We’re in a world now where it’s not enough to be smart. You have to be curious. Curiosity is rare. That level of intelligence is rare. Probably the further up in a business you are, the less intelligent you need to be. At the entry stage, the sieve grows ever tighter and education can only do so much. The truth is we don’t manufacture that many really smart people. | | | | Maya Erskine & Anna Konkle are 7th graders in the year 2000. It ain't easy for girls. "PEN15" on HULU now.
(AwesomenessTV/Hulu) | | | | |  | “We’re in a world now where it’s not enough to be smart. You have to be curious. Curiosity is rare. That level of intelligence is rare. Probably the further up in a business you are, the less intelligent you need to be. At the entry stage, the sieve grows ever tighter and education can only do so much. The truth is we don’t manufacture that many really smart people.”
| - | Barry Diller, this quote set the ethic for REDEF |
|
| |
| | rantnrave:// I love movies and television and it's nice to have a partner in crime to watch them all with. My girlfriend has good taste in TV. For the most part. She zones out and watches HSN on a loop for hours like she's using the CALM app. Apparently, air fryers encourage tranquility. She doesn’t gravitate toward the dark and dystopian stuff that I do (BLACK MIRROR, WESTWORLD). She’ll watch it. She’ll end up liking it. And then complain that I “made” her watch it. I'm still in the doghouse for suggesting she watch NETFLIX's YOU ("the worst thing" she watched for 10 hours). Same with most disturbing documentaries (WHERE'S MY ROY COHN?). She likes comedy (I'M SORRY). She uses media to uplift her spirits. A pleasant escape. She’s not mentally destructive in her media habits like me. I was working on REDEF in the living room on SATURDAY and I heard loud laughter from the bedroom. She was watching PEN15 on HULU. A show by our friends at AWESOMENESSTV. I joined in. The show follows two 7th grade girls in 2000. If you’re a woman of any age, how many movies and TV shows have you sat through that were totally dominated by a male point of view? Infinite. From teenage comedies to coming of age films. The female characters are targets, bridges for, vessels for the male character. Society is very much shaped by the media we consume. We suffer ignorance because some stories aren't told. So when watching this show, I was really moved. This is from the young girls' point of view. All the teenage angst but from the other side. Friendship, puberty, boys, parties, divorce, sexual awakening, family and more. The format is familiar, but the POV is mostly new to me. This is the kind of show that makes you feel that with all the overdue upheaval related to gender inequality, HOLLYWOOD is starting to listen. For me, it was a fun, racy, and wacky insight that I hadn’t seen before. And uncomfortable. And I loved every minute of it. For women, I gather, something honest and familiar but rarely delivered by the mainstream media. Not sure this is for kids. Depends on age. Watch first. It’s a tender, hilarious, and poignant show about girls growing up and learning about themselves. The two leads, MAYA ERSKINE & ANNA KONKLE, are awkward and amazing. I can’t even imagine what this show would be if set in the age of social media. It was hard enough in 2000 with AOL INSTANT MESSENGER. Check it out… Oh, look! ESQUIRE MAGAZINE reminds us it’s BLACK HISTORY MONTH. I couldn’t take my eyes off of this one and its timing… I read a lot for myself. And even more for you guys. There is no question that the zeitgeist of the last 20 years has been led by the techies. And with the disruption of business and distribution models, the media industry was often written off as dying (sometimes fairly, sometimes not). I still see it a lot even as media is rising from its supposed death. Especially from the tech press. They may love a movie, but they don't dig some of the execs or companies. But I like reinvention. The forthcoming service QUIBI was interesting to me because my friend JEFFREY KATZENBERG made his bones in the film business but never wanted to make one again. He's bet on hi-quality short-form programming from an exhaustive list of A-list actors, producers, and companies. Recently, THE INFORMATION (a site I read daily), ran a piece titled "Katzenberg's Quibi Faces Quandary: Meeting Ambitious Content Goal" questioning whether the startup could meet its content launch goals. I spend my weeks writing and meeting with all aspect of the media and tech business just to learn. From what I can tell, there isn't one major media company or major talent agency not working with the service on programming. The deals they offer are talent favorable in terms of budget and ownership. From what I've read and heard over coffee, deals are closed or pending with JASON BLUM, ANTOINE FUQUA, CHRIS ROCK, GUILLERMO DEL TORO, CATHERINE HARDWICKE, DOUG LIMAN, ZAC EFRON, TYLER PERRY, LENA WAITHE, JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, LORNE MICHAELS, VAN TOFFLER's GUNPOWDER & SKY. MGM, FOX, SONY, CBS, NBC all in the mix. My theory is that Katzenberg