George Furth, the playwright most well known for Company, who co-starred as art critic Gerald Lucas in Airport '77, died in August 2008 at 75 years old. No family.
Producer Ross Hunter, who found Airport to be the most satisfying experience of his career, had a life partner in set decorator/producer Jacques Mapes, a relationship that lasted 40 years. Mapes was an associate producer on Airport. Hunter died in 1996, Mapes in 2002. No family from either of them, and there couldn't have been anyway, not at that time. The DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas has the Ronald Davis Oral History Collection, hundreds of interviews Professor Davis conducted with actors, directors, screenwriters, playwrights and others, of which Hunter was one and talks about Airport. The head of public services at that library is looking into it for me, and it's the only way I'll know directly about Hunter's involvement. Anything else I can find out about Hunter and Airport has to come from those still alive who were involved in the production, or biographies of those long gone, or their families, if they have any.
I've no complaints because this is the biggest puzzle I've ever had to put together, and I love it. I love figuring out the chronology of the making of each movie, and which insights will fit where.
But it's sobering. I called the phone number of Michael D. Moore, the second unit director on Airport '77. I spoke to a very old man who I couldn't understand very well. Age is catching up rapidly. Here's a man who was the second unit director on Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Ghostbusters II, among such a long, long list of credits, and who knows how much longer he'll be here? I could only gather that he can't do an interview with me. He didn't sound well, and I wasn't going to press for another time. He's entitled to whatever dignity remains.
I know it happens to all of us. One day, we simply won't be here anymore. When I found out that George Furth left behind no family, it felt like I was looking into a gaping black hole that absolutely could not be illuminated. Nothing could be made clear. This was it. What Furth was is what he left behind in his plays and in his acting career. There's nothing else but that to glean from him.
But when I got off the phone after talking to Moore and trying to understand what he was saying, I was shaken. How much longer will he be here? It doesn't sound very long. What haunts me more is that the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress chooses 25 films each year to be preserved forever, yet there's nothing like that for people like Moore. The films will remain, and Raiders of the Lost Ark is in that registry, but what about Moore? Couldn't someone or some ambitious group, for the sake of history, have interviewed him about his career, learn about his part in the films he contributed to? Raiders was Spielberg and George Lucas, and also screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, and the cast, and director of photography Douglas Slocombe, and the editors and the casting people and the special effects artists and the set designers and the carpenters and so many others.
This is where it gets into murky territory, because different films are important to different people. But I mean Hollywood entirely. There should be more of an effort made not only to preserve the movies themselves, but also the history behind those movies and other movies too. There are many great historians making exactly that kind of effort, but thinking about people like Moore, it feels like it's not enough.
The Academy of TV Arts and Sciences seems to be doing this for their industry through the Archive of American Television. And maybe there is a concerted effort brewing to do the same for the movie industry that I don't know about.
I don't know. Maybe I'm overreacting. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has the Margaret Herrick Library after all, without which I would not have been able to make great progress from the start on research for Mayday! Mayday!: The Making of the Airport Movies. But on the Archive of American Television website, I'm looking at a list of professions that include designers, directors, sound professionals, stylists, on-set/location professionals, film and video post-production professionals, and many others. Movie history should be as accessible as this, especially as technology becomes more advanced. But then, those resources are reserved strictly for researchers such as myself. Not the public at large. There's also audio commentaries, but those are selective, depending on how a studio feels about a certain movie, how likely a hit it will be, and other factors.
Ironically, I can't do what I'm calling for. None of the books I want to write after this one are about movies. I was toying with the idea of a biography about a charismatic actor who's not one of my favorites, but who I admire, but I don't think I want to pursue that right after this book.
I know that most people aren't as interested as I am in this history. They go to the movies, they have favorite movies, but they don't dig into them like I do. They don't have an obsession with a movie series they've watched since they were 11 that's led them to write a book about the making of those movies.
I'll do my part, though. I'll dig through the history I can find of the Airport movies through books I've read and still have to read, interviews I've conducted and still have to do (I got a few e-mails today from people who worked on Airport and people who worked on Airport '77 who agreed to interviews), files I've looked through and still have to look through, and newspaper articles I've read and still have to read, and work my hardest to make sure these stories are known. Those who worked on these movies, who are long gone, should live on. This is my attempt at that, besides all the other reasons I've previously mentioned for writing this book.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Another Instance of Being a Consumer Magnet?
Dad and Meridith had the day off from work today, a furlough day, meaning neither of them get paid. It's California's futile way of trying to save money in the budget that may have been there in the years that California was in good financial standing, but I always got the sense that this state has the habit of spending too much too fast. This is the result.
