LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, MARCH 15 9am PST
Published · 1:18:20 · 1,278 views
About This Video
A March 2024 Friday livestream. Van takes patron questions on builds, repairs, and whatever else comes up that week.
Transcript
sorry guys I'm a minute late I was so caught up reading the uh questions from the Live Stream post
yesterday that I lost track of time which I almost never
do okay so in keeping with tradition the weather report had to wear gloves and a
William Ellery uh alpaca sweatshirt on my run this morning
which the William Ellery alpaca sweatshirt I highly recommend it's my my friend uh started that company so he
sends me things for free I imagine it's very expensive but it's sorry I just put it in the wash but
it's essentially this like furry it's like a Patagonia chinchilla or Cilla it's like
the furry sweatshirt that you put on but it's real fur it's not made out of recycled plastic
bottles anyway this is still the weather report anyway I wore that and uh running
gloves on my run this morning and uh with shorts and it was that was the perfect outfit for that run
I was perfectly comfortable oh and under the alpaca sweatshirt was a uh I wore
like a Lulu Lemon one of those running shirts that when you sweat it just instantly evaporates uh so that was
my that was my outfit and it was perfect and that's the weather report thank you David Lynch for inventing it um okay so
let's go on to the questions oh I I hit my head on the hatchback of the Land Cruiser while I
was closing it was backing into a parking space there was a little stone wall next to the parking space I
hit that with my mud flap so I busted the mud flap off and put it back on and then when I got out of the car I had to
stand on the stone wall and not fall off the stone wall to open the hatchback and when while I was opening it Dink and uh
it was very embarrassing I wished I had had a hat on because then it would have moved if I was wearing like a baseball hat I would have moved to make room for
the brim of the Hat oh well so that's a little humility for me I got a big on my head um all right on to the questions
this more interesting than than my commentary here we go uh all right so a
Adrian asks uh what informs your visual language most this week's questions by the way
are particularly good so I said I've heard David Lynch in
uh um interviews I asked him what has been the most the biggest inspiration for you and he said the city of Philadelphia I and I love that answer
because it's so there's so much richness in that and in thinking about the answering this question I think it's my
upbringing in New England because New England is a place that is very conservative aesthetically I don't know
if it's still this way but it was just the restaurants we went to some of them were a hundred years old you know when I was a kid and there's
just lots of that there's lots of that in New England there's like Mystic Sea port which was within bicycling distance of where I grew up and that's just a
museum of where they restore boats um and it's a it's a museum a wailing Museum but
it's outside it's kind of like Colonial Williamsburg or Sturbridge Old Sturbridge Village Old Sturbridge Village is also
in uh New England and Colonia Williamsburg is actually part of the William and Mary campus is Colonial Williamsburg and that's where I went to
college so I guess New England which is sort of old not old but it's sort of
English and European mostly English Colonial um aesthetic and my
grandparents had this Farm in Maine and they just had like my grandfather had a beautiful old like diesel tractor and they had old diesel
they were even old at the time when I was little uh they had old diesel Mercedes uh cars because they're
really great in the snow it's Main and they're really good on fuel efficiency they aren't so great in the cold but
they had plugin block heaters um and yeah that was I had a lot of cousins up
there and there was this combination of sophistication um because of the vacation side like the
rich people vac side of Maine like Coastal main like kenon bunkport and then there's the kind of what I guess we
would call which like a pejorative but only among upper middle class people not among them themselves but what we call
Red Neck like rednecks don't find that term offensive because it refers to the
guys in West Virginia who were the red bandanas when they were trying to unionize
um uh capability the redneck like knoow capability like they know how thick the ice has to be before you can skate on it
they know all the fishing LS they know all the names of all the trees and plants and blah blah blah if anything breaks they can fix it they don't use thing they don't these are the people
that I know like anything if you're dependent on a technology you're out in the woods on some dirt bike or four-wheeler or whatever and something
breaks you have the cap you're not stuck ever you have the capability and the knowledge to get the thing and the will to get the thing thing out of your
situation so I think a lot of that and then the sophistication of where I grew up which was on the Rhode Island border of
Connecticut um in a town that where a lot of whaling captains lived you know whaling was like the
petroleum of its day um and so on the houses which are still like intact they were like preserved and my friends par
my friends lived in these houses there would be little plaques that would say like William Johnson
captain of the of the whaling ship Vigor 18 whatever to 18
whatever um that yeah just a preservation lots of right angles the Yale boat house they would do this it's the whole it's the
oldest Intercollegiate uh sporting event in America Yale versus Harvard it's a boat race on the themes River we pronounce it
the themes River and the Yale Harvard had 20 Strokes down river Harvard had their compound with a boat house and uh
like bunk houses where all the Harvard rowers lived and then at the end of my street on the river was the Yale booat
house uh and their compound and it was more rundown than the Harvard one but like in that really
Sophisticated New England Blue Blood way like they had this gaming table for a game called Skittles which is probably a
British game and what it is is it's ESS entally it's a marble tabletop with a little like a uh kind of a floor plan
but a 3D floor plan put on it so it's like kind of a maze but it's rooms little rooms with a little with doors in
between the rooms okay and inside each room is like a little miniature bowling
pin and you get a top a steel top with like a shaft and then like a big Steel
head on it and you'd wrap a string around this top and you'd pull the string and You' put it in this like
mount on your side of the Skittles board I don't know and you pulled the string as hard as you could
and that top probably got up to like a thousand RPM or something and then it would wander through the little rooms
and knock down the pins and then you would go against your opponent and whoever I don't know what the exact rules were but whoever knocked down the
most pins you know won the Skittles game and it was the oldest Intercollegiate sporting event in the
country so it was like when I was in the 80s it was like 125 years old or something and I that game would probably
bought new that game was probably bought new because the marble from like where
that little top was propelled like spun and started it was like carved out and I think they had to like fill it in with
stuff with like epoxy and stuff to make so that the top wouldn't just get stuck in there and the whole aesthetic was
that but they'd paint it every year they'd paint the house every year and it had wooden clapboards not the you know the fireproof stuff that we use today I
think a lot of it comes from that and those guys were very sophisticated the men on the on the on the crew team like
they were there was a guy named Matt um Matt liberman and his father ended up running for vice president pres with Al
Gore in that election in 2000 um and yeah I think that's the I
think that's what informs that and then there's films that are analogous to that like videos and and and architecture and
so forth and Europe I think is has has that stuff I don't know it might be some
