PurpleJedi said:

babynoz said:

Brown is very hit or miss for me. He has a new one coming out called Inferno. Maybe I'll get it from the library.

I "liked" The DaVinci Code

I LOVED "Angels & Demons"

I have yet to read "Lost Symbol"

I ordered "Digital Fortress" but it's in a box somewhere...need to remember to try & read it.

Me too!! haven't gotten around to reading Lost Symbol, but it almost sounds like a rip off of the National Treasure movies.

The worst book I have read, was for school - "The Accidental Tourist" By Anne Tyler, it is so descriptive that it really doesn't leave room for much of a story line!

naffi said:

PurpleJedi said:

I "liked" The DaVinci Code

I LOVED "Angels & Demons"

I have yet to read "Lost Symbol"

I ordered "Digital Fortress" but it's in a box somewhere...need to remember to try & read it.

Me too!! haven't gotten around to reading Lost Symbol, but it almost sounds like a rip off of the National Treasure movies.

The worst book I have read, was for school - "The Accidental Tourist" By Anne Tyler, it is so descriptive that it really doesn't leave room for much of a story line!

ACTUALLY - I always considered the National Treasure movies as a rip-off of Dan Brown.

Hey, wasn't Accidental Tourist made into a movie?

cborgman said:

Genesia said:

cborgman said: To be honest, I didn't even get that far. The director of another play offered me a part (in the same time frame) and I jumped at it. I really dodged a bullet. That production of Noises Off was so strife-ridden that it almost destroyed the company that put it on. The couple that basically ruled the company stormed out in an episode known to this day as "the divorce." It was baaaaaad.

yikes.

it's a difficult piece to read, and a difficult one to stage properly, but if you ever see a group doing it, and it gets good reviews... go. when done properly it is roll on the floor funny.

it and "rumors" may be the best modern english farces in theatre.

I just turned down a role in "Rumors" a week ago.

For that one, the director (a friend of mine) couldn't get the right guy to play opposite me as Chris, so he offered me Cookie. I would have taken the part, except that the guy he cast as Ernie is a real skeev. I didn't want to spend two months acting lovey-dovey with someone who creeps me out. Been there, done that in other roles.

Genesia said:

cborgman said:

yikes.

it's a difficult piece to read, and a difficult one to stage properly, but if you ever see a group doing it, and it gets good reviews... go. when done properly it is roll on the floor funny.

it and "rumors" may be the best modern english farces in theatre.

I just turned down a role in "Rumors" a week ago.

For that one, the director (a friend of mine) couldn't get the right guy to play opposite me as Chris, so he offered me Cookie. I would have taken the part, except that the guy he cast as Ernie is a real skeev. I didn't want to spend two months acting lovey-dovey with someone who creeps me out. Been there, done that in other roles.

that makes sense.

"rumors" is one of a very small handfull of neil simon i can stand. the others being largely his eugene trilogy.

i mean god bless him; he brought theatre to a lot of people, and a lot of people love him, but his stuff is way too schmaltzy for me.

PurpleJedi said:

naffi said:

Me too!! haven't gotten around to reading Lost Symbol, but it almost sounds like a rip off of the National Treasure movies.

The worst book I have read, was for school - "The Accidental Tourist" By Anne Tyler, it is so descriptive that it really doesn't leave room for much of a story line!

ACTUALLY - I always considered the National Treasure movies as a rip-off of Dan Brown.

Hey, wasn't Accidental Tourist made into a movie?

yes, it was. geena davis won the oscar for it.

i liked the book, but i also havent read it since i was a teenager

jone70 said:

imago said:

What the fuck. Jesus, Paul, and Mary, what in Sam Hanes underwear.

Dude, it is one of the few books I couldn't even finish; I was so bored with it.

I hate Mark Twain, so I know how you feel.

Everyone gives me crap for it if I dare admit it, but I'm just not a fan. At ALL. I've never made it through any of his books.

^

<

Robinson Crusoe bored me to tears

honesty... i think aside from "is he dead?" a terrible play he wrote, i dont think i have read twain as an adult. i vaguely remember reading huck finn and prince and the pauper as a child, but...

charles dickens was his contemporary, and much more my style

[Edited 2/14/13 10:15am]

cborgman said:

Genesia said:

I just turned down a role in "Rumors" a week ago.