I'll never understand furlough days because if you're hired to do a job, and you do it well, you expect to be paid. That's what a job is. I always get this feeling that if I tried to dig further for the reasoning behind this, I'll end up with Rod Serling sitting next to me, telling me to take it easy and that it'll all work out.
Anyway, we went on a few errands in the early evening, sans Mom since she wanted to rest today. After the 99.99.999.9999 Cents Only store, we stopped in Sprouts for bananas, bagged spinach, and my favorite fat-free lemon chiffon yogurt from Cascade Fresh.
I've been hooked on this yogurt for a few months now. It doesn't have a this-is-so-obviously-a-manufactured-taste to it. Lemon puree is mixed into this yogurt, along with a few very tiny lemon pieces. When I started buying this yogurt regularly, the row for it in the yogurt section was always stocked, alongside Cascade Fresh's blueberry, strawberry, cherry, and vanilla yogurts, and others of the same brand that I barely glance at when I'm getting my yogurt.
Today, just like last Friday, the row of lemon chiffon yogurts was nearly empty. I don't think I can chalk this up to it not being replenished fast enough because all the other Cascade Fresh yogurts are sitting there, fully stocked. I had to reach way in the back to get two of them. And my arm had plenty of room to reach for them.
It's been gradual. The first few times I got this yogurt, there was always enough for me to grab, and then every time after, a little less and then a little less, and still a little less. I hope it's not an instance of Sprouts phasing this one out because it doesn't sell well. I'd say an empty row like that shows that it's selling very well. And I think I may be doing my part as a consumer magnet again. Never mind that it's fat-free, as there are a few other Cascade Fresh flavors sold there that are also fat-free. I have a feeling other shoppers have picked up on what I love about it.
It doesn't look like the company is giving up on the flavor either. It's still listed on its website, and I found out that it's also available in a 32oz. container. Sprouts has Cascade Fresh's 32oz. containers of blueberry and strawberry fat-free yogurts, and I wish they'd stock the 32oz. containers of lemon chiffon. An empty row like that should indicate that they should sell it. I'm hoping a supermarket or two or more in Henderson has thought of this. I need this over there too.
This is the only time I ever think about those who might have bought my favorite yogurt. Dieters, I'm sure, and people who like the tart flavor of lemon. It doesn't say anything about those who do because there is a sweetness along with the tart. It's a double-sided yogurt. The calorie count has to attract a few others as well, with 110 of them per serving. That's another reason it attracts me, since I have it as part of my lunch.
It'll be interesting to see what next Friday brings, now that I'm really paying attention to this.
[Note, again: I wasn't paid by Cascade Fresh for this post. I get enough out of their yogurt as it is. But looking at this, and my entry from Thursday, I clearly need to move on to another topic before I begin extolling the subtle complexities of Kleenex. Luckily, I have no idea what those might be. But there may be something in the yearly frustration of peeling the foil from refrigerated Cadbury Creme Eggs and then having to fingernail-scrape the pieces that remain stuck on the shell. It's that time of year again. I've just gone through it.]
I'll never understand furlough days because if you're hired to do a job, and you do it well, you expect to be paid. That's what a job is. I always get this feeling that if I tried to dig further for the reasoning behind this, I'll end up with Rod Serling sitting next to me, telling me to take it easy and that it'll all work out.
Anyway, we went on a few errands in the early evening, sans Mom since she wanted to rest today. After the 99.99.999.9999 Cents Only store, we stopped in Sprouts for bananas, bagged spinach, and my favorite fat-free lemon chiffon yogurt from Cascade Fresh.
I've been hooked on this yogurt for a few months now. It doesn't have a this-is-so-obviously-a-manufactured-taste to it. Lemon puree is mixed into this yogurt, along with a few very tiny lemon pieces. When I started buying this yogurt regularly, the row for it in the yogurt section was always stocked, alongside Cascade Fresh's blueberry, strawberry, cherry, and vanilla yogurts, and others of the same brand that I barely glance at when I'm getting my yogurt.
Today, just like last Friday, the row of lemon chiffon yogurts was nearly empty. I don't think I can chalk this up to it not being replenished fast enough because all the other Cascade Fresh yogurts are sitting there, fully stocked. I had to reach way in the back to get two of them. And my arm had plenty of room to reach for them.
