Book Blog

Well, here I am winding down the last hour of my volunteer shift at the box office. Pretty quiet out here. I guess the new ticketing rules are helping cut down on the daily crowds. It being Saturday I actually got to see some morning and afternoon shows. Nonetheless, I didn't get to see everything. And so. The list of the unseen:

• Thunder Soul
• The Mirror
• An Injury to One
• The Invention of Dr. Nakamatsu - I think just the preview.
• Life Extended
• Dirty Business: Clean Coal
• Seltzer Works
• Capital - there is a trailer on their website.
• I am Secretly an Important Man

These ones didn't get away:

• Chairmaker - You can buy it on Appalshop's website. Lovely little remastered film about an 80 year old chairmaker in rural Kentucky. Very good, pretty short.
• John and Jane - a preview. What can I say? Well, having been to India once myself for a little spell I found it just entrancing. The film documents several people that work for a call center (The 4th Dimension, which felt fitting to me!) in India. Beautiful footage, interesting characters. Unfortunately, too many characters. Too many characters, or too too much time on each one.
• Taylor Chain - excellent b/w documentary of unionizing of chain factory circa the early seventies.
• Live Nude Girls UNITE! - I guess you can buy it. Pretty good first person narrative of the fight to Unionize a strip club in San Francisco. Somewhat stilted in its polarized lens of 'the company' vs 'the worker'. But good.

I know I know. I already posted today. But that was for yesterday, so. This is a post of regret. Things already gone, that I probably won't ever get to see. So, the List Of theonesthatgotaway:

Thursday

• Diary of a Times Square Thief - all is not lost, its on netflix (sort of not really).
• Photo & Copyright by GP Fieret - well, here's a preview anyway.
• Kings of Pastry - yeah, its on netflix(uh, sort of. You can 'ask for it'. Its on their radar)!
• Disco and Atomic War - preview
• Coal Miner: Frank Jackson - I guess you could buy it from Appalshop.

Okay, and since after all this research I actually CAN see some things:

• The Wobblies - netflix and google video.
• Photograph of Jesus - see it on vimeo.
• Man Push Cart - it IS on netflix (even instant)!
• The Global Assembly Line

I'm volunteering with the box office team at the Full Frame Festival this week. Last night was my first shift, which was crazy busy. Or so I thought. The first passholder I witnessed at the box office was a North-Eastern woman, irate because she couldn't get into the opening night show. Understandable. At $200 for a standar Festival Pass I suppose it would be upsetting to find yourself stuck in the 'last minute line', watching those rabble-ish general public getting into the movie ahead of you with a mere $10. There were a number of ugly arguments throughout the night about that issue. All about Kings of Pastry. I hope it wins something, I'd like to see it too.

• Photograph of Jesus
• The Poodle Trainer (I was hoping), but no...youtube is still fun.

Last night I saw The Thorn in the Heart. Its a sweet peice that takes a retrospective look with a woman who ran little schools in villages of France (I think? subtitles, yes, and flowery language). Every now and then I wondered, am I getting bored? And then she'd say something too funny, too cute, and mixed chuckling floated out of the audience.

Today? Live Girls UNITE for sure, and maybe The Chairmaker

Scott Sigler doesn't want anymore condolences posted to his blog, but I feel for the guy, so I'm just going to post mine here. It sucks to have your dad die. Stick in there buddy, we love your work.

Okay okay this isn't strictly about what I'm reading (which is nothing, by the way - unless you want to count the Independent or Communications. I don't). I am at this very moment manning a laptop in the main box office for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. As you might guess, there isn't much going on here. I don't have anything to do.


But that figures. It's day three of the four day festival.

Got out of volunteering on Thursday night as it was mostly dead. And so, I snuck in to see a little bit of The Siamese Connection with a friend. Not enough to make any clear decisions as to whether it was good/bad. What I did see was a rambling conversation as these two characters wandered one house that the siamese twins lived in near Mt Airy, NC about a hundred years back.

Yesterday I watched part 1 of New Americans, which was quite good. It chronicled the lives of several families emmigrating to the United States. It is showing twice here and in three parts. The directors told us that we're seeing the 'short' 6 hour version. I hope to see part 2 tomorrow.

Today was my jackpot day. So far: The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories and The Order of Myths. Myths ROCKS. Got my vote. Mosquito was funny but didn't quite tell the whole story; it could have gone a little further. Enunciated, if you will. Definitely enjoyed them both.

Hoping to see a couple more movies before the end of the weekend.

by Jeffrey Eugenides

An amazing book, deserving a Pulitzer. I guess thats why it got one!

by Rex Stout

Ooh, this library book has a picture of the author on the back sleeve. What a funny looking guy. I mean that in a good way. Rex Stout appears both good natured and cunning, cunning enough to be writing good detective novels.

This latest Rex Stout This book was published in the mid-late 60s. I marvel at how our trusty protagonists Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe age not at all despite the nearly 30 years that have passed since the first Nero Wolfe novel was written. As I read The Father Hunt I remember rereading one passage in which Archie and his buddies (forgive me, I've lost thir names, although they are right there on the tip of my tongue) make some mad dash on an errand. I could have sworn that in this passage there was some reference to Archie's youthful vigor. There wasn't: Mr Stout is too vigorous a writer to make such a patently silly, and contradictory, admission.

All ends well in the end. Our father is found, and the murderer is as well. To be honest the plot in this book is a bit of a yawner. Its pretty straightforward who the big guilty parties are to be as the story progresses. No sudden twists. As any regular Nero Wolfe reader will tell you though, one doesn't read this series to fill up an apetite for mystery, murder, or action. No, its all about the regular cast. They are so charming.

Me and AL went down to Myrtle Beach for New Years, and I got to check out the library collection at the Meher Baba Center a little bit. They have an amazingly large collection of Rex Stout. I counted it up. Something like 55 titles. Simply amazing. I'm not sure what they're checkout policy is; I should look into it the next time I'm in South Carolina.

Labels: fiction

by Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister

This book is listed on Amazon as one of the better project management books to read. Since its the only one I've ever read I can't form an opinion in that regard. However, I did find it a very entertaining read.

The thought that there is a distinction between 'thinking' work and busy work, well, it really is a fundamentally new idea to me. I don't get anything done because I'm interrupted 4 times a day, even if only for ten to twenty minutes? Wow. I believe them though. Other things in this book really do feel like lessons I've already learned, and the hard way.

For instance, that your boss isn't interested in a quality product. He's interested in getting as much out the door as possible, which runs completely contrary to what any worker tends to want to do. And that, really, the boss kinda hears what they want to hear - that is, they'll ask you how to do X & Y & Z, and then based upon this analysis, ask you to do X & Y & B in the previous analysis. The shell trick!

Perhaps the best suggestion in the book was that, if you cannot change anything, its time to dust off the resume. Why is it that the most obvious lesson like this last one are just too hard to make it happen?