Cowboy Who?
Shared posts
Awkward Zombie - Hitting the Big Time
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Charitable
Click here to go see the bonus panel!
Hovertext:
The good news is we've all been training since, what, myspace?
Today's News:
The Other Side: Stories From the Artists’ Perspective
Something happened in the last year. Without indoor gatherings, the streets became the de facto social space. The shift wasn’t even, however. Shutting down business meant shutting down a reason to go anywhere. The cross-pollination of neighborhoods and the through-flow of North Texas stopped. The chance encounters with friends and acquaintances stopped, and it seemed that going out or staying in yielded the same result: no familiar faces to be found.
People filled the streets during this time, to be sure. People walked their dogs morning, noon, and night. People brought Champagne to the park and laughed on their terraces. There were people, it seemed, who could weather the storm and wait at home, with each other. For them, waiting for normal may have felt like a family staycation.
Under normal circumstances, I would not be alone so much of the time. I would be visiting artist friends, in their studios or at their receptions, catching up on all the ways they have found their own pathways to creating over these months. Hearing their stories enriches the viewing experience, but it’s also comforting. Artists often live in ways that seem unconventional, or inventive, which, while I sheltered in place, I realized to be rare. I was bound to my neighborhood. Looking out my window toward my neighbors, I started to see differences that I hadn’t noticed before.
In this time, I’ve encountered three literary works by contemporary artists that offer a surrogate experience: Autofictional stories of life under the creative impulse.
Bad Gateway by Simon Hanselmann (Fantagraphics, 2019)
Simon Hanselmann’s Bad Gateway is a continuation of the artist’s popular Megg, Mogg & Owl series, in which a witch and her cat boyfriend waltz through life one day at a time. Hanselmann uses humanity to endear us to these degenerates, but doesn’t pad out with pleasantries the banality of underachieving. These people make bad decisions in broad daylight, loudly.
Megg and her roommates are short on rent, in part because they buy too much weed and, more importantly, because they avoid working. Megg makes a desperate plea to the welfare office to continue her financial assistance from the state, and later, the crew try to sell a pair of roller skates so they can score one night’s share of drugs for the three of them. At every stage, they stumble to make even the most meager gains, and their collective failure strains the friendship. They are unwilling to compromise their lifestyle for any semblance of normalcy — even when it comes to making rent on their modest hovel, which is lined with wine bottles and beer cans.
Bad Gateway by Simon Hanselmann (Fantagraphics, 2019)
Bad Gateway by Simon Hanselmann (Fantagraphics, 2019)
Megg, the titular witch, has green skin which beams glamorously from the flat world of Bad Gateway. Mogg, her boyfriend, is a talking cat who is unhireable, adding to the impending rent crisis. Werewolf Jones, a local friend, hangs around between benders, pushing the boundary of how much hedonism is too much for the group. Megg encounters her own needs through the demanding situations that friends put her through, and eventually is summoned home. On the flight to answer her mother’s call, we can feel that this does not portend a respite from the chaos that troubles Megg.
Hanselmann has spoken about how comics were an essential outlet of his life growing up in remote Tasmania. Daniel Clowes has called Haneselmann’s work “the real deal,” and once wrote: “I actually find his comics really depressing and thank God that I don’t ever have to hang out with anybody like that ever again.” In other words, Hanselmann is capable of telling these stories: of the abject and the noncompliant. They’re endearing in the sense that they are relatable. In Bad Gateway, a bottle is not a symbol of an evening of well-spent relaxation. Sometimes, the bottle is the problem as much as it is a fact of life.
Bad Gateway by Simon Hanselmann (Fantagraphics, 2019)
Bad Gateway by Simon Hanselmann (Fantagraphics, 2019)
In Brat, Ms. D is a stretchy provocateur; she’s famous for “delinquence,” an art form that she has singlehandedly elevated into popular consciousness. Michael Deforge’s worlds are occupied by the silliest ordinance of people who don’t act as if they are living in a cartoon world, which brings the slapstick antics down to Earth in the unlikeliest of ways. The main character here is a universally lauded artist, even if her art form is subject to the pitfalls of celebrity. Ms. D has no authentic relationships, and she’s too singularly revered to have peers. She lives as a myth, so famous that her own identity has lost all of its roots.
Ms. D pontificates toward the reader in various passages about how unfulfilling it is to be adored. Her type of artwork, call it social practice or public performance, has been adopted so wholeheartedly by the mainstream that she has become incapable of topping her own antics. All of her relationships are cynical. In a late-stage panel, Ms. D’s intern, Citrus, expresses her ambivalence about being accepted to her preferred college, and asks her mentor if she has an opinion. Citrus has taken an oath of compliance for D’s heinous acts — quite the investment for an uncompensated position. The devoted Citrus is looking for direction, and the emotionless Ms. D defers the decision back onto Citrus. Do what you want. A pregnant future.
Brat by Michael DeForge (Koyama Press, 2018)
Brat by Michael DeForge (Koyama Press, 2018)
Since I Laid My Burden Down by Brontez Purnell (2017)
Brontez Purnell’s Since I Laid My Burden Down follows DeShawn, an Oakland punk who originally hails from Alabama. Before DeShawn can reflect on his time in California, he is called home for a family funeral. Purnell has said that he writes from an autofictional space.
DeShawn’s account of gay life, from Alabama to California, is remarkably absent of cynicism. Circumstances roll through the narrator’s perspective, and he doesn’t hold his tongue. There is a sense that Purnell is passing on elder knowledge as he is learning it himself. The author has an ability to render reality while passing earnest assessments:
“DeShawn was dubious as to how Michael kept the store open, particularly a bookstore selling anarchist ideas in a city where capitalism was winning more and more every day.”
This is the perspective from which Purnell describes the world, and his role within it. His observational wit is more welcome when spoken to us through an unrelated third party. When DeShawn returns to the South to participate in the mourning rituals of his family, he’s confronted with the aspects of rural life that he abandoned as a teenager. There are trysts with locals — boys he attended school with over a decade ago — who must be tip-toed around during errand trips and at church gatherings. The narrative beats of the novel imply an avoidant relationship model that underpins all of DeShawn’s relationships. This is not lost on DeShawn, because the factors that determine his relationships often feel outside of his choosing.
DeShawn spends a lot of time narrating the foundational people in his life that he’s seeing once again. He’s no longer a child or dependent on family. He recounts their faults and mortality, partly as generational knowledge, and partly as gossip, and we learn how these people accept and acknowledge DeShawn’s place outside of the social order.
As an artist and an iconoclast, DeShawn has the freedom to come and go, to live his own way. His self-reflection is, in fact, the sign of a life lived on one’s own terms.
The post The Other Side: Stories From the Artists’ Perspective appeared first on Glasstire.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Counting
Click here to go see the bonus panel!