It's been gradual. The first few times I got this yogurt, there was always enough for me to grab, and then every time after, a little less and then a little less, and still a little less. I hope it's not an instance of Sprouts phasing this one out because it doesn't sell well. I'd say an empty row like that shows that it's selling very well. And I think I may be doing my part as a consumer magnet again. Never mind that it's fat-free, as there are a few other Cascade Fresh flavors sold there that are also fat-free. I have a feeling other shoppers have picked up on what I love about it.
It doesn't look like the company is giving up on the flavor either. It's still listed on its website, and I found out that it's also available in a 32oz. container. Sprouts has Cascade Fresh's 32oz. containers of blueberry and strawberry fat-free yogurts, and I wish they'd stock the 32oz. containers of lemon chiffon. An empty row like that should indicate that they should sell it. I'm hoping a supermarket or two or more in Henderson has thought of this. I need this over there too.
This is the only time I ever think about those who might have bought my favorite yogurt. Dieters, I'm sure, and people who like the tart flavor of lemon. It doesn't say anything about those who do because there is a sweetness along with the tart. It's a double-sided yogurt. The calorie count has to attract a few others as well, with 110 of them per serving. That's another reason it attracts me, since I have it as part of my lunch.
It'll be interesting to see what next Friday brings, now that I'm really paying attention to this.
[Note, again: I wasn't paid by Cascade Fresh for this post. I get enough out of their yogurt as it is. But looking at this, and my entry from Thursday, I clearly need to move on to another topic before I begin extolling the subtle complexities of Kleenex. Luckily, I have no idea what those might be. But there may be something in the yearly frustration of peeling the foil from refrigerated Cadbury Creme Eggs and then having to fingernail-scrape the pieces that remain stuck on the shell. It's that time of year again. I've just gone through it.]
My First Public Guest Post
G, over at Bloggerati, showcased my first public guest post yesterday! Read it and see what you think.
And if you're thinking about being a guest blogger, see what G has going on. Not only will your post be prominently featured, G is a master at formatting. I look ok on my blog, but man, I'm very sexy over there, dressed in black, with indentations I never considered before. In my daily life, I can't pull off an all-black outfit (My personality and collection of brightly-colored message t-shirts prevent me from doing so), so it's wonderful to live vicariously through my words.
Thanks for this, G! I'm here for you for any future guest posts.
And if you're thinking about being a guest blogger, see what G has going on. Not only will your post be prominently featured, G is a master at formatting. I look ok on my blog, but man, I'm very sexy over there, dressed in black, with indentations I never considered before. In my daily life, I can't pull off an all-black outfit (My personality and collection of brightly-colored message t-shirts prevent me from doing so), so it's wonderful to live vicariously through my words.
Thanks for this, G! I'm here for you for any future guest posts.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Anatomy of a Starkist Lunch Kit
Walk with me into a mostly empty Walmart Supercenter a little while before it begins to get crowded on a Saturday afternoon. There's one or two people looking at produce. Two or three people are in the clothing section. You can't see how many people are in the health and beauty aisles because we entered closest to the food aisles, but there's probably four or five people there, spread out amongst those aisles.
We'll go into the cereal aisle because it's one of the widest in this part of the store. In a second, you're going to see one of three things happen: A few people are going to pass by one end of the aisle, or a few people are going to pass by the other end of the aisle, or a few people are going to come into this aisle that you didn't think this store had right now what with how empty it looked when we walked in.
It's not you. It's me. It's always been me, or, rather, me and my family. We always attract people. The line's been empty at Chronic Taco and we walk in to order, and as we do, six people walk in behind us. We take an empty checkout lane at Ralphs or Pavilions or Sprouts or Trader Joe's (which doesn't seem possible because it is Trader Joe's after all), and three or four people line up behind us with their carts. I don't know why this happens. I don't mind it, but do we have something in our personalities that people sense as something good to be near? It's never that other checkout lanes are crowded. There's a few open at a time. But they always line up behind us. It's not coincidental. It happened when we were in Henderson too. I bought a toy food truck at Smith's (hot dogs, burgers, and sodas, with four little hot dogs lined up on one counter, three drinks lined up on the other counter, and two burgers and fries lined up on the back counter), and three people lined up behind us to check out. In fact, I said to Mom and Dad that we could go to the Strip at that very moment, and help Las Vegas's economy recover quickly. I would have suggested testing it, but we had a lot to do in Henderson. But I do think the Henderson economy benefited from us visiting.
I don't seek this. It just comes. And I don't mind it, except when it impinges on what I like to eat.
Last Saturday, we went to the Walmart Supercenter on Carl Boyer Drive to do some food shopping, and I remembered that I needed the Starkist chunk light tuna salad pouches that I like for lunch during the week. In the tuna aisle, I found a crowd (though not caused by me or Mom or Dad or Meridith), and none of the pouches. They'd all been taken, along with what seemed like all the Starkist chunk light cans.
