The World's Smallest Violin
There's been a lot of talk lately about the Amazon Kindle and other digital readers arriving on the scene, mostly from publishers that are hoping that the digital options will just "go away" so they can stick to business as usual and making money from it. It's a complicated topic, but there's one issue that really makes me wonder if the major book publishers that are whining about digital books have their heads on straight....
Expect to Embarrass Yourself
I went to a show about a year ago at which David Fincher was presented with a "Modern Master" award for the films he's directed. There was a two-hour interview with him on stage, and he talked about the movies he had directed. Interspersed throughout the interview were little clips from his films that were shown on a big screen. After watching a clip from Se7en, the interviewer asked Fincher how it felt to watch...
Researching Cities on Facebook
On Facebook, you can "Become a Fan" of most cities in the country. My favorite variation on this is when the name takes the form of "You know you're from [city name] when..." and the info on the page itself is a list of little in-jokes that only people who live or had lived in the city might get. Usually we just browse the ones for cities where we've lived, because we want to get...
Lessons From a Schizophrenic
Several months ago, a new neighbor moved into the empty unit in our apartment building two doors down from us. He was quirky, and a little more friendly at first than most people I've lived in the same apartment building with. He told me he was was a former UC Berkley football player, which didn't come as a huge surprise due to this foreboding build. But, my first impression of him was that he was...
Lane Splitting In California
If you're driving a motorcycle, in most states, it's illegal to ride on the dividing line between lanes, a practice which is called "lane splitting". Here in California, however, that's perfectly legal. It's happened more than one that I'm driving on the highway in heavy traffic and suddenly, without warning, a motorcycle zips between me and the car in the lane next to me. I come from Michigan, where this was not a legal way...
"Real Artists Ship"
A month ago, on Facebook, I posted a link to the following page: The RPM Challenge Don't worry if you don't feel like clicking through and reading that. It basically challenges anyone with any musical ability to write and record an album of new material in the month of February. Write and record 10 songs in 28 days. I liked this idea, and I did it. (I invite any of my friends to listen to...
Fear Is Where It's At
So, you've been meaning to get around to recording that song, or writing that book, or designing and selling that T-shirt, or painting that abstract self-portrait for the ages. I'm sure there are lots of reasons, but is one of them because you're slightly afraid? It's scary to put your art out there for everyone to see, judge, critique, and so on, because, by extension, they're judging you. That's a scary thing to face. Even...
Reality TV Show Ideas
I'm not a huge watcher of reality television, but each show tends to have a niche audience. If I'm going to watch them, I prefer those that require the contestants to create something each week. I don't watch it, but take the premise behind the show "Project Runway": it gives fashion designers a challenge each week to create something a specific realm of fashion. A panel of judges later evaluates what they did and they...
The Lesson of Civilization
There's a widely held and unhelpful belief that the world around us is static. We attribute the way our civilization is to a series of decisions made by people who came before us, who had more authority, and who faced more urgent problems that demanded solving. That worldview is, of course, completely wrong. It's not just wrong, it's hopelessly wrong, and if you see things that way, you need to rub your eyes and take...
Life Without Writer's Block
On a recent flight from Detroit to Los Angeles, I sat next to a girl who was reading a book about how to write. I asked her if she was a writer, and we struck up a conversation about that for a little while. Among other things, she shared an interesting idea with me that an author had once given her. It went: "There's no such thing as writer's block. Writer's just have two modes:...