Hovertext:
I wonder if actual farmers also play farming games.
Today's News:
AVGN Behind the Scenes and Nerd Room Tour 2021 - Cinemassacre
Cowboy Who?¿I kinda like the basic episodes?
Anyway, thanks for watching AVGN for 15 years! It's been a long time since I've done a behind the scenes sort of video. But, I wanted to share some of my new technical updates, the basic set up of a Nerd episode, other projects, and even address some of your complaints.
See the detailed process of Making an AVGN episode, in this older (out of date) behind-the-scenes video, that also counts as episode 102, with the featured game being Barbie (NES)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfnSqLzUzfM
Cinemassacre Crew:
James Rolfe: https://twitter.com/cinemassacre
Justin Silverman: http://justysilverman.com
Kieran: https://twitter.com/Kieeeeern
Check out the AVGN Deluxe video game:
http://avgngame.com/
For everything else Cinemassacre:
https://cinemassacre.com/
#AngryVideoGameNerd #NerdRoom #BehindTheScenes #Cinemassacre
Vertigo with David McQuary
I cut the conversation in half and put the second half before the first half. I think it works. David McQuary is a comedian, writer, actor, animator, and music nerd. He has written for the Onion and placed in the finals for Funniest Person in Austin. We've known each other for years and we like a lot of the same stuff.
--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Revenge
Click here to go see the bonus panel!
Hovertext:
For the record, missiles and blimps don't really work from a physics standpoint, but don't let that stop you being true to your bloodlust.
Today's News:
This Captcha Patent Is An All-American Nightmare
A newly formed patent troll is looking for big money from small business websites, just for using free, off-the-shelf login verification tools.
Defenders of the American Dream, LLC (DAD ), is sending out its demand letters to websites that use Google’s reCAPTCHA system, accusing them of infringing U.S. Patent No. 8,621,578. Google’s reCAPTCHA is just one form of a Captcha test, which describes a wide array of test systems that websites use to verify human users and keep out bots.
DAD’s letter tells targeted companies that DAD will take an $8,500 payment, but only if “licensing terms are accepted immediately.” The threat escalates from there. If anyone dares to respond that DAD’s patent might be not infringed, or invalid, fees will rise to at least $17,000. If DAD’s patent gets subject to a legal challenge, DAD says they’ll increase their demand to at least $70,000. In the footnotes, DAD advises its targets that “not-for-profit entities are eligible for a discount.”
The DAD demand letters we have reviewed are nearly identical, with the same fee structure. They mirror the one filed by the company itself (with the fee structure redacted) as part of their trademark application. This demand letter campaign is a perfect example of how the U.S. patent system fails to advance software innovation. Instead, our system enables extortionate behavior like DAD’s exploding fee structure.
DAD Didn't Invent Image Captcha
DAD claims it invented a novel and patentable image-based Captcha system. But there’s ample evidence of image-based Captcha tests that predate DAD’s 2008 patent application.
The term “Captcha” was coined by a group of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in 2000. It’s an acronym, indicating a “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.” Essentially, it blocks automated tools like bots from getting into websites. Such tests have been important since the earliest days of the Internet.
Early Captcha tests used squiggly lines or wavy text. The same group of CMU researchers who coined “Captcha” went on to work on an image-selection version they called ESP-PIX, which they had published and made public by 2005.
By 2007, Microsoft had developed its own image-categorization Captcha, which used photos from Petfinder.com, then asked users to identify cats and dogs. At the sime time, PayPal was working on new captchas that “might resemble simple image puzzles.” This was no secret—researchers from both companies spoke to the New York Times about their research, and Microsoft filed its own patent application, more than a year before DAD’s.
There’s also evidence of earlier image-based Captcha tests in the patent record, like this early 2008 application from a company called Binary Monkeys. Here's an image from the Binary Monkeys Patent:
And here's an image from DAD's patent:
So how did DAD end up with this patent? During patent prosecution, DAD’s predecessor argued that they had a novel invention because the Binary Monkeys application asks users to select “all images” associated with the task, as opposed to selecting “one image,” as in DAD’s test. The patent examiner suggested adding yet another limitation: that the user still be granted access to the website if they got one “known” image and one “suspected” image.
Unfortunately, adding trivial tweaks to existing technology, such as small details about the needed criteria for passing a Captcha test, can and often does result in a patent being granted. This was especially true back in 2008, before patent examiners should have applied guidance from the Supreme Court’s 2014 Alice v. CLS Bank decision. That’s why we have told the patent office to vigorously uphold Supreme Court guidelines, and have defended the Alice precedent in Congress.
Where did DAD come from?
DAD’s patent was originally filed by a Portland startup called Vidoop. In 2010, Vidoop and its patent applications were purchased by a San Diego investor who re-branded it as Confident Technologies. Confident Tech offered a “clickable, image-based CAPTCHA,” but ultimately didn’t make it as a business. In 2017 and 2018, Confident Tech sued Best Buy, Fandango Media, Live Nation, and AXS Group, claiming that the companies infringed its patent by using reCAPTCHA. Those cases all settled.
In 2020, Trevor Coddington, an attorney who worked on Confident Tech’s patent applications, created Defenders of the American Dream LLC. He transferred the patents to this new entity and started sending out demand letters.
They haven’t all gone to large companies, either. At least one of DAD’s targets has been a one-person online publishing company. Coddington’s letter complains about how Confident Tech failed in the marketplace and suggests that because of this, reCAPTCHA users should pay—well, him. The letter states:
[O]nce Google introduced its image-based reCAPTCHA for free, no less, [Confident Technologies] was unable to to maintain a financially viable business… Google’s efficient infringement forced CTI to abandon operations and any return on the millions of dollars of capital investment used to develop its patented solutions. Meanwhile, your company obtained and utilized the patented technology for free.”
Creating new and better Captcha software is an area of ongoing research and innovation. While the lawyers and investors behind DAD have turned to patent threats to make money, other developers are actively innovating and competing with reCAPTCHA. There are competing image-based Captchas like hCaptcha and visualCaptcha, as well as long lists of Captcha alternatives and companies that are trying to make Captchas obsolete.
These individuals and companies are all inventive, but they’re not relying on patent threats to make a buck. They’ve actually written code and shared it online. Unfortunately, because of their real contributions, they’re more likely to end up the victims of aggressive patent-holders like DAD.
We’ll never patent our way to a better Captcha. Looking at the history of the DAD patent—which shares no code at all—makes it clear why the patent system is such a bad fit for software.
