PicoBlog

Good morning. Let’s basketball. At the Café-Concert: The Song of the Dog; Edgar Degas; 1875-77 The interesting thing about the arguments about who is or is not capable of being “the face of the NBA” is that rarely is there just one personality who singlehandedly dominates the NBA fandom. For the past decade, LeBron James and Stephen Curry have been the faces of the league. Before Steph, Kobe Bryant was at a similar level of fame to LeBron.

Why is Speed, which arrived 30 years ago this week, one of the more exciting and enduring action movies of the 1990s?  It featured Keanu Reeves — an actor on whom the jury was still out at the time — in the sort of authoritative action performance that he’s still regularly delivering three decades later. It found a theretofore underappreciated performer, Sandra Bullock, and gave her a star-making role; both Reeves and Bullock were launched into A-list careers that have continued all these years later.

Nihilism is the notion that nothing matters in life because there is no cosmic meaning to be found. The latter statement is a good corrective for the billions of people who insist that such meaning is available, usually provided by the existence of a God that they worship—a most undignified action for… ncG1vNJzZmiemZzAqrrWoqWtnaJjwLau0q2YnKNemLyue89oq6GdoprAbrrOZqqum5hiwam1zaBkmqtdlnqprc%2BpsGammZ22rbXSrQ%3D%3D

Hey y’all, Last weekend I spent a day at my mom’s house sifting through my childhood. Among the artifacts I saved or discarded from the first two decades of my life: a hundred pounds of notebooks and binders from high school, random junk like chem lab aprons I never returned, letters from former girlfriends, bank statements, rental agreements, brochures, ticket stubs, wristbands, notes, old sketchbooks, a stack of song lyrics and guitar tablature several inches thick, tuition statements, computer manuals, hint books, baseball cards, floppy disks, and best of all, toys.

Weekly exploration of an multidisciplinary artist and best selling author sharing their creative process and offering resources for the curious mind. Art, Musings + Resource for big feelers, deep thinkers, makers and tender humans. By Moorea Seal 💛🧡🤎 · Over 12,000 subscribersNo thanksncG1vNJzZmiln6S%2Fpq3SnpilZqOqr7TAwJyiZ5ufonw%3D

Dear Classical Wisdom Kids,  This week’s lesson is dear to my heart... because I LOVE theater! I have been acting, directing, putting on puppet shows and musical re-enactments for as long as I can remember. I proudly called myself a Thespian... I even founded a theater company 20 years ago, which is still going strong.  And yet, for the longest time, I didn’t even know why we used the term Thespian.

(Don’t read if you don’t want to find out how this thing ends) I’ve occasionally joked that I was into true crime before true crime was cool, and in a way, that’s probably right. I started reading true crime when I was a teenager in the late 80s/early 90s, long before there was any outlet to discuss it with other people. While I would often get burned out and stop for a while, I’d always return to it.

NEW STANDARD DISCLAIMER: This newsletter aggressively spoils things. In our ongoing effort to make our profession seem really complex and demanding (instead of just making increasingly silly shit up), writers will often talk about world-building. That essentially means describing and explaining the universe that the story takes place in, everything from the laws of physics (do your winters last for decades?) to magic systems to politics, religion, ethnic and racial concerns—everything.

Since I gave Tonya Leigh my email address on September 27th, she’s sent me 17 emails. In those 17 emails, she’s promised that she can “make money feel beautiful,” she’s assured me that with her help, I could “replace the weight of self-limiting beliefs, monotonous routines, and internalized criticism with possibilities, love and enchantment.” I could even “connect with the most extraordinary community and perhaps meet [my] best friends.” On her website, she reveals that she can also help me reframe my relationship to food, personal style, home decor, my career, and embrace the “extraordinary woman I truly am.