It's a sign of the economy, I know. People are looking to get protein more cheaply. I also know that this Walmart doesn't restock quickly, but on a Saturday afternoon, this was inexcusable.
I kept looking through the shelves, hoping that the regular chunk light Starkist pouches I found might also have a few tuna salad pouches. Nothing. Meridith dug through the bottom shelf and found a few of the chunk light cans, so that was a relief since I needed more and I was not going to go without tuna in any form.
Mom then saw the lunch kits Starkist has. The tuna salad pouches are in there, sealed with a smaller foil pouch of crackers, a napkin, a spoon, and a mint. Nearly $2 for this, so I took one since I wanted at least one pouch.
I had the kit today, putting the tuna salad pouch in the fridge after breakfast because I wanted it to be cold, and I really want to know what the thought process was in putting this together. Because whoever did, whether it was one person with a marker and a dry erase board, or a group of people that should be paid more because they deserve it, really knows lunch.
During the week, breakfast gets the body going. Cereal, juice, toast, fruit, a quick egg concoction, whatever it is, it makes you more awake than you already are and pushes you to the entrance of the day ahead.
I've always seen dinner as the heaviest meal of the day, with more time to experiment, order takeout, try a new recipe, or just heat something up in the microwave. There's usually nothing pressing that comes after dinner, so there is that ease of going for what you want, even if it's a few hundred extra calories.
Lunch is that bridge between both. You have to eat, and if you're at work, you have either 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or an hour for it. It can't be too heavy because you have to go through the rest of your workday, nor can it be too light because your stomach's going to distract you from your work.
The Starkist lunch kit knows that balance. There's the protein in the tuna, some grain in the crackers, and I guess a little sweetness in the mint, though I wish they'd change that. A mint is not an entirely neutral candy. I don't like mint, but if they changed it to a butterscotch candy, which I like, not everyone likes butterscotch. Easy to see that you can't rely on a decent dessert with this kit, but that's probably not the point. The point is the convenience of lunch in such a lightweight kit.
The tuna salad is as I've always known it to be, with bits of water chestnuts to give it crunch. Open the cracker pouch and you'll find that they've got a plastic compartment of their own, six crackers sitting in two stacks of three next to each other. The little plastic tray is as flimsy as it gets, in keeping with the correct belief that lunch isn't about deep concentration. You have to eat and move on.
The plastic spoon, which has an opaque smoky look when you peek through it, and the napkin are why I wonder about who decided what to put in this package, namely because I want to know who made the napkin and the spoon. The napkin is exactly what you'd expect a lunchtime napkin to be. It'll pick up a little mess, but not everything, because that's all anyone really expects to make at lunch. The spoon is not the kind of clear plastic that'll snap if you bend it back far enough. When you bend the spoon back far enough, the handle bends with it.
I really want to know how much thought was put into this, if lunch habits were studied, and how many meetings went into creating this kit for production. I don't think Starkist would ever tell me, but they accurately pinpointed the feeling of lunch with this kit. My sole beef remains with the mint, but not only because I don't like mints. Open the blue foil and you'll find a blue mint trying so hard to become a teal color. It looks like a sample toilet freshener, too small to use for an actual toilet, but the same kind of shape. Meridith said that this kit used to have a striped mint, which seems more appropriate for this, but it looks like they wanted to keep with the blue the packaging has.
Having only bought the kit for the tuna salad pouch, I wouldn't buy it often. I never have crackers with tuna. I only eat the tuna, either out of the pouch or the can, and then I usually have a rice cake with peanut butter after. But Starkist is doing something right. I never thought any company thought hard about lunch beyond providing the necessary products for it, but here is proof.
[Note: Starkist didn't pay me in any way for this entry, nor provide a coupon to get the kit for free. This was all me, another example of how my mind will go anywhere for a topic.]
We'll go into the cereal aisle because it's one of the widest in this part of the store. In a second, you're going to see one of three things happen: A few people are going to pass by one end of the aisle, or a few people are going to pass by the other end of the aisle, or a few people are going to come into this aisle that you didn't think this store had right now what with how empty it looked when we walked in.
