Fun With PhotoShop, part 2: i,Beyonce

Inspired by the fact that Beyonce seems to have this growing obsession with looking like C3PO from Star Wars, I decided to kick out this movie poster for her up-and-coming film with Will Smith, "i, Beyonce." Click on the image for a larger view!



This is built from five images: the poster from the "i, robot" movie, head shot of Beyonce, high resolution hair shot of Beyonce (had to search for that one), a picture of Beyonce with her "cyborg hand" jewelry worn in the "Single Ladies" video, and a close up of the main cyborg from the "i,robot" movie. In addition to the images I used the Arial Round font coupled with a hort-load of photoshop layer effects to make the font look all futuristic. As well I did quite a bit of touch-up on both Beyonce and Will Smith, and used path selection to get clean edges around the composite parts.


Why am I wasting my time thinking about Beyonce as a robot? Well, for one, it is just funny to me that she seems to like the whole robot/cyborg thing, and it is less about her and more about fiddling with Photoshop.

When Did "Blowing It" Become Such A Bad Phrase?

I have noticed that the concept of "blowing it" evokes a hostile response today. In fact, I am in a Best Buy the other day and I hear this employee complaining to another employee saying, "Man, that is why I said that over your earpiece. I didn't want to "blow you up" in front of everybody." Screwing something up is this nasty reality apparently and to the degree that the embarrassment and judgment is insurmountable. Here is the state of the union with regard to this issue at the moment:

1. You try to do something.
   
   
2. You fail to do it (or you don't do it well.)
   
   
3. People want to feedback but don't know how to do it without offending one's tender sensitivities.
   
   
4. So now "blowing it" is OUTLAWed, not as in "you can't fail" but rather "we refuse to accept the concept because it feels so critical"
   
   
5. As a result helpful simple terms like "wrong" or "incorrect" or "fail" are out the window and deemed to be "negative reinforcement."

I don't know what to think about all of this. There are plenty of topics and issues in life that don't fit into analytically black-and-white categories, but to imagine that people don't want to hear that the proposed answer is "wrong" or "incorrect" simply keeps us from finding helpful answers or kills the search for solutions that actually help. I think we are getting a little too sensitive.

If you think I am wrong, consult with a new friend who had to retool some training for the U.S. Army because when the soldier selected the incorrect answer in an e-learning course, they were now being told that they couldn't tell the soldier that they selected the wrong answer, but rather they would be encouraged to "try again." Ooops! Instead of appropriately locking your weapon you discharged that weapon into your friends head... please try again.