No no, I don’t mean the United States of America. I mean the United States of Advertising (Bill Hicks). As a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party I wanted to watch the first debate last night on CNN. Now, I should point out, I don’t have television. I HAVE a television fer chrissakes, I am … Continue reading USA! USA! USA!
For the past seven years, I’ve lived in Brooklyn. New York. Before moving to Williamsburg, the worldwide epicenter of hip, I lived in Billyburg’s kissing cousin, Greenpoint. Both have been subjected to an aggressive gentrification agenda. One of the most aggressive in recent years. With gentrification comes hipsters. A lot of hipsters. Revelation 9:3-10 “Then … Continue reading Williamsburg, Brooklyn Has Jumped the Shark
There is a great SNL Celebrity Jeopardy sketch where a category is “Pen Is Mightier” and Darrell Hammond’s Sean Connery keeps pronouncing it “Penis Mightier”. (Here’s a link to the audio and some sort of World of Warcraft like animation) And you know what? It’s true. The pen IS mightier (the jury is out on the … Continue reading The PenIs Mightier
Many moons ago, I was in film school. I went to the School of Visual Arts. About four years ago, I discovered a 16mm film I shot, Hells Ugly Sister, and had that digitally transferred and I put it together as best I could based on my original idea. This summer my 8mm first year … Continue reading Shake Your Love
It’s no secret that we got way too much email these days. And if you work in an office environment, odds are it’s worse. You’re probably on way too many distribution lists (or DL’s to us in the trade) and they jam up your in box, unless your IT team has given you unlimited inbox … Continue reading Reply All Idiotry
Donald Trump is leading the Republican polls (ahead of a GOP dynasty). Hillary is being pilloried about e-mails (seriously, how does anyone NOT know the only way to erase a hard drive is to burn it?) and Bernie Sanders, a Socialist from Vermont is gaining ground (I got nothing); you’d think this presidential election cycle couldn’t … Continue reading Oh! Say, can you see?
“I think we should banish expectations and re-instate wonder.“* Consider it re-instated. Season three of the Sundance Channel’s show “Rectify” wrapped up last night with a few tears from the actors (and this viewer) and an uncharacteristic hint of optimism. For the past month I’ve tried to muscle up words to describe how good the … Continue reading Rectify – The best show you aren’t watching.
I’m writing from a place of sadness. A kind of empty sadness unlike any other I have ever known. I lost my mother recently. Well, it’s not like I misplaced her, she passed away. And wrestling with my emotions surrounding it is, on the best day, odd. On the worst? Painful. These days are the … Continue reading We Suffer Alone
“We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.” – Bill Hicks I am the youngest of my mothers four children; born breach during what is often considered the most tumultuous year in modern history (the year of unraveling). I grew from a collicky baby into a petulant child then … Continue reading A Mothers Disappointment?
It’s true…and not in some sort of existential “we’re all dying a little more each day” kind of way. As I type this out my mother is in hospice. You see, a couple of weeks ago my mother suffered a heart attack and a “series of strokes” (no less than six according to the neurologist) … Continue reading My Mother Is Dying
Outside of certain environments neoliberalism is a word you don’t hear very often, but I suspect that is going to change in the very near future. With that in mind, I thought I would take a moment to shed a little light on what the word means. Oh, I know right out of the gate you are … Continue reading On Neoliberalism
The animus that exists between traditional media and new media (linear media and digital media) befuddles me. I understand it as much as I do the longstanding battle between the Hatfield and McCoy’s…let’s hope this media battle isn’t as long. But why the hate? Is it ego? Hubris? Lunacy? All three? I find it hard … Continue reading Modern Day Hatfields and McCoys? Media.
The good news is that I’ve made Gold Status in the Hilton Rewards Program. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but according to Hilton it’s something to be celebrated. The bad news is that my mother has suffered a “serious heart attack” (as opposed to the mild ones?!). She’s got a respirator down her … Continue reading Good News/Bad News
Even though I’ve called the east coast my home for well over half my life, I am a Midwestern boy through and through. One of the many traits we Midwesterners carry with us is a solid work ethic. It’s certainly something I’ve carried with me through the years and it’s definitely something I look for … Continue reading Soul Asylum – What Gives?
Comcast still doesn’t give a f*ck. They’re still the largest Telecommunications lobbying force in D.C. to the tune of almost $17 million dollars in 2014 lobbying for Telecommunications…by way of comparison, they spent $100,000 lobbying for television. Guess which category the Internet falls under? Control the media, control the message. This is happening now and you … Continue reading (sigh) They’re at it again.
I shouldn’t be, but I am. I’m ashamed to be an American. I shouldn’t be, but I am. The BBC just broke the story about a church shooting in South Carolina. The story is still unfolding but it appears to be, surprise surprise, racially motivated. What the fuck is happening? I’m not a church going … Continue reading I’m ashamed to be white.
