Category: life
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show your work
I’ve always been a believe in Austin Kleon’s idea that you should show your work. Don’t just share the finished product, share the process of making it. Document every step. Invite people into the process. Have conversations. Therefore, that’s what I’m doing… I just started writing a screenplay for a…
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peripheral opponents
Every so often, I stumble into a show to live in, a story so powerful and immersive, it touches every corner of my life. Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty is the latest show I’ve let swallow my life whole. Let me begin by expressing tremendous gratitude for…
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reset
I’m notoriously bad at taking breaks. Over the years, I’ve developed the habit of swatting away my exhaustion. I push through. I persist, ignoring the cries of my body, my heart. I’ve been writing a lot. And I find myself tired. Wrung out. So I’m doing what I can to…
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how do you define “favorite?”
Every so often, I’ll stumble across a director’s list of favorite films. Some of these things are well-documented: Spielberg’s love of John Ford, Kubrick’s love of Fellini, and Tarantino’s love of just about every film ever made. Seeing such a list makes me pause to think about what films would…
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records worth returning to
I’ve been playing Death Cab For Cutie’s Asphalt Meadows on repeat since it came out last fall. The fact the band released an acoustic version of the entire record has helped reinforce some of the songs in my consciousness, but more than anything, I’ve been struck how this record feels…
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the music videos that made me
My last semester of college, I took a class on MTV. Sounds crazy, but it was one of the capstone credits for my major in American Studies, a discipline I always tell people was like majoring in sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. In all honesty, American Studies was more…
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“do your early stuff”
I’ve been writing stories since I was a little kid. It’s a popular myth in my family that at six-years-old, after seeing a behind-the-scenes special about James Cameron, I decided to make my own version of Titanic. I made storyboards, asked my dad to be the camera man, and shot…
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when I think about my death
I’ve always wanted to die on a morning in June. I’ll lay in a comfortable bed, facing a window. Outside, the sun will dapple leaves with shades of green and gold. And I’ll smile and say a prayer of gratitude for the life I got to live, the people I…
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juxtaposition
I don’t write here nearly as often as I used to. There for a while, I had a solid little streak going. But these days, I find myself lately in a creative rut. Despite hacking my way through a novel and putting finishing touches on a screenplay , I’m often…
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Ben Gibbard on taste and identity
In his recent appearance on the podcast, Broken Record, Ben Gibbard spoke with Justin Richmond about a variety of subjects: writing the Postal Service’s Give Up and Death Cab for Cutie’s Transatlanticism, the best iteration of a song not necessarily being the recorded version, and breaking down other people’s music…
joshua chamberlain 