THE SELFISH MEME
The Atlantic, October 2012
Twitter, dopamine, and the evolutionary advantages of talking about oneself.
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THE CREATION
Wired, December 2009
Wired UK, January 2010
Building the world of Avatar meant inventing effects like you've never seen before.
AS SEEN ON TV
Wired, October 2008
There's something new on the Web: all your favorite shows, free and legal. Why Hulu is the place for prime time, anytime.
THE HOLLYWOOD TREATMENT
Wired, August 2008
Sexy stars. Big-name producers. Greenscreen tricks. Watch out, amateurs: Hollywood has finally figured out how to make Web video pay. Rule 1: Product placement gets top billing.
Anthologized in Annual Editions: Mass Media (McGraw Hill, 2009).
THE SECRET LIFE OF A BLOG POST
Wired, February 2008
Mapping the journey from servers to spiders to suits—to the world.
Issue a winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
AND NOW, A GAME FROM OUR SPONSORS
Wired, January 2008
The future of advertising isn't writing better slogans or using cool photography or video. It's creating interactive stories people can explore over their phones, on the Web, maybe even through a flash drive hidden in a bathroom. It's a new art form. Just ask Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor.
A SECOND CHANCE FOR 3-D
Wired, November 2007
Trilogies are done. CGI is ho-hum. Now Hollywood directors are tapping into the third dimension—starting with Angelina Jolie in Beowulf.
Issue a finalist for a National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
LONELY PLANET
Wired, August 2007
Second Life: It's so popular, no one goes there any more. How Madison Avenue is wasting millions creating ads for an empty digital world.
Plus:
BLIND SPOTS
Embedding ads into videogames seemed like a good idea. Too bad users don't notice them.
Reprinted in GQ Mexico, March 2008.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
In Web Video Grows Up
Wired, December 2006
In a risky experiment, Chevrolet asked Web users to make their own video spots for the Tahoe. A case study in customer-generated advertising.
Issue a winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
CAN THE PS3 SAVE SONY?
Wired, September 2006
The company that created the transistor radio and the Walkman is at the precipice. If Sony's new $600 console doesn't blow gamers away, it may be time to say sayonara.
Reprinted in GQ Mexico, February 2007.
SKY DAYTON AND THE NEXT WAVE OF MOBILE PHONES
Wired, March 2006
High rates, low tech - when it comes to cell phones, the US is the third world. The trend surfer who started EarthLink wants to sell you a fully loaded device from the wiredest place on the planet.
Plus:
FEATURE-RAMA
The new Helio Hero, coming soon.
BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE MP3 PHONE
Wired, November 2005
Consumers want an iPod phone that will play any song, anytime, anywhere. Just four little problems: the cell carriers, the record labels, the handset makers, and Apple itself. The inside story of why the ROKR went wrong.*
Plus:
AAARGH!
Why you don't yet have the perfect music-playing phone.
(*And what it wIll take to make a truly rocking music phone.)
ESPN THINKS OUTSIDE THE BOX
In The All-You-Can-Eat TV of Tomorrow
Wired, August 2005
Web, WiMax, cell phones, and more: The sports powerhouse is about to be on every screen in your life.
WAR OF THE WORLDS
Wired, June 2005
This time E.T. wants to kill us. How Steven Spielberg reinvented H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds in 72 days and learned to love digital filmmaking—fast.
Plus:
WW4
The evolution of alien invasion.
SEOUL MACHINE
In The 2005 Wired 40
Wired, May 2005
Cell phones. Memory chips. Plasma TVs. How Samsung made Korea a consumer electronics superpower.
Reprinted in GQ Korea, July 2005.
BUILDING THE FUN BOMB
Wired, February 2005
South Park and The Daily Show made them number one with the PlayStation generation. But seriously, how do you top Jon Stewart? Inside Comedy Central's R&D lab.
THE LOST BOYS
Wired, August 2004
Online gaming all night: Cool. Hour after hour downloading MP3s and porn: No problem. Thirty seconds so you can try to sell me something? Outta here. How the 18-34 male is reinventing advertising.
HELLO, NINGBO
Wired, April 2004
Motorola is losing its hold on China's mobile phone market. The little local startup that has Moto's number: Ningbo Bird.
Plus:
RING-A-BLING-BLING
Cell phone shopping with Red Poppy Ladies Percussion.
THE SECOND COMING OF PHILIP K. DICK
Wired, December 2003
The inside-out story of how a hyper-paranoid, pulp-fiction hack conquered the movie world 20 years after his death.
Plus:
REALITY CHECK
Uma Thurman on the surreal world of Dick, karmic paybacks, and working with mind-bending auteurs.
THE HOLLYWOOD TREATMENT
Why do filmmakers love Philip K. Dick? Credit his mix of head-spinning imagination and high-concept action - not to mention big fans like Tom Cruise. Here's a breakdown so far.