For that one, the director (a friend of mine) couldn't get the right guy to play opposite me as Chris, so he offered me Cookie. I would have taken the part, except that the guy he cast as Ernie is a real skeev. I didn't want to spend two months acting lovey-dovey with someone who creeps me out. Been there, done that in other roles.

that makes sense.

"rumors" is one of a very small handfull of neil simon i can stand. the others being largely his eugene trilogy.

i mean god bless him; he brought theatre to a lot of people, and a lot of people love him, but his stuff is way too schmaltzy for me.

I played Aunt Blanche in Brighton Beach Memoirs a few years ago.

I know it isn't good to turn down parts. But since I'm not getting paid, I figure life's too short to walk into an experience I know I'm not going to enjoy. And this director is a good enough friend that I don't think he'll hold it against me (even though I didn't tell him the reason I was declining was Mr. Skeev).

Genesia said:

cborgman said:

that makes sense.

"rumors" is one of a very small handfull of neil simon i can stand. the others being largely his eugene trilogy.

i mean god bless him; he brought theatre to a lot of people, and a lot of people love him, but his stuff is way too schmaltzy for me.

I played Aunt Blanche in Brighton Beach Memoirs a few years ago.

I know it isn't good to turn down parts. But since I'm not getting paid, I figure life's too short to walk into an experience I know I'm not going to enjoy. And this director is a good enough friend that I don't think he'll hold it against me (even though I didn't tell him the reason I was declining was Mr. Skeev).

meh. i used to turn down parts. life's too short to volunteer to do a show i dont like or be in a situation i dont like.

there were a bunch of others i said no to. i turned down the lead in "lil' abner", cause i cant stand that show. i said no to a maria irene fornes play my mentor wanted to do i said no to cause it was really disturbing and violent and i couldnt find anything about the script i liked. i said no to a friend who was putting together a company to do "boys in the band" cause i really think that show is dated and offensive in it's portrayal of gay men. i said if they wanted to do "love! valour! compassion!" instead, i was in in a heartbeat.

and there were a few people on my list of "no way i am spending time with this fool".

if they had been paid jobs, i probably would have, but...

nowdays, i occasionally say yes when a friend approaches me about doing a play, but not acting anymore in favor of writing makes a good excuse to get out of the ones i dont want to do.

Love Mark Twain. That guy could turn a phrase better than anyone since Shakespeare. And as a satirist he may be second to none.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't love Dan Brown. I was actually considering mentioning his first two books as some of the worst I've ever read. I just don't get the hype. But then I'm not really a fan of fictional historical mysteries in general. Real history is interesting enough for me.

Cerebus said:

Love Mark Twain. That guy could turn a phrase better than anyone since Shakespeare. And as a satirist he may be second to none.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't love Dan Brown. I was actually considering mentioning his first two books as some of the worst I've ever read. I just don't get the hype. But then I'm not really a fan of fictional historical mysteries in general. Real history is interesting enough for me.

i dont know... shakespeare had some killer wit and phrase-turning ability.

one of my favorites is the othello "[Desdemona] and [Othello] are now making the beast with two backs." quote

lazycrockett said:

^

<

careful folks. we have celebrity writers in attendance here at the org and trust me, some of them do NOT like being criticized.

XxAxX said:

careful folks. we have celebrity writers in attendance here at the org and trust me, some of them do NOT like being criticized.

dan writing his phone number on the bathroom wall does not make him a celebrity writer.

and i stand by my criticism: he spelled his own name wrong, and it was all sentence fragments about his butt.

.

[Edited 3/1/13 10:13am]

Tyra Banks' "Modelland."

Cerebus said:

Love Mark Twain. That guy could turn a phrase better than anyone since Shakespeare. And as a satirist he may be second to none.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't love Dan Brown. I was actually considering mentioning his first two books as some of the worst I've ever read. I just don't get the hype. But then I'm not really a fan of fictional historical mysteries in general. Real history is interesting enough for me.

See.

Shyra said:

Cerebus said:

Love Mark Twain. That guy could turn a phrase better than anyone since Shakespeare. And as a satirist he may be second to none.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't love Dan Brown. I was actually considering mentioning his first two books as some of the worst I've ever read. I just don't get the hype. But then I'm not really a fan of fictional historical mysteries in general. Real history is interesting enough for me.

See.

See?

See, like, look?