Enlightenment ideal that I have God first question I spent [ __ ] 11 minutes on it oh my language okay um
Allan asks what artists of different media types do you admire or look up to I think the top ones that I look up to
are the standup com comedians because they are able to uh transmit a feeling
and our favorite feeling which is laughter uh they're able to transmit it and they're they only use this they
don't have to use I think they use this and some speakers and I guess a light but they don't have to use the cameras and the editing
and and they can even do it without this they can do it in a room and they the great ones are just so so so good at it
and um I think that those guys the top you know the the the apex predators of the standup
Comics you know kind of all of the eras I love them all um you know and
including this era I love Tim Dylan's my favorite uh I subscribe to his patreon
um I like Matt mccusker and Shane Gillis they're just ah they're just so
unpretentious they're just so so so funny uh uh and then what other
media uh you know the obvious ones from like the painters like Ed ret I love him
uh but yeah the comics are my are my people I think um are you planning to do
another project with Casey no like a sequel to nice Brothers no or a project with Tom Sachs not planning on it but we
have something that we we're we're writing a book that like you know we' both had kids D D D D so we're still in
the we're still in the that that that'll happen I'm pretty sure hopefully we'll both Tom and I
will reach levels of like um popularity wherein the book will sell well uh but
we'll see I don't think it matters when that comes out um I noticed you and Casey have the
Iron Man timx watch uh is it style or substance so Casey sent me a Timex Iron Man it was the one that Bill Clinton
used to wore wear I guess they reissued it and Casey wrote on the box it's right up there he wrote perfect in every way
and um Casey is smarter than me and more technologically savvy than me and the start and stop button on the timer on
the stopwatch thing um are two different buttons unlike
an unlike an analog stopwatch where start whoops start and stop are the same button so
that's not perfect also it beeps yes you can turn the beep off but you can also inadvertently turn the beep back on and
I don't know if anyone's ever seen that movie a quiet place but like that'll get you killed by those those those an those
those aliens um but I understand what he was saying so I hadn't worn a watch in it probably
over a decade and he sent me just out of the blue and I started wearing I was like oh my God it is so nice to just go
like this or like like on a motorcycle just go like this to see the time and not having to fish your phone out and
I'm kind of like very preoccupied with time A lot of times because you know you have kids and schedules and so forth so
I got I watched this guy Chad Wright who's an ex Navy SEAL and I really like him and he's uh he's he's
kind of like my favorite kind of personality super strong point of view I bet people think he's racist and [ __ ] but I don't think he is he's like what
they call a redneck in uh in Georgia but he has just very strong points of view like you have to eat a steak with your
hands or it loses all of its um nutritional value anyway he has this great video about three analog changes
that he made to his life and one of them was uh he takes notes with which I already do pencil and paper one of them
was uh analog watch and I can't remember what the third one is but uh it was something I already did and and so I
ordered a Casio I was astonished I went on Amazon and I ordered a Casio like divers watch it was like
$21 and I ordered it because they're made in they're not made in Japan anymore they're made in China so I ordered it and it was fine but there were a couple problems with it and one
was um at night I wake up before the sun comes up so when I kind of wake up in the middle of the night I really need to
know what time it is like is it time to wake up because it looks it's dark when I wake up up it's dark now and the the
thing didn't light up right because it had hands and with the glow-in-the-dark kind you hold it up to the light and then for an hour you can read the hands
but if you're sleeping you can't and then it started seizing at midnight it would just stop at midnight so for my
birthday this year I heard Joe Rogan talking about this watch called the marathon uh and the and the marathon
watch has uh little tubes of radioactive gas that glow for 25 years straight 25 year halflife so they glow you don't have to charge them with sunlight or anything
and so I got this it's called a a mer it's it's expensive but it's not expensive for a watch uh I bought this
it's called a marathon gar which is government search and rescue like watch and these little numbers they're
lit I mean I can't show you now because I got the lights on but they're just always lit and it is every time in the middle of the night I'm just like I cannot believe this it's like a little
flashlight on my rich and it has to have I by law by international law I think it has to have the little radioactive that
like scary propeller symbol on it and then in order for it to be sold in Germany it has to say H3 which means
radioactive substance and it's for real like and it probably doesn't cause cancer because the casing the the the
the radioactivity is so light and the casing is uh is uh thick so we'll see if
I get can you're not going to get cancer from that little thing and I'm I'm gonna die 40 Years anyway so who cares
um but yeah I love it it's really cool it's super thick and heavy and uh the analoges of it is one
of the things I love you know it's like automatic it has a little weight it has like your wrist there's a weight inside
that winds it um and uh you see time in the big picture you don't just see the numbers you know you see time like how
much has expired and how much is left until you're thing so you it even enforces your sensibility and sense of
time all right so that's it uh after you finished oh this is from Nicholas after you finished a creative
project what motiv Ates you to start the process all over again I'm just in a cycle and uh you know I want to get you
guys stuff every week and I want to get the YouTube stuff every week because it's sort of like the more regular you
are with that the more uh consistent you are with that the more that it gets distributed by the algorithm machinery
and so and I also think it makes me stronger like I have this discussion with Casey a lot about you know what do
we you can't predict whether something's going to be popular or not and you know you have to just kind of
make you have to do the best you can and Casey's in a position where he can take as much time as he can and I might be in that position but I don't know that if I
I don't know that I like it I think I like to be able to go every week to put something out
um but there's it's just like a weird it's kind of like cigarettes or something it's just like you finish one I get a little high from when I when I
finish one I get like a little like bump because there's like a you know it's a struggle to go through and when you kind
of crack it and figure it out oh yeah you get a little like high and then that's usually on a weekend or I usually
take a break for a day or something after that and like straighten my life out and like put things away and buy
things at the store and everything and um and then I yeah and then I just go on to the next
one sometimes I'm like not I mean lately a lot it's been I don't want to even do it but I just I do I just I'm like just
do it this is I mean it's just it's I don't know it's like too bad just do it
so I don't know that's it okay Lu Lucas asks me uh see you in Austin at Revival
or what so the handmade show I think is April 16th in Austin uh I want to do my I mean we're
getting close we're within a month I guess maybe I'll call Allen today I haven't finalized anything but I'd like to do my Repair Station there in Austin
but it's logistically you know I got two kids now and blah blah blah it's logistically I have to sort it all
before I make any announcement or know but probably um
