Category: notes from the trenches

This is for everyone who’s ever had to sit through the screeners »

Y’all, I’m tired to the bone so I’m just going to be lazy and put up this here video from Funny or Die.
Related: once upon a time I helped start a film festival. Tomorrow evening I’m introducing a movie at another film festival, on behalf of my film festival. That should be fun and also [...]

A tip »

If you are the kind of person who normally drinks 4+ cups mugs of coffee per day, and then you cut back to 1 cup mug of coffee per day for health reasons, and then after a couple of months you decide to consume 2 GIANT OVERSIZED MUGS of coffee one afternoon when you’re sleepy, [...]

It’s a bird, it’s a plane »

One of these days I need to sit down and write something about superheroes in literature, because I keep running into this, entirely by accident.
First I got an assignment to interview the delightful Alan Bissett (The Incredible Adam Spark), and then I was asked to interview the charming Alison McGhee (Falling Boy), and now I [...]

Lingopinions, con’t. »

Piece, when used in reference to something someone wrote and published: “Did you see that New Yorker piece about the soaring cost of pastrami?” No. No you did not. You saw the New Yorker story about the soaring cost of pastrami. Or the New Yorker article about the soaring cost of pastrami. Or the New [...]

Cute enough? »

Dennis, my “boss” over at Indecision 2008, is on “vacation”* this week, so Matt has been pretending to be my boss. He’s been giving me lots of helpful feedback, like “Sure, whatever” and “Fuck that!” and “I don’t know, ask someone else” and “Fuck it, let’s just rickroll everyone for the rest of the week.” [...]

Just a thought »

If your national reputation allows you to attract and retain the best and brightest in the industry, and your clients benefit from industry best practices supported by outstanding client service, and your specialists are acknowledged industry leaders with distinct experience, your website should not be this ugly.

At last, i-bankers catch down to me »

True confession time: I have, over the years, written a fair amount about investment banking and the culture that prevails inside the hallowed (by which I mean “grimy”) halls of high finance. This does not mean I know which stocks you should buy. It does mean that I’ve spent many hours staring at salary numbers [...]