Related documents:
- Defenders of the American Dream Patent Demand Letter
- Defenders of the American Dream Trademark Application w/ Demand Letter
- Answer & Counterclaims to Confident Tech patent lawsuit against Best Buy
Save (but don't you dare "improve") Denver's weird and wonderful restaurant, Casa Bonita
Taking a trip to the weird and wonderful restaurant Casa Bonita is one of my favorite things to do in Colorado. The restaurant has an interesting mix of attractions inside such as cave divers that jump from a man-made waterfall while you eat, an arcade, and an elaborately decorated interior to explore. — Read the rest
Olympics Copyright Insanity Rules Again: Gold Medal Winner Blocked From Sharing Her Own Victory
Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica won both the women's 100 meter and 200 meter gold medals at the Olympics this year, and then did the super piratey thing of... excitedly posting snippets of her victories to Instagram, which responded by blocking her account for copyright violations. She wrote the following in a now deleted tweet:
“I was blocked on Instagram for posting the races of the Olympic because I did not own the right to do so."
We've already talked about the inanity of the way the Olympic Committee (and various broadcasters) abuse copyright to shut down viral moments, but this latest story really drives home a separate point: how copyright is not protecting the actual people who are entertaining the public. It is only being used to protect the giant organizations who profit from them.
After lots of people expressed reasonable outrage at this clearly ridiculous abuse of copyright law, Facebook claimed that it was all a mistake and her account was reinstated:
A spokesperson for Facebook told Reuters news agency that while the content had been removed, the suspension had been wrongly applied.
However, the International Olympic Committee seems to be insisting that Facebook did exactly the right thing:
“Rights Holding Broadcasters (RHBs) have the exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympic Games,” the IOC told Reuters.
“This includes distribution on social media, where athletes are invited to share the content provided by the RHBs on their accounts but cannot post competition content natively. Should that occur, the removal of such content from social media platforms happens automatically.”
The IOC says that enforcing its intellectual property ensures it can redistribute as much money as possible back into sport.
Yeah, right. The fact that a top athlete shared her own victories on social media does not take away any money from anyone. If anything it gets people more interested in the sport. Or, really, more interested in the athlete -- but the IOC can't have that, because that might mean the athlete doesn't have to rely on the IOC to drip drip drip some tiny bit of money out, rather than taking its billions and giving it to Olympics officials.
Apple plans to scan US iPhones for child abuse imagery
Enlarge / The 2020 iPhone lineup. From left to right: iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12, iPhone SE, and iPhone 12 mini. (credit: Samuel Axon)
Apple intends to install software on American iPhones to scan for child abuse imagery, according to people briefed on its plans, raising alarm among security researchers who warn that it could open the door to surveillance of millions of people’s personal devices.
Apple detailed its proposed system—known as “neuralMatch”—to some US academics earlier this week, according to two security researchers briefed on the virtual meeting. The plans could be publicized more widely as soon as this week, they said.
The automated system would proactively alert a team of human reviewers if it believes illegal imagery is detected, who would then contact law enforcement if the material can be verified. The scheme will initially roll out only in the US.
Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Digital Libraries
Digital libraries
Balasubramanian
2021
Submitter: I was excited to see this book at my local public library. I always like learning more about what other libraries are doing in the way of digital libraries. This book is a joke! Just take a look at the scanning section. Not to mention the pixelated HTML screenshots. Sad…
Holly: Apparently Ess Ess Publications is a publisher of library science materials in India. I don’t know where Submitter’s library is located, and I don’t know how useful this would be to libraries in India. I was surprised at the publication date, though, and those screen shots on the example pages (below) are impossible to read. Not your best choice on the subject here in the U.S.!
The post Digital Libraries appeared first on Awful Library Books.
We Will Do Anything to Get You to Work for Us Except Pay You Enough
Please come work for us. We’ll do anything. We’ll give you free parking. We’ll give you 10 percent off in-store purchases. We’ll give you company swag where you can barely see the company logo, so it’s basically just cool free clothes. We will do literally anything to get you to work for us except pay you enough.
You want a keg in the break room? You got it. You want your break in the keg room? Okay by us! What do you want? Name it, it’s yours! As long as it’s not a living wage.
What about an immediate cash bonus as soon as you start working, to mask the fact that we don’t provide healthcare or enough consistent pay for you to afford rent? Is that something you want? Please say it’s something you want.
We will clap for you every time you clock in. We will make you feel guilty every time you clock out. There will be a big group meeting every morning where you and your coworkers go around in a circle and tell each other what a great job you’re all doing. Does that sound like a reasonable replacement for fair monetary compensation?
Look: it’s not about the money for us. Never has been! It’s about passion. It’s about community. It’s about teamwork. It’s about making you think it’s not about the money for us, when it’s actually all about the money for us, and specifically not about the money for you.
Jobs aren’t for financially sustaining you—they’re for financially sustaining us. So if pay and benefits are what you’re after, you’re not going to find them in this job, or any job. But if a gift card on your birthday with your name spelled wrong that’s only valid for one month in-store is what you’re looking for, then this is the place for you!
Oh, and if you get one of your friends to come work here too, we’ll throw in a recruitment bonus!1 That’s how much we value you!2
So, please come work for us. We’ll do anything you want—except, of course, pay you enough.
1 Bonus will not be in the form of better pay.
2 We don’t.
Hole Inside Us Not Cash Shaped?
Mexico Sues U.S. Gun Manufacturers For Contributing To Arms Trafficking Deaths
In an unusual lawsuit filed in Boston, the Mexican government argues that the companies' negligent and illegal commercial practices have unleashed tremendous bloodshed in Mexico.
(Image credit: AP)
A very rambly Coleman Lantern follow-up. Turns out they rarely make sense in 2021
Link to the video this is about:
https://youtu.be/D_qFWoa_HR4
00:00 Intro and Geiger Apology
01:20 Dual-fuel running on gasoline
02:44 Why cover the pump hole?
04:10 Fragile mantles
05:47 Ask me how I know (mishaps)
08:21 Kerosene lantern accessory
11:25 Shutting lanterns off
12:45 Lighting kerosene lantern in real-time (and discussion)
23:00 Propane vs. white gas
27:25 Context for next discussion
29:38 Batteries or gas mantles?
42:20 Emergency lighting
employee is taking free snacks, Parks and Rec vs. The Office, and more
This post, employee is taking free snacks, Parks and Rec vs. The Office, and more , was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Employee is taking free snacks and sodas
I own a small takeout restaurant. We have four employees, plus me and my business partner. Since we are so small, it’s hard to hire and when we find employees who show up every day and meet our minimum expectations, we try to keep them happy.
We’ve had one employee for about 2.5 years now. Slowly over the years, she has started taking more and more liberties in regards to the food and ignoring our requests for her to do a task. I’ve had direct conversations with her three times, and things always get better for a period and then she starts to slip again.
