Composting the Compost Calendar Concept

Sometimes I get a harebrained idea that sounds really good to me, really viable and appealing and relatable, even and especially if it involves overdoing something trivial. That’s why after a few months of lurking and liking on various online composting forums, I noticed that one of the prime genres of compost pride is the steampic. Steaming compost on colder days is a sign of active microorganisms industriously breaking everything down, and by extension proof of the composter’s prowess.

I’ve never had steaming compost mostly because I’m too lazy to put in the work, but I do admire a good steampic. So I thought, why not take the steampic fascination to the next level by creating an inexpensive crowdfunded cheesecake-style calendar of steaming compost photos? Wouldn’t take much effort to produce, good (to me) for a laugh, and I could donate anything over production costs to a nonprofit. Who could resist??

Well, turns out it’s pretty easy to resist actually. As of this writing, the Gofundme has received two (2) pledges representing 2% of the anticipated $1500 cost to print, pack, and ship 100 calendars. Despite moderate enthusiasm for the idea on Reddit, that’s not a good conversion rate. And I even got banned from the largest composting group on Facebook just because I posted about the calendar! I guess this was considered self-promotion which violated their rules? I’d argue it’s having the opposite effect on my self, actually.

Well anyway, barring an eleventh-hour swell of interest, I’ll let it run for another week and likely suspend the fundraise, then creep silently back into the shadows (of online). At least I had an excuse to spend a few minutes acting a fool in Photoshop. Almost like having a real job.

This is not the first time I’ve gotten caught up in the magic of crowdfunding an elaborate creative fantasy that abruptly ran aground on the unforgiving rocks of cruel, cold, practical reality. Back in 2013, freshly cashiered from Tumblr and casting about for something to do, I became fascinated with GoPro cameras like every arrested development man of a certain age.

With two young children always clamoring to hit the playgrounds in New York City, I came up with an idea: what if you put GoPros on a dozen kids during a playground session, then edited together all the resulting footage to get a kid’s-eye documentary view of what childhood play was really like? A pankidopticon, if you will.

So with the help of my extremely indulgent former Tumblr colleague Sky Dylan-Robbins, I put GoPros on my five-year-old son and his friend, then set them loose in an Upper West Side playground, with Sky shooting footage as well. Thus was born the trailer for PLAY, which also included cute concept animation from my former BlipTV/Maker Studios colleague Pete Gosling.

While PLAY did better than the compost calendar, the crowdfund still only brought in about a quarter of the production budget, so it never got beyond the trailer. Still, the project was fun to contemplate, and I still have indulgent fantasies about returning to it someday. Maybe adapt it for a Black Mirror episode? At the time, I even tested related gimmick ideas like having a few GoPros embedded in balls the kids could kick around for yet another perspective. Here’s me throwing a GoPro kickball up on the roof of a NYC apartment building.

And then here’s my son Nate kicking the camera-ball around the playground. Too vertiginous for extended viewing, but a few shots would have been amusing to cut into the other footage.

Not saying failure is fun by any means, but I did have fun tinkering with PLAY and getting it this far at least. Same with the compost calendar. I think the measure of creative work is: even if it fails, you should be able to say you at least enjoyed the attempt. In other words, if failing would make a creative endeavor feel like a complete waste of time, then it probably was.