius

figured out to put snow plows on the garbage trucks when it

snows. How simple. How not easy. You got to outfit everything. Blah blah blah.

How smart. chains and snowplows on the garbage trucks because the garbage trucks go down every single street in

New York. So, they just put genius. If it was if it was if it was California,

if we got snow here, uh there would be four garbage there would be four snow plow trucks, okay?

And they would have to drive next to each other and the plows would link up together. They would fit 20% of the roads and then you would have to wait a

month while they outfitted a new style of and then this guy gets this money.

Anyway, I don't know. That's like I'm sorry it's very long rant, but that's how I'm feeling about LA right now. Um, it used to be the greatest city in the

world and it is no longer. Uh, Decom asks, "I'm so sorry.

I'm only getting like I'm not going to make it through this. I'm not going to make it through this." Um, I'll go until for 15 more minutes.

Okay. Uh, greetings from the valley. Do you storyboard your shots or how do you approach your shot framing and lighting?

Do you play with the ISO or f-stop? Yes, I've played with the ISO and f-stop. Um, uh, both. And the shutter speed I don't

mess. I leave it on fifth 150th. Um, and I don't storyboard, but I do write a a

description of the shot. So I'll write, you know, hand removes bolt and then like and then

numbered and then that's 14 and then 15 is closeup of hand removing bolt and then just my brain automatically

storyboards. I think I have to go in reverse. I have to put words to the

storyboard that's in my native to my brain so I see it and then I write it down. so I can remember because that's

just going to turn into the picture as soon as I read it. It's my brain's going to be the picture and then I just imitate that picture with the camera,

which I've been using cameras for so long. It's like it's just a very tedious chore. It's like loading a dishwasher.

Um, and that's why my stuff isn't exposed perfectly and it kind of looks sometimes it looks all [ __ ] up. I'm

not trying to do anything cool. I'm just I'm just not an artist when it comes to

the camera. Like a real camera person just styled. Not me. I'm just trying to get the shape of it and not be offensive

with the [Music] exposure. What's the story of those artworks of novels typed and pasted onto a large sheet? How many are there and where are they now? I did a whole video about those.

Uh, I think the story is in the video. Um, they're in storage now and I think there's about five of them.

Yeah. What's my favorite animal? Human beings. Um, I'm not an animal person.

Although I am an object visualizer and I am naturally inclined to uh interact with animals. I have a natural affinity. It's like cooking.

It's one of those things that I just don't I just don't My brother Dean is like an animal genius, but uh I'm I don't really care.

And I'm I think I'm especially disgusted by how Americans treat their dogs like better than they treat people.

There's a $10 million property down the street from my house for sale and it's currently a dog like and there's a lot

of these around here. It's like a dog retreat. Like a luxury retreat for dogs.

Like where you leave your dog when you go on vacation. Stupid. Um, what was the last

beautiful thing you saw? Something that stopped you in your tracks. I was walking uh in

Calabasas and I don't know what the blossom is called, but there was just a tree that had been pruned back to just sticks and

then the blossoms were just starting to bud and they were like this purple fuchsia color and they were coming out.

It was so incredible. It looked like when they show you the like um the the

the colorized uh uh uh um electron microscope imagery or something of like a cell or like a disease or something.

It looked like that but in real life and it was so [ __ ] beautiful. That was like yesterday I saw that. Um, I'm

wondering if you've ever read Let My People Go Surfing, the book about running

Patagonia. Is it like a if it's like a coffee table book with beautiful pictures? I'm sure I've thumbmed I live

in Los Angeles. I'm sure I've like thumbmed through it. Um, but I've seen it on I've seen it on bookshelves and

stuff. I I it doesn't stand out to me in a philosophical sense. You and Ivon Shinard align in some ways and he also

does. That's a huge It says in a philos philosophical sense, you and Ivonne Shinard align in some ways and he also

drives a Toyota. That is a huge compliment. Thank you. Because Ivon Shinard is the founder of Patagonia, the clothing company, and he spends almost

all that money on buying up the actual Patagonia in South America and preserving it. and he's just like a a

climber and that's like a rock climber and that's what he does and that's what he loves. He's a mountaineer and he's a real visionary and those products are wonderful.

Um, and they have a lifetime guarantee and you can have an old old old ass Patagonia jacket from the 60s that you

found in a thrift shop and you can bring it in and be like, "This just doesn't live up to my expectations." And they will be like, "Pick out the we have

this. This is similar. Go ahead. It's yours." Because I I know people who've worked there

because those things are I think they're called puppies when they come back.

I don't know the lingo, but the people who work there get to get the vintage stuff that you've returned. They get to

like some of it. I think they resell depending on what shape it's in. And that's a new program, but it used to be.

