Category Archives: Writing

Lynn Eads: Online Parenting Coach & Author

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Kevin Walsh

Most people don’t really consider themselves to be experts in much–for example. My kids once accurately defined our specialized fields: “Dad’s kinda funny sometimes and mom finds stuff.”

But when it comes to hammering out that brief description of yourself in LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram it can be surprisingly difficult to find much to really brag about–let alone translate it to a full-blown resume.

It’s a lot easier to look at your reflection and see that one tiny zit rather than combed-hair, clean teeth or at maybe even someone who remembers to clean the mirror once in a while.

Lynn Eads, featured … Read More… →

New Podcast: Woodwords! Launching (and Maintaining) a Blog & Podcast with Kale Davidoff

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Kevin Walsh

Woodwords, “Your Detroit Avenue to Alternative Pop Culture and Talk” is a new blog and podcast created by MMD contributing writer and podcaster Kale Davidoff.

Kale joins Kevin to discuss:

  • The first two months of a blog
  • Writers and stage-fright
  • The big thing before the big thing (aka “Off the Wall” pre “Thriller”)
  • Cold-calling special guests for podcasts
  • Just diving in and keep on swimming forward
  • Surprises and the fun of evesdropping at the table next to you at the bar
  • Marketing blog-posts with Facebook and Twitter trends
  • Maintaining a blog
  • Power of a deadline
  • Consistency of Vanna White

Assassins & Teamwork: Filmmaking (and Break-Making) for Cooper Brothers’ Film “Five Windows”

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Kevin Walsh

Sometimes, feeling useless can feel quite nice–particularly on a movie set.  Hurry-up-and-wait sums it up, of course.  But if you’re just lurking like I tend to do, watching former students do their thing, you can be quite invisible and love every minute of it.

As an extra in Gran Torino, on the other hand, I felt useless even though I did have a job to do.  I was told to walk down the street toward the Grosse Pointe hardware store and act like that wasn’t Clint Eastwood in front of me.  It took me five times, but I did it.  And when the camera stopped rolling, I quickly came to realize that I wasn’t a person, really–I was a prop, a prop that could be replaced much easier than the rake in the window … Read More… →

“God, I Love My Job!” Welcoming Mistakes and Exploding Stuff – The Life of Sound FX Guru–Ric Viers

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Kevin Walsh
Listen to Kevin’s podcast with Ric Viers…[powerpress url= “http://traffic.libsyn.com/mymediadiary/MMD_SoundFX_Expert_RicViers_Dec22_2014.mp3″ length=”14313591″ type=”audio/mpeg”]

 

Perhaps it’s osmosis, but Ric Viers has noticed that his son seems to have his dad’s ear.  In the middle of The Hobbit:  The Battle of the Five Armies, there is a Foley mistake–a sword that didn’t clash to the ground.  “And I saw it and I just kind of smiled, but before I could even say anything, my kid leans over and says, ‘Dad, they forgot one of the sound effects.’”

After years of on-the-job training, sound effects expert Viers has learned valuable lessons for not just audio but life, not the least includes keeping ones car keys in the refrigerator.

Owner of the world’s largest collection of sound-effects, The Detroit Chop Shop, Ric Viers was a guest speaker in November … Read More… →

New Podcast – Life Lessons & Sound FX with Ric Viers

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Kevin Walsh

 

 

Veteran film and TV sound expert Ric Viers, author of The Sound Effects Bible and The Location Sound Bible, joins Kevin Walsh following a workshop Ric gave to Michigan high school students on his 10 Location Sound Commandments, which offer important life-skills as well.

They discuss:

  • Soft Skills and Reputation-how the most skilled person on the set may not be the one who stays on the set.
  • How Does One Begin as a Sound Guy?
  • Fatherhood and the osmosis of sound-awareness
  • Gathering sound-effects (and where to leave your keys)
  • Publishing a book (after finding a niche)
  • The “Oh Crap” Kit

Check out Ric’s page on Amazon as well as his own website, Read More… →

New Podcast: De-Agonizing the Essay with Erik Bean, Ed.D.

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Kevin Walsh

 

Kevin Walsh interviews author and educator Dr. Erik Bean on his most recent books, including:

– Rigorous Grading Using Microsoft Word AutoCorrect

– WordPress for Student Writing Projects, Grades 6-12

They discuss…

– Overcoming student and teacher fatigue essay-fatigue with the technology

– Student and teacher reactions to new tricks for the old dog of MS Word

– Advantages of blogging for students (and overcoming stage fright)

– Trolling (and how to address them)

– Getting published–five times!

“If a Tweet Falls in the Forest…” Life without Applause-Signs, Laugh-Tracks & Likes

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Kevin Walsh

It’s often not so much what happens in our lives—as what we figure ought to happen.  If no one likes this post, did it fail?

I started noticing  camera-angles and how they manipulated the audience far too early in my life–especially for the poor bystanders who were stuck in a living room, basement or movie theater with me.

The Cosby Show, for all of its garish sweaters and too-good-to-be-true charm of a doctor/lawyer upper-middle class family, was a breakthrough on many levels—it revitalized the sit-com and finally placed a TV African-American family out of the ghetto—if you bypass George Jefferson moving on up.

But what I noticed immediately, from my hero of a dozen scratched LP comedy albums, was the cutaway to Clair—Cliff Huxtable’s long-suffering wife who managed … Read More… →

New Podcast: Breaking Through as a Novelist – Judy Burke and “Blackrock”

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Kevin Walsh

First time novelist, longtime educator Judy Burke shares with Kevin her eight year journey transforming a fantasy into the international espionage thriller, Blackrock–and how it all started with an Irish lighthouse and next appears in bookstores in November.

Topics include…

  • Elmore Leonard and his influence
  • The writing process and when life gets in its way
  • Characters, even when they’re great, and how to kill them off
  • Dialogue’s importance
  • Publishing companies vs. self-publishing
  • Knowing when to end the book

Visit Judy’s website to get a sneak peek at: www.JudyBurke.com

There Be Dragons in Minnesota: A Late Review of the Series “Fargo”

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Robert Phillips

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The season finale of Fargo aired last night, and what better time to review it than when it’s off network television? Of course, you may find it on Hulu, on Amazon Prime, or any of the other online venues.  And you should. For the past ten weeks, it was one of the two best shows on television with dragons.  OK, no dragons really.  No vampires…no ghost hunters and no real housewives of Bimidji, Mn. (where the show takes place). Every episode begins with the caption “This is a True Story,” which it is not. Yet despite all these outward … Read More… →

Writer’s Block: Building Your Wall One Brick at a Time.

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Kevin Gabon

Welcome to MyMediaDiary, new contributor Kevin Gabon, who tackles a topic very familiar to all of the rest of us writing for this blog! 

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The cornerstone is the brick that all other bricks want to be. They look up to it. They admire it. They look at it with jealousy and envy. “Why couldn’t I be that brick?” they ask. “I’m a way better brick than that one!” they say.

But no wall is complete without every brick. They all play a big part in the structure and strength of the wall. They all have a role.

You, too, can have your … Read More… →