Bryce Moore's Blog, page 272

Movie Review: Bernie

Three movie reviews in one week? What is the world coming to? Well, I've been out and about for so much of it (off to Bangor today for a library cataloging meeting), that I haven't had much time for thinking up other good blog posts.



No complaining!



Up today is another new movie: Jack Black stars as a mortician in Bernie. He's a really nice, congenial fellow. Church goer. Cares for the elderly. All around great guy. He becomes friends with an old lady no one else likes.



And then he kills her.



This is not a spoiler--or at least, not a spoiler as far as the movie makers are concerned. The movie is part dramatized history, part flat out documentary, and it doesn't get its drive from plot. It gets its drive from characters. In other words, you don't watch it to find out what happens next. You watch it to get to know these characters more.



I wasn't sure what I'd think of it. Jack Black isn't always my favorite actor, and this is more of an art house movie, and I wasn't sure he'd be able to pull it off. Thankfully, he could. Shirley MacLaine plays the old lady, and she also does a great job.



What stands apart, though, are the real people they interviewed. Interspersed throughout the dramatizations are these interviews with people who actually knew Bernie. (Yes, this is based on a true story.) They're just so . . . perfect. So authentic. I had a hard time believing they weren't actors reading from a script. But they weren't.



If you're looking for a solid dark, quirky movie sprinkled liberally with strange humor, you've come to the right place. It's a comedy, but it's not a laugh a minute comedy. Much more subtle. I'll give it three stars, though it might get an extra half star if I watch it again. It seems like That Sort of Movie.



Anyone else out there seen it? Thoughts?[image error]

Bryce: Road Warrior

 Back on the planes today. Hoping that they go more smoothly than last time. Actually, by the time you read this, I should (theoretically) already be on the bus to Portland. Taking the red eye from Salt Lake to Charlotte, then the normal eye from Charlotte to Boston.



Rumor has it no Colombian soccer teams will be on the flight, though there might be one from Ecuador.



You never know.



Sometimes I really hate the cheap Bryce who buys the plane tickets. Can I just have that on the record? When I'm nice and comfy in my living room, looking at ticket prices, I'm willing to commit future Traveling Bryce to just about anything. Five stops in three countries? And I save $15? Where do I sign?!



Then it comes time for me to actually fly that crazy route, and I wonder what in the world I was thinking. I swear never to do that again.



And then a few months later, I'm back to doing it. Because I'm cheap, folks. We all know this fact.



I must say--I'd like to get to a point where I have enough money that I can start taking direct flights out of cities that are close to me.



One day.



One day.[image error]

Sci-Fi/Fantasy Conventions: CONduit Summary

The conference is over and done now, and I thought I might report back on how it went. What panels I was on, what I did with my time out here--that sort of thing.



A lot of people have asked me what exactly these conferences are like. The simplest explanation is that they're one of those conventions where the people dress up in costumes. That usually clicks with non-geeks, and they get an idea. (Of course, some people like to make fun of those costumes. I personally think they're awesome. A lot of them clearly took a ton of time and effort to perfect. CONduit had a guy walking around in an eight foot Chewbacca outfit, complete with bow caster. He looked incredible. We also had a Batman, storm troopers, Darth Vader, Ghostbusters--just a ton of great outfits.)



But no, not everyone dresses up at these. Actually, often there are quite a few authors at them, come to talk to people about their books or about the craft of writing. They also do signings and readings. I was on eight panels this year, which was perhaps a tad much. In order of appearance, here are the panels I did:




Adaptations/Novelizations--Discussing the processes and pitfalls that go into both. I love talking about adaptation, and I could do so for hours at a time. Unfortunately, they stopped us at an hour. It was a fun panel.
e-Publishing--How and why to e-Publish. Advantages and disadvantages. Lots of good audience questions on this one. I think many people are turning to e-Publishing because they're giving up on getting traditionally published, or they think it's easier. I could say a lot on this topic (and I did at the panel), but that's a blog post for another day.
100 years of Dinosaur Films--I'll admit: I was out of my league on this one. I've seen a number of dinosaur movies, and I had some questions for the other panelists, but I was by far the least qualified person on the panel. Not a good feeling when you're up there. Not that I made an idiot out of myself (I think), but still . . .
YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy You Should be Reading--This was a great panel staffed mainly with professional YA librarians (and me). We went over as many book recommendation as we could in 55 minutes. Lots of fun.

