My RSS Feed

ET Does Valentine's Day

attebery@gmail.com — 2010-02-01T17:57:29-08:00

Posted by Steph

My friend Dana has recently begun a cooking get together with some friends. The idea is that each person brings ingredients for one course and preps and cooks it there so everyone can learn how to make a new dish, and together, the dishes comprise a whole meal. Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner the theme for last week’s get together was appropriately, “building a romantic meal,” with the main course being Coq au Vin. I was stumped on what to contribute so Dana suggested a bean or carrot dish knowing that I am a true veggie-phile, and it being the middle of winter, Roasted Winter Vegetables seemed most appropriate. I took my recipe from the Barefoot Contessa’s Family Style Cookbook.

The recipe called for carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, winter squash and a little bit of parsley. At the market I was happy to see a selection of colorful vegetables; purple potatoes, yellow carrots, and golden beets. I snagged some rainbow colored carrots to brighten up my recipe (we need all the brightness we can get in the Northwest at this time of year!).

Our host, Angie, made a turkey meatball appetizer that was accompanied on a skewer by fresh slices of pineapple, sweet pepper, and water chestnuts, delish. Christina baked pastries filled with sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese -- yum!! She also brought a honking bottle of Reisling which we all enjoyed as we cooked and ate.

The Coq au Vin was the main event and Dana provided plenty of step-by-step instructions, although as we all got to drinking wine and talking about this and that the cooking lesson broke down a bit. I did manage to pick up a few tips from her instruction. First Dana fried up some bacon to create some good fat for the cooking process. Her chicken had a beautiful purple color because she had marinated it in a delicious Shiraz for a day in advance, along with the “holy trio” of vegetables in French cooking: onions, carrots, and celery. She skipped the bay leaf so that we wouldn’t have to hunt around to find and discard it later, and I think this certainly did not hurt the flavor. She served the dinner with the same Shiraz to further complement the meal.

Who can resist bacon? - - Out of the marinade into pot. - - Building flavor.

The holy trio. - Check out these thighs... - Less holy trio? Squash, sweet potatoes, parsnips.

What better to top off the feast than vanilla ice cream topped with dulce de leche (caramel sauce) and finished with a chocolate biscotti, compliments of Nicole. Here’s an interesting tip- boil a can of condensed milk on its side for three hours and you will have perfect caramel sauce. It turned out great! A couple of reminders - fully immerse the can so that the contents heat evenly and open with a cloth wrapped around the can to help avoid a mess.

Making Caramel

With all of this indulgence we did not even make it to Candi’s lemon meringue pie, but I’m sure that Angie’s husband didn’t mind having it leftover in the fridge.

In between eating and drinking, I leafed through a copy of Intercourses, an Aphrodisiac Cookbook by Martha Hopkins and Randall Lockridge.

Angie’s friend had leant her the book for the occasion. It had many steamy dinner suggestions, (think lots of oyster recipes).

Next event will be a brunch theme for St Patrick’s day. I’ll look forward to making one of the great recipes from Ree Drummond’s cookbook, my food bible of late. Maybe I’ll make her version of Huevos Rancheros, with green eggs, of course!!

Content should be free, except for my book 'Free.'

attebery@gmail.com — 2009-07-01T07:00:00-07:00

I'm gonna be watching this one pretty closely over the next few weeks. I'm open to new ideas about content and outlets for writers, but I must say, I'm more than a little dubious about Chris Anderson and his theories. In short, I think this guy writes Airline Business Porn, the kind of books businessmen pick up during their travels, read on the plane (when they can't use their Blackberries for an hour or two), then bring up at their next meeting, and use to anchor terribly misguided business plans for the next couple years.

Even as the big ideas behind Anderson's last book are proving more than a bit useless, here comes his latest must-have business conference accessory, Free. Much is being made of the book's recent (I would argue hypocritical) review in The New Yorker and Anderson's rebuttal on his own magazine's site. I won't link to them, because I think each is the equivalent of one sock-puppeted hand arguing to the other, while Si Newhouse hopes that pageviews translate to magazine subscriptions. In short, I'll sum up my thoughts this way: I think talented and professional writers deserve to be paid for their work. Period. It's hard enough to break into the business of writing, and if it becomes impossible to ever make a living doing it, no young people will even try anymore, they'll all just start their own sites (or publish on Lulu), until the whole business is completely and utterly splintered in a million different directions, none of which you'll be able to find! In the rising corporate outlook on content, many at the helm point to their success pulling in advertising dollars based on content often produced by unpaid enthusiasts, as a sign that they can make money at little to know expense, and their "writers" will just be happy to be published. Obviously, Anderson has spent too much time on conference calls with such individuals, and too little time out in the newsroom with his own magazine's writers. No writer worth his salt would be willing to work unpaid for any extended period of time. That to me is a simple fact of life. If you work a day job that saps your will to live, does Anderson really think that year after year you'd be willing to go home and write music reviews, game evaluations, or what have you, without the hope of one day turning it into a paying gig? What is this man thinking? Furthermore, if something is free, then why would anyone expect it to be made available to just them? What incentive do they think the author of this work would have to allow this? Furthermore, after a certain amount of time has passed, and the free writing has spread, what value does this work even have anymore? Intellectual copyright can be the creative equivalent of a Viagra patent (just watch Michael Jackson's stake of the Beattles publishing catalog as proof) -- if you have a hit, it will continue to bring in cash for decades if not generations to come. In the short term, free content might make someone a little money from advertising, but in the long run, what is the value of that archived writing?

The perfect example of the questionable ideas behind Anderson's book is illustrated by an issue that will surely dog it existence, however long of brief that may be. In the last month it has been found that Anderson (or perhaps an unpaid writing assistant?) copied and pasted numerous sections of Wikipedia entries into his book and failed to attribute them. Not only is this a violation of Wikipedia's agreement with its users (not to mention the ethics code of every high school and college in the civilized world!), it means that large portions of the book are also available elsewhere! Yet the asking price of 'Free" has been set at $26.99! Will part of that fee be going to the uncredited writers? And if not, are they just happy to be published? More and more, it seems that squeezing writing from an indentured stone will get you nothing more than exactly what you paid for.

'Free' isn't free, except for its ~~author~~ aggregator, but you might be able to save a few bucks if you just wait for it to hit the remainder bins sometime this fall.

They’re All Gonna Twitter At You

attebery@gmail.com — 2009-05-27T19:00:00-07:00

I paraphrase that old Adam Sandler line for a reason. A couple of them actually.

First of all, Sandler himself is known for being a bit reticent with the media. You seldom see him on TV or read an interview with him in the papers. For someone with a box office record that makes many a studio executive drool like Garfield’s buddy Odie, this guy manages to keep one low profile. So that said, when you do see Sandler on TV, he is, without fail, going before the cameras with one purpose: to sell a product.

Much has been made of Twitter and it’s ability to get the word out every which way you can. The big media kingpins are quickly jumping on board the Twitter fast train, for fear of the little guys running productive circles around their mighty feet. After all, with the ability to get the word out to the masses yourself, what use is there for the Colossus with the monopoly on megaphones?! Twitter, Facebook, Friendster, MySpace, Ning, all these sites are or were meant to put the power of the press in the palms of your sweaty iPhone clasping hands. The only thing is, everyone seems to be on there for the same reason. Folks aren’t casually staring at the screen, waiting for the next big news break or book review to pop up in 140 characters or less. Maybe some are, folks named Gordy and Esther, but the folks with their fingers on the pulse, they’re on there for one purpose and one purpose only: to sell, SELL, SELL!!!

They’re either pumping their Twitters with automatic feeds, or working their little thumbs raw, trying to rack up the largest number of followers. Yeah, the goal is to get as many folks to see your stuff as possible, but there’s something funny going on. For a while now I’ve tried to follow anyone who follows me on Twitter. I’ll dutifully go to their name and click follow. Then a day or so later, I go back and compare notes, and oftentimes, the person who started following me first has now stopped. If this had only happened once or twice I’d have thought nothing of it, or maybe taken it a little personally, but now I think it’s just another variation of measuring, which frankly, is just sad! Is everyone out their just trying to rack up the highest numbers while pontificating in a headwind? Yowsers. What's the point then?

