Sorry Technology, But We Are Effin Artists! ~ Apple Ad, Garcetti, DesiQuest Artist - (A·B·C·D) Sn2 Ep5
Jun 15, 2024Season 2Episode 5
EffinFunny
Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/effinfunny Email List: https://mailchi.mp/effinfunnyproductions/abcd Join the conversation on Discord: https://discord.gg/effinfunny-783006672439345154 Email Feedback: abcdpodcastshow@gmail.com
SUBSCRIBE TO @effinfunny FOR MORE EPISODES!
MERCH: https://effinfunny.myshopify.com
💥WARNING💥 😅 Brace yourself for Indian uncles, AI hallucinations, Beyonce concerts, and a very opinionated dog named Maple. 🐶
🎉🤣 Join the Chaos, and Get Ready to Laugh and Learn with Sandeep & Omar! 🇮🇳🇺🇸🎉
On this week's American Born Chatty Desi's: 🤯 What's Got Us Confused? Apple's 🍎 ad, orangutans 🦧 making medicine 🌿 – the news is WILD!
🎨 Not a Doctor 🩺 – Voodoo Val spills the tea on art, AI 🤖, and staying authentic in a digital world.
🥊 Auntie vs Auntie Watch: 2024 – Kamala Harris vs. Nikki Haley? 🤔 We're tracking the race!
🏆 Desi of the Week – Arati Prabhakar 🔬, the White House science advisor who introduced Biden to ChatGPT!
👉 Subscribe to Patreon for even MORE laughs & exclusive content! 🔥
😂 Plus, don't miss the hilarious game Care or Crush! Head over to the Patreon where we've made the full game available to all! 🙈 Don't miss Omar & Sandeep decide the fate of random items from Omar's car!
Show Notes for the 37th Episode of ABCD: Sandeep Parikh Linktree: https://linktr.ee/sandeepparikh Omar Najam: https://twitter.com/OmarNajam Omar Najam: https://www.instagram.com/omarnajamfilm/ DesiQuest: https://www.desiquest.com/ Voodoo Val Linktree: https://linktr.ee/voodoo.val Corey Allen Hall: https://www.instagram.com/coryallenhall/
What's Got Us Confused #1: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/apple-apology-ipad-pro-crush-commercial-online-criticism/
What's Got Us Confused #2: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01289-w
What's Got Us Confused #3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T_hP0_446I
Auntie vs. Auntie Watch: 2024 Nikki Haley: https://www.newsnationnow.com/danabramslive/ann-coulter-no-regrets-over-indian-label-of-ramaswamy/
Desi of the Week: https://www.wired.com/story/arati-prabhakar-ostp-biden-science-tech-adviser/ https://www.sportingnews.com/us/golf/news/sahith-theegala-pga-championship-leaderboard-golfer/03a54910be7158bc23dc24f4
Producer: Anand Shah & Kaylin Mahoney Technical Director & Sound Designer: Delvan Neville Executive Producers: Sandeep Parikh & Anand Shah Editors: Kaylin Mahoney & Anand Shah
Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/effinfunny Email List: https://mailchi.mp/effinfunnyproductions/abcd Join the conversation on Discord: https://discord.gg/effinfunny-783006672439345154 Email Feedback: abcdpodcastshow@gmail.com
SUBSCRIBE TO @effinfunny FOR MORE EPISODES!
MERCH: https://effinfunny.myshopify.com
💥WARNING💥 😅 Brace yourself for Indian uncles, AI hallucinations, Beyonce concerts, and a very opinionated dog named Maple. 🐶
🎉🤣 Join the Chaos, and Get Ready to Laugh and Learn with Sandeep & Omar! 🇮🇳🇺🇸🎉
On this week's American Born Chatty Desi's: 🤯 What's Got Us Confused? Apple's 🍎 ad, orangutans 🦧 making medicine 🌿 – the news is WILD!
🎨 Not a Doctor 🩺 – Voodoo Val spills the tea on art, AI 🤖, and staying authentic in a digital world.
🥊 Auntie vs Auntie Watch: 2024 – Kamala Harris vs. Nikki Haley? 🤔 We're tracking the race!
🏆 Desi of the Week – Arati Prabhakar 🔬, the White House science advisor who introduced Biden to ChatGPT!
👉 Subscribe to Patreon for even MORE laughs & exclusive content! 🔥
😂 Plus, don't miss the hilarious game Care or Crush! Head over to the Patreon where we've made the full game available to all! 🙈 Don't miss Omar & Sandeep decide the fate of random items from Omar's car!
Show Notes for the 37th Episode of ABCD: Sandeep Parikh Linktree: https://linktr.ee/sandeepparikh Omar Najam: https://twitter.com/OmarNajam Omar Najam: https://www.instagram.com/omarnajamfilm/ DesiQuest: https://www.desiquest.com/ Voodoo Val Linktree: https://linktr.ee/voodoo.val Corey Allen Hall: https://www.instagram.com/coryallenhall/
What's Got Us Confused #1: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/apple-apology-ipad-pro-crush-commercial-online-criticism/
What's Got Us Confused #2: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01289-w
What's Got Us Confused #3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T_hP0_446I
Auntie vs. Auntie Watch: 2024 Nikki Haley: https://www.newsnationnow.com/danabramslive/ann-coulter-no-regrets-over-indian-label-of-ramaswamy/
Desi of the Week: https://www.wired.com/story/arati-prabhakar-ostp-biden-science-tech-adviser/ https://www.sportingnews.com/us/golf/news/sahith-theegala-pga-championship-leaderboard-golfer/03a54910be7158bc23dc24f4
Producer: Anand Shah & Kaylin Mahoney Technical Director & Sound Designer: Delvan Neville Executive Producers: Sandeep Parikh & Anand Shah Editors: Kaylin Mahoney & Anand Shah
How's it going everyone welcome to the show ABCD we are so happy to have you. This is a show where we are the American Born Chatty Desi's. This is a podcast, within a live stream, within our lives as two American Born Desi's. Think of this as a podducken, if you will. This is for everyone out there who, like us, is navigating your cultural identities, plural, and you just want to chat it out.
Sandeep Parikh:
That's beautiful. Hey, Omar, do you want to introduce?
Omar Najam:
No, I think I think we've done it enough. But, before we get into the podcast, I would like to introduce to you all the co host of this week's episode. He's a man. Who needs no introduction and needs no medical help because he just grabs leaves from the forest, chews them, and slaps them right on his face. It's Sandeep Parikh! Oh
Sandeep Parikh:
baby, thank you so much. Woo, yeah, clap, clap, clap. hands together. Oh, and I'm gonna introduce, this week's host, clearly Rusty at being host this week. yeah, I think I had what, three in a row? those were the good old days. Remember those days, you guys, because now we're in Omar's reign. ladies and gentlemen, the only AI hallucination that I want to live with forever, Omar Najam. Woo! Longer clapping, more clapping. Here we go. Okay, on tap for today, you guys, we got a, oh, we got a jam packed show. We've got, of course, our news segment,"What's Got Us Confused?" then we do our interview segment with "Not a Doctor".
Speaker 3:
oh, okay.
Sandeep Parikh:
so definitely not a doctor. Voodoo Val very excited about that Then we follow it up with
"Auntie vs Auntie Watch:
2024". Man, do we have some updates on auntie versus auntie watch? Then, we play the ABCD game and this time it's Care or Crush. It's gonna involve us finding objects around our house and voting on whether you actually care about the object or whether you would just destroy it and don't actually care about it. We gotta, yeah, we gotta find out. Alright, and then we end it up with "Desi of the Week". But first, before we get into all that, we gotta shout out our sponsor. You know that, yeah, and our sponsor is DesiQuest
Speaker:
Oh,
Sandeep Parikh:
right, it's the Dungeons and Dragons 5e campaign that stars moi, and Omar, and, Rekha Shankar, Anjali Bhimani, and just a collection of incredible guests. It's all set in a South Asian, mythological inspired world. From the brilliant mind of our showrunner extraordinaire and DM, Jasmine"thatbronzegirl" Bhullar. All the episodes are out right now. Go over to the patreon.com/desiquest. And you can watch the whole thing ad free, as well as every episode of our After Show podcast, which is super insightful and fun and hosted by two incredibly handsome. gentlemen. And then also beyond. And, haha, what, how about an awesome shoutout for our guest here, we have streams with our character artist, Voodoo Val,
Speaker:
my
Sandeep Parikh:
where she does live art streams as she builds out the Wanderer's Guide and the books that we're making and stuff like that for the show. It's really cool. So again, that's at patreon.com/DesiQuest, D E S I Q U E S T.
