tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63523137063643414902024-03-14T10:44:51.705-04:00My Back PagesMusings, Pocket Reviews, Doomed Story Sketches, General EphemeraSean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-41506378123637172612008-03-15T18:44:00.002-04:002008-03-15T18:45:32.241-04:00Five Questions for Alix OhlinI've interviewed Alix Ohlin and written about the Morning News Tournament of Books on -- where else -- the <a href="http://www.hobart.typepad.com">Hobart </a>blog.Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-18455789666168794082008-03-04T00:53:00.004-05:002008-03-04T00:58:23.846-05:00The Rain Man Gave Me Two CuresIt's Cat Power Appreciation Week over on the <a href="http://hobart.typepad.com/">Hobart blog</a>. We seem to be getting readers and people are commenting.<br /><br />I'm always writing on other blogs, but never here. Why is that?Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-7212308504934670982008-02-24T20:23:00.000-05:002008-02-24T20:24:01.147-05:00Book of PoemsNow I've written about Rhett Miller on the <a href="http://hobart.typepad.com/">Hobart blog</a>.Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-521240211640425532008-02-21T08:03:00.004-05:002008-02-21T08:16:31.811-05:00The Life of the NovelAdrian Tomine's hilarious New Yorker cover.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgcZDmZEvXk3EVeobiiMT1LqMYOYCK1EuzY4La1TvCH8EfYWr_BuHhbXqwktHkrei4um02OnsFfvJVaLmmLhYBXes-m4CirQKN6Je_JLwdFlxV0ejZmz6LCha5jIT4H05xDm-hMDthLet_/s1600-h/nyer+cover+feb+25.jpg"><br /><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgcZDmZEvXk3EVeobiiMT1LqMYOYCK1EuzY4La1TvCH8EfYWr_BuHhbXqwktHkrei4um02OnsFfvJVaLmmLhYBXes-m4CirQKN6Je_JLwdFlxV0ejZmz6LCha5jIT4H05xDm-hMDthLet_/s400/nyer+cover+feb+25.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5169421392011005426" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9EtnG2Szh0dmYvcITbQtlfKZ1PKRqZ8qnUi-9LuAICSdVHaMWg3JK5r09mSb22VH2kjPzDvaQ1rtPfRN9wDIKf32BJnzZUXW2C1mVrJdi6XyWYcW3WMKRDcB2V_ng1QO-5nF-1fJs7VgS/s1600-h/nyer+cover+feb+25.jpg"><br /></a>Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-50646965570806684002008-02-18T10:35:00.002-05:002008-02-18T10:36:05.183-05:00Flipping Out for Etgar KeretI've written more about Etgar Keret for the <a href="http://hobart.typepad.com/">Hobart blog</a>.Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-15841547083447226722008-02-10T19:33:00.000-05:002008-02-10T19:38:13.190-05:00"Enough. Grateful."Late Show writer and Strike Captain Bill Scheft on the end of the writers' strike:<br /><br />"I am a writer, which means my very nature is to be a self-obsessed isolator whose most free exchanges are among the voices in my head. If this is indeed over, the end is even more humbling than the hours spent walking in circles toward it. The best definition of success I ever heard was service plus faith. By our actions and the belief in our actions, we have taken care of ourselves and the generations of self-obsessed isolators who will follow us."<br /><br />Read the rest of Bill's eloquent post <a href="http://www.lateshowwritersonstrike.com/2008.02.01_arch.html#1202675364872">here</a>.Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-80201983019762877772008-02-08T07:40:00.000-05:002008-02-08T08:16:02.089-05:00Literary Roundup!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnS0UoK6wN9WjjKEQtIvb31BH3tZBpTW__F9C3zO5zWoqRVOjJqLGxt6NJ5zMGsX55DxLpcSRy1KBMEmCFSL5Fd5tfXZZxAP4YhX2ohKQ9FNdwBTNTv7V6FdpGDoXGyjcS4ca3dxpT_Jbe/s1600-h/mouse.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnS0UoK6wN9WjjKEQtIvb31BH3tZBpTW__F9C3zO5zWoqRVOjJqLGxt6NJ5zMGsX55DxLpcSRy1KBMEmCFSL5Fd5tfXZZxAP4YhX2ohKQ9FNdwBTNTv7V6FdpGDoXGyjcS4ca3dxpT_Jbe/s200/mouse.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164594711100335106" border="0" /></a><br />You can't beat the classics. "The Mouse That Roared" is Leonard Wibberly's 1955 satire of the cold war. Read it and learn that, sadly, but also beautifully and hilariously, in more than 50 years nothing has really changed. The whole book is as touching and as whimsical as its dedication, which Wibberly wrote "to all the little nations who over the centuries have done what they could to attain and preserve their freedom. It is from one of them that I am sprung." In the movie adaptation (Netflixing on my coffee table as we speak) Peter Sellers plays three parts and the Duchess of Grand Fenwick is played by Jean Seberg.