PicoBlog

I was once part of a group of leaders working on a cross-company initiative. We all had different points of view, and every conversation felt like we were going in circles. Because we could not align on anything, our teams were unsure what to do, and this conflict continued all the way down through our organizations. Share It got to the point where we weren't talking to each other; we were talking past each other.

From the time I was 10, I’ve been obsessed with what it means to grow older. I’m curious about what it means to others, of all ages, and so I invite them to take “The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire.”Here, writer, podcaster, veteran magazine editor, and newsletter-er, and all around Gen X icon responds. -Sari BottonKim France writes the newsletter Girls of a Certain Age, and co-hosts the podcast Everything is Fine. Both are for women over 40.

John Lee Hancock is a filmmaker who’s impossible to explain, to define, to pin down - which, after having a lengthy conversation with him, I would say is just how he likes it. The reasons for this are largely threefold: he’s a writer who sometimes directs his own work, a director who sometimes directs other people’s work, and a filmmaker who’s largely averse to interrogating his own creative motivations. In other words, this was a challenging interview for me, but somehow, by the end, more gratifying for it.

Kay Cannon set out to make people laugh onstage doing improv and sketch, but when Tina Fey asked her to join the writers’ room of “30 Rock” back in 2006, she did what any sane actor would do - she said, “Are you kidding me, Tina? Absofuckinglutely!” Okay, I don’t know if those were her exact words, I didn’t ask. But let’s go with it all the same. Nearly twenty years later, Kay has racked up an epic amount of TV experience (including “Girlboss”, a series she created), wrote all three Pitch Perfect (2012 to 17), and wrote and/or directed three more feature films (Blockers (2018) as director, Let It Snow (2019) as writer, and Cinderella (2021) as both).

Happy Sunday! We’re back with another issue of Animation Obsessive, and it goes like this: Before we continue — readers power this newsletter, and we’d love for you to join us: Now, let’s go! For a certain generation, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends (2004–2009) is a modern cartoon classic. This series, inspired by stuff like ‘60s psychedelia and The Muppet Show, was one of the best and biggest of its time.

If you asked me what year I went on vacation to Italy or took my parents and in-laws on a cruise to Alaska, I would have to stop and think about it.  We all have certain years that are touchstones in our lives. These periods are close together when we are young, but they grow farther and farther apart as we get older until everything blends into a massive blur. So, to place an event, we use milestones to figure out the date.

Hey there, It’s been a while since I’ve sent out a message, but I like to make sure I have a good amount of content or something really cool before I send out a message. Recently, I took on a big project and I wrote an emulator in JavaScript for a system called Chip-8. Here’s a demo of the project. I finally got around to documenting the whole process, so please check it out here:

A newsletter about the women who have been written out of the literary canon, written out of history, and written out of contemporary literary coverage. Written by freelance writer Kelsey McKinney. By Kelsey McKinney · Over 2,000 subscribersNo thanksncG1vNJzZmijlaHApsXMnKKipp6axm%2B%2F1JuqrZmToHuku8xo

Sometimes I engage in a little capitalism, as a treat. Like many, my first flirtation with caffeine was through Starbucks. Starbucks essentially created modern coffee “culture,” meaning it transformed imported coffee culture into an Americanized grab-and-go sugar factory, exporting this unrecognizable version back to its origins. Now, Starbucks delivers eviction notices to coffee bars in Europe. Out with the old and in with the new. I have a morbid curiosity toward Americanization, monopolization, insert fancy verb here.