Polarize: this & other defining elements of the new obstruction

Disclaimer:
Despite this document being the defining article for the new obstruction, it is not necessarily an example of it.  & sure, there are also intelligent arguments for the contrary.
In addition:
The phrasing used to explain the new obstruction is nothing new, only it's context.  The new obstruction is pretty much a name used to define similarities of experience outside of context.  It can only be understood through extemporaneous interpretation.  If you're trying to reread this sentence you don't get it yet.  Communication.

Content:
A significant purpose of this document is to reiterate the words, "the new obstruction," – nothing more.  The more it is reiterated the better thenew obstruction is defined.  There is a threshold for this.  In all liklihood, you are ruining the new obstruction for posterity just by reading this and attempting to put it into context.  Please stop.  You'll get nowhere good.

If you're especially clever, your mind may start to wonder.  "How is the new obstruction different from post modernism?" you may ask, especially if you've taken a 200 level college course in the late 1990s or early 2000s.  Well, here's the thing: the phrasing used to describe the new obstruction is nothing new, only it's context.  The new obstruction is pretty much a name used to identify similarities of experience outside of context.

Users predict what the new obstruction will be.  A certain percentage of the time they are wrong.  The new obstruction is riddled with fear, risk and doubt.  Its only certainty is misinterpretation – obstruction.  This title defines the opposite of its characteristics.

The new obstruction is characterized by connection not agreement.  You can find examples of the new obstruction in any reaction.  Anticipating reaction is a foolish way of fucking it up.  Don't cheat your eyes down the page, we'll get there when we get there.  It can only be understood through extemporaneous interpretation.  If you're trying to reread this sentence you don't get it yet.  Go ahead, keep cheating your eyes down the page, think I give a damn?  You're only ruining it for yourself.  Look.  Look, stop worrying, you're very smart.  Communication.

In artistic contexts, the new obstruction may be misinterpretted as the lucrative avante gard, successful cult classics or even art itself.  Examples of the new obstruction may be similar to these things, they do not define it.  The new obstruction is three words: the new obstruction.

The new obstruction is always ahead of its time, except, of course, when it is understood.

The new obstruction is chemical & physical.  Does that help any?

Realizations from the new obstruction will repeat.  They will also reproduce and cease.  The new obstruction is either on or off.  You either get it or you don't.  Polarize.

Haters

So, I have this media production company.  To a lot of people that can be pretty vague.  What I think it means, is that I’ve been working on all kinds of creative projects for different clients for the last few years and I work with a bunch of different people to get everything done.  And that’s just true.

So in one way I’m this impulsive, creative artist, but in another way, I’m more like the hypothetical progeny of Gordon Gecko and Alan Greenspan, but way better looking.

A common problem that a lot of creative people face, because their work carries so many subjective elements, is the problem of constantly stumbling upon:  Haters.  A-holes.   People who, regardless of their own creative output, feel the need to point out the inefficiencies of others.  Simply put, douche bags.  You know the ones.

Perfect example: check out the correspondence, in which I engaged, after responding to a listing on Craigslist.

The title was, Video Editing (Cleveland)

The body:

I am looking to team up with others and grow my Final Cut editing and Color grading skills. I am looking for individuals in need of an editor/colorist, I only want more experience in return. Email me if you have a project I might be interested in. 

Thanks, 

Jason 

·       Location: Cleveland

·       it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

·       Compensation: no pay

Check out our correspondence below:

EnviroFlush Casting

Here is a list of Actors that we chose for the video
All are available Wednesday

Natalie Green-Trained theatrical actor with on-screen experience. Easy to work with, also Tom's girlfriend.


















Liz Conway- Theatrical actor, not much on-screen experience, but can be easily trained.    

.

Rebecca Lyn Sweet- Owns a dance studio in Strongsville and one of Cleveland's sexiest singles. More or a dancer than actor may also have a strict out time.

Brooke Lynn- Not too much information on her, but she is a model and actor.

Sally Groth- (better picture available soon) Sally has her MFA in theatrical performance, but also has a decent amount of on-screen experience as well, including a role that took her to the Cannes Film Festival.

Diane Mull- Referred to us by a local theater owner. Theatrical experience.


















Christina Capadona- Referred to us by a Cleveland casting director and facebook friend.

The American Dream: The Ultimate New Obstruction

I just had a chat with Thomas Kondilas, a chat of unparalleled philosophical depth, rivaling our previous eight years' discourse and correspondence combined, with allusions running the gamut from the intentions and goals of calculus; to the concepts behind the photoelectric effect, quantum mechanics, and the superstring theory; to elementary French; to Ohio Valley history; to the aesthetic & ontological philosophies of Messrs. Wittgenstein, Descartes, and Plato; to psychoanalysis; to the below-mentioned literary works of Bukowski and Thompson, specifically the very idea of "turdness".  I could very well describe this conversation in terms in which you may pretend to understand, dearest bloggee.