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9FgR26Qn9-IPxmCG78FeDkmI0YzkIw3LyDmg_2LEQx21yxr91r3iUHlGd4RwtgMHMRJpB0xHOndIWNRRkYBerPwVHoTtes0RqUBTVdpSpSkV5-CmIzpt_fA4K7cHsyD90ds97LO62gG3k/s1600-h/nimrod.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9FgR26Qn9-IPxmCG78FeDkmI0YzkIw3LyDmg_2LEQx21yxr91r3iUHlGd4RwtgMHMRJpB0xHOndIWNRRkYBerPwVHoTtes0RqUBTVdpSpSkV5-CmIzpt_fA4K7cHsyD90ds97LO62gG3k/s200/nimrod.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164594818474517522" border="0" /></a><br />"The Nimrod Flipout" is the first Etgar Keret book I've read. How have I never heard of this guy? These stories are short, quirky, hilarious, touching, and profound.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKg_eClvR0TJAwPXnJnuTEBhFx-RQZ7-fXXgb2PBTItpaRfHNlYs3N34_0imuyiRUiHtG5NPlEVfCXOKIRBoN97GrGDgvtcPuvi4GKuDuTOTqu8Nrn9SMv7oSZVYmeem0lOHwxNEHteEzX/s1600-h/atonement.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKg_eClvR0TJAwPXnJnuTEBhFx-RQZ7-fXXgb2PBTItpaRfHNlYs3N34_0imuyiRUiHtG5NPlEVfCXOKIRBoN97GrGDgvtcPuvi4GKuDuTOTqu8Nrn9SMv7oSZVYmeem0lOHwxNEHteEzX/s200/atonement.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164594977388307490" border="0" /></a><br />Atonement is as good as everyone says. What I'm noticing is how elegantly plotted the story is. By about page 70 every turn starts to feel inevitable, and from then on it's like watching fate unfold. Yes the writing is beautiful, but I think McEwan's real achievement is the great choices he mades in writing his characters and their story. Not a single false step.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ios-36o4bFNiEa515Hlz-SNBnUurvZO_mPfuGbHXTiJGL1z2amEddYh6nqU4eC5bk6_wj-6qnPuLHi05sNvwfe4t9xvfV9fkDlUJ3Gax1xME3IfZArk62_2rt4LD9cM72t7yoxwx9cU5/s1600-h/Matter-of-Detail.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ios-36o4bFNiEa515Hlz-SNBnUurvZO_mPfuGbHXTiJGL1z2amEddYh6nqU4eC5bk6_wj-6qnPuLHi05sNvwfe4t9xvfV9fkDlUJ3Gax1xME3IfZArk62_2rt4LD9cM72t7yoxwx9cU5/s200/Matter-of-Detail.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164595157776933938" border="0" /></a><br />"A Matter of Detail" is the fourth novel by Maniza Naqvi, who is living proof that having a day job needn't slow you down. Earlier this week Maniza gave a delightful reading at Candida's World of Books in Logan Circle. She joked about knowing everyone in the audience, lit a candle to the memory of Benazir Bhutto, and read three beautiful passages from her new novel about life in Karachi. Maniza is a terrific writer and her novel will tell you things about Pakistan you'll never read in the news.<br /><br />Fiction tells the truth in a way that nothing else can.Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-2436479774136270162008-02-04T07:26:00.001-05:002008-02-04T07:32:39.724-05:00My Brother's Music<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb3Cwb9bWUu83pjc22xeSO7f5zynJxl2Yubs2ydNumwupGYADDUHpCJ4BaT99_3bXs7LZ7uBnNg2yGgTXnpQqAbJR9wBQ_eDFQfQCFxG8eoP5muKL6-a2-MPXWYm_y-7LKH0wRp05Zw9VR/s1600-h/pegandawl.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb3Cwb9bWUu83pjc22xeSO7f5zynJxl2Yubs2ydNumwupGYADDUHpCJ4BaT99_3bXs7LZ7uBnNg2yGgTXnpQqAbJR9wBQ_eDFQfQCFxG8eoP5muKL6-a2-MPXWYm_y-7LKH0wRp05Zw9VR/s200/pegandawl.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163101681683997682" border="0" /></a><br /><br />My brother the folk musician has a Myspace page. Check out his excellent music <a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=297257475">here</a>.Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-60486598267734167022008-02-02T21:15:00.000-05:002008-02-02T21:18:04.585-05:00Lucy, Daughter of the DevilI love this show.