Support this Podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/carlking
In this episode, Carl King revisits and re-examines his viral essay 10 Myths About Introverts, reviews two films (Thor: Love And Thunder and Cronenberg’s The Fly), and names Star Trek The Original Series Vol. 1 by Fred Steiner the Album of the Week.
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SHOW NOTES / LINKS
10 Myths About Introverts
https://carlkingdom1.wpenginepowered.com/10-myths-about-introverts
Dragontooth Inn
https://carlkingdom1.wpenginepowered.com/cartoons
Lexica
https://lexica.art
Thor: Love And Thunder on Amazon
https://amzn.to/3DiTRJy
The Fly On Amazon
https://amzn.to/3xg7jKA
UCB Comedy Manual On Amazon
https://amzn.to/3RFMEYs
So, You’re A Creative Genius… Now What?
https://amzn.to/3B9D496
Introvert Advantage on Amazon
https://amzn.to/3U8IHNp
Star Trek Original Series Vol. 1
https://amzn.to/3qy5Uv1
OPENING CREDITS
I’m Carl King, and this is The Carl King Podcast, where I talk about music, filmmaking, and general creativity stuff. To support this podcast, head over to Patreon.com/carlking, and join for just $1 or $5 per month. Special thank you to my Illusionist $51 level patrons, both Hank Howard III and Chewbode.
Quick shout-out to my music endorsements: Vienna Symphonic Library, Fractal Audio, Ernie Ball Strings, Toontrack, and Millennia Media. All 5 of those companies make amazing musical gear that I love to use.
Now let’s start to prepare to start getting started!
COMING UP
In this episode, we’ve got 2 Film Reviews, A Feature Segment on 10 Myths About Introverts, and an album of thew week! But first, let’s start, with a Carl King The Human Update.
CARL KING THE HUMAN UPDATE
If you’re watching the video version of this podcast on YouTube, you’ll notice a change in my appearance. As you can see, I’ve grown a huge beard and now have GIGANTIC muscles. This is because I’ve decided I want to look exactly like Jon Cooper of Skillet.
It’s pretty impressive, I’m about halfway there in ONLY a week. People ask me all the time, what’s the secret? Well, extreme workouts, for one. But the real secret is taking the Bible literally.
I went out for a walk yesterday and several people stopped and asked me for autographs and to pray with them. But I’m still saving up for a pair of camouflage shorts and one of those hats with the flat brim. At that point the transformation will be complete.
DRAGONTOOTH INN
In other news, this past week, we FINISHED recording all the VO for my new animated pilot, Dragontooth Inn. That’s right, Stephanie Southerland came in to re-record a few updated line of dialogue. I now have a rough assembly of ALL of the voice acting. The next step is to polish the timing of the edit, add sound effects, and SCORE the music. After that, I can turn it over to Lance Myers to begin on the animatic. I’ll be posting bits of my progress inside my Patreon.
LEXICA
And last, here’s something fascinating. Friday, I woke up in the middle of the night and read a new Seth Godin blog where he mentioned a website called Lexica. I thought, what the heck is that? So I clicked on it.
Well, it took me maybe 30 minutes to figure out what I was looking at. Because I could not believe what I was seeing. Lexica a SEARCH ENGINE for AI generated images. Folks. Foooolks. I am stunned by this website. I sat there for hours typing in search terms and laughing to myself. You can even search for AI generated MEMES.
I have to say Lexica is possibly the only thing AI is good for, and it’s surrealism heaven. For the audio-only listeners I’m going to post my favorite 5 AI generated memes on my website’s blog, so go and have a look. That’s CarlKingdom.com/blog.
Now let’s get started with this week’s FILM REVIEWS.
FILM REVIEW #1 – THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER (2022)
First up, we have Thor: Love and Thunder.
Here’s a question. How the heck should I review a movie… or film… I don’t like? And more importantly, what is the purpose of reviews? Well, here are 3 purposes I can think of:
1 – Marketing: to sell the movie
2 – Socializing: hey, did you see the new Thor movie?
And 3 – To LEARN. Improving our own filmmaking skills.
I don’t work for Disney (Disney actually works for me, Part-time), and I don’t have any friends, so I’m going to focus on Number 3. And here’s how. As a filmmaker myself, I’m fascinated by analytical deconstructions. What can I LEARN by pulling a movie or film apart?
