As a freelancer, I am often looking for work. Someone offered me a job that would have paid me $5 an hour. Of course, it was framed as something like: edit these 15 pages for $25. I asked my Facebook friends and family if I should take the job, and every response I got was affirmative. One of the sentiments expressed was that $5 was better than nothing. However, that’s not true, and there are good reasons why no one should take that job.
Supply and Demand
If no one takes the job, the person who wants the work done will have to…
There is a certain subset of critics and pundits that like to bash the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, and Disney’s production of content related to them. These people tend to be “professional” film critics who write from the perspective of potential box office and the value of Disney stock as it relates to its various properties. Some people who continue to make this pronouncement that started with “superhero fatigue” are Disney’s competitors. …
“Once Upon a Time” on Disney+ does a good job of reimagining Disney characters and other stories. The complicated and surprising relationships are part of the fun. The writers have a truly difficult task of creating new back stories for beloved and iconic characters. These stories need to remain true enough to the characters that fans won’t be turned off by them while also being new enough to maintain viewers interests. The writers did a great job for the first three seasons. Season four, however, failed in at least two of its major storylines.
[Spoiler Alert] This article contains spoilers…
Themes and Observations from Season 1
Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen Disney’s “Once Upon a Time” and plan to, I urge you to bookmark this page and come back after you watch the first season. It’s easy to binge watch as a television show that melds fantasy and reality into a coherent, if complicated, story.
The Evil Queen’s Curse
Disney’s “Once Upon a Time” on Disney Plus starts with a very disturbing premise: The Evil Queen creates a curse to send all of the fairy tale characters to a place where there are no happy endings… modern-day Maine in the United States of America. With 2020 dropping bombs on…
What Would You Do?
We have a starving tom cat outside of our building on this rainy day. His coat is still healthy, but we can see his hip bones and spine stick out of his fur while his sides near his back legs are sunken. He came running up to us as we were approaching our stairwell door. We didn’t have any food to give him, but we went to our apartment and brought down a packet of food our cat won’t eat. We think the problem might be that he was a house cat for someone, so he hasn’t learned to fend…
With Black Lives Matter and all the changes happening in the country, calls for changing Splash Mountain shouldn’t come as a surprise. While die-hard Disney fans will point out that Walt fought to get James Baskett an Oscar and that “Song of the South” was supposed to help preserve southern folklore, most people haven’t seen the film in a long time if at all, which strengthens the reason for retheming Disney’s flume thrill attraction.
It’s about Synergy
People love Splash Mountain in part because it’s different from every other attraction. It goes indoors and outdoors and provides an amazing drop that dwarfs those…
Robert “Bob” Iger took over the Walt Disney Company in 2005 after Michael Eisner forced out of the company. During Iger’s tenure as CEO, the Walt Disney Company acquired Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel and 21st Century Fox. He resigned his role as CEO in Feb. 2020, but returned to the position in April to help the company navigate the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on the company. In his book “Ride of a Lifetime,” Iger explores his rise in the Disney company and what it takes to lead a creative business and its people.
The Creative Person and Process
According to Iger (p. 42–43), creating something…
A beginner’s guide
Drawing is a form of expression. Too often people decide they can’t draw because of some traumatic event in their childhood. Usually an art teacher, sometimes a parent, says that the child’s drawing sucks and the child has no talent. Maybe the teacher says, “flowers don’t have faces or smiles.” Maybe the parent doesn’t understand the difference between a worm or a snake. It may also be related to making a living; the starving artist is a stereotype for a reason. It’s hard to make money through any kind of art. Whatever the reason, people move from drawing with joy…
From Bob Ross’ Cliffside: season 20, ep. 6
From 1983 to 1994, Bob Ross taught the world to paint on PBS’ “The Joy of Painting.” In almost 30-minute episodes, Ross would go from a mostly blank canvas to an amazing land- or seascape, and he would take his viewers with him. He gave people the opportunity to explore their own creativity through the wet-on-wet technique. Ross’ program hints at several creativity principles. If you’ve never seen him paint before, watch the episode and be ready for the magic.
Making Space
Creativity takes a dedicated space. This can be as simple as a laptop and a place to sit or…
The easiest and most crucial element to any survival plan is water. Without water, people can live for between 3 days and a week depending on other factors. People can survive longer without food, and under the right circumstances, don’t need permanent shelter, though they may need protection from the elements to avoid death due to exposure. If the world’s water systems stopped working, how would you get water?
Salt Water
Any salt water sources, like oceans, are out unless you can desalinate the water. If you have plastic during the apocalypse and wood to burn, you can create a distillation process…
Shad Engkilterra
Earned a Master’s in Creativity and Innovation from Malta U., author of “Disneyland Is Creativity” and other books, other works available at www.penguinate.com.