It's not you. It's me. It's always been me, or, rather, me and my family. We always attract people. The line's been empty at Chronic Taco and we walk in to order, and as we do, six people walk in behind us. We take an empty checkout lane at Ralphs or Pavilions or Sprouts or Trader Joe's (which doesn't seem possible because it is Trader Joe's after all), and three or four people line up behind us with their carts. I don't know why this happens. I don't mind it, but do we have something in our personalities that people sense as something good to be near? It's never that other checkout lanes are crowded. There's a few open at a time. But they always line up behind us. It's not coincidental. It happened when we were in Henderson too. I bought a toy food truck at Smith's (hot dogs, burgers, and sodas, with four little hot dogs lined up on one counter, three drinks lined up on the other counter, and two burgers and fries lined up on the back counter), and three people lined up behind us to check out. In fact, I said to Mom and Dad that we could go to the Strip at that very moment, and help Las Vegas's economy recover quickly. I would have suggested testing it, but we had a lot to do in Henderson. But I do think the Henderson economy benefited from us visiting.
I don't seek this. It just comes. And I don't mind it, except when it impinges on what I like to eat.
Last Saturday, we went to the Walmart Supercenter on Carl Boyer Drive to do some food shopping, and I remembered that I needed the Starkist chunk light tuna salad pouches that I like for lunch during the week. In the tuna aisle, I found a crowd (though not caused by me or Mom or Dad or Meridith), and none of the pouches. They'd all been taken, along with what seemed like all the Starkist chunk light cans.
It's a sign of the economy, I know. People are looking to get protein more cheaply. I also know that this Walmart doesn't restock quickly, but on a Saturday afternoon, this was inexcusable.
I kept looking through the shelves, hoping that the regular chunk light Starkist pouches I found might also have a few tuna salad pouches. Nothing. Meridith dug through the bottom shelf and found a few of the chunk light cans, so that was a relief since I needed more and I was not going to go without tuna in any form.
Mom then saw the lunch kits Starkist has. The tuna salad pouches are in there, sealed with a smaller foil pouch of crackers, a napkin, a spoon, and a mint. Nearly $2 for this, so I took one since I wanted at least one pouch.
I had the kit today, putting the tuna salad pouch in the fridge after breakfast because I wanted it to be cold, and I really want to know what the thought process was in putting this together. Because whoever did, whether it was one person with a marker and a dry erase board, or a group of people that should be paid more because they deserve it, really knows lunch.
During the week, breakfast gets the body going. Cereal, juice, toast, fruit, a quick egg concoction, whatever it is, it makes you more awake than you already are and pushes you to the entrance of the day ahead.
I've always seen dinner as the heaviest meal of the day, with more time to experiment, order takeout, try a new recipe, or just heat something up in the microwave. There's usually nothing pressing that comes after dinner, so there is that ease of going for what you want, even if it's a few hundred extra calories.
Lunch is that bridge between both. You have to eat, and if you're at work, you have either 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or an hour for it. It can't be too heavy because you have to go through the rest of your workday, nor can it be too light because your stomach's going to distract you from your work.
The Starkist lunch kit knows that balance. There's the protein in the tuna, some grain in the crackers, and I guess a little sweetness in the mint, though I wish they'd change that. A mint is not an entirely neutral candy. I don't like mint, but if they changed it to a butterscotch candy, which I like, not everyone likes butterscotch. Easy to see that you can't rely on a decent dessert with this kit, but that's probably not the point. The point is the convenience of lunch in such a lightweight kit.
The tuna salad is as I've always known it to be, with bits of water chestnuts to give it crunch. Open the cracker pouch and you'll find that they've got a plastic compartment of their own, six crackers sitting in two stacks of three next to each other. The little plastic tray is as flimsy as it gets, in keeping with the correct belief that lunch isn't about deep concentration. You have to eat and move on.
The plastic spoon, which has an opaque smoky look when you peek through it, and the napkin are why I wonder about who decided what to put in this package, namely because I want to know who made the napkin and the spoon. The napkin is exactly what you'd expect a lunchtime napkin to be. It'll pick up a little mess, but not everything, because that's all anyone really expects to make at lunch. The spoon is not the kind of clear plastic that'll snap if you bend it back far enough. When you bend the spoon back far enough, the handle bends with it.
I really want to know how much thought was put into this, if lunch habits were studied, and how many meetings went into creating this kit for production. I don't think Starkist would ever tell me, but they accurately pinpointed the feeling of lunch with this kit. My sole beef remains with the mint, but not only because I don't like mints. Open the blue foil and you'll find a blue mint trying so hard to become a teal color. It looks like a sample toilet freshener, too small to use for an actual toilet, but the same kind of shape. Meridith said that this kit used to have a striped mint, which seems more appropriate for this, but it looks like they wanted to keep with the blue the packaging has.