Well, I can isolate the elements. I can think about the writing, directing, cinematography, editing, as separate things. That gets me at least one level deeper than the circular opinion of “I didn’t like it because it was bad.”
WHAT IF, you had an Imaginary sort of Mixing Board, and you could turn up and down the various faders that control the ingredients of a Movie. For instance, you could take any movie and MIX IN more ACTION. Or turn down the knob that says ROMANCE. Or maybe you could turn up the DIALOGUE SPEED Fader, all the way, so it turns into an Aaron Sorkin movie.
Now… since we all have different tastes, wouldn’t everyone’s personal MIX of the movie be totally different? Imagine if everyone had their own version of Bladerunner.
Probably, not too far in the future, we’ll be able to actually do this, with AI. And what a nightmare world that will be. If every movie were customized to maximize our own personal enjoyment, maybe we’d get bored. Maybe being exposed to someone else’s very specific vision, challenging our own tastes, is the point of films in the first place.
But as an Exercise, if I had that Movie Mixing Board — what would be my own personal REMIX of Thor: Love And Thunder?
Well, let’s see.
First of all, I’ll say I love the sort of humor that goes too far. Making the same unfunny joke — so many times — that you laugh yourself to death. You know, Anti-Humor. Being intentionally NOT funny, to where it somehow BECOMES funny. Andy Kaufman did a lot of that. And I’ve seen Brendon Small do comedy sketches at The Tomorrow Show that go on for way too long, but that’s what I was there for.
BUT: I don’t think THAT level of anti-humor was appropriate for a Thor movie.
If I could REMIX it, I’d turn the Anti-Comedy Fader down by about 25 or 50%. Because the thing with the screaming goats? That actually got on Carl King’s nerves. If it were a Tim & Eric Movie, fine. Turn up the screaming goats even more. Make them scream non-stop.
Overall, there was a LOOSENESS to the comedy. It felt almost experimental, to see how far they could take it. And it definitely went to Crazytown, as UCB would call it. I would have pulled that element back, for my own personal THOR MOVIE tastes.
I actually prefer the amount of comedy in the previous movie, Thor Ragnarok. Which is my SEVENTEENTH favorite movie of all time.
Folks. Fooooolks. I’m no master of comedy, but it seems like there should be more time spent on the setup part of the jokes — and fewer punchlines. Because this movie almost didn’t get a break from the punchlines. It’s hard to break expectation and get a laugh when you don’t establish base reality.
Whether or not you like or support Dave Chapelle, he is a master of getting SERIOUS, making you forget he’s a comedian, before breaking all that tension with a punchline. I would do more of that, if I were in charge.
But that’s just me. No one’s giving me $250M to make a movie.
I also want to talk about that opening scene, with Christian Bale playing a dude named Gorr. Which rhymes with Thor. THAT scene was right out of a classical tragedy. I was sucked in. THIS is the kind of heavy stuff I want to see. There’s barely any dialogue, it’s slow, they’re suffering. Like a Robert Eggers film. Exactly my kind of thing!
Then I started getting nervous. I was like oh man, I hope the rest of the movie is like this. Please let it stay slow and heavy and dramatic.
But NO. They tricked me again. After a disjointed heavy-metal rendition of the Marvel theme music, it goes straight into a backstory montage, narrated by a character named Korg, the voice of Taika Waititi himself. It’s a different movie than the one I was just watching. What happened?
The montage reminded me of one of those Pitch Meeting YouTube videos by Ryan George. I wondered if Waititi was trying to beat Ryan to the punch by making fun of his own movie. It felt YouTube-y. I don’t remember what movie I recently talked about that also had YouTube-like editing, but this is becoming a thing. Let’s keep an eye out for that in the future.
The change in tone was disorienting to me. Almost as if they shot multiple movies and glued them together. So that’s another knob I would turn down. The JUMPY TONAL JUXTAPOSITION Knob? Is that a thing? Does the Imaginary Movie Mixing Board have one of those?
After that, there’s an ACTION scene. And it very much looked like a Video Game. As in, the Cinematography didn’t look realistic? Here’s why I think that was. Well, aside from the fact that most of it was computer graphics. The shots could have used more DEPTH. Specifically, it can help to put more objects into the extreme foreground.
Instead, it was mostly middle-ground and background. Which gives it a flat, people in front of green screens look, like the Star Wars prequels. So that’s what Carl King would do. Push up that Cinematography Depth Fader.