Or si, like Spanish?

cborgman said:

Cerebus said:

Love Mark Twain. That guy could turn a phrase better than anyone since Shakespeare. And as a satirist he may be second to none.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't love Dan Brown. I was actually considering mentioning his first two books as some of the worst I've ever read. I just don't get the hype. But then I'm not really a fan of fictional historical mysteries in general. Real history is interesting enough for me.

i dont know... shakespeare had some killer wit and phrase-turning ability.

one of my favorites is the othello "[Desdemona] and [Othello] are now making the beast with two backs." quote

Mmm yes. Cerebus loves himself some Shakespeare.

The only thing that kept me in school for a while was writing and lit classes. During one particularly awesome lit class (the single class and teacher that shaped me more as a human being than all others combined) the teacher (Ms. Prentice, the best!) had to fight tooth and nail to get through Shakespeare. As I remember it we covered Romeo & Juliet, Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream (no idea why she didn't include any of the more political historical dramas, but I may also be remembering the plays wrong because I read most of them soon after). For me, a whole new world opened up. It was one of the happiest times of all my schooling. Where everyone else sat around complaining about "not getting it" and how it was "too hard", or (shudders) "stupid", it made perfect sense to me. It just clicked. The verbage, the metaphors, the rhythm and pacing. I loved it.

However, I said Twain was the best at turning a phrase SINCE Shakespeare. Not that he was better than him. But I'll stand by him beinga better satirist, because I believe he's untouchable. You can find a Twain quote that is applicable to nearly any situation you encounter in life in the modern world. We could fill an entire thread with Twain quotes that have little to do with his most famous fictional works. The man wrote constantly, and spoke even more.

Cerebus said:

cborgman said:

i dont know... shakespeare had some killer wit and phrase-turning ability.

one of my favorites is the othello "[Desdemona] and [Othello] are now making the beast with two backs." quote

Mmm yes. Cerebus loves himself some Shakespeare.

The only thing that kept me in school for a while was writing and lit classes. During one particularly awesome lit class (the single class and teacher that shaped me more as a human being than all others combined) the teacher (Ms. Prentice, the best!) had to fight tooth and nail to get through Shakespeare. As I remember it we covered Romeo & Juliet, Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream (no idea why she didn't include any of the more political historical dramas, but I may also be remembering the plays wrong because I read most of them soon after). For me, a whole new world opened up. It was one of the happiest times of all my schooling. Where everyone else sat around complaining about "not getting it" and how it was "too hard", or (shudders) "stupid", it made perfect sense to me. It just clicked. The verbage, the metaphors, the rhythm and pacing. I loved it.

However, I said Twain was the best at turning a phrase SINCE Shakespeare. Not that he was better than him. But I'll stand by him beinga better satirist, because I believe he's untouchable. You can find a Twain quote that is applicable to nearly any situation you encounter in life in the modern world. We could fill an entire thread with Twain quotes that have little to do with his most famous fictional works. The man wrote constantly, and spoke even more.

cant argue with that.

i LOVE midsummer. one of my favorites. hamlet, othello, r&j, tempest, titus, twelfth night, taming... i am a big shakespeare geek.

he's a writers touchstone too. if you can relate your characters to shakespeare's, writers, actors, and directors know exactly what you mean. it's great short hand.

all i have to say ben is a hamlet, and those in the know instantly get ben as a character type.

Want it, Think it, get it - Brian Griffin

Faster than the speed of Love - Brian Griffin

Brian Griffin is a wondrous speaking white labrador, husky like dog that lives with a family called Griffin in Quahog, Rhode Island, despite being imbued with the gift of speech, his writing is god awful.

The novel "Faster than the speed of love" sold the fewest copies ever even with an Oprah book club sticker on it, it was a hit amongst special needs adults in the Northeastern United statesd however.

Cerebus said:

Shyra said:

See.

See?

See, like, look?

Or si, like Spanish?

See, as in, "Yes, that's right."

cborgman said:

XxAxX said:

careful folks. we have celebrity writers in attendance here at the org and trust me, some of them do NOT like being criticized.

dan writing his phone number on the bathroom wall does not make him a celebrity writer.

and i stand by my criticism: he spelled his own name wrong, and it was all sentence fragments about his butt.

.

[Edited 3/1/13 10:13am]

it's possible dean and kate don't hang here anymore i s'pose. speak up guys?