Omar Najam:
and I'd like to mention another sponsor that we have for this show It's: You, folks. That's right, the folks who help us out on Patreon.
Sandeep Parikh:
what?
Omar Najam:
You all make this show happen. For $5 a month. That is half a coffee at Starbucks. You get exclusive content, extra rounds of our games that we play, and also full interviews. That's right. The full interviews with so many of our great friends and incredible people. We've also got multiple tiers for contribution. with a handful of subscriber benefits, including your name listed in the credits of this show, which we will shout out in a specific style at the end. Support a couple of Desi's in the creative arts and help us keep the ABCD lights on. Again, it's patreon.com/effinfunny.
Sandeep Parikh:
Alright, let's get into our first segment of the pod. What do you think?
Omar Najam:
I think let's do it. Let's talk about what's got us confused. Okay.
Sandeep Parikh:
Brow, browbrowbrowbrowbrow
Omar Najam:
Yes.
Sandeep Parikh:
right, we do all of our own stunts, and by stunts sound effects. Here we go. story number one, you guys. Apple. Let's talk about this Apple commercial. Okay. tech Giant Apple issued an apology following a widespread backlash over a new commercial released for its latest iPad Pro titled Crush. I don't know if you guys have seen this, but it's pretty wild. It features a myriad of objects getting smashed in a large hydraulic press set to Sonny and Cher's all I need is you. The casualties include musical instruments, cameras, paints, and books, and the press then lifts back up to reveal Apple's latest product. So yes you guys that ad touched a nerve amongst a lot people in the creative community. Including Hugh Grant, and Justin Bateman, and more. Maybe because the analogy hit, a little too close to home? When, like, where artificial intelligence is concerned? Yeah, and then Apple Marketing Vice President Tor Myron said in a statement, Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we're sorry. They're no longer televising the ad anymore. Any plans they had for a televised run has been scrapped. I don't know, what are you, how are you feeling about this thing? where do
Omar Najam:
Let me tell you, first of all, that's not how iPads are made. I think that's a little misleading to begin with.
Sandeep Parikh:
Wait, that's not how they make IPad?
Omar Najam:
do you know how many arcade machines it would cost to produce a daily amount of iPads? They don't just smash baby
Sandeep Parikh:
grand pianos
Omar Najam:
To crush them down a little bit. Okay, I used to work for Apple, alright? So and in retail, don't get too excited. It wasn't me and Johnny Ives. But like, There's a lot of stuff I really like about Apple, not necessarily the production means of things, But I really liked the fact that Apple has this is a very like revolutionary thing for a tech company. They have a store that you can go to physically and ask questions. like it's, in one way, I suppose it's honest, but it's such a, like huge step back from like the stuff that I, like the only things I really like about Apple where I'm just like, it's the human element. And then they were just like smash it all together. It's all just a smoothie
Speaker:
that we can just like cram into this thing.
Sandeep Parikh:
Delicious smoothie. I you know, it's I'm gonna be honest with you. I get why it has a really visceral Like reaction. I don't think I would have thought I think if I'm being totally honest with myself I don't even think I would have thought twice about it. And I don't know what that says about me. Probably not good things I probably I've heard me like, huh that's intense, but I don't know that I would have really, in hearing the, I get it. I, Yeah. And hearing the ire, I'm like, oh yeah. But maybe I'm already tone deaf. yeah, Or maybe I'm already not tone deaf. What's the word? I'm like, already just ah, given up or something. It's yeah, it just feels like we're so boned, these tools, they're there and they're not going away and
Omar Najam:
you know what? Let me actually, I've heard that a lot recently. Do you mind if I push back on that? Cause
Sandeep Parikh:
all means. I'd love you for
Omar Najam:
cause the thing I've been thinking about this in preparation for this episode and I have a thought, which, which is like. Technology is the thing that's temporary, right? Like art and culture are permanent. the Mona Lisa was made once and then exists for generations upon generations. I was told by Apple that my iPad two would be able to produce music. it can't anymore. And that's not that old of a product. So
Sandeep Parikh:
iPads only last a year and a half before you have to get the new one. Before it's deprecated and you have to get the, new one. they have to smush more things into it.
Omar Najam:
it's just the kind of thing where it's yeah, but that guitar will be good for a hundred years. Like that piano will be good for
Sandeep Parikh:
wouldn't the argument be You win the argument, the thing you produce with the music that you produce with it, the digital art that you create with it, the thing that whatever it is that you, the frustrations you have with GarageBand not working, like those things will last forever.
Omar Najam:
Oh, sure. I do think that the frustration, okay, in all fairness, if
Sandeep Parikh:
what I'm saying?
Omar Najam:
from struggle, then yes, I think that this company really does have a leg up on, inspiring artists around the world. but yeah, it's just a thing where I am just like, I do think that in general technology marketing companies, because I'm from Silicon Valley, like I've got my dad works in AI. I, I don't know if I mentioned this, but I'm from the Bay Area. I am, my youngest sibling also worked in like autonomous vehicles when those were like kicking off. And so I'm not here to be like a Luddite. I think there's a lot of amazing benefits that we constantly are, reaching, with innovation and technology. But I think that when it comes to art, it's this weird argument where it's like we can replace paint and you're like, yeah, but I'm still going to use paint. I will say, I feel informed about this if we're rating story.
Sandeep Parikh:
other than what I was saying, I guess earlier. Yeah. I think I'm also informed about it.
Omar Najam:
Let's hop over to our second story. This is a complete change of
Sandeep Parikh:
pace. This is a fun one.
Omar Najam:
This is so rad. This was actually brought to us, by a YouTube commenter, Lycandros. If I'm mispronouncing that, I apologize sincerely, you can send us a proper way to pronounce it, and I'll update that.
Sandeep Parikh:
That's right. By the way, you guys out there, if you comment, if you throw us stuff in discord, we'd love to feature it, so please do send us new stories like this.
Omar Najam:
Researchers observed an orangutan in Sumatra, with a wound on his face. they believe it was an injury that was probably, done by another orangutan during a fight. Days later, The orangutan was seen eating a plant, that local people use to treat conditions including diabetes, dysentery, and malaria. And then it took the pulp of the plant, and patched it on the wound. So then the orangutan actually chewed up a leaf after it noticed that flies were landing on the plant matter and used that to seal up the, the sort of impromptu medicine that it was putting together. Get this Sandeep. Eight days later, researchers observed that the wound was completely healed. So anyhow, yeah, this orangutan is essentially making medicine in the wild, man.
Sandeep Parikh:
I don't think we could interview the orangutan for, the Not a Doctor segment.
Omar Najam:
Yeah, that's very true.
Sandeep Parikh:
we couldn't do it. I think this orangutan has its MD, PhD, that's crazy
Omar Najam:
is really unfortunate because I would love to interview this orangutan, but we just can't. The segment's called"Not a Doctor". We couldn't do it.
Sandeep Parikh:
do it. And, so there are animals that sort of do, use plants as medicine, right?
Omar Najam:
Oh, yeah, Canadian snow geese swallow leaves to expel tapeworms, for example. dusky footed wood rats, which also, by the way, was my nickname back in high school, lined their nests with aromatic plants to fumigate parasites. and, also some chimpanzees rub insects near their wounds, possibly as a treatment.
Sandeep Parikh:
I like the idea of wood rats being like, you know what's gross? These other things. We don't want them in our area. I guess this is, so this is like the first time they've seen this,
Speaker 4:
Yes, yeah,
Sandeep Parikh:
surprise me if this has happened, a lot.
