Category: Viral

The High School Musical franchise ended a long time ago — so long ago that one of its stars, Zac Efron, is already playing dads. He’s even playing adults in reboots of movies that were vehicles from younger actors. According to Variety, Efron is set to appear in a new version of Firestarter, the classic Stephen King novel that was, once upon a time, a very young Drew Barrymore’s first movie after becoming a star with E.T.

The 1984 Firestarter starred Barrymore as a young girl with pyrokinetic powers, i.e., she can burn stuff with her mind. A shadowy government agency catches wind of this, decides to abduct her, and eventually learns the hard way that they shouldn’t have. Not surprisingly, the reboot is being shepherded by Blumhouse Productions, who’ve cornered the market on remakes of horror classics, among them the new Halloween films, last year’s Black Christmas, and the ever-delayed Candyman.

Who Efron will be playing is currently unknown. Will he play the girl’s dad, who bestows upon her freaky superpowers after he and her mother take an LSD-like drug? (This post-hippie plot point will presumably be changed. Or not!) Or will he continue his streak of playing bad by taking on the role of one of the government stooges, perhaps the one once essayed by a ponytailed George C. Scott? Whatever the case, it will remind you that 17 Again was a long time ago.

(Via Variety)

Everyone has strong opinions on the Game of Thrones TV show, and that includes George R.R. Martin, author of the literary doorstops that fueled the HBO juggernaut. Martin has been so infamously slow to complete the sixth installment in his A Song of Ice and Fire cycle that the showrunners just had to make up an ending themselves. But his beef isn’t with the show’s highly contested final stretch. In fact, it’s incredibly small and one could argue kind of nit-picky.

For his forthcoming new Thrones book Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, due on Oct. 6, Entertainment Weekly critic James Hibberd spoke with Martin about his thoughts on the show. Many of them are positive; he digs how they depicted Ned Stark’s death, and ditto the “Red Wedding.” But he does take umbrage with one scene from the first season. His complaint is partly budgetary: Though Game of Thrones had one of the largest budgets for TV at the time — a whopping $6 million per episode — they evidently had to cut a few corners when fleshing out one part of the first book.

″Where we really fell down in terms of budget was my least favorite scene in the entire show, in all eight seasons: King Robert [Mark Addy] goes hunting,″ Martin told Hibbert, referring to a scene from the Season 1, Episode 7 episode “You Win or Your Die.” Martin elaborated:

″Four guys walking on foot through the woods carrying spears and Robert is giving Renly s—. In the books, Robert goes off hunting, we get word he was gored by a boar, and they bring him back and he dies. So I never did [a hunting scene]. But I knew what a royal hunting party was like. There would have been a hundred guys. There would have been pavilions. There would have been huntsmen. There would have been dogs. There would have been horns blowing — that’s how a king goes hunting! He wouldn’t have just been walking through the woods with three of his friends holding spears hoping to meet a boar. But at that point, we couldn’t afford horses or dogs or pavilions.”

Of course, your pick for worst Game of Thrones scene is almost certainly different. Or who knows? Maybe you too are well-acquainted with medieval hunts and your nostrils were flaring seeing something so minimalist and inaccurate. It’s also worth underlining that this was still the first season, and that after GoT became a sensation beyond HBO’s wildest dreams, the network would give them even more money to better emulate Martin’s pricy vision.

Meanwhile, you can see the scene that so roiled Martin below:

(Via EW)

You can say it about almost any championship series, but the Lakers-Heat Finals is legitimately loaded with story lines and intrigue. You have LeBron facing his former team in Miami where he won two championships. You have Anthony Davis appearing in his first ever Finals series. You have Dion Waiters poised to take home a championship ring regardless of which team wins.

And then there’s Jimmy Butler getting his ultimate vindication after acrimonious exits from his last two teams. The Heat have been perhaps the most surprising team of the Bubble, upending Giannis and the No. 1 seeded Bucks and following that up with a decisive win over a Celtics team in the Eastern Conference Finals that many considered more talented.

Semantics aside, the Heat have exceeded expectations this postseason, and now they have a chance to spoil the Lakers’ designs on a 17th title to add to the rafters at Staples Center. To do that, they’ll have to go through James and Davis, but regardless, Butler doesn’t see his team as the underdogs in this scenario.

