The Voices in Frank's Head

There's an article on WikiHow.com that offers guidance on how one can be "Bohemian." "Oh, really?" I thought when I stumbled upon this. I have to admit that I split on this one. My paternal grandparents came to this country from Bohemia , which is the western most province in what is today the Czech Republic. I have to admit that there is a portion of me that is mildly irritated by hipsters grabbing onto my heritage. However, if this is something that gets folks to read books that they might not otherwise read, listen to music that they might not otherwise listen, and generally broaden their creative horizons then I'm fairly confident that Grandma and Grandpa Nemecek would happy about it all.

I got the following email from a friend. I decided to re-post it, along with my response, since a few different people have wondered something similar. A good friend wants me to shoot some video of a ceremony they are having tonight to make a fundraising video for the nonprofit. DSLR’s can shoot video.  I can shoot the video with one of those?  Does it have enough resolution that it would look good on a TV or computer monitor? Assuming your DSLR was made in the past 5 or 6 years, you’ll be fine as far as resolution goes. There are, however, three other issues that you might need to consider. The first is memory. With HD video, the general rule of thumb is 3.5 minutes of video = 1 GB of memory used. Ask yourself how long this ceremony is and if you have enough memory. You might have to get a better memory card or dump the card to a hard drive in the middle of that ceremony. Second, you have to consider stability. Even if you have the hands of a surgeon, if you a...

James Scripps  began publishing The Evening News  on August 23, 1873. This newspaper would later become The Detroit News . This was a revolutionary moment in American history because it was the first newspaper to be independent of political parties. Instead, Mr. Scripps sought to boost circulation by selling ads to make money. It was a good idea. Of course, as one looks at the situation today - instead of media outlets that are dependent on political parties for support - we have a political party that is largely dependent on a media outlet for its survival. I wonder what Mr. Scripps would think about Fox News and the modern Republican Party.

I got one of the very first Spotify accounts in the United States. The folks at Spotify actually said, "Frank, we've always been impressed with your incredibly awesome task in music. Will you please open an account with us?" Okay - it might not have gone down exactly like that. Regardless, I did get one of the first Spotify accounts in the United States. As such, I thought it would be fun to share a couple of my music lists. Frank's Fun Mix is an eclectic mix of pop, hip-hop, and rock music that spans the past 20 years. Everyone of the songs on this list makes my day just a little bit better. It includes both national acts as well as a couple of great Detroiters. You can listen to it by clicking here . Irish & Proud is fun mix of music by Irish and Irish-American musicians. For the delightful pop sounds to The Corrs, to the storytelling of Gaelic Storm, to the Celtic Rock of the Young Dubliners. You can listen to it by clicking here . No wonder the folks at...

I had the weirdest dream last night. One of my friends, who isn't a filmmaker, was shooting a documentary on potato chips and I was editing it. Towards the end of it, two of my other friends showed up in the dream as Siskel & Ebert-type movie critics. As for any hidden meaning in this one, well, before going to bed last night, I was mildly hungry and debated eating a handful of potato chips. I decided against it because I'm trying to shed a few pounds. Regardless, potato chips were obviously on my mind when I went to bed. Although, a documentary on potato chips still sounds like a cool idea.

A friend of mine, who works in a local government office, had a chance encounter with a young woman who named her twin daughters Mani and Pedi. I personally believe that naming one's daughters Mani and Pedi ought to be considered a form of child abuse and prosecuted as such. Hopefully, the courts will one day see things my way. This will quite possibly happen when either Mani or Pedi (or possibly even both of them) grow up to become judges.

When I was in college, we made occasional trips south to Ohio. It was during this time period when some friends of mine and I came to a certain realization about the Buckeye State. In Ohio, the land may be flat and boring but the women aren't.

It's official, ladies and gentlemen. Analysts at Standard & Poor's have proclaimed that the United States of America is now the finest AA+  nation on Earth . I am so proud!

I posted a link on my Facebook page to a collection of brilliantly sarcastic responses to various well-meaning signs . Several of my friends laughed hard enough to spit one beverage or another out through their noses. I, for one, almost peed my pants from laughing so hard. Because I believe in sharing things like this with the entire world, I invite you to click here and prepare to laugh.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 512 points , which is its worst performance since December 2008. The drop today basically means that the stock market has lost all of its gains for the year. All of this means that I'm afraid to look at my investment portfolio today. I know it's set up for the long haul and one bad day doesn't mean anything when you have a 20 year investment horizon. I firmly believe that if one's investments were sound the day before a stock market crash then they will, in all probability, remain so after said crash. Of course, the sad corollary to such a rule is that if one's investments weren't sound beforehand, one hopelessly screwed once a crash hits. Anyway, on days like this, I am reminded of the great investors who managed to get through the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 without losing a single penny. How did they do it? They had good investments to begin with and they didn't sell during a panic. Instead, t...

