Arts
Thank you, Roger Corman
Honoring a friend to millions.
By Steven Jay, Creative Director, Mobilized NEWs
There are greats amongst us who had the courage to take a chance when others played by the rules. This very unique group of people includes Special Effects Directors such as the late Douglas Trumbull, Stanley Kubrick, innovators and inventors such as Thomas Edison, Richard Branson and Nikola Tesla, and Filmmaker Roger Corman.
Roger Corman is known as the King of the B-Movies. You may have liked or not liked his films. But what’s important to understand is he’s a man who remained autonomous of “The Machine” and stuck to his code of ethics. Roger Corman passed away peacefully May 9 at his home in Santa Monica, California.
While big studios refused to give people a change, he inspired and empowered the talent that he discovered. He gave breaks to Francis Ford Copolla, Jonathan Demme, Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard and countless others.
His legendary yet unique style of the creative process from idea into action, from financing to distribution enabled films that would not have been made by the big studios to cut through the glut of Hollywood’s “Big sized” motion pictures
Not every film had to be a blockbuster. Not every story had to be sensational.
There is only one man who could have done what Roger Corman has done, given life and hope to those who dreamed of making films, creating art and making a difference. To that, we say, Thank you, Roger Corman.
In 2005 Roger gave this talk in New York City. We proudly present it as a celebration of a life well lived.
Thankyou, from all of us.
Steven Jay, Mobilized News
I only met Roger Corman once but felt like I had known him my whole life. I was asked to introduce him when he was giving a keynote at one of Steven’s conferences in 2005. I was deeply honored to introduce him, and Rodger truly seemed moved by my introduction.
I said that I rarely use the word genius, but that I felt such a word truly applied. For among his many achievements, Corman typified better than anyone else in cinema history, the enormous ability to create memorable work in a DIY manner that many now take for granted. Such an early understanding that creating media did not require an enormous corporation, with hundreds of crew members and with seemingly endless budgetary resources, not only inspired, it empowered the diverse, and under-represented creators who needed so much to not only make their own work, but to get it distributed and seen. This was the genius that Corman shared with anyone willing to try.
Among the ways that an artist can influence the world’s heritage, is through exemplary efforts that prove that a certain approach is not only possible, but actionable. He did that and gave the world a blueprint for independent filmmaking that has evolved and grown into many specialized and localized cultural vocabularies, each celebrating the unique character and nuance of the diverse pluralistic and multicultural planet that we all share. It is a rare gift to inspire each to tell their own stories in their own ways, but he did exactly that.
Following his talk, Roger invited me to have lunch together. He was exactly as expected, brilliant, in an unassuming way, open, and curious. He was more concerned about learning about my work, than about speaking about his own. He was gracious and welcoming. I regret that I never tried to follow up on building a friendship, especially as he lived in Santa Monica, where my studio is located, and where I have served as an Arts Commissioner for many years.
But for those who do know his name, ranging from the many titans of the industry who gained their start through him, onto those life myself who he influenced and inspired, as well of all around the world who study his work, we collectively say thank you, Rodger, for a life and job, well done.
Michael J. Masucci
Director, EZTV Online Museum
www.eztvmuseum.com
Co-Founder, DNA Festival Santa Monica
Dnafestival.com
Arts Commissioner, City of Santa Monica.
Re-imagining media and the arts as a public service:
Michael Masucci, co-director of the pioneering media arts collective EZTV, offers an extraordinary chance to explore the evolution of independent video art, the birth of digital culture, and how media can be a vehicle for radical transformation, equity, and experimental collaboration.
Our conversation is designed to bring forward his decades of innovation at the intersection of art, technology, activism, and community.
Experience the uplifting story of EZTV and the importance of decentralized community media.
The arts has served as a method of traversing cultural barriers and geo-political ideologies and has been the bleeding-edge of innovation in both thought as well as practice.
How can we leverage the enormous potential of the current media tools and the distribution and communication possibilities of those who have access to online experiences?
How can media benefit from the forward-thinking experimental model that art cultivates and preserves?
It is time to re-imagine both how mass pop culture and the more esoteric niche practices in the arts build bridges between seemingly different communities and belief systems.
Michael Masucci, EZTV Media and EZTV Museum, DNA Festival, Santa Monica
Michael J. Masucci is an award-winning artist who has also been curating digital art since 1984, and producing digital and multimedia since 1980. According to the Victoria & Albert Museum, an early digital art gallery he co-created “literally put digital art on the map.” As a founding member of EZTV (eztvmuseum.com) he has collaborated on projects which have been presented at institutions including the Getty Museum, Museum of Modern Art (NY), the Institute of Contemporary Art (London) the Centre Pompidou, Lincoln Center, PBS, UCLA, the School of Visual Arts (NY) New School/Parsons, the University of Helsinki, SIGGRAPH, Disneyland Paris, CalTec, Anthology Film Archives, LA Filmforum, DEFCON, Humanity+, Burning Man, as well as at numerous festivals, and professional conferences. A retrospective of his early video has been staged at REDCAT/Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex,
He has authored articles and spoken on topics ranging from information security, transhumanism, and the role of art in the digital world. His work is included in the permanent collection of USC and UCLA. He has been included in the Getty’s PST in 2011 and 2024 and co-founded DNA Festival Santa Monica and has been profiled in various publications and appeared on a number of podcasts and in several documentaries and is being included in a PHD dissertation on media art. A cisgender man, he helped save an archive of seminal early Queer media art. He has served as Chair of the Santa Monica Arts Commission and is the recipient of four City commendations for his contributions to the arts. He has been an artist-in-residence since 2000 at 18th Street Arts Center. He holds a degree in law and certifications in music production, graphic design, computer coding, entrepreneurship and mediation/conflict resolution.