Via Tim Bontempts of ESPN:

“A really good team,” Butler said Tuesday, during the NBA’s annual Finals media day, of how he views the Heat entering this series. “That’s it. A really good team. Not going to say that we’re any better than anybody else, but I just don’t think that we’re underdogs. I don’t.

“So what that nobody picked us to be here? That’s okay. Pretty sure nobody is picking us to win, either. That’s okay. But we understand that. We embrace that, because, at the end of the day, we truly don’t care. We’re just going to go out here and compete, play together like we always have, and I’m going to see where we end up.”

By this point of the playoffs, the Heat have erased any doubt about their ability to hang with top-tier teams. Butler, for his part, has found the perfect marriage with an organization that prides itself on work ethic and determination. Still, because of the dominance of their superstar duo, the Lakers are the odds-on favorite to take home the title, and it will take Butler and the Heat continuing to play at an extraordinary level to remove that underdog status once and for all.

(Via ESPN)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away at the age of 87 earlier this month and she leaves an unparalleled legacy of fighting for gender equality and women’s rights.

One of the most important aspects of her legacy is how she has continued to be an inspiration across generations, and is particularly popular among young women.

“I think it is absolutely extraordinary that Justice Ginsburg was both a hero to the women of the 1970s and then an icon to the little girls of today,” Abbe Gluck, a Yale Law School professor and former clerk of Justice Ginsburg, told ABC News.

“She was an amazing teacher and her influence remains with me today and will remain with me forever,” she continued.

via Yashmori / Flickr

Many young people learned about her fight for equality through a 2016 children’s book, “I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark,” by Debbie Levy.

A wonderful example of RBG’s influence on the younger generations comes out of Portland, Oregon. Ruby Waas Shull, a fifth-grader at Bridger K – 8, has started a petition to rename nearby Kellogg Middle School after Ginsburg.

The school is currently being rebuilt as part of a modernization project and she believes it should reopen with a new name.

Ruby’s mother, Rachael Was Shull, says her daughter has been trying to get a school in the district named after Ginsburg for years. However, Portland Publics Schools’ naming policy requires someone to have been deceased for at least three years before being considered for having a building named after them.

In the wake of Ginsburg’s death, Ruby has sent two letters to the district requesting the name change, the most recent made a case for waiving the three-year qualification.

“We are working out next steps, but Ruby’s goal is to present directly to the school board,” Racheal told Scary Mommy. “We are all feeling excited about the possibility of better representation in our monuments and institutions.”

The school district says that the children’s voices will be taken into consideration when deciding on renaming school buildings.

“PPS is very committed to the student voice and the renaming process,” the district said in a statement. “This summer we proposed a new process that aligns with our PPS Vision, our values, commitment to Racial Equity and Social Justice, and is culturally responsive.”

The refurbished Kellogg Middle Schoolvia Google

In the meantime, Ruby is garnering support for the renaming process through a Change.org petition that already has over 2100 signatures. The goal of the campaign is to reach 2500.

“I feel strongly that we should change the name of Kellogg Middle School to Ruth Bader Ginsburg Middle School,” the petition reads. “We have a lot of schools (far too many, in my opinion) named after white businessmen. Lastly, if kids go to schools centered only on white males then kids who are not those two things may feel unimportant, or worthless even.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was known for her persistence and Ruby is a fine example of how her dedication has had a tremendous influence on subsequent generations.

“It just really impresses me that [Ginsburg] hasn’t ever given up, even when people said no,” Ruby told WHAM.

Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger made an international name for himself in 2009 when he safely landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River, saving all 155 people aboard. The former Air Force pilot and airline captain earned the nickname “Hero of the Hudson” for his cool head and expert execution of the near-impossible feat, and a feature film with Tom Hanks playing him told the story of that fateful flight.

In 2009, the GOP approached Sully, a registered Republican, about running for office in his home state of California, but he said he had no interest in public office. In 2018, he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that although he’d been a Republican for most of his adult life, he had “always voted as American.”

Now, Sully is putting country above party again in an ad created with The Lincoln Project and VoteVets. In it, Sully details what leadership entails. “Leadership is not just about sitting in the pilot’s seat. It’s about knowing what you’re doing, and taking responsibility for it. Being prepared, ready, and able to handle anything that might come your way.”

He points out that he’s been flying over this country for 53 years, and all but one of those flights, no one ever heard about. He explains how he learned about “the awesome responsibility of command” and leadership from his father, who was a Naval officer in WWII. “I know that serving a cause greater than oneself is the highest calling. And it’s in that highest calling of leadership that Donald Trump has failed us so miserably.”

