Phillip Retuta's Blog

The Life and Times of a Filipino-American

  • Blog Home
  • Main Site
  • Resume
  • Portfolio
  • Comic
  • Dog
  • Instagram
  • Contact

April 30, 2020 By Phillip Retuta

April Podcast Roundup.

Since the lockdown, I’ve entertained myself with podcasts. Often, when I was at work or if I’m cleaning on the weekends, I’d pop open a podcast and multitask. Something about listening to some stories and executing chores makes me feel like I’m spending my time well. Also, considering our respective situations, sometimes we need a good laugh in times of shitshows.

Here’s what I’ve been to:

The Neighborhood Listen | Listen via Stitcher for Podcasts

The Neighborhood Listen
Listen on Stitcher Premium (there’s a paywall)
Hosted by Broadway star Nicole Parker and one of my favorite comedians, Paul F. Tompkins (with support by Man Man’s/Earwolf’s sound engineer, Brett Morris), it’s a parody of the Nextdoor app that uses actual posts for improv material. There’s nothing more enjoyable than Tompkins’ laugh when he breaks character, and this podcast even made me download the Nextdoor app for my neighborhood (which, in my opinion, is pretty much filled with awful NIMBY’s).

A Funny Feeling
Listen of Headum
Everyone knows I love paranormal shit, so when I discovered this podcast by improv comedian Betsy Sodaro and Brooklyn 99 writer Marcy Jarreau, I was able to combine my fascination for the spooky and my appreciation for comedy. I always enjoy a good ghost story or documentary, but when you add the wit and wonderfully raspy voice of Sodaro, you get one of my favorite podcasts ever.

Two Old Queens
Listen on Spotify
Comedians John Flynn and Mark Rennie search for the gayest movie of all time. I love the premise: they review a movie and interview a guest, and the three of them score the movie based off categories from previous guests (ie, “How much broken glass?” or “Over the top entrances”). I think Muppets in Manhattan is up there with the category, “How Much Felt?”

Stay F. Homekins
Listen on Spotify
Can’t you tell I love Paul F. Tompkins? This podcast started when the lockdowns started, and he and his wife Janie Haddad Tompkins just give weekly updates on their lives. It’s your usual take on being quarantined, except that you’re also comedians and in the entertainment business in LA. Their chemistry as a couple is charming, and they share humorous stories about their weeks and small tidbits about their pasts. If you want to know more details about some of my favorite comedians’ lives, it’s worth giving this podcast a listen.

Filed Under: Podcasts, Supernatural, Technology

April 27, 2020 By Phillip Retuta

The Bureaucracy of the Unemployment Loop.

Day 41 of self-isolation.

As of writing this post, 26 million Americans have filed for unemployment. And like many Americans, I was furloughed three weeks ago.

About 90% of my office was furloughed, but luckily myself and a very small handful of us were temporarily relegated from full-time to part-time employees (others were completely furloughed or laid off). I don’t blame my job at all for their decision, since there are so many companies and businesses experiencing the same fucking thing. Still, having my salary cut in half is financially devastating (especially living in New York), and we were encouraged to file for partial unemployment.

I applied last Monday on the web, and was taken to a “Submission Confirmed” page. Cool, right? I even received a confirmation email that I’ll get a call from the unemployment office in 72 hours. It’s been one week, and I have not gotten one phone call. What’s worse, a few days after applying, the New York State Department of Labor sent a followup email stating that I need to answer more questions or my application will get rejected. They provided a link in the email, but each time I click it, it just leads me to the same “Submission Confirmed” page I received when I first applied:

A loop of futility and financial sadness.

Every single fucking day, I login to the Department of Labor website, only to automatically get redirected to that goddamn “Submission Confirmed” page. I can only imagine the majority of people in New York are experiencing the same or similar difficulties.

Fortunately, I have enough money saved to pay for my May rent and utilities. It’s the end of that month that’s giving me some financial anxiety. Despite being partially furloughed, I calculated that it would take 3 part-time paychecks (equivalent to 6 weeks worth of work) just to barely pay my rent — not including bills or necessities like food. New York City is a wonderful place, but it’s so expensive to live here. Covid-19 has crippled this city in terms of hospitalizations, subsequent deaths, and the economy. And with the flood of millions of people applying for unemployment, the government and the technology it relies on are overwhelmed. It really wouldn’t surprise me that after all of this has passed, only self-made millionaires who already entered this pandemic as wealthy will remain in this city — surrounded, not by small businesses or restaurants, but by Chase Banks, Starbucks, and nearly-empty condos.

