Familiar faces and artificial intelligence.
Monday Mutiny | March 31st, 2025: Happy Monday. Below are five things that challenged, motivated, or entertained me this past week—hopefully they will do the same for you.
(1) The weekend before last, I was hired to produce/direct a large commercial out in Las Vegas (first commercial I’ve done in years); I spent six consecutive days trying to avoid getting a sunburn on my still-too-new hair transplant while filming multiple twelve-hour days on a rooftop. And, I can proudly say, it was a grand success: the footage is unbelievable and my follicles are unscathed.
Now, aside from my hometown of Salt Lake City, no other city feels as “home” to me as Vegas, likely because I’ve lived there during two vastly different times in my life: once in 2016, and again in 2020. So, whenever I go back to Vegas, I feel “plugged in,” that is, I feel like I’m back in my community. All around town, I see work that I’ve done over the years—logos, taglines, designs, and ideas—additionally, many of my best friends still call the city home, and I know exactly where to go without Google Maps.
The idea of “community” has weighed heavily on me ever since the birth of my son (who was born in Las Vegas by the way), and I’ve come to the conclusion that there is absolutely no replacement for family, friends, and a sense of belonging (believe me, I’ve tried to find it). And, despite considering myself a lone wolf for much of my life, there has always been something about long afternoons with familiar faces and known personalities that makes me feel whole again . . . Now, if I can just convince everyone to pitch in to build a commune on forty or so acres north of Ojai. You know, like a cult, but without all the culty shit that always gets cult leaders in trouble with the Feds.
(2) With that said, I had a chance to spend most of my off-set downtime in Vegas with one of my closest friends. And, despite our twenty-year history, when we went to breakfast on Saturday, I was completely unaware that it was his birthday.
The next day, after learning of my friendship faux pas, I tried to make it up to him by bar-hopping around the Arts District for eight hours—eating steak, drinking beers, and talking shit. (I know it’s not technically in the Arts District, but the newly opened Glitter Gulch Tiki is well worth your visit.)
Anyway, I really do suck at remembering “important” dates because I myself have never really found any particular day more important than any other—but that’s not because I don’t care. Quite the opposite, I care about every day. And, for most of my adult life, I’ve viewed each and every day as holding the same opportunities, obstacles, and occasions worth remembering, which goes rather seamlessly with this paraphrased quote from one of my favorite writers:
“Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life.” —Mark Twain
(3) In the last Monday Mutiny, I wrote a bunch about the lack of originality (or emotion) in movies/shows these days because streaming has unfortunately stripped everything down into “content”—so, when I come across something like Adolescence, I have to recommend it. Holy shit, it’s so well done, and I’m so glad I grew up without a phone in my pocket. Kids these days have it fucking rough. It’s already hard enough going through the awkward uncertainty of your impressionable teenage years . . . I couldn’t imagine doing it under the constant scrutiny of your peers.
(4) If you’ve been on any social media platform in the last 72 hours, you’ve seen the “Studio Ghibli” trend taking over. And, I, for one, have not changed my stance on artificial intelligence.
The reason why I’ve always found art, movies, writing, music, or architecture so inspiring is because I know another human had the creative vision—and fortitude—to bring it to life. Without the hard work, the human struggle, and the direct injection of blood, sweat, and emotion, it’s all just technological manipulation.
Some of the best creations are controversial, uncomfortable, and hard to comprehend, which is exactly the point of creating them. Because the thinking that is required to understand something so flawed and human is how we often discover more of an understanding about each other and ourselves. So, do you really want a machine making you think, feel, and question reality?
That’s a slippery slope that, in my mind, will soon make The Terminator series seem like a preemptive documentary. Perhaps the massive shafts only recently discovered beneath the pyramids of Egypt are a sign that we’ve done this all before. Seeing so-called “creators” embrace AI rather than actually putting in the work to learn and master a craft is just another step in an already too dehumanized direction.
When everything is consumable, nothing is valuable.
(5) Finally, from one human to another, I have a favor to ask of you—if you have not already pre-ordered a copy of the new edition of Speech Therapy, please do. I don’t want to go into detail about why pre-orders are so important in the publishing world, but they are. So, if you have resonated with anything that I’ve written in the past, I’d appreciate it if you’d pre-order a copy (or two) of this new hardcover. The audiobook can also be pre-saved or pre-ordered on Spotify, Audible, or Apple Books.
As always, thanks for reading.
-Kyle, aka “The Capt.”