Kevin gives asks uh as a fellow father what advice can
you give me in raising my boys both creative and very different ways to offer them art and creative work as a
valid lifelong Pursuit Andor profession if it shoots them the world is better because of your art thanks for all you
do and share thank you Kevin uh I think you need to instill above okay this is the thing here is what happens this is
what it is okay an artist a creative person almost basically no matter what
will do it they cannot not do it they are programmed to do it they cannot do it they cannot not doing it the making
of the art or the making of things or the creating of whatever is not the thing that they need help with that is
the thing that they are the thing that they need help with is living in the rest of the world and and functioning in a world
that has a lot of protocol that have already been figured out a lot of artists think that they can invent a business protocol because they're so
creative and their creativity can get them through just about everything until they need to like take a bus or take a
train where it's no you have to be at this platform at this time da d da you know and um so artists have a tendency
to try to invent business practices no no no no no no no no no no no you need to here to you need to learn business
practices I think the thing is if you have Creative Kids what you need to teach them or instill upon them I I would say and this sounds radical and
like I'm being a dick but I would say try to repress the inclination of them
try of them uh going into the a creative thing like uh and I'm talking very
specific I'm not talking about well all jobs are creative even if you work at gas station no I'm talking about I make
something from scratch myself and then I try to sell it for enough money so that I can feed my family and you know and
take a vacation now and then so yeah I'd say uh teach them entrepreneurial skills
business skills how to make money really because they're gonna do their thing no matter what the danger is when you take a creative person and you and either the
creative person makes the decision or they they they they they put themsel in a position or
they uh you know they they they follow a family tradition or whatever wherein
they are not or they're in a context that doesn't allow creativity I would say
like a great I I was at I was in I went to a a hearing for a friend of mine at
the courthouse here in in Los Angeles a couple days ago and that's all those employees everything all that stuff I mean lawyers
have to be pretty creative and stuff but the the the the you just that world that government
world for the most part with the exception of very few little tiny little Islands within it is like that is not a
place where creative people belong because it's all protocol it's all top down and it's just about learning the
systems and doing them as best as you can for instance I asked the woman where is courtroom what what courtroom is such
and such judges what's the number what floor is it on and this woman was working in an information desk okay and she said and she's just like scrolling
and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and I'm saying and I
say uh is it not in alphabetical order I wasn't I was trying to be as respectful humanly possible because it's court and
she was just like no I wear glasses and uh you know I just I'm trying to find the right one it's in alphabetical order
and I'm just like uh C can you magnify this green you know a bit or something and it's like
how many names could there possibly be how many this guy's name started with a k k is worth what five points in Scrabble there's not that many k words
point being like she was so uncreated that she couldn't even her whole job is looking up names on that computer that's her
career and that is a place where a creative person will shoot themselves or others because it will so stifle their
creativity um but as far as like I mean I have a br my two brothers are both well one of my
brothers is military and he's uh creative in a very very very practical sense like he directs second unit for
Ben Stiller on uh on on Severance and he's a stunt coordinator he can do he's like the kind of The Best of Both Worlds
he can do very strict logistical I mean he's a Jet Pilot he can do very strict logistical tasks where you must follow
protocol and there's a lot of things keeping that you have to keep track in your head as you're trying to sort of do something that's nuanced and creative
but he's more technician than an artist I would say but he's a very successful guy Dean this is my youngest brother and
then you have Casey who's like the [ __ ] opposite of that right Casey is a maniac I can't I don't know
how he is so irresponsible with like physical things like whatever like he gave me like a to borrow like thousands
like tens of thousands of dollars worth of L Series lenses and this Canon 1dx and stuff because he was he was moved on to Sony and everything everything was
broken and smashed and it was and yet he had built this huge Empire Of You Know YouTube videos and it's just that it's
that he's like that with his cars with everything and I was I just wish I could be like that I wish I could be
more uh it's almost Reckless it's almost careless but he's also super responsible you know and super and like you know he
breaks his Sony camera two seconds he can just go buy another one he won't even notice the funds missing and so I'm somewhere in the
middle of those two guys is a long answer to the question but it's I think about this how do you I think you gotta kind of stifle their first of all you
have to allow them when they get into obsessions besides video games besides
video games when they get and tele not maybe not even maybe television's okay when they get into obsessions which you
have to you have to be able to distinguish between it an an addiction which is what video games and phone and all that [ __ ] is and an obsession which
is a positive thing to my to my thinking like when they really get into something no matter how weird it
is you just have to let them go with it which is what my my brother Dean says our parents the way the reason that the
three boys are so successful is because he said loving neglect there were no adults I was there were no adults around
when when I was a kid there were no adults there were no adults in the town everybody was at work so you get there
was for instance there was um this was a I was in college when this happened um
two dogs got out of someone's yard in my neighborhood and went on a [ __ ] not a killing spree they didn't kill anyone
but they attacked a whole bunch of kids and there were no adults to stop this dog in the neighborhood in that kind of
an emergency and my brother de Dean I think he was a kid but my de Dean's like a dog whisper I think Dean was able to
like corral the dogs but they like they girl little girl got hospitalized and everything and the point I'm making I
mean that's extreme that's trauma that's that's dangerous but I think the point I'm making is
that there's a degree of hands offness like I'm very opposed to art schools and I think art programs in poor communities
is extremely cruel I think that's a cruel cruel cruel thing to do it's like having like a Louis Vuitton store in a
in a in a poor Community it's just cruel because art is not it's like
it's it's kind of for rich people or Geniuses and it's like without that you know I don't know there's the people
like my brothers and me and we weren't you know we weren't we just like there was nothing else we could do and we
weren't supervised so that's how it happened and um yeah I don't know I think give them more
just give them the resources when they get kind of obsessed with stuff just no matter how weird but not video games all
right so all right 30 minutes in them like three questions okay um this one comes from H
Hunter it's about New York uh you've talked about your passion for New York City and what what's it's don't for your
career and what's it's don't for your career a lot um I think he meant to say done uh
and just how special of a place it is in that regard I'm 22 and look at New York now and wonder if there's still everything you've said it was at a time
