Creators of Content - Modest Drongos

As someone who creates original content, be it writing music with my band or this blog, I’ve crossed paths with a lot of like-minded people who are busily working away on their own things. I’ve decided to dedicate some blog space and time to introduce them to you, while simultaneously giving me a good excuse to catch up with some old friends who I haven’t heard from in a while. As I said, I know a lot of people who like to create, so if this goes well, it may become a more regular occurrence.

Today’s post is about Modest Drongos, a YouTube series started by my friend and ex‑bandmate Ian and his good mate Dan. As of the time of writing, they’ve released eight videos and have 16 subscribers to their channel. In Dan’s words “Modest Drongos is primarily a web show of Ian and myself sharing games with one another”, “with us talking shit” Ian adds.

The Drongos - Dan on left, Ian on right. Image credit: Modest Drongos

The inspiration for Modest Drongos came primarily from gaming channels on YouTube, like Continue?, Game Grumps and other Let’s Play series’, but it wasn’t the only project the two had discussed. “We had an idea for a zine, and a music side project [before deciding on Modest Drongos],” Dan explains, “primarily [Modest Drongos] is for ourselves, so that we can try and create things, but if people find it funny then that’s even better”.

Modest Drongos seems an odd title for a web show primarily about gaming, though the pair have different reasons for settling on the name. “My take on Modest Drongos was that, number 1, I see myself as quite an idiot, and number 2, I liked the idea of calling ourselves ‘modest’ while taking on the persona of an uninformed, loud mouth dickhead” Ian says, while Dan says there’s more irony to it. “It’s mainly tongue-in-cheek. Australia is a real sufferer of the ‘cultural cringe’; most of the world sees us as Crocodile Dundee, Steve Irwin or the guy from Wolf Creek. So despite the fact that we’re both moderately intelligent fellows, we took on the ‘Drongo’ title. Furthermore, modesty is not a major virtue in Australia, despite the ‘tall poppy syndrome’. So the two together make up our sarcastic view of the Australian stereotype”.

Despite Modest Drongos being in its infancy as a series, Ian and Dan have already faced an intellectual property stoush. While Ian “didn’t really give a shit”, Dan was annoyed and took the claim personally, something he considers a mistake. “I didn’t realise how automated YouTube really was,” Dan explains, “YouTube, as I understand it, uses software to look for content matches and this was what flagged our video as a breach. Ironically, when I dug into it, the only reason this happened was another channel, who weren’t the owners of the game[’s intellectual property] or an affiliate, had a video series of the same game”. The Drongos disputed the claim and YouTube quickly reversed the flag. While they expect similar situations to come up in future, the experience of the dispute resolution process will no doubt serve them well.

Modest Drongos has committed to a fairly busy schedule, planning to release content three times a week. Despite this, they seem to have no issues with developing content. “There’s always heaps of gameplay stuff sitting there waiting to be edited,” Ian tells me, “we capture 10-15 episodes worth of footage per session. The editing is becoming more time-consuming as we progress, but we’re getting better at the process and we want to add in more elaborate visual jokes”. The duo are pretty well in tune creatively and play on each other’s strengths. “[Ian] does the lion’s share of editing. I’m more there to be annoying with ‘you‑know-what-would-be-great’ suggestions.” Dan goes on to say, “I mainly contribute the childish Microsoft Paint drawings or the scanned black and white sketches; anything that looks rounded and cartoonishly adorable, that’s my work. Anything that looks awesome and professional was most likely Ian’s”.

While the Drongos would love to commit to the project full-time, like most creative types, they fund their passions through regular day jobs. Ian sums up wisely, “for me it’s important I have time to create, both with Drongos and other projects I’m working on. [Casual work] is nothing special, but it allows me to do what I have to do to keep my head screwed on the right way.”

You can subscribe to Modest Drongos on YouTube, Like them on Facebook or Follow them on Twitter. Watch their (current) latest episode below:

GWAR and Tony Abbott: It’s called Shock Rock for a reason

Recently, thrash metal band GWAR has caused some controversy by decapitating an effigy of Tony Abbott as part of their Soundwave stage shows.

And hasn’t it caused a ruckus in the media. The music news and blog websites had the story first, giving it a pretty tame, factual, ‘if-you-know-of-GWAR-you-would-expect-this’ sort of write up. See here and here.

After this, it appears to have been picked up by the more mainstream news sites, like NineMSN, and news.com.au, which seem to have introduced the political slant. Andrew Bolt posted an article in his blog basically touting that anyone who wasn’t outraged by this was a “semi-literate” “feral of the Left”. And the Australians for Constitutional Monarchy (ACM) - an organisation that promotes the maintenance of Australia with the Queen as Head of State, and one that The Hon. Tony Abbott used to be a high-ranking member of – also denounced the decapitation.

In response to this GWAR has issued some statements, all of which just mock Tony Abbott and others.

Without being drawn into the political sphere on this, we have to remember that this is a band that routinely covers their audience in all manner of fake bodily fluids, including blood, semen and pus. They have previously killed Lady Gaga, Barack Obama and tortured George W. Bush on stage. They are a band that dresses like this:

Serious business. Image credit: Rialto Theatre

Do those who are outraged really think anyone is taking this seriously? That, in the words of the ACM, GWAR are “role models for impressionable young people”? That, in Andrew Bolt’s words, “[the decapitation of Tony Abbott] wasn’t quite a joke”?

If they do take their position seriously, then GWAR have succeeded in their mission. It’s called Shock Rock for a reason, it’s designed to push people’s buttons, to offend, to cause outrage. It’s supposed to push the boundaries of what people think is proper and decent. GWAR have played the radio personalities, the media and the ‘won’t somebody please think of the children’ parents everywhere, and what are they punished with? Publicity. Loads of it.

Shock rock is not a new thing – there have been hundreds of artists that have scared the crap out of parents with teenage kids. Marilyn Manson, Lady Gaga, Alice Cooper, KISS to name a few. It doesn’t even stop at Rock and Roll, way back when Jazz and Swing were the rage – parents then thought the new styles were promoting promiscuity and creating social unrest.

In this case, I think GWAR are making a rational economic choice, above an artistic or political statement. When your business model relies on you to be outrageous, it becomes logical to do things that will cause the most outrage. To adapt Jeremy Bentham: What will cause the greatest offence to the greatest number? Decapitating a leader elected by majority vote fits the bill, especially when those in certain parts of the press and older voters favour that leader.

I wrote a children's book

Koala Books, a subsidiary of Scholastic, is running a competition for children's picture book manuscripts and I thought I'd have a crack at writing something for it. The target audience are those aged 2 to 7. Enjoy!

Dad's Hats by Stuart Bell

Daddy has many hats,

Let me name them all.

They come in all different sizes,

Some are big and some are small.

He has a hat he wears to work,

And a hat he wears at home.

He has a hat he wears with friends,

And a hat he wears alone.

He has a hat for the great outdoors,

And a hat for playing sport.

He wore a hat for learning things,

But wears a different one in court.

He says someday I’ll have many hats,

For all the things that I will do,

“A hat for school and work, you know,”

“But don’t forget play too!”

The best thing about Dad’s hats,

Is that they’re invisible you see,

No-one else can see Dad’s hats,

They’re his personality.

Daddy has many hats,

And I have named them all.

But the most interesting thing about his hats,

Is that he has no hats at all.