is two guys collaborating to write on writing and collaboration.
Fastball! for July 2009
Friday
Jul 31, 2009
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Can Do — Martin
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If you’re looking for creative inspiration, Maira Kalman delivers in spades.
Everything is invented.
Language. Childhood. Careers.
Relationships. Religion.
Philosophy. The Future.
They are not there for the plucking.
They don’t exist in some
natural state.
They must be invented by People.
And that, of course, is a great thing.
Don’t mope in your room.
Go invent something.
That is the American message.
Electricity. Flight. The Telephone.
Television. Computers. Walking on
the Moon. It never stops.The quote is great, but it’s her delivery that truly slays. Don’t miss it.
Maira Kalman, with her late husband Tibor Kalman, made a commitment to how design and art can be agents of change without regard for personal income (Tibor Kalman’s design retrospective book is titled “Perverse Optimist”). Their fearless dedication to craft, perfection (of a sort) and work are very inspirational to me personally.
Seeing that she has a new blog post up on the New York Times is better than a birthday or Christmas present. I read them slow, and then I read them again and again.
Friday
Jul 31, 2009
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Why Vampires Never Die — Martin
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Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan explain in the New York Times:
Vampires find their niche and mutate at an accelerated rate now — in the past one would see, for decades, the same variety of fiend, repeated in multiple storylines. Now, vampires simultaneously occur in all forms and tap into our every need: soap opera storylines, sexual liberation, noir detective fiction, etc. The myth seems to be twittering promiscuously to serve all avenues of life, from cereal boxes to romantic fiction. The fast pace of technology accelerates its viral dispersion in our culture.
Friday
Jul 24, 2009
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1,000 True Fans — Martin
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Kevin Kelly argued last year how individual artists can aim to make a living without having a blockbuster hit.
One solution is to find 1,000 True Fans. While some artists have discovered this path without calling it that, I think it is worth trying to formalize. The gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply:
A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author — in other words, anyone producing works of art — needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.
Friday
Jul 24, 2009
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Popcorn Fiction — Martin
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In my last post I talked about authors publishing online. I was thinking of self-publishing when I wrote that, but of course there is no shortage of journals or online spaces where good fiction is released. One is Derek Haas’ brand new Popcorn Fiction, with a gorgeous design that focuses on readability.
Their first story by screenwriter Scott Frank is called The Flying Kreissler’s. More sites like this, please!
Monday
Jul 20, 2009
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Charging for Access to News Sites — Martin
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John Gruber on newspaper’s plan to charge for access:
The potential revenue does not appear to be of the magnitude that will support the massive operations of existing news organizations. What works in today’s web landscape are lean and mean organizations with little or no management bureaucracy -- operations where nearly every employee is working on producing actual content....
Old-school news companies aren’t like that -- the editorial staff makes up only a fraction of the total head count at major newspaper and magazine companies. The question these companies should be asking is, “How do we keep reporting and publishing good content?” Instead, though, they’re asking “How do we keep making enough money to support our existing management and advertising divisions?” It’s dinosaurs and mammals.
Gruber is busy writing the book on new journalism right now. His one-man technology blog, Daring Fireball, has more influence than many of the mainstream tech writers. For good reason, too: he’s ethical, writes incredibly well, and offers reasoned perspective.
I would hazard a guess that he has better sources than nearly anybody else covering Apple today. And he did it completely outside of the mainstream journalism system.
Friday
Jul 17, 2009
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Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others — Martin
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This is all the buzz today, but Amazon has removed copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindle devices, because of a licensing issue.
Forget the irony of it being Orwell, forget that it’s Amazon, and what you have is the story being about rights of digital delivery. Who own the bits on your computer?
Certainly no print author could come and revoke a book after it’s on your shelf 1. In the internet age, are we learning that this has never happened simply because it is impractical?
Amazon was getting good marks all around on the Kindle (although many copy-lefters are suffering under the weight of their massive schadenfreude and mouthing “I told you so”). Their corporate face, however, needs some work on the customer service-side. Not all publicity is good publicity. Nobody wants to the invisible hand of DRM to reach into the device they bought and monkey with the goods they choose to purchase and keep there.
The title of Pogue’s piece references the Orwell quote from Animal Farm.
All animals are created equal but some animals are more equal than others.
- However, just in case this becomes practice becomes popular, I’d like to pre-order Salma Hayek’s autobiography, and encourage sloppy copy-editing so as to cause a recall. ↩
Friday
Jul 10, 2009
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Gay Talese: The Art of Nonfiction No. 2 — Martin
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Great interview with Gay Talese from The Paris Review, including his unique material for note taking:
INTERVIEWER
Do you use notebooks when you are reporting?TALESE
I don’t use notebooks. I use shirt boards.INTERVIEWER
You mean the cardboard from dry-cleaned shirts?TALESE
Exactly. I cut the shirt board into four parts and I cut the corners into round edges, so that they can fit in my pocket. I also use full shirt boards when I’m writing my outlines. I’ve been doing this since the fifties.INTERVIEWER
So all day long you’re writing your observations on shirt boards?TALESE
Yes, and at night I type out my notes. It is a kind of journal. But not only my notes—also my observations.Here’s a picture of one of his shirt boards from his notes for “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold.”
Talese is notoriously fashionable. Style.com recently ran a great video interview where he talks about his love of fashion.
(via Kottke)
Monday
Jul 06, 2009
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Tor.com serializing Doctorow's Makers — Martin
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Love Cory Doctorow or hate Cory Doctorow, he’s got Dickens, Dumas, and plenty of other authors backing him up on this one. The online serialization of the novel is such a great idea that I’d be surprised if it doesn’t become more common in the next few years.