for you do you think it's still a place to go if you're someone who has a goal and wants to pursue it it seems like
it's changed a bit now it seems like the internet is for a lot of people today what New York was for you I think a lot lot of younger people just getting
started are wanting to put themselves in an environment that challenges and fosters growth for themselves and their dreams interested to hear your thoughts
on this well I have to tell you uh Hunter I don't know you're probably from America uh I I sort of think that you're
correct about the internet like the internet as it was coming up it kind of felt like they were building a New York and then New York while I was living there while the internet was being
invented I was uh or wasn't being invented it was be it was growing it was uh evolving into kind of what we know
now I remember thinking it was just a much more convenient version of New York um but let's
see you're you're a gen z uh you're sorry you're a very very very
weak um cohort your your generation is very weak and fragile and one of the things about New York that's different
about New York from from from uh from from from the Internet is that New York you got to smarten up and you got to
toughen up just to stay in there just it's an people brag about being from New York because living in New York is an accomplishment in and of itself if you
live in Manhattan you and you can with your own means just maintain an apartment even if you're living with
roommates and so forth and and live that's an accomplishment in and of itself that's why New Yorkers have such
a an attitude about it and there's a great book you should there's I'm sorry a great essay you
should read and it's called here is New York and it's by EB white who is the guy
who wrote Charlotte's Web and he also wrote a lot he wrote a I think I believe a column for New Yorker back when the
New Yorker was the New Yorker and um it's about the three different kinds of people who live in New York the people
who live who were born in New York the people who commute in and out of New York and then the people who choose New York and that's what he did and that's
what I did and that's what my brothers did and the people who choose New York are the are the blood are the blood of New York because you know you're not
born there you have you're you're at a disadvantage and you know the internet's great and everything but to me the
internet is is I okay so I worked with some Millennial kid or some no some some I call them kids but they're adults some
uh I worked with some uh gen Z kids and they're digitally they're digital first and then analog so the analog life
serves the Digital Life not for me not for us but I mean and I I think New York
is very analog in a strange way it's very an it's real and also you'd be surrounded by the smartest people you've
ever been surrounded by even if you went to Harvard the people in New York are smarter and savvier because the cabbies are super smart the mechanics are super
smart because you have to be to be there and I don't even mean that god-given smartness I mean just that like savvy so
that's the special thing about it's a fantastic place to go and develop you definitely have to have a goal you can't just go there to screw around or like
you like to party or you want to find or discover something you have to at least have you have to have uh a at least a
wrong direction that you're trying to to follow like at least like I want to be a novelist and then move to New York and
then discover that no you know where it really is at is blah blah blah um and maybe I don't know my era of New York
was a special era of New York maybe everyone thinks that but I think mine really was and it wasn't as big it wasn't as special as like
madonas uh like the generation before me like the the 1980s late 70s 80s that generation that was
probably maybe one of the top two or three best New York eras that's when you got all that crazy cool BOS yacht and uh
you know and Madonna and you got uh uh you know the clubs of like Billy Idol
you know like just this whole world of hip-hop that's when hip-hop was invented uh and I think you know the the the the
Boom town now is Austin I would say go to Austin I'm doing I'm doing like a I'm planning on doing a Trilogy about
Austin right now I'm doing I'm probably Wednesday next week it'll come out doing the first of this Austin Trilogy and
because I think that you New York is not a place where you can be broke anymore and you need to be in a place if you're developing you need to be in a place
where you can be broke and you can use your Savvy instead of your money to get the things that need to get in New York
is just prohibitively expensive and I still think it's kind of like Manhattan or bus like sure there's Brooklyn stuff and blah blah blah but you're kind of
becoming local when you do Brooklyn whereas if you're in Manhattan you're International you know it's a global
place people could argue either way but um so I think that's the major difference between New York and
uh and uh and the internet your generation was just they're just they live in the internet so don't you want
to be stronger and better than them because that's who you're competing with for money and jobs and whatever so yeah
that's my take on it what artist O'Brien ask what artist would you most like to collaborate with uh you know I think I
would like to collaborate with a younger person like um there's this woman and
her name is Natalie Lynn and I'm met her in Austin and I had no idea who she was I thought she was somebody's like little
sister or daughter cuz she looks so young but she's grown woman she looks like a she looks like she looks so young and I saw her uh she was on digital
spaghetti which is Jack ke's um channel uh his YouTube channel Jack kti was the started patreon by the
way um and they were just showing uh bits of her videos and they were so beautiful and so
C atic and so well composed but I'm not sure she's has the writing um
experience to match her cinematographic uh experience or
cinemagraphic uh virtuosity so I would like to work with her and write something and that she
would have to film and maybe narrate with my words um
she's young she has more followers or subscribers she has more views than me um but I've uh I talked to her for one
second she was with a bunch of other creators and was just we were all introducing ourselves and I'm
Natalie uh but then I kind of discovered her after I met her in Austin and I was like oh my God that's that girl from the
from the IMI Fest oh my gosh uh but yeah I'd like to to work with her she's cool uh
Andy um oh he asked how I oh let me how I let me see he said to make a video about this um this folding table that
has a plywood quarter inch plywood on top of it and it's funny I'm such a here it
is I'm such a like snob or what or I'm so clueless this thing
that um I've just when w with stuff like this I just feel like that there's like one secret that you need to know and the
secret is oh it's just it's three quarter it's I'm sorry it's quarter inch uh ACX plywood that's all you need to know and then the rest is
self-explanatory but that's not the case the only reason I know the rest is explanatory self-explanatory is because I saw Tom Sachs do it in the you know 15
years ago so that is a great idea for a video maybe I will do that I probably need a new one for Austin I don't
know uh so yeah great idea thank you Brian I'll try to credit you I'm sorry Andy um I'll try to credit you with when
I make it Eric Vega thank you I got the I finally emptied my uh PO box and I got
the Christmas tree or minut it's fantastic um uh what's your favorite movie you made with Tom also Ethan I got the
jacket you sent me it's it's also great uh what's your favorite movie is it Ethan or
Evan it's Ethan yeah sorry um what's your favorite movie you made with Tom is
it color 10 bullets a space program or learning how to surf I don't know I kind of think it's the whole
punching uh each one of these each hole in the strips was hand punched using a
Hinrich model 6 deep throat bench PR Hinrich model 6 deep throat bench punch