I just flew in from Detroit…and boy is my heart tired. Detroit is in rough, rough shape and yet to me it still is the quintessential American city. The whole package, the good, the bad and the ugly. The good: it was built on the backs of the melting pot of Americans. At one time, … Continue reading Another Damn Story About Detroit
I am noticing a trend among people today. And not a good one. Of course I am alarmed by so many things taking place across the globe and, in the ultimate scheme of things, this concern barely registers…but it is annoying as f*ck. People can’t seem to answer a God damn question. For example, these … Continue reading Please Just Answer My Question
Last week I was on site for work and woke up to find a note scribbled “the heart collapses” beside my bed. I don’t know what I could have been dreaming about that made me make this note. I am not a lucid dreamer. I recall looking at that and scratching my head, quite curious … Continue reading The Heart Collapses
Black Box Radio Podcast On Soundcloud
Sammy Hagar’s first album for Geffen Records, Standing Hampton, initially put the self-proclaimed “Red Rocker” on my musical radar. While not a huge fan, he was always on my radar. Frankly, if I am being honest, that’s really the only Sammy Hagar solo album I like. Sure, I like the Van Halen stuff a lot, … Continue reading Sammy Hagar Could Use Some More…
So about one year ago (January 13, 2014) I wrote about Charlie Brooker’s television show, Black Mirror. I said you should really be watching it. Last week, Brooker was interviewed for WNYC’s On The Media and talked about it, A Paranoid Reflection of our Digital Age. Because all too often people have come up to … Continue reading Black Mirror is now on Netflix. No more excuses.
I do these writing prompt deals from time to time. They help stimulate a little creativity and get the tappers on the keyboard. This one came from Medium. The prompt was “What Prepares You for the Day“. For the uninitiated, Medium is a writing platform created by Ev Williams, one of the creators of Twitter. … Continue reading What the Day Brings
This past weekend I watched the 2005 film Everything is Illuminated, written and directed by Liev Screiber and based on the Jonathan Safron novel of the same name. A good movie about a young Jewish American man who goes to the Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II. The … Continue reading Everything is Illuminated…or is it?
2014. Done. Over. I’d ask you where the time went and all that jazz, but then I would sound infinitely older than I really am. I can’t afford that…no, but really where did the time go? I won’t bore you with some sort of year-end wrap up. Well, not in the traditional sense anyway, the … Continue reading And So It Ends
Some little known facts about Thanksgiving: 1. Actually originated in the mid-14 century Latvia where it was called mems brigdienu. 2. The first American Thanksgiving meal was not turkey. It was soup. Anecdotal evidence suggests it was butternut squash. 3. Canadians also have Thanksgiving, in October, to celebrate the overthrow of tyrannical Prime Minister Pierre … Continue reading Truths About Thanksgiving
So I tried. I did. I tried to stay out of this whole Bill Cosby kerfuffle but after reading David Carr’s excellent piece I figured that as both a student & critic of media, it was time to contribute to the fray. Not because my opinion matters all that much, you know what they say…opinions … Continue reading The Bill Cosby Thing
HE He didn’t much care for Thanksgiving. It wasn’t the concept that bothered him so much as the pedestrian attachments and (mis)understanding people ascribed to it. Besides, the season always involved him traveling back to where he grew up. Traveling back to the place he couldn’t wait to escape was bad enough, but to have … Continue reading Thanksgiving for Augustus Reynolds
We’re media whores. Comcast, News Corp,. Viacom, Disney, Time Warner (NOT the cable company) and CBS are our pimps. According to a report by Nielsen (hardly a reliable source, but seemingly the only one we have) we spend about five hours a day watching television. Not your laptop, desktop or tablet, the good old-fashioned talking … Continue reading Media Pimps & Media Whores
Ok, so I am a little late on this one. And maybe I take my comedy too seriously (ironic, huh). You see, I avoid Saturday Night Live. I don’t find it funny and personally think it has become an exercise in unfunny. I think people only watch it in the hope that it will be funny and … Continue reading Chris Rock Is Firing On All Cylinders
This past Saturday, October 25 I participated in Rising Sun Theaters 24-hour Mash Up. It works like this: A theme is chosen, in this case “Children are Terrifying“. Then at 6pm on Friday, October 24, all the Playwrights, Directors and Actors gather to meet and choose a prompt, director and cast. The Playwright picks the … Continue reading Where the Dead Things Are – October 25, 2014
It’s no secret life is complicated, but fundamentally, it can be boiled down to two things. Fear and love. You can choose to live a life of fear or you can choose to live a life of love. I know what you are thinking, “Aren’t you really oversimplifying it?” Maybe. Maybe not. I’ve spent the … Continue reading Fear and Love
Before I had Rufus the Pitbull (mix), I had Duke the Rottwieler (pure). They’re both dogs from notoriously aggressive breeds. Rufus and Duke, not so aggro. Rufus is hyper and anxious. Duke was chill and peaceful. Extremely intelligent dogs prone to grave acts of stupidity. Rufus is mostly on edge, but sweet. Duke was never … Continue reading Duke Rests in Peace
This Friday thru Saturday (10.24-10.25) I am participating in the Rising Sun Theater Company’s Theater Mash Up. So what is a “Theater Mash Up”? Well, up until Monday it was called a 24 Hour Play Festival…until Rising Sun learned someone held a copyright on the phrase “24 Hour Play Festival”. Basically it is this…playwrights, directors … Continue reading Theater Mash Up This Weekend
Yea, that’s right, that Zucker doesn’t need anything from us to convince himself and the corporate war lords, past and present, that he is the go to television executive. I just finished reading this profile by Gabriel Sherman on the Zuckster, the guy with the brown fingered touch, from the 10.5 New York Magazine. It’s a … Continue reading Jeff Zucker doesn’t need you.
