Marion Stein's Open Salon Blog

5 Steps Amazon Could Take to Improve Reader Experience

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:05:54 -0400

The quality or lack thereof in self-published e-books has been the topic of many a forum thread over at the Amazon sites, and many other places on the web. Customers have complained about lack of editing, and general shoddy quality, including bad formatting. When anyone can “publish” a “book” on Amazon’s free digital publishing platform, many bad books will be published, leading most readers to avoid anything that smells self-published – even when the download is free.

Here are five simple steps Amazon could take to improve reader experience with self-published works:

5. Stop allowing uploads to the Kindle platform using Word

asking

4. Format Check

formatting

Publish America

3. Use an advanced spelling and grammar check.

any

require

2. Book length and pricing:

1. Help consumers find quality self-published work that will appeal to them.

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Kirkus

The Office -- Escape from Scranton

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:05:37 -0400

When the American version of The Office first appeared, it was condescending in a Hollywood way, written by people who may have once, briefly, worked in a setting similar to Dunder-Mifflin, but always believed they were destined for better things, and got the hell out as soon as they could.

Over time, however, it became habit-forming. Steve Carrell made Michael Scott's need to be loved idiosyncratic, terribly funny and somehow a reflection of everyone's inner-narcissist. Contrary to rumor, he was not the terrible boss we've all had. He might have shared some traits with bad bosses, but most truly horrific employers want to be feared, not loved. There was also, of course, Jim. From the beginning Jim, and to a lesser extent his beloved Pam, were our surrogates. They were young. They were not weird. They were more than their jobs, and they fell in love. Communication was not great. It took Pam a while to see what should have been obvious.

Other characters also developed into full-fledged human beings although it took some longer than others. Angela, the office mean girl, needed to be taken down a few dozen pegs before we could consider liking her. As for Oscar, if I'm not mistaken, until the last couple of seasons, he seemed mostly to be there as two-fer, and to make Michael's jokes that much more embarrassing. Dwight remained eccentric, but matured. Andy's arc was the strangest. He started out as a nice guy. His pursuit of Erin showed an obsessive side, but we didn't recognize it for what it was -- the first sign of an impending mid-life crisis. He turned into a spoiled, pathetic, attention-whore, whose goal was fame. So in the finale, thanks to a viral video, he got what he wanted in the most humiliating way possible, but then managed to redeem himself and find his dream job because in America there are always second acts. If there was a message, it was this: humiliation and suffering builds character.

But back to Jim and Pam. When they showed Krasinski's audition in the retrospective, it was clear he had them at “pomegranates.” Steve Carrell might have been the bigger name, but Krasinski was the star in every way that counted. It took Jim way too long to leave and go on to bigger and better things. They gave Pam the thankless task of trying to stop him. She was the future Mary Bailey secretly praying George would not leave town, but stay in Bedford Falls and someday live with her in that big old house. It was easy to imagine Pam's frustration, and Jenna Fisher is a good enough actor for us to see what wasn't in the script. It wasn't just fear, but pragmatism and a little bit of selfishness. Two parents, who never work overtime, are better than one who's never home, at least for the one who is. Finding a new job and decent childcare is hard, and not having easy access to the grandparents makes it rougher.

Still, when the "buy-out road trip" came up and Jim decided not to do it because nothing was as important as his family, we all felt his decision was killing him. Watching him regress to his prankster role, with Pam as his collaborator, made us wonder how long the charade would last.

So when Pam finally did the right thing and sold the house, so that she and Jim could shake the dust of that crummy little town off their feet, we could only applaud.

The end of The Office was just like the end of It's A Wonderful Life, if George Bailey had finally gotten the hell out of Bedford Falls.

Why Modern Family is the Bestest Sit Com and a Fake

Thu, 9 May 2013 12:05:46 -0400

Watching the most recent episode of Modern Family, I laughed out loud, smiled, and by the end found myself on the verge of weepy. None of which was an unusual reaction.

So my question is, if this show is so good, why does it always feel like a guilty pleasure?

Using humor to undermine sentiment, almost every episode involves some essential lesson. The plot, last night, as always, involved several threads woven neatly by the end into one theme. There’s art to it for sure, and it’s never clear until the last minutes what exactly we are supposed to take away.

Manny has to write a composition about a family member who is a “hero.” Seeing the various petty acts of passive and not so passive-aggression, ethical transgressions, etc. on the part of his parents, and other members of the tribe, it’s a hard call, and he methodically crosses each offender off a list (literally, a list on a note-pad).

Meantime, Claire, still in need of something to do besides run her household, is offered a job by Jay, who having recently sacked his number two, is looking for someone who could maybe take over the business, but Claire having had a bad experience working for her father in the past, wants to avoid the whole topic.