bench prep bench punch I think that's how it starts I just love that movie it's so elegant and simple and that man
Oscar hanburg Tom's Uncle narrated it and he had such a rich he was 91 years old he had this insanely beautiful voice
with a slight Touch of a New York accent like a West Chester New York accent I just love that or I think Tom's
is like handy the handy Contraption about the little palette I made to dip the glue strip to dip the strips in so
you could glue without having to use a hot glue gun the simple ones um probably those
okay so okay Matt says you're in year through three of making art for YouTube other
YouTubers might have it easier because they make casual videos frequently with little thought are you still enjoying the ambition any breakthroughs any with
workflow we're cheering for you thanks Matt uh actually I think I'm going into
year four so 20 21 to 22 22 to 23 23 to 24 24 to 25 this will be year four um I you know we had a baby so it's a real disrup I mean I hate to say It's A disruption because it's like that's what the important part of life is and blah
blah blah but it does wreak havoc on on uh this process and so it just kind of
like took a torpedo to the side of the boat and I'm just trying to pump the water out and patch the hole keep the
boat moving but uh yeah I think as the baby is able to
sleep through the night I mean I sleep in this studio because the baby doesn't sleep through the night Isabelle wakes up at all hours and feeds the thing we
used to have a night nurse but she's moved on uh so as soon as the baby is sleeping through the night and my house
can stabilize because we don't have this uh uh a a a a sleep deprived CEO I
think I think I'll be able to go and I have a bunch of ideas I I want to kind of even focus what I'm making even more
and um be a little bit more productive and more collaborative so uh yeah I'm just trying
to get through this getting the baby to sleep through the night thing which sounds like such a trivial thing but it's it's
existential how difficult um Eric also asks have you ever thought of doing director commentary on those movies
meaning the saxs movies so we did one there's uh Blu-ray who the hell ever buys those but there's a Blu-ray kenol
lber edition of a space program and I'm pretty sure there should be a director's
commentary track on there because I recorded it and I sent it over to them I'm pretty sure but there was so much work on that film I get them all all the
stuff mixed out and did it mixed up and did have and I you can get the kinol lber Blu-ray and it's on there
um is that how we did it I just like record did we Tom and I record it together or was it just me and I recorded it
myself and then uploaded I don't remember but that exists but it's also a good idea for the patreon I should probably do that
um some of them are so short you can't really say anything because the video is like I don't know whatever I like doing
director's commentary thank you it's a good idea uh okay SE says can you talk about your college experience and what
you think about everyone needing to go to college here where I
[Music] live um even the police officers now called agents are required to be college graduates to join the police force I
think it's ridiculous since natural-born police officers can learn their special knowledge at the Academy and when they
join by being taught by the sergeants and supervisors what was your college Journey about would you like to go back
who would you study under what are ways that young people can begin their life without College this from a guy with four degrees in a dual
PhD okay so you have okay with college you have there's stuff that you if you want
to do it you have to go to college if you want to be a doctor you gotta go to college you want to practice law you got
to get these license things you got to just go to the best college that you can afford and get into
if you need a license but to be like I don't know to do what I do or
to or all everything else for everything else I say absolutely positively do not
go to college in 2024 no end of sentence if you didn't watch the Claudine gay
hearing and the hearing and Congress of those Maniac college best colleges in the world the
maniac uh presidents of those College colleges saying that calling for the uh genocide of the Jews is only hate speech
in certain context like no you you do not put 20 18y olds in the in those
environments plus it's way way way way too expensive they should pay you to go and it's and they're not selective
enough there's so many I know I mean every almost everyone I meet has gone to college and there's
unbelievably there people are unbelievably ignorant people like I'm not smart I wasn't good in college like I went to a good college but I
struggled I was nowhere near as good as the kids around me at William and Mary but and then I I went to West Virginia before
that and uh I don't know I just feel like people don't
know they don't know anything and uh you know back before the internet there was
no you couldn't have access to these people who had access to the keys to the world you couldn't get access you know
I Antony Scalia the Supreme Court Justice I went to he his son was my year at at William and Mary for instance okay
we had Nobel Prize winners on our on on the faculty at William and Mary um and then you know meet all the kids the
smart as as smart as you kids from all around the country and World in this one place the there was no other place for
there was no internet there was no other place to even find out about where you would have to just go to Europe and run
into people which I did like that was a way to like have access to people is go on like something that's kind of hard to
do um so and then they knew all the good books to read all the the the students and the and the and the professors knew
the good books to read and the first two years of school is so frustrating first two years of those insanely expensive places you're just being taught by these
like students these like grad students they're not even real professors so uh you know and then the
ideology it's like I don't know if you read there's a bunch of books but the the best one is uh the coddling of the
American Mind by uh Greg lukanov and um Jonathan height they've just
deteriorated and maybe one of these new schools like the University of Austin um maybe one of those where they
just it's just Vigor you know it's just like you know um maybe those are worth
it but read books listen to all these genius podcast every genius out there has a podcast just listen to it listen
to them and listen to the books they want you to read or they tell you to read and read books but uh you know
Veron Herzog didn't go to no College um okay yeah don't go take the money and start a
business okay this comes from Tom's musts must be an a I wonder if that's a real name anyway hi I sometimes find it
hard to cop hard not to copy work or steal small ideas by artists thinkers that I admire sometimes this is done
unconsciously how do you navigate the line between inspiration admiration and copying Your Role Models work is it a matter of diversifying your Inspirations
cutting off consumptions well the I think the the price you or the the price you have to pay or the tax you have to
pay is you got to do it better than they did if you're stealing something you got to do it better in some way and that's uh very hard if you're
stealing depending on who you're stealing from but you know most of the people aren't going to notice and it
depends I mean it depends how you steal it depends how you do it you know
uh don't make a movie about a guy who has his brain erased so that he can
forget his girlfriend and then ends up falling in love with her again despite
having his brain erased of her memories that's too good of an idea for you to
steal it's too high concept but you can steal the scene where they're under the blanket and the
sunlight is lighting them from outside and they're talking about whatever they're talking about you can do that you know so I don't know I guess maybe
it's a matter of degrees that's so what you can steal
uh and just read a lot of books how oh Paula asked how are you how's work and family balance going well I sort of just
