Contra CK, I think Andy Warhol was a hack. And I suspect Mr. Warhol was perfectly aware of it. This, however, is an interesting find. More…

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

posted by: CK Anderson  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

All week long we’ve been filming a series of TV spots for the City of Greeley, Colorado, as part of our Greeley Unexpected campaign. It’s the second year in a row we’ve traveled to northern Colorado to shoot with the production team from ILF Media. Our citizen subjects have included a guest conductor for the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra (the oldest symphony orchestra west of the Mississippi) to a world-class archer. Shown above are students from Greeley West High School along with our featured subject, teacher Jessica Cooney.

posted by: CK Anderson  |  category: on location  |  make a comment

When thinking of the voice for Avista’s 125th anniversary film, we knew it needed to be special. Not just authoritative and distinct, but somewhat unexpected. The personality of the narration plays an important role in viewers’ minds; wouldn’t it be great if that voice had a special connection to Spokane—the place where Avista began operations in 1889?

Turns out that one of America’s great lyric baritones, Thomas Hampson, met all the criteria. And fortunately for us, he agreed to lend his talent. Before receiving his Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording and performing in major opera houses and concert halls around the world, Thomas called Spokane home, attending Eastern Washington University and Fort Wright College. A true professional with an amazing vocal range, he was a delight to work with.

posted by: CK Anderson  |  category: on location the design life  |  make a comment

While suspecting as much, I’ve long wondered whether the sentiments in this piece are actually true. So I perused some of the album reviews on rollingstone.com to see what all the fuss is about. Turns out Ted Gioia is on to something when he complains that current music criticism contains  no “in-depth discussion of music” whatsoever. I mean none.

To see how bad things have become, I grabbed a 40-year-old copy of Rolling Stone from helveticka’s library* and scanned the record reviews. Guess what? No “cogent analysis” there either. The only difference I can see between the two is that the new stuff is little more than a string of tenuous comparisons with the old.

Yes, it’s probably—maybe even demonstrably—true that today’s pop listener is musically illiterate. I think a lot of it has to do with the remarkable lack of imagination among current “artists.” And public schools, which all too often dump their music programs at the first hint of a budget crisis, should share some of the blame. But music critics? I’m not so sure.

*That’s right: we have a library. 

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment

“I would be wonderful with a 100-year moratorium on literature talk, if you shut down all literature departments, close the book reviews, ban the critics. The readers should be alone with the books, and if anyone dared to say anything about them, they would be shot or imprisoned right on the spot. Yes, shot. A 100-year moratorium on insufferable literary talk. You should let people fight with the books on their own and rediscover what they are and what they are not. Anything other than this talk. Fairytale talk. As soon as you generalize, you are in a completely different universe than that of literature, and there’s no bridge between the two.” – Philip Roth

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

If you’re curious about “the extent to which traditional, formal rules of spelling and punctuation are relevant to branding”—and really, why wouldn’t you be?—you’ll want to check this out.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment