show me
i’ll believe all the pretty talk about diversity and inclusion when a pilot episode ends with The Cover Girl’s Show Me. either our history matters o...
Category: work
desperately seeking sounds
After nearly two years of working on an audio drama, I’ve come to wonder if I should have spent more time thinking about the audio part and less on the dr...
Queens English
From my February 7, 2021 newsletter. Reprinted in full with a few grammatical corrections. “You don’t sound Cuban.” “Where’s your ...
playhouse
Nearly two years ago, for the birthday of our oldest, I made a playhouse. I designed it using Sketchup, which allowed me to adjust the sizing and layout, while ...
First families
I slept fitfully and repeatedly dreamed of the migrant family, as enshrined by Christianity. La familia sagrada. The holy family versus Herod, the king. The fam...
Actual Science Fiction
A hundred years from now half the cops will have psych degrees and we’ll look back on today like a horror show. (the movie “Bright” is not actually ...
language, screenwriting
We are advised to not include Spanish language dialogue in an English language script. Rather, every character should, at first, speak English and then their wo...
movies are magic tricks
magic tricks work when the audience is not fully aware of what they are seeing. movies are the same. when it works, the audience says: “i didn’t see...
visionary leadership
when you see what’s coming before everyone else does: from the excellent Attack the Block
the stories that win
John Cassidy: To get people to turn out and vote in your favor, you also have to give them something positive to rally behind. The Leave campaign, for all its l...
the science of bad movies
Nora Caplan-Bricker: The ideal bedtime story, according to Nitun Verma, a national spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, is one that “doesn’t...
the nadir in “midnight run”
In the first image, the protagonist is defeated. He faces away from us, towards the past. The road ahead of him is indirect and would take him away from us. He ...
You say Rachel, I say Really?
New software, same old problem:
a rage for rigor
TO THE HYPHENATED POETS Richer than mother’s milk is half-and-half Friends of two minds, redouble your craft. Our shelves our hives, our selves a royal je...
Mad Men 2013
About 15 years ago I saw Tyler Brule, then just two years into Wallpaper, give a presentation that would forever change my understanding of art and commerce. He...
The new co-viewing. Same as the old.
Television sets often determine the layout of the furniture in communal rooms. Their position in the typical American home is a clear testament to their social ...
actor and spectator
in the actor-spectator relationship, both participants experience self-knowledge by “trading places” with another person. for the actor, self-knowle...
Cost management is for winners.
You don’t create better products by cutting costs. You cut costs after you create a better product. It may be tempting for companies with unpopular produc...
Do bad companies fire more workers?
Successful companies have better employees. They are more productive and more profitable because they are better at hiring (choosing, attracting) and developing...
Scrapbooks made for sharing
From the Wikipedia entry on the origins of the scrapbook in the 15th century and their ongoing function as self-portraits: From the standpoint of the psychology...