Yesterday I was on my way to San Francisco to present two films as the SF Docfest. I happened to be sitting next to an older gentleman, Herbert Reichlin. He was reading the MENSA magazine and we discussed the letters section in which 4 different people had profoundly different responses to an article in the previous issue in which the...
I recently re-subscribed to the New Yorker. I hadn't renewed a few years ago because I had gotten overwhelmed by issues piling up on the back of the toilet. However, I came to miss the writing and the connection to what's "happening," culturally-speaking. When the 25 dollar subscription offer came for the 10th time, I decided I couldn't refuse....
Over the last couple of years, I have focused a lot of energy on learning to respond to situations rather than react to them. Our reactions are seemingly "automatic," but they are based on programming; on our learned experience and our genetic pre-disposition. For example, if there's a loud sound, one person might react with fright while another might respond...
Last year at around this time I wrote a post about our efforts to get our previous film "Who Took Johnny" seen. There are similarities between that film and "All The Rage" in terms of public interest in the character/story/film and the realities of distribution that we have to deal with. Since I covered so much of the same...
This morning we went to a mediation service at a local buddhist temple. It was only our second visit. I did not grow up going to synagogue or church. At camp we had quaker meeting. It was mostly silence, and despite my boy like fidgety nature I actually kind of liked it. My father was deeply cynical about...
This morning I tried to go back to bed after driving my 11 year old daughter to school. Despite my heavy eyelids, I had trouble going back to sleep because once I get under the warm covers I start to write. Often, I ruminate on several different ideas and themes and then I struggle to make sense of how...
Last weekend someone sent me a short video about “earthing”, or “grounding”. The idea is, like electrical appliances, our bodies need to be grounded to avoid holding onto concentrations of electricity that cause shocks, and inflammation in our bodies. We certainly conduct energy. Anyone who has every rubbed their feet on a carpet in order to build up a...
- h/t title by Ted G. I work a little bit too much, so when my daughter told me that I was taking her and her friends to Busch Gardens amusement park on Good Friday I didn't say no right away. Busch Gardens is about 3.5 hours away from where we live, so I suggested that we go to a...
Cathryn J Ramin's heavily researched look at the back pain industry, "Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting On the Road to Recovery", is painfully satisfying to read - especially for people who have struggled with back pain and the surgeons, pushers, and needle jockeys that profit from it. Ramin's book is framed by her personal journey to...
"All The Rage" focuses on Dr. Sarno, but it's also about much broader themes related to how ideas move through the world. We think through the lens and language of our culture; there's no escaping it. Often times we are completely unaware of how deeply our culture shapes our sense of right and wrong, as well as accepted/acceptable...
post by Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley In the mid 18th century, before the world knew about germs, a Hungarian doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis worked in an Austrian hospital where the death rate of women giving birth was 13% because so many were dying of fever after birth. At a nearby midwifery, the death rate was only 2%. Semmelweis began looking...