May 2012
7 posts
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Kickstarter From The Front Lines: The Video
“It’s all about the video. Make an awesome video.” This is probably the most common piece of advice you run into when researching effective Kickstarter campaigns. And it makes sense. The video is going to be the centerpiece of every Kickstarter, the first thing most people see, the thing people share and the primary metric by which your project and, more importantly, by which you yourself will...
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Kickstarter From The Front Lines: Preamble
I’m going to try to keep a journal of my experience with running a Kickstarter for a new feature film titled “Love Letter” which I have co-written and am producing. The hope is that if this thing is successful other artists, engineers and entrepreneurs might find something valuable they can take to their own crowdsourcing campaign. And if it is unsuccessful hopefully they (you?) can use this as an...
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One More Thing
I’m finally reading the Steve Jobs biography, after letting it sit on my desk since Christmas. And I’m really fascinated by it, and the story is masterfully told. But it does make me wonder. Is it possible to come to know a person more without coming to like him less?
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The Random Adventures of Brandon Generator
Edgar Wright is a hero. He’s a certified, ridiculous genius. His new project “The Random Adventures of Brandon Generator” may be the internet’s raison d’être (that’s right, bitches, I can be pretentious in multiple languages!). If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a neo noir motion comic web series…thing, about coffee and writers block and...
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Oh, Boy
Sometimes ambition means that your mailbox is quantum super positioned. Schrödinger’s career is in there. The next chapter of my life is both alive and dead inside a tiny, tin box until I open it and look. And mostly it’s bills and the new Rolling Stone. So I’ll open it again tomorrow. Bring on the awesome
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Last night, talking about Johnny Carson on American Masters, Joan Rivers said, “Everyone stabs everyone in the back in this business.” It’s not true, guys. That’s just something people who stab people in the back say.
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Robert Downey Jr. Can't Wear the Suit Forever
I don’t believe that there is an actor more viscerally connected to a character in modern cinema than Robert Downey Jr. to Tony Stark. Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman was fine but I can separate those two with ease. But RDJ is Tony. Tony is RDJ. They are one.
But he can’t wear the suit forever.
Whoever comes next is obviously going to be compared to Downey, and that person will...
April 2012
2 posts
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Awesome Day 2012
As longtime heroes know, today, the 24th of April, is my birthday. But that’s not important, what is important is that it is also, not by coincidence, Awesome Day. It is the one day each year that I ask you all to set aside just for awesomeness. The fact that this thing isn’t on mainstream calendars baffles me. If you’re new to the concept I’ll explain by way of...
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765 Words About “No Strings Attached” vs its...
I’ve been hearing for, I dunno, hours about how genius Elizabeth Meriwether’s OG script for “No Strings Attached” (née “Fuckbuddies”) is so I decided to finally get my hands on a copy. And you know what, yeah, it’s pretty damn dope. This wasn’t a surprise since Ms. Meriwehter’s show “New Girl” is one of the best things on the TV. It’s so nectar. And, because comparing and contrasting is fun,...
February 2012
2 posts
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What I Watched Last Week
I’m going to try to keep a short diary of the movies I watch each week, mostly so that I can look back over it in coming years, but also to help motivate me to watch more and better movies. So far I’m not off to a GREAT start, but I’m working on it. So…what i watched this week: Our Idiot Brother. This Means War. All Star Superman. The Woman In Black. Bronson. In a...
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January 2012
3 posts
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Late Night Rant:
I get asked for advice and help with writing a lot. Often these questions come with links to other advice with more questions. “Is this true?” “Is this how you do it?” “Should I just put my shit in a drawer because it can’t possibly be any good?”
When you search for general writing advice online, nine times out of ten the advice presumes you suck and...
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I Don't Believe in Judging A Person's Worth Based...
If there exists a more attractive human than Yvonne Strahovski I don’t think my brain could process the sight of them. They would just appear to my eyes like a spinning beach ball floating in the air.
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December 2011
4 posts
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I'm Going To Try To Make 2012 The Year of Getting...
Maybe I should explain. I have huge, egregious holes in my film knowledge. We all do. For me pretty much if it happened before 1980 and wasn’t made in the US or UK I probably haven’t seen it. I’ve been aware of and embarrassed by this for some time but the laziness that created the holes maintains them. But no more! I’m fixing this shit, dammit. But I need your...
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Advice
No joke. The words of advice that most commonly run through my mind run in Alec Baldwin’s voice. “Shoulders back, Lemon. You’re not welcoming people to Castle Frankenstein.” Thrice a day, give or take.
A fairly close second is the sound of my Dad’s voice saying, “Never call to an inside straight.”
I guess what I’m saying is I have shitty posture...
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Mutant Battle Turkeys!
Yesterday my three year old nephew Batman and I made some turkey-shaped treats. We were meant to make these things a little closer to Thanksgiving but we’re busy, man. There’s lots of pants pooping and needless destruction and cartoon watching to be done. And Batman has stuff to do, too. So yesterday we finally got to it. These delicious little bastards consist of rice krispies...