Sully says “it’s up to us to overcome his attacks on our very democracy.”

“Eleven years ago I was called to my moment. Now, we are all called to this moment,” he says. “When you look down at this beautiful, boundless country, you don’t see political divisions. It reminds us of who we are and what we can be. That we are in control of this nation’s destiny.”

“All we have to do,” he adds, “is vote him out.”

Sully is one of many Republicans who have risen above party loyalties to vote their conscience. Earlier this month, in a series of tweets following news reports that Trump had badmouthed the military on multiple occasions, Sully wrote, “While I am not surprised, I am disgusted by the current occupant of the Oval Office. He has repeatedly and consistently shown himself to be completely unfit for and to have no respect for the office he holds.”

The Republicans who see Donald Trump as a threat to the nation and want to see a return to decency, dignity, and competency in the nation’s highest office are making their voices heard and calling on all Americans to do the right thing. In a mere handful of weeks, we’ll see how many are listening and heeding that call.

The Los Angeles Lakers enter the NBA Finals as prohibitive favorites, with many sportsbooks listing them as high as -450 favorites over the Miami Heat. Then again, Miami’s entered their last two series as underdogs and emerged victorious. As such, the Lakers know they have to be on their game to pick up another Larry O’Brien Trophy, because the Heat always find a way to ask a number of questions of their opponents.

Here, we’ll look at three keys for the Lakers that will be crucial for them to take a championship home to L.A. from the Disney Bubble. There are some things that go without explanation — like they’ll be better if guys around LeBron and Anthony Davis hit shots — but there are some matchups and focal points beyond that which could tip this series in favor of the Lakers.

1. Anthony Davis needs to be better than Bam Adebayo

Anthony Davis has been excellent this postseason, adapting his game to the needs of the Lakers based on their opponent. That meant battling the size in Portland’s frontcourt, playing small-ball five against the Rockets, and attacking as a power forward against the Nuggets. In the Finals, he will face his stiffest competition yet, at least in terms of versatility on both ends of the floor, in the form of Bam Adebayo. The 23-year-old Heat big man has emerged as a star in his own right, and can post Davis-like stat lines as evidenced by his 32 points, 14 rebounds, and five assists in the series-clinching Game 6 win over Boston.

To this point, Miami has seen its top trio of Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, and Goran Dragic match or out-perform their star counterparts from the Bucks and Celtics, but the Lakers present a much greater challenge with James and Davis. The Davis-Adebayo matchup has the chance to be a pivot point in this series on either side, with Davis needing to find a way to consistently dominate in this series against a formidable matchup. Davis has been fantastic this playoffs, but does have his lulls and at times has been too willing to hoist contested jump shots in the midrange. Being consistently aggressive and assertive against Adebayo is important because if you can get Adebayo off the floor with foul trouble — which, to his credit, he’s usually very good at avoiding — the Lakers will have a significant advantage.

No player on the Heat is more impactful to their team success than Adebayo, as they simply don’t have an adequate replacement behind him on the bench. Kelly Olynyk can provide shooting but is a major drop off on defense, while Andre Iguodala played “center” in small-ball lineups against the Celtics, but takes away the threat in the pick-and-roll game offensively along with giving up rebounding. And besides, while going small with Iguodala has its benefits, doing it against a gigantic Lakers frontcourt has serious drawbacks. When Adebayo’s on the floor in these playoffs, Miami has a +8.2 net rating. That drops to a -3.9 net rating when he sits, which is by far the biggest difference among Miami’s main rotation players.

The Lakers have the best two players in this series in theory, but they have to play as such for them to win. The biggest opportunity for the Heat to close that gap is in the Adebayo-Davis matchup, and it’s incumbent on Davis to win that battle and do what he can to frustrate Miami’s do-everything big on both ends of the floor.

2. Beware of the fourth quarter Heat

The Lakers have cruised to the Finals in 15 games, dropping only one game in each series, but they’ve had some close calls down the stretch against both the Rockets and Nuggets. Miami has been, by far, the NBA’s best fourth quarter team and the Lakers will have to execute better down the stretch to avoid letting some of those close games tilt in favor of the Heat.