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SdbP0rEtPrQ&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SdbP0rEtPrQ&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object>Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-14725430711751495982008-01-28T17:47:00.001-05:002008-02-01T05:37:07.961-05:00A Beer With NovickSteve Novick's new ad for his campaign to be a United States Senator from Oregon<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/N2UesvrH-cs&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/N2UesvrH-cs&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object>Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-26425365321838445982008-01-14T18:22:00.000-05:002008-01-15T06:09:54.250-05:00Steve Novick Tells the TruthMy friend Steve Novick, who is running for the U.S. Senate from Oregon, and trying to unseat Gordon Smith, has an ad on television that is a clever take-off on the old show "To Tell the Truth." Take a look:<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QFX1TCK_PS8&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QFX1TCK_PS8&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object>Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-17648144955490488322008-01-05T16:19:00.000-05:002008-01-05T16:26:34.289-05:00Realize Your DestinyLos Angeles musician <a href="http://cdbaby.com/cd/mateocathead">Matthew Kates</a> has started a <a href="http://matthewkates.blogspot.com/">blog</a> based on step two of my twelve-step program for <a href="http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2003/11/11carman.html/">realizing your destiny</a>.<br /><br />Godspeed, Matt!Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-55507687614878251782007-12-24T21:27:00.000-05:002007-12-24T21:44:46.607-05:00Seeing ThingsShortly after I got my new glasses I noticed that the thicker frames blocked my peripheral vision.<br /><br />It took me a while to notice this, actually. One tricky thing about peripheral vision is that when it is partially blocked, your brain fills in the void. I didn't notice what I wasn't seeing. I saw my normal peripheral vision, even though it was obscured by the thick frames of my specs.<br /><br />I only figured this out after several weeks of bumping into people and working backwards to solve the problem.<br /><br />In my ordinary life I just chalk this up to an unavoidable concession to fashion, but the problem is especially bad in New York because the city is so compressed. To navigate here you really have to look out. I've been bumping into at least one person a day, and we don't even go out that much.<br /><br />So, today, having already bumped into two people accidentally, I was on my guard. And so when, during some afternoon shopping, I felt a brush against my arm, I stepped away and turned, and reflexively started into my standard apology.<br /><br />Only to find that I was speaking to a handbag hanging from a rack in the corner of the book store.Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-26706447196563849432007-12-24T21:26:00.000-05:002007-12-24T21:27:30.381-05:00Waiting to ExhaleMy friend Pasha Malla has written a moving and beautiful account of his mother-in-law's receipt of a lung transplant. Here's the link: <a href="http://www.torontolife.com/features/waiting-exhale/">Waiting to Exhale</a>.Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-3308342736875606772007-12-10T14:30:00.000-05:002007-12-10T15:03:10.150-05:00Whitney Pastorek's Keen EyeAs you may know, the print incarnation of the small magazine <a href="http://www.pindeldyboz.com/">Pindeldyboz</a> died a quiet death this month, with the announcement by Editor in Chief Whitney Pastorek that the upcoming issue (No. 7) will be the last. Issue Seven will be released as a PDF before the end of the year. The website will keep going.<br /><br />Check out the Hobart website for a short tribute to Whitney and Pindeldyboz, an essay entitled: <a href="http://www.hobartpulp.com/website/december/pboz.html">A Short Essay in Which We Celebrate Whitney Pastorek's Keen Eye for Beautiful Things</a>. Also, as my last act as Hobart web photo editor I used photos from Whitney's Flickr page (with her permission, of course) to illustrate's this month's Hobart stories. You can see Whitney's photos by jumping around this month's links on the Hobart page.<br /><br />A few months ago I saw Jim Shepard saying in an interview that literary communities are ephemeral, and that's true. My writing friends and I seem to be linked by MySpace or Facebook pages, by the e-mails we send each other, by the brief times we cross path at readings, workshops, or conferences. What was the point of this paragraph? Just that, for many of us, the Pindeldyboz print issue was a familiar waypoint on the journey. We'll miss seeing it on the magazine stand, holding it in our hands, and reading its ecclectic mix of wonderful stories.Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-57265330286643835392007-12-03T19:10:00.000-05:002007-12-03T19:54:23.927-05:00The New Phone Book is Here! The New Phone Book is Here!For the past month or so I've been writing blog posts for the new <a href="http://www.236.com/">23/6</a> comedy news site. I have to say, it's been going better than I anticipated. I'm finding that I have things to write about, and the good people at 23/6 (shout out to Alex. Hi Alex!) have been very nice to me.<br /><br />So, wanting to keep track of my writing over there, I've created a new link thing in the right-hand column, containing my blog posts for the 23/6 site. Soon I will have more posts over there than I can keep track of in the column thing, at which point I don't know what I'll do.<br /><br />What are blogs? Unless they are focused on some subject external to the author, they are complicated exercises in vanity, that's what. This blog has fallen into that pit and is too far down to rescue itself, I'm afraid.<br /><br />Moving on, we will soon post an essay about Whitney Pastorek, as a small tribute to her move to L.A. and the end of the print version of her magazine Pindeldyboz, perhaps the mightiest of the basement productions that dot America's literary landscape.Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-21408740772344991072007-11-23T18:03:00.000-05:002007-11-23T18:18:19.418-05:00Oops. Sorry.So, I got swamped with obligations recently, which doomed my attempt to turn this blog into a diary of my attempt to make a documentary about <a href="http://www.votehook.com/">Steve Novick's</a> run for Senate. It also sort of turned out that making a documentary film in one's spare time is so difficult and time-consuming that keeping a diary of the effort is pretty much impossible.<br /><br />However, in the time I was gone I noticed that <a href="http://www.crookedhouse.typepad.com/">Stephany</a> put me on her blogroll. Thanks, Steph!<br /><br />I guess I will now, out of the blue, turn this post into a run-down of the success of my writing friends. Because I've been marveling lately at how many of the friends I've made through writing have gone on to become so successful. Laila Lalami wrote a great collection of short stories and now writes for the Nation and other magazines. Maud Newton's blog took off and made her famous among the literati. I've heard Pia Ehrhardt on Selected Shorts and Tin House published her collection "Famous Fathers." Aaron Burch, who I met when I found a bookmark he had placed in a copy of "John Henry Days" in a Seattle Barnes and Noble, started Hobart, which has become, for my money anyway, the most exciting lit mag in America. Pasha Malla landed a deal for a novel and a collection of stories.<br /><br />There are many others, of course, who deserve mention on this small backwater of the internet known as my blog, but I will say here that the most talented and charming writer of all the friends I've made through writing is Stephany Aulenback. She's simply brilliant. So I was happy to see that after what seemed like a hiatus she took when her son Luke was born, she is back and writing with such energy. Every word she chooses is a pleasure to read. Go Steph!Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-8882703385080452342007-10-13T21:03:00.000-04:002007-10-13T22:05:01.016-04:00I Will Be the Next Michael Moore<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB1tfHtrBh_pLVhe2BGquDaXa7MP8H_Wn53XjLJ0Ix_6ZD0SfttrQnoAzU0rHN4N21GCe6gzb08V0JAs_OppgBPE3pYUMhRvrEptIgyy532Bf5a6dsyS7VE2WopQ2fAwXoTEqJzMWtOWYK/s1600-h/script+excerpt.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB1tfHtrBh_pLVhe2BGquDaXa7MP8H_Wn53XjLJ0Ix_6ZD0SfttrQnoAzU0rHN4N21GCe6gzb08V0JAs_OppgBPE3pYUMhRvrEptIgyy532Bf5a6dsyS7VE2WopQ2fAwXoTEqJzMWtOWYK/s400/script+excerpt.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121000177262284610" border="0" /></a><br />Above is the first text I've written in the script that actually has a decent chance of making it into the movie, although I'm sure I'll re-write it.<br /><br />The good news is that I have the angle from which I want to tell the story, and I have the introduction, first, second, and third acts roughly outlined. So that's good. You have to have a really good story. My feeling is, if you don't have a good story, you shouldn't even start, because if you don't have a good story, nothing can save you.