So the employees are just trained. It's like a big part of their training. It's just like, "Oh, no, no, yeah, yeah, that's fine. Go pick out whatever you want." It's like, "Oh my god, I got like

the forest green original that thick down puffy jacket that they stopped making in 91 and he just went and got the new new one." So anyway, that's Pat.

That's that's how everything that's how cars should be. I mean, not they just stand behind it. BMW does

not they won't service anything old older than 2015. I'm pretty sure for motorcycles I think 10 years. It might

be 15 years. I might have it wrong. It might be if it's older than 15 years, they don't service it. They don't do the parts anymore. [ __ ] you. A motorcycle is not that complicated of a gadget.

Okay. Your favorite movies from various stages of your life. That's a good one from Tyler.

Um, my first favorite movie was probably Foot Loose. My second favorite movie was probably, unless I have the order

backwards, which I might, uh, was probably ET and then it was probably

[Music] uh, RA uh, Empire Strikes Back. And then it was probably I mean Lucas and Spielberg owned childhood movies for me.

And then it was probably like in fifth grade it was Empire of the Sun. And then

jeez in high school. Uh I don't know. It was like a dark period. What? What? I don't even

know what movies was I into. It was hard to get movies.

It was probably like Peewee's Big Adventure or something, which is a masterpiece.

Uh, college, like Dazed and Confused. I don't know. It's hard, man. I don't

really remember. I don't really remember. I think my favorite movie right now is Come on, come on by Mike

Mills. And it's uh the premise is it's Wen Phoenix and he's like my he is my age and he's kind of chubby and he's

plays like a um like an NPR reporter and he's making this sort of

like a radio show or a podcast about children talking about

um just the world and he this all happens within like the first five minutes of the movies. I'm not giving anything away.

It's like the trailer. And his sister, who's played by Gabby Hoffman, who's great, she has like a 9-year-old

and the dad is mentally ill. And so she has to go take care of the dad, the nine-year-old's dad, her like husband.

And the uncle, Wen Phoenix, has to take care of this kid who's like nine. And the kid that they

cast, you know, they say old souls, all that stuff. This kid is a miracle. Like, what is this kid? This kid is

incredible. And it's Waen Phoenix, who's sorry, love him or hate him, he's a genius. Uh, and this kid and it's it's

so great. It's just so great because I'm an uncle as well and I'm also a father and it's about kind of both of those

things. It's just so [ __ ] great. And it's in the New York. That was my like last New York.

Like the end of my New York was a lot of it was in Chinatown by the um Manhattan Bridge. It's just people that was like the cheap neighborhood at the time. And

so a lot of people were there and a lot of the restaurants that were great were there and like real authentic stuff was there. And um it's just it was very

familiar and it was nice and that was one of the few places where you weren't really crammed. Ironically, because it's Chinatown, you would think, but no, it

was like there was space and there's a scene and they it's done so well where the kid's nine. He's from Los Angeles.

He's out in Chinatown in New York with his uncle and his uncle's not a dad.

He's an uncle and he loses the kid outside in the city. Kid doesn't have a phone and it's so good. And it's not

that it's like 30 seconds. Maybe even maybe it's one minute and it's just so well done. It's so well done. That's a little bit of a a spoiler, but go see

it. Come on. Come on. It's what it's called. And it's in black and white. And then there's another great movie. It's great. It's a great movie.

It's not a perfect movie. And it's called Ritual of Fire. And it's shot on

super 16 millimeter film. And it's about three It's about three little motorcycle

dirt bike band dirt bike bandits who need to get a speckled egg. Like an egg

with the dots on it. That's what they do in the whole movie. It is incredible the adventure that they go on

with their little dirt bikes. They're all by It's kind of like takes place now, but it's like as if they're Gen X kids because they have dirt bikes and

they're in um Wyoming and it's just so cool. Ritual of Fire. Go see it. It's on or pay for it. Buy it. The filmmaker

needs your money. Um on streamers. Uh so those are some of my

favorites. Uh Rachel, I have recently moved to a new home and a new part of the country. I was inspired by your

solution to being kept out of your neighborhood during the fires. This is why we go on adventures. Do you have any advice on exploring and getting to know

a new place? Oh man. Gosh. Do you have a motorcycle or a

dirt bike? I can't recommend those. I mean, they're expensive, but uh and they're

only getting more expensive with these tariffs. But uh those electric dirt bikes or like a super 73 or something

like that, but the electric dirt bikes with a lot of torque are really good.

