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Readers of this blog know that I’ve recently settled into an apartment in Seattle after a great deal of searching. I’m pretty happy with my new place in Belltown and anticipated that it would have a pretty solid view of the fireworks, but I had no idea how good. Below you’ll find a video I shot and some photos I took of the show using my Canon 5D Mark II. These were all shot from my apartment out of my window.
A solid show, but it can’t beat the crazy stuff we do back in Boston…
A powerful Reddit thread featuring the reflections of older people, many of them gay men, who were alive at the time and experienced the AIDS epidemic first-hand. Here’s the top-voted comment:
I was just coming out at the time that AIDS came into public awareness ( I was 25 at the time). I had moved to Denver to kind of find myself and figure things out…to get away from my hometown. Not knowing anyone in Denver, I of course started making friends. Unfortunately, what happened was that a few months after I’d make a friend, they’d pass away from complications of AIDS. I attended just over 20 funerals the first year I was there. It was a scary time. Not only the fear of AIDS, but I started getting to where I was afraid to try to make any friends knowing that the chance of them dying from AIDS was extremely high.
There was also the fear of not knowing the specifics of how the disease was transmitted. It was strongly believed at the time it was sexual, but there was no information on other methods of transmitting it…casual contact? kissing? sharing eating utensils? No one knew, and everyone in the gay community was afraid. Over time, AIDS wiped out an entire generation of gay men. This has had an effect on the more recent generations since people that would normally have been mentors, big brother figures, teachers, etc. were gone, so the younger generation lost out on the wisdom and experience of the previous one. The worst thing was when my first gay friend (and my best friend), came to me two years after I moved back home, that he had AIDS. He told me how scared he was, and that he didn’t want to die. He was one of the first group that was put on AZT as the one and only treatment at the time. He died 8 months later.
EDIT: Ok…so this is my very first posting on reddit. I’m OVERWHELMED by the responses. I had no idea it would take off like this! This has also brought me to tears many times…I have pushed all of this deep in the back of my mind for over two decades. Thank you everyone for your posts. It has really been healing for me to finally face the tragedy of the past, and at the same time, brought back a lot of very fond memories of the friends I’ve lost.
John Landgraf is the president of FX, a TV network that rose from the rubble to become one of the most exciting ones in existence. I found his recent interview with Kim Masters on KCRW’s The Business to be hugely insightful and fascinating. In particular, Landgraf reflects on his decision to pass on Breaking Bad, a decision that he doesn’t necessarily regret, but one that he certainly would have done differently today. Check out the whole thing below (the interview begins 6 minutes in):
One of my favorite bits occurs when Landgraf discusses the uselessness of focus groups:
People don’t always know what they want. That’s the problem with research and the problem with focus groups. I mean, what group of people could tell you “What we really want is Avatar,” or “what we really want is South Park” or “What we really want is The Simpsons“? Those things didn’t exist in anything like that form before they existed, and people love them. So, creative people’s jobs is to imagine the existence of things that don’t exist, and people can’t always tell you what they want and they’re often confused by really innovative work. Until they’re not.
Rachel Maddow tackled the historic news yesterday with a grace and eloquence usually only seen in Democratic politicians in Aaron Sorkin television shows (and I’m saying that as a compliment). A great opening monologue that’s both informative and uplifting:
A few months ago, I signed up for The Listserve, a service where you agree to receive a daily e-mail from a random stranger in exchange for the possibility to write your own e-mail at some point. Right now, the list of people signed up is at about 20,000, but it’s growing each day.
While some of the e-mails are a colossal waste of time, many of them are poignant and insightful. In fact, I found today’s to be simple, yet unexpectedly profound. Here it is, from Jazmin in Guelph, Ontario.
***
I thought long and hard, perhaps just long, about what to write. And of course I procrastinated to the point where I almost wondered if I’d missed my window to write to the list. You sign up, and you know intellectually that someday you’ll have to write to everyone, but you figure it will be ages away. You’ll have time to think of something.
And then it appears in your inbox asking to speak to hundreds of people. Some of whom will read and smile. And some of whom will think you’re a blithering idiot. And some will think you have something interesting to say. And some will delete it without reading. And some won’t understand.
And it’s okay.
It’s okay not to be read. It’s okay not to have everything work out as you planned. It’s okay not to be liked by everyone.
It’s okay. It’s okay to be ordinary and not one of the ones winning awards and being on the news and doing Great Things ™.
I’m only about a week away from turning 40 years old. An age that sits solidly in what most consider middle age. Ancient to the 20 somethings and younger, in the prime of life to those already there and past. I’m not concerned with getting older. I enjoy the experience, the knowledge, the gift of being able to say that I’m closer to a half century of existence than not.
But I haven’t done anything spectacular. I haven’t devoted my life to curing childhood cancer. I’m not a famous politician or entertainer. I’m not a stunning businessman or scientist. I’m just fairly ordinary.
And that’s okay.
I have a calm life, one that is creative and interesting. One that doesn’t make for a good answer to that question of ‘what’s new?’ or ‘what do you do?’ at parties, but one that leaves me generally content.
And that’s okay.
So dream big, Do All The Things, but it’s /okay/ if that Big Dream is something little and not earth shattering. There’s nothing wrong with content.
Take good care of yourself, and remember that Life is Good.
I’ve always wondered why Youtube stops counting views publicly when videos hit around 301 views. Presumably it’s for some sort of verification process, but how does that work? And why 301? Numberphile has the answer after speaking with Youtube’s analytics team, and it’s fascinating:
I’ve written about Bobby Miller’s film Tub before, but the short film randomly went viral on Reddit the other day. With his newfound fame, Miller took to Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything” section to answer some questions. Miller’s always a fun guy, but I particularly liked his answer to one Redditor asking, “Would you recommend going into film?”:
This is a legit question and a hard one… I think if you choose any kind of art as a career, it’s going to be tough. I’ve struggled with money before TUB and after TUB. The last few years I’ve done a lot of digital content for companies like MTV, Next New Networks, and the Collective. And that’s what’s put a roof over my head. When it comes to jobs, you really just have to work your ass off on your first one and make an impression. Because every single job I’ve had past that first one has come from the first one! No one looks at resumes, they look at your work. And if it’s strong (or you bribe them money), they’ll hire you. Would I recommend going into film? I’d only go into it if there’s literally nothing else you can do with your life. If you go to bed dreaming of making movies and waking up with those same dreams, then unfortunately you’re screwed and you should join the filmmaking community!
How can Apple manage to pay its retail employees about the same amount as those of other, much less profitable companies? Because they believe in the cause:
The phrase that trainees hear time and again, which echoes once they arrive at the stores, is “enriching people’s lives.” The idea is to instill in employees the notion that they are doing something far grander than just selling or fixing products. If there is a secret to Apple’s sauce, this is it: the company ennobles employees. It understands that a lot of people will forgo money if they have a sense of higher purpose. That empowerment is important because aspiring sales employees would clearly be better off working at one of the country’s other big sellers of Apple products, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, if they were searching for a hefty paycheck. Both offer sales commissions.