So how long will this Twitter thing last? I’m starting to wonder, cause now, frankly, all it seems to be is a bunch of folks yammering away with no one listening. It’s like the stock market problems have brought the ultimate desperation, instead of ticker-taping their quotes, companies and entrepreneurs are ticker-taping every meeting and scrap of an idea or product line that enters their heads. Hell, I'm guilty of it, but in the end it’s just more noise.

Anyway, I guess we’ll see. In the meantime, I’m going to head off and Twitter this article now. Let’s see if anyone is listening.

Self-Publishing Finds Commercial Niche In Digital Age

attebery@gmail.com — 2009-05-22T13:00:00-07:00

Here is a VERY interesting article on self-publishing finding a niche as the traditional publishers fall on hard times.

Self-Publishing Finds Commercial Niche In Digital Age
Kelly Jane Torrance writing for The Washington Times

In related news, my thriller "Billionaires, Bullets, "Exploding Monkeys" is now available for purchase!

Don't Sell Your Soul For a Chair

attebery@gmail.com — 2009-05-20T07:00:00-07:00

I wrote an essay years ago recounting my experience working for one of Seattle’s corporate behemoths. The title of the piece: “I Was Prisoner 1125250.” Officially, I was a “partner,” but when you’re identified by a number, like something out of ‘Joe Versus the Volcano,’ then let’s face it, you’re a prisoner.

Like most corporate jobs, the greater your labor, the lower your compensation, and subsequently, the lower the quality of your workspace, and even more specifically, the lower the height of your walls. If I stood up, at my desk, the walls of my particular fattening pen would have come up to about mid-thigh. My chair was a grubby grey plastic number, with a hard foam seat, little room for adjustment, and a back that barely grazed the bottom of my shoulder blades. In comparison, the bigwigs on the floor, who dwelled in 8 foot high micro-suites, and spent their days playing solitaire and debating the ideal time to microwave their Healthy Choice frozen dinners, were given the sort of woven, mesh, synthetic polymer chairs that business wienies only dream about.

In short, work life was one big measuring contest.

In my opinion, the ultimate goal is not to compare what you have – especially the most measly of perks – to what someone a few rungs up the ladder has. I didn’t care if my walls were short and my chair was garbage, I just resented that that was the way things were tallied. A big chair and high walls meant higher pay and a lower chance of having to fill out a “permission slip” if you wanted to take a long weekend away with your wife.

Cut to five years later. After placing an order with Amazon, I was offered a year’s subscription to the magazine Fast Company. Thinking this might offer some interesting reading as I worked on my own small business and telecommuting work, I gave it a shot. The first issue arrived this week, with a cover that promised to unveil the most creative people in business. The first guy was from Apple (laying the groundwork for future absences?), not a promising sign. The following pages were filled with the folks Claude Rains summed up as “the usual suspects.” Not good. I flipped ahead a few pages, and again had the feeling that I wasn’t really reading about the most creative business minds of our time, but rather the folks most caught up in the corporate measuring contest.

Then came the killer. A two page spread of the greatest, the most desired, the more enticing business perk any creative business genius could ask for. The designer desk chair.

I closed up the magazine and popped it in the recycling bin.

I make a living writing and editing. To do that, you have to sit in a chair for a fair amount of time. But here’s the thing, the ultimate goal should be freedom. Freedom to move around the country as they say. If you’re so caught up worrying about you chair you’re sort of missing the point. Don’t all the phone company and wireless ads always show the guy working from a beach chair in Maui? That’s the goal, right? That chair probably cost 12 bucks!

It’s not about the chair people! It’s not about the chair! It’s about getting out of the chair, or better yet, working in the cheapest chair you can find. Or maybe a hammock.

Inspiration Strikes!

attebery@gmail.com — 2009-04-23T19:00:00-07:00

"Do you want it good, or do you want it fast?"
"I want it fast."

That was a pretty common exchange when I used to make movies with my friends back in high school. I wanted my little VHS extravaganzas to be good, but more than anything, I just wanted to make them. So if it came down to getting a scene in the can, or giving the actors a little more time to work out their lines, I erred on the side of haste. After all, when you're in high school, and your cast has to juggle homework, other commitments, college applications, and what-have-you, who knows when you'll be able to get everyone together again to refine a scene. I almost always chose to plow ahead. Sometimes it worked out well. A lot of the time it didn't. Course, there were some fun surprises to be found. Improvised one-liners, happy accidents, and out-of-the-blue comic gems, like the dodgeball sequence above. None of that was planned, but we only had an hour to get that whole scene shot before classes started for the day. Fortunately, the camera was rolling during a comic misfire.

Back in high school I used to doubt my screenwriting ability (rightly so I might add), so I'd ask one of the regular cast members, Mike Coviello, if he could pull some scenes together for whatever movie we were working on at the time. Inevitably he'd fail to get me the pages as fast as I wanted them, and he'd always ask, "Mike, do you want it good, or do you want it fast." Then he'd laugh when I gave the expected answer: "Fast."

In college I switched from production to screenwriting, and though my writing improved, and my ability to fashion scripts with actual structure developed, more often than not, I still preferred a shaky rough draft to a few Swiss engineered finished pieces. I guess it worked okay for me. Over the last two years at RIT I finished 4 television scripts, three feature length screenplays, and a whole stack of poems and short stories.

Then I graduated. That's when I found a whole new way of putting off hard work: Perfectionism. For three years after college, I didn't complete anything. I'd outline, and outline. I'd start out in a fresh notebook, jot down a few ideas in careful, draftsman-like pen strokes. I'd write a page of perfectly formed cursive jibberish, only to tear the page out and copy the whole thing down again if I so much as smudged the ink. I'd do this until my hands cramped up, then I'd move to the computer, where I'd write a scene, then tinker with it, and tinker with it, and tinker with it, until whatever zip the original words once held, has been all but drowned in the slow-drying cement of overworked prose.

If I wasn't rewriting and reworking something to death, I was questioning my basic story ideas and wondering if I'd be better off just starting from scratch. So once the writing wouldn't give up another comma, or allow for another word substitution, I'd hit save, banish that little snippet to some computer file vault, and start the process all over again.

In 2004 I wrote 80 pages of a novel, scrapped it, tried it as a screenplay, then somehow convinced myself that it was okay to let it go.

In 2005 I finally broke the cycle.

As I've said in the past, the book "No Plot, No Problem" played a big part in knocking me free of my little writer's hamster wheel. But more than anything, I think hitting my late-twenties and still finding myself working some truly dreadful jobs, made me realize that I either had to start churning out some material, or stop talking about wanting to write. In 2005 I completed a draft of my first screenplay in four years. Later that year a wrote a draft of a book called "Cinematic Immunity." In 2006 I wrote my first full novel, and later that year I went back to the 80 pages I had set aside in 2004, and found that, rough as they were, I liked what I had been doing. This is how I found my pattern. Outline a little til I feel comfortable with the direction I'm going, then jump in. If it's messy, so what, write until I need to find my way again, then outline some more, then go back to writing. When I finish a draft I put it away for a couple of weeks and either start outlining something new, or go back to the last draft of one of the other projects and rework it again. Repeat, and repeat, until I hit a point where I can't do anything more, and the next natural step is to send it out into the world, and either repeat the process, or start something fresh. Either way, at the end of the process, I always have another rough draft of something rather than a neatly printed plan of attack for a story I'll either rework ad nauseam or banish to electronic oblivion.

Anyway, thats what works for me. This last paragraph is a half-baked mishmash of mixed metaphors, which I guess is sort of perfect for making my point. When an idea hits you, go with it. You might have to wade partway into things before the real inspiration strikes, but if you never get out there, you're just gonna sit around watching your ideas drift by with nothing to show for them in the end.

