Blog

A couple of years ago, as a fresh-faced college sophomore proudly brandishing his self-engineered major of “narrative brand promotions,” I had a limpid vision of my impending career. It began with an internship at Walt Disney Imagineering and ended with my induction as a Disney Legend, with my handprints forever...

Let's start with this: I don't think there is anything special called “Immersive Entertainment”. This is the most blatant kind of industry self-aggrandizing jargon. With all appropriate respect to my friends who actually have celiac disease, “Immersive Entertainment” is the equivalent of the jar of Bubbie’s Kosher Dill Pickles in...

As I get older, I find I read more biographies. I guess when you have more road behind you than ahead of you, you get more interested in other folks perspectives on the hike. I am always amazed when I read about writers and storytellers I admire. From Shakespeare to...

A story can be born from a simple thing. Look around. Find an object near you. What draws your eyes? What has an intriguing texture? Pick it up. What story is attached to this object? Is it something that really happened? Does your object evoke a memory? Or, does it...

Working for a company like IDEAS, you can’t help but be constantly mindful of story’s role in human society. It is the hallmark of our species’ intellectual capacity, the ability to organize our sensory intakes into meaningful schemas of cause-and-effect. In last month’s blog on poetry, I referred to human...

So, storytellers as thieves … Seems like there are several ways to address this premise. First, of course all storytellers are thieves! Unless the artist/orator in question developed the story in question entirely by themselves while serving tour of solo duty inside BioSphere X, then any good storyteller will have...

Poetry is raw emotion, it’s what happens when you tear yourself apart and make something with the pieces. It can be clever, tragic, beautiful, grotesque, melancholy. It can be anything. I think a lot of poetry is made to be read aloud, sometimes sung. It’s full of such luscious, delicious...

Poetry is to language what a fine brandy is to grape juice. It is refined, distilled, and concentrated. It has strength and potency and at the same time it’s subtle. A poem invites deliberate contemplation and promises to tantalize, awaken, satisfy and warm and, at the same time, to provoke...

I love words. Their sounds, their shapes, the way they tango off the tongue and lips. I love the creative combination of these weird utterances and am amazed at their ability to move men to both greatness and ruin. I love their histories and often surprising heritages. Most of all,...

There once was a man from Nantucket… OK, so that’s the start of an infamous limerick. Not quite poetry per se, but there’s the rub. I have not really been exposed to poetry (the art form) enough to know what I’m talking about, let alone form a worthwhile opinion. My...

In contemplating Lessons From Live Performance, I had to think for a while about what I thought a “live performance” is. I’ve performed as a musician from marching bands to concert choirs to various incarnations of what we used to call “acoustic-country-rock-sci-fi”. I’ve also given talks and told stories ranging...

...think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber'd here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: if you pardon, we will mend: And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned...