Профиль

The latest edition of 5AM StoryTalk's monthly rundown has dropped. It's about my life as a professional artist in Australia, art lover, and human being trying to survive the 21st century - good and bad, hilarious and stupid. This month, things have taken a turn…for the better?

☕ 5AM CoffeeTalk: August 2026A monthly rundown about my life as a professional artist, art lover, and human being trying to survive the 21st century - good and bad, glorious and frustrating, hilarious and stupidcolehaddon.substack.com

Dinah Washington killing time on the drums as she waits for rehearsal to start, 1958. 📸 Ted Williams.

“I think about the reader. I care about the reader. Not ‘audience.’ Not ‘readership.’ Just the reader.”  —  Jeffrey Eugenides

What is the hidden thread connecting all great stories? DR. DACHER KELTNER - psychologist, author, and leading expert on awe - explores the surprising science behind timeless storytelling. 🎙️🎬 Listen/watch the full 5AM StoryTalk conversation with Dacher at the link in the first comment!

Видео

I just love this independent poster for THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964). I mean, look at the expression on Vincent Price’s face — the disgusted, resigned commitment to the task in front of him. Art by Joel Herrera.

From the making of FIRST BLOOD (1982): Sylvester Stallone tries to escape the cops. 📸 Unknown.

What can screenwriters learn from Christopher Nolan's THE ODYSSEY? In the latest edition of 5AM StoryTalk, I break down the storytelling decisions that transformed a 2,700-year-old myth into a devastating study of our own civilization's collapse. ✍️ Read more at the link in the first comment...

“I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.'” — Vincent Van Gogh

Bill Pullman and John Candy yucking it up for the camera during the making of SPACEBALLS (1987). 📸 Unknown.

“There is nothing harder to estimate than a writer’s time, nothing harder to keep track of. There are moments — moments of sustained creation — when his time is fairly valuable; and there are hours and hours when a writer’s time isn’t worth the paper he is not writing anything on.”― E.B. White

A reminder: Mads Mikkelsen is an international treasure.

Robert Evans, Ali MacGraw, and James Caan at THE GODFATHER’s premiere, 1972. 📸 Unknown.

“Try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.” — Zadie Smith

Writer-director GREG MCLEAN ('Wolf Creek') has thoughts on why indie horror creators are capturing the cultural zeitgeist right now. From ‘Backrooms’ to ‘Obsession’, the playbook has changed. 🎙️🎬 Listen/watch the full conversation with Greg McLean at the link in the first comment!

Видео

Thanks to everyone who's shared this piece, including those who did so to insult me. You've helped more people find Emily Wilson's review and my rebuttal, which I think is a good thing. The arts require vigorous public discourse, given how they're under siege. Keep talking about them!

“Every scene should be able to answer three questions: Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don’t get it? Why now?” — David Mamet

My brother just shared a Chat GPT pic of him with our dead dad, whom he has thousands of real photos with. Dad is 4 inches shorter than him when he was actually taller. The name on my brother's uniform is wrong. And my brother is John Travolta. He texted, "This made me cry." I'm still laughing.

David Lean talking with William Wyler during the making of BEN-HUR (1959). 📸 Unknown.

Emily Wilson, the renowned translator of Homer's THE ODYSSEY, penned a takedown of Christopher Nolan's adaptation that *intentionally* misses the point...so why did she do it? Read: colehaddon.substack.com/p/emily-wils...

Tracy Chapman, 1992. 📸 Lynn Goldsmith.