Maddox’s books, available anywhere you can still buy books.
FEZ: Before your departure, you went on Maxim Radio for a one-off test pilot with Tucker Max and Drunkasaurus Rex. Is that something you would’ve continued full time? What was the story behind it?
M: Sure, it was fun. Tucker called me up and said, “Hey, Sirius wants to do a show with me, you want in?” I said, “yep.” And that’s that. We had no idea what we were doing and we sat in the lobby literally five minutes before we went on, trying to figure out what we were going to talk about. I was distracted for the first half of the show because I happened to be staying at some shitty hotel in New York with no internet, and couldn’t find Wi-Fi anywhere, so the studio was the first time I had access to my website in days. I was quickly trying to update the front page with the phone number of the show so people could call in and listen. My fans largely didn’t even know I did a show with Tucker.
FEZ: Now in that same show, Tucker pegged you for not using social media to get word about your site out. Obviously times have changed drastically since then and with your resurgence you’ve been using Facebook as a big part of your broadcast. What are your thoughts on using Twitter and Facebook?
M: Tucker was right. I hate Facebook, and I hate Twitter even more, but fighting it is pointless. It’s too ubiquitous not to use. Fighting Facebook at this point would be like fighting email in the late 90s. I especially hate Twitter; I don’t know what the point is, other than a shittier version of what IRC used to be (Internet Relay Chat for the uninformed). Even Twitter’s hashtag syntax came from IRC’s channel topics (if you wanted to talk about a certain topic, you’d “join” a channel about that topic, like #sports or #videogames). Anyway, I’m finally on both, and there’s an ominous cloud looming over the Internet if Facebook gets any more power than it already has. I’ve experienced censorship on Facebook already, on some very subtle levels that people aren’t even aware of yet. Also, Facebook encourages everyone to “like” everything all the time. So if you “like” 300 or so movies, websites, bands movements, TV shows and video games, status updates from those pages could easily overwhelm your newsfeed. So how does Facebook prioritize which ones it shows you? Will everyone who “likes” a certain page eventually see a status update by that page? Or is there some algorithm Facebook uses to randomize it? Or is it hand picked? What if Facebook doesn’t like a certain cause, movement, or page? How do we know they aren’t de-prioritizing it, or eliminating it from people’s newsfeeds entirely?
That said, I have some big plans for putting Twitter to use. Twitter’s good for mobilizing masses to some end, and I intend to do that with my account. My account will eventually be locked as an experiment, and I’ll only allow certain people to “follow” me.
FEZ: I’d like to call back to your Nokia article. Please don’t tell me you’re still rocking that thing. What phone (or phones) are in your pocket now? I’m gonna hazard a guess and assume that, based on your craftiness, it’s probably a modded Android phone.
M: Nokia was at the top of their game when I wrote that article, and then they released the N97: a shitty iPhone knock-off. I stuck with them as long as I could, but eventually made the leap to Android (good guess). I’m using the HTC G2 at the moment. I don’t like to mod unless I absolutely have to, because I don’t trust altered firmware, and I’m not sure why anyone would unless you personally wrote the firmware crack yourself, or you know the person who did. Hacking used to be a noble endeavor — and to some people, it still is — but hackers today by and large do it for profit. So what’s the motive of the person who cracked your firmware? Do they have good intentions? Or is your phone going to start pinging some botnet some day when they want to use it for an attack? So far, the annoyances of my phone haven’t outweighed the risk associated with rooting, but sweet lord do I fucking hate Photobucket and all the other uninstallable bloatware.
FEZ: What was the modus operandi behind your video shows? To be frank, I didn’t care much for them and from the few you did, either time or interest ran out. Do you plan to do more?
M: Some of my hardcore fans have rejected the videos, but since when do I give a fuck? That’s the freedom I alluded to earlier: nobody’s paying me, so I don’t give a shit what anyone likes or doesn’t like. The day my fans start paying me is the day I start doing what they ask me to do, because to date, I’m still paying $600-$700 per month for hosting across all my sites. I make these videos because they’re fun, and because they cover things I can’t cover as well in writing. I started doing them because I wanted to write about some YouTube videos one day, and I kept finding myself describing every scene in painstaking detail. That’s when I realized it was stupid to do so, and decided to make videos instead. I actually think the first few videos kind of sucked. My delivery was flat and the format was weird. That said, I’d still rather watch them than 90% of what’s on YouTube. When I can make a video that sucks and it’s still better than everything else, what does that say about the content that’s on YouTube? My first few articles sucked too. In fact, I think most of my earlier writing sucked. But compare an article I wrote in 1998 or ’99 to one I recently wrote, and you’ll see a marked improvement in my writing. Similarly, these first few videos are probably going to suck. Who knows, maybe they’ll suck for a while, but look at the first video and compare it to my second or third. There’s obviously a marked improvement between each one. Think that trend will continue? Or do you think I’ll suddenly regress? The only way the latter could happen is if I somehow unlearn what I’ve learned, and that’s unlikely and maybe impossible.
I’ll continue to make videos and I’ll continue to write articles, because some things are best written, and others are best seen/heard. I think the disappointment with some of my fans was the fact that I didn’t sound like they expected me to sound. I guess they actually thought I lived on a pirate ship or something. I guess more of my fans are idiots than I thought.
FEZ: Final thoughts: obviously you’re just one person, but what’s in the future for your site/show/what have you? Given the freedom and the budget, what would your next project be? Obviously, Hollywood hasn’t been all that helpful…
I don’t know what the future holds. My site will stay up as long as I can afford it, and I will keep updating it when I have a chance. When I updated my site the most back in the day, my shitty job paid the bills. But I’ve since quit my job, so now I have to spend a lot more time trying to figure out other ways to make money that don’t compromise my principles, leaving scarce time for me to work on the site. And for the record, fuck anyone who says I’ve “sold out” by making books or selling t-shirts. I’m giving a product people want at a fair price. It’s one of the only honest ways to make a living. I’m selling, not selling out. Big fucking difference. Selling out is compromising one’s principles for money. I still don’t have ads on my site, and never will. I write books for a living and do what I want with my life. What do most of my critics do for a living? Sit in a cubicle at a shitty nine-to-five, kissing someone’s ass for a living. Who’s the sellout, dipshits? That said, I have a great new idea to make money on my site without compromising my principles and without selling ads. In fact, it’ll piss tons of people off, and I can’t wait to try it. More to come…
As for Hollywood, I’m not done; that’s a nut that can definitely be cracked. I haven’t given it a fair chance yet. As for a project with unlimited budget, probably a video game. Video games are what inspired me to start programming, and there’s a lot of ideas that people haven’t tried in video games. People experiment with gameplay and graphics, but rarely societal norms, or what even constitutes a video game. Games are so ripe for satire and parody, and yet, that niche is almost non-existent. I could kick some serious ass in that field with the right tools and people. Television and movies follow after that. I want to experiment in every field, and intend to.
FEZ: Thanks for your time!
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