Art, Life, Work, & Gray Hair

attebery@gmail.com — 2009-04-15T16:58:07-07:00

There's something reassuring about biographies, particularly autobiographies written by folks who started with nothing. I'm sure this is true for any field, but when you're trying to make it in any sort of creative business, be it film, publishing, performing, or any of the fine arts, it's nice to know that others have stood in your shoes and taken their first awkward steps in the world, only to stumble and realize that we're all born with two left feet (either that or someone with a fat wallet just tied our laces together and sprinted on ahead). Steve Martin's 2007 memoir, "Born Standing Up," is just that kind of book. Martin is a true Renaissance man. Banjo player. Comic. Writer. Actor. He's worn many hat's, some I'd prefer he hadn't (Clouseau? Really?) , but this is the first time I've ever heard him speak about how he got started. It was not a smooth trip up the ladder to success, and he shares the painful, quite candid details of how he found his way, his missteps, and his insights as he carved out his own little niche in the world. Martin is interested in movies, art, architecture, music, and film, and as someone who loves all those things, and started going gray at age 12, there are secrets to be gleaned by seeing the world from Martin's point of view. I highly recommend this book.
Buy the Hardcover - Buy the Paperback - Buy the Kindle - Buy The Audiobook

Step One: Sit in your chair.

attebery@gmail.com — 2009-02-20T17:00:00-08:00

"I don't believe in writer's block."
Grady Tripp, 'Wonder Boys'

I don't believe in it either. The biggest problem is getting to your desk and typing those first few words each day. Once you get past that, it's just hunting and pecking and playing around. There are so many quotes about writing, and so many books on writing, many if not all of them written by writers far better than me, that it's best if I just point you in the direction of the three I believe work.

The first, more than anything, is meant to inspire. If you've ever thought you might like to make it as a writer, you've more than likely looked to Stephen King as proof that there is hope. In 2000, King published "On Writing," half biography, half-no-bullshit advice on sitting down and getting to work. And if you think it's easier for King to say than do, he goes into brutal detail about the physical pain it took for him to sit down and start writing after nearly being being killed in a pedestrian vs. car accident in 1999. Hearing how he sweated through the pain of sitting in a chair with a shattered leg (like a sock full marbles) and a mangled hip as he struggled to make it through just forty minutes in front of his computer, makes any and all excuses for not writing seem trivial.

The second book is sort of silly, but it works. "No Plot? No Problem!" by Christ Baty, is the companion volume to the National Novel Writing Month contest in which writers around the world work to pump out a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I didn't use this for the 30 day program, but I did use it to help me get through my first novel three years ago. All I can say is that this book knows all the excuses, and it guilts you out of using them. The one that still comes to mind is the discussion of the second week urge to scrap what you're written and start something new (I find this hits around page 80). DON'T. This is what keeps folks from moving from, "I have an idea for a book." to "I just finished my first novel."

Finally, there's the classic "Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" by Anna Lamott. To boil her more eloquent words down to a few lines of writerly insight: Don't be jealous of the other creative folks out there, just sit down, start working, and bit by bit you'll get something down. Perfectionism is the highest form of procrastination. Good or bad, you have to get something on paper if you ever hope to get something published. Only one way to start.

These are the ones that worked for me. You might find your own touchstones.

The books:

"On Writing" by Stephen King
buy the paperback
or spring for the hardcover

"No Plot? No Problem!" by Chris Baty
buy the paperback

"Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" by Anne Lamott
buy the paperback

Can ya feel it?

attebery@gmail.com — 2009-02-19T17:00:00-08:00

A funny thing has been happening lately. Despite making my living online. Despite having a Kindle, which I really do dig. I've been finding myself turning to hard copies of books, magazines, and newspapers more than ever before. I've been getting up in the morning, doing my writing, then heading downstairs to drink coffee and read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. I go back to work for a few hours, then take a break and head over to the gym, where I either listen to music, or more often crack open a magazine (Men's Health, Wired, Fast Company, Sunset, Architectural Digest, or Seattle Metropolitan) while I exercise. I don't know what's causing this, but I'm curious to know if other folks are having the same experience. There's just something nice about not having to worry about technical details or gizmo operation. My Kindle had to be replaced in December after it suddenly stopped, working, that may be part of it, but I think more than anything I just prefer to hold something that both tells a story, and has it own unique weight, texture, and even smell. Anyway, no really useful tidbits in this update, just a personal observation. One last comment. The paper used for the hardcover edition of The Audacity of Hope has a sort of honeycomb texture that is just incredible. Go grab a copy, you'll see!

How to earn funds and infuriate people

attebery@gmail.com — 2009-02-03T17:00:00-08:00

Inside Steve's Brain by Leander Kahney

It's safe to say that most folks reading this book will have more than passing familiarity with Steve Jobs. If anything, the book is aimed right at Jobs' fiercest supporters and most wary apostles. This is a book for anyone interested in Apple Computer, eccentric personalties, business and creative inspiration, or just looking for something to reinforce their impulsive decision to short Apple stock over the last few months.

For all these reasons, Inside Steve's Brain ranks as a real disappointment. Anyone who's read either Kahney's own blog, The Cult of Mac, or either of his other books, or just picked up one of Newsweek's fawning quarterly Apple cover stories, is more than familiar with the material covered here. In going over the material again in my head, I can't really think of any tidbit of information gained from the book, that I hadn't already picked up from another source over the years.

MY advice to those interested in learning about this fascinating, bizarre, inspiring, but infuriating man, will probably learn a lot more, and find a lot more entertainment, if they pick up a copy of Pirates of Silicon Valley and watch that instead.

I'd rather make something

attebery@gmail.com — 2009-02-01T07:00:00-08:00

I'm so curious to know what routes companies, particularly web and media companies, are taking during this economic apocalypse. Are folks trying to come up with new products to sell that will somehow find a niche in an environment where no one seems to have disposable income to burn? Is the name of the game advertising and income from search engine optimization? If thats the case, how long will that work out before Google starts realizing what folks are up to and works out a way to make their search results again relevant and start pointing people to only the worthwhile content? Maybe they're already doing that. I sort of suspect that they are.

As a writer, I feel the ability to create worthwhile content is grossly undervalued these days. Yes, you can hire a series of writers to churn out oodles of garbage stories that will lead folks to your main site, assuming they find even a whisper of promise in their quest, but is it worth the time and investment? Probably, but wouldn't it be better in the long run to focus on the quality of your primary product? My personal sense is that this is the way to go. Yes, you can always cast a wide net by trying to funnel customers in through every route necessary, but if the quality of your primary product isn't maintained, how long will your company/website/business hang in there and remain relevant?

I know a large part of business success involves adapting to this month/quarter/year's "name of the game," but you've got to stay true to the spirit of you company/business. For me, that means making something. In the end, I'd rather have a shelf full of books, or a pile of t-shirts, or a page full of news stories. Course at the same time, I also want a nice, neat, orderly bank vault filled with stacked tens and twenties, so I know I have to find a balance. My thinking is just this: A book can be repackaged. A shirt can become vintage. Something tangible can go "retro." But a useless article on the internet is worth less than a piece of space junk once its lost its purpose or been outsmarted. For that reason, I guess I'd just like to keep on making things. Anyway, like I said, I'm so curious to know how other businesses are working on finding the balance that works for them.

We'll always have San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

attebery@gmail.com — 2009-01-23T14:13:14-08:00

As the nation shivers under a blanket of cold, many people are packing their bags and heading south, hoping to soak up some rays in Florida or the Caribbean. Others, particularly those decimated by free-falling stock prices and 401k’s, may feel a vacation is out of the question this year. For them, we have a suggestion: San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

San Miguel, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is famous for its mild climate, colonial architecture and cobblestone streets. It's four hours south of Mexico City and 1-l/2 hours from Leon Airport, which is served by American, Continental and Aeromexico Airlines. Located in the state of Guanajuato, in central Mexico, the town has an elevation of 7,000 feet and sits on a flat plain ringed by mountains.

In addition to boasting warm, sunny days and cool nights, San Miguel benefits from a large population of American and Canadian expatriates. They make up a veritable army of volunteers, who support local charities by organizing a full schedule of daily activities ranging from concerts, lectures ,and house/town tours to yoga, pilates, life drawing, and meditation classes.

The town has a wide range of accommodations, ranging from b&bs costing less than $50 a night to 5-star hotels in the high $200s. For longer stays, rentals such as a two- bedroom, two-bath apartment with courtyard can run as low as $1,500 a month.

