Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich
Tax the Rich
Website Wednesday
OK, I'm a very private person (and, just what does that mean, really?) but I'm going to share a guilty pleasure: I love reading reviews. Especially book and movie reviews. Not too guilty, I guess, but I love reading bad reviews because I do think you can learn so much more from reading the negative. Like the Twilight series whose reviews can be found as part of my pick for today:
http://www.goodreads.com/
The positive reviews are pretty gushy and teenager-like but the negative reviews go to the jugular of this pedestrianally written but phenomenally successful series. It's good to know that there are discerning readers out there.
Goodreads says of itself: What Is Goodreads? Goodreads is the largest social network for readers in the world. We have more than 5,300,000 members who have added more than 160,000,000 books to their shelves. A place for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads members recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they've read and would like to read, form book clubs and much more. Goodreads was launched in December 2006. Our Mission: Goodreads' mission is to get people excited about reading. Along the way, we plan to improve the process of reading and learning throughout
the world.
Wow! I fell like I'm recommending a literary Habitat for Humanity! Take a long look at Goodreads and be sure to cruise away from the home page. It's all reading this Wednesday, no pictures, but if you enjoy reading books, you'll get a lot of good critical analysis here. Oh, and don't forget to hit "More" at the end of the review since usually you're only looking at the first part of the review.
And now, for a minute, back to The Social Network. I've seen it again and I still don't get its high rating (96%) on Rotten Tomatoes. However, I can flesh out one major criticism, the camera work. I think it contributed to my disengagement with the movie. For example, the scene where the Winklevoss (I love that name!) twins and Zukerberg's roommate realize and then discuss how he has royally screwed them. Director Fincher shoots the scene in close-ups. Instead of a wide-angle shot (and truth be told, I have no idea what that is but I think it's a shot which takes in all the actors in a scene) he focuses on close-ups. First, one twin speaks, then there's a closeup of the roommate speaking, then the other twin.....you get the picture. I know this is an easy way for pick-ups since you only have to call back one actor but you lose dramatic impact this way. These were young men who had been royally screwed by Zuckerberg; in fact, the ensuing lawsuit by the twins is a pivot point in the movie. It's a scene with good dialogue but it works like a TV scene, not a movie scene. TV just moves the plot along; movies, especially movies that want to be seen an intelligent, should work harder for empathy.
http://www.goodreads.com/
The positive reviews are pretty gushy and teenager-like but the negative reviews go to the jugular of this pedestrianally written but phenomenally successful series. It's good to know that there are discerning readers out there.
Goodreads says of itself: What Is Goodreads? Goodreads is the largest social network for readers in the world. We have more than 5,300,000 members who have added more than 160,000,000 books to their shelves. A place for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads members recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they've read and would like to read, form book clubs and much more. Goodreads was launched in December 2006. Our Mission: Goodreads' mission is to get people excited about reading. Along the way, we plan to improve the process of reading and learning throughout
the world.
Wow! I fell like I'm recommending a literary Habitat for Humanity! Take a long look at Goodreads and be sure to cruise away from the home page. It's all reading this Wednesday, no pictures, but if you enjoy reading books, you'll get a lot of good critical analysis here. Oh, and don't forget to hit "More" at the end of the review since usually you're only looking at the first part of the review.
And now, for a minute, back to The Social Network. I've seen it again and I still don't get its high rating (96%) on Rotten Tomatoes. However, I can flesh out one major criticism, the camera work. I think it contributed to my disengagement with the movie. For example, the scene where the Winklevoss (I love that name!) twins and Zukerberg's roommate realize and then discuss how he has royally screwed them. Director Fincher shoots the scene in close-ups. Instead of a wide-angle shot (and truth be told, I have no idea what that is but I think it's a shot which takes in all the actors in a scene) he focuses on close-ups. First, one twin speaks, then there's a closeup of the roommate speaking, then the other twin.....you get the picture. I know this is an easy way for pick-ups since you only have to call back one actor but you lose dramatic impact this way. These were young men who had been royally screwed by Zuckerberg; in fact, the ensuing lawsuit by the twins is a pivot point in the movie. It's a scene with good dialogue but it works like a TV scene, not a movie scene. TV just moves the plot along; movies, especially movies that want to be seen an intelligent, should work harder for empathy.
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