Recently, she’s started taking more than the $10 meal we provide per day (covers a sandwich, side, and drink). She’ll take an extra drink once or twice a month, or today she’d taken her free meal on her break and then I returned from an errand to find her eating a bag of chips while she was supposed to be working.
This all feels so petty. How do I have a conversation about $1.50? But, it makes me batty that I’ve had to talk to her about it more than once, and that it just keeps happening. When she’s taking more, it’s a couple dollars here or there. But over time it adds up. Our margins are tight, and our costs have skyrocketed this past year.
A part of me thinks if we’re too strict on these things, we’ll lose employees and hiring is one of the biggest challenges we face. But I also feel like she’s stealing from us and my ego just wants to scream. Should I address it again, or just find a way to let it go and accept that it is what it is?
We’re talking about a couple of sodas and a bag of chips over the course of a month? I’d let it go. In theory you have the right to say something, but I can’t imagine it would serve you well in the long run. It’s too close to chastising someone for taking a few pens home or for spending a few minutes on a personal call; looking that heavy-handed will cost you more than the behavior you’re trying to stop.
It’s got to be worth $5 or $10/month not to have to hire someone new in what’s currently an incredibly difficult environment for restaurants to hire in.
And I know that doesn’t address the principle of it. She’s taking food she’s not supposed to take! But unless you think taking pens home is an outrage too, I’d try to see this as more akin to that.
It does sound like you have some legitimate problems with this employee (ignoring assigned tasks, snacking instead of working) and you probably need to address those more head-on. In particular, I’d name the pattern itself: “We’ve talked before about XYZ and you’ll improve for a while but then it starts up again.” But I’d leave the few dollars worth of snacks out of it. (It also might be worth asking yourself if you’d be this bothered if an excellent employee who you loved was grabbing the occasional extra soda. If you wouldn’t, it’s not really about the food.)
2. Our Covid coordinator thinks Covid is a hoax
I work in an organization with about 40 employees. Some have been remote or hybrid due to Covid. Our HR manager, Tina, was assigned the responsibility of handling our COVID response: developing procedures for safe in-person working environments, contact tracing, etc. I recently learned from a peer who interacts with her that Tina believes Covid is a conspiracy and is staunchly anti-vaccine.
On multiple occasions I brought concerns to her only to be told they’d be addressed and to not worry, and I was starting to feel like I was overreacting. Learning this about Tina casts an entirely new light on our organization’s policy-making over the last year and is making me feel like I’ve been gaslit.
Is it moral for her to have those beliefs and be in charge of pandemic response? I’d like to think that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but what happens when those opinions directly contradict your duties?
Nooooo this is not okay. She has a direct conflict of interest with the job she’s been assigned to do. This is like assigning someone who doesn’t believe in birth control to counsel people on contraception.
Everyone in your office who cares about safety should push back on this hard.
3. Stop interrupting me
I don’t like being interrupted when I’m speaking, and it seems that EVERYONE interrupts me. I am a retail store manager and I have to keep my cool but I find it so incredibly rude. Currently, I have a brand new employee and she is constantly finishing my statements! In the past I’ve said things such as “what I was saying was…” or “hang on, I wasn’t quite done” and it works at that moment but not long term. I know my new employee is just trying to impress me and is excited about the job, but this is just my thing and it’s very annoying to me. How can I let people know that I don’t appreciate being interrupted without being mean or rude myself?
You’re in an excellent position to do it as their manager! The language you’ve used in the moment is good, as is “please let me finish.” But if it keeps happening, then after one of those interruptions you should say, “You’re probably not aware of this, but you interrupt me a lot, and I need you to hear all of what I’m saying! Can you make sure you’ve let me finish my thought before you jump in?” If it feels right for the situation, like with your new hire, you could add, “I appreciate that you’re enthusiastic about the job!”
4. Is this delay between interviews normal?
Is it normal to have 10 days between interview periods if the company is really interested in you? I recently interviewed for a company, and the first two interviews went amazingly well with me knowing I was going to next step before it ended. When it got to scheduling the last interview, it will be with multiple higher-ups. They asked my availability based on some times they had, and I gave it to them. They responded that not everyone was going to be available and gave me the first available date — 10 days from now. Typically in previous interviews there has always been a push to interview quickly if a company wanted me, I assume so another company doesn’t pick me up. Is it normal to have this long between interviews? I really want this job, but I’m scared to put my job searching on hold until then. For what it’s worth, I do have a job currently, I’m just ready to move on.
10 days between interviews isn’t weird at all! Often the waiting period is even longer. Don’t read anything into it.
But you definitely shouldn’t put your job search on hold until then! You should never stop an active job search just because an interview went well because no matter how enthusiastic about you they seem, there’s no guarantee you’ll get a job offer. A stronger candidate could come along, or the employer could freeze their hiring, or they could reconfigure the position, or all sorts of things. My mail is full of people upset that it seemed like they were on the verge of a job offer that never materialized. So proceed the same way you would if this job weren’t in the mix at all; don’t put anything on hold because of it.
5. Michael Scott vs. Leslie Knope
I’ve recently rewatched Parks and Rec and was in shock at how terrible Leslie Knope is as a boss. I remember thinking it would be so fun to work in her office back when the show first aired. But now I’m horrified — mandatory overnight camping with your office mates? Extreme personal meddling? No thank you! So my question to you, is who do you think would be worse to work for: Michael Scott from The Office, the OG terrible boss with his extreme incompetence, or Leslie Knope with her work-is-life attitude?
I know this is a terribly low stakes question, but I am so interested in your take!
I KNOW. I love Parks and Rec, but I wish someone could make a supercut with most of Leslie’s scenes removed because I get agitated about them presenting her as so competent and devoted to her job when in fact she is a terrible manager. Just give me Ron Swanson, Chris Traeger, and April so I can be happy.
So, Michael Scott vs. Leslie Knope. They’re both bad! But if you had to work for one … Leslie. You suggest she get some management training and she would go all-in on it, whereas Michael would crack offensive jokes the whole time and not take it seriously. On the other hand, Michael could be very easily manipulated into doing things differently. But I’m going with Leslie, begrudgingly.
One thing I loved about the Office, though, is that it slowly becomes clear that Michael is actually a good salesman. His tragedy (the whole office’s tragedy, really) is that he got promoted to a job he’s awful at, but he could have been happy and successful if he had stayed in sales. I hope he became a stay-at-home dad and raised a bunch of kids with Holly after they moved to Colorado. (And speaking of other people who are terrible at their jobs: Holly!)
Windows 365 Doesn't Make Much Sense
After Office and Xbox, Microsoft went ahead and put Windows in the cloud. With the Windows 365 service, businesses will be able to stream Windows devices directly from Microsoft’s servers—like Netflix, but for your work computer.
president's cabinet
Lone Star College-North Harris posted a photo:
Houston Methodist Nurse Says 4th Wave Of COVID-19 Feels Different
NOAA's revised hurricane outlook sees more storms in 2021 Atlantic season
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Wednesday revised upward its outlook for the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, estimating there was a 65 per cent chance of an above-normal season compared with a previous report that called for a 60 per cent chance.