Foodies, too, have an array of choices, at prices well below those in the US. Here are some suggestions: On a clear night, book a table on the rooftop patio of La Posadita restaurant (heaters are stationed nearby to remove the chill) and sample the enchiladas verdes with a glass of red wine, while enjoying an unparalleled view of the soaring towers of San Miguel’s most famous landmark, the 17th century Parroquia church. The total cost? 140 pesos, or roughly $10. The exchange rate is about 14 pesos to the dollar, but most restaurants require payment in pesos.

Looking for a great dinner and a chance to tango or watch others tango? Head to La Fragua, down the street from La Posadita, and get there by 8 p.m., when the dancers start to fill the floor. The food – skirt steak with guacamole and poblano peppers is one specialty – is delicious and the dancing continues non-stop until the wee hours.

A place highly touted for Italian food and an outstanding combo of acoustic guitar, violin, bass, and bongo drums is Bella Italia. Some say the food is overrated, but the combo, often accompanied by Johnny Carson sidekick Doc Severinson, is spectacular. Dinner, tip and cover charge run about $23.

For mouth-watering pastries, cappuccino, or out-of-this-world hot chocolate, try Petit Four, down the street from Bellas Artes, an 18th century convent that now houses a prestigious art school and a lovely courtyard with a café and fountains. Another famous art school and exhibition space is the Institute Allende, which was founded in 1950 and became popular when World War II veterans found that their GI Bill benefits went farther in Mexico than in the U.S. The Instituto also has a beautiful interior courtyard with café.

For sketching or people watching, go the Jardin, which we consider the hot spot of San Miguel. Located across the street from the Parroquia, it's the main square of the town and attracts everyone - expats who come to buy a cup of coffee and a morning paper, violinists and mariachis who stand around and play for pay, families who arrive on Sundays after church and spend the day there, and couples who dance to bands playing in the central gazebo. The action continues well into the night, as vendors sell hot corn with cream cheese and chile to an endless stream of hungry customers.

While San Miguel is not for everyone -- the New York Times recently described it as “Berkeley for retired people” - it's safe, the people are friendly, and it offers a diversity of cultural activities, all within walking distance. A few miles and maybe a 40-peso taxi ride away, outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy hiking and horseback riding, golf, swimming, and soaking in world-famous hot springs.

For our money, the highlight of a vacation in San Miguel is the opportunity to interact with the Mexican people in a setting little changed since its founding nearly 500 years ago. Just remember to bring a fleece (or one of our Toasty clothing items!), for the evenings can get cool.

Looking for purpose? Watch TV.

attebery@gmail.com — 2009-01-01T13:30:00-08:00

Books and television are both forms of communication and entertainment, yet books always get the better rap. Why? I dunno, but I think Dancing With The Stars might have something to do with it. That, or Paula Abdul.

Based on this line of thinking, one might feel compelled to peruse the self-help section at your local bookstore, especially at the start of a fresh new year. So how can I recommend watching TV as a way to find your life's purpose? Well for starters, there are shows like Charlie Rose. Programs that while less than groundbreaking in their execution, harness the power of the medium at its purest form.

Then of course, there are shows that take the format, sand it down, buff it, turn it on its ear, and present it for the world to see anew. I'm talking about a show like The West Wing.

Last September, in the midst of a historically exciting Presidential election, I ordered a copy of the show's first season and proceeded to watch it straight through within a matter of days. For a political junkie, and a professional writer, the show presented fascinating material and a challenge to step up the substance of my own work. Based simply on the subject matter, the inner workings of a White House that truly cares about the effects their daily activities have on the American people (during the final days of the Bush Administration, this seems like pure fantasy!), the show grabbed me and pulled me in. But on a different level, just getting to know the characters, each written and developed as a three dimensional, full bodied, flesh and blood individual, The West Wing managed to sink it's claws into me in a way few dramatic programs have managed to do before. This is a show about political movers and shakers, but more than that, it's a program about professionals, compulsive over-achievers, who feel utterly compelled to rip out their hearts and toss them in the furnace to fuel the great good. These are the folks we all wanted to grow up and become. Well, except perhaps with more well-rounded interests. But then, that's a whole other challenge. Tunnel vision seems to breed success in type A personalities, but those same folks often find it hard to develop the personal aspects of their lives. The folks in Jed Bartlet's White House are casebook studies of accomplished individuals with lives that tip the scales in one direction or another. Ironically, in this case, the guy with the top of the masthead position, the President himself, is the one who really seems to have found the closest semblance of balance between his personal and professional lives. Perhaps that's why the People elected him! But I digress...

The writing is impeccable. Dialogue comes fast and furious, but it hits all the right notes. With more than half of the series' seven year run helmed by Aaron Sorkin (Of A Few Good Men, and The American President fame), there are few episodes or even exchanges that don't ring true. This is steady cam, soliloquy heaven for the actor's actor, and everyone from Martin Sheen, to John Spencer, to Bradley Whitford brings their A-game.

From a technical filmmaking perspective, the set design, the filming, the editing, it's all first rate. Grade A. In 2001 the trailer for Hannibal renewed my love of film (the movie itself was another story), in 2008 this show made me yearn to write and shoot some truly high quality television. In watching a special one hour episode of Charlie Rose (you knew I'd come back to him, right?) in which he-of-the-paperclip-cuff links spoke with most of the show's cast about what they felt set the show apart, one word came up again and again: Heart.

The West Wing, more than anything, is about HEART. Martin Sheen's iconic President Bartlet does everything with heart. When he succeeds, it's because he made the decisions from his heart. When he fails, that failure hits him in the chest like a ten-ton truck. I believe the hearts of Sorkin, Sheen, and frequent director Thomas Schlamme are evident in every frame and syllable.

The West Wing is about folks with purpose,and the purpose of the show, in my opinion, is to instill the need for personal commitment in everything we, the viewers do. From a writing perspective, it's pushed me to give the story of my next project just a bit more heart as well.

Whether you work in writing, film, television, politics, public service, or a field totally unrelated to any of those areas, I urge you to check out The West Wing's complete series, and see if it doesn't inspire you to go after those projects you've always sat at the bar mulling over, or evaluate if what you do from day to day leaves you feeling fulfilled, or wishing you could take a moment, look around, and start anew.

Retail, wholesale, or FREE? Hmmm... What would you pick?

attebery@gmail.com — 2008-12-11T17:42:40-08:00

If there's one writing delay I hate more than all others, it's sitting down to start working on a project, only to have my laptop go out of its little Intel-powered mind. I doubt Hemingway ever sat down at his typewriter, only to have the thing start rattling and shaking, setting off its little return bell every two seconds, and spitting sheets of paper up into the air. The worst he probably dealt with was a couple of jammed keys or a tangled ribbon (probably from trying to hammer out a few pages after slamming back some cold ones at the end of a day of fishing). Today's writer-type has all sorts of problems waiting for him. Last spring I sat down to add a couple commas and periods to a final draft of a manuscript, only to have my laptop begin starting and restarting and restarting again, until I had to pull the battery out of the thing and head down to the Apple store for help.

Now I've noticed a strange thing happening every time I try to open any programs I've used countless times before: They're all crashing on me! Word has crashed. Photoshop has crashed. Final Draft has crashed. These are programs that have not been reinstalled, or modified, or updated in anyway. They just suddenly decided that it's time to either shit the bed or check up on my registration info. Final Draft is the worst when it comes to this. That program is limited to only two machines, and by God if it doesn't make sure you cough up proof of purchase tabs if you so much as add the word "Mentos" to the spell check. I've gone through less rigorous security procedures while board cross country flights! The worst is when I go to reinstall the software, but find that my now aged machine doesn't even recognize the stuff! Infuriating!

You all know that software isn't cheap. Check out the prices for Word, Photoshop, and Final Draft if you wanna rupture an aorta.

Now check out some of the alternatives. Of course, for everything Microsoft turns out, there seems to be a free alternative from Google. Until that company turns out to be some sort of Terminator-like megaconglomerate, check out Google Docs for alternatives to all of the Microsoft Office patented family of rip-offs.

