Anythink News

BLOG

Anythink blog

Image credit to Sharon McCutcheon

Poetry Picks: 'All' by Bei Dao

Apr 24 2018
Back before my time at Anythink, I was a real nerd. After spending a single hour trying my best not to over-celebrate the fact that I was touching books Benjamin Franklin had set the type for, I realized I needed a job handling this kind of material. And I wanted it right then. And after walking...

Poetry Picks: 'The Wren from Carolina' by Mary Oliver

Apr 20 2018
Like much of Mary Oliver’s work, The Wren from Carolina  (text below) speaks to that voice inside all of us that cries out on occasion in soft gratefulness: for the first signs of spring, or the unspoken kind gesture, or perhaps for the comfort of a great book on one’s lap. This poem always makes...

Poetry picks: ‘Daddy’ by Sylvia Plath

Apr 18 2018
I don’t recall the first time I read Sylvia Plath‘s poetry, but I do know that I was likely in my late teens/early 20s and already an enthusiast of the form. I was even a dabbler myself, though the moody and...

Appreciating John Muir

Apr 16 2018
For anyone who likes to see the forest from the trees, stories about John Muir are likely to be a source of interest and inspiration. A bold and attentive naturalist, Muir traveled in and wrote about many of America’s wild places during the second half of the 19th century and the start of the 20th...
Photo by Jay Wennington on Unsplash

5 tips to improve your mobile photography skills

Apr 13 2018
It’s no secret that the digital age has transformed all of us into shutterbugs, which has created an explosion of amateur photojournalists and news anchors across social media. This is a wonderful, beautiful thing, no matter how the naysayers may grumble about the finer points of the subject. The...

Poetry picks: 'Totally' by Tony Hoagland

Apr 10 2018
Throughout April Anythinkers are sharing their favorite poems in honor of National Poetry Month. To start things off, I will discuss one of my all-time favorites: “Totally” by Tony Hoagland. I first encountered Tony Hoagland’s work in...

Mobile learning: Lynda.com on-the-go with your Anythink card

Apr 9 2018
By now, you may know about one of Anythink's most amazing resources: Lynda.com, a leading online learning platform that helps anyone learn business, software, technology and creative skills to achieve personal and professional goals. Lynda....

'Score': Listening to movies

Apr 2 2018
Try to imagine the shower scene in Psycho without shrieking violins. Or Jaws without the accelerating two-note theme that signals the arrival of the shark. Or Star Wars without blazing brass playing over the main title crawl. Music and film, according to the recent documentary...

5 tips to keep reading harder

Mar 29 2018
We’re nearly three months into the 2018 Read Harder Challenge, and I am further behind in crossing titles off of my list than I care to admit. After a not so great showing last year, I am committed to completing...

How to get the most out of Anythink’s Open Studio hours

Mar 27 2018
“The Studio at Anythink creates experience centered around production and puts interest-driven, informal learning into action." When it comes to interest-driven and informal learning, there is no list of rules for every person to follow. Everyone experiences life in different and beautiful ways,...
Photo by Thomas Le on Unsplash

Sound design for film: Two essential tips for recording

Mar 27 2018
Sound design is an important part of any successful film or score, and some will even argue it’s the most vital component of any multimedia project. It’s why the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has whole Oscar categories for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing – if no one bothered to edit...

Paying for a music streaming subscription? Hoopla is free!

Mar 1 2018
There's a chance you might be paying $10 a month – $120 a year – for a music subscription service. But did you know you can also stream for free with your library card and hoopla digital? With this service, you can search through practically any album you...
Lyme Regis, England

Inadvertent travel books: 5 novels

Feb 28 2018
Scotland was the beginning for me. I chose to read Susanna Kearsley’s The Winter Sea, a novel set in Scotland, seeking time...

An intro to Adobe Premiere Pro: 5 tools for beginners

Feb 28 2018
Adobe’s Premiere Pro CC is an absurdly fun software to play with when you’re looking to develop stylish, professional-grade home films. Whether it’s being done for commercial purposes to advertise your brand or business, for an academic or...

Fairy tales are for everyone

Feb 27 2018
After he won his twentieth Grand Slam Singles title at the Australian Open last month, Roger Federer stepped up to the microphone onstage while choking back tears and said, “The fairytale continues.” Fairy tales aren’t just a genre of storytelling. In our lexicon, the two words have become one,...

Unsung Sam: A look at the work of actor Sam Rockwell

Feb 27 2018
After the upcoming 90th Academy Awards ceremony on March 4, the front-runner for Best Supporting Actor might very well be...

Appreciating Ursula K. Le Guin

Feb 9 2018
Ursula K. Le Guin was a writer: a novelist, poet, essayist, translator, and children’s book author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, she was most widely known for her...

The Studio: Introducing new tools for video and audio production

Feb 1 2018
Along with the new year comes a new set of wonders in The Studio at Anythink Wright Farms. With this exciting change are new opportunities for our customers to create innovative and interesting projects based on of their own unique experiences...

Stories in a bottle: 'My Dinner with Andre'

Jan 30 2018
In most bottle stories, the characters are trapped. Nicole and I examined two such stories in our previous posts in this series. But there is another kind of bottle story. Rather than confining characters somewhere against their will...

Celebrating human connection this Valentine's Day

Jan 24 2018
June Carter was tuning her guitar backstage, and singing "a-ummm" to warm up her vocal chords. She did so based on a recommendation from her friend Elvis Presley, who had been touring with her for several weeks. Elvis was enchanted by the musical stylings of...

Pages