Speaker 4:
Yeah,
Sandeep Parikh:
to be like a big deal. And technically, it's in Western Indonesia, which, That's Southeast Asia, right? that's, Indonesia. INDIANESIA It's
Omar Najam:
still us. You're right. yeah. Great, we are officially uncles now, that we are trying to claim every possible achievement
Sandeep Parikh:
That's right. No,
Omar Najam:
and put under our umbrella.
Sandeep Parikh:
if the Indian Ocean even touches it,
Omar Najam:
ha
Sandeep Parikh:
yeah, first wild animal seen using a medicinal plant. Okay, that's crazy. I think I'm gonna rate the story as informed. I feel also, I get it, this is cool. I think this means Planet of the Apes is gonna happen. and that we should, start being really nice to our ape friends. Because, they're clearly gonna take over. it's gonna be either AI or apes.
Omar Najam:
I mean, I will say this if and when the apes take over the fact that there is Available medicine is a big change
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah, maybe we'll finally get free healthcare,
Omar Najam:
Yeah, it's a
Sandeep Parikh:
huge
Omar Najam:
improvement.
Sandeep Parikh:
Here in the U. S. Alright, this one's pretty, pretty wild. So Eric Garcetti, former L. A. mayor, is now the ambassador to India. and he did this, yeah, that's not even the story.
Omar Najam:
that's, I just, it's just great news. It's great to keep up with Eric.
Sandeep Parikh:
great news. Yeah. and he did this video that kind of blew my mind and my dad actually is like sending this video around, so we got this via WhatsApp, basically. And my dad. And I was floored by it. So I want to play it for you guys, and then we'll chat about it real quick. Nailed it.
Speaker 7:
Let's go, Eric. Fix that frame, Eric.
Sandeep Parikh:
Mhmm. I
Speaker:
There he is!
Sandeep Parikh:
mean, he's basically dollar shave clubbing it right now.
Omar Najam:
There it is.
Sandeep Parikh:
Wait, they have QR codes?
Omar Najam:
Amazing! Wow. He got that response.
Sandeep Parikh:
Mhmm. I
Omar Najam:
That's rad! That is genuinely so rad. ha!
Sandeep Parikh:
Wow.
Omar Najam:
Oh my god, he dropped the ucha! That was like a Pierce Brosnan you get hit in Goldeneye sound.
Sandeep Parikh:
It was. That's amazing.
Speaker:
That's crazy.
Omar Najam:
We're gonna be talking about that for a long time. That's
Sandeep Parikh:
That's rad.
Omar Najam:
That's huge.
Sandeep Parikh:
India might win a medal.
Omar Najam:
That's a good line.
Sandeep Parikh:
Nice.
Speaker:
Oh, he's right.
Sandeep Parikh:
fact checking. Holy shit. He's right. Eric said he's right. There's nothing.
Omar Najam:
Amazing. I shook that man's hand one time.
Sandeep Parikh:
Wow. How did it feel?
Omar Najam:
It felt very much like a hand. Which is always good. You never know with
Sandeep Parikh:
politicians. You never know. You never
Omar Najam:
know. Could be a little bit of a robot claw. You never know.
Sandeep Parikh:
Could have been mostly Botox.
Omar Najam:
Could have been Could have been a Cylon appendage. You never know.
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah, this is a wild video, like I said, totally dollar shave clubbed it. It highlights these, significant accomplishments. I'm gonna be honest. It made me feel excited. The NASA-ISRO thing the cricket in the olympics, reduced visa waiting times. Like that's huge. By the those big percentages. reduced tariffs and 200 billion dollars of trade between the US and india like that's good. That's good stuff. I
Omar Najam:
think. The
Sandeep Parikh:
happy about that. simple
Omar Najam:
concept of we are working together is we don't hear that enough. even if it's happening, which oftentimes in the big news stories it's not, but even if it is happening, we don't hear about it really. Or it's like a horrible thing where you're just like, Oh no, don't, you guys should not be working together. this is pretty rad. this is like a nice like core tenant of leadership to be like, here are things we're doing. They are good. People are feeling good about
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah, I
Omar Najam:
agree. Of course, I'm sure they're not saying all the things that didn't go well.
Sandeep Parikh:
but, look, if we can put every crying baby in space, I think that we've made progress. I'm gonna go informed again. I think three out of three informed. I do wonder if some people think it's like propagandizing and glossing over some of the warts. But in general, I felt pretty good about it. How about you?
Omar Najam:
when you're talking about the benefits to the people, It's, and it's not like at the expense of other people's rights or freedoms. That's pretty rad. So I'm gonna say informed.
Sandeep Parikh:
Alrighty, I think it's time to bring out our guest here. Um, we're gonna move to the, our special interview segment called, Hey, Let's Talk to "Not A Doctor". do. Val,
Omar Najam:
Hello?
Sandeep Parikh:
out here. Ah, yes. So this is our interview segment where we search far and wide and find a South Asian out there who has a cool job or career that might want to, you guys might want to sit down for this. not a doctor. And Voodoo Val, you are certainly that. Welcome to the pod. Val, can you tell us You have an interesting ethnic makeup in your family. Can you tell us, where does the South Asian come in?
Voodoo Val:
so I, actually went and did, my ancestry because I'm incredibly mixed. I have, I have an Irish mother. she's Irish and, Scandinavian and French and English. And then my father's family is from New Orleans. And Creole folk are from all over the place. I am, like, Filipino, I am Native American, I am, I believe it said, Nigerian and Egyptian. and then there was, like, a whole bunch of very interesting tidbits that I did not know about. I have, I found out that I have an Asian grandmother. that I did not know about. So it's like a little bits and pieces of all over the place, truly.
Sandeep Parikh:
Amazing. when, okay, let's talk, so you are an artist. You're a graphic designer amongst other things we learned in the pre show. You are also a flautist
Voodoo Val:
indeed.
Sandeep Parikh:
and, an alto saxophonist. But, when did you know that you wanted to, have your career go into the arts and how did you break the news to your parents?
Voodoo Val:
actually my mom was very, supportive of me going into doing art. when I was, little, I was writing stories and drawing pictures. It was something that I was always doing. I think everything that I was doing was always secondary to doing art. It just took me a while to realize that it could be my job. and I remember there were two moments in my life that really were like, Oh, this is okay for me to do. Like I can pursue this and make this a thing. and the first thing was, my mom got called into school when I was in the third grade. The principal called her and was like, you need to come in. We need to have a conference immediately. Because I got in trouble in elementary school for drawing hot bodied women.
Omar Najam:
Okay.
Voodoo Val:
I did. I was drawing like these warrior women with like busts and swords and dragons and
Omar Najam:
So this is like heavy metal.
Voodoo Val:
Exactly. Oh my gosh, Omar. You just give me like a little pitter patter. Oh, no
Speaker:
I'm, you're speaking my language.
Voodoo Val:
she was like, okay she showed up and I remember I was terrified and they were like This is what she's been drawing and I had drawn like this chick that was in like the classic Wow armor style like, the heavy metal covers basically and my mom was like, so what's the problem here? And they're like, she can't draw breasts at school. This is the third grade. And my mom said she can draw breasts whenever she wants, as long as they're not mine. And so I was like, Oh, I'm allowed. and the second thing, the second moment you mentioned heavy metal,
Sandeep Parikh:
out.
Voodoo Val:
She had a stack of heavy metal magazines. because my mom was a big gamer growing up. I remember when I was, when she was pregnant with my brother, she pulled the lazy boy up to the computer so that we could play Diablo together. and all that. And there was like a stack of heavy metal comics in the office. And I remember looking through them and looking at all the art. And I don't know that I was really supposed to be looking through them. Cause I did sneak in there and look at them. But they definitely were not for kids. but I remember looking and I got caught. And she was like, this is somebody's job. that's somebody's job that they did that. They got paid to do that. That's their job. and I was like. Oh, and then I remember when I was 10, she forced all of my cousins and uncles and siblings to star in a play that I wrote called Revenge of the Ninja. And I was like, this is what I'm gonna do. This is what I'm gonna do. I wish I still had that footage, but I
Omar Najam:
Revenge of the ninja.
