The Film Forum in NY is doing a retrospective of Otto Preminger‘s work and I have to say that it’s a dubious enterprise. Watching The Man with the Golden Arm once again confirmed to me that his reputation of the maverick and auteur, rests very heavily on a series of poses and presumptions that his films made as being outre, modernist pieces of film art. The reality, for me, is that Preminger, with very few exceptions (like Laura), was firmly of the second rank of directors aping everyone from his fellow Germans, like Von Stroheim to William Wyler to Orson Welles.  (more…)

Bullied? Harassed? Pressured? Sexually intimidated?

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness month. On Monday, I was at a news conference called by R.E.S.P.E.C.T.², and hosted by St. Alberts Schools in Council Bluffs. R.E.S.P.E.C.T.² is a charity that uses educational theater to helps kids challenged by the issues of bullying, peer pressure and harassment. (more…)

From the first time I was reprimanded for drawing Bart Simpson or a favorite logo during class, I have always said, “Yes, I am paying attention!”

You see, for me, doodling has always been my way of paying attention. It’s like this: If I had to sit through a lecture delivered by Ben Stein’s vocal protégé on the topic of igneous rocks and how they differ from metamorphic rocks – without some outlet to keep me sane – I’d still be in the 5th grade. It’s that simple.

Mindlessly doodling doesn’t mean I’m not listening, mind you. I stand by what I said earlier…I am paying attention, Helen! But instead of mentally fighting the painful drone with thoughts of being anywhere but in the present, doodling allows my brain to relax just enough to let the information flow in through my ears and settle into my brain cells.

Sketching has always kept me in the moment. Surely I’m not the only person on the planet who has developed the fine art of passive listening while doodling. So, why is it that some people think just because you’re not staring directly into their eyes, you must be a troublemaker who doesn’t pay attention to anything? On behalf of all doodling passive listeners, I’m here to say we are not all troublemakers. (more…)

The Generational Imperative by Chuck Underwood

After recently re-reading Aldous Huxley’s classic novel, Brave New World, it was timely to read the Questions for Jonah Lehrer interview in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, as he has just written How We Decide, a book on how we make decisions. I got to thinking about our understanding of the human brain and the use of that knowledge in marketing. In another post, I’ll chat about behavioral economics, but in this post, as it is the end of the year and there is the surfeit of “Books of 2008″ lists, allow me to note just a few books related to this topic that I think would be inspiring and to ask you to provide your own suggestions. (more…)

karim rashid kite chair

karim rashid kone cleaner

Karim Rashid was in Omaha last week and offered an insightful and entertaining chat with the audience, somewhat along the lines of a loosely structured monologue of thought. Despite some apparently contradictory comments, Rashid spoke of the democratization of design, centered on the recognition that all of human existence involves interaction with design. Rashid suggested that the more design focused on the function and aesthetic of the design, combined with an open-minded creative decision making process, the more democratic design was, because it then served the needs inherent in everyone’s experience of human existence.

In a fun expression of this ethos, Karim Rashid referred to “divertente,” which he applied to design that makes you feel alive and present. My only regret is that the Karim Rashid design that I would really like, the Kite chair, is (undemocratically) beyond my budget, although I can afford and have at home his Kone vacuum cleaner!