Zen Beer-ism

Sometimes inspiration comes when you least expect it. For example, last weekend I was at an Irish pub in upstate New York. The waitress had just brought an order of hot wings and another tall, frothy, cold beer. It was a dark amber ale with a good head and great body. Clear. Smooth. Rich. It was hypnotic, and I fell into its trance. The tiny bubbles floated to the top, each one like a little planet racing into outer space. Before long I was floating in the beer. I was swimming around the planets, giddy like a kid on Christmas morning. Okay, maybe I was a little drunk. But inspiration nonetheless struck, and my great realization came: beer is a metaphor for life.

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Where’s My Coin?

Christ, I hate internships.

Well, maybe I’m being a bit dramatic. I hate UNPAID, POST-GRADUATE internships. The very idea of them reeks of exploitation: companies feed off this reliable workforce because it’s full of desperate, eager, smart, hard-working people who’s only incentive is to move on to bigger and better things.

But before they can move on to the next life, these poor souls must deal with the purgatory that is the internship, the ever present go-between created for people who don’t have nepotism as an option to go up the ladder.

It’s not that I believe internships aren’t essential. For someone who needs to become familiar with the working world, internships allow young upstarts the opportunity to prove their worth to the powers-that-be, the gatekeepers, the bastards who can hire and fire your ass by whim. This holds doubly true for the film industry, a universe which thrives on time and money like no other; commodities which, of course, are always in very short supply. Assuming you were a businessman/manager who (presumably) worked hard to achieve their current level of status, would you want to bestow responsibility to some naïve, wet-behind-the-ears schmuck coming in from the street with little to no experience? Hell, no. [Read more]

Get Rich or Start Cryin?

Ever feel like if you could just get rich, everything would be ok? Ever feel like becoming wealthy is the most important thing? You’re not alone.

According to a Pew Research Center poll, 81 percent of 18 to 25-year-olds site getting rich as one of their generation’s most important goals and 51 percent feel the same about being famous.

In an annual survey of college freshmen by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles, data from 2005 clearly show that money is on their minds much more than in the past. The percentage who say it is “essential” or “very important” to be “very well off financially” grew from 41.9% in 1967 to 74.5% in 2005; “developing a meaningful philosophy of life” dropped in importance from 85.8% in 1967 to 45% in 2005. [Read more]