Frontier Airlines Passenger Taped To Seat After Allegedly Groping And Assaulting Crew
The passenger, Max Berry, took to Twitter early Wednesday, saying Frontier staff treated him like livestock. He has been charged with three misdemeanor counts of battery.
(Image credit: David Zalubowski/AP)
a friend of my ex-boyfriend verbally attacked me at work
This post, a friend of my ex-boyfriend verbally attacked me at work , was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
I have been working for a large corporation for a few years now.
Recently, Joe started a new job here; he is a friend of an ex-boyfriend I recently broke up with (and who is still bitter about the breakup, although I’ve moved on).
I got a new office space today and our senior Manager asked Joe and another new team member to come help clean up my new office for me. As we were standing in the office cleaning, I asked Joe if he could wipe a corner I couldn’t reach.
He raised his voice at me, telling me that he refuses to speak with me and he only takes orders from our senior manager. He is apparently still angry about my breaking up with his friend and holds a grudge against me.
He made an embarrassing scene and I told him he was free to stop cleaning; that I could manage it myself, since I’m not a big fan of drama; and that frankly, I felt disrespected by him and his sudden anger toward me in a professional setting.
I feel this interaction is a bad sign of things to come between me and Joe. While I have no problem working with him in a professional setting, it seems he will be having an issue with anything and everything I say from now on.
How would you handle this situation? Even though I have been at the company longer and he is new, I am fearful to speak up to anyone else in case I am the one who is blamed for the bad blood between Joe and myself.
I also don’t want to be see as someone who is involved with drama. I’m an average performer but nothing special and don’t want this to ding my reputation.
Oh nooooo, you’ve got to fill your manager in. This isn’t something you should try to handle by yourself.
I get why you’re hesitant to — you don’t want to seem like you have any part of this drama, and you’re worried you won’t be able to avoid that.
But this guy raised his voice to you and said he refuses to speak to you. That’s unacceptable at work. And it’s because of his loyalty to your ex? He’s an ass who needs to be seriously slapped down by his manager, and that’s if he’s kept on at all. (If a new hire did this on my team, we’d almost certainly be parting ways over it. It’s such bad judgment and so over the line that’s hard to imagine a situation where I’d keep someone new who did this.)
Your boss needs to know exactly what happened. You’re not going to seem like you’re involved with drama, because you’ve worked there for years so presumably they already know you’re not a drama llama. You’re going to seem like a normal person who is recoiling in a very normal way after a brand new hire exploded with hostility at you.
Frame it as, “I don’t know how to handle this and it seems like a really serious thing, so I want to fill you in and let you take it from here.”
It’s not causing drama to let your boss know about a raging fire down the hall. You are not the fire. You are the person concerned that there is a fire.
I think the drama worry is coming up because this is about relationships and exes and angry friends, and that feels very dramatic … but it’s not really about any of that. It’s about a new hire who attacked you without any provocation and announced he won’t speak to you. That’s it.
That’s not to say you don’t need to explain to your boss why he said it — you do, because she needs to know he has a grudge over you ending things with his friend in order to understand how messed up this is — but your role in this isn’t “drama-causing ex.” Your role is “professional employee reporting something serious and unacceptable.” In fact, the whole point is that you have no interest in bringing your personal life into work; he’s the one who does.
Tell your boss today. It gets weirder the longer you wait, and there’s a risk of this assclown causing more problems.
should I give a bad reference for a nightmare employee?
This post, should I give a bad reference for a nightmare employee? , was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
I used to serve on the board of a small nonprofit, which I left a year ago. During my time on the board, we had to hire a new executive director. The new hire’s references were stellar and he had a great resume, but there were problems even before he had fully onboarded. In my opinion, he managed “up” very well, but every other relationship was terrible. During his short tenure, nearly all the staff quit, there was a hostile work environment investigation, and relationships with partners ranging from foundations to long-term consultants were ruined. He raised zero money during his time there and we nearly had to fold. The worst part was that, as soon as we hired him, people came out of the woodwork to tell us what a nightmare he was.
He and I had a friendly relationship, but did not keep in touch. He recently emailed and asked me to be a reference. I said yes, but that I could only speak to his performance with respect to the board, which he accepted. But the more I think about it, I want to do what no one had the guts to do for our organization, before it’s too late. What do you think? Should I give a negative reference?
I answer this question — and four others — over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.
Other questions I’m answering there today include:
- My manager wants me do more talking to people in-person rather than sending emails
- My team isn’t using the gift cards I gave them
- Why aren’t my applicants including cover letters?
- How do I follow up on my manager’s offer of professional development?
our boss won’t speak to us, hides in his office, and drops off calls if anyone greets him
This post, our boss won’t speak to us, hides in his office, and drops off calls if anyone greets him , was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
I work for a small (12 person) agency that has exploded over the past few years. Most employees have been there for between 1-2 years, including our executive director.
Eleven of us get along famously, but our executive director has stopped speaking to anyone. He has always been an odd duck, but about a month ago one of the managers questioned something he had written in an all-staff memo. She handled her concern very professionally (at first) but when his response was “my teenage daughter doesn’t like it when I tell her what to do either, you need to just get over it,” she became very brusque and asked him not to think of her the way he thinks of his daughter. When it was apparent that she had support for her complaint (she questioned the condescending tone and rude comments made in the memo, not the subject of the memo itself) he disconnected from the call and hasn’t spoken to anyone since.
Now that we are all starting to come back to the office, his disdain is palpable. When you see him in the hall and say hello, he just keeps walking. When invited to lunch “with the gang,” he just refuses to respond. When in the office we are trying to conduct meetings in person, but he will stay in his office with the door closed and join by Zoom, usually with his camera off and muted until someone calls him out and asks a direct question. Then he will turn on his camera to answer the question and then turn it off again. He’s popped in to several meetings without announcing himself, trying to “lurk” without turning on his camera. When he is greeted, he immediately disconnects.
While all of this is odd, none of it is my direct problem. I was promised a promotion and a sizable raise in June. Since he is not talking to anyone or signing anything that he doesn’t have to sign, my raise and promotion are bottlenecked at his desk. The CFO is off for another month with a family emergency and can’t intervene, and my manager is bringing it up at every manager’s meeting (most of which he refuses to attend now). Right now, the plan is that I will get the promotion and raise next month when the CFO returns, but it will be effective June 30, as planned, so I will receive the additional pay at that time. In the meantime, I am doing the work of the promotion without the pay or title.