I originally posted about this over on my neighborhood blog , but I wanted to mention it here as well on my personal one. I thought I would take you behind the scenes on my day job. I run a video production company and we were in Ypsilanti this past weekend to create a pilot for a reality television show called Club Cantina . We'll pitch the show to the various television networks. If that doesn't work, it is still has some great opportunities for an internet based show as well. I'll post more about the show later. For now, though, I wanted to give you a behind the scenes look at life on the set.

I've come to the conclusion that I really ought to stop paying attention to what is happening around town. The local newspapers can essentially be summed as "Things that Mayor Dave Bing and Governor Rick Snyder  are doing that piss me off today." I'm tired of being this pissed off all of the time. It reminds me of the old adage that ignorance is bliss. If I simply forget that we have a local or state government, maybe things will be better for me. Nothing will be better in my neighborhood or in the surrounding area, but I can't help that. They seem determined to fuck things up and give lots of my money to their friends in the process. Bing and Snyder. There's a reason why their initials are "B.S." Collectively, they are the B.S. Twins.

A woman walked up to my Mom the other day, she told me. "I don't know if you remember me, Mrs. Nemecek," this woman said to my Mom. "I used to teach your son, Frank, in Sunday school." "I'm not sure how to take that," my Mom reportedly replied. "Why is that?" "Well, if you remember my son from having him in your classroom one day a week more than thirty years ago, that can only mean one of two things: either he was a very helpful and exceptionally well-behaved student or he was a serious pain in your butt." "And, as his mother," my Mom continued, "I think we can rule out the first option." Ah - a mother's love.

I met this woman recently. At one point she said, "I'm pretty sure I'm older than you." I brushed the whole subject of age off and didn't think too much of it. That is - until I checked her Facebook profile. Based on when she gradated from high school, she is roughly eight years younger than me. And now I wonder: how do I break this to her? Or do I even bother to?

Katie Wech , one of the writers behind Prison Break and Prom , wrote an essay in The Wall Street Journal about what makes a good script. WSJ is not normally the go-to source for screenwriting advice. However, this is an outstanding piece, in my humble opinion. If you're interested in writing for the movies and television, I recommend reading her article entitled Why a Good Script Is Like a Thong Bikini . It is available here .

I was playing around with some stock footage and music last weekend. The end result of it was, well, this short video below. I was experimenting to see if I could create an interesting video that was done with nothing but stock images. This isn't the greatest example ever, but I think it's interesting.

I managed to cut out of work early this afternoon. This meant that I was able to go see Captain America: The First Avenger instead. I loved this movie. It was, in my opinion, the best comic book inspired movie.

Atlantis and the STS 135 crew returned safely home to Earth early this morning. They arrived at the Kennedy Space Center just before dawn today. Their safe return brings to a close the 30 year long space shuttle program. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden  outlines what is next for the space agency here . It is an ambition agenda of leveraging partnerships with the private sector, sending a manned mission to explore Mars, continuing the success of the International Space Station, conducting a multitude of scientific research missions, and maintaining its leadership role in aeronautics research. I look forward to the next chapter in NASA's great story.

I was flipping through Entrepreneur  the other day and noticed an article about the dramatic profits that "breastaurants" are able to bring in . These, of course, are restaurants that are inspired by the Hooter's model of good food and attractive waitresses in skimpy outfits. Would You Like Fries With That? I'm convinced that if someone were to open a restaurant like this in downtown Detroit and give it a sports theme, it would be huge. The place would capitalize on all of the traffic from the Detroit Lions, Tigers, and Red Wings games as well as any activity at Cobo, Hart Plaza, or elsewhere nearby. It would be huge. In fact, I remember a couple of years ago when Hooter's was fighting with the City of Troy (approximately 8 miles north of Detroit proper) for the right to open one of their restaurants there. Troy did not want them. When I saw the back and forth debate, I remember screaming at my television for them to forget about Troy and open downtown. Oh...

TheChive.com posted its collection of 39 women with future lower back problems recently. All of them, of course, were photographed in bikinis or skimpy lingerie. I was actually a little surprised by the photos that they posted. A couple of those ladies might have actually had real boobs.