Films
Notes from Triumph of the Nerds
March 06, 2008
I’m always interested in documents from past technological revolutions since they echo so strongly in the current ones. Triumph of the Nerds is a great example of this, a film that shows how characters change (except for Steve Jobs) but...Continue reading...
More good Chuck Jones
January 20, 2008
From the Charlie Rose interview with the great cartoonist: We soon discovered that with humor, the more a person is playing a bit crazy, the funnier it is…The more you narrow a character down, the better it gets; the more...Continue reading...
Notes from Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog
January 11, 2008
Interesting film about the jazz legend (Netflix) Mingus’s personality ran like the color spectrum, from hot to cold. From beautiful to, well, you take it from there - John Handy, 6:00 Charles was just testing people, to see how far...Continue reading...
Notes from Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser
Film mostly made of recovered footage, called “the Dead Sea Scrolls of jazz”. (Netflix) In the bebop period…the musicians weren’t obviously trying to please an audience, but they were playing their music their way. It was a real independent expression....Continue reading...
Notes from What Happened to Kerouac?
December 21, 2007
About once a year I read my dog-eared copy of On the Road, and for a few days dream of road trips, ’50s cars, poetry readings and camping. The lifestyle expressed in Kerouac’s books is so unique yet so consistent,...Continue reading...
Notes from The Mystery of Picasso
December 19, 2007
This remarkable film shows the process of Picasso creating 20 different paintings, using a camera mounted behind the translucent canvas. You see his process of trying things out and discarding them, prototyping the work directly on the canvas. I’ve never...Continue reading...
Notes from Comedian
December 04, 2007
This movie is about Jerry Seinfeld starting over. He threw away all his bits and went back to begging clubs for a short set, floundering on stage, trying to figure out how it all works. This is how comedians develop...Continue reading...
Notes from Chuck Jones - Extremes and Inbetweens
November 20, 2007
A fun portrait (Netflix ) of the famed Warner Bros. director Chuck Jones, creator of Road Runner & Coyote, Pepe le Peu, and more. “Smear drawings” - using “smeared” frames to transition from one view to another view; a form...Continue reading...
Notes from The Making of The Incredibles
October 15, 2007
I love “making of” documentaries about great filmmakers. Every time I watch one of these, I’m blown away by how much work it is to make a movie—it’s all the business of making products, plus all the creativity of making...Continue reading...
Notes from Sketches of Frank Gehry
September 08, 2007
Notes from Sketches of Frank Gehry: His first house in LA became his experimental playground, and eventually changed the course of his career. I loved the idea of leaving the house intact and not messing with it. I came up...Continue reading...
Notes from The World According to Sesame Street
August 29, 2007
The World According to Sesame Street is an interesting movie about creating localized Sesame Street versions in other countries. It also serves as an inspirational story about the power of communication to change and start positive memes, and thereby improve...Continue reading...
Notes from War Photographer
June 22, 2007
War Photographer (Netflix, Amazon) is the story of James Nachtwey, a photographer of wars, famine, and poverty for over 20 years who recently received the 2007 TED Prize (acceptance speech). Despite his life in extreme situations and places, Nachtwey reminds...Continue reading...