Voodoo Val:
it was about, a brother and sister. No, it was the first and only. But it was about a brother and sister who, their father is assassinated by a ninja and then they become the ultimate ninjas together and start their own ninja school to combat the evil ninjas. So they were like good ninjas and that was like the whole thing. And I think my uncle played our father and the man who killed him.
Sandeep Parikh:
Got it. And then, did you like, did you have an M. Night appearance in your,
Omar Najam:
Yeah,
Voodoo Val:
yeah, me and my brother were the brother and sister. we were, we were in it. It was a, featuring, starring, and directed by, and written by. It was very prestigious
Sandeep Parikh:
old were you when this
Voodoo Val:
or ten, I think.
Sandeep Parikh:
Okay, so you were always shepherded towards like an arts career. this was always like in full support, full throated support from your mom. That's really cool. that's rare.
Speaker 11:
Ghosted. ha.
Sandeep Parikh:
So let me ask this. So you are, or, you have been a, an Adobe ambassador as well, right? Like you're super well versed in like graphic design, obviously, and the whole Adobe suite. And obviously all this stuff with AI is like coming in hot and man, Adobe has been absolutely no slouch in immediately. Updating literally every single one of their applications with some version of AI.
Voodoo Val:
I, I've been a part of the release dates for a lot of these.
Omar Najam:
Look at that.
Voodoo Val:
done the demos and stuff. And so I have, some information to share. Not like inside information, but like just my experience. You know doing all of those as a as an illustrator.
Sandeep Parikh:
where do you you know, with the sort of the debate that's happening now, and the strong feelings, and then the sort of segment that we played earlier about the Apple, iPad smushing, video. you are a graphic designer, and you are, someone that's been involved in these rollouts. Like, where do you stand? how are you feeling about it? What's your sort of, yeah, what's your purview on this?
Voodoo Val:
I think what I'll do is share, just my personal experience and what it's been like for me throughout this sort of transformation that just really, it feels like it's happened all of a sudden, I will preface with, I don't want to make any blanket statements about how everybody should feel about it, but for me personally, like I'm like predominantly first and foremost, I'm an illustrator and painter. and perhaps this can be true for a lot of people in the creative spaces, it was already easy to feel small here before there was the magic art button. You know what I mean? It was already easy to feel That imposter syndrome or to wonder if what you were putting out in the world was worth putting out there and then there's a lot of other ways that visual elements can be put into the world now. And so I think that, The general unease surrounding certain points in this, are very relatable, very understandable. and my particular approach to finding my way through all of this is to continue to create, with authenticity, and to continue to present my creative work in a way that I feel is genuine and authentic to me. Going from you know being like I'm an illustrator. I'm a painter predominantly what I do for Adobe is I'm contracted with them and I Teach Photoshop. I teach fresco. I teach graphic design in Various applications I showcase things in Adobe Express and I have done many tutorials using Adobe Firefly and photoshop's generative AI features. So things like, text to image, using firefly and using all of the features included there to, to generate work and stuff. And I have had to, cause my personal stance on it is I don't think that generating an image. With, an AI, no matter what, whether you're using Firefly or Midjourney or any of these things, I don't think that's the end. I typically look at generative AI and AI work as, a step. it's available. I don't think that it's going to go away. I think one of you was saying, I think it's here. it's not going to fall off the side of the earth all of a sudden. I think it's going to keep coming at us. And so I look at it like this is a tool. This is a piece of technology. and I don't think that leaving it as is after you hit that button, is, Finished art. I think that there are many ways that AI, can create elements for us to move forward. For example, the way that I have demonstrated, AI art, because when Adobe asked me in the past to do, tutorials for the record too, by the way, I was not asked to, show off AI. They didn't say, Hey, you're an artist, make something with AI. They said, How would you use it? And I said, that's a great question. and they said, would you be willing to showcase an artistic process in which you use it in a way that you feel would be valuable to you as an illustrator and, and creative? And I said, yeah, I'll do that. and the way that I have used it, number one is I have used, Firefly type in the description of a scene from a story that I've written so that I have something to generate something visually that I can add to a folder to keep track of visuals as I'm working through a story, to create scenes and things. I have used generative features within Photoshop to generate textures for myself that I can use like paper textures and things like that to supplement my work, but I never leave it as is. and I think that's To me, is the way that a tool
Sandeep Parikh:
of
Voodoo Val:
that should be used.
Sandeep Parikh:
so you're using it like a palette of paints,
Voodoo Val:
Yes. Yeah.
Sandeep Parikh:
cause it's such a nuanced line here, right? in terms of what can be considered like raw material to then construct something else with versus something that feels actually really close, closer to finished and derived from, an amalgam of other works that are uncredited, like that's, the sort of the challenge that we're trying to navigate here, right? so you just.
Omar Najam:
like on a practical level too, Val, if you're on an assignment and you're making art for a character and then someone says, can you make this change and this change and you have generated the entire image, whole cloth as one thing it's, and it's an asset and not like a series of layers.
Voodoo Val:
it's an element. it's a piece. It's a cog in the machine. It's not,
Omar Najam:
yeah.
Sandeep Parikh:
but I guess my I guess
Omar Najam:
area, like that kind of throws off your entire workflow, right?
Voodoo Val:
yeah, I would
Sandeep Parikh:
until you can just copy and paste that note into a thing and Into you know into gpt or whatever or mid journey or whatever and then have it generate, regenerate the art
Voodoo Val:
and it's a little tricky in that, I will also say the only AI app, because I want to be, also clear, about one thing is that there are, things like Midjourney and Firefly where you're generating stuff. But then there's also, What at least we call generative features like they're features within other apps and things that we've actually been using for a lot longer than the whole mid journey and all that stuff things like content to wear fill and certain things that you know, like Selecting a subject in Photoshop and having it pick up the hairs and whatever like it's all coming from the same source It's just things like firefly and mid journey and all that stuff do that in a different way And I am by no means. I also want to specify I'm not a Just because I use Photoshop and I teach Photoshop does not mean I actually I'm not a doctor guys I'm not like
Sandeep Parikh:
not be
Voodoo Val:
I'm not
Sandeep Parikh:
out you're a doctor in the middle of this interview
Voodoo Val:
Yeah, I'm not like the official spokesperson for generative features and for Adobe's AI products. I just am giving my experience from having used the tools myself. but Firefly is the only one that I've used. I have not used Midjourney, and all of the other ones that you can use because, I found that, I felt Really uncomfortable using an app or testing an app, even just for fun, that had a data set that was scraped from other people's creative property. I didn't, that didn't sit well with me at all. And Firefly's data set is, Adobe Stock. and all people who are used, who are, Participating and putting stuff into adobe stock. they have the option to not be included in it And they've also you'll have to do your own research on this because I don't have the specifics for it And I don't want to pretend that I do but adobe has also Announced actually paying People who participate in Adobe stock,
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah, so finding ways to attribute
Voodoo Val:
to contribute and to not just Hey, we're taking this, and so that spoke to me as a creative, and I was like, I want to, I will, I would use that, and it's part of my job. and I felt a lot more comfortable. showing, ways that it could be useful in a creative process because of those things, rather than, others where, you have people who are like, okay, somebody literally typed my name into this one and now they're generating paintings in my style. And now there are artists out there who Google themselves and their actual work is not coming up at the top of the list before the AI.
Sandeep Parikh:
or something? Oh wow,
Voodoo Val:
Like the AI generations are coming up before the paintings they actually did. I don't know what I would do if that happened to me. I think I would be devastated. So, I think that accountability and, transparency, and, That sort of thing is really important to me. And so this is how I've been going about it. I've been doing my best as an illustrator and painter to adapt and learn to coexist and, move through all of this. but I think that there are some people who are generally just nope, not for me. No, thank you. and I can't fault them for that. You know what I mean? I can't.