will get a huge number of major talent to do at least one project. Some of the team are friends (fair to call me biased), but still, I have a hard time believing they won't make their launch number. More realistic questions center around any SVOD service launch. Distribution, audience funnels, price points, defensible positioning of short form. But not content... I love the new INSTAGRAM sharing options that NETFLIX has added. Allows you to share full video art and links. So I made a playlist of about 30 things I've watched for my followers. My niece LILY was concerned... IRVING AND SHELLI AZOFF single-handedly saving my cheat day burgers and deli... Happy Birthday to TOM ANDRUS, GIL KAUFMAN, TIM WESLEY, ROBERT BUZIAK, ERIK TORENBERG, EZRA KUCHARZ, ALISON LOCKER, SCOTT PARDO, BRUCE B. FRIEND, and ALEXIS D'AMECOURT. | | | - Jason Hirschhorn, curator |
|
|
 | Wired |
| We are building a 1-to-1 map of almost unimaginable scope. When it's complete, our physical reality will merge with the digital universe. | | |
|
 | Pitchfork |
| The company behind lip-sync app TikTok is reportedly worth three times as much as Spotify, but the artists whose music powers the platform are seeing very little of that money. | | |
|
 | The Outline |
| You probably can’t usher in the revolution we need to fix our exhausting reality, but you can definitely log the hell off. | | |
|
 | Vox |
| A law professor explains how corporations commodify people of color. | | |
|
 | The Verge |
| From Ghostbusters to What Men Want, they could do so much more. | | |
|
 | Mother Jones |
| It’s not just spreading phony stories everywhere--it’s killing real news. | | |
|
 | Medium |
| We should be concerned about the rights of all sentients as an unprecedented diversity of minds emerges. | | |
|
 | Longreads |
| When caviar-crazed Eastern Europeans flocked to Warsaw, Missouri to poach eggs from a vulnerable species of fish, federal agents went undercover and spent two years to build case against them. | | |
|
 | Topic |
| When one resident of an isolated California town proposed a new kind of currency, it challenged how alternative his neighbors were willing to be. | | |
|
 | South China Morning Post |
| Black Friday 2015 is a date that still haunts Eddy Lu. The post-Thanksgiving shopping event, the biggest date on the American retail calendar, almost broke Lu’s fledgling company, online sneaker marketplace Goat. | | |
|
| | | that my dreams might let me know |
|
 | Rolling Stone |
| The new Washington, D.C., is awash in foreign money and shady lobbyists -- and Elliott Broidy fits right in. | | |
|
 | BuzzFeed News |
| Trying to stem the tsunami of fake news was like battling the Hydra -- every time we cut off a virtual head, two more would grow in its place. | | |
|
 | McKinsey & Company |
| Fashion business models capitalizing on preowned, refurbished, or rented products have hit the industry. Brands and retailers need to pay attention as these models continue to evolve. | | |
|
 | The Washington Post |
| Sens. Rounds and Johnson are considering creating a new centralized agency for cyber. | | |
|
 | Bloomberg |
| Slopeside shenanigans, gallons of sprayed Champagne, celebrities behaving badly, and… ski gangs? It’s all in a day’s work at Aspen. | | |
|
 | Gizmodo |
| Last week, an alt-rock mystery puzzled the music press. Almost 25 years after its release, the Dinosaur Jr. song "Over Your Shoulder" appeared at number 18 on Japan's Hot 100 chart, beating out major new releases like Ariana Grande's "7 Rings." | | |
|
 | Pacific Standard |
| Far from helping us fight fascism, Nazis on film may do the opposite. | | |
|
 | The New York Times |
| Critics called Hillary Clinton “shrill” and “unlikable.” It’s no coincidence that the same words are being used against Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris. | | |
|
 | Business Insider |
| A drug inspired by ketamine, which has been called "the most important discovery in half a century," is on the cusp of becoming the first new kind of depression medication in 35 years. Called esketamine and developed by Johnson & Johnson, the drug is a nasal spray designed to treat severe forms of depression that don't respond to other medications. | | |
|
 | Techonomy |
| The internet is in jeopardy. A small band of global technology companies have achieved a scale and influence that dwarfs most countries, and an existential split over the internet has emerged between nations. If we are going to retain the internet's extraordinary social, economic, and democratic power, we must push back. | | |
|
 | TechCrunch |
| Building a new economy for creators requires a focused business strategy. | | |
|
 | Deadspin |
| ATLANTA - Kara* drove 248 miles from Nashville to Atlanta for Super Bowl weekend. She wasn't there to watch the game. A 25-year-old sex worker based in Oakland, Kara anticipated she'd get at least five to 10 clients. She stayed with a family member and placed ads online, and waited for the texts and calls to come in. | | |
|
 | YouTube |
| | | | | | Her vocal is literally perfect. |
| | |
|
|
| © Copyright 2019, The REDEF Group |
|
|