is or that it's going good but it'll be a lot better when uh Isabelle can get more sleep let's put it that way
um Andrew asks uh do you view film making as therapy for yourself sometimes it can be and some
parts of it are um I think sometimes writing and coming up with something or trying to
understand something and coming up with the answer that can be therapeutic and then finishing a always feels good
that's therapeutic it reinforces that sense of a capability you know that sense that I can do this so yes but not
solely solely it can kind of make you turn you into a Madman excuse me although I think Herzog
would differ I'm reading his Memoir and um yeah he just just Mak makes films that's it oh and writes books and
poems uh this is a question uh Ricardo I have a project car I've been
thinking to have a project car BMW 325 I similar buy it used and start deep diving into the motor functionality Etc
my family thinks it's a waste of money guaranteed also because of the resale value of these cars the reputation of the cost maintenance and so on I but I
visualize having and enjoying it for as long as I can maintain it as a good car in the long term it's kind of makes sense to me financially I also really
appreciate a quality car definitely spend more if I bought a cheaper newer car but I think that's uh
I think go for it uh BMW I don't know about that culture of the BMW those three I I can't remember there's a name
for that they're like the E30 or whatever the E36 they have all these different names for that uh that like
the motors and [ __ ] for that for that particular car I don't know what year you're talking about but I have a BMW motorcycle and I don't know if the cars
are like this but they're kind of like apple they're a closed system there's like not aftermarket this is the motorcycles there's not really
aftermarket parts for them they're just you're kind of closed in the BMW World um maybe not
anymore uh maybe um I would say Toyota's better but uh or Honda I mean Honda
Hond BMW doesn't even have an F1 team Honda's won the last three in a row and they're going to probably win the next
Formula 1 World Championship and um you know Honda has those type R Civics and
um yeah so I don't know I don't know if the BMW is the right one I get it like it's kind
of it's like nice European status e kind of thing but uh I don't I don't know I I would I would be careful with which
platform you choose you might want Japanese over [Music] German uh but that's also timec consuming and
very expensive um okay Zach asks what are your thoughts on the length of feature films I feel like one point one and 3/4 to two hours is perfect I have uh bad
knees funny uh yeah I agree about one and three quarters to two hours get it
done um you can cut the so oppenheimer's like a five act film you could cut the First Act and the Fifth Act nobody cares
that he got his security clearance taken away we care that he invented the nuclear bomb we don't care that he lost his security clearance and he deserved
to lose it and the reason the Russians got the the damn bomb is because of communist sympathizers on our side went over there and taught them how to make
it so um yeah cut the keep it to keep it to two hours come
on it's 2024 uh oh this is a good question I like this one I was just thinking about this
a couple nights ago Leonardo asks I don't know if this has been covered in a video or not but can you tell us about
your reading process do you read a book all the way do you highlight right in the book type notes okay here it is the
books come to me through the ether you know sometimes I used it used to be I would just go oh man I loved doing
this just okay you have your recommendations from friends and stuff and you just read those books but then it used to be going to a bookstore like
a Barnes & Noble or something and uh you just kind of wander around and just in
and and then just and you're not looking for anything you're just looking and then something it's just okay this
one um that's how I acquire the books lately it's been I mean I don't get out much so lately it's been friends or
podcasts mentioning books uh so and so the first thing I do I get the book I so right now I'm
reading this but I'm also reading the the one about the the Elon Musk the Walter Isaacson Elon Musk
biography um so but this is a newer one and then I bought some Mammoth books too that I haven't cracked open yet um so I
write the date I began reading it I begin reading it in red pen I always have a red pen in the bind it like kind
of as a bookmark and um yes I do you get good ideas when you're reading that's another
good reason to read and sometimes you don't have a piece of paper but I always have a pencil on me so I wrote on March 1st I wrote video
befriending a raven because he talks about this in here like you can you can I I don't know the difference between a
crow and a raven I gotta say but you can they're very smart birds and you can you can make them into your friend anyway I thought that would be a
cool video and then uh it says YouTube versus film school and then in parenthesis it says
lecture uh that's one of my notes and so uh yeah and then I just I read with a
pen and if something kind of stands out I don't if something stands out or something I
agree with or if it's something that it feels like it was my idea or like like I had this idea uh or something that well
maybe I should change about myself or like what I don't know what the criteria is but you can see there's not many
underlined things in here in this particular one because it's Herzog I kind of agree with him on everything but let's see here's one that I
underline uh I underlined it says I had few friends and hated the school sometimes so passionately I imagine
going there at night when it was empty and setting it on fire there is such a thing as academic intelligence and I
didn't have it and uh I don't know if they resonate I underline because it also helps you to
navigate when you go back when you're look maybe you're not looking for that but you're looking for something and there's those are underline throughout the book that's why I also keep books
and not the digital stuff you go back a while later and you're like well I know it was around and you read and it's hones you hone in
on you know what you're looking for but also it's like these are the things in the book that stuck out for
you uh next one uh po Pavo ask what do you think of Bitcoin okay I read five
books about Bitcoin and I still can't figure out I don't understand how if you're doing it yourself not through an
exchange if you're buying Bitcoin I don't understand how the the G that moment when you're hand between when
you're you're handing the money to the guy and he's handing you the ice cream right that moment I don't understand how when
you're buying Bitcoin not through an exchange I don't understand how that Gap
how you navigate that Gap because the money is so significant right so when you're buying bit a Bitcoin and you're how the how the heck
how the heck do you not just get the money taken and not get the thing I don't know that's that's the one
strange uh technical thing about it that I don't really understand
uh it see I own a little tiny tiny bit of it I'm up 15% but I've been down
75% um because it's like rallying and I bought it at like the last high like an idiot and I didn't buy it when it was really low like an idiot but um I don't
know it seems like a kind of strange Index Fund to me it seems a little bit tied to the markets to me even though I
know blah blah blah it also seems pretty vulnerable and I know people know but yeah they can just make it illegal the
feds can just make it illegal and then I also don't understand how when Quantum
Computing uh becomes uh when Quantum Computing is a bit more
ubiquitous than it is now how those things can just figure out your code those things can just rewrite stuff and
duplicate and you know just kind of destroy the currency like yeah with this I I just think that there's it's
it's like a limited I just don't buy it really even though I literally do buy it uh it seems vulnerable but I think if