Reprinted in Rolling Stone Deutschland, February 2004.
THE FAST-FORWARD, ON-DEMAND, NETWORK-SMASHING FUTURE OF TELEVISION
Wired, October 2003
What happens when digital video recorders give viewers control of the TV schedule, the content, and the ads? The full story after this 5-second word from our sponsors.
Plus:
JUST-IN-TIME PRIME TIME
HBO's on-the-fly drama is ripped from the headlines and produced on a weekly deadline.
Anthologized in Navigating America (McGraw Hill, 2009).
Anthologized in Living in the Information Age: A New Media Reader (Cengage, 2005).
BARRY DILLER HAS NO VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET
Wired, April 2003
That's why the no-nonsense honcho of Home Shopping Network, Match.com, and Universal is poised to rule the interactive world.
THE CIVIL WAR INSIDE SONY
In Rip, Mix, Burn: The Fall of the Music Industry
Wired, February 2003
Sony Music wants to entertain you. Sony Electronics wants to equip you. The problem is that when it comes to digital media, their interests are diametrically opposed.
Issue a finalist for the National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
Reprinted in GQ Korea, March 2003.
Anthologized in Living in the Information Age: A New Media Reader (Cengage, 2005).
BIG MEDIA OR BUST
Wired, March 2002
As consolidation sweeps the content and telecom industries, FCC Chairman Michael Powell has a plan: Let's roll.
Plus:
THE FATHER OF CREATIVE DESTRUCTION
Why Joseph Schumpeter is suddenly all the rage in Washington.
POCKET MONSTER
In Japan Rocks: The Liberation of Disintegration
Wired, September 2001
How NTT DoCoMo's wireless Internet service went from fad to phenomenon — and turned Japan into the first post-PC nation.
Plus:
THE NEED FOR SPEED
Another DoCoMo first: running into trouble with 3G.
Issue a finalist for the National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
TELECHASM
Wired, May 2001
Can we get to the future from here? First we have to get telecom out of the Stone Age.
MEET YOUR NEW ADVISORY BOARD
In Gigatrends
Wired, April 2001
The European Commission has a mandate to shape a New Economy policy around the globe. It's called borderless bureaucracy.
VIVENDI'S HIGH WIRELESS ACT
Wired, December 2000
CEO Jean-Marie Messier's deals with Vodafone and Seagram were a star turn on the European stage. As information becomes truly portable, will a global media company paired with continent-wide distribution prove an unbeatable combination?
Plus:
TELE-PROMPTER
Europe leads the way in advancing wireless.
REMINDER TO STEVE CASE: CONFISCATE THE LONG KNIVES
Wired, September 2000
Time Warner brings fat pipe and petabytes of content to the AOL party. Plus a little something extra: a history of amazingly expert corporate infighting, ankle-biting, and all-around backstabbing. This is gonna be fun!
TV OR NOT TV
Wired, March 2000
Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB aims to capture Britain's interactive TV market with a Sun set-top strategy. But a growing Microsoft alliance has different plans.
Plus:
RUPERT DISCOVERS THE INTERNET
THE TELEVISIONSPACE RACE
Wired, April 1998
Forget the browser. Bill Gates has. Microsoft wants to be in the box. And if he has his way, television and Windows will be as inseparable as television and football are now.
Plus:
THE BIG PICTURE
Microsoft moves beyond the desktop.
SEX SELLS
Wired, December 1997
Young, ambitious Seth Warshavsky is the Bob Guccione of the 1990s.
KEYWORD: CONTEXT
Wired, December 1996
Five million new members in two years. Stock value cut by two-thirds in six months. Service outage, lawsuits, churn - and talk of becoming the fifth network. What's really up at AOL?
Issue a winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
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ARGENTINA'S LAKE DISTRICT
Travel + Leisure, February 2008
In northern Patagonia, Frank Rose explores the waterfalls, forests, parks, and many, many lakes of alpine Argentina.
SEVEN GLORIOUS DAYS IN THE LOIRE
Travel + Leisure, March 1999
Along the garden paths and through the forest to nights in the châteaux.
Plus:
HOW TO RAMBLE
Anthologized in Travel + Leisure's Unexpected France (Dorling Kindersley, 2007).
SANTA BARBARA: WHERE CALIFORNIA DREAMS
Travel + Leisure, January 1998
Town meets country and ranch meets the sea.
Plus:
SANTA BARBARA'S WINE COUNTRY
NEWPORT: WHERE SUMMER BEGAN
Travel + Leisure, April 1997
A century ago, the American seaside resort was practically invented at Newport. Today, Rhode Island's coastal towns are still defining themselves against its strange and alluring myth.
