Wednesday, November 15, 2006

What was I talking about again?

I had a few things on my mind that I was going to blog about and now I can't remember what they were. I'm just really tired today. But, Tony is coming home early today (about 6ish) (Yay!) because it is his birthday (34) and because I'd told him he HAD to be home for his birthday. At least he'll be here tonight, so that's something.

I'm taking him out to Proof on Main for dinner. He likes the place, it's artsy, and I happen to have a gift certificate because Stan & Mary (e.g. The Third Street Association) recently gave me one for all the help on the art show. That was nice and unexpected. And worked out perfectly since we need to conserve some cash right now because of some unexpected new expenses and trying to make sure the house is all spiffy so we can sell it. That mostly just means keeping it clean and straightened up. The flyers have been steadily disappearing from the info tube, but no calls yet. We'll see. I think once we get people in to see it, it will hopefully go fairly fast. After all, I've been in other houses around here and I know that ours is in much better condition than probably 80% of the neighborhood. It's beautiful inside and out and not many of the houses in Old Louisville can say that. Many have really been trashed inside.

I watched A Lot Like Love (Ashton Kutcher, Amanda Peet, 2005) the other night. Thought it was pretty good. Not as good as, say, When Harry Met Sally (the best romantic comedy of all time), but not bad. I even sat through the Director's Commentary, which they'd recorded before the movie was released. They mentioned how they hoped the movie would do well, but you never know, etc. etc. So that made me curious. So I looked up the box office take on it and some reviews afterwards. It looks like it pretty much bombed. Didn't do that well at all. The reviews I saw trashed it, though each one trashed it in a different way (no chemistry, good chemistry, took too long, etc., etc.). I guess I wouldn't make a good movie reviewer. I'm pretty kind to movies. Heck, I'm pretty kind to books. If I really, really hate it, I just don't review it. I don't see the point. It's not going to help the author or the publisher and there might be someone out there that does like it that my review would discourage from reading it. Doesn't seem worth publishing a really bad review. But maybe that's just me. Some people just like to vent their anger at other artists.

Not that there haven't been some self-pubbed stuff that's come across my desk that I wouldn't mind taking a stab at it. Some of it is so truly, truly awful you wonder what people were thinking. But, it's kind of like calling someone's baby ugly. It doesn't do any good and just hurts someone's feelings for no good reason.

The self publishing companies have made it entirely too easy for someone to put out a book. That's the only bad thing. Some of the really, really horrible stuff out there....all it really does is make it harder for good (or even just decent) writers. It makes it harder to find those diamonds in the rough.

And most of the better self-pubbed stuff could have been published with either some revision or some perseverance. Coming back again to how the self publishing companies make it too easy for someone. Writing & getting something published is work. It isn't easy. It's hard. It can take years and years and years.

But that's not really what I was talking about. Actually, I guess I wasn't really talking about anything. Same as always.

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