It’s The Community, Stupid!
 The old broadcasting model does not really cut it anymore In two weeks we’re starting our 2008 round of Travel Channel Academy sessions. We’re going to train and empower more than 1,ooo people with cameras and laptops and...
Read moreHOW MORGAN FREEMAN MADE BARAK OBAMA POSSIBLE
A few years ago, I read a fascinating book by Neil Gabler entitled “An Empire of Their Own, How The Jews Invented Hollywood” The Hollywood Studios were founded by 7 Jews, all of whom ironically came from a 50...
Read moreTHE CUL-DE-SAC OF CULTURE
Although we like to credit Gutenberg with the printing press, the concept of movable type actually originated here, in China. During the Ch’ing-li period (1041-1048), an alchemist named Pi Sheng conceived of the notion of movable carved blocks for...
Read more"WHAT’S YOUR TRIP?" IS BUYING
on our mac-inspired set As the new year starts, we are kicking off another round of “What’s Your Trip?” with Andrew Zimmern for The Travel Channel. The show is a platform for independent VJs and would be Travel Journalists,...
Read moreNOTHING HAS CHANGED
Despite the tall glass towers and Armani Casa shops that line the main streets of Shanghai, there is a great deal of Communist China that has remained untouched. The first thing that remains untouched, apparently, is the censorship. While...
Read moreNow THAT’S Service
We arrived in England a few days ago and are staying with family in a small village about 120 miles north of London. A day after we arrived, the boiler gave out. No heat. No hot water. We called...
Read moreThe Impact of Commonality
You push the button, we do the rest In this week’s New Yorker, John Updike reviews The Art of the American Snapshot, published by The National Gallery of Art and Princeton University. Its a fascinating book about how snapshots...
Read moreScripting Without Paper – 3rd in a series
“Writing” a script for a video or television piece is inherently destructive to the quality of the storytelling. I know this may sound heretical, but it is true. We are working in a medium of picture and sound. We...
Read moreMore On Fluffy
More notes on scriptwriting OK. So you’ve spent the day at the Dog and Cat Hospital, and while you were there, you were witness to (and filmed) the amazing rescue of Fluffy the puppy hit by the car and...
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