For Photoshop, the alternatives aren't quite so elegant, but they're out there. I've recently been playing with GIMP a bit (no wisecrack about that sentence). To be frank, I like the logo, but kinda hate the product. Still, it's a nice alternative when you can't quite see spending $1700 in today financial climate.

Finally, there's the product I wish I'd know about in college. Celtx is like a little angel sent down from heaven to help film students make movie magic. Available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and the Asus eeePC, this is the best free program I've found. Unlike Final Draft, who treat their customer's like thieves, demanding phone confirmation, online registration, and inner cheek swabs for every stage of installation, Celtx is free. Download it, install it, and it just works.

So where does this leave us? I like to think it's taking us back to where we started. Instead of the proper tools remaining securely in the hands of those who can afford them, all you need to make these programs work is talent. Check em out. Try Celtx first, like I said, that's my favorite.

Back to Basics: Calvin and Hobbes

attebery@gmail.com — 2008-12-06T14:00:00-08:00

Wow, the last few months have been sort of intense, haven't they? Between news of bank collapses, rescue plans, foreclosures, business failures, and day by day recaps of economic calamity, it's understandable if we're all getting wound a little tight. For anyone working in the financial fields, this can't be fun, but even creative professionals are feeling the pinch. It's hard to keep your imagination simmering when everything you're hearing suggests that the time to panic is now! Well, if ever there was a time to get back to basics, get in touch with your imagination, and unwind for the holidays, it is now.

In other words, it's time to catch up with Calvin and Hobbes.

I've had the complete set of Bill Watterson's collected works since I was in high school, but when I moved out west after college I couldn't quite fit all of the collection in my car. Three years ago I got The Complete Calvin and Hobbes for a birthday gift, but it wasn't until last month that I finally started making my way through them. These comics are just as great today as they were ten and twenty years ago. Somehow, Bill Watterson managed to capture something truly universal about childhood, no matter where or when you were raised. For me, the wooded forests of Calvin's hometown are quite different than the canyons of New Mexico (though those are kinda close to the fantastic planets visited by Spaceman Spiff), but his adventures, his thoughts, and his observation all trigger continuing feelings of deja vu.

I thought November was the perfect time to catch up with Calvin and his tiger buddy as they kicked their way through the Autumn leaves, but now that Christmas is on the way, I'm finding that their sledding adventures are triggering just as many holiday season memories. The strip still packs all the humor, philosophy, and imagination that I remember. If you want to get back to being a kid (and who doesn't at Christmas) I can't suggest these enough. Buy a copy for your kids, your loved ones, and yourself. It's sure to take you back, and before you know it, you'll be cooking up your own answer to Calvin's transmogrifier!

Has John Hughes Left The Building?

attebery@gmail.com — 2008-12-03T15:00:00-08:00

Has John Hughes Left The Building?
The Vanishing Act of America’s 80’s Teen Titan and 90’s Kid Com Kingpin.

By Mike Attebery

Contrary to popular belief, the studio system of film production did not die out in the 1950’s. Well before Harvey Weinstein and Miramax began launching fleets of carefully calibrated award machines in the early 90’s, using a seeming stable of contract players, including: Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Smith, and Quentin Tarantino, a self-professed Hollywood outsider and former ad man in the Chicago suburbs entered the scene. Using the tricks of Madison Avenue, John Hughes taught Hollywood some new twists on its old routines, while grinding out a series of highly successful films in a short, prolific period of time. In the process, he not only created an entertainment empire, but discovered some of the industry’s favorite and youngest new stars, and placed them in many of the defining films of the 1980’s. If Miramax and the independent film movement shaped the cinema of the last decade, John Hughes and the shopping mall crowd unquestionably dominated the silver screen of the Reagan years.

Hollywood is about product. Product and money. Quality is beside the point; theres a game plan for everything. If a film is a solid, top-quality production, the studio pulls out all the stops: a blizzard of TV ads, movie trailers, glossy magazine spreads, and a prime spot in the summer or fall season, with an eye towards audiences, awards, and money. If a film’s chances seem less promising, but it retains a clear audience: twice the TV ads, twice the trailers, the star’s face on popcorn buckets, and glossier, sexier print ads. It’s all about image and closing the deal -- pure advertising -- and what better man to oil the Hollywood machine with fresh, marketable product than a transplant from the ad world, who himself entered the game with a resume and portfolio fashioned from smoke and mirrors? Like Ferris Bueller, Hughes had a magic touch and a salesman’s way with words that eventually got him a position with a Chicago agency, despite his lack of a college degree, or any experience in the field.

From there, just as in his movies, circumstances began working in his favor: first, a contact with National Lampoon, then a freelance job as one of the magazine’s editors, then, upon the release of Animal House, one of numerous Hollywood development deals forged with anyone possessing a Lampoon credit. After a few early lessons on getting burned in showbiz, Hughes started in on one of the industry’s legendary winning streaks, frequently accomplished by breaking the rules of conventional success. Early Hughes productions were often saddled with a midwinter release date, widely viewed as the dumping ground for low-grade films with less than hopeful box office forecasts, but as a Midwestern suburbanite, Hughes saw the bleak stretch from Christmas to Spring Break as the perfect time to bring out a film aimed at the high school crowd, who he felt saw joy and sorrow as “equally pleasant.” It worked, and within a year of the releases of Mr. Mom and Vacation, Hughes began writing and directing his own films. His goal was simple: to shoot as many films as possible in the shortest amount of time, working with relatively small budgets, and positioning each to grow his audience at each stage of release. This business plan, combined with the repeated use of an ever growing gallery of young actors, including: Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, and John Candy, only increased the similarities between the studio practices of the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s, and Hughes’ own suburban Chicago movie machine. One look at the closing credits for 1988’s She’s Having a Baby reveals the scope of the Hughes production bonanza. As the credits roll, one star after another stands front and center, often in their costume for another Hughes production, and gives their suggestion for the new baby’s name. When comparing the number of actors and the years over which each individual’s Hughes collaboration was released, the sheer number of films in production and already in release is astounding.

By 1986, the steamroller was under way, and with the help of director Howard Deutch, a John Hughes film began rolling out every six months, carefully timed to coincide with the VHS release of the previous theatrical title. Home video, still a relatively new, somewhat untapped resource, became for Hughes an invaluable tool in keeping his name and productions continually on viewers’ minds. More importantly, it played a key role in making his characters a part of audiences’ lives. With the release of each film, a new phenomenon seemed to be developing; the characters were not only striking a chord with fans, they were also becoming people audiences wished to hang out with on a regular basis. Through theater showings and repeated appearances on video, characters like Clark Griswold, Andie, Ducky, Del Griffith, and Jefferson ‘Jake’ Edward Briggs became members of an ever broadening circle of friends, and a comforting group of individuals that maturing audiences felt they could turn to for comic relief, advice, and support. Many high school outsiders came to view The Breakfast Club as a manifesto for their own experiences, related to the sting of unrequited love in Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful, then found comfort in the rocky transition to adulthood undergone by the newlyweds in She’s Having a Baby.

From 1985 through 1989, Hughes films came out twice a year, like clockwork, and it is this period that saw the release of his signature films, among them: The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, She’s Having a Baby, The Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck, and Christmas Vacation. It is also this collection of films that saw the development of Hughes’ defining themes and concerns, most notably: the struggles between the classes, the experiences of society’s outsiders, the clash between youth and adult expectations, the struggle against absurd outside forces, and the dynamics of family life. In the process, Hughes employed a series of recurring character types that often possessed some autobiographical element from his own life. These included brash, charismatic young men; scatterbrained eccentric odd balls; jilted lovers; shy, neglected outsiders; bumbling, but successful parents; and militant, self important authority figures.

