“Working Girl”

I'm not sure what made Mary want to rent Working Girl but we watched it over a couple nights this week. After a very rocky and 80s-style start, the movie actually gets pretty good. I was impressed. You just have to get past the uneven beginning.

What can you make in 72 hours?

Five years ago I was very proud to create the 72-Hour Film Competition at the Grand. Then three years ago I got to actually compete in the festival with a few friends. Our movie (below) won Best Use of a Tacoma Landmark and Best Use of the "Action"–in this case, something had to be dropped or thrown. (The other qualifications for the movie were to have a hat and the line of dialog "what we have here is a failure to communicate.") Well, we'll be at it again this weekend making another 5 minute movie in 3 days. Next Friday, Read more…

I now understand derivatives (kinda)

I love Michael Lewis's books and articles. I wouldn't put The Big Short at the top of the list, but it's still pretty good. The reason it's not at the top is that it's incredibly complex, and yet it's still about the most coherent description I've found of what really went wrong with the subprime market (and hence, the rest of everything else). Outside of any individual, Lewis lays the blame for the crisis on two key factors: 1) the decision in the 1980s on Wall Street to take the investment banks public. With the shareholders essentially footing the bill, Read more…