Having only bought the kit for the tuna salad pouch, I wouldn't buy it often. I never have crackers with tuna. I only eat the tuna, either out of the pouch or the can, and then I usually have a rice cake with peanut butter after. But Starkist is doing something right. I never thought any company thought hard about lunch beyond providing the necessary products for it, but here is proof.
[Note: Starkist didn't pay me in any way for this entry, nor provide a coupon to get the kit for free. This was all me, another example of how my mind will go anywhere for a topic.]
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Stuck. Here's a Link.
It's 11 minutes past 11 right now, and I've got the perfect tonic to the Teachers Tournament on Jeopardy! (I saw the first game and the only use I got out of it was finding out that there'll be an American Experience documentary on Bill Clinton on PBS next week. Finally. Took them long enough to get to the decade I grew up in): Episodes of Jeopardy! from 2005, Tivo'd off of Game Show Network. They run them every night during the week at 11, and 6 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday. I've got seven episodes stacked up and I can probably roll through five of them before I head to my room for the night.
Yet, I finished Buffalo West Wing by Julie Hyzy this afternoon and immediately started Affairs of Steak, the latest in Hyzy's White House Chef Mystery series. The bad news is that it looks like the next one will come out next year (Unless she wrote a Christmas-themed one, which would be nice so I don't have to wait as long). The good news is that I'm only on page 42 and have 235 more pages to savor.
I really really want to continue reading it, but then I also have those Jeopardy! episodes I really want to watch. I did enough research tonight, searching for a few other people who were part of the Airport movies, so I can take the rest of this time to do what I want. So now it's a competition.
While I wait for that indecision to sort itself out, over at Bloggerati, G posted the interview questions that I answered and sent back. My guest post, which I sent with my interview answers, will be up tomorrow.
And the winner is Jeopardy!. I can blaze through 60-70 pages before I go to bed, so both work out for me tonight.
Yet, I finished Buffalo West Wing by Julie Hyzy this afternoon and immediately started Affairs of Steak, the latest in Hyzy's White House Chef Mystery series. The bad news is that it looks like the next one will come out next year (Unless she wrote a Christmas-themed one, which would be nice so I don't have to wait as long). The good news is that I'm only on page 42 and have 235 more pages to savor.
I really really want to continue reading it, but then I also have those Jeopardy! episodes I really want to watch. I did enough research tonight, searching for a few other people who were part of the Airport movies, so I can take the rest of this time to do what I want. So now it's a competition.
While I wait for that indecision to sort itself out, over at Bloggerati, G posted the interview questions that I answered and sent back. My guest post, which I sent with my interview answers, will be up tomorrow.
And the winner is Jeopardy!. I can blaze through 60-70 pages before I go to bed, so both work out for me tonight.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Disappointment on Jeopardy!
Before the Final Jeopardy clue that ended the College Championship tonight, there was a commercial for the Teachers Tournament, which begins tomorrow.
Great. Another tournament.
The College Championship took up the first two weeks of the month. I was hoping that the regular games would return. And now I've just found out on the Jeopardy! website that the Teachers Tournament will take up the rest of February.
I don't like the tournaments. Sure, the Teen Tournament is useful if I've been feeling particularly dumb watching the regular episodes preceding it, but the tournament contestants all come from one age group or profession. They've got the same shot as the players during the regular games, but it's the commonalities I don't like, especially in the College Championship where some of the students believe that they're so funny at their respective universities, their undeniable wit will carry over to the real world on Jeopardy!. Those quirks tend to be vastly annoying, and they probably exaggerate them even more because of the prestige of being on Jeopardy!.
I respect how far these college students and teens and teachers have come to make it on Jeopardy!, but I have greater respect for the players who are on the regular games. They come from different states, they have different jobs and different skill sets. It's more interesting to me because you don't know where the champion is going to come from. On Monday, January 23, there was a poker dealer named Kirby Burnett who won $27,600 in his first game. He lost on his third day with $27,600 (The guy who beat him had $28,000 and was the new champion). When he first appeared in the introductions, you wouldn't think he would be the one who would win. Generally, we expect these champions to have a bright look about them, like Ken Jennings and many others who have won weeks at a time. I liked Kirby because he had this slightly grizzled look about him, like he had seen a lot in his lifetime and being a poker dealer, I have no doubt. Here was a guy who had clearly taken a lot of time in his life to read and learn a lot. It was a lot of fun to watch him for those reasons.
