Author: Daniel

Book Review: “Elon Musk” by Ashlee Vance

Daniel Leave a comment
Elon Musk: Tesla SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

(just realized I forgot to mention, this is the book under discussion)

Elon Musk is the single most influential figure alive today.

I don’t hesitate to say that, not one bit.

In only 44 years on this planet, Elon Musk has been involved with five consistently cutting-edge companies: Zip2 (early Internet mapping), PayPal (Early Internet banking), Tesla (modern electric cars), SpaceX (cheap, reusable rockets), and SolarCity (solar power).

Every single one of those sectors has changed the world, or will change the world. Musk is a man who has changed the world in five COMPLETELY DIFFERENT sectors. His efforts will eventually lead towards an emissions-free world, and eventually, a new world altogether.

Continue reading →

How “Trainwreck” Tricks Men Into Laughing

Daniel Leave a comment

Amy Schumer’s “Trainwreck” is the funniest movie I have seen in a long time. And I’m not alone; from mom & pop blogs to the big critics, the film is earning accolades left and right. I’m sure it will be a contender for the big end-of-the-year awards.

The big story here, of course, is Schumer.

In the social justice era, people take notice of a comedian like Schumer, and her brand of brave, no-hold barred, body-conscious humor. The edge she honed on her TV show, “Inside Amy Schumer” is cutting sharper than ever in “Trainwreck. Schumer has no problem being totally frank about the problems faced by the ambitious young woman in today’s world.

Schumer’s character sleeps around, drinks, smokes and absolutely hates the idea of family, as represented by her sister’s dopey husband and child (the pair of which show up from time to time, constantly smiling and basically as cartoons).

This is how Schumer, and by extension, the film as a whole, earns the trust of the female millennial audience. Schumer’s character also hates sports, which is ironic, since the movie uses sports as a clever way to appeal to male audiences.

Continue reading →

Book Review: “A Visit From the Goon Squad”

Daniel 2 Comments

I bought Jennifer Egan’s “A Visit From the Goon Squad” for $1 at a yard sale. The sorority girl who had been the previous owner, apparently, had not deigned it worth bringing home.

Her loss.

“A Visit From the Goon Squad” released in 2010, and eventually won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. The book follows a loosely connected group of characters, jumping through time and place in order to tell a larger story about the arcs of our lives.

Continue reading →

14 years later, “Powder Burn” Still an Accurate Depiction of Vail

Daniel Leave a comment
Daniel Glick Powder Burn Review 2015

A longtime Vail Valley resident recently lent me a copy of Daniel Glick’s 2001 book “Powder Burn: Arson, Money and Mystery on Vail Mountain.” This eighty-year-old woman and I had just finished up a dinner at the Northside Kitchen, a local favorite in Avon, CO, just down the road from Vail.

This woman had built one of the very first houses in Avon. In the beginning, she stood alone on a plain, a modest house with a huge yard, next to the scenic Eagle River. A highway ran past, a few hundred yards away, but that was a small price to pay for the unique mix of solitude and accessibility.

Now her house is almost impossible to find, if you do not know where to look for it. It sits squashed between huge apartment complexes and hotels, shrouded by a wall of shrubbery. Beaver Creek ski resort looms above, a ski resort even more exclusive and boutique than Vail. People come and go all around. Most of them probably do not even notice her house— assume it is simply another luxury rental with an absent owner. Vail Resorts has built its empire around her, suffocating her views and her community in order to house as many impressionable young workers and incredibly rich tourists and as they can. The idea of a private plat existing in between all that artifice is laughable. I’m sure, if they could, Vail Resorts would buy her out for an exorbitant sum of money, and call it a win.

But she was there first; and she has no plans to leave.

Continue reading →

Why You SHOULD Get an English Degree

Daniel 9 Comments
Graduation Gown Caps at Ceremony

“Oh, do you want to teach?”

INVARIABLY, these are the words which follow the revelation that you are an English major. There is literally no other response. Society has no use for English majors other than to teach new English majors, it seems.

This line of thinking is outdated, and wrong.

The rise of the Internet economy has created an entirely new use for those graduating college with liberal arts degrees. English, Communications, Journalism, and similar majors are suddenly in high demand. Why?

Because everything on the Internet is written by English majors.

Continue reading →