THE BEST OF VIRGINIA
Travel + Leisure, February 1997
The cradle of America is more seductive than ever.
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THINK GLOBALLY, SCRIPT LOCALLY
Fortune, November 8, 1999
American pop culture was going to conquer the world, but now local content is becoming king.
HELP! THEY NEED SOMEBODY
Fortune, May 24, 1999
With Garth Brooks and the Spice Girls, EMI seemed to have everything going for it. But a series of management missteps has left it in disarray. Now CEO Sir Colin Southgate is leaving and a new CEO, dubbed the "biscuit bungler" by the British tabloids, must sort things out.
EDGAR BRONFMAN ACTUALLY HAS A STRATEGY—WITH A TWIST
Fortune, March 1, 1999
Let others bulk up on cable. The Seagram heir is challenging Disney in theme parks and laying out billions to be No. 1 in music. Can this possibly work?
Plus:
SEAGRAM + MCA + POLYGRAM = ?
MICKEY ONLINE
Fortune, September 28, 1998
With its half-billion-dollar investment in Infoseek, the Magic Kingdom is hitting the Net in a big way.
THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS
Fortune, June 22, 1998
A handful of powerful CEOs are battling for the hearts, minds, and eyeballs of the world's six billion people. But the harder they fight, the more they need each other.
THE DREAM FACTORIES REBORN
Fortune, February 16, 1998
Fifty years after the demise of the studio system, Hollywood's back lots are busier—and grander—than ever.
Photographs by Louis Psihoyos—Matrix.
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO MICHAEL OVITZ?
Fortune, July 7, 1997
Striving to make his comeback, CAA's superagent is now an unemployment statistic. Seven lessons to be learned from the fall of the image king.
THE END OF TV AS WE KNOW IT
Fortune, December 23, 1996
Forget HDTV. Forget interactive television. Forget the 500-channel universe. Instead start thinking PCTV.
CAN DISNEY TAME 42nd STREET?
Fortune, June 24, 1996
They blew it in Paris. They got thrown out of Virginia. Now, looking for a home on Broadway, Team Disney is pouring millions into one of the most crime-ridden blocks of Manhattan. What does Michael Eisner know that you don't?
IF IT FEELS GOOD, IT MUST BE BAD
Fortune, October 21, 1991
That's the new philosophy of "non-ism." It's a hot button among baby boomers, a strenthening force in Washington—and there's lots of money to made from it.
Plus:
SELLING SIN TO BLACKS
A NEW AGE FOR BUSINESS?
Fortune, October 8, 1990
Visionary thinkers are rejecting the by-the-numbers approach to enterprise and seeking a new paradigm for viewing the world. Love and caring in the workplace? The profit motive less than preeminent? Major corporations are buying in.
Plus:
THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS GOES GREEN
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SOAP GETS IN THEIR EYE
Esquire, May 1996
CBS thought Darren Star's Central Park West would make the network younger and hipper. CBS was wrong.
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Los Angeles Times, December 24, 1995
There's more room than ever in the film business for wannabe players. Just ask the people involved with last summer's aborted feature Divine Rapture.
Second of two parts.
NO FLOWERS, SEND MONEY
Los Angeles Times, December 17, 1995
Divine Rapture was to have been producer Barry Navidi's first feature. He had it all—$13 million to play with and Marlon Brando, Debra Winger, Johnny Depp and John Hurt signed. Yet the picture folded two weeks into the shoot. What went wrong? Welcome to Hollywood Accounting 101.
First of two parts.
MIKE, BEFORE MICKEY
Los Angeles Times, September 3, 1995
Ovitz will soon be president of Disney. His friend Ron Meyer is a honcho at MCA. But before they were big, they were already planning for the big time. It all started at the William Morris Agency. . . .
Excerpted from The Agency (HarperCollins, 1995).
TWILIGHT OF THE LAST MOGUL
Los Angeles Times Magazine, May 21, 1995
Charming, intelligent and ruthless, Lew Wasserman has been shaking Hollywood since the '30s. When Seagram bought MCA, was he really out of the loop—or was he king of the deal-makers to the last?
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THE PRODIGAL SON
Premiere, October 1993
When Tony Perkins played Norman Bates, he pressed his finger firmly against America's psychosexual trigger. One year after his death from AIDS, his story can finally be told.
THE CASE OF THE ANKLING AGENTS
Premiere, August 1991
Or, how the most powerful agency in Hollywood became a mere shadow of its former self.
TIM CUTS UP
Premiere, January 1991
So far, Tim Burton has exercised his febrile imagination on other people's movies. Now he's done a personal project, Edward Scissorhands. Watch out!
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
Premiere, November 1990
Under Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Disney became the mouse that roared. Can they keep the money rolling in?
