Life rarely provides second chances. Yet, that is what happened in The Godfather III, the (hopefully) final film of The Godfather saga. Released 30 years ago, the film features a potential redemption story for Michael Corleone. When we saw Michael…
I knew the day would come. After all, no one lives forever. Not even James Bond. Of course, Sean Connery was more than Bond, and was good in almost everything he did… Even Zardoz. But when the news of Connery’s…
The only currency we have is time. I don’t know if I came up with that saying or if I read it somewhere – probably the latter. I’ve always liked it, because it’s about how we spend our time. We…
I’m always looking forward. I do this because the past is prologue. You can’t change it. Decisions made are done – Learn from mistakes, and the days to come provide ample opportunities to do things different. And better. Except… I’m…
I love movies. In my home office/man cave, I’m surrounded by movie posters and autographs. The classics. ALIEN. Star Wars. Jaws. The Godfather. They are hanging in tribute to the experiences that I treasure. And I may never see the…
We think less these days. I state that as an absolute because, as a student of human nature and as someone who observes people as part of my day job, I have amassed some evidence in this space. We ARE…
We must evolve. User experience design is at a cross-roads. The value of user-centered design as an approach and a practice is now obvious, with countless proof points available. The number of UX roles in organizations large and small has…
I have a fondness for what I call “neglected cinema”. Quirky, weird, “cult” films that never reached a wide audience or great success but did gain a cult following and devoted fans. Buckaroo Banzai is one such film. Sorcerer, another.…
We live in heavy times. If Doc Brown was a real person, he’s probably say, “For God sakes, Marty, don’t visit 2020!” As we have all witnessed, this year has been off the scale cray-cray. From Coronavirus to Killer Hornets…
Should there be a Best Stunt Choreography category at the Academy Awards? That’s the question prompted by the amazing stunt work seen in recent years, especially the groundbreaking stunts seen in the John Wick films. The Wick films, directed by…
Way back in 2013, I was a vocal advocate for a start-up company named Aereo. Aereo streamed local television stations using mini-antennas that customers “rented”. The service also provided DVR capability, so users not only could watch a local channel…
The great Carl Reiner passed away this week, at the too-young age of 98. I saw “too-young” because Reiner was still creating, writing children books and posting witty pon mots on Twitter. There were a lot of great ideas still…
Timing is everything. Marvel Comics had previously had some success with their pop culture magazine Pizzazz (which I look back on fondly here), so after the video game craze hit the US by storm in the late 70s and early…
The recent passing of the legendary comic Fred Willard was yet another sad occurrence in a year that has been filled with such news. Willard was a “comedian’s comedian”: Someone who entertained his peers as well as audiences. He was…
I was quite happy when the 4K Ultra HD disk of Jaws arrived in the mail this past week. Jaws is one of my favorite movies, and I will never pass up a chance to revisit the film. If I’m…
Sometimes, inspiration comes from interesting places. I occasionally watch long-form YouTube videos on pop-culture. Some of them are semi-documentary “did you know?” pieces that teach me something that I didn’t know, while others critically analyze movies and TV shows, and…