Merrill Markoe.com » Merrill Markoe

RE: The Super Bowl: How I tried to win a million dollars by making a Dorito commercial.

Merrill Markoe — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:00:22 +0000

Okay, I know it is The Superbowl next Sunday. And I know this, even though I don’t watch any sports. There. I said it. None. Nothing. And I am fortunate enough to now live with a man who shares my lack of interest. (In fact, just last night he said to me “Who is playing this year? Is it the Spiders versus The Coconuts?”) Read more

The Jpegs RollingStone didn’t want.

Merrill Markoe — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 03:49:49 +0000

So there is a piece in the new RollingStone about year one of the Letterman show. (If you use the link, check under the area labeled ‘features’ And if the link says something about how you need to be a subscriber, just google Rollingstone,Current issue. And it will appear. Then look for features.). As a lot of you may know, this is not a piece of my past that I revisit much. For a lot of reasons, among them the fact that whatever the opposite of nostalgic is, I am that. But when the writer of the piece, David Browne, contacted me, I decided I’d play along. Because…you know… why not? And in the course of playing along, the art director asked me if I had any photos. As it turned out, I did. I made jpegs out of a bunch of them but for whatever reason, they never made it in to the magazine. Which brings us to this blog post. Since I went to the trouble of making the damn jpegs , I thought maybe fans of the early Letterman show might enjoy seeing them. Lets get ME over with first. Here I am when the show first launched. The important writer shirt was a sarcastic souvenir from my days of being a struggling writer at large, newly moved to Hollywood. Which, at that point, was just a few weeks before this. I thought it was a very funny thing to have on a shirt. That, in a nutshell, was me then. Read more

Models Reveal Their Diet Secrets!

Merrill Markoe — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 21:14:11 +0000

Yep. I’m on twitter.

Merrill Markoe — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 18:28:21 +0000

I resisted for a long time. I resisted it all. (As I previously noted a few blog entries ago…I’m also on Facebook.) Read more

What it sounds like in my head between projects

Merrill Markoe — Mon, 16 May 2011 01:25:48 +0000

My pushy manipulative unbalanced Valentine

Merrill Markoe — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 19:41:48 +0000

When it comes to love, seems to me that no creature on the face of the earth is as generally clueless about what to do as the human being. Witness this clip of two albatrosses in love. (spoiler alert: Albatross porn. Parental guidance advised.) Both members of the lovely couple were clearly born fully loaded with detailed instructional software that explained to them how they should perform this incredibly appealing highly effective mating ritual . I personally find it so moving and convincing that I would join their species happily if only it were an option. Read more

Somehow the Morgan Library forgot to invite me.

Merrill Markoe — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 22:27:18 +0000

There is a new show at the Morgan Library and Museum, in NYC, that appears to be retrospective of the human being and his centuries old need to present himself and his life through the keeping of diaries. From the review I read in the N.Y. Times, it looks like an exhibit I would love. The show appears to contain everything from a fifteenth century ” first printed edition of St. Augustine’s ‘Confessions,’ and that book’s 18th-century secular heir, Rousseau’s “Confessions” to the hand written musings of assorted luminaries such as Sir Walter Scott, Emily Bronte, and Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife (see below). There are also contributions from that old diary perennial Anais Nin as well as musings from Bob Dylan, Tennessee Williams and a policeman at the site of the World Trade Center during 9/11. All appear to share the amazing details of being alive in their particular moment. Somehow everyone seems to know instinctively how to create the kind of entry that deserves to be placed upon the sands of time and burned in to the pages of history. Read more

Is this going to be on the test?

Merrill Markoe — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:00:02 +0000

Being a writer sometimes leads to unexpected situations. The one that happened today involved a text book requesting permission to reprint a piece that I wrote ten years ago. Read more

At long last: My Reality Show

Merrill Markoe — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:59:58 +0000

I think it is time for me to have a reality show. So I have made the important decisions. Read more

The Proust Questionnaire by Puppyboy

Merrill Markoe — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:41:50 +0000

At the end of the nineteenth century, when Marcel Proust was still in his teens, he answered a questionnaire in an English-language confessional album belonging to his friend Antoinette, daughter of future President Felix Faure, as was the fad among English families. The one that the young Proust completed was entitled "An Album to Record Thoughts, Feelings, etc." and it has been studied and replicated many many times since then.