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Yuletide Studies
Christmas is a lot like college. It’s a little bit magic. A little bit unreal. A little too white, probably. A little expensive but sometimes money just shows up in the mail. And you drink more and eat more than you should if you were in the real world but you aren’t so no worries. And a dorm room and a bottle of Aristocrat vodka, that’s mistletoe gone wild. It comes just before the...
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WatchWatch My Beard Grow!
We’ve come to the end of No Shave November and I wanted to share my progress. Starting with a clean shave on Hallowe’en, thus the Eleventh Doctor costume, and running through today, Nov 30, 126 pictures in 22 seconds take you through the growth like magic or possibly biology.
If I’d planned ahead I’d have taken 207 pictures. Next time.
And, of...
November 2011
7 posts
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Some Quick Thoughts On The Occupy Movement From A...
And forgive me if this sort of thing has been said before. My parents’ generation grew up in the shadow of the bomb. It hung over them and terrified them and they protested. They did not trust the people at the triggers and they saw no need for a weapon system that could end everything and they had to do something. And so they protested. The bomb was an idea as much or more than...
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Cyber Monday Deals
Since, somehow, it’s Christmas time already I’ve dropped the price of my book, “Double Spaced Anachronistic Propaganda in Times New Roman” twenty-five percent. And, JUST FOR TODAY, Lulu is offering an additional thirty percent off of everything on their site. If my math is correct, and it almost never is, that’s fifty-five percent off the cover price for today only,...
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Remember, Remember The 16th of November
This is a blog post I wrote on this day in aught seven. Felt like reposting it today.
I Went To Church Today
Just so you all know.
I went to church today. It’s been a while.
I went to light a candle for my father. Today is his birthday and I needed to mark it somehow. It’s a simple gesture, a plea for one who must be kept, but it’s a ritual I’ve always found nice. Lovely, even.
My father...
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October 2011
5 posts
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An Education
I took a long drive today. I remembered an image of Wolverine on a Harley telling someone he needed to ride for a bit. He needed to “kick out the jams” and that sounded about right. I don’t have a Harely, I have an old Ford, but whatever “jams” are, I’m pretty sure I got some o’ those. I decided to revisit the places where I got my education growing up. On the several-hour journey I...
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Universal Monsters XXI Is Up Now
The new chapter of Universal Monsters is up now in text and audio formats. Space finally finishes his story this week. As always, if you’re new to the book, don’t be intimidated by the fact that we’re 21 chapters in now. That’s really only about 40 pages or so and you can always listen to the whole damn thing while you jog or whatever. Thanks for reading and that.
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WatchFinally reading Neil Gaiman’s book American God’s after meaning to for a decade or so. I’m about twenty percent in and all along it’s made me feel like I should really know at least one cool coin trick. It feels necessary to being a person actual and whole. So I learned one. And I thought I’d share it. Hope you enjoy it. I’m basically Geoff Blaine at this...
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September 2011
12 posts
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14 Actors Acting
From oliviabergman:
New York Times - 14 Actors Acting: A video gallery of classic screen types
So cool. Especially Javier Bardem.
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“I won’t presume to call writing “art,” but I will say this: if it’s science,...”
– From Dan Harmon.
I don’t usually like when people talk about writing. I went to college with people who did virtually nothing but talk about it and in talking about it they satisfied any need to actually do it. Which is fine. They were awfully bad at it when they did get around to...
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What I Can Do For My Country
I wrote the script for a short, silent film last night. And when I finished I thought of the people who told me my first movie was too wordy. And I thought, yeah, I still don’t care about you fuckers.
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WatchA PSA I did for the good people of Belgium. Because it’s super rainy and I get bored.
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August 2011
8 posts
14 tags
Universal Monsters Chapter XIX Is Now Available
New Universal Monsters today. Chapter 19 is now up in both text and audio formats. I’m still sorting out what the hell this story is, but I think it’s starting to lean toward a rambly, tangenty, messy thing and that’s just fine by me.
If you’re new to the Universal Monsters story, don’t be intimidated by the fact that we’re 19 chapters in, that’s really...
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An Actual Conversation With My Mother
Earlier today I helped my mother clean out her storage locker. This is an actual conversation, basically verbatim.
Me: With a little Tetris I don’t think we’ll have to throw out anything if you don’t want to.
Mom: Where’s the tetris?
Me:What?
Mom: The little tetris?
Me: What do you think Tetris is?
Mom: It’s something about doctors, right?
Me: What?
...
"Self-Parades" (repost)
Reblogged from dcpierson:
Everyone my age, we’re little self-parades
and like all parades, we’re insufferable to people just trying to go about their day and even children find us boring after about five minutes.
Probably my favorite thing I’ve read this year.
Premium Octane Rabbits
If I leave a gallon of gasoline in my tank it does NOT reproduce into two or three or four gallons. No matter how long I leave it. This has led me to believe that cars should run on bunnies. Internal comBunny engines. I’m going to be RICH!