The like surrounds and those things. But let's say you don't have that, just

familiarize with yourself with new routes to get yourself between where you

need to go and where you live. It's just such a fun thing. And you can do it do it in your car when you know not during

rush hour obviously but like you know you go to like 10 places there's the restaurant there's your work there's uh

I'm saying like from your home there's like the school I don't know the hiking trail whatever it is and just try to just blankly

navigate with by streets by interest do it with anything. The best is a motorcycle. Um, on foot's kind of great, but that takes the most amount of time.

Bicycle's good if it's a flat place. Electric bicycle is great.

Um, but that's, you know, I know how all these fire roads and all this stuff because my son and I, first of all,

hiking them all, but my son and I got those electric dirt bikes and we illegally just would go and ride all those roads to see where they connected

to, like what what paved road does this fire road connect to? And when I get to the junction, is there a gate? And can I

breach that gate on a bike? Can I breach that gate? Will my Land Cruiser make it up here if I cut the gate? Will my, you know, like um and I've just been doing

that for years and years in Los Angeles just but I love driving. I love motorcycles. I love bicycles. I love

wheels. So, I recommend that like just kind of exploring getting from A to B,

your favorite restaurant, cutting through different neighborhoods if you have kids. Like my son's really into magnet fishing, so we just go to every I

just search parks in Los Angeles with ponds or lakes and then we just go so we go to like we go to all these

neighborhoods that are like dangerous neighborhoods. Such [ __ ] horse [ __ ] Um uh they're just not rich

neighborhoods. But like um you know we see and they all have amazing parks like Englewood, South

Central, Compton, they all have these parks with like big water features in them and we go and we drag the magnet we find all kinds of cool stuff.

Um, yeah, if you have kids, playgrounds, playgrounds near me, like when you're getting food, playgrounds near me, and

then just kind of wander through, you know, you're kind of probably going to use GPS for that. But yeah, nonGPS

orientering through neighborhoods. And that's what I think. I don't know, but that's a city guy. I'm saying you that's

that's you're in a city if you're doing that. If you're in the country, find all the nature stuff that's public property that you can go and explore on foot or on dirt bike or whatever.

Uh Shane, okay, this will be the last one. In your My Addiction video, you talk about podcasts as helpful for many

reasons and find yourself making work just to listen to the smartest people on Earth. I would remiss not to point out that you are one of those people for me and probably many others. Thank you.

Well, that wasn't a question, so I'll do another one. But thank you very much. That's very nice of you to say that.

Wow, that's incredible. I would skip mine because they're not long enough.

I'm always looking for something that's like an hour because if it's seven minutes, I'm not done with the thing I started. I got to fiddle through and find another damn thing. So, I'm always looking for at least an hour long.

Um, thoughts on turning 50? Is this the best time in your life? And did Chris Burden studio survive the fires? And is

it still on the accomplish list? Die trying. You know, I'm just I think I'm going to get the equivalent of Chris Burden's studio somewhere else because

and I don't know that it survived, but I haven't heard otherwise. And I'm pretty sure it survived. I'm pretty sure it survived because he's on my side of the

um he's like behind my house, so he's on my side of the Tanga Canyon Boulevard and uh that far north. Nothing nothing was burned.

They protected us. The firefighters protected us. So, um, thoughts on turning 50? Is this the

best time in your life? You know, it really isn't. No, it's not like turning 40. It's not remotely like turning 40.

It's different. It's different. 50 is different. 50 is different.

Um, because now you Yeah. It's just it's different. Body is not what it is. It doesn't heal the right way. It doesn't

get stronger the same. It's not like you're physically not even at 40, you can physically still be getting stronger and strong. You know, the DAR rally

winners are in their 40s. There are, you know, you know, um how old was uh what's his name? Uh the guy, your guy there,

your favorite guy, Tom Brady, he's winning Super Bowls in his 40s. Uh Fernando Alonzo is, you know, he's

racing uh Formula 1 at the highest possible level in his 40s. There's no 50-year-olds in Formula

1, you know. There's 50y olds in the dock car in the cars, but not on the bikes.

Um so yeah, I don't know. And it just, you know, the fires this this year has been a [ __ ] It's been It hasn't been a

good year 2025. It just hasn't. People, somebody close to me died. Um, I couldn't get to the funeral because of

the fires. The fires. Um, people are having a lot of trouble here. It's not acknowledged. It's not really It's not

really public. It's not You're not really seeing it in the culture, but it's there and it's my people.

Um, and that's turning 50. Uh, that was turning 50 for me. So, yeah. I don't

know. Maybe if I was turning 50 in ' 08, it would be different. Uh, but 50 in

2025, me, that's not that good. Wasn't 40. And when I turned 40, I was at the

South by Southwest Film Festival with my [ __ ] movie on a

marquee, you know, the name of my movie or our movie on a marquee. And I went in with all my friends that flew in from

all over the place. I had just driven up from southern Mexico in my

F350. I drove to the from Mexico to the premiere. That was my 50th. That was my 40th.