Omar Najam:
As an artist, can I ask, cause I feel like, I think there's a really important distinction that you're making that I really dig, which is like using something to either facilitate your process, or like drop in aspects of it. And there's a whole other thing, cause art is a discipline ultimately, like any craft you're doing is discipline. And like you were saying, like the art button, you just like smash. It's not you're not building up your skill set as an artist. You're just getting You're staying as good as clicking your mouse and doing a thing. What is there an element of your process that you're like, no matter how easy it ever becomes, or no matter what tools are present, I want to do this old school. do you have an, like a part of your visual art process that you're just like, Oh no, like I'm doing this. you'll have to pull it out of my cold dead hands before I let something, something else do it.
Sandeep Parikh:
this is me, I'll clip the rose bushes manually,
Omar Najam:
Yeah, yeah, exactly,
Voodoo Val:
I think definitely, I am always starting from my blank canvas. I'm always building up my sketches and thumbnailing out all of my portraits and pieces and stuff. If I'm using generative features, and incorporating generative AI into my process, first of all, my audience knows it when it's happening. I don't, it's not generally something, I think the only part of my process. that maybe I'm not posting I wouldn't say that I post it and I'm like, here's this and I, made this with AI. I don't add any part of like stuff that I've generated in Firefly into my work. I may be, I've generated stuff and sampled colors, generate me a crystal that glows and then sample the colors from it and stuff. But. Typically, I'm, when I'm incorporating a lot of that stuff, it's, I'm doing a demo and I'm very clear about what I'm adding into my work, but, I would say that I, my, working through my illustrations, and getting to, for anyone who's not, familiar with some of the stuff that I've done, for example, the characters, illustrations for DesiQuest, blank canvas. Just if I was working on, on, on paper, and I would say that the only stuff that I maybe used during that process was just like color correcting, I did some color correction to make sure everything has the same warm tone, that, that sort of stuff. which I don't even know if you would really consider generative, and so I would
Sandeep Parikh:
it's tough to, that's interesting because I, that kind of a filter pass kind of a thing,
Omar Najam:
normalizing your audio or something,
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah, aren't you doing that with these filter tools anyway? Like when you decide to like use, Gaussian blur or whatever, you're not
Omar Najam:
not building it from scratch, yeah,
Sandeep Parikh:
you're not going in pixel by pixel and blurring and applying the actual formula that it takes to blend, two, two things together. You're using a tool that, that allows you to do it much more quickly and efficiently and
Voodoo Val:
I think
Sandeep Parikh:
might you might do in real life.
Voodoo Val:
you just pointed it out too is like you're using a tool. and I think if I'm not correct about this, correct me, but I believe all of those features and stuff like the smart thinking features for Adobe app specifically is all like under the Adobe sensei umbrella of like their smart, features, their smart tools and, and generative tools and all that stuff. and there's a lot of them, like I said earlier that we've been using for a really long time, that are under that same umbrella. Okay. And it, and I think it feels different now because we have what is essentially like a generate art button. as far as some people are concerned, but there's a lot of stuff that, fits under there and you called it a tool and that's, I would agree, I think that's what it is. Is it's a tool, but it's not the end. It's not the final product to me.
Omar Najam:
Yeah. I think like a thing like I've gotten to hang out with you on a couple of your streams where you've been putting art together for DesiQuest and I think like the thing that jumps out to me in our conversations is the "why" like when we're going through and you're picking a color. You are explaining like wherever you're putting that color from you're like we need this to be rust We need this to be wood. We need this to pop. We have a lot of red. We have a lot of earth I need this to be like a nice crystal blue to pop out and bring a lot of attention to the eyes And it's I think the thing is like you're saying like with tools It all there is like an alchemist behind it like all the stuff around you There is like you get to I think the joy for me of like your art and the discussion is the fact that like we get to look at a piece of art that you've made and be like Oh, man, a lot of care and attention and thought and meditation went into this and then we get to like Talk about it or your unconscious and subconscious is doing a bunch of stuff and it feeds ours. And it just, it's not like a character generator in a video game where it's just randomize your avatar. Like it is really nice to see like why you're using certain proportions, like why you're dealing with certain shapes, why some things are maybe a little more sketched and cartoonish and some things are a little more photorealistic.
Sandeep Parikh:
I'm curious if would you ever want to use generative art for ideation?
Voodoo Val:
I think, yeah, cause to me, what, my, my honest thoughts when I started hearing about it before I started seeing some of the uglier sides of what, people were doing with it then. was that like, this would give me the opportunity to, To visualize immediately certain things. For example, what I said about writing a story, I wrote a story where, a woman is living in like a reinforced cabin, hiding out from zombies in the woods, and every time I'm writing about her working around in this space, I'm imagining this,
Sandeep Parikh:
is Revenge of the, this is Revenge of the Ninja
Voodoo Val:
Zombies? Yes. Yeah. but being able to generate. You know a bunch of different elements that are on that property and then photo bash them together and use that as a reference So that I open my folder and i'm like, oh, yeah The outdoor showers over here the the secret back hatch, you know out of the cabin is over Here's all this stuff like creating a story and stuff is I think it's a powerful tool for that. That's what I can think of Maybe other people can come up with other things, but I wouldn't release that
Sandeep Parikh:
that's the thing, is that before, there was any of these conversations around the implications, or even before I knew that there was scraping going on, I didn't even really know how I was doing it, pure magic to me, this is super early on, right? I was like, wow, as someone who's, I have some decent, I can kind of tool on Pictionary pretty well. Okay. I'm no slouch there, but I don't have, voodoo Val talent. And then I, think, about the people that are also like, who, And I feel like this conversation comes up a lot, folks that look in terms of accessibility and that kind of thing and like people who like have never been able to use their hands or something like that who can now like, wow, like the things that I have in my imagination can now be like, actually realized by something. that, that can be like a powerful, impactful thing for, folks who've wanted to tell stories and haven't, or, or, not to mention the cost of having to hire an artist and all that stuff, which is obviously at the crux of this argument, but like for folks that are, that have maybe wonderful stories to tell, but, can't afford them.
Voodoo Val:
I suppose that I could understand if I think of it in the context of like suddenly having the ability to create something that I can't do. but I think that there's, how do I put this? I think that there's a transparency, that needs to be, Projected, and I think that, there's people out there who are up to no good, with it, and they know that they are up to no good, and it's being, it's, we're being gaslit as a creative community into thinking that it should be okay for them to do what they're doing, and I think that's wrong. for example, I think that if you, you're not an illustrator, and, you are. you haven't put that time in like I've, I'm 32 and I have spent 15 years of my life working on figuring out how to draw to get to the point where I am now. And then somebody generates an image. says that it's their art, because they, I don't know, developed the prompt for or whatever, and then they're selling that work, and it's generated in somebody else's style. Someone else's 15 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, that they put into honing their craft, to create the image that you are selling. Now, that seems a little funny, and I think that if it were in a different context that somebody else might, Get it, maybe, for themselves. I, so it's those things that are really rubbing me the wrong way, and I think that the world is the world, and, humans gonna human. for lack of a better term, and it's not like we weren't going to see any bad things, but those are the parts of this that I reject. that I don't, it's not the vibe. It's not the move. and those are the things that really rub me the wrong way. Like you, if you have an accessibility, thing going on, if you are abled differently than other people, I think that. Your use case is it's going to show in that like people go, Oh, okay. But I think that when you're up to no good with it, people can also tell that you're doing that. because you shouldn't be selling Voodoo Val art. If you're not me, you shouldn't, so don't try to fool me into thinking it's gold when it's not that sort of thing.
Omar Najam:
It's also interesting to, I know that like accessibility, stuff it's within tech is like a very like it's more case by case, I think, than just like making any general statements. But we also live in a world where like Beethoven, the composer and musician was going deaf and wrote beautiful pieces of music. that were expressive, like from that experience and from what I mean to say is that Beethoven trained in music and
Speaker 14:
Yes.
Omar Najam:
And was able to share with us a piece of music that is still played in symphonies around the world and will be and will continue to be played until the sun expands or the apes take over and say no beethoven but It's, that kind of, it's an interesting example I think of also like in answer to that where it's but what if I have this stuff? It's you will, what if there's something that is preventing me from this? It's there is also a huge, community and history of artists who worked through that.
