If you’re in to this sort of thing …
The famed diarist Samuel Pepys kept a meticulous diary for years and years. It has proven to be a huge historical resource for looking into the lives of Londoners in the 1600s. Pepys was also on hand to describe the Great Fire of London, which started September 5, 1666. One website has been posting a diary entry every day from Pepys. Today's is August 28, 1666, which means that next Saturday, the Great Fire begins!
Once Upon A Time In Mexico
Earlier this week I finished Robert Rodriguez's trilogy about El Mariachi with Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Like El Mariachi and Desperado, this movie worked … mostly. There is real joy in the filmmaking, and some really great scenes. But its over-the-top style doesn't carry it the whole way. Johnny Depp really stands out as a CIA agent with some wonderful lines ("Are you a Mexican or a Mexican't?") and a great character. Antonio Banderas does a good job carrying what Roger Ebert calls the "Eastwood" role. This was a fun movie, but it doesn't hold up to some Read more…
Flying into Antarctica
I have a real fascination with Antarctica. One of the items that shows up regularly in my reader is The Antarctic Sun, the newspaper that covers “the US Antarctic Program, the Ice, and the People.” And it tells me that people are arriving at McMurdo for the start of the Antarctic season. A photo gallery can be found here. Looks cold and deadly and uninviting. But I still want to go!
Up late working…
Spending some time tonight helping Mary with a design project we're working on, plus getting a bid out for a company in Minneapolis. Busy busy! … although we could still stand to be busier, so if you're looking for a web or print designer with a great portfolio, think of Mary Holste Design. 🙂 Shoot me an email at erikemery (at) gmail (dot) com if you're interested. Anyway. Co-owning a business with a spouse is actually pretty fun, but my suggestion to anyone considering it is to make sure your roles are well-defined. Between us, Mary is CEO, Creative Director, Read more…
Bill Clinton: The Survivor
The Survivor, by John Harris, has been one of the best of the presidential biographies I've read. I read recently that it was considered one of the most accurate books about what it felt like and what happened inside the Clinton White House by by some of his insiders. The book re-shaped many of my views of Clinton, with some wild swings in both directions. The Survivor is not like Woodward's "tick-tock" accounts (a phrase I learned in the book to describe the precisely chronological storytelling. Rather, it tackles topics by chapter, with the timeline roughly in place but with Read more…
Yay! I’m presenting at Pecha Kucha Tacoma Vol 002 about “Online Identity” in 2 weeks. Must get to work on my 20 slides …
Pecha Kucha Tacoma has its second event at the Robert Daniel Gallery on September 9. I've been invited to speak about "online identity" which goes with the overall "identity" theme of the night. The format is 20 slides, with 20 seconds per slide. So my presentation will be 6 minutes and 40 seconds long. Some of the other presenters are artists, architects, designers, and other cool people. I'm very excited for my 6 min and 40 seconds of fame.
“Much Ado” during WWII
I just finished our last show here in Ashland–Much Ado About Nothing. This might be the first Shakespeare I read, back as a freshman in high school. Seeing it was very fun, though I had a problem with their artistic choice to set the play in 1945 Italy. My problem was that it seemed lazy. Any choice to move the play has to take into account the culture it's moving to and whether it squares with the context of the plot. In this case, I'm not sure it did. Claudio cruelly shames his bride-to-be at the altar–does that square with Read more…
In historic Jacksonville, Oregon
Apparently this well-preserved mining town is where they filmed the movie of Jesse James’ robbery of the Northfield Bank. What was wrong with filming in Northfield? The town totally looks like it could be in the 1880s. (Having gone to college in Northfield, MN, I am perhaps a little biased.)