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I read every night before bed, and I’ve been on a binge of WW2 history books. With everything that’s happened recently, I’ve found myself turning to times when people had no idea what would happen next and how they got through it. Donald L. Miller tells the story of the first American Air Force and how airpower turned the tide. Warning, there are some gruesome accounts of how hard it was for so many people. The ultimate takeaway for me was that soldiers were motivated by love over hate to fight – love for their family, friends, and comrades. It kind of makes you think how much we all do for each other in the name of love. Heavy.
Feb 2, 2021
Related Recs
This is a book by Austrian psychologist, Viktor Frankl, about his observations of the human condition, recorded while surviving the Holocaust. He identified work, love and suffering as the three ways we can find meaning in life - while suffering is how we can reach our highest potential, because it tests us the most. He observed how vital hope was for survival, and how some people were profoundly graceful and generous in their suffering… like those who gave away their meager piece of bread, or even how a starving woman made the last days on this earth count by appreciating a single track against a blue sky she was able to see through a slit in the wood… It is really the best guide to living I have found.
A few years after reading it, I was approached to direct a documentary about the writers of Netflix’s Oscar-winning “All Quiet on the Western Front” as they adapt Man’s Search for Meaning into a screenplay. They are a power couple facing the biggest challenge of a lifetime: After 22 years of marriage and partnership, sports psychologist Simon Marshall, and 5X World Champion Triathlete, Lesley Paterson, get their dream job to adapt their favorite book Man’s Search for Meaning, but the same day they get the job, Simon receives a call from his doctor telling him that he has Stage 3 Pancreatic Cancer. The film we’ve been shooting follows their journey across the world, retracing Frankl’s life journey while pursuing cures for this deadly form of cancer. Our documentary is shaping up to be a modern Man’s Search of Meaning, because it is all about turning something devastating into a triumph by making it meaningful - and it has changed my life forever to take on the challenge of telling this essential story.
Jan 16, 2025
Reminded of this book today. It was instumental in helping me take writing seriously. The concept of personifying all our little self-sabotaging acts as an antagonistic entity called Resistance was so useful. Ironically, I don't remember finishing the book. But I did finish my first screenplay.
Worth revisiting.
Apr 11, 2024
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The ultimate get-off-your-ass creative manual. It's SO GOOD and SO INSPIRING and I have demanded people's address at bars many times and ordered a copy for them on the spot. Plus reading about doing the work is a lot easier than doing the work (and still counts as work).
Jan 23, 2024
Top Recs from @jeremy-kirkland
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You can't get comfy at home unless you're wearing slippers, and Haflingers are where it's at. Cozy wool felt on a cork bed with a rubber sole, so you don't slip while you're washing your 900th dish for the day. Go grizzlies or bust. Seriously these are the best slippers of all time.
Feb 2, 2021
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IYKYK. Gimme a bag of pirates booty and LFG! David Suchet as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot does nothing but solve mysteries and get fits off (since 1989 btw.) I’ve watched the show my whole life, and the theme music still runs through my head whenever I’m walking down the street. They did every Poirot novel (70 episodes) and you can stream it everywhere. Most episodes are 90 mins so plan accordingly.
Feb 2, 2021
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I know I’m supposed to put some Criterion pick here, or some sort of tour de force film, but have you seen Charles Grodin in Clifford?! Holy hell, few things cheer me up like Martin Short, pretending to “look at you like a normal person.” It’s a dumb movie that is better the more you watch it.
Feb 2, 2021