One thing Miami has done extremely well in fourth quarters is turn opponents over, maybe best evidenced by their Game 2 comeback against Boston in which Butler had a pair of critical late steals that led to fast break buckets in a 106-101 come from behind win. The Lakers have had turnover issues of their own in the final quarter, with a turnover rate of 18 percent in the fourth. The only team in this postseason with a higher turnover rate in the fourth quarter are the Celtics at 18.8 percent, thanks in part to what the Heat were able to do to speed them up and force them into mistakes late in games.

The Lakers will have to be better with the ball in fourth quarters of close games because Miami excels at forcing live-ball turnovers and converting them into immediate points. Their ball pressure is tremendous and guys like Butler, Iguodala, Adebayo, and Jae Crowder all have excellent hands to get in passing lanes for deflections and steals.

On the other end, the Lakers have to be ready for a diverse attack from the Heat and adapt coverages based on what they’re doing in that specific game, rather than relying on tape or previous experience. Butler is the obvious focal point, as he’s had some spectacular closing quarters this postseason, but Miami has five players averaging five or more points per fourth quarter this postseason in Butler, Dragic, Adebayo, and Tyler Herro. Those three guards all can become the primary ball-handler depending on who has the hot hand and the favorable matchup, and as such, you have to adjust your defense to them. They also attack the basket relentlessly, putting stress on the defense for kickouts, lobs, and dropoffs when defenders collapse, and are tremendous at drawing contact to the tune of nearly nine free throw attempts per fourth quarter. Discipline on shooters, strong closeouts, and timely rotations are all put to the test by the Heat, and you can bet that’s a focal point for Frank Vogel in preparations.

3. Attack the mismatches, and be ready for the zone

The Heat have some incredible offensive lineups, but their best offensive perimeter players are also their weakest defenders. As such, they typically try to keep one of Crowder or Iguodala on the floor to bring a bit more defensive balance whenever they have a combination of Dragic, Robinson, and Herro out there together. Those three are solid team defenders, but aren’t good one-on-one, on-ball defenders. Against Denver, LeBron relentlessly hunted Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. when they were out there to a great deal of success.

The Nuggets, to an almost frustrating degree, gave James whatever switch he wanted, and it’ll be interesting to see if Miami tries to reject switches when James calls for a pick from a fellow perimeter player to get Dragic, Herro, or Robinson on him — or Olynyk and Meyers Leonard any time Miami possibly goes to their bench bigs. The Celtics did this a lot, and were able to get Robinson in particular in foul trouble by going at him, as he has a tendency to make too much contact while trying to contain drives.

The adjustment to the Lakers aggressively hunting their guards in switches is for Miami to deploy the 2-3 zone we saw them use against the Celtics to great success. If the Lakers, and LeBron especially, begin targeting certain mismatches, expect the Heat to at least sprinkle in zone looks to throw them off of rhythm — I’d be surprised if they play as much zone as they showed against Boston, but they’ll play some. As such, L.A. better be putting in at least some work on zone offense, flashing Davis to the free throw line and attacking the seams quickly off of passes. If they can adapt to zone looks and take advantage of soft spots with Davis and their excellent cutters like Alex Caruso and Kyle Kuzma when he gets the ball in that pocket, they can force Miami out of their zone and back into man-to-man, where James can again do what he does best.

After making an unusual proclamation that he’s “part of” the LGBT community, Eric Trump quickly became a Trending topic on Tuesday, which forced the president’s son to clarify his remarks.

While defending his father from a damaging New York Times report that seemingly enraged the president going into his first debate with Joe Biden, the younger Trump appeared to have outed himself on Fox & Friends while discussing how even a lesbian New Yorker supports his father.

“I’m telling you, I see it every day, the LGBT community, they are incredible and you should see how they’ve come out in full force for my father every single day,” Trump said. “I’m part of that community and we love the man and thank you for protecting our neighborhoods and thank you for protecting our cities.”

After social media latched onto the strange admission that he’s part of the LGBT community, Trump issued a statement to the New York Post clarifying that he is a happily married, heterosexual man. He also confirmed that he is not bisexual:

“To clarify, many of our close friends are part of the LGBT community, which was the intent of my statement — the left has taken that vote for granted for a long time and support from the gay community for my father is incredible,” Trump said.

“As to me personally, as I think you know, I am a happily married man to my wife, Lara.”

Naturally, Trump’s remark arrived far too late to stop social media users from having a field day with the Fox News clip as actual members of the LGBT community made it clear that Eric Trump joining their ranks is the last thing they need right now.

