As we work our way through a winter that sometimes mimics May, I hope you are warm and well. And as always, I wish you a very happy… February—Fine Line Friday!
More than 100 million people tuned into last week’s Super Bowl, but it was a much smaller number who watched the American Sign Language interpretation of Rihanna’s captivating halftime show. Do yourself a favor and check out a few minutes of Justina Miles’ equally riveting performance.
At Fine Line, we’ve recently made efforts to step up our game on social media, so I hope you don’t mind if I share a few Insta links to some of our recent work: a recap of my week on the 2023 NHL All-Star Game down in Florida, as well as a couple of looks at production on the GA Tech InVenture Prize, including our shoots at the Preliminary and Semifinal rounds. And you can always see these posts and more on Fine Line’s Facebook page if that’s your social media medium of choice.
This time of year, turnkey production of 3 live television shows in a 5-week span keeps me on my toes. So in addition to daily meditation, I’m often looking for ways to quiet my inner voice. That’s why I was happy to find this short video by Big Think featuring Ethan Kross, the author of Chatter. Ethan suggests a toolkit. And if some of these practices are good enough for folks like Rafael Nadal, they might just work for you too.
Of course February is Black History Month, making it an excellent time to share a few links I’ve saved for this month’s missive.
First, if you haven’t looked at your spare change lately, you might want to give it a glance. About a year ago, Maya Angelou became the first black woman to be featured on a U.S. quarter. You can read more about the coin and a few of the many reasons for honoring Angelou on the Mint’s website.
Going back a bit, I consider myself fortunate to have found this never-aired, 1979, 20/20 interview with author and activist, James Baldwin. Do know that Baldwin pulls no punches in this frank and still-timely conversation, making it all the greater a shame that ABC chose not to air it.
While Baldwin was giving that interview, Jean-Michael Basquiat was well on his way to becoming one of the world’s best known black artists. Sadly, like many great artists, it was not until decades after his all-too-early death at the age of 27 that his work began to receive significant financial recognition. This video from Great Art Explained provides an insightful look at Basquiat’s life, as well as his most famous painting, which in 2017 garnered the highest price to be paid at that time for an American artist’s work—$110.5M.
As always, I hope these stories move and inspire you as they did me. I look forward to bringing you more next time. Until then, may you keep… Feeling Fine!
