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I Watched Watchmen Not only did I watch it, but I also titled this blog a derivative of the now ubiquitous “Who Will Watch ‘Watchmen?’” phrase that’s literally everywhere. I’d like to give a detailed review, but I had spent the entire day celebrating my 25th birthday, so you can probably guess the state in which I watched the movie.
While not completely detailed, I can give a fairly general review. I only read the book (yes, I’m calling it a book. You know why? Because it IS a book. It doesn’t matter that it happens to be a graphic novel, it’s still a book!!!) recently, but I was as impressed with it as anyone else. The only difference is that I haven’t had all the years to stew in its greatness the way most other fans have, nor have I had the time to put in multiple readings.
All of that is to say that I didn’t catch all of the details that director Zack Snyder put in or kept out—but I do know there were a lot in both categories because I’ve read all the good and bad reviews. But my feeling toward the movie are mixed, and it’s not just because of the state in which I saw it.
The book is so incredibly dense that it just couldn’t possibly make a good movie. So, for all of the details left in, I think enough was left out to make a good go at it. But does anyone remember the 4th Harry Potter movie? How they tried to include so much that everything moved way too fast and became inherently anti-climactic? That’s what happens when you try to put too much in. But the 5th Harry Potter movie—which was the longest book—was one of the shortest movies, and was a whole new and wonderful experience. I guess Snyder was in a no-win situation here, because if he had changed it too much, his only target audience would have revolted against him, but as is, it was just a bit too much (at least in my opinion).
03/09/2009 01:03 PM Post Comment | Read More> A Rush of Children's Stuff On this, the birthday of the beloved Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel, it’s all about children’s material for me. For one, I’m watching “Wall-E” right now. Seriously: I’m at work, at my computer, with a big screen TV set up across the office, with “Wall-E” playing. It might be the best day of work I’ve ever had, but that could just be because “Wall-E” is one of my favorite movies of all time.
But of course, Dr. Seuss wrote books, not movies (unless you count the generally horrible movie adaptations of his books, and frankly I don’t), so we should concentrate on books. And what better place to do that then…Asia? Publishers Weekly recently did a rundown of children’s books in the Asian market. Luckily, we’re doing our children’s exhibit at the Beijing Book Fair—only the largest book fair in the Asian Market. No big deal. It’s called the International Children’s Publishing Exhibit. Have a looksie.
I wonder if it’s a coincidence that the month in which Dr. Seuss was born also happens to be the month in which the Bologna Children’s Book Fair is taking place. T-Minus 16 days until I’m off to there for the first time. I’m incredibly excited about the fair, and all that’s involved with it. We still have slots open if you want your children’s book included, just go to our site at www.combinedbook.com to learn more.
Unrelated to the children’s stuff, I know I said I’d have a big announcement soon that I haven’t announced within the time frame. The good news is that it keeps getting bigger, so in order to do it justice, I put it off a bit. You’ll appreciate it once it comes though, I promise.
03/02/2009 02:03 PM Post Comment | Read More> Bookexpo New York? By now, everyone has already made their decision on if BEA moving to during the week, and remaining in New York—rather than moving around the country—for the next few years is good or bad. I’m personally torn, and it’s not just because I was planning on spending extra time in Vegas in 2011 on the company dime.
At Bookexpo, we at CBE are partners in the New Title Showcase. We work very closely with the BEA crew in making New Title Showcase a great service—especially for small and indie presses and authors. From that standpoint, I think New York is the best place possible to make that work. Not only is the Javits Center a great venue with a great location to host the exhibit, but New York is pretty much the media capital of the world, and is sure to draw the most attention possible to such a feature. For participants in the New Title Showcase, New York can do nothing but benefit them.
Aside from the New Title Showcase, we also have a huge exhibit on the show floor with our sister company The American Collective Stand. In a union town like New York, where hiring labor is required, large exhibit set up can get expensive. With the show moving to a Tuesday start, that pushed set up to the weekend—a double time cost for labor. This would be the case in many cities, especially many of the cities large enough to accommodate BEA, but there’s no doubt its going to be a prohibitive cost for a lot of the larger exhibitors at BEA (not to mention the cost of New York itself).
But costs aside, New York really is the most logical place to hold Bookexpo. From an international standpoint, a static location is helpful, and from a worldwide standpoint, New York is the place to be no matter where you’re from. The media attention and the benefits that will bring can hopefully offset the costs (which, by the way, still aren’t as high as those in Frankfurt during THAT fair). And with a large percentage of the attendees and exhibitors based in New York, it’s a convenience increase and cost decrease for the vast majority of those involved.
02/13/2009 01:02 PM Post Comment | Read More> |
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