Wow and Flutter

It’s not that rock or rap no longer speak to the...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:59:00 -0800

It’s not that rock or rap no longer speak to the mainstream; Eminem’s album rather quietly became one of the year’s bestsellers, as did the latest from Kings of Leon, who were nominated for artist of the year yet did not perform Sunday evening.

But pop’s current mood — glamorous and emotionally open, category-busting and very fluid — reflects qualities associated with the feminine. Authenticity and rawness, leather jackets and guitars and freestyle rhymes still have their allure, but they’re overwhelmed by costume, dance, spectacular singing and highly stylized, melodramatic confession.

(via Ladies’ night at the AMAs | Pop & Hiss | Los Angeles Times)

"The foggy mystery of Palin’s popularity burns off sometimes; sometimes I am able to see in bright..."

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:56:00 -0800

“The foggy mystery of Palin’s popularity burns off sometimes; sometimes I am able to see in bright light why she is beloved. She is beloved because she willing to tell Americans that just because they are ignorant does not mean they are wrong.”

- Delson’s reading of Going Rogue for The Awl is a wonder. (via newsweek)

Seeking to recast the studio for the digital era, Ross and Iger...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:55:00 -0800

Seeking to recast the studio for the digital era, Ross and Iger have set in motion a plan to dramatically challenge entrenched practices, potentially pitting Disney against theater owners, retailers and other business partners. The gambit, if it works, could be emulated by other studios.

(via Disney Studios drama might alter the industry — latimes.com)

"It’s increasingly become my conclusion that most of want to live in a free society, as long as..."

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:39:00 -0800

“It’s increasingly become my conclusion that most of want to live in a free society, as long as it’s inexpensive. I don’t mean that to be dismissive—our lives are all we have, and some diligence about how, and when, they’re risked is natural. Catastrophe inspires a particular fear, and catastrophe at the hands of foreigners, for whatever reason, feels like an existential threat. There is a natural inclination, when you remember how those people died on 9/11, to want to do whatever you can to make sure it never happens again. But everything costs. I hoped that, as president, Obama would expend some capital making us aware of the long-term costs of sacrificing our values for a kind of short-term security. Conversely, I hoped he’d remind people that long-term interests and deeply-held values, often exact a short-term costs. Perhaps these are the limits of electoral politics. What politician wants to remind Americans that the threat of terrorism—domestic or otherwise—is the cost of a free society?”

- Ta-Nehisi Coates on the resignation of White House Chief Counsel Greg Craig

"There’s no question that Gaga — and Glambert too — stand firmly on Madge’s muscled shoulders, but..."

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:28:00 -0800

“There’s no question that Gaga — and Glambert too — stand firmly on Madge’s muscled shoulders, but after pushing the envelope for so long it seems to have gotten pushed into something different. In this seen-it-all age of the meta, the dramatic, fearless, hyper-sexualized personas of Gaga and Glambert are less transgressive than reflective — two operatic baroque, characters less pushing the envelope than wearing it. Call it “Post-Sexy”: Incorporating and heightening the conventions of a sex-charged culture, so as to move beyond it.”

- Rachel Sklar defines “Post-Sexy”

For the love of cooking: Italian Wedding Soup

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:25:00 -0800

For the love of cooking: Italian Wedding Soup

This is mostly true for me today. Although, I do think I’m...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:21:00 -0800

This is mostly true for me today. Although, I do think I’m attempting to attend three conference calls from vacation-land this afternoon…(via cuberage:kaprizka)

Omar (well, Michael K. Williams anyway) is coming back to...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:24:00 -0800

Omar (well, Michael K. Williams anyway) is coming back to HBO:

“Boardwalk Empire,” which debuts sometime next year, deals with gangsters in Atlantic City at the dawn of Prohibition in the 1920s. (Steve Buscemi plays a character based on famed Atlantic City fixer Nucky Johnson.) It comes from both Martin Scorsese (who directed the pilot) and key “Sopranos” producer Terence Winter. But where Winter’s old boss, David Chase, insisted on filming Jersey exteriors in the Garden State whenever possible, “Boardwalk Empire” has recreated the classic Atlantic City boardwalk in Greenpoint.

(via HBO’s ‘Boardwalk Empire’ sets Jersey scene - in Brooklyn | New Jersey Entertainment - TV & Film — NJ.com)

Recipe: Petto di pollo con Gorgonzola at La Finestra —...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:15:00 -0800

Recipe: Petto di pollo con Gorgonzola at La Finestra — latimes.com

"Blacks and whites have encountered one another in increasing numbers recently in the crowded waiting..."