<br /><br />Making films, at least the short films I've made (five so far), convinces me how little I know my way around story writing, and why I've never even started a novel. I have a strange intuitive knowledge and confidence about making films that I just don't have when it comes to stories. I'll try to write a story, and it won't work, and I'll tackle it a second time, convinced I know where it went wrong, and the result will merely be a different kind of failure. A dead lump of a different shape, but still a dead lump.<br /><br />But with films I seem to have a clear idea of what I'm doing from square one, and each step feels natural. Like someone has given me clear instructions on what to do, and in what order.<br /><br />Which is strange because, of course, no one ever has.<br /><br />It could all be a delusion. I worry about that, too. That I'll get halfway into it and realize I've gotten completely lost down some path and have no way to find my way back to the main road.<br /><br />At least I have the tools I think I'll need. I already had the camera (see earlier post) and the years' old version of Adobe Premiere, purchased on Ebay for about $50 (limited special effects and it tends to crash).<br /><br />In the past few weeks I've picked up a Zoom H4, for ambient sound and, who knows, maybe I'll try to find some sort of marker so I can link up the audio from the Zoom with the video track.<br /><br />I also got a Sony microphone for the camera. I discovered, in making my classic debut, "Incident at Swamp Gas Lane" that, predictably to anyone who would have known what he was doing, the camera's built-in microphone produces horrible, unusable, sound.<br /><br />I've also downloaded RealPlayer 11, which lets you capture video from the web, and I downloaded a decent video converter (you need to convert web video clips from flash to mpg before you can plug them into the Premiere timeline).<br /><br />I also downloaded a screenshot program (hence my ability to quote the working script above).<br /><br />I wrote a model release, based on a form I got off the web, and I also ordered a 10-watt light for the Sony camera, which may or may not arrive this week.<br /><br />I ordered two extra batteries and a second battery charger, which should arrive this week and hopefully will give me about six hours of shooting time each day.<br /><br />Which, I hope is enough. I'll have to be careful about what I decide to shoot. I can't just leave the camera running all day.<br /><br />Finally, I picked up a 2gb external hard drive (Toshiba) and today I bought about 24 Fuji DV tapes, which I hope is enough for my first trip to Portland, this coming weekend, when I'll spend three days on the trail with Steve and his campaign manager Jake.<br /><br />I have a plane ticket and a room at the Ace Hotel the first night.<br /><br />Portland here I come!Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-67776451085061780842007-10-06T20:35:00.001-04:002007-10-06T20:49:58.891-04:00From These Humble BeginningsA few years ago I purchased a Sony dv video camera. I had it delivered to my office, and after work I shot some footage of myself driving through the University of Washington campus on my way home. Over the next month I made the footage into a short film using a trial subscription to Adobe Premiere.<br /><br />"Quimby Explodes" sat around for years, but recently I purchased a copy of Premiere and learned how to put films on YouTube. I added some new titles to the film, and so I guess it's finally finished.<br /><br />I'm posting it here as a way of changing gears. I'm embarking on a project to make a documentary film of my friend <a href="http://www.votehook.com/">Steve Novick's</a> run for the United States Senate. Since making Quimby Explodes I've made a few short films for work, and I think I've sort of gotten the hang of it. Enough to attempt something real, anyway.<br /><br />So I think I'll turn this blog into a kind of diary of the experience of trying to make a feature documentary. So watch this space, for either a triumph of independent film-making, a spectacular failure, or (curse the thought) another in a series of abandoned projects.<br /><br />More soon on my new project. In the meantime . . .