Movie Barcodes
A Movie Barcode of The Wizard of Oz. Notice the transition from the beginning of the film, which is sepia-toned, to the technicolor World of Oz. The use of color in cinema has been on my mind in recent days because of a site [...]
Ira Glass Talks about the Creative Process
Ira Glass from This American Life IRA GLASS ON STORYTELLING In the following clip, Ira Glass, the host of NPR's This American Life, gives some useful advice to writers, journalists, and broadcasters about the art of telling a good story. Remember the method you learned in [...]
News: Sinatra, The Strokes, Salman & More
A NEW SINATRA BIO: James Kaplan has just published a new biography on Frank Sinatra called Frank: The Voice. Geoffrey O'Brien has written a long review, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," in The New York Review of Books. Kaplan focuses on Sinatra's early days and tries to understand how this talented, [...]
Hedgehog in the Fog: A Short Animated Classic by Russia’s “Golden Snail”
If you’ve never seen Yuriy Norshteyn’s Hedgehog in the Fog, then you are in for a special treat. And if you have seen it, you owe it to yourself to revisit this classic, animated film. Hedgehog in the Fog is one of the most beautiful, evocative short films ever made. It [...]
Ten Rules for Writing Fiction
The Guardian’s two-part series “Ten Rules for Writing Fiction” has been a popular topic of discussion in the writing community in recent weeks. The idea was inspired by Elmore Leonard’s “10 Rules of Writing,” which originally appeared in The New York Times. The Guardian asked writers like Zadie Smith, [...]