Daniel makes stuff, and, in his spare time, writes about things like movies, kid culture, and geek stuff.
Proof That Print Is Not Dead.

McSweeney’s has an illustrated press release showing off their upcoming first edition of the “San Francisco Panorama” – a special, full-color 15“x22” broadsheet newspaper that will almost undoubtedly change the way you think about newspapers.

There’s nothing much to say – it’s simply and utterly gorgeous looking. If you want proof that print has a place in the world, this is it. As Dave Eggers (McSweeney’s editor and Daniel’s Favourite Person) said back in July:

I think newspapers shouldn’t try to compete directly with the Web, and should do what they can do better, which may be long-form journalism and using photos and art, and making connections with large-form graphics and really enhancing the tactile experience of paper. You know, including a full-color comic section, for example, which of course was standard in newspapers years ago, when you’d have a full broadsheet Winsor McCay comic. So we’ll have a big, full-color comic section, and we’re also trying to emphasize what younger readers are looking for, what directly appeals to them. It’s hard to find papers these days that really do anything to appeal to anyone under 18, and the paper used to do that all the time. I think there will always be — if not the same audience and not as wide an audience — a dedicated audience that can keep print journalism alive.

Truer words were never spoken.

(Via Kottke.)

Nov 06, 2009 :: Tagged under: , :: #

The Teacher Salary Project

By Daniel Bigler :: Wednesday October 28, 2009

We Love You So shines the spotlight on one of the most overlooked issues in education reform: teachers’ salaries.

It’s dangerous to underestimate the societal value of quality public education. And yet we routinely overlook the economic problems with our school system, perhaps because they aren’t seen as urgent or media-friendly enough for the 24-hour news cycle. Luckily, The Teacher Salary Project is helping shed light on the people and stories behind under-funded public schools.

There’s the rub: good teachers will never be fully valued for what they do. But the Project, based upon an essay Dave Eggers wrote, is sure doing a good thing in trying to raise a little bit of awareness at how remarkably low teachers’ salaries are, considering the monumental task teachers undertake when they walk into the classroom. Anybody who’s spent even a little time in their shoes know that they deserve a lot more.

Now along with salaries, if we could also just make schools a lot smaller and more personable in size, get a little community-minded thinking going on at an administrative and policy level, and spark some good ol’ Democratic Schooling culture and respect for children in classrooms, I think we’ll be well on our way to a good thing.

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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

One of my favourite reviews of “Where the Wild Things Are” so far:

Ultimately, “Where The Wild Things Are” is like a wondrous treasure or a magical found object. The type of little trinket that a little boy would constantly carry around in his pocket, stopping to endlessly examine and awe over though he’s already seen it a million times. Warner Bros. have taken a major gamble with this film, but it will pay off eventually, as this beautiful and scrappy lived-in portrait of the difficulties and suffering of childhood is akin to the filthy, ragged and very beloved plaything doll or security blanket that children cling to until they’re frayed to their very limits. It’s something that deserves to be adored and wept over that much.

At least for me, that captures it. Sendak, Eggers, and Jonze have managed to create a film that I certainly hope is – and believe will end up as, once I’ve properly seen it – that type of film that you can carry around in your pocket, a special treasure that’s all your own.

Oct 15, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , , , :: #

Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

Newsweek shares what I consider the “definitive” roundtable interview with Maurice Sendak, Dave Eggers, and Spike Jonze – the three men behind “Where the Wild Things Are.”

I love these guys so much. If for nothing else, then for this:

Jonze: The big disagreement is that they [Warner Brothers, the studio] thought I was making a children’s film and I thought I was making a film about childhood, and so, along the way …

Eggers: Keep dancing, Spike!

Jonze: I mean, I think it’s a film—I want children to see it, and it’s not like I made it not for children, and it’ll be on the video shelf under CHILDREN’S, but I didn’t come at it that way. I came at it from the inside out as opposed to the outside in. In the end, though, the studio let us make the movie we wanted to make.

Sendak: It’s really an American problem.

What do you mean?

Sendak: Europeans have done films about children, like The 400 Blows or My Life as a Dog, which is one of the most wonderful movies ever. It’s tough to watch his suffering when his mother is dying and he scoots under the bed. That’s the kind of way they have of dealing with children and they always have. We are squeamish. We are Disneyfied. We don’t want children to suffer. But what do we do about the fact that they do? The trick is to turn that into art. Not scare children, that’s never our intention.

That’s the way to do it. That’s the way to make movies, and tell kids’ stories through cinema. It begins with a certain willingness to be honest, and with with a high degree of respect – respect for children themselves, and for the experiences they go through. These three guys, I think, have that honesty and respect. And I love them for it.

Of course there’s this also this other reason to love Maurice Sendak:

What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too scary?

Sendak: I would tell them to go to hell. That’s a question I will not tolerate.

(And iif you’re interested, one of the interviewers has also kindly put up a full, unedited version of the discussion online here.)

Oct 14, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #

Max at Sea: An Excerpt from the 'Wild Things' Novelization

While I’ve been enamoured beyond any-reasonably-healthy-amount this past year over the scripts Dave Eggers has written – working with Spike Jonze, for one, on the upcoming film adaptation of “Where the Wild Things Are,” and the independent, Sam Mendes-directed “Away We Go,” for two – sometimes there comes along little excerpts from his books that remind me of this fact: Dave Eggers is and always will be first and foremost of a novelist.

Don’t get me wrong: I think he’s brilliant at both. And yes, I’m gushing. But his novels are purely and simply extraordinary – which is why I couldn’t be any more pleased about “Wild Things,” the novelised adaptation Eggers decided last year to do, based upon Maurice Sendak’s book and the script he and Jonze wrote. Now, courtesy of The New Yorker, we’ve been gifted with a doesn’t-disappoint excerpt of it. Read it and cry. (And don’t forget afterward to read the short conversation the magazine had with Eggers about the novel.)

Aug 24, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , :: #

Why I Severely Love Dave Eggers. Oh, and Other Stuff.

Dave Eggers (“The Genius,” as I’ve rechristened him) talks to Salon Books about life, literature, and other such things. It’s a fantastic interview, but what I’m most taken by is Eggers’ unbridled hope and enthusiasm about the future of journalism and the printed word:

I think there’s a future where the Web and print coexist and they each do things uniquely and complement each other, and we have what could be the ultimate and best-yet array of journalistic venues. I think right now everyone’s assuming it’s a zero-sum situation, and I just don’t see it that way.

Our students at 826 Valencia still have a newspaper class, where we print an actual newspaper, and we do magazine classes and anthologies where they’re all printed on paper. That’s the main way we get them motivated, that they know it’s going to be in print. It’s much harder for us to motivate the students when they think it’s only going to be on the Web.

The vast majority of students we work with read newspapers and books, more so than I did at their age. And I don’t see that dropping off. If anything the lack of faith comes from people our age, where we just assume that it’s dead or dying. I think we’ve given up a little too soon.

The new (printed) newspaper that he and the McSweeney’s folk are working on sounds truly tremendous, and I can’t wait to subscribe.

Jul 20, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , :: #

A Really Long Interview With Author Dave Eggers

But in Dave Eggers’ case, no interview is ever long enough.

Jun 10, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , :: #