John Brown's Notes and Essays

Boldface names have always mattered at the movies, but a number of recent casts have been full of them. That hasn’t always helped at the box office. image from article: Marketing for “Don’t Look Up” has emphasized its star-studded cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. Credit ...Mark Abramson for The New York Times By Brooks Barnes , The New York Times , Dec. 26, 2021  Excerpt:  Netflix is writing megachecks for A-list actors ($30 million to Mr. DiCaprio for “Don’t Look Up” [jb: see ] ) and ensemble franchises ($465 million for two “Knives Out” sequels). ...  Movie marketing has also changed, becoming less about carpet-bombing prime-time TV with ads and more about tapping into social media fan bases. ... (Pity Mr. DiCaprio ... with only about 50 million ... .)  The pandemic seems to have hastened a worrisome decline at the box office for bread-and-butter dramas, musicals and comedies — everything except leviathan fantasy franchises and the occasion...

When the next decade dawns, we’ll look back on this year as a pivotal one for businesses. A futurist explains why.  image from article, with caption:  Technology in the Amazon Salon lets customers use augmented reality to try out a hair color before the dye is made up. AMAZON By Brian Solis [jb - see ] , The Wall Street Journal , Dec. 9, 2021 10:00 am ET (original article contains additional illustrations)   Imagine that we’re living in 2030. Now try to imagine how different things will be. Do you picture flying cars, supersonic travel, robots walking among us, spending big parts of our days in the metaverse? Perhaps.  But it seems more likely that many of the technological trends expected to be broadly adopted by 2030 are playing out today. And that’s especially true because of the disruptions of the past two years. When the world shifted to working, learning and doing everything from home for a prolonged period, timetables for future technology adoption were accele...

From The New York Times Magazine  [12/26, 2021], under the title "The Lives"   Colin L. Powell in 2007.   Martin Schoeller/AUGUST COLIN POWELL B. 1937 He was a lifelong fixer of problems, but George W. Bush was the one he couldn’t solve. By  Robert Draper Until his final days,  Colin L. Powell  remained preoccupied with fixing things. The former secretary of state and four-star general tinkered endlessly in his garage — sometimes with his welder and sometimes on a succession of early Volvos, which were less complicated than the Corvette he used to whiz around the Beltway. (He took the Corvette to a track to race against Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his Stingray in the fall of 2016. “You want a head start?” Powell goaded Biden. “Go ahead.”) He was a regular at the neighborhood hardware store in McLean, Va., where he rummaged through parts for his house’s malfunctioning dishwasher or leaky faucets. His plywood-and-wire fixes often left somethin...

Image of the recently deceased writer Joan Didion from below-cited article "[O]ne  of the recurrent themes in all Didion’s books, both fiction and nonfiction, is Americans’ penchant for reinventing themselves, their belief in fresh starts and second acts — a faith, on the one hand, that helped settle this country and fueled the American dream, and yet, on the other, has resulted in rootlessness and anomie, the discarding of personal and public history." From: Michiko Kakutani, "Didion’s Prophetic Eye on America," The New York Times , Dec. 24, 2021. Ms. Kakutani is a former chief book critic of The Times. She reviewed several works by Joan Didion over the decades and interviewed Ms. Didion. See also. *** JB personal Note: In the not so distant past I had the pleasure of sharing ideas with Open World delegates from Central and Eastern Europe/former USSR on the theme, "Reinveting Oneself in America." As examples of this phenomenon, and hoping to prevent th...

Article by Julie Lasky, The New York Times , Dec. 24, 2021: image from article, with caption:  The private 50,000-volume book room of the inventor and entrepreneur Jay S. Walker was built in 2002 with surreal inspirations, but it, too, is a recognizable throwback to the English country house library. Credit...Reid Byers   Comment by sarasota 41m ago I would never date a man who didn't love books. It's true that I don't go out a lot, but I do have my standards and that's okay, because I'd rather be alone with a good book than out with a bore.

  December 23, 2021 These Were The Top-Read Books At The D.C. Public Library This Year “The Vanishing Half” was the most-read title in three categories, and the Obamas appeared on the list.   Metro Pauses Return Of 7000-Series Trains Out Of ‘Abundance Of Caution’ Officials are calling for a more stringent inspection schedule for the cars.   Large Local Churches Move Christmas Worship Online Most are postponing in-person services until at least January, hoping the COVID surge will subside by then.   What Holiday Giving Looks Like In Wards 7 And 8 A photo series   Overheard In D.C.: Mission Annoying “Oh! We should get something for Rose!”                  “Can we get her a better personality?”   10 Virtual And IRL Things To Do Around D.C. On Christmas Weekend So many options to see outdoor lights, plus a class on indoor gardening.   Doctors Believe 9-Year-Old Struck On Wheeler Road SE May Be Paralyzed DDO...

How a national dish could become a symbol of Ukraine’s struggle against Russia.  image from Instickmedia.com , December 24 ARTICLES Words:   Johanna Mendelson Forman Pictures:  Max Nayman Date:  December 23rd, 2021 Earlier this month, Chef Yuri Kovryzhenko was busy preparing borsch in the Ukrainian Embassy in London.  This iconic soup is central to Ukrainian identity. It is also the basis of a culinary nationalism campaign which includes sending chefs around the world to promote Ukrainian cuisine. But not only was Chef Yuri preparing borsch, he was preparing a modern borsch, with prunes, quince, duck, and, of course, beets. Ukrainian diplomacy’s new focus on gastrodiplomacy is simple: To win hearts and minds among eaters worldwide. Sending a chef as a culinary ambassador to promote this national dish is more than just feeding hungry stomachs; it’s about raising awareness of Ukraine’s identity to distinguish it from its Russian nemesis. And the timing could not b...