Sandeep Parikh:
and yet like technology is also helped folks, be able to express art where they otherwise couldn't like, just, you see those, feel good videos of people being able to create music, I hate to say it, on an iPad or something like that, because they, because they can, set the notes in a certain way that they can't replicate on, an instrument, say, and you're still like, oh, cool, that's you expressing, your musical talents, which is great. so it's but this is a different beast, because this is, It just feels like it's short cutting. It's interesting, because it's almost like you're talking, because you're expressing so much value, Omar, and both of you are expressing so much value in, the work put in, right? And I think that, that's, and, the time it takes to build the craft, and to build these capabilities, and then the fear that comes around, that stuff getting undercut very quickly, right? By a new technology, and then not being attributed to for us, not only are you not hired to be an illustrator, but then the additional fear of, Oh, and then you're also learning off of my shit to then make me, Someone that is obsolete as well. that's it's like a, this sort of double whammy that I think, other technologies, that's less the case. because people argue, oh, once upon a time, you had to, cut film in order to actually, physically cut film in order to edit it. and then these, nonlinear editors came along and put a lot of, a lot of, folks out of jobs, right? the people who, Had to deal with physical film and it used to take like an army of people to do that and now Those people are shit out of luck basically or puppeteers or once VFX came along put a lot of people out of work and put them in a scary spot. People who have honed their craft for years and years who then suddenly now your craft is not really valued anymore in the same way that it used to be because there's a technology that can produce it more cheaply and more. I don't know that I have a question in this. I'm just like trying to frame. I'm just, honestly, I'm just trying to frame it all in my head and, trying to understand, what's my relationship going to be with this? Quote unquote tool Which is a little bit. It's got a little bit more, power. It's a little bit more one ringy then you know the advent of Final Cut Pro
Voodoo Val:
Yeah.
Sandeep Parikh:
So
Voodoo Val:
I think my approach to it, as I said earlier, is just like trying to, stay as authentic as possible, in the work that I'm creating, and not giving up on the work that I want to create, no matter how easy it is for other people to achieve a similar goal now, and not losing hope in the value of me for being in, in As
Sandeep Parikh:
it sounds like you're also still learning the tools to like you're like I think you know the There's like the famous story behind the guy who was the Big time puppeteer, VFX came along and he decided to immediately shift gears and go okay, I'm going to be the VFX guy. And then he, I'm forgetting his name, but then he ended up being the VFX dude for Jurassic Park,
Speaker 12:
Yeah. yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Sandeep Parikh:
right. that's his sort of story was that like, he's I'm, I he saw the writing on the wall that like a lot of puppeteers can be out of work. So he's I don't learn these tools. Then, I'm not going to be able to provide my family.
Omar Najam:
I think that too, it's like a, it's a thing too, where like VFX really specifically Jurassic Park, cause they did a stop motion T Rex initially, and I know that he pushed against Steven, Spielberg, close friend of mine, like Stevie to do those, computer generated mock ups, but it is also that, That history with puppeteering, that allowed Jurassic, there's also a lot of, VFX has continued to be great. and, technology has continued to, quote unquote, improve and innovate, but nothing comes close to those moments in Jurassic Park, like the subsequent Jurassic Park movies aren't better because, VFX has gotten cheaper or can do more. And a lot of that comes from the fact that there were so much time spent with the puppeteering. You could just adapt it over to a different, technology canvas.
Sandeep Parikh:
This leads me to my final question for you, Val. I'm sorry we've been way over time. Are you good on time?
Voodoo Val:
I'm having a great time.
Sandeep Parikh:
do you think, I have this crazy theory, do you think like what we consider to be art is going to change as a result of
Speaker 3:
AI
Sandeep Parikh:
technology? Do you think it's going to, It's gonna shift
Speaker 3:
how we
Sandeep Parikh:
As human beings, what we value as
Voodoo Val:
art? I think there's a possibility. I think that's a great question. It's something that I've contemplated a lot of times and I have a few different theories, for that. number one, I think, it's entirely possible that we get so, overwhelmed and oversaturated with mediocrity that we start to not even acknowledge or understand what is good and what isn't anymore. Because I'm starting to see that too of like, some of these like generated AI things that come through, sometimes there's people that can be like, that's not quite right. but then there's some people that it fools. And if so much of it is being pumped into the internet, pumped into the world, eventually it might become the norm until all of those high quality masterpieces that we look for that we try to create might not even be recognized. Anymore I think also there's the idea that there was a time where people thought that digital art tools was not going to be real art and then
Sandeep Parikh:
around that, right?
Voodoo Val:
I would say that I'm absolutely 100 percent an artist. I, and I think that is that point, aside from like the fear of Oh, what's the worst that could happen? that's the thing that I try to focus on is I think that, I am an artist and I think that the uproar on certain points of AI work is definitely, It's definitely loud. I don't think it's going anywhere, just like AI might not be going anywhere, and I think the pushback may also be there always. I think that there are plenty of opportunities for larger companies to take the cheap road and go with generative, stuff for their projects and things, but I think that the world will definitely let them know what they think about that, and that's something that could convince a business maybe not to do that and to stick with human made art.
Omar Najam:
A, the Apple commercial
Voodoo Val:
yeah, yeah, and I,
Sandeep Parikh:
point, instead of made in the USA, it's made by humans,
Omar Najam:
Whoa, that's wild. Yeah.
Voodoo Val:
a little, I saw somewhere, like somebody were saying like, here, you can use this if you want to tell people that your stuff is made by a human. And it was like a little heart, but it was like a thumbprint kind of and I was like, this is really great. I
Sandeep Parikh:
is the, this is so this is like where my theory brain was going with some of this stuff was a couple weird things. One was that the, that. like live experiences and seeing people actually do the authentic artistic creation will start to become more valuable. Like act, like almost, I wonder if it brings back performance art in a way that like the advent of film and television crushed it for a little while, not to say that, Obviously, we still do enjoy live theater and stuff like that, but I do wonder, if that, it becomes elevated even more, just, oh, see, what, the live streaming thing, watching Val make it and having the explanation is the art, really. even almost more so than the piece of art that comes out of it at the end and oh and I Watched that authentic experience. I watched the authenticity happen So I know it's authentic until that shit can be generated and then I don't know we're fucked but But you know what i'm saying? Like i'm like, oh, I wonder if so so a that's my that's one weird hope that I have is that it might bring back the live art form in a way and then the second crazy thing Is because we keep talking about attribution and I'm like, how the fuck are we gonna really? Like what technology do we need to employ to make sure that that brushstroke? that we pulled You know in from this adobe stock photo is actually the same like that whole situation
Voodoo Val:
It's can
Sandeep Parikh:
all that stuff And can you even and then i'm like, I think the only thing that can even and I hate to say it out loud But i'm gonna say it out loud
Voodoo Val:
is a computer maybe
Sandeep Parikh:
is a computer, but not just a computer. It's basically crypto technology.
Voodoo Val:
yeah the
Sandeep Parikh:
It's basically,
Speaker:
is
Sandeep Parikh:
it's basic technology. It's basically blockchain. I'm like, what else is going to take,
Speaker 14:
that metadata
Sandeep Parikh:
amounts of data, categorize it and keep track of it enough and further replications of it to be able to go Hey, this artist deserves actually one quarter of a penny because that they trained their thing on this. But I'm
Omar Najam:
So you're saying our
Sandeep Parikh:
block, does blockchain save us from AI? That's all I'm saying
Omar Najam:
Blade Runner's gonna be, instead of it being like, I'm chasing down, cyborgs and stuff, it's gonna be like, hey, that's not a Van Gogh. And then there's like an action scene where it's like chasing down the guy in the street where it's just no. You took that brushstroke from like a Degas based algorithm.
Sandeep Parikh:
Yes.
Omar Najam:
Amazing.