I don’t want to get pulled into the growing wave of disgust with our executive director, because I really do love my job and don’t want this to sour the experience. Other than being patient, refusing to pile on when people are making fun of him, and doing my job, what can I do to ensure that the promotion and raise go through as planned next month?
What.
The head of your organization — who needs to speak to other people as part of his job — is refusing to speak to anyone, freezes people out in the hall, hides in his office to the point that he joins meetings by Zoom when everyone else is in person down the hall, and sneaks onto video calls but hangs up immediately if anyone greets him? And this is because someone asked him not to compare her to his daughter?
Is everything … okay with your director?
Because this is seriously bizarre behavior, and it’s almost as bizarre that everyone seems to just be going along as if this isn’t incredibly strange and concerning. Which makes me think this isn’t the first time there have been issues with this guy?
As for ensuring that your promotion and raise go through next month … there might not be anything you can do beyond what’s already happened. It sounds like your manager doesn’t have the authority to make it happen herself but is on it to the extent she can be, and the CFO is coming back soon. You could ask your boss if she can put the plan in writing, but it sounds like she doesn’t have the authority to commit to it. Personally, if I were in your manager’s shoes, I’d just walk into the executive director’s office in person and say, “I need to finalize the raise and promotion for Lucinda, effective June 30 when she took over the role. What are the next steps to make that happen?” If you think she might be up for doing that, you could suggest it … but otherwise I think you’re stuck waiting until the CFO is back.
If I were your manager, I’d also organize the rest of the managers to confront the ED directly or to go to the board, but apparently for some reason no one is doing that.
It’s worth giving serious thought to whether you should build a career long-term at a place that’s run this way. I respect your “I’ll just keep my head down and not get involved” stance, but when an organization this small has this kind of kookiness going on, it’s going to affect you whether you want it to or not.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Sandwich
Eric Vespe’s Favorite Movies of All Time
Ranking films is always, always, always a fool’s errand. The whole reason we like cinema in the first place is because we go into each and every film with our own unique baggage. Strike that, we go into each and every viewing of a film with that baggage. So, a movie you saw in your 20s might have bounced off of you, but when you watch it again a decade later you’re going in with 10 more years of life experience and it can hit you in a radically different way.
A prime example of this phenomenon for me is Steven Spielberg’s A.I., a movie I liked a lot when I saw it at 20, but which absolutely devastated me when I rewatched it in my 30s. I hadn’t changed much as a person, I still held the same core personal beliefs and had the same amount of empathy that I did in my younger days. What did change was a kind of emotional investment that went from being purely hypothetical to a lived experience. In the time between that initial viewing and the one that left me a wet-cheeked mess, I had bonded very closely with my young nephews and suddenly the themes of child abandonment hit me in a more real way that turned that film into an all-timer for me.
All that is to say that the below list of 15 movies can and probably will shift… hell, they might change as I’m writing this thing. But what I will say is if you want to get an idea of my tastes and who I am, these are some favorite films that paint you a picture of Eric Vespe.
I tried my best to include turning point movies for me, films that had a huge impact at a particular moment in my life and I tried to do that without making this whole damn thing a list of Steven Spielberg’s best movies.
My tastes are all over the map, but when building the below, I found I axed a lot of super serious “real cinema” entries, the kind of stuff NY Film School grads would sit around discussing in a dark mahogany library while sipping cognac. I like a whole lot of those movies, too, don’t get me wrong, but the cinema that speaks to me on an emotional level doesn’t tend to be those kinds of movies.
So, here are 15 of my favorite movies. There’s another hundred or so that I love with every fiber of my being, but these are a good representation of what I view as all-timers.
15. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
The lowest entry on my list is a more obscure oldie. It’s called A Matter of Life and Death (also known as A Stairway to Heaven) and it’s another brilliantly made high concept film, David Niven and Kim Hunter.
The movie opens with a British pilot in a flaming plane. He’s shot up, the plane’s running on fumes. The pilot plans on jumping out into the ocean. Surely he won’t survive, but it’s better than dying in a flaming wreck when the fuel runs out.
In his final moments he talks with an American radio operator, played by Kim Hunter, and in this brief chat sparks fly.
He still jumps, but then awakes on the shore the next day, virtually unharmed.
Most of the movie cuts back and forth between earth and heaven. Heaven is represented a little Terry Gilliam-esque. Lots of paperwork and order, but alarms start going off. Their tally is off by one. Looks like someone missed picking up that pilot and an angel is sent to Earth to talk him into crossing over.
There’s a question as to whether or not all the heaven stuff is going on in Niven’s mind and because this film was made by British masters Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, we’re not given a cut and dry answer.
It’s also gorgeous. The film alternates between eye-popping Technicolor and crisp black and white. You’d think Powell & Pressburger would use color for heaven, but they don’t. Heaven is black and white and our world is technicolor. That’s a pretty clear statement on not ignoring the now for the promise of something better maybe down the line.
The whole thing culminates in a heavenly trial to determine whether or not Niven gets to stay behind with his newfound love or if he has to remit himself to the other side and let death take him.
14. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)
Quentin Tarantino once called The Good, The Bad and The Ugly the best-directed movie of all time and I’m inclined to agree. Sergio Leone’s third and final “Man With No Name” entry is a widescreen epic masterclass in framing, camera movement, score and sound design. It’s an epic in every definition of the word. I am, of course, referring to the original theatrical cut, not the more bloated and interesting, but less great, extended edition that seems to be almost all you can find on disc these days.
Eli Wallach’s Tuco is one of the best characters ever put to screen. He’s an intelligent weasel, a man who is only out for himself at all points, but you love him anyway. And he never betrays that character, even at the end of his arc.
The finale has two of my favorite pieces of movie music ever produced. Ennio Morricone’s “The Ecstasy of Gold” and “Il Triello” (this is the final stand-off moment piece) gives me goosebumps every single time I hear them.
Iconic, stunning, emotionally-involving, impeccable world-building, everything that movies can and should be wrapped up in one film.
13. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
It’s impossible to be born between 1970 and 1990 and not be obsessed with Star Wars. There are people who claim they aren’t, but we all know they’re damned liars.
Star Wars (or A New Hope if ya’ basic) may have set the stage for the franchise’s dominant legacy, but The Empire Strikes Back sealed the deal. Empire’s importance to the series is unquestionable from both a creative and business standpoint. This is when George Lucas miraculously wrestled the rights back from Fox and owned Star Wars outright, which meant the series could be the first big budget independent series ever.
It’s no wonder, then, that Empire is darker, leaner and meaner than Star Wars. The heroes lose. All over this movie, they lose. Han is tortured then frozen in carbonite, C-3PO gets blown up, Leia barely escapes, Luke loses a hand and fails all the tests Yoda sets out for him.
