Aug 12, 20205 Reasons Annie Hall is a Bad MovieThe Writers Guild of America put Annie Hall at the top of their list of 101 funniest screenplays ever written. The movie beat Star Wars for Best Picture at the Oscars in 1977. Excerpts of it are shown in film making classes around the world. …Movies6 min readMovies6 min read
Jul 1, 2020The Toxic Masculinity of the ‘Awkward Nice Guy’ Movie CharacterIn the very first episode of Breaking Bad (2008) we see that Walter White is a sad passive man. He doesn’t live the life he wants. Nobody respects him, despite his intelligence, and he never stands up for himself or even for others. Then everything changes. After his cancer diagnosis…Toxic Masculinity4 min readToxic Masculinity4 min read
Jun 22, 2020Please, Give Movie Characters Some PrivacyI’m pretty close to my brothers. We’ve shared the ups and downs of our lives, and got angry and danced and laughed. I know them so well I can tell you what their opinion would be on almost anything without having to ask. …Movies4 min readMovies4 min read
Jun 11, 2020Econarrative and the Global EcosystemFor over two thousand years we have been talking about the stories we tell in terms of cause and effect. We see the hero or the villain taking action and we ask ‘why?’, we look to the cause. …Movies5 min readMovies5 min read
Jun 5, 2020How Movie Casting can Fight Against DiscriminationLet’s start with a thought experiment. Imagine the 1977 classic Star Wars: A New Hope with a Black Han Solo, Luke Skywalker as an Asian woman, and Princess Leia as a man. Would the movie still be as good? The answer is a clear yes. The themes, the fun, the…Film5 min readFilm5 min read
Apr 5, 2020COVID-19 proves we value human lifeLet me begin with a story from history. You may have heard it before. In the second century AD, the Roman Empire was struck by a terrible disease. Known as the Antonine plague, it may have been smallpox or measles, and it brought the entire empire to a crashing, shattering…History3 min readHistory3 min read
Mar 31, 2020Telling Stories in a Strange TimeI’m making coffee. That deep smell of caramel and roast beans carves itself into my heart and memory. I love coffee, to sip and enjoy the taste of it, to sit and do nothing. A cup of joe, hot lava, caffeine, a wake me up shot. Coffee is part of…Storytelling2 min readStorytelling2 min read
Mar 28, 2020Autumn over an Empty BayThe fish come to the surface of the water and splash in a misting rain. It’s dangerous for them. The seagulls gather and cry out as they dive and snap at a catch, and yet, the fish do it anyway, bursting up for a taste of the cold air, risking…Writing2 min readWriting2 min read