(Via New York Post)

The Chicago Bulls have been in perpetual turmoil the past several years, undergoing constant personnel turnover, roster upheaval, and behind-the-scenes issues that have made an already-tough situation that much worse. They became one of the first teams to join the coaching carousel when they fired Jim Boylen after two seasons, but recently filled that vacancy with former Thunder coach Billy Donovan.

Donovan had spent five seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder, making the playoffs each year but being eliminated in the first round in all but one of those seasons: the year they blew a 3-1 series lead to the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.

Perhaps it’s that somewhat spotty postseason resume that’s at the heart of Scottie Pippen’s apprehension about his hiring. During a recent interview, Pippen made no bones about how he felt about Donovan getting the nod to helm the team where he spent the bulk of his career and won six titles.

Via Chris Cason of Forbes:

“I like Billy Donovan as a person but I don’t think he’s proved anything in the NBA that proves he’s worth investing in and bringing a team up that needs help like Chicago does. They’re a team that has been struggling for a long time. To me, I don’t see the value he brings to them. He’s going to be a coach but there are a lot of them out there. He didn’t do anything special in OKC that warranted him a second opportunity. That’s just my opinion.”

This season, Donovan earned plenty of well-deserved Coach of the Year consideration for shepherding an OKC team through an unexpected playoff run after many picked them to finish near the bottom of the Western Conference standings last summer. Prior to that, Donovan was the longtime coach at Florida, where he won back-to-back NCAA championships.

Still, Donovan will have his hands full with the roster he’s inherited in Chicago and a new front office trying to build a team as they see fit. It’s a team that has been blessed with young talent but has yet to pull all the pieces together. Bulls fans are hoping he can replicate what he accomplished with the Thunder last season and make the Bulls relevant again.

(Forbes)

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

Kal Penn Approves This Message (Freeform, 10:30pm EST) — Actor turned Obama administration member turned actor Kal Penn (House, the Harold and Kumar trilogy) is here to celebrate the changes that young voters can make. This promises to be a non-partisan approach with comedic sketches and in-depth interviews that will help Gen Z make their voices more impactful than they already are. This week, Kal speaks with Hillary Clinton and takes on education, including the different paths (including the faux beef between college vs. trade school) that students can take to bolster their future.

2020 Presidential Debate 1 (Everywhere, 9:00pm EST) — Donald Trump faces off with Joe Biden. Anything could happen during this dumpster fire of a year.

Michelle Buteau: Welcome to Buteaupia (Netflix standup special) — Buteau’s determined to deliver a dynamic hour of comedy on cultural differences and why women should give short men a chance.

Tell Me A Story (CW, 9:00pm EST) — Hannah’s working hard to get Gabe released while Jordan’s just about had enough.

Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Senator Cory Booker, Public Enemy

Jimmy Kimmel Live — Bernie Sanders, Kal Penn, Haim

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Andrew Rannells, Brittany Howard

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon — John Cena, BTS

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Sarah Silverman, Lili Reinhart, Phoebe Bridgers

Few people can capture the grandeur and scope of Burning Man quite like Jane Hu. The award-winning San Francisco photographer has been documenting Black Rock City from the ground floor for a decade — she even has a tab devoted to Burning Man on her website — as both an official staff photographer and a participant in what Hu describes as an annual event that provides both “a sense of closure and a new beginning” for her year. That culminating end-of-the-cosmic-year event didn’t happen in 2020, thanks to COVID-19 shutting down Burning Man for the first time since its inception, which left Hu — and us, quite frankly — pretty nostalgic about Burns past.

To remedy things, we linked up with Hu for a chat about what Burning Man means to her and picked her brain about what she thought of this year’s Digital Burn and what lasting impacts the pandemic may have on the festival in the future. As a bonus treat, Hu shared with us some of her favorite photos from Burns past and gave some advice for photographers who are trying to capture a large scale extreme environment like Burning Man.

When did you first start taking photos at Burning Man?

This would’ve been my 11th year if it had happened, so I’ve been to 10 and I started taking photos, not the first year because I was freaked out about getting my camera ruined, but every year since then. I joined the official documentary team a few years ago and have been helping them capture the event in a more, I don’t know if “official” is the right word, but certainly in a larger capacity.

The environment of Burning Man can be extreme, what advice do you have for beginner photographers who may be taking photos in extreme settings like a desert, or snow-filled landscape

Research the specific environment that you’re going into ahead of time and research it well. At Burning Man the issue is really really fine alkaline dust. The dust is so fine that it gets in the crevices between the buttons in the body of your camera, it’s really corrosive and really hard to remove.

