Why Should We Demonstrate? A Conversation

LOGAN: So it’s not necessarily the idea that media coverage of this event will make anyone that has any power change anything, but that it will inspire us to change stuff ourselves?

SAM: I mean, partially. Anything like this always has 500 million different goals and other things that it’s going to accomplish without even intending to accomplish them. So for example, one thing that I thought when I saw a reporter ask the President a question about Occupy Wall Street, and he used it as a chance to try to, he tried to say he agreed with the protesters, even though the reporter had framed the question as like, clearly they think you haven’t done enough and are part of the problem, like, just the fact that that interchange took place! Before Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party were the loud people who were in the street doing things and making noise, which set a tone so that when reporters asked the President a question, they would say, “It seems like a lot of people out there think that government is too big and is spending a lot of money and that taxes are too high, what are you going to do about that?” Right? And now the question was from the opposite direction. And so simply having that be a thing that happens is important.

Source: The Awl
Published: Oct 12, 2011
Length: 18 minutes (4,586 words)

A Friendly Chat: Greg Karais, Yukon Enthusiast and Publisher of Four Profitable Magazines with Wily Business Models–and a 20-Hour Workweek

“Yukon, North of Ordinary was based as an in-flight magazine. So what we did, the first two years, we put a lot of locals in the magazine, to build loyalty with the locals. And there is also a huge loyalty to Air North, because they broke Canadian Air, or Air Canada’s prices. Air Canada used to have outrageous prices, and with Air North, the fares got a lot cheaper. So there’s a lot of loyalty to them. So we put a lot of people in the magazine, so people would go, oh I know that person. It literally feels like everybody in the Yukon knows someone that’s been in the magazine.”

Source: The Awl
Published: Jul 28, 2009
Length: 11 minutes (2,890 words)

A Friendly Chat: Michael K, Web Entrepreneur, Blogger, Pottymouth

Michael K runs and writes the website Dlisted, which gives a rundown on the day’s celebrity comings and goings with crude humor that often verges on the vulgar (though he disputes this point). “I think the boundaries change each day. Some days I’m like, okay you’re not going to make fun of children, and some days its like, you’re not going to make fun of Michelle Williams because of the whole Heath Ledger thing. But then here are some stories you have to do whether or not you can make them funny. But there are some stories that if I can’t find any humor in it, I don’t touch it.”

Source: The Awl
Published: Jul 17, 2009
Length: 8 minutes (2,158 words)

Michael Anthony Steele: Kids Screenwriter, Novelizationist, Ad Man

“It’s different for each age group. For example, one of the original Barney writers, Steve White, had a good piece of advice for writing for preschool kids and kids in general. He said, you can use all the vaudeville pratfalls and the oldest joke in the book on these kids because they’ve never seen it before, it’s brand new to them and it’s really funny to them. Stuff that we’d think was corny, and oh my gosh, that’s such an old joke or that’s such a bad joke, kids love it.”

Source: The Awl
Published: Jul 7, 2009
Length: 11 minutes (2,994 words)

A Friendly Chat: Stephen J. Cannell, Novelist, Co-Creator of ’21 Jump Street’ And ‘The A-Team’

Stephen J. Cannell is the creator of 40 television shows, including 21 Jump Street, The Rockford Files, The A-Team, and The Commish. “The hardest work of writing a book or a screenplay is plotting it, and I think that’s why so many writers choose not to do it. Because you sit there and you scratch your head and think, what am I going to do next? What’s the complication at the top of act two, how do I make the story more devastating than it appeared at the beginning, what are my adversaries doing, what’s their move, how do I keep them in motion instead of standing still, waiting to be caught.”

Source: The Awl
Published: Jun 24, 2009
Length: 7 minutes (1,825 words)

A Friendly Chat: Damian Mason, Farmer, Corporate Comedian, Bill Clinton Impersonator

“Years ago I was a lighting fixture salesperson, and when I was 25 years old, I wasn’t enjoying my job that much. I quit my job because I won a Halloween contest dressed up as Bill Clinton in San Diego. I quit my job and became a professional Bill Clinton impersonator. My company used me at trade shows and meetings. I’d dress up as Bill Clinton, make some yuks, have some laughs, take some pictures. I started doing shows on the side, companies, groups, anyone that had 300 bucks I’d do a show for them.”

Source: The Awl
Published: Jun 15, 2009
Length: 10 minutes (2,726 words)