Raising a Proper Geekling--I thought I would really like this panel, and I did in many ways. But at the same time, I felt like it became a bit too preachy at times, with people on the panel and in the audience presenting things in a little too "you MUST do this" sort of a way. I raise my kids the way I raise them. Yes, I think it's the *right* way, but I also try to refrain from telling other people that it's the *only* way. You do what works for you, and chances are, you shouldn't be taking too much advice from a sci-fi/fantasy panel. Though this kind of heavy-handed advice only accounted for maybe 5% of what was said. Enough to make me uncomfortable a few times, though overall it was a fun panel.
Lord of the Rings/Hobbit Movies--A blast of a panel. We got to discuss why the original movies worked and what was happening with the two Hobbit movies. I was totally in my element for this, and I had a great time.
Summer Movies--A very sparsely attended panel. We sat around and discussed upcoming movies for the rest of the year. I had a great time. More people should have come. :-)
Fantasy Not Set in White/Medieval Europe--My last panel was the highlight of the conference for me. It was packed with about 40 or 50 people, and I was on the same panel as Tamora Pierce. The topic was right up my alley, and I had a great time. We ran through a series of recommendations of books to check out beyond the standard stereotypes. Good times.


Of course, going to a con isn't just about what panels you present on. I attended panels on podcasting, top YA books, creating memorable characters, and more. I hung out with awesome people, saw old friends again, and just had a great time. It was a busy three days, but well worth the trouble and effort of flying out here to go to the con. (Although next year I'm thinking I might shake things up a bit and go to LTUE, instead. Maybe the flights will go more smoothly in February? (Riiiiiiiiiiiiight).)




Anyway--any of you at the con? Have any insights to share? Speak up![image error]

Movie Review: Men in Black 3

I managed to see Men in Black 3 on opening night, even in the middle of my con schedule. That's dedication to movies, folks. Look at what I do for you?



I'll be honest. (As always) This wasn't a movie I was too jazzed to see. The first one was good fun. The second one had some big flaws, and that was years ago. What were the odds that a third one--so much later than the last--would be halfway decent?



This has "bomb" written all over it, and I hadn't heard much in the way of good buzz to make me think otherwise. So my expectations were quite low. It shouldn't be a surprise that the film exceeded them.



What should be a surprise is that's it's actually a really fun, well-done movie. It's got its share of plot holes, sure, but it's a great summer movie.



Smith goes back in time to save the life of Tommy Lee Jones, played in the past by Josh Brolin (who is downright uncanny in the role). The movie is consistently funny, with Smith churning out his one liners one after another. The action scenes crackle. The acting is all solid. The effects are a ton of fun, too. Really well done.



Not to like? Some of the plot twists are a bit much. I also felt like they could have done more with the Will Smith in 1969 set up. They do a few token stabs, but that's about it--and that could have been a real highlight of the movie, I thought.



But really, with a sequel to a sequel, you shouldn't be expecting the next Casablanca. It focuses on doing with the MiB movies did before: being a fun alien romp. It's well worth the price of admission, and seeing it on the big screen would be much more fun than on a small screen at home.



Three stars. Give it a whirl.[image error]

Movie Review: New in Town

On the bus ride to the airport yesterday, they had a movie I probably never would have watched otherwise. (Amazing what we can be willing to do when we're a captive audience.) New in Town wins the award for Most Formulaic Movie Bryce Has Seen In A Long While.



It's not a particularly bad movie. It's just that it's executed with clockwork precision, and when it comes to a RomCom, you don't want to feel like you're watching something run by the German Transit Authority.



Rene Zellweger is an up and coming ruthless white collar head honcho, sent to Wisconsin to downsize a plant, where the union head is Harry Connick, Jr. So. Think about that for a minute. There's the premise. You can tell me the whole movie without even thinking, can't you? Like the fact that Zellweger starts out as a heartless witch--until she gets to know the great people of the little town. How she and Connick don't get along at all, but end up falling in love, only to have something jeopardize that happily ever after. But then it all comes together in a big romantic swell at the end.



Sorry. Did I just ruin the movie for you?



And every other formulaic RomCom while I was at it?



My bad.



