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The Dinner Parting
I haven’t spoken much about this the last two years, but I am pleased to announce that The Dinner Parting, a movie I produced and co-wrote with my longtime collaborator J.W. Andrew, will make its debut at the Cinequest Film Festival. It will start virtually April 1st, and there will be an event in-person this…
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The Bustle Booth
Since it’s my birthday and I haven’t really said hi in quite some time, I figured I would answer the same questions The Bustle plans to inflict on celebrities for eternity. What’s your coffee order?No. What are the saved weather locations on your phone?East Lansing, various other Michigan cities I frequent, the cities I have…
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Films Are Allowed to Make You Think
Had a conversation last night about this video from Bill Maher that I saw via a tweet from Scott Adams on this year’s Best Picture nominations, which Adams calls, “feel-bad ‘entertainment’ that gives you brain damage.” I haven’t seen all of the films (yet), but I wonder if Adams or Maher have either, or why…
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You Can Be a Different Person After the Pandemic
From an essay by Olga Khazan: “…the person who emerges from quarantine doesn’t have to be the same old you. Scientists say that people can change their personalities well into adulthood. And what better time for transformation than now, when no one has seen you for a year, and might have forgotten what you were…
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If You Ever Wanted to Know What the Inside of My Head Looks Like.
Pretty sure the Kadokawa Culture Museum in Japan nailed it.
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“All we want to do is make people happy, make people smile.”
This year thousands of people turned their homes into floats for Mardi Gras, capturing so much of what makes New Orleans great: creativity, positivity and resilience.
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Werner Herzog on Skateboarding
“I’m not familiar with the scene of skateboarding. At the same time, I had the feeling, yes, that’s kind of my people… You have to accept trial and error…”
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Fuck January
You’re coming off the holidays. It’s cold outside. It’s snowing. Not suggesting be outright lazy for a month, but lean into the new year. You’re much more likely to set goals and keep them if you formulate a game plan. I keep a planner and in the back pages run monthly tasks that I use…
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Today Would Have Been Daniel Johnston’s 60th Birthday
He fought mental illness his entire life, and by my estimation was at best a serviceable guitarist, decent pianist and awful singer. One that wrote simple, often naive lyrics. But there is a reason even the most mainstream of alt-rock-kingpins (Cobain, Veddar and Cornell) loved him so dearly. In their simplicity, his songs were haunting…
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Suntory
Got home from work this evening, put Coltrane’s Love Supreme on the hi-fi and poured a glass of Suntory. To quote Monk, “Straight, No Chaser.” Pretty sure this is how I looked about a half hour ago when I was pouring my first drink: Thinking I need to step up my game a bit though,…
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Current Header: Thelonious Monk
In 1960, Dixieland soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy joined the jazz legend’s band for a tour with John Coltrane. Young, wide-eyed and starstruck, he absorbed all he could, eventually writing down Monk’s words of wisdom. Applicable in jazz, so too applicable in life: Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep…
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Michael Apted, Director and Seven Up Documentarian, Dies at 79
From his obituary in The Guardian: “The film-maker and documentarian was known for films such as Gorillas in the Mist and Coal Miner’s Daughter, as well as his long-running series of Up documentaries. His death has been confirmed by his agency to the Hollywood Reporter. No further details are yet known. Apted’s career started in…
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Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund
Oddly enough after writing about this, I am reminded a year ago today I watched the 2014 dark comedy with the same name: Pretty fucking funny. The Gods of Carnage turn a routine, man-made avalanche into something that at least looks scarier. Scary enough to knockout assumptions of security and a few gender stereotypes. Scary…
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Dezron Douglas and Brandee Younger – Force Majeure
Cutting a jazz record is usually done so either live or by “getting the band back together” in a little room and ripping it up. This album, named after the clause in contracts that allows events to be cancelled due to an “act of God,” speaks of that struggle. A compilation of weekly online performances…
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Pet Semetary
Was on the road a lot for work the last week, and found myself on country roads in thick fog while listening to Michael C. Hall read Pet Semetary on Audible. Now it is late on this rainy autumn evening, just on the heels of Halloween, and I find myself home alone, as is Louis…
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How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change
Wise words: But eventually, aspirations have to be translated into specific laws and institutional practices — and in a democracy, that only happens when we elect government officials who are responsive to our demands. Moreover, it’s important for us to understand which levels of government have the biggest impact on our criminal justice system and…