I make an exception in my dislike of tournaments for the Tournament of Champions, which collects the highest-scoring players who have played for a great number of days or won their respective tournaments, such as I think it will be with Monica Thieu, a sophomore at the University of North Texas who won the College Championship. But there's the difference. Most of the players for the Tournament of Champions come from the regular games. They still come from different states, and still have different jobs and different skill sets, but the stakes are much higher. They have to work harder because of their opponents. I doubt Monica can be as quirky in that group as she was in the College Championship.
With February gone, I hope March has room for the regular games. I'd like to see more Kirbys for hopefully a long time before they decide to do whichever tournament comes next.
Great. Another tournament.
The College Championship took up the first two weeks of the month. I was hoping that the regular games would return. And now I've just found out on the Jeopardy! website that the Teachers Tournament will take up the rest of February.
I don't like the tournaments. Sure, the Teen Tournament is useful if I've been feeling particularly dumb watching the regular episodes preceding it, but the tournament contestants all come from one age group or profession. They've got the same shot as the players during the regular games, but it's the commonalities I don't like, especially in the College Championship where some of the students believe that they're so funny at their respective universities, their undeniable wit will carry over to the real world on Jeopardy!. Those quirks tend to be vastly annoying, and they probably exaggerate them even more because of the prestige of being on Jeopardy!.
I respect how far these college students and teens and teachers have come to make it on Jeopardy!, but I have greater respect for the players who are on the regular games. They come from different states, they have different jobs and different skill sets. It's more interesting to me because you don't know where the champion is going to come from. On Monday, January 23, there was a poker dealer named Kirby Burnett who won $27,600 in his first game. He lost on his third day with $27,600 (The guy who beat him had $28,000 and was the new champion). When he first appeared in the introductions, you wouldn't think he would be the one who would win. Generally, we expect these champions to have a bright look about them, like Ken Jennings and many others who have won weeks at a time. I liked Kirby because he had this slightly grizzled look about him, like he had seen a lot in his lifetime and being a poker dealer, I have no doubt. Here was a guy who had clearly taken a lot of time in his life to read and learn a lot. It was a lot of fun to watch him for those reasons.
I make an exception in my dislike of tournaments for the Tournament of Champions, which collects the highest-scoring players who have played for a great number of days or won their respective tournaments, such as I think it will be with Monica Thieu, a sophomore at the University of North Texas who won the College Championship. But there's the difference. Most of the players for the Tournament of Champions come from the regular games. They still come from different states, and still have different jobs and different skill sets, but the stakes are much higher. They have to work harder because of their opponents. I doubt Monica can be as quirky in that group as she was in the College Championship.
With February gone, I hope March has room for the regular games. I'd like to see more Kirbys for hopefully a long time before they decide to do whichever tournament comes next.
Monday, February 13, 2012
The Soon-to-Be Second-Time Guest Blogger Watches Where He Puts His Feet
For the past two days, besides more research and preparing for a phone interview that I'll write about after it happens, I've been answering a set of interview questions and writing a guest post for G, who occasionally comments on this blog. After writing a guest post for Janie Junebug's private blog (Janie's given me permission to repost my entry on my own blog, so I'll do that once I'm done writing everything I want about Henderson, since it falls after coming back from there), I read that G was looking for guest bloggers. I went back and forth on it for a few minutes, wanting to write one, then asking myself if I really wanted to commit time to someone else's blog. Then I thought I should because how else is my blog to become more widely known, as I want it to be while I'm writing Mayday! Mayday!: The Making of the Airport Movies so potential agents and publishers can see that I've not sat back and let time pass since my first book was published. Then yes, I should. What's a few days of making sure that my writing is readable for others?
When I first wrote reviews for Film Threat, I was careful and very cautious. I wanted to make sure every thought was expressed clearly, that there weren't any sentences that sounded like they were written in a rush, that there was enough attention to grammar and punctuation that I didn't sound like I had a half-formed brain. Therefore, my early reviews expressed what I wanted to say, but they were stiff, more concerned with looking good than being lively. It's a reasonable reaction to being in a new position like that one, and as I wrote more and more reviews and months with Film Threat became years, I loosened up. I had fun with some of my reviews. I enjoyed writing interviews because most of it was a copy-and-paste job, straight Q&As except for the introduction, which was easy to write.
I spent three days writing my guest post for Janie Junebug. One day was for the writing, and the other two days were making sure I wrote well everything I wanted to say, and that every word and punctuation mark was in the right place. Reaction to my guest post on Janie's blog shows that my writing didn't read like I was nervous, but I was a bit nervous. With Film Threat, I knew who read the site: Movie buffs, independent filmmakers looking for reviews of their movies and short films, people who love independent film, people who hate independent film, and people just curious about what independent filmmakers have produced. In short, everyone who read the site was there for the reviews and the columns offered. That never changed.