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:16:56 -0800

“Blacks and whites have encountered one another in increasing numbers recently in the crowded waiting rooms of the welfare office and at the food pantry, where many of both races have ventured for the first time. Struggling black-owned businesses are attracting the attention of white patrons. Neighbors are commiserating across racial lines.”

- A Racial Divide Is Bridged by Recession - NYTimes.com

Even if it interrupts your readerly pleasure, take a moment to...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:42:00 -0800

Even if it interrupts your readerly pleasure, take a moment to wonder. How did the author just make you cry? Which elegant phrase or shameless trick jerked those tears from you? At what point in that action scene did your heart start pounding? What was the exact moment that you went from hating this character to liking them?

One of your jobs as a writer is to take novels apart and see how they work. Don’t go for the easy enjoyment of letting the words wash over you. Instead analyze and nitpick. Get your hands dirty.

Writers re-read.

(via Nano Tip #21: Writers Re-read « westerblog)

Runaway - Georgia Anne Muldrow

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:38:48 -0800

Runaway - Georgia Anne Muldrow

Pixar Short: George and AJ

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:44:42 -0800

Pixar Short: George and AJ

Bio-Diversity - Abstract City Blog - NYTimes.com (via...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:34:34 -0800

Bio-Diversity - Abstract City Blog - NYTimes.com (via furryrabbits)

Walt Disney vs. the news industry: How bad management is killing newspapers and their websites

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:38:49 -0800

Walt Disney vs. the news industry: How bad management is killing newspapers and their websites:

Walt created an environment where his employees (“cast members” in Disney lingo) felt welcomed, and empowered, to speak freely - to Walt and to co-workers. “You were one of the members of the team and were free to talk,” Sherman said.

Ideas - the lifeblood of a creative business - could come from anyone in the company. And Walt often challenged employees to perform in areas where they’d had little or no formal training.

“You never know what you might find when you give someone an opportunity,” said Marty Sklar, the UCLA journalism student Walt hired to write a newspaper for distribution in the Disneyland who ended up becoming president of Walt Disney Imagineering, the design company that oversees the development of Disney’s theme park attractions.

There is no Walt Disney managing today’s legacy news businesses. (Yes, ABC News is part of the Disney Co., but Disney acquired it long after Walt’s death, and the news division does not share the same management tradition as the other divisions of the company which once reported to Walt.) Disney’s management style has nothing to do with today’s news business. Which I see as a huge problem for us.

Walt’s management style empowered the company to cultivate fresh ideas. Yet management practice within today’s news business has smothered creativity.

"A company called Circle of Seven, which produces videos for an impressive array of trash,..."

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:22:00 -0800

“A company called Circle of Seven, which produces videos for an impressive array of trash, trademarked the term book trailer in 2002, but the phrase has caught on broadly, and there will be no turning back. A consideration of the form might begin, and even end, by dwelling on the word trailer itself, conventionally used to indicate a montage that, running in a movie theater before a feature, gives away too much of the plot of a film not yet released. No one would think to call an ad for a TV show a trailer; it is a promo or a spot or maybe a teaser. In embracing the term, the publishing industry helps itself to some Hollywood glamour. And in avoiding the most obviously appropriate word for these commercials—that is, commercials—sacrosanct literature keeps grubby commerce at an arm’s length.”

- Do books really need Hollywood-style trailers? - By Troy Patterson - Slate Magazine

One of my favorite people of 2009 and a constant source of...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:53:29 -0800

One of my favorite people of 2009 and a constant source of “Go After Your Dreams” Inspiration, Sloane, is moving to my favorite city of 2009:

I know some people might say – but moving from Los Angeles? How will New Orleans ever compare? Let me say this, in moving this time, I’ve realized there are three things really important to me in my choice on where to live.

1) Quality of Life

2) Strong Sense of Community

3) Social entrepreneurial and social impact environment where I feel I can make a difference

New Orleans has all of those.

(via Moving To New Orleans - The Causemopolitan)

(via spiegelman)

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:43:38 -0800

(via spiegelman)

"The reason they want you to fit in is that once you do, then they can ignore you."

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:01:00 -0800

“The reason they want you to fit in is that once you do, then they can ignore you.”

- Seth Godin

More than 45,000 dolls have sold in less than a month with...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:44:00 -0800

More than 45,000 dolls have sold in less than a month with 17,000 selling last week alone. At one major retailer, The Princess and the Frog bedding has sold nearly triple the amount of regular Disney Princess bedding. At Disney Store locations nationwide and DisneyStore.com, the Princess Tiana role-play dresses are selling above all other Disney Princess characters.

(via “The Princess and the Frog” Merchandise is in High Demand : Disney Society)