Shawn Peters: No Pun Intended

Mis(ter) Communication: Man-on-Man Coverage

(this article first appeared on The Good Man Project website on Dec. 10, 2011)

 

If you are a man, and there’s at least a fifty percent chance you are, you’ve likely experienced the following. You and a friend/co-worker/relative are talking about sports, and a conversation-adjacent woman sighs and announces, “Ugh, all you men do is talk about sports!” as if there could be nothing more trivial, useless or sad. But what is truly sad is the fact that these sports conversations between men are marginalized when they actually represent progress, evolution, and maybe even hope for the future of our planet. 

Let me explain, or, as Indigo Montoya once said, “There is too much. Let me sum up.”

Mis(ter) Communication: Autocorrect My Relationship

NOTE: This piece originally appeared as part of The Good Man Project on November 18, 2011. You can find it here.

 

On the website damnyouautocorrect.com, there was a photo of an iPhone screen. Someone named Michelle had received a text that read, "I just wanted to say: I love you!" Her response was "Oh babe. I love you too. If I could, I'd buy you a casket." After several seconds of what we can only assume was frantic thumb-typing, she finally followed up her morbid love-text, "Gah! A Castle! Damn auto correct. Way to ruin a moment." If Michelle and her beau are together long enough, there may, in fact, be a day when she wishes to put him in the ground, but apparently, not yet.

While this may seem like an amazingly modern tale, it really isn't anything new, because since the beginning of time, being in a relationship  has meant dealing with constant miscommunications, regardless of whether you're face-to-face, or phone-to-phone. Romeo and Juliet anyone?

On The Tee: Peters Single (May 16, 2010)

I am a golfer.   

I'm not very good, but I'm not very bad either, which I suppose is saying something. I am an average golfer, equally capable of crisp irons and skulled wedges. As such, I feel comfortable playing with all types of other golfers, knowing that I likely won't slow down better players, nor will I lose my patience with all but the worst hackers and duffers. 

Often, I play alongside people I know in a pre-ordained foursome comprised of friends and family.  But just as often, II head to courses across this nation alone, a "single" in golf parlance, and have my playing partners chosen by fate, timing, and the whims of a golf shop starter who looks down his ledger and looks for open slots to fill.

I've spent dozens of days on the course observing wonderful people with wretched swings, watching them post scores that resemble the weigh-in for a junior welterweight fighter. I've played alongside miserable sons-of-bitches who play the game like self-loathing poets, creating beauty out of shaped shots and elegant backspin, only to tear apart their masterpiece if you dare flatter them.

Most of all, what I've learned is that when you play golf as a single, you tend to remember the characters you played with long after the actual score you shot has disappeared into a scorecard-choked pocket in your golf bag. For years, I've toyed with the idea of profiling my rounds as an unplanned playing partner, painting portraits of the strangers I meet for a span of four or five hours at a time. 

After addressing the ball for far too long, this is my first swing at it.

Two to tangle - The Boston Globe

Two to tangle - The Boston Globe

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Screen to Stage: 5 Movies Built for Broadway

As Sara and I sat at the Boston Opera House, watching the touring company of "Young Frankenstein" bring one of my favorite movies to life on stage, complete with some memorable music, it got me thinking about the trend of making Broadway musicals out of feature films that originally had little or no music in them.

Besides Mel Brooks making it work with "Young Frankenstein" and "The Producers" (which went on to then become a musical movie, strangely enough), in recent years Broadway has seen "Dirty Dancing," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and "Legally Blonde." Sara and I were even fortunate enough to see live version of "High Fidelity" on it's way to a failed engagement on Broadway. 

That said, not every movie is built for Broadway. I mean, as much kitsch factor as there may be in having Han perform a Solo of "Don't Leave me Leia", there's really no reason to believe that Star Wars: The Musical really would work in a way that did anything but parody the original movie.

No, a good "screen to stage" candidate needs certain qualities. 

Cheating on Myself

Forgive me "No Pun Intended"... but I have been unfaithful.

Of course, I was paid to do it.   

A few months ago, my company, Viewpoint Creative, started a blog with weekly posts rotating throughout the company. My turn came up, and while I had to blog about something related to the advertising and promotion industry... I "kept it real."

Take a look, words and images by yours truly. I promise it's not anywhere close to a dry industry blog post... heck, I might even get in trouble for it. 

Oh, and yeah... every pun intended on this one.

http://blog.viewpointcreative.com/

The Culturally Inaccurate Kid

I have to admit, I am 99% stoked to go see the remake of one of the seminal movies of my youth, "The Karate Kid." But that remaining one percent is really bugging me. 

Let's set the stage, and while we're at it, set the way back machine for 1984.

As a skinny kid who moved from the East Coast to   California about five years before and was handed his share of bullying and embarrassments courtesy of his accent and uncool ways, the original flick starring Pat Morita, Ralph Macchio and pre-"Leaving Las Vegas" beauty, Elisabeth Shue was pretty much my own fantasy brought to film. Oh, and did I mention that the pre-pubescent version of yours truly also studied martial arts for several years (three years of Judo, one year of Tae Kwon Do) and used to frequent the specific water slide/arcade where Macchio and Shue had their first date.

None of the sequels had the same effect on me as I grew older (but Macchio never seemed to). By the time Mr. Miyagi was training Hillary Swank, there was no more mojo left in the dojo.

Ego and the Oracle on Radio

Jim's Big Ego did a set today on WERS (Emerson's Radio Station)   and a portion of it was spent plugging the show and giving the on-air host a customized answer to her question. Click below to listen... and in advance, I apologize for desecrating the airwaves with my nasal twang. (oh, and you can see the whole show Thursday, 8:30 PM at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge... be there or be their.)

Live on WERS 4-13-2010

TrekHop... The Final Promotional Frontier

I like to think I get to do a lot of fun work at my day job at Viewpoint Creative... but I don't share it all. This one, though, is something I've been waiting to share for months because of three things.

1) It came out really well.

2) It's fun and part of pop culture.

3) I still can't believe the client chose it and let us run with it.

CBS Distribution Star Trek Trekhop from Viewpoint Creative on Vimeo.

Buying One for the Team

Just so you know, the Red Sox are going to win the World Series this year, and it has nothing to do with the fact that they won an impressive, emotional Opening Night game against the Yankees on Sunday.

In truth, the reason for my certainty stems from a small, seemingly insignificant purchase made ninety minutes before the first pitch was thrown.  

You see... I bought a hat.