And actually, the more I think about this movie, the more cringe-worthy it becomes. Like how Zellweger is portrayed as being cold and cruel--until she gets a man, at which point she's suddenly a caring woman. Because single women are dangerous harpies. Gotta get 'em married up, quick. Or how the business people are all heartless, trying to fire at least ten people before breakfast each day. And the small town folk, they're all great people. They have their warts, but they're quality.



Reductive tripe.



You can miss this one, folks. Two stars. Maybe. So unless you're stuck on a bus with nothing better to do, why not go do something else? Like watch a slug marathon, or paint your grass green. You know--something productive. I actually like RomComs, believe it or not. I've seen quite a few. This is one you can miss.[image error]

The Plane Trip from Hades

I'm finally in Utah, at the conference right now. Yesterday's trip ended up taking 22 hours, due to a variety of reasons--some normal, some more exotic. There were thunderstorms in Newark, which delayed the plane I was supposed to be on. And then there was that Colombian soccer team.



What--you've never been delayed because of a Colombian soccer team before? You're missing out.



They were being rambunctious at the back of the plane (sort of like the kids who were always rowdy at the back of the bus). And right before we were going to take off (after taxing and all that jazz), we turned around to boot them from the airplane.



That tacked on another two hours to my trip, as we had to wait for a gate, then wait for security, then wait for them to argue, then wait for them to find their bags, then wait to taxi again.



Have I mentioned how much I love flying?



But I'm here at CONduit. And maybe even on some panels today--it's still kind of up in the air. Look for me if you're here--I'm wearing the glow in the dark Vodnik t-shirt (on sale, but supplies are going fast. I've got 2 XL, 5 L, and 3 S left. If you wear medium, you'll have to wait for the next round of orders).



I'll try to update with how it's going later.



Toodles![image error]

Entertaining Yourself at the Airport

So I'm off on another grand adventure. Sitting in Boston airport right now. Terminal B, if you're stalking me. I wasn't looking forward to this travel schedule today. Seven hours of airport time, plus seven hours of flight time? Blech.



However, my mood has brightened considerably for two reasons. First, a friend was online and available to play Magic the Gathering. That took up a goodly amount of time, and they were some really epic games. Second? The free wifi is fast enough to play Diablo 3. Mwa ha ha ha!



Anyway.



Not sure what my posting schedule's going to be like over the next few days. I'm at CONduit for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then off in the mountains, and then down in Provo before heading back to Maine on Wednesday night. I'll try to post when I can, but you all know how it is.



Try to get by without me. And everybody please leave Maine in one piece until I get back.[image error]

Back to Middle School: My First Author Visit

I had my first author visit yesterday afternoon--taking a trip to speak with a class of sixth graders at the local middle school library. I have to admit it: I was nervous. Some of this had to do with having never done one of these before. Some of it had to do with the audience. I haven't been back to middle school once since I left it as a student, and I wondered if the less-than-thrilling time I had a student would continue on as an adult. (No--I wasn't really terrified or anything, but I think the inner-middle-school kid in me was still doing its darndest to not go back.)



Kids can be mean. They can be cruel. I think it's because they sometimes feel like they're living in a dog eat dog world, where the only way to feel good about yourself is to make sure someone else feels worse. I'm not saying all kids are like this, but there are some out there. Who didn't go through middle school--and maybe a lot of junior high--feeling insecure and on tenuous footing?



Or was that just me?



(It wasn't until high school that I felt I started to come into my own. Figure out who I was as a person, what my likes and dislikes were, etc. And then it wasn't until after my mission--and well into college--that all of that started to be cemented. I think this might be a big part of why I write YA fiction. The process of finding out who you really are is just something that interests me. But you didn't come to this post to read about that. You want to know how the visit went.)



I'm a big fan of winging it, despite what my hyper-prepared church talks might seem to portray. I do little in the way of preparation. I just have confidence in my ability to talk about stuff I know well, whether it's one on one or to a whole group. So I didn't have a powerpoint ready. I didn't have notes. I just stood up there and talked about what I'd been asked to talk about: all the effort that went in to writing Vodnik.



Usually, I rely on my audience becoming engaged by my charming personality--hoping that they'll start actually asking me questions. (You can't rely on this when you're teaching a freshman library class at 8am. Then you get a bunch of bored, blank looks. I have a lot of practice with those looks by now.) I had no idea how middle schoolers would treat me. JK Rowling I am not.



