I recently listened to an episode of The Moment with Brian Koppelman in which Koppelman reflects on his late father’s influence and the lessons learned from watching his father operate in the music business. One of these lessons is how to speak truth to power, a privilege that stems from a similar place as professionalContinue reading “speaking truth to power”
Author Archives: joshua chamberlain
play time
One of my favorite reads from last year was Get Jiro, a graphic novel written by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose and featuring art by Landon Foss. The graphic novel depicts a wild world in which chefs dominate the social fabric like crime lords. There’s a joyful savagery to the story, which opens with aContinue reading “play time”
ask for what you want
Every time I decide to write about my “Rules to Live By,” this is where I get stuck. It’s a simple enough piece of advice, and yet I’ve struggled with it throughout much of my life. The first time I heard this nugget of wisdom articulated this way, I’d just begun working as an apprenticeContinue reading “ask for what you want”
things I did this year
New Year’s Eve always puts me in a reflective mood. I’ve always felt this is a day for looking back to remember the previous year while preparing for the next trip around the sun. A few years back, I started compiling a list of things I’d done in the previous year. This has become aContinue reading “things I did this year”
the doorway
In anticipation of my annual Christmas card, I’ve been tinkering around with songwriting recently. I’ll be honest, it’s miserable and I hate it. The difficultly lies in embracing that fact that I’m not very good at it. As with anything else, you have to allow yourself to be bad at something before you can beContinue reading “the doorway”
recent musings
It’s been a busy couple of weeks. A few highlights:
a recipe for chocolate chip cookies
I was talking to a fellow filmmaker recently who gave me a brilliant metaphor. For years I’ve said that any time I learn a new skill, it becomes another tool in my toolbox. An apt metaphor perhaps, but this filmmaker spoke about the skills she’d developed as ingredients in a recipe. “Imagine making chocolate chipContinue reading “a recipe for chocolate chip cookies”
take care of the work
My dad recently loaned me his copy of The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham, Ron Shelton’s firsthand account of writing and directing one of the greatest sports films ever made. In a beautiful moment of synchronicity, I was listening to the Team Deakins podcast recently, a series of conversations between legendary cinematographerContinue reading “take care of the work”
no hard drugs, no superheroes
A friend of mine recently pointed to a word of advice Leonardo DiCaprio once gave Timothy Chalamet: “No hard drugs and no superhero movies.” As far as advice relating to self-control, both with regard to the pursuit of pleasure and every artist’s relentless quest for validation, this is solid gold.
opening the cabinet
I recently received a notice that I’ve been running my Tumblr page, “The Beginning of Your Meaning, Friend,” for ten years. The original idea was for my Tumblr to function as an “artist’s playground,” a space to accumulate the raw materials that would inform my writing and artwork. Even the title of the blog, stolenContinue reading “opening the cabinet”
joshua chamberlain 