Daily Thoughts 3/29/2010

American science fiction author, Eric Flint GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Daily Thoughts 3/29/2010

I watched a film on dvd called Wordplay today. It was about crossword puzzles. It featured Will Shortz who is the editor for the New York Times crossword puzzle. He arranges for puzzles from about 110 different people every single year. Will Shortz has a degree in Enigmatology which is puzzles. It was a quite enjoyable film.

There were cameos by Bill Clinton, Mike Mussina, Jon Stewart, the Indigo Girls, and many other famous people. They talked about why they did the crossword puzzle. It was very interesting to listen to.

The film also covered the National Crossword Championship which runs for seven days. There is a crossword for every single day. It was interesting watching champion crossword puzzle people prepare for the event.

If you like words and thinking about words, this film is well worth seeing.

The dvd case includes a booklet with five crossword puzzles fromt the New York Times.

I have started reading A Better Pencil, Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution by Dennis Baron.

Daily Thoughts 10/2/2009

Leonard Bernstein seated at piano, making annotations to musical score 1955

Daily Thoughts 10/2/2009

We have an art gallery in the rotunda in our library which is currently showing paintings by local artists. There are four cases on the walls. We put in a display of oversize art books this morning. I like to think that the best books to display are those that are visible. You should first see them from about seven feet away, then be drawn to the cover of the book by the artwork. After the cover is seen, you should be hooked by the content of the blurbs and copy enough to start reading the first chapter of the book. Usually, reading the first chapter of a book is what determines whether or not you want to continue reading the book. This is why many bookstores let you sit and read the book in a cafe. Bright colors and interesting artwork for the cover and inside flaps are a very good idea.

We chose oversize art books on Dali, Modigliani, surrealism, saive art, Klimt, Japanese brush painting, and Caribbean art. The art work in the rotunda is a very interesting mix of different paintings.

I also did some more weeding this afternoon of the 800s. I am looking forward to reading a large graphic novel, Locas II: The Maggie & Hopey Stories by Jaime Hernandez next week. I already have quite a bit to read right now.

On the train home, I finished reading The Cost of Bad Behavior. The last chapter on how civility leads to higher social standing was rather interesting. I also am looking at Noah Wyle, The Librarian Quest For The Spear on dvd. It is an Indiana Jones style adventure with a librarian as a lead character.

I found out that Google limits the number of labels that can be used to search a blog to 2000. This means that I have to eliminate some of the labels I used for previous entries. It also means that I cannot review more than 2000 individual titles. It is an interesting quandry.

Thoughts For Today

Thoughts For Today

I have a bit of a cold, so I relexed a bit today. I also spent some time looking at websites for dvds. Kung Fu Cinema http://www.kungfucinema.com/ reviews some 500 different martial arts films. Also, the selection of Midtown Comics for dvds is rather interesting for cartoons. I spent some time looking at the dvds from them as well as Forbidden Planet.

There is some money in the budget still for purchasing films for the library. I am looking out for myself and suggesting some cartoons, animation, and martial arts films because I like to watch this kind of thing. I am not in charge of ordering films, so I have to be selective and not suggest too many.

I am going to try and get some Max Fleischer cartoons. He is famous for his Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman cartoons. Max Fleischer also did a number of cartoons featuring Cab Calloway and other famous jazz musicians which are currently out of copyright.

I also read a little bit from a collected work by Image Comics, The Savage Dragon. It is light entertainment, but not something which I really want to review.

Miss Potter-- DVD- Review

I watched the film, Miss Potter starring Rene Zellwegger as Beatrix Potter, and Ewan McGregor as Mr. Warne. I really enjoyed the film because I happen to really like her childrens books. Peter Rabbit the book she is most famous for sold over 40 million copies. When Beatrix Potter was a child, she had two pet rabbits, the first was Benjamin, and the second was Peter.

The film has a magical quality much like a fairytale. But, then Beatrix Potter's story is very much like a Victorian fairytale. Large portions of the film were shot on the Isle of Man. This means the cinematography and backgrounds were quite beautiful. You have rolling hills, forests, quaint villages, gardens, and old fashioned Victorian houses as the backdrop.

The story is at once tragic and at the same time uplifting. Ewan McGregor does an excellent job as Mr. Warne, the gentleman who first helps Miss Potter get her book published. He dies as they become engaged. The film is a more than a little stuffy in explaining their romance. They barely kiss. If you look at the actors cast as Beatrix Potter's parents, they look very similar to the photographs of her childhood. The film appears to be historically accurate.

There are numerous small animations of her childrens characters, including Jemima Puddleduck, Tom Tittlemouse, and Peter Rabbit. They come alive for brief moments in the film. These are very slight animations. Maybe, their ears move, or their eyes, or a frog hops about. Beatrix Potter was a mycologist and wrote numerous tracts on fungi.

This is also a story of a woman becoming independent. Beatrix Potter moved away from her family's house after she learned that she had a small fortune from selling her books. This allowed her to buy numerous small farms. Although, this wasn't shown in the film, she was famous for raising sheep. It did show her meeting William Heelis who helped her purchase her country properties and later married her.

I really enjoyed the film. Many people will find it stuffy and excessively proper, but that is how much of Victorian times was. There are tea parties, Miss Potter gets followed around by an old lady to make sure she is acting properly, and her father and mother try and marry her off to appropriately rich upper class people which she refuses to do.

Beatrix Potter's real life story is quite uplifting. The final screenshot where she leaves 4,000 acres of farmland to the British national trust to turn into parks is quite uplifting.

The DVD includes a documentary about the life of Beatrix Potter, and a film on the making of Miss Potter. It also includes some truly awful trailers of other films which are well worth skipping

I decided to do something a bit different this morning and review a film on an author. I am not sure if I should do this again with Finding Neverland starring Jonny Depp as J.M. Barrie author of Peter Pan. The film did not do too well in American markets, but did alright in world markets. I think it is more of an artistic statement than a mainstream film.