AND then we have another Tonal Non-Sequitur Jump back to Natalie Portman’s character, and introducing HER situation. Which was more in line with the heavy drama of the opening scene. Good. Now we’re back in SERIOUS FILM territory.
So This movie DOES deal with serious, dark topics. But it leaps to zany whoopee cushion slapstick stuff and stays there FOR A LONG TIME. It really felt like two movies made by two different people. I would stick with a more narrow Tonal Range. Maybe there could be a Tonal Range Compressor?
So I think that would be my biggest change to Thor Love And Thunder, on the Carl King Imaginary Movie Mixing Board. For my own Personal Monitor Mix. Still, Taika Waititi is incredible, and I look forward to what he does next.
FILM REVIEW #2 – THE FLY (1986)
Up next we have another David Cronenberg Masterpiece. THR FLY, from 1986. Starring Jeff L. Goldblum from Laverne & Shirley. And Geena Davis — some of you might remember her from her work on Knight Rider. Both were established television actors who took a big risk, and made the leap to the big screen, just for this film. And it looks like it paid off for BOTH of them. They even got MARRIED. To EACH OTHER, coincidentally.
I looked this up, and The music for The Fly was scored by a guy named… Howard Shore? You know, I’ll never understand directors who change composers for every film. Just when you start to develop a creative shorthand, it’s on to the next young hotshot. If I were Cronenberg, I would have stuck with the composer either from Scanners or Videodrome. I can’t remember their names, but Howard Shore did a decent enough job.
The film begins with an establishing shot of a fundraiser / cocktail party put on by Bartok Science Industries. It’s a big wide shot from above, but here’s what confused me. There’s nothing in the air, nothing hanging from the ceiling. Just a huge empty space. I’m thinking to myself, why is the ceiling so high?
Usually, for a fancy public event like that, you’d expect some kind of fancy lighting or art installation or an elaborate chandelier. I went back and watched 19 other movies, and sure enough, all of their establishing shots of fundraiser cocktail parties had fancy stuff hanging from the ceiling. I’m putting links to those other 19 films, along with still frames, in the show notes.
Also: anyone else notice that there was no diegetic music playing in the place? Normally you’d want to hire a string quartet for that sort of event. Not very cheerful.
Now let’s talk about the most controversial and politically problematic aspect of this film: Jeff L. Goldblum’s alpha-male behavior. In the first scene, he gets a female reporter, that he just met, to drive him to his sketchy warehouse. Pretty bold, but classic Goldblum. Listeners, do you think it’s more alpha-male to make a woman drive you around, or is it more alpha-male to be the driver? Let me know in the comments.
Also, he shows more classic alpha-male behavior on the way there, getting CAR SICK. We almost had some Cronenberg body-horror right out of the gate.
So the two of them walk into his creepy warehouse, and this film turns into a borderline MUSICAL. Jeff L. Goldblum seriously sits down and shreds arpeggios on the piano. But he stops, gets up, and makes her that cappuccino he promised her. Here’s the problem: I’m surprised, that with all his alpha-male training, he didn’t kick back and wave his hand, make HER play the piano and make HIM a cappuccino.
She’s clearly getting bored, so he shows off his Telepods. And she thinks they’re phone booths. BUT, I that actually makes perfect sense that she would think they were phone booths. I mean, they’re called Telepods, which is what everyone called phone booths in the 80s. Plus they look EXACTLY LIKE phone booths.
Here’s something that’s well-known: David Cronenberg blew most of the budget on that opening fundraiser / cocktail party scene, so he couldn’t afford to design futuristic-looking Telepods. Thus, the literal phone booths.
But there’s one thing I didn’t understand —why did he have that other broken phone booth, under a tarp, off to the side? What was the deal with that? Was it for a later plot point? Maybe they’ll use it in the sequel, if one ever gets made.
Later on, Jeff L. Goldblum goes full-on toxic masculinity — by doing some gymnastic moves, and punching through a wooden door frame. Then he brings home a baboon? And rips off his own fingernails.
What does it all mean? I don’t know. But it’s Classic Cronenberg. I gave it 5 out of 5 stars on Letterboxd. And by the way, if you’re on Letterboxd, add me — I’m CarlKingdom over there. I’ll put a link in the show notes.
And now, let’s move on to our FEATURE SEGMENT.
