About a little thing called 750 Words David Lynch picks five films for AFI Fest | 24 Frames | Los Angeles Times What do Ingmar Bergman's "Hour of the Wolf," Stanley Kubrick's "Lolita," Jacques Tati's "Mon Oncle," Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" and Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" have in common? They're the films chosen by filmmaker David Lynch for a special sidebar of AFI Fest 2010, which runs from Nov. 4 to 11. Lynch, director of "Blue Velvet, "Mulholland Drive" and "Inland Empire," is the festival's first-ever guest artistic director and himself an American Film Institute alumnus. In addition to the eclectic and unusual group of titles unveiled by Lynch on Monday, the sidebar also will include his debut feature, "Eraserhead," begun while he was at AFI and first released in 1976. "I love AFI. I owe them a lot, so much I can't tell you," Lynch said in a phone interview from his office in Los Angeles. Speaking about his selections, Lynch said, "When I was at AFI, they ran a lot of great pictures, and I got a chance to see some things that I probably wouldn't have been able to see. -- Mark Olsen
5 Ways Not to Write a Novel Writing a novel? There's first-draft flow, and there's editing flow. And then there comes a time when you think you might be done, yet the manuscript is still not quite "there." To sell your work to an agent, and then to a publisher, and finally to a great many readers, put thoughts of flow aside now, and consider the following advice. , such as "Danielle was a woman of medium height with brown hair and brown eyes." , such as: "He shaved, and then he wiped off the shaving cream," "She walked to the corner, and she looked both ways," or "We opened the door, and we found the mail on the porch." . such as the following: the difficult task, both share, blend together, on account of, considering the fact that, report back. [Better: Add some tension, impending tension, or trouble to every page. * Did you miss my post about the sometimes unpolished writing of Stephen King ? * Or the one about best writers' resolutions ? Copyright (c) Susan K.
4 Concepts for Simplistic Web Design :Speckyboy Design Magazine These are some powerful principles you might have never heard about. One of them is being used in the conversion rate optimization industry by world-class companies to skyrocket their conversion rates (getting more people to buy their products, register on sites and so on.) We’ll also explore why assumptions can be dangerous and how to learn more about your visitors with direct observation. Let’s get started. 1. This is a quote by Flint McGlaughlin, the founder of MarketingExperiments, a company which cooperates with some of the biggest brands worldwide (NYTimes, Routers etc.) in optimizing their landing pages (usually ‘subscription pages’ in the case of publishers like NYTimes). If you’ve ever been asked to design 2 separate versions of a webpage (for the purpose of A/B split testing), this “you are not optimizing pages, you are optimizing thought processes” concept can help you tremendously. a) Where am I? b) What can I do/get/buy here? c) Why should I do it? What is the lesson here? 2.
Archetype: The Fiction Writer's Guide to Psychology 'All Facts Considered' By NPR's Longtime Librarian hide captionWho Knew? For more than 20 years, research librarian Kee Malesky has answered questions for NPR reporters, editors and hosts. She has compiled some of her favorite bits of "inessential knowledge" — such as which building did Elvis leave last? Robert P. Who Knew? .. that at any given moment, there are 10 quintillion individual insects on Earth? Left to his own devices, NPR host Scott Simon admits he would regularly confuse Monet, Manet and Matisse; Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal; Socrates and Sophocles; Crete and Sicily; and Grover Cleveland and William Howard Taft. Thank goodness for librarian Kee Malesky — who, for 20 years, has been saving NPR's hosts and reporters from themselves. In her new book, All Facts Considered: The Essential Library of Inessential Knowledge, Malesky catalogs some of the facts that she has researched so dutifully over the years. Odd Queries From NPR Staff The first non-Native American to set foot in what is now Chicago? Read An Excerpt Built by Bondage
The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do. Writing is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your pages as daily workouts. Think of your laptop as a machine like the one at the gym where you open and close your inner thighs in front of everyone, exposing both your insecurities and your genitals. Because that is what writing is all about. Procrastination is an alluring siren taunting you to google the country where Balki from Perfect Strangers was from, and to arrange sticky notes on your dog in the shape of hilarious dog shorts. The blank white page. Mark Twain once said, “Show, don’t tell.” Finding a really good muse these days isn’t easy, so plan on going through quite a few before landing on a winner. There are two things more difficult than writing. It’s no secret that great writers are great readers, and that if you can’t read, your writing will often suffer.
New Library Technologies Dispense With Librarians 10 Creative Block Breakers That Actually Work Doesn't matter what you call it: writer's block or creative block or simply "Where is my inspiration when I need it?!" All creative individuals find their work coming less easily at some times than others. That's when you need strategies, and plenty of them. There are at least 90 such tips, tools, and techniques in , edited by Alex Cornell, with a foreword by Erik Spiekermann. is a fresh compilation of practical, real world solutions offered by a range of creative individuals, including graphic designers, artists, writers, and photographers. The insights in this perkily designed, light-hearted, and useful little volume are sometimes amusing, often unexpected. to find it more compelling. Place an ink-stained handprint on its blankness so you have something to fix. You can't criticize the results. Consider this: "I'm not running out of ideas, just trying to push myself into better ones." in your episodes of creative block. to conceive of your blocks. , not just one. Blocked?
Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2011 STAMFORD, Conn., October 19, 2010 View All Press Releases Analysts Examine Latest Industry Trends During Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, October 17-21, in Orlando Gartner, Inc. today highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2011. Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. A strategic technology may be an existing technology that has matured and/or become suitable for a wider range of uses. “Companies should factor these top 10 technologies in their strategic planning process by asking key questions and making deliberate decisions about them during the next two years,” said David Cearley, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “Sometimes the decision will be to do nothing with a particular technology,” said Carl Claunch, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. The top 10 strategic technologies for 2011 include: Cloud Computing.
The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations is a descriptive list which was created by Georges Polti to categorize every dramatic situation that might occur in a story or performance. To do this Polti analyzed classical Greek texts, plus classical and contemporaneous French works. He also analyzed a handful of non-French authors. In his introduction, Polti claims to be continuing the work of Carlo Gozzi, who also identified 36 situations. Publication history[edit] “Gozzi maintained that there can be but thirty-six tragic situations. This list was published in a book of the same name, which contains extended explanations and examples. The list is popularized as an aid for writers, but it is also used by dramatists, storytellers and many others. The 36 situations[edit] Each situation is stated, then followed by the necessary elements for each situation and a brief description. See also[edit] References[edit] External links[edit]
11 Social media books that are essential reading for anybody in the industry We spend so much of our time online reading short snippets of information about our industry that sometime we forget to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Reading books is a great way to get some extra insight in to your industry especially in to one as new as social media. I've selected 11 books below that I've read and although they cover different levels of the industry and come at it from different angles they are all well worth a read. If you are new to the industry or trying to find your feet then I'd order a selection of these and get your head buried in to them. There is so much waffle online when it comes to our industry that I really can't recommend enough that you get offline (Or even better get a Kindle and download them all immediately ) and start reading some of these books about social media. Re-Work by 37 Signals These guys are a small software company who make big profits and think very differently about business. Socialnomics What Would Google Do? Wikinomics
Create paintings from photos Did you ever wanted to be a great artist? But unfortunately you are really bad at it? Well that's ok because now with Psykopaint you can be a great artist with no skills. But how does it work?