Tag / Bryan Bishop

by admin

Autographed Books – Scrappy Little Nobody

scrappylittlenobodyMove over Bald Bryan!  Our penultimate look at the hardcover books I’ve gotten autographed over the years, Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick, replaces his Shrinkage as the most recent addition to my collection.  Kendrick’s memoir tells the tale of her rise from a Maine schoolgirl to a Broadway star to an Oscar-nominated actress.

The autograph was acquired last month when I bought the book and saw her do a Q&A about the book.  Sadly, the books were pre-signed and I didn’t get the chance to meet Ms. Kendrick, but it was autographed none-the-less.

by admin

Autographed Books – Shrinkage

shrinkageWeek 2 of our look at the hardcover books I’ve gotten autographed over the years is the most recent addition to my collection.  Shrinkage, a memoir from Adam Carolla Show lackey Bryan Bishop about his experiences fighting off an inoperable brain tumor, came out in 2014 and was the 9th book I read that year.

The autograph was acquired a few weeks back, after a live podcast performance at the Vic.  The quote is one of the more famous drops from the show, selected by Bryan when I couldn’t come up with a favorite of my own.

by admin

The Non-Acting Oscar Predictions

side_oscarWith the Academy Awards scheduled for Sunday night, here’s my predictions for the non-acting awards.  I likely have seen very few of these movies, so I will mostly be going on gut feel and word of mouth.

Best Original Screenplay

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. and Armando Bo, Birdman
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler

I haven’t seen any of these films yet.  If I had to guess, which I guess I do, I would think it will come down to either Birdman or Boyhood, and I’m going to go with the crew from Birdman.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Jason Hall, American Sniper
Graham Moore, The Imitation Game
Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice
Anthony McCarten, The Theory of Everything
Damien Chazelle, Whiplash

Another category where I have not seen any of the nominated work.  I have heard nothing but good things about Whiplash, mostly from Balb Bryan of the Adam Carolla Show, so I will go with that.

Best Animated Feature

Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How To Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Obviously, The Lego Movie will take home this prize.  Wait, what?  It wasn’t nominated?  In that case, I’ll take a shot in the dark and say Big Hero 6 will take home the statue.

Best Cinematography

Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman
Robert Yeoman, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Łukasz Żal and Ryszard Lenczewski, Ida
Dick Pope, Mr. Turner
Roger A. Deakins, Unbroken

I haven’t even heard of a few of these, so I’m going to guess that The Grand Budapest Hotel will get some love here.

Best Costume Design

Milena Canonero, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Mark Bridges, Inherent Vice
Colleen Atwood, Into the Woods
Anna B. Sheppard, Maleficent
Jacqueline Durran, Mr. Turner

I’m thinking Into the Woods will deliver a fairytale ending for Ms. Atwood.

Continue reading →

by jim

2014: The Year In Books

2014books

With another year coming to an end, it is time to take a look back at the 23 books I read over the past year, an increase of 5 from last year. Of those 23, 7 were non-fiction and, of the 16 novels, 8 were TV show tie-ins. Only 5 of the books came from the “to-read” drawer, and 8 were e-books.  I read a grand total of 9000 pages, the most in 1 year since 1992.

A majority of the books I read this year were by authors I’ve never read before. The 14 authors that I read for the first this year were:
Amy Poehler
James VanOsdol
John Passarella
Mary Karr
Thomas E. Sniegoski
William Lashner
Teresa Strasser
Adam Carolla
Bryan Bishop
John Green
Rob Thomas
Jennifer Graham
Brian Jay Jones
Gord Rollo

The ghost writer(s) for Richard Castle and David Mack were the only authors I read multiple times in 2014.

The six books that I read this year that were released this year were Richard Castle’s Wild Storm, Amy Poehler’s Yes Please, Greg Rucka’s Bravo, William Lashner’s The Barkeep, Adam Carolla’s President Me, and The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham.

Finally, the breakdown by month.  Vacations in April and December certainly helped pad their totals a tad bit.
Continue reading →

by jim

Book 10 (of 52) – President Me

President Me: The America That's In My Head - Adam Carolla

President Me: The America That’s In My Head – Adam Carolla

For months now, the Adam Carolla podcast has been plugging two books, Adam’s latest, President Me, and Bald Bryan’s cancer memoir Shrinkage.  I hadn’t really planned on getting either, just as I had skipped Carolla’s previous 2 offerings.  Obviously, I had already relented on Bald Bryan’s book, and a chance for a meet and greet with Adam made me pull the trigger on this one as well.

Anyone who listens to the podcast regularly won’t be surprised by anything is this book, which is basically a collection of rants on what is wrong with the country today and how to fix it.  In Carolla’s world, everything is black and white (pun somewhat intended, as race comes up a bit), and his cures for societies ills are just as nuanced.  In some scenarios, it makes for a humorous take on the absurdities of the world we now live in.  When he tries to get down to real issues, like education and the growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots, it is less so.  But, again, it is nothing I haven’t heard before.

And that, I guess, is my biggest beef with the book.  It mostly feels like a transcript of podcasts that I have already listened to, which is somewhat disappointing, and one of the reasons I had avoided Adam’s books to this point.  Having said that, given the amount of free entertainment I’ve gotten from the podcast over the years, the $30 I spent on this is a small price to pay.  So now I just have to wait for Allison Rosen to put out a book to hit the trifecta.

by jim

Book 9 (of 52) – Shrinkage

Shrinkage: Manhood, Marriage, and the Tumor That Tried to Kill Me - Bryan Bishop

Shrinkage: Manhood, Marriage, and the Tumor That Tried to Kill Me – Bryan Bishop

5 years ago, at the age of 30 and just months away from marriage, Bald Bryan, the sound guy from the just cancelled Adam Carolla radio show, found out he had a brain tumor and was told he had 6 months to a year to live.  Over the next year, he fought against bad doctors, arguing family members, and, oh yeah, a brain tumor determined to kill him, as he tried to battle back against cancer.  As you may have guessed, he ultimately survived, and he tells his story in this memoir.

As Carolla’s podcast was getting off the ground, Bryan was battling the debilitating disease, and this book covers that whole year, from his initial diagnosis, to his radiation and chemotherapy treatments that seemed to be making him worse, to his wedding and eventual recovery.  Anyone who has either had cancer or had a family member suffer from the disease (and really, who does that leave out) can relate to his story.