FEATURE SEGMENT – 10 Myths About Introverts (The Original)
Ever seen that list going around, for the past decade or so… 10 Myths About Introverts? Well, Carl King is the original introvert who wrote it. Hi. Sorry to disappoint you.
I want to accomplish two things here:
1 – Take credit for writing 10 Myths About Introverts. Because hey, I did.
2 – Review the 10 Myths after all these years. I’m going to add some Director’s Commentary. How do they hold up? We’re going to find out.
If you’re not familiar with it, 10 Myths About Introverts was written as a list of misconceptions about Introverts. How we’re shy, how we hate people, how we should just smile more to make other people more comfortable.
As a creative person, I’ve always hoped to reach a large audience with something I’ve made. And 10 Myths About Introverts has reached an absurd amount of people. Millions of people have read it. Around 3 MILLION, to be specific. Which is a LOT, for a blog. And that’s just on my own website.
I wrote it in 2009 and it sat there on CarlKingCreative.com. For TWO YEARS. Like most of my blog posts, few people noticed it. Then one day, in 2011, it went viral. I opened my email to an avalanche of people personally thanking me for it, asking me for advice, telling me how much it changed their lives.
What?
I was trying to figure it out, and Turned out it got picked up by one of the bloggers on WIRED Magazine.
https://www.wired.com/2011/06/top-10-myths-about-introverts/
At first, people would ask for permission to share it or repost The 10 Myths. And I’d say, “sure, just give me credit and link back to me.” But soon, my intro and name got deleted from them. People turned them into inspiring motivational images, and spread them all over social media.
I looked, and People are STILL, as of LAST WEEK, making YouTube videos of my 10 MYTHS, and not crediting me. There are animated videos and all sorts of stuff out there. One guy even stole the title and wrote his own 10 Myths About Introverts, to capitalize on just the title itself. Weird.
How does that feel? To have your personal writing straight up plagiarized? Maybe it’s how someone feels when they become a meme. When an aspect of you is taken by the world and you get nothing in return.
So to get the story straight, here’s the history of 10 Myths About Introverts. By Carl King.
On May 31, 2009 I emailed my friend Zeke and told him I had just read Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Laney. That’s what started it all. My mind was blown.
Some of the “myths” were basic ideas on introversion from Introvert Advantage, and some were my own observation, as I’ll explain later. But I started the post with an image of the book and a link to it.
I first posted the 10 Myths About Introverts as a NOTE on Facebook THE NEXT DAY, on June 1, 2009. I don’t know when, but I eventually added it as a “Page” on my WordPress driven website, under my Resources tab.
But here’s a screenshot from Archive.org, from June 2010 — the first time it was captured there. I’ll also put a link in the show notes.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100612180945/http://www.carlkingcreative.com/10-myths-about-introverts
While it was cool that people were finding value in something I wrote, I honestly felt… kind of annoyed? Because as a musician I had been working so hard for 20 years, trying to get the world’s attention. And something I typed in probably 30 minutes somehow hit the jackpot.
I had a book deal at the time, with MWP, for “So You’re A Creative Genius, Now What?” It was kinda crazy timing that I had a book coming out at the same time my little blog was going viral. People around me suggested I write a book about Introverts, and FAST. But I resisted commercializing it. The idea of that felt gross. And besides, there were already books about it. What more could I say?
It was funny but I was the number one Google result for the word Introvert for quite a while. I remember it was ABOVE the Wikipedia page on Introversion.
Parents started writing to me for advice on raising their Introvert kids. I was like: I have NO IDEA. I don’t even have kids. I tried being compassionate and keeping up with the emails at first, but eventually I stopped replying. There’s only so many times you can write the same email without feeling fake. And I was the wrong person to be asking about any of that stuff.
My only attempt to commercial it was… I had a little PayPal donation link at the bottom of the page, and I got random donations over the years. Probably added up to a few hundred dollars. That’s the most I did to cash in.
People all around the world volunteered to translate it into other languages, so I posted those translations on the site, too. French, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, German, and even Hungarian.
The next year, Introversion blew up. Books everywhere. There was Susan Cain, the lady with the boots, giving her TED Talk: “The Power of Introverts.” She packaged introversion and sold it. Someone who claimed to be from Susan Cain’s team emailed me. Said they were starting a new company or website for Introverts. Asked me if I’d be interested in writing for it. I said “sure” and never heard back.
