Producing Writing

Master of Suspense Masterclass

Well, technically, it’s a 96-minute press conference moderated by film historian, author, and critic Richard Schickel. However, it really is a bit of a masterclass as Alfred Hitchcock, quite confident in what he does and doesn’t do, gives pronouncements about how he goes about things. Note that you may want to watch Family Plot, his last film, before watching this as that’s the reason for the press conference. You may also find that he’s rather…

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Various and Sundry

More About Work as Religion

Continuing this week’s series of video posts, I came across this video from The Atlantic that touches back to an earlier article I linked to about work becoming people’s faith. I’ve long been interested in work-life balance and finding joy or at least satisfaction in work, perhaps because, as mentioned in the video below, conventional wisdom is no longer satisfied with jobs or, to a certain extent, no longer even satisfied with careers. No, it…

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Writing

A Writer Autobiography, Carl Reiner Edition

I’ll probably share some other videos done by the Writer’s Guild as I watch them in the future, but here’s a treat for those of you who are fans of Your Show of Shows or The Dick Van Dyke Show and so on. Carl Reiner talks almost for almost an uninterrupted hour and it flies by as he gives you not only his history and development as a writer, but all sorts of wonderful tidbits…

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Various and Sundry

Hey, it’s a nice flag. One might even call it grand.

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…

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Various and Sundry

Summarizing Shakespeare: Lightning Edition

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.

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