In another ring of the family circus, Cam and Mitch run into Teddy, Mitch’s ex, a pediatrician. Dr. Teddy invites them to a fundraiser at a roller rink on Saturday. Cam, who has never met Teddy before, accepts. Mitch worries that Cam will be uncomfortable around his ex, but Cam insists he’s fine with it. That is, until Saturday comes and the entire Pritchard and Dunphy clan show up at the rink. It turns out Teddy is still the Dunphy’s pediatrician, and Phil is his real estate agent. He’s been golfing with Jay who seems to enjoy an easy rapport with him than he’s ever had with Cam. Everybody loves Teddy, even Lilly and Gloria who’ve just met him. So Cam is, of course, crushed.

Also at the rink:

Haley and Alex try to flirt with two cute boys, and Alex is clueless.

Gloria admits she can’t skate and doesn’t want to look like an idiot, so puppy-dog Phil, tries to teach her.

Claire confronts her father and faces his disappointment.

This being Modern Family and not real life, we aren’t left with future traumatic memories and bad feelings. Instead, in the last few minutes everything is resolved:

Alex will not look back on another incident on her road to having twenty cats. Social genius Haley teaches book-smart Alex a valuable lesson about interacting with people, and Alex has a realization that maybe Haley isn’t so dumb.

Phil will make a noble sacrifice, in order for Gloria to have a chance to skate without feeling like she’s on display.

Claire sees Jay do something that shows he’s grown and changed, so she decides to take the job after all.

And what magical thing does Jay do that gets Claire to change her mind? The patriarch sits down with Cam and casually starts talking about what a great guy Teddy is, but how he’s still not in a successful relationship, and that says something, and Jay never thought he was good for Mitch – that he didn’t “bring out the best in him,” the way Cam does and always has. Cam lights up.

Manny writes his essay about how his entire family are heros because of “the way we are together.” He gets a C+ because the teacher says it was “not the assignment.”

So here’s the deal, we love Modern Family because all the characters are both “types” that exist in our own families (no matter what are ethnicity, social class, orientation, etc), and they are also well-developed as individuals, and brought to life by an amazing cast. Because it so easy for us to identify with them to think they are like us, we are also lulled into believing for a moment that our families are just like this too.

The thing is, it’s no more realistic than I Love Lucy or The Brady Bunch.

Even if your father-in-law (for whose respect you desperately long) does believe you were the best possible thing that could happen to his son, chances are he’ll never tell you. Even if your father has changed from the last time you briefly worked for him, the two of you will revert to old patterns and get stuck in your past dynamic because that’s how real families operate.

Once upon a time people watched Fred Astaire on the silver screen and would believe for a moment in the dark that they too could dance like that – or at least forget they couldn’t – because he made it look so effortless. For thirty minutes (including commercials) every week, we can forget what happened last Thanksgiving, and believe in the heroism of “how we are together.”

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Dumbest NY Times Column of the Year

Sun, 5 May 2013 14:05:35 -0400

In a column that manages to be sensationalistic, disjointed and incoherent, Frank Bruni discovers the shocking information that there seems to be a double-standard for women and men when it comes to sexual activity.

He writes about the Amanda Knox case and how her perceived licentiousness led to worldwide fascination and a murder conviction. Not like anyone hasn’t written about this before, but whatever. However, Bruni doesn’t have much to say about details of Knox’s case, such as Knox’s “confession” made after hours of coercion. In that statement, she named a popular club owner as a co-conspirator, even though it turned out he couldn’t possibly have been involved. It should have been obvious the confession was false because it didn’t fit the the facts, but as with many such cases – the Central Park Five, and Marty Tankleff, to name two, once someone admits to something, that’s very powerful. We are only now beginning to understand that false confession is a real thing, and that young people who have little experience with the criminal justice system are the most vulnerable.

In Knox’s case, the police made an early assumption of guilt, and they stuck to their guns even when it became more and more obvious that the murderer, Rudy Guede, had acted alone, raping and killing the victim after breaking in when no one else was home. Knox’s sexuality and foreignness might have set things in motion, but ultimately the case was what typically happens when cops rush to judgement and a vulnerable suspect confesses.

Bruni doesn’t write about that. Instead he quotes from a 2011 article in a British tabloid about where Knox stored her vibrator, and then states: “We’ll never know what happened on the night … Meredith Kercher was killed.”

No, Frank, the reality is we have a pretty good idea of what happened based on DNA, timelines, witness statements, etc. Knox and her boyfriend were not there. Knox came back the next day and it took her a while to figure out something was wrong. When she did, she called her boyfriend, and he called his sister a police officer before finally calling the police.

Bruni ignores Knox’s exoneration because it’s not the point he’s trying to make, even though it actually is. It was her behavior that led to the rush to judgement, and her sexuality became part of the theory of the crime. The “evidence” was made to fit the theory.

He goes on to write about the Jody Arias case. But other than “sex sells”, the two cases have nothing in common. Knox was absolved on appeal because the court found no credible evidence against her and the theory that she, Guede and her boyfriend had conspired was not probable. Now they’re going after her again, based on nothing. In contrast, Arias really killed someone. She tried to cover it up, was caught, and made a convoluted claim of self-defense, which defies both common sense and the EVIDENCE. A jury is currently deliberating. Arias’ attractiveness and the salacious details of the case may sell papers, but they are not why she was arrested, or why she is likely to be convicted. She’s likely to be convicted because there’s a plethora of evidence that she’s guilty.