But you know what? It went really well. They were listening--even the guys on the back row. They asked me loads of great questions (How much did I have to pay to get my book published? How much do I make on each book? Where is Slovakia? Where can I get an awesome T-shirt like that? (Yes, they really did ask that.) How do I know when a story is finished? How old do you have to be to get a book published? Where do you find out who to send it to? Just a ton of questions, and not just from one or two of the students, either.



I answered all of them happily, and I even had to cut things short, since we were out of time. Afterward, a ton of them wanted to come up and look at the book and ask questions about it. I've never seen a group of people so excited to get business cards before (though they are pretty cool cards, I must say. Vodnik's cover looks great at any size).



I was even happier when I found out from the librarian afterward that some of the kids asking a lot of questions were students who were usually just silent during class. That made me feel like a million bucks.



So it was a fantastic experience. I would love to do it again, and I hope to be able to often.




If you have a class you'd like me to visit--or even to Skype in to (though I'm not sure Skype would be as easy to really engage with students)--let me know. I'd be happy to set one up, as long as you don't live too far away.

Why the School District Meeting was an Exercise in Futility

So as promised, I attended the school board meeting tonight, foolishly thinking rational people were going to be involved in a decision making process.



Boy, was I wrong.



Impassioned people were involved in a public display of willful ignorance. I'm sorry, but I just call it as I see it. It turned out that the purpose of the meeting was not--as had been understood by most people there--to reject or accept the budget. It was to jump through a legal hoop that would then let the public accept or reject the school budget on Thursday. At this meeting, legally all that could be done was reduce the budget to a smaller amount. No funds could change categories. Essentially, this was the meeting people could go to to object if they felt the overall budget was too high. If they felt like people were getting paid too much.



Well, when you have a huge group of people show up, wanting to vote "no," it appears they're not satisfied unless they get to vote "no."



For 3/4 of the meeting, it looked like the people in attendance were going to pass a school budget of about $16. No million there, folks. Sixteen dollars and zero cents. For the year.



Why? Because they wanted to "prove a point" to the people. To show how displeased they were with how things were being run. Never mind that if--by some freak of chance--the towns had accepted that budget, then the entire school district wouldn't be funded for the next year, which in turn would have put all those impassioned people out of a job. Never mind that fixing such a huge clusterbomb of a decision would have inevitably made things worse, which would have meant more jobs cut.



They were explained all this by a lawyer, the superintendent, and several school board members.



Didn't matter. They wanted blood, and they were going to get it, come hell or high water.



Now I didn't go because I wanted to cut jobs. I went because I believed that hard decisions have to be made. I didn't go to attend a figurative mobbing.



It was nasty, folks. Downright nasty. And I get that people felt threatened, but this wasn't supposed to be personal. The school board was faced with tough decisions, and they'd done their best to make those decisions in the interest of the public good.



Suffice it to say, it wasn't a fun meeting. And no, I didn't get up and make an impassioned plea for sanity. You might as well jump in a lion's den and start persuading them to become vegetarians.



Thankfully, the $16 budget didn't pass. The full budget passed, with the promise that the school board would go back to the bargaining table with the custodians.



In my opinion, this sets a terrible precedent. It shows that all people need to do to bully the school board into a decision is get enough like-minded individuals in a room and try to vote a $16 budget through. What's worse, the superintendent made it sound like there'd been money they had squirreled away for contingencies, and that they could find a different way forward. He made it sound like all these impassioned people had it spot on--the school board really did have it in for the custodians, and had just been trying to cut their positions out of spite.



What's incredibly frustrating to me is that people will lose their jobs over the decision that happened tonight. Either that, or students will suffer from getting programming cuts. But the people who lose their jobs or the students who lose their programming won't have a chance to be willfully ignorant in the face of rational thought. They won't have the chance to speak out in their own defense. Because it's all going to have to happen at the last minute.



Like I said earlier, the money has to come from somewhere. Fact.



So I'm trying to think of how a situation like this could be avoided in the future. I think it all comes down to the fact that people thought they were choosing between cutting jobs or saving jobs. There was no alternative given. If a real set of alternatives had been presented to the public from the beginning, I don't think one special interest group would have been able to ramrod their opinions down the throat of the board.



