All posts by Andy Marken

Recently we played Twister with our daughter after she complained, “I’m bored and there’s nothing on TV.” Are you kidding me? We have Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, App... More

While growing up in the Midwest, a big deal every fall was going to the annual county fair, every day. We became enthralled one year watching a barker hawking knives or pots/pans o... More

Have you seen the list of big Hollywood film projects that have started back up, again … finally? After a lot of Zoom vetting on the part of crew members and actors, Universal... More

Attention streaming video folks. Yes, we really like Netflix. Disney+, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Apple TV+, Disney + stuff. So why didn’t we throw Peacock, Pluto, Tubi into the pile? T... More

The big problem with the pandemic — okay, for us — is that we have time with ourselves and that gives time to think about things … like what do you want to do when you grow u... More

Let’s see, the pandemic made us shut-ins, and then the fires here in California showed us what the apocalypse was going to look like. People in every country, state or provinc... More

Because of the global pandemic we were unable to go to this year’s Venice Film Festival. Couldn’t go in years past because we couldn’t afford it. Nice to have a new reason. ... More

Finally, things are getting back to normal and we’re able to go to our club to workout. Okay, it’s not completely normal, but it’s a step in the right direction. We can do ou... More

Give us a hint please! What are all the market analysts and experts measuring when they track Warner’s Tenet in theatres and Disney’s Mulan streamed in the U.S. and in select o... More

Ya know, the SIP house arrest thing got real old, real fast. As with most people in Silicon Valley, we’re used to working from home, in a hotel room, on holiday; heck, even at th... More

We just canceled our fourth holiday trip this year … no warm water diving this year. But we’re an optimist, so, next year! Actually, we should have realized the entire M&E i... More

We don’t care what you say, a well-executed con is a beautiful thing. You know, like in The Sting and Catch Me If You Can. A poorly executed con is sad. A good con person kno... More

The other day, we were watching a movie on our smartphone. Thirty minutes in this huge buffering wheel filled the screen. Then … stutter, stop, spin, stutter, stop, spin. A fe... More

We were Zooming with an industry friend in Croatia recently and he made the passing observation that it was so good that the industry was finally getting back to normal. Well y... More

In the middle of a Microsoft Team meeting, the company CEO left his home office to refresh his coffee and when he came back, his head of marketing said he didn’t realize it was c... More

If you’re going to have bad stuff happen (global pandemic, worldwide social and racial realignment, and international economic unrest) there’s probably no better time to reshuf... More

Even though it takes many shapes and forms today, sex still sells. The next sure-fire selling idea is fear. Ring and the other eyeball doorbell systems are everywhere because th... More

Back in 2017 the company that is synonymous with streaming had this then-odd idea of putting up the full season of shows all at once, allowing people to binge watch it all, instead... More

For months now, people around the world have been getting their daily entertainment escape simply by turning on their screen, tapping into the show lists on the roster of their ad-... More