It’s no secret that Mad, the steadfast satirical magazine that’s been on newsstands for the past 67 years is all but ending, as per these pieces in the Washington Post, New York Times, and a personal one from The Week. I learned about it first from Mark Evanier’s blog, as he’s not only a pop culture historian, he regularly works with one of Mad’s most storied illustrators, Sergio Aragonés. Technically, Mad is not completely dead:…
I’m not sure if this is what the Founding Fathers were thinking of when they decided to adopt the ol’ Stars and Stripes. I’m sure they hoped the Great Experiment would be successful. But did they envision a future where people would proudly wear versions of the nation’s flag as neckwear and sing about said flag in a form of digital cloning on the Inter-Tubes? Okay, I’m pretty sure it’s not what they were thinking…
Just over 240 years ago, the United States announced its separation from Britain… a separation that could be measured in many ways, but definitely in miles. And while pretty much the rest of the world has decided to “Make Mine Metric,” Americans remain unconvinced. Why? The Verge has some theories.
I’m working on some other posts related to fandom. One is a follow-up in the Crisis of Infinite Star Treks series (where I talk about fan involvement with Star Trek throughout, but specifically go into more here and here.) I’m also working on a longer piece about getting one’s own creative work out there and developing fans oneself. One struggle I’ve had of late has been how much the Internet thrives on hate and outrage.…
I recently read an article by Kara Baskin about a 2016 workplace study. The professors (from MIT and the University of Minnesota) were experimenting with elements of the oft-invoked, but not always defined “work-life balance.” The link above is to the article, not the study itself and is worth the quick read, even if the conclusions don’t necessarily come as a shocker. For example, having more control over one’s schedule including to be able to…
I respect the ranking that Mr. Jacob Hall has done in ranking every Bond villain.
It could be finally getting around to hearing the Ray Dalio interview on Freakanomics where he talks about honesty, it could be some of the workplace diplomacy I’ve done over the past year or three, but this article by David Vallance about how Kim Scott approaches workplace communication felt very topical and applicable.
Perhaps it’s the fact that we had primary elections in my county yesterday… or that I got to know how much local politics mattered when covering city council meetings in college, but this article from the Guardian made me hopeful that the solution to a lot of things is some people standing up to get things done.
Hopefully you’re not having a crappy Monday, but if you give a crap or, rather, need to crap, Daniel from Spacedock understands. Also, why YT-1300 freighter designers, WHY?!? Have you no concept of personal space?
I have often mentioned Scriptnotes, the screenwriting podcast hosted by John August and Craig Mazin, as a source from some really good information and inspiration for writing. On the one hand, I could arguably link to them just about every week, but if I had to pick just one this year, this week’s unprecedented solo effort by Craig Mazin is one you should listen to if you’re about to embark on writing a feature film…