<br /><object height="300" width="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AYJwuMY7Nc8"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AYJwuMY7Nc8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="300" width="360"></embed></object>Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-6611024193995342272007-09-27T21:45:00.000-04:002007-09-28T09:00:29.589-04:00Texas Hold 'Em at the Paradise Lounge<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieGhqCShRzkSmIKZes3ZYTB8EXez4WimTFs2BHL-u9n9nfKTAw9mFMhSAPHWCwoBsj9guD7TIV3_V-HxG0dgt5GRif2b8vG6WSjvpMd0jpiU3GdL1I6B3v1bRACHt-4QBCzOtSZVu-ByMJ/s1600-h/drown.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieGhqCShRzkSmIKZes3ZYTB8EXez4WimTFs2BHL-u9n9nfKTAw9mFMhSAPHWCwoBsj9guD7TIV3_V-HxG0dgt5GRif2b8vG6WSjvpMd0jpiU3GdL1I6B3v1bRACHt-4QBCzOtSZVu-ByMJ/s200/drown.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5115234459455199298" border="0" /></a><br />One pleasure of my job is that I occasionally get to travel somewhere in the United States to interview a former worker at a plant about where the drums were buried or how they didn't really truck the TCE to Kansas City but just dumped it out back.<br /><br />Sometimes these trips produce fun side-adventures, which explains how Tuesday night found me in the twice-weekly game of Texas Hold 'Em at the back table at Christine's Paradise Lounge in Herington, Kansas. I bought into the game after polishing off the best chicken fried steak I've ever tasted.<br /><br />You forget how friendly small town America is. Too many years on the coasts have wiped out any trace of my Wyoming upbringing, but I still felt at home under the open sky, talking to the locals over beers in the roadside dives. The poker players were especially welcoming. I don't really play, so Cathy (on my left) helpfully reminded me when it was my turn to bet, and how much would keep me in the game. Once or twice she peeked over my shoulder and whispered helpful things like, "that's not a straight," and "if I were you, I'd fold."<br /><br />During the trip I finished Junot Diaz's first book, a collection of stories called "Drown." I read it because I wanted to see what all the fuss is about, and Diaz didn't disappoint. Diaz's writing is so fresh and alive -- he practically invents new uses for the language on every line, but none of it sounds forced or pretentious. It doesn't sound like he's working to make his language so musical.<br /><br />Diaz's stories are also incredibly rich, putting you on the street in the Dominican neighborhoods of New York and New Jersey, a strange and beautiful place to be at the same time you are criss-crossing the heartland.<br /><br />It took me an hour and a half to lose $20 in the poker game, where a different kind of lingo prevailed, a world away from the charged jive of Diaz's characters but just as musical and engaging. I go back to Kansas the week of October 8th. If I'm in Herington that Tuesday night, you'll know where to find me.Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-47019021351261515952007-09-21T16:54:00.000-04:002007-09-21T17:10:15.360-04:00The Conscience of a LiberalWhat moves the September 15 anti-war march off the top spot in My Back Pages?<br /><br />Only Paul Krugman's new blog at the Times, <a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/">"The Conscience of a Liberal."</a> On September 18, apparently, Krugman's occasional responses to his readers blossomed into a full-fledged blog.<br /><br />Krugman's Times opinion pieces are a pleasure to read. Smart, progressive, and so well written. It's stuff you just don't see in the mainstream media. His first blog entry contains a helpful graph of income disparity in America since the early part of the 20th Century, along with an explanation of that disparity's political sources.<br /><br />It's the kind of stuff my friend <a href="http://www.votehook.com/">Steve Novick</a> knows so well. In fact, I would say Steve, who is running for the U.S. Senate from Oregon, easily knows as much about economic policy as Krugman, high praise but it's no exaggeration. When I saw Krugman's chart, and read his initial blog entry, my first thought was that, thanks to Novick, I already knew what Krugman was talking about.<br /><br />I guess what I'm saying is this: Oregon voters are the luckiest, because they get to elect Paul Krugman to the U.S. Senate in '08, by voting for Steve Novick.Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-67412190689214222152007-09-18T20:06:00.000-04:002007-09-23T13:02:55.737-04:00Washington, D.C., September 15, 2007<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsPAGfZTmR3Sim8xyemhTB8gkenps9l_svt8RPPwYDNkbLIZ_mQNIBZOKLsIfLDh_82Cp9SVvBYGHDcHMmB4MXvo3__6EsbUSgBJTaVU2dV2nX3bhcaAoaZqTWgwcFElR9D9gr61N2w6k5/s1600-h/banner+2+adj+crop+3x4.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5111700361510774434" style="CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsPAGfZTmR3Sim8xyemhTB8gkenps9l_svt8RPPwYDNkbLIZ_mQNIBZOKLsIfLDh_82Cp9SVvBYGHDcHMmB4MXvo3__6EsbUSgBJTaVU2dV2nX3bhcaAoaZqTWgwcFElR9D9gr61N2w6k5/s400/banner+2+adj+crop+3x4.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />We stood in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House, and mingled with the anti-war protesters gearing up to march. You couldn't imagine a more diverse crowd. Old, young, clean-cut, ragged out, dressed up, dressed down, white, black, brown, you name it. They dressed like hippies, like soldiers, like tourists, like death.<br /><br />And they seemed to represent every cause imaginable. Ten minutes after listening to a speaker lament the occupation of Palestine I ran into a friend who works for AIPAC. Veterans back from the war stood near the wingnut with the megaphone ranting about government ID implants in newborns. In a lot of ways, it was like an outdoor rock festival, just without the rock bands.<br /><br />Down Pennsylvania Avenue, along a two block stretch, a much smaller crowd had gathered. I would put them all between 40 and 55, white, clean-cut, in pressed shirts, shorts, and tennis shoes. All dressed the same, all of them intensely angry. As the march passed by they shouted at the protesters, calling them out as individuals and hurling insults at them. They called the men cowards and the women Iraqi whores. I have never been near an angry mob. It's a scary experience.<br /><br />I took this photo after the marchers had passed by their vicious counterparts, and things had relaxed a little. Maybe you can see, in the faces of the people behind the banner, the jubilation, optimism and peace that carried the day.<br /><br /></span></span>Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-54145466030556101802007-09-17T06:58:00.000-04:002007-09-17T07:47:20.579-04:00The Lives of Others<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZRij1N15BkI6ZtATQXx6XnksgaRSugC0U8Wr1qDsGsr_3UN8kCf5pVEC3ZCxfttUfxwdX-2wqCd7gHwIIk5iJe8zB3YTCDq2119WkiZTmOE9WFnHYzf5E-1bCtq2jyk10BSomBb6uU-9G/s1600-h/lives+of+others.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZRij1N15BkI6ZtATQXx6XnksgaRSugC0U8Wr1qDsGsr_3UN8kCf5pVEC3ZCxfttUfxwdX-2wqCd7gHwIIk5iJe8zB3YTCDq2119WkiZTmOE9WFnHYzf5E-1bCtq2jyk10BSomBb6uU-9G/s200/lives+of+others.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5111137876657205522" border="0" /></a><br /><br />"<a href="http://www.sonyclassics.com/thelivesofothers/swf/index.html">The Lives of Others</a>," is the best film I've seen in years, probably one of the best films I've seen, ever. It's beautiful on so many levels, but what struck me was how tightly woven the story is. There isn't a single wasted moment; every scene, every shot, every line of dialogue propels the story forward.<br /><br />I think we get used to thinking that a story either has a great plot or is "literary" in some sense -- a study in character, or language -- and can't be both. But great literature, of course, does it all, and "The Lives of Others" is that kind of story. It's simply brilliant.<br /><br />On the website for the film (click on the title, above) there's an engaging interview with director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, which begins with his lucid and (I thought) amazing description of the inspiration for the story (punch the tab marked "The Crew" and then hit "Interview with the Director").Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-68855581136381915782007-09-15T09:11:00.001-04:002007-09-17T07:49:02.955-04:00Buddha Boy<span style="font-size:130%;">The Braindead Megaphone, by George Saunders<br /><span style="font-size:100%;">(Pocket Book Review # 12)</span></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZXIkCM7UbNUrb6e2Twh_nHlzRdasI9qamIxyyTN-oLk6NU2b30kyBA62JAbyfqcsiHXYCk6nbeiaR9PVk0WGAqCO0E_L5jTGC4BSr7Qi23dilri6nbif5z4gFCuA5jRjKpBnQ2R_Y-EJM/s1600-h/saunders.