Willie Nelson: “We’ve stood with our partners all these years to give farmers — the hardest working people in America — the support they need to survive against impossible odds. Their willingness to keep going is why we have to keep going.” (Farm Aid)
Lukas Nelson, Willie’s son, backstage during the event, remembering hard lessons from farm life:
“Growing up working with the land, picking cotton, helped inform [Dad’s] worldview. As a child, the elder Nelson learned what it meant to ‘get his food straight from the land.’” (Statesman)
Local Minnesota farmers, speaking at the Farmer Forum and HOMEGROWN Village, shared both concern and pride:
Concern over high input costs, climate disruptions, shrinking global markets, corporate consolidation — the pressures threatening family farms. (Farm Aid)
Pride in seeing the community and public gathering around sustainable agriculture, in seeing fair-price markets for local food, and in the hands-on learning happening in soil health, food justice, water protection. (Farm Aid)
2. Audience & Fan Reactions
- A post-in-festival comment (via a livestream discussion) captures the emotional effect of seeing the crowd together:
“Like, see how everyone is just standing there peacefully in awe and with love? It’s just so relaxing to see Willie.” (Reddit)
- Another audience member reflected on discovering or re-discovering artists:
“I’m pretty knocked out by Nathaniel Rateliff. I haven’t heard anything that interested me before but they have a great live show. He can really sing.” (Reddit)
- From local media review: The crowd’s energy during Willie’s performances of “Whiskey River,” “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” was described as “a communal sing-along” where people leaned into enduring love, loss, hope — emotional chords that transcended headlines. (Statesman)
Artist / Performer Moments that Brought Meaning Backstage & on Stage
- John Mellencamp using songs like “Rain on the Scarecrow” not just as performance pieces, but as statements about rural struggle and economic distress in farming communities. (Statesman)
- Billy Strings dedicating “Gild the Lily” to his wife, a former flower farmer — weaving personal life, agriculture, and love into the performance. (Statesman)
- During backstage interviews (per the official release) artists and organizers emphasized that Farm Aid is more than music: it’s activism, connection, awareness raising. They spoke of policy, climate, fairness in agriculture, the need for systemic support. (Farm Aid)
Emotional Undercurrents: Unity Amidst Challenge
- The tension of a potential cancellation due to a labor dispute threatened to mar the anniversary—but the resolution sparked relief and showed the depth of commitment from so many stakeholders: farmers, workers, fans. (AP News)
- There was recurring mention of resilience — literally, how farmers keep going “when the odds seem impossible,” and metaphorically, how the event itself stood firm in the face of logistical, economic, environmental challenges. (Farm Aid)
- At the end, the closing sing-along (“Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” “I Saw the Light”) wasn’t just a set closer. For many fans and farmers, it felt like a ritual: a reminder that we are connected — to heritage, the land, and each other. The crowd standing together in rain, voices lifted: those moments cut through distraction. (Statesman)
“Staying true to my heart gives me a constant continuum of a life well-lived. It chooses me.”
Composer/Singer/Multi-Instrumentalist/Producer Ray Andersen, was a full time band member of Meat Loaf, as his guitarist, keyboardist, backup singer, from ’98-’02, touring all of Europe and the US and US and European TV shows.
As part of the Asbury Park NJ Stone Pony house band through most of the 80s, he performed with Bruce Springsteen as his backup band, multiple times, as well as many other events. He’s also played keyboards for rock pioneer, Chuck Berry.
He’s recorded music for many national TV commercials including 20 Publishers Clearing House commercials, recorded in his home studio, and in 2023, he recorded the Linda Ronstadt classic hit, “Different Drum,” for the Netflix Top Ten movie, “The Tutor”, starring Noah Schnapp from Stranger Things.
For over 25 years, he has written and performed music for children and families as Mr. RAY…writing, recording and performing original songs with messages of kindness, inclusion, being creative and staying healthy & active. His streams for kids music was over 9 million in 2024.
He recently composed music for a short documentary called “Vienna: Suddenly an Angel,” which was just included in the Garden State Film Festival in March 2025.
In January 2021, Ray became an Official United Nations NGO (a non-governmental, non-political organization) Representative of Pathways To Peace, on behalf of his musical work and message of kindness, diversity and inclusion, with children… an ambassador of peace through his music.
Let’s get right into it. What makes him tick, so that others can talk. (more…)
