Halo Effect

What is the Halo Effect? A shining circle of light? A mandorla? Doesn’t ‘mandorla’ sound like a problem that the pharmaceutical companies are working on now that they have licked ED?

What is the Halo Effect?

I’m not going to answer that yet. Instead, I’m going to talk about Almost Famous. The ending dialog is exceptionally important:

William Miller: “We are going to do this one more time.”

He turns on his tape recorder, expecting to hear the truth, and asks, “So Russell, what do you love about music?”

Russell Hammond stops leaning back. He gets up. Turns the chair around. Sits back down, and leans forward into the microphone.

Russell Hammond: “To begin with, everything!”

At that point, everyone in the audience is wildly interested in Russell Hammond. If he were to come out with a double live album a week later, it would be high on the Billboard charts with a bullet.

There is something to be learned here.

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A couple of observations. The final line is “to begin with, everything.” So the movie ends with a beginning. Well, except the bit about Morocco. Tangerine by Led Zeppelin never sounds better than after that statement.

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Thus concludes Part 1 of,

All I Needed To Know About The Value Of The Web I Learned From Russell Hammond

Or

Why Merlin Mann Should Write, Fear & Loathing At The Algonquin Round Table.