But I will not, for Tom and I decided that his picture is worth much LESS than a thousand words.  Take a look at the picture right now, and you'll see the catalyst for Tom's blog entry, this my present blog entry, and the pursuit of the aesthetic which may be said/written to describe the body of LESS Productions' work past, present, future, and inchoate.  In writing a description of the doctored photograph, one may get glimpses of the catalyst but not of the phenomenon itself.

This photo represents the Bukowskian "turd" (where'd that YouTube link go?) for Tom and myself and (we hope) you and anyone else who should deem to care.  I, perhaps, can claim partial ownership of the photograph as I contribued to Tom's wardrobe the flag which he is wrapping about his shoulders.  That flag was featured in a little absurdist play that Tom first heard back in summer '07 called "Dubait".  The flag was the titular bait wielded about by candidates as they spoke echoing lines of equal parts meaninglessness and American patriotism (an oxymoron, that?) while "fishing" for votes.  The play was performed twice in 2008 in different stages of the most recent American Revolution/election.  Tom wears it well, fashionistically and philosophically, in that photograph and the blog entry below, respectively.

But the very ideas of the Enlightenment which this country and its supposed-Dream was founded on are inherently abstract-- that's why we're the nation without a nationality.  In order to order these ideals, one must take them out of context, as lack-of-context is their original context, much like Tom's "New Obstruction".  In teaching about the modern world for the past two years to high schoolers, I have seen the rise and fall of these ideals many times over, so positivistically-applied by inhabitants of the last century that "progress" nearly ended the world entire.  Once "this" is institutionalized (even if that institution be language), "this" is no longer what inspired the "this", but rather a "thisness".

Therefore, how can one write about the flag, the photograph, the play, a piece of digital media, anything that is viewed so symbolically and subjectively?  Very simply: by giving in to symbolism and subjectivity, and pursuing "this" anyway.  That's why I'm writing this in "anarchic" words and not "ordered" binary code.  For example, I cannot write of the beer can in Mr. K's right hand without being reminded of a line from a play of his I saw in 2003 in which Miller High Life is referred to as a drink for old females.

All I can write affirmatively for Tom (and you) is that I eagerly look forward to his next play, his next film, his next project, his next line to get stuck in my head and re-form the way I view beer cans, American flags, lens flares, or anything else which may be experienced and transmitted through dialogue, pixels, and neurons.  From what I gather from his previous post, this is not a retrospective here's-what-I'm-all-about statement but rather an aesthetic landmark that will admittedly shift in future to encompass new lack-of-definitions and extrapolations of "this".

Through the latter end of our convo in Gfield, I was coughing quite a bit, and as I rode home, I spit out what felt like a small rock that was stuck in my sinuses.  That very conversation, this very blog entry, and my previous near-decade with Mr. K are quite similar to that sinus-turd-- I stepped back and admired the work, but admired equally that it was a nice little mess of entropy that could and should be torn apart all over again.  This LESS is a mess of thisness.  Please, TK &co., I want some more.

- post by Matt Greenfield

As an independent media producer I am constantly struggling to describe my aesthetic or style to friends, family, potential clients...etc.  

From the professional standpoint, the goal is to come up with a universal style that can be utilized by a wide customer-base.  But as an artist the objective is to push a medium to its limits, sometimes despite the audience, to build on the freedom of expression.  These perspectives often seem at odds with each other.  On May 21, 2008 I tried to define the effort to split the difference between the objectives of a professional with the objectives of an artist as The New Obstruction.  At the time, my thinking was that The New Obstruction was a term that was beyond definition, that The New Obstruction would always be a means of alluding to the specific feature of a thing that was missed in all other explanations.  I liken this to Bukowski's notion of specialness.  Or the concept of "suchness," as a friend Neil explained, which is less special than "special" but unexplained as such.  All of these terms seem to get at the theme that there is a connection between the utility of expression and an intangible freedom to it that goes beyond definition.  Perhaps, I heard Hunter S. Thompson's voice in my head, but today, it just clicked.  The American Dream, is the perfect, intuitively understood example of this type of linked dichotomy: a single unachievable objective that could translate to an infinite number of practical outcomes without really defining the romantic lure it often represents.  It defines professional and artistic objectives.  It can represent great success or great failure and it can be applied to concepts/trends that aren't even American.  Yet we are left to wonder...uh, what is the American Dream?   Defining the American Dream is the same thing to me as defining what you want to be when you grow up and what your style is.  It is the ultimate declaration of self expression within a global context.  

In this blog I will try to show the American Dream with inspired content from myself and others that pushes the envelope and gives us some new ideas about what the American Dream has become, where it's going and how we can make better use of it right now.

