I’m a little late to the discussion, but I wanted to make sure I gave this topic the thought it deserved. Two weeks back, I - like many others - shotgunned House of Cards over the course of a couple days. I’d come down with some sort of ebola-esque virus, rendering me unable to do much outside of consuming massive quantities of over-the-counter medication and equally massive quantities of Netflix. Thus, in a perfect storm of “why the fuck not” I decided to devote what little energy I had to seeing whether House of Cards was really all Netflix professed it to be.
Here’s the short answer: Yes, House of Cards may well be the most important and influential piece of content this year - but for many reasons that I hadn’t predicted. While it’s very existence was enough to make it interesting from a business perspective, there were certain aspects of its execution that really pushed it beyond curiosity and into importance. No, I’m not talking about the oft-cited breaking of the fourth wall (which you either buy into early or spent the remaining 12 hours or so hating everything about) but rather, certain other aspects of the final product turned out to be significant game-changers for both the creative and business models of television as a whole - and the implications are staggering.
My sister has uncovered a journal from her years in Junior High, in which she had to write her thoughts about whatever the day’s topic was. She has some pretty good ones, which she’s posting to her Tumblr…
Junior High Journal Entry #1 - Only seems appropriate on Election Night to post “Woman President.” Oh God, here we go…
What, a woman, no better than a man, you’ve got to be kidding. I feel that a woman could do just as good at anything as a man. A woman president will be coming soon I believe. The only setback would be since there hasn’t been a woman president there could be many racists, who believe that a woman would do a bad job. I think they’re crazy.
Here’s the archive of my appearance on Geekerati Radio from last night. Wherein I am excitable talking about things that make me happy, like transmedia, Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Tumblr, Treme, Squaresville and Daniel Abraham’s Long Price Quartet
I was so happy to have Jay on the show! He is an awesome human being and clearly at the top of the field in transmedia storytelling. I expect he will stay very busy as a freelancer in the year to come…
Watch this clip. It’s okay to laugh (this is one of my favorite movies). Listen to what Rip Torn says about fear. Then think about what it means to ‘Defend Your Life’.
A lot of the smart, talented people I know here in LA are asked to defend their lives. And by their lives, I mean the life they’ve chosen, the career path they’ve been bold enough to tackle, most often one in the arts. I know from personal experience, that ‘defending your life’ when you make the unorthodox choice to ‘follow your dream’ is HARD (especially when it’s in response to people you care about, ie. your family). But figure out how to do it. WRITE YOUR CLOSING ARGUMENTS. You need to articulate what your big dream is, why you pursue it, how you pursue it, the unique actions you take, why you are special, what are your attributes. Then be ready to produce exhibit A: your current body of work, exhibit B: plans for your future work. Then sum it all up in a powerful statement that reflects who you are and why you do what you do. And then be ready to argue it to anyone who asks, in a boardroom, on the street, at Christmas dinner. Why? Because then you won’t have to. Once you’ve been forced to sit down with your own life’s choices and really identify the why and the how, and more importantly, been forced to confront your own fear of failure in the process, it won’t much matter who questions your choices. Most of the people who do, do so out of their own fear and insecurity anyway.
Life, in case you haven’t noticed today, is getting tougher. I celebrate everyone who follows their creative and entrepreneurial dreams and who deviate from the safe path. We just need some extra supplies to survive the journey. Be a badass. Write your Closing Arguments.
A treat, exclusively for my followers! A chance to listen to less than good Europopish music w/ my backup vocals. It’s possible I’ve lost my mind putting this out on the internets (btw, I don’t own the copyright on this — those belong to the songwriters, but since I’m singing on it, unless they tell me to take it down…)
“ Of course, now that I’ve seen more than the first three episodes, which is what I was basing this review on at the time, I’d say that [The Walking Dead] isn’t quite hitting the mark on all of these points. Don’t misunderstand – I am a fervent supporter of this show, a FAN, but I can no longer ignore the thoughts that nag at my brain every week when I watch it. ”
The Talking Dead is a collaborative storytelling event taking place over the Halloween weekend of 2010. Ghosts and spirits of the dead will haunt Twitter, Foursquare and other social networks of their ghastly choosing. If you want to play, here’s what to do:
