age/tech/ed thoughts
lots of TVs, all of them with the same stuff on...
I just listened/watched
to a few TED talk (I really dug the
JJ Abrams one), which is a
really nice thing to do while eating a turkey
sandwich. It's interesting; I often scoff when I
hear people talk about the Internet changing,
forever, the whole television thing, but I do find
myself using the web to find good stories once in
awhile. However, I am at work in a cube, not in my
living room and I am not, in anyway, in a relaxed
state of mind. I needed to back up and re-watch
the Abrams presentation quite a few times,
especially when he was referencing something
visual). Different screens for different times, I
guess. (Related, check out David Lynch ranting on
people watching movies on the iPhone.)
Watching the videos from TED made me remember the
tech lunches we would have at Razorfish, where we
would get so-called movers and shakers to come over
and discuss their ideas on technology and the
directions it was going. We do that here, but I
really miss the broad range of people we would get.
Sure, we would get some Linux zealot to tell us the
wonders of open source, but I was far more interested
in the classical pianist who found inspiration in
Flash. Inspiration comes from all over, from all
people, from all times of day, I suppose. I was
thinking about the whole idea of a technically savvy
person growing older: will I continue to care enough
about all this or will I need some 12 year old around
to help me program some household media device so I
can watch the construction of the moonbase from a
camera on some astronaut construction worker's visor?
Who knows.
Things I am thinking about:
1 - figuring out a way to actively help kids in
school; how can I do this?
2 - what am I "missing" in my thought processes that
is frustrating my ability to figure out what's "next"
for technology? entertainment?
3 - why am I not using my camera?
Actually, I think i am going to start keeping the
video camera around, like, in my car, so I can use it
on the fly.
Oh, here's what I was thinking about while I was
driving:
It seems like everything that has been pretty stable
for the past 30 years is facing a pretty dramatic
shakeup. Let's see:
- You have the whole national car industry, which was
pretty much the Big Deal for the past few decades,
totally getting their asses handed to them by Toyota
and other companies because of a stunning inability
to innovate and make products that people actually
want. So everyone's freaking out there.
- You have the whole damn oil situation really
freaking out big time because all of a sudden oil is
so expensive that it's making everything expensive
and really forcing people to think beyond oil, which
is great, but it's probably going to be pretty
painful because we are living right at the beginning
of this massive-scale transition. Exciting times for
people who see a future in change, scary times for
people who have been through enough change, thank you
very much and just want to retire and get some sleep
- There's the whole entertainment industry thing,
which is having this wonderful midnight affair with
the Writer's Guild Strike, which is really
freaking out people in LA, because the already
hemorrhaging TV market is bailing now that their Tivo
boxes are empty. So, you see the networks makings
shows that you just know no one is going to want to
watch or they recycle previously made stuff....
Everything is changing, right now. And everyone who
cares is trying to figure out how to adapt to these
changes. What's crazy is that these are
fundamental changes, both industry-wide and
worldwide, in many respects. The trick is finding
ways to help people manage and enjoy these changes
and transitions.
ugh, I wrote this a week ago and totally lost my
train of thought. I am going to start a new one now.
tree hugging plasma watching consumobots
Big ass TV! run for your lives!
(Deeeeeep breath.) I
randomly went to CES on Tuesday, which was pretty
cool, if only because I have always wanted to go to
the show just to check it out. I have some pictures
here, but they are not all that
good, you can see lots of stuff if you dig around
the web a bit. But it was cool, I mean, it's
always fun to do something you have always wanted
to do, right? But still--if you can afford a
TV that is 7' tall, you are
probably going to have a separate room with a
projector, right? But I guess perhaps this could
be used in public spaces...
It's gonna be a crazy month, more crazy than usual. I
have an actual pilot audition for an actual series
regular on Monday, which is notable because: a) I
haven't had one in awhile and b) there are not all
that many pilots getting shot because of the Writer's
Strike. So, if your brain needs some thoughts at
2:40pm on Monday, just say to your brainverse, "Hey
Mike, break a leg, that would be fun if you had a
good audition because if you get it you can take me
out to dinner and we can make jokes." I am really
excited because I am actively leveraging some of the
stuff I gleaned from a repeat viewing of Special Thanks to Roy
London which lives on my ipod and offers
some great items to think about before an
audition. I really, really love the character and
the script, so I need to just enjoy the process
and be grateful to have a chance without
projecting too much into the future.
(Very much enjoying the just-purchased Juno soundtrack, by the way.)
What I am trying to with the audition, by the way, is
to use the moment of actually being in the office
auditioning for the part as the emotional
foundation/intent of the actual scene. Like, when I
talk about loving my job, I am just going to be
basically talking about how I love to audition, how I
love the chance to act. It's the same intention,
right, and I am not doing any substitution or
anything like that. If I am nervous, I will just be
nervous, and that's that. why fight it? Acting is
reacting, sure, and acting is exposing, yes and above
all, acting is about letting go and just living. I am
fighting the normal impulse to imagine the moment and
to provide an idea of how I want things to go--why
add that kind of pressure? Why worry about it,
really? The moment will come, it will happen, and
then it will pass. That's all I want to have as far
as expectations go...it's hard but I gotta try,
otherwise, I'm just gonna fall into the same traps
that I used to fall in. No more!
On a somewhat related note, Whit's surgery is a week
from now, which is also quite a big deal and
something that I am trying to prepare myself for
without getting too crazy about it. She's probably
going to be in the hospital for 2 nights and I assume
it will all be quite intense. Rocco asked if I was
ready and I was like, "I guess, I have no idea"--I
really don't know what is going to happen, so it's
actually irrelevant if I am ready or not--it's gonna
happen and I will do everything I can to make it easy
as possible for her. Doesn't matter, right? Accept
the moment and deal.
But in-between those two events, I will be in San
Francisco for MacWorld to check out the new
announcements, see what my competitors are doing, say
hey to friends, talk to a few press folks...should be
a good time. It's being cut short due to Whit's
surgery, but that's okay. I'm usually done with
MacWorld after a day on the floor anyway.
Tech rants/hopes/predictions:
1 - Warner's Blu-Ray announcement sucks; I bought my
HD-DVD player (it's a better system, IMHO for a
variety of very consumer-friendly reasons) and now
I'm stuck waiting for the Blu-Ray folks to come out
with a reasonably priced, fully-functional player
that's not the PS3 (I have a tendency to get
burned by Sony products). None of this matters, of
course, given the Internet distribution model that is
rapidly becoming a fine alternative to buying
discs...
2 - I have no idea what's happening at MacWorld, but
I would guess that the an updated AppleTV will come
out. If it can play Blu-Ray discs, that would be
awesome, I admit. I bet they will introduce that
sub-compact flash ram MacBookPro, and I can see them
releasing the 16GB iPhone. I assume we'll have to sit
through the Office 2008 stuff during the keynote,
too.
Okay, let's post this thing.
a pic of a postcard that I made for one of our shows
way back when in New York.
We actually did a whole photoshoot down in the in the
subway, late at night.
I was on my hands and knees with a dog collar on...