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Where, When, How Much, What Flavor.
Doesn't feel like I have any time to blog these days (I'm writing this on Saturday morning) which stinks. I'l get the hang of working full time soon I'm sure but in the meantime little updates will have to do.
On that, a radio commentary I did recently on changes in book reviewing aired a few weeks back. Listen to it if you like.
Quiz Show (1994): "A small disappointment can be indicative of a sad moral decline."
Notes: A re-viewing, Tivoed at home. When I first saw it in the theatres, I found it a bit formal and cold, too dependent on Federal Investigation Hearings (FIH'S), which may be the most exhausted staged scene in film history (senator looks imperious at witness over glasses, witness stutters but then declares great truth while leaning forward). But this time around, I remembered this review from Roger Ebert.
The 1950s have been packaged as a time of Eisenhower and Elvis, Chevy Bel-Airs and blue jeans, crew cuts and drive-ins. "Quiz Show" remembers it was also a decade when intellectuals were respected, when a man could be famous because he was a poet and a teacher, when TV audiences actually watched shows on which experts answered questions about Shakespeare and Dickens, science and history. All of that is gone now.
This is a such a sad movie, about the loss of innocence and civility but worse about disapppointment in ourselves. It doesn't argue things were better then, which would have been the easy route. It instead submits that, as a country, we once believed in certain noble things, even for the wrong reasons of class and gentle bigotry, but we gave them up, not just because of the temptation of money but by asking less of our fellow citizens. However much we complain about declining standards, says Quiz Show, we each brought it upon ourselves. I applaud its courage in saying so.
Title: "Flight"
Author: Sherman Alexie.
Synopsis: Teenage Indian hoodlum, bounced from nth foster home, finds he can travel through time to crucial points in Indian history and that of his own family.
Backstory: I wiould read Sherman Alexie transcribing episodes of According to Jim.
Verdict: A quick, funny dark read but Alexie can do better. The prose feels route and sing-songy and it doesn't contain the longing of Long Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven or the lonely majesty of Reservation Blues. In the hands of debut author, Flight would be their finest hour. In the hands of a champion like Sherman Alexie, it's a pause on the road to better things.
Lonesome Jim (2005): "Being an cute, mopey asshole does not make you any less of an asshole."
Notes: Did Steve Buscemi direct this soggy lump of rags? Skip it and rent Tree's Lounge.
Mr. McNally nabbed me on this one.
The Rules:
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and that they should read your blog.
5. 8 is a magic number. Not three.
Eight Obscure Things About Me:
1. I have to roll over at least once before I can fall asleep.
2. 8 was my lucky number as a child.
3. I am great with names, not so much with faces.
4. When I was 12, I won a popcorn popper by guessing how many jelly beans were in a jar. It was at a Bar Mitzvah so I guessed 1313.
5. I'm kinda sensitive about my weight.
6. Since I think all day and way too much, I find manual labor and mindless tasks a blessed relief.
7. My first and middle names are Irish. I don't have a drop of Irish blood.
8. I believe that ice cream in a cone must be eaten outdoors.
Tag. You're It.
Wendy McClure
Andrew Huff
Erica Olsen
Jason Toney
George Kelly
Liane Baskin
Jennifer Crane
Heath Row
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977): "A movie that takes 45 minutes to clear its throat probably doesn't have much to say."
Notes: Seen as part of Smokler's Sunday Cinema, a weekly film screening I host at my house.
So this is like the coolest thing ever. Matt Nathanson, one of my favorite singers, just sent this little note to his mailing list.
the only reason i play acoustic guitar is because of the indigo girls.
i always wanted to be in a band, until the day i heard their first record.
then i just wanted to BE them. i think i've seen them live 40 times.
and they never disappoint.
this week, i wanted to take a break from the pre-release roll out of
"some mad hope," to share with all of you THE coolest moment in
my musical life so far.
over memorial day weekend, i was involved in an amazing
3 day retreat in new orleans with a handful of incredible artists,
including emily and amy (indigo girls). it was a workshop on
activism and the arts and it culminated in a concert to benefit
Sweet Home New Orleans. in the taxi on the way to the show,
i finally spilled the beans to them both about how influential
they had been to me and they asked if i wanted to "sing michael's
(stipe... of REM) part on 'kid fears?'"...
And he did. Here's the video.
Isn't it lovely when dreams come true?
This morning I came across perhaps the least shocking headling ever this morning on Arts Journal.
Canada Gives Big Boost to Culture Funding.
Right up there with...
Mood After Summit is "Cautiously Optimistic"
and
Hurricanes Predicted for August and September
Door Prize: Can you come up with a believable yet painfully obvious headline?
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939): "Great men often don't realize their potential until history provides them with a moment to do so."
Notes: Really a film about director John Ford's love for America during the depth of the depression. Message: We can and will be a great country again. Seems naive and schmaltzy now but it spoke to me.
Seen as part of the AFI 400 quest.
Over two hours of music, sore backs and legs, one equally hoarse friend and a first trip to a stunning concert hall, The Polyphonic Spree remain the best live band in America. Do not miss them if you can help it.
(x-posted from BookTour blog)
So this morning, BookTour joined the esteemed company of NASCAR, real estate agents and junky chinese imports.