- post by Tom Kondilas

Natalie Green - America's Got Talent Audition

Hey everybody, this is a video I produced for Natalie's America's Got Talent Audition.  Thanks to Vick, Mit and our host family, John and Laura for helping to make this possible.  Let us know what you think!!  (All tracks and sheet music bought, secured and licensed for use by Natalie R. Green.)

Steven Huszai Professional Writing Samples - Type A

Type A
Sample 1

Polarize: this & other defining elements of the new obstruction

Disclaimer:
Despite this document being the defining article for the new obstruction, it is not necessarily an example of it.  & sure, there are also intelligent arguments for the contrary.
In addition:
The phrasing used to explain the new obstruction is nothing new, only it's context.  The new obstruction is pretty much a name used to define similarities of experience outside of context.  It can only be understood through extemporaneous interpretation.  If you're trying to reread this sentence you don't get it yet.  Communication.

Content:
A significant purpose of this document is to reiterate the words, "the new obstruction," – nothing more.  The more it is reiterated the better thenew obstruction is defined.  There is a threshold for this.  In all liklihood, you are ruining the new obstruction for posterity just by reading this and attempting to put it into context.  Please stop.  You'll get nowhere good.

If you're especially clever, your mind may start to wonder.  "How is the new obstruction different from post modernism?" you may ask, especially if you've taken a 200 level college course in the late 1990s or early 2000s.  Well, here's the thing: the phrasing used to describe thenew obstruction is nothing new, only it's context.  The new obstruction is pretty much a name used to identify similarities of experience outside of context.

Users predict what the new obstruction will be.  A certain percentage of the time they are wrong.  The new obstruction is riddled with fear, risk and doubt.  Its only certainty is misinterpretation – obstruction.  This title defines the opposite of its characteristics.

The new obstruction is characterized by connection not agreement.  You can find examples of the new obstruction in any reaction.  Anticipating reaction is a foolish way of fucking it up.  Don't cheat your eyes down the page, we'll get there when we get there.  It can only be understood through extemporaneous interpretation.  If you're trying to reread this sentence you don't get it yet.  Go ahead, keep cheating your eyes down the page, think I give a damn?  You're only ruining it for yourself.  Look.  Look, stop worrying, you're very smart.  Communication.

In artistic contexts, the new obstruction may be misinterpretted as the lucrative avante gard, successful cult classics or even art itself.  Examples of the new obstruction may be similar to these things, they do not define it.  The new obstruction is three words: the newobstruction.

The new obstruction is always ahead of its time, except, of course, when it is understood.

The new obstruction is chemical & physical.  Does that help any?

Realizations from the new obstruction will repeat.  They will also reproduce and cease.  The new obstruction is either on or off.  You either get it or you don't.  Polarize.

Marketing PR Portfolio

Hey there!  I thought the easiest way to show some quick, easily digestible elements of my PR & Marketing Samples would be to actually organize them in a blog post.

"Hey, what is LESS Productions?" - answered from the PR / Marketing perspective

• LESS is how I, Tom Kondilas, use blogs, social media sites & email to bring my productions to their audience and partners.
• The PolyCultures Blog is the principal resource LESS Productions uses to communicate to the public about its largest endeavor a feature-length documentary called, PolyCultures: Food Where We Live (imdb link).  These communications range from video clips to press and legal material, all of which have been uniquely created and are accessible within one link. 
• An abbreviated press release (about the movie)
• A full-length press release
• An explanation of the distribution-to-date
• A link to by a DVD for Home-Use or Public-Use and the applicable license (download).
• Clips/Trailers of the movie on YouTube
• Photos & Art for distribution
• Blog posts and updates
• Creatively re-imagining YouTube as a social networking site more than just a video server, allowed LESS to create a full marketing campaign for Alcohol Killer USA.  This campaign required official rules, legal preparation and daily communication with contestants.  It also produced a viral video for AK.

• YouTube video invitation to contest
• Official Rules Draft  (sorry about the draft, AK's site seems to be down and this was all I had)
• Forum moderation (read comments to above invitation)
• LESS Productions is also prone to sending out mass emails to a list of people who have signed up to get information and updates from time to time (image to right). 

• I also use traditional methods of communication like print, broadcast and speaking in front of an audience to create a lasting impression and help solidify my message.
• As a journalist I have written all types of articles that range from hard news to charts and graphs for publications like Cleveland Magazine.
• I am an AFTRA actor which helped me speak comfortably about PolyCultures during this episode of WVIZ's Applause.  I have also been interviewed and been a spokesperson for PolyCultures on radio interviews and for print publications.
• I have also organized a series of community screenings from around the nation for PolyCultures.  I have spoken in front of audiences from Milwaukee and St. Louis to Cleveland and Columbus.
• I also use a team of freelancers and a network of collaborators to help me get things done.  By linking to each other we are able to strengthen each others' brands and the sense of community.