Author: Chad
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Recent Views
More photography here and on my Instagram. Tiles and toes: Always the bright spot on rainy walks: The puddle jumper approaches: Sunset reflections: Sunday morning clips and coffee: The backyard bubbles are back: Some dramatic lighting at a local library:
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series Typewriters in films. A cool localized night sky calendar. A collection of eggnog cartons.
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Barbenheimer: screenwriting edition
Well, not exactly, but Christopher Nolan’s recent appearance on the Scriptnotes podcast was excellent and inspired me to check out Greta Gerwig’s 2020 appearance for Little Women too. Both have really thoughtful things to say about the craft of writing and how it relates to moviemaking. Here’s Gerwig on the ache of absence in Little…
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A yellow typewriter off to greener pastures
I’m winnowing down my typewriter collection a bit in a bid to maximize our minimal storage space and send my lesser used models off to greener typing pastures. One of those deaccessioned machines is this 1962 Kmart Brother 100, whom my wife affectionately nicknamed Leonard: This was one of the early acquisitions in my initial…
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Tags, I’m it
Along with moving my photo documentary project, I’ve been doing some more pruning and weeding and landscaping work ‘round this here digital garden of mine: It’s been very satisfying to make all these changes, if only for my pedantic urge for a clean and consistent website experience—for me and its visitors.
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A new home for ‘The Wedding Singer at NCC’
Back in early 2011 I produced a photo documentary of the student-directed stage musical production of The Wedding Singer at North Central College, where I’d graduated the year before. I set up shop on Tumblr and documented the behind-the-scenes process over the 10-week period. It was fun to watch the show come together from the…
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series Finalists for the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. Government comic books. Words that deserve wider use.
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Podcasts of the moment
It’s been over two years since my last podcast lineup check-in, and as usual some things have changed while some things remain. Changes: Many of the shows in my last update have either stopped publishing or lost my interest, and I’ve stepped away from the political ones. I’m also thrilled I was finally able to…
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Cut the intro
Robin Rendle preaching the truth: Here’s one way to improve the thing you’re writing: cut the intro. Writing about the symbiosis between trees and mushrooms? Don’t start talking about how humanity has depended on trees since the blah blah blah. Just jump right in! Talking about new features in your app? Don’t start with the…
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Write thank-you notes to your favorite authors
Literally: find a favorite (not dead) author’s website and use their contact form to send them a message with specifics about why you like them. I’ve done this several times. The nice thing is they’re usually very accessible and responsive, maybe because they tend not to get the same kind of public praise as actors,…
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series A cool collection of manuals. Hank Williams sings “Straight Outta Compton” with some help from AI. Regular holes vs. black holes. The museum of internet artifacts.
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No more encores
Just getting this on the record: concert encores are dumb and bad. They’re a terrible collective fiction that need to die. Audiences should stop cheering for them and artists should stop planning for them. Just play all the songs you want to play, then end the show and get gone.
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Recent Views
More photography here and on my Instagram. When you go into an elevator and look up to see this face of doom: The skyward view outside my workplace: Caught this partially melted ice cube on a countertop: Why save your Halloween costume for a few hours on one day when you can wear it all…
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Media of the moment
An ongoing series The Arcadian Wild. Heard about this folk/bluegrass trio recently and got immediately obsessed with “Big Sky, MT”. Scream. Somehow I’d never seen this, though I was familiar enough with it based on its cultural ubiquity. Kinda wish the conclusion was a little tighter so it could be a perfect 90 minutes, but…
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How you spend your days
Rachel Ringenberg on homeschooling and raising children: This brings me to wonder how I reflect on the person who in 2019 homeschooled a 2nd grader and a kindergartener, and had a three year old, and a baby. Was that easier? It was definitely not easier; but time was different to her. More expansive when it…
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17 years
Today marks the 17th anniversary of my very first blog post. Thanks to everyone who has read and shared my scribbles in that time. I’m very proud of the body of work I’ve made and hope you’ll continue following along. Wanna browse the archives? Check out my film and books pages, along with the various…
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Links of the moment
An ongoing series A fascinating (to me) longread of a guy investigating a pedestrian bridge. Demo of AI-assisted language translation, including mouth movements. Long live Martin Scorsese. Gorgeous high-res Lidar images of rivers and deltas.