Voodoo Val:
I think if I can leave it on a positive note, because I know you're trying to wrap this portion up. I think that as long as you stay with the, at least I do try, is that like, when I say that I try to adapt and I try to move forward no matter what, I think I'm clinging to the passion of, The experience in everything, as I think that one thing that humans have never lost, it is an authentically human thing, that, the AI doesn't do, ever, and probably will never do, is, the yearning for adventure. the, it's never, all throughout history that's always been something that's been like the human thing, telling stories and stories of heroes and villains and all that kind of stuff. and so I think that as long as you're telling an authentic human story, and you're moving forward to tell those stories and to take other human people on an adventure that you're probably moving in the right direction. and I think that there's a lot of possible use cases for AI and generative things, on in there, but I think like staying authentic and true to that for me is the way that I continue to push forward. as long as I'm telling a story from the heart,
Sandeep Parikh:
you're moving people, moving their
Omar Najam:
emotions. You know what? could I have the audacity to ask you one last follow up
Voodoo Val:
I've got a can of audacity over here that you can have. Yes,
Sandeep Parikh:
can of Audacity on you.
Voodoo Val:
please,
Omar Najam:
I'm here to chew gum and have audacity and I got both. the question I have for you is, do you have an artist that you would like to shout out that you feel hasn't gotten enough of a spotlight?
Voodoo Val:
that's a great question. Holy crap.
Sandeep Parikh:
So sorry, we're out of time. Thank you so much for being.
Voodoo Val:
No, I am going to give you guys, I am going to give you guys a, an artist. And I think that I would have loved to prepare some folks, and maybe share several with you, but I've got a buddy, his name is Corey Allen Hall. He is a fabulous young man. He is a queer graphic designer who you can find him on Instagram. And in the spirit of adventure, Corey Hall creates graphic design pieces that take his viewers on an adventure. A day in the life with him or just a moment, an experience. Some of his work to me feels like a scent. Some of it feels sitting in the sunlight. and I think that they're incredibly authentic to him because I've met him in person now and I was sitting in front of him like, Oh, he's for real. This is, he's not like fake on the internet. this is really him. And I think that he is authentically showing who he is and some really cool moments. from his life in a way that feels like you're getting to know another human being. it's not digital art, in the way that I'm doing illustrations. he is a graphic designer. Like I said, he's a photographer. He does, photos and things. a little different than what I'm selling, but he's definitely somebody whose work I take a look at, often. I think he's an authentic and fabulous person. and I hope that you enjoy his work.
Sandeep Parikh:
so Val, that's fantastic. We're, besides making your beautiful DesiQuest stuff, you're making the Wanderer's Guide and the Adventurer's Pack and a whole bunch of other stuff and helping EffinFunny with the redesign and doing so many because we like, you're a human and we like you as a human and we like your art so much that we're like any which way that we can work with you, we're trying to, but Is there another place that people can find your stuff, buy your merch, get into your world? for our listeners, is it just voodooval. com? Is that, where
Voodoo Val:
yeah, VoodooVal. com, or Voodoo.Val on Instagram, Voodoo_Val on, Twitter, X, whatever it's called now. I don't know. There's still tweets and retweets, right? I don't know how
Sandeep Parikh:
thanks for coming on the show. Oh my gosh, what a lovely conversation with a lovely person on a hard topic. Alright, now it's time for "Auntie Auntie Watch 2024.
Omar Najam:
That's right. This is our segment where we track the 2024 US presidential election to see just how close we are to achieving a presidential race between Democratic auntie Kamala Harris and Republican auntie Nikki Haley. Reminder.
Sandeep Parikh:
our dream. It's our dream race. Okay? This is our perspective.
Omar Najam:
This is what we want.
Sandeep Parikh:
We want Aunties going head to head..
Omar Najam:
Reminder, they are both at least part Indian, hence they are aunties. also Donald is facing a billion indictments. And Joe Biden, is, Joe Biden.
Sandeep Parikh:
Okay. Yes.
Omar Najam:
So let's get some updates. How's Nikki Haley looking right now?
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah, okay. So first of all, I'm just going to say, we were at 15 percent chance. That's where we're at
Omar Najam:
Yes. That's where we were at
Sandeep Parikh:
we're now going to deliver some news, and then we're going to talk about where we landed. Okay. Okay. Nikki had good and bad, had good and bad going on, alright? The bad is that on, do you remember this guy? Vivek Ramaswamy?
Omar Najam:
Yes. I, yes,
Sandeep Parikh:
This uncle you don't want to be trapped in an elevator with? yeah, alright. So this guy, he had a podcast and he had, this is I, I. Must have been the most delightful hangout ever. He had Ann Coulter on. and so the two of them going toe to toe. You walked in, feeling maybe as smart as you are and you left feeling like you can get a 1600 on the SATs You left feeling brilliant. Okay. Anyway, point is, She said to him, okay, and she represents, a lot of Republicans. She said to Vivek Ramaswamy, I agree with many things that you said, probably more than most other candidates,
Omar Najam:
Okay, wow. Okay,
Sandeep Parikh:
when you were running for president.
Omar Najam:
Amazing. But
Sandeep Parikh:
I still would not have voted for you, because you're an Indian. That's it. That's the reason. Dude, I gotta tell you, this is amazing to me. it's just saying the quiet part out loud. they, I gotta hand it to the Republicans. I do really have to hand it to them. they just, they're just like, listen. too brown, there's too much brown sauce going on here. I'm not I don't want any chutney up in my, dipped in my fries. Okay. I want, I'm not, I'm just not going to do it. And I think that's legit, man. That's legit. That's legit in the sense that a lot of people also will probably feel that way. sorry, just doesn't look like me. Doesn't talk like me. I'm not interested. So that's going to ding for, for Nikki Haley now the good for her, for at least in terms of her. Becoming, the nominee is that Nikki Haley is actually now being considered as Trump's running mate. Put it, which would put her in the same spot as Kamala, Auntie Kamala. so despite them fucking hating each other, Trump's campaign is actively considering Nikki Haley to be his running mate as his VP. Republicans close to both campaigns believe it's in Haley and Trump's mutual interest to reconcile, right? this is obviously purely political maneuvering here. if you think about the 2028 race, for Nikki Haley, and the potential for that to be auntie versus auntie. Probably a politically savvy, maneuver for her. Trump is actually scrambling right now to make up a fundraising disadvantage against President Biden and pay off all these obscene, crazy and totally legit legal fees. and Haley, meanwhile, has deep ties to donors who are wary of Trump.
Omar Najam:
interesting, update for Nikki Haley. okay, I've got some updates about Kamala Harris.
Sandeep Parikh:
Oh, please hit me up.
Omar Najam:
Kamala Harris recently met with royalty. Did you hear about this? She actually got an exclusive invite by the Queen.
Sandeep Parikh:
Okay. Wait, which queen? I thought the queen passed away.
Omar Najam:
no, queen, be Beyonce. Beyonce made sure Vice President Kamala Harris would be at one of her concerts during her Renaissance World Tour. According to annual financial disclosure reports released for Harris and President Biden, Bey gifted the Vice President with tickets valued at $1,665.92. And then, and, Harris posted on, social media, a picture, from the tour saying, Thanks for a fun date night, Beyonce. Naming her by name.
Sandeep Parikh:
Wow, so she's getting the Bey vote. That's huge. Okay, alright, let's do it. Let's update these metrics. we're at 15 percent chance to an auntie off.
Speaker 3:
Mm hmm.
Sandeep Parikh:
I'm gonna say that the Hayley thing is a wash, but, they're being good and bad. But maybe there's a couple points to be had for, for, bae watch there. For the,
Omar Najam:
I think definitely pushes us up quite a few points
Sandeep Parikh:
really? Where are you going?
Omar Najam:
I, okay, so I want to say we were at 15 before I, I want to say Beywatch brings us up to 20, but
Sandeep Parikh:
Twenty!
Omar Najam:
calculating, yes, but then calculating, calculating the Ann Coulter interview
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah, that's
Omar Najam:
balanced out, I want to say maybe we're at 18. 17 or 18? 18.
