The DELUXE TRANSITIVE VAMPIRE
The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent,
the
Eager, and the Doomed
by Karen Elizabeth Gordon I like to write more than I like to read. This may be due either to my
short attention span or the fact that I'm always interested in hearing what I have to say.
I don't always get the
grammar the way it is supposed to be, and usually satisfy myself with "the way it looks". But when I elect to look something
up, this is the book I turn to. The problem is, it is usually more interesting to read than whatever it is that I am writing,
and I never get around to finishing whatever it was I was writing about.
Very unusual for what is essentially a textbook.
I highly recommended this book. Now, what were we talking about?
IF BAD SOUND WERE FATAL,
AUDIO WOULD BE THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH
by Don and Carolyn Davis
Don and Carolyn literally wrote the book on professional audio as we know it today (SOUND SYSTEM ENGINEERING). They were the
first to realize that "sound people need training, too". So, over 30 years ago they founded SYN-AUD-CON (Synergetic Audio
Concepts), the definitive training and motivational resource (and mobile "camp") for sound engineers.
This book is
not quite the textbook that SOUND SYSTEM ENGINEERING is. There are no charts or graphs!
It's a collection of exerpts
from years of their SYN-AUD-CON newsletters, with lots of commentary from the authors. It is great reading for both the pro-audio
person with a short attention span and the cynical sound company operator.
BLOOD SIMPLE
(1984)
written, directed, produced by Ethan & Joel
Coen
starring:
John Getz
France McDormand
Dan Hedaya
M. Emmet Walsh
Actually, there isn't very much that is simple about this
plot. Lots of twists and a lot going on.
A bar owner who suspects his wife is cheating on him hires an investigator to follow her. When the investigator brings back
photographic evidence of the affair, the bar owner hires him to shoot more than pictures. Then it gets complicated.
This is the Coen brothers first film, and they would have made Alfred Hitchcock proud.
SLEUTH
(1972)
directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
starring Sir Lawrence Olivier, Michael Caine
Amazingly fun murder mystery that surprisingly never was the blockbuster that it should have been.
The
plot is very accurately described as "twisty".
A bit of trivia- both of the lead actors of this movie were nominated
for Academy Awards for their co-starring roles. They were beaten by Marlon Brando in the Godfather.
BEING THERE
(1979)
directed by Hal Ashby
starring Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine
This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It's a study on the profound nature of simplicity
and how our perceptions and pre-conceived notions can decieve us.
The lead character is the rarest of all beings- an innocent and naive adult whose simple-minded nature
is perceived as brilliance. Circumstances take him into the home of a presidential confidante and he becomes an unlikely advisor
to powerful people; sought-after talk show guest and potential political contender. And all the while he doesn't even know
it.
This film pre-dated Forrest Gump by 15 years, and "out-Gumps' it by a mile or two. (And Forrest Gump
wasn't too shabby, either!)
Two Oscar Nominations here, too. Peter Sellers lost to Dustin Hoffman in "Kramer Vs. Kramer" and
Melvyn Douglass won Best Supporting Actor beating Robert Duvall in "Apocolypse Now". Pretty impressive for a movie hardly
anyone saw at the theaters.
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