The thing is, I didn’t really want to be the 10 Myths About Introverts guy for the rest of my life, or try to make it my fake BRAND. I had totally different big-ass creative career goals. I wanted to write for animation and make Adult Swim cartoons.
Of course, writing 10 Myths About Introverts WAS a revelation to me. I wrote it in a fit of self-discovery. But by the time anyone noticed it, YEARS had passed. People wanted to believe I was The Introvert Guru or something. And I wasn’t about to pretend to be. I was just some dude that wrote a blog.
I truly wondered if what I wrote had ANY validity. Because I’m no scientist. Over time, I thought: maybe what I wrote is a list of my own eccentric personality traits, with the label INTROVERT slapped onto it. It kinda creeped me out that so many people were identifying, possibly not with Introversion, but with Carl King-ism.
So let’s go through the 10 Myths About Introverts.
What does Carl King, the Original Introvert, think of them now?
Myth #1 : Introverts don’t like to talk.
This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.
I’m skeptical of what I wrote here: about how Introverts hate small talk. Because what I’m describing could be Aspergers or PTSD or social anxiety, or just a lack of social skills. Again, I’m no scientist. I feel like Myth #1 is a description of my own social behaviors, depending on my mood. I do suspect some level of Autism runs in my family.
I can be bad at what’s called active listening, which is giving the other person visual and auditory cues that you’re engaged. You know, mirroring their behaviors, etc. But I’m working on it. I also just don’t have a super expressive face, as you can tell. Calling this Introvert Behaviors doesn’t seem fair.
Myth #2 : Introverts are shy.
Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.
I’ve been called Quiet and Shy my whole life. Most of the time, it’s because I’m just observing and listening. I did grrw up lacking a lot of social skills, and it still throws me off sometimes. But I think I generally do OK. Being friendly to strangers is a sort of MODE I’ve learned. When I turn on my outgoing performance mode, it’s no problem.
Doing this podcast is an example of that. I can talk loudly for hours, and I also don’t have any problem being on a stage. That is, as long as I know what I’m doing.
Myth #3 : Introverts are rude.
Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.
So yeah, I’ve been called rude a lot. Sometimes I’m so focused on a task or consumed with anxiety that I don’t realize how my behaviors are affecting others. I can get HYPER-focused on a task. To someone that hasn’t spent actual time with me, it might look like I’m productive. I think it’s some blend of Autism and Anxiety, driving me to get things done. And when I’m in that mode, my social skills disappear.
When I come off as rude, It could also just be that I’m feeling anxious or uncomfortable in a situation. If something is nagging me, like, if I need to go to the bathroom, I have a hard time taking my mind off it. Plus, I just have an angry looking face. People think something is wrong. When I’m actually just over here daydreaming about drum solos.
Myth #4 : Introverts don’t like people.
On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.
Jeez, this thing about “respect as being a person of substance.” Sounds super judgmental. This one was another description of my own extreme social behaviors, but I don’t know if that’s really an Introvert thing.
Myth #5 : Introverts don’t like to go out in public.
Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.
Okay, this is definitely me. But here’s the problem: I supposedly have PTSD. Which causes me to be extremely sensitive to sound and other input. I can only take so much stimulation before my amygdala explodes. I’m especially panicky around loud sounds: cars revving, crowds screaming, music. My nervous system goes into a fight or flight response.
So I avoid those things, which means not going out in public much. Because going anywhere DRAINS me. But it’s tough to differentiate all these different aspects: a bit of genetic autism, PTSD, and introversion. How can you know what really causes a behavior?
Myth #6 : Introverts always want to be alone.
Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.
Again, this is me. I can spend 90% of my time alone and be totally OK. But I need my wife and my friends and family the other 10% of the time, as my sort of home base. My dad was a total hermit, and as far as I know, he didn’t have even one adult friend. He seemed to like peace and quiet. But he loved his family being “around” even if he didn’t talk to them much. That’s just how he operated. So I probably inherited that from him.
Myth #7 : Introverts are weird.
Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.
This one is the most left-field of them. Because I doubt eccentricity has ANYTHING to do with introversion. I’m surprised I didn’t add Myth 11: “Introverts eat burritos from Whole Foods every day, laugh at poop jokes, and constantly talk about Steve Vai.”
Myth #8 : Introverts are aloof nerds.
Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.
