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That is All

Previously I reviewed John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise, his first volume of complete world knowledge.  Now, I’ll take a moment to give more of the same praise to…I’ll take a moment to give more of the same praise to the third and final installment, That is All. Again, Hodgman provides fake historical information and hysterically terrible advice (including the necessary tools to become a deranged millionaire). In addition, he continues the page after page factoid calendar that appeared in More Information Than You Require; only this time he decides to predict the FUTURE right up to the coming apocalypse sc…

Forbes Library Disability Advisory Board – Minutes for May 25, 2018

Minutes Forbes Library Disability Advisory Board Friday May 25 2018, 3:30 PM Present Ben Kalish, Barbara Black, Brian Tabor, Lisa Downing, Rick Ely, Joel Dansky, MaryJo Stanley, Dorothy Baker, Marie…JAWS. Ben asked the board to consider whether the library keep JAWS after installing NVDA. The library could still have JAWS on some computers and save money by switching from a network licence to a limited number of single user licenses. Barbara suggested the library could make do with only one computer running JAWS or even none at all. Barbara stressed the importance of training for new users. West Street crossing — how to make it safer? The cr…

A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney

Critic Martin Gayford has been interviewing David Hockney for many years and the two have developed a warm friendship that extends past their professional relationship. In A Bigger Message, Gayford…olors. These pieces along with massive painted landscapes, stills of video installations and photographs of Hockney at work are weaved in and out of Gayford’s brief biographical information and extensive dialog with the tireless artist. Like many innovative, creative people, he is also very much a student of art. Hockney, and here I’ll sound redundant, is a thoughtful thinker and his meditations on artistic movements, motivation and life are extre…

The Last Days of Disco

Whit Stillman’s third feature, The Last Days of Disco, is set in New York City the early 1980’s. Here we find a group of young professionals who are all, whether…m his days hanging out at the famed Studio 54. Chris Eigeman, a Stillman mainstay, is cast as Des McGrath. McGrath is a sardonic manager at the said Manhattan club and he ultimately realizes that the owner has some sort of a shady operation going on. When viewing The Last Days of Disco, one can’t help appreciating the dedication in creating such memorable characters and the overall writing in general. The film is filled with quick and witty dialog…

One of our Thursdays is missing

Jasper Fforde’s latest offering in the Thursday Next series is a metafictional tour de farce. The original Thursday — literary police Special Operations Agent (ret.) and the star of her…uel refers back to things that happened (or didn’t) in previous titles in the series, and it might help to start with the first installment, The Eyre Affair….

Snuff

One Terry Pratchett Discworld novel is much like another, and I mean that as a compliment, the way I would about the Marx Brothers or P.G. Wodehouse.  Pratchett is reliably…ding footnotes). In Discworld there are no sacred cows, and in this latest installment cows feature prominently since streetwise city detective Sam Vimes has been lured by his formidable wife to her country estate on vacation. Pretty soon the deceptively sleepy village reveals there’s more than manure to meet the eye, and Vimes is entangled in crimes and secrets that rival his usual pastimes in the metropolis. Start anywhere; you won’t regret it….

Twentieth Century

John Barrymore and Carole Lombard star in, what some site as the first screwball comedy, Twentieth Century. The film’s director, Howard Hawks, who delivered several box office smashes in the…his life for professional reasons, he discovers that he’s madly in love with the starlet! His crusade, at times devious, to win back her favor knows no bounds. Barrymore’s portrayal of Jaffe, which is grandiose in one instant and hilariously pathetic the next, propels the story at a breakneck pace. Filled with slapstick gags and wild monologues, the actor gives one of the most memorable comedic performances committed to film….

Henning Goes to the Movies

Please excuse the following burst of textual immodesty… Ahem. As founder and president (not to mention CEO, secretary, vice president & mascot) of the Forbes Film Club, I can safely…hool For the Dead, is the architect (perhaps I should use director in this instance?) behind this wonderful album. He sings about the hilariously raunchy Super Bad, David Lynch’s quiet drama the Straight Story, the horror classic Poltergeist, the coming of age classic the Year My Voice Broke and more. His approach to these pieces is not a highlight of important plot points; rather he shares his personal experience with each film. Through introduci…

Starting From Happy

Patricia Marx, a regular contributor to the New Yorker and a former Saturday Night Live writer, had me convulsing in fits of laughter on the sofa with her new book…mor. This storytelling device not only helps usher the plot along with vigor, it also gives the author the opportunity to deliver some sublimely meta moments. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite instances: 318. “One more question,” said Wally. “Do you think we’ll be in this book long enough for them to hear me stop pleading with you?” 319. Enough Horsing Around….

Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag

This very short memoir of the association between Ingrid Nunez and Susan Sontag recounts their friendship/mentorship during the time that Sontag was writing “On Photography” and New York literary life…e of them lived in the same apartment. There are many glimpses into Sontag’s writing life and habits which I found very interesting. Susan Sontag is often portrayed as a very difficult person and Nunez does show some instances of how that was true but she also rounds out the portrait with other details that showed Sontag as a complicated person with many aspects including vulnerability, conflicted and humorous and loving….

Forbes Library Disability Advisory Board – Minutes for November 4th 2021

Minutes Forbes Library Disability Advisory Board 4 November 2021 4:00 PM This meeting was on zoom. Present: Ben Kalish, Reference Librarian Molly Moss, Assistant Director Brian Tabor, Borrower Services Supervisor/note…e Public Library. Fusion, a combined screen reader and magnifier, has been installed on five computers. Ben wants to remind everyone there is a budget for accessibility accommodations at the library, including for library programs and meetings. Dorothy appreciates the captions for the meeting. Ben shared that Zoom’s automatic captioning system, called “Live Transcription” is available for all Zoom meetings but must be enabled by the host. Adjourne…

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party

In the latest installment of the popular No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, Mma Grace Makutsi gets married, Mma Precious Ramotswe deals with a complicated case of attacks on a farmer’s cattle, and the tiny white van takes on a metaphysical dimension. McCall Smith’s characters handle the large and small dilemmas of life with a realistic mix of (mostly) good intentions and human vulnerability. His prose is charming and the loving portrait of Bot…

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