Review of The Ivory Game (Netflix)
I have watched this documentary twice, the first time to take in its scope, the second to understand what lies in the future for African elephants. Each time I am left asking: can the trafficking be stopped? Although a seemingly impossible task, the filmmakers show how dedicated, uncorrupt agents from Kenya and Tanzania collaborate with […]
The storm from an Ivory Cloud
As elephants die at the rate of thirty thousand a year, our own lives change. Most of us who are neither for or against ivory trafficking, watch on the sidelines. Occasionally, we might notice the statistics that spell out the tragic story. Putting aside the heartbreak, we’ll realize that all life matters and that one […]
The fishy thing about Scale
I recently posted a video I produced of The Peconic Land Trust’s local food series called “Long Island Grown”. I came away from editing these conversations with local farmers and producers feeling optimistic about the future. That future, it seems to me, hinges on families building their lives, and staying together here on Long Island’s […]
Swimming in fiction’s deep sea
You’ve been writing for years. Then, one gorgeous summer night, you decide to commit to a writing life. You have floated in the sea of fiction, but now you want to compete with the best. So you work out. You build your strength for novel swimming. You hone your legs, abs, arms, and shoulders; the […]
Sharing and the Privacy Trap.
You know how frustrating it is. You post an incomplete Tweet, or send a Facebook post without that photograph…or email someone with the attachment left off. It’s happened to everyone. We all need the freedom to check our drafts before pinning them to the public notice boards. We also have the right to NOT broadcast […]
The power of watching: Shifting from me-watch to them-watch
Geoffrey Wells Letter #13: On Friday, the world’s largest company, Apple, released its new product–a watch. And well, it’s not only a watch. It’s well-connected, although the analog watch still has one advantage; it works without an iPhone. Samsung also released its new watch. No one is sure that these devices are going to take hold […]
Geoffrey Wells Letter #10: The local planet.
I’m writing this blog on the first day of spring, Friday, March 20, 2015. It’s snowing. A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees…, well, they are shivering and shaking in the ground. The fluttering and dancing in the breeze will come later. The farm stands are still shuttered for the winter. While we eat California […]
Geoffrey Wells’ Weekly Letter #6: Podcast, grassroots and an openness in local gov’t
Music: This week, I had the pleasure of talking to Sophocles Papavasilopoulos on a podcast of Composers at Play. On a previous post I mentioned this interesting series about composers who also perform. At my suggestion, Sophocles kindly agreed to create an episode about how writers describe music. I’ll be posting that podcast in this blog, (date […]
Geoffrey Wells’ Weekly Letter: #4 – Solar, Trance and stolen PII
It’s been an ugly week. The ISIS barbarians who defile Islam and all human decency succeed only to make us more determined to annihilate them. And one of the weapons in our arsenal is making information transparent and accessible. Africa: So, some good news: Electric Power is coming to Africa, and it is sustainable. The irony […]
Geoffrey Wells’ Weekly Letter #3: Music, Containers and a bad Super Bowl app
Writing about music… This week I explain why I write about music, musicians and musical instruments. It’s a strange fascination, because I’m not a musician. But I did discover that I was musical. As a young teenager, I took piano lessons which, to the casual listener was an irrefutable disaster. Whether it was Moon River […]
