Category: Entertainment Industry

👓 Open Your Mouth Very Wide | Peter Rukavina

Read Open Your Mouth Very Wide by Peter RukavinaPeter Rukavina (ruk.ca)

I read somewhere—perhaps it was “5 Tips to Instantly Up Your Instagram Game” or some such—that, when taking photos of people, you should ask them to open their mouths as wide as possible.

Interestingly, it works. It seems weird, both to them and to you, but the photos that result often have much more life in them than they would otherwise.

I received similar instructions many years ago from a CBC Radio producer: I was going into the studio to record a commentary, and she advised me to make my points so emphatically as to appear (to myself) to be raving. It was very hard to do this, and it made me very uncomfortable, but I had to agree that the result was better.

An interesting piece of photography advice… I like the caricature advice for audio as well. It was something that obviously worked for people like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly.

👓 Monthly report: February 2019 | Jeremy Cherfas

Replied to Monthly report: February 2019 (jeremycherfas.net)

February was a pretty good month. Or maybe it's just that I have a lot more reminders of how good it was.

Our Daily Bread

Fear of rejection utterly justified; the agent says publishers want something less bitty, "a biography of a commodity, like Kurlansky's Cod". In sales terms, I'll bet that's what they want. But it is not at all what I want to write. So, back to making self-publishing a reality, ASAP.

Jeremy, if this is the response an agent and publishers have given you and you’re even remotely considering the self-publishing route, please do let me volunteer to help you in the endeavor. I have a tremendous amount of experience in the publishing area and also have a lot of overhead (including a massive block of ISBNs) in place to help you out along the way.

It’s the least I could do since I feel like I may be at least partially responsible for starting you down the primrose path of Our Daily Bread… I also suspect that what you’d like to write is going to be far more interesting and nourishing a project.

👓 'Captain Marvel' Shows How Trolls Lost Their Edge | WIRED

Read 'Captain Marvel' Shows How Trolls Lost Their Edge (WIRED)
They've been trying to sabotage the movie's success from the beginning. Their failure proves they're played out.

🎧 The Daily: What Hollywood Keeps Getting Wrong About Race | New York Times

Listened to The Daily: What Hollywood Keeps Getting Wrong About Race from New York Times

Wesley Morris joins us to talk about “Green Book,” the latest Oscar winner to focus on a white character’s moral journey in an interracial friendship.

I love Wesley Morris’s analysis here. Racial reconciliation fantasy is a great name for a rampant problem we’ve got in America. While it’s nice to try to sweep the problem under the rug, we really need to bring it out front and center and have a more honest discussion about it.

This may be one of the best podcast episodes I’ve heard in two months. I highly recommend it.

👓 ‘I can get any novel I want in 30 seconds’: can book piracy be stopped? | The Guardian

Read 'I can get any novel I want in 30 seconds': can book piracy be stopped? by Katy Guest (the Guardian)
As publishers struggle with ‘whack-a-mole’ websites, experts, authors and Guardian readers who illegally download books, assess the damage

👓 Luke Perry, ‘90210’ and ‘Riverdale’ Star, Dies at 52 | Variety

Read Luke Perry, ‘90210’ and ‘Riverdale’ Star, Dies at 52 (Variety)
Actor Luke Perry, known for roles in “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Riverdale,” died on Monday after suffering a massive stroke on Wednesday. He was 52. “[Perry] was surrounded by his children Jack and Sophie, fiancé Wendy Madison Bauer, ex-wife Minnie Sharp, mother Ann Bennett, step-father Steve Bennett, brother Tom Perry, sister Amy Coder, and other close family and friends,” his rep said in a statement. “The family appreciates the outpouring of support and prayers that have been extended to Luke from around the world, and respectfully request privacy in this time of great mourning. No further details will be released at this time.”

👓 CAA and UTA Settle ‘Lawless, Midnight Raid’ Lawsuit | The Wrap

Read CAA and UTA Settle 'Lawless, Midnight Raid' Lawsuit by Ross A. Lincoln (TheWrap)
United Talent Agency and Creative Artists Agency have reached a settlement in their nearly four-year lawsuit over five agents CAA had accused UTA of poaching. Details of the settlement have not been made public, but in a statement provided to TheWrap, UTA’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, said: “The m...