With guest posts, I'm reaching different readers every time. I don't know who will be there. I hope they'll like me. But I have to make a decent impression every time because I'm there behind those words. I'm giving myself to those different sets of readers every time, telling them to see all of me right here. I'm letting it all out.
I'm not done yet with my guest post for G's blog. I haven't even gotten to the crux of it yet. Many more paragraphs to go. But even as I begin to feel for the end of my post, I keep scrolling up to the top of my Word file, reading my answers to G's interview questions. Does this read well? Have I said what I wanted to say in this answer? Can I leave this answer as it is or is there some word that has to be added to the third sentence? Letting go of these answers and this guest post is a little more difficult than letting go of this entry because this is my blog. I can put my feet up wherever I want. I do read other blogs, but I don't know the layout all that well. I have to be polite, make sure my hair is combed, and don't act like I can just put my feet up on the coffee table on top of the magazines.
It doesn't stifle my writing. Janie can attest to that. But I do admit that I put a little more effort into those guest posts because I'm in someone else's house.
You'd think I'd be nervous about the phone interview I have at 11 this morning. But I don't get starstruck. Reviewing movies since I was 15, up until I was 25, and having lived in Southern California for eight years, actors have jobs to do just like I have my job to do whenever I'm a substitute campus supervisor. We do the work and we get paid.
The interview is for Mayday! Mayday: The Making of the Airport Movies, and this actress was an extra on the fateful Trans Global flight, the interior 707 set on stage 12 at Universal. It meant five weeks of solid work for the actors chosen. You might be surprised about who it is, considering her place in television history, but that's all I'll say until the interview is done.
And G, I promise not to put my feet up where they don't belong.
When I first wrote reviews for Film Threat, I was careful and very cautious. I wanted to make sure every thought was expressed clearly, that there weren't any sentences that sounded like they were written in a rush, that there was enough attention to grammar and punctuation that I didn't sound like I had a half-formed brain. Therefore, my early reviews expressed what I wanted to say, but they were stiff, more concerned with looking good than being lively. It's a reasonable reaction to being in a new position like that one, and as I wrote more and more reviews and months with Film Threat became years, I loosened up. I had fun with some of my reviews. I enjoyed writing interviews because most of it was a copy-and-paste job, straight Q&As except for the introduction, which was easy to write.
I spent three days writing my guest post for Janie Junebug. One day was for the writing, and the other two days were making sure I wrote well everything I wanted to say, and that every word and punctuation mark was in the right place. Reaction to my guest post on Janie's blog shows that my writing didn't read like I was nervous, but I was a bit nervous. With Film Threat, I knew who read the site: Movie buffs, independent filmmakers looking for reviews of their movies and short films, people who love independent film, people who hate independent film, and people just curious about what independent filmmakers have produced. In short, everyone who read the site was there for the reviews and the columns offered. That never changed.
With guest posts, I'm reaching different readers every time. I don't know who will be there. I hope they'll like me. But I have to make a decent impression every time because I'm there behind those words. I'm giving myself to those different sets of readers every time, telling them to see all of me right here. I'm letting it all out.
I'm not done yet with my guest post for G's blog. I haven't even gotten to the crux of it yet. Many more paragraphs to go. But even as I begin to feel for the end of my post, I keep scrolling up to the top of my Word file, reading my answers to G's interview questions. Does this read well? Have I said what I wanted to say in this answer? Can I leave this answer as it is or is there some word that has to be added to the third sentence? Letting go of these answers and this guest post is a little more difficult than letting go of this entry because this is my blog. I can put my feet up wherever I want. I do read other blogs, but I don't know the layout all that well. I have to be polite, make sure my hair is combed, and don't act like I can just put my feet up on the coffee table on top of the magazines.
It doesn't stifle my writing. Janie can attest to that. But I do admit that I put a little more effort into those guest posts because I'm in someone else's house.
You'd think I'd be nervous about the phone interview I have at 11 this morning. But I don't get starstruck. Reviewing movies since I was 15, up until I was 25, and having lived in Southern California for eight years, actors have jobs to do just like I have my job to do whenever I'm a substitute campus supervisor. We do the work and we get paid.
The interview is for Mayday! Mayday: The Making of the Airport Movies, and this actress was an extra on the fateful Trans Global flight, the interior 707 set on stage 12 at Universal. It meant five weeks of solid work for the actors chosen. You might be surprised about who it is, considering her place in television history, but that's all I'll say until the interview is done.
And G, I promise not to put my feet up where they don't belong.
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