I’ve constructed what I call a camera condom — it’s a series of plastic ziplock bags with camera lens filters that are attached with painters tape so that I can still change lenses and keep my camera completely protected within this bag.

Over time it’s hard to manipulate your camera that way, some people use underwater casings, but its harder to take photos and get to your controls when you have a whole contraption to deal with. I’ve experimented with painter’s tape over my buttons and labeling it, but the last few years I’ve just brought multiple camera bodies, this way I can have a different lens on each body. Wednesday will be portrait day, so I’ll bring the portrait lens camera out, Thursday will be landscape day, and I’ll bring my wide-angle out. It’s a huge part of the planning process.

How did you spend Burning Man this year? Did you do the digital burn or did you do your own personal experience at home?

It was hard, I’m not going to lie. I think of Burning Man as this culminating end of a year event and beginning of the next. Burn night to me is like New Year’s Eve and it ushers in the beginning of a whole new year, missing that event, missing that sense of closure and a new beginning is psychologically really difficult.

What we did is bought an Oculus, so I did some amount of the BRCVR which is one of the eight multiverses, it was surprisingly impressive. Given the scope of it and how many people participated in it, and built worlds in it, a bunch of friends and I got together and would run around the virtual playa, and get into adventures. There are all these little Easter eggs in there that you can’t have in the real world. Part of what makes Burning Man so great to me is that you never know what you’re going to come across, and it has a sense of immediacy. If you get a certain experience you’re not going to find it again, you have to get the most out of it.

BRCVR had a very similar vibe to it — you can get to a secret section of this world if you crawl through this dumpster and reemerge on the other side of the DJ booth.

It was such a surprising find that I want to continue to go to now and I hope it’ll be around much longer. On the actual Burn night a few of my friends and I did go to Ocean Beach, we didn’t go to the big Ocean Beach gathering that [SF Mayor] London Breed scolded people about, we just had our own small mini celebration on the beach.

How does that VR experience compare? Obviously, the experiences are very different but it seems like they really tried to capture that sense of discovery that is so characteristic of Burning Man.

I thought it was surprisingly similar, it rang a couple of the same bells for me in terms of this idea of an infinite world that is non-linear, interactive, changes depending on the time of day, very immediate, it’s very participatory, the main Burning Man 10 principles were very much applied to the VR version.

Obviously, it’s different, a lot of pieces just can’t be replicated but because it was VR, and frankly my first time in that amount of VR, the immersive nature of it is really impressive. We also tried to do the same experience on a laptop, but then it just feels like a video game, but when you’re in VR it does feel like you’re immersed. When I took off my headset I was disoriented because I forgot I was in my living room.

Burning Man has a grandiose scope, what tips do you have for photographers capturing the scope of a location in a still photo?

What draws me to Burning Man is the idea of the scale of it. I’m obsessed with this idea of something being larger than life and the concept of scale and the fact that the art you see out there is larger than most art you’d see in the “real world.”

I love the sense of awe and wonder that that gives people and that’s what I love capturing most. My photos are mostly photos of art, the scale of art, it’s almost like the scale of human potential to me.

My advice is, bring the right lenses to capture the scale that you want to capture, I always bring a wide-angle and I use the wide-angle more than half the time I’m out there because I want to get that scale and the largeness of the object with some of the interplay between the vastness of the surroundings. The conditions out there are a photographer’s dream, there is no better place to take photos, the light is just amazing most of the time. There are really harsh daylight hours and pitch-black nights, but there is photography for any time of day depending on the style you want to shoot and your subject matter.

Definitely sunrises and sunsets, you don’t want to miss those, be ready to ditch your friends to take advantage of those narrow windows because the light will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.

Speaking of that balance between the subject and the background, when you’re doing something like a portrait, what are some tips for being able to capture the surroundings and that intimacy at the same time?

I’m not what you would call a traditional “street photographer” by any means. I’m less concerned with capturing people in their daily activities and more concerned with composing my shots in a way that presents a juxtaposition between the setting and the person. I really like shooting people but I also really like making sure they fit with the overall story of the image. A lot of what I do is craft scenes — I start with a location, scout a good location, and find a place that has interesting potential then work with collaborators who will work with me to come up with a really interesting composition between the person and the setting.