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LAST LAUGH
New York, June 25, 1990
Jay Gorney sells art that sends up collectors. "I think my artists are great," he says, "but I'm amazed the world is letting me do this."
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COOL JOHN B.
California, April 1990
With a remote but highly charged style, John Baldessari played pied piper to today's biggest art stars. Now he's taking a step into the spotlight himself, and things are getting very warm.
TOMORROW, INC.
California, January 1989
Apple chairman John Sculley started out as a white-bread WASP. Then he became an innovative mass marketer. These days, he's a dyed-in-the-wool Silicon Valley visionary. Have these self-transformations equipped him to lead his company into the twenty-first century?
Excerpted from West of Eden (Viking, 1989).
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PIED PIPER OF THE COMPUTER
New York Times Magazine, November 8, 1987
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AS THE ART WORLD TURNS
GQ, October 1986
The mix of art, big bucks and hype has turned the art world into a frothy soap opera. Which brings us to Julian Schnabel. . . .
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IN THE GRIP OF SUCCESS
Esquire, February 1985
T.J. Rodgers was born to win, trained to conquer, but is he fit enough to survive?
MITCH KAPOR AND THE LOTUS FACTOR
In The Best of the New Generation
Esquire, December 1984
Mitch Kapor's savvy and showmanship transformed computer software from a cottage industry into a high-stakes operation.
THE PANDORA PROJECT
Esquire, July 1984
The story of artificial intelligence, and how to stay dry while it's raining.
Excerpted from Into the Heart of the Mind (Harper & Row, 1984).
WALKING ON WATER
Esquire, March 1982
There are so many surfers in southern California that they've staked out scraps of beach and chopped up the endless wave. And from the melee emerges a new order of surfer, one who rides with Jesus and waits for Armageddon.
WELCOME TO THE MODERN WORLD
Esquire, April 1981
Scavenging through the artifacts of the Fifties and the attitudes of the Sixties are the brave new children of today. Like the beats and the hippies before them, they have something to tell you. Are you listening?
HOW THE PENTAGON FLIES
Esquire, November 1980
Start with five multileveled wings, lots of brass nuts and bolts, a crew of 25,000. Fuel it with the international concerns of the American people and the personal ambitions of the entire military establishment. Then cross your fingers.
Plus:
PENTAGON PLAYERS
Number 1: Blowtorch Bob and the Persian Gulf.
Number 2: Dr. Gaffney and the Theater of the Absurd.
Number 3: General Pustay and the Brain That Guides the Sword.
Reprinted in Esquire & Derby (Italy), November-December 1980.
Reprinted in Trans-Atlantik (West Germany), January 1, 1981.
DEE DEE RAMONE DIDN'T WANT TO BE A PINHEAD NO MORE
Esquire, April 1980
So the New York rocker who practically invented punk—with three chords, sheer energy, and a rotten attitude—kicked heroin, bought a dinette set, and married Vera, who was, you know . . . normal.
Excerpted from Real Men (Doubleday/Dolphin, 1980).
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WIRED TO GOD
Vanity Fair, August 1984
Acolytes of high tech in Santa Cruz speak of computers in terms once used for drugs: expand your mind through software. A report from a land some call Oz.
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JOY OF HACKING
Science 82, November 1982
Passionate devotees of the computer prefer beating, crashing, and perfecting the system to meals, sleep, dating, or good grades.
Plus:
A HACKER'S GLOSSARY
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THE BEE GEES:
THE SAGA OF A NOT-SO-AVERAGE WHITE BAND
Rolling Stone, July 14, 1977
How do you mend a broken group? The Bee Gees did it with disco.
Cover photo by Francesco Scavullo.
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DISCOPHOBIA
Village Voice, November 12, 1979
Rock & roll fights back.
ELVIS COSTELLO WINS FRIENDS AND INFLUENCES PEOPLE
Village Voice, April 9, 1979
DANNY FIELDS IS A NUMBER-ONE FAN
Village Voice, October 24, 1977
"When I first saw the Ramones I said, 'This is the best band in the world.' I went up to them after the set and—'You guys are great! You guys are great!' That's all I could say."
FOUR CONVERSATIONS WITH BRIAN ENO
Village Voice, March 28, 1977
Art, to Eno, is not mere self-expression; getting dressed in the morning is self-expression. Art is life in microcosm.
THE BUTCH FANTASY: AMERICA GOES PUNK
Village Voice, August 9, 1976
Once a gay term for self-conscious masculinity, "butch" now applies across the spectrum to a growing variety of sexualized fantasies. You too can be a redneck, a trucker, or a punk.
KITSCH ME DEADLY
Village Voice, February 17, 1976
"Comic-book heroes and rock stars fulfill similar fantasies, but rock stars have the advantage of being human. You'll never be Superman, but you might become another Robert Plant."
