The Buzz Board
Picks from the Inner Circle
Mark Katz
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A former political operative, recovering copywriter, and failed sitcom writer, Mark Katz is now the founder and principal of the Soundbite Institute, a creative think tank that specializes in on-message humor. His essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Time magazine, and he is the author of CLINTON & ME: A Real Life Political Comedy, an account of eight years as the in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House. Founder of the Soundbite Institute and former in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House |
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How did my TiVo know to record IFC's recent showing of Mountains of the Moon just a day before I came across the obituary of its legendary producer, Daniel Melnick? In deference to my DVR’s omniscience, I sat down to watch one the most engrossing historical dramas that I had (somehow) never heard of. Mountains of the Moon is a kind of Lawrence of Arabia set in 19th-century Africa and the epic tale it tells is the complex relationship of two complicated men, audacious explorers in search of the source of the Nile. Indeed, these men did navigate an unforgiving continent to “discover” something that had always been there. (We know it today by the name they gave it, Lake Victoria.) And in their honor, this weekend I sat on my couch and “discovered” an under-heralded film that has been patiently waiting for me to find it for nearly 20 years. |
Mark Katz
Info
RSS
A former political operative, recovering copywriter, and failed sitcom writer, Mark Katz is now the founder and principal of the Soundbite Institute, a creative think tank that specializes in on-message humor. His essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Time magazine, and he is the author of CLINTON & ME: A Real Life Political Comedy, an account of eight years as the in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House. Founder of the Soundbite Institute and former in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House |
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 The Fourth of July is the perfect time to put patriotism in your pocket with DECLARATION FOR iPHONE, a free iTunes "app" that engraves the Declaration of Independence onto your phone for easy reference, along with historical notes, brief bios of every signer, and a scaled-down images of the original parchment document. |
Mark Katz
Info
RSS
A former political operative, recovering copywriter, and failed sitcom writer, Mark Katz is now the founder and principal of the Soundbite Institute, a creative think tank that specializes in on-message humor. His essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Time magazine, and he is the author of CLINTON & ME: A Real Life Political Comedy, an account of eight years as the in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House. Founder of the Soundbite Institute and former in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House |
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Overbuzzed, you Buzzboard reader? That's the same frenetic condition most of us are in when called upon to write. Let me recommend some sensory deprivation software that has seen me through some pretty adrenalized deadlines. Write Room is a low-frills text editor predicated on the idea that less is more—and least is best of all. Select FULL SCREEN MODE to black out your desktop and block out distractions. It's a sparse writing environment most of us have not experienced since Wordstar circa 1983 and evidence that the bells and whistles Microsoft has given writers since are sometimes as helpful as piercing bells and whistles. Ironically, Write Room is written exclusively for Macs. For everyone else, you might try re-installing DOS. |
Mark Katz
Info
RSS
A former political operative, recovering copywriter, and failed sitcom writer, Mark Katz is now the founder and principal of the Soundbite Institute, a creative think tank that specializes in on-message humor. His essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Time magazine, and he is the author of CLINTON & ME: A Real Life Political Comedy, an account of eight years as the in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House. Founder of the Soundbite Institute and former in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House |
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I'm not saying The Daily Show has gotten too big for its britches, I'm just saying it has britches. When do Jon Stewart's ceremonial riding trousers become evident? While watching the occasional-but-hilarious videos produced by the otherwise ink-stained satirists at The Onion. With no raucous audience members on the set and without correspondents who mug to the camera, The Onion produces pitch-perfect segments like this that remind me of what The Daily Show used to be―and still is on its best days: a mirror designed to make pious and preening TV news organizations take a closer look at themselves and see the spinach stuck between their teeth. |
Mark Katz
Info
RSS
A former political operative, recovering copywriter, and failed sitcom writer, Mark Katz is now the founder and principal of the Soundbite Institute, a creative think tank that specializes in on-message humor. His essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Time magazine, and he is the author of CLINTON & ME: A Real Life Political Comedy, an account of eight years as the in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House. Founder of the Soundbite Institute and former in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House |
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One sign of a "perfect" comedic idea is that, once exposed to it, you can never see its target the same way again. Read this elaborately-constructed debate diagram of the workings of John McCain's would-be VP's brain and you will never watch her respond to an inquiry the same way again. Score one for comedic exceptionalism! |
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