So here I am, stuck in the bureaucracy of an unemployment loop, financially uncertain of what’s going to happen tomorrow. Since I’m the only active designer in my office (aside from the senior creative director), I’m hoping I’ll get reinstated full-time again and still work from home. I’m really hoping they’ll be a statewide rent-freeze, and my bills can go on a temporary forbearance. Till then, I’ll keep on clicking that email link, hoping the government will approve my application, and thinking I can survive another day.

Filed Under: New York City, Politics, Ramblings, Technology

February 7, 2020 By Phillip Retuta

Refik Anadol’s “Machine Hallucination” at Artechouse.

I went to Artechouse at Chelsea Market with Alex the other day, where Turkish digital artist Refik Anandol had a projection/data visualization exhibition called “Machine Hallucination.”

Nearly the entire boiler room underneath Chelsea Market was illuminated by several 16K laser projectors, displaying a dataviz algorithm-driven video made up of 100 million social media photos of New York City — essentially, “Machine Hallucination” is an abstract movie made of shapes and colors derived from what users post about New York. I loved the concept, and it could have easily been one of my class’ thesis projects (if they had a ton of money, that is).

Although the visuals of the video and the idea were very cool, the overall experience was a little underwhelming: one entire side (the entrance down to the boiler room) had no projections whatsoever, and the pillars and sharp corners of the room didn’t make the projections as seamless as they could be. It didn’t feel as immersive as I had hoped it would be. In my opinion, if they somehow curved each of the room’s corners (including the floor), the overall projection — and thus experience — would have been more exciting. Edges are just so restricting.

The fact that I had to pay a $25 entrance fee also kind of hindered the fun.

Nonetheless, Artechouse was indeed worthy of being visited and photographed (the Instagramabilty of this place factors very high). The exhibition and Artechouse itself was hardly publicized, so it wasn’t too crowded. Would I recommend going to any of Artechouse’s future exhibitions? Sure, but make sure you’re comfortable paying that much.

Here are some of my photos:

Filed Under: Art, Design, New York City, Photography, Technology, Videography

September 26, 2017 By Phillip Retuta

Experimenting with Lighting.

It’s my goal to always strive for interesting and therefore better work, so I’m trying to teach myself basic lighting techniques. In other words, I decided to step up both my photography and videography skills by playing with light in ways I haven’t done before (you can thank the editors and cinematographers at Corridor). I figured that:

  1. It’d make me a better designer/artist/art director.
  2. I can create better content for both my personal Instagram and Nico’s account.

Naturally, none of this came cheap: I bought an LED panel mount to better light my videos, a reflector, and a barn door with a variety of colored gel filters to try out different cinematic effects in my photography. I even found a good tutorial online that demonstrates where lights should be placed in order to get a particular look. It helped that I Googled “edge light” and how light can bounce off parts of a face or object, though most of the tutorials were subsequently implemented on portraits of my pet.

All in all, I’m very satisfied with the results thus far, and it’s easier to light a subject than I first imagined (it beats editing lights and effects in Photoshop or post-production). If only set up and clean up of the equipment — lights, filters, backdrops, and stands — wasn’t so cumbersome, but that’s just me being goddamned lazy.

Ultimately, it’s my goal to start using these techniques on human portraiture rather than my fucking dog. I still have a hell of a lot to learn, but you can see what I did here:

Filed Under: Art, Design, Nico Doggerton, Personal Projects, Photography, Technology, Videography

February 15, 2016 By Phillip Retuta

I Saw A Ghost One Time, But Time Travel Can Explain It.

3177863013_6881084402_oIn third grade, I saw a ghost: it was a cloudy Wednesday afternoon, and I just came home from elementary school. My dad was working and my mom (who usually greeted me when I came home from school) was finishing up her nursing degree, so my brother — a high school student at the time — was forced to babysit me. Now I’ve lived my entire life in this house in suburban Chicago and had never experienced anything paranormal, but something was off that day: aside from the overcast skies and the winter cold stripping all the branches of their leaves, I remember nearly all the curtains were closed and the blinds were down in the house — there definitely was a weird, creepy vibe going on in the house, if not just enshrouded in darkness on a Wednesday afternoon.

