Sorry I’ve been M.I.A. lately. As it turns out, sometimes life (and not my desire to be as lazy as possible) dictates my schedule. I’ve been supremely busy. Thankfully, a few fun and exciting activities have popped up amongst the otherwise garden variety busy-ness I have recently endured. And while I foresee no real breaks next two months, it’s conceivable I won’t be able to post much between now and Thanksgiving. I’ll try to poke my head in every now and then to say hello, but…well…I think we all know what happens when I try at this.
This past Thursday, myself and fellow producer Sarah joined director Tom at the Streamy Awards in Hollywood. Player Piano was nominated for a Streamy Award for “Best Indie” channel/series/show. As involved in the channel as I’ve been since its inception, I’ve remained (mostly) in the background since the launch of Akira back in July of last year. Honestly I don’t know much about YouTube, its stars and their accolades. So when I was invited to join Tom at this awards show I said “Sure!” because my idea of a YouTube-centric awards show consists of, like, forty people in someone’s basement smoking weed and playing NBA Jam. Turns out, The Streamys are one of those broadcast-live-on-TV, Evan-you-have-to-dress-up-fancy awards shows. Which, of course, is terrifying to me.
If you’ve read this website with any regularity over the past ten years you know I’ve referenced struggling with social anxiety in my youth. As it turns out, when you put adult Evan on a red carpet in front of lots of people…he gets just as freaked out as he did when he was a kid who didn’t want to be called on in school! You can imagine my horror, then, as I approached the red carpet outside the Palladium in Hollywood Thursday night. I tried my best to look the part of hardened, publicity-whore awards show veteran, but I think I was shaking during my walk. Also, a guy from something called MashTV stopped me to ask me on camera who my favorite inspiring female YouTuber is. Again, having no idea what is popular on YouTube, the first thing that came to mind was the girl who was twerking in her apartment and her roommate walked in the door and knocked her over. That was funny! After a second I realized I should probably say Sonya, because she’s the only female YouTuber I know, and because in talking with our Player Piano followers on Facebook and Twitter I see firsthand how much she inspires her fans.
Once inside we nominees had access to an open bar throughout the broadcast. So…the majority of the show is a blur. I distinctly remember the girl from True Grit opening a show by singing about masturbation (kids, they grow up so fast!) and Sir Mix-A-Lot closing the show with a rousing rendition of “Baby Got Back”.
Following the show, there was an afterparty across the street at the W Hotel’s rooftop space. I ate so many sliders and drank so many Evan Williams on the rocks. Tom was nice enough to include me in most networking conversations. I mostly nodded and laughed since – again – I generally play a behind-the-scenes role, but hopefully I didn’t make too much of an ass of myself.
As for our award, they only handed out FIVE during the live broadcast. The rest were handed out at a separate ceremony, and we lost to something called “Eat Your Feelings” or “Eating Our Feelings”. I’ve never heard of it, so I’m not sure it really exists. All I know is they are not nominated in the “Best Unscripted Web Series” category at next month’s Geekie Awards. Which is where I’ll be with Tom and Sonya on October 15th. Hopefully the red carpet for that show will be a little less daunting.
There’s more to report but I’ll save that for another day. Or days. Maybe. If I have time.
Deafheaven – Brought To The Water [MP3]