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZXIkCM7UbNUrb6e2Twh_nHlzRdasI9qamIxyyTN-oLk6NU2b30kyBA62JAbyfqcsiHXYCk6nbeiaR9PVk0WGAqCO0E_L5jTGC4BSr7Qi23dilri6nbif5z4gFCuA5jRjKpBnQ2R_Y-EJM/s200/saunders.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5111138739945632034" border="0" /></a><br /><br />George Saunders saves the best for last in his new essay collection. "Buddha Boy" describes his journey to a remote village in Nepal to investigate a fifteen year-old buddhist who has been meditating under a tree for seven months. In that time, apparently, the boy hasn't eaten, or even moved.<br /><br />Saunders weaves Nepal's beauty and ramshackle poverty together with armchair soliloquies on Buddhism, suffering, and revelation, he lampoons his own failings as a journalist, and he tries to catch the locals sneaking the boy food, all the while maintaining a perfect balance of skepticism, sympathy, and reverance for his subject. It's a nice little story about our tentative and uneasy relationship with the miraculous.<br /><br />"Manifesto," the last piece, is something I think I first saw in the New Yorker. It's a perfect, timeless, satire, a political screed from the mythical group People Reluctant to Kill for an Abstraction (PKRA).Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6352313706364341490.post-89751389919084027002007-09-10T20:36:00.001-04:002007-09-12T08:49:18.231-04:00Pocket Book Review # 11<span style="font-size:130%;">The Looming Tower, by Lawrence Wright</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhDKLoq0QGf-dzG8WRas4zp7bugO_ibivk2a8g-r-CoU4JZEelCLmw8CbwFlHMKQD94f5I1ilEW7q-R9ty2_HImmNkhjYVEGqzC6jwf8zTrl-6268tPDXjyBcZ_rLtifMRApcpbksIXhUn/s1600-h/loomingtower_87px.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhDKLoq0QGf-dzG8WRas4zp7bugO_ibivk2a8g-r-CoU4JZEelCLmw8CbwFlHMKQD94f5I1ilEW7q-R9ty2_HImmNkhjYVEGqzC6jwf8zTrl-6268tPDXjyBcZ_rLtifMRApcpbksIXhUn/s200/loomingtower_87px.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109298836085567698" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I started to write this review by borrowing an old Monty Python joke, but then I realized -- by sheer coincide, or possibly by some deep operation of my subconscious -- that I have finished “The Looming Tower” and am writing this short review the night before the anniversary of 9/11.<br /><br />What are the odds? How could this have happened, if not by some sort of deeply-hidden design?<br /><br />And moreoever, given that I’m writing this review on such a solemn occasion, dare I make a joke about it? I just finished one of George Saunders’ essays (more on them in a few days), in which he emphasizes the value of humor in discussing dark truths, but still, it feels a little wrong to reach for an easy joke about 9/11 on the eve of the day itself.<br /><br />I will say this, though. I believe our country desperately needs some sort of satire on the so-called War on Terror. Because satire can do things no other form of criticism can, and also the Yahoos running our country are in desperate need of a hard literary thrashing.<br /><br />In any case, “The Looming Tower” is brilliant, not least because it so crisply and so beautifully puts the tragic events of September 11 into perspective. Bin Laden and his cronies, one sees, are not the menace the current Administration would have us believe. They are, rather, deranged fanatics who enjoyed the meager benefits of a safe haven in Afghanistan and an enemy paralyzed by bureaucratized law enforcement and -- critically -- a newly-elected President whose arrogance was matched only by his obliviousness in international affairs.<br /><br />In other words, Lawrence Wright’s gripping account of the history of America’s worst domestic terrorist attack feels like essential reading. The story it tells is incredible, as well plotted as a great novel and full of as many unlikely characters.<br /><br />Much the same story, by the way, is told (in less detail) in the slightly quirky BBC documentary “The Power of Nightmares,” which you can find in the latest three issues of Wholphin, the McSweeney’s DVD magazine of unseen films.Sean Carmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06961636722462239834noreply@blogger.com0