Sandeep Parikh:
wouldn't vote for Vivek Ramaswamy because he's Indian. Now, Nikki's only, I think, half Indian? Or partial? Maybe she'll only vote, not vote for half of her.
Omar Najam:
And maybe Ann Coulter doesn't know because she sees the name Nikki Haley and just breezes
Sandeep Parikh:
Ann is
Omar Najam:
I don't know, Girl Scout? I don't know. Yeah, hard to tell. Okay, 18%! There it is, your Auntie vs. Auntie watch, a 2024 update.
Sandeep Parikh:
a segment that I think only we care about. Alright, here we go.
Omar Najam:
let's get to a segment that everyone cares about. Are you ready for our game?
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah, I'm ready. Let's
Omar Najam:
It's called The ABCD game care or crush.
Sandeep Parikh:
dun.
Omar Najam:
All right, folks. Inspired by the Apple commercial that we talked about earlier and the controversy that brought, we are playing the game care or crush. Sandeep and I will take turns presenting various items from our homes and the other, we'll have to decide, do you care about this or would you crush it with Apple's dystopian machine?
Sandeep Parikh:
Okay. Alright, I like it. let's do it. You ready? Okay. Oh wait, what happens? The loser, okay, so each time Omar and I guess correctly, we earn a point. In the event of a tie, we're gonna, okay, we actually, Delvan's not here, so we're just gonna keep going. I have a bunch of random objects I can keep going until we get a winner. the, and then the loser is gonna have to improvise. based on chat suggestion. what are we improvising? I don't even know. The winner, sorry, I'm lost here. We're gonna do, the loser, okay, it says blank. so we have to improvise what the loser has to do.
Omar Najam:
Yeah. this, I think it's, I think maybe it's a, maybe it's an
Sandeep Parikh:
have to juggle those items.
Omar Najam:
for destroying the thing.
Sandeep Parikh:
you have to be Tim Apple
Omar Najam:
You have to be Tim Apple
Sandeep Parikh:
you have to do an apology announcement. Okay,
Omar Najam:
for destroying that one item. Okay.
Sandeep Parikh:
for one of your items, Yeah. great. Destroying one of the other person's items that they
Omar Najam:
Yes. Yeah.
Sandeep Parikh:
I love it. Great. We did it. Okay. Here we go.
Omar Najam:
Okay. You wanna go first?
Sandeep Parikh:
start. Yeah, please.
Omar Najam:
Okay. I'll start.
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah.
Omar Najam:
wanna start? Okay, I'll start. I'll start. so I pulled a couple things, out of my, 2009 Kia Spectra, okay? So I've got three items here, Sandeep. You're gonna tell me care or crush. Are you ready for the first item? Okay.
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah, you're just gonna do one. And then I'm gonna do
Omar Najam:
Yeah, I'm doing one, and then I'm going to trade it back to you. But I just want to let you know, these are all things I pulled out of my 2009 Kia Spectra. Starting with
Sandeep Parikh:
your actual 2009 Kia Okay. Alright. Here we go.
Omar Najam:
something else. this
Sandeep Parikh:
Okay. A broom Alright. Do you, the question is, this is a broom, this is looks like just a sort of old fashioned kind of bristle broom here for our listeners. It doesn't look particularly special, to me. But I'm wondering,
Speaker 3:
LAUGHING
Sandeep Parikh:
would you have this broom in your car? what, in what utilitarian way would you be, like, have, would you be like, man. I need to sweep these mats off, are you just always eating Cheetos and Mukwas and other crumbly things that fall on your car, and you just gotta do, which is,
Omar Najam:
this Asian broom to sweep up my car with all those crumbs.
Sandeep Parikh:
I could see that, because that is a strong, those are strong bristles, and if you are as snacky as my dad is in the car, that this makes a lot of sense, that guy, I think he mostly misses his mouth when he's eating food,
Omar Najam:
There are two types of Desi's. The Desi that never eats in the car, and the Desi that exclusively eats in the car. Those are the two
Sandeep Parikh:
my, that is, my dad is definitely the latter. okay. Here's the thing I'm gonna throw out there. I think you might be a Quidditch player. Hey friends, because our interview with Val was so engaging and timely, we didn't want to cut out any of it. So instead, we cut out the rest of this silly game. but don't worry, the full game is up on EffinFunny's Patreon, and we made it free for everyone, not just the subscribers. So head on over there after the episode and check it out. But for now, back to the show. That moves us right into our final segment of the show."Desi of the Week"
Omar Najam:
Our Desi of the week is a director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. It's Arati Prabhakar.
Sandeep Parikh:
That's right, otherwise known as the President's Chief Science and Technology Advisor, and the woman who introduced Biden to chat GPT. That is legit.
Omar Najam:
Now, this is rad. We were talking about, technology, logistics and stuff earlier today in policy, Born in India and raised in Texas. Prabhakar has a PhD in applied physics from Caltech and previously ran two US agencies, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency. She also spent 15 years in Silicon Valley as a venture capitalist. This is wild.
Sandeep Parikh:
Yes, she assumed her current job in October 2022, just in time to have AI dominate the agenda, and she's been educating top officials about AI, eventually helping Biden push out an executive order which mandates safety standards, boosts innovations, promotes AI in government and education, and even tries to mitigate job losses. That is
Omar Najam:
so rad! Prabhakar is also the first person of color and the first woman to be appointed director of the office. This is absolutely unbelievable. Congratulations for being our Desi of the Week
Sandeep Parikh:
That's right. And just a quick shout out to our 11th runner up for Desi of the Week, Sahith Theegala who is ranked 12th in the world in the PGA tour 26 year old from Orange, California. He's only been pro for four years. He was named college player of the year. We have our own tiger is all I'm saying. And he, there's actually tigers in India. So his name is, he should be named tiger. Yeah. Pretty excited about, about a golfing Indian guy. That's cool.
Omar Najam:
That's his grad. We're following all the sports this season of ABCD. And folks, that is our show as always. Our big ask is that you find one person in your life that you care about or that you despise that you think would love this show and share it with them. Just tell them about it.
Sandeep Parikh:
And we want to feature you in the show. Send us a question that you want some culturally specific advice, and we'll answer it. We'll answer it poorly, but we're gonna answer it on the show, so shoot us a question at abcdpodcastshow@gmail.com.
Omar Najam:
Hell yes. And now it is time to shout out our Patreons and listeners. Are you ready for this?
Sandeep Parikh:
Let's do it. what's the genre we're doing it in? We're doing an a cappella?
Omar Najam:
It's hard to beat a cappella I love all of those suggestions but we got to do a cappella Boom Ba Ba
Sandeep Parikh:
we're right here, Kiji. No, you're down here. I'm up here.
Speaker 8:
Ba Boom
Sandeep Parikh:
find it.
Speaker 8:
Bum
Sandeep Parikh:
Joshua O'Ryan, Tal B. M., Benjamin Lowe, Miranda Holliger, Michael L., Raelynn Fox.
Speaker 8:
B. nervous wreck. Sarah h Varun,
Omar Najam:
Jeremy Swartz. 8 bit Dee, Chris, Sims, Dan Wale, Jeremy O'Brien, Brendan Bradley,
Speaker 8:
Burt, Raylan, time for the gods. pa tum
Sandeep Parikh:
the Gods in falsetto,
Speaker 8:
pa
Sandeep Parikh:
Mark Tucker, Hannah Lehman, James Gaffney,
Speaker 8:
pa pum pa
Sandeep Parikh:
Scribbles and Bob Jerks and Verdon!
Omar Najam:
pum, Vader. you, know how they always go low at the end?
Sandeep Parikh:
Absolutely. If you, if. if you're Rockapella from Carmen,
Speaker:
yes.
Sandeep Parikh:
All right. This show is produced and edited by Anand Shah and Kaylin Mahoney. The show's technical director and sound designer is Delvan Neville. Not for this episode. the show's executive producers are Sandeep Parikh and Anand Shah. And this has been an EffinFunny production.
Omar Najam:
On behalf of next week's host, Sandeep Parikh, I have been this week's host, Omar Najam, may your chakras be aligned, and smothered in chutney.