👓 CAA Veteran Matt DelPiano Heads to Cavalry Media to Launch Management Division | The Wrap

Read CAA Veteran Matt DelPiano Heads to Cavalry Media to Launch Management Division by Trey Williams (TheWrap)
Dana Brunetti and producing partner Keegan Rosenberger’s Cavalry Media has tapped veteran CAA agent Matt DelPiano to lead the company’s newly launched division Cavalry Management. Cavalry Media, the finance and production outfit that was established in June 2018, announced on Wednesday that it w...

👓 Matt DelPiano Exits CAA After 26 Years To Launch Management Division As Partner With Dana Brunetti And Cavalry Media | Deadline

Read Matt DelPiano Exits CAA After 26 Years To Launch Management Division As Partner With Dana Brunetti And Cavalry Media by Anita BuschAnita Busch (Deadline Hollywood)
EXCLUSIVE: Talk about a shocker, and also a great get for Dana Brunetti, Keegan Rosenberger and their Cavalry Media. Matt DelPiano, who has been a top agent at CAA and a 26-year veteran of the talent agency, is becoming a partner at Cavalry Media and launching a full-service management company, Cavalry Management.

👓 Notes from the Rep Biz – 2-15-2019 | WhoRepresents.com

Read Notes from the Rep Biz - 2-15-2019 (WhoRepresents.com)

At CAA:

Agent Matt DelPiano has left the agency after 26 years to launch a full service management company, Calvary Management. All of his clients are expected to stay with him as he transitions.

At UTA:

The agency has settled its long-running dispute with CAA over alleged agent-poaching that occurred back in 2015. The case stemmed from UTA's shocking hires of five senior agents that decimated CAA's comedy department.

At ICM Partners:

The agency has dropped Celine Dion and initiated legal proceedings against her for an alleged failure to pay commission. It's an unfortunate end for the singer at the agency, who had been representing her for three decades.

Elsewhere:

Longtime agency Stone Manners Salners has renamed itself Artists & Representatives. This comes following the retirement of partner Tim Stone and the elevation of agents Ben Sands and Adrian Pellereau.

👓 ‘Empire’ Star Jussie Smollett Signs With CAA | Hollywood Reporter

Read 'Empire' Star Jussie Smollett Signs With CAA (The Hollywood Reporter)
The singing and acting breakout was previously without an agency.

Presumably they still represent him. Makes me wonder what they’ll do as his story continues to unfold.

👓 UC terminates subscriptions with world’s largest scientific publisher in push for open access to publicly funded research | University of California | Office of the President

Read UC terminates subscriptions with world’s largest scientific publisher in push for open access to publicly funded research (University of California | Office of the President)
As a leader in the global movement toward open access to publicly funded research, the University of California is taking a firm stand by deciding not to renew its subscriptions with Elsevier. Despite months of contract negotiations, Elsevier was unwilling to meet UC’s key goal: securing universal open access to UC research while containing the rapidly escalating costs associated with for-profit journals.

This is some crazy bad-ass news. Almost everyone I know in higher education tweeted this article out today.

Now if only we could get them to all go IndieWeb using a Domain of Their Own and practice academic samizdat…

👓 Two internet entrepreneurs walk into an old publishing house | Dries Buytaert

Read Two internet entrepreneurs walk into an old publishing house by Dries BuytaertDries Buytaert (dri.es)
Dries is the Founder and Project Lead of Drupal and the Cofounder and Chief Technology Officer of Acquia.

This should have been a planned tour/cruise, and I’ll bet lots of people would have paid to go with them.

📑 Building a digital garden | Tom Critchlow

Annotated Building a digital garden by Tom CritchlowTom Critchlow (tomcritchlow.com)

A blog without a publish button

I’m stealing this quote from my modern friend Ryan Dawidjan who has been pioneering this concept of open-access writing and blogging without a publish button. For a long time he has maintained a quip file called high cadence thoughts that is open access and serves as a long-running note of his thinking and ideas.

It’s a less-performative version of blogging - more of a captain’s log than a broadcast blog.

The distinction will come down to how you blog - some people blog in much the same way. For me however blogging is mostly performative thinking and less captain’s log. So I am looking for a space to nurture, edit in real time and evolve my thinking.  ❧

I like the idea of a blog without a publish button. I do roughly the same thing with lots of drafts unpublished that I let aggregate content over time. The difference is that mine aren’t immediately out in public for other’s benefit. Though I do wonder how many might read them, comment on them, or potentially come back to read them later in a more finished form.