Michael Shannon is an actor known for his talent for playing complex and often malevolent characters, so it was interesting to consider his response when he was…
Author Archives: David
Three days in Chicago
“Make no little plans,” or so they say. This is your guide to spending three days in Chicago, featuring pizza, blues and architecture.
Watching ‘Saving Atlantis’ in the belly of the beast
Star Wars, spotted owls and showing a science documentary about anthropogenic change in the heart of timber country.
Losing Mesopotamia
The Iraq War, the Sixth Extinction and the lightning bolt that allowed me to appreciate contemporary art.
Films premiering in 2018
Two films that I co-directed/produced will premiere in 2018
The epicurean’s gift
Giving the gift of flavor in Burgundy
Totalities
Viewing the eclipse seventy miles off of the Oregon Coast: thoughts on hype, denial, climate change and whatever remaining hope we have to make things right.
Old books and ecosystem services
How libraries are like coral reefs.
Words and Walls
A blog post from Inside Higher Ed about misguided policy, fear and the power of kindness.
The Heroic Reef
The corals of Varadero have endured five hundred years of human conflict, but they may not survive Colombia’s fragile peace.
Five books that helped me survive 2016
Five books that I read in the past year that changed the way I think.
In post-fact America, stories still win
A blog post from Inside Higher Ed about how we can fight the decidedly un-enlightened vision of the incoming regime.
Back to Burgundy – Three Days of Glory
Heading back to Burgundy to make a film about a tough year and a great wine celebration.
A visual storyteller’s guide to active consumption
How to keep yourself on the active side of the consumption equation.
Plunder on the Spanish Main
Feeling like a pirate leaving Cartagena not with a ship full of stolen Spanish plunder, but with a treasure of stories of the people working to save a small piece of of threatened reef.
What to read this summer: recommendations from writers who teach
A pair of fiction writers and teachers offer their summer reading picks.
Zester Daily – Burgundians dig deep to face climate change
I returned to Burgundy for the first time since writing my novel Vintage.
From disaster cassoulet to La Belle Époque
Within the span of a single day, I recently experienced the best and worst French meals of my life.
Small wine clubs
How and why to join a small wine club or two.
Libraries are awesome
“I’m waiting to check your book out at the library,” someone once told me. I wanted to tell him to just go out and buy it. But I didn’t. And I’m glad. Here’s why.
The Dilettante's Field Manual 