By 1987. Hughes began shifting his attention towards more adult film material, beginning with Planes, Trains & Automobiles, and continuing with She’s Having a Baby, which stands as his most autobiographical film, despite his efforts to disguise similarities between Kevin Bacon’s character Jefferson ‘Jake’ Edward Briggs and himself. Aside from Jake‘s dropping out a graduate school in New Mexico, as opposed to Hughes’ own brief undergraduate stint at the University of Arizona, the similarities are striking, right up to Jake’s appearance in Plane’s, Train & Automobiles on a New York City business trip for his advertising firm which is remarkably similar to the trips Hughes’ himself took for six years until he left advertising to join the Lampoon. In retrospect, these later projects have enjoyed the same appeal and fondness with audiences as the teenage films, but at the time of their release they showed a marked change in box office draw, to the point that the studios began urging Hughes to write something that once again had greater commercial appeal. After Uncle Buck, his next film would not only mark his first collaboration with a new director, but also bring an end to the developing themes of the past seven years.

Home Alone was released on November 16, 1990 and quickly went on to gross more than half a billion dollars worldwide, making it the most successful theatrical release that year. Its director, Chris Columbus, had made his debut three years earlier with Adventures In Babysitting, a family comedy set in Chicago, whose storyline and characters could just as easily have been penned by Hughes himself. The idea for Home Alone came about during the filming of scenes with Macaulay Culkin for Uncle Buck, and Hughes, who frequently completed scripts in two-day writing sprees, quickly completed the first draft, bragging that he wrote the last 40 pages in just eight hours. The success of this common childhood fantasy would catapult Culkin, Columbus, and Hughes into the Hollywood stratosphere, and it would be years before any of them would come back to earth. Though a marked departure in terms of story and theme, the script is arguably the strongest, most well structured of Hughes writing efforts to that point, a fact that would ultimately set up his downfall as he went on to repackage and pilfer the script endlessy for the better part of the next decade.

By 1992, Hughes’ work was becoming alarmingly repetitive. Aside from the charming 1991 film Curly Sue, productions with the Hughes Entertainment logo were beginning to show far too many similarities to one another, and most notably to Home Alone. Hughes releases were beginning to resemble repackaged goods whose false labels were slowly peeling away from the cans. Career Opportunities was a clear attempt to recapture the magic of Ferris Bueller by casting Matthew Broderick’s Freshman co-star Frank Whaley in the lead, and sprinkling the script with elements all too reminiscent of Home Alone, including the inexplicable appearance of bumbling crooks in the films last ten minutes, and a series of gags seemingly dropped from Kevin McAllister’s home, directly into a midwest Target store.. The film tanked, as did Dutch and Curly Sue, Hughes’ final directorial effort. In 1992 came Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, an entirely implausible, scene-for-scene remake of the original film, which went on to make $280 million. This same year came the release of Beethoven, written by Hughes under the name Edmond Dantes, in homage to the character in The Count of Monte Cristo. By the end of1997, Hughes had written a series of films that marked a clear departure from his signature themes, and his audience for the past decade had shifted. Instead of aiming for audiences in high school or just embarking on life after college, Hughes began chasing the children’s audience for its box-office money. It is hard to believe that the writer and director of The Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off could really have put much of his heart into the scripts for such films as Home Alone 2, Beethoven, Baby’s Day Out, Dennis the Menace Miracle On 34th Street, 101 Dalmatians, Home Alone 3 and most tellingly, Flubber.

For all appearances, the man who had ended his most famous short story by shooting Walt Disney in the leg, seemed to have become a puppet for the Walt Disney Studios, endlessly rewriting the same script for whichever company would ante up with the biggest check. Perhaps it is telling that the name under which Hughes began to ghostwrite such movies as the Beethoven series is that of a literary character who used a lost fortune to perpetrate a massive fraud for the purpose of revenge. Did Hughes feel that his audience had left him, or did he simply abandon them? Was he always just in it for the money? It would be several more years before anything new appeared from the Hughes film canon to argue otherwise.

In 1998, audiences in three Chicago area theaters were given little more than a week to see for themselves what had been on John Hughes’ mind for the better part of a decade, and the results would be quite familiar, if distinctly darker than they had remembered. With the very limited release of Reach The Rock, Hughes returned to small town America, more specifically to Shermer, Illinois, the fictional setting of virtually all of his earlier films, where white, middle class teenagers from large, two story brick houses staged teenaged rebellions as they tried to discover and define themselves. That their acts of rebellion were often largely benign, 1950’s style revolts were beside the point, the thrill in the films was the fun of leaving detention, skipping school on the first day of spring, or fighting against logic for the chance at true love. Shermer is a town where the fine details of daily life are what really count. More than 11 years after Steve Martin’s Neil Page had safely arrived home for Thanksgiving dinner, Hughes brought audiences back to Shermer for one hot summer night and the conclusion of another high school drama. The themes and the characters were again familiar, but the story was refreshingly different from anything he had written over the past decade, and the mood of the piece was strikingly somber. In a final attempt to escape small town life, Robin Fleming, a Shermer ‘townie’ four years out of high school, gets himself arrested and thrown in the local sheriff’s office. He then proceeds to taunt the police chief and sneak out of his cell, carrying out a series of elaborate pranks involving properties owned by his ex-girlfriend’s father. As Robin’s plan to lure his ex back to him becomes clear, the big questions of the 80’s Hughes film begin to play out again, and the audience is once more immersed in a story of the rich vs. the poor, and each individual’s struggle to define himself. Though Reach the Rock is an imperfect, slow-paced film, it is a shame that Universal, the studio producing it, did not make a greater effort to help the film find an audience, or more precisely, to help the film reclaim the Hughes audience that had so long ago given up on seeing any more of the films they enjoyed growing up with.

Since 1998, Hughes has only written two scripts, one entitled Just Visiting, an unsuccessful remake of a French time -traveling comedy, and the other the cookie cutter Jennifer Lopez vehicle Maid In Manhattan, tellingly written under the Edmond Dantes moniker. In that same period of time, filmdom has been blessed with Beethoven’s 3rd, Beethoven’s 4th, Home Alone 4, and Beethoven’s 5th, which for all purposes were not necessarily produced under Hughes’ watchful eye, but with nothing of real substance or credit to his name on the horizon, leave little to fight off the sour taste his career is beginning to leave in the mouths of fans everywhere.

The big question is whether Hughes ever had his heart in his work in the first place, or whether, coming from an advertising background and the cynical writing offices of National Lampoon, he was simply interested in lining his bank account, locking up his retirement, and padding his own ass. From 1983 to 1990, Hughes wrote some of the funniest, most insightful family and teenage comedies ever produced in Hollywood, and audiences clearly connected with the man and his work. Yet by the mid-80’s it was clear that Hughes had hit a rut. While he still had the ability to entertain and relate to the members of his audience, his recipes were growing thin. He recovered with the production of Planes, Train & Automobiles and She’s Having a Baby, and reached his pinnacle as an accomplished writer of family fare with Home Alone, but aside from one entertaining if manipulative film with Curly Sue, and a fine return to form with Reach the Rock, Hughes has done little to cement his reputation with his audience. His better films were always the more personal ones, the stories one could imagine Jake Briggs typing late into the night. He clearly had a connection with the teenagers growing up in the 80’s, one that continued with his transition towards adult fare and the trials of growing up in She’s Having a Baby, but from then on out he dropped the ball, abandoning the very people who made him a success. The members of The Breakfast Club complained that people saw them in “the simplest terms, the most convenient definitions.” Perhaps John Hughes also began seeing his characters this way, or even worse, as simple dollars and cents, and because of this he lost his connection, and his voice.

Since 1992, his box office has steadily decreased. Perhaps his fans found refuge in the works of another director, or found comfort in television shows like Friends, which in many ways picked up where Hughes left off in tracking the experiences of young adulthood. But now that Friends has taken its last bow, audiences are again ready to find a voice for their generation. Whether or not Hughes was ever writing in the pursuit of truth, or just for personal gain, the facts are simple, if he can find it in himself to again remember the experiences of young adulthood, he may reclaim his audience. At the very least, there's money to be made in it.

The Pixar Story

attebery@gmail.com — 2008-12-02T06:30:00-08:00

They say a lot of businesses start out in peoples' garages during economic downturns. Needless to say, the back of my brain has been cooking lately with ideas for the next big thing.