It’s the dark movie nestled between two popcorn films and works as epic fantasy, thrilling sci-fi, intimate character study and effects bonanza.
No matter which Star Wars movie is your favorite, Empire is the reason for the depth of this franchise.
12. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Yeah, so I’m a pretty big sucker for movie musicals and one of my favorites is Frank Oz’s Little Shop of Horrors. From an effects standpoint alone, this film is a masterpiece. Audrey II is one of the most impressive practical effects of all time. The way the lips move is more believable than just about any multi-million dollar CGI character.
Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s music is on constant rotation in my headphones and it’s the rare movie where we get to see Rick Moranis as the main character. And man, does he kill it.
Catchy music, super dark humor, mind-boggling effects… all this adds up to one of my most rewatched movies. Effortlessly great, this one.
11. Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
This list wouldn’t be complete without a Preston Sturges title. Sturges might not have the name recognition of, say, a Frank Capra or Orson Welles, but of that era he has one of the best track records of any filmmaker.
Sturges was famous for his rapid-fire dialogue and hilarious scenarios and this is my personal favorite of his films. Sullivan’s Travels or The Lady Eve are held in higher esteem by most cinephiles (possibly because they got the Criterion treatment) and those movies are both amazing, but Unfaithfully Yours is the wombo-combo for me. It’s a great, inventive idea and overflowing with jokes that hit you so fast you don’t have time to recover before another biting quip slaps your other cheek.
The premise is this: the conductor of an orchestra is convinced his loving wife is cheating on him and then, as he’s conducting, he daydreams about the different ways he can enact his revenge. Yes, it’s mean — a husband daydreaming about murdering his wife or killing himself to make her feel bad. But it’s told with such a lighthearted touch that it never feels heavy.
Sturges was a relatively unsung master and there was no way I was going to list 15 top movies and not include something of his.
10. Jurassic Park (1993)
If we’re talking purely life-changing theatrical experiences, Jurassic Park is number one with a bullet. I was 12 the summer Jurassic Park came out. I remember seeing stories on the news about opening night lines wrapped around the block and seeing the very cool teaser trailer that didn’t give away much at all. In fact, I think the only dinosaur they showed was a raptor’s clawed hand opening the door.
I was with my grandparents the weekend Jurassic Park came out. They never went to the movies (I can still hear my grandfather complaining about floors so sticky he’d damn well lose a shoe if he went to a movie with me), but would drop me off at almost anything I wanted to see with some popcorn money to boot.
Hey, it was the early ‘90s and 12-year-olds were just allowed to wander around. Sounds kinda risky to adult me, but kid me loved it.
There was no line for the first Saturday morning showing, but by the time the lights dimmed, the theater was packed. Through a fortunate “everybody shift in and leave no empty seats” announcement I found myself dead center, a little more than halfway back.
I don’t know if there’s another single movie-going experience of my childhood that is so burned into my mind. I can remember I had Red Vines and Coke. I have a sense memory of the way the brand new, cranked up DTS sound seemed to send vibrations deep into my core.
No joke, that movie hit me so hard I saw it seven times that summer. Spielberg has made better movies since, but nothing that hit me as squarely as Jurassic Park did. I don’t know if it’s possible, to be honest, because I’ll never be 12 years old seeing a Prime Spielberg blockbuster again.
As objectively as I can judge, Jurassic Park remains one of the most entertaining and inventive blockbusters ever made.
9. The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
It’s hard to not consider the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy as one whole story when making this list, so I might cheat just a little bit and say that Fellowship’s inclusion is also intended to hold the place for all three films.
For my money, it’s still the most effortless of the three entries and that Mines of Moria sequence is hands down the best honest to God fantasy ever captured on film.
Analytically I can point to a thousand reasons why Fellowship of the Ring is incredible, from being perfectly cast, to Andrew Lesnie’s photography to Peter Jackson’s giddy sense of fun peppered throughout what is ultimately a very heavy story, to Howard Shore’s soaring score. All that’s well and good, but the real reason it’s here is because it was a phenomenon upon release and I was swallowed up in it.
I was buying the toys and collectibles. I’ve been lucky enough to have spent some time in New Zealand and was even on set for some of the reshoots of Return of the King, and that era is burned into my being.
At the risk of sounding New Age-y, I spiritually connected with New Zealand as a direct result of these movies. Since 2003 I’ve been back over a dozen times and outside of Austin, it’s the only place I’ve ever felt at home.
This trilogy is a warm blanket for me and represents some of the best times I’ve ever had with an audience watching new release movies.
8. The Thin Man (1934)
William Powell and Myrna Loy were so good together they co-starred in a dozen projects, at least half of which belonged to The Thin Man series.
They play a husband and wife duo named Nick and Nora Charles. They’re both drunks, but happy drunks and happy to be drunk in each others’ company. Nick Charles also happens to be a preeminent detective who keeps being pulled into murder cases and Nora is desperate to be along for the fun of the chase.
These absolutely delightful screwball comedies are simply magic, the chemistry between the two leads a boozy cocktail of good humor, genuine love, and gentle ribbing. There’s something to like in every entry into this franchise, but that first movie is hard to top in terms of pure, unadulterated Nick and Nora being fun, rich drunks out to solve a crime.
7. Poltergeist (1982)
Poltergeist is my first memory. Not movie memory, mind you, my first memory as a human being on this Earth. I trace it back to around age 3 and I remember waking up in my babysitter’s lap and Poltergeist is on TV. It’s the scene where the coffin comes up out of the ground between Jobeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson, the lid opens and the skeleton’s hair is blowing in the wind.
The scene is chaotic, lots of screaming and sound effects and it’ll be forever burned into my brain.
Poltergeist is another movie where dark Spielberg gets to come and play. I don’t want to summon the dreaded Who-Really-Directed-Poltergeist discourse, so for the sake of argument let’s take the credits at face value and say Tobe Hooper directed the film and Steven Spielberg wrote it. There are whole books to be written about the true dynamic behind the scenes, but no question this was a Spielberg script and his creative fingerprints are all over the movie.
When Spielberg write, he tends to write dark. He has three screenplay credits: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Poltergeist, and A.I., all of which are really f***ed up, if you’ll pardon my French. All are familial horror stories. Close Encounters is about divorce, Poltergeist is about the loss of a child, and A.I. is about abandonment.
Poltergeist is ultimately a win for the Freelings, but Spielberg’s script drags them to hell and back in the process and features some of my favorite practical horror effects of all time. There’s an awe of the supernatural on display. Plus we also have one of the all-time best horror scores of all time with Jerry Goldsmith’s otherworldly music.
This is a big cornerstone movie for ol’ Vespe.
6. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
I’m going to start this right off by saying that Raiders of the Lost Ark is unquestionably a better movie. It’s a classic and, if I’m being honest, I originally had it on this list in place of Temple of Doom, but realized that if this thing is supposed to paint a picture of who I am and what I’m drawn towards then Temple of Doom has to be the one I include.
Temple of Doom is darker, a borderline horror entry to the series, and I have always been a horror kid at heart. Looking back with a more analytical eye, I think I also dug it because it was so different from Raiders, a film I love through and through.
This isn’t a rehash (ahem, Last Crusade), but something wholly different and original for the series, which I think is largely what turned a lot of people off from it, even if they could only articulate “Blonde lady is annoying…”
The whole point of Temple of Doom is to take your expectations from Raiders and turn it 180 degrees. The pampered, whining starlett Willie Scott is the polar opposite of the down-in-the-dirt scrapper that Marion was. Indiana Jones isn’t out trying to put artifacts in a museum, he’s out for fortune and glory. He’s profiting from the acquisition and sale of historic artifacts in this film, not preserving them.
A lot of people don’t realize this, but Temple of Doom is set before Raiders, so you actually see Indiana Jones as you know and love him born in this film. He turns away from the selfish bastard that Marion talks about in Raiders in this film. On top of all that, it’s also a showcase for Spielberg’s craft, his absolutely supernatural talent at filming action set pieces.
So, Raiders may be the better movie, but Temple is my favorite.
5. Blow Out (1981)
Blow Out is about a Hollywood sound guy who is out late one night recording ambient noise (leaves rustling in the wind, the hooting of far away owls, etc) and records something that some very bad people don’t want anybody to know about.
Brian De Palma is famous for his flashier films, much like Francis Ford Coppola, but this one is my favorite, and without a doubt the best performance John Travolta has ever given.
Bonus points for making John Lithgow terrifying as a quiet assassin you absolutely don’t want on your tail.
This is one I absolutely love introducing friends to. Not only is it a tense thriller, but De Palma’s at the height of his visual storytelling prowess here, and his use of framing and lenses (there are some classic split diopter shots in this one) is second to none.
Plus it has one hell of an ending.
4. The Conversation (1974)
I paired The Conversation and Blow Out on purpose. They’re siblings, in a way. Thematically, structurally, and from a film history perspective these two have a lot in common.
Francis Ford Coppola squeezed out this masterpiece between two other iconic films. This was his palate cleanser between The Godfather and The Godfather Part 2, and it is still my favorite thing he ever made.
The Conversation is the story of Harry Caul, a professional snoop. He spies on people, using top of the line (for the mid-’70s) equipment to listen in on conversations (hence the title). On one job he hears something he shouldn’t have and that’s when the tension and paranoia kicks in.
This is peak Coppola. Part art film, part ‘70s thriller with Gene Hackman giving one of his best performances in the leading role. If you haven’t seen it, then I highly recommend catching up to this low key masterpiece. You’ll never look at toilets the same way again.
3. Stand By Me (1986)
If you know me, you know I’m a massive Stephen King fan. I spent a good amount of my childhood reading his books and, being a massive movie nerd, seeking out the film adaptations. There are a few God-tier adaptations, but gun to my head, I choose Stand By Me.
It’s not horror, at least not overtly. The coming-of-age tale is about the quest to find a dead body, but the body itself isn’t what’s scary. It’s real life around these poor kids, none of whom seem to have good homes to go to or parents who give a damn. There’s a streak of adults abandoning or failing children in this movie and it’s just heartbreaking.
But at the same time, it’s also one of the most uplifting stories about friendship ever told. Rob Reiner set the gold standard for the coming-of-age movie with Stand By Me and I’m not sure it can ever be topped.
2. Casablanca (1942)
The movie that made me fall in love with black and white films. I think most kids born to my generation and beyond need something that pushes them over the “old” hump of black and white, and for me that movie was Casablanca.
So much of this film has made its way into pop culture that it’s a little bit of a shock to watch it fresh and already know half the lines. And the whole thing feels surprisingly modern even today. The dialogue is crisp, the characters are well drawn and complex, and it has a deeply funny streak despite the relatively serious subject matter.
I get chills during the “La Marseillaise” scene every single time. That’s the moment when the citizens of Casablanca defiantly sing the French National Anthem, overpowering the German invaders’ attempt at singing their own.
Casablanca is an obvious choice, but it’s an honest one. This movie is one of my most rewatched titles, a happy place movie.
Here’s looking at you, kid.
1. Jaws (1975)
When I was a teenager, I attended a film festival where screenwriter Carl Gottlieb was a special guest. I approached him, asked him to sign a Jaws lobby card that I had and proclaimed that Jaws was my favorite movie of all time. He was shocked. Like, it was my favorite all-time movie? He knew it was popular, obviously, but even as recently as the mid-’90s it wasn’t really talked about as more than a pop culture hit.
Thankfully that has changed in recent times. Jaws is commonly talked about as a classic beyond its monster box office status.
I’ve been obsessed with Jaws since before I can remember. I was born 6 years after Jaws was released and in my youth I wore out at least two VHS copies, including one my parents recorded off of TV for me that was missing the first 15 minutes because it was the second film on the tape, and when they recorded Superman: The Movie over the first film they didn’t realize how long it was, which ate into the beginning of Jaws’ runtime.
The reason Jaws takes the top spot for me is because it is the first film I saw that made me conscious of and curious about the artistry behind filmmaking. Spielberg’s shot composition is impeccable. The famous dolly-zoom on Brody as he sees the Kintner boy being eaten is the one everybody talks about and copies, but that level of craft is all over this movie.
For instance, the shot of the guys leaving the harbor aboard Quint’s boat is a slow push in on a window through a pair of mounted shark’s jaws (foreshadowing much?). Also, this is the first time I recognized color theory in film, which is when a filmmaker uses a particular color to represent something. Yellow is the shark. It’s the color of the Kintner boy’s raft and the barrels that show his presence. When yellow is featured, you can bet the shark is near.
Jaws is a miracle of a movie. It has depth, raw emotion, complex characters and is one of the most thrilling films ever made. A lot can change on my favorites list, but Jaws has never moved from my #1 spot.
***
Anyway, that’s a good rundown of some of my favorite movies, the ones that had the biggest impact and that I tend to think about on a near daily basis in some way or another.
Thanks for reading along!
The post Eric Vespe’s Favorite Movies of All Time appeared first on /Film.
Jewish Celebrity Hall of Fame
The Jewish Celebrity Hall of Fame
Boxer
1987
Submitter: This book and its humor is very old and it needs to go. Not sure a book today could keep up with the many Jewish celebrities that exist thanks to just social media alone.
Holly: Sure, but were they ever featured on stamps?
The post Jewish Celebrity Hall of Fame appeared first on Awful Library Books.