Well, I mean, realistically, someone else might leap into action and have a caper film on the subject of produce theft, but Rene Chun’s article about a Virginian vineyard being robbed of grapes made me think this could be a movie to be made in my backyard. In fact, I forwarded it as a possible entrant for Scriptnotes’ periodic segment “How would this be a movie?” So, I guess what I’m saying is I’d be…
Okay, I had a weightier post planned for today, but I just needed a break. So enjoy a whimsical village constructed for mice.
The holiday season is upon us and, since it’s an even year, it’s almost time for the biennial ranking of my 50 Favorite Films. For those of you obsessed with processes or those of you waiting for an appointment and have exhausted old magazines in a waiting room, read on! I’m a lifelong movie buff and have watched literally thousands of movies. Not all of them are good. Some of the good films are, nonetheless,…
Astronaut Chris Hadfield debunks some myths about space in a wonderfully wonky first-hand way that only he can do. If you’re worried about cooking tomorrow’s turkey just right, remember, you can’t do as bad as exposing it to the hard vacuum of space. I’ll let him explain:
I’m still reflecting on all I got out of the characters created and championed by Stan Lee and now another epic storyteller, novelist and screenwriter William Goldman, has died at the age of 87. Goldman was, and will continue to be, enormously influential for writers and his book, Adventures in the Screen Trade, is one I’ve given as a gift to several fellow writers, not only for its insights about writing and the writing process,…
Stan Lee has died at the age of 95. Tributes, remembrances, and obituaries have come from the New York Times, the Hollywood Reporter, NPR (and a longer piece here), Variety, a nice one from Marvel, and even one from The Onion. Like countless others, my connection to “The Man” now best known for cameos in the films of a billions-dollar film franchise came early on. He represented my “ur-fandom.” Before Star Trek or Doctor Who,…
The other day, I was feeling my introvert tendencies pretty darn hard the same time I needed to interact with people. So what if you “leaned in” to that whole “interact with people” thing and talked to strangers?
If you’re a Shakespeare fan who hasn’t enjoyed the simple, stick figure pleasures of Good Tickle Brain, you should definitely avail yourself of it. If you’ve been kicking yourself because you know you’re not as familiar with all the Bard’s work, Mya Gosling, the brain behind Good Tickle Brain has your back. Watch as she summarizes all of Shakespeare’s plays in five minutes.
Two of the podcasts I regularly listen to, Scriptnotes and Maltin on Movies, both note how a given actor or other creative artist regularly takes 10-20 years to become an “overnight success.” They note this, in part, because the whole idea of the precocious talent, the creative who does genius work just out of the womb, seems so engrained in our culture, you kind want to stop and say, “Wait? Is that really normal?” Nope.…
Big Bird, the character, will continue of course, but Caroll Spinney, the performer who gave both him and Oscar the Grouch life, is finally stepping away from Sesame Street after about 50 years. They’ve created a nice 5-minute tribute about Spinney’s work: If that leaves you too verklempt, enjoy the cast of Sesame Street participating in one of Wired’s “autocomplete” videos from last year: And hey, have a great weekend!