Media Consumed: July 2010

Books Read

The New Yorker: On the Money Ed. Robert Mankoff

1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You Cary McNeil

*The Wizard of Oz Graphic Novel Adapt. Michael Cavallaro

Finding Oz Evan I. Schwartz

* = denotes a graphic novel

July was kind of a slow month, reading-wise for me. I was in the midst of a musical and spent a large part of my free time (especially during the last two weeks) on the show. Of the four books, the only one I can give a solid recommendation for is 1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You. The book is filled with facts about all kinds of things. If it doesn’t kill you, it truly will make you stronger.

Movies Watched for the First Time

Tenure

Despicable Me

500 Days of Summer

The Lonely Guy

*Hold That Ghost

Inception

Pardon My Sarong

*The Dreamer of Oz

Tenure was in interesting little film. It’s not a full-fledged comedy and the drama isn’t as serious as one might think. It doesn’t fit definitely into one type of genre. I tend to like movies like that.

Despicable Me was a complete joy. Steve Carrell’s voice is unrecognizable and the Minions are adorable.

I liked the way 500 Days of Summer was told, but I hated the story.

I watched several Abbott and Costello films the past couple months in preparation for my role as Lion in The Wizard of Oz. Hold That Ghost is one of the duo’s earliest best. Pardon My Sarong wasn’t quite as funny, but it’s still has plenty of classic Abbot and Costello humor.

Inception is a great movie that’s ruined by an indecisive conclusion (Chris Nolan should have had some balls and made a choice one way or the other). It’s by no means the best movie of the year (Toy Story 3 is that), but it does break some ground effects-wise.

Lastly, The Dreamer of Oz is a made-for-tv movie starring John Ritter. I saw the film when it first aired on television. It was on the The Wizard of Oz DVD I own so I watched it again in some final preparation for the show.