“The most exceptional inventions forecast our needs and allow us to realize our full potential. They bring us joy and a sense of brilliance; they make us feel skilled, competent, and more able. Good technology makes us feel like we are inching closer to who we truly want to be.”
“We might forget too easily that these nodes, these usernames, are in fact people. People deserve more than the term username; they’ve earned a richer biography than a series of labels or a list of favorite movies. We must not allow interactions online to be perpetually stuck in the conversational depth of a first date. We can shun complex and shallow and embrace simple and deep.”
“The distance from my brain to my blog has shrunk, and, in the end, I think that will make me a better author.”
I’m very interested in this Jekyll thing he’s developed. Very interested. Some links I’ve explored:
“I keep staring at the pile of my pants next to my Ikea chair… they look like my life right now: sturdy Levi’s, not yet completely broken in, cheap brown belt that’s put in way more time than it should have… the whole thing at the same time awkward and graceful, leaning and bundled and thrown and drifted down into something comfortable looking. Zipper splayed open, pockets full of technology and loose change and receipts I hope my wife doesn’t find… These pants represent me, they’re the introduction. They’re not broken in yet… like me: a young guy, newly whispered into the right way to do this dad and husband thing. They’re blue, like me… you know, deep and shit.”
I wrote this while a little heady off some Fernet… Thought it needed to live somewhere – so, here it is.
As with the previous snippet, this one’s from an upcoming book-ish thing I’m putting together.
Conan O’Brien Kinetic Typography from Jacob Gilbreath on Vimeo.
Conan’s last words… Not sure if I already posted this… not sure. But it’s so great… so great.
“His [Leno’s] humor was so pedestrian and basic back then, but it was undeniably great, and I learned to respect that from him. It doesn’t matter what your subject is, you don’t have to be edgy in your subject matter. That’s just superficial horseshit, that you want to be talking about things nobody else does. If you have a strong point of view about something, choose that to talk about.”
AVC: Has performing stand-up gotten easier for you over the years?
LCK: Well, no, because I haven’t let it become easier, I try to keep it challenging. It’s easier if you cull from all your greatest hits and just do them. That’s easy, but it’s also probably suicide. [Laughs.] It’s harder now than it was earlier, but it’s way more compelling and inspiring and fun. It’s worth the traveling and everything now. I got really burnt out on travel, but not anymore. Because I don’t really care—unless I’m on some stupid train to Buffalo or somewhere, I’m not thinking of comfort. I’m poring over notes, listening to some old tapes, and being sure I make use of that show, because I start every year with a target date for that special, and it’s always a little too soon, so I’m always in the theater. So it’s harder, and I’m always trying to cull together material that I don’t really know well. If it works out, at the end of the year, I’ve got a completely honed, perfect sweet set. I know right where the sweet chunks are. I know right where the heavy artillery is, and I’ve got a reliably great hour. And I do it in front of a polished, perfect crowd and get it on tape. And that’s easy and fun and great, but it takes a year to get there. And when the special is done, I’m back to nothing, literally no material, not even a single joke I can tell onstage. So that keeps the cycle.
It was then I learned what a producer was – a Boss. It was then I learned I wanted to be a [Darryl Zanuck], not some half-assed actor shitting in his pants, desperate for a nod of approval.”
“What greater turn-on is there than knowing that at a time in another’s life your presence made the difference between growth and compromise?”
“There’s no A/B test for awesome.”