How, you ask? We've been mentioned on the Freakonomics Blog. Freakonomics is a book that came out in 2005 reevaluating the field of data gathering and economics and has sold about 5 kabillion copies. The blog is a much read for those interested in radical reconsiderations of the everyday.
We're honored to be included.
On my mind and in the reading queue this week...
"There is no iron that can enter the human heart with such stupefying effect, as a period placed at just the right moment." --Isaak Babel (via The Writer's Almanac)
Today, after six weeks of beta testing, BookTour.com has gone live. Our CTO Adam Goldstein did a kick-tuchas job coding the sucka and it hums like a top.
If you haven't visited yet, BookTour.com is a free online service where authors on tour can search for venues to set up speaking engagements and book lovers can see when their favorite writers are coming to their home town and have the information delivered by email, rss or iCalendar. (full description).
Our CEO is Chris Anderson who posted this morning on his blog about the project. I'm the Chief Evangelist and Community Director which means education and outreach are my domain.
I'll be spending much of the rest of the summer getting authors, book stores, libraries and interested parties into our database.
You can sign up for own free BookTour.com account and start tracking your favorite authors as they come through town. Takes about 3 minutes and the rewards, he boasts, are priceless.
Lady and the Tramp (1955): "The best dogs-eating-spaghetti sequence in movie history."
Notes: Seen at part of Smokler's Sunday Cinema, my ongoing quest to watch every movie on the AFI 400 list with my closest friends.
"The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.
Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet.
No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.
Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.
Bobby (2006) "The death of a collective dream takes with it thousands of smaller dreams."
For reasons beyond understanding, I've become a complete addict of Linkedin, the social network where whom you know and how they can help you professionally is the currency. Maybe it's the ego boost of knowing a lot of people, maybe it's because I'm inspired enough by my current job to brag about it and seek seight parallel careers. Maybe its the kind of mindless task I crave like adding album artwork to my iTunes library or doing the dishes. It's probably best not to ask any more.
I've got 136 connections and am adding like a tweaker chasing smack. More more, I say. Did we go to pre-school together and fight over ticker toys? Now, we're connected. Ha! One morning on the playground 26 years ago and now you're connection #117. For me. Cuz I'm the man.
Sicko (2007): "You can measure the values of a society by how it takes care of the sick, the poor, the least able to take care of themselves."
"Show me who your friends are and I'll show you who you are."
I don't know who said this originally but my friend Allie said it to me last night. My own version is
"You can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep"
I never thought it would happen but after reading this article, I actually feel a little sorry for George Bush. It took 7 years but here we are.
No modern president has experienced such a sustained rejection by the American public. Bush's approval rating slipped below 50 percent in Washington Post-ABC News polls in January 2005 and has not topped that level in the 30 months since. The last president mired under 50 percent so long was Harry S. Truman. Even Richard M. Nixon did not fall below 50 percent until April 1973, 16 months before he resigned.
The polls reflect the events of Bush's second term, an unyielding sequence of bad news. Social Security. Hurricane Katrina. Harriet E. Miers. Dubai Ports World. Vice President Cheney's hunting accident. Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay and Mark Foley. The midterm elections. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Alberto R. Gonzales and Paul D. Wolfowitz. Immigration. And overshadowing it all, the Iraq war, now longer than the U.S. fight in World War II.
Seems as a result the president doesn't socialize much any more, has been abandoned by many of his once close friends and and is taking the counsel of many a learned man to discern his place in history. He gets how much the voters disapprove of his performance but remains convinced of his own righteous.
For the first time in 7 years, Bush seems to me like a man trapped by his own fatal character defects instead of a dangerous fool.
"My other car is a beer."
Eh, ok?
"Did you think I could ever forget
The night by the Arlington Flame?
In the silence I heard it
Through streets so deserted
You whispered and called me by name.
Did you think I could ever forget
That powerful look in your eye?
Where Lincoln stood strong there
You held me so long there that night
On the fourth of July."
Total Flag Count: 313.
Last year: 234
Guests: 3
Last Flag: On a fire engine in front of Fenton's Creamery where we always stop for lunch afterward.
The Closing Song: (mp3)
"Washington's Day" by The Hooters
Happy birthday, you crazy country of mine. I see a bright future for you.
“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity” to serve. You don’t have to know the Second Theory of Thermal Dynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love, and you can be that servant.”
- Martin Luther King Jr (via The Painting Activist)
Happy Independence Day everyone!
Ratatouille (2007): "Our dreams and our upbringing are sometimes less at odds than we think."
Seen at the lovely little Balboa Theatre.
So this evening was the first edition of Smokler's Sunday Cinema, a film series I'm going to be hosting at my house each Sunday night in an attempt to gain for myself a better cinematic education. Our debut movie, The Muppet Movie chosen because it's both a crowd pleaser and a movie about movies.
Afterwards, we got into a fruitful discussion about the movie's ending, which I always found a little ambiguous. What precisely is the Rainbow Connection? Why does the movie end with the destruction of a film set and how does that work along with the lyrics "Life's like a movie, write your own ending?"
I mostly listened and ended up liking my friend Nomi's elegant interpretation that "your dreams and their potential is within you."
The crowd hung around until almost 11, listening to music, eating Thai food we ordered. Jason was visiting from South Carolina and was heading home tomorrow. Didn't seem like anyone really wanted to end.
For a first run, a huge success. I'll be putting out the announcement for the next movie on Wednesday..
Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times edited by Kevin Smokler
