One #COVIDgoal was to improve my video editing skills. And get a LOT of practice.
That is going well.
Click PLAY or watch the most popular of the recent edits on YouTube.
Subscribe and/or see the rest of the videos.
Imposters – season 1
Fantastic TV.
The black comedy follows con artist Maddie, played by Inbar Lavi, who gets involved in relationships with men and women before leaving them “used and robbed of everything – including their hearts“.
Wikipedia
Uma Thurman is hilarious as Lenny Cohen, an assassin.
Though it only lasted 2 seasons, I’d agree with Rotten Tomatoes, 100% fresh.
“Imposters meshes slapstick comedy, top-notch writing, unexpected twists, and a noteworthy lead performance, with satisfying — and surprisingly ambitious — results”.
One scene is set in Port Townsend, WA.
I actually found season 2 to be something of a letdown. Did not finish.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
A Time for Mercy by John Grisham
A Time for Mercy is a 2020 legal drama by John Grisham, the sequel to A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row, which features Jake Brigance.
42nd published novel from one of our best story tellers.
Clanton, Mississippi. 1990. Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him attorney for Drew Gamble, a timid sixteen-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy.
Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance digs in and discovers that there is more to the story than meets the eye.
Jake’s fierce commitment to saving Drew from the gas chamber puts his career, his financial security, and the safety of his family on the line.
jgrisham.com
Legal, ethical and moral issues. It makes you think.
Click PLAY or watch an excerpt on YouTube.
3 minute video – 64 days to edit
5.3 Terabytes of data.
Some new and highly experimental post production techniques.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The Fix by David Baldacci
3rd book in the Amos Decker series.
Again, very entertaining.
Our hero is 6′ 5″ and an obese 350 lbs.
Amos Decker witnesses a murder just outside FBI headquarters.
A man shoots a woman execution-style on a crowded sidewalk, then turns the gun on himself.
Even with Decker’s extraordinary powers of observation and deduction, the killing is baffling. Decker and his team can find absolutely no connection between the shooter — a family man with a successful consulting business — and his victim, a schoolteacher.
davidbaldacci.com
New Year’s Eve 2020
Shockingly, I made it to midnight. 😀
Good riddance 2020.
Excellent Video on Climate Change
The best resource I’ve seen so far on the very alarming and complicated topic.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
‘ Just a YouTuber ‘
6 months ago I still had a low opinion of those trying to make a living on YouTube.
It seemed a juvenile race to the bottom. I did not watch any of the top YouTubers. Not even my friend’s son, Cody Ko, who has 5 million + subscribers.
BUT — even then — I did follow a few favourite vloggers on HIKING and TECH.
Fact is, young people on YouTube and now TikTok are in the midst of a video editing revolution. Most future great film and TV directors are currently doing their own thing on social media.
Peter McKinnon, for example. In this fantastic 7 minute edit he pays tribute to the art form.
McKinnon is as skilled at video editing as anyone.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Drop Shot by Harlan Coben
Book #2 in the Myron Bolitar series of novels.
Light reading. Funny.
Myron is a formerly renowned basketball player and is the owner of MB SportsReps (or simply MB Reps in later books), an agency representing sports stars and celebrities.
For reasons inexplicable, in each book he turns into some kind of murder mystery detective.
His best friend, Windsor Horne Lockwood III (better known as “Win”), is a billionaire psychopath — but, for some reason, joins Myron for the chase.
A former tennis protege is murdered at the US OPEN — and Myron’s client, who was playing at the time, is the main suspect…
HarlonCoben.com
Like the author, Myron is Jewish. In fact, Myron, in his early 30s, still lives in his parent’s basement.
We have to break-up BIG TECH
Professor Galloway recommends the American government mandates a break-up of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook shareholders would actually make MORE money after the split. And those companies would have a better chance to compete with one another.
Galloway recommends Amazon be split from Amazon Web Services (VIDEO).
He recommends YouTube be split from Google.
MORE COMPETITION is good for the consumer. Good for the economy.
MORE COMPETITION
Elizabeth Warren, for one, is keen to push that legislation. And I agree.
YES. I know governments will do a lousy job. Politicians don’t understand Tech.
But the alternative is even worse. Bezos and Amazon — at this rate — will have too much share of the world’s wealth.
Aggregation Theory postulates that it’s nearly impossible to compete with a company that is able to aggregate a majority of consumers.
How do you launch a company to compete against Amazon, for example.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rick McCharles 