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 ...
Category: work
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...
the vessel of exploration
For Europeans and their former subjects, the making of planet Earth – a process better known as globalization – begins after the Renaissance, as newly empowered...
Two ideas for a fusion taco stand
1) Guatequeria: Cuban. e.g., tacos de ropa vieja or tacos de rabo encendido. Roast pork. 2) Pintxos tacos: Northern Spain. e.g., tacos de pulpo con papa or taco...
My problem with Footloose (2011): not enough Mexicans
Footloose (1984) had tension because it was of the moment. The Moral Majority was just entering its apex and small town America was a pop cultural phenomenon (m...