This is Valet Confidential (VC), the best way to keep up to date on Jenkins the Valet, Azurbala, the Jenkins Audio Experience, Bored & Dangerous with Neil Strauss, mutant hijinks, and everything else in the Writer’s Room ecosystem.

You can always find us on Twitter (FilmBook, SpaceWalk). Send us your ideas, questions, and wild speculation about the future of the Writer’s Room universe. We’d love to hear from you.

Hey, SpaceWalk here! So late last week I got a DM from the venerable ape himself, Jenkins the Valet. With the Azurian Community Council nominations tabulated, cross-referenced, and fully verified (I’ll only pay $7.99/mo for a blue check, not a penny more!), I was selected to help shape the new Azurian PFP! 🤯

Before I go any further, thanks to everyone who nominated me. You spent time to create thoughtful reasons for why my participation in the council would be a good thing for this community. That’s awesome. You rock. I hope to serve you well!

Ok, back to the story. A few days later Jenkins sent over a link to the Tally Labs Discord — their company Discord. Um, am I officially employee #88? No, not quite. But I do have access to a special channel for the Azurian Community Council. After I logged in for the first time I was welcomed by Tally and community members. Lots of love. One thing that’s always felt unique and authentic about Tally and its community is the bond. Tally is one of the few companies in this space that believe that their community is as smart, if not smarter, than they are. Sure, we get it wrong sometimes. They do too. But we’re in it together. That feels good. And when I saw the other names selected to the council for the first time, I knew this would be a real collaboration.

Squad Strength

Look at this collection of rock stars. All names you likely know for their participation within the community. Tally said their goal was to get some diversity in the group and they definitely succeeded. We’re a set of strong voices who are passionate about the project.

And I absolutely love the PFP representation. A solid mix of styles, ideas, and communities. Some blue chips, some new hotness, and even some self-created excellence (I mean, Vosace probably translates to excellence in Azurian Italian). And I’ve settled into my Amber Vittoria smiley face like a well-worn leather jacket.

Seeing this kind of diversity — people and PFPs — means we’re more likely to get an Azurian PFP that feels right for this community. I’m excited to work alongside this group and to get to know them better as humans too. This is the best part of Web3. Making friends while making things.

Why am I excited about the Council?

Because PFPs are hard. There’s no rhyme or reason for what makes a PFP successful. It’s so personal. You may love the Bored Ape style and I may think it’s 🙈. I may love Deadfellaz and you may think they’re 🤷‍♂️. We may all agree with Frank that the art on DeGods was 😣, but their floor is still sky high and lots of people lovingly rock them as their PFP. And yet, how do you make something that feels personal for an entire community?! And, more importantly for the Azurian community, how does Tally make them feel connected to Azurbala, the world they successfully established and we’ve built characters for?

I’m excited to be close to those challenges. I’m excited to see how Tally, their yet-to-be-named Creative Director (I have no alpha!), and the artists solve these challenges. Having a window into this process and helping out however I can is gonna be a ton of fun.

Updates throughout the process

I want VC to be a place where the community can get additional insight into what members of the Azurian Community Council experience. To be straight-up, we signed NDAs. So I won’t be spilling alpha here that’s not been approved by Tally. But I want to give a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to participate in the Council, provide context from the community’s perspective, and bring new voices to the newsletter. Let’s do roundtables with the council to hear directly from them. Maybe get a few of them to put pen to paper and write something for VC! Maybe even host an Azurian Community Councilmember space.

VJ and Safa have also said they’re ready to jump into mini-interviews throughout the process to give us their perspective on the collaboration. Maybe we can get FilmBook out of “writer’s retirement” to see if his fingers still work! His transition from Valet Confidential to Tally was seamless, and he’s been working his tail off. Let’s see if we can’t steal a few hours from his Tally duties to get some insight from him too.

I’m thankful to be nominated by the community and selected by Tally. Let's build something fun!

Some Disclaimers: None of this is financial advice. DYOR. And yes, FilmBook and SpaceWalk are Tally Labs NFT collectors.