Sounds like I was conflating Introversion and Introspection in this one. But yeah, it’s another description of my own personality.
Myth #9 : Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.
Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.
“Just look it up.” Well, that settles it. I got that science-y stuff out of Introvert Advantage. I have no clue what Dopamine is, or what dominant neuro-pathways really are. And I’m going to guess… that a book from 2002, twenty years ago, is outdated by now.
Myth #10 : Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts.
A world without Introverts would be a world with few scientists, musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers, doctors, mathematicians, writers, and philosophers. That being said, there are still plenty of techniques an Extrovert can learn in order to interact with Introverts. (Yes, I reversed these two terms on purpose to show you how biased our society is.) Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ.
Again, I’m projecting my own judgmental beliefs onto this. I was making Introverts out to be grand visionaries, advanced beings, more SPECIAL than extroverts. But there’s no rule that says Introverts need to be intellectuals or creatives. I was making a big deal out of that because it’s what I wanted to be.
But regarding this Number Ten myth, I’m onboard with the idea that you don’t necessarily need to FIX yourself just because you’re different. You can learn skills to blend in and get along with others, or you can not. Maybe you want to stand your ground and fight for the rest of your life. That’s up to you. But I know what it’s like to have people point at you and say “look at him, he’s not like us.” Well, maybe that’s OKAY. And that’s the point I was really trying to make.
Overall, I think 10 Myths About Introverts was too simplistic. I took a complex area of psychology and turned it into a team sport. The reason is this: Some Extroverts around me at the time thought there was something wrong with me because I hated parties and having people over constantly. So writing 10 Myths About Introverts was my way of defending myself.
But when I wrote it, I didn’t know much about PTSD, Autism, and Social Anxiety. All of which, are things I believe I experience, in varying degrees. But which is which? Do they overlap and cause each other?
In the end, as much as I’m skeptical of the list’s scientific accuracy, no one ever wrote me to tell me how flat-out wrong the list was. Most people said: “Oh my god, this whole list is ME.” So that must count for something. It’s pretty wild that 10 Myths About Introverts resonated with so many people, helping them understand themselves and their family members. But I never, ever expected that to happen.
It’s more evidence that you can’t predict which THING you make — will reach and affect millions of people. So creators — keep at it.
And NOW, onto The Album of the Week!
ALBUM OF THE WEEK: STAR TREK VOL. 1 / FRED STEINER
This week’s album of the week is… Star Trek Volume 1 (Original Television Scores) by Fred Steiner
If you don’t know who Fred Steiner was, he was one the original Star Trek composers. There were a few other guys like Alexander Courage, Sol Kaplan, and Gerald Fried (who I got to chat with briefly at a thing one time). But according to Wikipedia, Fred Steiner scored or conducted the music for 29 of the show’s 79 episodes. He also allegedly conducted the famous arrangement you hear over the end credits.
Another bit of Trivia: It’s also said he was an uncredited composer on Return of the Jedi.
Folks. Foooolks. Here’s your assignment. Go listen to this album, in whatever form you can. I like to listen on Apple Music but I also happen to have this sucker on Vinyl. It’s got music from 4 different Star Trek episodes: Corbomite Maneuver, Charlie X, The Doomsday Machine, and Mudd’s Women. 3 of those from 1966, and one from 1967.
I love this score, and it’s a huge influence on my orchestral music writing. 60s Star Trek is THE EXACT sound and style I’m going for. It’s atonal, fun, and has melodramatic swells and quirky pitched percussion. I grew up hearing this and the music of Twilight Zone by Bernard Hermann, on my little bedroom TV.
But whatever you do, don’t listen to this album in your car. You’ll miss out on all the cool details. You’ve gotta sit down and put on headphones. Treat it like you’re in a museum, because that’s what this music deserves.
By the way, I did a re-creation of The Corbomite Maneuver, the cue called Radiation. And I had to do it all by ear, since I didn’t have the musical notation. And what a learning experience THAT was. You can hear it on YouTube. I’ll check with my TEAM and I’ll see if we have the ability to put a link in the show notes.
END CREDITS
OK, that’s the end of this Episode of the Carl King Podcast. Remember to subscribe on Spotify, Apple Music, or anywhere else you listen to these dang podcasts. And support the creation of more episodes by joining my Patreon for $1 or $5 a month. That’s Patreon Dot Com Slash Carl King.
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