Furthermore, I vividly recall watching Tiny Toons: it was a particularly scary episode where a top-hatted vampire was stalking Babs and Buster Bunny. My brother was napping on the couch next to me, snoring loudly. As the cartoon vampire transformed into some ethereal black mass and sauntered through the woods of Acme University, that’s where I saw it: across the family room where I was, beyond the dining room and into the living room (hey, we had an open concept house) I saw a ghost.

In front of the closed vertical blinds of the living room’s windows, a white and translucent figure appeared and hovered. He looked like he was wearing a hospital gown, but he faded into nothing everywhere below the pelvis. He had no distinguishable eyes but rather large, black voids. He looked a ghostly version of my grandpa, who was alive at the time, or how my dad looks now.

In any event I was frightened, and I immediately woke up my brother. Angered that I woke him up from his nap, he spanked me in the arm. He fell back asleep, and I hid underneath the couch’s covers, crying. It wasn’t until my parents returned home a few hours later that I — in tears of seeing a ghost and partially of my brother being a shitty babysitter — that I spoke about what I saw.

Naturally, no one in my family believed me.

Today, I still can’t explain what I saw. Maybe it was the heater blowing against the closed vertical blinds and light escaping in. Maybe I was affected by that scary episode of Tiny Toons. Maybe there was LSD in the drinking water of Chicago. Who the hell knows, but I saw what I saw. Now, there’s been no history of any deaths in my childhood home (and believe me, I checked). At the time, no one significant in my family had died. And now, in 2016, my parents sold the house in Illinois and moved to California.

So here’s my theory on this — and please, bear with me — fucking time travel. Like Donnie Darko-time travel. I can’t explain why this apparition looked like my grandfather or my dad, but I myself have a strong resemblance to them when they were younger. As I grow older, I can only imagine that I’ll look like my dad or grandpa. Perhaps in the far future, when time travel technology potentially exists, I’ll be in the hospital — adorned in a gown — and on my deathbed. As a final request, the staff will ask me if I had one last wish. I’ll reply that I want to travel back in time to visit my younger self, at my old house, even for a few moments. No words of wisdom would be spoken or any significant message will be imparted, but just to scare the shit out of a little kid.

Filed Under: Ramblings, Supernatural, Technology

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

    Welcome


Born 1983. Art Director, UX/UI and Digital Designer. Illustrator. Dog Owner. Coffee Enthusiast. Pizza Lover.

I love over-thinking the simplest of things and making stuff at every waking moment: comics, food, videos, photos... you name it. This blog is a record of my work, my exploits, and my philosophical, political, and psychological ideologies. So enjoy reading my dumb ideas and inane rants that I'd otherwise be ashamed to verbally speak out in public.

    Find Me Elsewhere

GhostPotato
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
LinkedIn
Vimeo
Flickr
Tumblr

Twitter Twitter

  • Phillip N. Retuta#365 2022.08.16: Meeting AR Companies in Meetings All Day. https://t.co/p3vFRz1G38, 9 hours ago
  • Phillip N. Retuta#365 2022.08.15: You Light Up My Life (and Backyard). https://t.co/foYtk3bnNr, 19 hours ago
  • Phillip N. Retuta#365 2022.08.14: Joel’s Brazilian Vinyl Pop-Up Event in Williamsburg. https://t.co/aeXPtZ4OOs, Aug 15 22
  • Phillip N. Retuta#365 2022.08.13: Snuck into My Old Apartment and Got Coffee. https://t.co/oGAs1zuOAD, Aug 15 22
  • Phillip N. Retuta“Day Shift”… fun in the beginning, Snoop Dogg is great, but like all jobs towards the end of a shift, I’m left very… https://t.co/kKEcA1Iu15, Aug 14 22

Recent Posts

  • A Culture of Observation, Post-2016.
  • New Beginnings.
  • Done With This Apartment.
  • Thoughts on Dying, Death, and the Leftovers.
  • To Be Vaccine and Heard.
  • Nico Calendar 2021.
  • You Were The Best, Marissa Snoddy.
  • Ugly Americans: All Your Base Belongs to Suck.
  • Thoughts on 2020 and New Years Resolutions.
  • Ghosts, Gangsters, Vampires, and Weed: Favorite TV Shows of 2020.

Archives

  • May 2021
  • March 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • August 2019
  • May 2019
  • May 2018
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015

Categories

Copyright Phillip Retuta © 2022 · Log in