you're in and out now or in and out and you have I don't know if my yeah I mean I know let's put it this way I know people
who are heavily invested and made millions of dollars on bitcoin but I don't know how long that
lasts um like when I was a kid Eastman Kodak was the big stock and I understand that Bitcoin is
not stock but it's techn it's Tech it's technologically based uh so I don't know I wish I had bought
it when it was I wish I had bought it in whenever it came out of 2010 or whatever I wish I had bought a thousand Bitcoins
for 10 50 bucks or whatever uh but I don't know I I don't think it's a big savior I don't think
it's like I'm not one of these like there were these guys okay so there's Michael sailor and then there's
bology oh sh oh my headphones went out bology sanasa I think is his name and extremely
well these are extremely iridite and uh what's that word articulate people and they did these
scams a few like maybe within the last year where it was like I think bology said Bitcoin will be worth a million or
100,000 or something by July I think this is last year I'm making a million dollar bed or something like this and
then Michael sailor did the same thing by September it will be at million and then it was nowhere near anything and it was just on the same trajectory as it
was and so then you're going to lose credibility with me major and You're Gonna Lose I'm gonna lose and Bitcoin is
going to lose credibility with me and also once you get I guess it's like an ETF now I don't know if that's true
exchange traded fund I don't know if there was some ruling or something I haven't really researched it but like once you start getting in with
these Black Rock State Street and Vanguard people you know you can't vote against
the interests of Goldman Sachs you know once they start getting involved I don't know what the game is so uh I don't know my opinion is
complicated about Bitcoin all right it's 10:3 running a little late um oh this is also another great question what Kevin
asks when working with others what do you think is the most virtuous balance to strike between kind slf friendly and pushing people to their limit
I.E Mr Rogers versus Steve Jobs I don't know I've I'm in this I'm sort of giving up on working with others I'm kind of
you know except for people who are you know professionals like working with accountant sure people who aren't my
employees but people who I kind of like hire like contractors I guess I think I like working with them but like I don't
know that I ever want an employee I don't know I just I'm I think about all day long when I'm doing stuff I think about how could I delegate this and I
cannot come up with any kind of legitimate schedule I can't figure out how to teach people all these little nuances and the things that
like I can't afford to pay people who would be really good at it the wage that they would deserve so I mean I'm more Steve Jobs
than I am Mr Rogers but I don't know I don't think that you can just be that anymore and
um I don't know it's very it's very difficult and I I I something I struggle
with and maybe I'll learn how to do it in the future um William ask do you have any solutions
to organizing random Parts screws washers Etc thank you yeah there's these thin boxes I think Plano PL n o boxes
and they're kind of like bait and tackle boxes kind of that they're flat like this they're like translucent kind of transparent plastic two little clicks on
them they're cheap and you open them up and you can put little like doors they like rows and you can put little like
dividers in them those are great and then I hot glue the dividers in so that the dividers don't come up and the screws go underneath or the washers go
underneath into the next compartment but that's just crazy man stuff so yeah those are great and then I just have
like kind of stacks of those and shelves [Music] uh geez okay uh I'll go nine more minutes okay Spencer asks one
two three qu three questions uh all right I'll just answer the first one do you feel your greatest moments of
insight Innovation and creativity come out of times of Trials and pain or from times of stability and
peace I kind of think there's no connection I kind of think it doesn't
matter I think uh different stuff comes out of different states and the thing that matters is that you got to just
keep working throughout the states that's why you have like you know you have happy songs and miserable songs by
the same guy and then I don't know you have some guys who just write miserable songs like Nick Nick Drake but he killed
himself so what example is that um so I don't think there's really a
connection sometimes when you're really miserable and you're so desperate and the only thing you can do
is work sometimes you can get some stuff out of that but like when you're ecstatic you make really good decision decisions a lot of times or you take a
big chance or something a lot of times and then that leads to this this and this so I think it's just a wash
um uh okay so this will be the oh no wait what did I say I'll go to 10:15 okay Roman you mentioned something Rick Rubin had said in the last live stream Have
you listened to his interviews or read his book if so General thoughts and his approach to creativity and role in today's cultural landscape okay so I've
read his book and I've I I refer to his book a lot Rick Rubin and um I've listened to a lot of interviews when his
book came out he went on Rogan he went on a lot of the big guys I think he went on oh he went on Lex fredman
uh and uh um so I listened like in that era I was listening to every Rick rubben you know how the algorithm works I was
listening to like every Rick Ruben thing I've listened to a lot of the um broken records where he is the interviewer
because it's usually like him or um Malcolm Gladwell or the second string interviewers so I listen to a lot of
them I think my favorite one was probably like the Andre 3000 one so the thing about Rick Rubin is of course he's
right about everything and he's has the and why we listen to him and why we love him and why we love his insights is
because I think a lot because of his well the the inherent value in what he's saying but we can trust what he's saying because of his track record and his
taste and he just the soundtrack of Our Lives you know he's a just a he just is
some kind of special Buddha but the but I am not like him and so I am not like
him but maybe I want to be like him and he you know he talks about how he's like Paul McCartney and he did a little thing
with Paul McCartney I think on Disney plus it's excellent where they just Paul McCartney just goes through the songs and talks about them and Rick Rubin with
his really wise curiosity asks about this and one of the things they talk about and Paul McCartney talks about is Paul McCartney said you know Lenin had
all this angst and stuff and anger and and abandonment and he had a really tough time of it getting growing up and
he said not for me he said not for me it was stable it was beautiful it was wonderful I didn't know about the world of pain and all of that and Rick Ruben
is sort of this he kind of claims the same kind of you know great parents loving family live grew up in like Long Island and a nice suburb and all of this
stuff so he's starting from there and then another thing where his point of view like is um I think is in ironic
weird way is a little bit sus is that like I don't care how many years you put
into it when you achieve massive success at age 21 you are not like the others you are
not it's not a universal story there is something you're probably a genius and he's probably a genius and the rest of us are not
Geniuses so the insights are extremely valuable but they're not essentially Universal I guess but I think everything
he writes he's right you know everything all that stuff the way he articulates it's really
um digestible and it's God like I I the first time I listened to him I probably the first time I'd ever
heard his voice was on a broken record interview and it was when my boy was really little and I would watch him
before his mom got home from work and uh he I would put him in a backpack and we'd go hiking and all these different beautiful places because I wanted to
