Tag / Emily V. Gordon

by admin

Those Non-Acting Oscars

side_oscarThe 90th Academy Awards are going down next Sunday night, so here’s my uneducated predictions for the non-acting awards. I have seen a couple of these movies, so I will still mostly be going on gut feel and word of mouth with just a little bit of personal experience.

Best Original Screenplay

Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, The Big Sick
Jordan Peele, Get Out
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor, The Shape Of Water
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

I’ve actually seen three of these films, and, while I would love for Emily and Kumail to win, my money is going on Jordan Peele for Get Out.

Best Adapted Screenplay

James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name
Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, The Disaster Artist
Scott Frank, James Mangold, and Michael Green, Logan
Aaron Sorkin, Molly’s Game
Virgil Williams and Dee Rees, Mudbound

I’ve only seen one of these, but my guess is that the legend behind the story of The Disaster Artist will earn it the nod.

Best Animated Feature

The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent

I’ve only heard of two of these, one of which is from the good folks at Pixar, so I’ll go with that.

Best Cinematography

Roger A. Deakins, Blade Runner 2049
Bruno Delbonnel, Darkest Hour
Hoyte van Hoytema, Dunkirk
Rachel Morrison, Mudbound
Dan Laustsen, The Shape Of Water

Well, again I’ve seen none of these, so I will go with the war epic Dunkirk.

Best Costume Design

Jacqueline Durran, Beauty And The Beast
Jacqueline Durran, Darkest Hour
Mark Bridges, Phantom Thread
Luis Sequeira, The Shape Of Water
Consolata Boyle, Victoria & Abdul

Another category where I’m at a loss, so I’ll go with the live action Disney hit.

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by jim

2016: The Year In Books

With another year coming to an end, it is time to take a look back at the 31 books I read over the past year, even with last year and tied for my highest total ever, surpassing the 27 books I read back in 1992.  Of those 31, 9 were non-fiction and, of the 22 novels, only 5 were TV show tie-ins.  Only 4 of the books came from the “to-read” drawer, and 8 were e-books.  I read over 11,000 pages, the most in 1 year since 1992 and my second straight year reaching the 9000 mark.

Once again, a majority of the books I read this year were by authors I’ve never read before. The 12 authors that I read for the first this year were:
Doug Wilson
Jennie Garth
Emily Heckman
J.K. Rowling
Jen Kirkman
Jack Ketchum
John Dean
Judy Greer
Jenny Lawson
Gary Dell’Abate
Anna Kendrick
Emily V. Gordon

There were 3 authors I read multiple titles from during 2016, the ghost writer for Richard Castle, Jeffery Deaver, and J.K. Rowling.

Only 2 of the books I read were released this year, while 5 of them were released last century.

Finally, the breakdown by month.  Vacations in March, November, and December certainly helped pad their totals a tad bit.

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by admin

Book 28 (of 52) – Super You

Super You: Release Your Inner Superhero – Emily V. Gordon

As I’ve mentioned once or twice, I had some difficult months earlier this year.  So what better way to prepare for 2017 than to read a self help book, especially one by a former therapist who now is part of the LA comedy scene?  Emily V. Gordon, executive producer of The Meltdown, authored this tome, couching self help techniques in nerd dressing to help people process their shit and come out on the other side as a healthier, better version of themselves.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting this to be such a straight forward self help book.  I figured it would be more of a memoir with some interesting life lessons strewn in along the way.  So, I wasn’t exactly prepared for the deep thoughts that would follow.  Some of the behaviors she identifies as things to be overcome I identified with so much.  Things that I had literally shared with only one other person in this world.  To know that 1) other people are experiencing the same thing and that 2) it is possible to overcome it fills me with hope that next year will be better than this one.