The most famous of the 70s garage success stories is hands down that of Steve Jobs and Apple Computer. Since plenty has already been written about the mercurial mastermind behind the iPhone (and every exciting computer development for the last decade), I'm gonna do my best to avoid adding to the rubble of Steve P. Jobs hero worship, but I will point out the fact that he also played a leading role in the history of yet another business and creative success story, one that basically started in George Lucas' garage (depending on how you want to look at it).

If a copy of Pixar's latest home video release, Wall•E, is sitting on your table, either the DVD or the Blu-ray, then you're good to go. If you don't have it yet, then do yourself a favor and pick up a copy. Got it? OK, good, now skip the movie and jump to the supplements. See the feature documentary The Pixar Story by Leslie Iwerks? That's what you want to watch first. For anyone who has ever aspired to work in the creative fields, only to find themselves seemingly shut out by the powers that be, this is the story you want to know more about. This 88 minute documentary covers the history of Pixar animation, from its time as a fledgling unit of George Lucas' Lucas Film Ltd. / Industrial Light and Magic, to its period as a refuge for animation apprentices banished by the flailing Walt Disney Animation Studios of the early 1980s, this film gives us an inside glimpse at the men behind the magic that's been lighting up movies screens since Thanksgiving weekend 1995 when John Lasseter and company finally fulfilled their dreams of releasing a feature length computer animated film, and most importantly, fulfilled their dream while giving us a film with heart.

In creative endeavors, there's a fine line between stubborn and principled, determined and bullheaded. The story of Pixar's beginnings and negotiated groundwork with Disney is a perfect example of how to get it just right, and how to stick to your guns for all the right reasons. After all, there must be something to be learned from the guys who brought us Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The incredibles, Ratatouille, and Wall•E

Secrets of the Little Black Book

attebery@gmail.com — 2008-12-01T23:26:45-08:00

This will be a quickie, cause there's not that much to say. I just want to point out my own folly, assume it's one shared with numerous writers before me, and do my best to convince the writers out there, the ones like me, who shudder at any thought of conventionality and going with the herd, to put aside one little hang-up and trust me on this one.

Buy this notebook. Or any of these notebooks.

Trust me, they've got TONS of em, you'll find one you like.

Yeah, yeah, they've become a cliche of wanna be writers sitting in coffee shops, hoping someone will look over and think, "Ohh, who is that?" But you know what else, some cliches are cliches because folks have found something that works.

I used to outline on lined legal pads. I'd start a sentence, make a mistake, scratch it out, then hate the look of the scratched out OUTLINE, tear out the page, and start over. As if my outlines needed to be perfect. Just get the stuff out there. This notebook is like your bound portfolio of "dreamer's cocktail napkins." Embrace imperfection, get your ideas down, the hold that sucker shut with the elastic band. No one will see!

Brilliant!

In a few years, flip back through those chicken scratch notations and marvel at the way your rough ideas became a completed work on your shelf!

How to Kindle for Fun and Profit.

attebery@gmail.com — 2008-11-30T13:00:49-08:00

I recently took the plunge and purchased a Kindle. The reasons were two-fold, first, my novel was coming out as a Kindle title, and I needed to be sure the formatting was just right before I'd feel comfortable selling copies online. The other reason is that despite my initial reservations regarding this little gadget (I was a brick and mortar bookstore employee for 8 years), I was starting to get the feeling that the Kindle would never replace books, but it just might carve out a new category for readers, authors, and publishers. I think that's exactly what's happening, and now that Oprah has taken down her sword and knighted Jeff Bezos' "folly," the little-gadget-that-could-but-didn't-for-it's-first-year, is making some serious inroads (the wait time is 11 - 13 weeks as I write this).

I've read a number of titles already, some surprisingly fascinating (including Life's a Campaign and Hardball), some promising, but dull as dishwater (Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life), some inspiring, but dripping with snake oil (The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich), and some delivered in a supremely satisfying 30 seconds, despite being sold out at bookstores across the country (Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope). The experience has been book-like and not at the same time. I also have a number of thoughts on the physical design of the reader itself, all of which I'll be covering in a new Cryptic Bindings web magazine in the coming weeks, but at the moment, I just want to point out two ways in which the Kindle can be an invaluable tool for people who work in publishing.

First is the ability to publish your own books without risking any of your own money. Cryptic Bindings (the publisher of this site) just put out my first novel in November. Doing so cost the publisher many hundreds of dollars, including costs for editing, formatting, cover design, database registration, publishing expenses, distribution, and press releases. The Kindle edition of the book didn't cost Cryptic one penny. Sure, there were the expenses accrued in preparing the manuscript for publication, but this second avenue of release was as simple as preparing the digital files and submitting them through Amazon's digital text platform, where the price of the Kindle edition was set, and within days, the book was available as an electronic edition through the world's biggest online retailer. Depending on the subject of your book, and the the timeliness of its release, the inherent possibilities of such accessible and speedy distribution are mind-boggling.

Coming at the publishing world from another angle, the Kindle also makes for an interesting, and as yet little publicized tool for working your way through manuscripts and the slush-pile. Every Kindle comes with its own email address. By sending a Word or html manuscript file to your_email@kindle.com, you can convert this manuscript to a digital file which is then wirelessly transmitted to your reader, all for the cost of ten cents. Now young Joe Editor can enjoy his trip on the Long Island railroad while carrying only his MacBook Air and his Kindle, loaded up with a dozen manuscripts, rather than lugging roughly, say 3600 sheets of double-spaced paper back and forth from Manhattan to the North Shore. Pretty handy. Good for Joe. Good for his back. And doggone it, good for the environment.

As I said, my thoughts on the Kindle, as well as my reviews of the latest and hottest titles, will soon be available regularly at Digital Dust Jacket, but I've definitely found the Kindle to be an invaluable tool for someone working in writing and publishing. If you haven't done so yet, take the leap and give it a try!

Club 55 - St. Tropez

attebery@gmail.com — 2008-08-16T07:00:00-07:00

As we wind through the dog days of summer, and August starts rolling into fall (and man can you feel it in the evenings here in Seattle), take heart that somewhere in the world, celebrities and the globe-trotting elite are rubbing elbows on sandy beaches and sipping glasses of Rose over baskets of grilled bread. That's right, I'm talking about Club 55, the premier beach club and dining locale in Saint Tropez. Google the name or peruse Page Six any July or August day, and you're sure to see photos and read recaps of the hedonistic exploits occurring daily in this Mediterranean hotspot. I'll save the history for Wikipedia and the God Created Woman film fans, but 'nuff to say, this place earns every bit of it's world class reputation. From the previously mentioned grilled bread (can you tell I'm a fan) to the mesclun salad to the ever flowing Rose, everything here is tiptop, top notch, and utterly dependable. This is the place to see and be seen. Oh, and while you're watching, keep your eyes peeled for regulars like Jack Nicholson, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas, Bono, and of course, Electron Toast's idol: Richard Branson.

For your viewing pleasure, a video detailing a visit to Club 55.

The Plaza Hotel Residences

attebery@gmail.com — 2008-06-28T07:00:00-07:00

So, back to the plan. The bi-coastal lifestyle To be honest, I’m not entirely sure Manhattan would be my first choice for east coast haunts, but man, unless I could find an opening in the Dakota building, my dream choice of an NYC address would have to be The Plaza. On Frasier, Niles’ dream was always to have a one word address which he finally obtained when he moved into... The Dakota (hmm...that was a convenient bookend, but wrong coast. His Dakota was in Seattle). Anyway, just imagin being able to tell your guests, “Mike Attebery. The Plaza.” That has got one sweeeet ring to it!

Now, you too can own a residence at The Plaza, either by purchasing your own condominium, or buying one of the ever trendy new condominium hotel suites. Entry prices start at $2.5 and $1.5 Million respectively, which frankly, doesn’t seem half bad! Be curious to see how many units at these price points are actually available, and where in the building they’re actually located (!) but thats another story.

Of course, if you just want to stay there for a weekend (a special weekend), there are still rooms available as of March 1, 2008, now that renovations are completed and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts (one of my faves) has taken over management of the property.