show them all the cool beautiful [ __ ] and um I listened to this broken record right
um I don't remember which one it was and I was just like man you know was like one of those inspired moments where you get out and it stays with you and I put
in the kit I got the Land Cruiser and we're at Point Doom in Malibu which is has these walking trails that go over the ocean you can see seals and stuff
and it's incredible there's Cliffs that you can climb down it's incredible and so I put the kid in the backpack and we go on our little hike and we're walk
back to the car because it's kind of far Park between where you park the car you can park in like a secret spot and then you walk back and Rick Ruben just drive
by he's driving the car I see him with the huge beard he lives there that's where shanga is his his
place and uh so I don't know I have a kinship I mean I've never met the guy
but I Al yeah I just uh yeah but the but I wish I was more like him I guess is
what I'm trying to say I wish he has all those wonderful like virtues of humans that allows you
to make to work with others he allows you to be you know I think people love
working with him I think he's he's very special there's this great story where Lenny Kravitz was staying at
his house at this place in malibo [Music] um and Lenny Kravitz was very close to his mother and he gets the news on the phone that his mother has died Lenny
Kravitz and he's like in this house Rick rubin's not there I think he's supposed to come and they're goingon to like work on an album or something and Johnny Cash
was at the house and there was nobody for him to talk to
Kravitz but Johnny Cash and Johnny Cash had been through some [ __ ] cuz he lost his brother when he was little
and and he just talked about how you know how special Johnny Cash was and how
helpful he was and what Grace it was for him to have been in that situation and that's like Rick Rubin the that was the
common denominator that was the sun in that little solar system so I don't know he's a special guy for all of us and there there's a degrees levels to
this stuff and he's just the tops so that's what I think um 1014 Okay one
minute oh wait your and so General his thoughts on appro to creativity and role in today's cultural landscape yeah he's
right on the money I think Rick Rubin is right on the money um okay this is a good one too Tim
[Music] snow how do you strike a balance between doing a job quickly and efficiently versus taking your time and enjoying the
process unbelievably hard it is so it's something I think about so so so much
how much time should I put into it and there's this thing that happens it's so strange it's like
getting a woman or something there's this thing that happens like let me think of an example uh I was helping my son make a
necklace for his like little girlfriend at at school and you know when you make stuff your
whole life there's you could just throw I could have spent a month making this necklace but I had like 15 minutes and
you just keep just this one more thing I'm just okay I'm just gonna take the polisher and polish this thing off because I don't want it to scratcher and I got an idea for the
clasp and I ah these are too hard to how about two magnets just two magnets with holes in them it's works perfectly
and there's this I'm supposed to be doing my homework feeling that you have when you're doing when you get into these
indulgences right there's this I'm supposed to be doing my homework right now right
um and it's also like a I'm committing a crime it's also that it's that also like ah not supposed to be doing this not
supposed to be doing this and I think that's wherein you're the artist I think that area and here is what makes it
infuriating okay here's what makes it Torture is that you can't really replicate that you
can't just have unlimited time like I like I have and and be in that because
I'm supposed to do a a a live cast on Friday at 9:00 am I have to get this video up on Monday because I have a deadline from better help and it's
sponsored it's got to be out and that's going to take a lot of man hours I don't have time to be making necklaces and doing silver smithing and so forth and
so I think what I'm so I'm so blessed and you guys are part of the reason why I'm able to do this is like I can
postpone I can get into something a little like that necklace and then postpone until I have until it's okay
you got to make a movie and I can make the damn movie about that and spend a whole week on it as long as the camera's going or whatever so like you know
that's this thing like X and I discovered silver smithing with silver bearing solder so that's going to be next week's patreon video um probably I
think probably um uh and we were just playing around it's like I have this thing with if if
I'm with my son it's not wasted time it's not wasted I'm not wasting time if I am with my son so you know it doesn't matter if it's cutting into work or blah
blah blah because he's a little kid and it's not wasting time and what are we alive for anyway um but you know we he
loves playing with the blowtorch and he loves melting things and so we had the blowtorch and I like just kind of dis he was like can we make a square and I was
like ah we can do it like and it just like evolved and evolved and evolved and it's like oh this is a movie next week um I don't know so maybe that's the
B maybe the balance is you have kids and you try to show them the the stuff and then you got to have like an outlet
um wherein I don't know you get some value out of it but yeah the balance
is it's crazy hard because it's not really about doing what you feel like doing all the time but then the great
artists make it sound like it it is not the great but a lot of great artists make it sound like it is like
they make it sound like oh I just do whatever I feel like all the time and that's why my work is so great but that's not
true um it's like Bob Dylan they they say it took him he said it took him like a
couple like an hour to write Rolling Stone and then like um for Leonard Cohen to write uh Hallelujah it took him like
10 years I mean what you know what are we supposed to do with that um all right you guys have a great weekend thank you for supporting me it's very helpful
especially in these times where I'm super disrupted I really wish I could have gotten to all the questions but I'm such a damn chatter box that I
uh I don't know I just got uh enamored with the uh questions all right take care and that's the end of the live stream byebye
Products & Tools Mentioned
- William Ellery alpaca sweatshirt recommends — wearing and recommending the brand
- Lululemon mentions — mainstream activewear brand mentioned for comparison
- Casio watch mentions — watch brand discussed
- Marathon GSAR watch recommends — tritium/H3 military dive watch discussed
- Timex Iron Man mentions — watch worn by Bill Clinton, referenced
- Canon 1DX uses — camera used for filmmaking
- Canon L-series lenses uses — professional lenses discussed
- Sony mentions — camera brand discussed as alternative
- Plano boxes uses — tackle/storage boxes used for organization
- Hinrich Model 6 bench punch uses — specific leather working tool discussed
- BMW R1150R mentions — motorcycle model discussed
- BMW G650X Country uses — motorcycle model discussed
- Ducati 916 mentions — motorcycle model discussed as iconic
- Ducati Multistrada mentions — motorcycle model discussed
- Ducati Hypermotard mentions — motorcycle model discussed
- Honda Civic Type R mentions — car mentioned in discussion
- KTM 500cc mentions — motorcycle discussed
- Buell motorcycle mentions — American motorcycle brand discussed
- Toyota Land Cruiser essential — Van's truck discussed
People Referenced
David Lynch, Bill Clinton, Chad Wright, Casey Neistat, Tim Dillon, Matt McCusker, Shane Gillis, Ed Ruscha, Rick Rubin, Lex Fridman, Malcolm Gladwell, Andre 3000, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Lenny Kravitz
Books Mentioned
- book about creativity recommended (by Rick Rubin)
Films & Media Referenced
- film referenced in discussion
- Rick Rubin's podcast discussed
- Bob Dylan song discussed
- Leonard Cohen song referenced
- Radiohead song, music video discussed
- motorsport referenced