So, yeah. So far, I'm not impressed, but thank you. Sorry, I shouldn't end on a down note. Let's How about another one?

How about another one? Uh geez. Um, what is the easiest way to create a video about a piece of art like a painting or sculpture? I have skills in photography, music, and art, but I

struggle with video and editing. I'd really want to learn many simple. Thank you. The easiest way, get the artist to

talk about the thing and get absolute beautiful photography. All the angles,

super close-up of details, and then the as wide as close as you can get, but also finish fit fit fit the entire piece

into the into the into the into the frame. And [Music] um yeah, get the artist's opinion and don't let them be fruity. Don't let them be it's a goddamn picture. It's a sculpture. It ain't saving the world.

You're not You're not James Joyce. Get them to be as literal and uh nonp

pretentious as humanly possible. Maybe get the story. Maybe get the what was it? You know what? There's a great I'll I'll give you an example.

There's a great podcast. Uh Wes Lang, is that right? Is that a painter

in Los Angeles? Tetra Grammaton, which is the Rick Rubin podcast.

Tetrogrammaton is the old Hebrew word for God. Um, and they're in his studio and it's not a piece of it's not about the art.

It's a conversation between those two guys, but there's art kind of lying around, but their conversation is so interesting and the way he talks about

the whole thing is so interesting and nonp pretentious. Just try to do that. I think try to do that. Maybe video, maybe

the artist with you. Um, good sound always harder than you think. And,

um, cutaways to the art when it's mentioned. Cutaways to the specifics of the art. You do it in two, do it in two,

um, shoots. One shoot, maybe the first shoot is you talk, definitely the first shoot is you talking to the artist, no

cut, you just sitting next to each other, both in the frame. And then the second shoot is

um all of the specifics that the artist mentions. You might mention other pieces. You come back and shoot all that stuff with your shot list. Then put it

together. Music is spice. Music is not food. Music is spice. How much or sauce?

How much ketchup do you put on your French fries? Do you drown? Is it as much French fries as there is ketchup? No. There's a little

bit for some people. There's the right amount of ketchup for the right amount of fries. Music is sauce and

spice. It's not the main dish. So, just remember that before you just drown your

piece in music. You know, watch those Lynch films. It's not music. It's weird sound design. It's more than one way to

make a movie. Scorsese would disagree with me. Um, maybe Wes Anderson would, but they're the two greatest of all time

at it. And Kubric, of course. Okay, guys. Have a great weekend. I hope I didn't bum you out. Everything's great.

Everything's fine. And um, uh, yeah, have a good weekend. Thank you. Thank you for watching.

Products & Tools Mentioned

• Tight Bond (wood glue) recommends — strongest wood bond, stronger than pine
• Shoe Goo / Goop / E6000 recommends — latex adhesive, best all-purpose glue
• Leica uses — camera discussed for manual focus workflow
• Sony mentions — camera comparison - better autofocus than Leica
• Super 73 uses — electric bike discussed for exploration
• Hermes recommends — luxury brand discussed as pinnacle of handmade craftsmanship
• Patagonia recommends — clothing company with lifetime guarantee discussed
• BMW (motorcycles) mentions — criticized for not servicing old vehicles
• Toyota mentions — Toyota Production System / Kaizen discussed
• Chevy (V8 engines) mentions — criticized for planned obsolescence
• Home Depot (premixed chainsaw gas) uses — source for preserved 2-stroke fuel
• Tacoma (chainsaw in back) uses — emergency preparedness vehicle
• Land Cruiser uses — primary vehicle with angle grinder
• Cross pen (18k gold-plated) uses — uncle's gift pen for writing checks

People Referenced

David Lynch, Natalie Lynn, Werner Herzog, Les Blank, Rick Rubin, Stephen Pressfield, Andy Spade, Kate Spade, Mickey Drexler, Jenna Lyons, Josh Safdie, Ben Safdie, Chris Mesina, Jim Webb, Jean Cocteau

Books Mentioned

• The Creative Act
• The War of Art
• Born Fighting
• Swiss Watching
• No One's Coming to Save You
• Let My People Go Surfing

Films & Media Referenced

• current favorite movie, Joaquin Phoenix
• film about dirt bike bandits, shot on Super 16mm
• first feature, went to Cannes but rejected from BU festival
• documentary series referenced
• documentary series referenced
• podcast referenced, Hebrew word for God
• first favorite movie as a kid
• childhood favorite movie
• childhood favorite movie
• fifth grade favorite
• high school favorite, called masterpiece
• college era favorite

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