There’s a wonderful vocabulary available: made man, wiseguy, associate, capo, crew, sit-down, the books, getting made, on record, tribute, kick upstairs, envelope, no-show job, shylock, vig, numbers, bookmaking, fence, hijacking, score, piece of the action, straighten out, connected, stand-up guy, rat, beef, button man. Some terms vary by period and place, which itself gives us something to teach: don’t put a 1990s mob expression into a 1957 character’s mouth. Continue reading
Writing a good story isn’t just plopping people into a plot. If I’m going to write a mystery and it involves the historical figures of the five major crime families in New York City, I’d better do my homework:
The important thing about the Five Families in 1950s–60s New York is that they did not have clean geographical jurisdictions like police precincts. Several families could operate in the same borough—even the same neighborhood. Their territories were often defined more by crews, unions, industries, docks, markets, gambling operations, and particular blocks or establishments. Continue reading
I’ve noticed something interesting happening now on YouTube. There are people showing their wares without apparently selling anything. No prices. No sales pitch. No breathless announcement that TODAY ONLY you can have this magnificent object for $29.95. Often there’s just music.
The camera moves around the room. There are paintings, jewelry, clothing, collectibles, handmade objects, whatever the person happens to deal in. The objects are simply there.
But of course, they are being seen.
This suggests a very different approach to selling. Continue reading
Negativity has one enormous advantage: you’re usually asleep when it starts.
Something happens. The machinery reacts. The body tightens, the mind starts talking, and suddenly you’re living inside irritation, fear, resentment or despair.
That’s where the waking songs come in. Continue reading
You don’t necessarily have to climb into the waking state. Sometimes you can jump. That’s one of the reasons I’ve made all this music. Continue reading
In the fixed-universe model we were playing with, the apparent contradiction disappears if will doesn’t mean creating a new universe. The whole structure is already there—including the possible lifelines. Will concerns which line is being consciously traversed.
Then you get something like: Continue reading
People want to know what’s in it for them.
Jim Carville famously said, “It’s the economy, stupid.” When it comes to spiritual work, we might put it slightly differently:
It’s the payoff, stupid. Continue reading
This isn’t really an art presentation for marketers; it’s a working presentation to help an art consultant/decorator/designer understand what they have available to sell and how to position the collection. Continue reading
Suppose the universe is not something that is happening. Suppose it is something that is.
Imagine an enormous static object in eleven dimensions. Everything is there—not merely every object, but every event, every lifetime, every beginning and ending. Running through this object are billions upon billions of lifetime lines. Continue reading
The usual problem with “How do I stay awake?” is that people try to produce a state. They strain, concentrate, become solemn, monitor themselves—and pretty soon they’re sound asleep while working extremely hard at being awake.
I’d turn it around: Continue reading