But instead of writing about any of that Bruni draws a false comparison between Knox and Arias and states, “Similar questions can be asked…” Really?

Bruni then moves from murder to scandal and politics, writing, “I’ve heard quite a bit lately about David Petraeus’ road to redemption, less about Paula Broadwell’s.” Well, yeah. Petraeus was the director of the CIA, and Broadwell an unemployed graduate student. If there was more attention being paid to her, wouldn’t that strengthen Bruni’s point? If he has one?

He then goes on to make the claim that if Anthony Weiner had been “Antonia” she couldn’t possibly make a political come back, and he also wonders about the political fates of “Marcia Sanford,” “Newtina Gingrich,” and “Wilhelmina Clinton.”

I get it. he wants to write a column about the existing double-standard for politicians and other public figures, and because it’s so obvious and dull, he needs to come up with an angle, so he sexes it up with Amanda Knox and Jody Arias.

He’s writing about how Knox’s sexuality was exploited by the media and then he exploits Knox’s sexuality to write his column. Maybe he’s not so dumb after all.

Smash - Opening Night - Now Sucking Slightly Less

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:04:41 -0400

Ezra Pound????? The musical? Was that supposed to be an inside joke between Julia and Tom, and maybe the deadpan delivery got in the way? Or, is this show really being written by idiots who just filled in Ezra Pound having no idea about all the crazy fascist stuff?

This is my first post on the show in about 3 weeks because while I was still continuing my vigil, there was not much new to report. Generally, the level of terribleness has lessened. That doesn’t mean it’s good. A season highlight came a couple of weeks back with the perfect song, Let’s Start Tomorrow Tonight, which sounded like a classic from some late studio-era musical, but then they ruined the aftermath, arguing that it didn’t belong in the show and used it for the whole predictable Tom-is-now-losing-his-humanity storyline. You’ve got a song like that, you either find a place for it in your show or you write another show real quick. For Sam. Also you’ve got a boyfriend like Sam, you try a lot harder to keep him around and not be an asshole.

Then there was the one with the over-the-top obviously high Liza Minelli impersonator. Wait a second that wasn’t an impersonator?

Nice meta-reference, Ivy calling Karen, “magic Karen.” The writers must be reading the forums. And I’ll admit relief that they let Ivy finally dumped Derek in the most perfect way possible. Let’s hope it sticks.

Was that the same Leo? I still hate Leo.

Angelica Houston’s one and only good moment was last season singing September Song. She’s not a good singer, but it was the most human we’ve seen her, and the most moving. Houston not only really doesn’t look good as Eileen, she doesn’t act good. She’s not playing a person, she’s playing an attitude, and not well.

The Julia and Tom partner stuff is dull and predictable. What happens next week? My money’s on Julia tearfully apologizing to Tom for being such a selfish shrew. It’s all going to work out in the end, probably with Grace continuing to date and work with Detective Ed Green, because work and romance go so well together, and maybe Jimmy and Kyle too.

I hate Jimmy, but geez how big is the stick up Karen’s ass? Jimmy has plenty of issues for which he should probably be dumped. Current drug use is high on that list. Hitting his sleazy brother in order to protect is loyal friend, is not. That’s a good thing.

Speaking of Karen’s big stick, there’s the Ana thing too. Ana is perfectly justified in not speaking to Karen. Friends should be happy when good things happen to friends. And if they are jealous and really believe they are more “special” and deserve the good things more than the friend does, they should keep it to themselves because that’s manners — which I thought people were supposed to have in whichever flyover state Karen comes from.

Also, I get that in order to move on, Ivy needs to forgive Karen for stealing the part Tom wrote with her in mind, being the object of her boyfriend’s obsession, and demanding she be fired from even the ensemble of Bombshell, but does she have to sing with her? Really?

Tom eying sweet young Kyle was creepy. There was a hint of something with that line about how they already knew each other, but we keep seeing Kyle sucking face with the age-appropriate lighting guy from Hit List, and that makes a whole lot more sense. (I realize that in real life there is “only” a thirteen year age difference between the actors, but Andy Meintus looks barely legal and Christian Borle looks mature.)

There was one really good thing, about Opening Night and that seeing and hearing Miss Ivy Lynn aka Megan Hilty belting Don’t Forget Me. It finally clarified (a little bit) what we kept hearing about the “new concept” for the show being about the men in Monroe’s life. More importantly, thank God, it gave Ivy her moment and made it clear that she is a star who can carry a show.

Per wikipedia there are three more episodes left, but honestly they could have tied up all the loose ends with one more. The show’s already been cancelled. It’s a dead show airing. It might seem to be rallying, but that often happens right before a patient succumbs to injuries, and Smash had too many self-inflicted wounds to survive.