What I mean to say is that if it had been publicly stated that "either A loses their job or B programs get cut," then you would have seen more of a real debate. Suddenly the decision isn't "cut jobs or save jobs"--it's "which jobs or programs get cut." (Yes, theoretically you could argue that all staff at the school could take a pay cut or something like that--but with the number of unions involved, I highly doubt such a course would ever be feasible.)



If the choice last night had been "Outsource Custodians or Cut Special Education," it would have been a very different meeting. It's easy to argue against a single bad option. But when you have to actively choose between a variety of bad options? That's difficult.



And that's what the school board had to do. They did their best to look at all the options on the table--did what they had been elected to do. And they spent hours and hours--weeks and months--doing that. The outsourcing option was what they came up with.



The public didn't have to make that choice. They could just sit back and take pot shots at the "vendetta" the school board had against the support staff.



That has to change in the future, if we're to avoid a debacle like this. Maybe if the public is forced to see the difficult decisions that have to be made, then some rationality will return to the debate.



Enough. I've wasted enough of my life being irritated about this.



Deep breaths, Bryce.



Deep breaths.

Why I'm Going to Be a Jerk This Evening at the School Budget Vote

Tonight (7pm at the high school gym) is a vote for the local school budget. There's been no small amount of debate locally, as the district has proposed cutting custodian positions in favor of contracting out those positions to an outside agency. This will save money, but might well result in local people losing their jobs. It will certainly result in local people getting paid less to do those jobs (assuming they get hired by the new agency).



I have no idea if this will pass.




But I'm all for it.




That's right. I'm a jerk--if you listen to all the chatter online on local news sites. By voting to outsource, I'm supposedly sticking a knife in the back of all our hard working custodians.




I don't like thinking of myself as a jerk. I certainly don't want to stab anyone in the back. So why would I vote for something like this? Because we don't have enough money.




That's right. There are not enough coins in the piggy bank. And Americans--it seems to me--have gotten really good at spending money that isn't there. Heck--the world has gotten great at it. And for me, it all comes down to wise budgeting.




I have a budget. I live according to it. Pretty strictly. Would I love to be able to take the family out to eat at nice restaurants, go out to the movies all the time, buy even more expensive gadgets, take trips to Europe more often, save more money, donate more to the poor? You bet. Why don't I? I have a credit card. I have several, actually. I could use the credit to live pretty large for a few months--maybe even a few years. You could argue that--since I am technically capable of withdrawing a large sum of money on credit and donating it to the poor, for example--I'm a total jerk for not doing so.




Don't those people need the money more than I do?




Maybe.




But I don't have the money.




Wishing I had the money doesn't make it any less a figment of my imagination.




True, some say. But why take this out on our poor custodians? Again--I'm not trying to "take it out" on anybody. I have friends who are custodians here in this school district. For me, it comes down to what the school district is supposed to be doing best. Is it educating students, or is it employing our local friends? Both worthy endeavors, certainly. But in a school, which should be the priority?




What will suffer if we outsource? Local workers might get laid off. They might get rehired at a lower rate. The cleaning of the schools might change. They might get worse. I don't know for certain.




What will surfer if we don't outsource? Most likely the following cuts:


elementary math interventionist teacher
literacy specialist (teacher)
behavior specialist
$30,000 of the technology budget
$84,000 more dollars back to tax payers
With more teachers on the block next year.


So either way, people are losing jobs. That's unavoidable. But as a consequence of these cuts, students' learning will be affect. That's not an "if."





If I have to choose between kids getting a quality education--even in a slightly dirtier building--and them getting a poorer education in an immaculate building where you can eat off the floors . . . education comes first. If I have to choose between local people getting less money, and local students losing education opportunities--in a school--again, education comes first.




Can we cut other things? Maybe. Sports is a popular punching bag. Music programs. Special needs. But our district has cut deep into other areas already.




To me, the choice is an easy one. Unfortunately, it sounds like most people disagree. I'm going tonight, planning on being in the minority. Planning on being the jerk. And it would be really easy to come out fighting for the people who would lose their jobs. I certainly would look like a much nicer person. But I think that by so doing, the education of our area will be harmed. Not broken and shattered, certainly--but harmed.




It's just too bad people can't see that and recognize it for what it is.




School districts don't exist to employ people. They exist to educate students.[image error]