A lot of the times I collaborate with performers because they’re comfortable in front of the camera, they usually have a particular style or something they want to say with their look. A lot of dancers, a lot of circus performers, a lot of musicians, I think that interest and openness in being in front of a camera really helps a lot with what shows up at the end of it, but it’s really a collaborative process. I want the person I’m shooting to have a say in what is being created and feel comfortable. At the end of the day, you can’t fake that comfort level or that interest in it. being part of telling the story.

I can’t be someone who says “Hey stand over there and put your arms up” I’m bad at posing, but I’m really good at finding collaborators and working with them to realize a joint vision.

We talked a bit about the position of the sun and how light is more flattering at sunset and sunrise, but when capturing candid moments, the sun won’t always be in a position that’s helpful. Do you have any tips for interesting ways we can use less flattering light to take interesting photos?

It’s definitely a hard photographer challenge. Capturing light is what photography is all about, but you’re right, sometimes you have to make do with what you have or the conditions that happen to be there. Yesterday, because of the fires, it was completely orange out. That’s not something anyone expected, so photographers just have to make do with that.

I shoot probably 99% natural light, I shoot very little studio lighting — the camera has to be an extension of your mind, in a way.

“Okay it’s dark, it’s windy, I need to boost my ISO up I need to boost my shutter speed up” a lot of that has to be very intuitive. Burning Man in particular really forced me to have to learn that really quickly. You’re in these crazy conditions, you have to catch that moment, your camera is in some weird plastic bag contraption, you just have to learn by feel how to get to the setting you need.

But honestly, I’m not going to lie — there is a lot you can do in post-production. Post-production is just as important and just as interesting an experience to me as the shoot itself. In post, I use Lightroom, and PicsArt, there is just a lot of possibility you can do with your image, to pull up the levels to change the light balance, to crop, etc. There is a level of control that we have now over our images that I think the analog photographers would call “cheating” but as long as you’re not doing something that isn’t true to what you believe in and what you think constitutes the story you want to tell, all power to the tools you utilize and you master to tell that story.

For me I’m in Lightroom all the time, I’m trying different things out on PicsArt because it gives me a new level of control that I would never think of in a photography app. I use those tools a lot to discover what I’m trying to say.

Circling back to Burning Man going Digital, do you think COVID-19 will have lasting impacts on Burning Man going forward, I’m sure this loss of revenue has hit them hard.

There is definitely a set of challenges for any festival coming up in the next two years. For Burning Man it’s not just the loss of revenue, it’s also the fact that it’s such a participatory event that you really need thousands to build Black Rock City. If those thousands have moved away from the Bay Area or the surrounding Nevada area because they can’t afford to live here or because they’ve moved back home because of COVID-19, that’s a big hit on Burning Man

The VR element is never going to be the substitute for the real experience, it’s a great additional experience for people who can’t make it out to Burning Man and it’s a really great starting point or gateway to the real thing.

With your photos of Burning Man, what are you trying to capture, what’s the story you’re trying to tell?

A couple of things, what I said earlier about capturing something “larger than life” I’m obsessed with that idea. What really drives me to Burning Man is this idea of the interplay between human effort and Mother Nature. My first Burn I didn’t even know how to set up a tent, I had to have other people set it up for me. When it was finally set up and I biked out I was just blown away by this world that just came out of nowhere, built from people completely from scratch through a ton of effort. If I couldn’t even set up my tent, I couldn’t even imagine people building these magnificent things and then burning and dismantling them at the end of the week.

It’s deeply inspiring and it shows you that if you really want to do something, this is just one of the edges of what’s possible. That’s what I want to capture in my images, how do I inspire other people to produce something at the edge of what’s possible? That’s the impetus behind what makes Burning Man so special to me. On the more mundane side, there has become this commercialization of Burning Man or this idea that Burning Man is great for your Instagram feed, so there have been more and more Instagram stars going out to Burning Man, so what I try to do is capture the range of people who are out there. My portraits are more focused on everyday people and people who are not size 0 with a boyfriend taking photos for them.

I want to showcase other sides of Burning Man. A couple of years ago I did a piece for SF Gate around “The Temple” which is this really special place in Burning Man that is not about partying or nudity or drugs, it’s about leaving a piece of yourself that you’ve been mourning or celebrating and want to let go of. Walking through that experience and reading it is the most touching thing in the world, and it never gets covered in the press!

I’m always looking for beautiful yet alternative stories that emerge from Burning Man.