The Plaza Hotel Residences

RapidWeaver

attebery@gmail.com — 2008-06-10T07:00:00-07:00

I have never been savvy when it comes to web design. I like to think I have visual and design sense, but I’m an idiot when it comes to the nitty gritty of web software and html and who knows what else! Java? Flash?! ACK! Every website I’ve ever been involved in (including this one) was designed by my college roommate Jay. Until now!

My day job requires the tiniest bit of html know-how -- meaning, I can stumble through the trial and error involved in making a link work in a block of text. If you really hold my feet to the fire, I can try to figure our why a paragraph is coming out looking wonky onscreen, but aside from that, I’ve always been helpless when it comes to anything web related. I recently asked Jay to help me find a program that would let me put up a simple, but professional looking website for my publishing company, Cryptic Bindings. The software he settled on was easier than I could have hoped for. Aside from a couple of snags resulting from my own inability to keep track of my administrative webhosting passwords, I was able to get the hang of laying out a simple website in just an hour or so. After a couple of months of playing around, and after testing out a few different updates to the site, I’ve worked out a few simple, round about shortcuts that have let me make the site seem more complicated that it actually is.

So what’s the software? RapidWeaver (Which is currently only available for Mac OS X)

For $59 (less if you look online for some specials) you get the software, and an assortment of around three dozen professionally designed templates, which you can further customize through predesigned options, working in the html, or (as I did it) by designing the pieces of your page in another program (I used Apple’s Pages and Preview programs) and dropping the “pictures” of text and images into the RapidWeaver window. The software has two options “edit” and “preview.” It’s basically drag and drop. You bring all the text and pictures into the program under the edit option. Center it. Format it. Choose what word is a link. Which is ones lead to what pages on the site. Choose you output template. Then select preview and ta-da there it is! If you like what you see, enter your webhosting information in the appropriate boxes, click “publish,” and in a few seconds, your site is up and running. It really is that simple. You may encounter one or two bumps along the way (in my case it was a mixup in passwords) but if I can get it all figured out, I’m sure you can too.

Here’s my site if you want to check it out.

Try it for yourself and send in the links.

Tom Kundig - Seattle Architect

attebery@gmail.com — 2008-06-09T07:00:00-07:00

At one time, everyone at Electron Toast has felt torn between different locations and, frequently, alternate coasts. Then we settled on a simple solution. Instead of choosing just one locale, why not aim for a bicoastal lifestyle and enjoy the best of everything? Since we all have roots back east, but work frequently brings us out west, this made perfect sense.

Personally, while I l find New York exciting, there’s something about the Pacific Northwest, Seattle in particular, that just feels right. The first time I visited the area I was struck by the way nature and the elements seem so intwined with the character of the city itself. Driving through Seattle down I-5, you frequently pass under concrete overpasses that are literally draped with cascading vines that themselves grow out of planters from which evergreens shoot up towards the (frequently gray) skies.

Pretty cool.

In comparison, when you touch down at JFK and catch a cab into the city, New York can seem pretty damn dingy.

Then there’s the vibe of Seattle. Well, I’ll cut to the chase, the whole place in unique unto itself, and for me, it just seems right. Now that I’ve set down roots in Seattle, it’s been interesting to get a feel for the architecture and homes that seem to embody the feel of the area. I would never have thought modern home design could appeal to me as much as it does, but there’s something about basic, clean construction elements, when combined with a sense of place (think trees shooting up from concrete planters) that finds a natural balance, and the work of one architect in particular seems to grab my attention again and again.

Tom Kundig of Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects has his fingers on the pulse of something truly unique and inherently Northwest. As apparent in his project highlights on the firm’s website, Kundig has a masterful touch when it comes to blending simple wood, concrete, and steel craftmanship into natural settings. If I didn’t already have a place in the area, Kundig's first mixed use development would certainly stand out as something I’d be interested in. Ultimately, I’d love to have the guy design a stand alone residence for myself and my family. Looking through Kundig’s body of work can be mind boggling at times. I’ve just finished going through his book and found any number of ideas I’d like to incorporate into renovations of my own Seattle residence.

If you’re in the market for a more laid back lifestyle in an incredible city, and you’d like to explore some options for staking a claim on your own piece of the Emerald City, I’d certainly recommend exploring the 1111 Pike Street project. It looks like a way to enjoy the one of a kind, much sought after architectural style of a man whose work usually comes at a significantly higher price.

For a look at some of Kundig’s single family residential projects, I highly recommend his book: Tom Kundig: Houses.

I’m currently working my way through a retrospective of the collective works of the partners at Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects. In particular, it seems Jim Olson might have his own unique style, one which, at first glance, seems to lend his projects a warmer, more personal appeal that I also find quite appealing. I’ll report back to you once I’ve finished the second book: Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen.

Architecture like this is enough to make a person start collecting houses!

You'll Never Get Rich Working For Your Boss

attebery@gmail.com — 2008-06-09T06:30:00-07:00

I've run across two books this summer that have instantly become my "go to gifts" for friends and family. The first was more of a lighthearted, but in my opinion, incredibly insightful work of fiction called The Art Of Racing In The Rain. The second book is a title I'm determined to give to everyone I know who shows signs of possessing an entrepreneurial spark. That book is Felix Dennis' How To Get Rich, which features one of the cheesiest titles imaginable, but which also provides some of the most insightful and reassuring advice I have run across in regards to starting one's own business. Since Dennis really has walked the walk when it comes to making billions in the publishing world, and since my own personal business interests lie in writing and publishing, the insights in his book often apply DIRECTLY to questions and concerns I have had in relation to my own business endeavors. Dennis' main point throughout is that to be rich, truly rich (not "comfortably poor" as he puts it) you have to take the risks and pursue your own endeavors. In the process, he eliminates many of the old (and ongoing) excuses I've heard coming from my own mouth and the mouths of my friends for year. Sure, there's a laundry list of reasons why EVERYTHING can fail, but if you think of things in terms of fun, like a game, whats the worst, the absolute worst that can happen, particularly if you have nothing to lose from the get go? Like I said, the title makes this sound like the work of a shifty flim flam man, but the advice, the stories, and the thinking, from cover to cover, struck so many chords with my own work philosphy, that I was completely won over, and encouraged in the personal projects I have been working on for the last yar. Do yourself a favor, pick up this book. Unless you're still looking for excuses for taking a risk and going for the glory, you'll be glad you did.

A Toast To Richard Branson: Aim For The Top

attebery@gmail.com — 2008-06-09T06:00:00-07:00

FORTUNE Magazine published a profile of Sir Richard Branson in October 2003 that has no doubt inspired countless entrepreneurs and businessmen ever since. The folks here at Electron Toast were no different. We’ve held on to our battered copy of that article (pilfered from the Starbucks Corporate gym) and revisited it frequently over last half decade.

So what is it about Branson that captures our imaginations? Well, just about everything. With an estimated net worth of $4 billion, a business empire encompassing more than 360 companies (including airlines, record labels, and space tourism) numerous world record setting adventure exploits, and most famously, his own ISLAND the man is living the life we all dreamed of as kids, and apparently having more fun than any billionaire alive. Compare a photo of Branson to one of similarly wealthy individuals, from Donald Trump to George Lucas, and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who seems to be having anywhere near as much fun.

Yes, Branson is a businessman, but more than anything, he’s the ultimate example of a risk taker living life on his own terms. As he’s so frequently quoted as saying, he doesn’t think of work as work and play as play “it’s all living.” We’d argue that when you’re hopscotching around the world, traveling on your own planes, and spending time on your very own island, you’re not just living, you’re thriving. And while our personal aspirations might lie in differing fields, there’s a creative energy in all of Branson’s ventures and self-promotion that strikes a similar creative chord deep within our toasty hearts. Sure, there are richer folks out there, but Branson is the one we want to emulate. If you aim high, you’re bound to hit something good. For a high school dropout who clearly eschews research and market studies (going instead with gut feelings and personal interests), Branson is the perfect example of following your passions and letting wealth and success catch up to you along the way.

In addition to the FORTUNE piece, other must read titles, dictated from Branson’s mouth to your ears include:

Bathroom reading: Screw It, Let's Do It
Poolside / plane reading: Losing My Virginity